Tag: News

• China's economy is struggling, leading to a surge in gold purchases as a safe-haven asset.
• Central banks are on a gold-buying spree, contributing to record-high spot gold prices.
• Other central banks are also snapping up gold to diversify their assets on the back of a strong greenback.

China's economy is in a funk and people are rushing out to buy gold as a safe-haven asset to hedge against economic uncertainties, sending prices of the precious metal to record highs.

The country's central bank has also gotten into the act, adding 60,000 troy ounces of gold to its stash in April, according to official data released on Tuesday. It marked the 18th straight month the People's Bank of China was piling in on gold.

But it's not just about economic uncertainty. The heightened interest in gold is also a pushback to the strong US dollar, which is making it too expensive for emerging nations like China to import goods.

The Dollar Index — which measures the value of the green against a basket of six other currencies — has risen 4% this year and 10% since the start of 2022. This is due to the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes since March 2022, which tend to strengthen the dollar.

The Chinese yuan has lost 1.6% against the dollar this year to date. It's down 4% over the past 12 months and about 12% lower against the greenback since the start of 2022.

Other central banks are also loading up on gold. Big gold buyers include China, Turkey, and India, the World Gold Council, or WGC, wrote in a report last week.

"Accounting for almost a quarter of annual gold demand in both those years, many have attributed central banks' ongoing voracious appetite for gold as a key driver of its recent performance in the face of seemingly challenging conditions: namely, higher yields and US dollar strength," wrote the council.

In all, the world's central banks bought 290 tons of gold in the first quarter of this year — the strongest start to any year on record, per the WGC.

Central banks are not done buying gold

Even though central banks have bought a whole lot of gold since 2022, they may not be done yet, said the WGC.

"Not only is the long-standing trend in central bank gold buying firmly intact, it also continues to be dominated by banks from emerging markets," the WGC added.

Emerging market central banks that bought gold in the first quarter of the year include Kazakhstan, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, and Poland.

There are political motivations for central banks to diversify their assets, too.

"It has become apparent that in some cases, nations that are not allied with the United States have begun to look to reduce their reserve mix away from dollars, as they perceive the risks of keeping these reserves vulnerable to sanctions," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a March report.

Governments aligned with the US are also adding gold to protect themselves against higher and more volatile inflation globally, the JPMorgan analysts added.

The rush into gold assets may not bode well for the US dollar in the longer run, should the currency continue to gain.

"A stronger USD would weaken its role as reserve currency," economists at Allianz, an international financial-services firm, wrote in a report on June 29. "If access to USD becomes more expensive, borrowers will search for alternatives."

The spot gold price is now around $2,330 an ounce, off its record highs above $2,400 an ounce in April.

• Summer is approaching, and that means ditching bulky outerwear for new work styles.
• Business Insider spoke to style experts about what's hot and what's not for the upcoming season.
• Here's what finance workers should be wearing to work this summer.

The weather is heating up, and it's time for finance bros to update their wardrobes along with it.

With Wall Street having mainly returned to the office, the investment bankers and workers who power firms like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup have had to ditch their sweatpants for tailored suits again. But some of them are struggling to readjust to non-stretchy garments, it would seem.

More and more white-collar workers are relying on stylists to elevate their work wardrobes. The gig can earn fashion experts tens of thousands from merely one client.

And it seems like the finance and Silicon Valley guys hiring these style arbiters have the right idea. Lately, tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos — possibly by way of his fashionable fiancée Lauren Sanchez — have been featured in publications for what they're wearing instead of what project they're working on.

So, Business Insider asked some style experts — and a finance bro — which brands and styles those on Wall Street should check out for their summer workwear.

Men's fashion consultant Reginald Ferguson told BI that he wants his clients to remain "modern, yet classic" in their daily attire. Here's what he and others had to say.

Tops

Peter Millar and Charles Tyrwhitt were two brands suggested to BI by an early-career investment banker who asked to remain anonymous to protect his career.

Style consultant Ferguson also nodded to British retailer Charles Tyrwhitt, calling it a good "starter kit" for workwear. Those in their first year as associates tend to take advantage of its "multibuy" deal that discounts shirt prices — about $100 for most styles — when you buy in bulk.

Meanwhile, Peter Millar is more on-trend with its use of athletic fabric in work attire. The shirts categorized as a "workweek" style go for about $250 on the official website.

It's a "luxury golf brand that was smart to expand its line for its client to wear other garments while not on the course," Ferguson told BI.

Bottoms

Those who dress the wealthy have touted Italian brand Zegna for its range of classic to casual looks. Pants from the company typically go for under $2,000.

