Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin in 2023. NATO has accused China of being "a decisive enabler of Russia's war against Ukraine."
SERGEI GUNEYEV/Getty Images
NATO accused China of enabling Russia's war in Ukraine and urged it to cease support.
It said China had supplied Russia with weapon components, bypassing Western sanctions.
China said NATO had a "Cold War mentality" and "belligerent rhetoric."
NATO on Wednesday accused China of being "a decisive enabler of Russia's war against Ukraine" and demanded that it stop aiding Moscow's military or face the consequences.
In the alliance's Washington Summit declaration, published before a White House dinner with its leader, it called on China "to cease all material and political support to Russia's war effort."
The declaration, the first of its kind, said China had been a major supplier of weapon components and defense equipment to Russia since the start of the war.
It included an implicit threat. "The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation," the declaration said.
Natalie Sabanadze, a senior research fellow at Chatham House in London, told The New York Times she expected European countries to "start sanctioning Chinese companies slowly, while carefully weighing consequences and a potential backlash."
She added that NATO's warning "tells China that there will be costs."
The strongest rebuke yet
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general, described the language as the "strongest message NATO allies have ever sent on China's contributions to Russia's illegal war against Ukraine."
China hit back at the latest accusations, describing them as "prejudice, smears and provocation." It added that NATO had a "Cold War mentality" and "belligerent rhetoric."
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jin said "NATO hyped up China's responsibility" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.
"It makes no sense and comes with malicious intent," Lin said.
"We urge NATO to reflect on the root cause of the crisis and what it has done, and take concrete action to de-escalate rather than shift blame."
A shift in NATO's stance
The declaration marks a key shift in NATO's stance on China. As The New York Times reported, the alliance used bland language when discussing issues or concerns surrounding China in the past. It first named the country as a concern in 2019.
European countries have historically been hesitant to stand against Beijing, known for its distribution of luxury items and cars, The Times reported.
But the language surrounding China has subtly evolved.
Last week, NATO member and Finland's President Alexander Stubb said in an interview with Bloomberg that China has so much influence on Russia that it could effectively end the war.
"I argue that Russia is so dependent on China right now that one phone call from President Xi Jinping would solve this crisis," Stubb said."If he were to say, 'Time to start negotiating peace.' Russia would be forced to do that."
"They would have no other choice," he added.
Jake Sullivan, a national security advisor to President Biden, said the NATO declaration shows that its members "now collectively understand this challenge," according to The Times.
"If this PRC support continues, it will degrade its relations across Europe, and the United States will continue to impose sanctions on PRC entities involved in this activity, in coordination with our European allies," he added.
Meanwhile, NATO pledged to continue to provide long-term security to Ukraine.
According to the declaration, NATO members have collectively contributed €40 billion, or around $43.4 billion, in military aid to Ukraine each year since the war began in February 2022. The alliance said it aims to contribute the same amount in 2024.
Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) on a call with journalists from the International Space Station.
NASA TV
The two NASA astronauts stuck on the ISS remain cheery despite not having a return date yet.
"I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home," Suni Williams said.
"It feels good to float around," she added.
Two NASA astronauts stuck in space are upbeat and optimistic despite the numerous delays in their return to Earth via Boeing's Starliner.
The duo — Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — arrived at the International Space Station via the Starliner on June 6 after a series of delays that postponed the craft's launch by a month.
While they were supposed to stay for only eight to 10 days, they have been stuck on the space station for over a month now, with no return date scheduled.
When a CBS reporter asked if the astronauts were confident the Starliner would get them home safely, Wilmore said: "We're absolutely confident."
"We've practiced a lot," Williams said, responding to a similar question by the Associated Press. "I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home."
The astronauts' return was delayed on June 21 to assess issues on board and make time for two spacewalks on June 24 and July 2.
The delay came after the crew detected five helium leaks on board the Starliner. Helium supports the spacecraft's reaction control system thrusters, which enables them to fire up.
But issues like the ones they're facing are to be expected, Wilmore said, calling human spaceflight a "tough business."
"There have been multiple issues with every spacecraft that's ever been designed," he added.
"I'll just reiterate again: This is a test flight. We were expecting to find some things. And so we are finding stuff, and we're correcting it, making changes and updates with our control team," Williams said.
