• We moved from Los Angeles to Colorado in 2020 and thought our move would be temporary.
• When we found out I was pregnant, we started to wonder whether staying would be better for us.
• In the end, we stayed in Colorado. We love living near our parents, and we're less stressed here.

In 2020, my husband and I packed up our apartment in Los Angeles and drove to Colorado, where we'd both grown up. I'm a screenwriter, and my husband works at an augmented reality startup — both unpredictable, high-pressure jobs. LA had always made sense professionally, even when it stressed us out personally and financially.

Since moving to the West Coast in our early 20s, we had never been out of LA for more than a few weeks at a time, but with the rise of remote work, it felt like the right moment. We thought we'd be there for a year at most — long enough to do some hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be close to family and the splendor of the Rocky Mountains for more than just a quick weekend or holiday trip.

But when I got pregnant, we started asking ourselves some big questions.

We started to wonder if we'd ever move back to LA

What would it be like to raise a child in LA? Could we keep up with the cost of housing, childcare, and healthcare? Given the tumult in the entertainment industry and the uncertainty of a tech startup, could we rely on steady work?

We crunched the numbers. We could do it, but we'd have to make some sacrifices. A small apartment. No margin for overspending. Our baby's college fund or our retirement funds, but not both. And paying for daycare was out of the question, which meant one of us would have to quit our job to be a stay-at-home parent. Was the proximity worth it, and was the stress?

And the biggest question of all: When we thought about raising our family, what image came to mind?

Then, when we broke the news about my pregnancy to our respective parents, their unbridled joy confirmed what we had already been feeling. We wanted to raise our baby surrounded by that joy.

Staying in Denver was the right move for us

So we signed an 18-month lease for an apartment in Denver. The cost of living was still high, and both of our careers remained unpredictable. But we had something invaluable: support. Two sets of grandparents, both within driving distance.

When our son was born, they showed up with enchiladas and apple pie, with confident arms willing to rock the baby to sleep at four in the morning, with the tender blessings of someone we wholly trusted, saying, "Go lie down, I've got it."

There were days I worried we'd taken a step back by not returning to LA. That we were pressing pause on our careers, especially for me as a screenwriter, with the industry so concentrated in California. But as the newborn haze began to lift, I started to see it differently.

In many creative fields, especially as a freelancer, there's no HR department, no paid parental leave, no road map. A startup doesn't offer much certainty, either. What we needed — more than a city, more than a scene — was a support system.

This isn't a story of everything magically working out. Daycare in Denver can be prohibitively expensive, but we've figured out a childcare schedule that works for us and the grandparents so we can do our jobs. Work opportunities ebb and flow, and the hustle is much harder all these miles away. And truthfully, I miss the momentum of LA — the energy, the industry, the hunger.

But then I step outside and gaze in wonder at the mountains on the horizon. I see my baby's tiny hand wrapped around my dad's finger, and I feel it in my chest: this is the life we couldn't afford in LA — not just financially but emotionally.

We get to raise our child knowing he will have a close relationship with his grandparents. We're not stretched to the point of breaking. We haven't had to choose between our work and our child. We get to be present. That kind of presence — that kind of joy — is worth everything.

• Justin Ghio and his fiancé rent a house in San Diego to save on housing costs.
• Renting has given them the financial flexibility to take vacations and consider having a third kid.
• The couple is far from alone in putting off homeownership.

Justin Ghio and his fiancé wanted to make the plunge into homeownership when interest rates plummeted at the height of the pandemic in 2020. They made offers on four houses in San Diego, but they were outbid on all of them.

Soon enough, home prices and mortgage rates were soaring amid a buying frenzy, and they felt they'd missed their opportunity to buy.

"I'd always hoped to own a home," Ghio said. "With the rising interest rates, it just fiscally wasn't seemingly responsible to make that decision to try to buy."

But now, Ghio, a 35-year-old talent director, says he's relieved they didn't stretch their budget to buy. Renting is significantly cheaper than owning a home in San Diego, like in many hot housing markets, and Ghio is among a growing number of Americans choosing to keep renting rather than take on a hefty mortgage.

Three years ago, the couple and their eight-year-old twin daughters moved into their current rental home in a quiet San Diego neighborhood near their kids' school. They pay $3,795 a month in rent for their four-bedroom, two-bath house with a pool. Ghio appreciates not having to worry about paying for home maintenance and repairs — their landlord provides regular gardening and pool service.

And the rent is affordable. Between Ghio's salary and his fiancé's work as an esthetician, the couple brings in about $225,000 a year. They're enjoying the extra money they're saving by renting.

"Renting feels like we make over $200,000. I think buying would feel like we're broke," Ghio said. "And you don't work 12, 15 years after school to feel broke again — at least, it's a hard pill to swallow."

The decision not to buy felt especially strategic when Ghio was laid off from his previous job in talent acquisition last year. He applied for new jobs in multiple states, knowing that, because they rent, they had more flexibility to move. He's since found a new role at a translation services company in the city, but he's had to take a hefty pay cut.

Are you renting a home longer than you thought you would, or have you become a renter again later in life? Share your experience with this reporter at [email protected].

Zillow estimates that their rental house would sell for about $1 million. A mortgage on a comparable house in their neighborhood would likely far exceed their rent, not to mention the costs of home maintenance, insurance, and purchasing fees. If they were to buy their rental house with a 20% down payment and about a 7% interest rate, it would cost the couple about $5,300 a month, before taxes and insurance, according to Zillow's mortgage calculator.

This isn't unusual. A study from the National Association of Realtors found that in 2024, homebuyers purchasing starter homes in 50 major cities spent over $1,000 more on housing costs each month than renters did.

The couple has avoided becoming "house-poor," and instead, they budget more for vacations and their kids' extracurriculars. Ghio doesn't want to sacrifice the family's quality of life and "the ability to enrich our girls' childhood in a way that is unique and fun through experiences" just to own a home.

The couple is also saving for their wedding and considering having a third child.

"We're trying to be really pragmatic and just be like, we cannot afford a child if we buy a house," Ghio said. "The expenses would probably push us to the brink."

Renting a home seems like the smartest choice for now. But if circumstances change down the road, Ghio said he's open to buying.

"We're looking at things in two-year, three-year, four-year chunks," he said. "I'm not going to draw a line in the sand and say, 'No, never.'"

• Companies are listing fewer jobs and taking longer to fill them, frustrating job seekers.
• Economic uncertainty and ghost jobs are two key reasons some positions aren't getting filled.
• Some companies are delaying hiring, while others post roles to maintain a pipeline of candidates.

Four years, 1,000 applications, and a dozen interviews. As their job searches drag on, Americans tell Business Insider they're wondering if companies want to fill open roles at all.

Since last fall, BI has heard from more than 750 struggling job seekers, ranging between the ages of 18 and 76. Many shared frustrations about open roles they suspect were never filled — either because the posting stayed up for months, or the company went silent after they applied or interviewed.

"There are some firms on LinkedIn that are always advertising the same position and have been for almost a year now," Felipe Martins previously told Business Insider, before his 15-month job search ended. "I've applied to these positions at least half a dozen times now."

Martins' frustrations echo a trend that's become more common in recent years: job postings are taking longer to be filled, if they're filled at all. It's a key part of the US hiring slowdown — and why it's taking longer for many Americans to find work, even as the unemployment rate remains low, said Stephanie Hao, a senior economist at the workforce analytics provider Revelio Labs.

In October 2019, about 91% of job postings from companies in the Russell 3000 — a stock market index that monitors the performance of the 3,000 largest US public firms — were filled within six months, per data shared with BI by Revelio Labs. Of the jobs posted in October 2024, fewer than half were filled within the same six-month timeframe. Revelio Labs tracks job postings on the websites of Russell 3000 companies and cross-references them with LinkedIn profiles to estimate how many roles were filled.

Additionally, job postings from these companies have fallen from a peak of over 950,000 in 2022 to roughly 650,000 as of March, per Revelio data.

"Companies might leave job postings up, even when they have little intention of hiring, especially in uncertain labor markets," Hao said.

Why companies aren't filling open jobs

Hao said that some companies may have posted jobs they intended to fill, but heightened economic uncertainty in recent months caused them to pause or scrap those plans. Caution around inflation, tariffs, AI, and federal spending cuts has many CEOs using "the P-word."

Many job seekers BI heard from pointed to ghost jobs — positions posted online that companies aren't actively hiring for — as a key reason for their long job searches. However, Hao said roles that go unfilled due to economic conditions aren't quite ghost jobs.

