• President Franklin D. Roosevelt maintained a lifelong connection with Springwood, his family home.
• He was raised at the property in Hyde Park, New York, and hosted dignitaries there as president.
• Measuring about 21,000 square feet, Springwood has 49 rooms and eight bathrooms.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's estate in Hyde Park, New York, is the only place in the US where a president was born, maintained a connection throughout his life, and is buried, according to the National Park Service.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential US presidents, Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and led the country through the Great Depression and World War II. Known for expansive government programs such as the New Deal, he died in office while serving an unprecedented fourth term in 1945.

Roosevelt's 21,000-square-foot family home, an Italianate-style villa known as Springwood, is open to the public as part of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park. Everything inside is original to the home.

I visited Springwood in June 2024. Take a look inside the historic site.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's home, known as Springwood, is in Hyde Park, New York.

The Vanderbilt family's 45,000-square-foot Gilded Age mansion is also in Hyde Park, which is about 95 miles from New York City.

It's located on the grounds of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

The National Park Service operates both the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, while the National Archives manages the library's collections.

The National Park Service offers 40-minute guided tours of Springwood from May through October. Tickets cost $15 each and are sold in person on a first-come, first-serve basis.

As I began my walk to Springwood, I passed bronze statues of Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.

The statues were modeled after a 1933 photograph of the Roosevelts at their Hyde Park home.

A park ranger told me to follow the sign for the stables to reach Roosevelt's home.

Further along the path, I began to see signs for Springwood, which is located next to the stables.

The stables still featured the names of the Roosevelt family's horses.

Roosevelt was an avid equestrian and continued riding even after his legs became paralyzed due to polio.

The tour started outside Springwood as a park ranger spoke about the history of the home and the Roosevelt family.

Roosevelt's father, James Roosevelt, was a Harvard-educated lawyer who earned his fortune as a businessman for various railroad and coal companies. He purchased the original farmhouse on the property in 1867 and named it "Springwood."

In 1915, Roosevelt and Eleanor added two stone wings and most of the third floor to make more room for their six children.

The guide also pointed out a front portico that resembled the South Portico of the White House.

"Perhaps a little political foreshadowing?" he said.

The Entrance Hall was decorated with prints from Roosevelt's naval collection and editorial cartoons from the 18th century.

Roosevelt served as assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. His fondness for Navy ships was evident in the decor throughout Springwood.

The Entrance Hall also featured Roosevelt's boyhood bird collection and a bronze statue of him at age 29.

As a child, Roosevelt collected birds and had them stuffed in order to study them up close.

The bronze statue depicts Roosevelt in 1911 when he was serving his first term in the New York State Senate.

In the Dining Room, Roosevelt sat at the head of the table in the seat pulled out on the left.

The small round table in the back of the room was the kids' table.

After dinner, guests would move to the Dresden Room, which functioned as a sitting room.

The room is named for the Dresden chandelier and sconces that Roosevelt's father brought back from Dresden, Germany.

A foldable ramp made the stairs leading into the Library accessible for Roosevelt's wheelchair.

At 39 years old, Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio and became paralyzed from the waist down. He didn't want people to know that he used a wheelchair, so the ramp could be folded up and hidden away when guests were present.

When Roosevelt took business meetings at Springwood, his aides positioned him in an armchair and put a stack of papers in his lap to give him a plausible reason not to stand when his guests arrived.

In the Library, Roosevelt met with world leaders and dignitaries.

Roosevelt's famous guests included King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother), Prince Frederik and Princess Ingrid of Denmark, Prince Olav and Princess Martha of Norway, and Winston Churchill.

The room also featured a portrait of Roosevelt painted by Ellen Emmet Rand.

Roosevelt sat for the portrait after he was elected to his first term as president in 1932.

The tour continued upstairs with the Pink Room, which functioned as a guest room.

King George VI and Winston Churchill slept in this room during their visits to Hyde Park.

Another guest room was used by his political advisors.

Louis Howe and Harry Hopkins, two of Roosevelt's close political advisors, stayed in this room.

The Chintz Room was also used as a guest room for important visitors.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Russian pianist Madam Knavage, and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, stayed in the Chintz Room during their time at Springwood.

Roosevelt was born in the Blue Room on January 30, 1882.

His father, James Roosevelt, wrote in his diary on the night of Roosevelt's birth that he was a "splendid, large baby boy" who weighed 10 pounds. Everything in the Blue Room is original, including the mattress Roosevelt was born on.

James and his wife, Sara Roosevelt, slept in the Blue Room. After James' death, Sara moved into another room down the hall when the home was renovated in 1915, bringing her furniture with her. The Blue Room was then redecorated and repurposed as a guest room.

