• My husband and I deal with clutter in different ways.
• It used to cause conflict in our relationship.
• I had a breakthrough moment about my relationship with clutter, and now, we communicate better.

If I have to retrieve something from our basement utility room, I get heart palpitations. A waist-high assortment of boxes, bags, and building supplies is piled three feet from the wall. The paint shelves overflow. A broken chair sits in the middle of the floor, dust thick on its upholstered seat. For 25 years, I've wanted to toss that flea market find, but my husband insists he will fix it.

The utility room is my husband Mike's domain, and, in his defense, much of the clutter is a result of his beautiful basement renovations, which include a laundry room, new bathroom, and spacious rec room. Still, Mike is a saver, and I'm not, and that difference is a source of conflict.

I'm not a minimalist, either, but I don't save as much as he does

Full disclosure: I'm no neat freak. I often leave dishes in the sink, dirty socks on the floor, and my dresser top accumulates toiletries and tchotchkes faster than you can look up the definition of the word "tchotchke." Like Mike, I tolerate a certain degree of disorder. I feel as though my disorder is within my control, though. I can pick up quickly and toss what I choose. But when our collective clutter crosses an invisible line, and I lack the decision-making authority to address more than half of it, I want to scream.

Often in the past, I held my tongue because I didn't want to nag, and I'm instinctively a people-pleaser. But then my resentment grew and when I finally spoke up, it was nasty. We both ended up feeling bad. Mike would dig in his heels, I'd back down, and the situation remained unresolved.

I used to think my anger was simply a result of Mike holding onto too much "junk." That's part of it, of course. One woman's trash is her husband's treasure, I think the saying goes. Recently, however, I realized it's more complicated.

An overstuffed closet helped me have a breakthrough

This past November, I was in a funk. I wasn't happy with the result of the election. Also, I'd published a book about my people-pleasing in 2023 and had grown tired of marketing it. In fact, I'd grown tired of writing. I was a retired empty-nester with bad knees trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

One day, I opened the spare room closet and immediately became tense. The overflow of belongings wasn't Mike's alone, it was our entire family's. I wasn't angry at a person but at the clutter. Or maybe it wasn't exactly anger that I was feeling.

I had a lightbulb moment: Too much stuff makes me anxious, and decluttering gives me a feeling of control. If I'm bored or worried about something else, purging an area of its detritus makes me feel better. It's not about Mike, after all. It's about my relationship to clutter — we just don't get along.

Now, Mike and I communicate about clutter better

Before I got to work on the closet, I told Mike, "Just so you know — I enjoy getting rid of stuff. I'm doing this to make myself feel better." I'd never stated it so clearly before. My aha moment allowed me to approach Mike more lovingly about his other stashes. Instead of snidely scolding him, my words and tone were kind.

"Mike, do you want these two hats, or should I give them to Goodwill?"

Here's the bonus: Since I've been nicer about it, Mike lets go of more stuff. He no longer has the need to dig in his heels because I'm not attacking him.

It will always be easier for me to part with possessions than it will be for Mike. What is anxiety-provoking for me may be comforting for him. However, identifying my contribution to our dynamic and changing my behavior has allowed me to better respond to my needs. It's really a form of self-care.

I'll still avoid the utility room to control my blood pressure and respect Mike's man cave. If what looks like junk to me is his treasure, my way of loving him is to say, "It's all yours."

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, loyalty will be a key aspect of his second term. Unlike 2017, Trump is no longer a political outsider adjusting to Washington for the first time. While Trump has to contend with a closely-divided House, he now has much more control over the GOP.

• Hospitals are using gig work apps to fill nursing shifts.
• While lucrative, many of the shifts can be difficult and stressful for nurses.
• Three nurses who have used the apps explain how much they've earned — and what they've experienced.

Nurses are using gig apps to make money. Doing so often involves working some of the most stressful jobs in nursing.

Some hospitals have trouble retaining full-time staff because they have a stressful work environment. That could be a trauma center, for instance, or a facility with many homeless patients who aren't getting support for chronic conditions, one nurse who picks up shifts for CareRev in Southern California, told Business Insider.

The problem has been compounded in the years since the pandemic, with many nurses feeling overwhelmed and considering a career change. Private-equity-owned facilities looking to reduce costs have also driven the rise of these apps, a report summary from the Roosevelt Institute released last month says.

One solution that hospitals are using is apps that allow nurses to pick up shifts — similar to the way that Uber drivers claim gigs driving people to the airport. Apps like CareRev, ShiftMed, and Clipboard Health pitch themselves to medical facilities, including those with staffing problems.