Williams said they weren't complaining about having extra time on board. Since they had both been on the ISS before, it felt like "coming back home."
"We are having a great time here on ISS," Williams said. "It feels good to float around."
Williams, who NASA selected as an astronaut in 1998, spent 322 days in space before the Starliner project. Wilmore, a NASA astronaut since 2000, spent 178 days in space before the Starliner launch.
Starliner is the first instance of Boeing sending up a crewed spacecraft to the ISS and represents the company's major push to break into the commercial human-spaceflight business.
"It's best to recognize the truth and move on in the best possible way," billionaire Ray Dalio (right) said of President Joe Biden's (left) status as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Dia Dipasupil via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
Ray Dalio thinks the Democratic Party has a huge problem with Joe Biden.
"I look at this case like the fable of the emperor who has no clothes," Dalio said.
He outlined three ways the party could deal with Biden before the November polls.
Dalio, the founder of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, wrote a column for Time magazine published Tuesday. The same article was also posted on Dalio's LinkedIn profile.
"To begin, I want to make clear that I respect, like, and empathize with President Biden and I get that Democrats find themselves in a difficult position," Dalio wrote.
"I look at this case like the fable of the emperor who has no clothes," Dalio added. "I think about what happened when everyone saw that he had no clothes and the lessons the fable provides — that it's best to recognize the truth and move on in the best possible way."
The Democrats, per Dalio, now have three possible courses of action.
First, the party can retain Biden as its nominee, a path Dalio thinks the party has chosen for now — at least publicly.
But Dalio pointed out that this first strategy would likely leave voters "with a loss of trust in the Democrats' straightforwardness and judgment," given the president's advanced age.
The billionaire then suggested two alternative strategies, including a "mini-primary plan" where a select group of candidates battle it out to succeed Biden.
Dalio's other suggestion is a "coronation plan," which would see Vice President Kamala Harris being tapped to take over Biden's spot.
Dalio said he preferred the mini-primary option, which would allow voters to stress-test Biden's replacement — but recognized that this plan would likely hurt the Democratic Party's chances in the election.
"I think that, regardless of which plan they choose, they must acknowledge the problem —that Biden might not be able to serve out his term — and explain how they will deal with that in a detailed way," Dalio wrote.
Representatives for Biden didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
Calls for Biden to drop out have grown following his disastrous performance in a June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump. Biden's speech was riddled with gaffes and stumbles, which prompted concerns over his mental acuity and fitness.
For now, Biden appears determined to stay in the race. On Monday, he wrote a letter to congressional Democrats reiterating his intention to run and beat Trump.
Speaking in a joint NASA-Boeing press briefing on Wednesday, NASA official Steve Stich said there had been "no discussion" about sending a SpaceX Dragon to pick up NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, stranded on the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
One of SpaceX's Dragon capsules is already docked at the ISS, having launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in March.
"There's really been no discussion with sending another Dragon to rescue the Starliner crew," said Stich.
However, he admitted the space agency could potentially turn to Elon Musk's rocket firm if the situation worsened.
"Certainly, we've dusted off a few of those things to look at relative to Starliner, just to be prepared in the event that we would have to use some of those kinds of things," Stich said.
"Again, our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. We've declared Starliner safe to be an emergency return vehicle … we just want to understand the thrusters a little bit more before we commit to the final undock and return," he added.
The spaceship, which launched in June after years of delays, was meant to spend a little over a week docked at the ISS — but a series of issues, including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions, have left its two passengers stuck in orbit for more than a month.
NASA and Boeing have insisted that Starliner is safe and that it can still return to Earth in an emergency, but officials told journalists on Wednesday that the astronauts may not return home until mid-August at the latest as ground teams continue to analyze data from Starliner.
The prospect of the astronauts being rescued by SpaceX would be humiliating for Boeing, which is competing with Elon Musk's rocket company to transport astronauts to the ISS.
The issues with Starliner are a headache Boeing does not need right now, with the company facing growing scrutiny over its safety culture after a door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight.
According to the Chongqing Morning Post, authorities at Quzhou Airport confirmed that the passenger was flying for the first time and believed the door led to the bathroom.
