I struggled to afford rent, so I built myself a tiny house. At 56, I moved in, and I'm finally a homeowner.

The author is living in her tiny house in her 50s.

Courtesy of Rasa Pescud: Living Big in a Tiny House

• As a freelance travel writer for 25 years, I thought I'd always be a renter in Australia.
• When COVID-19 stopped me from traveling, I decided to design and build a tiny house.
• At 56, I moved into my tiny house, the first home I've ever owned, and I couldn't be happier.

I never expected to live in a tiny house. I thought I'd always be a renter, and I accepted that. I figured that was the price I had to pay for my dream job as a travel writer. I was based in Sydney, but for 25 years, I effectively lived out of a backpack, traveling the globe and writing about it.

Then the housing crisis came knocking. My rent became increasingly unaffordable on my irregular, freelance income. I was 48 and single and wanted to live alone, but it was impossible to find even a studio apartment I could afford.

When I relocated to northern New South Wales for cheaper rents, I was priced out again. That's when I decided to downsize my life and live in a tiny house.

Tiny houses on wheels ticked all my boxes.

The author's tiny house.

Courtesy of Louise Southerden

By then, I was in my early 50s and began to crave something I'd thought would always be out of my reach: a home of my own.

I knew exactly the kind of home I wanted: something small and sustainable, almost like a cabin. I did a Natural Building course to learn about straw-bale houses and building with cheap, recycled materials.

But there was one big, persistent problem: I had no land to build on, and no way of buying any.

Then I heard about tiny houses on wheels, and they ticked all my boxes. They were inexpensive to build and to live in. You could park your tiny house on someone else's land for a small fee. Best of all, tiny houses encouraged the kind of minimalist lifestyle I'd grown to love on my travels.

I also loved that you could build a tiny house yourself, because they're small and there's no tiny house building code, at least not in Australia. Unfortunately, I had zero building experience.

I decided to build my own tiny house.

The author built the tiny house herself.

Courtesy of Caro Ryan

COVID-19 stopped me in my tracks and changed my life. Being unable to travel opened a window of opportunity.

I suddenly had an abundance of time and a government wage subsidy to live on (because my work was impacted by border closures). Building my own tiny house began to seem doable. My lack of experience actually made the idea more appealing. I'd been writing about adventure for years.

I did a tiny-house-building workshop, read up on the architecture of small spaces, and ordered a tiny house trailer.

I sought out help while building my house.

The author built her itny house with help.

Courtesy of Louise Southerden

I also enlisted a few helpers, the main one being my partner at the time, Max. A retired scientist and a talented woodworker, Max had all the tools we would need and, importantly, a place where we could do the build: the driveway beside his house.

By September 2020, we'd started work on the floor and the timber frame. Then came the windows, the cladding, and the roof. Max's best friend, a retired builder, helped out for the first couple of months to ensure everything was structurally sound. After that, Max and I worked six, often seven, days a week on the interior fit-out.

It was all intensely fascinating, exhausting, and stressful, because as my tiny house was coming together, our relationship began falling apart. It didn't survive the build, but we managed to keep working together.

After eight months, my beautiful little house was done.

Inside the author's tiny house.

Courtesy of Rasa Pescud: Living Big in a Tiny House

In May 2021, at the age of 56, I moved into my tiny house, the very first home I've ever owned.

My new home might have been mobile and small — just 23 feet long and 8 feet wide — but it gave me a sense of safety and security I'd never experienced before. It was such a relief, like finally anchoring in a quiet bay after being tossed around in a never-ending storm.

There's still uncertainty baked into this way of life because tiny house regulations haven't yet caught up to the popularity of this movement, and many of us still have to rent parking spaces for our tiny houses on other people's land.

Living tiny has completely changed my life.

The author enjoying her tiny house.

Courtesy of Louise Southerden

The uncertainty pales in comparison to the simple, everyday joys of living tiny, like: watching native birds as I eat my breakfast at the kitchen bench with all the windows open, writing at my desk with a view of the trees, sitting on my deck on warm summer evenings, and looking at the stars as I fall asleep in my cozy bed loft each night.