"We are that emergency help that they need to keep their hospital going," the nurse in Southern California said. The nurses who spoke to BI asked that their full names not be published for fear of retaliation from the apps, but BI has verified their identity and work.

CareRev, Clipboard, Medely, and ShiftMed did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

Nurses often find themselves 'thrown into' gigs

One nurse in California who has used the apps CareRev, Clipboard Health, and Medely said that many hospitals in her area that offer work through the apps don't appear to have the resources to hire as many full-time nurses as they need.

"Well-known hospitals like the Mayo Clinic are probably not going to be using ShiftMed," the nurse said. "It tends to be kind of smaller facilities and less-funded facilities."

At some facilities that use gig apps, nurses working through the apps can outnumber employees. At one intensive care unit where she has worked, the nurse in Southern California said, "There were eight of us, and seven didn't actually work there."

"When I go to these hospitals, especially some of them, you'll see only the app people and some travel nurses, and that's it," she said.

What orientation those hospitals provide to nurses who work there through the apps can affect the kind of care patients get.

"Every hospital has policies and procedures when they do things and we don't get training," the nurse in Southern California said. "We can read the booklet real fast in the morning, but we don't always know we're doing our best."

"There are instances where you get thrown into something and you do the best that you can, and care can unfortunately suffer because of that," the nurse on three apps in California told BI.

Sarah, a nurse in Wisconsin, said that most hospitals she's worked in have required workers hired through the apps to have at least one year of nursing experience. However, she said stepping into a new hospital with limited training can be challenging — and that this level of experience might be insufficient.

"You have to have a solid foundation — this is not the environment to build your skills," she said. "You really have to be solid."

Challenging nursing gigs often come with higher pay

Despite the challenges that come with these gigs, Sarah said the pay motivates many nurses to give them a shot.

"Everybody wants to chase the money," she said.

While the hourly rates for these gigs vary by hospital, the nursing role, and other factors, nurses told BI that they often pay roughly double what they make in their regular nursing jobs — as much as $115 an hour.

Sarah said that $75 an hour is a fairly standard rate in her experience — which would earn her $900 over a twelve-hour shift.

"What I'm making in CareRev is about double what I would be paid as a staff nurse for the hospitals in this area," she said.

The nurse in Southern California said that she considers roughly $90 an hour to be a typical hourly rate. That's compared to the roughly $80 an hour she estimated that a very experienced nurse would make at a large hospital in her area.

"I've seen it get to $114 on a holiday like Christmas," she said.

The nurse on three apps in California said she earns between $30 and $40 an hour at her main nursing job but often makes between $50 and $70 an hour through gig apps.

"If you're just picking up shifts on your own through these apps, it's more profitable to do it that way," she said.

Are you a nurse who works as an independent contractor and has a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• At least six retail brands have said they're closing US stores this year, totaling over 2,000 locations.
• Twice-bankrupt Party City is the largest chain on the list, with 700 stores facing closure.

A Business Insider tally of disclosures from six retail chains found more than 2,000 stores have closed or are set to close across the US in 2025.

The number is up slightly from last year's total but down from 2023, when the collapse of Bed Bath & Beyond contributed to the shuttering of more than 2,800 locations.

UBS analysts last year estimated US retail closures could reach 45,000 stores by 2029, led largely by smaller stores going out of business.

Meanwhile, larger firms such as Walmart, Costco, Target, and Home Depot continue to expand.

Topping this year's list is the twice-bankrupt Party City, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in late December with 700 stores facing closure.

See the list of major closures below.

Party City: 700 stores

Party City filed for Chapter 11 protection in late December, after CNN reported that the company was closing all of its stores.

Big Lots: 480 stores

Big Lots received a last-minute lifeline to remain in operation after bankruptcy, but its new owners are selling the leases to 480 stores.

Walgreens: 450 stores

Walgreens said it is on track to close 450 locations through the end of 2025 as part of its multi-year effort to reduce its store fleet.

Family Dollar: 370 stores

Dollar Tree said it will close 370 locations as leases expire, following last year's closure of 600 stores as it leans away from the Family Dollar brand and expands the Dollar Tree footprint.

Macy's: 66 stores

Macy's has identified 66 stores across 22 states that will close this year, the first of 150 locations that the retailer plans to shutter through 2026. Following the closings, there will be about 350 Macy's left.

Kohl's: 27 stores

Kohl's said it will close 27 locations across 15 states, which represent a small fraction of the overall 1,150-plus store fleet the company says is healthy, strong, and profitable. The closures are expected to be completed by April.

• The thought of taking our tired kids out to a dinner they likely wouldn't enjoy wasn't appealing.
• Instead, we left them in our rental armed with devices, made sure they were safe, and set out.
• This experience allowed us to embrace our kids' independence once we were back home too.

