Category: Business

• I moved from Venezuela to the US two years ago. 
• I miss Venezuela a lot, but the US has taught me many valuable lessons. 
• Moving to Vermont made me appreciate the changing of the seasons in a way I hadn't before. 

As an immigrant who moved from Venezuela to the US less than two years ago, longing has become a constant part of my daily life. After college, I had to leave my country for personal reasons, not to mention the political and economic instability there.

The decision was not easy; it meant leaving behind my family, friends, and the culture that shaped me.

I deeply miss Venezuela — the warmth of my grandparents' home every Sunday, the streets filled with people I know, and the community I simply felt part of. This move has highlighted the cultural differences between my home and my new environment, reminding me of the memories that keep me connected to my country.

It's all so different here — but these are the biggest differences between Venezuela and Vermont.

I learned to appreciate the weather

Due to my limited travel experiences, I didn't know the privilege of having sunshine slip through my window every morning until I moved to Vermont in an autumn week. I was born in Los Llanos, a region in Venezuela known for its grasslands and ranches, rich folklore, and sunny climate. Even during the rainy season, the days are generally hot with only brief interruptions of heavy downpours — that was my winter.

I went to a more urban town to attend college, surrounded by mountains, buildings, and universities. However, even in the city, the weather remained stable, with a light breeze and plenty of sunshine. The climate was still nothing compared to the cold and snowy winters of Vermont.

I learned to appreciate the changing fall leaves and prepared myself with thicker knit sweaters in advance, but adjusting my body and mind to this weather is a work in progress. I like to think about how seasons represent a much-needed change in life every few months. It's nice to structure the year knowing you can only sled around Christmas, and the beach only looks inviting during a hot July weekend.

I have more career opportunities in the US

I was impressed by the range of career opportunities available and the freedom to explore different industries. In Venezuela, I had the expectation to follow a linear career trajectory, I felt pressured to stick to my planned career path and become a clinical psychologist, and deviating from that path felt like I'd be failing my plan.

Living in Vermont has allowed me to reconsider my professional goals. Here, I've discovered opportunities in fields I had never thought of before, such as my current role in a local B2B SaaS company.

I used to hold myself to high standards, believing that success meant sticking to a single, well-defined career. However, embracing a more flexible perspective has helped me to seek out workplaces that align with my values, and it has made my professional journey much more fulfilling.

It's been hard to make friends here

In Venezuela, I was part of a community where I truly felt I belonged, even as a shy girl. From my family in my small town to my friends in college, I was familiar with my surroundings and the cultural norms that were part of my identity. Social bonds were a regular and easy part of my life, providing inclusion and support.

Here in the US, I've had to build connections in different ways, appreciating the independence that characterizes the community. Making friends wasn't as easy as meeting a friend of a friend. Instead, I've turned to Facebook groups and Bumble BFF, besides work, to get to know people.

While I've had my ups and downs, this experience has made me more empathetic toward others experiencing similar feelings of displacement.

I'm more independent now

Moving to the US introduced me to a culture that highlights independence and self-reliance, whereas in my small town, nuclear families were the norm. This shift required me to rethink my understanding of support and connection. It still feels isolating not to have the same level of familial involvement in daily decisions and activities here in the US.

Over time, I've come to value the empowerment of autonomy. Yet, this doesn't mean disconnecting from my roots. Instead, it means maintaining regular communication with my family, seeking their advice and emotional support while also making my own decisions and navigating my life independently.

Adapting to a new culture requires constant self-evaluation. Slowly but surely, I've become more patient with myself and more appreciative of the small victories along the way.

• Sam Dogen retired from his VP role at Credit Suisse in 2012 after over a decade of intense saving. 
• He planned to live of the passive income from his investments in stocks and real estate. 
• After having two children, Dogen is looking to work again to meet his family's financial needs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sam Dogen, a 46-year-old in San Francisco. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Even as a child, I knew I didn't want to be poor. I'd lived in five countries before settling in Virginia, USA, and saw the clear dichotomy between the wealthy and the poor. I wanted to understand how people made money so I could live like the rich.

I studied economics at the College of William and Mary in Virginia because it was the cheapest option.

After graduation, I landed a job as a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs on Wall Street in 1999.

My first day in the office lasted 14 hours. The first month was tiresome and stressful, and I realized I wouldn't last another 40 years on Wall Street.

