• San Antonio's basic-income pilot helped low-income families afford housing and other necessities.
• Participants received a total of $5,108 in no-strings payments over 25 months. 
• Texas is a key state for income pilots, with programs also launching in Austin and Harris County. 

When Monique Gonzalez received her money from the San Antonio guaranteed basic-income pilot, she bought school supplies, shoes, and Christmas gifts for her children.

The mother of six said the program allowed her to afford things her family had "put on the back burner" because they didn't have the money. Gonzalez told UpTogether — a national nonprofit that has sponsored a series of GBI programs — that basic income was what she needed to invest in her children's future.

San Antonio is one of several cities nationwide piloting guaranteed basic-income programs. For the most part, the programs offer no-strings-attached cash payments to low-income individuals over a set time period. Participants in cities such as Denver, Austin, Boston, Minneapolis, and Durham, North Carolina, have reported using the money to secure housing, afford transportation, buy groceries, pay off credit-card debt, and drop second jobs. Some programs, like the one in Denver, have been so successful that their funding was extended.

UpTogether oversaw San Antonio's pilot, investing $5,108 in each of the 1,000 individuals participating over a 25-month period. Program participants received an initial $1,908 payment in December 2020, followed by eight quarterly payments of $400 between April 2021 and January 2023. Participants had household incomes that fell below 150% of the federal poverty line — which is $46,800 for a family of four — and many were facing financial hardship because of the pandemic.

Funding for the program came from the city, foundations, and private funders.

UpTogether is running an additional income pilot that will end in December 2024. Twenty-five UpTogether participants, including Gonzalez, are receiving $500 a month for 18 months.

"We have more opportunities to be happy, content, and healthy," Gonzalez said."This helped to eliminate a lot of the stressors we have."

Shafeka Hashash, associate director of Guaranteed Income at the Economic Security Project, told Business Insider in May that pilot programs across the US show guaranteed income is an effective poverty solution.

GBI has been piloted over 100 times since 2019. In contrast to traditional social services like SNAP and rental assistance, basic income allows participants to choose to spend money where they need it most. And, Hashash said trusting families with no-strings cash assistance has far-reaching impacts.

"When you don't have this group of mothers whose babies are born into economic backslide, you inherently have a stronger community," she said. "When families receive a guaranteed income that improves their children's stability in the school system, you inherently have a stronger community."

San Antonio participants felt happier and more supported by basic income

Program leaders in San Antonio surveyed participants throughout their time in the program. Of the 182 participants who responded to a question asking them whether the cash payments had an overall positive impact on their lives, 161 answered affirmatively. Many said the money was critical for their daily survival and allowed them to cover expenses they otherwise couldn't afford.

Ingrid Sullivan, a participant with four children and three grandchildren, told UpTogether that basic income allowed her to secure housing and reliable transportation. She said the program allowed her to gain financial security with dignity and help pay for her family's needs.

"I felt supported for the first time ever," Sullivan said. "I didn't know what it felt like before this."

San Antonio participants also told UpTogether that the GBI payments significantly improved their mental health. Many survey respondents said they experienced chronic stress about money. With some of that financial worry alleviated, participants reported being able to spend more time with their families or in their communities and said they generally enjoyed life more.

For participants with families, many said their extra income went to enrolling their children in after-school and extracurricular activities and supporting their educations.

"I was able to do more at times because I was able to get my bills met," one survey respondent said. "In turn, I had extra money to be able to spend on my children to take them out or get them what they needed or wanted."

The San Antonio pilot also provided program leaders with feedback. In the survey, some participants said future income programs should provide payments monthly instead of quarterly and provide more opportunities for in-person connection with other participants and the community.

Texas is a national leader for income programs, but GBI continues to face opposition

Texas has been a major state for GBI pilots. Austin and Harris County — which includes Houston — have also launched pilot programs that distribute cash payments monthly.

In May 2022, the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot began distributing $1,000 a month for one year to 135 low-income households using funding from the city and philanthropic donations. Austin was the first Texas city to launch a taxpayer-funded guaranteed-income program.

A report from the Urban Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, found that Austin GBI participants spent more than half of the money on housing, allowing some to purchase their first homes or more easily afford rent. After the yearlong program, participants also reported being more food secure: From a survey of 51 responses, the number of those unable to afford a balanced meal fell by 17 percent.

Stephanie Hendon was living in a shelter with her four kids while working long hours, but within a year of the program, she was able to rent a three-bedroom apartment, purchase a new car, buy clothes for her children, and get a new job. She said she's become more financially savvy and believes she's on the right path to financial stability while also being able to spend more time with her kids.

However, the program wasn't a major success for every participant. Jessica Nairns said the program helped her advance her career and buy essentials, though she was still unhoused a few months after the program. She said she's grateful for the temporary assistance she received, though she couldn't invest money for the long term or find more secure housing.

Harris County, where about 16% of residents live below the poverty line, will provide participants in its pilot program — which is set to start payments in April — with $500 a month for up to 18 months. Officials are pulling from over $20 million of federal COVID-19 relief to fund the Uplift Harris project, which has been met with some Republican opposition.