It was the summer of 2022 when my family of four descended, via bus and train, from the relatively temperate and isolated peaks of Switzerland into a hot, crowded, Italian summer. My Pacific Northwest children, then 7 and 9, were not built to handle heat. When I pulled out my camera on a crowded ferry my daughter let her head loll back and moaned, "Document my misery!"

They recovered slightly when they ate their first real Italian pizza for lunch. But when it came time for dinner, no one wanted to leave the sanctuary of our air-conditioned Airbnb rental. I didn't know what to do. I had to eat something but I felt exhausted at just the thought of coaxing the kids through walking into town, searching for a ristorante-pizzeria — the only acceptable choice — that could seat us, and then waiting for our food with them.

As it happened, there was a restaurant on the ground floor of where we were staying, but it wasn't a pizzeria. I knew our very picky eaters wouldn't touch anything on the menu.

Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the time we'd spent in Switzerland watching our friends' kids walk themselves to school, head out to the store, and navigate a complex train system without help. Maybe we were just sick of the kids. Whatever it was, my husband had an idea:

"We could just leave them here," he suggested cautiously.

If we'd been home in Seattle, I would have flatly rejected him. I would have said something like, "Good parents don't leave their kids unattended."

But they say travel lets you become a different person, just for a few days. So maybe that's why instead I said, "If we give them their tablets, they literally will not move."

"There's leftover pizza from lunch," my husband pointed out. "We could just heat that up for them here."

We fed them the leftovers, handed them their tablets, made them practice unlocking the door (but not for strangers!), and warned them not to eat any food lest they choke. My husband and I went downstairs and had a peaceful dinner looking out over the sparkling waters of Lake Como.

It was glorious

When we returned to our rental, as predicted, the kids had not moved an inch. We felt like we'd gotten away with something, and also like we'd all just passed some sort of parenting test. The kids reported not feeling scared or abandoned at all. There was no reason not to do it again.

And we did, venturing out a few blocks away the next night, and many of the nights that followed as we wound our way through Italy.

Our perspective changed at home

"You know what's crazy," I said at a leisurely dinner along a piazza in Rome, feeling not at all rushed, not needing to apologize for my boisterous American kids. "We would never do this at home, and yet we're totally fine doing it in a country where they have no local knowledge and they don't even speak the language."

"Maybe we should do it at home, then," my husband said.

And that's exactly what we did, similarly tentatively, with frequent check-ins and warnings to help ease any anxiety on our part or theirs. We stopped letting some vague sense of what we were supposed to do direct our parenting, and started living our life in a way that made sense for us. Now we assess the situation and make a decision based on what we think our family is capable of.

In the years since then we look for opportunities to encourage our kids' independence and ability to be self-sufficient. So far they've risen to the occasion. My son, now 12, in particular, likes it when I can send him to the corner store on his electric scooter to pick up some forgotten ingredient I need for dinner. When I watch him pull out of the driveway, perched on his silly scooter seat, his helmet atop his head, you could almost imagine he's on a Vespa, heading out on a solo adventure through the Tuscan countryside.

• Return-to-office mandates risk eroding trust between employees and employers.
• Remote work and other flexibility that arose during the pandemic often fostered employee goodwill.
• Companies enforcing RTO could lose some workers if the job market strengthens.

"Trust me, I'm getting my work done."

That's the sentiment coming from some workers who have bridled at the return-to-office orders flowing from some C-suites.

Many bosses who call their employees back talk about wanting to boost productivity, teamwork, and innovation. What they don't often talk about is trust.

Yet trust — or the absence of it, amid reports of sly employees deputizing Fridays as de facto weekend days — is at the heart of why many bosses are demanding workers resume their commutes, workplace experts told Business Insider.

The surge in remote work during the pandemic engendered goodwill between workers and their employers "in a way that we haven't seen since the old days of retiring from IBM with the gold watch," Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at the recruiting firm Korn Ferry, said.

Now, though, as more CEOs push for workers to return to the office — often against the advice of HR teams, Kaplan said — workers' faith in their employers is also at risk.

"This is going to be studied as a time where companies forfeited the trust that they worked so hard to build," Kaplan told BI.

Autonomy breeds employee trust

Disagreements over how work gets done can erode relationships. PwC has reported that companies that offer remote work but monitor how often workers show up at the office or track things like when workers log on can diminish workers' sense of trust in their employers.

In early 2024, PwC found in a survey of some 2,500 workers in the US — a mix of business leaders and employees — that nearly nine in 10 execs said they had a high level of trust in their people, yet only six in 10 workers said that leadership regarded them as highly trusted.

