• Josh Nichols commutes from Michigan to Chicago weekly for his analyst job at United Airlines.
• Nichols benefits from United's flight privileges, allowing standby travel for his commute.
• Supercommuting enhances Nichols' work-life balance, enabling him to live in Michigan.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Josh Nichols, a 25-year-old from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who regularly commutes to Chicago for his job as a senior analyst at United Airlines. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I live in Michigan and my office is in Chicago. I work on customer strategy and innovation as a senior analyst for United Airlines, and our department is hybrid. For the most part, we are in office Tuesday and Wednesday, and sometimes on Thursday, every single week. It's really nice to have that bit of flexibility.

When I first started the job I lived in Chicago for two years. But I hate Chicago with a passion. There's so much traffic, it was expensive, it was noisy.

I had heard several colleagues were doing supercommuting. Just thinking about the quality of life that I have back home in Michigan versus the quality of life that I had in Chicago, the decision was pretty clear.

After talking with my management and coming to a mutual understanding that they would give me the green light to leave the city but that I would still need to come into the office, it was a no-brainer.

I'm very thankful that our team is flexible in that regard. My leadership team is very understanding and very accommodating. But I also think that it might be a different story if I weren't a hard worker or if they had to keep close track of what I'm doing.

Flying from Detroit to Chicago

I normally take a 6 a.m. flight from Detroit that lands at Chicago O'Hare also around 6 a.m. due to the time difference. After boarding, I usually fall right to sleep and wake up in Chicago.

I have a United Club card, so on arrival, I will go there and have some breakfast, and then take the subway into downtown to our office at Willis Tower.

I'll work in the office all day Tuesday, spend the night in Chicago, and work all day in the office on Wednesday. Then I usually take the 7 p.m. flight from Chicago back to Michigan. Sometimes I'll stay another day and catch the same evening flight on Thursday.

As for where I stay, it's a good balance between friends and just getting hotel rooms. I have some very, very generous friends that I am very thankful for who allow me to be their local couch potato. Often I'll buy them dinner or we'll just hang out. If I stay in a hotel I usually get one by the airport because it's cheaper and then I'll commute back and forth on the train.

I use my flight privileges as a United employee

Because I am choosing to live outside of Chicago, I can't use our company-provided flights to commute in, and the company does not pay for my hotel stays or transportation to and from the airport.

Instead I fly standby with our flight privileges, which is where employees can fly for free if there's a seat available and you're senior enough to get it. On Monday night I have a general idea of how the flights look for the next morning.

If they don't look great, I might decide to take the train in or do the four-hour drive, and potentially leave Monday evening. Thankfully, my track record for getting on the Tuesday morning flight is pretty good.

When I show up in the morning, I have to wait to see if I get cleared and receive a seat assignment. If I don't make the 6 a.m. flight, there's a 7:30 a.m. flight as well.

I can also buy a ticket as a normal passenger. I try to avoid buying tickets as much as possible, but I certainly have purchased a ticket to get to the office, especially around the holidays. That's just what I have to do to be responsible and hold up my end of the bargain.

I don't think I would be willing to do this commute if I had to self-fund my flights or drive or take the train every single week.

Better work-life balance

I've been doing this for almost two years now. Sometimes it's a challenge because it's not a guarantee I'll be able to catch my flight or which return flight I'll be able to get on. But I would rather deal with those small challenges than live in Chicago.

Getting to live in Michigan, where I'm originally from, is so worth it.

I get to see my parents and my grandparents on a regular basis. I'm able to see so many more of my friends. It's really helped me maintain a healthy social life.

Supercommuting allows me to maintain a healthy work-life balance. I still maintain very strong relationships at work. I maintain the quality of work that I put out and I'm not missing my in-office days.

For others interested in supercommuting, I think taking stock of what you want out of your life is really important and knowing if you're willing to make certain sacrifices for the quality of life that makes you happiest.

I think the most important thing is, you cannot slack. You can't take virtual work as an opportunity to be mediocre. And if you know yourself, if you're someone that likes to not work as hard when you're not being managed, maybe it's best not to do it.

• I watched my first NFL game from a field-level suite at AT&T Stadium and felt like a VIP.
• I got tasty game-day snacks, and the field-level view put me right next to the action.
• A field-level suite here can cost $5,000+ to rent per game but comes with up to 21 tickets.

There's nothing like watching a football game, but some seats are far better than others.

Recently, I was lucky enough to experience my first NFL game from a field-level suite at the iconic AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Here's what it was like.

I felt like a VIP as soon as I got to the stadium.

I was invited to watch the game at field-level from a corporate suite, though the stadium's field-level suites usually cost $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the event. Each field-level suite comes with 21 stadium tickets and five parking passes.

Although it's certainly expensive, it's not as inaccessible as I'd expect for such a bucket-list experience, especially if you can split the price with a group.

I entered the stadium through a special VIP entrance and was escorted to our ground-level suite — an experience that made me feel like a celebrity right from the start.

The food spread was more game-day casual than corporate fancy, which made the experience better.

Food and drinks aren't included in the price of a field-level suite, but they can be purchased separately.

In this suite, I was pleasantly surprised to find classic game-day fare like tacos, jalapeńo poppers, pizza, and plenty of snacks and candy.

Although I'd expected to find fancier dishes, the casual menu perfectly matched the football-watching atmosphere.

Our suite also had a fully stocked fridge with everything from sodas to liquor, and I got a souvenir Cowboys cup I could refill throughout the day.

Being at field level gave me an incredible view that even celebrities would envy.

The suite had comfortable indoor seating and a screen playing the game, but the outdoor area was where the real magic happened.

The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders performed just yards away, making me feel like I was part of their famous routines. I was so close to the action that stray balls during warm-up could've landed in my drink.

Although I had access to additional regular seats on the first level, just rows from the sideline, I couldn't bring myself to leave the suite even for a quarter. The experience was simply too good to miss for even a moment.

Plus, the suite had a private bathroom — a small luxury that made the day even better by sparing me the hassle of waiting in long halftime lines.

The atmosphere at ground level felt unreal.