I was making $40,000 a year in twice-monthly payments. If I invested 50% of my income for 20 years, I would save at least 20 years of living expenses. I could work until 42, then live on 5 to 8% of my savings, stocks, and potential real estate income each year to get to 62. I'd be set for life.

It was easy to save money because I was working so much

I started saving only a month after starting at Goldman Sachs. Every month, I invested half my paycheck into the S&P 500, a smattering of random tech stock, and 5% of that half into a general savings account.

After being advised by someone in our HR department, I maxed out my 401(k). The fewer taxes I had to pay, the better for my savings goals, and there was a 401(k) match at my company.

I was able to save so much because I was very frugal. For the first two years at Goldman Sachs, I lived in a studio apartment in Manhattan, paying $700 monthly rent.

One of the perks of working past 7 p.m. was that you could go into the free cafeteria. I would eat dinner there and bring home leftovers for the next day. I also stuck to a spending budget for myself.

It was a plan born out of misery. I was working 60-plus hours a week, every week.

A promotion and move to San Francisco got me on the property ladder

In June 2001, I was recruited to join Credit Suisse and moved to San Francisco. My base salary jumped to $85,000. Now I was making more, I saved 60% of each paycheck, putting money into long-term CDs, which are savings accounts with a high fixed interest rate that you can't withdraw money for a fixed period.

In 2003, at age 26, I decided to buy a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco using the money I had earned and saved from 1999 to 2003.

My goal was to diversify my wealth away from equities into real estate. I used 80% of my savings and liquid investments to put a 25% down payment on a condo. I lived there with my then-girlfriend, who helped pay for some expenses.

By 27, I was promoted to vice president at Credit Suisse, and my income jumped to six figures plus larger potential bonuses. I saved and invested around 70% of my after-tax income in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2005, I bought a house for $1,520,000 in San Francisco and rented my condo until I sold it in 2017. I had used up all my savings and investments to buy the house. It was a huge risk.

The 2009 crash slashed my net worth but launched my blogging career

I continued my saving plan until the housing and stock markets crashed in 2009. I didn't get laid off in the crash, but I did lose between 35 and 40% of my net worth in six months when stocks and real estate prices cratered.

I started my blog, Financial Samurai, in 2009 to heal. The more I wrote, the better I felt because I had connected with other people going through the same fears on the road to financial independence.

In October 2011, at 34, I was making a $250,000 base salary. Credit Suisse had undergone several layoffs during the global financial crisis. I spoke with my HR manager, who said more layoffs were coming. This was my exit to early retirement. I talked to my manager and asked him to consider laying me off with a severance package and deferred compensation if I stayed on to train my junior employee.

By April 2012, I was laid off and received the severance package I'd negotiated. It felt scary, but also like I had won the lottery. The severance covered multiple years of my projected living expenses.

Retiring at 34

I retired at 34 with a net worth was around $2.5 million after saving and investing 50 to 75% of my income for 12 years. I made around $80,000 of passive income from rent, stock dividends, and CD income a year. I continued to save 50% of my income and live on $40,000.

In my final year at work, I'd been saving even more of my income, around 80%, so the adjustment to living off less wasn't huge. It was outweighed by the increased freedom I had. After I retired, I realized I didn't need as much money as I'd thought to be happy.

In 2015, my wife also retired. She's three years younger than me, and we planned for her to retire by 35.

Once she left, we had to pay for full healthcare benefits. It cost us around $1,680 monthly in healthcare premiums because we didn't qualify for subsidies.

Having kids took up a lot of our passive income budget

Once our son was born in 2017, we began spending more of our passive income. We spent even more of our passive income when our daughter was born in 2019. We now pay $2,500 monthly for unsubsidized healthcare premiums for a family of four. Preschool for each child was as much as $3,200 a month. We are spending nearly 100% of our passive income now.

I believe I've failed early retirement. Despite lasting 12 years without a job, I recognize I need to save and earn more to generate more passive income. I didn't anticipate having two kids after trying so long for one.

When we retired, my wife and I were looking forward to living off less than $100,000 a year in early retirement. But our annual expenses are over $250,000 a year. We chose to have two kids and to remain in expensive San Francisco. As a result, we must pay the price accordingly.

I want to get into part-time tech consulting

I promised to be a stay-at-home father until my children were in school full time. My second child is starting school in September, so I am considering returning to work part-time.

I'd like to do part-time consulting for a tech startup in San Francisco, where there is a lot of buzz around tech and AI.