A screenshot of a Chinese flight-tracking app showed that the flight was canceled due to "passenger reasons. An image of an Airbus A320 with an emergency slide deployed, purported to be the plane involved in the incident, was shared by local outlets and circulated on social media.
An Air China flight bound for Chengdu was abruptly cancelled after a passenger, mistaking an emergency exit for the lavatory, inadvertently deployed the Airbus A320 aircraft’s emergency slide at Quzhou Airport in Zhejiang province.
Flightradar data shows the following day's flight departing at 10:22 p.m., around one hour and 40 minutes late, and landing around an hour late at 12:31 a.m. on July 6.
One passenger told the outlet that flyers were offered compensation of 400 yuan ($55).
Air China did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
This isn't the first time that a new flyer has made a mistake in China.
In March, a China Southern Airlines passenger threw coins into an Airbus A350 engine, prompting the airline to post a warning on social media. Similar incidents were reported in 2017 and 2019, with the latter resulting in a lawsuit for $21,000.
Dropping education and experience requirements for jobs could help some Americans find work — but also help companies pay their employees less.
AP Photo/Sophie Austin
More US companies are dropping education and experience requirements for jobs, according to Indeed.
This could help some Americans find work, but it could also help companies pay their workers less.
As hiring slows, dropping hiring requirements could help businesses land some workers at a discount.
More US companies are dropping experience and education requirements from their job postings. For some firms, it could be their latest strategy to save money on labor costs.
As of April,the most recent data available, 30%of US job postings on Indeed included a desired level of work experience — down from about 40% in 2022. As of January, 48% of Indeed postings included an education requirement, down from about 52% in 2019.
In recent years, many employers have struggled to find workers and therefore considered a wider talent pool. Some companies began prioritizing skills-based hiring — rather than evaluating workers based largely on their education and experience — in the hopes of finding talented candidates they might have overlooked in the past. This shift could increase competition for some jobs, and applicants with a college degree, for example, might have less of an edge than they once did. But advocates for this new hiring approach say giving more people a chance at landing more jobs is a positive development overall.
However, companies aren't simply dropping requirements out of the goodness of their hearts. As some businesses look to cut labor costs amid economic uncertainty, ditching hiring requirements could be an effective way for some companies to get workers at a discount, Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed, told Business Insider via email.
Take a job posting that requires two years of work experience, Stahle said. Twoyears ago, when job openings were at record highs, the typical worker with about four years of experience might have had little interest in this job. There was adecentchance they could find another role that better fit their experience level and paid more as a result.
But things have changed. While the unemployment rate is low compared to past decades, slowing hiring across the countryhas made it more difficult for some Americans to find work. As of March, hiring on LinkedIn was down compared to the prior year in each of the 20 industries measured, including financial services, tech, and healthcare.
In this new hiring landscape, Stahle saida job seeker with four years of work experience might be willing to accept a more junior role — even if it means taking a pay cut. But if the job posting lists two years of experience as the requirement, a more experienced job seeker might think the employer is focused on more junior candidates and be less likely to apply, Stahle said. Dropping an experience requirement could convince this type of candidate to submit an application.
"It's possible that workers with more experience may be more willing to accept a position requiring less experience — potentially, perhaps especially, if the actual desired or required level of experience is not specified," Stahle said. "Removing these requirements may allow employers to attract a higher number of high-quality candidates, including those with more years of relevant work experience under their belt, to jobs that may pay at a more junior level."
Dropping hiring requirements could save some companies money
There's some evidence that companies could already be dropping hiring requirements in part to cut costs. Using Indeed data, Stahle analyzed the industries that had the largest declines in experience and education requirements in Indeed job postings between April 2023 and 2024. He found that the industries with the largest declines in hiring requirements also saw "rapidly cooling demand" for workers over this period.
Stahle said companies in industries that have slowed hiring might be particularly motivated to cut labor costs — and well-positioned to do so.
"With fewer opportunities available and more competition, job seekers might be willing to take a lower paying position — even if just temporarily," he said.
The banking and finance industry, which has seen layoffs and a hiring slowdown in recent years, was among the industries with the largest declines in education and experience requirements. The marketing and IT sectors also have experienced hiring slowdowns and large declines in hiring requirements, per Indeed data.