Watching the game from mere feet away heightened the intensity of every play.

With about 80,000 fans in attendance, the noise was incredible from my field-level vantage point. I could feel the crowd's energy in a way I'd never imagined.

During the game, I was also able to capture terrific photos, including some of a Detroit Lions touchdown, from the quarterback's setup to the celebration in the end zone.

Even a Cowboys loss couldn't dampen the VIP experience.

Although some nearby suites got rowdy as the day passed, my group stayed focused on the game. The Cowboys didn't perform well that day, but the entire experience was unforgettable.

After the game, one of the Lions players even came right up to our suite to celebrate and handed his game-worn jersey to a fan.

Overall, this upgrade was absolutely incredible.

The VIP treatment, incredible views, and proximity to the action have spoiled me for life.

In many ways, having seats yards away from the NFL action made watching the game feel like experiencing a private show.

While on the outdoor terrace, I even met a couple from Tennessee who had traveled for the game. They didn't support either team but treated themselves to one NFL game in a suite each year, paying up to $1,000 per ticket.

Maybe they're onto something. Having experienced a football game from this perspective, I worry that regular seats will never quite measure up.

And hey, if I choose a match with suites on the cheaper end ($5,000) and split the cost with 20 others, I may be able to watch the game at field level again someday for under $250.

• Tatiana Smith spent five years teaching English as a second language in China.
• She lived in Beijing mostly, which was much bigger and busier than her hometown in Illinois.
• Smith said the cost of living is more affordable, but she experienced racism as a Black expat.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations and emails with Tatiana Smith, 36, who spent five years teaching English as a second language (ESL) in China. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

For the vast majority of my life, I've lived in Illinois.

I grew up in a very impoverished environment, so I didn't believe that I would ever see the world. When I was 29, I joined the Peace Corps. I traveled to Liberia, an African country full of people who look just like me, which is cool but also impacted how I related to the country.

I could blend in, but I was very curious to know what it would be like to go someplace where they did not think I was native.

In 2018, I visited China and explored Zhengzhou, in the Henan Province on a tourist visa. In 2019, I officially moved to Beijing on the Z-visa, or the worker's visa. To get it, you need a job that will write you a letter, a physical, and a clean background check.

I came back to America in August 2024 to spend time with my family. By that time, many of my friends, other expats, had also left.

I've noticed big misconceptions between the US and China since I've returned.

China is surprisingly capitalistic

The unspoken rule of talking about politics when you are in China is that you do not talk about Chinese politics. That was made very clear to me.

I've heard a lot about how China's communist regime, but in terms of what I experienced it felt just as, if not more, capitalist than America.

Luxury is big in China. There is a whole section of Beijing where all the luxury stores and expensive places are.

In China, they promote entrepreneurship. There's a lot of opportunity to open a business and the threshold to do so is very low if you're Chinese.

There's also a lot of business turnover. If a business left an area, something else entered very quickly. In Beijing, if I'd walk by a closed shopfront that used to be a grocery store, a month later, it was like a hair salon.

As a teacher, life is more affordable

When I came back to the US and explained my lifestyle to people, there was a real cognitive dissonance around life in China.

For example, a teacher in America does not make a whole lot. As an expat teacher in China, my starting salary was 28,000 RMB, roughly a bit over $4,000 a month now.

In China, they have their version of Uber called DiDi. I could take a DiDi to and from work for less than $10 a day. Taking a US Uber for 15 minutes now costs me $20.

I made enough that I was able to eat out almost every day. Cooking was something that I did so rarely that it was an event, and I would invite my friends over.

I could finally pay off all my bills back home and have money to travel. It was much harder to escape a scarcity mindset in the US.

Chinese food in America is nothing like Chinese food in China

When I had Chinese food in China, it was dramatically different. At an American Chinese food restaurant, it's basically American cuisine coated in sugar.

But I'd say the bigger differences were in the style of eating.

As an American, we eat from our own plates, but in a lot of Asian countries, particularly China, you have a shared eating situation.

It wasn't like Thanksgiving, where you're served your portion on your plate. You order multiple plates and actively eat out of the same plate that everybody else was eating out of.

That took some getting used to, but hot pot, for example, became one of my favorite things. You can do individual hot pot, but the group ones were always the most fun.

Racism and discrimination arise differently

For the most part, I felt very welcomed in China. But I don't want to paint China as a glorious, perfect place because it's not.

The Uygurs and other minority groups are being persecuted in China.

As a Black expat, I dealt with some racism. Part of Chinese culture is the idea that being white is a sign of wealth and privilege, so the lighter you are, the more beautiful you are.

One time, one of my co-teachers said to me: "Oh my god, Black is so ugly. I can't get darker." She didn't recognize how I would take it.

It was an intense experience with COVID.

When America started reacting with anti-Chinese sentiment, there was a strong anti-American sentiment in China as a response.

One time, I went to the bank to transfer money, and one of the tellers threw my passport back at me, and they were just like, "We won't serve you."

In the US, people have been killed in racist attacks. Whereas in China, racism is prevalent, but felt less dangerous.

The pandemic wasn't scary, but I will say uncomfortable. The pro side was that the expat community bonded. We were more open and tried to build friendships because it was necessary for our mental health.

• TikTok went dark for 170 million US users on Saturday.
• Users have taken to other corners of the internet to react to the shutdown.
• Internet personality James Charles, who boasted over 40 million followers, called the move "dystopian."

TikTok shut down its app for 170 million US users on Saturday as the deadline for the app to go dark neared.

At around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time, a message began popping up on users' screens: "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now."

Many celebrities, influencers, and other users have since flocked to other corners of the internet to mourn the loss of the hit app.

Singer Lizzo, who had more than 25 million followers on TikTok, took to Instagram to react to the news.

"In Loving Memory, Takesha 'TikTok' Woods," the post reads.

"They really took her… MY SHAYLA," Lizzo added in the caption, referencing a recent trend on the app.

Internet personality James Charles, who boasted over 40 million followers on TikTok also posted his reaction to the shutdown in a series of videos posted to Instagram.

