Business Insider recently released its annual ranking of the 50 best colleges in America, emphasizing metrics like graduation rate, student-life experience, and post-graduation salary. 

Our top 25 schools feature a lot of familiar institutions — Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT all make the cut. But of the best schools in the country, whose graduates earn the most money after getting established in their careers?

To find out, Business Insider reranked its top 25 colleges by median graduate salary 10 years after enrolling, using data from the Department of Education's College Scorecard.

MIT, the sixth best college in America, grabbed the top spot — its graduates command a median salary of $91,600 a decade after enrolling.

Keep reading to find out how much people earn 10 years after enrolling in the top 25 colleges in America.

SEE ALSO: The 50 best colleges in America

DON'T MISS: Why Princeton is the best college in the US

25. Bowdoin College

Location: Brunswick, Maine

Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $54,800

Ranked 21st best college in America. 

At Bowdoin College, the second-ranked liberal-arts school on our list, first-year students can choose from 35 first-year seminars and are required to take a course in each of five general subject areas. As for postgraduation, Bowdoin's 1,500-member alumni Career Advisory Network helps prepare students for their future careers.

24. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $57,900

Ranked 12th best college in America. 

Known for a stellar undergraduate business school, the University of Michigan counts business, psychology, and economics as its most popular majors. UM also reports that about half of all students who received a bachelor's degree go on to pursue a master's within four years of graduation. The school's notable alumni include New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Google cofounder Larry Page.

23. University of Virginia

Location: Charlottesville, Virginia

Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $58,600

Ranked ninth best college in America. 

The highest-ranked public school on our list, the University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819. UVA first-year students can choose from four undergraduate schools: arts and sciences, architecture, engineering, or nursing. UVA also has a "work hard, play hard" mentality. The university boasts more than 600 student clubs and 25 varsity sports.

Equinox is arguably the swankiest gym chain in America. 

Members pay $200 to $300 initiation fees and $160 to $250 monthly rates. They rave about the gym's amenities, which include classes taught by former Olympians and spa treatments.

While I’m content with my measly $15 a month gym, I still wondered about what it’s like to be a member of Equinox.

How tough are the classes? Do only beautiful people exercise there?

While I can’t afford its lavish prices in the long-term, I tried Equinox for a week through a friend's guest pass. Here’s what I found out.

WATCH NOW: Here's How $98 Lululemon Yoga Pants Compare To Cheaper Alternatives

Equinox is a nationwide luxury gym.

There are 33 locations in New York, and I was able to tackle five of them. Each location has benefits — some have pools and hot tubs, while others have steam rooms and saunas. My personal attraction and motivation to try Equinox was for the pool. I haven't been able to get in a pool since I moved to Manhattan! 

Signing up for classes isn't as competitive as I expected it to be.

I always feel like there's a rush to sign up for a fitness class before spots run out, but that wasn't the case at Equinox. Members use an app to check in, book a class, schedule training, and search for clubs.

Some gyms allow you to sign up 26 hours in advance online, while others offer walk-in only classes. When I signed in for my class at the gym, I was given a number so that employees can keep tabs on who's in the class. No sneaking in here!

The gym itself offers elite equipment for cardio, strength training, and stretching.

The screens of the cardio equipment offer every kind of distraction that you might need while running. I had never seen or used anything like it. 

I could go on Facebook, read the news, watch TV, or listen to podcasts all while attempting to run at 6.5 mph. It made my half-hour cardio session fly by. 

After quitting his job during a trip to Thailand in 2005 and continuing on to travel the world for over 10 years, Matt Kepnes — better known as Nomadic Matt — has learned how to travel on a budget while still taking advantage of the unique places he visits.

For Kepnes, making the most of a small budget comes down to a simple mantra: be frugal, not cheap.

"Pick and choose your battles," Kepnes told Farnoosh Torabi on an episode of her "So Money" podcast. "You’re probably not coming back to Australia anytime soon, so if you really have always wanted to dive the Great Barrier Reef, dive the Great Barrier Reef."

The key is prioritization. You're not going to be able to afford every fancy dinner or extravagant activity, but you can afford a few, so splurge on those and cut back elsewhere. Stay in a hostel, dial back on drinks, cook a few extra meals at home.

Kepnes, who chronicles his travels on his blog "Nomadic Matt" and in his best-selling book, "How to Travel the World on $50 a Day," also starts making room in his budget well before he's set foot in the airport.

