We've recommended some of the best personal-finance books to read and podcasts to listen to.

If those didn't get the job done, try a 10 to 20 minute TED Talk.

Here, we've rounded up seven talks that could alter the way you think about money, and how you choose to save, spend, and earn. 

SEE ALSO: 11 podcasts to listen to if you want to get rich

Shlomo Benartzi: Saving for tomorrow, tomorrow

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There's a difference between knowing you should save and actually doing it. "We think about saving," says economist Shlomo Benartz in his TED talk. "We know we should be saving. We know we'll do it next year, but today let us go and spend ... This issue of present bias causes us to think about saving, but end up spending."

As a result, just one-third of Americans end up saving in a 401(k) retirement plan, he reveals — and only 10% of Americans are saving a sufficient amount for the future.

Benartz delves into the why of our decision not to plan for the future. He identifies the behavioral challenges that prevent people from saving, and then discusses how to flip these behavioral challenges into behavioral solutions.

Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money?

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Keith Chen, behavioral economist and economics professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management, discusses how the language we speak could be keeping us back from getting rich.

Languages can either be "futureless" or "futured," he explains in his TED talk. His research has found that languages without a concept for the future — "It rains tomorrow," instead of "It will rain tomorrow"— correlate strongly with high savings rates.

If the future feels more distant from the present, that's going to make it harder to save money, he explains. On the other hand, if you speak a futureless language — where the present and future are spoken about the same way — you're going to feel the same way about them, making it easier to save in the present moment for the future.

According to Chen, this subtle difference in grammar could help explain why citizens of the US (English is a futured language) save much less than people in other countries.

Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs

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If you want to teach your kids to be rich, entrepreneur Cameron Herold's TED talk will give you something to chew on. "I think we should be raising kids to be entrepreneurs instead of lawyers," Herald says. "I think we miss an opportunity to find these kids who have the entrepreneurial traits, and to groom them or show them that being an entrepreneur is actually a cool thing."

He shares his own childhood entrepreneurial endeavors, from starting a caddy business to buying and reselling soda pops to a bridge club of 70-year-old women. He also shares smart money habits to pass along to your kids, and touches on the contentious topic of allowances — and why you should not use them.

If you could game the system, would you do it?

Users on the question-and-answer website Quora recently shared their "best" unethical life hacks that could score you everything from free Chipotle to major savings at grocery stores.

But be warned: These hacks are uniformly unethical. Some veer into fraud. They should be regarded as informational and for entertainment purposes rather than as actual suggestions. You shouldn't do them. If you do them, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Keep reading to see the 17 unethical life hacks.

SEE ALSO: The unorthodox productivity hacks of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg

"Buy an appliance that's identical to the one you broke, swap them out, and then return the broken appliance for a refund."

- Jay B.

Take advantage of “grace periods” in ticket-entry car garages.

“Most of these garages will have a grace period so that if you pull in but you didn’t really ‘park,’ you can leave and pay nothing. […]

"Next time you park in one of these garages, grab a ticket like normal and go park. When you’re ready to leave, pull your car close to the entrance, and go push the button to get a fresh entrance ticket, time stamped to that moment (when you’re ready to leave). Then, just go to the exit and put your brand new ticket in the machine or hand it to the person. If you’re within the grace period, you will be charged nothing and you can leave. […]

"Even if you’re a few minutes over, you’re paying for minutes rather than hours or days."  

- Anonymous

Weigh all of your fruit as apples at the self-checkout station.

“Go to a self-checkout and weigh [everything] as apples. If you're worried about getting caught if someone checks, ring up organic [apples] as regular [apples], fuji apples as red delicious, etc. Voila, your grocery bill went down.” - Leigh C.

Samsung unveiled the much anticipated Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphone on Sunday at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Pretty much everything about these phones was leaked before the event, so most of us knew what was coming.

Still, check out the real thing below:

Here's the Galaxy S7 Edge in the gold, silver, and black colors. It has a 5.5-inch screen.