"There's a difference between companies that put up postings with the intention to hire — and they don't end up hiring anyone due to not being able to find a good candidate or economic uncertainty — and not really having an intention of hiring somebody," Hao said.

She added that ghost jobs may be posted to give the impression that the company is growing, to keep a pipeline of potential candidates open, or to give overworked staff hope that their employers will soon hire help.

In some cases, companies might be hesitant to commit to hiring plans, but want to be prepared if they decide to move forward, so they'll post a job just in case, Hao said.

"While companies may not be actively hiring, they may still want to build a talent pipeline for the future, or may reconsider if an especially qualified candidate applies," she added.

Regardless of why a company isn't filling a role, it all adds up to frustration for the applicants in limbo.

Looking ahead, Hao said it's difficult to forecast the hiring landscape, but unless economic conditions change, many job openings could remain unfilled.

"Companies may not know what the hiring situation will look like, so I think it benefits them to always have a pipeline of people they can reach out to if they do end up hiring for a specific role," Hao said.

Sarah Cevallos misses her old job.

The 41-year-old spent much of her career building her own health tech practice in California, helping cancer patients navigate the complexities of their diagnoses. For a while, the role was rewarding — she felt her work was helping people. After she left in 2021, she bounced between opportunities at other health startups.

She was laid off from her most recent employer in summer 2024, but was confident her résumé would quickly secure her a C-Suite role elsewhere. For eight months, rejection after rejection wore down her morale.

"Being unemployed is not easy," Cevallos said. When she landed her current job — also in health tech, but with a heavier focus on finance instead of patient care — she felt a mix of relief and disappointment.

"I am currently at an organization where I am using a fraction of my skills, and I supplement my income with other consulting work," she told Business Insider. She added that she "had to make a decision": wait for the perfect role, or start earning a paycheck.

Taking a so-so job because you need the money isn't new, but the 2025 job search is especially characterized by a dwindling number of postings, the threat of artificial intelligence, and a high likelihood of being ghosted. The steady rise since early 2023 in the number of job seekers who count as long-term unemployed is a stark contrast to the quick job-hopping of the pandemic economic recovery.

Flip-flopping policy from the White House and tanking economic sentiment mean white-collar industries are wary of hiring. Traditional paths to work at nonprofits, science labs, and government agencies have been hit by sweeping federal funding and staffing cuts. Employees are staying put, even if they aren't happy in their roles.

In recent months, BI has heard from over 750 Americans across generations who are on the job hunt. Many don't have the luxury of choosing whether their passion or the money matters most at work. They're taking whatever they can find.

"It's got to be very, very difficult to make the choice of paying the bills or finding purpose at work," Kyle M.K., a talent strategy advisor at the job-search platform Indeed told BI. "Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, that is a decision that many people have to make."

Of course, there are still some bright spots in the overall economic outlook. The US added a higher-than-expected number of jobs in April, and inflation cooled. Some economists are also rolling back their predictions of a 2025 recession.

For now, Cevallos is grateful she earns enough money to afford expenses and save for her daughter's college education. Someday, she hopes to pivot back to helping oncology patients — the "industry that I dedicated my life to."

From dream job to 'I'll accept almost anything'

While many Americans do have a dream job in mind, some are finding that the work they feel most excited about isn't what pays the bills. A February report by the HR platform Nectar found that less than 40% of Americans are excited about their roles and responsibilities at work, and Gallup reported that employee engagement dropped to its lowest level in a decade last year.

"Unfortunately, sometimes people start a job and they realize it's not right for them, and they're either stuck or they're back in the job market," M.K. said. "Either way, not a great position for anyone to be in. It's not good for the job seeker. It's not good for the employer."

M.K. added that finding purpose in the work you do is "a very important part about being a human." Still, he said the economic climate has changed, and it's more common now for employees to focus on their foundational needs — like paying rent and affording groceries — over their psychological needs. This differs from a few years ago during "The Great Resignation," when Americans were quitting more often and prioritizing emotional fulfillment in their jobs, he said.

Herb Osborne, 71, can relate. Unable to afford retirement, he works full-time for a Bay Area business that makes olive oil and charcuterie accessories and combs through financial documents as a hotel auditor on weekends. His hours often stretch across seven days a week, leaving Osborne exhausted.

"I have not had a four- or five-day span of vacation in 10 years, and that tears at you," he said.

In an ideal world, Osborne wishes he were spending his 70s traveling and spending time with friends. He doesn't mind his current job, but he said the lack of PTO and work-life balance can feel crushing. He misses the joy he felt interacting with customers and leading staff in his early career — he held a string of managerial roles at Sharper Image, Little Caesars, and a jewelry store, and speaks of each one fondly.

"Financially, for me, it is really almost imperative that I work," he said, adding that he needs to bring home over $5,000 a month on top of his roughly $2,000 in Social Security to cover expenses. "I do work every day in order just to survive. And it's scary now at the age I'm at, because Social Security doesn't cover anything."

Abbey Owens, 21, is in a different life phase but facing a similar dilemma. The New York resident graduated this month with her bachelor's degree and, in a perfect scenario, she'd land a role in social media marketing. She's fascinated by marketing strategies, and after four years of studying and internships, she's "really good at it," she said. Since this past fall, she has applied to nearly 100 marketing and communications jobs, with no luck yet.

Because she wants to be financially independent postgrad, Owens said she's now open to taking any job she's "even somewhat" qualified for and would accept "any amount as long as it paid the bills."

"What I look for in a job has gotten so much broader in this process," she said. "It was very specific originally, and it's just really grown into: 'I'll accept almost anything.'" Her backup plan is to be a bartender.

However, M.K. said working a job you aren't happy doing has emotional consequences, even if it's necessary to earn a paycheck. He advised job seekers to prioritize jobs that best fit their skills and areas of interest, even if the job title or company itself is different from their initial goal. And, while people are hanging onto stability right now, M.K. said it doesn't necessarily mean they don't care about finding purpose at work. Some are likely biding their time until it feels safer to make a change.

"In a world of uncertainty, there is less movement between jobs and people are sticking around," he said. "But they haven't stopped searching for well-being."

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• You've heard of the "compliment sandwich" — softening a critique by bookending it with praise.
• There's a 3-step method you might find more helpful when having a difficult conversation.
• It's similar but takes the compliment sandwich a step further by closing on a suggested action step.

How do you effectively deliver constructive criticism to a colleague at work? Everyone who's ever done it (and anyone who's struggled to) knows it's not an easy conversation to have.

You probably also know, all too well, the makings of the "compliment sandwich," a long-relied-on fallback in cases like these.

It goes something like this: You open with a compliment to ease into the conversation, then segue into the critique you're really there to give, and finally close with another piece of praise to end on a good note.

While a compliment sandwich can be a solid starting framework (though it's not without its critics), a variation on it might offer a more effective way to share constructive feedback.

Daniel Post Senning and Lizzie Post, etiquette experts with the Emily Post Institute, told us about that method. Their book, "Emily Post's Business Etiquette," went on sale May 20.

"Compliment sandwiches work, I understand that idea too: You want to give someone enough positive reinforcement that they can take the negative," said Post Senning. "But let's take one of those positive reinforcements and try to make it as constructive as possible."

One 3-step alternative riffs on elements of the compliment sandwich while advancing it a step further. It's the praise-concern-suggest method.

Before you get into the conversation, give your colleague a heads-up about what kind of talk it's going to be — think of priming them for a difficult conversation.

"This lets someone know, 'Am I about to say yes to a conversation about something I need to take very seriously, something I need to be open-minded about, something really great to share?'" said Post. "Because 'Do you have a minute to talk?' could be about anything."

During the actual conversation, mention why you're bringing up the issue and what your coworker, not just you, stands to gain from the discussion and any resulting solution.

"Don't assume that someone else understands your good intentions, but be willing to state them, be explicit, and say the obvious thing," said Post Senning. "Directly talk about it being for their benefit as well. Make it clear that you care about them, particularly if it's going to be more difficult."

You might say you're raising the concern because you care about the success of a project you're working on together, or about their success at work, or your professional relationship with each other.

Then, you'd start the same way you would with a compliment sandwich: Offer a piece of praise, as some workplace research has indicated that this can be important.

"Don't just start off with the bad; wading into the shallow end first, not diving too deep too quick, gives you a chance to feel someone else out and get a sense of their response or reaction," said Post.