In the first, Charles said: "I can't believe I'm making an Instagram Reel right now because normally when something happens in the world, I go to TikTok."

"I don't know what to do! Oh my god, I've already opened and closed the app probably six times already just to keep getting the same stupid warning message. This is so dystopian!" Charles said in a follow-up video.

Another Instagram émigré was Alix Earle, an influencer who rose to fame on the app in 2022 and had more than 7 million followers.

Earle posted a video of herself tearfully clutching a glass of wine in bed. "How I'm going to sleep tonight," she wrote over the video. "Thank god for this wine rn."

Key figures from the business world have also weighed in on the situation.

Posting on Bluesky, Mark Cuban said it would be interesting to see how many users moved to the platform from TikTok.

The social media app has seen a surge in users since President-elect Donald Trump was elected in November. In December, the company said it had grown from 3 million users to 25.9 million.

It is currently in the final stages of raising new funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, which would value the company at around $700 million, as Business Insider previously reported.

Prior to the shutdown, Cuban said he hoped TikTok would be "disabled tonight at midnight and all day tomorrow and Monday."

"Which means the biggest story on Monday will be… And the reaction from the newly installed President will be…" he wrote.

Cuban has said he previously tried to invest in TikTok's precursor, Musical.ly, but that the company turned him down.

In an interview with Jules Terpak in December, Cuban said the platform was more enjoyable under its former name and that it had become "more corporate" since it's been known as TikTok.

"I liked it better when it was dances and music," Cuban said. "Now it's a business."

The cast of "Saturday Night Live" also tackled the TikTok shutdown in last night's episode.

During the Weekend Update segment, comedians Michael Longfellow and Michael Che addressed the situation while poking fun at criticism the app has faced in the past.

"I feel it is my responsibility to come out here and defend TikTok's right to remain here in these United States," Longfellow said, posing as a typical app user. "It's the first political opinion I've ever had."

TikTok is banking on Trump

In its message to US users, TikTok indicated that it was now relying on Trump to save the app.

"We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!" it said.

Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would "most likely" allow TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer.

"If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday," he said.

• When I earned a director title and huge salary, I felt like I was at the top of my career.
• But then I was suddenly laid off and felt like I invested everything into my career.
• While traveling along the West Coast, I decided I wanted more freedom in my work life.

In September 2022, I made it to the pinnacle of success in my career. I switched from one med-tech company to another to take on a director role. It was one step closer to my goal of one day making VP.

The compensation was great. I was making more money than I had ever imagined, an almost 35% increase from my previous position to director level. Plus, I was leading a diverse functional team in a market-leading company.

In 2023, I completed a full year with the med-tech company and earned a multiple six-figure salary. I was at the height of my career and compensation dream.

Then, less than two years later, it all came crashing down. On April 1st — April Fools' Day, nonetheless — I was told that I would be laid off and my last day would be May 31st.

June 1st would be the first day in my 25-year career in med-tech that I would voluntarily be without a job. I was given 14 weeks of severance pay that would take me through mid-September.

I panicked. I was scared. I was lost. I had given my freedom, autonomy, and time to a company and an industry that I thought loved me just the way I had loved it. I was in an existential crisis and needed to figure out my next moves.

I moved with my girlfriend, opening up a new way of thinking

Around the same time my career took a hit, my girlfriend was moving to Arizona for work. She asked me to join her since I had all the time in the world now that I was laid off.

We began our journey on May 26th from Pennsylvania, where I owned my home. I decided to Airbnb the home to make additional income while I was out of work and traveling west. We timed the arrival perfectly to arrive in Scottsdale, AZ, by June 1st — my first official day of no work.

Driving across the country those four days gave me a sense of freedom and control that I had never experienced before.

As I drove across the country, I thought: What would be my next career move? If I could do anything, what would that look like? I had more questions than I had answers.

But I did know one thing. Never again would I let a private employer dictate my financial freedom.

I decided to take control of my career and finances — as well as my time and location. I recognized that this would not be an overnight achievement, and I still needed a job to make my next move to what I truly wanted most.

More travel helped me pave the way forward

We stayed at our first Airbnb in Scottsdale for a month. The view was against the backdrop of the nearby mountains. Although the temperature was over 100 degrees, I went on local hikes every day in the morning.

The hikes helped me get clarity on what I needed to do to take control of my future, career, and finances.

The first weekend after arriving in Scottsdale, my girlfriend and I took a road trip to San Diego, over a five-hour drive from Scottsdale. We visited different beaches in the San Diego area, including Coronado Beach. Sitting on the beach enjoying the view, I knew that this was what I wanted to have control over. I wanted to go to places and enjoy life on my terms.

From that moment on, I invested in career opportunities that took me out of the corporate world. I instead invested in becoming a certified leadership coach.

The road trip across the US helped me recover mentally and plan my next steps. The daily hikes and road trips to San Diego and other parts of Arizona helped me reduce the overwhelming thoughts of having been laid off. It also reshaped my understanding of resilience, adaptability, the power of embracing change, and next life moves.

• 2025 marked the birth of the new generation — Gen Beta.
• Mark McCrindle, whose research firm coined Gen Alpha, says the name has no inherent meaning.
• But he argues that "Beta" is fitting considering it signifies an "updated version" or the "2.0."

The year 2025 marked the introduction of a new generation, at least according to demographers at McCrindle, an Australia-based research firm that claims credit for coining the name of the preceding generation, Gen Alpha.

Generation Beta, or Gen Beta, the firm said in a research report, is represented by those born between 2025 and 2039. Their parents will be younger millennials and older Gen Zs, and many will live to see the next millennium, the report said.

On social media, the naming convention was quickly met with some jeering as "Beta" is sometimes colloquially used as a pejorative to refer to a weaker person — often a man — instead of the "Alpha."

Mark McCrindle, the firm's founder, is aware of the reaction but told Business Insider that Gen Beta was not meant to be derogatory.

"It does follow from that naming convention we introduced with Alpha," McCrindle said.

When naming Gen Alpha, the demographer said his firm went with Greek letters rather than the Roman alphabet — as with Gen Z — because it wanted to signify a "whole new generation, a whole new era."

