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Tanese Orr and her husband, Robert Lashley, had lived in New York City’s public housing for over 20 years when Orr entered the city’s housing lottery. Since 2015, the Small Homes Rehab-NYCHA Program has facilitated the purchase, rehabilitation and sale of FHA-foreclosed homes under NYCHA’s ownership to first-time homeowners. 61 homes have been renovated and sold to low- and moderate-income families since 2015. In November 2022, three years after signing up, Orr logged into her Housing Connect profile and saw an active lottery for houses that the city was restoring. Less than two months later, Orr received an email request to submit a list of required documents. After submitting the application, the couple viewed two homes: a three-family house and a two-family house, both in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. Orr and her husband took out a $691,000 mortgage with a down payment of $36,369 and $23,395 closing costs for the two-family house. The house itself was valued at $1.1 million and the Department of Housing Preservation covered the rest of the purchase price in the form of a second mortgage. They also received a down payment assistance loan in the amount of $15,000. Read about the lottery process that turned Orr and her husband into homeowners — and take a look inside the house: ⬇️

We all want people to take us seriously. But so many of us, in trying to earn that respect from others, say things that we think will make us sound smart — only to fall on our faces. As psychologist Paul Penn put it, “Trying to sound clever is a good way of sounding stupid.” But there’s a way around this. Want to sound smart and well-spoken? As language and communication experts, Kathy and Ross Petras have come across some simple and effective strategies that actually work.

Rising living costs, fewer job openings and tougher competition are pushing many people to rethink their career paths. Whether you’re newly unemployed, underpaid or simply ready for something new, you’re not alone if you’re thinking about a career change. But whatever is pushing you to seek greener pastures, one thing is clear: The financial risk in betting on yourself is real. “Don’t just wing it,” says Vicki Salemi, a career expert for Monster.com. “If you’re in a toxic work environment, you might be tempted to say, ‘I’m done, I’m leaving today.’” But from a personal finance standpoint, it’s not beneficial to be spontaneous about a career change, she says. You could end up unemployed for longer than you planned, take on debt or be forced to accept a lower-paying position. You may also need to pay out of pocket to acquire skills for your new career. The bottom line: The stakes are high, and without a plan, you might find yourself overwhelmed emotionally and financially. If you’re considering a new career path — whether out of choice or necessity — here are three important money moves to make before you take the leap.

CNBC Make It contributor Dr. Jordan Grumet writes: It took me many years and quite a bit of emotional heartache to realize a life-changing fact: When it comes to purpose, bigger is not better. Most of our anxiety stems from what I call “big P” Purpose, which is overly focused on the outcome or destination. It’s the kind of purpose that made me want to become a doctor, for example. “Little P” purpose, on the other hand, focuses on the path or process. It lacks glamour. It is even considered downright unsexy. And most people do whatever it takes to avoid this petite purpose in favor of doing something they believe will be more substantial. As a result, I’ve found that most people end up pursuing the former, toxic type of purpose. It’s the easiest kind to choose, because it means meeting society’s expectations and following in the footsteps of the herd. The harder decision by far is to do the internal work to discover what really lights you up — and find a way to pursue it in the world. This all takes effort, but it’s worth it.

Stress levels have surged among Americans in 2025, according to a study from March, exacerbated by events as different as the sudden layoffs of thousands of federal workers to extreme weather across the country. Three-quarters of U.S. workers polled in the first quarter by global workplace mental health platform Modern Health reported feeling low in response to politics and current events. This echoes what Dr. Neha Chaudhary told CNBC Make It in March. “I’m actually hearing from a lot of my own patients that they can’t remember the last time that they were this stressed and unable to see an end in sight,” said Chaudhary, a double board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist. Then, in April, President Donald Trump unveiled new global tariffs, which could lead to higher prices on everyday goods, more layoffs and potentially a recession, some experts warned. Markets dropped sharply over several days after the President’s announcement. Don’t panic, advised Suze Orman, and stay the course. As a classic 19th-century poem Warren Buffett has suggested reading in times of market turmoil puts it, “Keep your head,” even as many people about you seem to be losing theirs. But how? One of the simplest, effective ways is “micro-meditations,” according to Dr. Esther Sternberg, a physician and the author of “Well at Work,” who spoke to CNBC Make It about the technique in November. Micro-meditations don’t take up much of your time, she said, and you can practice them just about anywhere and at any time. Here's how to practice "micro-meditations."