For many people, the hardest step is bringing up the issue at hand. You want to be direct and clear, and remember why you're having the conversation in the first place.

It can be challenging, however, "you have to be willing to raise problems if you want change," said Post Senning.

Where this method differs from the compliment sandwich is its ending. Rather than closing on a compliment, you offer a possible solution or action step to address the issue you just raised.

"The cost of admission to raising an issue where you want change in someone else's behavior is a willingness to participate in the solution in some way," said Post Senning. "They may or may not take it, but just having done enough work to offer some future direction, some willingness to participate, to not just dump a problem on someone's lap, is important."

Lastly, it can help to depersonalize the criticism so it's about the issue, not the person. One way to do this is to say something like, "If the shoe were on the other foot, I would hope that you would feel comfortable talking to me about this."

It's a way of saying, "This isn't about you, this is about what's going on here, the work that we're doing, and I would really hope the same standards would apply to me" if the roles were reversed, said Post Senning.

And, of course, the conversation doesn't necessarily end with your closing suggestion.

"Be ready to listen, be ready to negotiate," said Post Senning. "You might have an idea. It's one thing to listen, but then there's a follow-up step. You also have to be willing to stay flexible and actually hear what you've just been listening to and reformulate your thinking in relation to it in terms of priming yourself mentally on the other side of that equation."

• Elon Musk has said Optimus — Tesla's humanoid robot — is the company's most important product.
• The billionaire said this week that Tesla would have "thousands" of Optimus robots working in its factories by the end of the year.
• Chris Walti, Tesla's first Optimus lead, told BI that humanoid robots are wrong for factory work.

Elon Musk dreams of Tesla's Optimus robots working in huge numbers in factories — but not everyone is convinced.

Chris Walti, the former team lead for Tesla's robot, told Business Insider that humanoid robots like Optimus were the wrong option for factory work.

Walti told BI that, although humanoid robots were a fascinating technology with enormous potential, human-shaped ones would be less effective in warehouses, logistics, and manufacturing.

"It's not a useful form factor. Most of the work that has to be done in industry is highly repetitive tasks where velocity is key," said Walti, who built the development team for Optimus.

Shortly after Walti spoke to BI, Musk told CNBC on Tuesday that Tesla expects to have thousands of Optimus units working in its factories by the end of the year, and said he was confident the company would be producing a million robots a year by 2030.

Musk has said Optimus, a 5-foot-8 humanoid robot that the company has said could be used for factory roles and as a mechanoid personal assistant, will be "the biggest product ever of any kind."

Tesla has recently released videos showing Optimus dancing, cleaning, and taking out the trash.

But at the demo at the company's robotaxi reveal in October, the Optimus robots that served drinks and interacted with attendees were later revealed to have relied on remote human operators.

Tesla said last June that two Optimus robots were already working at one of its factories, though it did not specify their roles. Musk has previously said that Optimus could take over menial and dangerous tasks from human workers.

Tesla isn't the only automaker exploring using humanoid robots in factories. BMW struck a deal last year with robotics company Figure to test robots at its South Carolina plant, and Chinese EV companies BYD, Xpeng, and Nio have also experimented with the technology.

Walti worked at Tesla for seven years before leaving in 2022 to found Mytra, which uses slab-shaped robots that can move in any direction to transport payloads across warehouses through giant, cage-like structures of "cells."

Walti said these were "much simpler form factors" than humanoids.

He described humanoid robots as an engineering problem "multiple orders of magnitude" more difficult to solve than self-driving cars, because general-purpose robots like Optimus are designed to have a wider range of movements than a car on the road.

He said robotics was not yet advanced enough to deploy humanoid robots properly, adding they were "kind of a ninth-inning robotics problem, and we're in the third inning."

Walt said the human form "evolved to escape wolves and bears. We weren't designed to do repetitive tasks over and over again. So why would you take a hyper suboptimal system that really isn't designed to do repetitive tasks and have it do repetitive tasks?"

At Tesla, Walti was tasked with troubleshooting production bottlenecks as the automaker ramped up production of the mass-market Model 3 EV in 2017.

Musk dubbed that infamously gruelling period "production hell," and the CEO said he slept on the production floor of Tesla's Fremont factory as the Model 3 ramp ran into problems.

Tesla's ambitious plans to rely heavily on autonomous robots to build the Model 3 didn't work as planned, and Musk later said in a post on Twitter, now X, that this level of automation was "a mistake."

"There was a very ambitious plan to automate a lot more than we probably should have, and it was clear the system was struggling," said Walti, who said he worked for nine months with his team to design a simpler robotics system for the factory.

After building the automaker's mobile robotics team, Walti became the senior manager in 2021 of the team building the "Tesla bot," which would later become Optimus.

Walti saw the robot as "a side project" for Tesla at the time.

He said he was surprised when Musk began talking up Optimus as the company's future, but added that it wasn't surprising, as the billionaire "wants to push the boundary of innovation and tech."

Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

• Trump restarted collections on defaulted student loans on May 5, after a five-year pause.
• James Southern, 63, is facing a $1,414 bill on his student loans.
• He can't afford to pay it, and he risks falling into default and having his wages garnished.

At the end of March, James Southern received a warning from his student-loan servicer stating: "Your account is seriously past due."

According to a bill statement reviewed by Business Insider, his servicer suggested he put forth $9,942 to make his account current, or he could make a payment of $1,414.71 to start chipping away at his delinquent student-loan balance.

Whether $9,000 or $1,000, Southern, 63, said he can't afford the bill, and he's gearing up to default and face the worst consequences for falling behind on student-loan payments: garnishment of wages or federal benefits.

"There will be no retirement. I'll die on the job," Southern said. "Even if I were at my full retirement age, they'd garnish the Social Security, so I'm still going to have to work in order to survive."

Southern is referring to President Donald Trump's move to restart collections on defaulted student loans on May 5 after a five-year pause. Student loans typically enter default after 270 days of missed payments. With the collections restart, defaulted borrowers are once again subject to wage and federal benefits garnishment.

The Department of Education has notified 195,000 defaulted student-loan borrowers that a portion of their federal benefits will be withheld beginning in early June. Southern has not yet received such notice; he has contacted his student-loan servicer for assistance making payments, and he said the only advice he said he has received so far is to pay his bill.

Linda McMahon, Trump's education secretary, said during a House committee hearing on May 21 that since May 5, the department has collected back $100 million from borrowers behind on payments.

"We're on the right track," she said. McMahon previously wrote in an opinion piece that restarting collections is not a move to "be unkind to student borrowers. Borrowing money and failing to pay it back isn't a victimless offense. Debt doesn't go away; it gets transferred to others."

Southern said he doesn't see how he can make any student-loan payment while on a five-figure salary and managing rent, food, and other monthly expenses.

"I cannot make that payment and survive," Southern said. "It just doesn't seem fair in the least bit to me."

'I cannot make that payment and survive'

The number of student-loan borrowers who transitioned into serious delinquency surged from 0.8% in 2024 to 8.04% in 2025, per the New York Federal Reserve. The increase was expected given that the moratorium on collections and credit reporting expired in October 2024. Now that Trump has restarted collections, it's an indication of how many more millions of borrowers, including Southern, are at risk of defaulting this summer.

Southern's six-figure student-loan balance comes from business school. He decided to go in the early 2000s to further his career, but after applying for over 50 jobs following his graduation, he wasn't able to land a career using his degree. He now works in security on a five-figure salary, and he said that on his current income, retirement is a pipe dream.

Rae Kaplan, a Chicago-based student-loan attorney, told BI that borrowers who are not yet in default can request a forbearance for financial hardship from their servicer. While the forbearance cannot be used for more than 36 months, "it buys you some time to figure out, 'Well, do I need a student loan attorney or somebody who can help me with the next steps in this process?' In the meantime, you don't have to worry that your loans are going to slip into default," Kaplan said.

Borrowers in delinquency also have access to income-driven repayment plans, but the Department of Education recently released data showing that nearly 2 million income-driven repayment applications still haven't been processed. If borrowers cannot access affordable monthly payments, they risk falling into default and facing collections.

Trump's tax bill, which the House recently passed, would also eliminate existing income-driven repayment plans and replace them with two less generous options.

"It's funny where you'll read on the notices and they're like, 'If you're having trouble, please contact us and we'll work with you,'" Southern said. When he called his servicer, the only help they offered him was help making a payment.

