I gave up my retirement for my child's future
I was 27 when my partner and I, freshly married, decided to start our family. We'd done the entire checklist that we had been told would promise success. We both went to college, we got jobs in stable career fields, and built up savings and stability before getting married. By 2019, we felt ready to tie the knot, and by the end of the year, I was so baby hungry I already had a tote of little clothes tucked away in a bin in my office.
But 2019 was a very different time. I was working in technology as a hardware specialist for a local school district, my partner was a teacher. Our rent was $1150 for a three-bedroom house in a nice part of town. We were more than stable, very ready to buy a home, and content in our careers.
I became a parent in 2020
We found out we were pregnant the week of the shutdown in 2020. I remember thinking that people had raised kids during the 2008 recession. This was just some strange blip, a moment in time. It would end, and we'd move on.
Weeks stretched into months. I was forced to step away from my job as the demands of getting technology out to school districts became too taxing while pregnant. I had to start taking gig work as a writer, something I had never done before, to keep our finances stable. Wipes and diapers were impossible to find; there was no baby furniture, and I felt guilty buying anything before I had a person who could use it.
My son was born in November of 2020, and what followed were the hardest years of our lives. The price of everything skyrocketed. People began flocking to Boise, Idaho, where we have lived our whole lives. Our rent went from $1150 to $2200 in just three years. Formula shortages made every box cost as much as a tank of gas. Groceries ballooned in price. Any hope we had of buying a house began to bleed away alongside our savings.
I picked my son's education over retirement
Despite picking up an extra job, working grueling hours as an editor for entertainment publications, and cutting almost every enjoyable element of our lives away, by 2024, we were barely making it paycheck to paycheck.
Please help BI improve our Business, Tech, and Innovation coverage by sharing a bit about your role — it will help us tailor content that matters most to people like you.
What is your job title? (1 of 2)
Entry level position
Project manager
Management
Senior management
Executive management
Student
Self-employed
Retired
Other
Continue
By providing this information, you agree that Business Insider may use this data to improve your site experience and for targeted advertising. By continuing you agree that you accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy .
We lowered costs by keeping my son home, avoiding day care bills, but that meant working around him and effectively isolating him from other children his age.
By the summer, we knew he would need to attend preschool, but there aren't free options for that in Boise. We were going to have to pay tuition, and we just weren't sure where it was going to come from. Unfortunately, all the scholarship and hardship assistance for pre-school programs in Idaho still function on income data from five years ago. It doesn't take into account the effects of inflation, unmanageable housing costs, or stagnated wages.
In July 2024, I filled out the paperwork to withdraw my retirement savings from my 401(k). My family and friends asked me why I would do something like that. Didn't I want to retire?
I explained that there was nothing in my future if there was nothing in his. My son will always come first, even if I have to work until I'm dead.
We can't have any more kids
Shockingly, I don't regret dismantling my retirement at 31 for my child's preschool tuition. What I truly regret is knowing that we can't have any other children. I only had one savings fund. I can't empty another for a second baby.
I'd always seen myself as the mother of a little clutter of children. I've dreamed of having a family since I was very young. But it's not possible. I won't ever have more children, because doing so while the cost of living is what it is, would force my son and any future siblings to miss out, just so I could hug more babies. It's not fair to him, and it wouldn't be fair to any others.
I will never regret sacrificing for my child, but the grief of a life abruptly thrown off course has been difficult to navigate. I often wake up and ask myself, "What could I have done better?"
My goal now is to do everything I can for my son, to give him everything I have, even if it isn't fair. I hope that when he comes of age and enters the world, it will be a kinder place. I dream that he won't have to sacrifice so much to be safe and secure, and that he will have all the comfort and security we have lost.
