• My husband and I retired early at 55 with modest plans to travel around the US and Canada.
• Our lower retirement income has not gone far, and bad luck in the past year cut into our savings.
• Given how quickly our savings have dwindled in just a year, we have nixed our plans to travel.

I'd always dreamed of traveling during retirement, and my husband and I had made modest plans to do so.

As Canadians, we planned to mostly go on road trips here and in the neighboring United States, maybe occasionally flying to places like Nashville and Las Vegas.

My husband retired in 2015 at 55, and I joined him in 2023 when I turned 55. That first summer after I retired, we had an amazing time going to outdoor concerts, car shows, and impromptu day trips.

In the coming year, I expected us to do more of the same. However, in the past few months, we realized our retirement dreams may be out of reach.

Our income and savings aren't going as far as we expected

My husband has started receiving payments from his Canada Pension Plan, which we both contributed to while working, but mine haven't yet kicked in.

Like many others, we also sought other ways to make money during retirement. As a former teacher, I take substitute-teaching jobs at local schools and writing gigs. My husband also brings in extra money building hunting shacks.

When planning our pre-retirement with financial advisors, we felt confident we could live off our savings, pension, and money from our gigs and still travel — especially since our home is new and paid off (in part thanks to an inheritance I received).

We were going to budget for a road trip every year or two until our full benefits kicked in, but we've already spent half of what we'd saved in this past year alone.

In that time, we've had four appliance breakdowns in four months in our new home. We've taken in our son's family until they rebuild following a devastating house fire, and the basement bathroom renovation to accommodate them also cost us 30% more than we anticipated.

This unexpected, expensive string of bad luck in a short period of time quickly made a huge dent in our savings that we hadn't accounted for.

On top of that, living on what amounts to about half of my pre-retirement paycheck has been challenging. Between tariffs and inflation, the costs of many essentials, like food, are still higher than we expected.

At this rate, we feel like our savings would be depleted far too quickly if we worked travel into our budget.

We've chosen to be grateful for what we have instead of relying on travel to find joy

Worried about the future, we've shifted our dreams and put our travel retirement plans on hold.

Although we still have some investments and savings, we don't feel financially comfortable or secure enough to dip into them to spend money on travel as we'd originally planned.

This realization was difficult to handle. At times, it took a toll on our relationship: I really wanted to make travel work, while my husband wanted to make sure we could afford to get through the next few years — especially in the event we encounter more bad luck or costly health issues as we age.

After taking a step back and looking at what is really important, we've finally found the blurry line between wants and needs and made peace with it.

We've focused on becoming content in our home and finding happiness in small, local outings: going out to dinner, heading to the movies, driving around to look at Christmas lights, or even just visiting friends and family.

After all, we are luckier than many, and our situation could be much worse. We can afford essentials like food and housing. We are surrounded by friends and family. We are healthy, safe, and happy.

Knowing what we know now, I think we both would've worked a few more years and maybe diversified our investments to further ensure our financial security. Fortunately, we're at least mortgage-free.

Once my benefits also kick in or if I take on another well-paying gig in the future, we may take a trip or two — but even if not, I have accepted it.

I've found solace in feeling gratitude for all that we have rather than envy for the things we don't.

• I've been to Disney World dozens of times but I went with my daughter for the first time this year.
• At 2 years old, there was a lot she couldn't (and didn't want to) do there.
• Her experience of the park was so different from mine and made me feel like it was new again.

I'm not exaggerating when I say my introduction to Disney World is a core memory. When I first stepped through the gates of Magic Kingdom at age 4, it was love at first sight.

Over the next three decades, dozens more trips followed. Going as a little kid was wildly different from going as a zitty teen with my younger brother or a recent college grad dragging my boyfriend along.

However, even as the parks changed, and I changed, my attachment to them remained consistent. That emotional tie is precisely what's enabled Disney parks to hold firm as the most visited theme parks in the world, even as the price of a Disney trip has become out of reach for many families.

In January, I had the opportunity to visit the parks for a Magic of Milestones media event and thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce my toddler to Disney life for the first time.

At first, I worried she was too young. Googling "What's the best age to take a kid to Disney for the first time?" yielded nothing conclusive — some said under a year, while others insisted never take a kid under 5.

Lacking a direct answer, I decided to throw caution to the wind and take my 2-year-old and go for it. Surely she'd have an identical experience to my inaugural visit, I thought.

I was wrong.

Going to Disney World for the first time as a parent didn't match my expectations at all — and I can't wait to go again.

Your toddler's individual temperament will really determine the Disney World rides they can go on

My 2-year-old is a daredevil, but she's short, so the majority of height-limit rides were out of the question.

I was looking forward to taking her on more of the baby-friendly rides, where you just sit in a slow-moving car and cruise along, waving at animatronics.

What I didn't anticipate was her sudden onset fear of even moderate darkness.

This kid has never asked for a nightlight in her 27 months of life, but suddenly, waiting in the grotto-inspired line for "Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid," the dim undersea lighting and slightly spooky ocean sounds were too much for her.

"I scared," she loudly declared approximately 3 ½ minutes into the wait. We turned around and left.

We actually made it onto the "Frozen" ride in Norway at Epcot, but that was also a mixed bag. I had completely forgotten that Marshmallow, the giant snowman, makes an appearance near the end, and we were wholly unprepared for the freakout.

We avoided dark rides after that.

She did love the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, which we figured would be the case since she makes a point to ride every carrousel she sees.

The Mad Tea Party teacup ride was also a big hit — we were all happy to just sit in it without spinning.

On the flip side, toddlers will find Disney magic in the most unlikely of places

My daughter's favorite "ride" was the Skyliner that took us from our hotel to Hollywood Studios.

She couldn't get enough of it. Every time we rode that thing, she hopped up on the bench to stare out the window, singing loudly (much to the amusement of other families who were shuttled in with us), and screaming the names of all the characters she saw on the gondolas swinging by.

Beyond the rides, I had measured my expectations for other Disney experiences, like character meet and greets.

I'd anticipated that we would need to steer clear of most characters. We'd limited screen time until she turned 2, so she wasn't super familiar with any of them, and I worried she'd be freaked out seeing them (some for the first time ever) in life-size form. We'd also had an encounter with an Easter bunny the previous year that gave me pause.

Surprisingly, she was only a little apprehensive and warmed up to them very quickly. By the end of the Disney Jr. Play and Dance, she was having a dance party with Minnie Mouse and giving her hugs.

She couldn't quite work up the nerve to get that close to Goofy, who is much larger than Minnie, but all these months later, she's still talking about giving Goofy a high-five "next time."

The princesses were an even bigger hit, and it was such a joy seeing her interact with them. Princess Elena was her favorite, despite never having watched the show.

The live music shows were also a great choice. On my pre-parenthood trips, I'd never bothered to go to them — who cares about abbreviated versions of Disney movies I've seen a trillion times? For my toddler, though, they were a major win.

At under 30 minutes, they're the perfect length for short attention spans and a great primer for some of the movies she hadn't seen yet. "For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration" was her favorite and has sparked an intense Queen Elsa phase.

The safari ride at Animal Kingdom was also something I'd never done, but we prioritized it knowing my toddler's love of zoos. It was a major hit.

The fireworks shows were always a highlight of my Disney World trips, but they were too much for my toddler

The "Fantasmic!" show at Hollywood Studios is my single favorite Disney experience, and I've always made a point to go multiple times during each of my past trips. However, we didn't even consider going with my daughter.

She had never experienced a fireworks show before, so to test the waters, we took her to "Luminous: The Symphony of Us," a 17-minute show in Epcot. We watched from the World Showcase because I figured that was far enough away from the sights and sounds not to be too overwhelming. I was extremely wrong.

My toddler was immediately freaked out by the first boom. Unfortunately, because the show was at 9 p.m. (technically after the park closed), all the stores and restaurants were inaccessible for an escape. My husband ended up taking refuge near a trash can, singing songs to keep her distracted until the show ended.

Part of this was a rookie mistake: We forgot to bring noise-canceling headphones for her. That said, I doubt she would have kept them on even if we had.

After that mishap, we knew to avoid "Fantasmic!" and other fireworks shows, such as "Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom."

My toddler ate way more at Disney World than I expected

At home, my daughter is a very picky eater, convinced she can exist on air and the occasional Cheerio alone. It's a major stressor for both my husband and me in our day-to-day lives, but I made the decision to forcibly chill out and not worry about it while on vacation.

However, instead of the skipped meals and crankiness we were anticipating, we were pleasantly surprised by her slightly more adventurous appetite at Disney World. Now, she wasn’t exactly angling to chow down on a turkey leg, but it was better than I expected.

Her favorites included the Mickey-shaped blueberry muffins at Cinderella's Royal Table, the pizza at Connections Cafe, and clementines and french fries wherever we could find them.

The biggest win, though, was the Nemo Fin-tastic Cake at Coral Reef, one of my favorite restaurants in Disney World. She's usually not a sweets girl (much to my distress, as a big Dole Whip fan) and the cake was so cute she wasn't initially sure whether it was even edible. Once she took the first bite, though, she couldn't get enough.

Another bonus is that kids under 3 eat free at all-you-care-to-enjoy Disney restaurants. Roundup Rodeo, a new barbecue restaurant in Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios, was a great option for this — there was more than enough food for all of us, and plenty for my daughter to sample — meaning she'd pretend to try it and then surreptitiously remove it from her mouth.

Portion sizes are pretty big, especially at à la carte table service and quick-service restaurants, so we never went hungry.

What's the best age to take a kid to Disney World? There isn't one

I know this isn't a very satisfying answer, but at the end of the day, the best age for a first Disney trip is extremely variable.

While we were limited in what we could do with my toddler in terms of certain rides, experiences, and restaurants, there was plenty still available to us. And the rider swap option, which allows one parent to wait with the child and then swap to ride without waiting in line separately, was also very helpful in still allowing me to ride my favorite rides.

Do I regret taking my 2-year-old to Disney World? Not at all. It wasn't the trip I'd imagined, but it was still plenty magical — largely because the things that were magical to her were things I didn't expect or things I hadn't even experienced before.

I'm reminded of seeing her face light up meeting princesses or chowing down on a Mickey-shaped treat every time she bops me in the head with her prized Olaf bubble wand.

My only hope is that next time she'll be brave enough to share a Dole Whip with me.

• The Trump administration is using US troops and military assets in its costly immigration crackdown.
• Navy warships, military aircraft, and combat vehicles have been deployed to the US-Mexico border.
• The Pentagon has spent $376 million on militarizing the southern US border since January 20.

US Navy destroyers are cruising coastal waters, spy planes are flying overhead, and troops are out patrolling desert trails in armored fighting vehicles.

America's southern border is starting to resemble a military front line as the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on illegal immigration at the divide between the US and Mexico.

President Donald Trump swiftly put his mass deportation plan into motion after taking office, using US military personnel and assets to execute it by formally declaring illegal immigration a federal emergency.

About 10,000 active-duty troops have been deployed to support the Pentagon's southern border operation, as have two warships, a handful of military aircraft, and over 100 combat vehicles.

Costly crackdown on immigration

On April 1, Defense Department officials said the militarization at the US-Mexico border had cost roughly $376 million since Trump returned to the White House on January 20, or about $5.3 million per day.

After making illegal immigration a major campaign issue, with Trump criticizing Biden's border policies, the Trump White House has touted plummeting numbers of illicit border crossings. US Customs and Border Patrol reported that March saw the lowest number of attempted crossings in decades.

Illegal immigration was already on the decline prior to the start of Trump's second term, but the president is taking things further. He's got numerous military assets at the border. Here's what the administration has deployed.

Thousands of troops

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on April 1, Pentagon officials said 6,700 active-duty troops had been deployed to the US-Mexico border, in addition to about 2,500 National Guardsmen that were already stationed there.