Tiny house life has also been immensely liberating.

After the build, I moved my tiny house from Max's land to a friend's property, where my weekly rent is less than half the average rent for an apartment in my area. I have no debt. I have time for long walks with friends and to volunteer in my local community garden. I have more time to write, too, and paid work doesn't dominate my life like it used to, when I was always struggling to make ends meet.

I know tiny houses aren't for everyone, but mine is my sanctuary, one that suits me down to the ground it's parked on. I honestly can't imagine living anywhere else.

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I quit JPMorgan, which didn't fulfill my American dream. Co-founding Hims and launching a startup taught me how to take smart risks.

Joe Spector is the founder and CEO of Dutch.

Courtesy of Joe Spector

• Joe Spector, from Soviet Uzbekistan, felt like he was living the American Dream working at JPMorgan in the '00s.
• He said he found working in startups more fulfilling, and cofounded the telehealth company, Hims.
• Spector left Hims in 2021 to launch Dutch. He said these experiences taught him about risk-taking.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Joe Spector, 45, the founder and CEO of Dutch, a veterinary telehealth company. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I decided to become an investment banker after watching the movie "Wall Street." It was the early 2000s, before working in Big Tech was sexy, and I thought a job on Wall Street was the epitome of success for a college graduate.

After graduating from UC Berkeley in 2001, I landed my dream job at JPMorgan in New York City in 2002, but I found it to be massively unfulfilling.

That's when I realized there was more to life than money — or at least more ways to make it than the rinse-and-repeat routine of investment banking.

Then I found startups. I gave up my comfortable salary to cofound Hims, and later launched Dutch, a telehealth platform that connects pet owners with licensed veterinarians. As someone from an immigrant background, I'm used to making something from nothing.

In the process, I learned how important it is to be really honest with yourself and open to feedback from others, to truly understand if a risk is worth taking.

Have you made an unconventional career move? If you're comfortable discussing it with a reporter, please fill out this quick form. We want to hear from people who have stepped out of or into corporate life in nontraditional ways.

I worked hard at college and graduated a year early

When my family arrived in California from the Soviet Union, now Uzbekistan, in 1990, I was 10 years old and in survival mode.

In the Soviet Union, no amount of smarts or effort would allow a Jewish person like me to rise to the top of a profession. America seemed like the land of opportunity.

I arrived in Fremont, California, with my family, with nothing but a red suitcase and some clothes. We moved into low-income housing and lived on food stamps for a long time.

My goal was to one day support my parents; theirs was getting me into a good school.

I started my undergrad at Berkeley in 1998 and busted my butt to do well. I didn't allow myself to travel or explore college life. I graduated early, in three years instead of four, and was still in survival mode.

I asked myself: "What's the best-paying job I can get after college?" The answer, then, was investment banking.

Going to business school made me realize I could be an entrepreneur

When I started at JPMorgan in 2002, I thought, "Oh my God, I'm living the American dream."

I started with a base salary of $55,000, growing to six figures over the years. It wasn't uncommon to get bonuses of 100% or more, and they made up a large portion of my total pay.

I enjoyed the critical thinking, but the work became repetitive, and the hours were crazy. It was like a boiler room. People used to get angry over misplaced spaces or grammatical errors in PowerPoint presentations. It was unnecessarily intense, in my opinion, and massively unfufilling. I knew I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing this.

Many of my colleagues were in the "work hard, play hard" mindset. We'd spend a ton of money on the weekends to try to feel better about the awful week we'd had.

In 2004, I decided to leave, but I stayed for another year to prove to myself that I wasn't a quitter. My get-out-of-jail-free card was a place at the Wharton School for an MBA in Finance and Real Estate in 2005. I was 25.

Meeting people who were businesses — not just seeing them on TV —stripped away the mystique around entrepreneurship and was a turning point in my journey. They were real and making things up as they went along. It made me realize that I could do it too.