"When I coach people on this, I always say, 'Cut everything. Live like a monk or a nun or a hermit because when you’re over in Brazil and you’re sailing down the Amazon, you will not care that you spent two weeks inside your house cooking pasta and watching Netflix,'" he explains.

Bottom line: Pick a few luxuries and splurge on what's most important to you — the tradeoff is worth it.

SEE ALSO: A man who's been traveling for 10 years shares his best trick to find cheap plane tickets

DON'T MISS: A man who's been traveling for 10 years says this is the biggest budgeting mistake people make when planning a vacation

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NOW WATCH: This dog travels the Mediterranean Sea by kayak

If you're heading to a Disney park for any type of celebration — birthday, anniversary, honeymoon — the first stop you make should be City Hall to pick up a free button. Many parkgoers don't know that visitors celebrating a special occasion can get free buttons to wear all day — and it makes the day way more magical.

Disney parks are already designed to give visitors an elevated entertainment experience, but cast members (park staff) will go out of their way to do extra special things for anyone wearing a celebration button.

When my now-husband and I were planning our honeymoon, we immediately knew we wanted to stop by Disneyland for a day. Not only were we itching to wear those cute bride and groom Mickey ears, but I knew we could get special honeymoon buttons. 

Throughout the day, cast members would congratulate us and sometimes even give us preferential treatment. We got our own log on Splash Mountain, and skipped about 20 people in line for Pirates of the Caribbean when the staff there let us through a separate door and right into the back row of a boat. 

Other parkgoers tend to pay attention to the buttons as well — we had plenty of strangers congratulating us in line, even before we donned our bride and groom hats.

The buttons can be picked up at varying locations depending on the parks. At Disneyland, folks have to go to City Hall — right on the left side of Main Street when you enter the park.

There are usually buttons for just about every occasion — birthday, engagement, first time visiting the park, anniversary, family reunion. In case they run out of your specific one, Disney has a "I'm celebrating _____" button so you can fill in the blank.

My mom came to Disneyland for her birthday a few years ago, and her button earned even more perks than my honeymoon one. The Main Street barbershop quartet stopped to sing her a special (and hilarious) birthday song, and a restaurant we stopped in for dinner brought out free birthday donuts complete with a candle. 

So — next time you're planning a special trip to a Disney park, make sure your first stop is City Hall (or another park's equivalent) to pick up a celebration button. You won't regret it.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what it's like inside Disneyland’s mysterious $40,000-per-person secret club

Some 70,000 people ventured to Nevada's Black Rock Desert for this year's Burning Man festival, which ended September 5.

And they certainly did it in style.

Burning Man fashion often looks like characters from "Mad Max" meet those from "Star Wars." Many Burners this year sported things like rainbow goggles, neon shorts, and unicorn horns — that is, if they didn't go naked.

Here are a few of the most outlandish outfits spotted at Burning Man 2016.

SEE ALSO: 8 aerial photos that show the madness of Burning Man from above

At Burning Man, attendees eschew social norms and often wear their craziest costumes.

Many Burners express themselves through fashion. Here's one participant with a mohawk, knee-length buckled boots, a fanny pack, reflective sunglasses, and a bikini.

To protect their eyes from the Black Rock Desert's sandstorms, people often need goggles. The woman pictured below brought a funky, space-age pair.

It's easy to become green with jealousy while scrolling through the "Rich Kids of Instagram" blog, a three-year-old Tumblr and Instagram account that curates photos of the lifestyles of the wealthy. But it's especially easy to feel the envy creep in during the summertime.

Jetting off in their private planes or helicopters, these stylish young adults spent their summers soaking in the sun in Hawaii, Fisher Island, and Montauk.

Ahead, get a glimpse of their summer 2016, which included crystal clear waters, amazing swimwear, and bags of cash.

SEE ALSO: Meet the man behind the on-demand helicopter startup that the 1% use to get to the Hamptons

They kicked off the summer season by spraying champagne from golden toy sniper rifles.

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Loads of cash meant endless adventure.

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Choppers landed on private beaches.

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When choosing where to go to college, academics isn't the only factor to consider. College years are formative for young adults, so the extracurricular, recreational, and social opportunities offered by schools play an important role in the overall collegiate experience.

Business Insider included student-life rankings in its recent list of the 50 best colleges in America, drawing data from Niche, a company that compiles research on schools.

Niche assessed the social and community life of universities and provided letter grades based on factors like campus quality, diversity, party scene, student retention, safety, and athletics. (Read the full methodology here.)

To highlight the schools that students love attending, here are the 25 colleges with the highest student-life scores on Niche. Big state schools dominated the list, with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison earning the top three spots.