Only Border Patrol agents or civilian law enforcement can actually apprehend migrants, leaving a large majority of the troops tasked with "detection and monitoring," Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of the US Northern Command, said.

Active-duty forces are limited in their actions on US soil.

The general said that deployed military personnel "operating in close proximity to the border" are armed with rifles or pistols, and military officials are seeking authorization for troops to shoot down suspected cartel drones surveilling the border.

USS Gravely

Two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers — USS Gravely and USS Spruance — have also been deployed to help "restore territorial integrity at the US southern border," officials said in two statements in March.

"Gravely's sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States' territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security," Guillot said. The destroyer departed Yorktown, Virginia, in mid-March to waters off the Texas coast to support the border mission and counter maritime weapons and drug crime in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gravely played a key role in Red Sea combat prior to this deployment. In December 2023, USS Gravely shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles and was involved in sinking three Houthi small boats, marking the first time the US Navy killed Houthi fighters since the Red Sea conflict began.

USS Spruance

A second Navy destroyer, USS Spruance, which also saw combat in the Red Sea, left its homeport in San Diego last month to patrol waters off the West Coast as part of the border operation.

Guillot said that the warship "brings additional capability and expands the geography of unique military capabilities working with the Department of Homeland Security."

"With Spruance off the West Coast and USS Gravely in the Gulf of America, our maritime presence contributes to the all-domain, coordinated DOD response to the Presidential Executive Order and demonstrates our resolve to achieve operational control of the border," the general added.

The warships have been conducting operations alongside the Coast Guard.

Airlifters flying deportation flights

Migrant deportations are typically carried out using civilian charter flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Trump administration supplemented the deportation effort by using military cargo aircraft, like the C-17 Globemaster and C-130 Hercules, to transport migrants to Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, and even India.

Military vs civilian flight costs

But the military aircraft, which are designed to transport both troops and cargo, come with a steep operational price tag. It costs about $28,000 per flight for one deportation on a C-17, whereas civilian flights cost an estimated $8,500.

Following backlash from Democratic lawmakers, the Trump administration halted military deportation flights in early March.

Though there are no further flights scheduled, Air Force Gen. Randall Reed told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that his command is prepared to carry them out should the order be reversed.

"If I get the task, I'll absolutely fly it," Reed said.

Surveillance aircraft and drones

The big cargo planes aren't the only military aircraft being used at the southern US border. Spy planes and drones have been conducting regular intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance flights.

Reconnaissance aircraft like the U-2 "Dragon Lady" and Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint have been used for ISR missions above Mexico. The Navy has also reportedly used Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft to conduct maritime patrol and surveillance along the US-Mexico border.

Additionally, there have been reports of MQ-9 Reaper drones conducting flights as well. The Reaper is an uncrewed surveillance and combat asset.

The Trump administration also directed Pentagon intelligence agencies to direct satellite surveillance to the southern border region, Reuters reported last month.

Armored vehicles

Border patrol agents typically drive SUVs, sedans, and pick-up trucks donning a green-and-white paint scheme to traverse the rugged terrain at the border.

But as more active-duty troops are deployed to the region, armored tactical vehicles have become a regular sight in an apparent intimidation tactic.

"This sends a clear and unequivocal message to the criminal organizations operating on either side of the border that we will not tolerate illegal incursions or illicit activities along our border," Border Patrol spokesman Claudio Herrera-Baeza said.

He added that "these vehicles have incredible detection technology that the Border Patrol will incorporate into its mission of safeguarding our borders."

'More military assets'

The US Army sent over 100 Stryker armored fighting vehicles, along with hundreds of soldiers, to an installation near the border between Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas. Black Hawk helicopters and Chinooks for support aviation were also deployed.

Typically deployed to warzones, the 20-ton eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles can be armed with a machine gun or grenade launcher and carry up to 11 troops. They can also reach speeds of up to 60 mph and have a range of 300 miles.

"That's really what we're doing with the Stryker out here," Lt. Col. Travis Stellfox told Scripps News. "It provides us great mobility to get soldiers where they need to be to observe on the border."

There is always the possibility more military assets could be deployed. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said previously that "whatever is needed at the border will be provided."

• Ride AI hosted its first autonomous vehicle conference in LA, featuring some top AV players.
• Companies like Waymo have demonstrated the real-world applications of AI and autonomous driving.
• But human drivers are still very much in play, at least for the next few decades. Here's why.

My day at an autonomous vehicle conference in Los Angeles started in a human-driven Uber.

On a Wednesday morning, Waymo said it would take at least 15 minutes to snag a car for a five-minute ride to NeueHouse Hollywood, where Ride AI was hosting its first-ever autonomous vehicle summit, featuring some of the sector's leading players.

I wasn't particularly in a time crunch, but, like most people, I don't call a rideshare driver half an hour or more before I leave the house to get to a destination.

Exit app. Open Uber.

It's fair to say that, at least for now, the battle between human and robot drivers is still raging.

Stephen Hayes, Lyft's VP of autonomous operations, and Ryan Green, CEO of Gridwise — a platform for rideshare drivers to track their earnings — both said at the conference that the future of ride-hailing will look like a hybrid market of human and robot drivers.

Green estimated that that'll be the case for at least the next 10 to 15 years.

It may be Hayes' and Green's prerogative to make such a claim. But that outlook made perfect sense to me — even as someone who has had great experiences in a Waymo — and appeared to resonate throughout the summit.

A hybrid future

Toyota Research Institute CEO Gill Pratt jumpstarted the event as the first speaker to say it's a "myth that we need autonomy to help with terrible human driving."

"Humans are actually reasonably safe, pretty good drivers. For every hundred million miles there's an accident," Avinash Balachandran, TRI's VP of the Human Interacting Driving division, told me. "Where we really see value for autonomy is this ability to help drivers in situations where they tend to struggle."

For a conference centered entirely on the future of autonomous mobility, I was surprised that some of the top players in the AV field weren't throwing out rosy pictures or estimates of when robots will take over the wheel and our city roads.

Tesla, whose CEO has made wild predictions like one million robotaxis by 2020, was noticeably absent from the conference but still came up during panel talks.

Instead, voices from various autonomous mobility players, from ride-hailing to OEM software providers, spoke on the challenges of perfecting full self-driving technology and the still-fresh business opportunities for the human-driven vehicle segment.

Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye, talked about the lack of "precision" in AI, stemming partly from the need to perfect the application of redundancies and a lack of data.

Over at Wayve, a UK-based autonomous driving software company, Kaity Fischer, the VP of commercial and operations, talked about the "very large untapped market" of level two and level three assisted and autonomous driving systems for consumer vehicles.

Both levels still need humans behind the wheel but with varying degrees of driver input.

"For the foreseeable future, there'll be a very long period of time where it's a hybrid solution of vehicle ownership intermingled with varying levels of autonomy, and those things all need to be able to coexist," Fisher told me when I asked her what she thought city streets will look like decades down the line. "So levels two, three, and four all need to be able to share a space on the road and operate safely in conjunction."

Christoph Lütge, an economist and AI ethics expert at the Technical University of Munich, told me that in Germany, where robotaxis exist only for limited testing, Level 3 driving is still not widely implemented.

"It should have happened already, but it's not really happening," he said.

Riding the hype cycle

This is not to underestimate the progress folks in San Francisco and other markets have experienced firsthand. One of the reasons everyone gathered in Los Angeles for an autonomous vehicle conference is undoubtedly because of Waymo.

As Sophia Tung, a former engineer and now an AV-focused content creator, told me, we've seen an autonomous vehicle hype cycle before — this time's just a bit different.

Timothy B. Lee, one of the Ride AI moderators who has reported on transportation for Ars Technica before launching his Substack, Understanding AI, pointed to the Gartner hype cycle: Technological innovation first comes with the skyrocketing of what's called peak "inflated expectations" before crashing into a "trough of disillusionment," then rising again, more gradually, on a "slope of enlightenment" followed by a "plateau of productivity."

The peak of inflated expectations happened around 2016 or '17, Lee told me, before an Uber autonomous test vehicle killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018.

"Then there was a period of three or four years, from 2018 to 2022 or so, when things were going very badly for these companies," he said. "You had Uber shut down their program, Lyft shut down their program. Ford had Argo (AI) that shut down. That was a bad time to be in the industry and not as much fun to cover. And then, the last two years I would say it's been on the upswing pretty much since Waymo started expanding to San Francisco."

Lee's prognosis is that the great human-driver replacement will be gradual. In the next 20-plus years, city roads will see fewer human drivers before they completely disappear.

For example, he cited the decades it took before automatic elevators made human elevator operators obsolete.

"There's going to be a long process," he said.

My day in Los Angeles ended with another human-driven rideshare, which arrived in the same amount of time it took to say goodbye to my friends, put on my shoes, and walk out of their apartment.

The closest Waymo was 13 minutes away.

Exit app. Open Uber.

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

• My husband cut our $2,000 monthly grocery bill by $415 just by shopping differently.
• Switching from name brands to store brands saved us thousands — and my kids didn't even notice.
• His engineering mindset means no impulse buys and less food waste.

In May 2023, my husband and I sat down to look over our budget app on his laptop — one of my least favorite activities.

As a family of six living in the Chicago suburbs, our grocery bills were already sky-high and climbing with inflation. I hated budget conversations.

Even though my husband never made me feel this way, I always felt like I was getting in trouble for overspending. So when he pointed out that our Walmart grocery bill for the month was $1,923, I felt the guilt creep in.

But then, he said something that I didn't expect: "Let me take over the grocery shopping."

I laughed. Not because I thought he'd do a bad job but because I couldn't imagine it would make any real difference. Plus, grocery shopping was my domain: I knew what we liked, and I meal planned. I didn't love the idea of him double-checking my choices. But I was exhausted from the weekly trips, so I handed him the grocery list — half expecting him to come back overwhelmed.

The next month, our grocery bill dropped to $1,511. I figured he was just cutting corners to prove he could spend less. But the following month? $1,555. Our pantry was full, our kids were happy, and we were spending around $400 less a month.

I had to admit: maybe my husband was onto something.

He started by taking his time in the store to consider all the options

I got curious about his method: "How are you doing this?" I asked.

It turns out his first grocery shopping trip took almost two hours — and not because he couldn't find anything. While I was home imagining him wandering lost in the aisles, he was carefully reading ads (the ones I would have tossed aside) and checking prices on every single item.

Ever the engineer, my husband pulled out his phone to show me some of the side-by-side price comparisons he made. I was beyond surprised.

My husband made some big money-saving switches

My kids go through ketchup like water. I had been buying Heinz at $4.48 for years without thinking twice. The Great Value brand my husband chose is just $1.92 for the same size bottle, and it tastes exactly the same, saving us $2.56 every time.

But the ranch savings may be one of our biggest. Switching from Hidden Valley at $6.97 to Great Value at $3.54 saves us $3.43 per bottle, and no one can even tell the difference. We use it for everything from salads to dipping vegetables, so these savings add up quickly. We even did a blind taste test with our pickiest eater, and he liked the generic brand best.

The cereal aisle turned out to have big savings, too. Name-brand Rice Krispies were costing us $3.98 per box, but Great Value Rice Crisps are only $1.97. This cut our cost in half while keeping breakfast the same.

For the kids' school snacks, I used to buy the individually packaged Goldfish for $9.76 out of convenience. My husband started buying the bulk carton for $7.79 which saves us almost $2.00 for even more crackers. For what we are saving, I don't mind taking the extra minute to put the Goldfish into individual baggies for school snacks.

It's not just about switching to store brands or buying in bulk. Even with name-brand things we love, my husband finds a way to save money. For example, with our coffee, instead of paying $31.08 at Walmart for three pounds, he gets it directly from Dunkin on his way home for $26.21. That's saving $4.87 just by changing where we buy it. It's the exact same amount, but almost $5.00 cheaper.