Sara requested that the original furniture be moved back into the Blue Room after her death to restore it to the way it looked when Roosevelt was born.

Growing up, Roosevelt slept in this bedroom until he married Eleanor in 1905.

When the Roosevelts had children of their own, the oldest son living at home slept here.

The hallway leading to the primary bedrooms included a unique piece of decor: a mirror mounted on a 45-degree angle.

The Secret Service used the mirror to monitor activity down the hall and around the front of the house.

Roosevelt's mother, Sara Roosevelt, slept in a bedroom at the end of the hall.

Roosevelt's father, James, died in 1900, while Sara lived for another 41 years. She moved from the Blue Room into this room after the home's 1915 renovation.

Eleanor moved into a smaller bedroom connected to Roosevelt's room after he became sick with polio.

The space was originally intended to be a morning room.

After Roosevelt's death in 1945, Eleanor moved to Val-Kill, a cottage she built with friends Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman. Located around 2.5 miles from Springwood, the property is now known as the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site.

Roosevelt's bedroom windows featured views of the Hudson River.

Roosevelt would often spend early mornings in his room reading the paper or meeting with one of his secretaries.

Beside his bed, a designated phone provided a direct, secure line to the White House.

Having direct communication with Washington was state-of-the-art technology at the time, and proved crucial as his health began to fail towards the end of his life.

Our tour guide ended his presentation with a surprising detail: the clothes hanging in Roosevelt's bedroom closet.

"The clothes that are in that room on display, FDR handpicked for you to see," our guide said. "He knew you were coming."

Eleanor turned Springwood over to the National Park Service in 1945, shortly after Roosevelt's death, and spoke at its dedication as a national historic site in 1946.

"I think Franklin realized that the historic library, the house, and the peaceful resting place behind the high hedge with flowers blooming around it would perhaps mean something to the people of the United States," she said at the event, author Olin Dows wrote in his 1949 book, "Franklin Roosevelt at Hyde Park," according to the National Park Service. "They would understand the rest and peace and strength which he had gained here and perhaps learn to come, and go away with some sense of healing and courage themselves."

As I exited Springwood through the south lawn, I was greeted by stunning views of the Hudson Valley.

Roosevelt planted many of the trees on the property as part of his forestry experiments and conservation efforts.

Visitors could also pay their respects at the Roosevelts' burial site in Springwood's rose garden.

Roosevelt wrote that he wanted to be buried where the sundial stood in the rose garden on his Hyde Park estate, according to the National Park Service.

Roosevelt's legacy lives on in his presidential library and museum, the construction of which he oversaw himself.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated in 1941.

He was the first US president to establish a library to house papers and artifacts from his political career, a model that every president since has followed.

When I visited my first presidential library, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, I bought a passport to fill with stamps from all 15 presidential libraries nationwide. I was delighted to find a desk with stamps to add to my booklet just outside the gift shop.

Springwood remains a meaningful historical site memorializing one of America's most prominent presidents.

Nearly 10,000 people visited Springwood on the first day it was open to the public in 1946, and they haven't stopped visiting since.

• Bloomberg recalculated Bill Gates' net worth on Thursday to reflect recent philanthropic giving.
• The change lowered his net worth by 30%, sending him seven places down Bloomberg's rich list.
• Gates now sits in 12th place, behind his former assistant, Steve Ballmer, in fifth.

Bill Gates lost about $52 billion or 30% of his wealth on Thursday. But don't feel bad — his net worth was simply recalculated to reflect the Microsoft cofounder's charitable giving.

The recalculation shrank Gates' fortune from over $175 billion to $124 billion, sending him from fifth place to 12th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His former assistant and successor as Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, replaced him in the fifth spot with a $172 billion net worth as of Thursday's close.

Gates also trails Alphabet cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and longtime friend and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in the rankings.

Bloomberg says that it lowered the appreciation rates used in calculating his wealth to "better reflect Gates' outside charitable giving and the wealth estimate" that Gates provided in a blog post in May.

In that blog, Gates pegged his fortune at $108 billion and pledged to give away virtually all his money through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years. He estimated the organization would spend more than $200 billion before closing at the end of 2045.

According to the Gates Foundation website, Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have gifted a total of $60 billion to the organization as of December's close, and Buffett has donated $43 billion.

Gates owns around 1% of Microsoft and has received upward of $60 billion in stocks and dividends from the company, according to his Bloomberg page. Most of his fortune is now housed within Cascade Investment, a holding company that invests in assets from real estate and energy to private and public companies.