He deserves to dream and, for me, that matters more than retiring. It's just such a shame that these are the choices so many parents are currently having to face.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Amazon's AI wants to own online shopping data
Amazon already dominates online shopping, but now it's setting its sights even higher. With a new artificial intelligence-powered project called Starfish, the company aims to become the world's most complete and trusted source of product information. The goal? Make every listing on Amazon accurate, detailed and easy to understand, whether the product is sold by Amazon or a third-party seller. If the project works as planned, it could save sellers hours of work and help shoppers find what they need faster. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my Starfish is a multi-year initiative built around generative AI. According to an internal Amazon document obtained by Business Insider, the system gathers product data from across the web, including external websites and images. It then uses large language models (LLMs) to create "complete, correct and consistent" product listings. This isn't a small update. Amazon expects Starfish to boost sales by $7.5 billion in 2025 alone by improving conversion rates and expanding product variety. Starfish builds on earlier AI tools that Amazon began testing in 2023. These tools could: Now, with Starfish, Amazon wants to scale that effort across millions of listings. The AI will also collect data from 200,000 external brand websites by crawling, scraping and mapping their content to Amazon's catalog. It's not yet clear whether Amazon's own web crawler, Amazonbot, is powering Starfish. But the company confirmed to Business Insider that Starfish is already supporting its new "Buy for Me" feature. This feature recommends products from external websites and lets shoppers buy them directly within Amazon's app. Manually creating product listings is slow and often inconsistent. That's a problem when Amazon wants to offer a massive selection with reliable information. If shoppers can't find what they're looking for, or if the listings are vague, they may head elsewhere. Starfish addresses this by automating the tedious parts of listing creation. That helps sellers spend less time writing and more time selling. For Amazon, better listings mean higher conversion rates and happier customers. Plus, this move positions Amazon to compete more directly with Google Shopping, which also aims to be a central hub for product information. Amazon is testing Starfish's effectiveness with A/B comparisons, measuring sales performance of AI-enriched listings versus standard ones. It's also rolling out bulk listing tools and preparing to expand the system globally. This isn't just about improving Amazon's website. It's about changing the way product information is gathered, created and shared at scale. If you're a shopper on Amazon, this could mean faster access to clearer, more accurate product listings, especially for obscure or hard-to-find items. As Amazon's AI fills in missing details and improves titles and descriptions, the results should help you make better decisions with less research. For sellers, this streamlines the work of creating listings. If you've struggled to write compelling descriptions or keep up with Amazon's catalog standards, the Starfish project may do much of the heavy lifting. That could save time, reduce errors and improve sales performance. However, there are some trade-offs. As Amazon scrapes more data from across the web to power its listings, brands and smaller websites may worry about how their product information is being used. And if AI-generated content becomes widespread, quality and trust in listings may vary depending on how well the system works. In short, expect a more automated Amazon shopping experience, with both conveniences and questions about how your data and the broader web are being used to power it. Amazon's Starfish project signals a major shift in how e-commerce works. By combining web scraping, AI models and deep integration into its Marketplace, Amazon hopes to automate one of the most time-consuming parts of online selling. For buyers and sellers, this could mean more convenience and better results. But it also raises important questions about transparency, data ownership and the future role of AI in shaping what we see online. Would you trust AI to tell you everything you need to know before you click "Buy Now"? Let us know by writing us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide — free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
A self-made millionaire explains how to make money in an 'exponential way': Use one-to-infinity leverage