"We didn't want to go back to 'A' because this is the first generation born in the 21st century," he said. "We're not a repeat of the old."

From there, the names of the next generations could follow a predictable, sequential path — Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on, he said.

The name itself has no inherent meaning, but if one insists on finding one, McCrindle said there's a case to be made for Gen Beta.

"If we even think about the general use of beta, in a software or technology sense — it's the new and improved version. It's the updated version. It's the 2.0. And that's what I think of beta as, and I think that's perfectly appropriate," McCrindle said.

Gen Beta and the third digital revolution

Generations preceding Gen Beta saw significant technological shifts.

Millennials and Gen Z experienced the rise and domination of the internet, and Gen Alpha came into a world where the connected world fit into people's pockets with the smartphone, McCrindle said.

Gen Beta, the researcher said, will be shaped by the third digital revolution — artificial intelligence.

"While Generation Alpha has experienced the rise of smart technology and artificial intelligence, Generation Beta will live in an era where AI and automation are fully embedded in everyday life — from education and workplaces to healthcare and entertainment," the McCrindle report said.

Simultaneously, the ubiquity of AI will come in the backdrop of Gen Z parents who are more familiar — and wary — of the impacts of technology such as social media.

Gen Beta "will be going to schools where teachers are informed through AI, so it'll be everywhere," McCrindle said, "but the parents will bring more of a constraint to its use rather than just a bright-eyed optimism. That's a big change."

The researcher imagines a scenario in which parents of Gen Beta will be more deliberate about their children's time on and off technology even as it becomes more seamless. For example, parents may emphasize the importance of spending time outdoors.

Still, even if AI blends seamlessly into our lives, McCrindle said the future will be human even hundreds of years from now.

"Technology comes and goes, but the timeless human drivers of connection, relationship, hope, understanding, and trust — all of that is timeless," he said. "We sort of forget that amidst all of the novelty and the invention and the change, there are timeless human needs and there are things that do not change amidst the changes."

• Kent He increased rent by $550 a month by adding a bedroom to his affordable housing unit.
• His 'recession-proof' investment strategy involves operating Airbnbs and affordable housing units.
• Benefits to investing in affordable housing include predictable, reliable income.

When Kent He's Section 8 tenant moved out of his single-family home in Fairfield, Alabama in 2024, the investor saw an opportunity to improve his property.

He decided to add a room and convert the three-bedroom into a four-bedroom — and spent about $41,000 doing so, he said.

The investment has already started to pay off.

He told Business Insider that the three-bedroom was bringing in $700 a month in rent. Thanks mainly to the additional bedroom, the Birmingham Housing Authority determined that the property can now be rented for $1,257. BI confirmed these details by viewing the certification He received from the housing authority.

That's about a $550 increase in monthly rent — or, an extra $6,600 a year.

Just because his cash flow increases doesn't mean his tenant's payment does, he noted: "For housing choice vouchers, a tenant is responsible for paying 30-40% of their income toward the rent. If they lose their job or rents continue to go up, their portion on a percentage basis stays the same; the government will come in and fill the rest."

The full-time investor, who lives in San Diego and owns two Airbnb units in Scottsdale, said that he often thinks through, "What are your value-add strategies? How can you provide a good experience to your tenant while also generating some additional cash flow by being creative with the square footage?"

He's learned that "the housing choice vouchers typically pay based on the bedroom count. And, two bathrooms — houses with two toilets — rent out easier than homes with one toilet. We knew we had a good property and thought, let's take advantage of the space that we have and create a better product."

Owning an affordable housing unit is part of his greater "recession-proof" investment strategy.

A 'recession-proof strategy': Short-term rentals for cash flow + affordable housing units for stability

After graduating from Bentley University in 2011, He worked as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers for nearly four years. He left PwC to help a family member turn their restaurant business around and re-entered corporate America in 2017 when he got a job at a major insurance company.

Eager to exit the corporate world, he decided to try real-estate investing on the side. Specifically, he wanted to set up short-term vacation rentals, which, according to his research, seemed to be higher-risk but the most lucrative real-estate strategy.

He was right: After purchasing two properties in Scottsdale in 2021 and 2022 and turning them into bachelorette-themed Airbnbs, he started earning enough from his short-term rental units to cover his family's expenses and quit his day job.

Despite his success on Airbnb — in 2023, his two units brought in more than $240,000 — he didn't want to rely on the short-term rental strategy, which has proven to be volatile. Early in the pandemic, when travel was halted and some state and local governments banned short-term rentals to stop the spread of COVID-19, Airbnb hosts saw their calendars wiped clean.

"For peace of mind, I want to know that there's always other cash flow coming in from another asset class," said He.

That's where the second part of his strategy comes into play: buying affordable housing units.

"It's a great diversification approach," said He. "You have short-term rentals with a higher risk and more active approach to managing. And then you have the long-term rental which might be a little bit passive, lower cash flow, but much more predictable and stable income coming from the government that's paying your rent every single month."

The benefits of providing affordable housing: Diversification, predictable income

There are a handful of misconceptions about affordable housing, said He, who has built a YouTube channel dedicated to the topic: "A lot of folks, when they think about affordable housing they associate it with the projects, with guns, drugs, and drama; when, in reality, it's really hardworking folks, like my parents, who just needed a stable roof over their heads."

His parents immigrated to the US from China "with about $1,000," he said, and raised him in an affordable housing unit.

In addition to providing families in need with a nice roof over their heads, buying affordable housing has unique benefits for the investor.

As a Section 8 landlord, you can collect rent reliably, said He: "Even if the Section 8 tenant loses their job, the government will come in and pay the rest of the rent. That is what I'm calling a recession-proof investment because the government will always pay their rent on time for your voucher holders."

Plus, "there's some kind of accountability on the tenant side because the tenant doesn't want to lose their voucher," said He, who explained that in some counties the waitlist for a housing choice voucher can be 12 to 15 years. "There are going to be exceptions — there are still going to be bad apples here and there — but for the most part, folks that desperately need housing for their families value the vouchers very much so, because it's essentially hitting a jackpot."