"I don't need you to help me make a payment. I need you to give me options," Southern said.

A Department of Education spokesperson previously told BI that the department is hoping to clear the backlog of income-driven repayment applications "over the next few months."

Older borrowers who rely on minimal income and Social Security are not reassured. Cheri, a 67-year-old student-loan borrower who voted for Trump, previously told BI that while she supports the administration collecting payments from borrowers, she doesn't think the abrupt restart is the right way to go about it.

"I think that turning people over to collections is a very drastic move after what we just went through over the past four years," Cheri said. "I'm opposed to that."

Alex Ricci, president of the National Council of Higher Education Resources, said at a panel on May 21 that while the scale of borrowers set to default is concerning, the impacts likely won't be immediately felt.

"The department's announcement only kick-started what will be a very long process using both voluntary and involuntary measures to start collecting on defaulted debt," Ricci said. "So there are a number of processes that the federal government has to restart, and that should give borrowers some lag time to get current with their payments."

Southern doesn't know what's next for him, and whether he might soon start facing garnishment of his wages and federal benefits. The only thing he does know: he won't be paying his $1,400 student-loan bill.

"It's been a struggle, a terrible struggle," Southern said. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Do you have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Justin Sun said he received a $100,000 watch at an exclusive dinner with President Donald Trump.
• Sun, a billionaire and the founder of Tron, is a top backer of Trump's meme coin, $TRUMP.
• Sun is also known for expensive stunts in the art world and his legal troubles with the SEC.

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun now has a $100,000 Trump-branded watch on his arm, but he's no stranger to the high life.

The billionaire was one of 220 top backers of President Donald Trump's meme coin, $TRUMP, who were invited to a special dinner with the president on May 22.

At the event, Sun said he was gifted a Trump Tourbillon watch, which sells for $100,000 — another of the Trump family's private business interests in addition to cryptocurrency.

According to Forbes' real-time net worth tracker, the 34-year-old founder of Tron is estimated to be worth around $8.5 billion.

Here's everything to know about Sun — from his legal troubles to his purchase of a duct-taped banana.

Sun's early life and education

Sun grew up in a rural province of China and left home at a young age to study the strategy game "Go" in Wuhan, The Verge reported.

Sun graduated from Peking University with a bachelor's degree in history in 2011. Two years later, he earned a master's degree in political economy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sun then attended Hupan University — a Chinese business school started by Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma in 2015 — where he wrote a thesis on the blockchain industry, titled "The Birth of a Decentralized Internet."

Sun was the youngest member of Hupan's inaugural class, which included 30 students whom Ma recruited because he believed they could revolutionize the Chinese business world, the South China Morning Post reported. Sun graduated from Hupan in 2018.

Sun's oldest Instagram photo shows him receiving a certificate from Ma. The caption reads, "Inspired by the best to shape the future for the better. "

Sun's rise in the crypto world

Sun worked at San Francisco-based crypto company, Ripple Labs, a cryptocurrency startup that has received backing from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and other blue-chip investors.

In 2013, Sun founded a social chat room app called Peiwo. The app matched users with each other based on their interests and 10-second audio clips. However, China ultimately kicked Peiwo off the Android and Apple app stores and shut it down for disrupting "socialist values," The Verge reported.

In 2017, Sun founded Tron, a blockchain company with its own cryptocurrency that is "dedicated to building the infrastructure for a truly decentralized internet." Tron says its network has over 308 million users on the blockchain and has had over 10.4 billion transactions.

Less than a year later, Tron acquired BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-sharing service, for a reported $126 million.

In 2022, Sun joined the Global Advisory Board of cryptocurrency exchange HTX, then known as Huobi Global.

Personal life and Warren Buffett

Sun has amassed more than 3.8 million followers on X and 240,000 Instagram followers, where he has posted pictures of himself posing with celebrities such as Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

Forbes included Sun in its 30 under 30 Asia list for Consumer Technology in 2017, and more recently, the outlet featured Sun as its digital daily cover in March of this year.

In 2019, Sun bid $4.57 million on an eBay-sponsored charity lunch with Warren Buffett. Sun said he planned to use the meal to convert Buffett, a notorious skeptic of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, into a true believer. Buffett has said bitcoin has "no unique value" and will ultimately become worthless, and derided it as a "delusion" and "probably rat poison squared."

Sun postponed the dinner with Buffett, citing kidney stones, which sparked conspiracy theories that he was being pressured by China. But months later, Sun finally had his dinner with Buffett in January 2020, inviting eToro founder and CEO Yoni Assia, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, and other crypto advocates to dine with them.

Legal troubles and investment in World Liberty Financial

In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Sun and three of his companies — Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry.

The federal agency accused Sun of offering and selling crypto asset securities without proper registration. Sun is also facing allegations of fraud for manipulating the market price of his cryptocurrency, TRX.

Sun was additionally charged with not disclosing how much he compensated celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Soulja Boy to promote his cryptocurrency, which would have violated federal securities laws.

In December 2024, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, making him the largest investor in the new venture backed by Trump and his family. On February 26, the SEC filed a motion to pause its case against Sun and allowed a 60-day period to explore a potential settlement.

Since then, Sun has invested an additional $45 million in WLF. On January 22, Sun posted on X that if he "made any money in cryptocurrency, all credit goes to President Trump."

A flashy lifestyle

In November 2024, Sun purchased Maurizio Cattelan's conceptual artwork titled Comedian, which consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall, for $6.2 million at a Sotheby's auction.

The sale of the highly divisive piece significantly exceeded its estimated value of $1 to $1.5 million.

Shortly after the acquisition, Sun consumed the banana during a press event in Hong Kong, stating that "the real value is the concept itself." He said that the act was not about destroying the artwork but about highlighting its ephemeral nature.

At the live event, Sun also pledged to purchase 100,000 bananas from the New York street vendor who sold the original fruit used in the artwork.

"To thank Mr. Shah Alam, I've decided to buy 100,000 bananas from his stand in New York's Upper East Side," Sun wrote on X.

This isn't the only time Sun splurged on artwork.

In December 2021, he bought a Joker-themed NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club Tron collection for $15 million, one of the most expensive NFT purchases.

Sun also spent $78.4 million on Giacometti's cast bronze sculpture Le Nez, adding to his collection of a $20 million Picasso portrait of Marie-Thérese, a triptych of "fright wig" portraits by Andy Warhol for $2 million, and KAWS' Untitled (Kimpsons) for $323,647, Artnet reported.

Aside from art, Sun also spent $28 million to secure a seat on a Blue Origin flight to space, which he revealed after winning the bid at auction for the first crewed mission on the New Shepard rocket.

Samantha Delouya contributed to an earlier version of this post.

• Elon Musk says he is returning his focus to X, Tesla, and his other companies.
• Musk had earlier announced he would step back from his government work during a Tesla earnings call.
• The tech giant has been at the center of Trump's effort to reduce government spending.

Elon Musk had been the face of President Donald Trump's efforts to reduce the size of government.

More recently, however, the billionaire has said he intends to return his focus to the companies that helped make him the world's richest man.

"Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms," Musk said in a post on his social media platform, X, on Saturday. The site had just grappled with widespread outages.

"I must be super focused on 𝕏/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out."

The comment followed a similar statement Musk made last month during a Tesla earnings call.

"I think I'll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so, and for as long as it is useful, but starting next month, I'll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla, now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done," he said at the time.

Musk's foray into government has been marked by major disruptions in the federal workforce, leaving many workers on edge about their futures. Musk and the Trump administration also targeted entire agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the US Agency for International Development.

Musk has been a near-omnipresent part of Trump's White House since January and has become a polarizing figure among the general public as a result.

The tech titan's super PAC, for example, funneled millions of dollars in an unsuccessful effort to help elect the GOP-aligned candidate in a critical Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Many expect his political activism to carry over to the 2026 midterms.

In a virtual appearance at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, however, Musk said he'd contribute "a lot less" in political donations moving forward, but didn't specify the reasoning behind the decision.

"Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," Musk said at the time. "I do not currently see a reason."

Musk's government work led to a backlash against Tesla, throttling share prices. Tesla's stock bounced back immediately after Musk said in the earnings call that he would step back from his work at the White House DOGE Office.

• Sen. Maggie Hassan is demanding answers from Spotify over fake podcasts that pushed opioids.
• In a letter, Hassan asked Spotify to "take action" on the phony content.
• Hassan's letter comes after a BI investigation found 200 podcasts on Spotify peddling opioids.

