• Best friends Sophie Harper and Madison White bought a three-bedroom house together in 2022.
• They were just 23 and 24 at the time they became homeowners.
• Harper and White split their mortgage evenly, but they share household costs like groceries.

Living with a friend isn't unusual for a 23-year-old. Buying a house with your bestie, though, is far less common.

Sophie Harper and Madison White did exactly that in 2022, purchasing a three-bedroom home just outside Austin.

By pooling their income, Harper and White were able to become homeowners before they turned 25.

From roommates to homeowners

Harper and White, both 27, first lived together as random roommates their first year at Whittier College in Southern California.

"We met the first day when we moved in, and we just hit it off," Harper told Business Insider. "We became best friends."

They didn't live together the rest of college because White was a resident assistant, but they planned to rent an apartment together once they finished school.

"We lived in California for a year after graduation, and then we were like, 'We should move. Why don't we try something new?'" Harper said. They decided to relocate to Austin in 2021, renting a space together in town.

They rented for about a year, settling into their respective careers: White is in PR, and Harper works in the flower department at Trader Joe's. They were happy in their rental, but White aimed to become a homeowner as soon as possible.

As she looked at available homes in their area, she realized she and Harper could likely afford to buy a home if they pooled their incomes.

"One night, we were talking, and she was like, 'I think we could buy a house for about the same price as renting,'" Harper said. "I was like, 'OK, why don't we go see? It doesn't hurt to see if we can get preapproved.'"

Buying a new build

Rather than approaching a bank for a loan, Harper and White decided to work directly with a builder, as the new-build market was booming in their area at the time.

They started working with Lennar Homes, which approved them for a loan of $290,000. White and Harper narrowed down their search based on that price point, finding a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that was already built and available in 2022.

In addition to their loan, they also applied for a down-payment assistance grant, which they said enabled them to purchase a property without having to repay the down payment as long as they lived there for three years. Thanks to the loan, the grant, and some careful saving they had done in their first two years out of college, they were able to buy the house for $296,000 when they were just 23 and 24.

"We are pretty good with our money," Harper said. "I like to save. I think it's just an anxiety thing. I want to make sure I always have a cushion."

"We had the money that we were able to do it, and also the timing was just perfect," she added. "It was right before interest rates really started to rise."

The pair also had no concerns about sharing financial information.

"We're really open," Harper said. "I think it's important to talk about that stuff anyway as young women."

"I don't think there's any shame between us about what our credit scores are or what we make," she added. "When you're buying a house, you just have to lay everything out. You have to be honest about what debt you have, income, all of that."

Home sweet home

Harper and White have owned their home for three years now, personalizing it with a pink living room and a gallery wall full of their memories as friends.

They've loved taking on this step together, as White told Business Insider.

"Owning my own home was always a dream of mine, and I feel so grateful that I've not only been able to accomplish that early in life, but also to have been able to do it with my very best friend," White said. "Any time you make a major life decision with financial consequences, there is going to be a risk, whether you do it alone or with a friend or a romantic partner or a family member."

"Knowing that you have somebody that you can depend on and that can depend on you is an amazing piece of mind," White added.

Harper agreed, telling Business Insider that she and White are "really proud" that they could buy a home when they were so young, and that "doing it together was just icing on the cake."

In terms of their finances, Harper and White split their mortgage and other utility fees, but they don't keep score when it comes to day-to-day costs for their life.

"We treat it much more like a family, like a partnership," Harper said. "If we buy something like furniture, I'll buy one thing, and she'll buy the next thing."

They also don't keep a formal chore chart. Instead, they help each other wherever they can.

"We're good at going off each other's energy," Harper said. "If there's been times where I'm really busy, or I'm sick, or I'm just down bad, I'm not in the mood, she'll pick up a sock and do a load of laundry. She'll clean the kitchen. And vice versa. If she's ever in that situation, I know she knows that I'll pick up the sock, too."

Looking to the future

Because of their grant, Harper and White moved into their house knowing they would live there for at least three years.