In retrospect, retiring at age 34 was too early. If I could retire again, I would have tried to stick it out until age 40. But I'm not sure if my health would have cooperated or if we would have been able to have children if I did. I was very stressed at work.

My challenge now is finding meaningful part-time work. I tried consulting part-time at a fintech startup earlier this year, but it became all-consuming and interfered with my duty as a father. At least I know better what to look for this fall when my daughter begins school full-time.

• Airlines take into account safety and cost when deciding how to divert flights.
• British Airways typically sends flights back to London when possible, making repairs and rerouting easier.
• American Airlines has an automated tool called HEAT that helps it make calls on where to divert.

Plane diversions can be a nuisance for passengers and costly for airlines, especially if they end up back where they started in a so-called flight to nowhere.

On Monday, a British Airways flight destined for Houston made it across the Atlantic Ocean before turning back over the coast of Newfoundland, resulting in a nine-hour flight to nowhere.

An airline spokesperson said the diversion was "a precaution due to a minor technical issue."

The Boeing 787 returned to London Heathrow, where BA has maintenance facilities. In fact, returning to London is a relatively common practice in such situations for the UK flag carrier: it would be cheaper and easier to rearrange replacement flights for customers as well as repair any issues.

For European carriers, a flight to nowhere is likely preferable to the situation involving an Air France jet last month. A burning smell in the cabin prompted an emergency landing in Canada's far north — causing a different flight to be canceled so that plane could rescue the passengers. It took them to New York, where they again had to be re-routed to Seattle, the intended destination.

Diversions usually occur due to safety issues.

Last month, a United Airlines flight from Switzerland to Chicago turned around over the Atlantic before landing in Ireland, after a passenger's laptop got stuck in their seat.

This posed a safety risk due to the potential for a lithium battery fire. Travelers are told to pack electronic devices in their carry-on instead of in the hold so that the crew can notice if it catches fire. If a fire happened over the ocean, there would be nowhere convenient to land.

The laptop was removed and the plane took off the following day. The delay in the second flight — more than 24 hours later — was due to the flight crew reaching their maximum time on the clock.

Pilots also typically land at the nearest airport in cases of medical issues and unruly passengers, due to the urgency required.

However, when it comes to bad weather, it isn't always a clear decision between returning to the original aiport or landing at an alternative airport. Such confusion was seen during a storm in January when a Ryanair flight between Ireland and Scotland landed 540 miles away in Germany.

Some carriers have their own automated software that helps in these situations. In 2023, American Airlines launched its tool, the "Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool," or HEAT, to help dispatchers, coordinators, and other employees make decisions.

It considers when a crew member exceeds their regulated duty period, which flights have the greatest number of connecting passengers, and how many top-tier loyalty customers are flying.

In short, decisions about diversions are made on a case-by-case basis. From bad weather to technical issues, the cost of rerouting passengers is often at the forefront except in an emergency.

• Tesla says Optimus is working on its factory floor.
• The company said in an X post that two of the humanoid robots had been deployed in a factory.
• Elon Musk has called Optimus Tesla's most valuable product, but it's still got a long way to go.

It sounds like Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, may finally be helping to build the company's cars.

In a rundown on X of what the company has achieved since 2018 ahead of the shareholder vote on Elon Musk's multi-billion dollar pay package, Tesla said it had deployed two Optimus robots "performing tasks in the factory autonomously."

It is unclear which factory the robots are operating in or what tasks they are completing.

Business Insider contacted Tesla for confirmation but didn't immediately hear back.

In Tesla's most recent earnings call in April, Musk said Optimus would be able to perform factory roles by the end of the year, and could go on sale by the end of 2025.

Musk has made some grand predictions about Tesla's AI-powered humanoid, suggesting in the same earnings call that Optimus was more valuable than anything else Tesla is doing.

Musk told shareholders that once the "sentient humanoid robot" was a reality, there would be "no meaningful limit to the size of the economy."

Optimus has come a long way from a man in a robot suit, but still falls short of Musk's vision.

Tesla has released a series of videos showing the humanoid robot doing the squats, picking up an egg, and folding a shirt — although Musk later clarified that Optimus wasn't capable of doing the latter autonomously.

The billionaire faces competition in his mission to staff his factories with an army of automatons.

Tesla rival BMW signed a deal with robotics startup Figure in January that will see its robots deployed in the carmaker's South Carolina factory.

China's EV builders, which Elon Musk has identified as Tesla's greatest threat, are also experimenting with the technology.