The chrome is a new color option for the Galaxy S line, and it's stunning.

Samsung also added a new black color option.

For decades, the gold standard for compact sports sedans has been the BMW 3-Series. However, since its introduction in 1995, the Audi A4 has been working to end the Bimmer's reign.

Business Insider tested a sporty variant of the current generation A4 and found the car to be comfortable luxury sedan and yet a highly competent performance vehicle.  

As much as we liked our Audi test car, we couldn't help but feel that the seven-year-old design was beginning to feel dated. 

So for 2017, Audi will release the fifth generation the sedan, and, at first glance, it looks fantastic and still boasts all of the A4's traditional charm and style. At the same time, the new car will also incorporate many of the newfangled features we loved on Audi's more recently released offerings. 

According to Consumer Reports, the 2017 A4 will hit US showrooms this spring.

Here's a closer look at the new 2017 Audi A4.

SEE ALSO: The BMW i8 is the sports car of the future, and we drove it through America's past

The BMW 3-Series has been the king of the hill for more than 30 years. For 2017, the A4 will force BMW to up its game.

The fifth-generation A4 will be significantly different from the current model.

But it will still be instantly recognizable as an A4. Especially when you park it next to the current generation car.

Samsung officially announced the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge phones on Sunday at the MWC event in Barcelona.

We had some hands-on time with the Galaxy S7 phones at a press event in New York City before the show, and we were impressed with its features and functions, many of which you won't find on iPhones.

Here's a breakdown of what the Galaxy S7 can do that the iPhone can't:

The Galaxy S7 is water-resistant.

Sure, Apple added a gasket in the iPhone 6s, but it's not confident enough to say that the iPhone can be dunked under water and survive.

Samsung, on the other hand, came right out and said the Galaxy S7 is water-resistant. To be specific, it's rated with IP68 dust and water resistance, which means it can go more than a meter under water for around 30 minutes.

It can charge really quickly.

The Galaxy S7 has quick-charging via microUSB. We're not sure yet how fast the Galaxy S7 will charge, but if it's anything like the Galaxy S6's two-hour charge time, we'll be happy.

To compare, the iPhone 6s Plus, on the other hand, takes around three hours to charge.

But the main benefit of quick charging is that it can give the Galaxy S7 a big jolt of juice in a short period of time. We could get up to 60% battery life in 30 minutes of charging.

It can charge wirelessly.

In fact, it can charge wireless quickly. Samsung claims that its quick wireless charging charges faster than the regular wired charging.

Wired quick-charging is still faster, but wireless charging is a nice feature to have. You can just place your phone on a charging dock and get a boost during the day without thinking about it.

It's a good way to make sure you're always topped up with battery.

Last year was incredibly busy, but productive and fun.

My little daughter had just turned two. She was enrolled in early development programs with a “Kindergarten is Too Late” approach. We had no nannies or grannies to help clean our apartment or feed a hungry husband (a standard set of responsibilities for a Russian housewife on maternity leave).

Even with these seemingly overwhelming responsibilities, I was determined to learn new languages. Five languages, to be exact.

Sound impossible?

And why would I want to learn five languages?

It all started with the Michael Erard’s book "Babel No More." If you love learning languages but hesitate to study more than one or two, you must read this book.

"Babel No More" draws upon the concept of neuroplasticity. Today, many of us memorize very little information. Why bother if all information is within arm’s length?

Learning a foreign language after graduation is one of the few ways for us Millennials to train our memories. A good memory is extremely important for everyone during retirement years. We take pleasure in training our bodies, but we neglect to train our brains, even though learning a second language is such a simple way to stay sharp throughout our lives.

So, I opened my laptop and made a simple list of the languages I wanted to learn:

• Monday — German
• Tuesday — Spanish
• Wednesday — French
• Thursday — Chinese
• Friday was free until August. Then I wrote Czech in the blank.

I thought about learning Japanese, but I decided that this language should be learned in a calmer, quieter setting.

