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Business Insider
4 minutes ago
- Business Insider
A millennial couple has lived 'for free' in their own home for 10 years by house hacking. The savings are allowing them to build their dream home.
Housing is the largest expense for most Americans. According to the last consumer expenditures survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it accounted for 32.9% of total household budgets in 2023. For Todd and Angela Baldwin, it's been 0% for the past decade. "We've actually never owned a property where we have a mortgage that isn't paid for by our tenants," Todd told Business Insider. He explained how they've managed to eliminate that major expense for years, and how it's changed their finances. Living for free in their own home by 'house hacking' The Baldwins bought their first home — a 6-bed, 4-bath outside Seattle — in December 2015. They moved into the master bedroom, kept the smallest room as an office, and rented the remaining four rooms. This strategy is known as "house hacking," in which you rent extra rooms (if you're living in a single-family home) or units (if you're living in a multi-family home) in order to offset or completely eliminate your housing costs — or, in the Baldwins' case, turn your primary residence into an income-producing asset. "Our house pays us $5,000 a month, so $60,000 a year," said Baldwin, noting that they've since sold their first home and bought a duplex to accommodate their growing family. Now, instead of sharing a kitchen and common space, they live in their own unit with their two kids and rent the other half of their duplex on Airbnb. They also converted their garage into a studio apartment that they list as a short-term rental. "With depreciation, that's all tax-free," he said, referring to the rental property depreciation deduction. The way he sees it, the $60,000 in annual rental income is about what he would take home if he had a $100,000 salary, "so if we look at the net income we make from living in our house, it's like our house is a $100,000 salary. But it's more than that because, also, our mortgage is free." 'Bullish on Airbnb': Listing short-term rentals vs. long-term Between their two Airbnb listings, they bring in about $9,000 a month, said Baldwin: "Some months it might be like $8,900, some months it might be like $9,400." BI reviewed a copy of their June earnings report from Airbnb, showing $9,500 in earnings. If their units were rented to long-term tenants, he estimates they'd bring in about half of that. Compared to long-term rentals, which they reverted to during Covid when people stopped traveling, Airbnb is "way more lucrative," he said. It helps that their occupancy rate is high, which he credits to the property's location. "I would love to have my ego stroked and say we're awesome hosts, but I think we just lucked out with this building," he said. "It's 10 minutes from the Seattle-Tacoma airport, but it's not directly in the flight path. We have a lot of people coming to stay because it's so close to the airport, but then you can take an Uber and get downtown in 20 minutes." He said another benefit of listing his units on Airbnb is that it protects him from dealing with potential squatters. "Airbnb guests are just that — they're guests, not tenants. So, they don't have tenant rights and they don't have squatters' rights, for example," said Baldwin. "So, if an Airbnb guest stays three nights and then refuses to leave, they cannot legally claim squatter's rights because there's no lease. For me, not only do I make double to triple the income, I'm also protected against people trying to squat and stay in my property and not pay." While some investors prefer mid- or long-term rentals, as they tend to be less hands-on and less risky, Baldwin says he's "very bullish on Airbnb." It still takes time, effort, and money to set one up, but "if the building is right, the property is right, and the location is good, anyone can make it work." Living without having to worry about a mortgage has changed the Baldwins' financial situation significantly. It has allowed Todd to take a step back from work — wholesaling real estate was his primary source of income — and divide his time between "dad mode and building our dream house," he said. Rather than hire a general contractor for the dream house, which will include an infinity pool waterslide, barn with a bowling lane, movie theater, and a cottage off the main home for his mom to live in, he's doing all the work himself. When his family moves in in the next couple of years, he plans to keep the duplex and list the unit they're currently living in on Airbnb. He and his wife bought the land — 2.5 acres overlooking the Puget Sound — for $735,000 in cash. He said his wholesale deals helped with the purchase, but "there's no way that we would be able to pay cash had we not lived for free for so long and been really smart with our investing strategy." Baldwin encourages all aspirational investors to consider house-hacking. "I know I'm drinking the Kool-Aid a bit, but I think everybody should live for free," he said. "I think of it this way: You need some place to live. You're either going to pay off someone else's mortgage — that's called renting — you're going to pay off your own mortgage, which is living in your house but not monetizing it, or other people are going to pay off your mortgage." It'll mean sharing space with roommates — and potentially many different roommates if you use Airbnb and have a lot of tenant turnover. But, "If you don't mind Airbnb and having a stranger in the unit below you or across the hall from you, then financially speaking, it's a no-brainer," he said. "Having other people pay off your mortgage seems like this crazy loophole, and it honestly surprises me that more people don't do it."
Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
A millennial made $300,000 secretly working multiple jobs — while tasked with catching others doing the same
A millennial's IT role involved catching people who were secretly working multiple jobs. He learned it was possible to go undetected, so he took a second job in secret, earning $300K annually. Job juggling helped him detect other overemployed workers, but nerves, tech, and ethics complicated it for him. Eric was paid to catch employees secretly working multiple jobs. Then he became one of them. A few years ago, Eric was working in an IT role at a large company. His job responsibilities included investigating three types of "illicit employment" within the organization: workers who outsourced their job responsibilities to overseas contractors, foreign actors who infiltrated companies by posing as legitimate hires, and employees secretly juggling multiple jobs without the company's approval. But Eric said there wasn't much suspicious activity to investigate, and that he was working as little as one hour each day. Then he had an idea: What if he took on a second job to boost his income? While Eric considered it, he initially held back because he was worried about getting caught. But that changed the following year, when his employer asked him to focus more on detecting job jugglers, and he realized just how difficult they were to identify. After weighing the risks, Eric applied for and landed a remote role, bringing his combined annual income to roughly $300,000. He said he only worked a couple of hours a day across the jobs. In addition to the financial benefits, Eric said he took the second job to gain an inside look at the " overemployed" world, one that might help him identify job jugglers. He said the firsthand experience helped him catch several employees who were ultimately fired. But this success came with a growing problem for Eric, one that ultimately cut his job-juggling journey short. He feared the very system he was building to catch others would end up catching him, and jeopardize his career. "It was like being the lead investigator on your own murder," said Eric, whose identity, employment, and income were verified by Business Insider, but who asked to use a pseudonym, citing fears of professional repercussions. "It was a wild time in my life." Eric, a millennial based in the US, is among the Americans who have secretly juggled multiple jobs to increase their incomes. Over the past three years, BI has interviewed more than two dozen "overemployed" workers who've used their extra cash to travel the world, buy expensive weight-loss drugs, and pay down student debt. To be sure, holding multiple jobs without employer approval could have professional repercussions and lead to burnout. Additionally, tech layoffs and return-to-office mandates have created obstacles for current and aspiring job jugglers. However, many overemployed workers have told BI that the financial benefits have generally outweighed the downsides and risks. Do you have a story to share about secretly working multiple jobs or discovering an employee is doing so? Contact this reporter via email at jzinkula@ or Signal at jzinkula.29. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. A spending spree and improved detection methods Eric never planned for his job juggling to last forever. While his initial concerns about getting caught eased enough for him to accept the second role, he still worried that he'd eventually be exposed. "I thought I could make some money real quick and get out," he said. But if his savings started ballooning due to his two incomes, Eric feared he'd get "emotionally attached" to the extra earnings, making it harder to walk away. His solution was to spend freely on things he'd normally avoid. He said he viewed job juggling like renting a luxurious car: fun while it lasts, but not something you do forever. "I was ordering stuff off Amazon all the time," he said. "It was like expendable income." In addition to unlocking this spending spree, working multiple jobs gave Eric firsthand insight into how people with multiple roles operated — knowledge that helped him sharpen his detection skills and catch job jugglers. "It really wasn't until after I had my second job that I started getting actionable outcomes from my investigations because I just knew exactly what to look for," he said. Eric said he used internal company activity data to look for behavioral patterns that could suggest someone was juggling multiple jobs, such as sudden swings in productivity during specific parts of the day. Some workers were highly active in the morning and quiet all afternoon, or vice versa. His thinking, based partly on his personal experience, was that job jugglers would split time between their two roles. "I'd go back historically and see that at one point they were working all day and now they're not," he said. "So it just