"We just treated it as a long lease," Harper said. "I had no idea what was going to happen in three years career-wise, or if we would have boyfriends, or if we would want to move. We knew three years was a minimum."

Those three years have passed, and Harper and White don't intend to sell their home anytime soon, even if they move out.

"It's a good investment," Harper said. "We want to be able to keep it and sit on it and have it with us."

They may rent out the property, or White and her boyfriend might live in it if Harper moves out. Whenever they do sell the house, they'll split the profits.

Harper said she hopes more people realize there are creative ways to become homeowners, rather than just waiting for a romantic partner or saving to buy a home solo.

"If owning property and having a home is something you want, and the goal can be achieved by doing it with someone else who also wants that, I say go for it," Harper said.

White told Business Insider that it just "made sense" for her to own her first home with Harper by her side.

"I know that it's not the conventional way that people buy homes, but we have lived our entire adult life together as a team, and it really only made sense that we would do this as a team too," White said.

• Walmart just pushed its latest delivery window to 5 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve.
• The retail giant can now reach 95% of US households in three hours or less.
• The ultrafast service is part of a broader race to make shopping more convenient — and immediate

Picture this: you're just arriving to Christmas Eve dinner with your in-laws and your niece says she's been eying a talking plush Bluey doll.

You find it in your phone app, place the order in a tap, and by the time desert is ready, your gift is at the doorstep. (You can even get the whipped cream you forgot to bring for the pie, too.)

Such last-minute shopping options are becoming increasingly possible as major retailers make a big push into ultrafast delivery.

Case in point: Walmart told Business Insider exclusively that its shoppers will be able to place store-fulfilled express delivery orders as late as 5 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve — a full hour later than last year.

"More people are using Express Delivery to get their items faster, and December is when it truly shines," Walmart's chief e-commerce officer David Guggina said in a statement. "No one delivers for customers like Walmart, from the first Holiday deal to the final gift on Christmas Eve."

The retail giant can now reach 95% of US households in three hours or less, and the company has said that more than a third of shoppers opt to pay extra for one-hour-or-less delivery.

Those express delivery numbers jump by 2.5X in December compared with the year's average, the company said.

The company also told Business Insider that it recently rolled out a new "Get it Now" option in the Walmart app, which shows shoppers an estimated number of minutes to receive an item, and lets them place the order in one tap.

Walmart said earlier this month that it fulfilled its fastest Black Friday order in 10 minutes, with big increases in both the volume and speed of deliveries fulfilled from its stores.

But Walmart isn't the only player in the ultrafast delivery game: Amazon and Target are also racing to offer last-minute fulfillment options on Christmas Eve.

Target says customers can get orders within two hours via curbside or in-store pickup, or opt for same-day delivery for a $9.99 fee, with stores closing at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

And Amazon will show an "Arrives before Christmas" message on items that can be delivered as late as Christmas Eve via delivery or one of the company's 25,000 pickup locations.

• Consulting firm Accenture and AI darling Anthropic have announced an expansion of their partnership.
• Accenture says it will use Anthropic's Claude to serve both staff and clients.
• Accenture announced a similar deal with OpenAI just over a week ago.

Accenture has announced an expansion of its partnership with Anthropic, its second deal with a leading AI developer in the past eight days.

The deal includes a suite of new solutions and offerings that will help Accenture's clients "accelerate the shift from experimenting with AI to using it as a catalyst for reinvention across the enterprise," said Julie Sweet, Accenture's CEO.

The two companies said they would form the "Accenture Anthropic Business Group," which will train around 30,000 employees in delivering Claude-powered solutions.

Tens of thousands of developers at Accenture will also receive access to Claude Code as part of the deal, and Accenture and Anthropic will launch an offering for chief information officers to measure the value of AI solutions and scale them.

"AI is changing how almost everyone works, and enterprises need both cutting-edge AI and trusted expertise to deploy it at scale," said Dario Amodei, CEO and cofounder of Anthropic.

He added that the rollout of Claude Code to Accenture employees was the company's largest ever deployment.

Accenture announced a similar deal with OpenAI earlier this month, saying it would provide tens of thousands of its employees with ChatGPT Enterprise to use across consulting, operations, and delivery work.