Dongfeng Motors recently struck a deal with Chinese robotics firm Ubtech to deploy its robots on production lines. Nio has also piloted the use of Ubtech's "Walker S" humanoid robot.

• The EU has imposed tariffs of up to 38.1% on Chinese EVs. 
• Joe Biden also launched a crackdown on Chinese EVs last month, hitting them with a 100% tax.
• Trade barriers come amid fears a wave of cheap Chinese brands could take over Western markets. 

The EU is cracking down on China's EV companies.

The bloc will impose tariffs as high as 38.1% on EVs imported from China to Europe from next month, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

Tesla rivals BYD will face a tariff of 17.4%, Geely 20%, and SAIC Motor 38.1%. The EU previously had a 10% duty on imported EVs.

The European Commission launched an investigation into Chinese EVs last October, examining whether state subsidies in China were keeping the price of their electric vehicles artificially low.

Its conclusion comes after Joe Biden announced a sweeping set of tariffs in May on $18 billion worth of Chinese goods, including a 100% tax on Chinese vehicles.

Chinese-branded EVs have almost no presence in the US, thanks to existing trade barriers.

But in Europe, they have been making steady inroads, with Tesla rival BYD building a factory in Hungary and startups Nio and Xpeng releasing models in several European countries.

Chinese brands rose from under 1% of Europe's EV market in 2019 to 8% in 2023, according to the European Commission, and are expected to hit 15% by 2025.

Despite the crackdown, Philip Nothard, insight and strategy director at automotive services company Cox Automotive told Business Insider that the measures will not be enough to keep Chinese EV companies at bay in Europe.

"Even with tariffs, it's not going to slow the growth down," Nothard said.

"If you look at companies like BYD, they have a highly efficient manufacturing supply chain. That makes them extremely agile when it comes to changing products for different marketplaces," he added, suggesting that Chinese companies could adjust their growth plans to keep prices low even with new tariffs.

The trade barriers will also raise fears that China might retaliate with import duties of its own.

Chinese officials have hinted that the Asian superpower could impose taxes as high as 25% on imported cars in response to European and US tariffs.

Abercrombie & Fitch long had a certain, shall we say, reputation. Its employees were hot, its stores reeked of cologne, and unless you were rich and thin, it was not for you. If it's any solace, the company was not really for Wall Street, either; its stock has been languishing over the past decade or so. But that's all changing. While you were sleeping, Abercrombie got good again.

In a day and age where fads are cycling through faster than ever and many brands are struggling to survive, Abercrombie has executed a remarkable turnaround. The business intelligence firm Morning Consult found that Abercrombie's favorability among millennials reached a record high in the first quarter of 2024, and it's making gains with Gen Zers, too. Data from QuestBrand, a brand-management tool, indicates Abercrombie's brand equity — meaning the value consumers see in a brand — has steadily improved over the past couple of years; young adults familiar with the brand were more likely to describe it as "hip," a "good value," and "stylish" in 2023 than they were in 2021. Investors are eating it up: Abercrombie's stock a year ago, your returns would be better than that of almost any other stock, including the Wall Street darling Nvidia. It's evidence that revivals are possible, albeit difficult, with the right execution.

"They reinvented themselves, and it worked," said Janet Joseph Kloppenburg, the president of JJK Research Associates. "Can you and I think of another apparel retailer who literally reinvented themselves and then went to the moon with sales and earnings? It's crazy."

Abercrombie & Fitch has been around since the end of the 19th century, but if you're reading this story, chances are you remember the late-20th-century and early-21st-century versions of the brand. It was all the rage, known for low-rise jeans, shirtless men, and dimly lit stores that all but the most confident (or just obnoxious) customers would feel awkward walking into. It had its fair share of controversies, including allegations of racism and discrimination. Eventually, like a lot of once hot brands, be it Urban Outfitters or Von Dutch, it fell out of favor. (If you're a Gen Zer and do not know about The Thing that was Abercrombie, bless you, and also, there's a Netflix documentary that can help.) When its longtime CEO exited the company at the end of 2014, its sales had declined for 11 consecutive quarters.

Can you and I think of another apparel retailer who literally reinvented themselves and then went to the moon with sales and earnings? It's crazy.

The retail veteran Fran Horowitz was named CEO in 2017, and under new leadership, Abercrombie has turned things around. The company, which also owns the Hollister brand, reported net sales of $1 billion in the first quarter, a 22% jump from the year before, and it expects net sales growth of about 10% for the year. In turn, investors have fallen for Abercrombie. A year ago, the stock was trading at about $32. Now it's above $180. Abercrombie's shares are up nearly 100% this year alone.

