• Mai-lan Phan and her husband Ryan Wagoner achieved financial independence but chose not to retire early.
• They amassed over $4 million by living modestly, investing wisely, and avoiding lifestyle creep.
• Despite their wealth, they prioritize intentional spending, future planning, and financial education.

Mai-lan Phan and her husband, Ryan Wagoner, both 36, reached financial independence, but neither wants to fully retire early.

They reached a total net worth of $4.1 million, including their two homes, from working high-paying jobs, cutting back on spending for most expenses, and avoiding lifestyle creep. Phan left dentistry full-time after experiencing nerve pain and having her son, working part-time while Wagoner works full-time. They live modestly and save for their family's future, though they still go on vacations and to Seahawks games.

"Financial independence is not having to work full-time and the freedom to be able to send my child to full-time preschool, 40 hours a week, and come home and be able to do the things that I want to do," Phan said.

Many Americans are working to achieve financial independence — or having enough savings or income to live comfortably for life. Some are hoping that will allow them to retire early, thus making them part of the FIRE movement, though some like Phan and Wagoner continue working for extra financial security and personal satisfaction.

"I want to be able to walk away from any job if it's not working," Wagoner said. "What I really care about is the financially independent part, so if I wanted to take a year off and go travel, or if I wanted to get out of a job that is really stressing me out and causing me mental difficulties."

Working toward financial independence

Phan was born an hour south of Seattle to parents who "weren't wealthy by any means," though they took her on vacations and allowed her to participate in various extracurricular activities. Her parents taught her to live frugally and only spend on what's important.

She worked at Subway, drove a used car, and got a phone as a senior in high school after most people in her grade. She got financial aid for her bachelor's degree and then enrolled in dental school. She rejected half the student loan package offered because she didn't need it and wanted to live debt-free as soon as possible after graduation.

Across eight years of school, she borrowed $140,000 — $80,000 was from the government, which she paid off two years after graduating, and $60,000 was from her parents, whom she paid back a year after graduation.

Wagoner grew up in a small Michigan town and worked at his father's grocery store starting at 14, allowing him to buy a car before his 16th birthday. His accountant mom taught him how to set up a bank account and spend frugally — though he admits there weren't many places in his town to do so.

He was the first in his family to attend college, and he chose Michigan State University with various scholarships paying for half his tuition. He paid for his living expenses through internships at Microsoft and drove his car until it stopped working. He read financial independence books emphasizing spending on important things and cutting back on unimportant ones.

He saved up enough to buy a condo, knowing his income was stable and growing, which he and Phan later paid off and rented to tenants.

Phan and Wagoner met in 2015 while he was still at Microsoft — he had four more years of income, 401(k) matching, and no student debt. While dating, he told her he wanted to retire by 40. Phan was less convinced — she wanted to start a dental practice and knew it would take years to get it off the ground.

"I thought he was crazy, and I said, I'm not going to eat rice and beans the rest of my life," Phan said.

They decided to map out their family expenses and used Wealthfront, an automated investment service, which helped them build wealth through investments and high-yield savings. They both have kept their finances separate but share their numbers openly.

Starting to strategize

They didn't strategize much in their first few years of dating, instead just living below their means without sacrificing their quality of life.

They paid for their wedding themselves in 2019 and then planned and paid for their honeymoon right before the pandemic. They also put 25% down on a home with an interest rate of 2.75%, which they chose not to pay off because of the low interest rate.

"We got approved for a $1.5 million house, and I told my realtor, don't waste your breath showing us these houses; we're not going to spend it," Phan said. "We're choosing not to have a very large mortgage payment, so that positive cash flow has really propelled us above our colleagues."

Over the last few years, they've kept expenses down by driving a used car, investing in an e-bike instead of a second vehicle, and being intentional about food purchases. They've both maxed out their 401(k)s and IRAs and do everything they can to strategize their tax advantages. They also automated their savings and investments, which helped them keep expenses down and stay more organized.

They had a son in 2020, and Phan transitioned from a full-time dentist to a stay-at-home mom doing part-time dental work. Nerve damage in her right hand prevented her from returning to work full-time. She said their finances were solid enough from not "keeping up with the Joneses" that she could work less while her husband continued to work full-time. Two years ago, Wagoner switched to a job paying two-thirds less than his Microsoft job, though it's in the video game space, which he enjoys more.

Phan made a spreadsheet to track her net worth, and she was surprised at the number: over $4 million in total assets, about two-thirds of which are liquid. It was enough for both to fully retire, though they chose not to so they could send their kids to college without worrying about the financial burden.

Planning for the future

They put almost $100,000 in their son's college fund, which they will continue to contribute to, though when he turns 16, they will encourage him to find work. They plan to enroll him in public school but are considering some private options. Phan said she's already toying with starting his financial education young by giving him a toy allowance.

"I want him to understand the value of money, that he can't just get whatever he wants, but if he works hard and saves up, he can have his guilt-free spending," Phan said. "I just don't want him to have the pressure of paying for school like I did."

They've discovered ways to parent without breaking the bank, such as using public resources like parks and getting cheap museum passes.

Still, they prioritize spending on what they love, such as recent vacations to Mexico and Paris and season tickets to the Seahawks. They find cheap flights, such as $500 round-trip flights to Thailand, and other ways to reduce travel costs without sacrificing quality. They hope to take their son on a months-long trip to Europe or Asia to immerse him in different cultures.