My parents wanted me to go back to my safe job at JPMorgan

My first startup out of Wharton was a dating website and it failed: it launched in 2006 and shuttered in 2008. But it taught me that you can only learn by doing. Most of all, I realized how much I loved startups — they were thrilling and showed me how fulfilling it could be to create products that improve people's lives.

I didn't cofound Hims until 2017, when I was 37. That was more than eight years of my parents asking, "Why don't you go back to that safe job at JPMorgan?"

I have three kids, aged 8, 11, and 13, and there were times when I had to take a job just to get health insurance. In my heart of hearts, though, I knew that I loved early-stage entrepreneurship and wanted to create something out of nothing.

Hims started trading publicly in January 2021.

illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images

Hims was a classic Bay Area story. I was back in California and people I knew connected me to other founders. The idea for Hims came from a whiteboard brainstorm.

I helped found the company that connects consumers with licensed healthcare providers, and very early on, we could see traction. We raised a seed round, and the rest is history.

I'll never forget getting our first billion-dollar unicorn valuation in 2019. From then on, I was making about $214,000 a year. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd ring the New York Stock Exchange bell, like I did in 2021 with the other co-founders and members of the executive team.

Joe got a puppy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courtesy of Joe Spector

During COVID-19, like so many other American households, I got a pandemic puppy and faced veterinary bills in the thousands, like when we had to take our dog, Eddie, to urgent care after he ate some trail mix.

As a problem solver who runs to the fire, I decided to leave Hims behind in 2021 and start Dutch. It's scary — and not great — to bring your salary down to zero, especially when you're married with young kids. But I believed in myself and so did a bunch of other people.

We've raised tens of millions of dollars, and I'm earning six figures again. It's amazing, and I'm very proud of our team.

Joe Spector's dog, Eddie, helped inspire Dutch.

Courtesy of Joe Spector

Have honest conversations before taking big risks

I've learned this about taking risks: It's really important to have honest conversations with yourself, the people you trust, and others.

Talk to your customers and potential customers. They have answers for you. That can help you understand if your idea is a gimmick or something that could make things cheaper or faster, or make people happier.

Don't take a risk just because you're unhappy and want to do something else. Be honest with yourself and open to honest feedback from others to really understand if the risk is worthwhile.

JPMorgan did not provide a comment when contacted by Business Insider.

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Trump's Fed shortlist is narrowing, but a final choice could be months off

President Donald Trump's shortlist to lead the Federal Reserve includes National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller, and former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh

Reuters

• President Donald Trump has narrowed down his list of potential next Fed chairs.
• Trump recently said he had a "top three." There might also be two other finalists.
• Prediction markets now favor Kevin Hassett, a Trump economic advisor.

President Donald Trump has narrowed down his shortlist to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell, but don't expect a decision anytime soon.

Trump recently told reporters that Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller, director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett, and former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh were "the top three."

CNBC reported on October 10 that two more names also made the cut: Fed Gov. Michelle Bowman and BlackRock Fixed Income CIO Rick Rieder.

Powell's term expires next May, but hasn't stopped the White House from aggressively searching for his replacement. CNBC reported that the next round of interviews may stretch until after Thanksgiving. The Fed will have a vacancy in 2026, meaning Trump's pick could enter the central bank with a full 14-year term as governor.

Here are the leading contenders.

Kevin Hassett

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Before joining Trump's orbit, Hassett advised a succession of Republican presidential nominees on economic policy, including George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.

As of October, Hassett is the favorite on PolyMarket and Kalshi, two of the leading prediction markets. Hassett is a much more commanding favorite on Kalshi.

During Trump's first term, Hassett served as director of the president's Council of Economic Advisors. He returned to the White House during the COVID-19 pandemic and was severely criticized for publishing a model showing coronavirus deaths hitting zero by May 15, 2020.

In October 1999, Hassett cowrote with journalist Jason Glassman "Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting From the Coming Rise in the Stock Market." Some economists have heavily criticized the book, largely because the index took more than 22 years to reach that threshold.

Christopher Waller

Prediction markets favor Fed Gov. Christopher Waller as the replacement for Fed Gov. Jerome Powell.