We're happier and saving money

There have been unexpected benefits beyond just saving money. I no longer dread those weekly grocery trips because I'm not making them anymore. Since my husband actually sticks to the grocery list (unlike me and my impulse purchases), we're wasting less food.

I still handle meal planning, but he approaches grocery shopping with his engineering mindset.

I wish we'd made this switch years ago. It's funny how sometimes the best solutions come from playing to each other's strengths and letting the more cost-conscious partner do the shopping.

That one conversation didn't just change how we grocery shop — it's saving our family about $4,980 a year. And, all because I was willing to hand over the grocery list to my husband, who was willing to spend two hours comparing ketchup prices.

• Cruise lines like MSC, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean own resorts and private islands throughout the Caribbean.
• They're increasingly upgrading their properties and expanding their real estate portfolios.
• Satellite imagery shows how cruise lines have changed the Caribbean landscape.

A decade ago, Ocean Cay, a Bahamian island 65 miles from Miami's coastline, stood abandoned, bearing the scars of its previous life as an industrial sand mining site.

These days, the 95-acre island looks less like an excavation facility and more like a slice of Caribbean paradise.

Gone are the debris and floating metal fragments. Now a vacation destination, Ocean Cay is home to seven pristine beaches, waterfront cabanas, and family-fun activities — all thanks to a $500 million investment from MSC Cruises.

In 2019, after three years of cleanup and development, MSC opened the island as Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, a private retreat exclusively for its cruise passengers. It now sees thousands of travelers virtually every day of the year, many of whom are ready to spend big on a swim with stingrays and a beachside massage.

Cruise lines like MSC, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean collectively own 17 ports and resorts in the Caribbean. Some are still under development as these at-sea vacation companies increasingly build back onshore, transforming swaths of the warm-weathered landscape into unrecognizable but highly profitable exclusive vacation destinations.

The transformation of neighboring rivals

About 85 miles from Ocean Cay, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have claimed two private islands separated only by a mile-long stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.

Norwegian was an early trendsetter, having been the first cruise line to acquire an island, now known as Great Stirrup Cay, for its guests in 1977.

The company has recently upgraded its 270-acre buildout, expanding the dining and walkways in 2017 and launching a luxurious hotel-like retreat in 2019.

Later this year, Great Stirrup Cay is also expected to debut a new pier that can concurrently accommodate two of Norwegian's largest ships — a $150 million investment in an attempt to rival its successful neighbor, Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Like Ocean Cay, their locations are strategic. Perfect Day at CocoCay and Great Stirrup Cay are less than a day's sail from Florida's busy ports, allowing the companies to save on increasingly costly fuel expenses.

A closer look at CocoCay

CocoCay is as much a "perfect day" as it is a perfect investment, having opened in 2019 as a resort-like extension of Royal Caribbean's splashy ships.

The more than 130-acre island has since become a massive hit, accommodating almost all of the company's Caribbean cruise guests with its waterpark, lounge-lined beaches, and, as of last year, an adult-only beach club.

The cruise line has poured a cool $350 million into developing the property. Yet, amid strong guest demand, financial returns have been "exceptionally high and significantly above its target," Naftali Holtz, the CFO of Royal Caribbean Group, told analysts in 2023.

It's now hoping to replicate CocoCay's success with a private resort 63 miles away on Paradise Island, located just offshore from Nassau, Bahamas, and near Atlantis' sprawling resort.

Royal Caribbean began purchasing land on Paradise Island in early 2017. Seven years later, it started developing the 17-acre property into what would soon become its first Royal Beach Club, a sprawling exclusive resort.

Royal Beach Club Paradise Island is scheduled to open in December 2025.

Guests will have to pay to enter the all-inclusive property. Once inside, they can expect access to 10 bars, shopping, cabanas, and several pools and beaches, including some for families.

Another island, another resort

In addition to expanding its island — RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay — Carnival Corp is also following the private resort strategy with a mile-long getaway on Grand Bahama Island.

Celebration Key, as it's been dubbed, is scheduled to begin welcoming Carnival cruisers in July.

The land is expected to be transformed into a vacation hub with beach clubs, a family lagoon, and plenty of dining options — "clearly following Royal Caribbean's footsteps," Patrick Scholes, lodging and leisure research analyst at Truist Securities, told Business Insider in 2024.

The resort is expected to accommodate 4 million visitors annually when Carnival builds two additional berths in 2028.

The $600 million project is set to be the company's largest. Yet, Carnival Corp's CFO, David Bernstein, told analysts in 2024 that Celebration Key is already expected to be a "smash hit and provide an excellent return on investment. "

• My husband and I went on our first African safari last year.
• The bucket-list trip was incredible, but there are a few things I wish I had known before we left.
• I didn't realize how different each safari drive would be or that I should've packed differently.

Last year, my husband and I took a 10-day guided group tour of South Africa with Adventures By Disney.

Part of the trip included a three-day African safari at the Kapama River Lodge, a luxury safari resort on the Kapama Game Reserve near Kruger National Park.

Even though most of the trip's schedule and transportation details were planned for us through the tour group, it was our first time in South Africa — and our first time on safari in general.

Needless to say, we weren't totally prepared for what the experience would entail. Here are the five things I wish I had known before going on the trip.

I should have packed more layers.

We went on safari in August, which is Africa's winter. During this time of year, the temperature can fluctuate greatly during the course of a day.

Even after researching the weather patterns, the range in temperature caught me off guard. For example, our morning safaris were very cold, but by early afternoon, it became T-shirt weather.

I mainly brought sweaters for the trip, but looking back, I would have focused on packing layers instead.

I also found headgear to be absolutely vital for blocking the sun and keeping my hair from getting unruly in the wind. On my next trip, I'll definitely bring more than one hat with me.

I didn't realize I'd want to spend more time at our resort.

While planning the trip, I was so focused on the safari experience that I didn't realize how amazing our resort would be.

With its beautiful spa and gourmet dining options, it felt like an all-inclusive resort. Three days there was not nearly enough time.

Next time, I'd carve out additional time to explore the lodge's restaurant, spa, and amenities in more depth.

Each safari drive offered something unique.

As part of our vacation package, we were able to go on two safaris each day: one in the morning and one in the evening. Ahead of the trip, I had a preconceived notion that things would get redundant. However, that couldn't be further from the truth.

I'm so glad I didn't skip any of the safaris because I was able to see all of the Big 5 animals: lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, and African buffalo.

Night rides ended up being my favorite as we stopped in the middle of the bush for a happy hour at a makeshift bar. If I had only gone on the daytime rides, I would have missed this entire experience.

It would've been nice to have a professional camera.

I had no idea just how many animals we would spot and how close we would get — sometimes, within several yards.

Although there's definitely value in enjoying a moment, I do regret not bringing a professional camera on at least a few safari rides to get incredible photos.

I had no reason to be stressed before the trip.

"Bucket list" isn't a term I take lightly, but I absolutely feel comfortable labeling this trip as such.

This was the most outside-of-my-comfort-zone vacation I've taken to date. I knew very little about what to expect and was worried about letting others take control of the planning.

However, it ended up being one of the best trips I've ever taken, and I wish I'd gone into it less stressed.

• My husband died when I was 46, and I received a wake-up call about financial preparedness.
• His life insurance policy was a lifesaver as I developed a more long-term plan for our family.
• I sought professional advice to get through that time, and I'm glad I did.

In the wee hours of the morning, several days after my husband's death in 2003 from sudden cardiac arrest, I awoke out of breath, my heart racing. Would my daughters be able to stay in their schools? Could I continue to pay the mortgage on our home?

When my husband accepted his first overseas diplomatic assignment, I gave up my career. Once back in the States, I began to slowly rebuild my professional life, but I was far behind my peers in earning power and savings. Still, I didn't worry too much about our income and my slow-growing 403b. We weren't diligent savers; we had mortgages, car loans, and two children in private schools. We relied on the assumption that Uncle Sam had our backs.

Insurance was a lifesaver for me during that time

Suddenly, with a base salary of $42,000 a year, I became responsible for my two teenage daughters and, as an only child, my elderly mom. My husband had good life insurance in place (with his morbid sense of humor, he often joked about how "well off" I'd be when he died), which was a godsend, but I needed to understand how to use our money efficiently.

Most financial experts say you should have enough money in your emergency savings fund to cover three to six months' worth of living expenses. Being unprepared is exacerbated if you are not used to navigating the finances. In my case, I was aware of our position in general terms, but large decisions, such as our daughters' education and buying or selling a home or vehicle, were always joint.

As my husband's beneficiary, I received his federal life insurance payout. Early on, I received incorrect information, leading me to believe that I needed to keep the insurance payout I received in the low-interest settlement account. Learning that I was able to move it to an account that delivered a higher rate of return eased a lot of stress. My initial priority was not investing but making sure I had enough money coming in to pay our bills. I chose to work with an advisor at our credit union to invest the money in instruments that would conserve — and hopefully increase — my principal and provide an income stream to supplement my small salary.

I developed a long-term financial plan

My advisor suggested investments that would help me achieve the goals we had planned for our daughters. I was happy to learn I'd be able to keep my younger daughter in parochial high school and enable my older daughter to remain at her current college. Next, I paid off some high-interest items with part of the insurance money, which eased the burden on my modest income and saved me from having to make large draws from our investment accounts. Later, I tackled estate planning issues such as updating my own will and beneficiaries on all financial items.

Even though I knew how to access our bill-paying software and bank accounts, having no real savings of my own and a meager retirement plan due to contributions of only the 10 years we'd been back in the States made me anxious. The reality of planning a possible solo retirement made me again wish I'd been wiser about my personal saving practices. Soon after tragedy strikes, many widows and widowers rush to make huge — and sometimes unwise —

major financial decisions. A short time after my husband's death, I considered selling our home. but an accountant friend advised me to wait until I was on steadier emotional ground. I'm glad I did because the house appreciated in value, and I was able to secure a good price when I did sell it 15 years later.

I learned a lot about financial preparedness when I became a young widow

In my grief support group, I saw firsthand others having to sell homes or move in with family after losing a spouse or partner's income. I know I was fortunate because of my husband's foresight in planning for a future that did not include him. Because my life insurance had always come as a benefit of my employment, I purchased additional insurance to guarantee that the girls would have some assets should my financial situation change, or I could no longer work.

Even though I learned a lot by becoming a young widow, I wish I'd known more about financial planning before tragedy struck. Having to shoulder the weight of a family's financial present and future only added to my already fragile emotional state. At least, seeking both professional and personal help and a dose of strategic planning eased one of the burdens I felt immediately after my husband's death.

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Welcome back to our Saturday edition! The season finale of "The White Lotus" is almost here, and we'll finally find out who dies this season. Any predictions? Find out who we think might be floating in that resort.

On the agenda:

• The new "it" cosmetic procedure: veneers, but without the filling, drilling, and grinding.
• A millennial engineer dreamed of a walkable small town with big-city vibrancy. So, she's building it herself.
• A GI doctor who researches the gut microbiome shared the 3 things he does to prevent colon cancer.
• First came the trad wives. Meet divine feminine energy.

But first: Spring Break smarter.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.

This week's dispatch

Let's optimize Spring Break

Spring Break isn't just for college students. It's also the perfect time for corporate types, finance bros, and entrepreneurs to recharge before sprinting into Q2.

If you want to plan your own rejuvenating retreat, here are some tips to ensure you leave feeling restored and ready for the rest of the year.

• Ditch the screens: Whether you're committing to less screen time, turning off Slack notifications, or doing a full-on digital detox, now is the time to step away from the black mirror. Instead, experience the outdoors now that the weather is turning. It's not only good for you mentally, but it can also lower your blood pressure and improve your memory.
• Rest isn't overrated: Now that our nights are getting shorter, sticking to an effective sleep routine is crucial. It also doesn't help that we just lost an hour of shut-eye. Spring also means it's a perfect time to invest in your sleep with fresh bedding — especially if it's been a while. No judgement!
• Have a little fun: The best part of any Spring Break is the adventure. Make sure you go on one — whether it's with your partner, with your family, or solo. And you don't have to travel far to have a new experience. Instead of prioritizing location, focus on the quality and take advantage of creating a new memory.