Rose Han paid off six figures in debt before building a seven-figure net worth. Her income escalated when she built a business that tapped into 'one-to-infinity' leverage. Anyone can use this strategy. It starts with asking yourself: What value can I provide? Rose Han, like many, learned to earn money linearly — hour by hour, paycheck by paycheck. For years, she traded her time for money in her corporate job. She made good money, enough to start tackling her six-figure student loan debt and invest in the stock market. But it wasn't until she tapped into the idea of "leveraged income" that her income soared and pushed her net worth over the seven-figure mark. "That's a completely different mentality that we don't learn in school," Han, who runs a financial literacy company, told Business Insider, but it's a powerful one. "Leverage is the explanation behind any significant wealth creation, no matter who you look at." Different levels of leverage and why you want 'one-to-infinity' To break down the concept of leveraged income, Han uses the example of a fitness trainer. She explained that if they're working one-on-one with a client, there's no leverage: "You show up, trade hours for dollars, and you get paid." But if they start a group fitness class and can train multiple clients at once, that's what she calls "one-to-many leverage," and their earnings go up without having to work more hours. "Now they're serving 10 people at once and therefore making about 10 times more." The final level, "one-to-infinity leverage," can create life-changing wealth. This is when the trainer builds an app with weekly workouts and a meal plan feature, for example. "They could create that app once, and millions of people around the world can subscribe," said Han. "That concept really was the key that I unlocked." She didn't get to one-to-infinity leverage overnight. Her business began in the basement of a coworking space, where she hosted free personal finance classes based on her own experience paying down debt and using index funds to grow her net worth. "I was just learning a lot on my financial awakening journey, so I wanted to share it," she said. "In the back of my mind, I thought, 'OK, maybe there's some way I could make this lucrative,' but that's not the goal." She hosted free classes for nearly two years, until she gained the confidence to start charging. Then, instead of keeping the class within the coworking space, she decided to move to YouTube, where her reach would be far greater. "The idea that a video could reach millions of people, 24/7, for the rest of my life and even after, that was really just wild to me," said Han. "I was skeptical because I'd never gone on camera. It was scary. But, after about a year and a half of doing these free meetups, I got the courage to press record and post my first video." Her YouTube channel, which has nearly one million subscribers, has evolved into a financial education company that earns money through online courses, brand deals, affiliate links, and book sales. She launched her first online course in 2020. It brought in $160,000 "in a matter of days," she said. "I made in seven days what used to take me an entire year to make. Granted, I worked a lot to create that course, and it didn't just happen in seven days, but I created something once that I could sell over and over and over and serve a lot of people. I created a lot of value with something, and so I got paid in that exponential way." How to apply the one-to-infinity mindset To use the one-to-infinity model and earn exponentially, start by asking: What value can I provide? "I fully believe that the more value you provide, the more you can earn," said Han. "And, if you think creatively enough, there's no limit to how much value you can provide and therefore how much money you can earn." The big holdup for her was confidence, and convincing herself that she was providing something valuable enough to get paid for. "I think this is the challenge for most people. They think, 'Oh, I should make more money. I need to ask for a raise and get a higher-paying career.' But their first obstacle is thinking, 'Who am I to do that? I don't have the skills. I don't have anything of value to provide.' That sort of mindset of, 'I'm not capable.'" Han overcame that mindset by taking action — by hosting the free meet-ups and getting real-world feedback that her money lessons were helping people. "Know that you have the ability within you to create a lot of value for the world and therefore generate a lot of money that's like within your control," she said. "You just have to find the confidence." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
11 hours ago
- Business Insider
Inside the 'Gen Z stare' and why it's dividing generations
Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. Dell employees are not OK. Every year, the company conducts an engagement survey for its workers, called "Tell Dell." One metric of employee satisfaction has dropped by 50% in two years amid layoffs and its push to get workers back in the office. Six former federal workers spoke to BI about what life is like after being laid off by DOGE. Why so many law-abiding Americans are fine with committing return fraud. These MBAs are ditching corporate America to run unsexy small businesses. The freakiest aspect of the Coldplay "kiss cam" fiasco isn't a potential office affair, writes BI's Katie Notopoulos. But first: Unpacking the new generational debate. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here here. This week's dispatch BI Your ultimate guide to the 'Gen Z stare' Millennials gave us skinny jeans and avocado toast. Gen Z? They've mastered the stare. Yes, that stare — the blank, expressionless look from the younger generation that's been lighting up the internet lately. Is it real? A post-pandemic side effect? A silent cry for help? Or is it just how Gen Z vibes? At Business Insider, we dove headfirst into the phenomenon, decoding the psychology, exploring what it means for careers, and examining how it plays out in the workplace. What is it? As more of Gen Z enters the workforce, some millennials say younger workers greet customers and colleagues with wide eyes, blank expressions, and pregnant pauses. Most of the debate hinges on Gen Zers working customer service roles, like hostessing at restaurants or taking orders at coffee shops. While this could be a sign of workplace awkwardness or underdeveloped soft skills, others are pushing back and saying the trend's blame is misplaced. Is it real? Our resident Gen Zer Amanda Yen says, "It's ironic that millennials are diagnosing their Gen Z counterparts in much the same way boomers diagnosed and pathologized them. Millennials, are you sure you're not just becoming your parents?" The value of silence. BI's Katie Notopoulos, an older millennial, said if you're on the receiving end of the "Gen-Z stare," maybe you're the problem. "One thing I learned is that sometimes silence is the best way to handle a situation. In other words, you might say: Give 'em the 'Gen Z stare.' If someone keeps pushing, eventually you have to leave some silence hanging in the air — no more room for them to negotiate." Just don't get Katie started on how Gen Zers answer the phone! Is screen time to blame? Psychologists and generational experts are weighing in, saying the phenomenon could have more to do with natural growing pains on a first job. There are also factors unique to Gen Z's upbringing, including how the generation has grown up in front of screens. One professor told BI that it's naive to underestimate the impact that COVID-19 shutdowns and online learning could have had on young people's development. What do Gen Zers think? We asked several young people between the ages of 17 and 27 what they thought about the debate. A 21-year-old from Boston thinks the whole thing is overblown. A 20-year-old from the Bay Area said she sees it all the time. A 17-year-old heard from her parents that she had been inadvertently doing it. We asked our readers if they had experienced the "Gen Z stare." The results are in, and spoiler — a majority of you have! Life after DOGE Greg Kahn for BI It's been six months since Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency slashed the federal workforce in an effort to "streamline the Federal Government, eliminate unnecessary programs, and reduce bureaucratic inefficiency." After months of being in limbo, a recent Supreme Court ruling allowed the stalled firings to proceed. In a series of conversations with BI, six former government employees spoke about their career shifts, what life is like outside government work, and more. " I'll always be known as that." One box of fibs at a time The ability to return a purchased item has become a core part of the shopping experience. Retailers say consumers are taking advantage of returns — and a recent report from Appriss Retail and Deloitte found it's costing businesses $103 billion a year. Some consumers are committing outright fraud by shipping back empty boxes or claiming a package never arrived. Others are sending back items after months of use. The culprits are often everyday consumers, and they don't feel bad. A nation of retail fraudsters. Also read: The rise of the anti-Amazon avengers The hot new MBA hustle Lexey Swall for BI Elite millennials like Dan Schweber are quitting corporate America in favor of search funds: the practice of buying and running small businesses, also known as "mini private equity." Plenty of these unglamorous small businesses — like carwashes, plumbing, or snowplowing — are owned by boomers looking to retire. That makes them prime for millennial MBAs like Schweber, who can, in some cases, turn them into multimillion-dollar companies. Here's how they do it. Cut the (kiss) cameras You've probably heard of the viral concert "kiss cam" video that appeared to show Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing the company's head of HR Kristin Cabot, then springing apart once they realize they're on camera. The reaction prompted Coldplay's Chris Martin to comment, "Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy." A potential office affair is good gossip, but BI's Katie Notopoulos thinks there's something more troubling here: the knee-jerk reaction to identify the people in the video. "It was like being the lead investigator on your own murder." — A millennial who was paid to catch people secretly working multiple jobs but ended up joining them. More of this week's top reads: New York's tech elite give Mamdani points for "charisma" — and engaging with them at closed-door meet. Meet the 23-year-old investigators tasked with finding Ukraine's missing soldiers. Elon Musk's North Star is becoming increasingly clear. Amazon's Ring goes full founder mode, taking the company back to its crime-fighting roots. The ex-Amazon employee who's helped nearly 4,000 laid-off workers score jobs. Rideshare drivers use apps to help them judge whether a ride is worth it. Uber and Lyft are trying to kill some of them. Why Sam Altman and OpenAI are making a web browser. Make sure you're doing this in your job search — especially if you're early-career.