Patrick Semansky/AP

Fed Gov. Christopher Waller told CNBC that he thought his interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went "well."

"I mean, it was a lot of discussion about various aspects of talking about various speeches I've given my points of view, they've kind of wanted to follow up on tales of it," Wall said in October. "I just thought it was great. I mean, it was really there was nothing political about it. There was nothing. It was all serious economic discussion. So that's why I thought it was brilliant."

Bessent, himself once a contender to replace Powell, is leading the interview process to narrow Trump's shortlist.

Waller, a longtime regional Fed official, was seen as a convention pick when Trump nominated him to the central bank in 2019. Simultaneously, Trump also nominated Judy Shelton, a former campaign advisor and a Fed critic. The fight over Shelton's nomination soon spilled over onto Waller's.

In December 2020, the Senate confirmed Waller 48-47, the narrowest margin for any Fed governor since 1980, per The New York Times.

In July, Waller joined Gov. Michelle Bowman (another Trump first-term pick) in opposing the Fed's decision not to cut interest rates, the first dual dissent in more than 30 years.

Kevin Warsh

Former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh speaks during an event at the Hoover Institution

Ann Saphir/Reuters

Trump told reporters in September that Hassett, Waller, and Warsh were "the top three" to replace Powell.

Back during his first term, Trump reportedly considered Warsh to lead the Fed before he chose to nominate Powell in 2017.

Warsh spent his early years at Morgan Stanley, working as a specialist in mergers and acquisitions. President George W. Bush nominated him to the Fed in 2006 after Warsh served as an economic advisor in the Bush White House.

Drawing on his Wall Street ties, Warsh played a pivotal role in the central bank's response to the 2008 global financial crisis. When he left the Fed in 2011, the Times called him the Fed's chief liaison to Wall Street.

From the sidelines, Warsh has echoed Trump's criticism of Powell, calling for "regime change" at the Fed.

"The specter of the miss they made on inflation, it has stuck with them," Warsh told CNBC in July. "So one of the reasons why the president, I think, is right to be pushing the Fed publicly is we need regime change in the conduct of policy."

Michelle Bowman

Michelle Bowman

Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Bowman was not in Trump's "top three," but that doesn't mean she's out of contention.

CNBC reported that Bowman was one of two additional hopefuls to the final five.

In 2018, Trump appointed Bowman to the central bank. After confirmation, she was reappointed in 2020. In June, she was narrowly confirmed as the vice chair of supervision.

Bowman started as an intern for Sen. Bob Dole. During the George W. Bush administration, she held posts at FEMA and the Homeland Security Department. She was vice president at Farmers and Drovers Bank in Kansas, her family's bank, before becoming the state's top banking official.

In September 2024, Bowman became the first Fed governor to vote against an interest rate decision since 2005. In July, she again voted against holding rates steady, though this time Waller joined her dissent.

Rick Rieder

Rick Rieder is seen in 2019

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

There's also a big Wall Street name on Trump's shortlist.

Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock, has spent decades on Wall Street, dating back to his time at Lehman Brothers. According to CNBC, he and Bowman were two additions to Trump's top three.

Rieder is responsible for managing roughly $2.4 trillion in assets, per Blackrock. He's served as a member of the Fed's Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets.

The hopefuls who likely missed the cut

Jefferies' David Zervos, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan, and former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard were reportedly once on Trump's shortlist.

Reuters

Trump's shortlist at one point reportedly had almost a dozen names.

CNBC reported that the following are no longer under consideration: David Zervos, Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist at Jefferies; Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan; former St. Louis Fed President James "Jim" Bullard; Fed Gov. Philip Jefferson; and Marc Sumerlin, a former economic advisor to President George W. Bush.

Former Fed Gov. Larry Lindsey told CNBC that he withdrew from contention.

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How to get Michigan Wolverines tickets: Men's college basketball in 2025 and 2026

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Isaac Wasserman/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

With summer in the rearview mirror, school is back in session, and with it comes college sports. Basketball season is bouncing its way forward soon. For college fans in the Midwest, this is particularly exciting as it brings forward the hope of getting another highly coveted championship banner to hang. Sadly, this feat hasn’t been in the cards for the team for over thirty seasons, but fans haven't lost hope. If you're one of them, I've broken down how to get Michigan Wolverines tickets to help you see it live.