Accenture and OpenAI also announced plans to launch a "flagship AI client program," which the firms said will help clients adopt OpenAI products across their workflows.

"Accenture invests in strategic partnerships with the best across the ecosystem, co-developing solutions and going to market together," Lan Guan, chief AI & Data officer at Accenture, told Business Insider.

"The addition of Anthropic as a strategic partner is about expanding client choice, meeting client demand, and accelerating innovation," Guan said.

The professional services industry stands out as one of the industries most exposed to AI-driven transformation. Top firms are racing to prove they can deploy AI effectively in-house and guide clients to do the same.

For AI developers, global consulting firms offer access to the back-end systems of some of the world's most valuable companies.

The Big Four firm Deloitte, for example, has a partnership with Anthropic, providing its global workforce of 470,000 with Claude-powered solutions. Deloitte is also developing AI agents in partnership with Nvidia. It counts Boeing, Morgan Stanley, Starbucks, and the US federal government among its clients.

The top consulting firms have a similar suite of partnerships with companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Anthropic.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pthompson@businessinsider.com or Signal at Polly_Thompson.89. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Dylan Field had no management experience before cofounding Figma. He had to learn a "whole new skillset," he said.
• "Management and leadership are different," he said on "First Time Founders." Field said he came in as a leader, not a manager.
• CEOs of Duolingo and Asana have also struggled in the transition from founder to manager.

Some people are natural managers. Others need a bit more time to figure it out.

Before Dylan Field cofounded Figma, he interned at companies like Flipboard and LinkedIn. He'd never been a manager. Now, his company has over 1,600 employees.

On the "First Time Founders" podcast, Field said that he wasn't a great manager initially — and that he had to learn the hard way.

"Management and leadership are different," Field said. "You can be a good leader and a bad manager or vice versa."

Field said that he'd always been a leader, so he came into Figma thinking he was "good to go." He said he learned that there was a "whole new skillset around management" that he "definitely didn't know."

Field listed the skill set: Knowing where your team is, building relationships, holding one-on-one meetings, holding people accountable for their goals, and setting a consistent cadence.

Host Ed Elson asked: Was Field really bad at all of those management principles?

"Oh, for sure," Field said. "I think I was bad at all of it."

It didn't help that Figma had pressure from venture capitalists to get a product to market, he said. Figma was founded in 2012, but didn't start shipping a beta product to customers until 2015. General availability took another year, and it wasn't till 2017 that a paid plan was available.

"Don't do what we did," Field said. "Please don't take away that you should take five years to launch a company. You'll be dead."

What helped, he said, was hiring his first manager, Sho Kuwamoto, who started as Figma's director of engineering. "I learned a ton from him," Field said.

Field is one of many founders-turned-CEOs who have had to learn how to manage a team.

Dustin Moskovitz cofounded two large, publicly traded companies: Facebook and Asana. He led the latter as CEO for over a decade. In October, he described being a manager as "quite exhausting," stating that he'd intended to be "more of an independent or Head of Engineering."

In May, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn said that all founders should be micromanagers until they had 30 employees — but that he took it too far, micromanaging until he had 50.

"At this point, I also have learned that most of my job is culture carrier, mascot, and just making some of the kind of tough philosophical decisions," von Ahn said.

On the podcast, Field struck an optimistic tone about the ability of great founders to become great managers.

"The good news is if you're a first-time manager, it's all very learnable," he said. "It'll feel like muscle memory eventually."

• I spent nine months traveling the world, and although I had a great time, I wouldn't do it again.
• Because I was on a tight budget, I often found myself turning down cool experiences to save money.
• I also struggled to make genuine friendships and missed having a space to call my own.

When I was working remotely in 2021, my boyfriend and I packed up and traveled to 22 countries across Europe and Latin America.

Although these were some of the best days of my life, I quickly learned that a lot of the videos I saw on social media that glorified full-time travel didn't always showcase the downfalls of the lifestyle.