Read on to check out the full list. 

SEE ALSO: The 50 best colleges in America

DON'T MISS: The 22 colleges that have students with the highest SAT scores

25. Indiana University at Bloomington

Location:Bloomington, Indiana

Campus quality: A+

Party scene: A+

Diversity: B+

Local area: A

24. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Location:Champaign, Illinois

Campus quality: A

Party scene: A+

Diversity: A-

Local area: B+

23. Tulane University

Location:New Orleans

Campus quality: A

Party scene: A+

Diversity: B

Local area: A+

More than 65,000 people gather for Burning Man, the wild, weeklong festival in the middle of Nevada's Black Rock Desert each year. Since Burning Man began in 1986, its ever-growing number of participants have abided by its founding principles, which include "radical self-reliance," "radical self-expression," and "leave no trace."

As part of the festivities, teams of artists work together to build huge, intricate temples from reclaimed wood. At the end of the week, as part of Burning Man's "leave no trace" rule, they set them ablaze. 

Sculptor David Best and his crew started this tradition in 2000, designing the temples every year until 2007 and then again in 2014. Since then, other architects and artists have made their own creations. At this year's Burning Man, which ended September 5, Best returned to build a new temple.

Check out some of the most incredible temples that have been created over the years — including the most recent one — before they were burned down.

SEE ALSO: 20 of the most incredible works of Burning Man art ever made

The Temple Project by David Best and the Temple Crew (2016)

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The Temple of Promise by Jazz Tigan and the Dreamers Guild (2015)

The Temple of Grace by by David Best and Temple Crew (2014)

Boston is a city rich with history, and you have to try pretty hard to be bored (or hungry) there. What's not difficult, however, is spending a lot of money in the process.

To learn more about how to enjoy Boston on a budget and keep finances in check, we talked to Georgina Castellucci, Boston resident and founder of the blog A Noted Life.

"There's always so much going on in Boston," Castellucci said. "It all comes down to planning. If you plan your spending, you're less likely to overspend."

If you're looking to make the move to Boston and score some serious bargains, Castellucci suggests the following for getting settled in Beantown.

1. Be flexible in your apartment hunt 

Finding housing in Boston can be challenging, but not if you approach it with a game plan and stay open-minded. For Castellucci, this meant working within her social networks to find prospective roommates and consulting services like RentHop and Zillow to find an affordable home in an area that made sense.

Cambridge is a popular neighborhood for millennials, known for its accessibility to public transit, bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. But if you're looking for a cheaper option — median rent in Cambridge is $1,612 per month — check out Allston, Somerville, or Brighton, all of which are a bit less central, but cheaper to live in.

2. Expand your transportation options

For most Bostonians, a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) CharlieCard will get you where you need to go: Fares run $1.70 for a bus ride and $2.25 for the train. For commuting millennials who want to get the most bang for their buck, opt for a monthly pass for $84.50.

For an environmentally friendly option, Castellucci recommends Hubway, Boston's bike share program. For $6, you can access 1,600 bikes at 160 stations across the city for a full 24 hours. If you're an avid rider, spring for the $85 annual pass and use a bike whenever you want, whether you're rushing to work or taking a scenic spin down the Boston Harborwalk.

3. Look for dining and entertainment deals

New England is synonymous with quality seafood, but that doesn't mean it has to come with a hefty price tag. According to Castellucci, dollar oyster night deals at spots like Bar Boulud in Boston's Back Bay are a great way to socialize on the cheap. Have a little extra to spend? Check out the annual Boston Seafood Festival on the historic Boston Fish Pier for fresh lobster, steamed clams, and corn on the cob.

If tacos are more your speed, stop by Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar on Mondays after 9 p.m. for $9 all-you-can-eat Mexican food. And if drinks on the cheap are what you're after, Charlie's Kitchen in Cambridge is a classic dive bar with a lovely beer garden.

4. Think outside the box for entertainment

When it comes to entertainment, the city has a lot to offer. Museum buff? Castellucci loves the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which has free admission every third Thursday of the month. Support local Boston artists at the New England Open Markets, which service more than 400 small businesses every weekend, including numerous vintage and thrift vendors filled with cheap finds.

The Boston metro area also boasts a total of 54 colleges and universities, many of which offer free events to the public. And a stroll through scenic Harvard Square won't cost you anything. Of course, the quintessential Boston experience wouldn't be complete without sports. Score cheap tickets through discount vendor sites like Vivid Seats or SeatGeek.