Kiton, another high-end brand with origins in Italy, is "the grail for the partner of the firm," Ferguson told BI. The high price point might indicate why it's the choice for more seasoned —and higher-paid — employees.

Pants from Kiton can cost anywhere from around $1,000 to over $4,000 for cashmere trousers.

"The fabrics they choose are luscious, and yes, everyone can tell when you are wearing a Kiton suit," Nicole Pollard Bayme, CEO of LA-based styling firm Lalaluxe, said.

Footwear and accessories

Zegna's TripleStitch sneakers cost about $1,000 and have gained quite a following among the wealthy.

"In a breathtakingly short time, the Zegna TripleStitch has become the defacto shoe of private jet travel," Bayme told BI.

And while our style gurus didn't comment on specific brands for accessories, perhaps workers can take inspiration from tech leaders about which watches are in.

Billionaire Bill Gates has been seen wearing a $70 Casio watch, for example, while Oracle CTO Larry Ellison is said to have an extensive Richard Mille collection that can range from six figures to even more for one timepiece.

Meanwhile, when in doubt, sunglasses are always a functional way to make your outfit look cooler.

• Vincent Peters worked in military compliance when he was poached to work at SpaceX. 
• He said the work culture was ruthlessly efficient and you could see Musk on the office floor. 
• However, if you need your hand held, the former employee said to avoid Musk's companies.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a transcribed conversation with Vincent Peters, founder of Inheritance AI and former SpaceX employee discussing his career path and experience at SpaceX. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I graduated from West Point in 2005 at 23. Shortly before graduating, I was diagnosed with allergy-induced asthma. So I graduated on medical leave, couldn't be deployed, and continued on medical leave for another six months before being discharged.

Because I didn't have any internships or corporate experience, it took me a while to transition into the workforce. Once I did, I went on to work in many different industries.

The beginning of my corporate career

I got a contractor job with the Federal Aviation Administration through a friend and gained experience doing business administration, research, and development.

From there, I got work more aligned with my degree in systems engineering and technology as a security project manager at Freddie Mac. I stayed in banking but moved into working on compliance and risk management.

I then left the banking industry to partner with one of my best friends from West Point, who owned a tech company, 2 Twelve Solutions. We worked in "authority to operate," certifying what technology can be used for US Government military missions. We got the opportunity to pitch our services to SpaceX.

I was introduced to people on the SpaceX Mission team, and ultimately, they asked me to interview with them for a job at SpaceX. After a long process with multiple conversations, they offered me a job doing information compliance and assurance.

At first, I said no, but after their counteroffer, I had to tell my friend, "I love you, but I'm going to go work for SpaceX." I started in November 2018. My primary role was showing government clients that SpaceX was compliant.

My first project was the Commercial Crew program where astronauts needed to be returned to the International Space Station by US space capabilities. SpaceX was one of the companies awarded that contract. I was brought on to engage with NASA and show SpaceX was compliant. From there, I supported some of the Department of Defense customers and the beginning of the Artemis program to return to the moon.

What it's like working at SpaceX

SpaceX is the most efficient company I've ever worked for. Instead of having a manager and a list of tasks, I was asked to sit in on meetings and add value to projects aligned with my interests or expertise.

I thought I would get fired every day during the first six months. There was no one there to tell you what to do. In the military, there was a change of command. At SpaceX, you ask yourself, "How do we do this thing? How do we do it safely? How do we do it so that it's a good value for our customers?" Then you figure it out.

There were no boundaries in my role as long as I was adding value to whatever I was working on. For example, someone would ask if I was interested in flight software, and if I were, I'd be invited to attend those meetings.

The directive was if I was in a meeting and it was adding value to what I did daily, stay, or if I was adding value based on my expertise, stay — but if neither of those things were happening, you should get up and respectfully walk out.

In one instance, a government customer came in with a 50-slide deck. Six slides into the presentation, 75% of the room had walked out. I had to tell him that if he didn't get to the point, I'd be the only person left in the room — and only because I had to walk him out. He skipped ahead to his last five slides. That kind of environment makes you much more efficient.

Also, everyone is accessible. You're all in cubicles, including Elon and the COO, Gwynne Shotwell. You can look up, be seen, and say to people, "Hey, I need this." It's very open and makes collaborating and getting to know people easy. The only fixed offices are for people who often need to have confidential conversations — like the head of human resources and the CFO.

Working on Starlink

I quickly found that once you're in the circle of trust within Elon Musk's companies, you get a job more easily at another company in the portfolio. For example, someone who started around the same time as me at SpaceX is running IT at X now — the culture is just to do whatever is required.