🚨 📉 New from the Indeed Hiring Lab:
Employers are relaxing on the experience front, with fewer job postings listing specific experience requirements.
Additionally, when a company drops education and experience requirements, workers with more experience or education aren't the only ones who might be more likely to apply. This could also attract capable applicants with less experience and education — and whose salary demands could be more modest, Stahle said.
It's not clear how much of an impact the decline in hiring requirements has had on employer's labor costs. But it's one example of the way a shift in labor market power away from workers and toward employers can impact workers' pay.
Compared to two years ago, many workers have less power to switch jobs and ask for a raise — and people who need work have fewer options. These developments are among the reasons wage growth has fallen over the past two years.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
To be sure, not all companies that have dropped job posting requirements have made significant changes to their hiring practices. But Stahle thinks the decline in requirements could reflect a real shift in how many companies will approach hiring in the years to come.
Though he doesn't expect the broader shift away from education and experience requirements to reverse anytime soon, Stahle said some companies couldmodify their hiring strategies if the economic environment changes.
"It's possible that employers are shifting their hiring preferences — perhaps temporarily — toward less experienced but also very likely less costly hires," he said.
Are you struggling to find a job? Are you willing to share your story? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.
Taiwan's chip boom is expected to drive a surge in the number of millionaires on the island, according to UBS.
The island's semiconductor sector, led by TSMC, is bolstering its economy and exports.
However, inequality in Taiwan has widened as the growth in tech industries is more robust than in other sectors.
Taiwan's status as the world's chip hub has kept the island's economy resilient.
The industry is so hot that Taiwan is expected to mint many new US-dollar millionaires in the next five years, according to Swiss bank UBS' annual wealth report, released on Wednesday.
Taiwan was home to nearly 790,000 US dollar millionaires last year. This number could surge by 47% to about 1.16 million millionaires by 2028, UBS predicts, leading the 56 global markets the bank analyzed in its report.
That said, the size of Taiwan's millionaire population pales when compared to the US.
The US was home to nearly 22 million millionaires last year, per UBS. That number is expected to grow 16% to 25.5 million millionaires over the next five years.
UBS attributes Taiwan's wealth growth to its semiconductor chip industry, which is "set to reap the rewards of the boom in artificial intelligence."
Even though UBS expects a huge jump in the number of millionaires in Taiwan, much of the island's 23 million population is not likely to benefit from the AI craze.
UBS' data shows wealth inequality widened by about 10% in Taiwan from 2008 to 2023.
The median net worth in Taiwan stood at $110,521 per adult in 2023, according to UBS. The average net worth was nearly three times that amount at $302,551.
This means people at the top of the scale got a lot richer than those further down the totem pole over that time period, skewing average wealth upward.
Official data from Taiwan confirms the trend, showing that the wealth gap between the top 20% and bottom 20% of households has widened fourfold over three decades.
Taiwan's Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, also widened from 1991 to 2021, when the last two official wealth surveys were conducted.
Taiwan's tech sector growth is outpacing the non-tech sector
One key trend contributing to wealth inequality in Taiwan is that its tech industry is doing better than industries not related to tech.
TSMC's performance has soared on the back of the AI rush, with its second-quarter sales growing 40% over a year ago — beating analyst expectations. On Monday, TSMC ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange briefly crossed the $1 trillion valuation mark.
It's not just TSMC. The rise of the chip behemoth has created an entire tech ecosystem in Taiwan, much of which is centered on hardware.
This ecosystem has been driving Taiwan's economy even amid longstanding geopolitical uncertainty as China claims the island as its territory. The country's GDP grew 6.5% in the first quarter of the year from a year ago. This was boosted by exports of machinery and electrical equipment, which surged nearly 28% from a year ago. However, domestic demand growth was modest, growing just 1% over the same period.
Ma Tieying, a senior economist at Singapore's DBS bank, wrote in a note on Wednesday that she expects the world's AI drive to continue fuelling demand for high-performance chips from Taiwan.
However, recovery in non-tech traditional manufacturing is expected to continue to be a drag due to the economic slowdown in China, which accounts for about one-third of Taiwan's total exports, Ma added.
A row of students ages 5-7 on a playground during recess at a public school in Hell's Kitchen, New York City.