A new kind of veneer

Traditional veneers have been a favorite of celebrities since the 1980s. But plenty of would-be takers balk at the process, which requires shaving down the surface of the tooth.

Now, patients are gravitating toward a less invasive, lower-risk veneer procedure. It's part of the "quiet glow-up" trend, which is all about little fixes rather than sweeping changes.

What to know about the procedure.

Small town, big city

Disenchanted with pandemic-era San Francisco, software engineer Devon Zuegel sought to recreate the small-town atmosphere she experienced when visiting upstate New York.

The result is Esmeralda, a walkable and bikeable northern California town that Zuegel plans to build within another city's existing limits. The goal is revitalization, not starting from scratch.

An intentional-community experiment.

A GI doctor's advice for colon cancer prevention

Surgeon James Kinross researches how gut health affects cancer risk. He told BI that ultra-processed foods and microplastics are just a few factors that are likely linked to rising colon cancer cases in young people.

Kinross shared the three dietary principles he follows to lower his own risk of developing colon cancer.

Read his recommendations.

The deal with divine feminine

Posts about divine feminine energy are proliferating on social media. Content creators claim tapping into their divine feminine energy was the key to manifesting the life they wanted.

Experts say it's more complicated than that. You could end up creating helpful rituals … but you could also end up falling down an alt-right pipeline.

Approach it with nuance.

What we're watching this weekend

• "One of Them Days": After releasing in theaters in January, the R-rated buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA is now streaming on Netflix.
• "The White Lotus": Season three of HBO's thrilling anthology series comes to an end this weekend.
• "Pulse": Netflix's new medical procedural follows doctors under professional and personal pressure at a Miami hospital.

See the full list

What to shop

• Salon-worthy manicures at home: Getting your nails done in a salon takes a lot of time and money, especially if you maintain them regularly. That's why we tested the best press-on nails for a fast fix.
• Your own home bakery: There's a subscription box for just about everything, so it's no surprise that you can get artisan bread and pastry dough delivered to your doorstep. We gave it a try — learn more in our Wildgrain review.
• Away's new luggage: Away is famous for its sleekly designed, durable, and feature-packed suitcases. The brand released a new Softside Carry-on, so we gave it a shot.

More of this week's top reads:

• I never buy birthday presents for kids' parties. They often miss the mark and unwrapping them is chaos, so I give money instead.
• The fall of Lonely Planet.
• A 25-year-old strategy analyst breaks down how she spends $648 each month on staying fit.
• We splurged on extras and all-inclusive plans for our first trip to Disney World. It was a magical disaster.
• How Steph Curry spends his 5-9 — from recovering after training to no-rules summers.
• Mike White on why he almost didn't cast Blackpink's Lisa in 'The White Lotus': 'She's like Taylor Swift meets Princess Diana'.
• Meghan Markle silences critics after As Ever sells out in an hour.
• A 62-year-old dermatologist with barely any wrinkles shares what to do now for great skin at her age.
• Your Rolex is about to get more expensive.

The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York City (on paternity leave). Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

• I recently took the 16-hour overnight train from Warsaw to Kyiv for a reporting trip.
• The 'Kyiv Express' was loud and bumpy but surprisingly cozy.
• This is what the long journey was like.

WARSAW, Poland — When I boarded the big blue train that took me on a 16-hour journey into Ukraine, I was certain I wasn't going to be getting any sleep.

The makeshift beds rattled throughout the night as we barreled across the Polish and, eventually, Ukrainian countryside. The train stopped frequently, and passport checks interrupted hopes of grabbing some proper shut-eye.

Last month, I spent about a week in Kyiv reporting on Russia's ongoing invasion. I felt that as a journalist covering the war, I needed to be there, to see things myself, and to learn what the people of Ukraine are facing. It was eye-opening.

I experienced the uncertainty of waiting out a Russian barrage in an air-raid shelter in the middle of the night. Many Ukrainians in the capital are desensitized to the near-daily one-way attack drones and won't even get out of bed for those, but the missiles still cause alarm. I met air defenders shooting threats with a machine gun out of a pickup truck. And I saw firsthand the efforts to produce new types of drones for front-line combat.

Getting to Ukraine, though, from neighboring Poland meant an overnight train ride, one unlike anything I had experienced before in the US or in Europe. At the busy train station in Warsaw, a platform sign identified my ride as the "Kyiv Express."

Waiting in warsaw

I arrived at the Warsaw Wschodnia station an hour before my scheduled departure, giving me time to relax and grab a bite to eat. After hanging out and watching people flood in and out of the station, I devoured a small sandwich from Caffè Nero.

It was evening, just a bit before 6 p.m. I got to the platform a few minutes early and walked to my assigned train car, showing my ticket to an employee of Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine's state-owned rail company.

Boarding the "Kyiv Express"

I boarded the train and walked to my sleeper cabin at the end of the car, right next to one of the two bathrooms.

The blue train was dimly lit, dated, and had a stale odor. My room was the size of a large closet, but I had it all to myself, and it felt surprisingly cozy. I hung my coat and took a few minutes to get settled and organize my things.

The room had a three-bed bunk, with the middle bed swung down to act as a backrest for the bottom bed, where one would sit (eventually, I raised the middle bed to sleep on).

Besides the only window, there were some hangers, a small fold-down chair, a ladder, a storage rack, and a small desk with a mirror that opened and hosted an electrical outlet.

It was a spartan space, certainly not the luxury train Western leaders have used to travel into Ukraine in the past, but it was sufficient for what I needed it to do.

Sleeper cars

My train cabin

The cabin was equipped with three plastic packets containing sheets, a pillowcase, and a towel. What looked like sleeping pads and pillows were on the top bunk, and blankets were on a storage rack. (I didn't end up using any of them.)

The cabin also came stocked with two bottles of water, but I'd packed my own, along with some Pringles, biscuits, and Mentos to hold me over until I got to Kyiv. I figured there was a good chance I'd be up all night and get hungry.

Just me and my bags

Everything I needed

The train pulled away from the station shortly after its scheduled departure time. By this point, it was dark outside. Around 15 minutes later, someone came by to check my tickets.

I used Google Translate to communicate with him, and he tried to speak English at one point. The only word I could really make out from the exchange was "Trump."

My reporting trip came right after a contentious White House meeting between the US president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and as the Trump administration was pressuring Ukraine to make unfavorable deals.

The train felt like it was traveling fast, though I had no idea what our speed was. They may have said something, but I don't speak Ukrainian.

The journey across Poland was bumpy and loud. During the first three hours of my ride, I prepped for interviews in Kyiv, caught up on the news, ate some snacks, and watched a little TV on my phone. The cell coverage was surprisingly good at this point (it got worse).

Bathroom controls

Bigger than an airplane bathroom

It was dark outside, so I couldn't see much of Poland beyond some scattered homes, buildings, and streetlights. Every so often, the train stopped briefly at a station as we inched closer to Ukraine.

Polish customs began a little after 9:30 p.m., nearly four hours into the journey. A customs officer walked down the hall to check passports and clock us out of the European Union. The train didn't move for over an hour, but eventually, it started rolling again.

Ten minutes later, I received a knock from an employee saying that we had reached Ukrainian customs.

The couch functions as a bed

More than one place to sleep

Narrow hallways

I handed over my passport to a Ukrainian soldier and got it back 30 minutes later with my long-awaited Ukrainian stamp.

By this point, with the time change (Ukraine is one hour ahead of Poland), it was nearly 1 a.m., and I was super tired.

Twenty minutes later, we entered a massive warehouse, where the train underwent preparation to switch from European tracks to the wider Ukrainian tracks built during the Soviet Union. Though Russia's army has struck train tracks and rail centers, Ukraine's rail lines have been surprisingly well maintained, with most trains running on schedule.

The next hour was filled with the unenjoyable, piercing sounds of machinery and the coughing and snoring that penetrated the thin walls separating my room and the one next door.

Closing in on Kyiv

First sights of the Ukrainian capital city

Stepping off at my stop

For the next few hours after we finally got on our way again, our train zipped across the Ukrainian countryside. I was in and out of sleep, but when the sun rose, I gave up entirely and took my first view of the eastern European country out the window.

As we approached the Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi station, the landscape slowly shifted from rural to urban, and we arrived in the Ukrainian capital just before 11 a.m. It was chilly and busy outside as I waited for a ride to my hotel.

Stepping out onto the ordinary-looking concrete station, I reveled in the fresh air before it dawned on me that I still had the same 16-hour journey back to Warsaw to look forward to.

• I ran out of Google storage space because my Gmail inbox was flooded with unread messages.
• To continue receiving new emails, I had to delete over 30,000 older ones.
• Filtering messages, unsubscribing from email lists, and mass-deleting convos quickly freed up space.

After I completely maxed out of Gmail storage space, I was forced to admit that I'm an email hoarder.

If you can relate to this condition, then you might be on the verge of having your Google storage completely filled, and you're probably days away from not being able to receive any more emailed messages — unless you pay for more space.

The problem could be several things, but for me, it was the over 30,000 unread emails sitting in my inbox.

Whatever the issue might be, there are many things we can't control in this world; thankfully, our Gmail inbox is not one of them. Here's how I freed up my storage space and made my inbox more manageable.

Step 1: Admit you have a problem.

After I received a notice from Google explaining that the company would no longer tolerate my recklessness, I had to address my email-hoarding behavior and start deleting messages.

In reality, the notice told me that I was "out of storage and would stop receiving emails in 29 days," but I took it as an eye-opener on how poorly I'd been managing my inbox.

Sometimes, items in Google Drive or Google Photos can cause storage space to run out, but in my case, my inbox was the problem.

Step 2: Carve out time to start tackling the issue.

Cleaning and managing Gmail is an ongoing process, but as the popular Chinese proverb goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

I decided to take an hour or two on the weekend to begin tackling my inbox.

That day, I freed up 20% of my Google storage space and made a conscious decision to replace some of the time I spent doom scrolling on social media with deleting emails from my Gmail account going forward.

Step 3: Begin with the Promotions section of your Gmail account.

The Promotions category is the easiest place to start deleting emails. Nine out of 10 chances, you won't remember signing up for any of those deals.

I had over 16,000 deals from as far back as 2018 that had never been opened — featuring things that I'd never buy. I don't even know how most of these promotions found me.

Gmail allowed me to select up to 50 messages to delete on each page and gave me the option to clear out every conversation from the promotions category.

I deleted a couple of pages first before choosing to delete all conversations in the promotion section so I could remove myself from unwanted email lists.

Step 4: Unsubscribe from email messages you no longer want to see.

You could delete all of your emails in one or two clicks, but that's just a short-term solution to a bigger problem. Those same senders will have your inbox full the next day — and you could mistakenly delete something important.

I chose to carefully sift through the first few pages of my promotions folder and proactively unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters.

Gmail makes this easy. I just hovered the mouse over each email message, and if the option to unsubscribe was available, a box that said "unsubscribe" popped up. I clicked that box and was all set.

This allowed me to unsubscribe from dozens of email lists in seconds.

Step 5: Mass-delete unwanted emails.

After looking through my most recent promotion emails, I selected everything and sent it to the trash. This process was easy, but mass-deleting emails from my primary inbox took a bit more tact.

I scanned through each email page, and every time I came across a reoccurring message that I never opened — like messages from that one dance camp I registered my niece for three years ago — I'd unsubscribe from that email list.

Then, I typed the sender's name or email address into the email search box at the top of Gmail and placed quotation marks around it.

That usually brought up all of the emails I received from that sender. From there, I selected all the messages and mass-deleted them. You can repeat these steps in your "social" and "updates" folder, too.