That mentality is how I started working on Starlink.

The Starlink team had several questions from the Canadian communications regulators. They wanted to know how SpaceX was handling Starlink customer data and the configuration of some Starlink ground systems that were built and maintained by SpaceX. With my background in government work and compliance, it felt like a natural fit for me to step in.

In 2020, I asked to help and was allowed to work on their projects in addition to my work at SpaceX.

The work is rigorous, but people are very accepting

SpaceX was probably the most accepting work culture I've ever participated in.

There also wasn't a lot of value placed on where people went to school. Some of the most intelligent people I worked with there were high school graduates.

Regardless of your background or credentials, it's a place where you have to be able to hold yourself accountable. It's assumed that you should know what you should be doing.

If you're looking for a boss to hold your hand and tell you what you need to do and how to do it, you will be disappointed working with Elon. But if you're looking for a boss who trusts in your decision-making, you'll thrive.

I ultimately left in February 2022 because I felt I was no longer learning. While SpaceX was one of my best work experiences, there seemed to be a high turnover rate where people would leave between their first and second years. After my third year, I was one of the most senior in my group, and there weren't many people to learn from.

My time at SpaceX has helped me run my own company

From there, I started my new project, Inheritance Art, in early 2022. We're working on various projects — from crypto to large language model services and even creating our own AI models. I'm enjoying the challenge, but I still look back fondly on my time at SpaceX.

Working at SpaceX taught me how to hire and manage people efficiently — I was never a fan of middle management, and my experience there showed me how to run an organization without it. Space X is a flat organization, and it works well that way.

• I wanted to subscribe to The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, for $12 every 4 weeks.
• Instead, the Post let me pay $2 instead.
• I'll take it! But the Post's discount underscores how difficult the subscription business can be.

I didn't set out to take Jeff Bezos's money. And I definitely wasn't trying to get one over on The Washington Post.

But that's just what happened: I tried to pay the Post, owned by the second-richest man in the world, $156 a year. Instead I ended up paying them $26.

This was all above board but most definitely accidental on my part. Some time ago, I lost my credit card, got a replacement one, and then had to periodically give my new information to the many, many companies that automatically bill my card every month or so: Verizon. Hulu. Netflix. Spotify. Spectrum, etc.

Some of those companies tell you the second they can't charge your old card, and tell you won't get any service until you give them a new one. Some give you quite a bit of leeway.

The Post was in the latter group — I'm pretty sure they let me go months without giving them a working card before they cut me off. Then I went a few more months without the Post. Which I missed!

So when I tried to read Shira Ovide's (excellent) piece about the iPad revolution that never was, I figured it was time to pony up again. I clicked on the polite message on the Post's site asking for new credit card info and prepared to give them $12 every 4 weeks. Just like I had before.

Except … I only had to give them $2 every 4 weeks, for the next year. The Post, unprompted, said it was offering the discount because of "the inconvenience" — which, again, was completely my own fault.

I'm well aware that anyone who runs a consumer subscription service spends a bunch of time on retention — trying to keep existing subscribers from churning out. (It's a particularly acute issue for streamers right now.) And that offering a discounted rate is one way those services try to keep a subscriber who tries to cancel, or to bring back one that's stopped paying.

Except: 1) I didn't ask the Post for a discount — I was getting ready to pay full freight and 2) That is some discount: 83% of my old rate, for a year.

Again, there are lots of people who specialize in subscriber retention at places like the Post, so I'm sure they have thought this through. The most obvious answer is that it's a long-term bet: They think I'm one of those people who doesn't spend a lot of time looking at my credit card statements, and that in a year, when the Post starts charging me $12 again, I won't blink an eye. Ditto when they eventually raise prices. And that the fact that I've been a Post subscriber for several years indicates I'm likely to stick around for some time. (They would be correct in all of these assumptions.) There may also be people on their advertising side pushing them to make sure I subscribe because they think I'll be a more valuable advertising consumer than someone who's reading the Post for free.

But I'm still surprised that the Post, whose well-documented business struggles have led to job cuts and new leadership, was willing to work so hard to keep me. It's a reminder of what a hard slog the subscription business is. Even if your owner is worth $200 billion.

• Anton Govor left his corporate finance career to become an Airbnb host on Lake Garda in Italy.
• His business, GardaDoma, has hosted over 3,000 guests and generates more than $250,000 in revenue.
• Despite earning less than in his previous role, Govor says he's finally fulfilled by his work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Anton Govor, a 39-year-old Airbnb superhost based in Brenzone sul Garda, Italy. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I'm the founder of GardaDoma and an Airbnb Superhost in Brenzone sul Garda, Italy. Since 2019, my seven properties have hosted over 3,000 guests, and our annual revenue on Airbnb exceeds $250,000.