Living in Boston can cost you, but it doesn't have to. With so many free or discounted offerings, there are plenty of opportunities to get a true taste of city living without breaking the bank.

Looking for even more ways to save? With Simply Right^® Checking from Santander Bank, you can waive the Monthly Fee with any deposit, withdrawal, transfer or payment each month. Sign up today.

This post is sponsored by Santander Bank.

_{Santander Bank does not recommend, endorse, or make any representation or warranty regarding any of the other businesses or individuals referenced in this article.}

SEE ALSO: 4 ways to make Philadelphia a dream city for millennials

Join the conversation about this story »

There is nothing more tempting than a gorgeous burger commercial featuring juicy meat and fresh produce. Commercial producers put in a lot of effort to create that perfect shot that makes viewers hungry. Visual engineer, Steve Giralt, shows the "behind-the-scenes" of creating a visually appealing burger sequence.

Follow TI: On Facebook

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Venture capitalist Henry McNamara owns a pair of Allbirds sneakers in five colors. He obsessively posts photos of them on social media and never leaves for business without them.

McNamara, a general partner at the early-stage investment firm Great Oaks, is biased. His firm invested in the footwear startup before it became a Silicon Valley phenomenon.

But like many young professionals, McNamara is over dress shoes.

The sneaker has undergone a sort of "fashion baptism," one New York Times style reporter wrote. As dress codes go lax and designers turn their attention to the "athleisure" market, men and women have more stylish, workplace-appropriate options than ever.

Designer sneakers make up the majority of men's footwear sales for e-commerce site Mr Porter and department store Barneys New York, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newest threat to the Oxford shoe comes from — where else? — a San Francisco footwear startup.

Allbirds' debut sneaker, the $95 "Wool Runner," has been called the world's most comfortable shoe by venture capitalists and startup founders — as well as by the company itself.

Now the founders of Allbirds are making the case that it's a viable alternative to the dress shoe.

The workplace is a more casual environment than ever before. Oftentimes, it isn't an office at all, but a café, coworking space, or train.

"People are working on their mobile phones at night. People are working wherever there's Wi-Fi," said Joey Zwillinger, cofounder of Allbirds. "A traditional apparel and footwear industry doesn't serve that change in trend, and so people are moving in a different direction."

His cofounder, Tim Brown, dreamt up the idea of a wool sneaker while playing professional soccer in New Zealand. He grew frustrated that while high-performance and fashionable footwear attracted innovation, everyday footwear was an afterthought in the industry.

Allbirds uses merino wool from Brown's home country that's processed in Milan, Italy. The result are shoes so comfortable, they're like slippers made of clouds (in this author's opinion). The sneakers feature a sleek silhouette that mimic a traditional dress shoe.

It's worth noting that the shoe lacks a prominent logo because, as Zwillinger puts it, "There is a reason that leather shoes that you wear to work don't have a 'swoosh' on the side of it."

The company announced Wednesday it raised a Series A round of funding totaling $7.25 million. A new suite of shoe colors is also coming along.

According to McNamara, the company is positioning itself well for the larger shift in how people dress for work.

"I don't think we would have invested in Allbirds if we didn't believe this was a shoe that could be worn every single day, in an office or out on the street," McNamara said. "This shift toward more casual office attire doesn't mean people don't care about design or style."

Allbirds, according to McNamara, is a brand that wants to provide both.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley is obsessed with these wool sneakers that claim to be the 'most comfortable in the world'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The story behind Steph Curry's all-white 'dad shoes' that blew up the internet

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk once said "Burning Man is Silicon Valley."

Judging from the photos of startup founders, tech workers, and venture capitalists that have surfaced since the annual counterculture festival began, we're guessing Musk is right.

We rounded up the best images of tech workers sweating it out on the playa.

SEE ALSO: 6 things people who go to Burning Man have in common

User experience designer Olia Birulia made the well-traveled trek from San Francisco to Burning Man, and made some friends along the way.

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Will O'Brien, an angel investor and COO of cloud analytics platform Keen IO, couldn't resist the chance to fly direct to Burning Man's pop-up airport.

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Jessica Rose Yurasek (not pictured) manages social media strategy for clients like Twitter Video when she's not galavanting across the playa.

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Sure, we can ask our friends and family members for advice on how to navigate our formidable years, but strangers on the Internet work just as well.

Out of the countless threads that bubble up on Reddit each day, one question that keeps coming back is how people in their 20s can ensure they won't enter their 30s filled with regrets.