Step 6: Don't forget to empty your trash.

If you forget to empty the trash folder, you could delete every email from your inbox, but that wouldn't free up an inch of storage space.

The trash folder can usually be found by clicking on the Gmail menu in the upper left corner and scrolling down past the spam folder. Sometimes, you might need to click the "more" button after the drafts folder to reveal it.

Once I opened the trash folder, I had the option to restore mistakenly deleted emails, select which emails to permanently delete, or "empty trash now" to get rid of everything in one quick swoop.

I chose to delete all of the messages. Once deleted from the trash, they were gone for good.

Step. 7 Enjoy your cleaner inbox and free storage space.

After I worked through all of these steps, my inbox was much tidier and I avoided having to pay for extra storage space to receive new emails. It might sound like a lot, but it was effortless.

My biggest lesson was to just let go and delete. We have enough to deal with in the real world. Why hold on to digital trash?

• Lexi and Jordan Poer bought their forever home in 2017.
• Six years later, they decided to build a second home for Lexi Poer's mom on their property.
• The two homes are connected, creating a multigenerational space that gives everyone independence.

Lexi Poer, a full-time content creator, always knew she wanted her mom to live with her family.

When her dream of combining households became a reality, she wanted to ensure her mother could maintain her independence.

Poer, her husband, and her mom decided to build a second home connected to their main house, fulfilling everyone's needs as they embraced multigenerational living.

Lexi and Jordan Poer bought their forever home in 2017.

Lexi Poer, 35, and Jordan Poer, 40, bought their home in Roswell, Georgia, in 2017, intending to make it their forever home for themselves and their two daughters, Kennedy and Addie. They also have two dogs, Baby and Paris.

"We purchased the house from the original owners, and it was built in the early '70s," Lexi Poer told BI of the four-bedroom home. "Everything was well-maintained and updated as needed, but we were able to come in and spend what we call the fun money on bringing it up to date aesthetically."

They did some initial renovations on the property before moving into the house in March 2018.

Poer had always dreamed of her mom moving in with her family, and in 2023, it felt like the right time to make the move.

Poer told BI that she and her mom, Sandra Vassell, 64, have always been close. Vassell raised her as a single mom, and Poer said she was clear with her husband in the early days of their relationship that she always planned for her mom to live with them someday.

"As a child, I always imagined having a compound with several houses in a cul-de-sac so we each had our own space but lived near each other," Poer said. "My mom was just laughing, thinking I was crazy."

In 2020, Poer and her family started thinking more about having Vassell live with them, as COVID made seeing each other difficult. Shortly after, when housing prices skyrocketed, it seemed like a sign that they should consolidate into one space.

"We figured out that she would be able to sell her home for far more than she purchased it not many years before that and invest that money into our home and building her own space," Poer said. "That was the piece that made the dream a reality."

It was important to the Poers and Vassell that everyone maintained their independence.

As the Poers started thinking about creating an in-law suite for Vassell in their home, maintaining her independence was a priority.

"She very much wanted to make sure that she had all of the things she needed to live independently in her space, like somewhere to park her car and enter her home without having to come through our house, access to the outdoor space without having to enter our house, her own laundry room, her own kitchen," Poer said.

Likewise, the Poers liked entertaining friends and didn't want their social life to disrupt Vassell's routine.

They decided to build a separate house for Vassell that attaches to the main house.

Rather than building a separate guest house in a different area of their yard, the Poers and Vassell wanted the two homes to truly connect, both for curb appeal and to fit their lifestyle.

"We imagined when the girls wake up on Saturday morning, they always want to run down and go into Nana's house and watch cartoons or have breakfast with her," Poer said, as her daughters often spent weekends at their grandmother's house when she didn't live with them.

They didn't want the kids to have to think about grabbing a jacket or rain boots to run across the yard, and they also wanted their dogs to be able to wander through the spaces.

The houses form one structure, though the new addition has its own driveway and garage.

The homes connect through a walk-in pantry in the Poers' house.

The new home is connected to the main house through a walk-in pantry that Poer and her mom use.

"It's where we put the things that neither of us needs daily but both want access to, and we didn't really feel like we needed double of everything," Poer said, pointing to items like a stand mixer or Christmas china.

The space, which sits off the main house's kitchen, is lined with cabinets and counters. At the end of the hall, a door leads to Vassell's home.

The connected entrance opens to the kitchen, mirroring the big house.

Vassell's home is 1,000 square feet in total. From the exterior, the houses look like one building, though her area is completely self-sustaining.

The door connecting her house to the main home doesn't have a lock, so the Poers and Vassell can come and go from each other's homes as they please.

The kitchen features a large island and built-in cabinetry, and Vassell has her own butler's pantry in addition to the one she shares with the Poers. Her house features 16-foot vaulted ceilings that make it feel open and airy.

An open-concept floor plan makes the home feel spacious.

Vassell's living room is open-concept, and she has an exterior door that leads to a shared patio outside the house.

Because the house was customized to fit Vassell's needs, it has areas designed just for her, like a craft closet.

"She's a big crafter, so she has this dream craft closet that unfolds and can fold back up and holds all of her crafting storage," Poer said.

Vassell's house also has its own washer and dryer, so she doesn't have to share with the rest of the family.

Vassell's home has a special room for the girls.

"We call it the snug," Poer said of the 50-square-foot room, which is painted a soft pink and features a twin bed, toys, and keepsakes that belong to Poer's daughters.

"That is the girls' space within Nana's house, and that was something they requested," Poer said. "It was important for them to feel like they could still go over and have sleepovers with grandma because they love doing that."

"Long-term, it could totally be an additional storage space or an office or a little exercise space," she said. "It could be multiple purposes when the kids outgrow that space."

The bedroom is spacious, too.

A hallway leads to the bedroom suite, so it isn't right off the main living area.

"There's a bit more privacy for both the bedroom and the bathroom, and then between those, she has her large walk-in closet as well," Poer said.

The bedroom has high ceilings, adding to the spacious feel.

The Poers thought long-term when designing Vassell's bathroom.

The bathroom was designed to be wheelchair accessible, so it will work for Vassell — or the Poers — if their mobility changes.

"We truly want this home to stay in the family," Lexi said. "People don't do that nowadays. But I definitely feel like, with home prices and the way they're going, that is going to become more normal, especially when you have invested so much money into your home like we have."

"We always say, even when Nana's gone someday, my husband and I might end up moving into what is now Nana's house, and maybe one of the girls will want to take over our home," she said. "We're definitely not forcing that on them but leaving the door open to explore."

The Poers' hope that they could pass the house down to their daughters is also part of why they didn't build a separate guest house, which might have given the property a higher resale value than a connected house. They wanted to create the future that worked for them, not a potential buyer.

"We have zero desire to move again, and my husband and I would be plenty content just living in that 1000 square feet once the girls are out of the house," Poer added.

The Poers gave their home a major upgrade during the renovation, too.

While adding Vassell's home to their property, Poer and her husband also renovated the second floor of their house so it would better serve their family.

They turned their original primary bedroom into two massive his-and-hers closets and built out an additional 500 square feet that became their new primary suite and luxurious laundry room.

Poer said the original primary suite was dated, and although they had renovated it in 2017, it still didn't feel like it flowed with the rest of the house.

"It just felt like we're adding such an investment into this house that the primary suite needs to reflect that," she said. "We felt making a larger, more modern-size primary bedroom and bathroom and then larger closets made the home value more what it should be overall, especially with adding the square footage."

After the renovation, the house had five bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

The renovation cost $350,000 in total.

Poer said Vassell's home was built for around $200,000, and the renovations to the second floor of the main house cost around $150,000.

Although the renovation was costly, the project has saved the Poer family money day to day since they only have one household that three adults pay into.

"Sure, electricity goes up, but it doesn't double," Lexi said. "It's still not you're like you're paying two electric bills. It's just one slightly higher electric bill and the same with all utilities."

Plus, the trio has three income sources they can draw from if something breaks in Vassell's home, and Poer said they're already saving money on groceries and wasting less food. Poer also said their living arrangements save her and her mom time.

"Instead of her having to clean her house and I have to clean my house, we can have a day where we're cleaning up the house," Poer said. "Now, that takes time off of both of our plates to then be able to garden together or go to get coffee together or something like that."

Poer and her whole family are closer than ever now that they live together.

"We're able to do things more often together than we did before," Poer said, adding that it's easy for her mom to be part of little "family moments" daily.

"She's at every single sporting event because she just hops in the car with us and goes. Or if we're watching 'Harry Potter' for the first time, she's able to make popcorn and pop over," Poer said. "She's able to witness more of those core memory moments with her grandkids, and she and I are able to spend more time together when the kids are at school together."

Poer and her mom's close relationship helped make the transition to sharing a property easy. Still, she also credits their design process with ensuring the home and the in-law suite work for their whole family. She said combining households is smoothest when you balance people's independence with "the value each person brings into the whole family dynamic."

"Everyone wants to still feel like they have their home and it's their safe space, their comfort zone," she said.

Poer hopes more families in the US embrace multigenerational living.

"It's not a new concept," she said. "It's been around in so many cultures."

Poer said she is excited to see more people creating multigenerational homes, and she loves sharing her experience with it on social media to help others see how easy it can be to make it work for their families.

"I think as a society, one of our biggest things that we're going to have to get through is this culture of isolation that phones and electronics and we've created for ourselves, and what better way to do that than just having your family surround you and love on you and be your built-in community right in your house," Poer said.

• Devon Zuegel, a San Francisco tech worker, longed to live in more of a community.
• She is building Esmeralda, a small city in Sonoma Wine Country.
• She hosts Edge Esmeralda, a pop-up event to give people an idea of what Esmeralda could look like.

Devon Zuegel graduated from Stanford and moved to San Francisco in 2016 for her software engineering career. Then, the pandemic hit.

Zuegel and her husband temporarily relocated to Chautauqua, the New York lake resort town where her grandmother lived, and Zuegel visited as a child.

In the summer, the tiny village blossoms into a kind of utopia — walkable, family-friendly, and brimming with culture. Up to 7,500 people flock to spend their days hopping between plays, symphony performances, and lectures.

One night, Zuegel's husband wondered aloud: "Why aren't there more places like this?" That moment is "burned into my retinas," Zuegel told Business Insider.

That was the start of Esmeralda, a small town Zuegel is building in the Sonoma Wine Country, about 90 minutes north of San Francisco. Zuegel drew inspiration from Chautauqua and similar walkable communities, such as Vail in Colorado, Charleston in South Carolina, and Arizona's new car-free neighborhood.

The goal, Zuegel told BI, is to build a primarily walkable and bikeable town within the city of Cloverdale, revitalizing an existing community rather than building one from scratch. At the same time, Esmeralda would offer something new: regular opportunities for residents to connect.

Esmeralda speaks to a larger trend of millennials seeking more variety in where they live, whether they'releaving larger cities — or building their own.

Esmeralda is the latest American experiment in intentional living

Zuegel wants to build Esmeralda incrementally, inviting prospective town members to come together to share their visions and hopes for a new way of life.

A key lesson she learned from Chautauqua's town archivist was its slow-growth model. The summer camp, founded in 1874 as a retreat for teachers, took time to grow into a full-fledged town. After several years of people pitching up tents, participants started to bring their families and upgraded to more permanent shacks.

America has a long history of intentional communities, where like-minded individuals band together, believing they've cracked the code for a better life. In most cases, the community grows organically, shaped by the people who join.

In the 18th century, the Shakers, a Christian sect dedicated to pacifism and celibacy, established "utopias" throughout New England, emphasizing shared property. In the 19th century, the Transcendentalists, a philosophical movement, flocked to Brook Farm in Massachusetts, where famous writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller dabbled in "plain living."

Intentional communities surged in the 1960s and 1970s as counterculture movements fueled new communes of young people intent on "dropping out" of traditional society. Vermont, in particular, saw over 75 new communes, expert Yvonne Daley told Forbes, which changed the political spirit of the state.

Today, an estimated 3,500 intentional communities dot the US, according to the nonprofit Foundation for Intentional Community, with a broad definition spanning student co-ops, eco-living communities, and religious groups.

To shape her new town, Zuegel launched Edge Esmeralda, a monthlong pop-up event designed to give attendees a taste of what the real Esmeralda could be. In 2024, the retreat hosted over 1,300 people through 25 different program tracks on topics like AI and longevity. Attendees, who could stay for a day, a week, or a whole month, enjoyed various activities such as building a solar-powered A-frame house, joining a "neurotech" workshop, a hackathon, or taking in an art exhibit. Zuegel plans to host another Edge Esmeralda in 2025.

Canadian college student Anson Yu, who attended Edge Esmeralda as an energy fellow, told BI that the experience gave her hope that Zuegel's team could deliver on their vision. Days spent building the A-frame house, followed by nights of swing-dancing in the town square, made her feel like a special community was coming together.

"I felt like there could be spaces that exist like this, outside of the couple of city centers that already exist, and outside of college campuses," Yu said.

A millennial shift in priorities

Edge Esmeralda attendees represent many millennials who yearn for a greater sense of community.

In many ways, a community like Esmerelda is a natural response from members of the "job-hopping generation" who pioneered remote work. What if that dream of flexible living could include a stronger sense of community?

When millennials came into the workforce around the 2008 recession, we saw a shift in how young people viewed life and work, Dr. Katherine Loflin, a sociologist known as "The City Doctor," told Business Insider.

Appetite for jobs in manufacturing and utilities — ones that required a worker to live nearby — declined significantly between 1990 and 2015, according to the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, demand for desk jobs swung up.

Loflin, who studies the characteristics that draw people to different places, said job seekers told her they craved flexibility and work-life balance. They didn't want to follow the conveyor belt into an industry that could crumble at any minute. They were more interested in developing transferable "soft skills" that could lead to bigger salary jumps and the option of remote work.

The pandemic turbocharged that trend: Suddenly, the fantasy of working from anywhere became a reality. But there was something missing. Big city life often felt lonely, with fewer opportunities to make easy connections, especially aswork became more remote. Some missed campus life, when they could easily befriend people they saw in class or on the quad.

"So many people refer to college as the best years of their lives," Zuegel said.

Because of the more effortless sense of community, Loflin said campus-like towns "harken back to a time where people felt alive, they felt in it together."

The isolation of the pandemic prompted Zuegel to think about cities and the ways they create or restrict access to community. "The pandemic kept people apart, but that actually showed us how much we need friends and family," she said.

Beta-testing a community

So far, some fellow tech workers are excited about Esmeralda and even see themselves living there. However, some online commenters have expressed skepticism toward Esmeralda, particularly concerning affordable housing, transportation, or if locals really want to share a home with wealthy VCs.

Loflin said it's common for city developers to overly focus on aesthetics, forgetting to consider other logistics, like long-term community building or accessible infrastructure.

Zuegel is aware of the issues that may come up, hence the slower timeline. "A lot of real estate developers' approach is they build it and then hope people will be a part of it," Zuegel said. "We want to take a much more incremental and gradual path."

She said the project is still in "phase 0," with hopes of involving the local Cloverdale community as much as possible.

Local residents are excited about the project, Cloverdale city manager Kevin Thompson told BI. For two decades, real estate developers have swept in and out of town with big ideas for the plot of land that Zuegel's team has contracted, only to burn out quickly.

Thompson said no group in recent years has gone this far in the due diligence process as Esmeralda's, which gives the locals hope that progress is happening.

"There's been a lot of tire kickers over the years," Thompson said. "We've never gotten to this point of anyone actually submitting any paperwork to change it."

Zuegel said the exact logistics of Esmeralda are subject to change as she continues to learn from Edge Esmeralda. Her vision involves a pedestrian-friendly community, safe for young kids to play outside on their own, and accessible enough for older adults. She also wants a mix of locals and visitors, as full-time residents will be the soul of Esmeralda.

Ultimately, the guiding light is for her to feel as she did in all her Chautauqua summers as a child. "The idea is the culture from a big city, but with sort of the small town charm."

• No-prep veneers are gaining popularity as a less invasive cosmetic dental option.
• Traditional veneers require tooth shaving, leading to long-term damage concerns.
• No-prep veneers can be costlier but align with the trend of subtle cosmetic enhancements.

For decades, celebrities, influencers, and high-fliers have relied on a technique to give them perfect smiles: veneers.

Or at least, they did. Demand for flawless teeth is still high. Getting your teeth shaved down irreversibly? Not so much.

These days, "no-prep veneers" are rising up as the new "it" procedure. The result is similar to traditional veneers, but there's no filing, drilling, or grinding involved to make room for the porcelain shells.

It's all part of the "quiet glow-up" trend. Forget Botox, people want microtox. Instead of face and neck lifts, cosmetic surgeons are fielding requests for biostimulators and skin boosters.

Proponents include Bryan Johnson, famed longevity seeker, who has spoken about his decision to get no-prep veneers to improve the whiteness of his teeth without shaving them down.

"Many young people see videos of people sharing their shaved-down teeth, and they are being educated about the high risk" of long-term damage, Dr. Lilya Horowitz, cosmetic and general dentist and owner of Domino Dental, told Business Insider.

Horowitz says she has seen an uptick in people coming into her Brooklyn clinic for "low-risk" cosmetic tweaks like no-prep veneers to revamp broken, chipped, cracked, or discolored teeth.

"The more you know about the risks of cutting your teeth down, the more you will be motivated to seek more conservative options."

No-prep veneers are not for everyone. People with larger teeth or more severely discolored teeth may fare better with traditional veneers. Plus, they're no cheaper — often more expensive. Still, in this era of subtle "tweakments," they're emerging as the go-to job in cosmetic dentistry.

Skip the drilling

Both traditional and no-prep veneers start the same way: after a good cleaning and polishing, your dentist gets 3D scans of your teeth, dental radiographs, and high-res photos to create a prototype of your veneers.

If you're getting no-preps, the prototype will be placed on your teeth for an idea of the color, size, and new shape to ensure you're happy with the look.

If you're getting traditional veneers, the dentist will drill down your teeth before placing the prototype to make sure they fit.

The lab then starts the fabrication process for your custom porcelain veneers, which takes about two weeks. The material of choice for both is porcelain, but a much thinner porcelain is used for no-prep veneers.

Once they're produced, the veneers are ready to be placed on your teeth for your final approval.

There is a very specific sterilization protocol before the bonding process. That removes any plaque and bacteria before the veneers are bonded onto your teeth with a resin cement.

How we fell out of love with traditional veneers

The practice of covering up dental imperfections with porcelain veneers began in the early 1980s. A decade or so later, it went mainstream.

"I think we really started seeing them gain popularity, or in the very least the general public becoming more aware of them, in the late 1990s when many actors and actresses in Hollywood were opting for large, white, more obvious veneers," Los Angeles-based cosmetic dentist Dr. Jon Marashi, whose clients include Ryan Seacrest, Kate Hudson, and Ben Affleck, told BI.

When veneers first emerged, the procedure was less invasive, since the material of choice — feldspathic porcelain — was very thin and could fit neatly on most teeth.

Since the early 2000s, stronger materials have emerged that are better at covering up imperfections.

These materials, such as zirconia or lithium disilicate, are now the standard. They're up to 50% thicker, making them less fragile and easier to work with for both veneers (covering the front of the tooth) and crowns (wrapping around the whole tooth).

That thickness also requires more room. Dentists should only shave off, at most, 0.5mm per tooth, but the thick material can cover up imprecision.

Some practitioners "excessively drill a tooth down to a tiny nub" to speed up the job, Marashi said. "Unfortunately, over the years, there has been a tendency for the tooth to be excessively drilled, and I think that's why we're seeing the pendulum shift toward the no-drill option."

Teeth aren't like hair or skin; they won't just grow back, which makes the traditional veneers route more "permanent."

That's a bitter pill for Rebecca Bacon, a 32-year-old speech-language pathologist who got traditional veneers in 2009, when she was 16. In high school, she was self-conscious about two of her teeth that grew smaller than average. Eventually her parents and dentist agreed on a solution: her teeth were shaved down and covered with perfect porcelain shells.

For a while, her new pearly whites were excellent. But cracks started to show — literally — no matter how carefully she chewed her food. "My veneers aren't great," Bacon told BI. "One has slipped and shows a sliver of tooth at the top and the other cracked and needed to be fixed. They were supposed to last 20 years! I hate that I still can't bite into apples."

She wonders if this would be easier to fix if she'd had the option of no-preps.

Patients are gravitating toward no-prep for their smile makeovers

In a way, no-preps are like retro veneers, using the same feldspathic porcelain as they did in the 80s.

The difference? A little more finesse because today's dentists have been doing veneers since they started and the practice come on leaps and bounds.

If you're deciding between the two, the first stage is to discuss your ultimate goals with your dental professional for a clear understanding of how you want to improve your smile.

With no-preps, "the original tooth remains entirely intact," Marashi said. That means your teeth should be good for the long haul. "If you decide to remove veneers later on, a laser can be used to remove the veneers and return the tooth to its original state."

However, your dentist will determine whether no-prep veneers are an option for you.

You may want to rethink no-prep if your goal is to significantly alter the color of your teeth.

"Patients with discolored front teeth that want a dramatic color change would also not be good candidate for this since no-prep veneers are very thin," Horowitz said. "Traditional veneers are able to hide more imperfections in teeth."

Plus, if you have excessively crowded or large teeth, you will probably need a bit of drilling.

The deciding factor is how far out past the lip your teeth are. "Usually, if teeth are behind the wet/dry border of your lower lip, there is some room to build out. Building teeth out past that border is not recommended," Horowitz added.

No-prep does not necessarily mean a discounted price — some dental practices charge upwards of $3,500 per tooth for no-preps, which is more than some charge for traditional veneers.

"The reason for this is the sensitivity of the technique," Horowitz said. "It takes a lot more skills to remove very little or no tooth structure and create a beautiful result instead of drilling down the teeth and having a lot of room to work with."

Traditional veneers, on the other hand, can be faster because "it does not require as much time to over-drill a tooth compared to a delicate and conservative tooth preparation," Marashi said.

Take care of your pearly whites!

Keep in mind that, while veneers are made to last, the length of their lifespan fully depends on the skillset and execution of the dentist who applies them and post-treatment patient care.

"General studies have shown a 95% survival rate of porcelain veneers over a 10-year period," Horowitz said. "If well taken care of and bonded well to enamel, they can last multiple decades."

As long as your veneers are properly bonded, there should be no risk of plaque build-up or bacteria leakage beneath them, either.

Still, all veneers — like teeth — need TLC. That means brushing, flossing, and keeping up with regular cleanings as you always did with your teeth.

• Bill Gates is taking a look back at the code that started it all.
• The Microsoft cofounder this week published the code that became the first product of the company.
• Take a look at Microsoft's origins as the company turns 50 this month.

Microsoft is turning 50 this year, and Bill Gates is looking back at how the company got its start.

The Microsoft cofounder published a blog post on Wednesday about the code that would become the company's first product, which was the Altair Basic, an interpreter that translated code into instructions that the Altair 8800 microcomputer could read.

"That code remains the coolest code I've ever written to this day," Gates wrote. "It's amazing to think about how this one piece of code led to a half-century of innovation from Microsoft. Before there was Office or Windows 95 or Xbox or AI, there was the original source code — and I still get a kick out of seeing it, even all these years later."

At the end of his post, he included a PDF of the original source code for the Altair Basic — all 157 pages of it. You can check it out here.