I can now speak all five of these languages with varying degrees of fluency:

• German (B2)
• Spanish (A1)
• French (A2)
• Chinese (B2)
• Czech (A2)

In the process, I improved my memorization skills, and learned how to make the most of my freetime. Alongside all that, I gave my little Varvara (age 2) English classes.

My solution to improving learning? Time management for a polyglot!

Here’s how to follow such an intense schedule:

SEE ALSO: Animated map shows how the world's first written languages spread

Step 1: Uncover your wasted time

When you have at most three hours per day outside of work and family responsibilities, as I did, you start to value your time. You do not, however, have to study for three hours straight. It can be 20 minutes in the morning, 90 minutes at lunchtime, and another hour in the evening. I am writing this article from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.

Count how much time you spend on social networks. Multiply it by seven. Then multiply it by 52 and be amazed by the amount of time this year you could have spent making your dream come true.

If you want to do something, start today. Finish reading the article and start.

First, uninstall all social network apps from your phone. You will no longer be distracted by any messages (admit it, 99% of them are not urgent). Instead, install an app like Pomodoro that blocks your phone connection and wi-fi for 25 minutes and lets you concentrate undisturbed.

Following just this one tip will bring you closer to your dream.

Step 2: Optimize your routines (or: don’t let your interests annoy your family)

Frankly speaking, I have always felt held back by cleaning, cooking, and other household tasks. It is frustrating how much time we spend cooking one dinner or doing the daily washing when we could devote it to something interesting. Add a crawling baby to your home, and you have to radically change your approach to doing housework. To give myself more free time, I invested in a dishwasher, a steamer, a multi-cooker, and a vacuum-cleaning robot.

If I did the cleaning when my daughter was awake, she could play on her own or join me (In the latter case, I just needed to be patient and encourage her initiative and involvement).

Thus, I was able to organize my life and manage my household duties without sacrificing my precious personal time.

Whatever routines and chores you have, chances are there’s a way to make them more time-efficient. If you can save just 10 minutes for every hour you’re awake, that’s nearly three hours of extra free time.

Step 3: Make personal time your most precious thing

Decide that your private time is really important to you. You will not be able to create anything worthwhile or learn multiple languages if you do not have time to sit and think them over in the comfort of solitude. My private time was my daughter’s sleeping time. Some days I got lucky, and she slept three hours in the afternoon and went to bed at 9 p.m. Other days I would have just 40 minutes during the day, and she would be up until 11 p.m.

But no matter what — as soon as she fell asleep, I would go to study. I would not waste my time on anything else.

Your personal time is precious. Use it wisely.

McDonald's much-loved seasonal Shamrock Shake now has competition in the form of Burger King's new Oreo Irish Mint Shake. 

The Shamrock Shake has amassed a cult following since its inception in 1970; the sight of the minty green shake is a sure harbinger of spring and vaguely Irish themed kitsch. 

But with Burger King's release of the Oreo Irish Mint Shake, McDonald's reign over the green-dyed seasonal milkshake market is being threatened.  

Now the Shamrock Shake is available, and a taste comparison is in order. Is Burger King's launch a vain attempt to disrupt the mint milkshake market, or will the addition of Oreo crumbles dethrone the iconic Shamrock Shake?

SEE ALSO: Starbucks is under fire for selling beverages with more sugar than Coca-Cola

Burger King's latest shot in the fast food wars is the Oreo Irish Mint Shake, a limited release that's pretty clearly aimed at McDonald's classic Shamrock Shake.

BK's shake is on the left; notice the Oreo crumbles dotting the slightly gray shake. McDonald's is much greener — gotta love that food coloring.

First, let's re-familiarize ourselves with the one, the true: the Shamrock Shake. It comes in small, medium, and large; the medium, seen here, cost $3.89. That's absurd NYC pricing, so it's likely less just about anywhere else.

With options as varied as the Paleo diet and the 21-day challenge, there's a fad diet for practically everyone.