Deb Cohn-Orbach/Getty Images
Families with young kids continue to flee major US cities, despite urban recovery post-pandemic.
The population of children under five in New York City fell 18% from April 2020 to July 2023.
Big urban counties have lost young kids at almost double the national rate, a new report found.
When the pandemic hit, young families fled cities across the US in droves. They moved to suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas in search of a more affordable, convenient life, driven in large part by housing costs.
As major US cities have rebounded from pandemic lockdowns, that trend has slowed, but families with young kids are still fleeing, a new report from the Economic Innovation Group found.
The report found that the population of children under five years old in New York City fell 18% between April 2020 and July 2023, while the number of young children fell by 15% in Chicago's Cook County, 15% in San Francisco, and 14% in Los Angeles County in that same period.
On average, large urban counties had a 3.9% in the number of kids under five between 2020 and 2021, 2.2% between 2021 and 2022, and 1.5% between 2022 and 2023.
Big cities like New York have begun growing again since the pandemic, but those population gains are primarily due to a rise in immigrant residents and declining death rates, according to the report, which is based on US Census data published this month. Overall, domestic out-migration from big cities is still double the rate it was pre-pandemic.
"This stuck out as a big surprise to me," EIG policy analyst Connor O'Brien, who authored the report, told Business Insider. "This data is three years out from the start of the pandemic, cities have started to recover robustly on a bunch of different measures." But, he added, "Young families are just not coming back."
This comes amid a general aging of the US population. The US birthrate is falling, and the population of young children nationwide has dropped 4.6% since the pandemic, the EIG report noted. The population of young kids fell in two-thirds of the nation's counties since April 2020. In 2023 alone, the number of young kids fell in 58% of all counties.
But large urban counties have lost young kids at almost double the national average rate. Birth rates in big cities have also fallen at about double the rate of rural birth rates over the last ten years, EIG found.
All of this is pretty bad news for big cities, many of which are still struggling to fend off the so-called "urban doom loop" in downtowns emptied of workers and facing shrinking tax bases.
"Parents are opting out of living in big cities or deciding to still live there but have no kids," O'Brien said. "I think that sends a pretty depressing message about the growth prospects of those cities going forward because at the end of the day, people vote with their feet."
EIG's analysis echoes other recent reports. Families with kids under six years old are more than twice as likely to leave New York City than families without young kids, the Fiscal Policy Institute found. Families with kids six or older moved out of the city at the same rates as childless families, suggesting that the costs "uniquely associated with young children — childcare and the need for more space" are pushing families to leave, FPI, a left-leaning think tank, argued.
O'Brien blames the exodus on a slew of factors, ranging from the popularity of remote and hybrid work to the surprisingly strong recent economic recovery of many exurban and rural areas.
The result? Some exurbs — particularly in the pro-development Sunbelt — are seeing young families flood in. Exurban counties like Polk County, Florida, which sits between Orlando and Tampa, and Montgomery County, Texas, which is outside Houston, are booming.
As Business Insider has previously reported, millennials aren't just leaving the urban core — they're moving to the farthest reaches of the suburbs. This phenomenon is perhaps a predictable result of the back-to-the-city movement they led over the last two decades. That surge in demand for housing and amenities has made many urban cores some of the most expensive places to live in the country.
For years, rising housing costs in cities have pushed even the most devoted young city dwellers to move to the exurbs and suburbs, where housing has generally been more abundant and affordable. And the pandemic only deepened that trend.
Have you moved your family out of a major US city? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com to share your story.
Lauren and Steven Keys both retired early at 29 and traveled to every state and national park.
Steven H. Keys
Steven and Lauren Keys retired at 29 by saving over 60% of their income and investing early.
With a net worth of $1.1 million, they visited every state and national park.
Their favorite is Death Valley, while they weren't as fond of Hot Springs or Gateway Arch.
Steven and Lauren Keys, now 33 and 34, retired at 29 and have visited every state and national park — managing to grow their wealth while doing so.
Though neither earned more than $90,000 a year while they were working full-time, they saved over 60% of their income, began investing early, and avoided unnecessary purchases, allowing them to travel for much of the year while returning with more money than they started with. On one three-month trip, they returned with $26,000 more despite working just part-time by keeping costs low, getting freebies, and achieving large investment gains.