Another aspect of the program is a housing inspection every one to two years, he said: "The local housing authority will come and inspect the home just to make sure it's in good condition."

With a traditional rental, if you have a long-term tenant, "you might wait five, 10 years and you never know what's happening inside your home. It's a great accountability mechanism to make sure you are providing a great living experience for the tenant. But as a landlord, you're also understanding what's happening inside your home, so that if anything needs to be fixed, you're taking care of it right away instead of deferring that maintenance and potentially causing more issues for you down the road."

• Car shoppers are more price-conscious, benefiting sedans like the Honda Civic.
• Shoppers entering the car market this year are likely to experience sticker shock.
• The big, expensive SUVs that pad automakers' bottom lines may be in trouble.

The sedan isn't dead yet.

Small, affordable cars — like the sedans that were all but abandoned by the American automotive industry in the last decade — are poised to have a good year in 2025.

Many would-be car buyers who spent the last few years waiting for interest rates to come down finally started shopping again last year, only to find that cars have gotten a lot bigger and more expensive than the last time they were on the lot.

"We're going to see a lot of sticker shock," Ivan Drury, an automotive analyst for car-shopping website Edmunds, told Business Insider.

The average price of a new car hit $49,740 in December, up 1.3% from the same month a year ago and continuing a yearslong inflationary trend as automakers look to give Americans what they want: Bigger and flashier SUVs, that just so happen to be super profitable, too.

But in a year when American consumers became more price-conscious, it has become clear the few affordable options that do exist are in higher demand.

The most popular cars in America last year, according to Edmunds data, skewed toward more affordable models like the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Tesla Model Y. The Civic jumped seven spots to crack the top 10 this year, a sign that the death of the sedan may be over-stated, according to Drury.

"Affordability is clearly top of mind for consumers," Drury said. "These vehicles are going to exist in that more palatable price range."

The affordability revolution

In the past year, a more general sensitivity to rising retail prices has taken shape, with this issue playing a large factor in the 2024 presidential election.

The average American consumer is growing more price-sensitive, and the sticker shock that comes with car buying right now is not good for car companies that don't have affordable sedans to offer, Drury said.

"When we see consumers with older trade-ins, the preference for affordability gets higher," Drury said. "Virtually anything else that's being thrown out there, other than these sedans, is going to cause some sticker shock."

Several major car manufacturers have spent the last decade slashing their sedan offerings in the US as engines became more fuel efficient and shoppers gravitated toward larger vehicles.

Larger cars command higher prices, improving profitability for car companies, even at lower sales volumes. This has helped drive the success of US car companies like Ford and GM in the past few years as sales come down from pandemic-era highs.

But reliance on big, expensive cars has had consequences in the past.

This strategy was a key issue for car companies during the Great Recession when shoppers suddenly shifted away from their profit-producing Hummers and pickup trucks in favor of affordable and fuel-efficient sedans.

Already in the EV market, customers are showing more interest in affordable and smaller cars, leaving Detroit's big EVs without a clear buyer base.

Elon Musk's Tesla has taken advantage of that by slashing prices on its smaller and more practical vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y. Meanwhile, more affordable hybrids from companies like Honda and Toyota entice emissions-conscious shoppers on a budget.

These more frugal customers, who have stayed on the sidelines until now, are already upending the electric vehicle market with a preference for affordability and reliability. This same disruption will likely happen in the rest of the industry as shoppers finally show up to trade in aging vehicles in 2025.

"Sometimes, when you're trading in an older vehicle, you don't want to jump too far ahead on technology," Drury said. "I think we will see less desire for the top-of-the-line tech."

• Tiffany Trump has been in the public eye her entire life thanks to her famous father.
• Her style evolved as she went from socialite to first daughter when Donald Trump became president.
• She often blends professional and laid-back looks.

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, his youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, 31, is expected to remain distanced from politics as she did during her father's first term.

Although her role — or lack thereof — in the Trump administration isn't changing, Tiffany's life has changed pretty dramatically since her father first took office. She graduated from college, entered law school, got married, and is expecting her first child.

Tiffany's personal style has also transformed since she first entered the public eye.

Take a look at her fashion evolution, from her time as a New York socialite to her life as a first daughter.

When Tiffany Trump first started attending red-carpet events, she often wore minidresses.

In July 2011, she attended an event celebrating the cast of "Love, Loss & What I Wore" in a black minidress.

The dress had a straight neckline with a V in the center. She wore it with strappy black heels.

Her looks often had a daring edge in her socialite years.

Tiffany attended a New York Fashion Week event in September 2014 in a form-fitting blue minidress.

It had a chic halter neckline, and she paired the dress with black heels.

Tiffany was spotted in a sheer look in August 2015 — shortly after her father announced his candidacy for president.

Trump's youngest daughter didn't immediately change her style after her father announced his candidacy for president in June 2015. In August 2015, she attended a VH1 benefit in a minidress.

The halter dress dipped low in the back and featured a sheer base. It was overlaid with a layer of see-through fabric covered in a blue floral pattern.

Nude shoes completed the beachy look.

By the Republican National Convention in July 2016, Tiffany looked every bit the politician's daughter.

Tiffany gave a speech at the 2016 RNC, walking onstage in a blue dress.

It had a high, scooped neckline, a bow that cinched her waist, and a skirt that flared around her knees.

Tiffany and Ivanka Trump wore coordinating looks on election night in 2016.

Both Trump sisters appeared alongside their father on election night in 2016 wearing light-blue minidresses.

Tiffany's silk column dress hit her mid-thigh. It was sleeveless, and sparkly gems trimmed the scooped collar. Nude heels completed her look.

The Trump sisters had another matching moment on Inauguration Day in 2017.

Tiffany and Ivanka coordinated their looks for Donald Trump's Inauguration Day in 2017, both attending in white ensembles.

Tiffany wore a custom Taoray Wang coat and coordinating dress. The coat was stark white and double-breasted, and she accessorized the look with a double-strand pearl necklace.