But as fun as the diets may seem, it's often difficult to stick with them for more than a few weeks, and as a result few people actually see any long-term results.

Rather than trying one of those, here are 15 science-backed habits that can help boost your health and may help with weight loss as well.

RELATED: 11 fitness 'truths' that are doing more harm than good

NEXT: An exercise scientist told us the biggest mistake people make when they decide to eat healthy

Eat food you enjoy.

It may seem as if the easiest way to lose weight is to stop eating the foods you overindulge in. But this can be short-sighted, Lisa Sasson, a New York University nutrition professor, told Business Insider. "If you pick a diet with foods you don't like, you're doomed to fail," Sasson said. Food is a pleasurable experience; if you cut out all the foods you like, you probably won't stick to your plan.

And as studiescontinue to show, coming up with an eating regimen you can stick with is critical.

Portion sizes are key.

There's a psychological component to eating, especially when you have weight loss in mind. Being conscious of losing weight and sticking to the right portion sizes is half the battle, Sasson said. This phenomenon is why most people in studies lose weight, regardless of whether they're in the group assigned a special diet. Simply being studied can lead to people being more conscious of what they're eating.

But overall, keeping an eye on portion sizes is a great way to help avoid overeating— especially with portion sizes rising since the 1970s.

Skip the restaurant and pack your lunch.

Portion sizes in American restaurants have increased by as much as three times in the past 20 years, and it is changing what we think of as a normal meal.

"One way to keep calories in check is to keep food portions no larger than the size of your fist," Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, writes.

If you're trying to control your portion sizes, it is best to pack your own lunch because restaurants will give you more calories than you need.

Instagram stars freaked out in December 2014 after the site began cracking down on spam accounts.

While some of the most-followed Instagram accounts lost thousands and even millions of followers in the days after, you can hardly tell a year later. 

The popularity of these top Instagrammers has exploded.

Last year, Kim Kardashian was the most-followed Instagrammer with 23 million followers. She's been dethroned, and the new number one has more than 60 million. 

 To calculate the most followed people, we took Socialblade's list of the 100 most-followed Instagram accounts and removed brands, groups of people (like bands and sports teams), accounts that aggregate other people's content (like @nailsvideos), and other non-human entities. That left us with 73 of the most popular Instagrammers from around the world. 

(Former Business Insider reporter Maya Kosoff wrote a previous version of this piece.)

SEE ALSO: The 25 hottest San Francisco startups to watch in 2016

73. "Jersey Shore" star Snooki

Handle: @snookinic

Followers: 9.1 million

72. Brazilian actor Caio Castro

Handle: @caiocastro

Followers: 9.2 million

71. Victoria Beckham

Handle: @victoriabeckham

Followers: 9.3 million

Back in the late '90s, getting a startup big enough to get onto the stock market was the thing to do. 

Now, a market crash, a Great Recession, and a possible tech-bubble burst later — investors are scaling back how much money they put into startups, and the public stock market is increasingly volatile.

Still, going public is often viewed as the end goal for ambitious young tech companies. 

Here's how and why startups wind up on the stock market — and why big players like Uber are increasingly shying away.

SEE ALSO: Everything you've ever wanted to know about venture capital, but were too afraid to ask

The vast majority of privately held tech startups are funded by venture-capital investments. Ride-hailing company Uber leads the pack today, having scooped up a record-setting $8.81 billion from investors.

Whenever an investor puts money into a startup, they get a slice of ownership in what they hope will one day become an immensely valuable startup.

Cash-strapped startups can go back to the well to raise more money as many times as they can convince investors to pay up. For instance, genetics startup 23andMe raised $225 million in six funding "rounds."

The evidence is mounting that Apple will indeed ditch the headphone jack on the next iPhone.

Instead of using that 3.5 mm standard headphone jack, people will have to plug their wired headphones into the Lightning port, where you plug in the charger, to listen to music.

They could also connect wireless headphones using a Bluetooth connection.