PwC found that when employees feel a sense of autonomy, trust in employers tends to go up. In the survey, for example, seven in 10 workers said flexibility around when they do their work would build trust.

Employers have reasons for concern

Reports about "over-employed" workers holding multiple remote jobs or others quiet vacationing — thanks, mouse jiggler — are sure to give some leaders heartburn.

That potential abuse of trust by workers has frayed bonds built during the pandemic. When COVID-19 emerged, many bosses checked in on workers, and many employers provided information and resources for workers to help them stay safe, Kaplan said. Often, that included permission to work remotely.

Even as the pandemic ebbed, workers could still focus on family, go to the gym, or walk the dog, he said.

Now, thanks to the tight job market facing many white-collar workers — and fewer remote roles — employers wanting people back in the office have regained power.

Workers got used to WFH

Peggie Rothe, chief insights and research officer at Leesman, which tracks employee experiences, told BI that when the pandemic hit, employers trusted employees would get their work done from afar. This set many employees' expectations for what life would be like when the pandemic subsided.

In part, many workers wanted to keep their setups because logging on from home is something people often enjoy, she said.

Rothe also said the pandemic showed that the average home is better at supporting work than the average office. That's left some workers struggling to understand why they'd need to head back to the office every day, she said.

"Unless you communicate a clear why — why do you need your employees to be back — inevitably employees are going to feel like they're not trusted anymore," Rothe said.

Workers who say they don't trust their employer tend — no surprise — to be less happy at work. That dissatisfaction can then cut into productivity, innovation, and teamwork.

I can't see you

Randall Peterson, a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, told BI that the biggest factor animating CEOs' decisions to call people back to the office is the fear that they can't see their people and that they might be slacking off.

Yet Peterson said one concern for CEOs should be that by making people go back to the office, employers are taking away a way of working that many people have come to see as a right, not a privilege, as was the case before the pandemic.

'The fact you're forcing me back is taking something away from me," he said. "I don't think enough employers have really figured that out yet."

Kaplan, from Korn Ferry, echoed a similar concern. He said if the US economy heats up as he expects, there's a risk companies could start losing workers who've grown frustrated by bosses taking attendance.

"I suspect the companies that are more flexible are going to look really, really smart in six months," he said.

Do you have something to share about your RTO experience? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at [email protected] with your story, or to ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers.

• Private-credit investors are hiring. BI spoke to recruiters to figure out where.
• Workers who get their hands dirty in workouts, restructuring, and operations are in demand.
• Hiring for private-equity dealmaking is likely to pick up as more companies trade hands.

Private-credit fever is heating up on Wall Street as large financial companies, from Goldman Sachs to Point72, pour capital and talent into non-bank lending.

Of course, "private credit" is a broad term for a wide variety of lending — everything from the staid business of writing loans to blue-chip companies to the bare-knuckle brawl of distressed debt with its penchant for "creditor-on-creditor violence" (when lenders try to box each other out for higher returns in a restructuring).

So, what roles are private-credit investors hiring for in 2025? And what might that tell us about how the industry is growing and evolving?

Business Insider spoke to two top recruiters who highlighted roles in restructuring, special situations, and even portfolio operations as signs that private lenders are increasingly looking to get their hands dirty to make money while lending — even if it means turning from loaner to owner.

"They're now comfortable with owning businesses versus just taking the keys and trying to get out of it as quickly as possible," said John Rubinetti, cohead of the private equity and credit recruiting practice at leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles.

Firms are also searching for professionals with specialized skills, like asset-backed finance — a sign the non-bank lending industry is looking to get creative with how it lends. Robin Judson, the founder of the recruiting firm Robin Judson Partners, said that while her firm is seeing demand "all over the map" at all levels of seniority, there's been less interest in generalists.

Most of the demand is "not the straight-down-the-fairway, plain, vanilla lending," she said. Instead, firms are looking for talent where they see returns: in the less traveled areas of finance.

Here are four hiring trends in the booming industry of non-bank lending, also known as private credit.

Loan-to-own

Private credit has seen an increase in defaults in the last few years, especially with senior lenders. The default rate for senior loans nearly tripled between mid-2022 and September 2024 per MSCI. But distress can also provide opportunities for lenders who have the right talent.

Rubinetti said he has noticed a "significant uptick" in roles for restructuring professionals over the last year as more direct lenders look to invest in opportunities where they might become owners of the companies they are lending to.

Lenders are also following in the footsteps of their private-equity cousins and investing in portfolio operators who can help steer businesses that defaulted on their loans.