Ballmer's loyalty paid off

It's striking that Ballmer is now richer than Gates, given that employees are usually worth much less than successful founders.

He's an exception in part because, when he joined Microsoft in 1980 as an assistant to the president, he agreed to a $50,000 base salary plus 10% of the profit growth he generated, but his compensation became so high that the company offered a sizable equity stake instead.

Ballmer succeeded Gates as CEO in 2000 and stepped down in 2014 with a 4% stake in Microsoft. He now owns the Los Angeles Clippers.

Microsoft stock has soared more than 10-fold over the past decade to nearly $500 a share, making it the world's second-most valuable company, after Nvidia, with a $3.7 trillion market cap.

Ballmer recently told the "Acquired" podcast that Buffett's late business partner, Charlie Munger, asked him publicly why he held on to his Microsoft stock while the company's two cofounders, Gates and Paul Allen, diversified their investments much more.

"Steve, I'm wondering why you held onto your Microsoft stock when your partners over there didn't," Ballmer recalled the famously frank Munger saying. "I know you're not that smart."

"No, Charlie, but I'm that loyal," Ballmer replied.

• The average American needs to spend 44.6% of their income to afford a median-priced home.
• Only three major metro areas are affordable for median earners without topping 30% of their income.
• As homebuying costs outpace salaries, Americans will have to stretch their pockets to buy a home.

Buying a home this year? You'll be spending an even bigger chunk of your paycheck.

Data from Realtor.com shows that the median-priced home in May was $440,000. To afford a home at that price, the company found the typical American household would need to spend 44.6% of its income, far above the 30% that experts generally recommend for housing costs.

(Realtor.com based its income calculation on a scenario in which a buyer purchases a median-priced home ($440,000 as of May) in the US with a 20% down payment, has a 6.82% mortgage rate, based on Freddie Mac's May 2025 average, and has an annual tax and insurance rate of 1.72%.)

That 30% rule, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development suggested starting back in the 1980s, exists for a reason: It ensures households have enough room in their budgets for essential living expenses like groceries, utilities, childcare, and life's inevitable surprises, such as medical bills or car repairs.

But with today's high housing costs and sluggish income growth, that benchmark is no longer a realistic expectation for many households.

"Home prices have leveled off, but remain near historic peaks in much of the country," Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst with Realtor.com, told Business Insider. "Mortgage rates have hovered between 6.5% and 7% since last fall. Altogether, this means that for many households, buying a home today would be a stretch financially."

Especially since "home prices have accelerated faster than wages over the last 5-plus years," Jones added.

Many Americans aren't convinced that buying a home is smart

In 2023, the most recent year with available US Census data, median household income rose to $80,610 — the first annual increase since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Census data, the national median home price surged by 33% since the first quarter of 2019.

While home prices have begun to fall in some US cities, many Americans still aren't convinced that buying a home is a smart decision.

In June, Fannie Mae — which backs the majority of mortgages originated in the US — released its monthly housing survey, which polls 1,000 Americans, older than 18, each month on their views about renting, home buying, household finances, and the broader economy. May results showed that 74% said it was a bad time to buy.

You may especially feel that way if you live in coastal cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. These cities already have the reputation of being expensive, but if you're making the median salary or lower, buying a home there will deeply cut into your take-home pay, according to Realtor.com. Data from the company shows that metro areas for those cities require a 104.5%, 66.9%, and 64.3% share of your income, respectively.

As for cities where you can budget more effectively, they're all closer to the middle of the map.

"The Midwest is the most affordable region in the country, and is the only region with large metros where the typical household can afford to buy the typical home," Jones said.

Only three of the top 50 metros made the cut:

• In May, the St. Louis metropolitan area's median list price was $299,900, which required only a 30% share of income to afford;
• Detroit's metro required a share of 29.8%;
• Pittsburgh was the most affordable. It only required a 27.4% share of income.

• I'd like to spend less money on ordering coffee at cafés, chains, and drive-thrus.
• So, I tried store-bought vanilla-flavored iced coffees to see if any could replace my to-go order
• Starbucks and Cafe Bustelo had my favorite drinks, though International Delight also impressed me.

Like most of us, I know making coffee at home could save me money.

However, if doing so takes too much time and the results aren't even that delicious, are those savings even worth it?

So, I tested out five premade vanilla iced coffee drinks from the grocery store in hopes that at least one could be a worthy replacement for my drive-thru habit.

To see how much I could actually save, I compared the cost of a 12-ounce cup of each to what I usually pay for roughly the same thing while out. For reference, a 12-ounce iced coffee with vanilla syrup and milk is about $3.75 at my local Starbucks.

Here's how the coffee drinks stacked up.