Although in the short term it may be frustrating to consumers — or absolutely infuriating to some — there are a lot of advantages for Apple to eschew this more than 100-year-old technology in favor of the super fast Lightning port.

It allows Apple to make the device thinner.

People love their thin gadgets! As my colleague Alex Heath reported recently, removing the headphone jack from the phone would allow Apple to make the phone about 1 millimeter thinner. (The iPhone 6s is currently 7.1 mm thick.)

You wouldn't need a separate battery pack to power noise-canceling headphones.

I recently got an awesome pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones, and I love them. But they come with a pesky, awkward battery pack that powers the noise-canceling function. Since the lightning port is powered, future iterations of these headphones could possibly be powered by your phone rather than by a battery pack.

It enables higher quality audio.

The digital Lightning connector can support higher quality sound than a 3.5 mm analog headphone jack. As Apple Insider recently reported, Apple is working on launching its "Hi-Res" streaming service, which would deliver higher quality music (Spotify and other services offer a similar high-quality audio stream). Sound of this quality can be transmitted over Lightning, but not a 3.5 mm jack.

When you quit a job, there's a good chance HR will ask you to partake in an exit interview.

People tend to have mixed feelings about these conversations. Some say an exit interview is the ideal opportunity to be completely honest about your experiences with your employer and offer them critical and constructive feedback; others argue it's awkward and not worth the risk of burning bridges, as your criticism probably won't inspire any significant changes, anyway.

But regardless of your attitude toward the exit interview, it's imperative that you be cordial and professional.

"This could be the last impression you'll leave your employer with,"says Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of "The Humor Advantage." "And don't think this conversation doesn't matter since you're leaving anyway. People talk. It's your reputation and your personal brand on the line. And those will travel with you wherever you go."

You also never know when you'll work for that HR manager or boss again. "I can't tell you how many boomerang stories I've heard where employees return back to their former employer after a year or two, or even wind up working with those colleagues elsewhere," Kerr says. "No matter how certain you are you won't return or come in contact with these people again, never burn bridges."

Here are 22 phrases you should avoid in every exit interview:

SEE ALSO: 29 words you should never say in a job interview

'My boss was the worst because ...'

Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of "Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job," says you must remember that just because you're not speaking directly with your boss, doesn't mean you should lose your cool or make any last-minute snarky comments.

"By being too honest about your manager you can shoot yourself in the foot if you ever want to return to the company, or expect a good reference from that boss," she says. "Remember to keep your comments general, concise, and make them overall positive."

'I never really liked [coworker],' or, '[Name] was never very nice to me.'

Don't get personal. "Attacking certain managers or employees will only reflect poorly on you, and make you come across as bitter or vengeful," Kerr says. "It's okay to discuss some behaviors that you feel had an impact on your decision to leave, but resorting to name calling or character assassination will never get you far and will only make it look like you were the difficult person to get along with."

'I was really amazing at this job,' or, 'Good luck running this business without me.'

Don't gloat about how fabulous you were, thus implying that it's a huge loss on their part, Kerr says. The time to boast a bit may have been on the way in, not on the way out. "It's fair to say that you felt like your talents weren't being used fully and to offer examples, but it's not wise to tell them you were the greatest thing since sliced bread and they're going to be sorry after you're gone."

Right now, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is doing something exciting: shoveling sand.

In December, the rover reached a new territory called Bagnold Dunes, which is rich with one of Mars' most iconic landscapes: dunes.

The Bagnold Dunes are on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, a mountain at the center of Gale Crater.

Now, the rover is scooping up samples of the grains and offering an unprecedented view and examination of what they're made of.

Check out some of the amazing pictures Curiosity is sending back:

SEE ALSO: We're on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy — here's what will happen to Earth

DON'T MISS: Neil deGrasse Tyson's favorite science joke will make you smarter

This is Curiosity's latest selfie in Bagnold Dunes, composed of 57 different photos captured on January 19. To test the sands, the rover recently dug one of its 20-inch wheels into a nearby dune. You can see the tire marks in the center.