"I've also seen, for the first time ever, credit firms hiring private-equity-style portfolio operations professionals," Rubinetti said.

Rubinetti estimated that a majority of the largest credit-only players now have someone on their team with some operational portfolio management skills, but said it's still an emerging trend at pure-play, lending-only firms.

Special situations

Judson is seeing a lot of demand in a related corner of the market: special situations. Special situations lenders step in when a company is dealing with some sort of, well, special situation and needs a lender willing to write a complicated, risky, and, conversely, very lucrative loan.

For example, a fund may have loaned money to a company, and the loan is now not performing, putting the fund in trouble, too. The fund may reach out to another fund, which will take on some of the risk of that loan but also gain more control over the business in the meantime. Writing that loan involves a lot of risk, but also stands to generate very high returns.

"You have to have a very acute sense of risk and reward," Judson said about special-situations loan professionals.

"It really requires somebody who understands credit and leverage, and understands how to put together a transaction that is going to benefit everyone involved," Judson said. "How to provide the financing a company needs and a return that a fund is looking for."

Judson is seeing demand for special-situation credit experts from independent private credit funds and megafunds as well as private-equity firms with industry-specific, multi-asset funds.

According to job listings, lender and asset manager Golub Capital is hiring an associate for its direct lending workout group and special-situations team. The associate would help the firm with "maximizing recoveries and minimizing losses" and may require "operational turnarounds." The base salary for New York-based hires is $170,000 to $185,000 and likely includes a bonus as well, the listing said.

Asset-backed finance and other specialties

Professionals who specialize in complicated and lucrative types of loans or lending to in-demand industries are also getting a lot of attention in today's job market, recruiters said.

"The demand we see is in the corners of the market where the structures and the issues are more complex and juicy," Judson said. In these niches, lenders can differentiate themselves from the competition through how they structure and manage their loans, and drive higher returns as well, she added.

Rubinetti said that he's seen the most interest recently in niches such as alternative credit, asset-based lending, and specialty finance.

"If firms don't have this capability now, they want it," Rubinetti said. "It's a small area, but far and away, it's been the most active area."

Corporate consolidation shows just how much interest there is in some niche lending strategies. Janus Henderson acquired asset-backed lender Victory Park at the end of last year to provide its clients a "highly in-demand asset-backed-focused private credit strategy," according to Ali Dibadj, CEO of Janus Henderson, in a press release announcing the deal.

Rubinetti has seen job demand for lending roles in equipment leasing, aviation finance, consumer finance, or any industry with real assets. "Infrastructure and energy transition credit have been hot areas," he added.

Sponsor finance poised to bounce back

While demand for loan generalists has been soft, non-bank lenders may see a return to the business that started the whole industry: providing the leverage for private-equity buyouts and recapitalizations, also known as sponsor finance.

At this point, Rubinetti said, hiring has been very slow for these roles, as most origination teams are fairly well-staffed for the low volume of deals. But 2025 is likely to see "a significant increase in PE deal flow," according to PWC. And firms that feel fully staffed up now may see things differently as more deals unfold.

"That will change in 2025," Rubinetti said.

At the end of December, Apollo posted for two "US Sponsor Origination" roles: an associate position with a base pay range of $175,000 to $200,000 and a principal earning $300,000 in base pay, according to job listings that also note that the positions are eligible for an annual bonus.

• Zara Dar left her doctorate in bioengineering to become a full-time creator, including on OnlyFans.
• She switched to content creation after becoming frustrated with academia.
• Her content combines STEM education with more adult OnlyFans, where she's earned more than $1 million.

A bioengineer who once thought she'd be a professor decided to abandon her doctorate program and become a full-time creator, including making content on OnlyFans.

The 24-year-old from Texas, who uses the pseudonym Zara Dar on social media, knew this was a gamble, but she couldn't see herself following in her professor's footsteps.

Dar sent Business Insider her OnlyFans dashboard, which shows her net income since she started on the site in January 2022 was $1.4 million, putting her among the top 0.1% of creators. In an interview with BI, she said the sum was "something I never imagined possible."

She earned $50,000 in her first three months on OnlyFans. She now posts more regularly. Her earnings for December 2024 were $240,000.

After starting OnlyFans, Dar began posting lectures to YouTube and Pornhub in 2023, focusing on science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. Her YouTube and Pornhub accounts both link to her OnlyFans page and funnel users there.

On OnlyFans, in addition to posting STEM content, she posts erotic photoshoots and exchanges messages with fans, a major source of revenue for creators on the platform. According to her dashboard, Dar's total income from messaging is $661,000.

