Author: openjargon

• The Mars family has a net worth of $117 billion and helms the candy empire Mars Inc.
• That makes them America's second-richest family, according to a 2024 Forbes ranking.
• They're known for keeping to themselves, but in recent years, they've taken more to the limelight.

The Mars family sits atop a delicious empire.

They're the heirs to the candy throne that is Mars Inc., maker of Snickers, Mars Bars, Milky Way, Twix, M&M's, and more.

The century-old company has helped the Mars family build a reported fortune of $117 billion, making them America's second-richest family dynasty, according to Forbes' 2024 ranking of America's wealthiest clans. 

Press-shy and limelight-avoidant, the Mars family remains a bit of a mystery. They've been known to keep the company "notoriously private," in the words of Business Insider's Cadie Thompson. And the company's headquarters have been called "anonymous" by former Guardian reporter Andrew Clark.

However, Mars Inc. has more recently started trying to shed its secretive history. During the last few years, the Mars family and company executives have started to foray more into the public eye.

Here's what we know about the Mars family and Mars Inc.

The Mars family's $117 billion fortune is rooted in its family-owned candy empire, Mars Inc.

Founder Frank Mars had polio at a young age and so was unable to walk to school; while home, he learned from his mother, Elva, how to hand-dip chocolates and, in 1911, he began selling candy from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington, according to Mars' website.

In 1902, Mars married schoolteacher Ethel G. Kissack. During the Depression, they became "social luminaries," boasting a $20,000 Deusenberg town car and two getaway homes in Wisconsin and Tennessee, according to a 2008 article in Washingtonian.

They also opened their Tennessee getaway home, the Milky Way Farms Racing Stables, to the public for fundraisers and public events. Ethel's horse won the Kentucky Derby in 1940, securing her "station in mint-julep society," Washingtonian reported.

Mars' son, Forrest Sr., joined the company in 1929.

They made the first chocolate nougat, setting the foundation for Milky Way Bars and Snickers. Forrest Sr. fell out with his father; in 1932, he was given the recipe for the Milky Way to start his own business, and he moved to England to do so.

Since then, the company has become known for the eponymous Mars Bar (at least in the UK) as well as 3 Musketeers, Twix, and M&Ms. More than 400 million M&Ms are produced in the US every day.

In 2008, Mars Inc. branched out from chocolate to gum when it acquired the Wrigley Jr. Company for $23 billion.

Besides confectionary brands, the company also owns food brands like Seeds of Change and Ben's Original, formerly Uncle Ben's.

In 2023, a bombshell CBS News article reported that Mars was using cocoa beans harvested by children as young as 5 in Ghana in order to make its chocolate products. 

A Mars company spokesperson told CBS in a statement at the time, "We condemn the use of child labor. Despite our requests, CBS did not provide specific details of their investigation to Mars ahead of time in order for us to investigate claims of misconduct at the time of this report. We treat any claim of misconduct in our supply chain very seriously and we will thoroughly investigate once we have the necessary information and take appropriate action."

Though the Mars name is most associated with candy, pet food is also a large part of the family business.

Mars' prominent position in pet food began with the 1935 acquisition of a British dog food firm, Chappel Bros. The company bought Iams and two other pet food brands in 2014 from Procter & Gamble for close to $2.9 billion.

Today, Mars is a dominant force in both pet food and veterinary medicine, as the owner of major food brands Pedigree, Whiskas, and Royal Canin, and some of the biggest private American chains of veterinary hospitals, Banfield and VCA.

Unlike his parents, Forrest Sr. was relatively frugal. He raised his children the same way — while they attended exclusive boarding schools, they did chores at home to earn an allowance.

However, he did buy a 740-acre farm in Virginia in the 1940s, though he and his wife, Audrey, lived apart for a lot of their marriage (she kept a penthouse apartment at The Watergate), according to Washingtonian.

Forrest Sr. has been described as having an "extreme temper," but was separately praised as "one of this century's most brilliant and successful entrepreneurs" by Fortune magazine in 1984.

"He was an iconic leader — dedicated and highly respected," a Mars spokesperson previously told Business Insider.

 

When Forrest Sr. died in 1999, his children — Jacqueline, John, and Forrest Mars Jr. — inherited a stake in the company.

Currently, 84-year-old Jacqueline and 88-year-old John co-own — but don't actively manage — Mars Inc. They have the biggest share of the family fortune. Each has an estimated net worth of $46.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

Forbes' 2024 list of the richest person in every state identified Jacqueline as the richest person in Virginia and John as the richest person in Wyoming.

Jacqueline is the only sibling with a lifestyle "close to reflecting her billionaire status," Washingtonian reported.

Like her family, Jacqueline maintains her privacy.

But, even so, Washingtonian reported in 2008 that she reportedly listed her estate in New Jersey for $2 million and maintains her mother's Watergate penthouse. She also reportedly has a place called Stonehall Farm in Virginia, where she breeds horses. She initially had broodmares in Ireland before moving the operation to the farm in 2005.

In 2013, Jacqueline was involved in a car crash in Loudon County. She was driving her Porsche SUV "when her vehicle crossed the center line and hit an eastbound minivan," according to authorities, reported the Washington Post.

"According to authorities, Mars told a witness who went to the scene of the accident that she had fallen asleep while driving," wrote Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post. "Tests revealed no trace of drugs, alcohol, or medications that could have caused a blackout … Witnesses said that Mars was not speeding or driving erratically before the accident."

The driver of the other car lost her unborn son, a passenger died, and other passengers were injured. The victims urged the court not to seek jail time for Jacqueline, who pleaded guilty. She was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

"I can't go back in time. I can't change what happened," Mars, who planned to help the family, said in a statement. "I will always live with the grief and loss caused by this tragedy."

Jacqueline and her ex-husband David Badger have three children. Their son, Stephen Badger, previously was chairman of Mars Inc.

Stephen Badger served twice as chairman of the Mars Inc board of directors, with his most recent rotation from 2017 to 2020.

He told Business Insider in 2018 that in recent years, the company started to open up about its business to appeal to consumers and talent.