Uplift Harris participants were set to receive their first payments on April 24, but the program is under a temporary block after a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Ken Paxton called the program "unconstitutional." The block will remain while the Texas Supreme Court decides if the program can proceed.

South Dakota lawmakers recently introduced a bill to preemptively ban all state and local income programs, which a bill sponsor called a "socialist idea" and "one-way ticket to government dependency." A similar ban has been proposed in Iowa.

In Arizona, GOP leaders are trying to pass another statewide ban. The Republican-led state House approved the GBI ban, and it will soon be taken up by the state Senate. Republicans say they are worried income programs will raise taxes and make people overly dependent on government assistance.

"Is money a birthright now? Do we just get born and get money from the government? Because I think the Founding Fathers would say that is very contrary to our capitalist system and encouraging people to work," John Gillette, a Republican state representative from Arizona, told Business Insider.

Despite legislative resistance, GBI programs continue to be launched in new cities — one focused on new moms in Flint, Michigan began enrolling participants on January 10. Chicago also announced in April that it will relaunch its basic income program.

Even so, program leaders in San Antonio said GBI cash payments are only a step toward combating poverty.

Basic income helped participants in Texas and other states to meet their basic needs, the UpTogether survey report said, but they often can't fix long-term financial challenges. For participants to thrive over time, people also need access to educational opportunities, stable employment, and healthcare.

And, as more cities experiment with GBI, Hashash said the programs provide insight into long-term policy. States like New Mexico and California are already expanding the scope of basic income to the state level. She said flexible funding programs like the American Rescue Plan Act have let states continue testing basic income, and the model has "spread like wildfire."

"It opened the door for states to be able to demonstrate guaranteed income's effectiveness, and for the federal government to take notice," Hashash said.

Have you benefited from a guaranteed basic-income program in San Antonio or elsewhere? Are you willing to share how you're spending your money? Reach out to these reporters at allisonkelly@insider.com and nsheidlower@insider.com.

• A growing share of Americans are struggling to get by despite holding down jobs.
• They're ALICE: asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed. They can't always afford necessities.
• ALICE household survival budgets are in the six-figures in some parts of the country.

If you feel you need to make more money than ever just to get by, you're not alone.

Salaries needed to afford essentials have been ticking up, pointing to an increasingly large hole in the country's safety net. That comes as more Americans have been joining the ranks of ALICE: They're asset-limited, income-constrained, but employed. In practical terms, nearly a third of Americans are working and making enough money not to be eligible for public assistance but are still struggling to get by.

New data from research organization United For ALICE, shared exclusively with Business Insider, looks at the ALICE household survival budget, which varies county by county and measures how much a family needs to make to afford necessities. The survival budget considers expenses such as food, housing, childcare, transportation, and healthcare, in addition to taxes and an emergency fund.

Here's what ALICE household survival budgets for a typical family of four look like across the country. These budgets are the highest in coastal states, and some budgets are well into six figures. Some states, such as California and Virginia, are entirely dark blue, meaning budgets of over $85,000 in each county, while others are almost entirely lighter blue, where budgets are in the $60,000s.

In most cases, ALICE household survival budgets are well above the federal poverty level — showcasing a fundamental disconnect between how many government and private aid programs assess who needs help and who's still struggling. It's leaving many workers in a precarious spot.

"Folks are budgeting and planning and trying to work more hours — and yet, inflation is happening, and their hours are increasing one week, and then the kid gets sick, and they can't go, and they don't get paid that week," Stephanie Hoopes, national director at United For ALICE, told BI.

In some areas, ALICE household survival budgets top six figures; even in Stanton, Kansas — the county with the lowest household survival budget for a family of four that includes a preschooler and an infant — families must bring in nearly $61,000 to get by. That's nearly twice as much as the federal poverty guideline of $31,200 for a family of four. In El Paso, Texas — a larger county with a lower cost of living — that budget is $68,784.

According to the new report, between 2021 and 2022, the number of ALICE households rose by nearly 1.6 million, while the number of households in poverty increased by 208,000. The total number of ALICE households jumped 12% between 2010 and 2022, particularly impacting single parents and people of color. During these 12 years, the percent change in single-male-headed ALICE households grew 35%. As many as 54 million American families, or 42%, are below the ALICE threshold.

Childcare costs have also skyrocketed recently. A BI analysis found the cost to care for one child this year is at least $25,714. According to United Way, over a third of parents said they cut work hours or took unpaid leave when childcare facilities were unaffordable or closed.

Since the start of the pandemic, wages have increased across the board for many lower-wage jobs — in some cases faster than inflation. From 2019 to 2022, for instance, wages for cashiers grew 19%, for fast food and counter workers 23%, and for waiters 27%. However, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find higher-paying work.

Those tight survival budget margins are also contributing to another looming economic crisis. Many workers in America are wholly unprepared for retirement, instead working just to get by; that's particularly true for workers who are ALICE. In 2022, over half of US households 65 or older were below the ALICE threshold, as millions of Americans are unable to survive solely off of Social Security benefits or their retirement funds.