came down to behaviors." When an employee's activity seemed suspicious, Eric said he'd contact their manager and ask how often the worker appeared on camera during meetings, whether they'd missed any lately, and whether their work quality had declined over time. If concerns persisted, he'd suggest the manager schedule a one-on-one video call during the worker's usual inactive hours. If the employee repeatedly asked to delay or reschedule the call, that would raise red flags, and the case could eventually be handed off to HR. The risk became too big to stomach Even as Eric's detection capabilities improved, he said he wasn't too concerned about his own work behaviors being flagged. But that changed when he discovered that a security software program used by both of his employers could detect when multiple devices were running the software on the same home network — an indicator someone could be juggling multiple jobs. While he wasn't certain it would expose him, the realization made him nervous. At the same time, he was having mixed feelings about the ethics of overemployment. So, after less than a year of working two jobs, Eric decided to drop one of his roles. "As I went further and further along, I realized I couldn't keep this up because I was building detections that were going to catch me," he said. While overemployment has become more common due to the rise of remote work, Eric said he doesn't think most companies are particularly concerned about it. His detection work occasionally comes up during job interviews, and from what he's gathered, employers generally believe job jugglers will either drop a job after burning out or reaching a financial goal, or be let go for underperformance. If catching overemployed workers isn't a big priority for most companies, many job jugglers might be able to avoid detection, at least in the short term. Looking back, Eric said he sometimes wonders whether he could have kept going a little longer. "I just felt like I was going to get caught, and I didn't want to lose my entire career, so I had to stop," he said. "But man, I kind of regret it sometimes. It was really good money."
Business Insider
10 hours ago
- Business Insider
A giant Elon Musk bust was spotted at a Utah national park with a sign calling out DOGE cuts
A giant Elon Musk bust appeared at Arches National Park in Utah over the weekend. The bust appeared aimed at DOGE-led cuts to the National Park Service. A spokesperson for Arches National Park said there has not been an increase in lines this year. A giant bust fit for a Big Tech museum appeared at Arches National Park in Utah over the weekend with a message aimed at the person it was molded after: Elon Musk. The piece was on a trailer that was being pulled by a white pickup truck, according to photos shared with Business Insider. The bust was enclosed in a frame lined with blue stars and also carried a sign fashioned after President Donald Trump 's signature style. Karen Henker, acting public affairs specialist for Arches National Park, confirmed to BI that the Musk bust was spotted in the park over the weekend. Nancy Charmichael, who spotted the head and shared the photos with BI, said it was probably around 10 to 12 feet tall and had a "self-satisfied smirk." Charmichael, who was visiting from Orlando, said she saw the bust a couple times while driving around the park and that she "appreciated it." She said she'd been concerned about recent cuts to the National Park Service. "It's unfortunate," she said. "But we were just there, they're still beautiful." It's unclear who was behind the piece, but it appeared to be in response to cuts made to the National Park Service that were fueled by the White House DOGE office. Musk was the face of government efficiency efforts before he stepped back from his White House work in May. Musk and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from BI. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, a park advocacy group, NPS has lost 24% of its permanent staff since January. "The park staff who remain are being asked to do more with less, and it's simply not sustainable," the group said in a statement this month. The recently passed spending bill, aka the " Big Beautiful Bill," also cut $267 million of funding that had been committed for national parks, which advocates say were already underfunded and understaffed as park visitation reaches all-time highs. Henker, the park spokesperson, said that "lines to get into Arches are very common and have been for years." Arches is among the national parks that have enacted a timed-entry reservation system, which limits how many visitors enter the park at certain times. Henker said there has not been an increase in lines at the park this year compared to prior years. Do you have a story to share about what it's been like at national parks this summer? Are you the person behind the Elon Musk bust? Contact this reporter at .