Dar said doing both STEM lectures on YouTube and PornHub alongside adult content on OnlyFans "makes my approach not only unique but also more relevant to who I am."

She chose OnlyFans after becoming frustrated with academia

Dar spent two years in grad school at a top-tier university, achieving a master's degree and working toward a doctorate in biomedical engineering. Dar doesn't share where she studied publicly for privacy reasons. BI has verified her degree and confirmed the institution.

Dar told BI she left her doctorate program at the end of 2024 after realizing "it wasn't the right fit."

Her doctorate research was in computational biology and drug discovery, where she explored how computational models can replace drug experiments on animals.

But her research was less hands-on than she thought. Her professors seemed to spend more time trying to secure funding than working in the lab, she said.

"I think, as a professor, I would feel disconnected from the actual work associated with my name," Dar said.

Dar said she received the stipend as a doctorate student was "barely enough to cover basic living expenses," which was stressful. She started to think about other ways to earn a living.

Her STEM niche led to OnlyFans promoting her work

Dar found that her STEM niche set her apart on OnlyFans, which promoted her videos on its main page.

Her YouTube channel recently reached 150,000 subscribers. Her videos include explanations of neural networks, machine learning concepts, and how she developed her own OnlyFans notification robot.

"This made me realize I can have an actual career by continuing to share educational and artistic content on OnlyFans," Dar said.

Dar has had setbacks. Her Instagram, where she discussed topics such as the Leidenfrost effect and Schrödinger's cat, was banned for sexual content because she was showing cleavage, which put a dent in her earnings. The account has since been reinstated.

She has focused more on her social media presence since quitting her studies.

Her YouTube video about dropping out of her doctorate made Zar $40,000 in just 24 hours — more than her annual stipend as a graduate student, she told BI.

Dar said several management companies have approached her to offer their services to help her run her page, but she has declined them so far.

Dar said OnlyFans isn't for everyone

For many, OnlyFans doesn't provide a steady income. The total paid out to creators in 2023 equalled nearly $1,300 per creator, according to an analysis by Variety. Dar said she has to continually post videos and photos and interact with fans to stay popular. The main funnel to Dar's OnlyFans is her STEM content on YouTube and Pornhub, which is hard work but something she enjoys.

She also worries about her privacy. "Being so visible on the internet has its downsides," she said.

She said many people assumed she had abandoned STEM by doing OnlyFans.

"The truth is quite the opposite. OnlyFans has given me the freedom to learn, research, and share whatever I'm passionate about," Dar said.

Despite how much she makes, Dar said she is careful with her money, investing it, trying to live frugally, and avoiding luxury purchases.

Dar advised creators considering OnlyFans to find a niche and to "never do anything you're uncomfortable with."

"My experience on OnlyFans proves that you don't need to create porn to earn a substantial income," she said.

Dar said there is a diverse range of content on OnlyFans, and she aims to be unique with her erotic content by posting only artistic photoshoots that she feels reflect who she is.

"One of my photoshoots explores the two paths I face in life: continuing to work for others or working independently," she said.

"In that set, I wrote a poem inspired by Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' and wore a hard hat while being topless to symbolize the choices in front of me."

Dar told BI that, besides her content creation, she would like to offer online STEM courses or start a social-media consultancy. She is also pursuing another master's degree in computer science online.

"Working full-time online enables me to continue my education at my own pace and research what I enjoy," she said.

• Brett Shannon Johnson, an ex-cybercriminal, now advises on cybersecurity to prevent identity theft.
• He once ran a darknet network and was arrested by the Secret Service.
• Johnson said freezing everyone in your home's credit is one of the first safety steps.

This as-told-to-essay is based on a conversation with Brett Shannon Johnson, a former cybercriminal turned cybersecurity professional. Business Insider confirmed Johnson's criminal history using court documents and contemporaneous news reports. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm a reformed cybercriminal who used to commit credit card fraud and identity theft, but I've thankfully turned my life around.

I helped build and run an early version of the "darknet," which provided a trust mechanism that many criminals continue to use to this day. In October 2004, the Secret Service arrested 33 people associated with my network. They picked me up four months later and offered me a job as an informant. I'm the idiot who continued to break the law for the next 10 months while working for the Secret Service until they found out about it.

I was arrested, escaped, caught, and then sent to prison to serve seven years. Still, I was given the opportunity to turn my life around, and I took it. I'm well aware that I didn't deserve that, but I'm very blessed.

I now consult and speak as a cybersecurity expert, and I help protect internet users from the types of crimes I used to commit.

How to build a toolbox for online safety

Protecting yourself from someone like I used to be, starts with understanding your place in the cybercrime spectrum — everyone has a place.

