Author: Editor

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Keara Callahan, 28, who quit her corporate job to pursue social media full-time. Callahan is living with her parents to save up money and move to Miami. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… I graduated during COVID and was working remotely in Miami as a government tech consultant. As great as the job was, I realized it wasn’t fully aligned with what I wanted in life. I was sitting at my desk all day, watching people on social media do really cool things, and I…

“You know…your husband has been prepared to be CEO,” a trusted advisor on our executive team stated plainly during a meeting. Loading audio narration… I laughed.It was March 2020. I had just shared that for months I’d been having a recurring vision that I would not be the CEO of Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur, the business I founded nearly eight years earlier, much longer. It was frustrating because there was no logical successor, and I wasn’t sure how to best prepare for a transition.My husband Phil was not even on my shortlist of possibilities. He was perfectly content with his massage…

As you write your Mother’s Day card this year, you may want to add one more thank you: for the thousands of dollars it took to raise you.Beyond the time, care, and love that go into parenting, raising a child in the US comes with a steep financial cost, and in some states, that price tag is far higher than in others.A LendingTree study released in April found that it costs US parents an average of $303,418 to raise a child over 18 years. Parents spend an average of 21.9% of their income on child-rearing costs each year, a slight…

Black-car rides, paid memberships, and other offerings for affluent consumers are paying off for Uber, Instacart, and other gig-based services. Loading audio narration… Despite rising gas prices and consumers trimming their budgets, many people are still spending on ride-hailing and food delivery, according to companies’ latest earnings results. Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart largely beat quarterly expectations this week and saw their stocks lift.”We’re definitely seeing that not all consumers are under pressure,” said Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management. “Some are still very high earners and doing very well.”The apps are finding ways to keep upper-income consumers…

Used cars are offered for sale at a dealership on July 11, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.Scott Olson | Getty ImagesThe head of one of the nation’s largest auto finance lenders isn’t overly concerned about rising consumer automotive debt and inflated used car prices leading to longer loans on vehicle purchases.His main reasoning? The percentage of income consumers are spending on their vehicles has remained relatively flat compared with 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic led to inflated pricing as demand surged but inventories stayed low.”If I just told you, ‘Car prices going up, interest rates going up, insurance prices going up,’…

The break came suddenly. After 24 years together, my husband told me he wanted to explore his bisexual side. It had always been an open relationship, but when he started dating a woman seriously, my heart broke. He fell in love. Loading audio narration… For my 50th birthday in October, we went to Mexico City. My high school Spanish class took a yearly trip to CDMX, but my family was always too poor to let me go. Decades of daydreaming about the city made it an obvious choice, and what better time to splurge? The international trip also fit into…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Layton Cox, 35, a consultant based in Rosemary Beach, Florida. Business Insider has verified his country club membership and income. This piece has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… My wife and I moved from Dallas to Rosemary Beach in the Florida Panhandle at the end of 2021. A big goal of ours was finding our tribe in this part of the state.When we found out about a local country club, we joined in late 2023 with the expectation that we’d meet a bunch of people who were…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matt Sanner, 54, a data manager for a bank in Tampa. Sanner vibe coded an app called ScamSkeptic for his aging family, who had fallen victim to scams. Business Insider also spoke with Sanner’s parents, Sue, 79, and Bob, 83, about how they’ve used the app. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.MATT: I’ve been in banking for 25 years, mainly in data management. I was around software development in that space, so I had some Python knowledge, but I’m not proficient.On a quarterly call with the bank where…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Annie Tran, a 22-year-old based in College Station, Texas. It’s been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… Earlier this week, I graduated college with a degree in marketing from Texas A&M University. It kind of feels surreal. One of my biggest fears was walking the stage without a signed job offer, but here I am.I’m ready to go out into the world and not have to do school or worry about tuition, but at the same time, I still have so much more to learn. I’m not sure how…

I always take pride in having learned how to parent from my own mom — the best example. Not just from what she taught me to do with my kids once I had them, but also from the way she brought up my siblings and me. Loading audio narration… Unfortunately, she is no longer with us. But her countless memories keep me going and help guide my parenting every day. One of the best parenting hacks I learned from her was to nurture your child’s strengths from the start.I have always enjoyed writing. stories, poems, recipes, letters — everything. In…