I spent over a decade in corporate finance in Moscow. I started my career as an analyst at Ernst & Young, where in five years I progressed to a senior manager position.

In my last corporate role, I was a managing director for strategy at MOEX Group overseeing strategy, international relations, and innovations. From 2014 to 2019, I was deeply involved in the fintech venture capital area.

In 2018, I purchased a 17th-century house on Lake Garda from a 93-year-old local farmer and started the journey of GardaDoma.

I visited Lake Garda for the first time when I was 21

During a drive from Munich to Florence, I stopped in Lake Garda completely by chance. Its stunning views and the yachting, kite-surfing, and hiking available year-round made me fall in love with the place. For 10 years, I went on road trips across Europe, visiting Lake Garda each time.

When I visited Brenzone, the idea of establishing a family-run guesthouse popped into my head. Brenzone stands out as the most nontouristy and authentic spot on Lake Garda.

I bought my first property, a six-room building, from a local farmer for around $460,0000 and turned it into a vacation home for my family. I always loved using Airbnb when I traveled, so my family, friends, and I decided to start renting out rooms. I did this alongside corporate work for a year but soon realized I enjoyed hosting guests much more than working in finance.

I chose to leave my finance career behind

In December 2018, my second son was born at Lake Garda, and I took parental leave at our house. After two months, I decided I wanted to live in Brenzone full-time, not in a skyscraper in a big city, and left office work to become my own boss.

I quit my corporate career and immigrated to Italy from Russia.

My paycheck was a lot higher in finance, which made me accustomed to a higher living standard, but the job lacked purpose for me. When I started my Airbnb business, my income decreased roughly four times.

But now, whether I'm welcoming my guests, playing the guitar for them, or taking them on a boat trip, I feel immense fulfillment. Mine is a story about choosing happiness over money and following the path in life guided by my heart. I have no regrets whatsoever.

I work around the clock, but I love what I do

Even though I work long hours, I have a much better work-life balance and enjoyment than at my corporate job.

From 6 to 9 a.m., I work on reports and budget calculations and answer Airbnb booking requests. From 9 to 11 a.m., I spend time with guests at breakfast and check-outs and deal with all matters related to their comfort. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. I send dinner round-call messages to existing guests and Airbnb pre-check-in messages to arriving guests.

I devote 1 to 4 p.m. to property maintenance and planning the dinner menu with our work family, who take shifts in cooking. From 4 to 7 p.m., I welcome newly arriving guests. Dinner starts at 7:30 p.m., and I always spend this time with guests at the table.

During the low season, I plan expansion, check out apartments in the area for potential acquisition, and make partnerships for summer activities. In the high season — from Easter until the end of October — it's all about organizing events and activities and spending time with guests, which is my favorite part of the job.

The business has grown to include 10 friends and family members

Most tasks are handled by family members and friends. We greet each guest in person, offer customized recommendations, and are available 24/7.

The average cost per room is around $107, and the average cost per apartment is around $215 during the high season. Meals and activities are priced separately, though I often take guests on a hike or yacht ride for free since I love doing so.

A certain psychological disposition is needed for a job like this

We maintain the initial charm of personal hospitality — a differentiating point that our guests greatly value, as it's difficult to find. Our Instagram account makes us stand out and conveys our hospitality.

The key to success for every hospitality business is to create a loyal guest base who visit frequently and share positive recommendations. You have to greet guests in a manner that encourages them to return.

We respond quickly to customer feedback and improve the service. For example, we launched a family home where each floor had two rooms with shared bathrooms and soon started receiving feedback from guests that they loved an authentic, close interaction with hosts but prioritized comfort and privacy, especially private bathrooms.

The next season, we included private bathrooms in each room. Later on, we added apartments nearby, so guests can socialize at our guest house during meals while still having all the comfort of the private apartment rental.

• Noah Kagan joined Facebook as a product manager in 2005. He says he was fired nine months later.
• But Kagan says the brief stint taught him a lot about Mark Zuckerberg's management style. 
• Zuckerberg, Kagan said, only wanted to work with "A players" and believed in hiring and firing fast.

Early Facebook employee Noah Kagan may have worked for Mark Zuckerberg for only nine months, but he says the brief stint taught him a lot about Zuckerberg's management style.

"I was employee #30 at Facebook. Then I got fired," Kagan wrote in a an X post on Tuesday, before launching into what he called were the "10 non-obvious lessons" he picked up from Zuckerberg.

