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Lloyd Blankfein went from being a poor kid on a Brooklyn housing project to a Harvard graduate, a corporate tax lawyer, then the CEO of Goldman Sachs.His titanic change in circumstances required a major shift in mindset, Blankfein explained in “Streetwise,” his memoir published this spring.He wrote that “growing up in public housing, in a family that was just getting by, and attending public schools that were failing, left its mark on me.”When counting every dollar and applying for scholarships was the norm, it was the “furthest thing from your mind to give money away,” Blankfein wrote. “It required an…

If you’re just starting your career, your boss might expect to see you in the office more often than your colleagues.UK fintech company Revolut recently said that, starting in 2027, interns and participants in a program for recent grads will be expected to work in the office at least three days a week. The company will continue to allow other employees to choose whether to work remotely or in person.Revolut says the change reflects the value of IRL learning for workers early in their careers.”You don’t just learn from your manager telling you what to do. You actually observe how…

Uber charges riders a fee for insurance and operations — and it’s harder to predict than the price you’ll pay for the overall trip, a new study suggests.Len Sherman, an executive in residence and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, analyzed 120 Uber Reserve trips completed by one driver between Ithaca, New York, and an airport in Syracuse over a two-year period.The trips were similar in several ways, Sherman said. Each was driven by the same driver in the same Tesla Model Y. Each also followed essentially the same route along the freeway, covered nearly identical distances, and began and…

Cody Berman achieved financial independence by following a simple rule: Keep your expenses below your income and invest the difference.Between various side hustles and entrepreneurial ventures, he widened the gap between what he earned and what he spent throughout his early 20s. By 2021, shortly before his 26th birthday, Berman said he had about $500,000 invested in the stock market, 13 rental units producing about $3,700 a month in cash flow, and a digital-products business earning more than $10,000 a month.That was the point when he considered himself financially independent.Business Insider reviewed screenshots of Berman’s Vanguard, Schwab, and Empower accounts…

AI, it seems, is for the experts.In a new working paper, researchers at Harvard Business School and the nonprofit business school, INSEAD, found that AI-native startups are building smaller, flatter teams with fewer entry-level workers than their non-AI peers.The study, titled “AI-Native Firms,” examined Y Combinator startups from 2020 to 2024 and a broader set of US venture-backed startups whose first financing closed during the same period.The paper defines a new category of “AI-native startups” characterized by two shifts in productivity. The first is the process channel: They use AI inside the company to make employees more productive, such as…

Andrew Tobias is a New York City millionaire, and he will happily pay more taxes. Just make sure to send him a fruit basket.The financial writer is part of the Patriotic Millionaires, an advocacy group of high-net-worth Americans who crusade for higher taxes on the wealthy. He said he would not mind paying them in New York City, which he said is a city “worth supporting.”One of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s key campaign promises was to raise taxes on the wealthy to help bridge the city’s budget gap and use that money for free buses and universal childcare. In May, state…

When Robin Olsen started applying for communications jobs three months ago, she noticed a shift: The job descriptions had grown longer. One combined communications and marketing, typically two separate roles, into one. Others seemed to have “crazy wish lists,” Olsen says. One was so overwhelmingly long that it prompted Olsen to shut it from her browser. “My premise is, if you actually think that one person can do all of that, this isn’t the place for me,” Olsen says. “No one could ever succeed at having 27 priorities.”Scrolling through LinkedIn, it’s easy to find job descriptions that rival CVS receipts,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vivienne Yang, a 31-year-old Taiwanese national who lost her job and had to leave the US because of her visa status, leaving behind her apartment and two cats. It has been edited for length and clarity.I started falling for the American dream when I was in third grade.It was a mix of realizing that the Taiwanese education system wasn’t really designed for me and becoming hooked on American pop culture like Taylor Swift, “Twilight,” and “America’s Next Top Model.”In 2018, at 23, I moved to New York for a master’s in…

The Trump administration wants American parents to open federally-backed investment accounts for their children, and billionaire CEO Michael Dell plans to sweeten the deal.Dell said he and his wife, Susan Dell, will gift $250 to the first 25 million qualifying American children who sign up for Trump Accounts.”This makes every child a shareholder in the greatest prosperity-creating engine the world has ever known — American capitalism,” Dell wrote in an X post.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump Accounts app is outfitted with a “full suite” of capabilities. “You can start funding your child’s account, exploring financial education modules,…

Most of us have heard the golden rule of housing: Don’t spend more than 30% of your income on housing. Known as the 30% rule, it’s a benchmark financial experts often cite to help households avoid becoming “house poor” — meaning you have little savings left after paying monthly housing costs.Unfortunately, for many Americans, that standard works better in theory than in practice. Realtor.com data shows that in most states, households earning the median income cannot comfortably afford a median-priced home without stretching their budgets too thin.It’s a reality shaped by the same persistent strains on housing affordability: high mortgage…