If you work in food service, that's different than if you're a CEO or working payroll. I'll still get you, but it differs. It's not likely that I'll hit a food service worker with a business email compromise or send them a deepfake. Understand what's realistic and design security around that.

Whenever I give a presentation about protecting yourself online, I tell people to think of it as building a toolbox. The criminal has a toolbox, and in it, they have a variety of tools with which to attack you. As a defender, you need to have a toolbox, as well, to prevent a stolen identity.

The good thing is that the tools you need aren't horribly sophisticated.

1. Use situational awareness online

People tend to have very good situational awareness in the physical world. If we're in a store, we know if something's off or if something just feels wrong. That doesn't translate very well in an online environment, but it should.

Understand that every platform and every website that you go to has predators — every single one. That doesn't mean not to go there, it just means to be aware of that. If we can just have that awareness in the back of our heads, that will automatically raise our security level.

2. Freeze the credit of everyone in your house

Contacting the three main credit agencies to block access to your credit accounts is the best tool to stop new account fraud.

Credit freezes are free. Unfortunately, only about 12% of the population has one. A credit freeze stops all new account fraud, so, as a criminal, I cannot pull your credit report.

It's a good idea to freeze the credit of every single person in your family, including kids, because kids are often targeted for identity theft. Most adults have existing accounts. It doesn't stop fraud on those. So you also have to monitor those accounts.

3. Place alerts on accounts where you can

You must also be aware of your email, retail, social media, bank, and credit card accounts. Every account has value to an attacker.

Make sure you have alerts on those accounts that communicate whenever they're accessed or used.

4. Practice good password security

Make sure that you're practicing good password security. Most people use the same or similar credentials across multiple websites, and hackers know that. This opens you up to credential stuffing.

It's an automated program. I can fish you out, get your password, and log in to your Hulu account. I go to sleep, plug those credentials in and this program will actually ping tens of thousands of different websites overnight and see what it gets access to.

If you use the same credentials for Hulu as you do for your Chase account, Bank of America, tax records, or whatever, I have access to those as well.

To avoid this, I use the free Google Chrome password manager, which generates unique passwords for every login and saves them for you.

5. Set up multifactor authentication for your accounts

Multifactor authentication is an outstanding tool. It's not bulletproof, but when you use it in conjunction with other tools, you become much more secure.

I used to preach about password managers. These days, I'm not explicitly recommending them because they've had some issues. I use a combination of passkeys, authenticators, and a password manager.

6. Watch what you share on social media

Understand that those 3,000 Facebook friends aren't friends. One of the things that I used to do was see what a person had on Facebook. I'd pull your identity profile and see what you had posted of interest. I'd find out your birthday, your mother's maiden name, when you're going on vacation, those types of things.

So, watch what you share on social media.

Getting inside the mind of a cybercriminal

You need to understand that these attacks happen for one of three reasons. It's status, cash, or ideology.

Most attacks are cash-based. When cybercriminals attack for status, it's to impress their criminal peers. They're trying to do something that no one else can do and gain respect — that equates to more money at the end of the day. When it's done for ideology, someone's pissed them off, and they're looking to attack them.

The criminal is simply looking to profit at the end of the day. That means they attack the lowest-hanging fruit. They're looking for the easiest access that gives them the largest return on that criminal investment.

If you just put the base level of security, you're not that lowest-hanging fruit anymore. That matters because, as a criminal, I'm not going to waste my time trying to hit you when there are much easier targets that are out there.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in September 2022 and has been updated.

• Supper clubs — dinner parties hosted at someone's home — are trending among Gen Z, a forecaster told BI.
• Professional hosts and chefs shared their best practices for pulling one off.
• Their tips include putting your personality on the menu to joining guests at the table.

Gen Zers are increasingly ditching late nights out for cozy nights at home.

They're also seeking out supper clubs — dinner parties hosted in people's homes, often by professionals — as an "affordable alternative to traditional bars in a trendy setting," Elizabeth Tan, WGSN Insight senior culture strategist, told BI.

BI spoke to three professional supper club hosts about their tips for hosting your own.

Accept you can control what comes out of the kitchen but not the conversation at the table

Aidan Brooks worked as a chef at the Chiltern Firehouse, a luxury hotel and restaurant in London, before he founded his supper club, Eleven 98. He's been hosting paying customers in his home in London for six years.

He keeps lists and documents on his laptop to plan the menus and asks guests about their dietary requirements, but he said one of his biggest tips was to let the dynamic and conversation at the table flow.

"I'm a bit of a control freak, as most fine dining chefs are," Brooks said.