Notice how the landscape contrasts with the rocky terrain at the "Big Sky" site that Curiosity crossed in October.

For years, scientists knew from satellite images that Mars had a surprisingly active climate that could shift sand dunes. Now, Curiosity is in the middle of the Bagnold Dunes territory (below), which has dunes that move up to 3 feet every Earth year.

Housing — whether it's renting an apartment in a major city, living in student dorms, or financing a home — tends to be a big money suck.

But it doesn't have to be.

From living in company parking lots to making 713-mile commutes overseas, people all over the world have found creative ways to live on the cheap. We aren't recommending you take these tactics ... unless you're ready for a serious lifestyle change of the biggest kind. 

Here are 12 of the more extreme measures people have taken to save on the costs of housing:

SEE ALSO: A 23-year-old Google employee lives in a truck in the company's parking lot and saves 90% of his income

A Google employee lives in a 128-square-foot truck in the company parking lot.

The 23-year-old software engineer's one recurring cost is truck insurance ($121 a month) — and he's saving 90% of his income by avoiding an overpriced San Francisco apartment.

He's used the savings to pay down student loans, get a head start on investing, and set aside money for his goal of traveling the world in a few years.

Read more about Brandon's story.

A San Francisco woman is living on a 136-square-foot sailboat.

Sarah Carter, 23, opted out of settling into an outlandishly priced San Francisco apartment and moved onto a sailboat instead.

She pays for electricity and water, as well as a small monthly docking fee, which includes internet access. Her housing costs add up to about $350 a month — not bad considering the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,500 a month.

Read more about Sarah's story.

A college student decided to build a 145-square-foot tiny home instead of pay to live in a dorm.

Joel Weber took one look at the cost of residence halls at the University of Texas at Austin (about $1,135 per month) and knew dorm life wasn't for him.

To save on student housing, he constructed a tiny house in a friend's backyard for less than $15,000. He now pays nothing in rent and plans to graduate debt-free.

Read more about Joel's story.

Bill Gates became the youngest billionaire ever in 1987 at 31. In 2008, Mark Zuckerberg took that title when he reached billionaire status at 23. But not all of today's wealthiest entrepreneurs saw such success at a young age: Larry Ellison was 42 when he made his first million and 49 when his net worth reached the seven-figure mark.

Using an infographic from UK-based web platform Fleximize, we've broken out the age at which Gates, Zuckerberg, Ellison, and 12 other self-made billionaires made their first billion.

SEE ALSO: How old 17 self-made billionaires were when they made their first million

Mark Zuckerberg: 23

The Facebook cofounder and CEO became a billionaire in 2008 at 23.

Facebook's IPO made Zuckerberg the youngest self-made billionaire in history.

Today's estimated net worth: $4.9 billion

Evan Spiegel: 25

The Snapchat cofounder and CEO became a billionaire in 2015 at 25.

The value in Spiegel's Snapchat shares reached $1 billion, making him one of the youngest self-made billionaires.

Today's estimated net worth: $2.1 billion

Larry Page: 30

Google's cofounder earned his first billion in 2004 at 30, when the company's IPO sent Page's net worth over $1 billion for the first time.

Today's estimated net worth: $36.3 billion

Ever wonder how much you've spent on Amazon over the years?

If you're feeling brave and want to see the total amount, you're in luck, there's a way to check that's easier than you think.

Using a tool that Amazon provides — but doesn't advertise — you're just a few clicks away from seeing how much all those late night orders have really cost you.  

First, head on over to Amazon.com and log in and view your orders

Once you've logged in, click "Your orders" in the top-right corner to be taken to your account page with a ton of order-related options. 

Hidden in plain sight is the "Download Order Reports" link. Click on that to be taken to the next step.

Select how far back in your Amazon purchase history you want to go

If you want a report of your entire Amazon history, pick January 1st and the year you opened your account; the dropdown under "year" only goes back that far. Then click "use today" for the second date. Once you're done, click on "request report" and in a minute or so a .csv file will automatically be downloaded.