Kagan joined Facebook as a product manager in 2005, the same year Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard University to run the company full time. Since then, Zuckerberg has established himself as one of the most successful tech executives in the world.

But if Kagan's account is anything to go by, Zuckerberg already had a pretty solid idea of what his management style needed to be.

The Facebook founder, Kagan said, was highly fixated on recruiting "A players" to work for him at Facebook even from the early days.

"Mark would only hire people he would be happy to work for," Kagan wrote. "Even our customer support team was filled with Harvard Ph.D.s."

In fact, Zuckerberg's fixation on maintaining a strong talent pool meant that he was just as quick to jettison those who fell below his expectations.

"Hire faster, fire faster," Kagan said of Zuckerberg's approach toward talent management.

"My boss was fired the day I started. My next boss was fired a month later. I got fired in 9 months," Kagan continued. "Mark was intense about keeping A players only."

A Facebook stint from November 2005 to June 2006 is listed on Kagan's LinkedIn profile, and he's also written about his firing on his blog and an ebook.

In his ebook, Kagan said that he was let go after making several mistakes — including leaking Facebook's expansion plans to a TechCrunch journalist and handing in subpar work.

Representatives for Kagan and Zuckerberg didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Kagan's experience shows how remarkably consistent Zuckerberg has been when it comes to running the social media giant.

For starters, Zuckerberg is still pulling out all stops when it comes to bringing in top talent for Meta.

Back in March, The Information reported that Zuckerberg was recruiting artificial intelligence researchers to Meta with personally written emails.

And it's not just about recruitment. Zuckerberg is still just as ready to slash Meta's headcount to try to make it a leaner, more nimble organization.

In November 2022, Meta laid off more than 11,000 staff, with Zuckerberg saying just months later that 2023 would be a "year of efficiency" for the company.

"I don't think you want a management structure that's just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work," Zuckerberg told employees in January 2023.

• In 2020, Elon Musk announced that he would no longer own a home.
• As recently as April 2022, he claimed to be couch surfing.
• But documents from his custody dispute show that he's owned a relatively modest home in Austin for years.

Elon Musk has been posing as essentially homeless since 2020, when he publicly pledged that he would henceforth "own no house" and began offloading his various properties. As recently as April 2022, the billionaire Tesla founder claimed in an interview that he was couch surfing and didn't "even own a place right now."

But a Business Insider review of court records in his custody dispute with his former girlfriend Grimes reveals that by that time, Musk had made a quiet U-turn in his nomadic sojourn and purchased a home in Austin.

In redacted court filings from December, Musk said he purchased the home in February 2022 and that he still lives there.

"In February 2022 I bought the home on [redacted] where [redacted] and I still live," the complaint says, adding that Grimes and their children lived with him in the house from April to August 2023. The filing says Musk purchased the home after the address of a house he had been renting became public knowledge and "was no longer private and secure for my family."

Musk understandably withheld the address of the new property he bought, so all we know about the house from his public filings is that he purchased it in February 2022 and lived there as of December 2023. But Grimes' attorneys were less discreet in their filings, revealing an Austin location described as Musk's "self-reported residential address."

The house at that address was purchased by an LLC in February 2022 — the same month that Musk says he purchased the house — according to the deed for the property. The LLC was created shortly before the house was purchased and is overseen by a wealth-management company, according to records on file with the Texas Secretary of State. Musk and the manager of the LLC did not respond to a request for comment.

Business Insider is withholding the address for privacy reasons.

"It's incredibly common for people who are in the public eye to attempt to disguise their ownership with an LLC. For obvious reasons, they don't want people to know where they live. It's easy enough to set up and can help maintain that privacy," Stefan Cassella, a former deputy chief of asset forfeiture and money laundering with the Department of Justice, said. "For an extremely high-net-worth individual, I'd be surprised if they didn't hold their property under an LLC of some kind."

The house in Austin was first bought by a couple in 2018 after it was listed online for $4.5 million, according to property records. It was later resold in 2022 but was never listed publicly, records show.

While Musk has not publicly linked himself to the address, there are some signs the billionaire might be living in the Texas home. A neighbor told BI earlier this year that the home has around-the-clock security and that Teslas could frequently be seen around the property.

The neighbor said he'd heard that Musk lived at the property but had yet to lay eyes on the billionaire. The person said they'd seen Grimes there before she moved to California.

"I think he's been there one time or so," the neighbor said in a phone call, and that in late 2023 or early 2024, they saw "a Cybertruck pulled out, and like three other Model Ys — like a little escort."