Phan recently hired an interior designer to redo the furniture in their primary home. Wagoner recently spent money on a new office setup, a gym membership, and eye surgery.

Sometimes, it's hard for her to spend, as she has little desire for anything luxurious, though she said she's trying to feel less guilty about some higher-cost purchases. They have also loaned over $400,000 to friends as business loans.

Recently, they've talked about combining their money and being more open about their finances, allowing them to make better plans for the future.

"We are being more transparent and looking at all of the numbers and being able to talk about these things and say, looking at this account that will keep growing, I think we can do this," Wagoner said.

They've considered what they would pivot to after full retirement — Phan would become a wedding planner, while her husband would consider being a football coach.

"We've lived a very humble life and flown under the radar, which is how I think we've been able to all of a sudden catapult into this wealth just on hard work," Phan said.

Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• Growing up, my names were mispronounced so often I considered changing them.
• Kids made fun of my maiden name by tying it to accentuated physical characteristics.
• While names can come and go, connections remain—so I decided to leave my name alone.

My maiden name has 20 letters, with half residing at the end — Sheryl Lynn Sirotinsky.

Imagine growing up with an uncommon spelling for your first name, "S" instead of "C," and a last name people tripped over. As a youngster playing make-believe, I kept Princess Sheryl and dumped Sirotinsky in fairy dust.

Confusion began with my first name and went down from there

From kindergarten through high school, a teacher would invariably yell out for roll call, "Sheri Siro-sky" (sounding like heaven above rather than "ski"). I couldn't understand the difficulty in reading these names — all others were phonetically accurate.

One instructor asked, "Wouldn't you rather go by Sheri?" I hated being called "Sheri" and defended my parents' choice of name despite its history.

Around age 10, I learned "Sheryl" was selected in memory of a deceased cousin.

Mom, Grandma, and I were sitting at the kitchen table when Grandma mentioned, "That poor girl dying in a train accident."

"Girl? I shrieked. "Don't you name a baby after someone who lived long?"

Grandma joked, "Don't ever get on a train, and you'll be fine."

Already harboring a healthy dose of superstition, it would take a herculean effort to get me back on the "L" in Chicago, the Metro when living in DC, and the same strength to ride the New York Subway. I'd love to see the countryside by railway, but I still can't mentally step on board.

Classmates made up nicknames for me

As a teenager, known for big boobs and a nose out of proportion with its face, kids often referred to me as "Cyrano" (as in "Cyrano De Bergerac," the man and subsequent play known for his ugly nose) and called me "Siro-tit-sky." Students who couldn't figure it out would yell, "Sheryltinsky," like a one-named superstar. I'd laugh, but nicknames hurt.

I married my high school sweetheart, so I had practiced drawing my future signature in cursive, print, backward, and forward in every notebook since age 14. But soon after saying "I do," even with having said "Stillman" countless times, the reality of losing my identity sank in. While secretly postponing the paperwork erasing the person I had been for 26 years, a kind assistant arranged for a new office nameplate and 500 business cards to be ready upon returning from honeymoon.

Swapping Sirotinsky for Stillman did make life simpler.

I got divorced but kept the name

Divorcing when my kids were adolescents, sharing a surname was important to me. Plus, who'd return to one with four syllables? On the anniversary of my 30th nuptials, with kids now adults, I considered releasing the last name linking me to my ex. But what would I change it to? I made up something merging the past and present — "Skye" — and floated it with my offspring. The youngest liked the idea; the oldest said I was crazy. I worried, likely projected, that they would feel abandoned.

Of course, I realized more than a name connects me with my kids and their father. I pondered who I'd been for over 56 years. Ultimately, our experiences shape who we are, and while names can come and go, but staying "the Stillmans," no matter my children's ages, is here to stay.

• Earlier this week, Steve Ballmer's wealth briefly overtook that of his former boss, Bill Gates.
• It was only a brief blip, though: They're now tied at $158 billion, Bloomberg data shows.
• Ballmer spends his fortune on the NBA's LA Clippers, the Intuit Dome arena, homes, and more.

It's not often an employee becomes richer than a company's founder, but that's just what happened this week — at least briefly — with Bill Gates and his former assistant.

Steve Ballmer's wealth leapfrogged that of Gates, his former boss and Microsoft's cofounder. Bloomberg's Billionaires Index showed Ballmer's pulling ahead was short-lived, though: The men are now both worth $158 billion, as of late Friday, according to the index, which is sure to move again as the markets fluctuate.

Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as the company's first business manager and climbed the ranks to become CEO in 2000, succeeding Gates in the position. Ballmer remained CEO until 2014, when he passed the baton to Satya Nadella.

Here's a look at how Ballmer spends his vast fortune:

Ballmer owns the LA Clippers NBA team.

Ballmer is one of the world's wealthiest sports team owners.

He bought the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team in 2014, the same year he stepped down as Microsoft's CEO. He paid $2 billion, a record for the sale of a professional basketball team at the time.

He's bankrolling the Clippers' new arena, the Intuit Dome.

Ballmer says he's footing the bill to build the most expensive arena in the NBA. The Intuit Dome, which is still under construction in Inglewood, California, just outside Los Angeles, is expected to cost $2 billion.

(Ballmer added that his obsession with the arena is "toilets, toilets, toilets." The 17,500-seat arena will have 1,160 toilets and urinals, Bloomberg reported.)