A senator is demanding answers from Spotify about its handling of fake podcasts that promoted opioids and other prescription drugs.

In the wake of a Business Insider investigation that found 200 phony podcasts on Spotify advertising the sale of pills, often without a prescription, Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire urged the digital music and podcast company to moderate its content better.

Some of the podcasts were removed after BI previously flagged them to Spotify.

"I urge you to take action to prevent fake podcasts that facilitate the illicit sale of drugs — including those that could contain fentanyl — from appearing on your platform," the two-term Democratic lawmaker said in a letter to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.

"Addressing these threats requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and based on recent reports, Spotify has not exercised the level of diligence needed," she continued.

In response to BI's investigation earlier this month, a Spotify spokesperson said: "The content in question has been removed because it violates our Platform Rules. We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service." In response to Hassan's letter, a company spokesperson on Saturday referred BI to its earlier statement.

Many lawmakers across the United States have long sought to address the scourge of opioid abuse, which increasingly comes in the form of fentanyl.

Fentanyl trafficking is a major issue for President Donald Trump, who has accused Mexico, Canada, and China of allowing the drug to be transported into the United States. Trump imposed tariffs on those countries in part to force them to do more to stem the flow of fentanyl.

In her letter, Hassan, a former governor, spoke of the "heart-wrenching conversations" that she's had with constituents in her state who've lost family members or friends to drug overdoses.

"The scale of the fentanyl crisis requires cooperation among law enforcement, online platforms, and international partners to protect our communities," she said.

Hassan also asked Spotify to detail its moderation tools and policies and inquired about the number of drug-related podcasts it has had to remove. She asked whether the platform received any revenue from the removed podcasts.

The lawmaker, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, gave Spotify until June 12 to respond to her inquiries.

"We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service," a Spotify spokesperson said in response to BI's investigation.

Read the full letter here:

• McDonald's is closing its CosMc's spin-off drink shops.
• CosMc's, which launched in 2023, drew comparisons to coffee shops like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.
• McDonald's sales declined this year amid economic uncertainty.

McDonald's announced on Friday that it is closing its CosMc's spin-off line of Starbucks-style drink shops.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said in the company's last earnings call that drinks from CosMc's would be introduced to "hundreds of McDonald's restaurants" in the future.

"In connection with this next phase of testing, we will begin closing all stand-alone CosMc's pilot locations in late June, and the CosMc's app will be discontinued," a McDonald's spokesperson told Business Insider.

When it opened in 2023, CosMc's drew comparisons to Starbucks. Its menu included coffees, teas, lemonades, slushes, breakfast sandwiches, and small donut-like pastries called "McPops."

In a December 2023 meeting with investors, Kempczinski said that CosMc's is a "small format concept with all the DNA of McDonald's but its own unique personality."

"Its menu includes new customizable drinks, sweet and savory treats and familiar favorites such as the Egg McMuffin," Kempczinski said in the meeting.

In its announcement on Friday, McDonald's said CosMc's served as a good testing ground for different new flavors, and it plans to blend the "out of this world tastes" of CosMc's drinks into "the McDonald's experience."

"What started as a belief that McDonald's had the right to win in the fast-growing beverage space quickly came to life as a multi-location, small format, beverage-focused concept," the company said. "It allowed us to test new, bold flavors and different technologies and processes — without impacting the existing McDonald's experience for customers and crew."

The closing of CosMc's comes as McDonald's faces its lowest sales since the COVID-19 lockdowns. US same-store sales at McDonald's declined 3.6% during the first quarter.

With low-income diners pulling back their spending over the past year due to economic uncertainty, McDonald's saw even more middle-income buyers do the same during its first quarter, Kempczinski said in an earnings call.

"People are just being more judicious in cutting back on visits," he told investors.

• In 2002, I moved in with my grandmother while going to college.
• She was 81 and I was 19, and it was the perfect setup for both of us.
• We loved having each other to have dinner with and chat with at the end of the day.

When I told my parents that I had been accepted to Bath University in the UK, they quickly said there was no way I was going.

Their logic was simple: They knew I was chasing after a high school boyfriend who wasn't right for me and that I wouldn't love living in Bath by myself.

Knowing I needed a little freedom from living in São Paulo, they suggested I move to Argentina, where I'm originally from, for college. After that, I could decide what to do next. There was only one caveat — I had to live with my 81-year-old grandmother. They didn't think I was ready to live by myself in a big city, and I also had no way of paying for rent.

I was already close to my grandmother

My maternal grandmother and I were already pretty close. My grandfather died months after I was born (my family says he waited to meet me), and so my grandmother dedicated her time to helping my parents raise me.

She would stay at our apartment when my parents had to travel for work, teaching me how to walk and talk. When my dad was moved to a different country for his job, she came for a year to help us settle in.

I moved in when I was 19 and she was 81

My grandmother lived in a two-bedroom apartment when I moved in with her. Besides a computer and a desk, I only had to bring my clothes. I paid her for my parking spot in the building and helped keep the place tidy.

Because we were so close and had lived together before, there wasn't much adjusting for us to do. The one issue we had was with me going out at night; she couldn't understand how I could be out until the early hours of the morning and still make it to class on time.

But the setup was beneficial for both of us. Even though I was born in Argentina, I hadn't lived there for over a decade. Having a safe place to land helped me focus on studying and making friends.

When I came home, my grandmother had dinner ready, and we would spend time catching up and talking. When she needed to go to the doctor, I would go with her to ensure she understood everything they were telling her.

People in my life thought it was weird at first

At first, not everyone understood my decision. My uncle told my mother that it wasn't "natural" for a teenager to live with their grandparents. My friends, who still mostly lived with their parents, also thought it was a bit weird.

As the years went by, people in my life started to see how beneficial it was for both of us.

One time, my grandmother confused her pills and took the wrong amount of her blood pressure medication. She called for me, dizzy, saying something was wrong. I rushed her to the hospital, where we were told it was just a scare and that her symptoms would subside once the medicine left her system.

When my college boyfriend broke up with me out of the blue, she held me while I sobbed into her shoulder. She scratched my back until I fell asleep, just like she did when I was a little girl.

I moved out after college

After graduation, I moved out to live by myself, not far from her. I still took her to lunch with our family and made sure to be as present as I could be in her life. Years later, I moved to the US but still called her weekly to chat.

My grandmother died when she was 97, seven years ago. I knew it was coming, so I flew from New York to say goodbye in person and thank her for everything she did for me.

My grandmother's love and care in such formative years, when I was trying to figure out who I was, had a huge impact on my life. If I were given the choice, I would move in with her again.

• Netflix is releasing a documentary about the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster.
• The sub imploded in 2023 while descending to view the Titanic wreck, killing all five people on board.
• The documentary takes a closer look at the incident and the late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

An upcoming Netflix documentary is set to take a closer look at the Titan submersible's ill-fated journey to the wreck of the Titanic two years ago.

"Titan: The OceanGate Disaster" arrives on Netflix on June 11 and will examine the events leading up to the doomed expedition that killed OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and four others after the vessel carrying them to view the wreck imploded in June 2023.

The trailer for the documentary shows interviews with several people close to the late exec and who worked for the expedition company.

"There was no way of knowing when Titan was going to fail," Rob McCallum, a former OceanGate advisor, says in the trailer. "But it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail."

The trailer also teases interviews with ex-OceanGate staff members like Tony Nissen, a former engineering director at the firm, Bonnie Carl, a human resources and finance director, and David Lochridge, an operations director who previously said he was fired after raising safety concerns about the sub.

In the trailer, Lochridge says he thought Rush "wanted fame" to "fuel his ego," while Nissen adds that he thought Stockton was "a borderline psychopath."

Elsewhere in the clip, Carl recalls her reaction after she said Rush announced she would be the company's next sub pilot: "Are you nuts? I'm an accountant."

As well as testimonies from key figures, "Titan: The OceanGate Disaster" will also feature "pivotal" audio recordings and footage from OceanGate's early days, per the documentary's synopsis.

Speaking in an interview with Netflix's Tudum, director Mark Monroe said he had been "horrified and mesmerized" by the coverage and social commentary on the sub and that he hoped the documentary could provide answers about how the disaster happened.

"The more I dug into this terrible tragedy, the more intrigued I became about how this could have ever happened in the first place, and who exactly was the man who built and then went down with this ship," he said. "We hope that this film can help provide answers to these very questions."