When a Business Insider reporter buzzed an intercom outside the house's tall wooden gate last year and asked to speak to Musk, the man who answered paused. After about 10 seconds of silence, he said: "Sorry, sir. I'm unable to help you. Have a good day."

The house is not nearly as luxurious as Musk's former properties — at one point the billionaire owned a real-estate portfolio worth an estimated $100 million. In 2023, the Austin property was appraised at nearly $7 million, county tax records show.

The nearly 7,000-square-foot house was built in 2017, according to Zillow. BI is withholding some details to avoid identifying it.

'Selling almost all physical possessions'

Musk has yet to publicly acknowledge that he reversed course and purchased a home. In June 2021, he said he rented a $50,000 prefabricated home. Less than a year later, in April 2022, Musk said again that he didn't own a home and rotated between friends' spare rooms. The billionaire has also been known to sleep at X or Tesla's offices.

Business Insider previously reported that a Boxabl prefabricated house called a "Casita" had been delivered to SpaceX. At the time, Musk denied living in the modular house and said he lived in a different small house in Texas. But in July 2022, he said on a podcast that he uses a Boxabl as his guest house.

The billionaire initially said in 2020 that he was selling his possessions and abandoning homeownership in order to focus more of his finances on his long-term goal for SpaceX — colonizing Mars.

"I am selling almost all physical possessions," Musk tweeted at the time. "My gf @Grimezsz is mad at me."

About a year after he posted that, Musk sold his last remaining home, a $30 million mansion in San Francisco.

Over the years, reports have circulated regarding the billionaire's living situation. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk was living with his fellow PayPal Mafia member Ken Howery at his 8,000-square-foot house near the Colorado River in Austin. At the time, Musk denied the report in an emailed statement to BI.

"I don't live there and am not looking to buy a house anywhere," he said in the email. Eight weeks later, the LLC that purchased the Austin house was formed.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk was building a company town in Bastrop, Texas, complete with a private compound for Musk and a Montessori school. In his biography about Musk, Walter Isaacson said Musk had bought a horse farm near Tesla's Austin Gigafactory and had considered building a glass house on the land.

Do you have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com or using the secure-messaging app Signal at 248-894-6012

• Business Insider looked at how young adults aged 25 to 34 spent their money in 1989 compared to 2022.
• The findings show us how prices and habits changed since boomers were young adults.
• Young adults today are spending less on alcohol and paying less mortgage interest.

In 1989, you could see "Batman" and "When Harry Met Sally" in the movie theater. People wore brightly colored fashion and bought Nintendo Game Boy consoles.

In 2022, many people were still working from home amid the pandemic's disruptions to the workplace. They were wearing a lot of athleisure, and perhaps venturing back to movie theaters — this time to see "The Batman."

In the intervening 33 years, how young adults spent their money changed dramatically. Business Insider analyzed spending data for young adults aged 25 to 34 in 1989 — which would cover part of the baby boomer generation — and in 2022 — which would largely be people of the millennial generation — on various kinds of food, housing, education, and more.

Young adults in 1989 were spending more — when adjusted for inflation — on beef, alcohol, and homes they owned than this age group decades later in 2022.

Here's how expenditures looked between the two:

For this analysis, Business Insider compared average annual expenditures for households that were headed by 25- to 34-year-olds in 2022 to similar 1989 households. We used data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys program published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. BI calculated inflation-adjusted figures for 1989 using consumer price index data to put those costs into 2022 dollars.

We wanted to examine how spending for baby boomers when they were young adults compared to millennials who were around the same age in 2022.

The differences in average spending between young adults in 1989 and 2022 could be due to changes in prices or shifting habits.

Take a look at rented dwellings, for example. The consumer price index data for rent of primary residence suggests a lot of the increase between 1989 and 2022 is because of price increases but can also be explained by young adults being more likely to rent apartments.

Millennials and Gen Zers also have different habits and living situations than their parents' generations. For example, millennials are finding it hard to become homeowners in the US. Young adults who drink alcohol are consuming fewer alcoholic drinks on average than older peers in 2021-2023 or young adults back in 2001-2003, and diets have changed.

Taken together, the data offers a window into how young adults' budgets have changed over the last three decades, either due to rising costs for things like healthcare, seafood, fresh fruits, housing, and used vehicles, or due to changing habits and lifestyles. Below is a closer look at what's going on. 

Millennials are spending a lot more on healthcare and rented housing

Health insurance spending stands out between the average young adult in 1989 versus in 2022. After adjusting for inflation, the average young adult spent $755 in 1989. In 2022, it was over 200% higher.

