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I rarely have occasion to visit sports stadiums anymore. Before this weekend, the last time I entered an enormous arena was not to be taken hostage by three hours of sports, but as a three-hour ritual devoted to my Emotional Support Billionaire, Taylor Swift. Still, every time I disappear into a herd of people shuffling […]
In June, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released a report that confirmed the obvious but unbearable reality that most aspiring homeowners recognized long ago: The median income cannot afford the median life. To meet traditional lending criteria for the middle-of-the-road home today, a prospective buyer would need to reliably pull down at least […]
Something devastating is happening to airport lounges, and those paid to catalog subtle economic and cultural shifts are taking note. The food? “Sad.” The walls? “Beige.” The seating? “Overcrowded.” Wealth management professional, author, and now two-time The Money with Katie Show guest Nick Maggiulli recently analyzed wealth data he believes underlies this phenomenon: “The upper […]
For a few hours on the Fourth of July, I did the most patriotic thing I could imagine: joining local Safeway workers on the picket line as they continued a sweaty, weeks-long strike to protest unfair labor practices. The company had been using illegal bargaining tactics (“surveilling, threatening”) during contract negotiations, and the union—UFCW Local […]
In June, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released a report that confirmed the obvious but unbearable reality that most aspiring homeowners recognized long ago: The median income cannot afford the median life. To meet traditional lending criteria for the middle-of-the-road home today, a prospective buyer would need to reliably pull down at least […]
I love being lied to by beautiful, rich women on the internet. Not just any influencer will do—my preferred shared hallucination is the business influencer, over whose sprawling imperial colonies the digital sun never sets. Recently, I’ve taken to watching a woman who I’m pretty sure is a scammer; one of those “coaches coaching coaches” […]
For a few hours on the Fourth of July, I did the most patriotic thing I could imagine: joining local Safeway workers on the picket line as they continued a sweaty, weeks-long strike to protest unfair labor practices. The company had been using illegal bargaining tactics (“surveilling, threatening”) during contract negotiations, and the union—UFCW Local […]
Every once in a while, a series of mundane events accumulates to produce a moment of out-of-body, blistering clarity. “Clarity” is not a mental state I’ve experienced much recently, but on my last day in California, it arrived unannounced while I idled in a Safeway parking lot. Earlier that morning, I had been speaking with […]
This essay contains copious White Lotus season 3 spoilers. If you’re not caught up, please stop whatever else you’re doing and go spend the next eight hours in front of your TV, which is the only screen we’re celebrating today. Timothy Ratliff is screwed. While on vacation at a fictional resort in Thailand called the […]
A few weeks ago, I watched The Substance through my hands. During particularly bloody scenes, I would study Thomas’s face as he grimaced, attempting to judge when it was safe to look at the screen again. The film—which interprets the violence of body modification and our cultural obsession with youth through a campy lens—hits a […]
House-hunting in any US city will cause one simple question to bulldoze all the others: How can so many people afford to buy these houses? If you typically feel pretty good about your financial progress and you’d like to not feel good about it, there’s no activity I recommend more. Last weekend, my husband and […]
Imagine for a moment that you have a magic browser plugin. When activated while viewing your portfolio, this mystical Chrome extension can scan your Wealth Planner and tell you which portion of your existing net worth you’ll never get to spend. Let’s say you learn that, of the money you’ve already squirreled away (and what […]
This essay contains copious White Lotus season 3 spoilers. If you’re not caught up, please stop whatever else you’re doing and go spend the next eight hours in front of your TV, which is the only screen we’re celebrating today. Timothy Ratliff is screwed. While on vacation at a fictional resort in Thailand called the […]
The “Passion Planner” was first sucked into the gravitational force field of my striving at an internship in 2016, thanks to a young colleague who reeked of competence. She represented the sort of high-achieving twenty-something I was desperate to become, and she was always toting around her leatherbound daybook. In morning meetings, I’d ogle as […]
As a pathologically ambitious college junior a few months into my first real internship, a generous, well-regarded full-time employee on my team pulled me aside after my #grindset and I handed in an assignment early. You’re doing a great job, she whispered, but I’m going to let you in on something: Don’t work so fast. […]
Almost 10 years ago, I lived in a city surrounded by hordes of other early 20-somethings. We were Venn diagrams of friend groups connected by mutual acquaintances or college roommates, hailing from all over the country and bringing unique backgrounds that were mostly unknown to one another. When you’re growing up, you usually know why […]
International Women’s Day nearly escaped my awareness this year. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one not in the spirit: About a week earlier, the “for women, by women” investing platform Ellevest announced it would be selling and transferring its roboadvisory accounts to Betterment this April. Ellevest explained in the fine print that […]
The other day, a friend asked me what I thought of the “money manifestation” courses she keeps seeing online. Maybe you’ve seen their ads, too: Relatable-feeling, straight-to-camera videos featuring people who promise to rid you of your “money blocks,” using scientific-sounding language and vague assurances about forthcoming abundance. This type of material usually triggers my […]
The other morning, I woke up with a strange impulse: I wanted to go to the mall. Work had been particularly intense for a couple of weeks, so wandering around a giant commercial space that smells like someone spritzed an Auntie Anne’s pretzel with Chanel No. 5 sounded like irresistible frivolity. This happens every few […]
I couldn’t resist naming this essay “Local Woman Discovers Leisure in European City,” as I recently learned all the cliches about life in Paris (and my reactions to them, as a former girl from the Kentucky suburbs) are deserved. Yes, the food tastes better, and somehow even a straight pastry-and-cheese diet didn’t make me feel […]
I rarely have occasion to visit sports stadiums anymore. Before this weekend, the last time I entered an enormous arena was not to be taken hostage by three hours of sports, but as a three-hour ritual devoted to my Emotional Support Billionaire, Taylor Swift. Still, every time I disappear into a herd of people shuffling […]
Something devastating is happening to airport lounges, and those paid to catalog subtle economic and cultural shifts are taking note. The food? “Sad.” The walls? “Beige.” The seating? “Overcrowded.” Wealth management professional, author, and now two-time The Money with Katie Show guest Nick Maggiulli recently analyzed wealth data he believes underlies this phenomenon: “The upper […]
Over the long weekend, I was toying with a creative prompt: “What are you afraid to write?” Reflecting on the last dozen interviews I’d done for Rich Girl Nation, the answer took the form of a complicated love letter to the self-help genre that raised me. To personal finance, my first true love: Our love […]
This essay contains copious White Lotus season 3 spoilers. If you’re not caught up, please stop whatever else you’re doing and go spend the next eight hours in front of your TV, which is the only screen we’re celebrating today. Timothy Ratliff is screwed. While on vacation at a fictional resort in Thailand called the […]