• San Francisco'sTreasure Island is not perfect.
• The ground of the island has been found to be contaminated by Cold War-era US Navy operations, it's sinking quickly as sea levels continue to rise, and it's not easy to get to.
• But the city needs housing, plain and simple, and the island has the space for it.
• A full-scale development of Treasure Island has been in the works for 25 years. In the meantime, the island has been used to house the formerly homeless and others in need of supportive housing.
• Some have made the peaceful landscape their home. But the $6 billion make-over is finally reaching its early stages, and luxury condos, upscale retailers, and thousands of high-earning workers are expected to move onto the island within the next decade.
• We spoke to two residents who have lived on the island for years, one of whom says she and her family have been personally affected by the island's radioactive leftovers.
• Here's what Treasure Island is all about — from its history to the present-day to its future — and how the two residents are grappling with the impending $6 billion change.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Treasure Island may be San Francisco's most unlikely neighborhood.

First off, it's an island, a small, man-made landmass that sits in the bay between San Francisco and Oakland, California. There are 2,000 residents, an overpriced grocery store, geese roaming sports fields, a few wineries, abandoned buildings, and not much else.

It's also peaceful and removed from the hectic hustle-and-bustle of San Francisco, with stunning million-dollar views of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge.

"It was pretty — that was my first thought," Trelease Miller, who moved onto the island permanently in 2008, told Business Insider.

Treasure Island has had a few different lives in its 60 years, from the site of a World's Fair to a US Navy base. It's been given many names too, from Magic Isle to the Artificial Lily Pad.

Residents have lived here since the late 1990s, some of whom are low-income, formerly homeless, or in need of supportive housing. Some told us they've made a nice life for themselves on the beautiful and isolated island.

But some residents have also reported health issues, like cancer, hair loss, and tumors, that they believe were spurred by contaminated leftovers from the US Navy days. The Navy used the island as a waste dump site and for nuclear training exercises that resulted in radioactive exposure to the island. 

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, resident frustration reaching a tipping point recently when some jointly filed a lawsuit seeking $2 billion in damages from several defendants, including the San Francisco Health Department and representatives of the US Navy. They say that officials lied to them for years regarding the full scope of the contamination on the island, putting them at risk in the process.  

Another stipulation outlined in the lawsuit is that a long-awaited $6 billion redevelopment plan be paused until all toxic substances are confirmed to have been removed.

Though for the time being, it will continue on. Construction crews at work on the island have resulted in the land looking even more like the setting of an apocalyptic movie.

"It's ugly out there," Mike Bartell, a formerly homeless war veteran and Treasure Island resident of three years, told Business Insider. "It looks like a war zone."

Eventually, over 8,000 homes, 500 hotel rooms, upscale retailers, office space, 300 acres of parks, and a ferry terminal will be built on the island in the coming years.

The project's developer also has had to shore up the island for seismic activity and for a rising sea level — the landmass was found to be sinking into the bay.

The majority of housing units will be priced at market rate, which by San Francisco standards is nowhere near affordable for the masses — meaning the island's future residents will likely be wealthy workers in tech or finance.

Since this redevelopment has been planned for over two decades, there are fixed financing plans in place, Sherry Williams, Executive Director of One Treasure Island — a coalition of homeless service and housing advocacy groups for the island — told Business Insider. And while new living units can be a welcome feat in the crowded city, what is more sorely needed is affordable housing. Twenty-seven percent of the new housing that is planned on the island is slated to be affordable, or below-market-rate.

Williams told Business Insider that it's not ideal, but it'll have to do.

"Would we want more? Of course we would want more," Williams said. "But is it realistic within the confines of what's available for financing both the project and the affordable housing component? I think yes."

Residents housed through One Treasure Island, like Bartell and Miller, are assured a home among the new units being built. But there are some residents living on the island in market-rate housing that are getting the boot, with only "advisory services" for relocating being offered to them.

Miller will go from a three-bedroom townhome with a back and front yard to a three-bedroom unit in a high-rise that has yet to be built. And Bartell will move into a one-bedroom unit in an apartment building.

"They're going to put our ass off here just as soon as the last nail is put in the building," Miller said.

Both of their homes will be knocked down, with the land at the north end of the island being turned into a park.

In 2019, the population was 2,000. By 2032, the population is expected to swell to 20,000.

And all of the island's occupants — current and future — will be residing atop what was once, and could still be, radioactive waste and contaminants from a US Navy operation that shuttered decades ago.

SEE ALSO: San Francisco’s housing market is so dire that tech workers are spending over $2,000 a month to rent rooms in vacant Victorian homes

Long before Treasure Island is what it is now, it served as the site for the 1939 World's Fair.

Source: Business Insider

The island was made specifically for the exposition in 1936 by stacking rocks on top of the shallow foundation of the landmass.

The World’s Fair celebrated the completion of San Francisco’s two newly-built bridges: The Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Source: Business Insider

Its name at the time was "Magic Isle." Years later, control of the island passed to the US Navy.

Source: Reuters

The Navy used the island in part as a training ground in the Cold War era, teaching Navy students how to decontaminate ships by having them practice cleaning a land-ridden vessel outfitted with deck markers.

Source: Reuters

The paint on the markers contained radium, a radioactive element used to make objects glow in the dark.

Source: Reuters and SF Curbed

Over the 30-year period that the Navy operated on the island, radioactive material seeped into the soil and contaminants were dumped into garbage pits dug deep into the ground.

Source: Reuters and The San Francisco Chronicle

Military families started living on the island starting in the 1960s. Daycare centers, homes, and schools were built.

Source: Reuters

In 1997, the military base was closed as part of a nationwide shuttering of hundreds of bases. They were offered up for civilian reuse.

Source: Reuters

And the city of San Francisco — in the midst of the tech boom of the 90s and already experiencing a housing crisis — leaped at the opportunity to build units on a fresh spate of land.

Source: Reuters

Another part of the reuse plan was to allocate a third of the land to house and assist the homeless.

Source: Reuters

And so in the late 1990s and early 2000s, some of the island's first new inhabitants were those exiting homelessness. They moved into the old military family units.

Source: Reuters

Miller didn't come from a homeless background, but health issues and other factors led her to seek supportive housing. She would eventually join the island community through One Treasure Island for a short time in 2006, and later permanently in 2008.

She moved into 1126 Reeves Court with her then-young daughters until scientists clad in hazmat suits came knocking.

"They were in there and out there and knocking on doors and taking samples with their Geiger counter readers or whatever," Miller said.

A report published around the time of the 1997 base closure described the waste embedded in the ground as harmless. City advisors found no serious issues with the waste.

 Source: Reuters

In the late 1990s, the Navy started testing and cleaning its way through the island, and in 2014, it started transferring what it claimed were clean chunks of it to the city of San Francisco as it went.

Source: Reuters

But some city officials and environmental groups claimed there has never been transparency in the Navy's findings. And, as Reuters reported, the Navy immediately started to discover abnormally high levels of contaminants like lead, dioxins, and DDT.

Source: SF Curbed and The San Francisco Chronicle and Reuters and NBC Bay Area

The US Navy finally labeled the housing area of the island as "radiologically impacted."

Source: Reuters

At the time of a Reuters investigation in January 2019, Navy contractors had unearthed 1,289 low-level radioactive objects in the ground beneath the Treasure Island neighborhood, some in areas it previously deemed to be clean of contaminants.

Source: Reuters

A US Navy report published in March 2019 stated that there was "no radiological health risk" posed to Treasure Island residents.

Source: US Navy

In September 2019, the Navy disclosed that it had unearthed a chunk of low-level radioactive dirt the size of a basketball that had previously gone undetected, which it also claimed posed no real threat.

Source: SF Curbed

But a September 2019 San Francisco Chronicle report revealed that the island was so hazardous it was once considered to be labeled as Superfund site, a classification given to the most polluted areas in the US.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

Developers believe the island to be safely habitable, saying it's "flat wrong" to call the Navy-led cleanup and additional safety checks flawed.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

Uncertainty regarding the exact nature of the island's contamination aside, there have been reports of thyroid issues, rashes, lumps, and hair loss in children, though no conclusive studies have determined there to be a link between them and Treasure Island contaminants.

Source: Reuters

Miller said one of her daughters would later develop hair loss and lumps as well, which she believes were caused by living on the island.

"They never should have allowed anyone to live there," Health Physicist Gaetano Taibi told Reuters in early 2019.

Source: Reuters

Miller lived in Sacramento for 30 years before moving onto Treasure Island. Miller said her life prior included criminal activity, and she turned to Community Housing Partnership, a housing advocacy group, for a behavior-modification program on the island.

"I was a pretty bad actor," Miller told Business Insider. "That's how I ended up coming here anyway."

But she moved onto the island with her two daughters and began work as a tattoo artist at a shop on Larkin Street. She had a stroke in 2016 that prevented her from continuing on with the trade, which requires a steady hand.

"It's been a long, long road," she said of the recovery.

After her home on Reeves Court was found to be on contaminated land, it was demolished. She moved to this new home two years ago.

It's a two-story house with three bedrooms, and it backs up to the waterfront.

She said her current home was closed for some time for the same reason as her previous house: suspicion of underground radioactive matter.