Tiffany chose a more elaborate look on the evening of Inauguration Day.

Tiffany tapped Simin Taghdiri of Simin Couture for her dress for the inaugural balls.

The strapless pink dress was form-fitting and flared to a mermaid skirt. It was covered in intricate floral embroidery with pops of blue, and textured embellishments adorned the trim of the neckline and waist.

The sparkly look contrasted the clean lines she wore earlier in the day.

After her father became president, Tiffany appeared in more professional dresses, as she did at New York Fashion Week in February 2017.

Tiffany attended a few Fashion Week shows in 2017, sitting front row at Taoray Wang's presentation on February 11, less than a month after wearing the designer at her father's inauguration.

For the occasion, she wore a white sheath dress with a low V-neckline and a pleat running down the center. A pink and beige coat and gold heels added pops of color.

However, in September 2017, she showed off a more daring side of her style in a minidress with cutouts and sheer detailing.

During a night out in New York City, Tiffany was photographed in a black dress that hit her mid-thigh.

Cutouts covered the top half of the long sleeves, and strips of silver and sheer fabric adorned the skirt's hem.

Tiffany added sparkly black heels to the look.

She rocked another see-through outfit during a night out in London in July 2018.

Tiffany and her mother, Marla Maples, stepped out at The Arts Club in London in July 2018.

Tiffany wore a powder-blue blazer and trousers, but her sheer, high-neck top was the standout aspect of her look. The black top featured a subtle striped pattern.

She added open-toe black shoes to the outfit.

She arrived at the 2019 Trump Christmas celebration in a semi-sheer lace dress.

The base of the dress was blue and strapless. It was covered with a sheer overlay adorned with floral black lace.

The lace formed off-the-shoulder sleeves, and Tiffany's black shoes matched the gown.

A sparkly shirt made Tiffany's outfit for the August 2020 RNC pop.

Tiffany spoke at the virtual Republican National Convention when her father ran for president in 2020, selecting a powder-blue suit.

The wide-legged trousers had pleats on the sides, showing off a strip of darker fabric. Tiffany also added a sparkly blue shirt to the look, blending the professional silhouette with textures she favors in her streetwear attire.

Tiffany chose a more muted ensemble when Donald Trump left office in 2021.

Tiffany was photographed exiting Air Force One in Florida in January 2021 after her father left the White House. She was wearing a knee-length black dress.

The double-belted sweater dress had a high neckline. She wore it with an oatmeal coat and sunglasses.

Ahead of her 2022 wedding, Tiffany was spotted in a blue floral dress, looking every bit the bride.

Tiffany was spotted with her father before her November 2022 wedding at Mar-a-Lago.

She wore a white dress covered in blue florals. It cinched at the waist and flared out before hitting her mid-calf.

After keeping a low profile in 2023, Tiffany reemerged at the 2024 RNC in a chic two-piece.

Tiffany wore white throughout the 2024 RNC, including a coordinating white set from Amanda Uprichard.

The outfit consisted of the sleeveless $247 Hughes vest, featuring buttons down the center, and the $172 Hope skirt. Both featured a subtle ruching pattern.

And she wore another white look on election night in 2024.

Tiffany appeared alongside her family on election night in a simple cream dress.

The short-sleeve dress had a high neckline and a flared skirt that hit her mid-calf. It belted at the waist, with a subtle gold buckle cinching in the center.

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

Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. No prestigious pedigree? No problem. This one-time Big Tech staffer detailed how he managed to nab jobs at Google and Meta despite being what he describes as lacking a "top tier" résumé. He mapped out four steps that would be useful to most anyone in business.

On the agenda today:

• Meta is mirroring Amazon's brutal workforce management philosophy.
• The sneaky rise of no-work Fridays.
• Anthony Scaramucci shares his predictions for the economy under Trump 2.0.
• He told his former employee quitting for OpenAI in 2016 was a bad idea. The rest is history.

But first: Trump is back.

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

A new era

It's happening.

We're about to go into a new administration, a new party, a new president.

And Business Insider is going to be there for you.

We already have been.

Here at BI, we're focused on what politics means for your pocketbook, your taxes, your investments, and your career.

And we've already been all over these subjects.

Take Meta. Ahead of the inauguration, and as its CEO celebrates Donald Trump's election, our team has brought you scoops on Meta's process for cutting low-performing employees and how the cuts could become an annual tradition.

We also gave you insights into how Meta's employees feel about the changes, from their thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg's "year of intensity" to their reaction to Meta backing off DEI efforts. If you need a recap, check out our piece here on Zuck 3.0.

On taxes, we're getting ahead on what you need to know depending on what happens with Trump's tax cuts.

The fate of TikTok has been wrapped up in politics for years, and we've brought our readers numerous angles and insights, including Friday's big Supreme Court news.

This is just a sampling of how we plan to approach Trump coverage this year — what it means for your money, your work, your life.

What do you think? I always want to hear from you. Please email me at [email protected].

I expect to be at the Davos conference all week, unlike some billionaires and CEOs who are jetsetting between Washington and Switzerland. I'll be joined by Dan DeFrancesco, your weekday anchor, and some of our other fantastic colleagues. We'll share the Davos dish, what we're hearing about the new administration, TikTok, AI, and more. Please stay in touch!

Meta is done playing nice

The social media giant internally announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce, focusing on its lowest-performing employees. It's a more aggressive approach to workforce management but one Amazon has embraced for years.

It also marks a departure from Silicon Valley's traditional talent retention strategy, where tech companies overpaid workers to steer them away from competition. Now, lean, high-performing teams appear to be the new Big Tech trend as companies like Microsoft and Google look to make similar performance-based job cuts.

A page out of Amazon's workforce playbook.

Also read:

• The linguistic somersaults Meta and other companies use to disguise how job cuts are coming

On Fridays, WFH means OOO

Instead of one last push before the weekend, "quiet Fridays" are becoming a sneaky personal day for some remote workers.

The four-day workweek dream remains out of reach for many, but fed-up remote workers are taking back the day for themselves. Fridays also remain the least popular day to commute, even as office attendance creeps back up.