In Washington state, Ballmer has purchased several homes.

Over the years, Ballmer has snapped up multiple homes in Washington state, where Microsoft is headquartered.

In 2019, he and his wife, Connie Ballmer, with whom he shares three children, paid $9.8 million to buy the home adjacent to their existing home in Hunts Point.

The couple began buying property on Whidbey Island in Washington in 2005.

Ballmer created and funds a website that focuses on government data.

In 2017, Ballmer launched USAFacts.org, whose website says it "makes government data accessible and understandable."

He told The New York Times that year that he'd spent upward of $10 million on USA Facts in direct funding and grants, and that it could cost up to $5 million a year to sustain.

The Ballmers in 2015 founded the Ballmer Group as a family office to support their goals.

The Ballmer family office funds organizations with the goal of "improving economic mobility and opportunity for children and families in the United States," according to its website.

Through the couple's philanthropic arm, for example, they've pledged $425 million to the University of Oregon for an institute for children's mental and behavioral health.

• LVMH's $15.8 billion Tiffany acquisition was its biggest ever — and was met with high expectations.
• Some investors are skeptical about the turnaround, but things are looking up at the jewelry brand.
• LVMH's playbook of marketing, price hikes, and store re-dos are setting Tiffany up to shine again.

On an April night last year, a veritable who's who — Blake Lively! Gabrielle Union! Hailey Beiber! Katy Perry in concert with the Rockettes! — made their way to midtown Manhattan. Many wore outfits with pops of robin egg blue.

They were there to celebrate the renovation, whispered to be the most expensive retail remodel ever, of the Tiffany and Co. Landmark store on New York's 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.

The store wasn't the only thing under renovation. When luxury giant LVMH shelled out $15.8 billion for storied jewelry company Tiffany in 2021, it faced outsize expectations. It was the conglomerate's biggest acquisition ever. It had also been a dramatic process, with LVMH trying to duck out of the deal and eventually buying Tiffany for hundreds of millions of dollars less.

One of LVMH's biggest challenges was reinvigorating the brand, which had taken a beating in the 2010s and become a mid-market version of its former self. Going from mass appeal to upmarket is tough in any industry, let alone in jewelry, where things move slowly. Plus, pushing an American brand further into the massive luxury market of China isn't easy, no matter the macroeconomic conditions.

That's led some in the industry to whisper that things haven't turned around with the speed LVMH boss Bernard Arnault would have wanted. It may just require a bit more patience.

"The perception of investors is, 'Tiffany's not working,'" Erwan Rambourg, the global head of consumer and retail research at HSBC, told Business Insider. But "I think if you speak to people internally at LVMH, they're super happy."

He continued: "To turn around a luxury brand is difficult, but to turn around a jewelry brand — it takes a lot more time than to turn around a handbag company or a ready-to-wear-heavy company."

Revenue-wise, things are already on the up. HSBC estimates Tiffany's sales will be $5.96 billion this year — up 83% from 2020. And while its EBIT margin is still lagging behind that of jewelry competitor Cartier, per the bank's estimates, it's set to hit 20% next year. Profits in LVMH's jewelry and watches division, which is predominantly made up of Bulgari and Tiffany, were up 7% last year. On the luxury resale site The RealReal, Tiffany is the most-searched jewelry brand of 2024 so far.

LVMH, which does not break out revenue for individual brands, did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

It looks as if the LVMH playbook — spending big on marketing, raising prices, focusing on the in-store experience — hasn't failed.

"I'm very confident about Tiffany, but it takes time," Arnault told Bloomberg last month. "You cannot do things instantly, you know?"

How Tiffany lost its luster

Since Tiffany first started buying diamonds in 1848, it has been a destination for the wealthiest and most prestigious Americans: It's where Abraham Lincoln purchased earrings and a necklace for Mary Todd to wear to an inaugural ball and where Theodore Roosevelt bought his engraved hunting dagger.

But by 2019, when LVMH first tried to buy Tiffany, the jeweler had decidedly lost its luster. Sales had fallen throughout the 2010s, and margins were low.

The brand had lowered pricing on its more accessible lines, selling bracelets and the like for $200 or even less. The result was that Tiffany went from outfitting first ladies to sometimes being seen as a has-been mall brand preferred by, as the head of global luxury goods at Euromonitor Fflur Roberts put it, the very traditional stereotype of a middle-class white American.

"You should be ashamed of selling products that are competing with Pandora if you aspire to be competing with Cartier," HSBC's Rambourg said, adding that, at the time of the acquisition, Tiffany was a sort of "sleeping beauty."

To make matters worse, it had developed an overreliance on silver, which had fallen out of favor with European and Chinese buyers, and its stores had become dated and obsolete.

"Asia is a humongous market for luxury, but lots of Chinese consumers were saying, 'when I go to Tiffany, it's like going to a hospital; it's cold, it's clinical,'" Rambourg said.

LVMH deploys its nearly bulletproof playbook

Paris-based LVMH is a brand of brands, and Bernard Arnault's baguette and butter is buying companies and making them blow up.

"It was really exciting to think that a brand that is traditionally very American and has a very strong American or North American heritage, that this big global luxury conglomerate is buying it with obviously a huge amount of industry knowledge and financial backing," Euromonitor's Roberts told BI.