When it comes to protecting your child’s mental health, emotional resilience is key. Not only do resilient kids bounce back from disappointment, but they’re also less likely to become depressed, anxious, or self-critical. As a psychologist with nearly 20 years of experience, Juli Fraga has seen how kids with emotional grit often have one thing in common: parents who know how to deal with their own emotions. When we show our kids that emotions aren’t shameful or off-limits, we teach them that feelings aren’t messy, intolerable nuisances. They’re brilliant biological messengers that tell us what we need and guide us through life — just like thirst and hunger. Knowing this, kids can learn to handle conflict, disappointment, and distress with greater confidence and wisdom, says Fraga. Parents who raise emotionally savvy, resilient kids do four things, and the more you exercise these skills, the easier it is to pass them on to your kids. Here’s what they are, according to Fraga.

Laura Mae Martin has coached some of the world’s brightest engineers and executives through burnout and productivity slumps — yet even she isn’t immune to procrastination. As Google’s executive productivity advisor, Martin specializes in helping employees — from new hires to C-suite leaders — get more done without burning out. One of her go-to strategies for beating procrastination is surprisingly simple: “Act like your own assistant.”

Stacie Grissom and Sean Wilson lived in New York City for almost a decade, and then the covid-19 pandemic hit. In early 2020, Grissom was pregnant with their first child and working in marketing, while Wilson was working as an orthopedic surgeon. Seeing the state of the city during that time made Grissom realize she was ready to move back to Franklin, Indiana, their hometown, which is about 30 miles from downtown Indianapolis. A couple of months after their son was born, Grissom contacted a realtor friend in Franklin and told him to start looking at “weird old houses.” “I told him the quirkier, the better, and to send us a fixer-upper,” Grissom says. “His dad saw a school for sale and immediately said, ‘Send it to Stacie.’” Since Grissom and Wilson were still in New York City at the time, they asked her parents to check out the property instead. Since Grissom’s dad had experience running a commercial real estate business, she knew he would give her an honest and expert opinion on the school’s state. Grissom says the building was a school for local children between 1914 and 1934. After the schoolhouse closed, it was used as a barn. After getting her parents’ approval, Grissom and Wilson made an offer on the schoolhouse without ever seeing it in person themselves — and it was accepted within 24 hours. Here's how Grissom and Wilson converted the 110-year-old schoolhouse into their family home.

When Todd Graves and Craig Silvey came up with the idea for a restaurant in southern Louisiana that only sold chicken fingers, they probably didn’t expect to get the lowest grade in a startup-pitching assignment for Silvey’s LSU undergraduate business class — or to get rejected for bank loans when they tried to make it a reality. Yet the concept, which eventually became Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, propelled Graves to his debut on the Forbes 400, a ranking of America’s richest people. To raise enough money to open the fast-food chain’s first location in 1996, Graves moved to California from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to work 90-hour weeks in an oil refinery — and, later, fish for salmon in Alaska — according to the company’s website. He spent between $40,000 and $50,000 of his own money, plus roughly $100,000 from friends, family and a Small Business Administration loan, to get his restaurant off the ground, he told the “Trading Secrets” podcast. Today, Raising Cane’s — named after Graves’ yellow lab Raising Cane — has more than 800 locations internationally and brought in $3.7 billion in net sales last year, a company spokesperson tells CNBC Make It. Graves owns more than 90 percent of the company, and has no plans to take it public or sell his stake to private investors, he said. Here's how he built Raising Cane’s into the company it is today.

A few years ago, Jessica Campbell made a snap decision while waiting in a Starbucks drive-thru that would alter the course of her career. As soon as she pulled out of the parking lot, Campbell quit her job coaching hockey to teenagers and began plotting the launch of her own power skating business, she told Canadian sports blog theScore. Campbell, then in her 20s, saw that business as the first step toward fulfilling a childhood dream of working in the National Hockey League, coaching the sport she loved at the highest level. On Oct. 8 — the opening night of the NHL season — that dream came true: Campbell made her debut as the first full-time female coach in the league. Here’s how Campbell got to where she is today. 👇