More and more people are becoming digital nomads — countries like Italy have even implemented specific visas for remote workers. However, during my nine months abroad, I learned that the lifestyle isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Here's why I wouldn't travel full time again.

I kept looking for places and experiences that felt like home

While traveling full time, I found myself constantly looking for places and experiences that felt like home.

In some ways, it was cool to feel like a local in a new city. However, when I returned home and took shorter vacations, I started to value the places I was visiting for their differences rather than trying to find some semblance of home.

Nowadays, I like having a home base. Shorter trips help me to break up the monotony of life without sacrificing the comfort of home.

It felt like I was constantly thinking about money

When I was traveling full-time, I was on a strict budget. I either drained my wallet or ate cheap food to maintain some sort of financial security while on the road.

I talked myself out of going to every museum I wanted to and purchased cheap meals for dinner instead of indulging in local cuisine that might have been out of my budget.

The moments I would slip up on my spending were when I forgot this wasn't a never-ending vacation, but rather, my new everyday life.

During the first two weeks of our trip, I wanted to go to all of the must-try restaurants in Paris. However, I soon realized that came at the cost of establishing a strict daily budget for the remainder of our three weeks there.

Of course, it was worth it in the end to save money so I could travel for nine months. However, now that I take a few shorter trips a year, I have more flexibility to make them everything I want them to be.

My friendships at home changed, and the new ones I made were fleeting

I think what travelers yearn for the most is community. When I was traveling, it was really hard to find the same quality of friends I have at home.

When I did meet friends abroad, it was often short-lived. I found that many people traveling full time were only in a city for a few days. Even when I did find someone I connected with, it was hard to maintain a long-distance friendship.

Traveling full time also took a lot out of my friendships at home, as it seemed like they learned to live without me.

When I returned home, it felt like we didn't have as much in common as we used to. It took me months to get my friendships back to where they were before I left.

I missed having a space to call my own

While traveling, I stayed in 25 different places across nine months. Although seeing so many new places was cool, I missed having a space to call my own.

After spending so many nights in beds that weren't my own, it was an indescribable feeling to come back home. In fact, when I got back, I was able to create a space that took inspiration from the places I'd been.

I think traveling is something everyone should prioritize, but there are ways to see the world that don't involve doing it full time.

Nowadays, I plan to take at least four international trips a year, ranging from one to two weeks. This allows me to live a travel-filled life without giving up the comforts of home, career, and relationships.

This story was originally published on April 26, 2024, and most recently updated on December 9, 2025.

• Walmart's outgoing CEO, Doug McMillon, discussed the plan for his next steps.
• After more than 10 years running Walmart, he said he's looking forward to taking a break.
• McMillon is part of a wave of retail CEO departures this year.

Walmart's departing CEO is preparing for a quieter 2026, and he sounds pretty thrilled about it.

Doug McMillon, 59, has spent the last 40 years at Walmart. For more than 10 years, he's been at the helm of the company, leading its more than 2 million employees.

In an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box on Tuesday, McMillon, who will step down as CEO early next year, said he isn't sure what's next for him but that he imagines it will involve some combination of business and philanthropy.

And in the short term, he'll be taking a break.

"I've never had a blank calendar, and I have now seen what one looks like in a few months — and it's kind of exciting," he said.

McMillon's resignation last month comes as a wave of retail CEOs have left — or have been pushed out — of their companies in the last year.

According to data from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, retailers have reported 43 CEO exits year-to-date through October, a 34% increase from the same period last year.

These departures have included big names such Kroger's former CEO, Rodney McMullen, and Kohl's former CEO, Ashley Buchanan. Target's CEO, Brian Cornell, also announced that he'll be retiring next year.

This pattern has been playing out in the retail sector since the pandemic. The job of retail CEOs has become increasingly challenging as they navigate the disruption of AI, changing consumer behavior, and increasing labor costs.

McMillon said his departure was not driven by a lack of confidence in the company's future. During his tenure, Walmart's stock price has climbed 300% and he expects it to continue on that trajectory.