"For most of our history, in fact … for 99% of our history, we've chosen not to be in the public eye and we've really wanted our brands to engage consumers. And yet times have changed," Badger said. "Consumers do want to know more about not only the brands that they're buying, but the company that is behind them."

Today, he's a partner at The March Group.

Not much is known about Jacqueline's brother John, but in March 2015, he was made an honorary knight by Queen Elizabeth II.

Both John and Forrest Jr. inherited their father's tendency to avoid the spotlight. And their father's frugal ways stuck with them: Both brothers reportedly lived in relatively affordable condos.

"When I was growing up it felt very normal," Forrest Jr.'s daughter, Pamela Mars, told Campden FB, which covers family businesses and family offices, in a since-deleted interview. "I didn't feel different to anybody else. We did chores around the house, we went to school. We didn't live a different lifestyle to any of my friends."

Forrest Mars Jr. died in 2016 at the age of 84, leaving his stake to be split among his four daughters: Victoria Mars, Marijke Mars, Valerie Mars, and Pamela Mars-Wright.

Each of his daughters has an estimated net worth of $11.6 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Victoria is a former chair of the board of directors of Mars Inc. A spokesperson for Mars previously told BI that there are six rotating positions on the board.

Growing up, Pamela lived in Holland and France for several years before moving back to the US for her father's various Mars Inc. jobs. After graduating from Vassar College and a stint working in advertising, Pamela joined the family business as an operations supervisor. She moved up the ranks, and after a sabbatical, became chairman of the board, a position from which she later stepped down.

Valerie and Marijke have both worked at Mars and served on the company's board of directors.

For years, the family was known for being "notoriously private," keeping their personal lives and Mars Inc. out of the public eye.

The company's secrecy dates back to when Forrest Sr. patented the method for Ben's Original rice and American military chiefs tried to overturn the patent to supply troops, but Forrest refused, and the war came to an end before he could be forced to share his patents, per Washingtonian.

Forrest Sr. avoided photographers and interviews alike, and the company and family more broadly "have turned secrecy into a way of life," the Washingtonian reported.

Morningstar food analyst Mitchell Howard called Mars a "very, very quiet company."

Nicknamed "the Kremlin," the Mars Inc. headquarters are based in the Virginia suburbs and have been described as "secretive" and "anonymous," according to a 2008 article in The Guardian.

The company has been criticized for not giving enough, especially as one of the largest private companies in the US. Mars Inc. says it makes anonymous contributions.

In 2012, they donated $5 million to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for renovations and a new gallery bearing their name.

In 2012, Jacqueline Mars received the first-ever Foundation for the National Archives' "Heritage Award," for her support of the National Archives and other arts and cultural institutions in Washington, DC.

The US Equestrian Team Foundation, of which she is an honorary life trustee, also gives Jacqueline B. Mars National Competition and Training Grant awards each year. These grants "provide training and competition resources for U.S. athletes who have never competed on an Eventing Olympics or FEI World Championships Team and have earned, via results and potential, the opportunity to travel to another part of the country to compete," according to the foundation.

Jacqueline also played a role merging the Opera with John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and made a multi-year commitment to support the Washington Performing Arts' programs.

"The family has always believed that the biggest contribution toward the world we want tomorrow is through the good that Mars, Inc. can do every day, and the family reinvests the vast majority of any profit made back into the company," a company spokesperson previously told BI.

In 2017, the company made a $1 billion investment in a sustainability program that will contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. It also donated $26 million in pandemic relief to communities most affected by the crisis.

The Mars Wrigley Foundation supports educational and health-related causes by "providing oral health education and care, improving lives in mint and cocoa-growing regions, and creating resilient and vibrant communities," according to its website.

While the Mars family has remained private over the years, it's helped them keep their anonymity, Joseph Astrachan, an expert in family enterprises, told The Guardian.

But one thing will always remain private: the company itself.

"The philosophy of the family and the philosophy of the business is that it's a family business," Pamela Mars previously told Campden FB. "More importantly, it's a privately held business and that's the way that we'd like to keep it."

 

• Jamie Dimon has been the CEO of JPMorgan since 2006.
• Under his leadership, the company's stock value has tripled.
• Here's a look at the decades of work that made Dimon one of the most iconic names in finance.

Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has led the massive finance company for the better part of the last two decades, driving its assets and stock value to new heights.

"In the midst of the most serious and far-reaching financial crisis since the 1930s — much of it caused by plain old avarice and bad judgment — Dimon and JPMorgan Chase stood apart," Duff McDonald, an author and journalist, wrote of Dimon in his 2009 book "Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase," referring to the 2008 financial crisis.

"Much of the melodramatic coverage of Wall Street postcrisis has focused on its flaws — the hubris and the greed," McDonald wrote. "Jamie Dimon's story contains the opposites — the values of clarity, consistency, integrity, and courage. By sticking to them, Dimon has unquestionably become the dominant banking executive of his era."

Here's a look at Dimon's career, from his stint as a management consultant to becoming the billionaire financier propelling JPMorgan Chase's rise.

Representatives for Dimon declined to comment for this story when contacted by Business Insider.

Born into the world of finance

Dimon was born in New York City on March 13, 1956, one of three sons to Theodore and Themis (née Kalos) Dimon. His father was a stockbroker at Shearson who would eventually become an executive vice president at American Express.

After her sons went to college, Themis Dimon pursued a master's degree in psychology at Columbia University's Teachers College and volunteered at a preschool program.

The couple, who were married for 65 years, died within 22 hours of each other, according to their 2016 obituaries.

Dimon graduated from Tufts University, where he majored in psychology and economics. After a stint as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Dimon earned his MBA from Harvard in 1982.

A banking whiz kid from the start

Dimon's finance skills were clear from early on. At the behest of his mentor, the financier Sandy Weill, he turned down offers from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to accept a job at American Express after graduating from Harvard.

When Weill left American Express in 1985, Dimon followed. The pair ran Commercial Credit, a company they would build into the financial-services conglomerate Citigroup.