Fast-forward from the 1989 championship, an event emblazoned in triumphant memory for the team, to the coming season. The team is fired up, and fans are excited to see their team break the repeated missed shots at floating back into the spotlight of their once legendary former hoop dream.

In this piece, we’ll give you a heads-up about the schedule for the coming season, the team rivalry games that folks may be most interested in, and the information about how, when, and where you can snag your courtside tickets to hopefully witness the claws coming out for the 2025-2026 Michigan Wolverines basketball season. So grab your jersey and have a seat while we get you the deets on where you can hear that sweet swish of savings from StubHub and Vivid Seats.

Michigan Wolverines Men’s 2025 to 2026 basketball schedule

Michigan’s new season begins with a newly rotated roster that brings fresh blood to the court as well as some team favorites. Basketball season is approaching fast. The first game of the season is an exhibition game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. It’s going to be an exciting season this year as the team goes for glory, hoping to win their second NCAA championship, which they haven’t been able to sink the hoop since 1989.

Date	City	StubHub prices	Vivid Seats prices
Season Tickets	Ann Arbor, MI	$961	N/A
October 17, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	N/A	$66
October 25, 2025	New York City, NY	$88	$84
November 3, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	$18	$17
November 11, 2025	Detroit, MI	$40	$42
November 14, 2025	Fort Worth, IN	$197	$181
November 19, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	$28	$29
November 24, 2025	Las Vegas, NV	$144	$143
November 25, 2025	Las Vegas, NV	$144	$143
December 6, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	$49	$73
December 9, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	$93	$100
December 13, 2025	College Park, MD	$46	$48
December 21, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	$46	$46
December 29, 2025	Ann Arbor, MI	$25	$30
January 2, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$64	$71
January 6, 2026	University Park, PA	$75	$48
January 10, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$99	$108
January 14, 2026	Seattle, WA	$85	$94
January 17, 2026	Eugene, OR	$99	$112
January 20, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$59	$87
January 23, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$115	$126
January 27, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$48	$59
January 30, 2026	East Lansing, MI	$266	$275
February 5, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$42	$42
February 8, 2026	Columbus, OH	$77	$79
February 11, 2026	Evanston, IL	$34	$84
February 14, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$120	$120
February 17, 2026	West Lafayette, IN	$278	$287
February 21, 2026	Washington, D.C.	$174	$177
February 24, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$52	$59
February 27, 2026	Champaign, IL	$127	$12
March 5, 2026	Iowa City, IA	$53	$50
March 8, 2026	Ann Arbor, MI	$213	$196
March 10-15, 2026	Chicago, IL	$1,020	N/A

• Browse all of our ticket coverage here. Follow our Instagram and WhatsApp channels for more deals and buying guides.

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How to buy tickets for the Michigan Wolverines Men’s Basketball’s 2025 season

Eight of the team’s games this season can be purchased on Ticketmaster. The cheapest game is the November 19th game against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders, which costs $25.

If you’re looking to get tickets to the cheapest game of the season, you can get pairs of tickets for $17 or 18 each to watch the Wolverines go against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies from resale sites.

The hostess and most expensive game of the year is the Big Ten Tournament, which will take place from March 10th through 15th in Chicago. Tickets are over a grand and are already selling out fast. They are some of the hottest tickets of the season.

The next biggest game of the regular season is against Indiana on February 17th. Tickets to that game are $287-292 each for pairs of seats or singles seats for $247.

Buying tickets in pairs can sometimes show tremendous differences in pricing. The January 17th game in Eugene is a great example. On Vivid Seats, you can pay $38 each for pairs of tickets versus $129 or $106 for a single seat.

Who is playing against the Michigan Wolverines?

The team finalized its non-conference schedule at the end of August. Its exhibition and Big Ten 20-game schedule is currently being populated. The March 10th-15th Big Ten games are already selling out fast on Stubhub. They aren’t currently available anywhere else.