Miller said she has never felt sick like her 16-year-old daughter has. According to Miller, she was eight or nine years old when bald patches were found on her head and pus-filled bumps appeared on her body. Miller has been taking her to and from the doctor ever since.

And Miller said her daughter isn't the only child living on Treasure Island that has developed hair loss.

Bartell said he's never felt any effects of radiation. The 68-year-old served in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1972 and lived in Concord, a city about 30 miles to the northeast, for 32 years. But when the 2008 recession hit, he lost his house.

"So when that fell through and I lost the job and everything, one thing led to another, and then I became homeless," Bartell said.

Police officers that he was friends with in Concord, convinced that he couldn't survive any longer on the streets, eventually connected him to Swords to Plowshares, a nonprofit housing formerly homeless veterans. He's lived on Treasure Island for three years now.

If he didn't have his current living situation, he said he'd "probably still be homeless or dead."

He volunteers at a food bank on the island and works as a dishwasher at Mersea, a restaurant and bar operating out of a shipping container along the waterfront.

Bartell doesn't know much about the property that he's moving into ("it's full of dirt right now") but he said he knows he'll have waterfront views and the rent will be $257 a month.

And his new building will be full of one-bedroom units, so he'll definitely have less space than what he has now.

But he said he's fine with the downsizing, and he's fine overall with the new changes that are looming over the island in the coming years.

"Worrying about things you have no control over is just a waste of time," Bartell said.

Miller's a bit more apprehensive. "I don't want to relocate," she said. "I want to be right here where I am, but since I can't be …"

Miller said she doesn't know where her new building will be, but she's seen the blueprints. She knows she's going to have to downsize quite a bit, which she's not happy about.

"Nobody wants to live in an apartment building," Miller said. "Especially when you've had yards."

And Miller said the building she'll be moving into will eventually resemble the projects. "That's how it's going to be," Miller said. "Whether it's a new building or not, that's what it's going to turn into once it gets up and going."

In early 2020, the first housing project is expected to break ground, and it will be in partnership with Swords to Plowshares, which is a part of One Treasure Island. One hundred units will be built.

Construction on 266 luxury condos has already begun on Yerba Buena, a naturally-formed landmass adjacent to Treasure Island.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

Yerba Buena has a protected ecosystem of wildlife, so most of the new housing will be built on Treasure Island. But the Yerba Buena condo construction is still the first step of the master plan to transform the two islands into a new-and-improved neighborhood.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

With the expected influx of people both residing on and visiting the island, improving transportation is high on the to-do list.

“We certainly anticipate that tourists would want to visit this neighborhood just like how they visit other San Francisco neighborhoods,” Eric Young, the director of communications for the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, told Business Insider.

Increased bus service is planned, as is a ferry terminal on the west side of the island that will connect it to downtown San Francisco.

And on and off-ramps are being added to the highway to accommodate an increase of all types of traffic.

The improved efficiency of transportation is something Bartell could get behind. He goes into the city for groceries, shopping, or to see a movie about three times a week.

"I refuse to buy a car because I don't want to drive in the city, so I take the bus," Bartell said. "But now they got this high-tech Lyft stuff."

Miller has a car and an assigned parking spot too at the moment, but when she’s moved to the new apartment building, she won’t have a designated spot to leave her vehicle.

She'll likely have to say goodbye to a lot of her things, like her barbecue grill and her prized holiday decorations.

"I don't look forward to all these adventures," she said of the incoming changes.

• Mohammed bin Salman is the 34-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
• The UN said this week it had received credible information that Prince Mohammed hacked the personal cell phone of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, which the Saudi embassy has denied.
• The Saudi crown prince controls part of the royal family's vast wealth, which is estimated at up to $1.4 trillion and includes Saudi Aramco, the most valuable company in the world.
• Prince Mohammed has spent his fortune on a $500 million yacht, a $300 million French chateau, and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting.
• In 2018, bin Salman faced global outcry over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who the CIA later concluded was assassinated on the prince's orders. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the future king of Saudi Arabia, was accused by the UN this week of hacking the personal cell phone of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The Saudi embassy called the idea "absurd."

Known as MBS, the 34-year-old heir will ascend to the throne after the death of his father, 84-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. 

Prince Mohammed is known for his lavish spending. He has bought a $500 million yacht, a $300 million French chateau, and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting. According to one estimate, the Saudi royal family — which has about 15,000 members — is worth up to $1.4 trillion.

The royal family's empire includes Saudi Aramco, the massive, state-owned oil company that just went public and is now valued at a record-breaking $2 trillion, making it the most valuable company in the world.

The crown prince has become a controversial global political figure, particularly in the fall of 2018, when he faced global outcry over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who the CIA later concluded was assassinated on the prince's orders. 

Here's a look at the lavish — and controversial — lifestyle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

SEE ALSO: Here are the 10 most important details you need to know about Jeff Bezos allegedly being hacked by the Saudi crown prince

DON'T MISS: From an unexplored desert to a near $2 trillion IPO: The 86-year history of Saudi Aramco in pictures

Mohammed bin Salman is the 34-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

He was born to King Salman and his third wife, Fahda bint Falah, in 1985.

He was named crown price in June 2017 after his father, King Salman, decided to remove Muhammad bin Nayef from the position.

Rumors later emerged that Mohammed bin Salman had secretly plotted to oust bin Nayef and take his place, The New York Times reported.

The prince has a bachelor's degree in law from King Saud University, the oldest university in Saudi Arabia.

After graduating, he worked for several state agencies before being appointed as a special adviser to his father in 2009, who was serving as governor of Riyadh at the time.

In 2012, Prince Mohammed's father was named crown prince after the death of Nayef bin Abdul Aziz. Three years later, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz died and the prince's father took the throne at the age of 79.

Prince Mohammed is not yet king, but he "essentially runs the country for his father," 84-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz, according to Bloomberg.

The prince is known to be a "workaholic" who spends 18 hours of the day in his office, according to The Guardian.

But he reportedly doesn't take criticism well.

"People who tried to say no even gently and diplomatically faced consequences," one source from Saudi Arabia told The Guardian.

The total wealth of the Saudi royal family is unknown, but it could be worth as much as $1.4 trillion, according to House of Saud, an English language Saudi Royal Family news resource.

The royal wealth has been accumulated over decades of oil revenue-generated expansion.

There are about 15,000 members of the Saudi royal family, but the majority of the vast fortune is distributed among 2,000 of them, according to CNBC.

The British royal family, for comparison, is worth an estimated $88 billion.

The Saudi royal family's empire includes Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant that just went public and now has a record-high valuation of $2 trillion.

That makes it the most valuable company in the world, outstripping the market capitalizations of the biggest US giants, including Microsoft, Apple, and Google's parent, Alphabet.

It's worth more than Berkshire Hathaway, Facebook, and Amazon combined. 

Saudi officials had been seeking a valuation of $2 trillion for the company, but most banks had pegged their initial estimates much lower, Bloomberg reported.

Aramco announced revenue of $68 billion in the first nine months of 2019, making it the most profitable company in the world.

Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman, are often found in "a network of marble-columned palaces and countryside retreats" in Riyadh, according to The New York Times.

Foreign dignitaries and politicians are often hosted at the Al-Yamamah Palace.

During a visit from President Obama to the opulent Erga Palace, reporters spotted gold-plated Kleenex dispensers and gold chairs, according to CBS News.

The royal family is rumored to own several other lavish residences around the world, including in Switzerland, London, France, and Morocco.

Prince Mohammed is known for his extravagant purchases.

He's spent hundreds of millions on superyachts, private jets, helicopters, French chateaus, and rare paintings.

The crown prince reportedly owns a $500 million, 440-foot yacht named Serene, which includes multiple swimming pools and hot tubs, two helipads, a helicopter hangar, a gym, and a movie theater.

The yacht can sleep 24 guests in 15 cabins.

The prince reportedly bought the superyacht after spotting it while vacationing in the south of France.

In 2015, Prince Mohammed bought a chateau in France for $300 million, which was dubbed "the world's most expensive home" by Fortune at the time.

It wasn't until 2017 that news broke that it was the Saudi prince who had bought the Chateau Louis XIV in Louveciennes, which is located west of Paris.

The 17th-century chateau reportedly includes fountains, a sound system, lights, and air conditioning that can all be controlled by an iPhone.

The lavish property also has a wine cellar, a movie theater, and a moat with a transparent underwater chamber.

The prince also picked up a Leonardo da Vinci painting for $450 million at a Christie's auction in 2017.

Prince Mohammed made the winning bid on da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" anonymously by phone.

The painting had been estimated to sell for around $100 million leading into the auction.

Prince Mohammed has been in the news in recent years for a variety of scandals.

Saudi Arabia has faced criticism for human rights abuses and repressive laws, such as the one that says all Saudi women must have a male guardian.

In February 2019, INSIDER published an investigation detailing how a Saudi app called Absher allows men in Saudi Arabia to track and control where women travel. The reporting prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to launch an investigation into the app, which is sold on the App Store.