Earlier this week, the US Coast Guard released footage showing the moment that Rush's wife, Wendy Rush, heard the apparent sound of the Titan submersible imploding.

Wendy can be seen trying to contact the sub from a support vessel when a loud slamming sound can be heard through a monitor.

"What was that bang?" she said.

The submersible lost communication with the support vessel — the Polar Prince — around an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, sparking a dramatic four-day search and rescue effort.

Debris from the Titan was eventually found by a remotely operated vehicle around 500 meters (roughly 1,640 feet) from the bow of the Titanic, which lies around 12,500 feet below the surface.

Alongside Rush, British pilot and adventurer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and former French Navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet died in the incident.

• The E-4B "Nightwatch" is nicknamed the "doomsday plane" because it can survive a nuclear attack.
• In the event of nuclear war, it would serve as the US military's command and control center.
• It is the US Air Force's most expensive plane to operate, at $159,529 per hour.

Air Force One is known as the "flying Oval Office," but there's another lesser-known presidential plane that can operate as a "flying war room": the E-4B "Nightwatch."

Nicknamed the "doomsday plane" for its ability to survive a nuclear blast, the E-4B is designed to protect the president and other senior officials and function as a military command center in worst-case scenarios. It also transports the Secretary of Defense on international trips.

Many of the E-4B's features are classified, but the US Air Force has shared some glimpses into its capabilities. Take a look inside the top-secret aircraft.

The E-4B "Nightwatch" is a militarized version of a Boeing 747-200.

The US Air Force's fleet of four E-4Bs comprises the National Airborne Operations Center at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska.

It costs $159,529 per hour to operate, making it the Air Force's most expensive plane.

Each E-4B costs $223.2 million to build, according to the US Air Force.

A standard crew consists of 60 people with 15 different specialties.

In 2022, the Air Force debuted a $9.5 million E-4B simulator to train pilots, flight engineers, and other crew members to operate the aircraft, according to the US Strategic Command.

The E-4B can refuel while in flight, allowing it to fly for several days at a time.

The E-4B can fly for 12 hours straight without refueling.

Its communications technology is kept in a bulge on top of the plane called the ray dome.

The E-4B possesses more communications capabilities than Air Force One with around 67 satellite dishes and antennas in the ray dome.

The plane's exterior also features thermal and nuclear shielding, and its electrical system can withstand electromagnetic pulses.

The plane's main deck features six functional areas.

The layout includes a command room, conference room, briefing room, operations team work area, communications room, and a rest area, according to the US Air Force.

The plane can seat up to 112 people.

In the briefing room, officials update members of the press and conduct meetings with staff.

The E-4B isn't just a "doomsday plane." The Secretary of Defense occasionally uses it to travel overseas and hold press briefings.

Located in the center of the plane, the battle staff room is where officers would gather to strategize in a national emergency.

In the event of a nuclear attack or other apocalyptic scenario, the president, secretary of defense, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would use the plane as a secure command and control center similar to the Pentagon.

The rest area has 18 crew bunks, while the Secretary of Defense occupies private quarters on international trips.

The Secretary of Defense's private quarters are furnished with a bunk and a desk with chairs.

The E-4B is staffed and on alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

At least one E-4B has been on continuous alert since 1975, ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

• New video shows the moment the wife of the late OceanGate CEO heard the apparent sound of the Titan sub imploding.
• "What was that bang?" Wendy Rush said after a slamming noise could be heard through a monitor on the sub's support ship.
• All five passengers on the sub were killed as it descended to view the Titanic wreck in June 2023.

Video footage released by the US Coast Guard shows the moment the wife of the late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush heard the apparent sound of the Titan submersible imploding.

In the video, Wendy Rush, a director at the ocean tourism company — which has since suspended all operations — can be seen attempting to contact the sub from the Polar Prince support vessel when a loud slamming sound can be heard through her monitor.

"What was that bang?" she said, before receiving a message saying the sub had dropped two weights, seeming to give her the impression the trip was going to plan. Analysts say the message may have been sent shortly before the sub imploded but a delay may have caused it to come through later.

The Titan sub imploded while descending to view the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean in June 2023, killing all five people on board.

The Titan lost communication with the Polar Prince around one hour and 45 minutes into its dive, sparking a frantic search effort involving US, Canadian, and French rescuers.

The vessel's wreckage was discovered by a remotely operated vehicle four days after it went missing, around 500 meters (roughly 1,640 feet) from the bow of the Titanic, per the Coast Guard.

OceanGate cofounder Stockton Rush, pilot and adventurer Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and former French Navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet were the passengers in the vessel.

OceanGate charged up to $250,000 per ticket to see the Titanic, which lies at a depth of around 12,500 feet.

A passenger waiver form for the Titan viewed by Business Insider in 2023 said the sub had successfully completed "as few as 13" out of 90 dives to the depth of the Titanic.

A new Netflix documentary scheduled to be released in June will take a closer look at what caused the tragedy.

• James Crosby got started in sports betting with an arbitrage strategy he learned from his roommate.
• He exploits the odds when betting against himself on multiple platforms, so he always makes a profit.
• Crosby is on track to bring in about $8,500 in just three months — but he's budgeting for taxes.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with James Crosby, a 26-year-old Deloitte consultant from Arlington, Virginia. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Online sports betting is legal in some states. Before participating, verify the legality in your specific state.

My first month doing arbitrage betting, I made a little over $2,000. The second month, I made about $2,500. This month, I'm on track to bring in more than $4,000 in pure profit.

The process is pretty straightforward: I've opened accounts on about 12 different sportsbook platforms, like FanDuel and DraftKings, and I pay to subscribe to a service call OddsJam, which helps me find the best bets. Once I've found them, I strategically bet against myself so I always turn a profit. I only use US sites.

Last week, I bet on Alex Ovechkin for the Capitals versus the Hurricanes playoff game in hockey. On one sports betting platform, I bet $100 to win $150 that Alex Ovechkin would get over three and a half shots on goal. That meant my total payout would be $250 because I would get my $100 back plus the $150 in profit.

During the same game, on another betting site, I had the exact opposite bet, where I bet Alex would get under three and a half shots on goal. The chances were betting $130 to win $119, so my total payout would be $249.

So, for both bets, I had a total wager of $230. But because one of the bets had to win and the other bet had to lose, my payout would either be $249 or $250, and I was guaranteed either $19 or $20 in profit, depending on the outcome.

Most of the time, I'm betting between $50 and $100 to win $3 to $4, but it all adds up.

For the returns I'm getting, I needed initial capital of about $20,000 and maybe one to two hours per day. But anyone can really be profitable with this.

The name of the game is maximizing your return on investment, so the more that you put in, the more profitable you will be. Each one of the bets you're making is going to have a profit margin between 3% and 4% — so if you have $1,000, you're going to make $30 or $40 bucks. If you only have $100, you're going to make $3 or $4. Even paying for the subscription to OddsJam, it really does pay for itself very quickly.

There's a bit of a catch

Online arbitrage betting is legal, depending on the state you're in, but of course, the sportsbook sites don't really like it because they're losing money. Each platform has different terms of service, but when they catch you — and they will because they have algorithms dedicated to detecting these kinds of bets — your account will probably get restricted so you can't bet as much money. That means you'll have to play more often or bet on more games to see the same returns.

If you're betting on very obscure sports that aren't usually bet on — like you're betting $2,000 that some cricket game in India is going to go a certain way — they're going to be able to figure out that you're probably arbitraging. So you can kind of mitigate the risk by not taking bets that are super obscure and just doing more main lines that are very, very common, which will help you remain undetected for a while.

I would say you could probably last a week or two on average before the casinos catch on. I lasted around two weeks on most of my sports books, but there were a couple that got me within three or four days, so I wasn't able to be super profitable on them, but it was still fun in the first couple of days to take advantage of the bigger bets.

You'd think it would probably be in the site's best interest to disband your account if you were just exploiting them and taking money from them. But, as arbitrage betters, we actually do provide a little bit of value to the sportsbook sites, because they can study an arbitrage player's activity for signals on where they can tighten up their odds.

It's actually kind of like a value feedback loop where we provide a service — almost like consulting — and help them make sure that other players aren't taking advantage of them and getting bets at a better value than they should be, which allows them to stay more profitable over time, and in return, they allow us to use their platform to place these bets, knowing that we'll probably squeeze out a little bit of profit.