Their non-conference games are the following:

• Monday, November 3: vs Oakland Golden Grizzlies

• Tuesday, November 11: vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

• Friday, November 14: vs TCU Horned Frogs

• Wednesday, November 19: vs the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

• Monday, November 24: vs. San Diego State

• Tuesday, November 25: vs. Auburn

• Wednesday or Thursday, November 26 or 27: vs. TBD

• Tuesday, December 9: vs Villanova Wildcats

• Sunday, December 21: vs LaSalle Explorers

• Monday, December 29: vs McNeese State Cowboys

• Saturday, February 21: vs. Duke

Who are the Michigan Wolverines Men’s Basketball players?

The team has lost some of its previous hot players to transfers and contracts elsewhere. Last year's team leader, Vlad Goldin, signed a two-way deal with the Miami Heat. Junior forward Danny Wolf was selected by the NBA draft to go to the Brooklyn Nets.

Justin Pippen, son of former NBA Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen, transferred to California. Jace Howard transferred to Fordham. Sam Walters transferred to SMU. Point guard Tre Donaldson has transferred to Miami. Guard Phat Phat Brooks transferred to Michigan's other team, Central Michigan.

This leaves the team with some openings for players to jump higher into their potential.

Thankfully, new players are coming forward to round out the roster, along with one player who is eligible because of his redshirt status provided to them via the NCAA's COVID-19 medical waivers.

Six-foot-five powerhouse shooting guard Nimari Burnett is going to be getting a sixth year at college ball this year. He's utilizing not only the COVID-19 redshirt but was given another medical redshirt for the 2021-2022 season, as he didn't play a single game that year when he was playing for Alabama. His third and final year with the Wolverines is filled with anticipation for the college star known for sinking the most three pointers on the team last year.

Other returning players include guard LJ Cason, forward Will Tschetter, and guard Roddy Gayle Jr. New players transferring onto the team include former North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau, former Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., former Arizona and University of Alabama forward Yaxel Lendeborg, and former UCLA center Aday Mara.

Lastly, there will be several freshmen added to the team roster. Those players include guard Trey McKenney, forward Winters Grady, small forward Oscar Goodman, and small forward Patrick Liburd.

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I founded my company while sailing around the world on a boat. It made $20 million in revenue last year.

Luke Barwikowski founded his company while sailing through New Zealand.

Courtesy of Luke Barwikowski

• Luke Barwikowski is the CEO and founder of Pixels, a video game that utilizes blockchain technology.
• He founded the company while traveling through New Zealand, the Pacific, and Africa.
• Today, he splits time between his camper van and sailboat.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Luke Barwikowski, founder and CEO of Pixels. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was raised in a very stereotypical Michigan family. My dad worked for a steel company, and my mom worked for a church. I'm hugely grateful for my childhood and my wonderful parents, but I knew that life wasn't for me.

I started coding when I was 12. I didn't tell anyone because I was embarrassed. Back then, coding wasn't cool; it was weird. Plus, no one in my town knew anything about the tech world.

I studied computer science in college and thought I'd get a job as a software engineer. At the same time, I developed a passion for the outdoors after seeing the amazing places people were rock climbing on YouTube.

I felt torn, unsure whether to build my life around tech or pursue an outdoor career.

I left a good job to travel, and my family couldn't understand

While I was still in college, a company offered me a fully remote job that paid $130,000. That was more than my parents made, and I was only 19. Still, I turned them down. I'm glad I did, because I needed my time at the University of Michigan to mature.

After college, I took what my family would consider to be a good job. It didn't last long. I decided to start my own company. I thought I could work hard for a year and make enough money to travel.

Luke Barwikowski's company did $20 million in revenue in 2024.

Courtesy of Luke Barwikowski

I saved about $30,000 that year. It wasn't a ton, but it was enough to get me to New Zealand. My family thought I was nuts. No one travelled far, and risk-taking wasn't celebrated. They were worried about me and couldn't understand why I'd left a good job behind.