In the fall of 2017, the crown prince was reportedly behind a corruption crackdown that saw more than 200 people arrested and some detained for weeks in a Ritz-Carlton hotel.Saudi Arabia reportedly use coercion and physical abuse during the interrogations.

And according to Al Jazeera, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia has been on the rise: 133 people were executed in the first eight months after MBS became crown prince.

In the fall of 2018, the crown prince faced global outcry over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

In November 2018, the CIA concluded the journalist was assassinated on the prince's orders.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that the crown prince had any role in Khashoggi's death.

The Saudis denied for weeks that Khashoggi had been killed and repeatedly changed their story. The kingdom later announced that 18 people had been arrested in connection with the killing and said in January 2019 that prosecutors would be seeking the death penalty for five suspects.

While many world leaders have publicly condemned Prince Mohammed after Khashoggi's death, President Trump has said we may never know if Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of the journalist or not.

After the CIA concluded that MBS ordered the killing of Khashoggi, Trump expressed support for MBS, Al Jazeera reported in December 2018.

As Business Insider previously reported, Trump has had deep business ties with the Saudi Arabian court for more than two decades.

And Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, has reportedly pushed for closer ties with Saudi Arabia and particularly with Prince Mohammed.

Kushner and the crown prince have had a close relationship for more than two years, Business Insider's Ellen Cranley reported.

At the G20 Summit in Argentina in December 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin was seen enthusiastically greeting the Saudi prince.

Putin's enthusiastic greeting of the Saudi prince at G20 came right after other world leaders had condemned Saudi Arabia for the killing of Khashoggi.

Other world leaders appeared to ignore the crown prince in a group photo at the summit.

Beyond politics, the prince has ties to top US technology companies and has toured some of Silicon Valley's top firms, including Google and Apple.

In the spring of 2018, Prince Mohammed met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

His west coast tour also included a stop in Seattle to meet with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund owns 5% of Uber, according to the ride-sharing company's most recent S-1 filing. The fund is also a top investor in Softbank's massive Vision Fund, which owns 16% of Uber as well as sizable stakes in companies like Slack, WeWork, and DoorDash.

In January 2020, the United Nations said it had received credible information that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had his phone hacked by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The UN called for an "immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities" into the matter.

According to the UN report, Bezos gave Prince Mohammed his personal phone number after the two attended a small dinner together in Los Angeles in April 2018. A month later, the crown prince allegedly sent a malicious file to Bezos' phone that stole data from the device.

The Saudi government has denied the allegations, calling them "absurd."

• Heterosexual couples in which the wife earns more than her husband are more likely to report low marriage satisfaction, research shows. 
• A woman who gets promoted to a high-level job such as CEO is more likely to get divorced, according to one study. 
• Why does this happen? It's the shattering of expectations within a relationship, experts say. 
• Heterosexual couples can avoid trouble by taking a few steps: Talk about career ambitions and expectations early on, seek professional help if necessary, and more. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories. 

Women in the workforce have made major gains over the past few years. 

2018 was labeled "the year of the woman" for the number of US women shattering records in political office, 2019 saw the ripple of effects of the #MeToo movement across numerous industries, and 2020 kicked off with new data that women have now overtaken men as the majority of the US workforce. 

Yet, despite these gains for women, troubling trends persist among heterosexual couples. Indeed, early studies indicate, gender progress — uncomfortable as it might sound — could be straining relationships.

SEE ALSO: 8 signs you're in a strong relationship — even if it doesn't feel like it

Global research paints a troubling picture for women who want a successful career and marriage.

In marriages where the wife's potential income is likely to exceed her husband's, the wife is actually less likely to be in the labor force, a 2015 study published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics shows. 

In marriages where a wife does earn more than her husband, she's also more likely to spend more time on chores, and the husband and wife are more likely to report not being satisfied with their marriage. 

Moreover, wives are more likely than husbands to make compromises to their work schedule or overall careers when faced with family or childcare issues.

And according to a 2016 study in Sweden — a country which has a higher percentage of women in political office than the US, and one that prides itself on the acceptance of the word feminist— shows that a woman's career success often comes at the expense of her marriage. A woman's promotion to a "top job" such as CEO or political leader "dramatically" increases her chances for divorce, but the same is not true for a man who gets promoted.

A woman's promotion in and of itself is not inherently dangerous to a marriage. It's that her promotion may defy what the couple, specifically the man, expected in the relationship.  

"It's the shift in expectation," licensed clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula tells Business Insider. "The violation of expectation and the subsequent financial power that can come from a promotion may unsettle an existing canon within that relationship. And it may be a hard adjustment, especially for a male partner whose needs may have been well served by the existing state of affairs." 

While this research has focused on opposite-sex couples, one would imagine that the lessons for nurturing a healthy longterm relationship would apply to same-sex partners, too.

So what can couples do to avoid these disturbing trends? 

1. Ladies, don't be shy about your career ambitions.

Women, set expectations early on with your male partner. 

"Don't be shy about your aspirations and ambitions while dating," says Durvasula, author of "Should I Stay or Should I Go."

"If you think a potential partner is going to send you packing because you indicate you want to pursue a career, or work throughout your children's lives, then it may be better to let them go, or this will always be a fight in your relationship." 

2. Talk about your work and household expectations before marriage.

Relationships are most vulnerable when initial expectation about gender roles are overturned, The Atlantic first reported. To avoid that, it's important to establish common ground regarding career and household roles, says relationship expert and certified coach Jessica Yaffa. 

"Prior to entering into a lifelong commitment, have conversations with your partner surrounding expectations related to roles, finances, and the sharing of responsibilities," Yaffa says.

These conversations should establish expectations, and let each partner discuss how each partner will meet them.

Ask your partner: What would we do if I were asked to relocate? What would we do if it was you who were asked? Who will take parental leave? How do you envision us handling childcare? Daily activities such as dropping the kids off to school? Picking them up in the afternoon? 

3. Share household chores and family duties from the beginning.

Couples who split household duties are happier, research shows. And they're less likely to have trouble if a woman gets promoted, Durvasula says. 

"I do not believe that a healthy, balanced and satisfying relationship with a good balance of roles within the relationship, for example, shared burdens vis a vis chores and child-rearing, would be threatened or ended (due to) a female partner's promotion," Durvasula says. 

"My guess is that more traditional gender-roled relationships, in which these roles, like chores, were not balanced, were the relationships that will take the hit."  

In her new book, "Fair Play," Harvard lawyer and organizational expert Eve Rodsky argues that balancing household duties goes beyond simply having the one partner tackle one group of chores and the other partner do another. This traditional method depends on one of the partners assuming the "worry work" of delegating to the other.

Instead, Rodsky argues, that partners should have a list of chores they own from beginning to end. For example, if the husband agrees to pick up the kids from school, he would be responsible for knowing what time each day they need to be picked up, and picking them up. He wouldn't rely on his wife to delegate or tell him. Similarly, if the wife agrees to handle family birthday parties, she would plan ahead, buy balloons, and bake a cake. She wouldn't rely on her husband to pick up supplies or make sure everyone is home.

4. Have room for continued conversations throughout your relationship/marriage.

Conversations around career and family roles should happen periodically throughout a relationship or marriage. 

"There needs to be space to redefine roles and responsibilities," Yaffa says. "Ask for help if you need it — through a coach or therapist." 

• Earlier this month I got to fly business class from London to Riyadh on Saudi Arabia's government airline, Saudia.
• I also took a connecting internal flight with Saudia in economy class to AlUla, in the kingdom's northern provinces. 
• Here's what it was like to fly in both cabins, and experience Arabian airline hospitality first hand.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Earlier this month, I got to fly business class from London to Riyadh onboard Saudi Arabia's government-owned, flag-carrying airline Saudia.

Shortly afterward, I had to take a connecting flight to AlUla, in the kingdom's north, on Saudia's economy class — meaning I got to see the full range of the airline's options and hospitality.

Both flights were paid for as part of a press trip to visit the Winter at Tantora festival in the kingdom's northern deserts.

While Saudia was founded in 1945 — under the name Saudi Arabian Airlines at the time — it went through a rejuvenation in 2017, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tasked the airline to compete with local rivals Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways.

While I can't be sure how its service was before then, my experience was excellent in both classes — so much so that I don't understand why people would splash out on business class.

Take a look at my journey:

It was my first time ever flying business class, and I was interested to see what the great and the good got for their extra money.

I arrived at London's Heathrow Airport well ahead of my 7:10 p.m. departure, checked in my bag, and headed to the departure gate.

I got to use the priority lane, which was wasted on me.

I was at the airport so early there were no lines for the regular desk anyway.

My flight was departing from Heathrow Terminal 4, the airport's main terminal for flights to the Middle East.

I had hoped to visit a business class lounge — which is why I got to the airport early in the first place — but didn't find one at Terminal 4.

Finally, it was time to board my flight, which was on a 381-seater Boeing 777.

Saudia has a total of 147 aircraft in its fleet. It has planes from the Boeing 777 I was flying on, to the 144-seat Airbus A320.

I got to my seat and was blown away. I didn't even have enough baggage to fill all the surfaces.

Here's the view from the aisle.

As a 6'1 man used to economy legroom, I was disconcerted by the gaping black hole beneath me, which felt like it could be harboring some form of bedtime story goblin.