I learned about arbitrage betting from my roommate, who has been doing it for years. He's been averaging between $30,000 and $40,000 a year with this side hustle and bought himself a Tesla with his winnings. I knew he was doing it, but I was always kind of skeptical of the time commitment that it would take, the amount of starting capital I would need, and the learning curve behind it, because it seemed kind of complex.

I finally started in March because I figured I would just give it a shot. I wanted an easy way to earn extra money because I've been worried about the job market. It ended up being really, really easy once I put a little bit of time into it, and it wasn't overly complicated, so my roommate and I started a blog and social media channels to teach other people our strategy.

One thing you have to keep in mind is taxes. Every state and player is different, but I know that I'll have to pay taxes of around 20% of my earnings. So I've accounted for that, and I put that portion in a fund that's allocated to low-risk stocks, so hopefully I don't lose any of that money. But even taking that money into account, it feels worthwhile.

I'm assuming I'll be able to keep this going because my roommate's been doing it for years, and he's been able to remain profitable. So there's no end in sight, hopefully. I'm hoping that in the future, my winnings could serve as a down payment on a house, a wedding ring for my girlfriend, a new car, or just, you know, a fallback fund if things go really south and I lose my job or something like that especially with the economy the way it is.

I have no idea exactly where I'll spend the money, but my plan is to save it and invest it wisely.

Do you have a unique side hustle, or has your side hustle replaced your full-time job? Email Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert at [email protected].

• I decided to move from Los Angeles to Paris to live with my boyfriend.
• Getting there was difficult because I had to set up my visa and bank accounts.
• Eight years later, I'm so happy I made the move because life is easier here.

I had always wanted to live outside the US — to experience the world and myself in a new way. But when the opportunity finally came, I didn't realize how difficult it would be.

In 2017, I was 46 and dating a French man. After visiting the city of lights several times, I decided to move from my home in Los Angeles to Paris so I could be with him.

While the move sounded like a fairy tale, it wasn't always easy. Still, all the struggle was worth it in the end.

Before the move, there was a lot of paperwork

First, I had to figure out which visa I could legally apply for. There was a visa for talent (my acting career was not exactly on fire), a family visa (I had a boyfriend, not a fiancé), a student visa (I was not enrolled at a French university), and a long-stay visa. For the long-stay visa, I only had to have enough in the bank to support myself for a year and a place to stay in Paris. That worked perfectly for me.

I muddled through the paperwork and made my appointment at the French consulate in Los Angeles before my next trip to Paris. I could stay with my boyfriend until I found a place. But when I got there, the woman behind the desk said I would have to have an original document from him stating that I was "welcome in his home."

We laughed about that and in the end decided to get a new apartment together. I was shocked when we applied for four different apartments before we were approved.

In the meantime, I was trying to get my French phone set up and a bank account. At the time, French banks required me to fill out miles of paperwork. It wasn't easy.

Adjusting to the culture wasn't smooth either

Once I was settled, I got a tutor. I had studied French in high school but hadn't spoken it in years. I was surprised to find that many people here preferred to speak French over English with me, even though I knew very little of the language.

I also learned that if you can speak at least functional French, you'll get much better treatment by everyone, from the transport police who monitor the Metro to your local fishmonger at the farmers market.

Beyond the language itself, I needed to learn the cultural norms. One day, for example, I walked into a Starbucks, hoping for a bit of home.

The girl behind the counter said, "Bonjour." I immediately launched into my order, but the barista stared back and repeated, "Bonjour," this time with stern eyes.

I quickly learned it's rude to start a conversation with anything but "bonjour" in France. I kept finding myself in awkward situations because I was unknowingly being a rude American.

Over the years that followed, there were more culture bumps, but I learned to adapt.

The move from the US to France was worth it in the end

My partner and I are now in a civil partnership, which has allowed me to stay in France for the last eight years.

For almost a decade now, I've learned to adapt to the Parisian life. I've learned to eat fruits and vegetables in season, like artichokes in February and strawberries in May. I know what I'm buying at the farmers market will always be the freshest.

I continue to be impressed by this beautiful country, from the history to the architecture. Life moves at a slower pace here. I don't have to drive because public transport is terrific. Paid vacation time is plentiful. Plus, healthcare is much cheaper here than in the US.

Now, many of my friends are looking to flee California, citing the fires, the high cost of housing, and traffic.

I tell them all to come join me in France. Sure, it's annoying when you sometimes sit down in a café and it's 15 minutes before you even have a menu, but that's France. You're meant to just sit back and relax here.

• The US Navy destroyer USS Stockdale came under Houthi fire multiple times last year.
• The Stockdale's captain, then the executive officer, described to BI what it was like to battle the rebels.
• He said his heart was racing and that seeing the warship's missiles launch was "unlike anything else."

Cdr. Jacob Beckelhymer remembers vividly the first time his warship came under attack in the Red Sea.

It was late September of last year, and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Stockdale was already several months into its lengthy Middle East deployment. Beckelhymer, then the warship's executive officer, knew that the ship and its sailors could be pulled into combat at any moment against the Iran-backed Houthis who had been launching missiles and drones into shipping lanes.

"We went into it with the expectation that there was a high probability that we would come under fire," he told Business Insider in a recent interview.

When the attack came, the destroyer was prepared. Sailors had received their pre-briefing, and the crew was well-rested. The watch teams were ready.

That day, the Houthi rebels fired a barrage of missiles and drones.

Beckelhymer was in the pilot house with the warship's commanding officer and watched as the bridge team, from lieutenants down to junior sailors, performed as they were trained. He said he experienced a heart rate increase and some excitement. Seeing a surface-to-air missile come out of the launchers for real, and not in a training scenario, is "unlike anything else."

Beckelhymer recalls thinking about his composure. He briefly thought about how he'd always wanted to teach his eldest daughter how to ride a bike. The most pressing thought, though, was that the destroyer needed to make it home.

A mix of Navy warships in the Red Sea, including the Stockdale, thwarted the Houthi attack.

Beckelhymer said that "the biggest takeaway" for him "was how quickly we did the things that we were supposed to, we reset, and then we all got back on the same page to do it again."

The Stockdale came under Houthi fire several times during its combat-packed deployment, which ended in February. The Navy said that the destroyer "successfully repelled" multiple attacks, shooting down a tough combination of drones and missiles and emerging unscathed each time.

"The mission sets that we performed over there were a combination of standard missile defense, contested straight transit, and civilian escort," said Beckelhymer, who is now the Stockdale's commanding officer.

"We had occasion to use weapons in defense of ourselves and ships in company a number of times. In all of those instances, the team responded really, really great," he told BI. "We didn't incur any sort of stress reactions. The overall resilience of the crew was great."

Several weeks after Stockdale returned to its homeport in San Diego, the destroyer deployed again — this time to the waters off the coast of southern California, where, until recently, it supported the US military's southern border mission. Two other warships that fought the Houthis also participated in these operations.

While the threat environment was different in the Pacific compared to the Red Sea, Beckelhymer said the approach to the mission was relatively similar, even if Stockdale's weapons system was placed in a different configuration.

"It takes every single person on board this ship, all-in, every single day, to operate safely at sea," he said. "Whether you're off the coast of California or you're in the Red Sea, the business that we do is inherently dangerous. And flight operations, small boat operations, underway replenishment — all of those things take our collective focus."

Beckelhymer said he saw his crew's confidence grow consistently from September until the end of the most recent deployment. The sailors, he said, had every reason to be proud of their abilities. Receiving the training is one thing, but it's another to be tested in real-world conditions and have everything validated.

"We experienced that in the Red Sea, and I think we experienced that again over the last 40-ish days off the coast of California," he said. "When the Navy needs us, Stockdale is ready."

• "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" sees Tom Cruise's hero fight an evil AI known as the Entity.
• The story is packed with intense action sequences and leaves the door open for more installments.
• Is this really Tom Cruise's last movie in the "M:I" franchise?

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning."

"Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" leaves the door open for future movies despite being a worthy sendoff for Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt.

The sequel follows the agent as he races to save the world from the Entity, an evil AI that has taken control of every nuclear missile on the planet. He also has to fend off Gabriel (Esai Morales), an assassin from his past who wants to control the Entity for himself.

Ethan focuses on trying to disable the AI, and he's forced to retrieve its source code from the Sevastapol, the Russian submarine that sank at the start of 2023's "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning."

Here's how it all plays out. Cue the theme music.