LVMH has done it in jewelry before, with the more upscale Bulgari, which it purchased in 2011 (its classic Serpenti collection starts at $1,600). By 2019, the brand's revenue doubled, and profit increased fivefold.

"Bulgari became one of the top preferred gifting brands for Chinese high net worth individuals — that was a really good achievement," Jelena Sokolova, a senior equity analyst for Morningstar, told BI.

Meanwhile at Tiffany, LVMH is using a team of Cartier veterans. ("Arnault has been not so secretly obsessed with Cartier over decades," Rambourg said.)

Step one is marketing: Make people talk about Tiffany again — and use big names to do that. Even before the star-studded opening of the Fifth Avenue store, the brand brought in the big guns, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, in a multifaceted campaign incorporating a Basquiat.

Another campaign incorporated the slogan "Not Your Mother's Tiffany," a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that the brand needed a makeover, and a partnership with Nike brought it new relevance.

Next, there had to be a product rehaul. To sell itself as upscale, many products going for less than $300 were cut or their prices raised. Gold — popular in China — was incorporated more into collections, and it purchased a 71.26-carat yellow diamond to show its dedication to fine jewels.

There was also a renewed focus on branded lines, like the Lock and T collections, which are the "equivalent of putting a big fat logo on a bag," Rambourg said. The hope was that Tiffany products would become status symbols, the equivalent of a Cartier Love bracelet or Van Cleef Alhambra necklace, which is particularly desired in China.

"Their goal was to obviously expand the reach, so to make it more global, and to increase, Asia Pacific was No. 1," Roberts said.

The final and ongoing step involves renovating those dated retail locations. Not all will have the grandeur of the Landmark store, but there will be warmth, color, and an overall refresh.

The before-and-after store renovation, especially given "the obsolescence of the previous version and how colorful, welcoming, feminine and commercially efficient the new concept is," will be a big deal, Rambourg said.

Growing pains have tarnished Tiffany

But reviving a luxury brand isn't easy, and investors have been murmuring that Tiffany's turnaround hasn't met expectations. It's still Van Cleef Alhambra bracelets on the arms of influencers and celebrities — not Tiffany Ts. (Although Taylor Swift was recently spotted with a ring from the T line, which may change that.)

"Tiffany has been underperforming other jewelry brands in the last few quarters," Chiara Battistini, JPMorgan's head of European luxury and sporting goods research, told BI.

Part of it is the industry's nature: Fine jewelry is, by definition, not an everyday purchase.

Someone may buy a new pair of shoes every few months, allowing them to experiment with new brands and become a loyal shopper in no time at all. Jewelry is a rare splurge. When people shell out a paycheck or two (or more), they want it to be on something they know will have lasting appeal and are thus less likely to experiment. That means it takes longer for new trends — the Tiffany T, perhaps — to catch on and gain the status of a Cartier Love bracelet.

"At the very, very high end, the chances are you'll be a bit more careful because it's a huge investment, and you want to make sure that that fashion or trend will last," Roberts said.

China, specifically, has proven challenging. Nearly 50% of Tiffany's sales are still in the US, one of the most challenging markets for luxury at the moment. Macroeconomically, China has not maintained the post-pandemic growth many in the industry were hoping for.

There's also the sort of je ne sais quoi that can't simply be fixed with money. Hiring influencers and raising prices can only do so much to remove the tarnish of "uncool" from Tiffany, especially with younger consumers.

It "still needs to add to the fine jewelry offer with more contemporary, less intricate, and highly recognizable designs," Battistini said.

And regardless of sales growth, all of the brand work — the marketing, the store renovations — is expensive and translates to a temporary hit to profitability.

Tiffany still has time to shine

Since 1961, when Audrey Hepburn immortalized it in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the brand's Fifth Avenue flagship has held a romantic allure — it's also one of the brightest spots in LVMH's Tiffany takeover.

The Landmark, as it's called, underwent a massive renovation before reopening in 2023, including adding a café.

"Tiffany has been hugely successful with the Blue Box Cafe — it's a tourist destination in itself," Roberts said. "When you go into a Tiffany store, you're going to expect to have that amazing experience in customer service."

And if LVMH gets its way, the other pieces of its plan for Tiffany will similarly fall into place over time.

"It is a very long journey, especially in jewelry," Sokolova said. " You shouldn't expect that to happen sort of overnight."

The store renovations, which analysts agree are a key component of the strategy, are certainly happening gradually. There are about 300 Tiffany locations, and only 30% of them will be renovated by the end of this year, Rambourg said. It will take another year before half of them are up to the company's standard.

But once those renovations and the marketing blitz surrounding them are complete, margins will have a chance to catch up.

"This year, I believe Tiffany will underperform its jewelry peers because they don't have the appropriate retail setup. Conversely, whatever the macro next year, I'm quite convinced they will outperform strongly," Rambourg said.

In another bright spot, branded jewelry — just the thing Tiffany has leaned into — is set to continue to grow, including in China. Branded jewelry was only 15% of the market in 2019 and is expected to reach 25% to 30% of the market next year, according to a 2021 McKinsey report, with growth driven predominantly by Asia.

"It's a growth industry, not just a market share gain industry," Sokolova said."There's still an upside from switching from nonbranded to branded."

It's already having a trickle-down effect: On The RealReal, demand for the brand is up 14% from last year.