Oh well, nothing for it.

If there were any screaming children near me, I didn't have to worry. Saudia has its own branded over-ear headphones for business-class flyers.

The airline also hands out pretty decent in-ear buds for economy-class flyers.

Sadly, they weren't free. But they were great for in-flight entertainment.

I was offered a drink by a senior cabin crew member called Katarina, who was assigned to me and three others in my section. I had to do a double take — everything is free in business class, apparently.

To my right was the seat control. The bottom left icon confused me, until I realized it triggered the chair's massage feature.

Above the display I found a convenient hidey hole for my effects.

It was also very easy to leave things behind in there. RIP my eye mask.

Time to buckle up.

I was handed a Missoni gift bag, exclusive to Saudia's business class passengers.

It contained a comb, dental pack, screen lens wipe, creams, an eye mask, and a pair of socks for the flight. It's impossible to have too many socks.

I also got handed a hot towel. The airline also offered them in economy class.

I took a look at the safety instructions — written in English and Arabic — wondering if there was any variation in safety protocol for people in business class. Nope.

Another good thing about business class is that you can get good privacy in the upright seat position, thanks to the extended sideboard along the aisle.

I then got handed the business-class menu. The two main offerings were an Arabic and Mediterranean set menu, and a huge choice of deserts and cheeses. It was 11 p.m. London time by this point, so I chose not to indulge a second dinner.

Pork is haram in Saudi Arabia, so there were no pork products on the menu.

"Time for a beer," I thought, before remembering that alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia, and therefore not sold on government planes. A tea then.

Moments later, the in-flight safety video started. It starred a Saudi man in a traditional thawb and keffiyeh, apparently watching a sign language interpreter levitate his briefcase into the overhead locker.

Before takeoff, a prayer attributed to the prophet Mohammed sounded through the intercom and the text was shown on screen.

It was quite reassuring, and I heard it on all flights I took in the kingdom.

After we took off, a wide selection of movies became available on the entertainment system. My first choice was "White House Down."

My movie choice seemed fitting as I feared the US and Iran would be at war by the time we landed in Riyadh.

I switched out and opted for something more relaxing, like "Toy Story."

After I finished all my movies, I had less than five hours left until we touched down in Riyadh. I tried to get some sleep.

But first, some peppermint tea and shortbread to wind me down.

Touchdown in Riyadh. Security was segregated at Riyadh's King Khalid Airport.

Not all the country's airports segregate men and women at their security checks, however.

I was almost immediately due catch a connecting flight with Saudia to AlUla, in the north of the country. I grabbed the only available sustenance — a wrap from Starbucks — and pressed on.

After my six-hour flight from London to Riyadh I was very glad to see the connection was only 100 minutes long.

Saudia has hubs in Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh, and Dammam and serves airports as far away as Los Angeles and Beijing.

I was forewarned that Saudia are terrible at losing your luggage, but luckily my bags made it onto the plane, and were there to meet me at the other end.

I was booked to fly economy to AlUla, which suited me as I was keen to check out any disparity in service. Here I am in my much more cramped seat.

This plane was an Airbus A333.

Ah, back to normality ...

... though luckily for me, the plane was very empty. I eyed up a row to stretch out on.

Great minds think alike.

I was glad to see there was no variation in the in-flight entertainment system in business class and economy.

Here's the supplication prayer by the Prophet Mohammed played out toward the beginning of the flight again.

Halfway through the flight, flight attendants handed out cheese-and-egg sandwiches and drinks. I opted for a water.

It wasn't much, but it was free, and better than I was used to from flying EasyJet and Ryanair in Europe.

I tried watching "White House Down" again, but halfway through I opted to just watch the plane's interactive map instead.

I noticed that Saudia had added the Neom mega-city region, the kingdom's not-yet-completed $500 billion project that's set to have flying taxis, state-of-the-art education, and futuristic living.

Source: Business Insider

And, less than two hours later, we made it. I left feeling very extremely satisfied — Saudia's service was great, and both my journeys went without incident.

In fact, my flights were so good that I left feeling business class — my London-Riyadh flight was worth $4,500 one way! — wasn't worth it. Don't expect to see me up there for a while.

• A developer is proposing new housing plans to the city of San Francisco that include 88 50-square-foot underground "sleeping pods."
• The pods, which are essentially bunk beds stacked together dormitory-style, will be located in windowless subterranean basement levels of two proposed apartment buildings in the Mission District.
• The pods would be priced between $1,000 and $1,375 with curtains instead of doors for privacy.
• The units are the latest alternative living setup to be presented to San Francisco to combat the city's housing shortage.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A developer is proposing a housing project to the city of San Francisco that's a bit outside of the box.

The Kansas-based developer Chris Elsey of Elsey Partners, who runs the company with his twin brother, has plans to build two apartment buildings in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood, which will include 88 50-square-foot underground "sleeping pods" that are essentially bunk beds. The plans need to be approved by the San Francisco Planning Department before the developers can move forward to submitting a building application.

Elsey told Business Insider that he purchased two parcels, which are currently parking lots in the Mission. The buildings would be catty-corner from each other if they are built. The pods will exist in two windowless subterranean levels, in areas of apartment buildings that are usually designated for bike storage and other uses, Elsey told Business Insider.

"Obviously San Francisco has an affordability crisis and typically, below-grade spaces and buildings are used for accessory building uses — that's where the laundry facility or bike parking or vehicle parking, like those things go," Elsey said.

The "sleeping pods" would be priced at $1,000 to $1,375 and stacked bunk bed-style, with curtains in lieu of doors for privacy. On the building's ground level and above, 161 studio units, measuring 200-square-feet and with individual bathrooms and kitchens, will be priced between $2,000 and $2,375.

The prospect of micro-living isn't a novelty in San Francisco, where high housing demand, limited supply, high rent costs, and an influx of young professionals looking to jumpstart their careers have transformed what a living space can look like in the landlocked city — in this case, it's a bunk bed beneath the ground. 

Here's what the "sleeping pods" and the apartment buildings would look like.

SEE ALSO: San Francisco’s housing market is so dire that tech workers are spending over $2,000 a month to rent rooms in vacant Victorian homes

There are two apartment building projects in the planned development, one at 401 South Van Ness (right) and one at 1500 15th Street in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood.

As SF Curbed's Brock Kneeling writes, the proposed housing project is slated to go up in the city's Mission neighborhood, which has seen a wave of gentrification as an influx of millennial tech workers have overrun the district in recent years.

Members of the region's transient community of tech workers would likely fill the pods.

Source: SF Curbed

According to the developer plans, the 88 pods would be built in basement levels that would typically be used to store bicycles and other building accessories.

The "sleeping pod" levels are the so-called congregate living areas or dorm-style sections. The pods would be stacked on top of each other, resembling bunk beds. Each pod comes with a bed and a desk space. There are large communal kitchen spaces with multiple sinks for people to use. Multi-stall showers and toilets exist on both basement floors, and a communal laundry area would be on the basement level.

A common area would sit in between rows of them. The city's building code prohibits them from being enclosed by a wall or a door, so only curtains would allow for each "sleeping pod" occupant to have some privacy.

And the area is also windowless, but Elsey said a "light well," or a hole carved out of the building that runs from the open sky at the top level all the way down to the lowest level, will provide natural light. It's essentially the outdoor courtyard and is one of the necessary measures Elsey took to comply with the city's building code.

"The people that are in the basement, they have basically the same view as people on the second or third floor," Elsey told Business Insider.

They'll be priced from $1,000 to $1,375, with the rest of the 200-square-foot above-ground units priced between $2,000 and $2,375. That's not a bad deal in San Francisco's renter market — various sites set the city's average rent at $3,550, some at $2,492— though of course, you're getting what you paying for with a subterranean bunk bed.

Source: SF Curbed

Elsey said his "sleeping pods" offer a diversity of housing stock and choice for residents, though he acknowledged that not all people would opt for this kind of living style.

Elsey said his plans meet all building code requirements. He has yet to submit a building permit application, but he said the city's building department has reviewed his project plans. However, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Building Department told Business Insider that they have no record of reviewing Elsey's project plans.

Elsey's plans have to go through the San Francisco Planning Department first. The planning department has a different set of requirements and also can use its discretion to determine whether or not a new development is best for the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Elsey said the planning director he spoke with indicated that the department did not support Elsey's development plan, without giving him a concrete list of reasons as to why. But the developer said the planning department is currently pulling together a more itemized description of what they do or do not like about the proposal. Only then will he begin to move forward with officially submitting a building permit application to the building department.

The San Francisco Planning Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Developers in San Francisco are tasked with creating or contributing to affordable housing when proposing new development.

One option is to designate 25% of units in a residential project that has at least 10 units as affordable or below-market-rate, which Elsey said his plans comply with. But Elsey said the affordable units aren't solely confined to the underground levels.

He said it's an equal split between the two different unit types, the "sleeping pods" and the above-ground studios — 25% of the above-grade units will be affordable, while 25% of the "sleeping pods" will meet that inclusionary criterion, which is why there's a price range on each type.

"That's basically the haves and the have-nots, right?" Elsey said of the idea that the inclusionary units would be confined to the underground levels. "So you have basically an equal number."