"It's a big momentum play at this point," said Zachary Warring, an equity research analyst at CFRA Research.

As Horowitz has pointed out on earnings calls, there's no "silver bullet" for Abercrombie's performance — it's been plugging along executing a playbook it set a few years ago. Abercrombie 2.0, or whatever you'd like to call it, is more inclusive and welcoming. It's not for the scariest teens in your high school anymore but instead for adults in their 20s and 30s who want to look good and feel good and not have to think too hard about it. Abercrombie doesn't want to be "super trendy," a fashion analyst told Fast Company — it wants to do classic silhouettes in classic colors, though it tosses in some prints and ruffles, too.

The company has carefully mapped out what it thinks its customers want when they're at the gym, at work, at happy hour, at a bachelorette party, on vacation, or wherever they'd be during a long weekend. It recently launched a weddings section, which has selections for guests and brides, for honeymoons and rehearsal dinners and receptions. Abercrombie has found success particularly with young women, though it's on the up and up with men, too.

"They are living their best lives," Horowitz told Women's Wear Daily last year. "There's nothing better than being a young millennial. They live for the long weekend."

It wasn't just that the product was good in and of itself.

Kloppenburg said Abercrombie's success had come not just from changing up the look — clothes for all occasions, at a good price point — but from the company's execution, which has included focusing on smaller stores and running a lean inventory.

"They were astute with inventory planning, with store payroll — and wages are up everywhere — with digital investments," she said. "So it wasn't just that the product was good in and of itself."

And since any rebrand is only as good as the number of people who know about it, Abercrombie has embraced social-media platforms such as TikTok and influencer marketing.

"They sell a lot of their products through affiliates on social media, and that's how they do a lot of their marketing now, which I don't know how much you pay attention to that, but in terms of apparel and retail companies, they're probably the best at it," Warring said. "They've really benefited from influencers taking their products, trying it on, and obviously posting the link with it."

Ali Grant, a partner and the chief marketing officer at the Digital Dept., an influencer-management company, told me that compared with other brands, Abercrombie tended to be less demanding about specific scripts for creators and to work with creators beyond "fashion girlies" to reach a broader set of consumers.

"They really allow for creative exploration and direction from the content creator they've hired, which is really rare," she said. "They've made it more loose and more authentic and real, for lack of better words."

As opposed to the Abercrombie of 20 years ago, whose logos screamed A&F, the modern Abercrombie is muted. An influencer may be shilling for Abercrombie, but it feels much more item-forward than brand-forward. The point in the early 2000s was the name; now it's much more the clothes.

There's no guarantee Abercrombie will be on top forever. American Eagle and Gap are starting to pull pages from the same playbook. (It's worth noting that not everything Abercrombie is doing is entirely original, and some of its pants look a lot like Aritzia's.) It looks as if Gap, which includes the brands Banana Republic and Old Navy, is starting to turn itself around and get cool again, too. Kloppenburg pointed out that Abercrombie's operating margins were quite high, and if they decline or if the company starts having to discount more, that could spook investors.

"They're selling a lot of products at full price and full margin. And they make a few mistakes, and those margins start coming down," she said. "So when that happens, the stock will collapse."

Still, Abercrombie has pulled off something unique. Its customers are loving it, and so are investors.

"It's a very sound fundamental story as well right now, and it'll be interesting to see over the next 12 to 18 months," Warring said.

So maybe you don't have to be some flashy tech company to get Wall Street excited, nor do you have to be some elusive brand that makes people feel excluded to be successful. It's neat to see this kind of success story, where smart work and strong execution just … pays off.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

• Data offers a glimpse at the ages, races, and financial statuses of LGBTQ+ Americans.
• DC, Vermont, and Massachusetts have the highest concentrations of same-sex couple households.
• Historically, limited LGBTQ+ data collection has made it hard to identify the community's demographics.

It's pride month in the US, but data shows that gay people exist year-round.

Two key data sources from the Census Bureau offer a snapshot of the LGBTQ+ community in America. Beginning in July 2021, the Household Pulse Survey, which gauges the economic well-being of Americans in the wake of the pandemic, started collecting information on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Meanwhile, the Bureau's annual American Community Survey collects income, age, race, housing, and other demographic data for married and unmarried same-sex couples, although it has not collected data directly on sexual orientation or same-sex couples living in different households.