And quite simply, there is the fact that LVMH very rarely fails and is taking its signature approach full speed ahead. "Whether it's handbags, whether it's Champagne, whether it's cognac" — or whether it's jewelry, LVMH's attitude, Rambourg said, is "Let's do what we do in every single other sector. Let's dominate."

• Mirna Valerio is an ultramarathoner who runs the "Fat Girl Running" blog.
• She wants people to know that anyone can be a runner.
• Valerio gave four tips for people wanting to get into running, no matter what they look like.

Mirna Valerio is well aware that she doesn't look like a stereotypical runner. That hasn't stopped the founder of the "Fat Girl Running" blog from running 11 marathons and 16 ultramarathons.

Valerio, 48, started running in high school as part of field hockey training. Apart from a brief interlude when her child was young and "life got stressful," she continued running to keep herself "fit and sane" she told Business Insider.

Valerio first gained attention as a "plus-sized runner" in 2015 when she was featured in an article about her blog.

But things took a negative turn in 2017, when a clip from a documentary about her released that year went viral. It featured a hate email she'd received that accused her of trying to kill people with the idea of fat acceptance and lying about her running ability. Ironically, the email came through while she was running a 50 km race.

But far from tearing her down as the sender perhaps intended, the attention from the video spotlighting that email actually led to an influx of followers and brand partnerships.

Now, Valerio is a full time influencer and sponsored athlete. She loves that she gets to spread the message that anyone can be a runner, as long as they run, which is important because of how "wonderful" running is for "every aspect of your life," from your mood to your physical health, she said.

"We've been fed this narrative that there's a certain look to running," she said. "And that's what I'm out here fighting daily."

Her message is particularly pertinent at a time when running has become the latest fitness trend — 400,000 videos have stacked up on the more athletic side of Tiktok, #runtok, mostly in the last two years, and the majority feature slim, white runners.

Maybe it's a hangover from habits started during COVID-19 lockdowns — data by Nielsen for World Athletics suggests that a fifth of all runners run more now than they did before the pandemic. Whatever the reason, more millennials are taking up running than previous generations — 62% of millennial Strava users uploaded runs to the app, compared to 51% of Gen X and only 29% of boomers, according to Strava's 2023 trend report.

If starting running feels daunting, Valerio has four tips for beginners.

Forget what you think running should look like

Valerio said it doesn't matter what you look like, "athletics is for everyone."

"Other people will have ideas about what it means to run, how you should look, and how fast you should go. But that stuff can coexist with your curiosity and your want and need to explore running," she said.

Try to focus on your own happiness and the joy that comes from moving your body instead, she said.

Build up your confidence

Valerio acknowledged that it's hard to completely put aside ideas of what running "should" look like.

So get started by building up your confidence, as well as your fitness, with incrementally longer runs.

"Maybe you just go out for five minutes the first time, then 10 minutes, then 15. And then eventually you find yourself at an hour, not even thinking about all that stuff because you're so focused on your own happiness," she said.

It's OK to be slow

Don't worry about being slow when starting out, Valeria said.

You should be running at a "conversational pace" anyway, she said, meaning you can say a sentence or two without gasping for air.

"A lot of us start out running too fast or thinking that we have to be sprinters. But you should start at a pace that's sustainable," she said.

Just keep running

The main thing, Valerio said, is to go for a run. "And then do it again. Give yourself a rest day, and then go out there again," she said. "Don't have any expectations of yourself, just get out there."

It doesn't matter if you're slow or have to take breaks, she said — "don't ever feel bad about that. You're giving your body a chance to reset so you can run again."

• Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski broke down why it's important to promote internal talent.
• Siemiatkowski said raising younger employees to higher positions was the right choice.
• Companies have reduced promotions and high-salary hires, demoralizing younger workers.

While companies have been getting stingier with promotions in recent years, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's philosophy has been quite the opposite.

Siemiatkowski said on a podcast episode of "The Logan Bartlett Show" on June 28 that after cofounder Niklas Adalberth left the company in 2015, he wanted to create a new management team through internal promotions.

The buy now, pay later fintech was a decade old at that point, which allowed him to raise people into upper management positions despite cautionary warnings.

"Everyone had advised me, oh, these people are too young for that," he said. "You know, kind of typical startup advice, and it was the opposite. It was the right thing — these were proven individuals."

And many of them are still with Klarna.

Current CTO Yaron Shaer was promoted from senior engineering manager to director of engineering despite only being with the company for just under two years at that point. David Fock, who joined in 2010, became chief product and design officer after five years.

"There's a reason why, if you go to very traditional industry companies, like industrial companies or these things, they almost never hire senior executives from outside," Siemiatkowski said.

The CEO pointed to Volvo Trucks as an example. Siemiatkowski said they don't hire "some senior guy off the street" who does not have the understanding and familiarity of their products as an experienced employee does.

"You have to work there for 20 years," he said. "There's a reason for that."

While employees may like this sentiment of nurturing internal talent, employers have veered in the opposite direction in recent years.

Business Insider previously reported that, based on data compiled by Workday, businesses spanning all industries promoted fewer employees in 2023 compared to the previous year.

With high-salaried hiring in one of the biggest slumps of the past decade, companies have been able to be more frugal with fancy promotions, which can be especially demoralizing for the younger generation.

However, Siemiatkowski, who became a CEO at just 23, said that he thinks it's "critical" to allow younger employees to progress with the company.