Thousands of people have shared their wisdom with the community's youth.

Here are some of the shinier pearls.

SEE ALSO: 11 insights that can help you learn anything faster

"Try to avoid thinking of your 30s as some kind of stopping point for fun things."

"This is perhaps not the advice you're looking for but maybe you should also try to avoid thinking of your 30s as some kind of stopping point for fun things, where all you can do is look back and sigh about what could have been. I know of several people whose 30s have been more fun than their 20s, and it's in part because they can look back with experience and realize they're better at balancing and enjoying the things they want to do. You still have so much in life, don't just let it be over because you survived another 365 days!" - Romination

"Learn what kinds of drinks get you to the no-no-zone."

"Get to know your intoxicants. Spend your 20s getting good at being f----- up however you like to get f----- up. That means making some mistakes, sure, but be safe. Don't do the really dumb stuff like try to drive home s---faced, or sleep with someone without protection. If you like to drink, for example, learn how much is too much for you. Learn what kinds of drinks get you to the no-no-zone, which to stay away from. Figure out how to spend the most time at a party in a feeling really good zone, when to start drinking water, and coming down, and when to say goodbye." - jseego

"I regret racking up debt. That nearly killed me in my 30s."

"I regret not saving more money and, more importantly, I regret racking up debt. That nearly killed me in my 30s. Some of it was necessary, of course, but a lot was credit card overkill.

"I also regret not traveling more. Once we married and started having kids, travel got curtailed. We still went on trips but they were family trips. I wish I would have taken her on a couple of big out-of-country excursions before family came into play." - zoidbert

It turns out Amy Schumer's "tiny" one-bedroom Upper West Side Manhattan co-op isn't actually so tiny.

Though last year the comedian joked about how, despite her fame, she still lives in a one-bedroom walk-up apartment, she neglected to mention that it was also a penthouse.

It's located on the top floor of a beautiful brownstone building, steps from the Museum of Natural History and a block away from Central Park. She bought the apartment for $1.695 million in September 2014, Curbed NY reports.

Schumer quietly listed the apartment last November for $2.075 million, as was first reported by the New York Post. Now, nearly a year later, the price on the cozy space has been reduced to $1.625 million with new brokers.

Modlin Group now has the listing.

SEE ALSO: This 350-foot megayacht comes with its own private 'beach' onboard

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The apartment is no typical New York shoe box — it's actually a penthouse on the top floor of an Upper West Side brownstone.

A gorgeous stone entryway with a wooden door allows entrance into the five-unit co-op building.

Schumer wasn't kidding about the walk-up, however. The apartment is on the fifth floor, and there's no elevator. At least the hallways are nice.

Not every metro station is as putrid as New York City's subway platforms.

Some public transportation stations are designed as stunning spaces, full of breathtaking murals and incredible light projections. 

We've put together a collection of the most awe-striking metro stations around the globe, from the Formosa Boulevard Station of Kaohsiung, Taiwan to the chandelier-filled Komsomolskaya in Moscow, Russia.

Keep scrolling to check out the stations, which make commuters journeys anything but boring.

Talia Avakian contributed to a previous version of this story.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best airports in the world

FOLLOW US! Business Insider Travel is on Twitter

Inside the Formosa Boulevard Station of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is a 4,500-panel glass artwork by Narcissus Quangliata that is said to be the largest glasswork in the world. Thanks to the stunning kaleidoscope effects of the piece, the area has actually been proposed as a venue for weddings.

Source: CNN Travel

Nature continues inside the Central Park Station — also in Kaohsiung, Taiwan — designed by British architect Richard Rogers. Grass and artificial flowers line the stairs and escalators, which lead down to the platforms.

The Toledo station in Naples, Italy, also stands as a stunning wonderland thanks to the artwork of Robert Wilson, called “Light Panels,” that illuminates the station corridor. With a depth of 164 feet, it’s one of the deepest stations in Naples.

Source: CNN Travel

Roughly 70,000 people gathered for this year's Burning Man in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, which ended September 5.

The annual festival is known for brutal sandstorms, apocalyptic fashion, and the massive, eclectic art installations created by attendees.

The theme for this year's artwork was "Da Vinci's Workshop," and participants could interpret it however they wanted.

Take a look at some of the best art from the festival.