"Part of the survival budget is there's no savings in there," Hoopes said. "So even if those folks in their working years are just getting by and just over that ALICE threshold, they're not saving — and then they're going to roll into retirement with no savings; Social Security is not going to be enough."

Are you an ALICE or are struggling to make ends meet? Reach out to these reporters at jkaplan@businessinsider.com and nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

About a month before I moved to Denver in 2018, I texted another recent transplant to ask for neighborhood suggestions. Her reply might as well have been in another language: Among the options she rattled off were RiNo, SoBo, LoDo, and the head-scratching LoHi. I couldn't find those names anywhere on the city's official maps, but the shorthand flowed freely among the youngish crowd I met there. The older real-estate types I encountered while reporting on the city's housing market were fond of the nicknames, too. Soon I was parroting them all.

If you've relocated to an up-and-coming American city in the past decade, you've likely had to decipher a similar code. Developers and business associations have long slapped pithy names on fast-growing parts of town, and tenured residents have long rolled their eyes at them. But with the growing adoption of these new abbreviations, I think I'm ready to say enough is enough. Charlotte, North Carolina, has MoRA and LoSo; Nashville's got SoBro; Boston has SoWa. In Louisville, Kentucky (which also has a SoBro), you may find yourself sipping a craft beer in NuLu. My hometown of Austin already has SoCo, and the powers that be are trying to make "SoLa" happen. The path of progress is paved with nonsense nomenclature — or, as my editor calls them, "'Sound of Music'-ass names."

These unholy mashups would be fine, I guess, if they were dumb yet harmless inventions. But they're not just silly nicknames or low-lift marketing ploys. They're the calling cards of developers and new arrivals as they try to wipe the slate clean on existing neighborhoods and remake them in their image. I'm all for building more housing — it's the only way out of our affordability crisis, after all. If a goofy new name is all that's needed to convince well-off transplants to flock to glass towers in a once deserted part of town, then great! But often it's more about renaming a place where people already live in hopes that whitewashing its history will make it easier to attract wealthy people and drive up the property values — inevitably sending longtime residents packing.

I worry that the pandemic reshuffling, which scattered white-collar workers across the country in search of wide open spaces, will only encourage more of this kind of behavior. As cities bend over backward to attract a certain type of middle- and high-income worker, they often end up looking the same. Now they're sounding the same, too. Let's at least call these two-syllable monikers what they are: cookie-cutter attempts to herd HENRYs and DINKs toward new coffee shops and studio apartments in areas they would have avoided a decade ago.

It seems like every undervalued neighborhood in America is at risk of this kind of rebrand. But the SoBros and SoWas of the world are just the tip of the iceberg — the most egregious outcomes of contentious battles over neighborhoods' names and boundaries. And unless we put our collective foot down, we're bound to get a lot more of them.

Gill Holland moved from New York City to Louisville in 2005. Holland, a serial entrepreneur and real-estate developer, is a country boy at heart — he was born and raised in a small town in North Carolina — but he yearned for the kind of vibrant, walkable streets he'd come to love as a resident of Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood. He began renting office space at the edge of Louisville's downtown, in a run-down area that was home to, in his words, "lots of great, old buildings." Holland saw potential. But there was another issue. All the surrounding areas had "great brands": strong names with history behind them, like Butchertown, Smoketown, and Phoenix Hill. Holland's chosen zone, meanwhile, had no such calling card.

"I kept thinking, like, this part of town needs a brand," Holland told me.

The local business association tried out "East Market District," which stuck for a little bit. But Holland was quietly floating another name, one that represented the "New-York-to-Louisville bridge" he was already building in his mind. When he opened an art gallery in the area, he lopped off the first syllable of each city and stitched them together. The result was NuLu.

While some cities have processes for naming neighborhoods and defining their limits, most often things are more informal. Neighborhood names, as the law professors Nestor Davidson and David Fagundes noted in a 2019 paper, have long been a neat little trick of advertising devised by "real estate agents and developers, or community groups like neighborhood associations." An apartment owner might come up with a catchy name in a bid to draw new tenants, new arrivals might will a neighborhood into existence merely by saying it a lot, or some communities might band together to intentionally reclaim an area.

These enterprising groups understand that neighborhood "brands" play an essential role in attracting new arrivals and helping them establish their place in a city (while also luring them to spend their dollars at the shops, art galleries, and restaurants in burgeoning areas). Neighborhood names are proxies for the kind of person you are or hope to become. We choose a neighborhood that matches our sense of self, the kind of place where we can find our people. Or we latch on to a neighborhood to craft a new identity, taking on the qualities of the area in which we live.

Neighborhood names are also shorthand for your rent or mortgage payments. A 2018 study from the online home-improvement platform Porch found that areas with "Hills," "Island," "Village," and "Oaks" tended to have the highest household incomes across the US. Areas with the Spanish words "Los" or "Las" in their names, on the other hand, were among the neighborhoods with the lowest incomes. In another 2018 study, researchers from McGill University and the University of Maryland noted that real-estate companies relied on neighborhood boundaries to compare prices across properties and that being associated with a desirable neighborhood could improve access to things like healthcare or lower mortgage rates.