Elsey's proposed microunits are nothing new in San Francisco's existing alternative housing arena. Tech workers looking for a place to merely lay their heads have long been known to shack up in unconventional places.

California company Podshare began renting out bunk beds in San Francisco for $1,200 a month in July 2019, as Business Insider's Libby Brandt reported. Communal living arrangements, hacker houses, and even turning to co-living startups for help to find housing have become a necessity for many in San Francisco. 

But this may be the first concept involving subterranean housing units. Their conception is a product of San Francisco's current real estate market — the job market, mostly bolstered by the tech industry, attracts young professionals worldwide to the city. With such high demand and limited housing stock, rent costs are high, and some workers are willing to accept smaller and unorthodox living spaces.

• US Navy Lt. Jonny Kim, a Navy SEAL and Harvard-trained physician who recently graduated from NASA training, stressed that the skills he obtained throughout his military career complemented the ones he gained from his medical experience.
• In an interview with Business Insider, Kim outlined the "hard skills" he learned from being a SEAL — from deploying twice to Iraq, to participating in dozens of combat missions and earning a Silver Star.
• Kim contrasted the hard skills with "soft skill" traits that he picked up during his education from Harvard Medical School and his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

US Navy Lt. Jonny Kim, a Navy SEAL and Harvard-trained physician who recently graduated from NASA training, stressed that the skills he obtained throughout his military career complemented the ones he gained from his medical experience.

In an interview with Business Insider, Kim outlined the "hard skills" he learned from being a SEAL — from deploying twice to Iraq, to participating in dozens of combat missions and earning a Silver Star.

"The SEALs were very good in teaching me hard skills — that means resilience, pushing past your mental and physical boundaries; and having an enormously high threshold for pain," Kim said.

Kim contrasted the hard skills with "soft skill" traits that he picked up during his education from Harvard Medical School and his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"All of these things that are very useful, but some ... I had to learn outside of the SEALs," Kim said. "And that meant adapting to people in your civic group, communicating with people from all walks of life."

"You don't work with two-year-old toddlers who are in the emergency room, or 85-year-olds who are on their deathbed and want someone to talk to and hold their hand with," Kim said, referring to his military experience. "A lot of those soft skills — working with groups of people who I've never met before to accomplish a mission, adapting to personality types — those are skills I've learned outside the SEAL time."

Kim said it was a mixture of the soft and hard skills he learned that enabled him to become one of the 13 astronaut candidates to graduate from NASA's latest program.

"I would say that the combination of those two skills, soft and hard skills, really enabled me to be a good candidate as an astronaut," Kim said.

But possessing the two traits is only half the battle, Kim said — it's also important to know when to apply each skill set. Despite some of the stereotypes of being a Navy SEAL, Kim said nearly all of the SEALs he served with were masters of controlling their emotions, a skill that helped him transition from being a SEAL to a physician and astronaut.

"I know that SEALs [have] this connotation of being very aggressive and hardcore," Kim said. "And in a lot of ways, that's correct, but I'd like to make this point clear: 99% of Navy SEALs are the most quiet, humble, professional warriors that exercise very controlled aggression."

"Controlled aggression, to me, is one of the most important traits to have," he added. "To have that social intelligence to know when to exert aggression in the military environment, and when to stay calm, cool, and collected."

SEE ALSO: This Harvard-educated, NASA-qualified, Navy SEAL gives his kids this simple advice every day

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Successful full-time influencer Carly Heitlinger quit her job at a tech startup in 2013 after she doubled her monthly salary with income from her blog.
• Heitlinger is a lifestyle influencer; she shares fashion, beauty, home, and travel inspiration on her blog and social media.
• Today, she has a manager who helps negotiate her contracts, which range from $7,500 to $20,000 on average.
• She spoke with Business Insider about the structure of her business, how she makes money, and what advice she'd give to someone interested in pursuing a similar career path.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

There are more than half a million influencers on Instagram alone, reported eMarketer in reference to a 2019 study by InfluencerDB.

And, by 2022, they'll be competing for up to $15 billion in annual marketing spend, per Business Insider Intelligence estimates and based on Mediakix data.

So how do you actually build a career in Instagram?

Carly Heitlinger, the blogger behind "Carly the Prepster," launched her site in 2008 as a creative outlet while struggling to adjust to college life as a freshman at Georgetown University. She started earning money from the blog as a senior and then, after making over $10,000 in affiliate commission from a Nordstrom sale (twice what she was then making monthly at her full-time tech startup job in New York) a few years later, she decided to pursue influencing full time.

"That probably planted the seed in my head that maybe I shouldn't be building someone else's company and should focus on my own," said Heitlinger.

Heitlinger shared with Business Insider more about her path to blogging, the way she structures her business, and how she made the leap to self-employment successfully.

Find a way to monetize your work

Heitlinger began working on Carly the Prepster full time in 2013, before Instagram took off and before blogging as a viable career path had become de rigueur. At the time, she "followed her gut" to monetize her site.

"At the beginning, brands were just starting to realize that blogs and social media were going to be the future of advertising," said Heitlinger. "It was a slow burn. Small businesses run by women who read my blog reached out first. Then, bigger brands wanted 'in' on the social media action."

Once Heitlinger started to hear from more — and bigger — brands, she figured she'd need to soon find a way to make her blog a business and not just a creative outlet. 

"I realized that I might have stumbled into something lucrative that could still be a creative outlet," explained Heitlinger. "The volume of requests from companies asking for me to do things for them, like review or feature a product, started to increase to a point where I knew I had to charge something, if for no other reason than to have some kind of response to send."

Initially, Heitlinger said, she charged mainly for sponsored posts and banner ads. And every time she felt people were agreeing to a price point too quickly or too many people were finding it reasonable, she'd raise the price.

While working simultaneously on her blog and at her full-time job in her first year post-graduation in New York, Heitlinger was able to save her entire salary. "That definitely gave me the courage and 'safety net' to leave," said Heitlinger. "I figured, if it didn't go well, I could always apply for another 'real job.' Although, I never ended up needing the safety net."

In her first month of self-employment, Heitlinger made close to $20,000 and "never looked back."

Formalize your business

When Heitlinger first started earning income from her blog in 2011, she formed an S-Corp upon advice from her father, an entrepreneur. "Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing when I had to incorporate," said Heitlinger. "My dad advised that I should do an S-Corp for the tax benefits."

After quitting her tech startup job, Heitlinger's accountant advised that she sign up for payroll and pay herself a salary. "I use ADP's payroll services so that I'm technically employed by my company," explained Heitlinger. "And then I pay myself the profit for the year at the end of the year as a K1 distribution. Then, I pay personal taxes on that income."

Set your revenue goals

Today, Heitlinger has 224,000 followers on Instagram and recently shared in a behind-the-scenes blog post that she "pretty much won't do anything for under $3,500," but that it's "the bare minimum" and she rarely accepts that rate.

The normal bell curve for her sponsored campaigns, she writes, run from $7,500 to $20,000, with some campaigns that are bigger and some that are smaller. She has a manager at a talent agency who negotiates her deals and makes 15% of all the profit she gets from sponsored content. "It's so worth it," she writes.

In the same post, Heitlinger also details how influencer commissions work. "Every retailer is different, but I don't make money per click," she writes. "It's actually per order. So, if a brand has a 10% commission rate and someone clicks on my link and buys a pair of shoes that cost $100, I make $10. The lowest rate, I'm pretty sure, is 7% and some commissions are 50%. The mean is probably 10%. My conversion rate is about 2%, so it takes 50 clicks to make a sale."

For years, she writes, her goal had been to have what she makes in commission more than cover her yearly operating expenses, including salary, new equipment, software, travel, accounting fees, contractors, etc., and have whatever is leftover be a bonus with sponsored content on top of that.

"Now I'm doing more than that, but it's still a nice cushion," she writes. "I make at least $10,000 a month on commission (after returns) for the first half of the year and then every month from July through December goes up exponentially, peaking on Black Friday."

In 2019, Heitlinger told Business Insider, roughly 35% of her income came from commissions and 65% from sponsored posts.

Update your rates — and know when to say no to partnerships

"The agency I'm signed to has helped keep me in line with market rates for the size of my audience, scope of work, and also my blog's conversion rate, which is the real value a business will benefit from," Heitlinger said. "Sometimes we 'go rogue' if I'm getting a ton of work in a particular category. For example, my partner and I just purchased a new home this year, and I've been getting so many offers in the home category that we raised my rates to meet demand."

Her agency also helps Heitlinger say no when the fit isn't right. "A recent potential partner wanted me to include branding for a big-box retailer, in addition to the branding of the product I was going to review — that just wasn't aligned with my brand whatsoever," said Heitlinger.

Even though it was a five-figure campaign that she had already spent some time on, Heitlinger backed away, knowing her audience would be put off by the off-brand ad.

"There are crazy months and there are slow months with many industries, so it's important to make sure you're still able to say no to certain things," she said. "You shouldn't be so strapped for cash that you take on a client or create a product line or sell a service that isn't in line with your core business. Otherwise, you're just on a hamster wheel to pay the bills, not build a viable business."