"I don't know if I am young or I am old," he said, when asked why he's departing before he's turned 60. "When you see somebody who is ready to run the next lap better and faster than you, it is time to hand the baton and get out of the way and just cheerlead."

John Furner, who will take over the helm in February, has worked his way up the ranks at Walmart since 1993 and met his wife while working there.

Ultramarine blue, or "true blue," was once more valuable than gold. In 1824, a synthetic version called French ultramarine made the color more accessible. But ultramarine blue made from real lapis lazuli can sell for over $60 an ounce today.

Lapis lazuli is a bright blue semiprecious stone mined primarily in Afghanistan. When Business Insider visited the world's largest lapis lazuli mine there, its future was up in the air. So, how is the world's most expensive color made, and why are people paying for it?

• Maunsel House, the ancestral home of a British aristocratic family, is on the market.
• The current version of the home is thought to date back to the late 14th century.
• Local legend says Chaucer wrote "The Canterbury Tales" here.

Are you interested in becoming the "Wardwick of the North Moor"? What about walking the same halls as Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred the Great, King John, and Queen Matilda?

If so, do we have the property for you.

Maunsel House, an estate in Somerset, a county around 130 miles west of London, has been listed by Strutt and Parker with an asking price of £3.5 million, or around $4.68 million.

The 13-bedroom home also has multiple "unique" bathrooms, a bar (the oldest part of the house), a library, a ballroom, and a dining room. In its history, it has been used as a wedding venue, vacation spot, and filming location.

Maunsel House has been the seat of the Slade family since the 1770s, but its current owner, Benjamin Slade, is ready to part ways with it — for the right price, of course.

"This is the first time the home has been on the open market in several centuries, marking a significant moment in its long history," listing agent Oliver Custance Baker told Business Insider. He continued, "This is a rare opportunity to own a true piece of British history."

Slade has tried selling or even giving away Maunsel House in the past, as he has no children of his own and has said it's not easy to keep up the place. In fact, he told The Guardian in 2005 that it's "bloody hard work."

Here's a closer look at Maunsel House's breathtaking grounds and its history.

Maunsel House is a British manor home originally built in the 13th century.

It's on the market with an asking price of £3.5 million, or $4.66 million.

The building sits on 11.35 acres of prime English countryside real estate.

The main house has 13 bedrooms, all of which are described as "period" and "full of charm."

The oldest part of the house, nicknamed "The Bar," dates back to before 1066, according to the home's website.

Source: Maunsel House

Many British VIPs have passed through its halls since the 14th century.

Geoffrey Chaucer himself was said to have written "The Canterbury Tales" within its walls, according to local legend.

But since 1772, the estate has been owned by the Slade family.

Whoever buys Maunsel House won't just get the country home. The property also has two cottages.

There are also multiple gardens and an orchard.

If you wanted to spend a little extra, the current owner, Benjamin Slade, reportedly said he'd throw in the title of "Wardwick of the North Moor." It's a symbolic title, but rare.

Source: Tatler

A massive centuries-old mansion brimming with British history and a largely symbolic title could be yours … for a few million pounds.

• Business Insider asked interior designers which mistakes to avoid when decorating for the holidays.
• Not having a clear organizational system can make decorating a much more time-consuming process.
• It's important to consider your pets when decorating, as certain design choices can be hazardous.

As you make your home merry and bright this holiday season, there are a few things to consider to ensure the process is as fun (and painless) as possible.

So, Business Insider asked interior designers about the common holiday decorating mistakes people should avoid making to ensure everything is organized, festive, and safe for the entire family. Here's what they said.

Lacking a clear theme can make your house look less cohesive.

It's exciting to collect new holiday decorations, but over time, that could lead to some of your items not gelling together.

"It's OK to not use every single decoration piece that you possibly have," Linda Hayslett, principal designer for LH Designs, told Business Insider, adding, "At the end of the day, we always remember those homes that are curated."

Plus, she said that when you don't pull everything out each year, you have more options to switch things up in the future (without accumulating more stuff).

Not having a clear organizational system can make decorating — and cleaning up — a pain.