Neighborhood nicknames have a rich tradition in New York: There's SoHo, an abbreviation for South of Houston Street (which also appears to be the inspiration for the wave of two-syllable monikers that has followed), Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), FiDi (the Financial District), and Tribeca (the Triangle Below Canal Street). Landlords in the city often try to stretch the boundaries of desirable neighborhoods when advertising their properties — I've rolled my eyes at listings that claimed to be in high-demand neighborhoods like the Lower East Side or Chelsea when no reasonable local would agree. This practice isn't unique to New York. The researchers from McGill and Maryland found that affluent or otherwise desirable neighborhoods around the country appeared to be much larger in the eyes of landlords advertising their properties on Craigslist than they were according to less biased third parties like Google Maps or city planning departments. Meanwhile, landlords who advertised rental properties in areas with lower-income, nonwhite communities were less likely to include the neighborhood's name in their listings.

"A single neighborhood name invokes a whole lot of different connotations or feelings for people," Grant McKenzie, a geography professor at McGill who was a member of the research team, told me. Landlords are all too aware of this effect — mention a neighborhood that has a negative connotation, and "it immediately jumps out in the listing," McKenzie said. The solution? Spin up new shorthand to drum up interest in an old neighborhood.

For better or worse, and I think often worse, it is a way of signaling exclusion

But here's where things get cringey. In 2017, real-estate brokers in the historically Black New York neighborhood of Harlem sparked backlash when they tried to rebrand its south end as SoHa. Years earlier, Hakeem Jeffries, then a Democratic lawmaker in the New York State Assembly, had proposed legislation to ban neighborhood renaming, claiming the practice artificially inflated housing prices.

"Neighborhoods have a history, culture, and character that should not be tossed overboard whenever a Realtor decides it would be easier to market under another name," Jeffries told The New York Times in 2011.

In some cases, a new neighborhood name might signal it's already too late. Davidson told me that once a neighborhood has a lot of cachet, shortening its name, á la SoHo, can be a way of formally announcing its arrival.

"For better or worse, and I think often worse, it is a way of signaling exclusion and signaling that a certain kind of people are living in that neighborhood," Davidson said. "That can have consequences for gentrification or displacement."

The SoHa controversy isn't unique to the Big Apple — in Denver, many developers proudly tout their buildings' locations in the River North Arts District, or RiNo, without mentioning that the district is a relatively new creation overlaid on part of the historically Black neighborhood of Five Points. The South Congress strip in Austin used to be home to a brothel and porn theater; today, a visit to SoCo might include a splurge at the Hermès store or a stroll past the members-only Soho House. For developers, brokers, or whoever else is behind these rebrands, the abbreviations are a kind of compromise, McKenzie said. They're not total erasures, but they're clearly designed with a fresh start in mind.

"It's an attempt to adjust things without blatantly coming in and putting a brand-new name that has nothing to do with the region," McKenzie said. "By shortening it to this sexy acronym, you're able to sort of mask a bit of the historical name that maybe has some negative connotation."

Whatever the rationale behind some of these rebrands, it's hard to argue with the results. In the case of SoCo, a thriving retail district is certainly preferable to its seedy past. Louisville's NuLu neighborhood, which eventually caught on among other residents, has received more than half a billion dollars in investment since Holland coined the term around 2006, he told me. Bob Dylan's whiskey company is opening a restaurant, bar, and live-music venue there. The times are indeed a-changin'.

I'm not a NIMBY. We need to build a lot more homes across all price points, and we need developers to move mountains of red tape in order to make it all happen. At their best, new neighborhood names bring people together over a shared sense of pride in their little corner of the world. But at their worst, they're cynical chess moves designed to grease the wheels of gentrification.

Along the way, these neighborhood names have veered into parody territory. In "How I Met Your Mother," Marshall and Lily buy an apartment in the fictional neighborhood of Dowisetrepla before realizing its name stands for Downwind of the Sewage Treatment Plant. When a "South Park" character urges his fellow citizens to revamp their town, the result is a new shopping district called SoDoSoPa. Like any good piece of satire, these names aren't too far off from their real-life inspiration. When a Redditor posts a map of Charlotte with a reference to WeLoSo (West of Lower South End), it can be hard to tell if they're kidding.

But while jokes at the expense of Scrabble-tile neighborhood names have been around for years, I think we're destined to see a groundswell of new targets as pandemic-era transplants settle into their chosen Zoomtowns. I'm not saying that neighborhood names should be set in stone — in fact, I think it's natural for them to evolve alongside their populations. But I think our cities, and their residents, deserve better than the lazy rebrands we've seen of late.

Recently, one X user wondered aloud whether a section of Brooklyn's East Williamsburg neighborhood, outlined on a map in a yellow box, was worthy of a new name given its appeal to a specific kind of tech professional. The post drew some earnest comments ("East Willy!") and plenty of backlash ("i'm begging u pls don't make this a thing"). But one reaction, from the downtown gadfly known as Nolita Dirtbag — his own moniker a reference to the neighborhood that gets its name from a mashup of North of Little Italy — asked simply for a little introspection.

"Listen to yourself, man."

James Rodriguez is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team.