Aim for proof of concept

Heitlinger describes herself as risk averse and says anyone who is just making it work financially isn't actually making it work.

"I wouldn't quit until you have significant savings and proof of profitability," she said. "Even though working for that first year was incredibly difficult, I'm so glad I stayed for as long as I did because it allowed me to build confidence in my own business' financial viability. When I quit, I knew my business was making money. I didn't have to take a leap of faith!"

Now, Heitlinger is thinking about expansion, including writing a book and starting a brick-and-mortar business. "All in due time, though," she said.

SEE ALSO: The creator of a wildly popular travel Instagram account explains how she built a following of over half a million and how much she charges to partner with brands like HotelTonight

READ MORE: Does getting verified on Instagram really change the game? 2 influencers with over 90,000 followers reveal exactly how it's impacted their brand partnerships.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung retired from their computer engineering jobs at age 31 as self-made millionaires.
• They've since traveled the world — so far, they've been to 40-plus countries.
• Shen and Leung are currently in Thailand, where they make time for wellness, passion projects, and their friends.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung know how to budget.

Not only did they save enough money to quit their jobs at age 31 as self-made millionaires, they've been traveling the world ever since for the same amount of money it cost them to live at home.

Shen told Business Insider they've traveled to 40-plus countries so far. They're currently in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a three-month stay and plan to head to Singapore after.

Shen and Leung are the authors of a blog (Millennial Revolution) and a book ("Quit Like a Millionaire"), both about the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community. These passion projects keep them busy, but they also spend their days enjoying Chiang Mai's local delights, hanging out with friends, and taking care of themselves — they find time for exercise, massages, and meditation.

Here's what a typical day looks like for Shen and Leung in Chiang, Mai, Thailand.

SEE ALSO: A day in the life of a 34-year-old early retiree who lives in NYC, grew his net worth to $1.25 million in just 5 years, and wakes up at 7:30 a.m.

DON'T MISS: 17 habits of self-made millionaires who retired early

Five years ago at age 31, self-made millionaires Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung retired from their computer engineering jobs to travel the world.

Shen and Leung run the personal finance blog Millennial Revolution and wrote a book, "Quit Like a Millionaire." It was published in 2019.

They've been living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for two months. Around 8:30 a.m., they wake up in the condo they've been renting for $650 a month.

The couple has forgotten how to use an alarm clock since becoming financially independent, Shen said, adding, "Today, we wake up from the sunlight, but generally we can wake up whenever we want."

Shen and Leung aren't fans of big breakfasts, so they usually have something small and quick half an hour after waking up.

Today, it's a simple breakfast of egg and seaweed congee.

At 10 a.m., they head up to the condo's rooftop garden to meditate with friends, complete with views of Mount Doi Suthep.

Their friends, Alan and Katie Donegan, are visiting them for the month and join them for the deep meditation.

After, Shen reads a book on meditation for an hour. Her favorite author in the genre is Thich Nhat Hanh.

"Since we're retired, we now have more time to read and learn about mindfulness, which is not something I ever had time for when I had a hectic job as a software developer," she said.

At noon, Shen and Leung meet back up with friends for a lunch at "Rustic and Blue The Farm Shop," which Sheng said is a popular brunch restaurant in the city serving western food.

Shen has an acai smoothie bowl. Leung instead grabbed lunch at a local Thai food stall, which Shen said serves "the juiciest and most delicious smoked chicken in the whole world."

After lunch, they set up shop for an hour at coworking space CAMP to answer blog and book reader emails and respond to media requests.

They also brainstorm ideas for talks they've been invited to, like the upcoming finance talk at Chautauqua 2019 and the Financial Freedom Summit.

Living nomadically out of two backpacks lets them work anywhere in the world with their Macbook Airs, Shen said. "Since we no longer need to work for money, all the 'work' we do in retirement are passion projects," she added. "We choose to do them because they are interesting, rather than for the money."

They also volunteer for non-profit organizations, like We Need Diverse Books.

At 2 p.m., they sign copies of "Quit Like a Millionaire" at bookstore Asia Books in Chiang Mai.

At 3 p.m., Shen and Leung reward themselves with an hourlong foot massage at a Thai spa that only costs $7 per person.

"It's easy to live a luxurious life in Chiang Mai for $1,000 a month per person," Shen said.

After, they head to the gym for an hour — something they had little time for when they were working, Shen said.

"I used to be on anti-anxiety meds and anti-depressants, but now I haven't taken any prescription meds for the past five years," Shen said. "Bryce's doctor diagnosed him as 'obnoxiously happy' the last time he got a full check-up. Now, with all the time in the world to work out, our health has never been better."

At 5 p.m., they relax post-workout at the condo pool and sauna.

Their friend, Clover Lam, a flight attendant and world traveler, joins them.

At 6 p.m., Shen and Leung head to Digital Nomad Summit, a conference for travelers and location independent entrepreneurs.

They take a Grab, which Shen calls "the Uber of Asia" — the entire trip costs them $3.30 in total. 

"Since Chiang Mai is walkable, there's no need to own or lease a car," Shen said. "In fact, we've never owned a car. By living a nomadic life, we can rely on public transportation. By retiring, we no longer commute to work, so we rarely need to drive anywhere."

For the next two hours, they meet and mingle with entrepreneurs and FIRE bloggers to talk about their traveling lifestyles.

They run into another pair of FIRE bloggers, Eric Richard and Kelsey Herron from Nomad on FIRE.

At 8 p.m., Shen, Leung, and their friends head to an Indian restaurant to have dinner, which costs about $9 per person, including drinks and taxes.

"The variety of restaurants in Chiang Mai is mind-blowing — you could pick a different restaurant, night market, or food stall every day and never repeat in a whole month," Shen said. "Since it's so inexpensive to eat out ($2 to $10 per person per meal), we don't bother cooking. In fact, many condos don't even have a kitchen, just a hot plate."

After dinner, they all get dessert at an ice cream shop and chat about everything from their favorite movies to passion projects they could work on together.

By 11:30 p.m., Shen and Leung are home. They plan a future trip involving elephants and mountain hiking and watch a Netflix show. By 12:30 a.m., it's bedtime.

"We're night owls, so we generally don't go to bed before midnight," Shen said. "It works out well since we don't have to get up early the next morning. Gotta love retirement!"

• Angela Burns is the owner of Little Bean Coffee Company in Antioch, Illinois; check out the shop on Instagram.
• When Burns dropped out of Purdue University for mental health reasons, she began working at Cafe Book, Little Bean Coffee Company's former iteration.
• She loved working there and says it felt like home; when she returned to Purdue, she wrote an essay for Roxane Gay's class about the healing powers of the coffee shop.
• After graduating, Burns worked in restaurant management jobs — until the owners of Cafe Book asked her if she would be interested in taking over the coffee shop.
• On May 1, 2018, Burns handed over her check and began running Little Bean Coffee Company.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When I first stopped into Cafe Book (now named Little Bean Coffee Company), I was home from college looking for work. I had dropped out the previous year due to depression and anxiety. 

I drove through Antioch on my way to a different interview and saw that Cafe Book was hiring, so I stopped in to fill out an application. Two or three days later, I started my first training shift. 

I had (and still cope with) severe anxiety and depression. I dropped out of Purdue University my senior year after a professor pulled me aside and we had a meeting about my work in class. I explained to her that it was difficult for me to focus, to get out of bed, to do homework, or to create any drafts or writings for class. I needed to go home before something irreversible happened. 

The first thing I remember about walking into the cafe was the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the hiss from the espresso machine. I loved the warmth and coziness. My coworkers were incredible. They were helpful, encouraging, smart, and friendly.  

SEE ALSO: Going freelance was one of the best decisions I've made for my health — here's why

One great thing about working in restaurants is every day is different — and, in a way, a fresh start.

I was able to focus and accomplish minute goals like making coffee and keeping the cafe clean — which later helped me set and reach larger goals, like going back to school and eventually running my own business. Customer interactions were a boost to my self-esteem because the kind words a customer would give as positive feedback helped me realize I was still capable of creating things 

I was having so much fun building drinks, watching them come together, learning more about coffee, and tasting different drinks. I was able to focus on tangible things, instead of racing thoughts, when I was making food or drinks. 

I felt good about the work I was doing and — unlike class — if I didn't show up to work, the entire shop would come to a halt. We had a very small staff, and I felt needed and appreciated.

When I started working in coffee, it felt like home.

I knew I wanted to continue, but didn't know where to go or what to do. After a few years at the shop, I started taking classes at the local community college to gain credits. Eventually, I went back to Purdue for a semester to finish my degree. 

While I was there, I took a creative nonfiction class taught by Roxane Gay. Tasked with writing a memoir essay, I decided to write about depression and dropping out of school. The first draft had a single paragraph about finding a place to heal — the coffee shop. I was encouraged to pull that detail. Eventually, it stretched to become the main story line.  

Through multiple drafts I changed the tone of the essay to be less about the events that had such a negative impact and more about the place that had such a positive one. I wrote about how the people I met, the community I worked in, and the coffee shop atmosphere impacted my health in a positive way. 