A Bureau of Labor Statistics report from November 2023 by Grace Hill looked at the effects of the pandemic on healthcare spending overall and broken down by age groups and other groupings.

"The only age groups to increase overall healthcare spending in 2020 were the 25–34- and 45–54-years age groups," the report stated. "These age groups had the largest increases in health insurance expenditures: the largest component in healthcare spending."

Additionally, young adults in 2022 were spending more on rent and related expenses than was the case in 1989. Based on average data, young adults were spending roughly 60% more on apartments and other rented housing.

Millennials are spending less on used vehicles and mortgage interest

The average young adult in 2022 spent more on gas and motor oil than this group in 1989. However, they weren't spending as much on used cars and trucks.

Data not adjusted for inflation shows that used cars and trucks expenditures increased more than the CPI for used cars and trucks between 1989 and 2022.

A December BLS report about consumer expenditures said households in general, not just among young adults, spent more in 2022 on rent and related expenses and owned homes than in 2021.

"High home prices, high mortgage lending rates, and particularly high rental rates for apartments placed upward pressure on spending over the year," the BLS report said. "Mortgage interest and principal payments are essential expenditures for owned dwellings, and a rapidly changing mortgage environment sent an exogenous shock through the market."

The report added that the high 30-year fixed rate mortgage in 2022 led to "consumers on the margin out of owned dwellings and into the rental market."

While BLS doesn't directly track price changes for owned housing, it approximates them with a measure of owners' equivalent rent of residences, which is up over 160% between 1989 and 2022. Meanwhile, young adult spending for owned dwellings was up over 120% before adjusting 1989 expenditures for inflation.

Young adults in 2022 spent more money on fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood

Young adults in 1989 were spending less on fresh fruits and vegetables — as well as processed vegetables — than those in this age range decades later. The average young adult in 2022 spent 71% more on fresh fruits than their counterparts in 1989. Plus, the average young adult in 2022 spent 22% more on fish and seafood and 4% more on poultry.

While not the exact years we looked at for our analysis, an analysis from the Pew Research Center shows how food consumption has changed between 1970 and 2014 including a big increase in chicken and cheese per year.

We can also look at consumer price index data to see how inflation impacted food spending. Before adjusting 1989 data for inflation, young adults in 2022 spent 304% more on fresh fruits than young adults in 1989. Over that period, prices for fresh fruits based on CPI were up by nearly 170%, meaning that while part of the change in spending between the two years can be explained by price increases, young adults were also eating a lot more fresh fruit in 2022 than in 1989.

In 2022, young adults spent less on alcohol, beef, and dairy products

Average annual spending data shows that the average young adult in 2022 spent almost 40% less on beef than the average young adult in 1989. The average young adult also spent around 55% less on fresh milk and cream. The Pew Research Center report mentioned earlier also showed people were eating a lot less beef in 2014 than in 1970. The same was true for drinking milk.

Based on our analysis, the average young adult in 2022 was spending more on nonalcoholic beverages and less on alcoholic beverages than the average young adult in 1989. A Gallup post shows alcoholic beverage drinkers who were between 18 and 34 years old for 2021-2023, which would also include Gen Z, had an average of 3.6 alcoholic drinks in the past seven days. For 2001-2003, the average consumption was 5.2 alcoholic drinks among drinkers aged 18 to 34.

Our analysis shows young adults weren't spending as much on cereals and cereal products, which was defined as including "ready-to-eat and cooked cereals, pasta, flour, prepared flour mixes, and other cereal products such as cornmeal, corn starch, and rice," in 2022 as young adults in 1989. Based on reporting from multiple outlets, cereal's popularity has fallen while breakfast sandwiches, bars, and other items that are easy to take with you are now favorable.

• A Ukrainian tank crew was filmed lauding the Abrams tank as easy to drive and operate.
• One gunner said he learned to use the tank's weapons in a week, while another said the tank drove "like a scooter." 
• The report comes as Ukrainian state-backed outlet Army TV pushed back on an assessment that Kyiv withdrew its Abrams.

A Ukrainian tank gunner and driver were filmed heaping praise on US-supplied Abrams tanks in a state-backed media report, boasting that they've been easy to learn to operate.

"The first time I saw what was inside after the T-64, I thought it would take a month to get the hang of it," said the gunner, identified as Koka of Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, in a video uploaded on Tuesday by Army TV.

"But it's literally very fast. You can master it in a week," Koka said.

Inside the Abrams M1A1 used by his crew, Koka gave the cameras a tour of the internal systems. "There's nothing so complicated here," he told Army TV.