In his blog post, Gates noted that late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen finished part of the code on a flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Microsoft was originally based. Gates shared other details on the source code, fittingly, in his memoir "Source Code," which came out in February.

Gates reflected on his childhood through his career into today in the book. He wrote that he was disinterested in school growing up, noting that his preschool teachers called him "rebellious" and said he showed a "complete lack of concern for any phase of school life."

Gates also wrote about his approach, decades later, to recruiting Steve Ballmer to Microsoft, saying he and Allen had agreed to a split of 64% and 36%, respectively, but Gates ended up giving a 4% stake to Ballmer to convince him to quit business school for Microsoft.

Gates' ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, has her own memoir, "The Next Day," out later this month.

• Bill Gates cofounded Microsoft 50 years ago and in hindsight, he'd do some things differently.
• He said in a recent podcast that he "turned out to be wrong" about some elements of building teams.
• He also said he was "pretty naive" when it came to politics.

Happy birthday to Microsoft.

The tech behemoth turns 50 this month. While it has revolutionized personal computing and become one of the world's biggest companies today, there are some things one of its leaders might've done differently if he could turn back time.

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates recently talked about the advice he'd give his younger self on a podcast featuring the three CEOs who've led Microsoft in the company's 50-year history: himself, his successor Steve Ballmer, and now Satya Nadella.

"Well, there was a lot of learning about how to grow the company and bring in different skill sets, how to manage people," he said. "I certainly at first thought that engineering skill meant you would be good at other things. That turned out to be wrong. So we had to really build teams in a more mixed, diverse set of skills than I expected."

Gates also said he'd have advised his younger self to be more politically savvy.

"You know, I might tell my younger self, watch out for the government," he said. "I might have a little bit of a tussle with them. I didn't anticipate that. I was pretty naive about not engaging in Washington, DC, as soon as I should have."

Microsoft was the subject of a massive antitrust case in the 1990s brought by the US Department of Justice and several states, which alleged Microsoft was becoming a monopoly.

In 2000, a judge found that Microsoft had violated antitrust laws, and Microsoft was ordered to split into two companies. An appeals court later tossed the judge's order, and the Justice Department gave up its effort to split up Microsoft. The DOJ and Microsoft settled in 2001.

Gates has mulled advice to his younger self before. He periodically does "Ask Me Anything" sessions on Reddit, and in 2017, one user asked him, "If you could give 19-year-old Bill Gates some advice, what would it be?"

Gates answered: "I would explain that smartness is not single-dimensional and not quite as important as I thought it was back then. I would say you might explore the developing world before you get into your forties. I wasn't very good socially back then, but I am not sure there is advice that would fix that — maybe I had to be awkward and just grow up."

• Forestis is a five-star hotel tucked in Italy's Dolomites.
• The property connects guests with nature through saunas, locally sourced meals, and stunning views.
• I spent three nights at the hotel where luxury was around every corner.

The morning sun slowly crept up, illuminating the outline of the Dolomites. I squinted out my hotel suite's floor-to-ceiling windows in disbelief.

"They can't be that close," I murmured out loud, fearing I'd wake my friend sleeping near me.

It was still largely dark outside, and I begged the sun to rise faster.

Ages later (realistically just 20 minutes), light illuminated each jagged peak.

The mountains were, in fact, that close.

This time, I didn't think twice about waking my friend. In our PJs, we hurried onto our balcony at Forestis to get a little closer to the range.

As we sipped coffee and admired the striking views, we feared the morning was setting an unrealistic standard for the rest of our stay.

Shockingly, the views weren't even the best part of Forestis.

Forestis is tucked in Italy's Dolomites mountain range.

The five-star hotel sits 5,905 meters above sea level near the Italian town of Brixen.

In 1912, the property was originally planned to be a sanatorium built by the Austrian monarchy.

The area's fresh spring water, mountain air, and nature were thought to provide an ideal environment for healing. Construction started, but the plans were never finished as war sprung across the region.

In 2000, hotelier Alois Hinteregger discovered the abandoned building, which his family purchased and opened as a hotel in 2010.

A decade later, Alois' son Stefan and his partner, Teresa Unterthiner, expanded the property and transformed it into the five-star retreat it is today.

Three towers of suites and a private villa complete the resort.

My friend and I arrived at the property at night. We drove up the winding Plose Mountain, and the lights from the nearby town slowly disappeared.

Even at night, it was clear that Forestis was a grand property. Three towers stretch toward the sky, home to 40 suites and two penthouses. Adjoining the towers is a historic building with suites, hotel rooms, a restaurant, a bar, and a spa.

While the sanatorium never operated as planned, one completed building did serve as a doctor's residence in the early 20th century. That building has been remodeled and restored to a private villa with a spa and garden for 10 guests.

Rates at the five-star property start at $865, depending on the time of year, and include breakfast for two. Business Insider received a media rate for the three-night stay.

Piney references are across the entire property.

From rooms with spruce-paneled walls to a spa using mountain pine and Swiss stone pine scents, Forestis is consistent in its theme.

The resort's goal is to connect guests with the four elements, and for three days, it was impossible to forget I was surrounded by nature.

Suites feature floor-to-ceiling glass windows that frame the mountains. Meanwhile, each suite's walls, floors, and ceiling are paneled in spruce.

As I stepped into my tower suite, the forest theme continued. Every inch of the room was covered in spruce wood, besides one wall dedicated to glass windows.

A king-sized bed filled one corner facing the suite's floor-to-ceiling windows, and across the room was an L-shaped seating area. At the front of the room was a balcony with a daybed big enough for two.

Toward the entrance to the room was a large closet area and a stone-inspired bathroom with a double vanity, shower, and tub. Here, rock had been ground into plaster and covered the bathroom walls — an element I spotted across the resort.

One cabinet held complimentary drinks and snacks; a new treat, such as truffles and chocolates, arrived just before bedtime each evening.

The room's design was simple — there was no artwork or decor. Couch cushions and bed sheets were in grays and whites, and it seemed like all focus was directed toward the nearby Dolomites.

While it was hard to leave the breathtaking room, the resort's highlight was the spa and pool.

After waking up to the striking mountain views, my friend and I considered never leaving the suite. We could call room service when hungry and spend the day admiring the mountains.

It was tempting, but we headed downstairs to explore the spa.

While we considered never leaving the suite, exiting the spa was even more challenging.

At the heart of the 21,500-square-foot spa was the most impressive pool I've ever seen. Unsurprisingly, the pool had views of the Dolomites. Half of it was indoors, and the other was outdoors. Guests could swim between the two through sliding glass doors.

The area also had loungers, daybeds, a water station with small snacks, a sauna, and a steam room.

A hallway led to another wing of the spa, which had two more indoor saunas, one at 185 degrees Fahrenheit and another at 158 degrees. There was a cold plunge, a silent room with a fireplace, and a tea lounge.

A door led outdoors to the fifth sauna, which was tucked inside a traditional South Tyrolean wooden house, and a second outdoor cold plunge.

While access to these amenities is included in the stay, the property's spa also offers treatments like massages, facials, scrubs, and manicures.

Here, guests discover the magic of saunas and cold plunging.

Beyond spa offerings, Forestis has a daily calendar of activities for guests.

My friend and I debated between meditation sessions and guided hikes. Ultimately, we decided to join the daily complimentary sauna ritual. Celtic practices inspire Forestis' spa, and perhaps this one encapsulated that the most.

Saro, a member of the spa team, led the ritual. We stepped inside the hot sauna with two other guests.

As steam rose from the rocks, Saro turned on powerful instrumental music, flicked open a large fan, and danced for the next 15 minutes. New essential oils were thrown onto the rocks every five minutes, enveloping the sauna in a new (typically pine) scent.

We focused on breathing as we were hit with waves of heat. Meditating through the hot air was relaxing, incredibly challenging, and rewarding.

As Saro wrapped up the ritual, he encouraged us all to cold plunge.

We felt both energized and relaxed, and after that, my friend and I were hooked.

Each night, a seven-course dinner was served.

A luxury resort wouldn't be complete without fine dining, and that's exactly what we discovered at Forestis.

The restaurant served three menus each evening: a seven-course Forestis menu, a seven-course detox menu, and an à la carte menu.

The menus change each day, and, of course, the dishes are inspired by the forest and local ingredients.

We dined on salads with South Tyrolean apples, vegan ravioli with fennel, gnocchi and herbs, duck breast, and an impressive array of desserts.

The dinner costs $140 and can be added to your stay.

In the morning, I indulged in the most extravagant breakfast buffet I've ever seen.

My friend and I spent an afternoon with pastry chef Irene, where we saw what local ingredients were being incorporated into the morning pastries and evening desserts. We infused the flavor of local hay in white chocolate syrup and made kipfel cookies.

The next morning, Irene's creations were on display in the most extravagant breakfast buffet I've ever seen.

I eyed eight different pastries, including gluten-free and dairy-free options. There were more than five freshly baked breads, five milk choices, five cheeses, seven types of smoked fish and cured meats, five types of butter, yogurt, fruits, cereal, and an entire room dedicated to fresh juice. Beyond that, there was a breakfast menu where I eyed hot dishes.

Again, it was tempting to never leave.

Outside, Forestis has direct access to ski slopes and summer hiking.

The property offers guided hikes and access to four bike routes.

A little chilly for hiking, my friend and I spent our mornings skiing on Plose Mountain. The inconveniences of skiing — traffic, long walks to the chair lift, and lugging gear — disappeared. Forestis has ski-in, ski-out access, along with a ski room to store gear.

My three nights at Forestis were a modern escape in nature — and I'm unsure I'll find a spa that can ever compare.

The stay at Forestis flashed by, but the property left a lasting impression.

In three days, I skied new mountains, soaked in stunning pools, and fell even more in love with Italy and the Dolomites.

And I still haven't forgotten the spa. A few weeks after returning home to Denver, my friend and I searched for nearby saunas — itching to recreate any semblance of Forestis' spa experience.

• When I was called back to the office in 2022, I felt less connected to my kids.
• I had to hear about their accomplishments while stuck in my car in traffic.
• In early 2024, after a silent crisis with my wife and son, I found a way to spend more time at home.

On the first morning that I had to return to the office, my 4-year-old daughter appeared in the kitchen, clutching a stick-figure drawing of our house — her tiny hand insisting I take it before I left for work.

"Daddy, will you come back before the sun disappears?" she asked, staring at the window where we would usually be counting birds this early in the morning, at 6:30.

I'd been working remotely for two years, from 2020 through 2021, but in March 2022 I was called back to the office. It marked the beginning of an absence with my children that I didn't know how to fill.

Returning to the office robbed me of precious time with my kids

Between 2022 and 2023, I left at 6:30 a.m. and returned under dark skies.

My car became a territory of guilt while stuck in traffic: my wife's messages about Lucas, 7, writing "dinosaur" for the first time was my only window into a milestone I missed.

I remember the second week of April 2022, when a notification interrupted my afternoon at the office.

It was my son's teacher, her tone concerned: "Today, during free drawing time, he asked if you still live at home."

At night, I tried to reconnect. I'd rush through dinner and ask about their day, but their stories came in fragments.

"Did you see me climb the park wall?" my son asked once, chewing with his eyes glued to his plate. I hadn't, and he knew it.

Those afternoon outings — reserved for home office days when work eased up — had grown scarce. Now, back in the office, even the evening sun bore witness to my absences.

I invented gestures that fit into the cracks of time

I left a star-shaped cookie in their lunchboxes every Monday — our "secret signature" of the week.

I recorded quick voice memos during my commute. One was: "Crossing the bridge! Anyone spot a dragon around here?"

On Fridays, I'd park five blocks from home and walk while replaying their messages. It was my ritual to leave work on the street.

None of these gestures filled the void, though.

In early 2024, I had one late night at work too many

The trigger for change was a night in February 2024. I came home at 9:30 p.m. to find my wife on the stairs, holding a half-empty cup of cold tea.