I let love back in my life when I worked at the coffee shop and didn't even notice it. Love for coffee, work, others, and for myself. It wasn't until I turned in the final draft that I realized how much the coffee shop meant to me. 

When I came home to Illinois, I didn't go back to coffee. Instead, I had a few management jobs in the restaurant industry. But the entire time I felt a pull to go back to coffee. I set a new goal to open a cafe before I turned 30.

In March 2018, the owners asked if I was interested in taking over Cafe Book.

They were ready to sell, and they approached me before they put it on the market. I couldn't pass it up. 

I wanted to take the cafe that I already loved and grow it to be a "third place" for the community. A third place is the social gathering space that differs from home or work. 

I had my parents and my best friend's support to buy the coffee shop. A lot of people looked at me like I was crazy when I told them what I was doing. But I needed to be back in coffee.

On May 1, 2018, I handed over a check and started running the business that very day.

I covered most of the cost through a loan from a friend and received microloans for other expenses.

The first few months I kept things running as normal and introduced myself back to customers. I eased into running the business as an owner and switching things over to the new LLC. After about nine months I started renovations, funded by an investor. We painted the interior and changed the rooms around to allow for more seating. We changed the coffee we carried and updated our breakfast and lunch menus.

We want to welcome the idea of a third place.

Somewhere people can come that isn't home or work and is still comfortable. We have free WiFi and encourage people to work or study here. We do like to host groups, and will happily reserve a table or room. 

We hope to be a place for the community and host and hold more events in the future. But what I truly want to do is be a place for people to come and heal, and find love.

• Amanda M. Cubit is a family law attorney with Sodoma Law Union in Monroe, NC.
• She is a member of the North Carolina Bar, Family Law Section, as well as the Cabarrus County and Union County Bar Associations.
• People in their 20s divorcing has become more common — and with those divorces come certain considerations.
• You should prioritize what you want to walk away with, be cautious about using social media, and be sure to take care of yourself.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It was once uncommon to hear of a couple going through a divorce while still in their 20s. Today, as millennials — especially those between the ages of 25 and 35 — embrace the idea of "starter marriages," it has become far more common.

If you fall into that category, there are several unique considerations you should have on your radar if you are divorcing — or considering divorce.

SEE ALSO: Cuffing season is over, and filings for divorce are on the rise. Here's a divorce lawyer's advice on how to cope with a breakup.

1. Do you have a prenuptial agreement?

If so, you're far from alone; family law attorneys and researchers alike have noted the marked increase in recent years of the number of millennials entering into prenuptial agreements. If you do have one, review the agreement carefully with an attorney to determine how it will impact your situation. It will likely address many of the issues related to your separation and divorce and may even resolve some or all of the claims you or your spouse could raise, saving you a lot of time and money!

If you do not have a prenuptial agreement, it will be up to you and your spouse to resolve your respective claims for equitable distribution (property division), alimony, and — if you have children — custody and child support. Keep in mind that in North Carolina, for example, alimony is a budget-driven inquiry, so even if one spouse needs alimony, the other spouse may not have the means to pay alimony. You should consult with a family law attorney as early as possible. Not only can an attorney explain each aspect of your case, but he or she can educate you on the options for resolving those.

2. How are you going to pay for your divorce?

Divorce can be an expensive process. If you have children with your spouse and you are not on the same page about how custody should be handled post-split, you may have little choice but to fight for what you believe is best for your children and family. Even the division of a small marital estate can become expensive. 

Take time to prioritize your objectives and, in doing so, decide what is truly important to you. What do you need to walk away with from the marriage, and what are you willing to leave behind? An attorney can tell you what is — and what is not — worth fighting over. In other words, it's probably not a good financial decision to pay your attorney hundreds of dollars an hour to fight over the kitchen table (even though you love it). Eventually, you will pay the attorney more than what you paid for the table.

3. Do you use social media?

I imagine the answer to this question is a resounding, "Yes!" If so, do not use your social media accounts as outlets to vent about your failed relationship or soon-to-be ex. This is especially true if you share children with your spouse and may end up in court to determine custody of your children. Remember the old adage, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"? This applies to your posts on social media, too. 

You should also be careful not to post photos or content, even if only in good fun, that could be used to portray you in a negative light. Anything you post online is fair game for your ex to use against you and, regardless of whether you are "friends" on social media, if it's on the internet, there are ways to find it.

4. How are you taking care of yourself during separation and post-divorce?

For 20-somethings facing divorce, it's possible they've spent most of their young adult years with their soon-to-be ex. The end of this relationship — and being forced to move forward without your former partner — can feel like the end of the world. Create and lean on your support system of family, friends, and coworkers. Talk to a counselor or therapist who can help you work through the emotional fallout associated with the end of your relationship. Take practical steps, such as sitting down with a financial planner, to get a handle on aspects of life and household management you may have previously delegated to your spouse. Make sure you take a holistic approach when working through your separation and divorce. 

While I have little doubt that many of you hate to be in this position, going through a divorce in your 20s is not the end of the world. In fact, if you approach it with the right mindset, this could be the beginning of a new chapter of life. Educate yourself on the legal effects of your split, be smart about how you behave during separation, and take care of yourself. By following these steps, you can put yourself in the best position possible to land on your feet.

• A century-old dilapidated home atop a 6,450 square-foot lot in Oakland — a city just east across the bay from San Francisco — is for sale for $1 million.
• "Fixer-uppers" selling for millions isn't new in the Bay Area, but this listing is more of a bargain since it includes city-approved plans to build five units. All the buyer has to do is purchase building permits. 
• The property sits in West Oakland, near a train station that is merely one stop away from San Francisco.
• In a region with a housing shortage, and a demand for housing close to transit, the additional units would likely be welcome.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Seeing the descriptor of 'fixer-upper,' paired with a million-dollar price tag, in not exactly uncommon in the San Francisco Bay Area's real estate market.

The demand for housing is so great, and prospective buyers' pockets are so deep, that inconsequential details like fire damage and outdated plumbing don't put off some home hunters.

But a stretch of land across the bay in West Oakland with a 960-square-foot, century-old dilapidated, yet historically relevant, Victorian home is more than a mere fixer-upper. It's more of a development project, listing agent Kevin Cunningham of Red Oak Realty told Business Insider. The listing at 1818 Adeline Street comes with city-approved architectural plans to build out the lot into five housing units total, two of which would be apart of the existing Victorian structure.

The ability to add five new housing units is a minor miracle in the San Francisco Bay Area, with its limited housing stock and growing population. San Francisco may make headlines the most often for its influx of professionals and for the city's myriad reasons for not being able to keep up with housing demand, but the effects are most certainly felt in Oakland and other Bay Area cities as well. There are many that live in Oakland and commute into San Francisco for work to avoid the city's sky-high rent.

And with the listing's location being near a BART station, the Bay Area's regional train system, it will likely attract workers looking to do just that.

If the prospective buyer pays $988,000 — working out to about $200,000 per future unit before development costs — they'll have an opportunity to develop housing units to lease out that could then provide a nice revenue stream.

All of which is to say, this isn't your run-of-the-mill, multi-million-dollar San Francisco Bay Area fixer-upper. This is more of a bargain, at least for those with the resources to pay to develop it.

"It seems pretty reasonable for whoever wants to get in and get going at it," Cunningham said.

Take a look at the West Oakland listing.

SEE ALSO: Inside one of San Francisco's iconic Painted Ladies homes that's a 'fixer-upper' and on sale for $2.75 million

The listing at 1818 Adeline in West Oakland is "shovel-ready," according to Cunningham.

The property sits in West Oakland. The lot is specifically located in the heart of the residential district on a semi-main street with a large park nearby.

It's also close to a West Oakland BART station, which is just one stop away from San Francisco's Embarcadero station across the water.

The property has been in the owner's family for 60 years. He would rather develop the property himself, but Cunningham said at this point he's selling for personal reasons.

"It's just kind of in that in-between space where the traditional sort of fixer-flipper market, it's too big of a project for them but not big enough for the bigger developers like Lennar or Toll Brothers or whoever else," Cunningham said.

The city-approved plans detail that the existing 1890 house will be lifted up and inched over to make way for the three townhomes that will be built beside it. There will also be a second unit built beneath the Victorian home.

The seller has already taken the painstaking route of getting the approved plans from the city, which is not an easy feat in the Bay Area.

"The structural design, landscaping, parking, layout — it's really, it's totally done," Cunningham said.

Now comes the part of waiting for somebody who can take the plans and execute them.

"Everything has been done except for paying for the building permits and getting started with the actual building process," Cunningham said.

The owner had originally planned to live onsite in the very back unit. So that one is the nicest of the bunch, with a full rooftop deck on the top and a private yard and detached garage space.

Cunningham said a ballpark estimate for the value of the five units collectively would be about $3.7 million once it's all said and done.

The home is in what Cunningham calls an "opportunity zone." The full tax benefits of the zone pertain more so to rentals than to resale. 

"So to kind of capitalize on the opportunity zone, it would sort of be best for somebody, whoever does the development, to rent it out," Cunningham said. 

Most of the prospective buyers would be thinking along the lines of splitting it up into five units and leasing them individually, but just because there are plans included in the listing doesn't mean future buyers have to follow through with them. Cunningham said they could certainly change it up.