The very first professional drone racing league posted its first race video — and it was quite the nail-biter.

The DRL was announced in January as a futuristic new sport bringing together the top pilots in the world for a series of races and eventual World Championship. The first race took place in December in Sun Life Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins play, and the footage was just released online.

Although the DRL plans on exploring broadcasting or live streaming of the races in the future, for now videos will be released after the race occurs. 

Here's how the first race went:

The DRL's season opener, dubbed Miami Lights, transformed the NFL stadium into the fastest three-dimensional course ever created for first-person view (FPV) drone racing.

FPV stands for first person view — the racers wear goggles that provide a live stream of what the drone is seeing while racing. This way, pilots feel like they are actually riding on the drone during the competition.

The course was a little over half a mile.

Drone pilots were asked to fly around the circumference of the stadium.

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And then they had to move around a series of obstacles on the concourse inside the stadium.

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Sometimes a team can accomplish far more than a group of lone individuals. For example, cyclists in the Tour de France take turns riding at the front of their group, decreasing the wind for those behind them. Wolves hunt in packs to take down animals 20 times their size. And for those of us who were children of the '90s, we all remember Ducks Fly Together.

Related: 8 Ways Real Estate Is Your Smartest Investment

This brings up another team that can accomplish amazing things — not a team of people, but a team of benefits which, when combined, can help you achieve your greatest financial goals. Specifically, I want to talk about real estate.

I'm a real estate investor, and I firmly believe that real estate is the best traditional investment on Planet Earth today. However, just because you buy a piece of real estate doesn't mean you're going to make money.

As I explain in "The Book on Rental Property Investing," big wealth is built through real estate investing by capitalizing on something I call "the four wealth generators of real estate." Alone, each of these benefits can help you make more money, but together they'll make you rich.

SEE ALSO: Real-estate experts say these will be the 10 hottest US neighborhoods in 2016

1. Cash flow

Cash flow is the extra profit left over after all of the expenses have been paid on a property. For example, if my rental property produced $2,000 in income and my expenses came to $1,700, my cash flow would be $300 that month.

Now, I know a lot of you are saying, "Three hundred dollars is not going to make me a millionaire."

Probably not. But remember, we are just talking about one of the wealth generators. There are still three more to go!

Additionally, that $300 might be from just one property. If I owned ten similar units with the same cash flow, that's $3,000 per month. If I owned 100 units, that's $30,000 per month. This cash flow can go a long way toward helping you quit your job — or helping you save for a future big purchase, or retire wealthier.

2. Appreciation

When I talk about appreciation, I am not referring to how much I like you (though I do appreciate you!). I'm referring to the natural rise in value that real estate experiences. For example, if you purchased a property for $200,000 ten years ago, and today that property is worth $300,000, the appreciation made you $100,000 richer!

Of course, appreciation doesn't cause values to increase every year (consider 2007!). However, historically, real estate prices have appreciated over the long term. So, again, appreciation alone is not likely going to make you a millionaire, which is why I don't recommend that people purchase bad deals hoping that appreciation bails of them out.

However, appreciation is combined with the other "members" of the wealth generation team, powerful stuff can happen.

Related: 6 Advantages of Real Estate Investing for Savvy Entrepreneurs

3. The loan pay-down

When you purchase a rental property with a mortgage, each month you make a payment to the lender. That payment includes two parts: principal and interest. Interest is the profit for the lender, but the principal is money you are paying down the loan with.

For example, if you purchased a house five years ago for $100,000 and obtained a $80,000 mortgage (we’ll say it was a 30-year mortgage with a 5 percent fixed rate), today you would owe only $74,000. Ten years from now, you would owe only $65,000. This means that every year your equity increased (equity is the difference between what a property is worth and what is owed on it), you'd gain value, as long as the property value didn't drop.