An unexpected ouster led to a key pivot

Weill asked Dimon to resign in 1998 after 15 years of working together. Weill would later tell The New York Times it was because Dimon wanted to take over as CEO but he wasn't ready to retire. Weill told the Times he regretted that the conflict led to Dimon's ouster.

On an episode of the "Coffee with The Greats" podcast, Dimon said he was "totally surprised" by his firing from Citigroup. He considered jobs at Amazon and Home Depot but ultimately became CEO of Bank One in 2000, which at the time was the nation's fifth-largest bank. Eventually, it would merge with JPMorgan.

JPMorgan's merger with Bank One saw Dimon's power surge

When JPMorgan merged with Bank One in 2004, Dimon became the new banking giant's president and chief operating officer. He would later become the bank's CEO in 2006.

Dimon quickly slashed expenses across the board, McDonald wrote in his biography. He ended the practice of the bank's corporate wing paying for clients to attend the US Open tennis tournament, canceled a $5 billion contract with IBM for computer-management services, and cut regional managers' compensation by as much as 50% over the next two years.

"He's going down like cod liver oil," Bloomberg reported one banker said of Dimon's approach.

McDonald wrote in his biography of Dimon that another unnamed banker said, "The news that Jamie is flying in is similar to being told that Ivan the Terrible is coming for tea."

His demanding leadership has proven valuable over the years

In 2008, Dimon played a key role in rescuing major banks from collapse amid the financial crisis. JPMorgan purchased Bear Stearns for $10 a share and also acquired Washington Mutual, which at the time was the largest US savings and loan institution, The New York Times reported.

"Jamie was demanding. He was relentless," Theresa Sweeney, his assistant from 1993 to 2000, is quoted as saying in McDonald's biography. "And he always wanted the one thing I hadn't done. I'd walk in there with my pad of paper and he'd give me 10 things to do. I'd go back to my desk. An hour later, he'd call me and I'd have already done nine of them. And he'd ask for the tenth. And he pounded and pounded and pounded until you got it done. By the third time he asked for something, you better have been at a funeral, because that was the only acceptable excuse for not having it finished."

Under his leadership, and due largely to its strategic partnerships and acquisitions, JPMorgan's value has skyrocketed, becoming the leading American bank in terms of domestic assets, market capitalization, and stock value.

College sweethearts became parents to 3 girls

Dimon married his college sweetheart, Judith Kent, after meeting at Harvard. They have three daughters together: Julia, Laura, and Kara Leigh.

Kent went to Tulane University for her undergraduate degree before receiving a master's in organization psychology from the Catholic University of America and an MBA from Harvard. She worked alongside Dimon at American Express as a management trainee shortly before they married, a 1983 wedding announcement published in The New York Times said.

Dimon has had a few health scares over the years, including a battle with throat cancer in 2014 and emergency heart surgery in 2020 after he was diagnosed with an aortic tear, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A longtime political donor, Dimon has considered a run for office himself

For many years, Dimon was a prominent donor to the Democratic Party. Though he labeled himself as "barely a Democrat" in 2012, his political ties to the Obama administration led to speculation he would be named secretary of the Treasury. The position was ultimately given to Timothy Geithner.

In 2016, he joined a business-advisory forum assembled by then-President Donald Trump, though it disbanded roughly a year later. Dimon supported several of Trump's jobs and tax policies but publicly disagreed with him on matters of immigration and international trade.

He briefly considered running for president in 2018. Though he ultimately decided against it, MarketWatch reported that he said, "I thought about thinking about it."

The billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman encouraged Dimon to consider a presidential bid in 2023, Forbes reported. The outlet also said Dimon expected to lead JPMorgan for at least 3 ½ more years.

Though he hasn't made any moves toward a campaign for public office, Dimon told Bloomberg last spring, "I love my country, and maybe one day I'll serve my country in one capacity or another."

Dimon's continued bank-saving has led to record JPMorgan profits

Dimon reprised his role as bank-saver in 2023, The New York Times reported, working as a partner with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Fed chair Jerome Powell to convince leaders of 11 major banks to pitch in $30 billion to prevent First Republic Bank from collapsing in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failing in rapid succession.

In doing so, Dimon was "acting as a senior statesperson who is helping to shore up the financial industry in a time of crisis of confidence," Mike Mayo, a longtime banking analyst, said to the Times. "With that comes potentially higher prestige but also potential backlash."

But so far, the backlash hasn't come.

Per Fortune, JPMorgan's stock value has tripled since Dimon became CEO, and Bloomberg reported that in 2023, the bank recorded the largest-ever annual profit among US banks, pulling in nearly $50 billion.

Dimon may be retiring sooner than expected

During a Q&A with investors on Monday, Dimon suggested his retirement may be on the horizon.

While in the past Dimon joked he would retire in five years, when asked about his succession plan this time the 68-year-old said the timeline was "not five years anymore."

The longest-running CEO on Wall Street also said the plan to identify his replacement was "well on its way," and that he could potentially stay on as chair.

Note: This story was originally published April 2024 and has since been updated.

Correction: April 9, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the bank JPMorgan merged with in 2004. It's Bank One, not One Bank.

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The best cheap cell phone plans offer all of the following criteria without compromise — dependable coverage, fast service speeds, and as much data as you need at affordable prices. Usually, affordable plans come from mobile virtual network operators (or MVNOs) and standalone budget-friendly carriers, and choosing the plan for you will come down to your budget and priorities.

Among the best cheap cell phone plans, it's hard to beat our top pick, US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan with 35GB of data on either Verizon's or T-Mobile's networks starting at $29/month for a single line, or $23/month with an annual payment. If you want to extend your savings further, we recommend Tello Mobile's Build Your Own plan, which can cost as low as $5/month. 

Our top picks for the best cheap phone plans

Best overall: US Mobile (Unlimited Starter plan) – See at US Mobile

Best overall alternative: Mint Mobile (Any 3-month plan) – See at Mint Mobile

Best true budget plan: Tello Mobile (Build Your Own plan) – See at Tello

Best unlimited plan: Visible Wireless (Visible+ plan) – See at Visible

Best international plan: US Mobile (Unlimited Premium plan) – See at US Mobile

Best overall

US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan for $29/month is the gold standard in MVNO and budget-friendly plans. It easily meets and exceeds expectations as a value-forward plan with superior and unique features that directly benefit you, the customer.

Like many budget-friendly carriers, US Mobile operates on a major carrier's network. In this regard, US Mobile is unique. Where you typically only have access to one major carrier's network, US Mobile offers the choice between Verizon's or T-Mobile's full network, including their fast high-band 5G networks. You can even switch networks as often as twice a month, so you can try which works best for you for everyday use, whether for coverage or data speeds or for a particular scenario, like traveling. 

Worthy of note, US Mobile's names for Verizon's and T-Mobile's networks are "Warp" and "GSM," respectively. Only the Warp network comes with premium prioritized data, whereas the GSM network includes deprioritized data. However, we can't say we've felt much of an impact from deprioritization in our testing of the GSM or T-Mobile's network, nor can we really tell, as there's no indication or notification specifying as much. 

Whichever network you pick, US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan price stays the same even if you switch. 

The Unlimited Starter plan's 35GB of high-speed data should be more than enough for the vast majority of users. If you do end up using more than 35GB, US Mobile reduces your data speeds to 1Mbps until the end of the billing cycle, which is significantly faster and more usable than the reduced speeds on other carriers that vary between dubiously slow 40 and 256Kbps speeds. 

To be sure, some carriers like Visible don't reduce speeds at all, no matter how much data you use. Instead, they offer deprioritized data that can potentially slow down without warning when the host network is experiencing congestion. That's a great proposition, but we feel the option to pick which host network works for you, as well as other benefits listed here, are more valuable.

US Mobile offers multi-line discounts, which is also unique among budget-friendly carriers and ideal for families or groups.

You get even more value with the annual payment option, which reduces US Mobile's Unlimited Starter monthly price to $23/month ($276 for the year). And to top it all off, taxes and fees are included, so the price you see advertised is the price you pay. 

Read our full US Mobile review. 

Best overall alternative

Mint Mobile's prepaid plans for three, six, or 12 months offer affordable options and easy plan management, like adjusting data allotments per line at any time. 

Your best point of entry into the Mint Mobile landscape is its current, limited-time new customer promotion, which sets each of its three-month prepaid plans at just $15/month. This means you can get anywhere from 5GB, 15GB, 20GB, or "unlimited" monthly data for the same low, entry-level price.

Unlike the Verizon-backed premium data of US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan, Mint Mobile's "unlimited" plan includes 40GB of high-speed data, subject to deprioritization in congested areas, with slower speeds once you've hit that cap. 

However, after your promotional three months are up, any of Mint's 12-month plans will provide the most savings, as the monthly price and data remain the same as the three-month plans. All are great deals; in particular, the 5GB ($15/month) and 15GB ($20/month) plans are well-priced considering the competition.

The overall customer experience makes Mint Mobile stand out from the competition. Its user-friendly setup and app experience, readily accessible support and FAQs, and easy-to-understand language, in addition to its price point, make it an easy recommendation.

Consider your data usage patterns before signing up, but with Mint's excellent app or website, you can change your plan at any time with no added cost.

Read our full Mint Mobile review.

Best true budget plan

The varied plans from Tello Mobile are the cheapest options we can recommend, and they offer the most customization.

With Tello's Build Your Own plan, in particular, you can adjust the minutes and data allotment for each line on your account, making it a great choice to cover the basics for kids, grandparents, students, or anyone who uses a minimum amount of data or is simply on a budget.

As you build your plan, you choose your monthly data amount (from no data to 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB, 15GB, or unlimited) and your monthly minutes (none, 100, 300, 500, or unlimited), the combination of which adds up to $5/month at the cheapest and $25/month at the most expensive. 

The Build Your Own plan is particularly enticing if you want to specify a data allotment on a per-line basis — for example, setting data limits for a kid who just got their first phone while allowing them unlimited minutes. 

Read our full Tello Mobile review.

Best unlimited plan

For truly unlimited data and extensive coverage, Verizon's budget-friendly carrier, Visible Wireless, has an excellent option with its Visible+ plan at $45/month. 

While the Visible+ plan has the highest price point of all the MVNOs we've included in this list, it provides by far the most high-speed monthly data and the closest approximation to "unlimited." It guarantees 50GB of premium prioritized data while your phone is connected to Verizon's basic 5G and LTE networks before you experience any form of data speed deprioritization. The Visible+ plan also offers unlimited premium prioritized data while your phone is connected to Verizon's fast high-band 5G "Ultra Wideband" network. 

By offering deprioritized data after using up to 50GB of data, you shouldn't notice a difference in data speeds or usability unless you're in an area experiencing heavy network traffic at the specific time you're using your phone. Even if your data is actively being deprioritized, you may not even notice.

For those who use a lot of data and call for a truly unlimited plan, that's an enticing proposition, as some MVNOs and budget-friendly carriers dramatically reduce speeds to frankly unusable speeds until the next billing cycle if you exceed your plan's allotted data. 

The Visible+ plan also provides extended coverage with 5G "Ultra Wideband" areas, though Verizon's standard coverage (and the Visible base plan's coverage) is already very good. Before signing up, check Visible's coverage map to ensure you're covered.  

Visible recently updated its plans with an annual payment option (versus the standard monthly payment option) that reduces the Visible+ plan's price from $45/month to $33/month (totaling $395/year), which is incredible value and should be considered if making an annual payment is an option. 

Read our full Visible Wireless review.

Best international plan

It's surprising that so many budget-oriented carriers and plans have any international features at all, and some have pretty decent ones, too. However, none have anything quite as comprehensive as US Mobile's Unlimited Premium plan. Just make sure to pick or switch to US Mobile's "GSM" network before you set off, as the "Warp" network doesn't include nearly as many international features. 

With US Mobile's Unlimited Premium plan, you get unlimited calling and texting from the US to over 200 countries. If you're traveling abroad to one of the 180 supported countries, you get 5GB or 10GB of data and 500 or 1,000 minutes and texts, depending on the country. (Unfortunately, US Mobile doesn't make it abundantly clear which countries support how much data or how many minutes and texts.)

If the premium price tag is out of reach, US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan has similar international features with reduced minutes, texts, and data that might still be enough for your needs — 1GB of data and 150 minutes/texts.

No doubt, at $50/month, US Mobile's Unlimited Premium plan is on the pricier side when thinking about "cheap" cell phone plans, but keep in mind that US Mobile offers an annual payment option that reduces the price to $37.50/month (totaling $450/year).

Alternatively, if you don't need as much domestic data as the Unlimited Premium plan offers in a typical month, you can sign up for US Mobile's Unlimited Starter plan on a monthly basis, so you pay less when you're at home and only upgrade to the Unlimited Premium plan for the month(s) you're traveling. 

Read our full US Mobile review. 

How we test cell phone plans

In our testing, we spend at least a week with a specific plan from a phone carrier, often longer, and primarily assess the quality of the plan and carrier by the following criteria:

• Plan offerings and flexibility: We consider the pricing and features included in a carrier's range of plans and assess its flexibility in allowing you to switch out of or between plans. 
• Coverage area: For MVNOs, we note the approximate coverage area provided by the network or networks backing a budget carrier and evaluate whether particular locations consistently match their purported coverage type (e.g., 5G or 4G/LTE). 
• Service reliability and speeds: In consistent testing locations, we assess the reliability of phone and video calls, note how fast videos and apps load over cellular data, and, with MVNOs, mark any apparent effects of deprioritization on service speeds.  
• Customer support: We make a holistic assessment of a carrier's customer support system and online (or in-person) user experience for setup, use, and troubleshooting. 

We also take into account secondary considerations such as ongoing discounts and any other notable perks or outstanding features.

What to look for in a cheap cell phone plan

If you aren't in the market for the best cell phone plans from major carriers, you have no shortage of options for spending less on a phone plan, as affordable carriers have proliferated in recent years. 

The best cheap cell phone plan for you will primarily reflect your needs for monthly data and minutes, the constraints of your budget, and the coverage of your local area by the network or networks backing a particular plan. 

We set a few baseline criteria in choosing plans for this guide, in that all the plans listed above cost no more than $50/month and, as with most MVNO plans, do not require a contract.

Before signing up for a service, take a granular look at the coverage map that an MVNO should make readily accessible on their website — marking the US network range of its backing carrier — and appraise the coverage of your location to ensure dependable service.

Best overall

Mint Mobile's prepaid plans for three, six, or 12 months offer affordable options for customers to easily manage all lines on their plan in one place and adjust their data allotments at any time. 

Your best point of entry into the Mint Mobile landscape is its current new customer promotion that sets its three-month plans at the following reduced rates: $15/month for 5GB, $20/month for 15GB, $25/month for 20GB, and $30/month for "unlimited" data, which includes 40GB of high-speed data (subject to deprioritization in congested areas), with slower speeds once you've hit that cap.

The overall experience as a customer is what makes Mint Mobile stand out among the competition. Its user-friendly setup and app experience, readily accessible support and FAQs, and easy-to-understand language make it an easy recommendation in addition to the price point.

However, after your promotional three months are up, any of Mint's 12-month plans will provide the most savings, as the monthly price and data remain the same as the three-month plans. All are great deals; in particular, the 5GB ($15/month) and 15GB ($20/month) plans are well-priced considering the competition.

Consider your data usage patterns before signing up, but know that you can change your plan at any time with no added cost with Mint's excellent app or website.

Read our full Mint Mobile review. 

Best true budget plan

The varied plans from Tello Mobile are the cheapest options we can recommend, and they offer the most customization.

With Tello's Build Your Own plan, in particular, you can adjust the minutes and data allotment for each line on your account, making it a great choice to cover the basics for a teen, grandparent, student, or anyone who uses a minimum amount of data or is simply on a budget.

As you build your plan, you choose your monthly data amount (from no data to 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB, or unlimited) and your monthly minutes (none, 100, 300, 500, or unlimited), the combination of which adds up to $5/month at the cheapest and $29/month at the most expensive. 

The Build Your Own plan is particularly nice if you want to specify a data allotment per line — for example, setting data limits for a teen who just got their first phone while allowing them unlimited minutes. 

Read our full Tello Mobile review.

Best unlimited plan

For high-speed data and extensive coverage, Verizon has your back with Visible Wireless. Our top pick for a budget unlimited plan is Visible's upgraded Visible+ plan, available (until February 14) at a promotional rate of $35/month for up to two years — a $10 monthly discount from its typical $45/month rate.

While the Visible+ plan has the highest price point of all the MVNOs we've included in this list, even with its current promotion, it also provides by far the most high-speed monthly data and the closest approximation to "unlimited" data, as it guarantees 50GB of high-speed data before you experience any form of deprioritization.

Most of the nominally "unlimited" plans from MVNOs — including Visible's base unlimited plan ($25/month) — offer data subject to deprioritization at any time behind the higher-paying customers of the MVNO's backing network. If you're in an area with a lot of network congestion, you could encounter deprioritized speeds at any time on such an "unlimited" plan, but you won't see any deprioritization within your monthly allotment of  50GB of high-speed data on the Visible+ plan.

The Visible+ plan also provides extended coverage with 5G "Ultra Wideband" areas, though Verizon's standard coverage (and the Visible base plan's coverage) is already very good. Before signing up, check Visible's coverage map to ensure you're covered.  

Read our full Visible Wireless review.

Best international plan

Google Fi Wireless has three plans at different pay tiers, each offering access to coverage provided by T-Mobile and basic benefits like VPN usage and select smartwatch compatibility. 

The low-tier Flexible plan allows for pay-what-you-use monthly data at $10/GB plus a base monthly rate of $20 per phone line. That's expensive compared to other MNVOs on this list, and Google Fi doesn't come especially recommended if you don't need international features.  

If you need international features, though, Google Fi's Flexible plan includes international roaming for the same price as domestic data usage at $10/GB, so you won't have to worry about being charged an exorbitant price while using your phone internationally. Even if you use more data while you're away, a feature called Bill Protection, unique to the Flexible plan, caps your monthly cost at $80 for a single line to prevent excessive fees from overages. 

Google Fi also offers free texting from the US to over 200 destinations and while traveling internationally.

Given that you have a "Designed for Fi" device (like a Google Pixel phone or a range of other Android phones featured in their list of compatible devices), you might be a great match for Google Fi, particularly if you frequently travel overseas.

Read our full Google Fi Wireless review. 

How we test cell phone plans

In our testing, we spend at least a week with a specific plan from a phone carrier, often longer, and primarily assess the quality of the plan and carrier by the following criteria:

• Plan offerings and flexibility: We consider the pricing and features included in a carrier's range of plans and assess its flexibility in allowing you to switch out of or between plans. 
• Coverage area: For MVNOs, we note the approximate coverage area provided by the network or networks backing a budget carrier and evaluate whether particular locations consistently match their purported coverage type (e.g., 5G or 4G/LTE). 
• Service reliability and speeds: In consistent testing locations, we assess the reliability of phone and video calls, note how fast videos and apps load over cellular data, and, with MVNOs, mark any apparent effects of deprioritization on service speeds.  
• Customer support: We make a holistic assessment of a carrier's customer support system and online (or in-person) user experience for setup, use, and troubleshooting. 

We also take into account secondary considerations such as ongoing discounts and any other notable perks or outstanding features.

What to look for in a cheap cell phone plan

If you aren't in the market for the best cell phone plans from major carriers, you have no shortage of options for spending less monthly on a phone plan, as affordable carriers have proliferated in recent years. 

The best cheap cell phone plan for you will primarily reflect your needs for monthly data and minutes, the constraints of your budget, and the coverage of your local area by the network or networks backing a particular plan. 

We set a few baseline criteria in choosing plans for this guide, in that all the plans listed above cost less than $50/month and, as with most MVNO plans, do not require a contract.

Before signing up for a service, take a granular look at the coverage map that an MVNO should make readily accessible on their website — marking the US network range of its backing carrier — and appraise the coverage of your location to ensure dependable service.

• The hush-money courtroom erupted in shouts after a Trump witness openly challenged the judge.
• "You don't give me the side-eye and you don't roll your eyes," the judge chided witness Robert Costello.
• The judge then kicked reporters out of the courtroom to scold the witness some more.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's ongoing hush-money trial ripped into one of the former president's witnesses Monday for heckling his rulings — then cleared the courtroom of journalists to scold the witness some more.

The witness, attorney Robert Costello, was called by the defense to attack the credibility of key prosecution witness Michael Cohen.

But the Nassau County-based attorney repeatedly chafed at being interrupted by the judge sustaining prosecution objections, at one point muttering "Jeez."

Within minutes of taking the stand, Costello was in open conflict with New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the case.

"Mr. Costello I wanted to — I'd like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, ok?" Merchan began, after dismissing the jury.

"If you don't like my ruling you don't say 'Jeez," you don't give me side eye, and you don't roll your eyes," the judge scolded.

"You don't say 'strike it,'" the judge told the witness, adding that it's his job, not the witness' to strike testimony.

In response to the scolding, Costello glared at the judge. "Are you staring me down?" the judge asked him.

"Clear the courtroom!" he ordered.

Court officers then cleared journalists from the courtroom — many of them shouting in protest as they left. But the lawyers and the front-row entourages of the defense and the prosecution were allowed to remain.

Robert Balin, an attorney representing a consortium of media organizations, protested but was removed as well. The video and audio feed to the court's overflow room — a second courtroom where press and members of the public watch the trial on screens — was cut off.

After a few minutes, journalists were led back into the courtroom, and questioning from Trump's lawyer, Emil Bove, resumed.

Ahead of Costello's testimony, Merchan issued rulings limiting what Costello would be permitted to testify about.

Cohen — the prosecution's key witness in the case over allegations that Trump's falsified business records to disguise a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels — previously testified that Costello was part of Trump's "pressure campaign" to keep him from flipping against Trump in 2018. Costello served as a "back channel" to Trump through his friend, the lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Cohen said.

Merchan said Trump's lawyers could ask about his meetings and calls with Cohen, but could not have a "trial within a trial" about the scope of the alleged pressure campaign.

Bove asked such questions anyway. Merchan repeatedly sustained objections from prosecutors and called sidebar conferences, which journalists could not hear.

During one of these conferences, Costello audibly said "ridiculous" from the witness stand and let out a heavy sigh.

Costello backed up the narrative from Trump's lawyers that Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels on his own, without Trump's knowledge.

"Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about these payments," Costello said. "That he did this on his own. And he did this numerous times."

Costello has been a frequent critic of the Manhattan District Attorney's case against Trump.

He spoke in front of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives committee on the "weaponization of government," echoing Trump's claims that the case is politically motivated.

• In 2020, President Biden won Nevada by bringing together a broad Democratic coalition.
• But he faces tough headwinds this year, as the state's economy has lagged relative to the country.
• Polls show Trump with an edge on the economy, a dynamic Biden will have to change to win reelection.

For over fifteen years, Nevada has been a major success story for the Democratic Party.

The late Sen. Harry Reid was instrumental in building up the state party, which led to high-profile victories like Barack Obama's presidential victories in 2008 and 2012, Catherine Cortez Masto's Senate win in 2016, and President Joe Biden's win in 2020.

After years of GOP dominance in Nevada, it seemed as though Democrats had finally cracked the code for consistent victories, with a coalition of young voters, union members, Black and Latino voters, and suburbanites fueling their political ascent in the state.

But ahead of November, Biden is currently the underdog in Nevada, weighed down by the state's slow economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic. And how he shapes his economic message to voters across the state could very well determine whether or not he wins reelection.

Nevada's outsized importance

Nevada only has six electoral votes, but the race between Biden and former President Donald Trump could come down to a few thousand — or even a few hundred votes — in key battleground states across the country.