Data collection on the LGBTQ+ community has been historically limited — which can, in turn, lead to further marginalization. A 2023 Brookings report found that up to 17.3 million adults are not identified as LGBTQ+ in the American Community Survey due to incomplete questions surrounding their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) will pilot asking about sexual orientation and gender identity, potentially resulting in a trove of high-quality data on who in America is gay. But with the available data, here's what we know about the LGBTQ+ community in America.

DC, Vermont, and Massachusetts have the highest concentrations of gay couples

According to Business Insider's analysis of individual-level Household Pulse Survey data from April 2024, around 3% of the population identifies as gay or lesbian. A greater share — about 5% — identifies as bisexual. And around 0.4% of Americans identify as transgender.

Around 1.7% of those who identify as gay or lesbian also identify as transgender. Around a third of gay and lesbian adults are married, per HPS, compared to around 58% of straight adults.

ACS data from 2022 shows that Washington, DC, has the highest percentage of same-sex couple households, at 3.6%. Vermont has the next highest, at 1.8%, followed by Massachusetts at 1.5%. California has the highest number of same-sex households, at over 162,100, followed by Texas at over 107,200.

The average age of the householder of a married same-sex couple is 48.6, compared to 52.9 for married opposite-sex couples. Among opposite same-sex couples, about a third are between 25 and 44, while it's 42% for married same-sex couples. The age distributions were mostly similar for unmarried opposite- and same-sex couples.

Same-sex couples are much more likely to be interracial than opposite-sex couples — 32.2% of same-sex couples are interracial, compared to 18.6% of married opposite-sex couples and 28.6% of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

Same-sex couples are also more likely to have bachelor's degrees. Overall, 54.8% of same-sex householders have a bachelor's degree, while both partners have degrees 35.7% of the time. For married same-sex couples, these values jump to 57.3% and 38.2% respectively. Meanwhile, these values are 44.5% and 28.6%, respectively, for married opposite-sex couples.

Gay Americans are more likely to rent and earn more than straight families

According to ACS data, the majority of same-sex couples make six figures, and the median household income for this demographic is $110,600. For married same-sex couples, this number jumps to $123,500, compared to $109,700 for married opposite-sex couples. Married male-male couples earn a median of $138,700 a year, while married female-female couples earn $111,100 a year. By contrast, unmarried same-sex couples make $94,650 a year.

Business Insider's analysis of individual-level data from the Household Pulse Survey shows the shares of gay and lesbian Americans in different income brackets. Around 9% of gay and lesbian respondents report earning under $25,000 while 10% said they earned over $200,000.

About 62.6% of same-sex couples own their homes, while 37.4% rent. About 72.7% of married same-sex couples own, compared to 81.9% of married opposite-sex couples. Married male-male couples are slightly more likely to own homes than married female-female couples. Unmarried same-sex couples own just 48.7% of the time, slightly above 47.9% of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

According to Household Pulse Survey data, around 15% of LGBTQ+ Americans own homes outright, while around 35% own with a mortgage or loan.

In nearly two-thirds of same-sex couples, both partners are working, though this drops to 61.9% for married same-sex couples. However, same-sex couples are significantly less likely to have children in the household at just 14.6%, compared to 38.1% of married opposite-sex couples and 34.5% of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

And, as more data emerges about who in the US is gay, the LGBTQ+ population is also getting bigger — underscoring the importance of capturing who, exactly, makes up this growing group. Recent Gallup polling shows that around 7.6% of American adults identify as non-heterosexual, up from 3.5% in 2012.

You can chalk some of that up to the youths — just over 22% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+, suggesting that gay Americans could become an even bigger force in the not-so-distant future.

• As a parent with a demanding job, neurosurgeon Betsy Grunch is sometimes saddled with mom guilt. 
• Missing out on family plans because of work has made her feel like she's let her kids down.
• Grunch has had to take steps to prioritize time at home, including hiring more help at work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Dr. Betsy Grunch, a neurosurgeon from Georgia, about how she balances her job with being a parent. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

As a neurosurgeon, I work an average of 50 to 60 hours a week. I'm also a mom of two: my son is 9, and my daughter is 6.

I consider myself a kind, loving, and supportive mom. I'm very hands-on with my kids, but due to the nature and hours of my job, I sometimes miss out on certain events in their lives, like baseball games, which can make me feel like I've let them down.

Earlier in my career, I would worry that taking time off would affect my income, so I'd work more than I needed to. I wasn't home as much when my kids were little, and I wasn't as good at balancing my responsibilities.