"We never spend down our savings when on vacation, and we usually get richer in the process," Steven said.
They've explored much of the country, deciding their favorite national parks are in California and Alaska — while their least favorite are in the Midwest.
They went to high school together outside Tampa and then attended the University of Florida. Lauren put herself through college thanks to scholarships, grants, and various jobs. Steven had some assistance from his parents and received a tuition scholarship. Both graduated debt-free.
The summer after graduating, they did a road trip across the US, driving from Florida to Alaska with a stop in New York. They slept in their car for much of the 45-day trip and didn't spend much on food.
After a stint in California, they moved back to Florida, where Steven got a full-ride scholarship for a master's program in science education. Lauren found a job at a small financial company, and both were making about $40,000 a year. Due to tight budgeting, they saved more than 60% of their income. In two years with both of them working five-figure jobs, they saved over $100,000.
After growing fatigued with full-time employment, they married and took a six-month sabbatical to Hawaii, where they lived frugally. They rented an apartment for six months instead of staying at hotels, bought a cheap car and sold it for more than they paid for it, and did some part-time work. Despite barely working, they returned with over $1,000 more in net worth than they started from part-time work, low-cost purchases, and investments.
They bought their first home — a $71,000 condo in Gainesville — in cash, then job-hopped for a few years until both made about $90,000 a year. By 2019, they were worth about $600,000, and they felt it was time to embark on a seven-month road trip hitting every US national park. Due to their investments and part-time work on the road, the trip cost them nothing on net.
"The best way to save money on any trip is to attack your biggest costs, which are going to be lodging and transportation," Steven said. "Anywhere that you're willing to drive to instead of flying, particularly if there are multiple people, that's going to save you a massive amount of money in terms of airline costs. Another thing is getting away with camping, whether in your vehicle or in a tent or campground or anything like that."
Lauren retired in 2020 while Steven worked full-time for six months before moving to a part-time arrangement. They moved to a condo by the ocean on Florida's east coast and continued to grow their investments in low-cost index funds, real-estate holdings, and retirement accounts. Steven has continued freelancing through tutoring while Lauren does part-time social media work.
It's allowed them to take various one- to three-month vacations over the last four years. Last year, they went on a three-month trip to Australia, after which they came back $26,000 richer. They kept expenses to below $18,000 plus $3,000 in expenses in the US, and they made about $19,000 in freelance income and $28,000 in investment gains. They bought a cheap car on Facebook Marketplace in Australia, which they sold for slightly more than they paid for it, earned free loyalty nights at hotels, cooked many of their meals, and found free museums and concerts.
Their net worth is $1.1 million, and they're gearing up for a road trip to eastern Canada. They calculated their sweet spot is spending at most $26,000 a year to feel fulfilled without breaking the bank, though they don't track their expenses or budget.
Favorite — and least favorite — national parks
Steven and Lauren ranked their favorite and least favorite national parks from their travels on factors such as how much the park took their breath away, how many fun things the park had, and how easy it was to find quiet in the park.
"Nothing's worse than showing up somewhere beautiful, and you can't get a picture of it without a crowd in the way," Lauren said. "We've been to Yosemite a couple of times, and there are areas where you're sitting in traffic literally in a national park for an extra 45 minutes."
Death Valley was their favorite, citing the vast sand dunes of Eureka Valley, the salt flats of Badwater Basin, and the colorful rocks of Artist's Palette. Despite the crowds, Yosemite ranked second overall, as they noted the waterfalls and granite cliffs are superb.
Hawai'i Volcanoes was their third favorite, as they lived nearby for six months and explored the park's intricacies. They ranked Hawaii's Haleakalā, the highest point on Maui, in ninth.
Other parks topping the list include Yellowstone, American Samoa, Carlsbad Caverns, and Canyonlands.
About 41% of the total cost of attending all national parks came from traveling to Alaska, Hawaii, and other American territories. Still, four of their top 10 parks are outside the contiguous US.
They said one of the easiest — and cheapest — places to camp is Alaska, which they've driven to three times.
"You don't really have to pay anything because you can pretty much pull off wherever you want," Steven said. "Nobody stares if you camp or sleep in your vehicle."