Fellow travelers didn't get why I was working so hard

I was in New Zealand when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I spent two months in a cabin by myself with no internet. I was almost constantly in a state of flow, and during that time, I invented the product that would become Pixels. I would work on it offline, then drive 30 minutes to access the internet to push my code.

As the world began to open up, I continued to travel. I sailed from New Zealand to Fiji on a sailboat with a broken bilge pump. The owners couldn't afford to fix the pump, so each night I would crawl into the hull and sponge up water. After that, I worked on Pixels until the early hours of the morning.

Luke Barwikowski's parents didn't understand why he turned down jobs.

Courtesy of Luke Barwikowski

None of the backpackers I was traveling with could understand why I was spending so much time on my computer. I figured I could build the business in a city apartment or from a sailboat and a tent in Kenya. I chose the adventure, and was willing to take some judgment from my fellow travelers.

I secluded myself again to figure out the problems with the company

Over the next few years, Pixels began to receive more attention from accelerators and investors. This was validating to me as a founder, and also really important. I didn't have any entrepreneur mentors until then.

Still, there were plenty of low points. In 2021, I was convinced the company was going to fail — so convinced that I took a job farming potatoes in Idaho. During the drive, I was accepted into a Bay Area accelerator. By the end of the accelerator, I still hadn't solved the problems, so I rented a cabin for a month by myself and set to work.

When I came out, I had Pixels as it exists today. The company gained traction like never before and experienced rapid growth. Last year, we did $20 million in revenue.

I sail and camp while running my company

Early on, I gave up a lot of my freedom to start the business. That left me feeling burned out.

After talking with one of my investors, I realized that I can be a CEO and also live a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Even as a founder, there are numerous inefficiencies in the day. I was doing busy work because I was anxious about the company.

Today, I'm in the Utah desert, camping in my van. Here, I have no distractions. I can really focus on work, and thanks to technology, I have a great internet connection anywhere. I can run my company and explore.

When I attended the Bay Area accelerator, the other founders were talking about how much money they needed to retire. They were naming millions, but I just wanted $100,000 to buy a sailboat.

I recently bought my boat for about that amount. Sailing and camping make me a better CEO. This lifestyle keeps me in the best possible mental state, allowing me to produce high-quality work.

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Gold's incredible climb shows no signs of slowing down

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

• This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Good morning! I am far too old to know what the "cool kids" are wearing these days, but swag tied to AI companies certainly seems to be having a moment. (Don't send me hate mail if this is actually cringe.)

In today's big story, gold hit yet another record. Here's what it means, whether it can continue to rise, and how you can get in on the gold-buying action.

What's on deck

Markets: There's a controversial crypto token quietly smashing everything else in the market.

Tech: For Google employees, it's use it (AI healthcare tool) or lose it (health coverage).

Business: Think new cars are too expensive? It's not much better if they're used.

But first, gold on the ceiling.

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The big story

A golden era

Gold bars of various sizes lie in a safe on a table at the precious metal dealer Pro Aurum

Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images

Another day. Another record-setting gold price.

The precious metal has continued its incredible climb after cracking the $4,000 barrier earlier this week. On Wednesday, gold set another record, peaking at $4,049.

It's been that kind of month quarter year for gold, writes BI's Samuel O'Brient. The asset is up a shocking 53% in 2025.

Remember, this is gold we're talking about. Not bitcoin or some high-flying meme stock. It's supposed to be the sleepy store-of-value asset that you buy and pray you never have to actually use. Now it's outperforming — checks notes — Nvidia??

Several factors are at play here. As we covered before, uncertainty always makes gold an appealing investment, and there's certainly plenty of that these days. Inflation's stickiness also has investors looking to gold.

Central banks buying up gold as an alternative to parking their cash in other currencies (I'm looking at you, US dollar) is also impacting things. Some, like billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, say the shift is a bad sign for the US, signalling gold has completely overtaken the dollar as a safe harbor asset.

Dominick Reuter/Business Insider

But can gold stay … golden?

BI's Jennifer Sor compiled notes from strategists across four firms analyzing if gold's rally has legs. Most see it continuing into 2026, albeit at a much more modest pace.