• Emory University suspended students who created a celebrated AI-driven study tool.
• The students won $10,000 from a school pitch competition for the product last year.
• One of the students just sued the school, saying there's no evidence anyone used his product to cheat.

Emory University students created an artificial intelligence-driven study tool last year.

Professors and students praised the program, called Eightball. The student newspaper wrote about it. The founders won a pitch competition sponsored by the school and took home $10,000. The business school highlighted them on social media.

Then at least two of the students were suspended for Eightball, which they'd already scrapped. Emory said the duo violated the school's honor code, because students could use Eightball in ways that would breach it.

Junior history major Benjamin Craver, who led marketing for the platform, sued the university on Friday. His complaint said there is no evidence any students used Eightball improperly, including to cheat.

The case highlights the tensions between universities eager to foster young entrepreneurs and administrative rules that haven't caught up to new tech.

Emory did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside normal working hours.

Expulsion, suspension

Craver, who said he had never been in trouble at Emory, partnered with a student developer last year to promote Eightball. The premise was simple: students could upload materials to a private server not accessible to other users, then use AI to generate study materials.

Craver and his cofounders won a business school pitch competition last year, and the business school's website spotlighted them — until this week, when the page was removed, per a comparison of the archived page.

Eightball's founders marketed the program as a study tool — "not to do their homework or be a cheat sheet," said one founder on the now-defunct business school page.

But in October, Emory told the developer that he may have violated the honor code, per Craver's lawsuit. In November, Emory told Craver that it was weighing five honor code violations for him. Craver said he asked the developer to immediately shut Eightball down, which the developer did.

Craver was put on disciplinary probation for a semester by the Office of Student Conduct and he submitted a formal written apology. At a January honor council hearing, a Spanish professor and four undergraduates weighed a bigger punishment for Craver.

Writing that the founders built Eightball with the intent to cheat, they recommended a one-year suspension for Craver and expulsion for the developer, per the lawsuit.

They heard no evidence Eightball was used for cheating, Craver said in the lawsuit.

Craver was ultimately suspended for a semester and summer, while the developer's yearlong suspension was later reduced to a semester, he said in the lawsuit.

While Craver was preparing an appeal, Emory's venture program reached out, asking if he'd like to participate in an accelerator for Eightball.

Craver lost his appeal last week. His lawsuit said the disciplinary record could stymie his plans to apply to law school: "Emory willfully and self-servingly deviated from proper Honor Code procedures to make a public example out of Ben."

Craver is seeking a jury trial and damages of at least $75,000, per the complaint.

• Oliur Rahman leveraged smartphone customization to start making money online after high school.
• He sold designs on Tumblr before a stint at a startup and expanding into an online store and YouTube.
• His passive income streams carried him through a cancer diagnosis and now he earns $600,000 a year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Oliur Rahman, a 31-year-old YouTuber and entrepreneur in the UK. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I come from a South Asian background but was born and raised in the UK. We weren't wealthy — I grew up on benefits in social housing. None of my family members were formally educated or owned property.

I never expected to become the first person in my family to buy a house or to become a millionaire, but I did.

Buying my first smartphone opened a new door for me

We didn't have internet at home until I was around 15 because my parents didn't see its value. When I finally got it, it fascinated me.

I bought my first smartphone with money saved from working as a waiter. I customized it and shared my customizations on XDA Developers, a mobile software development community. This led to me making and selling icons and wallpapers, which was my first experience making money online.

I used the money from selling these digital products to buy my first computer, a used iMac. Until then, I had to share a family computer. Buying that iMac was necessary for me to start making and learning things independently.

I decided not to go to university and instead make money online

Despite my parents' typical concerns about formal education, I convinced them to give me a year to try making money online before considering university. I made enough money to support myself that year — I paid them rent and helped with household bills.

I shared my design work on Dribbble, where clients started to notice me. This exposure led to making website templates, particularly for Tumblr. I learned to make and design websites by watching tutorials on YouTube and replicating other work I'd seen online. I have no formal training.

My themes became popular, and in 2014, I was approved to sell them on Tumblr's official online store, which significantly increased my income.

My income had been around $20,000 to $30,000 a year, sometimes even less. Once I started selling on Tumblr, my income grew to six figures.

I was still living with my parents when this financial success happened. They were still skeptical. I stayed with them for a few more years, saving as much as possible until I was ready to move out and find my first house.

I'm the first person in my family to purchase my own home

I was around 23 when I started to see significant money from Tumblr. Knowing that success wouldn't last forever, I focused on learning new web design and development skills. This strategic move and saving most of my earnings allowed me to buy my first house.

Now living on my own, I became a founding designer at a company called Plasso, where I worked for a year. I had always wanted to be part of a startup. Plasso paid well and I was given shares in the company for being an early employee.

This venture paid off when Plasso was bought by GoDaddy, resulting in a significant payout for me.

I expanded my income streams after leaving the startup

I started an online store called ULX Store in 2018 to sell my designs and other products.

I started a YouTube channel in 2015 to provide insights I wish were available to me at a younger age, demonstrating that success is attainable without a privileged background or formal education.