Over the years, I've learned to prioritize my work-life balance and have made specific changes at home and work, accepting that I can't do everything all at once.

My husband and I decided I'd work, and he'd stay home

I met my husband Ray when I was a neurosurgical resident. We got married in my fifth year and moved from North Carolina to Georgia after I completed my residency to start my practice. Our first child was born in 2015.

Even before I got pregnant, my husband wasn't working that much and did a lot of the chores at home, so we knew he'd mostly be the one to stay home with the kids. We agreed on this arrangement and decided to hire a nanny while the kids were little. We wouldn't be doing things the traditional way, with the woman staying at home.

Ray and I are a team. He does most of the chores except washing dishes and folding laundry, which I take on. We hire people to help with yard work and a cleaner who comes twice a month, but Ray does other household jobs like paying bills and handyman and car stuff.

We split childcare responsibilities. I try to get up at 6 a.m. and work out for 30 to 45 minutes. I get the kids up at 7 a.m. and take them to school so I can be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m.

Ray picks them up and makes sure they do their homework. He usually takes them to any after-school activities. I try to be home by 5 or 6 p.m., and Ray and I share dinner-making responsibilities and putting the kids to bed.

In the evening, we both have some time to ourselves. I usually use this time to reply to emails, do chores, and work on content, as I'm also a content creator.

Ray does occasional work as a private investigator, and when he isn't around, we'll have a nanny or my cousin look after the kids.

I work one out of every five weekends. We try to spend quality time with our kids and go on family vacations at least a couple of times a year.

Missing out on time with my kids has made me feel guilty

Neurosurgery is a male-dominated field. I've had colleagues, teachers, and classmates question my ambition and ability to juggle a family and this job.

Trying to balance work with life can be challenging, and moms often let themselves feel guilty: If we spend too much time at home, we have work guilt, and if we spend too much time at work, we have mom guilt.

My job is very rewarding, but it's also stressful and physically and mentally demanding. I have very ill patients and sometimes have to make high-level decisions. Cases can take 30 minutes or eight hours to manage, and I'm not often sure when I'll be done for the day. It could be 4:30 p.m. or midnight.

I try to get home for around 6 p.m., but it's never predictable. If I know there's no way I'll be home for dinner, I'll text Ray to let him know so he can plan to spend the evening with the kids as he desires.

When I'm on call for my job, I'm not required to be at the hospital, but I have to be prepared to respond and go there if need be. In that case, Ray would usually be around to look after the kids.

I'll receive calls at home and have to open up scans on my computer to make important decisions about a case. I sometimes have to ask my kids to give me five minutes while I put them to bed.

Usually, they're understanding. They know mommy takes care of people. But sometimes they get jealous that I'm paying attention to my computer instead of them.

Until around two years ago, I consistently got home at 7 or 8 p.m., and my kids would be asleep by then. When I didn't get to see my kids for days on end, I'd feel sad and like I'd disappointed them.

I've made specific changes to alleviate some of my responsibilities

I've realized that I want to dedicate time to myself and my family. I wanted to watch my kids grow up. At work, for the most part, you're replaceable, but at home, you are not.

Over the past two years, I've learned how to balance my responsibilities much better by getting more help at work and at home.

Since 2022, I've hired two additional physician assistants at the clinic. They can see patients, write notes, and refill prescriptions for me. I also hired a social media manager who helps me with my content creation tasks. We don't rely on a nanny much, but we do use her when we go out of town without the kids or go out for dinner together. During the summer, she'll watch them a few times a week to give Ray a break to do other things around the house.

It can be hard to ask for help, but once you do, it's mentally liberating. Outsourcing certain responsibilities has been life-changing and helpful. I can spend a lot more time with my kids now.

I've learned to prioritize mental health more over the years. This year, I've started taking every fifth Monday off as a personal day to have time for self-care activities like getting a massage or having my hair done.

I'm learning to accept that I can't do it all — and I want to continue to strive for growth and balance.

• Donald Trump on Sunday floated the idea of eliminating taxes on income earned from tips.
• The move could result in employers paying lower wages, and customers tipping more.
• One tax law expert told BI the "pandering" proposal really just opens up "the door to tax evasion."

During a rally in Nevada on Sunday, former President Donald Trump proposed eliminating taxes on income earned from tips.

"For those hotel workers and people that get tips, you're going to be very happy, because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips," The Wall Street Journal reported Trump said. "We're going to do that right away first thing in office because it's been a point of contention for years and years and years, and you do a great job of service."