Ethan Hunt saves the world with seconds to spare in "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning."

For audiences who are claustrophobic, a certain scene in "The Final Reckoning" will be a nightmare. Ethan's team discovers that the Sevastopol submarine wreck, which holds the Entity's source code, is at the bottom of the North Pacific, and transmits the location to Ethan, who is in a submarine with Captain Bledsoe (Tramell Tillman).

Ethan dives down to the wreck and eventually retrieves the source code after a painstakingly long sequence in which he has to navigate falling missiles and debris while the sub slowly floods.

The most intense moment sees him escape through a tiny missile tube and float to the surface. He actually drowns in his ascent, but luckily, Grace (Hayley Atwell) is waiting with the inflatable hyperbaric chamber that stops him from dying from decompression sickness.

After that, the gang heads to a secure digital bunker in South Africa, where the Entity is planning to wait out the impending nuclear apocalypse by combining its source code with a piece of tech called the "Poison Pill." This would isolate the AI into a single hard drive and avert the end of the world.

But before they can do so, Gabriel shows up to try to take the Entity for himself. He reveals a smaller nuclear bomb will go off if Ethan doesn't give him the Poison Pill. Predictably, the deal goes south, and Ethan chases Gabriel — even when the villain takes to the sky in a biplane.

Ethan climbs aboard a second plane piloted by Gabriel's henchman, and a jaw-dropping feat of aerial stuntwork ensues, as Ethan moves between the two planes in midair to retrieve the hard drive.

The film cranks up the tension during the climax because while the aerial chase is happening, Benji (Simon Pegg) gets shot and has to talk Grace through rebooting the digital bunker while their enemy-turned-ally Paris (Pom Klementieff) performs an emergency tracheotomy on him.

In true "Mission: Impossible" style, Ethan retrieves the Poison Pill at the last moment as Gabriel falls out of the plane and dies. To make matters worse, the plane catches fire, and Ethan has to leap out of the vehicle and put the source code into the Poison Pill while falling through the air, because nothing is ever easy in this franchise.

Obviously, he manages to pull it off, and Grace uses her quick reflexes to yank a glorified USB stick out of the console in the bunker to permanently trap the Entity. In the film's final moments, the IMF team meets up again in London as Grace gives Ethan the stick containing the Entity for safekeeping. They all share an emotional look at one another before going their separate ways.

That shot doesn't definitively end the franchise, and leaves the door open for the cast to return (should they choose to accept) for another mission.

But that's a little weird, since the film was billed to be an ending to the franchise. Here are the lingering questions we have about "The Final Reckoning" ending.

Was Ethan Hunt supposed to die at the end of "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning?"

Our most pressing question is whether Ethan was originally supposed to die at the end of the film. During the climax on the burning biplane, Gabriel makes a point of telling the hero that he's wearing the only parachute before he falls out and is killed by the plane's fin.

The film perfectly sets up that Ethan might have to sacrifice himself in order to save the world. But no, there's a second parachute tucked away inside the plane that Ethan conveniently finds.

Considering "The Final Reckoning" has been billed as Cruise's swan song and the end of the franchise, it would have made sense for the hero to go out in a blaze of glory. But no, Hunt just puts the two together while falling through the sky and then lands on the ground as if it's just a normal day.

It's a shame, because killing him off would've given the story and its ending more weight.

Why was Luther Stickell hooked up to medical equipment in "The Final Reckoning"?

Tech genius Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) has helped Ethan as part of his team in every "Mission: Impossible" movie. During "The Final Reckoning," Ethan finds Luther in a base underneath King's Cross train station in London, where he develops the Poison Pill.

But during those scenes, it's heavily suggested that Luther may be dying of some kind of disease. He's hooked up to medical equipment, there's a hospital bed, and an IV drip — yet the film strangely never addresses this at all.

Instead, Stickell dies while defusing a bomb left by Gabriel.

Why does "The Final Reckoning" completely ignore Ilsa Faust's death in the previous film?

One of the most devastating moments in "Dead Reckoning" is when Gabriel murders Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) in Venice. Isla was a mysterious MI6 agent with whom Ethan had a "will-they-won't-they" relationship.

Many fans assumed her death was a fakeout as part of a plan to trick the Entity, but Isla does not return in the final installment.

Even without bringing Ferguson's character back, it feels like a bizarre choice that the film does not even mention that Gabriel murdered someone Ethan was close with.

Did "The Final Reckoning" need to be that long?

One of the most obvious questions is: Why did "The Final Reckoning" need to be two hours and 50 minutes long?

The first hour of the sequel is crammed with exposition about where the team is after the previous film, how the Entity has taken hold of the world's nuclear weapons, and why the authorities think Ethan might be working for the opposing side (he isn't).

It could have focused instead on setting up the concept of the Poison Pill and isolating the Entity in the South African bunker. It's understandable though; the early scenes put a variety of different locations from around the world on display and give "The Final Reckoning" the feel of a globe-trotting adventure. If only traveling all that way had led to a more a definitive ending.

• My in-laws asked to stay with us for over a month during a recent vacation.
• They've helped us out financially in the past, so I felt like I couldn't say no.
• I learned that communication and boundaries are crucial for successfully sharing a small space.

When my in-laws needed a place to stay for 38 days during their yearly trip to America from the Netherlands, it felt like we were backed into a corner. They'd been our financial safety net multiple times over the past year, covering our rent and some bills.

We weren't reckless with our finances, but I only made $12.25 an hour, and my husband hadn't been able to work for years due to limitations on his visa that had only recently been lifted. That's why, when they shared the good news they'd save over $1,000 if they crashed our one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment for over a month, it felt impossible to turn them down.

Their visit got off to a rocky start

They landed on March 25. Their air mattress was sandwiched between our couch and TV, and we added two folding chairs to the dining table. I was embarrassed that I couldn't offer more.

"It's just like camping!" my mother-in-law remarked, recalling their RV trip in Germany. I wanted to say, "But this isn't a camping ground in Germany; it's our apartment!" but I didn't.

Every morning began with my mother-in-law's chipper, "Good morning!" as we shared coffee. After that, my husband got ready for his part-time job, and my in-laws made plans to grocery shop or spend the entire day watching reality TV or YouTube. Sometimes, depending on what we were doing, they'd even just tag along and watch me and my husband as we went about our day, because they wanted to maximize our time together.

Sharing space started to affect my work and sleep

I work from home as a freelance writer and typically work from the living room to avoid working in the same room where I sleep. As we entered week two of their vacation, I had to start working from my armchair in the bedroom, as they were staying in the living room, and we all needed our space. My sleep started to suffer; the bedroom became associated with frustration instead of peace.

It also felt exhausting to wake up and immediately have to infuse myself with energy to talk with family, then try to get into a mindset to work.

I had a breakthrough the day I decided to work out of the apartment's complimentary business center. While I was there, I was extremely productive, and my mind was clear. I thought of my office nook in the living room, overloaded with clutter, dishes, and laundry, and knew something had to change.

Being clearer about boundaries was helpful for everyone

I realized I had to get over my fear of being a rude hostess or ungrateful daughter-in-law. Articulating my needs and boundaries didn't mean I was spurning their love or generosity. In fact, it was more cruel to be passive because it left us all confused.

I learned it's OK to say, "I will have coffee with you this morning — but then, I have to work." By being clearer about what I needed to get my work done instead of just hinting at what I wanted, I ended up more productive and happier. When I worked, I really worked. When I had time to hang out with the family, I was able to be fully present. Gone were the moments when I would be with them but not really with them, silently growing anxious that I was neither truly working nor really relaxing.

In the third week, I also started to ask for help with laundry and dishes. This request became key to our peace, as my in-laws helped with gusto. As soon as I'd set a dish down, they'd wash, dry, and put it away. They delighted in doing the laundry, too. Turns out, they were looking for a way to contribute but didn't know how. So much of the housework got done, I even had time to date my husband and organize family brunches with my parents.

I realized my feelings about money were all in my head

I had told myself I couldn't say no when they asked about staying with us because they had helped us out in the past. I had felt powerless in our dynamic and hadn't allowed myself the grace of remembering our financial situation.

I thought that if my in-laws were going to help us financially, they probably felt entitled to the space. However, they hadn't felt that way at all. They had helped us in earnest; they'd received help themselves when they were just married. The shame was all mine.

By articulating my needs and expectations, their 38-day visit became a memorable and collaborative one. We respected each other's space — even if that space was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment.