Elon Musk, 52, is the owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Anna Webber/Variety/Getty Images
Elon Musk has amassed a $198 billion fortune through his work at Tesla, SpaceX, and more.
The 52-year-old is also the father of 10 children and finds time to post on X almost daily.
Here's how the Tesla CEO structures his days.
Elon Musk is a busy man, with interests across several massive tech companies.
He's the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, the owner of Twitter — now X — and he's also a father of 10 children.
According to Forbes, he's amassed a fortune worth $198 billion, making him the world's third-richest person. Musk said he didn't get there by working 40 hours a week. The billionaire is known to have a strenuous schedule that he said has demanded 120-hour workweeks in the past.
Still, the South African mogul has similarities to the average Joe in his routine. Like many of us, Musk has a sweet treat in the morning and spends time scrolling social media.
Here's how his days go, according to interviews and posts by Musk himself over the years.
Musk wakes up around 9 a.m. and has said he starts every morning with a donut
Donuts seem to be a big part of Musk's daily diet.
Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images
Musk told The Wall Street Journal in 2023 that he usually goes to bed around 3 a.m. and sleeps for six hours. So, he's typically waking up around 9 a.m. each day.
He might've been trolling when he wrote a response to a doctor that same year on X saying he eats "a donut every morning," but a quick search of Musk's posts reveals he's quite a fan of the pastry.
But, it's all about moderation, according to Musk.
"I only have 0.4 donuts at a time, because my brain neural network quantizes it down to 0 donuts," he posted to X in October.
His mornings usually start with his phone in his hand
Musk is active on X almost every day.
Getty Images
Musk said in 2022 that he was trying to break the cycle of checking his phone as soon as he woke up. While on the Full Send Podcast, Musk described it as "a terrible habit" he hoped to escape.
But as of last year, he still wakes up and immediately looks at his phone for emergencies, the Journal reported.
If his posts on X (formerly Twitter) are any indication, the habit persists. He's been active on Twitter since before he bought it in 2022.
It's unclear if Musk slots in time to post and respond to others each day, but it certainly looks like he rarely takes a day off from the app.
"Some days I wake up and look at Twitter to see if it's still working," Musk told Walter Isaacson in the "Elon Musk" biography.
Showering is an important part of his daily routine
Musk has at times lived in the places where he worked.
During an AMA session on Reddit in 2015, a user asked which of his daily habits impacted his life the most.
"Showering," Musk responded.
He decides which Tesla to commute to the office in
Elon Musk first revealed the Cybertruck in late 2019.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
As the CEO of one of the leading EV makers, it's no surprise that Musk has more than one option for his daily commute.
When an X user posted a meme about deciding between driving a Cybertruck without autopilot or Tesla Model S with self-driving technology, Musk responded that it's a choice he faces "every day."
It's unclear if Musk is keeping up with the daily lifting routine he spoke about in 2023
Musk has expressed his distaste for working out in the past
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Like many, Musk appears to have had ups and downs in his relationship with physical exercise over the years. In 2021, he told Joe Rogan that he'd avoid it altogether if he could.
"I almost never work out, except for picking up my kids & throwing them in the air," he said on X in June 2023.
Musk has admitted on several occasions that running more than one company isn't easy. He splits time between his companies depending on the "crisis of the moment," the 52-year-old said in 2021.
One X user pointed out in January 2023 that Musk had testified in a lawsuit in the morning, attended an event at a Nevada Tesla factory in the evening, and worked with Tesla on AI at night — all in one day.
Musk responded that he'd also spent time at "Twitter HQ past midnight."
And then was at Twitter HQ past midnight. Very long day.
"I go to sleep, I wake up, I work, go to sleep, wake up, work—do that seven days a week," Musk told the Journal in 2023. "I'll have to do that for a while — no choice — but I think once Twitter is set on the right path, I think it is a much easier thing to manage than SpaceX or Tesla."
On the Tesla earnings call in April 2024, Musk said: "Tesla constitutes the majority of my work time, and I work pretty much every day of the week. It's rare for me to take a Sunday afternoon off."
Musk goes to bed around 3 a.m. and gets about 6 hours of sleep every night
Elon Musk is veering away from all-nighters, he told CNBC.
NurPhoto
Although he's not getting eight hours a night, Musk has upped his sleeping schedule from being nearly nonexistent in the past.
In May 2023, Musk told CNBC that he's no longer pulling all-nighters. Instead, he said he tries to get at least six hours of sleep.
According to Isaacson's biography of Musk, the billionaire has spent many nights awake and pondering the issues his companies face. His former partner Claire Boucher — known by her stage name Grimes — also told Isaacson that Musk once stayed up all night playing the "Elden Ring" video game when it first came out.
After purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk all but moved into its San Francisco headquarters. He said there's a couch in the library that he would crash on from time to time.
Princess Cruises' 2026 world cruise would hit two vacation trends — extended voyages and all-inclusiveness — with one 114-day itinerary.
Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises announced a 114-day world cruise to 52 destinations in 2026, starting at $20,000 per person.
Guests who book early would get a free, all-inclusive package, a first for Princess' global itineraries.
Extended and all-inclusive cruises have emerged as big trends in the vacation industry.
Princess Cruise's new around-the-world voyage will hit two vacation trends in one itinerary.
In January 2026, the company says its Coral Princess will embark on a 114-day cruise to 52 ports in 28 countries and six continents — more destinations than any of its previous global sailings.
It's the Carnival Corp brand's latest appeal to the extended cruising trend. But it's not the only fad this four-month vacation is targeting.
The sailing, which starts at $20,000 per person, also marks the first time Princess is offering a complimentary all-inclusive package as a way to entice early bookings.
Ultra-long and all-inclusive cruises have emerged as big trends in the industry.
Fares for Regent Seven Seas' 132-night around-the-world cruise started at $73,500 per person.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises
Regent Seven Seas, Azamara, and Oceania's 2024 around-the-world cruises all sold out before departing in January. The former was fully booked within three hours, while every cabin on the latter was called for in 30 minutes.
Besides being high-end, these three companies share one commonality: some level of all-inclusiveness, as is common with premium cruise lines.
Mass-market cruise companies rarely go the all-inclusive route.
Coral Princess has two specialty restaurants.
Princess Cruises
Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian are generally beloved for their affordability.
But if you want to experience all their ships have to offer, be prepared to face a list of up-charged amenities like pay-to-play rides and specialty restaurants. After all, there's a reason their base fares are much cheaper than their increasingly popular ultra-luxury, all-inclusive counterparts.
But Princess has been increasingly vying for a slice of the luxury cruiser pie.
Princess says travelers who book a mini-suite, pictured, or suite by October 31 will get first-class airfare.
Princess Cruises
The cruise line says guests who book its 2026 world cruise early (that is, by the end of October) will receive its most inclusive Princess Premier package for free. The perk — launched two years ago — covers amenities that typically have a fee, like WiFi, premium drinks, some specialty restaurants, and workout classes.
Travelers who reserve one of the ship's high-end cabins by the same deadline would also receive complimentary airport transfers and airfare, services normally exclusively offered by luxury cruise lines.
The itinerary would have two roundtrip embarkation options: Fort. Lauderdale, Florida, on January 5, 2026, or Los Angeles 16 days later.
The 2026 itinerary would be the first time Princess would sail to Boracay, Philippines, pictured, and the first time one of its world cruises would sail to Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, and Ponta Delgado, Portugal.
Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
From there, the 2,000-guest Coral Princess would sail more than 35,000 nautical miles to ports in North America, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia, Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and Central and South America.
It wouldn't be Princess' longest voyage — that title goes to its 116-day world cruise in 2025 — but it would be one of its most destination-heavy.
While two days longer, next year's around-the-world cruise would hit six fewer ports and four fewer countries than its 2026 counterpart.
According to the itinerary, about half of the 2026 voyage consists of sea days.
Coral Princess has amenities like a casino, gym, Broadway-style shows, and movie showings.
Princess Cruises
That's a lot of time on the water with no land in sight. Luckily, travelers can keep themselves entertained by attending lectures and programs related to the destinations, leisuring around the adult-only lounge, or taking a dip in Coral Princess' four pools.
The 21-year-old ship also has 10 places to grab a bite, although the Italian and steakhouse restaurants are considered specialty. Premier is the cruise line's most inclusive package, but it only includes 16 free dinners at these upcharge restaurants, paced once a week.
Princess is still a mass-market cruise line, after all.
The company has been increasingly dangling its inclusive package as a big perk.
Guests who booked Princess' 2025 world cruise early received the company's "Princess Plus" package, which doesn't include Premier's premium drinks, WiFi options, or unlimited casual meals and desserts.
Princess Cruises
The company says its two-month-old Sun Princess will debut in the US in October with its first-ever Sanctuary Collection. Travelers who splurge on these expensive and luxurious accommodations would be rewarded with two major benefits: a private lounge and Princess Premier.
The likes of BYD, Zeekr, and Xiaomi all showed off new models — here are some of the most interesting vehicles on offer.
The Zeekr Mix
The Zeekr Mix.
PEDRO PARDO/Getty Images
Zeekr might be only three years old, but the company has made a name for itself with its quirky EVs.
At the auto show, the EV firm unveiled the Zeekr Mix, an electric multi-purpose vehicle with swiveling chairs that allow it to transform into a small room when parked.
By far the biggest name in China's EV market is BYD, the Warren Buffett-backed firm that is probably giving Elon Musk sleepless nights.
The EV upstart has become known for its cheap vehicles, such as the $11,000 Seagull, but the company was showing off its more high-end models in Beijing.
That includes the Yangwang U8, the latest version of which, the Off-road Master Edition, was unveiled in Beijing.
BYD also announced a new cheap electric hatchback as it looks to squeeze Tesla even further. The Ocean-M hatchback will be released later this year and will cost between 150,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan ($20,00 to $27,000).
Xiaomi brings its Tesla rival
The Xiaomi SU7.
JADE GAO/Getty Images
One of the biggest draws of the auto show was the SU7, an electric SUV built by smartphone maker Xiaomi.
The number of companies trying to make it in China's EV market — at least 123, according to one auto consultant — has seen some firms branch out in unexpected directions.
One is Chinese EV maker Xpeng with its AeroHT flying car prototype that went on display in Beijing.
The AeorHT has been in development for a decade, and the affiliate company behind it is reportedly close to receiving regulatory approval to fly — but no price or release date has been announced yet, so may be a while before the AeroHT dominates China's skies.
Cairo is overcrowded, so Egypt's government is building a new capital about 30 miles away.
The city, which already holds Africa's tallest building, is expected to cost $58 billion to build.
Some political analysts are worried about the eye-watering cost of the project.
Like Indonesia, Egypt is building a new capital — although in this case, it's responding to the challenge of overcrowding.
The existing capital, Cairo, is home to about 22 million people, making it one of the world's most densely populated metropolitan areas. Policymakers believe that constructing new city could help to reduce congestion there.
It has yet to be given an official name but is often to referred to as the New Administrative Capital.
The city is being built in the desert 30 miles away from Cairo and already hosts an imposing skyscraper in the city's central business district.
Egypt's government has forecast that the new administrative capital will cost $58 billion to build.
The plan is for it to eventually have 6.5 million residents. Take a closer look at the details.
Egypt announced its plan for a new capital in March 2015
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Egypt's government unveiled its plan to build the capital over nine years ago, estimating at the time that the project would cost $45 billion. The new city is one of several mega projects announced under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's leadership. He's also mulling further whether the Suez Canal can be further expanded.
The government is trying to ease overcrowding in Cairo
Mohamed El-Shahed/Getty Images
When the project was announced, then-housing minister Mostafa Madbouly said it was part of a plan to reduce congestion in Cairo over four decades. Greater Cairo's population was on track to double to about 36 million within that timeframe, he added.
Officials picked a site in the desert, 30 miles east of Cairo
George Glover/Business Insider
The new city is located between Cairo and the seaport city of Suez. It's connected to the old capital by an electrified light railway system that opened in July 2022.
Here's what the area looked like before construction started
The Atlantic
The Atlantic used past satellite imagery from Google Earth to take a snapshot of what the Egyptian government's chosen site looked like 10 years ago before construction started.
This is how it’s changed since then
The Atlantic
The site now has government, business, and residential districts, and is home to many civil servants and their families. Fourteen government ministries and entities have relocated to the new capital as of this month.
At the center of the city is the Iconic Tower, Africa's tallest building
The Iconic Tower.
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
The skyscraper, which was completed last year, stands at around 396 meters. It has 77 floors for a mixture of residential, office, and hotel uses.
The new capital is also home to one of Africa's largest mosques …
Ahmed Hasan/AFP via Getty Images
The Grand Mosque can hold 107,000 worshippers, the BBC reported. As of last year, it was home to the world's heaviest chandelier, which weighed more than 50,000 pounds.
… and a massive stadium
Tullio Puglia/FIFA via Getty Images
The venue, known as the New Administrative Capital Stadium, can hold nearly 94,000 people. It's part of the "Olympic City" complex, which the government hopes will help it win the right to host major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup.
But some are concerned about the project's huge cost
ACUD
Egypt has said the project will be funded by state-owned enterprises and money it can rake in from selling land — but some critics believe the country shouldn't be spending so much money on a new capital.
Political analyst Maged Mandour previously told The New York Times that the government was "borrowing money from abroad to build a massive city for the rich," reflecting the fact it's taken out billion-dollar loans from the IMF.
Software isn't necessarily the reason your résumé got rejected.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Job seekers often look for ways to slip past the software many companies use to collect résumés.
Yet it's often recruiters, not bots, that reject applicants for a role.
A recruitment firm found that applications lead to "meaningful conversations" only 3% of the time.
Melissa Weaver was recruiting for a tech consulting company when she spotted something promising on a man's résumé: He'd worked at a pizza shop all four years of college.
"He had started as a dishwasher and, by the end, he was a manager," she told Business Insider.
Although the recent grad didn't have tech experience, to Weaver, he'd shown longevity with a company and a desire to take on more responsibility.
"That's definitely worth a conversation," Weaver said. The man eventually got the job and has since been promoted multiple times, she said.
It's the kind of feel-good story that seems impossible to repeat in a job market that can unfold like an obstacle course — one where the obstacles are the technologies that many companies use to filter and reject résumés.
Yet, for all the fear of so-called applicant-tracking systems, often, it's not a bot that's doing the booting — it's still people.
'The ATS doesn't care'
Mark Jensen, a recruiter with Upswing Talent Acquisition, told BI that job seekers often focus too much on sneaking past an ATS to get seen.
"They all think that the applicant-tracking system is some magical technology that screens people out on its own," he said. "The ATS doesn't care. It's just a repository."
Instead, recruiters often filter with keywords and other variables to reduce stacks of résumés, Jensen said. So, it's a good idea to tailor yours and your cover letter to ensure they're a good fit for a job description.
That's because, like many others who feel overworked, recruiters often are, too, he said.
"They don't have time to really parse through a résumé and think if someone may or may not be a fit. They need that résumé to jump off the page," Jensen said.
Weaver agreed. She recommends people list specific achievements and skills and not just focus on key words contained in a job description.
"Put any specific stats that show, 'I know what I'm talking about,'" she said. "That's really important in terms of catching the human eye."
Weaver said taking these steps makes it less likely that a résumé will be set aside when a recruiter sorts for certain attributes.
Don't fear the ether
It's understandable why people would stress over whether an ATS would block their résumé. Nearly all Fortune 500 companies, for example, deploy systems for ingesting résumés.
Weaver sees value in using tech to filter candidates but worries about those who could get overlooked — like the pizza guy — because they don't have the experience that's in direct alignment with a job posting.
"Do they have relevant experience? Not in a way that an applicant-tracking system would tell you that they do. But their experience that may not be related to your field can still apply," she said.
Fear of getting ghosted by an ATS is why some people resort to what recruiters call "spray and pray." It's essentially applying to as many jobs as possible to break through somewhere. Artificial intelligence tools can now also help make you a serial applier.
A 3% ROI
Yet even though it's easier than ever to apply for jobs, that doesn't mean you should go wild. Applying to more than 1,000 roles, for example, doesn't guarantee success.
Aaron Cleavinger, a managing partner at Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group, told BI that his firm's research shows that when applicants apply for positions, that effort turns into "meaningful conversations" only about 3% of the time. He said that doesn't mean people shouldn't go for jobs, but they likely need to limit how often they focus on clicking that submit button.
"If it's 3% value, perhaps you should only spend 3% of your time doing it," he said.
So, what else should job seekers do? Cleavinger said it's about constantly challenging yourself to appear different from other candidates who are equally or more qualified than you.
"How do you stand out so that when there's a big pile of résumés or a giant list of LinkedIn profiles to look through that you'd be the one to come on top?" he said.
Jensen, the recruiter with Upswing Talent Acquisition, said the power also rests with those doing the hiring to make wise decisions about how to use an ATS.
"It's the recruiter and how they choose to filter to make hopefully the most relevant candidates bubble up to the top, so they don't have to review all 400 or 1,000 résumés," he said.
Inclusionary zoning is designed to boost the production of affordable housing by requiring or incentivizing developers to build a certain number of below-market-rate units.
Lindsey Nicholson/Getty Images
Inclusionary zoning policies can backfire, leading to fewer homes and higher housing costs.
A new study suggests ways to optimize inclusionary zoning for affordable housing.
But direct housing subsidies, like vouchers, can be more effective and flexible.
A key policy designed to create affordable housing for low-income people has long been scrutinized for being generally ineffective.
Inclusionary zoning, which originated in the 1970s, is designed to boost the production of affordable housing by requiring or incentivizing developers to set aside a certain share of below-market-rate units when building new apartments or homes.
The idea is to leverage land-use regulations to have the private sector offer some homes for lower-income people. The term is a response to "exclusionary zoning" — laws like single-family zoning that make it illegal to build cheaper units in multi-family buildings — which still dominates American cities and cements racial and socioeconomic segregation.
But critics have long pointed out that inclusionary zoning policies often backfire by raising costs so much for developers that they cancel or significantly scale back new housing projects. At a certain point, more inclusionary zoning requirements mean less affordable and market-rate housing is constructed than otherwise would be.
Some advocates of land-use policies like inclusionary zoning argue that any additional affordable housing is a net benefit, even if it means less housing overall or higher rents. But lots of research has found that restricting the supply of housing — including market-rate homes — means higher rents and home prices. So a policy designed to create more affordable housing can actually result in fewer homes and higher housing costs.
A new study by UCLA housing researcher Shane Phillips found that while inclusionary zoning is deeply flawed, there are ways to design the policy to maximize its benefits. Phillips used a simulator developed by UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation to predict how much both market-rate and low-income housing inclusionary zoning would produce. He looked specifically at Los Angeles' Transit Oriented Communities program, which incentivizes developers on a voluntary basis to build housing around bus and train stations.
Phillips wanted to determine whether there's an optimal inclusionary zoning policy and if not, what the policy's tradeoffs look like. This involves finding a balance between creating more deed-restricted affordable housing and boosting the overall supply of housing.
He concluded that the value of the government subsidy for building affordable housing needs to outweigh its costs. If taxes are too high on new construction, the new housing just won't go up. And because it's hard to strike that balance correctly in every case, Phillips also found the policy should be voluntary, rather than mandated. That way, "if you calibrate wrong, if you require too much and offer too little, you're not going to kill projects because they have no choice but to go down that pathway," Phillips said.
While it's possible to improve inclusionary zoning, Phillips found the costs of the policy "are very likely greater than the benefits." But he recognizes that it can be politically impossible for policymakers to abandon the policy.
"That's not to say that we should just get rid of these programs," Phillips said. "Partly for political reasons, I think it's just a necessity in many cases, and maybe at least a bridge to something better."
Studying the impacts of inclusionary zoning is increasingly important because a growing number of states and localities are looking to boost all kinds of infill construction in existing neighborhoods, including so-called "missing middle housing" — everything between a detached single-family home and an apartment building. While larger apartment buildings are generally better able to absorb the costs of inclusionary zoning, it often doesn't pencil out to build below-market units in smaller developments.
"It's a lot easier to make inclusionary zoning work when most of your projects in your city are 50 units, 100 units," Phillips said. To encourage the construction of missing middle housing, "you really need a simple process and minimal requirements," he added.
Many policy experts, including Phillips, would rather see governments provide much more in direct housing subsidies, both for low-income people and homebuilders.
Direct subsidies, like housing vouchers, give low-income residents more flexibility: they can choose where they want to live. And every dollar spent on direct housing support, like housing vouchers, tends to go farther than a dollar used to subsidize the construction of an affordable unit, Phillips said.
"We really, over time, need to move away from trying to have land use reforms serve multiple purposes, let them do what they're good for, which is producing more housing of different types," Phillips said. "And we really need to find resources and commit resources to subsidizing housing for people who can't afford it on their own, whether through vouchers or subsidies for construction, really both."
The ages of 14 to 24, specifically, are what researchers are calling the "decisive decade." According to an April report from the Brookings Institution, Gen Zers' life circumstances during those years can have significant impacts on their socioeconomic future.
America is already seeing a split among Gen Zers — those who are getting degrees and beginning careers, and "disconnected youth" who are not enrolled in school or working, a cohort that includes about 14% of 18-to-24-year-olds.
Many young people are feeling anxious about adulthood. And there are three key reasons Gen Zers' decisive decade will shape their ongoing mental and financial health.
Education has a major impact on future employment
Educational attainment will inform Gen Zers' future income levels, the Brookings report found, because college graduates tend to land higher-paying jobs.
Based on data from the Census Bureau's Annual Social and Economic Supplement, the report looked at Americans' education and employment milestones between ages 14 and 24.
Just 31% of young people had a bachelor's degree or higher by age 24, while 58% worked full time between 2015 and 2019, even before the pandemic disrupted work and school patterns for millions of Americans. The researchers also noted that about there were about 2.5 million fewer high school graduates enrolled in college in 2022 compared to 2010.
This growing disconnection with education and the workforce correlates to future income.Urban Institute, a research firm, found that a 10% increase in the share of time a young adult spends disconnected is associated with a $7,000 – $9,000 decrease in family income by the time they turn 30.
"If we empower more young people who have within their own lives, they're quite capable of making strong decisions within this period that can have lifelong benefit," Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at the nonprofit policy research firm American Enterprise Institute, said at an April 29 Brookings event.
Continued education has other benefits too, researchers found: lower rates of teen pregnancy, substance abuse, homelessness, and criminal justice involvement, as well as improved mental health levels.
Unhappiness can shape long-term mental health
Gen Zer's mental health outcomes are shaped by their involvement in school and work, Brookings researchers said. And, the generation is increasingly feeling the weight of isolation and financial stress.
At work, many Gen Zers are struggling with anxiety, work-life balance, and burnout — more so than millennials, Gen X, and boomers. Unhappiness and social isolation are especially affecting Gen Zers who reached adolescence during the pandemic. And it's hurting their happiness levels.
In the 2024 World Happiness Report, young adults in the US reported some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction in years, ranking 62nd out of 143 countries for people under 30.
"Happiness, well-being and greater mental health is predictive of a whole bunch of positive outcomes," Lara Aknin, an editor at the World Happiness Report, said at the Brookings event. "Graduating from high school is a meaningful milestone, but it's also satisfaction with your relationship and earnings later on."
Additionally, Brookings found that more young people are living with their parents than previous generations. This trend tends to alleviate some mental health risks and reduce adult poverty levels.
Gen Zers' choice to live in multigenerational households is also a strategy to alleviate financial stress, especially as many young people face staggering student loan costs, rising home prices, and growing inflation levels. 40% of young adults living with their parents cite financial reasons, per 2022 Pew Research Center data.
Not all Gen Zers start on equal footing
To be sure, Gen Zers' education, work, and financial outcomes are also dependent on their life circumstances in childhood. Brookings researchers reported that family income level, gender, and race can also determine young people's futures.
Students who come from low-income backgrounds are less likely to enroll in college, the report found: 89% of students who grew up in the top income quintile enroll in higher education, compared with 51% of those from lowest income quintile.
21-year-olds from top-quintile families are also twice as likely to have met major milestones like graduating from high school and being enrolled in collegethan those from bottom-quintile families.
These trends also vary depending on a young adult's gender and race, researchers said. Women who are disconnected during their "decisive" ages of 16 to 24 are four times more likely to become young mothers than those who are working or enrolled in school.
Black and Hispanic young adults are also more likely to be disconnected. About a fifth of Black and Hispanic 24-year-olds aren't working or employed, compared to 14% of white and Asian 24-year-olds, the report found.
Are you a Gen Zer who isn't employed or enrolled in school? Are you a parent of disconnected youths? Reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@insider.com.
Ian Baylon and his now-wife moved to Montana after watching "Yellowstone" and planning a trip to the state.
Ian Baylon
Ian Baylon moved to Montana in April 2022 after watching "Yellowstone" and visiting the state.
The 34-year-old said you get more bang for your buck renting in Montana than in the Bay Area.
Baylon said not all Montana transplants are remote workers buying property and driving up prices.
This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with 34-year-old Ian Baylon, a tradesman who moved from California to Montana in April 2022. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I was born and raised in the Bay Area, San Francisco. Later as an adult I lived in Crockett, which is a beautiful little coastal Bay Area town. Even in Crockett the housing was expensive.
When my girlfriend, now wife, and I moved in together, the cheapest thing we could find for ourselves was in Vallejo, which is super busy, super violent. But that's what we could afford, even though I was a manager at a granite shop and my wife was working as an esthetician.
During COVID, we got sucked into "Yellowstone," watched the whole series, and decided to book a trip to Montana in February 2022 just to see how it is.
We stayed in West Yellowstone and had a blast here. One of the days, I decided to look for a job, just to see who was hiring and what they were willing to pay. I googled a couple of granite spots and a company was hiring in Bozeman. I went in for an interview. They asked me, "What will it take for you to move up here?"
They were willing to pay me my $89,000 a year salary plus moving costs, plus a deposit on the place we rented.
From March to April, within a month, I got the job, we rented the house, and we packed up and moved here.
Aerial View of Downtown Bozeman, Montana in Summer
Jacob Boomsma/Getty Images
The culture shock has mostly been good
Moving up here was a little bit of a culture shock, but more in a good way.
People are a lot nicer up here. I'm Mexican American, my wife is white, and no one says anything racist or out of pocket to us. I was super worried about that. A gentleman the other day opened the door for me at the gas station. He was wearing a MAGA hat.
Montana is not what people think. There's a huge diversity. I equate Bozeman to Berkeley.
I tell people I'm from California and they say "boo" at first, but it's more of a tit-for-tat. They make fun of me, I make fun of them, and we still get along.
One not good culture shock has been the younger generation. It's a college town, and they're not as friendly as my generation is or the generation before me.
Here in the Gallatin Valley where we live now, which includes Bozeman, the housing market is ridiculous. There's a huge shortage of housing and everything is really expensive.
We thought we were going to be able to come in here and buy property. Or buy a ranch with some land and have animals. Nope. There's a reason why they call it Boz Angeles. But renting you do get more bang for your buck up here.
While it was very competitive in California, there's a lot of demand for the trades up here, but nobody up here really wants to learn the trades. The young kids coming into the trades don't know jack diddly and they expect everything to be handed to them and not work hard.
Scenic View Of Snowcapped Mountains Against Sky, Bozeman, United States
Gordon Calhoun/Getty Images
Not all Montana transplants are the same
One thing that native Montanans don't like is that a lot of people that live here in the Gallatin Valley are from out of state, not only from California, but from Washington, New York, Texas, you name any state, they're here.
I've seen both types of transplants. The ones that got out of California because they couldn't afford it, and the ones that have that expendable money.
That's where the problem lies. The people that move in and buy up the properties, drive up the cost for the locals, and who don't really need to work or contribute to the economy here. A lot work in tech or finance, and there's no need for them to work locally. They can work from home remotely.
But a lot of people moving up here from California are not your techies or your white collar people. It's people like me, who work in the trades.
We're just regular people, just like you guys. We got priced out of our own native place.
You do have your trust fund babies from back east and your techies from the West Coast, but the bulk of us are escaping that chokehold. Just to still chase the American dream.
I think we are more happy here than we would've been in California, even though we miss it. We do miss our friends, the diversity, and everything that California has to offer.
But living there 24/7 kind of overwhelmed us. The lifestyle was always hurry up and go. Here we work, but there's so much natural beauty around you. We're in the valley surrounded by mountains.
On my way home after an 11-hour day, looking at the beautiful mountains and the meadows and the streams and the rivers and the snow-capped Bridgers, how can you be angry? It's just so soothing.
The property, which is in Northamptonshire, England, is a former parish church that dates back in parts to the 14th century.
The Grade II* listed building became disused in the 1950s, but the local community in the small village of Clay Coton — with backing from Buckingham Palace — rallied together to save the building, Jonathan Lloyd-Ham from the real-estate firm Fine & Country told Business Insider.
While some may be put off by the slightly eerie sight of a graveyard outside their front window, some studies have suggested that living near such a feature could mean more affordable house prices.
According to research by Realtor.com, the median price of homes in neighborhoods with a cemetery is roughly 12% lower than that of similar properties in areas without a graveyard.
Family members may need to visit the graves
The interior.
Fine & Country
"St Andrews Church" was converted into a four-bedroom home around 2000 and includes many period features, such as vaulted ceilings and stone windows.
"The church retains many interesting original features with mullioned stone windows," Lloyd-Ham told BI. "But I think my favorite has to be the stunning rose window in the main bedroom."
The house also offers stables, a triple garage, and around 1.9 acres of land — including the adjoining graveyard.
The new owner would need to allow family members to visit graves on the site, but Lloyd-Ham said this happens very rarely.
He added that the graveyard has a "lovely peaceful feel."
A view of the house with part of the graveyard.
Fine & Country
While it may be one of the country's more unusual properties, it's not the only home on the UK real-estate market offering such a view.
A destroyed Russian tank in Bucha, Ukraine, in 2022.
Nils Petter Nilsson/Getty Images
Russia is believed to have lost more than 450,000 soldiers during the war in Ukraine.
Some Ukrainian strikes have killed scores of Russian troops with a single blow.
Russia and Ukraine are both secretive about death tolls and their estimates usually widely differ.
More than two years on, the war in Ukraine has been brutal and costly for both sides, particularly for invading Russian forces.
The UK Defense Ministry said on April 27, 2024, that it estimated 450,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the start of the conflict.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine have ever confirmed the numbers of their losses.
Reports claimed Russia was hemorrhaging men and weapons in its attempts to capture Avdiivka, a strategic town in eastern Ukraine and a gateway to Russia-occupied Ukraine. The town fell to Russian occupation in February.
Now fighting wages on in the surrounding areas such as Chasiv Yar. Russia continues to have the upper hand, but Ukraine is holding out hope that newly approved US aid will reach its front lines sooner rather than later.
Despite high Russian losses, the country's population is about three times the size of Ukraine's — a large pool from which Russia could keep replenishing its ranks. In April, Zelenskyy claimed Russia was preparing to mobilize a further 300,000 troops by June, though the Kremlin denied this.
Russians typically outnumber Ukrainians on the battlefield by a ratio of almost three to one, The New York Times reported, but Ukraine has used weapons such as the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and Western cruise missiles to inflict high casualties on Russian troops.
These are believed to be some of the deadliest single moments for Russia in the conflict so far.
Ukraine wiped out 100 Russian troops at once with US ATACMS
An Army Tactical Missile System during live-fire testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on December 14, 2021
White Sands Missile Range/John Hamilton
Ukrainian forces launched an ATACMS long-range missile strike on a Russian military training area some 50 miles behind the front line in occupied Luhansk.
The attack killed more than 100 Russian soldiers in one fell swoop, according to OSINT and military analysts.
According to a post on May 1, 2024, by Osinttechnical, associated with the US-based Centre for Naval Analyses, Ukraine appeared to strike the training area with three US-supplied M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.
Aerial geolocated videos indicated that one of the missiles struck a gathering of more than 100 Russian soldiers, with hundreds of M74 APAM bomblets falling on them, Osinttechnical wrote.
GeoConfirmed, a project specializing in open-source geolocation, reported that four ATACMS missiles were employed in the attack, though the first was a "dud." The strike targeted the village of Rohove in Luhansk. Footage shared by one of its volunteers suggested that the strikes occurred within a minute.
Ukraine hit a company of Russian troops with HIMARS while they waited around for a visiting general
Ukrainian soldiers watch a rocket fire from a HIMARS launcher on May 18, 2023 in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
Photo by Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
In February 2024, a Ukrainian HIMARS strike wiped out at least 60 Russian troops who were gathered en masse in an open field this week as they flouted a key wartime rule that Russia has repeatedly ignored throughout the war, according to reports and video footage.