The last GOP presidential nominee to win Nevada was George W. Bush in November 2004 — nearly 20 years ago.

During that timespan, Nevada saw a population spike — largely centered in the Las Vegas and Reno areas — with a state population of 2.4 million residents in 2005 increasing to nearly 3.2 million residents last year.

Nevada was deeply impacted by the Great Recession, as the housing downturn depressed home prices and led to high unemployment in various sectors — namely construction, finance, and real estate.

And then the pandemic in 2020 shuttered the Las Vegas Strip for weeks, an unprecedented blow to leisure travel and the hospitality industry overall. With another significant economic calamity affecting Nevada, the ramifications were bound to collide with Biden's economic pitch to voters.

Biden's dilemma

In 2020, Biden won Nevada by a 50% to 48% margin over his GOP rival, similar to the 2.4-point edge that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enjoyed over Trump (47.9% to 45.5%) in 2016.

But both results were a steep departure from Obama's robust 12.5- and nearly 7-point wins in 2008 and 2012.

Biden will have to work hard to address some of the top concerns of Nevada voters: inflation, housing affordability, and health care.

And the president has his work cut out for him, as Trump is leading him in Nevada by a sizable margin in recent polling.

A New York Times/Siena College survey conducted from late April through early May showed Trump ahead Biden by a 12-point margin (50% to 38%) among registered voters in Nevada. When independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are in the mix, Biden's support plummets to 27%, with Trump taking 41% and Kennedy Jr. at 12%, followed by Stein with 2% support.

A plurality of Nevada voters (22%) listed the economy as their top issue, and a whopping 82% of voters said that the economy was "only fair" or "poor." Only 17% of Nevada voters rated the economy as "good" or "excellent." And by a 61% to 32% margin, Nevada voters believe Trump would be better at handling the economy.

The Biden campaign has responded aggressively to tackle this narrative.

The president visited Nevada in March to make his pitch for boosting affordable housing. The month before, he met with culinary workers — a highly influential voting bloc — while in Las Vegas. And Vice President Kamala Harris has traveled to Nevada four times this year, promoting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and advocating for reproductive rights in an election where abortion will be a key issue.

Another matter for Biden: The bipartisan infrastructure law is a huge accomplishment for his administration. Yet it will take years for many voters to see the results, including the creation of jobs.

Biden's biggest challenge is sharpening an economic message that voters will respond to across the country. And Nevada is increasingly looking like the place where he'll need to do it to stay in the White House.

• Attorneys are seating a jury in the Brooklyn fraud trial of Ozy Media cofounder Carlos Watson
• Prosecutors allege Watson orchestrated a scheme to defraud investors and lenders. 
• Watson's defense attorneys have argued that racial bias played a role in his indictment.

Attorneys began jury selection in the criminal fraud trial of Carlos Watson, the cofounder of the fallen digital media startup Ozy Media.

Federal prosecutors accuse Watson, the face of the company, of orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors and lenders of tens of millions dollars by deliberately misrepresenting Ozy's financial and business assets.

The trial is set in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

According to prosecutors, between 2018 and 2021, Watson and other executives engaged in the scheme "through material misrepresentations and omissions" about Ozy's financial results, debts, audience numbers, and investors' identities and the sizes of their investments, among other things.

Prosecutors say Watson conspired to impersonate media company executives during interactions with Ozy's lenders and prospective investors.

Watson has been charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to 37 years in prison.

Opening statements in the trial are expected to begin next week, and it's not yet clear what Watson's defense will be, but his attorneys have argued in court documents that racial bias played a role when he was indicted in February 2023.

In an August motion to dismiss the indictment, which was unsuccessful, Watson's attorneys argued that the "well-known and well-documented practices of puffing and bluffing venture funding" may not be the "archetypes of ideal moral behavior," but are a "critical part of an economic system that has created the incredible innovations of the last decades from Apple and Google to Tesla and Airbnb."

The defense attorneys said in the court filing that during the time of Ozy's development, early-stage investors had a swath of digital media companies to choose from, including BuzzFeed and Vice Media.

"While these companies were and are household names, they have either completely collapsed or are financially struggling, as are similarly situated digital media firms," the attorneys wrote.

"Their founders reportedly — and in some cases, admittedly — engaged in conduct that differs from the conduct charged in Mr. Watson's Indictment in only one way: their conduct was, by orders of magnitude, far more egregious. And yet they have not been indicted," the filing read.

The lawyers continued, "The fact that Carlos Watson and his company have been indicted is not the only difference between them and their peer founders and companies. The others are white and white-owned. Carlos Watson is a Black man and Ozy Media was majority-owned by people of color."

Attorneys for Watson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Monday.

Ozy was launched in 2013, and by 2020, the startup had raised more than $80 million from investors, including Marc Lasry, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Ron Conway. Axel Springer, which owns Business Insider, was also an investor.

The company's demise was sparked by a series of articles by Ben Smith, who joined The New York Times as a media columnist after leading BuzzFeed's news division.

Smith reported in a September 2021 article that Samir Rao, Ozy's cofounder and chief operating officer — who, along with Ozy's chief of staff Suzee Han, has pleaded guilty to charges relating to their roles in the fraud scheme — impersonated a YouTube executive in a meeting with investors at Goldman Sachs.

Smith also reported on claims that Ozy significantly exaggerated its audience figures in public statements.

Ozy filed a lawsuit against Smith, his news website Semafor and Buzzfeed in December, alleging that he violated a nondisclosure agreement and stole trade secrets from Ozy to build his own media company.

Representatives for Smith and Semafor did not immediately respond to a request for comment by BI. BuzzFeed declined to comment.

• Adult content creator Belle Delphine did a viral stunt in 2019 where she sold jars of her bathwater.
• She made about $90,000, but PayPal froze her account and kept the money as a fine for each sale.
• Five years later, PayPal returned her money after Business Insider asked the company about it.

In 2019, adult creator Belle Delphine had grown a massive following on Instagram (she would later be banned from the platform) as a cosplayer and model. Posing in a pink wig and cat ears, she had a knack for lightly trolling her extremely online fans. When she announced she was going to sell jars of her "gamergirl bathwater" for $30 apiece, the stunt went viral, and she sold hundreds of jars within three days.

But five years after the stunt, Delphine announced that PayPal, which she used to process the $30 payments, froze her account and kept the $90,000 she had made from the bathwater jars.

"I knew it would be a better news story to say that I made 'sOoOo much money' from selling my bathwater so I just kept this secret," Delphine wrote on X. "Ultimately I'm still glad I did it since it was a really funny time on the internet when it happened."

Don't worry — this story has a happy ending. After Delphine tweeted about her years-old problems with PayPal, and several media outlets (including Business Insider) contacted PayPal to ask about the situation, the $90,000 has been returned to Delphine as of this week.

PayPal's policy on adult and sexual content permits sales of physical goods like DVDs or magazines (or bathwater jars), but only for transactions within the US. Delphine is based in the UK.

But PayPal went beyond just shutting down her account. At the time, PayPal's policy allowed it to issue a fine of $2,500 for each violation of its rules. Each jar of bathwater Delphine sold counted as a violation.

A PayPal spokesperson said they could not comment on individual accounts but told Business Insider that PayPal dropped its policy on the $2,500 fines about a year ago.

It seems that because of that rule change, PayPal decided to release Delphine's funds and return the money to her. But that didn't happen automatically — it was only once Delphine, who has 2 million followers on X, posted about the situation earlier this month and the tweet went viral.

"If I didn't have any [social media] following, they wouldn't have given my money back," Delphine contended to Business Insider. "Which is so shitty because what are all the normal non-social media users meant to do in this situation? I followed all the normal protocols and was roadblocked and gave up."

Adult content creators have struggled for years with payment processors. In 2020, Mastercard and Visa cut ties with Pornhub over concerns about child sexual exploitation material on the site. Other processors similarly have been skittish about the risk of unlawful material; even a crypto-based adult content processor called SpankPay shut down after its banking partner cut ties.

"The Twitter post I made about it had SO many comments of people saying PayPal did the exact same thing to them," Delphine said. (BI couldn't verify the claims of the commenters, and PayPal wouldn't comment on individual accounts.) Still, Delphine said, "It was shocking, to be honest."

• US Navy warships in the Middle East have been facing off against anti-ship ballistic missiles.
• The Houthis introduced these missiles into combat for the first time in late 2023.
• The captain of an American destroyer said they are "way faster" than anything else.

US Navy warships operating in the Red Sea have been intercepting deadly ballistic missiles that are "way faster" than anything else, according to the commanding officer of an American destroyer that has been involved in shooting them down.

Anti-ship ballistic missiles are a dangerous weapon that no military had ever faced in combat until recently when the Houthis started firing them into key Middle Eastern waterways late last year as part of their ongoing attacks on international shipping lanes.

Since then, the Iran-backed rebels have fired dozens of anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. US warships in the region have intercepted these missiles on numerous occasions, though some of the weapons have struck commercial vessels. Civilians were killed during an attack in March.

An anti-ship ballistic missile "is just way faster than anything else, Cmdr. Jeremy Robertson, captain of the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney, told reporters during a media event on Monday. He said that while the missiles are a challenge, "we have certain capabilities to be able to detect stuff like that."

The Carney was the first US warship in the region to intercept Houthi threats in the fight that began in October 2023. The destroyer was involved in dozens of engagements during its monthslong deployment — destroying anti-ship ballistic missiles, land-attack cruise missiles, and drones — and it also carried out multiple strikes against the rebels inside Yemen.

The Houthis maintain a sizable arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles, according to an analysis by the the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

Some of the missiles are Iranian in origin, while others just contain parts from Tehran. US Central Command has not identified specific missiles that have been used in any of the Houthi attacks, but ballistic missiles, generally, fly at faster speeds than cruise missiles.

The anti-ship ballistic missile "threat is very challenging — it's very dynamic, and it's very fast," Robertson said. "These are certainly very dangerous areas, and every interaction is completely different from one another."

Robertson said that his sailors work very quickly to engage these missiles because they must. From start to finish, the complex process of detecting a threat, making sure it's real, sorting the trajectory, and engaging, may last "anywhere from nine to 20 seconds," he said.

The Carney was ready for the threat though. "Our systems are doing exactly what we've designed them to do," Robertson said. "We have training pipelines that build on this threat as well, and so we certainly do a lot of training to make sure the team is ready to handle that threat."

During a visit to the Red Sea earlier this year, Business Insider spoke with Navy officers aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, and USS Gravely, a destroyer, about the Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile threat.

They similarly praised the combat systems on their warships for working as intended and said their sailors are properly leaning and training to defeat the threats.

Anti-ship ballistic missiles emerged as a growing concern for the US military long before the conflict with the Houthi conflict began, as Washington looks across the Pacific at China and its growing arsenal of formidable, long-range missiles.

A potential clash between the US and China would unfold across the maritime domain, making anti-ship capabilities a crucial factor.

Experts, including former Navy officers, previously told BI that the Houthi anti-ship missile capabilities don't quite stack up against what China has in its arsenal. Still, the ongoing engagements in the Middle East are providing the Navy with valuable, first-ever combat experience — and information — to deal with these dangerous missiles.

The Carney has also taken on other missile threats beyond those launched by the Houthis during its lengthy deployment.

Last month, after the destroyer moved out of the Middle East and into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, it used its SM-3 interceptors for the first time to shoot down an Iranian medium-range ballistic missile amid Tehran's unprecedented aerial attack against Israel.

The Carney finally returned home to Mayport, Florida on Sunday to wrap up a deployment that lasted more than seven months.

"I could not be more proud of what the Carney team has done since September," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said aboard the warship earlier this month, welcoming the crew back to the US.

"Called to action on the very first day that you entered the US 5th Fleet, you conducted 51 engagements in six months," Franchetti said. "The last time our Navy directly engaged the enemy to the degree that you have was way back in World War II."