SEE ALSO: 20 of the most incredible works of Burning Man art ever made

"El Pulpo Mechanico" by Duane Flatmo and Jerry Kunkel

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"The Space Whale" by The Pier Group with Matthew Schultz, Android Jones, and Andy Tibbetts

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"Tangential Dreams" by the Dream Team

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By Dream Team members Philip Olivier, Eira Mooney, Maialen Calleja, Aaron Porterfield, Sebastian Morales, Antony Dobrzensky, Laura Nica, Karina Pitis, Hamish Macpherson, Jon Goodbun, Yannick Yamanga, Matthew Springer, Josh NG, Lola Chaine, Dror BenHay, Peter Wang, Charlotte Chambers, Michael DiCarlo, and Sandy Kwan

Confidence is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give their child. 

Carl Pickhardt, a psychologist and author of 15 parenting books, says a kid who lacks confidence will be reluctant to try new or challenging things because they're scared of failing or disappointing others.

This can end up holding them back later in life and prevent them from having a successful career.

As a parent, it's your job to encourage and support your child as they attempt to tackle difficult tasks. Here's how:

Natalie Walters contributed to a previous version of this article.

SEE ALSO: Science says parents of successful kids have these 11 things in common

1. Appreciate effort no matter if they win or lose

When you're growing up, the journey is more important than the destination. 

So whether your child makes the winning goal for his team or accidentally kicks it out of bounds, applaud their effort, Pickhardt says. They should never feel embarrassed for trying.

"Over the long haul, consistently trying hard builds more confidence than intermittently doing well," he explains. 

2. Encourage practice to build competence

Encourage your child to practice whatever it is they're interested in — but do so without putting too much pressure on them.

Harmony Shu, a piano prodigy, told Ellen DeGeneres that she started practicing when she was just 3 years old.

"Practice invests effort in the confident expectation that improvement will follow," Pickhardt explains. 

3. Let them figure out problems by themselves

If you do the hard work for your child then they'll never develop the abilities or the confidence to figure out problems on their own.

"Parental help can prevent confidence derived from self-help and figuring out on the child's own," Pickhardt explains. 

In other words, better that your child gets a few B's and C's rather than straight A's, so long as they are actually learning how to solve the problems and do the work. 

Earlier this year, a Yelp employee publicly complained to the CEO that she couldn't afford to buy groceries, thanks to the combination of making an $8.15-an-hour after-tax salary while living in the notoriously expensive San Francisco Bay Area.

Hours later, she was fired, which sparked a lively dialogue.

She saw "an outpouring of support, including donations to her personal PayPal account," Business Insider's Matt Weinberger reported. She also received a cacophony of criticism, including a brutal response from one millennial that went viral.

But Talia Jane (not her full name) certainly isn't the only one having trouble making ends meet.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4% of all hourly paid workers (3 million people) earn the before-tax $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage or less.

Pew Research Center found that 30% of hourly workers (about 20.6 million people) are "near minimum wage" workers — those who make more than the minimum wage in their state but less than $10.10 an hour.

Many states and cities have set their own, higher minimums. For instance, the before-tax minimum wage in San Francisco is $12.25 an hour, and it will be $15 an hour by July 2018. In New York City it is $9 an hour but also is set to climb to $15 an hour.

Is it really that hard to make ends meet with a "near minimum wage" or otherwise limited salary? To find out, I decided to simulate living on Jane's salary for 30 days. I didn't quit my job; I put the overflow in savings, which sets my situation apart from Jane's immediately.

I'm also based in New York City, rather than San Francisco, but considering that the two cities trade off the title of "most expensive in the US," depending on the list you're reading, I felt comfortable with the comparison.

Note that my experience has to be and has been different from hers, and it was worlds away from the millions of Americans who live on minimum or nearly minimum wage day in and day out. Even with the advantages that come with higher pay, including benefits and a safety net of savings, it was difficult. I can't imagine what it must be like to have a consistently limited income. After only a month living on $8.15 an hour, I can say it's even harder than it sounds.

SEE ALSO: A Yelp employee publicly complained to the CEO that she couldn't afford to buy groceries — hours later, she was fired

I withdrew $150 at the start of the month

Jane didn't specify how much she was making before taxes. She did say she brought home $8.15 an hour after taxes and that her biweekly paycheck was $733.24. That works out to a 45-hour workweek.

A $733 biweekly paycheck means $1,466 for the month. Let's break down my fixed costs:

• Rent and utilities: $1,250

• Cellphone: $40

• Internet: $26

My fixed costs are as minimal as it gets; I'm still on my parents' health-insurance plan, I don't have a car, my company covers a nice chunk of my cellphone bill, and I walk to work, which means no monthly MetroCard or Citibike pass. If it weren't for egregious Manhattan rent prices, I'd be doing pretty well.