I began taking it seriously around 2020 when I realized its potential for scalable income through sponsorships and Adsense revenue. My channel grew to around 100,000 subscribers, which attracted sponsorships and enabled me to charge significantly for sponsored content.

Then, also in 2020, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was a very challenging period personally. At the same time, ULX Store became very successful. Our desk accessories were in high demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That year, the store generated around $1M in revenue, contributing to my most profitable year yet.

It's essential to diversify income streams and learn new skills

After my diagnosis, I worked to ensure my business could operate without my direct involvement as I took time to care for myself. I was still earning a significant amount in passive income from YouTube Adsense, digital product sales, and sponsorships arranged earlier in the year, which was astonishing to me.

Once I recovered, I gradually returned to work in early 2021, focusing more on YouTube as it had grown significantly. In 2023, I earned around $600,000 a year from all my income streams.

My approach to online business emphasizes starting with one main income stream and then using the earnings from that to diversify into other areas. I've always saved a large portion of my income, which has been crucial for building my wealth and investing in new ventures.

I have a few long-term goals

Since turning 30 and considering future family planning, I'm focused on securing a financial foundation for myself and my potential children. I don't see myself retiring because I enjoy what I do too much and find it fulfilling. I envision creating a substantial investment portfolio that allows me to live comfortably off its returns.

I recently moved to Dubai but kept my house in the UK, so I can come back when I please. Even though my living expenses went up, my income also increased because I'm not paying as much in taxes. I'm excited for this new chapter.

• Gabrielle Gambrell balances roles at Amazon, NYU, Columbia, and her consultancy by outsourcing chores.
• She spends $1,600 monthly on housekeeping, $1,000 on childcare, and up to $6,000 yearly on styling.
• Outsourcing gives her more time for work, family, and self-care.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Gabrielle Gambrell, a senior communications lead at Amazon, professor at NYU and Columbia, and business founder based in New York City. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I work a lot, and I work hard. I've been a senior communications lead at Amazon and head of communications for three years. I also teach marketing and public relations at Columbia University and NYU, and I founded my own consultancy, Gift of Gabrielle, in 2017.

I spend about $1,600 on cleaning services and childcare monthly and around $1,000 each quarter on a stylist.

Paying for things like a housekeeper, childcare, and a stylist allows me to put more time into making more money. Even though I work a lot, I still get a lot of time back to care for myself and spend time with my family.

Hiring a housekeeper gives me more time for work and family

I'm originally from Los Angeles. My parents divorced when I was younger, so my father, who was a senior executive in banking, raised my brother and me as a single parent. He had a busy schedule, so he got a housekeeper to help around the house. That was how I became introduced to housekeeping.

I purchased my six-bedroom home at 27 in Westchester, New York. I've always had a housekeeper as an adult, so I knew I wanted that when I started a family.

Before becoming a mother, the housekeeper visited every other week, which was upgraded to weekly once my son and daughter were born. Cleaning the house would take hours for me, and doing laundry for four people can easily take four to five hours a week. With the housekeeper, I can get those hours back.

Since I don't have to do the things that the housekeeper does, I have more time to work and more time to be with my family.

Childcare costs about $1,000 a month and comes in very handy

When I met my husband, we went on dates all the time. I didn't want to give that up when we had kids. This time for us is absolutely non-negotiable and must occur.

My husband and I have been married for six years and I had my first child at 32. That's when we started getting a nanny a few hours a week, twice a week. Childcare and babysitting costs us about $1,000 a month.

We have date night every week, at least once a week. When we go on dates, someone has to watch the kids. When my son was a year and a half old, we put someone on the rotation schedule. Now, that person comes three times a week for a few hours for my 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter.

Business trips also pop up, and a nanny comes in handy. If I'm away for a week and my husband is at home working, the nanny comes daily. I don't want him to be alone with two kids for a week.

Having a nanny watch the kids allows me to focus on work. It also provides security that I know the children are in good hands, being cared for, and still following their schedules.

Styling cost me between $4,000 and $6,000 last year

Some of my business trips involve high-profile events, including red carpets such as The Grammys and Super Bowl, business and industry conferences, and on-air broadcast appearances. This prompted me to enlist expertise and styling support.

Appearance is really important in the world of business, marketing, and public relations. I love to shop and enjoy buying clothes, but working so much prohibits me from doing it. So, I've been working with my stylist for the last three years.

I work with my stylist by giving them my schedule of upcoming events, and we go from there. With the stylist, I pay for her time, the clothes, and each look. If additional things pop up, I pay her a rush fee. Last year, I spent between $4,000 and $6,000 on styling.

Appearance indeed impacts perception. Looking my best showcases that I can support my marketing and branding clients in doing the same. Working with a stylist is the norm for many of my peers and the senior executive corporate community.

Paying for these things helps to alleviate stress

It requires me to make a certain amount of money to maintain this lifestyle and these luxuries, but I get hours back every day.

Since I have more time, I can go to the spa once a month, which is non-negotiable. I also love the fact that I can go to my son's karate class three times a week with the extra help.

My husband also appreciates my attention to ensuring that good people surround our children and that I have something fun and adventurous planned for us once a week while our children are well taken care of.