The off-the-cuff proposal would require congressional approval but, if passed, could also create what economists and tax law experts who spoke to Business Insider said would quickly become a two-tiered labor market.

Under a tax-free tip system, employees who work for tips — such as waiters, bartenders, drivers, and some hotel staff — would have a financial advantage over other low-wage workers, such as those who work in fast food, because they could avoid Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes.

It could also mean consumers — already experiencing significant tipping fatigue as tipping culture pervades more industries — would be asked to tip in additional situations so workers could receive untaxed income.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Business Insider that, if elected, Trump plans to ask Congress to eliminate taxes on tips. The spokesperson added, "Joe Biden has aggressively stepped up the IRS going after tip workers."

Though the IRS announced a program last year to encourage voluntary compliance with reporting rules, none of the tax experts who spoke with BI could identify a new Biden administration policy targeting tipped workers.

While the Trump campaign did not provide any details about the proposal, an economist and two tax law experts told BI it would insert more complexity in the tax code without offering any substantial benefits to tipped workers — or anyone else.

The policy would create a massive tax loophole

"If you think you get asked for tips a lot now, just wait until tips aren't taxed," Martha Gimbel, the executive director of Yale University's Budget Lab, told Business Insider. She added that a new system would only create "an incentive for employers to try to get more of their workers' compensation in the form of tips."

If passed, Gimbel noted, such a proposal could allow business owners in industries like hospitality — in which Trump has made millions — to essentially shift the responsibility for workers' salaries onto consumers and claim tax breaks for themselves in the form of lower fees on payroll and Social Security.

"The potential effect is that the average person is no better off, except the argument would be that they might be better off because it's not taxed, but the tax savings they would get will be captured by the employer who's lowered their pay," Steven Bank, a tax law expert and professor of business law at the UCLA School of Law, told BI.

David Kamin, a tax law and policy expert at New York University and a former economic policy advisor to the Biden and Obama administrations, told BI that this proposal is "not the way to do it" if you really want to offer a tax break to low-wage workers.

"The right way, if you want to give someone a tax cut, is not to have them evade the law," Kamin said. "It's to have them abide by the law and to give them a tax cut that's available irrespective of whether you're making a wage or making a tip."

But rather than a well-considered platform position that could further enrich himself or business owners like him, Bank noted, Trump's proposal seems more akin to an "elementary school political promise to have candy in the vending machines and no school on Fridays."

"This is just really opening up the door to tax evasion, and it's very much pandering to the casino crowd in Nevada," Bank said.

• Apple's partnership with OpenAI integrates ChatGPT with Siri.
• Apple works hard to ensure that user data is secure and stored mostly on its devices. 
• Users can prevent OpenAI from using their data to train AI models via settings controls.

Apple's big partnership with OpenAI this week came with assurances about data privacy.

Apple goes further than any other big tech company to keep your data secure and mostly on its devices.

The generative AI boom is putting pressure on Apple's device-only data strategy, though. The most impressive AI feats these days require massive amounts of data to be processed in the cloud.

This certainly applies to ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot that's powered by its GPT AI models in Microsoft's cloud data centers.

Apple's Siri will be integrated with ChatGPT soon. Apple users will be asked if they're ok sending some complex requests to ChatGPT.

The privacy protections sound pretty good here:

"Privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won't store requests," Apple said on Monday.

ChatGPT data-use policies apply

However, if Apple users connect a ChatGPT account, the situation changes.

"ChatGPT's data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account," according to Apple.

So, what is OpenAI's policy here?

The startup states clearly that user data is fair game for AI model training.

"When you use our services for individuals such as ChatGPT or DALL-E, we may use your content to train our models," OpenAI says on its website.

This is the default setting. But if you want to switch this off, OpenAI lets you. The startup has a helpful FAQ on this here.

How to turn AI model training off in iOS

In the ChatGPT iOS app, this is how you stop OpenAI using your data to train its AI models:

Tap the three dots on the top right corner of the screen.

Go to "Settings," then "Data Controls."

There's a toggle called "Improve the model for everyone" which is automatically switched on. Just switch it off.

How to turn AI model training off on the web

On the web, find your ChatGPT profile icon on the bottom-left of the page.

Select "Settings" and then "Data Controls."

Then disable "Improve the model for everyone."

"While this is disabled, new conversations won't be used to train our models," OpenAI explains.