Siemiatkowski said he's "willing to bet more even if they're junior and even if they're learning, but allow these people the same development and learning that I myself had."

• The Philippines wants to buy its first submarine as tensions in the region mount.
• Experts say their money would be better spent on drones and missile boats.
• There are powerful symbolic reasons for the Philippines to join the sub club.

Amid rising tensions with China, the Philippines is planning to buy its first submarine.

The Philippine government says this reflects a shift from internal counterinsurgency against rebels to external defense of the nation's sovereignty as China's military power grows in the South China Sea. But some experts question whether buying a sub makes sense given more cost-effective weapons to counter China, or whether it will even happen.

"There are a lot of folks inside and outside of the Philippine Navy saying, 'maybe this isn't the best use of our money," Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, told Business Insider.

In February, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that his nation would buy a submarine, as part of a long-term modernization of the Philippine armed forces. A Philippine Navy spokesman added that this reflected the Philippines shifting from internal to external defense. "We may not be a large navy … but we would have a navy that will take care of our territorial rights and sovereignty," he said.

China and its neighbors have been at loggerheads for the past decade, after Beijing claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including islands and resource-rich waters. Multiple nations — including Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines — reject those claims, as did an international tribunal in 2016.

In recent months, the Philippines and China have clashed over an unlikely prize: the Sierra Madre, a rusting ex-American amphibious landing ship from World War II, which the Philippine Navy grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to assert its rights over the area. China has tried to stop the Philippines military from resupplying the small garrison on the ship, including ramming Philippine ships, and using water cannon, lasers, and even axes and knives.

However, Poling doesn't believe that the sub acquisition is tied to this incident. Plans to buy a sub date back to the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist whose attempts to embrace China sputtered. "The Philippines is in the last third of a 15-year military modernization plan to move from an internal counterterrorism-focused force to an external defense force," Poling said. "And that mainly means pumping more money into acquisitions for the navy and air force."

Though an American ally, it couldn't afford or operate the nuclear-powered models that the US builds. France, Spain, South Korea and Italy, which build diesel-electric subs, have expressed interest, the Philippine Navy has said. Diesel-electric submarines are relatively tough to detect before they surface to intake fresh air, and a small number of them could complicate China's efforts to encroach on atolls and islands by force.

But that leaves the question of how readily the Philippines Navy can operate a submarine. Its combat fleet mostly consists of small missile boats and patrol craft, plus two frigates and a corvette. Other Asian powers, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, have subs. But Malaysia experienced major problems when it received French-built submarines in 2009.

Submarines are a "wildly expensive capability for any country to field because it is an entire ecosystem," said Poling. " You've got to build a submarine base. You've got to have trained crews."

The Philippines may not even have the money for a diesel submarine, which can cost $500 million apiece. "The key determinant here is the fiscal capacity of the Philippines," Mark Manantan, director of cybersecurity and critical technologies, at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum think tank, told Business Insider. "According to some individuals within the defense and security establishment, purchasing a submarine will possibly eat up the entire defense budget."

Still, there are powerful symbolic reasons for the Philippines to join the sub club. It demonstrates success in ending a 50-year-old Communist insurgency, as well as a more recent rebellion by Islamic militants on the island of Mindanao.

"There are two complementary things going on here," said Poling. "One is the rise of China as a threat to the Philippines. The other is the pretty rapid advance of the peace process in the southern Philippines, along with the degradation of the Philippine Communist Party."

And as with many nations, there is a desire to keep up with the neighbors. "Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have subs, so we should have subs, too," Poling said.

A single submarine would do little to change the power imbalance between the Philippines and China. Nor would it be useful against the sort of low-key, gray zone warfare that Beijing is waging in places, such as harassing the Philippine ship beached on the Second Thomas Shoal.

Rather than a $500 million diesel sub, a better option would be to acquire cheap but powerful weapons such as missiles, drones and small missile boats. Indeed, the Philippines recently took delivery of Indian-made BrahMos anti-ship missiles, with a range of around 180 miles.

"I don't think that you'll find any Philippine naval analysts who would stump for a submarine," Poling said. "They want BrahMos missiles or fast missile boats."

Ironically, one country that won't care about a new Philippine sub is China. "I don't think the purchase of submarines would have any deterrent effect at all," said Manantan, who believes China may also be counting on future Philippine governments to cancel the project. "The Chinese understand the volatility of Philippine domestic politics, particularly the in-fighting and rent-seeking dynamics among competing political parties. So Beijing is just biding its time up until a new administration sits that it can persuade or at least influence.

Ironically, one country that won't care about a new Philippine sub is China. Beijing is more concerned with alliances that Manila is pursuing, such as a new agreement that would allow the Japanese military — whose forebears committed atrocities against Filipinos during their WWII occupation — to use Philippine bases.

"This would be the first time since World War II that Japanese forces have been able to conduct live-fire training in an Asian nation," said Poling. "That worries China."

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• Daniel Pietschnig and Jessica Madalena thought they were emailing their real-estate agent.
• But it was really a scammer who had been sending the couple messages for weeks.
• The scammer convinced them to wire their $32,430 down payment to a fake bank account and vanished. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Daniel Pietschnig, 32, and Jessica Madalena, 31, who lost a $32,430 home down payment to a scammer in 2022. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

Daniel: We live in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. Compared to other major cities in the state like Jersey City and Newark, it is a smaller area.