Three-day weekend, every weekend.

'If I'm being brutally honest'

Anthony Scaramucci is a vocal Trump critic. The hedge-fund founder, also known for his 11-day stint in Trump's first administration, hasn't held back on the former president.

Even so, Scaramucci predicts a sunny economy under the president-elect. He told BI that pro-growth policies like Trump's tax plan and potential clarity on crypto legislation are boons for the country.

But he's still worried about some of Trump's other moves.

The world's worst career advice

Business Insider's Alistair Barr was an editor at Bloomberg in 2016 when his reporter Jack Clark told him he was quitting to work at OpenAI. At the time, it was a relatively obscure nonprofit that was less than a year old.

Barr told him it wasn't a good idea. Clark had a pretty stable job as a reporter on Bloomberg's Big Tech team and OpenAI didn't seem to have a clear direction. In the end, Clark ignored him and went to OpenAI anyway.

Now, he's set to become a billionaire.

This week's quote:

"People get sick. They change their mind or family circumstances. So even if you thought you knew today, you couldn't be completely sure."

— JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on picking his successor.

More of this week's top reads:

• Wall Street is booming. Here's where the hot jobs are now.
• Restaurants and clubs are cashing in on a clientele who is young, sober, and ready to party.
• Newly public FBI records from the 1970s reveal an investigation into Home Depot cofounders over alleged anti-union bribery.
• Gen Z is the loneliest generation — but boomers are feeling good.
• Amazon cuts jobs in its Fashion and Fitness group, according to internal messages.
• One of the world's biggest oil companies is cutting thousands of jobs.
• Biden warns of a 'tech industrial complex' and says America must lead the way on AI, not China, in farewell address.
• Activist short-seller behind Hindenburg Research will disband firm.

• If you want to land a job this year, get good with AI.

  ---

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

• Light unveiled its Light Phone 3 with a new back camera feature.
• "Dumb phones" have targeted users seeking a break from high-tech gadgets.
• Intentional tech use will be on the rise in 2025, Amazon's Werner Vogels said.

"Dumb phones" are devices with much less functionality than the typical smartphone. However, they still have a high-tech feature that their users can't stand to lose.

Light announced the third iteration of its simplified cellphone in June 2024. It doesn't look much different from its predecessor, which started shipping in 2019, and the company says it didn't change much in terms of software.

It spent most of its time and resources on introducing a particular aspect of the Light Phone 3: the back camera.

The new Light Phone is "a little bit bigger, a little bit faster, and a slightly different screen, but the camera is definitely the new feature," Joe Hollier, the cofounder of Light, told Business Insider.

The Light Phone 3 can call and text and has smarter features such as fingerprint ID, rear- and front-facing cameras, and the potential to support a digital wallet, the company said.

The other available tools, according to the company, include an alarm, a timer, a calculator, a calendar, a directory, directions, notes/voice memo. There's the option to add music and podcasts to the device by connecting to a computer and downloading them from the Light website.

Smartphone makers have also been working on improving their cameras. Apple's latest phone lineup, the iPhone 16, has an "Ultra Wide" camera and autofocus for photos that can be edited using AI. Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra has an AI-powered camera that can improve low-light photography.

Light doesn't expect their new camera to compete with an iPhone, which Hollier acknowledged can shoot commercials, but it's a "very intentional" tool, he said.

It saw a need to add a new camera with a "nostalgia feel." Hollier said his interest in film photography was a "North Star" for the Light Phone 3's new back camera. Photos from the dumb phone don't look quite as clear as those from the iPhone, but Hollier said they weren't designed to be.

Users have turned to dumb phones for a break from the bright and colorful smartphone displays and all the distractions they offer. That's similar to a trend Amazon CTO Werner Vogels highlighted for 2025. As artificial intelligence charges ahead, people will turn to more intentional tech use, Vogels wrote in a blogpost.

Although Hollier said adult Gen Zers are becoming more interested in dumb phones, it remains the smallest portion of its user base at 12%. However, their older siblings, Zillennials between the ages of 25 and 34, make up 38% of Light Phone users.

Light has set out to reduce the "infinite feed," as Hollier put it, by guaranteeing that its phones will never have email, social media, or an internet browser. The company treads a careful line when deciding what to offer in Light Phones.

That's at odds with the many companies trying to evolve by incorporating AI into their operations. Apple launched Apple Intelligence in 2024, and Samsung's S24 is a lineup of AI-powered phones. Hollier said Light has no current plans to bring AI to its phones.

The Light Phone 3 is available for preorder for $599 as of January 16— a $200 discount from its retail price. Shipping is expected to begin in May.

• Billy Busch is an heir to the Anheuser-Busch multi-billion-dollar fortune.
• He said he learned through manual labor on his family's farm full of exotic animals.
• His inheritance plan is designed to avoid family feuds like those that embroiled his siblings.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Billy Busch, founder of the Busch Family Brewing & Distilling Company and author of "Family Reins: The Extraordinary Rise and Epic Fall of an American Dynasty." It has been edited for length and clarity.

I learned the value of hard work laboring on my parents' farm. But their farm was no typical operation. Grant's Farm was a sprawling estate that had been home to my family since 1903. In 1954, my parents opened it up to the public to promote their brands.

The farm had elephants, monkeys, and almost any other animal you could imagine. It was also home to the famous Clydesdale horses, which were intertwined with Budweiser thanks to my Dad's brilliant marketing.

My siblings and I were charged with maintaining the farm, keeping it beautiful so that when the public came through they would see a place that was well taken care of. On a typical day, I might go from slopping out the pig pen to running elephant shows. The reputation of the Anheuser-Busch brand was always top of mind for my parents, especially my father. The business was his love, and he felt a huge responsibility for the legacy left by his father and grandfather.

My parents kept us grounded through farm work

My parents didn't talk much about money, but we understood it should never be wasted. There was a sense that even a great fortune could be lost if we didn't care for it. I learned to always turn the lights off so I didn't rack up the electric bill.