The military news outlet is run by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. The report comes after Pentagon officials told the Associated Press that Kyiv had withdrawn its Abrams tanks from the front lines over concerns they were vulnerable to drones.

Army TV pushed back on the assessment, writing in a caption that "despite rumors, no one took these vehicles away from the front line."

Unlike most of Army TV's YouTube videos, the report was notably titled and captioned in English, and not Ukrainian.

The video featured crew members from the 47th lauding the Abrams tank and alleging that the heavy-duty armor is still present on the front lines.

The Pentagon's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Tank driver Alexey said the Abrams' pedals and control apparatus made it "like a scooter."

"Is it easy to drive like a scooter?" Army TV's reporter Yevhen Nazarenko asked.

"Yes," said Alexey, smiling.

Clips showed the crew members driving Nazarenko around in the Abrams, but it's unclear when or where the video was shot.

Alexey and Koka's commander, Dmytro, told Army TV that the Abrams' armor was effective against Russian anti-tank missiles like the Kornet.

But they wished for dynamic plating to protect its flanks and turret, with Alexey saying the turret could be breached.

"It is said that it is the strongest," he said of the turret's armor. "That the 'Hand of Zeus' will not pierce it, but it is not so. Unfortunately, it is not so."

Ukraine was promised 31 Abrams tanks by the US in January 2023, with the first batch arriving in September after crews trained for months in Germany to operate them. US aid to Kyiv later stalled due to political resistance on Capitol Hill from Republican lawmakers, until a $61 billion aid package was voted through last month.

Weapons, ammunition, and military hardware from US stockpiles are expected to make up at least $25 billion of the funding.

The Abrams has defeated Soviet armor before, but several deployed in Ukraine have suffered setbacks. At least five of the tanks were lost in combat, and another three were damaged, The New York Times reported.

In late April, the Russian military displayed an abandoned Abrams M1A1 at an exhibition called the "Trophies of the Russian Army," which showcased NATO equipment seized during the war.

• New York City is now home to 349,500 millionaires. The city has the most in the world.
• Meanwhile, rising living costs are forcing lower-earning residents out of the city.
• Global wealth growth is driven by strong financial market performance, said Henley & Partners.

New York City is the metro with the highest number of millionaires, according to a ranking released Tuesday by immigration consultancy Henley & Partners.

Some wealthy residents moved out, but lots more moved in during the pandemic, bringing the Big Apple's millionaire count to 349,500 — more than any other city in the world,

With a population of 8.2 million, this means that one in 24 New York residents is a millionaire. The number is up 48% from a decade ago, per Henley's data.

With 60 billionaires, New York also boasts the title of the city with the second-highest number of ultra-wealthy residents, just behind the Bay Area's 68 billionaires.

The ranking may be further proof that New York is increasingly becoming a place for only the wealthy, as the cost of living in the city skyrockets.

Lower-earning residents are packing up. Nearly 200,000 New Yorkers making under $172,000 migrated out of the city between 2017 and 2022, according to a Fiscal Policy Institute report released in December.

For many, the exodus was a result of record-high cost of living. The average two-bedroom apartment in the city costs $4,950, up 26% from 2023, according to apartment finding site Zumper. Childcare has become impossibly unaffordable for many people, too — a family has to make about $300,000 a year to pay for childcare in the city. The median family income in the city is close to $75,000, which means 80% of the city cannot afford childcare.

Mark Radcliffe is one of many New Yorkers leaving the city to afford a better life.

Radcliffe spent over 12 years in New York City before moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma in September 2020, he wrote last year for Business Insider.

"I was paying $4,000 a month for my one-bedroom in the West Village," Radcliffe said about his New York rent. In Tulsa, his monthly expenses dropped to $2,000 a month. He managed to save enough to buy a three-bedroom home.

On the other side of the country, the Bay Area, which includes San Francisco and nearby counties, has the second-highest number of millionaires, at 305,700, per Henley's data.

The company reported that Miami, which is seeing an influx of America's ultrawealthy due to better weather and lower taxes, saw the number of millionaires rise 78% in the last 10 years, to 35,300.

In Asia, Henley said Tokyo had the highest number of seven-figure net-worth individuals, at 298,300, a 5% decline from a decade ago.

Singapore has become a hotbed for migrating millionaires due to its political and economic stability, and the absence of a capital gains tax. The city-state is fourth on Henley's global list of millionaire hot spots, and saw a 64% rise in the number of millionaires from 10 years ago. Given its smaller population of 5.92 million residents, it shares NYC's statistic of having one millionaire for every 24 people.