Finance
My husband and I work full-time but had to borrow money to pay for my dad’s cremation
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Heather Waughtel, 47, a project coordinator based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Business Insider has verified her income and her dad’s funeral costs. It has been edited for length and clarity. Before my dad died, I felt we had been responsible by…
My husband and I don’t exchange gifts for birthdays or holidays. Here’s what we do instead.
It was my birthday and my now-husband and I had been dating for about three months. When he got to my house, he wished me a happy birthday, then he apologized, “I’m sorry I didn’t get you a gift.” At the time, I was 31, had a good job, and could buy whatever I fancied,
They took peptides — then decided to give them to their dogs
In August, Ryan Samluk’s beloved Australian-German Shepherd mix, Finley, suffered a devastating sprain. The 11-year-old dog had long lived with hereditary joint issues. Now, she could barely limp around the yard. “I knew the vet visit would cost thousands of dollars I didn’t have,” Samluk, a…
We moved from NYC to a rural beach town and struggled with isolation. We sold less than 2 years later.
In the summer of 2024, my husband and I bought our dream house in a small town in Maryland. We knew virtually no one in our new town, but at the time, that didn’t matter to us. It had everything we wanted: brand-new construction, around our budget, and it was just minutes from two different
We got rid of our deck and replaced it with a patio. It saved us over $30,000 and helped us optimize our outdoor space.
In 2023, my husband and I packed up our shoebox-sized apartment, said goodbye to our fast-paced Manhattan lifestyle, and headed to our new, adorable coastal Connecticut suburb. We purchased a fixer-upper and embraced it. Our house was built in the ’80s and came complete with linoleum kitchen…
Pope Leo XIV warns against losing humanity to a ‘paradise of machines’
Pope Leo XIV has a new warning about AI. The Pope cautioned against an overreliance on artificial intelligence and other technology during a speech to French diplomats, including President Emmanuel Macron, on Friday. Earlier that day, he traveled from Rome to Paris as part of an apostolic journey…
All 36 athletes who have hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’
Jalen Brunson will host the season 52 premiere of "Saturday Night Live." Gregory Shamus/Getty Images Usually, “Saturday Night Live” is hosted by an actor or comedian, or sometimes a musician. But every so often, a brave athlete will try their hand at live sketch comedy at Studio 8H. Jalen Brunson…
I was laid off by Google, then asked to come back. I gave up a 6-figure salary and unvested stock to bet on my startup.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rob Waters, a former Google employee who was laid off last November. The 42-year-old cofounded Kanawai AI and lives in San Francisco. The following has been edited for length and clarity. In November 2025, I was on a flight to Los Angeles to…
I’m 72 and don’t want to move to a retirement home. So I built a tiny home in my yard for a future live-in caretaker.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kathie Schwartz, 72, who built a tiny home in her California backyard. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. I wanted to get ahead of planning for old age. My husband and I are in our 70s and in very good health, but we’ve
I paid for a $900 Michelin-star dinner with my son. The price tag was worth it to show him the life he can achieve.
My first child was born a few days after I turned 19. Looking into his eyes as I held him, I told myself I wanted to give him a better life than I had. I was a homeless teenager, and I had to raise myself. I had to figure everything out and start my adult