Jessica grew up in Wood-Ridge; her mother and grandfather grew up here, too. Since her family is from the town, it was somewhere we wanted to start our lives together.

There's not a lot of availability here. Whenever a home goes on the market, it gets scooped up right away and for over the asking price.

When we found our house, we thought we were pretty lucky. It has a lot of potential and was almost move-in ready: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and very well-kept.

We closed on the house in November 2022 and were under contract in September. That month, we were supposed to pay our down payment.

We had been saving up for a little under a year. Before Jessica and I lived together, I had my own home and sold it, making a little bit of profit from the sale. I used a combination of that money, along with what we had been saving, for the down payment.

Jessica: It all happened in about 10 days. On September 9, we wired $32,430 to who we thought was the home seller's attorney. We didn't realize until our actual down payment due date of September 19 that we had been scammed.

They seemed to hack our real-estate agent's email

Daniel: The scam happened over the course of a couple of weeks. It was surreal.

We had been working with a real-estate agent who was a family friend of Jessica's. Her parents had used her for a couple of transactions, so she was trusted.

Somehow a hacker got into her email account, and then was able to get all of our transaction information.

Through email, they made up a fake story and convinced Jessica and me to send our down payment to the bank account of the "seller's attorney" instead of dropping it off at the real attorney's office.

I thought it was a little bit weird, but I didn't really think much of it. We thought we were talking to our attorney, the seller's attorney, and our real-estate agent.

For a few weeks, we thought everything was okay. But we got a call from our real attorney, and they said, "Hey, your down payment is due today." I was like, "What are you talking about? We sent it two weeks ago."

I called the seller's attorney, and he explained that the email account was not his, and the bank account wasn't either. I was in shock and my heart dropped.

It turns out, the scammer spoofed our attorney's email address by changing one or two of the letters to make it seem real. They even took a signature from a previous email he had sent us to make his look like they were legitimately from him.

We found out the only real email address in the thread was our real-estate agent's, but she wasn't the one communicating with us. She told us via text message that her email account must have been hacked — that it was her email address, but she didn't write it.

Editor's note: The real-estate agent referred BI to the owner of her brokerage for comment. He said that he has "no firm evidence we were hacked," that wire fraud is an issue for everyone in the real-estate industry, and that this is the only instance he can recall where scammers succeeded in taking money from homebuyers.

We'll never recover our lost money

Daniel: After discovering the scam, the first person I called was Jessica.

It was me who had sent the money, and I felt like I let everyone down. I was overwhelmed with guilt because I didn't know if we could still get the house.

Jessica: When I found out, I was so emotional, I just started bawling. I felt like everything we had worked for had been ripped away from us. I also felt violated, thinking about what else they could do with our Social Security and bank account information.

Daniel: After talking to Jessica, I called my bank to explain what happened. They said they would try to contact the bank where the money was deposited, but there's no guarantee that after two weeks they'd be able to recover any of our money.

We contacted the FBI, who told us to speak with our local prosecutor's office. I reached out to them and they suggested filing a police report.

A detective who investigated our case told us that our money was transferred to an overseas account and turned into Bitcoin.

At this point, we're realistic that we probably won't recover any of our money.

Homebuyers should be more aware of real-estate scams

Daniel: Throughout this ordeal, we learned that scammers often succeed by creating a sense of urgency. They also tend to strike on Fridays, knowing that financial institutions close for the weekend. By the time banks open on Mondays, your money is already gone.

From my experience, I would advise that if you receive an email or text that seems to be from your agent, attorney, mortgage company, or anyone involved in the transaction, always verify by calling them. That's where you could save a lot of headache and heartbreak.

Of course, what happened to us is not my favorite thing to think about, but the more we talk about it, the more we can raise awareness about these types of scams.

One of the first things I told Jessica when the scam happened was, 'No matter what, we're getting this home. This is where we start our lives.'

In the end, we do consider ourselves winners because we did exactly that.

The home was listed for $562,900, and we paid $540,000 for it. We were fortunate to receive help from our family for the down payment. They gave us $25,000, and we paid the remainder of the $32,430 down payment from our savings.

Despite what happened, it truly does feel like our home.

Jessica is a talented interior designer, and together we've made subtle cosmetic improvements. Her stepdad was here almost every day helping us paint, and my dad assisted with the electrical work. It was a real team effort with our family.

Right now, we're focused on moving forward and celebrating — we're even getting married in August.

• Jennison Grigsby, an American mom and yoga teacher, moved to Spain nine years ag.
• She is raising her bicultural son, Luca, with her Spanish husband.
• Grigsby values Spain's affordable and diverse summer camps and the strong community.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennison Grigsby, an American mom and yoga teacher who lives in Valencia, Spain. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I've been living in Spain for nine and a half years. I met my husband about 11 years ago when I was taking a little sabbatical from life. We decided to move to Valencia temporarily, thinking we would return to the US after a couple of years, but we ended up loving it so much that we decided to stay.

My husband is from Valencia, so we have his family here. We're well-connected in the local and expat communities, making us feel at home.

We have an almost 9-year-old son named Luca. Although he's half-American, he's very Spanish. He's lived in Spain his entire life and really connects with the culture. All his friends are Spanish, and he spends a lot of time with his Spanish side of the family, who help us out a lot.

We go back to the US as a family at least once a year, usually during summer break, and every other year, we also go for Christmas. We're heading to California soon for a couple of weeks.