One thing Hayslett recommends doing to make decorating on-theme easier is grouping similar items together in storage. For example, all your decorations could be grouped by color and labeled accordingly.

She said this makes it easier to find what you're looking for in storage every year. Plus, if you really want to keep things organized, you can even color-code your storage bins.

"For my Christmas decorations, I have green and red bins. And then for Halloween, I have black and orange bins. And then for Thanksgiving, I have brown and yellow bins, " Hayslett told BI.

Placing decorations too close to the fireplace can be a safety hazard.

Placing decorations, especially real Christmas trees, garlands, or wreaths, near an in-use fireplace can be a safety hazard, Jennifer Beget, owner and principal designer of J Beget Designs, said.

For a safer alternative to achieving the festive look, Beget suggests placing faux battery-powered candles in the fireplace instead.

Using decorations that are past their prime can make a space look dated.

There's a big difference between showcasing vintage items and using decor that's long past its shelf life, and it's important not to confuse the two if you don't want your space to look dated.

One obvious sign that a piece of decor didn't last the test of time is if it's faded, Beget said, adding, "Some things just have to be retired."

Don't forget to consider your pets' safety.

Curious cats and dogs can go sniffing around your Christmas tree, resulting in broken ornaments and potential injuries.

"Personally, we have a cat who loves to go after the bottom of the tree, and so we always have to put items he won't be able to bite into or chew so he doesn't choke," Beget said.

Hayslett also suggested decorating a separate, smaller, pet-safe tree for your cat or dog as a potential distraction from the main tree in the house.

You can also avoid placing ornaments on low branches that pets can easily reach, and make sure they're placed evenly over the tree, so it doesn't tip over.

Not using a timer for your lights can cost you extra time and money.

Bending over or climbing behind the couch to plug and unplug your holiday lights every day can be a huge pain (literally).

So, Beget recommends using a timer to allow your lights to turn on and off automatically during the season.

Plus, it's a game changer for when it's cold or rainy, so you don't have to go outside and unplug all your cords, Begets added.

And who doesn't love saving a little money on their electric bill?

• Trump announced a proposed settlement to officially end the SAVE student-loan repayment plan.
• If a court approves the settlement, borrowers on SAVE will have a limited time to enroll in a new plan and resume payments.
• The settlement ends over a year of litigation over the affordable repayment plan.

The door is about to permanently close on a major student-loan repayment plan.

On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced a proposed settlement with the State of Missouri, which, if approved, will officially end the SAVE student-loan repayment plan established by former President Joe Biden.

Biden rolled out the SAVE plan in July 2023, which was intended to provide student-loan borrowers with affordable monthly payments and a condensed timeline for debt relief. In April 2024, Missouri joined other GOP-led states in filing a lawsuit challenging the plan. Borrowers enrolled in the plan have been on forbearance since last summer, while the legal challenges continued.

The department said in a press release that, should the court approve the settlement, the department will not enroll any new borrowers in SAVE, deny pending applications, and move all enrolled borrowers to existing repayment plans.

"The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back," Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement. "Thanks to the State of Missouri and other states fighting against this egregious federal overreach, American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies."

If the settlement is approved, the department said that borrowers enrolled in SAVE "will have a limited time" to select a new repayment plan and begin repaying their loans. The department and federal servicers are expected to reach out to SAVE borrowers in the coming months with more information.

Trump's administration has indicated its intent to end the SAVE plan for months, with a phase-out of the plan by 2028. The announcement of this proposed settlement accelerates that timeline. On August 1, the Department of Education resumed interest charges on SAVE borrowers' accounts, and the Education Sec. Linda McMahon said at the time that she recommended borrowers transition to "a legally compliant repayment plan," like income-based repayment.

The department is working to carry out changes to expand eligibility for income-based repayment, like removing the requirement to have partial financial hardship, which is set to be completed in December 2025. The "big beautiful" spending legislation that Trump signed into law also included plans to eliminate SAVE and introduce two repayment options for borrowers, effective July 2026.

It's unclear when these changes will take effect. However, borrowers who leave SAVE will likely face higher monthly payments should they enroll in a different plan.