Bank of America also made the case for this being the end of the golden era. Gold's extended rally is entering rarified air (prices have risen steadily for seven consecutive weeks only 18 times since 1970) and the $4,000 mark is 20% above its 200-day simple moving average, meaning a correction could be on the docket.

Still, I know what you're thinking: I want in on the action.

If that's the case, a trip to Costco might be in order. BI's Dominick Reuter has a step-by-step guide on how to buy gold and other precious metals from the warehouse club. (Yet another benefit BI's Steve Russolillo is missing out on.)

But before you go all Scrooge McDuck, make sure you're in it for the long haul. Gold isn't always super easy to quickly sell (unless you're willing to offer some discounts). So you might need to invest in a safe, or start digging a hole in the backyard.

Just don't let the neighbors see.

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3 things in markets

New York City Mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani.

Al Drago/Getty Images and Spencer Platt/Getty Images

1. This crypto coin is crushing the market (and it's not bitcoin). Binance Coin is up 129% in the last year, soaring past the gains made by bitcoin and ethereum. That's likely thanks to wider crypto adoption and crypto treasury plays pushing it higher. But some crypto enthusiasts online are skeptical of BNB's surge.

2. Gold's rally has turned heads this year, but silver and platinum are leading a broader rush into hard assets. Spot silver is up around 69% year to date after touching its record high of $49.57 on Wednesday. The rally isn't just about inflation hedging or interest rate expectations — it reflects something deeper, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank wrote.

3. Enough of this stock market bubble talk. There are a lot of discussions about a bubble in AI stocks, but what if the historical playbook we're using is broken? Even equity strategists at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs published new research outlining why there's no AI bubble. BI's Joe Ciolli breaks it all down.

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3 things in tech

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

1. Google told employees: If you want health benefits, sign up with a third-party AI tool. The company announced that employees who want health benefits must give access to a third-party tool, according to internal documents reviewed by BI. Google updated its policy after publication of this story. "Our intent was not reflected in the language on our HR site," a Google spokesperson told BI.

2. Virginia is for data centers. Permits were filed for 54 new centers in the state in the first nine months of 2025, according to BI's tally. Most of them came from one tech giant. The permits show how developers are building bigger and more power-hungry data centers, some of which consume as much power as a small city.

3. How Hollywood creatives are actually using AI — and what they're worried about. A new study surveyed 174 Hollywood professionals to offer a rare snapshot of how their industry actually uses AI. About 8% said they used AI in every step of their creative process, from organizing their workflow to writing scripts.

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3 things in business

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

1. The used car pricing apocalypse is back. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a scramble for used vehicles. Now, thanks to tariffs, supply-chain slowdowns, and automakers cutting back on new vehicle options, used-car prices are creeping up. So if you're shopping for a used car, you might want to hurry up.

2. Why America's disconnected youth are growing. There's a rising share of young Americans who are not in school, not working, and not looking for work. Workforce experts point to a mix of economic, cultural, and psychological forces, and one potential solution involves destigmatizing blue-collar work.

3. Zohran Mamdani agrees with Elon Musk on one key goal. Despite their major differences, Mamdani recently touted Musk's focus on efficiency and waste at Crain's New York Business Mayoral Forum. He said it's not just a right-wing concern, and that it should be "at the heart of any politics for working class people."

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In other news

• Bernie Sanders calls for 'robot tax' to protect workers from the impacts of AI.
• AI data centers are driving up electricity bills. Energy-saving hacks might not help lower them.
• This Midwestern gas chain just cut in front of Wawa, Sheetz, and Buc-ee's as the best convenience store in the US.
• Sam Altman touts ChatGPT's 800 million weekly users, double all its main competitors combined.
• I don't watch TV. I don't watch movies. I just apply for jobs.

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What's happening today

• Fed Chair Powell and Treasury Secretary Bessent speak at Community Bank conference.
• Federal judge hears arguments in attempt to block National Guard deployment to Chicago.
• PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines report earnings.

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Dan DeFrancesco, deputy executive editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

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