When we return from the States, Luca will attend two different summer camps. The first is with the Valencia Football Club (soccer), where he trains for a week but comes home every night. Then, once that's done, he'll attend an indoor soccer camp.

I love that most schools in Spain offer affordable on-site summer camps

Compared to the US, I found that most schools in Spain offer on-site summer camps at a low cost, focusing on sports and art activities. In the US, summer school is more academic, often used to catch up on subjects or get ahead for the next year. Then there are summer camps, which typically last a week but can be expensive.

In Spain, summer camp options include on-site school camps with sports and arts, sleepaway camps, or day camps without overnight stays. Kids start going to sleepaway camps in the summer for one to two weeks when they're a bit older, usually around 10 to 12. Some parents find it exciting that their kids can go off on their own for a bit. The challenging part is that there are usually no camps in August, so we have a full month with fewer options. That's when most families choose to travel.

I find it quite nice that there are many different options for summer camp hours in Spain. Camps usually start at 9 a.m. and you can choose to have your child stay until 1 p.m., 3 p.m., or 5 p.m. The regular school schedule in June and September is also modified due to the heat, offering the same options. As a parent, you can decide the time you want your child to finish, and you pay for the extra hours, which include childcare, lunch, and activities.

Kids are separated by age at school, and have little overlap

My husband and I had our eye on a well-known Catholic school even though we're not religious because it's a big traditional Spanish school, and we wanted Luca to be exposed to more people, more sports, and more activities. It might be overwhelming for some children, but I love its strong community feel. The school has around 90 students per grade, divided into three classes of 30, and it accommodates kids from ages 3 to 18.

I like that different age groups are kept separate to minimize interactions and ensure younger kids aren't negatively influenced by older students. All the students are at school together; they see each other at some of the community events, but they're still able to stay in their age group. For example, the "infantil" students (ages 3 to 5) have their own entrance and exit, and primary school kids are kept together as a group so they don't cross paths with the older children. I find this careful organization creates a safe environment for younger kids, reducing the chances of bullying.

My son learns the local dialect at school

The school system we chose is called "concertado," a middle ground between public and private schools that are more like religious charter schools in the US, where families pay something. One reason we were attracted to these was its balanced language instruction. In public schools, around 70 to 80% of subjects have traditionally been taught in Valenciano, while kids speak Spanish on the playground and have English classes. In concertado schools, only about 25% of classes are in Valenciano, such as social studies and religion.

For families with no background in Valenciano, public schools can be challenging since it's hard to help their children with schoolwork in a language they don't know. Fortunately, my husband could help Luca with Valenciano.

For us, 95% of Luca's life is in Spanish. He speaks English only with me or when talking to my parents and other family members on FaceTime. At home, my husband and I speak English so that Luca can hear adult conversations in English, and most of his TV is in English. As a baby, his first language was English since I was home with him for the first three years. Once he started school, Spanish became dominant, but I constantly remind him to speak to me in English to help him practice and maintain his bilingual skills, and also so we can connect on a deeper level.

• Ed Sheeran branded the entirety of London as "sketchy."
• Sheeran made the comments in an episode of "This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von."
• Sheeran reportedly owns more than 20 properties in London.

Ed Sheeran branded the entirety of London as "sketchy" in a recent episode of Theo Von's "This Past Weekend" podcast — despite the pop star reportedly owning more than 20 properties in the UK capital.

Asked about the most dangerous part of the UK, Sheeran, 33, said: "Here? I'd say every area of London. Literally, every area is sketchy."

"The nice areas are sketchy, the bad areas are sketchy. But you just have to not do stupid shit," he told Von. "If you wander around with, I dunno, like a Louis Vuitton duffel bag and a 200 grand watch, you are going to get robbed."

"But just don't do that," he added.

According to the website crimerate.co.uk, the crime rate in London over a 12 month-period ending April 2024 was 106 crimes per 1,000 people.

The site says that Hackney in east London is the city's most dangerous borough based on Crime Risk Scores, which it says are calculated by taking the severity of crimes into account, while the safest borough is Richmond upon Thames in the southwest of the capital.

Sheeran's apparent reserves about London's safety haven't stopped the singer from investing in the city, however.

The MailOnline reported in 2022 that the Grammy-award-winning artist had built up a portfolio of 22 properties in London, including two spots in Covent Garden in the city's West End.

Nevertheless, Sheeran spends most of his time residing on a 16-acre estate in Suffolk, in the east of England.

The lavish estate reportedly has a barn that Sheeran renovated into a private pub, as well as its own chapel — where the singer even added a crypt.

A representative for Sheeran did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

While Sheeran is now one of the biggest names in music, he started out as a struggling artist who spent some nights sleeping rough in London as he attempted to make it big.

Writing about the early days of his career in his 2014 autobiography, "Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey," Sheeran recalled: "There was an arch outside Buckingham Palace that has a heating duct and I spent a couple of nights there. That's where I wrote the song 'Homeless' and the lines 'It's not a homeless night for me, I'm just home less than I'd like to be.'"

Per the book, it was while performing at a local homeless shelter that Sheeran met a sex worker and drug addict named Angel, who inspired his debut 2011 single "The A Team."

The song catapulted Sheeran into the limelight, and he has since gone on to amass a fortune of around £300 million (roughly $384 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2023.