My parents wanted my siblings and me to be grounded. My dad was always in favor of getting us up early to do chores. He wanted us to know it took hard work to build anything, much less a dynasty.

My parents didn't just teach us to do what we were asked — they wanted us to do twice what we were asked. Anything we do should be done to perfection. That was very important to them.

In addition to these lessons, I learned a lot about hard work from the employees on the farm. My parents were running a massive business, so it sometimes felt like I was raised by the workers around us. Our farm manager worked for Grant's Farm for more than 50 years and had a huge influence on me, teaching me about plants, animals, and machinery.

I had a trust to live off so I could pursue my passions

My dad had 11 kids, including five sons. It was always assumed that his oldest son, my half-brother, would take over the business. My oldest full brother was also groomed to be involved with Anheuser-Busch. I was never pressured to work in the brewery.

When I was 18, my father gave me a trust. It was enough money that I could live on it comfortably, which freed me to work in areas that I was passionate about. I went to the University of Missouri to study agriculture and animal husbandry. I also became a champion polo player, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch.

Later, I invested in a bar business and a distribution company, where I worked in the warehouse and drove trucks. It was very interesting learning about a different aspect of my family business.

I received the rest of my inheritance in 1989 when my father died. I was about 30.

Luck of the draw will determine my children's inheritance

I took a similar approach to inheritance with my seven kids, who range in age from 18 to 33. When they turned 18 they received a small trust that they could use for investing or starting a business.

I want my children to be financially intelligent and understand hard work. I've taught them about investing. I want them to have a trusted team around them but to always make their own financial decisions. When you rely on someone else to make your decisions for you, you're setting yourself up for a big mistake.

My dad's will caused strife between my siblings and me that we still haven't recovered from. I wanted to create a very black-and-white inheritance plan. That's hard, but I know it will save my children a lot of heartache and lawyer's bills in the future.

I'm heavily invested in land. So, I've split my land assets up into seven parcels. When I pass, each of my children will pull a number from a hat, and that will decide what parcel they get. I hope that will lead to no arguments, and an inheritance that's as even as possible.

• I was a helicopter parent to my firstborn but learned that it wasn't the best approach.
• My firstborn was frustrated, anxious, and struggled to do simple tasks.
• I started implementing age-appropriate independence and my three kids are better for it.

It's been nine years, but I can still clearly remember the first time we got a bike for my 2-year-old son. What was supposed to be an exciting new milestone turned into a disappointment.

Being a first-time mom who was consumed by "what ifs," I let my overprotective instincts take over. Despite his protests, I loaded him up with protective gear from head to toe — knee pads, elbow pads, a padded vest and shorts, and a fitted helmet.

After just a few minutes of riding, he frustratingly told me that he wanted to go inside because all the padding was making him uncomfortable.

That bike ride was just one of countless examples of my helicopter parenting. I decided what he would eat and wear, and who he would befriend. I made sure he didn't mingle with strangers and was always quick to jump in to help, even unprompted.

I thought this was how a mother's love should be, not realizing how it would impact his emotional growth years later.

My need to control was ruining his joy in exploring and trying new things

As he grew older, my eldest struggled to make simple decisions, like choosing new clothes, and he was often a bit too anxious about hypothetical scenarios, like what if our car ran out of fuel in a deserted area.

He lost interest in reading because we would always read what I chose for him. Even ordering meals when we went out was tough because he felt uncomfortable speaking to unfamiliar people.

My apprehensions kept causing hindrances for him, until one day, he couldn't hold back anymore.

"Mama, you won't ever let me do anything on my own," he cried after I stopped him from playing football with a few unknown kids at the park.

Hearing that was painful but necessary. I realized I needed to make a change for him and my secondborn.

I started with small, subtle changes

I loosed the reins and started giving my eldest the freedom to choose what to wear, eat, and read. I also stopped saying no so often, especially when he offered to help.

Some changes came more slowly than others. His anxiety over hypotheticals, for example, diminished pretty quickly.

However, it took years for him to build up his self-confidence starting with small activities like helping me fold laundry and make sandwiches for him and his little brother.

It didn't matter if his attempts were imperfect, I made a point to praise and thank him. And I stopped helping him all of the time.

Once, he was struggling to make a bridge with his engineering toy set. It kept collapsing, but I resisted the urge to help and watched instead. Eventually, he figured out what was wrong and built a sturdy bridge all by himself. His face lit up with pride.

Milestones like these made me realize the value of loosening the reins so that my kids could experience struggle and learn resilience by themselves.

My eldest, now 11, is a confident, caring big brother for his siblings. He is the wisest when it comes to spending his allowance. He makes well-thought-out choices, and his adventurous restaurant orders always bring a smile to our faces.

All of my children became more confident as I changed my parenting style

My younger kids also benefit from the lessons I learned raising my eldest. I became a more relaxed parent.

I allowed my secondborn to mingle with unfamiliar kids when he wanted and to choose his own clothes and books.

As a result, from a very young age, my secondborn was not scared of risks like trying new rides and foods. He makes friends quickly and even helps new classmates who struggle to adapt.

My youngest, my 3-year-old, surprises us with her strong will, crystal-clear choices, and self-assured demeanor at such a young age.

My eldest taught me the importance of endorsing age-appropriate independence over helicopter parenting, and because of that, I've had the joy of watching my kids thrive as they grow up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An overstuffed closet helped me have a breakthrough

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

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

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

Now, Mike and I communicate about clutter better

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nurses often find themselves 'thrown into' gigs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenging nursing gigs often come with higher pay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See the list of major closures below.

Party City: 700 stores

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

Big Lots: 480 stores

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

Walgreens: 450 stores

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

Family Dollar: 370 stores

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

Macy's: 66 stores

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

Kohl's: 27 stores

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was glorious

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

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

Our perspective changed at home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autonomy breeds employee trust

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

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

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

Employers have reasons for concern

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

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

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

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

Workers got used to WFH

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

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

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

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

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

I can't see you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loan-to-own

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

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

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

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

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

Special situations

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asset-backed finance and other specialties

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sponsor finance poised to bounce back

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

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

"That will change in 2025," Rubinetti said.

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