After taking my fixed costs ($1,316) out of my "new salary," I was left with exactly $150 for the month. On March 27, I headed to Wells Fargo and withdrew my spending money in cash, which would have to carry me through late April.

Initially, I thought the minimum-wage challenge would be a breeze

I honestly thought the monthlong challenge would be a walk in the park. Would it be fun? Absolutely not. But doable? Absolutely.

After all, I completed the Elon Musk Challenge in January, spending just $60 on food for the month — and that was without getting to eat office snacks. Thanks to a generously stocked Business Insider kitchen, I figured I could spend even less on food, leaving over $90 for the rest of my expenses, which I assumed would be things like transportation and laundry.

Spoiler alert: There are always unforeseeable expenses.

After a week and a half, I was severely over budget

A $150 monthly budget left me with $5 a day. My "strategy" was simply to spend as little as possible every day, which I did for the first week and a half. I was $22 under budget after 10 days, having spent only $28 ($22 on groceries and $6 on public transportation).

Everything was going according to plan ... until my best friend's 24th birthday party.

Sure, it's more than possible to do meaningful birthday gifts on the cheap — I went with a framed picture ($7.61 for the frame and $0.29 for the photo print) — but birthday events in New York City aren't cheap. Brunch, and the bowling that followed, set me back $80 ($88 if you include the gift), over half my monthly budget.

Could I have said no to my best friend's birthday brunch and bowl? In theory, yes. In practice, no. And technically, I could afford it at the time; I would just have to stretch $34 for the next 2 1/2 weeks.

The prospect of decorating an entire new house can be daunting.

Real estate developers are well aware of that fact. That's why so many of them have turned to home staging company Meridith Baer Home, which has worked on thousands of homes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Miami, and the Hamptons.

Meridith Baer Home's designers will fill an empty home with beautiful furnishings so that potential buyers can be free to picture what their life would be like if they lived there.

"When people want to buy a house, they might have an idea of what it is, but without the lifestyle it's hard for them to imagine that," founder Meridith Baer recently said to Business Insider. "We kind of bring the house to life and put its best dress on." 

To do this, the designer whom the firm decides is best suited to the style of the individual home will do a walk-through, then select the appropriate furniture from the company's warehouse. Meridith Baer Home's Los Angeles headquarters is home to 200,000 square feet of furniture, in addition to other warehouses in San Francisco, Connecticut, and Florida. The team then installs the furniture in the home, considering every detail down to the glasses they keep by the side of the bed.

They can accomplish this pretty quickly — usually in a matter of two to four days. If the client is a property developer, the house will then go right onto the market.

That work seems to pay off — According to Meridith Baer's office, staged homes have been shown to sell 80% more quickly and for 20% more than homes that hadn't been professionally staged. As a whole, the company's designers perform about 140 installations every month. 

But sometimes the client is not a developer, but a new homeowner who wants a full set of furniture installed in their new digs. This product, which Baer calls "Instahome," might be especially attractive to someone who either isn't from the area or is looking to use the new home only as a vacation spot.

"This is when someone buys a house and asks us to install a complete home for them," she said. "They can even look at our website and say, 'That's the house I want.'" 

The company also offers a third product that allows users to lease luxury furniture for a certain period of time. They'll charge an install fee, usually about $30,000 to $40,000, plus a monthly rental fee that varies based on the quality and quantity of the furnishings provided. (The fees for staging furniture are similar, but developers can have free "rent" on the pieces for the first two to three months — after that, they pay a monthly fee.)

Baer said that this particular product tends to draw some very wealthy clients: Elon Musk and CBS' Les Moonves, to name a few.

"They're in a situation where they want to rent furniture for a given period of time, but they want something nice," Baer said. "It might be in the context of a divorce, where they might want to create the same house their kids are used to. Or it could be that they're in the process of building a home, and they're renting another home until it's ready." 

"If Robert DeNiro is in town filming a movie and he's renting a house, he'll want the furniture to be in the style that he wants." 

Baer began her home staging career almost by accident. Originally a screenwriter and journalist, she was in between homes and wanted somewhere to keep her things, so she offered to help a developer friend of hers fill a project with beautiful furniture.

"This kind of service didn't exist, but there was such a need for it," she said, adding that many of her current clients are repeat customers. Her company now gets so many requests for traditional interior design work that they added it to their regular roster of services.