Of course, if you paid all-cash for a property and didn't obtain a loan, you would forfeit this wealth generator. This is something only you can decide.

Let's face it — commuting to New York City from upstate New York or other neighboring states isn't the greatest thing in the world.

It's time consuming, boring, and insanely crowded.

Grand Central Terminal— home to the Metro-North Railroad, five subway lines, and 11 different bus lines — is the biggest station in the world with 44 platforms and 67 tracks.

Over 125,000 commuters, including myself, pass through it to get to work every day.

Twice a day, I commute to and from Wappingers Falls, New York and Manhattan on the Metro-North. In total, my commute is just over 100 minutes — one way.

Below, see what it's really like to spend hours commuting to NYC every day.

SEE ALSO: 18 apps you should be using on your commute

Metro-North is part of the MTA, which is the largest transportation system North America, serving a population of 15.2 million people. It covers the 5,000-square-mile area from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. Typically, I need to arrive at Beacon station around 7:18 am to catch my usual 7:21 am train.

For some, the commute can be tough — my commute got easier when I moved to Wappingers Falls from Poughkeepsie. Now, I'm 76 miles outside of Manhattan, making the train ride a total of 80 minutes. Even at my station, on some mornings it's difficult to find a seat if I don't arrive early.

After my 80 minute train ride, my commute is still not over.

On the February 19 episode of "Shark Tank," Mark Cuban decided to invest $1.5 million into the company Nexercise, producers of the fitness app Sworkit, in exchange for a 10% share of the company. (Fellow "shark" Barbara Corcoran declined to meet the founders' huge ask, but loved the look of the app: She said she would "invest $3.99 and download it today.")

Cuban's $1.5 million is not the biggest "Shark Tank" investment ever, but it's up there, and according to a press release emailed by a Sworkit representative, it's the largest tech deal ever. And while it's hard to pick one fitness app to recommend out of more than 100,000 health-related apps in the app store, for an overall general workout that can be done at home, I'd pick Sworkit as well.

It's the one app I kept using after trying a selection of phone apps that would help someone get in shape.

It turns out my personal preference is backed by science: A team of sports scientists analyzed 30 popular free fitness apps and found that Sworkit was the most closely aligned with the American College of Sports Medicine's training guidelines.

Those guidelines say a workout should include aerobic, strength and resistance, and flexibility components; it should follow evidence-based guidelines for frequency, intensity, and types of workouts; and it should include safety measures to help make sure beginners start at a safe point.

No app was perfect, the analysis found (and most were terrible). People with different goals will have different needs, and of course the best workout is whichever one you actually do. Other apps may be better, in fact, at motivating people to move.

But I enjoy the range of workouts that Sworkit offers, and think they're a great way to get a full workout in with limited time. The app is basically like a playlist for fitness that you can just follow along. And now we know that its routines are expert-approved.

Here's how it works — and why I've stuck with it.

The initial interface is simple and clean.

When you open up the app, you can choose whether you want to focus on strength, cardio, yoga, or stretching.

All the exercises are bodyweight-based, so you don't need any additional equipment for any of the workouts. While I wouldn't use this as my only fitness option, it's a nice way to get a varied workout that can be done at home or on the road.

There are also options for either a quick five-minute workout or a custom workout.

If you choose the five-minute workout, the app will select a series of cardio and strength exercises and have you do them for 30 seconds each.

While five minutes isn't a lot, it's enough for a quick morning wake-up routine at least. Even a small amount of exercise can have a huge impact on your life, especially if you keep your intensity level high.

The five-minute workout is also a good warm-up option before a yoga session.

If you opt for the strength routine, you can choose what type of workout you want.

The full body workout is a great go-to option here. While I like to go for a run or a bike ride or a climb when I can, this is a nice alternative for particularly hot or freezing days.

It's easy and well-defined enough that you can make yourself do it, even if you are just relaxing around the apartment.

You can work up a good sweat and push yourself hard enough that you get the mental clarity that's one of the best benefits of exercise.