The Russian battalion congregated at a training area near the village of Trudovske in occupied eastern Ukraine when the two missiles struck, The BBC reported.
Sources familiar with the incident told the outlet that the soldiers were gathered to await the arrival of a senior commander.
Ukraine was criticized in November following a similar scenario in which 19 soldiers were killed by Russian missiles at an open-air awards ceremony near the frontline.
A strike on Kherson 14 miles behind the front line
Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions from a US-supplied M777 howitzer in the Kherson oblast, Ukraine, in January.
AP Photo/Libkos
Ukrainian forces likely took out more than 70 Russian soldiers in a strike on the village of Hladkivka in the Kherson oblast on November 10, 2023, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
The attack, which targeted a convoy of trucks, likely took place 14 miles behind the front lines, highlighting Ukraine's long-range precision-strike capabilities.
Russia's warship Novocherkassk — part of its Black Sea Fleet — was hit in a Ukrainian attack
The Russian landing ship Novocherkassk, seen here in 2015, was damaged in a Ukrainian airstrike, Russian officials confirmed.
Reuters
On December 26, 2023, images of a massive explosion went viral on social media of the Russian navy's stricken landing ship Novocherkassk.
A Telegram channel, the independent Russian media outlet Astra, reported there were 77 sailors aboard the Novocherkassk at the time of the Ukrainian strike on a dock in Feodosia in annexed Crimea, and 33 were reported missing and 19 injured.
Russians killed while training on Dzharylhach island
Footage uploaded by Ukraine of a HIMARS strike on a sandbar.
Screenshot/National Resistance Center
Ukraine released a video that claimed to show Russian soldiers being struck by HIMARS as they trained at Dzharylhach island, a 26-mile-long sandbank in the Black Sea that's part of the Russian-occupied Kherson oblast.
Ukraine said that the attack caused 200 casualties. The number could not be independently verified.
The drone footage from August 2023 shows soldiers appearing to stretch and exercise on the Ukrainian island's sandy shores before being hit from above.
Strike during a commander’s speech in Kreminna
A M142 HIMARS launches a rocket in the direction of Bakhmut on May 18 in Donetsk oblast, Ukraine.
Photo by Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukraine's HIMARS reportedly struck a large gathering of Russian soldiers in the city of Kreminna as they stood for two hours to watch a commander's speech in July 2023.
Some reports put the number of dead as high as 100 and total casualties as high as 200. The numbers could not be independently verified.
An unnamed Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Post that it was a "funny situation" because the Russian soldiers had made themselves sitting ducks.
The aftermath of the strike in Makiivka on January 3.
REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
While Russian officials have largely not acknowledged losses, Russia's defense ministry made a rare announcement confirming the deaths of 89 troops in a strike in Makiivka, a small city in Ukraine's Donetsk oblast.
Ukrainian officials claimed that the casualties were much higher, with around 400 soldiers killed and 300 injured. The figures could not be independently verified.
Ukraine said it used HIMARS for the attack, and the Russian ministry said Ukraine fired six rockets, four of which struck their troops, the ISW reported.
The attack sparked widespread criticism of Russian military leadership, ISW reported. A senior Russian military official, Sergei Sevryukov, blamed the high number of casualties on soldiers' use of cell phones without providing evidence, The Guardian reported.
A Russian battalion’s failed crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River
A bridge across the Siverskyi Donets River lies broken, blown up by Ukrainian forces in spring 2022 to slow a Russian advance, on April 23.
Scott Peterson/Getty Images
Ukrainian forces decimated a Russian battalion as it tried to cross the Siverskyi Donets River in northeastern Ukraine in May 2022.
Ukrainian artillery destroyed several Russian pontoon bridges, and estimates put the toll of dead or wounded Russians at around 485, according to the Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, based on analyses of publicly available imagery.
They estimated that over 80 pieces of equipment could have been destroyed.
Media reports said that Ukraine used M777 howitzers to strike the battalion.
Russian milbloggers responded to the incident with shock and began commenting on the incompetence of the Russian military, the ISW reported.
The sinking of the missile cruiser Moskva
The Russian missile cruiser Moskva in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Syria in 2015.
MAX DELANY/AFP via Getty Images
Just two months into Russia's unprovoked invasion, Ukraine scored an early success by sinking the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet.
On April 14, 2022, Ukrainian officials said their forces had struck the ship with at least one Neptune missile, which the Pentagon confirmed.
Ukraine claimed that almost all 500 sailors on board had perished, while Russia said that nearly all had evacuated before the ship sank.
Later, Russia admitted under pressure that one sailor had died and that 27 were missing, but said the rest had been evacuated.
But several family members of Moskva sailors told the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that at least 40 on board had died.