Their least favorite national park was Hot Springs in Arkansas, which was the first national park they visited. They felt it didn't live up to the status of "national park," which they also felt about the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. They also weren't thrilled by Voyageurs in Minnesota, which didn't have many activities other than inexpensive boat tours; Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, which had fantastic views but difficult-to-access sites; and Lassen Volcanic in California, which they found peaceful but smelled like "an ugly pot of bubbling sulfur water."
Best and worst states
The Keys' top four favorite states are California, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah.
"In terms of just natural beauty and uniqueness, California has so much diversity," Steven said. "Northern and Southern California are two completely different places with two completely different awesome experiences."
Though everyone goes to Oahu, the Big Island in Hawai'i is "super underrated," Lauren said, due to the scenery and relative calm.
Their home base of Florida didn't make the top of their top states list, as they viewed the state's three national parks as less interesting above-ground than many others, though they're great for scuba or snorkeling.
Their least favorite states included Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, and New Jersey. They found Kansas rather monotonous with plenty of cornfields, and they thought St. Louis and Kansas City were very congested but didn't have the same charm as other large cities.
They felt North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, and Montana are underrated, as each has some of their favorite national parks, affordable accommodations, and cities with a calmer, suburban feel. Still, they found Mount Rushmore overrated, as they expected it to be larger.
Have you visited every — or most — state or national park? Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
Krueger quit his job in sales in 2022. He said real estate investment allowed him to become a stay-at-home dad and spend more time with his family.
Courtesy of Matt Krueger.
Matt Krueger quit his job at 29 to go full-time into real estate investing and Airbnb management.
The Iowa native and his wife have been buying and renovating houses as they lived in them since 2015.
Kruger said breaking into the short-term rental market was key to growing their rental income.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Matt Krueger, 30, about building income from rental properties in Des Moines, Iowa. Business Insider has verified his ownership of the properties with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
After getting married in 2014, my wife and I moved into an apartment together. We were renting but wanted to buy a house.
We weren't earning much. I was a cellphone rep on an hourly wage, making around $35,000 in 2014, and she was a veterinary technician who made $24,000 that year.
My in-laws inspired us in our real estate journey. My father-in-law worked as a meat cutter in a grocery store but was able to quit his job at 45 after becoming a real estate investor.
I was listening to a podcast and discovered house hacking: fixing up a property as you live in it so you can rent it out to tenants. We used this method several times and generated income from long-term rental properties.
In 2021, I decided to enter the short-term rental business, listing properties on Airbnb. It hugely increased our revenue from property investment and enabled me to quit my day job in 2022.
I feel blessed to have increased my earnings to the point where I could become a stay-at-home dad at 29.
We started our real-estate investment journey with long-term rentals
In 2015, we bought our first home in Des Moines, Iowa, for $92,000. At the time, we lived off my salary and saved all my wife's income, which we used for a 3% down payment minus $1,000 "first-time home buyers credit," around $3,700.
The house was a dive, but we started fixing it up. We couldn't afford to hire contractors, so my father-in-law helped us, and we used YouTube to learn how to renovate. We would do one project, save up my wife's income, and then start the next project, working on the house bit by bit. We spent around $5,000 on renovations.
It was like living in a construction zone, but we loved it. Painting and flooring the house connected us as a married couple. We made an ugly house into something we could call a home.
After 15 months, we moved out and straight into a second house, which we bought for $130,000 in 2016. We paid the $4,700 down payment with savings from my wife's salary.
We rented out our first property for $1,200 a month, and after paying the mortgage and expenses, we made $515 in net income monthly.
We continued to house hack fixer-upper properties using conventional loans. Because they were primary residences, we only had to put down 3% deposits and would slowly renovate the houses until they were ready to be rented. That year, we had our first kid and my wife stopped working.
In 2017, we sold our first property, which we purchased for $92,000, for $145,000, and bought another house for $130,000.
In 2018, we bought our fourth property for $195,000, which we live in now. It was a dump, but we liked that it came with land, so we decided to fix it up and stay put there.
To ensure we were renovating competently, I'd have my father-in-law and my father, who's done some woodworking, check through things. I also asked questions in Facebook groups, but overall, I felt it was relatively easy to learn basic plumbing and electrical stuff. At points, we did hire some professional help, like an electrician and someone to help us move a wall.