The stress we put on ourselves to provide and be excellent can come at a cost. So if I can alleviate some stress and make life a little bit easier, that's why I work hard, and I'm grateful for that. I believe we should all try to give ourselves breaks when possible.

If you have a personal tactic for achieving a better work-life balance and want to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• Biden announced another $7.7 billion in student-debt cancellation for 160,500 borrowers.
• It's a result of fixes to PSLF and income-driven repayment plans, including the SAVE plan.
• This means that one out of every 10 federal borrowers have now gotten debt relief.

Another batch of student-loan borrowers has been approved for debt relief.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden's Education Department announced that it approved $7.7 billion in debt cancellation for 160,500 borrowers on Public Service Loan Forgiveness — which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments — or income-driven repayment plans.

Specifically, according to the announcement, 66,900 borrowers are receiving relief through fixes to PSLF, 54,300 borrowers are receiving relief through the SAVE income-driven repayment plan, and 39,200 borrowers are receiving relief through one-time account adjustments to bring payments on income-driven repayment plans up to date.

The relief through SAVE is a result of a new provision the Education Department implemented earlier this year. This provision forgives student debt for borrowers who originally took out $12,000 or less in student loans and made as few as 10 years of payments.

"Another 160,000 borrowers and their families will get some much-needed relief thanks to the continued efforts [of] the Biden-Harris Administration to fix the broken student loan system," Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal said in a statement. "We congratulate those borrowers on their due forgiveness and we will continue to work to deliver relief to others."

According to the department, this relief now means that more than one out of every 10 federal borrowers has been approved for debt cancellation.

Some impacted borrowers have already started receiving emails informing them of the relief, which, per the department, will be processed in the coming weeks.

There's still time for borrowers to benefit from some of the provisions that made this latest relief possible. The Education Department recently extended the deadline for borrowers to consolidate their loans to benefit from the one-time account adjustment, giving borrowers two extra months to take action before the adjustments are set to be completed in September.

In addition, the Education Department is in the process of implementing its broader student-loan forgiveness plan after the Supreme Court struck down the first one. It just concluded its public comment period, and the department said it will work to move quickly, with a goal to begin implementing the relief this fall.

While legal challenges are likely to arise — there have already been threats — Biden's administration has remained confident in its authority to continue relieving borrowers.

"From day one of my Administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity," Biden said in a statement. "I will never stop working to cancel student debt — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us."

• Google Sheets is one of Google's many productivity applications, like Docs, Calendar, and Drive.
• Google Sheets lets you create, manage, and collaborate on cloud-based spreadsheets.
• Google recently announced it will add more AI features and tools to Google Sheets.

Google Sheets is a free cloud-based spreadsheet application created by Google that enables users to create, update, and share spreadsheets in real time.

It's available as part of the Google Workspace group of productivity apps, which also includes Google Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Google Meet, Google Docs, and more.

Google Workspace, also known as G Suite, has more than 3 billion users worldwide. Google announced recently that it's unveiling more AI features and tools in Google Workspace, including Google Sheets. Users can already use Gemini, Google's generative AI chatbot, to create and manage tables.

Google Sheets can be used to manage work or personal projects, create charts, make calculations, or perform statistical analyses. 

What is Google Sheets? 

Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet program. Users can create, share, and update spreadsheets in real time. The program also connects to other Google Workspace apps, like Google Slides, Google Docs, and Gmail.

What is Google Sheets used for? 

Google Sheets can be used for any purpose that typically involves a spreadsheet. This might include creating budgets, making calculations, performing analyses, drafting charts, or managing projects or tasks. It can be used for business or personal projects. 

You most likely don't need to worry about whether Google Sheets has the bandwidth for your dataset. Google Sheets can handle up to 10 million cells or 18,287 columns — far more than most users will need.

What's the difference between Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel? 

Google Sheets is part of Google Workspace, while Microsoft Excel is part of Microsoft 365. Both let you create spreadsheets for various purposes, such as bookkeeping or planning, and they share some similar features, such as writing equations and presenting data in an organized, easy-to-understand way. 

Google Sheets is free and easily allows multiple users to collaborate in a spreadsheet in real time, but it's also fairly simplistic. Microsoft Excel is a more complex program that's more difficult to collaborate in, especially because it reserves its full functionality for paying users (though it has a limited free version).

You can also convert Google Sheets into Excel files by using Sheets' downloading functions. 

How to download Google Sheets 

To access Google Sheets, visit sheets.google.com. Or, within Gmail or Google Chrome, click on the Google Apps icon in the upper-right corner (it's a series of three rows of dots), and select Sheets. 

There's also a Google Sheets app for Apple and Android devices. Visit the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store and search for Google Sheets. Follow the prompts to download the app to your device. 

What templates are available? 

Google Sheets has dozens of templates available to create calendars, schedules, letters, calculators, budgets, and more. To browse the different templates, open Google Sheets, and then click Template Gallery in the upper-right corner. 

You can also make your own Google Sheets templates, which you can use again and again. Once you create a new spreadsheet and customize it to fit your needs, include "template" in the file's name so you can find it easily. The next time you want to use the template, open it, click File from the top menu, and select "Make a copy." Give it a new name and start working. 