I liked the price of Coffee Mate's French vanilla iced coffee, but I wouldn't get it again.

I've had Coffee Mate's creamers before, but this was my first time trying its iced coffee.

The French vanilla iced coffee rang up at $4.49 for 50 ounces, about $1.08 per 12-ounce serving, making it one of the least expensive options I tried.

The vanilla flavor tasted a little unnatural and a bit too artificial to me, and the coffee left an almost chalky aftertaste in my mouth. This was my least favorite coffee of the bunch.

I wasn't super impressed by the Dunkin' iced coffee.

The French vanilla Dunkin' iced coffee was only available in single-serve bottles at my local Walmart.

One 13.7-ounce bottle was $2.98 — based on the price per ounce, a 12-ounce pour would cost about $2.64. Of the coffees I tried, this cost the most per ounce, though it's worth noting this price may have been lower if I'd been able to find a larger bottle.

I appreciated that this coffee had real milk in it, but I felt it also had a slightly artificial vanilla taste. I wasn't particularly impressed by the price or the flavor.

International Delight's vanilla iced coffee had a good coffee flavor.

In terms of price per ounce, the least expensive option I sampled was International Delight's vanilla iced coffee.

I paid $4.86 for a 64-ounce carton, so a 12-ounce serving cost about $0.96. I'd be able to drink four cups of this for the price of just one vanilla Starbucks iced coffee, which felt impressive.

The vanilla flavor wasn't overwhelming, and this coffee didn't taste as sweet as some of the other options. I appreciated the subtle flavor, and I'd drink this again, especially at this great price point.

I loved that I could add my own milk to Cafe Bustelo's vanilla iced coffee.

Cafe Bustelo's vanilla iced coffee cost me $5.99 for 40 ounces, or roughly $1.80 per 12-ounce serving. This was the only option I tested that didn't have milk or cream in it.

In my opinion, the coffee didn't have much of a vanilla flavor. This may be because the base seemed to be more concentrated (espresso) than some of the other drinks I tried. However, I prefer a subtle vanilla flavor over an overwhelming one, so this was a win for me.

The coffee was smooth, and I really liked that I could control how much milk or cream to add to it — or that I could drink it black. I'd absolutely buy this again.

Starbucks' vanilla Frappuccino chilled coffee drink tasted like I could've ordered it from the drive-thru.

A four-pack of Starbucks vanilla Frappuccino chilled coffee drinks cost me $7.78. Each bottle was 9.5 ounces, which would make a 12-ounce serving about $2.40.

Although Frappuccino is in the name of this drink, this isn't a milkshake-like beverage like the ones at Starbucks locations. It's more of a milky iced coffee.

And, in my opinion, this vanilla coffee drink tasted the best by far.

I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference between a cup of this and a vanilla iced coffee from my local Starbucks. This was my favorite pick, and it felt like the best compromise — it really tasted like something I'd ordered from a barista, not poured at home.

Although Starbucks was my winner, I'm glad I found several iced-coffee options I like — now, I'm confident I can still have a great drink at home for a lower cost.

• Mark Cuban has said that AI could create the world's first trillionaire.
• He said the technology, as it rapidly develops, could make "just one dude in a basement" mega-rich.
• Cuban said he uses AI extensively for work and in his personal life.

Mark Cuban said artificial intelligence could make "just one dude in a basement" the world's first trillionaire.

The 66-year-old billionaire said in a recent episode of the "High Performance" podcast that we haven't yet seen "best, or the craziest" that AI can achieve.

"It's just the very beginning, right, you know, we're still in the preseason," Cuban said, adding that, as it becomes more advanced, we'll find more ways to make our lives better and more interesting.

"Not only do I think it'll create a trillionaire, but it could be just one dude in the basement. That's how crazy it could be," he said.

Cuban compared the push for AI to the early days of computers and smartphones. He said people hesitated to make the shift but would now struggle to live without the devices.

Someone who can come up with a way that makes AI as essential "will make a lot of money," Cuban added.

"Most people condemn things when they first happen," he said. "But then, when you see people using it and you realize the value, that's when people come around."

The former Shark Tank investor told the podcast it was "insane" how much he has been using AI.

He said that he uses AI for writing software and its text-to-video function for work. In his personal life, Cuban said he recently used ChatGPT to track his medicine and exercise habits.

"I'm not here to tell you it's going to replace everyone's job — it won't," he said, but the technology is incredible, whether you're innovative or just feeling bored.

The world's richest person, Elon Musk, has a total net worth well short of $1 trillion, at around $360 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

His net worth peaked in December at around $439 billion as Tesla shares soared.