It took us about a year to renovate and move out of each of our first few properties and for them to become cash-flowing. We'd work on renovations in the evenings and weekends together.
Between 2017 and 2021, our rental income averaged $1,200 to $1,500 monthly, taking into account money set aside for mortgage payments.
I was inspired to try short-term rentals and quit my day job in 2022
One day, I listened to a podcast about short-term rentals and Airbnb. It seemed different from what I knew about long-term rentals, but I was enticed by the crazy numbers they were earning.
I wasn't sure if it would be possible in Des Moines — the online data suggested it was a bad market for Airbnb — but I wanted to try.
We could take out a $150,000 home equity line of credit, or HELOC, on our primary home, which we'd been renovating for two years. In late 2021, we used it to buy a $160,000 family home as an Airbnb rental.
We used money from our HELOC to invest around $30,000 in renovations and furnishings. We tried to target families by adding amenities like a game room and getting professional photos taken. When we listed the house on Airbnb, the bookings rolled in pretty quickly. We made around $52,000 in revenue from that house in 2022.
I decided I wanted to go all in on real estate in 2022. I'd moved jobs a few times within the cellular sales field and was on a $68,000 salary, but I was making more from properties, so I called my boss and quit. I was 29 at the time.
In 2022, we bought and flipped a condo in Texas using money from our HELOC. We also bought a second short-term rental in 2022 using our HELOC to pay for the deposit, furnishings, and renovations. We sold the condo for nearly $100,000 profit and used that income to repay the line of credit.
Then, we used the HELOC again for the down payment on a fourplex and duplex in 2022.
At the end of 2023, we did a cash-out refinance on our second Airbnb property, which paid back half of our HELOC. Then, at the beginning of 2024, we sold our duplex to pay off the rest of the HELOC.
Lastly, in April 2024, we drew $80,000 of our HELOC for the down payment, renovations, and furnishings on our third and most recent Airbnb. We plan to do a cash-out refinance in a year to pay back any remaining balance on our HELOC, but we are also using the cash flow from the newest Airbnb to pay it back.
Taking out a line of credit on your primary home can be risky, but we always ensure we pay back the credit as quickly as possible. We have the cash flow, and in the worst-case scenario, we could sell one of our properties to make the payments.
One downside of short-term rentals is the increased admin
In 2023, we made around $97,000 in revenue from long-term rentals and around $143,000 from two short-term rentals. In May this year, we opened our third short-term rental, hoping to increase our revenue even further.
We've been successful with short-term rentals because we've focused on creating an experience for guests. We invested in hot tubs, barbecues, outdoor games, and arcade rooms. Last year, we hit around 70% occupancy.
Compared to long-term rentals, I do have to put more effort into maintenance. I wanted the income to be passive so I could spend as much time with my family as possible, but initially, we did the cleaning ourselves.
I now have a cleaner who goes in after each guest's visit. I've also started using software to automate certain processes. PriceLabs helps me update prices based on demand, and Hospitable automates some messaging with guests and notifies our cleaner about bookings that are happening. It's hugely reduced the amount of admin I need to do.
We set aside money from our revenue for maintenance and paying cleaners. We also cover all utilities and monthly restockables like shampoo and toilet paper.
I hope that real estate investment will support my family for the foreseeable future
I wanted real estate to give me financial freedom. Now that I've quit my job, I can provide more time and energy to my children. During the day, my wife does most of the homeschooling while I take care of the rental business and manage my social media accounts.
I also wanted to build generational wealth. I plan to leave the properties to my kids, and they can decide what to do with them.
We knew there was a chance this might not work, that we could lose money or not find a tenant, but by buying homes that needed cosmetic updates, we've built sweat equity into them, giving us a safety net from debt.
If something went wrong, I could sell all the properties and be left with a good chunk of change even after mortgage payments. If the market crashed and property values dropped, that doesn't necessarily mean rents will decrease. I think we'd still be able to land on our feet again.
I think it's riskier to rely on an employer to keep your paycheck coming than to bet on yourself. From making $35,000 a year at my day job to seeing over $258,000 in revenue in 2023, I'm making way more than I ever expected.