Where to learn how to use Google Sheets

Google offers several quick start guides and cheat sheets online to help you learn to use Google Sheets. The company also provides a free three-hour Google Sheets online course to teach the program.

Other educational websites, like Udemy, have Google Sheets courses available. There are also plenty of YouTube videos featuring Google Sheets instructions and tutorials.

• Little of the aid unloaded at the temporary pier at Gaza has reached people in need, the Pentagon said.
• The deliveries had to be suspended for two days after the trucks were intercepted by a crowd.
• The entire project is estimated to cost $320 million, and the pier was only installed last Thursday.

The $320 million pier project to deliver aid to Gaza has yet to connect goods with the people who need them.

Gaza's 2.2 million residents face months-long food shortages that have exacerbated already-poor health in the region. Humanitarian aid groups have criticized Israel for not letting enough aid trucks into Gaza, keeping critical crossing closed, and creating logistical hurdles.

Israel has denied the accusations and has blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid, which the UN disputes.

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said on Tuesday that the goods unloaded on the temporary pier that the US built off the coast of Gaza haven't reached those in need, per CNN.

And this entire project may eventually be a failure if Israel doesn't create conditions for aid groups to carry out their operations safely, the UN World Food Program said on Tuesday, per the Associated Press.

Over the weekend, trucks carrying aid from the pier were intercepted by a crowd, CNN reported.

"I don't understand this floating pier or what it indicates and what its purpose is," Mounir Ayad, a Gaza resident, told CNN near the pier. "They say it's for aid, but people are apprehensive. Is this aid or something else? We know that the US has never supported the Palestinian cause, so it's implausible that it's giving us aid without something in return."

Steve Taravella, a WFP spokesperson, told the AP that only five of 16 aid trucks leaving the pier on Saturday had arrived at the warehouse with their cargo.

As a result, the deliveries had to be paused on Sunday and Monday, the AP reported, citing the WFP.

Although the Pentagon said aid transportation resumed on Tuesday, the UN said that it had no knowledge of any deliveries taking place on that day, per the AP.

The temporary pier was only anchored on a beach in Gaza last Thursday, the US Central Command said in a statement on its website.

As of Tuesday, 569 metric tons of aid have been delivered to the Gaza port, Ryder said.

The Pentagon previously said that the goal was to deliver at least 500 tons — about 90 trucks' worth — of humanitarian assistance into Gaza daily before scaling up to 150 trucks per day.

The US Army previously deployed some of its biggest ships to help build the pier as part of its efforts to better support civilians amid the conflict.

Countries including the US have also dropped food in parachutes. In March, five children in Gaza were killed by an aid parcel with a malfunctioning parachute.

• I hadn't worked outside of the house for seven years when I decided to update my resume. 
• I missed getting dressed and speaking with other adults at work. 
• Being a mom has given me great qualities that I can apply to an office job. 

I recently had the opportunity to update my résumé. Not having worked outside the home in nearly seven years, I have to admit, the idea of a job in the traditional sense of the word is kind of exciting.

For those in the daily grind, that is probably hard to understand, but as a stay-at-home mom, there are things that I miss about having a job to go to every day. Things like getting dressed and having conversations with someone above the age of 6, for one, but also things like doing work that is validated by society.

I felt like I needed to explain the gap in my resumé

Once I finished editing my résumé, I couldn't help feel the need to explain more about what I have been doing as a stay-at-home mom.

Just the term "stay-at-home" mom makes me cringe because it immediately brings up these images of a woman sitting in her house to mind. In our go, go, go culture, it sometimes seems like people don't really know what moms do and there's this idea that we are just "at home" and that we took the easy way out because we are lazy or unambitious.

Motherhood gets a bad wrap in our world. Mom's work is seen as marginal, something we get a nice card and flowers for on Mother's Day, but not something that would ever be considered as an experience that's applicable to a job.

But take out the caregiving duties, the feeding, bathing, dressing, tending to emotional needs of the kids, take out the 24/7 job commitment, shouldn't there be a spot for the logistical coordination? The mental load, the coordination of schedules, doctor appointments, kids' sports or activities, birthday parties, family functions, holiday celebrations, etc.. And then there's the educational support, the homework, all of the educational activities. Shouldn't any of those things make it to the résumé in some way?

I've been doing so much that is applicable to my job hunt

But I have to be honest; it wasn't just the actual work of motherhood that I felt was missing a place on my résumé. What about all of the other stuff that I have been doing?

I founded a local chapter of MOMS Club, a support group for at-home and part-time working moms, and we are celebrating five years this year. What about all of our work planning playdates, field trips, and service projects in the community — is this all just mom work, too, or shouldn't there be a place for that on the résumé as well?

Motherhood requires continuous adaptation, not to mention the steep learning curve. There is absolutely no manual, and moms have to just learn as they go.

Being quick to learn, flexible, and resilient are certainly skills any employer would value, and motherhood requires this from day one. Yet here I am, just hoping someone will read between the lines on my résumé on everything that means to be "just" a mom.