"I can ensure that I execute the food on point but the one thing that's out of my control is the unique dynamic that's created at the table. I have to allow that to flow organically," he added.

Share personal stories and anecdotes about what you're serving

Punam Vaja, a self-trained chef who has run a supper club since 2018, said that personal stories can help people connect with cuisines they aren't familiar with.

She told BI that, when hosting, she takes time to introduce herself and share anecdotes or stories that inspired her dishes throughout the evening.

"People can really tell when somebody is being authentic," she said.

"If someone's sharing something or even being a little bit vulnerable, it's really easy to kind of be like, 'Ok, I've never had this food, but I'm really open to trying it because that story or that moment or the experience they're sharing reminds me of my own,'" she added.

Vaja said she liked her dishes to reflect her feeling of being "very British" and her Indian Gujarati heritage. She also aims to reflect influences from East Africa, where her father was born, and Mumbai, where her mother grew up, she told BI.

Take a seat at the table

Ariel Pastore-Sebring, a supper club host in Portland, Oregon, swears by several rules. These include setting a definite end time so she's not up until the early hours, cleaning for hours, and never serving "family-style," where food is placed on platters for diners to serve themselves.

But she said her main rule was hosts should sit at the table.

Pastore-Sebring said that the host's presence can make people feel more comfortable when they are strangers to each other.

"If I'm in the kitchen the whole time, they'd be like, what are we doing here?" she added.

Pastore-Sebring, who started her supper club in 2023, carefully plans meals and limits the number of guests to 10 to ensure she can be at the table.

"I've gone up to 13, and it was too much," she added. "I want to be able to sit at the table and have us all be in the same conversation. More than 10 people and it really starts to get broken up and lost."

• The owner of an NYC brownstone that plays a recurring role in "Sex and the City" is installing a gate to keep fans at bay.
• The owner of the New Mexico home used in "Breaking Bad" is selling after years of testy encounters with fans.
• A filmmaker who's chronicled famous homeowners said it can be "like living in a fishbowl."

This month, the owners of homes made famous by "Sex and the City" and "Breaking Bad" both said they were tired of the hordes of fans.

Manhattan resident Barbara Lorber, whose three-story brownstone was used as the exterior of Carrie Bradshaw's apartment in the TV and film versions of "Sex and the City," this week asked the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for permission to install a gate to keep fans off her historic stoop.

"That house shouldn't be gated, but what was beautiful in the late 19th century is unfortunately in need of more protection in our century," Lorber, who appeared to be holding back tears, said at a hearing on Tuesday.

The commission approved a plan for a gate by architect Isidoro Cruz that will blend in with the other homes and structures in the West Village and Greenwich Village.

About 2,000 miles away in Albuquerque, New Mexico, homeowner Joanne Quintana recently listed her four-bedroom family home, which served as the exterior of drug-maker Walter White's home on the hit TV series "Breaking Bad."

Quintana originally had a friendly relationship with the home's fame, she told local news outlet KOB4. She baked cookies for actor Bryan Cranston, who played White, while he was shooting and welcomed early fan visits. But incidents including a bomb threat and bigger crowds of onlookers eventually made her conscious of the safety risks, she told KOB4.

The house, which had been in her family since her parents bought it in 1973, is on the market at $4 million.

She said she thinks the house could become a full-time memorial to the show. The $4 million listing price, which is more than 10 times its estimated value according to Realtor.com, reflects her belief in the potential business opportunity.

"I hope they make it what the fans want. They want a B&B, they want a museum, they want access to it. Go for it," she told KOB4.

Living in iconic residences isn't for the faint of heart

Tommy Avallone has become an expert on living in famous homes.

In 2024, the New Jersey-based film director released a documentary "A House From…" which chronicled the real families living inside iconic homes from "Home Alone," "Back to the Future," and "Full House."

The movie shows how many famous-home residents adjusted their lifestyles, like the owner of the "Mrs. Doubtfire" house in San Francisco, who regularly entered through the back door to avoid crowds.

"It's a lot to handle. You're living in a fishbowl," Avallone told Business Insider.

Avallone, who has visited Lorber's "Sex and the City" brownstone multiple times, said he's not surprised she finally took action. He saw multiple fans simply step over the chain currently in place for privacy.

"I don't think people plan to be rude when they're there," Avallone said. "They're just so excited to meet this thing that they have a deep, personal connection with. All their manners go to the wayside."

Avallone said that, like celebrities themselves, the featured homes can be classified as A-list, B-list, or C-list. Less famous homes might be easier to live in, he said.

"Living in the 'Home Alone' house would be real tough, living in the 'Full House' house would be real tough," he said. "But the 'Roseanne' house might be perfectly fine."