"Usually these people are very busy, and they just want it done," she said. "But every once in a while you'll get someone who's really hands-on. We did an interior design project with Gerard Butler, and he wanted to go to the flea market with us." 

Baer's background in writing influences how she approaches each project. 

"I found that as a writer, I enjoyed creating a mood and scene much more than I enjoyed writing dialogue. I liked suggesting, that part of writing," she said. "It was a natural progression to go into a home and imagine how it could be, and bring it to life." 

SEE ALSO: Netscape's billionaire cofounder Jim Clark is selling his Florida mansion for a whopping $137 million

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Apple just announced the iPhone 7 camera and iPhone 7 Plus dual camera.

Both smartphones come with upgraded cameras with the widest apertures we've ever seen on an iPhone, as well as machine-learning-assisted shooting.

Apple has also made them a bit more appealing to hardcore photographers, with the ability to shoot raw DNG images like you can get from a DSLR (or some Androids). Raw files offer users finer control when they're editing, but are a bit technical for casual shooters and can't be uploaded straight to Instagram.

But there's a much bigger key difference between the two new Apple devices: The iPhone 7 has just one rear lens, like a normal smartphone, while the iPhone 7 Plus has a two-lens dual camera system.

Here's what you need to know about the cameras on the two new iPhones.

The iPhone 7 Plus' new telephoto lens is a big deal

This feature was a surprise.

Until now, the biggest problem with smartphone cameras has been that they're only wide-angle.

Wide-angle is great for many things, like shooting landscapes, close-up action, or groups of people. But it only works up close and tends to distort images of people.

For example, this image, taken on a smartphone, stretches and distorts its subject's face, making her look a bit cartoonish.

There's a sweet spot in the middle of the frame where the problem is less intense, but it can be tricky to hit:

By putting a long, 2x zoom telephoto lens on the iPhone, Apple has moved into the midrange perspective of 50 mm DSLR lenses — a perfectly respectable focal length. In English, that means Apple built an iPhone that can actually shoot nice pictures of people.

No other dual-camera smartphone has this feature. I criticized the LG G5 earlier this year for instead pairing a wide lens with a wider lens. And the Huawei P9 has two lenses of the same length.

So expect some much more flattering portraits from the iPhone 7 Plus telephoto lens than we've ever seen from a smartphone.

Bokeh isn't new, but it's exciting

The iPhone 7 Plus will be many people's first encounter with a new technology called "computational photography," which uses data from multiple cameras working together to build richer, better images on smaller devices.

Computational photography has a few exciting possibilities, but the first and most obvious of these — and the only one on the iPhone 7 — is giving smartphone-sized cameras the ability to shoot with "bokeh." Bokeh is the word for that fuzzy background you're used to seeing in wide-aperture images from fancy DSLRs.

The iPhone 7 Plus, after a software update coming later this year, will be able use its binocular vision to introduce bokeh to the backgrounds of images. You can see an example, which Apple showed at the event, above.

Apple isn't the first company to introduce this technology. Huawei included a similar feature on its dual-lens P9, and even the 2015 Google Nexus phones could pull it off with some difficulty.

But neither of those technologies worked particularly well. The P9 can produce some nice bokeh, like in the image on the right, but often makes mistakes.

It seems likely, given the company's history, that Apple will produce a somewhat more polished version of the tech, though we'll have to wait and see.

Also, a two-lens computational photography camera could never approach the full potential of the technology. More complex devices, like the 16-lens L16 from Light, may able to closely mimic DSLRs. But the iPhone 7 Plus' two-lens system will likely only work in limited circumstances and within a limited distance.

The new iPhone camera might (finally) catch up with Samsung's world-class Galaxy phones

The biggest problem with the iPhone 6S's camera wasn't that it couldn't shoot artificial bokeh — it was that it was simply not as good a device as the Samsung Galaxy S7's, which blew it out of the water on quality and specs.

The main reason: The iPhone 6S camera shoots at a relatively narrow aperture of f/2.2. Aperture is a measure of how wide a hole light has to pass through in the lens. Lower apertures mean less light gets in, lower quality, and worse images in low light. The Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and Note 7 all use a f/1.7 camera — a much wider hole. (In aperture as in golf, lower numbers are better.)

But the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus rock f/1.8 lenses. That's close enough to the Galaxy to be within striking distance if the new iPhone sensor is good enough. We'll see which one wins out in a shoot-out, but it'll likely be close.

SEE ALSO: Light.co's 16-lens camera is going to change the world

DON'T MISS: Huawei had a dual camera months before Apple, and it was just fine

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