My son had "cried today because you weren't here to help with his math homework," she said. "He told me only you could explain the problems."

The next day, I proposed to my boss an idea that had once felt unthinkable: reducing my time in the office to focus on freelance work that directly benefited the company. My boss agreed — "for one month." One month became 12.

The following week, I delivered a freelance project in half the time I'd set and offered another proposal: "Give me two days at home, and I'll double my output." It worked.

Since March 2024, I've worked three days remotely and two days in the office

My new schedule isn't the perfect solution but it's made a huge difference

On office days, I leave at 7:15 a.m. — 45 minutes later than before. These extra minutes are revelatory. When I left at 6:30 a.m., my attempts to connect to my kids had been drowned in the rush.

Now, I have breakfast with them. I prepare scrambled eggs with cheese, which I try to cut into heart shapes, and we discuss their school schedule, after-school activities, and weekend plans.

In both of my children's lunch boxes, I tuck a shirt button with a note: "Press this if you miss me." (At dinner one day, my son told me he pressed it 20 times.)

Then, I drive them to school. Being there to hear their "Bye, Daddy!" as they hop out of the car is everything. That alone rewrites the meaning of a "productive morning" for me.

What I lost and learned

Yes, I missed things while I was in the office: I wasn't there when my daughter overcame her fear of the tall slide or when my son read his first sentence by himself.

Ultimately, though, I learned a valuable lesson: Kids don't need parents who are always there — they need parents who can turn five minutes into memories.

For two years, I carried the weight of exhaustion and grief on my shoulders. Today, my kids no longer remember the mornings I left at 6:30 a.m., but they keep the magic button in their treasure drawer.

In my wallet, I keep a crumpled drawing from that first morning in 2022: a scribbled sun labeled "Daddy, come back before dark." I came back. Not always on time, but always with the same certainty: They are the only projects I'll have for the rest of my life.

• This month, Aldi is stocking its shelves with easy meals and spring-themed snacks and sweets.
• Celebrate Easter with Bake Shop's carrot cake sandwich cookies or Southern Grove's trail mixes.
• Stock up on meal options like a pulled pork mac and cheese flatbread and vegan dumplings.

This April, Aldi is ready to help you enjoy the spring season — and get a head start on summer — with a wide variety of new products.

From mimosa mocktails to gluten-free pizza dough, there are plenty of fun treats to choose from.

Here are the 15 best items you'll find on Aldi's shelves this month, each for $7 or less.

Get an early taste of summer with Mama Cozzi's Pizza Kitchen pulled pork mac and cheese flatbread.

If you're already starting to crave some classic cookout flavors, try this pulled pork mac and cheese flatbread from Mama Cozzi's Pizza Kitchen.

Loaded with smoked pulled pork, barbecue sauce, and smoky cheddar mac and cheese, each flatbread will give you a taste of summer without requiring you to break out your grill or smoker.

Plus, they're only $6 each.

Stock the freezer with Kirkwood spring chicken nuggets.

Aldi gives classic dinosaur chicken nuggets a makeover with fun new shapes for springtime like bunnies, ducks, flowers, and butterflies.

A 24-ounce bag costs just over $6.

Prepare for spring gatherings with the Southern Grove trail mixes.

Southern Grove has two new limited-edition flavors of trail mix this season.

The springtime mix includes "yummy chow" cereal pieces, pastel-colored candies, peanuts, peanut butter drops, mini peanut butter cups, and dark-chocolate chips.

The honey-bunny mix includes honey-roasted peanuts, pastel-colored candies, bits of white chocolate, marshmallows, yogurt-covered raisins, and graham cracker pieces.

Try one or both flavors for just over $4 a bag.

Or, bring some of Bake Shop's carrot cake sandwich cookies to the party.

Before heading to your next family gathering, grab a pack (or two) of Bake Shop's carrot cake sandwich cookies.

Each sandwich features a rich, creamy layer of cream cheese frosting between two soft carrot-cake-style cookies.

A 12-pack retails for just under $5.

Snack on Clancy's flavored kettle corn.

Carrot cake is a popular dessert this time of year, but if you're looking for something lighter to snack on, try Clancy's carrot-cake-flavored kettle corn.

Or, if carrot cake isn't your thing, try the brand's sweet vanilla flavor.

Each 5-ounce bag retails for just over $2.

Start a weekend morning off right with a special Baker's Corner pancake mix.

For those slower weekend mornings, skip the usual buttermilk pancakes and go for a fun spring variety from Baker's Corner.

Choose from raspberries and cream with white chocolate icing or carrot cake with cream cheese flavored icing for $4 a box.

Ring in spring with some blondie mixes by Baker's Corner.

This month, Baker's Corner is offering two fun twists on classic blondie recipes.

Choose from either strawberry and white chocolate or snickerdoodle flavors for just $3 each.

Try Earth Grown's new vegan dumplings.

The new Earth Grown dumplings make the perfect vegan dinner.

Tofu-vegetable and Thai-basil varieties are available for $4 a box, and both come with a sweet and savory soy sauce for dipping.

Toast to the season with Summit's organic mocktail mimosas.

For all spring's celebrations, make the moment special with a delicious mocktail mimosa from Summit. Four packs are available for just under $6.

A bottle of Resting Brunch Face's mango mimosa retails for just $6.

In addition to non-alcoholic beverages, Aldi has classic cocktail options like this mango mimosa from Resting Brunch Face for $6.

Upgrade charcuterie boards and picnics with Emporium Selection goat cheese logs.

Spring is just starting, but it's never too early to enjoy some summer flavors.

This month, Aldi is offering four flavors of Emporium Selection goat cheese logs — hot honey, double cream Amarena cherry, mango chili, and spring garden — for just under $4 each.

Satisfy your sweet tooth with edible cookie dough from Bake House Creations.

This month, Aldi is stocking its shelves with edible cookie dough cups featuring either a gooey fudge or caramel center.

Each box retails for $5 and contains four cups of cookie dough.

Everyone can enjoy pizza Fridays with the return of the LiveGFree gluten-free pizza dough.

Aldi, which has long been popular for its gluten-free offerings, is bringing back its gluten-free pizza dough in mid-April.

The fresh, refrigerated dough comes ready to roll out, but it can also be frozen to use at a later time.

Each 12-ounce package costs just over $3.

Make the most of warmer weather by enjoying some Sundae Shoppe churro ice cream sandwiches.

With two cinnamon-churro-flavored cookies and a thick middle layer of caramel-flavored ice cream, these sweet treats are sure to hit the spot as the weather warms up.

Each box retails for $5 and includes four ice cream sandwiches.

Show mom you care with a box of Moser Roth chocolate truffles.

Mother's Day is quickly approaching, so make sure to grab a box of Moser Roth chocolate truffles, coming to Aldi in late April.

Each box includes 12 truffles with flavors like passionfruit, caramel-macchiato, dark chocolate, and strawberry for only $4.50.

• Mike Kurtz, the founder of Mike's Hot Honey, came up with the idea in college.
• He made hot honey for fun, not selling it as a product until over a decade later.
• Kurtz shared his tips for turning your side hustle into a business, even when you doubt yourself.

Mike's Hot Honey, ubiquitous in US grocery stores and pizza chains, technically got its start in Brazil.

It was 2003. Mike Kurtz was a junior in college, completing a semester in Salvador. After a national park trip, Kurtz and his friends stopped at a pizzeria for lunch. The shop had an unusual condiment, one he hadn't seen before: honey infused with whole chili peppers.

When Kurtz returned to America, he spent his senior year tinkering with his own version, a more homogenous mixture "with a really nice level of heat that could cut through a slice of pizza," Kurtz, now 43, told Business Insider.

He started making jars of hot honey for friends and family as a hobby. Kurtz loved to cook, often making homemade pizzas to accompany his honey creations.

It took six years for Mike's Hot Honey to leave the hobby phase. Kurtz spent years working in the music industry and later, as a travel blogger. Still, the idea of turning his hot honey side hustle into a business stuck: Kurtz finally started selling jars of it at a popular Brooklyn pizzeria in 2010.

In 2025, over 20 years since Kurtz first ate that fateful slice in Brazil, Mike's Hot Honey is projected to make $60 million, earning 60% of its revenue in retail and the rest in food service. Trailblazing the "swicy" food trend, the brand recently announced collaborations with KFC, Dunkin', and Heineken, as well as with famed pizzerias like Chicago's Lou Malnati's.

Kurtz shared tips on how to stay committed to an idea, even when life gets busy — or when you worry it's too late to take a career risk.

Stay curious

Kurtz spent his senior year of college at UMass taking frequent trips to New York City. After doing some online research, he was drawn to a unique location: the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx, where many of the city's restaurants get their produce.

Open from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., the market was the best place to find the widest range of chilies, especially in the mid-aughts, when his college town's options were limited to jalapeños. "I was just curious, the first time I went there," he said.

He found it to be "like a stock market for produce" and would go down on weekends with a half gallon of whole milk in his backpack. He'd take sips between taste-testing peppers at the market as a way to clean his palate, then bring bags of peppers back home.

Kurtz tried different infusion techniques in his apartment, drizzling each batch on slices of pizza. He said that a genuine interest in hot honey and pizza made it easy to stay committed to finding a recipe that worked.

Kurtz, who describes himself as a "generally curious person," also found his future employer — and the official starting point of Mike's Hot Honey — by poking around on a now-defunct pizza blog called Slice.

He kept seeing the same handle in the comments section. "I'm like, who is this guy? He's a serial commenter on every post," he said. Kurtz later read a profile of the commenter, Paul Giannone, known as Paulie Gee, who made wood-fired pizzas in his Greenpoint apartment. Later, when Giannone opened his famed Brooklyn pizza restaurant Paulie Gee's, Kurtz followed as a pizza maker, eventually selling his hot honey there.

Get early feedback

Right from the beginning, Kurtz received feedback on his idea: he gave away homemade jars as holiday gifts to his loved ones. Some told him the hot honey was really good and could be a business someday, an idea that he didn't pursue at the time.

Nonetheless, knowing people liked his product gave him emotional fuel to persevere. That is what pushed him to approach Giannone with his hot honey. It became a central ingredient in the restaurant's "Hellboy" slice, now its most popular pie.

Working from the restaurant's open kitchen — what Paulie Gee's staff referred to as the "pizza theater" — Kurtz could watch people's reactions as they bit into the Hellboy. Gradually, he started making and selling containers of Mike's Hot Honey from the counter at Paulie Gee's, gaining popularity by word of mouth. Eventually, he found a distributor and sold Mike's Hot Honey to its first retailer, Whole Foods, in 2014.

He said getting early, positive feedback was crucial to his success because it motivated him to continue. "Don't be afraid to just launch something, as new and rough around the edges as it is," Kurtz said. "It gets a lot easier to make adjustments to an idea than trying to fine-tune something in your own echo chamber."

Spend time with successful risk-takers

At 29, Kurtz's career in music was affected by the 2008 recession. The industry was "not in a healthy place," he said, and he split his time between working at a booking agency and moonlighting as a pizza maker at Paulie Gee's.

Kurtz had a dilemma: he loved making pizza, and he wanted to give his hot honey dream a shot by incorporating it into the restaurant's menu. At the same time, he was almost 30 and had invested nearly his entire career into music supervision. In a tough economic climate, he felt lucky to have his booking agency job.

"Even young people sort of get it in their head that it's too late for them to switch gears and try something different," Kurtz said.

Getting to know Giannone helped him make a decision. At 56, Giannone quit his 30-year IT career to open a restaurant — despite having no formal restaurant experience.

Seeing how the risk paid off for Giannone influenced Kurtz's own leap of faith. Even in the early days of Paulie Gee's, "you could see he was so happy in the restaurant," Kurtz said. "Witnessing Paulie's journey of opening the pizzeria, that gave me the confidence I needed to really go for it with the honey."