"I've heard a couple of potential buyers talk about trying to get a demolition exception and not save the existing house and just tear it down and start over," he said. But he said that may not be a possibility since the home, a Victorian built in 1890, has a minor historical designation to it.

The home has those "good redwood bones" that are virtually extinct nowadays (redwood trees are native to California, but its supply was swallowed up by home building use until the 1960s and 1970s when conservationists stepped in.)

Cunningham said it would be a shame to lose to the home, especially since the city approving the plans partly hinged on the fact that it would be maintained — originally, only four units were outlined to sit on the lot until the city granted a variance to go up to five.

Source: National Park Service

As far as how potential buyers are responding, Cunningham said he's getting calls regarding the listing every day, so he's cautiously optimistic. "We're hoping with the spring market picking back up, we'll find somebody," he said.

• Kelsey Silver and her cousin dreamed of crossing the US by train.
• Starting in California, they took two Amtrak trains — the California Zephyr and the Lakeshore Limited  — to make their dream a reality.
• Along the way, Silver documented the trip with photos and TikTok videos.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kelsey Silver and her cousin dreamed of a train trip across the US ever since they saw a blog post that described how to do the trip for only about $200.

Four years later, they finally decided to take the trip in December 2019, although they opted to spend more for a more comfortable journey.

The two flew into San Francisco to catch the California Zephyr and start a three day trip to Chicago, where they spent the night before taking the Lakeshore Limited train the rest of the way to New York City. With private rooms on both trains, Silver told Business Insider that travel costs were about $2,000 total for her and her cousin.

"If you really want to see America, this is the way to do it," Silver said.

Amtrak offers a few routes for train enthusiasts looking for a trip across the country. In November, Business Insider transportation reporter Graham Rapier spent 96 hours traveling from New York to Seattle. He said he'd "do it again in a heartbeat."

SEE ALSO: This stunning San Francisco floating home was constructed for $500,000 — see inside

Silver and her cousin started their trip in San Francisco.

They boarded the California Zephyr, a 51-hour Amtrak trip from San Francisco to Chicago. She showed off her tickets, and explained that the entire trip to NY would take 4 days.

The two bought the largest room available, the Superliner bedroom, which comes with two beds and a private bathroom.

She gave TikTok followers a tour of her room here.

The three-day trip takes passengers through some of the most famous areas of the west, including the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevadas, Moffat Tunnel, Colorado's Gore, Truckee River, Donner Lake, and the Carquinez Strait.

It makes mostly short, five-minute stops, with slightly longer stops in Denver and Salt Lake City.

It's often referred to as the most scenic train ride in North America.

Silver summed up her first day on the rails in this TikTok, from breakfast in San Francisco to lunch in Nevada, with dinner in Utah, and falling asleep in Colorado.

Every night, a car attendant came to the room to turn down the room, and in the morning to make it up.

There's also juice, coffee, and tea in each car.

Silver made a TikTok showing her morning routine on the train, where she and her cousin woke up and tried to guess where they were before pressing the button for turndown service, getting coffee, and sitting in the observation car.

Silver said the observation car was one of her favorite parts of the trip.

"If you want to see some of the best views in America while sipping on some pinot grigio, this is the way to do it," she told Business Insider.

The observation car has extra windows, so you can really take in the views.

Silver recapped her second day here, starting in Colorado, traveling through Aspen and the Rocky Mountains, and heading through Nebraska.

Silver said that if she wasn't in the observation car, she could usually be found in the dining car.

Passengers make a reservation, and groups of two often get seated with another couple. Silver said that the food and dining experienced exceeded her expectations for an Amtrak train.

On day three, Silver woke up in Iowa, crossed the border into Illinois, and finally made it Chicago.

After 51 hours in transit, Silver and her cousin spent a night in Chicago before boarding their next train.

Lake Shore Limited, which goes from Chicago to New York City, was "way less exciting than the first train," according to Silver. The trip was also much shorter; they boarded the train at 8 pm and arrived in New York the next evening.

This leg of the trip was more sparse. There was no observation car, and the snack car had a limited menu. Silver gave a tour of their tiny roomette.

After ending their trip in New York, Silver told Business Insider that "the trip was a once in a lifetime experience that I would recommend to anyone and everyone."

• Climate change will be devastating for the planet over the next century, but it is already impacting small businesses now.
• Areas prone to wildfires, rising sea levels, or hurricanes pose great personal and financial risk.
• One study found that climate change is the No. 1 threat to the economy because of higher insurance costs and loss of business.
• Experts who work with local businesses, including an investment banker and Miami's first chief resilience officer, told Business Insider how to weather through environmental hazards.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Last year, a neighborhood in Key Largo, Florida, felt the full effects of rising sea levels. For more than 80 days, the low elevated streets of Stillwright Point were flooded with saltwater, leaving residents trapped in their homes, unable to work.

Mike Turner works as a window tinter who frequently goes to the neighborhood. He said because of the corrosive saltwater, he had to limit jobs in the neighborhood, fearing damages to his car. 

"People didn't want to go out, some of their cars can't drive through the water," Turner said. "The water was up to the knees."

Flooding wasn't new for the neighborhood, but local news source Keys News reported that the longest previous flooding lasted 22 days. It had been over 80 days. Local meteorologists said in the report that the flooding was caused by rising sea levels due to warmer ocean water temperatures.

Though the flooding cleared by November, Turner said it served as a stark reminder of how extreme weather affects businesses.

The climate crisis will be devastating for the planet over the next century, but it is already impacting small businesses now. Areas prone to wildfires, rising sea levels, or hurricanes pose great personal and financial risk.

Research published in September of last year by Willis Towers Watson, a global insurance and advisory company, categorizes events that will have a high impact on global economic growth. The paper highlights climate change as the No. 1 concern. Climate change first appeared in their rankings in 2013 and has moved its way up ever since.

Higher insurance costs, loss of business, and adopting greener initiatives have been the main threats of climate change, according to the study. 

We talked with an investment banker who works with small businesses and Miami's first chief resilience officer. They said there are several precautions you can take to withstand natural disasters.

SEE ALSO: Big countries are refusing to tackle climate change, so companies are stepping in. Take an exclusive look at a tool the UN hopes will revolutionize the way these businesses track sustainability goals.

Weather-proof your retail location

In Islamorada, Florida, also in the Keys, a famous restaurant located next to the sea, Islamorada Fish Company, has felt the effects of flooding for a few years. One section that houses more than 20 tables overlooking the sea is closed off on days water floods the area.

Cindy Trisha, a frequent customer of the seafood restaurant, said that the unpredictable sea levels will rise and flood the entire section. While there are other sections to host more guests, she said that on busy nights, she estimates a big chunk of business is lost since customers have to be turned away. 

"No one can really tell when the levels will rise," Trisha said. "When it does, they lose a lot of customers. It's a problem that they haven't fixed yet."

Representatives from Islamorada Fish Company did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Jane Gilbert, the City of Miami's first chief resilience officer, has worked on resilience projects and initiatives to mitigate flood risks. Her initial findings report that the construction industry and retail sectors are more vulnerable to floods. To help flood-proof, Gilbert said small businesses can get flood panels, elevate critical equipment, or, if possible, elevate their buildings.

"Small businesses don't think 40 years out, but if you are located in a storm surge zone, whether its climate change or hurricane, those businesses are more vulnerable," Gilbert said. She added that the city is looking into giving businesses resources to help fortify themselves.

Consider climate risks in business decisions

Apart from shoring up their physical property, Gilbert encourages businesses to work with their insurance company and their local government, who can help businesses get back up and running as soon as possible in the event of a natural disaster.

James Cassel, 64, an investment banker who works with small businesses to navigate through climate crisis, said that weatherproofing stores and getting flood insurance policies are a good investment in the long term, though he understands why businesses are hesitant since it can be costly.

"We are starting to see commercial insurance rates rising with flood policies," Cassel, the CEO and founder of Cassel Salpeter & Co, said. "It may cost more money, but you [have] got to have a longer-term view than the next 20 minutes."

Cassel said that when making new investments, have climate risks in the decision-making process, whether it is adaptation or understanding the risks with insurance.

Greener initiatives can lead to new (and more) customers

According to the Carbon Majors Report, more than half of industrial emissions can be traced to 25 companies. While the listed companies are not small businesses, it illustrates how businesses play a part in the climate crisis. Cassel said adopting green initiatives will not only help reduce the carbon footprint but will help get new customers.

With more green and climate awareness, consumers, especially the younger generation, have become more socially conscious on what businesses they support. Banning plastic straws has especially increased the chances of businesses getting younger customers.

Cassel said a sustainability mindset starts with the little things. "Young people will patronize businesses because they are adopting green measures, or they will penalize businesses by not going there because they are not doing it," he said.

In this area, small businesses have an advantage over large companies, since they typically can implement new methods more quickly. Cassel suggested businesses install new lighting, such as motion sensor detectors or lightbulbs that use less electricity, toilets that use less water, and energy-efficient appliances.

"There are so many ways to have a positive impact [on] the environment," Cassel said. "Every small business has an obligation to do their part. You can't argue over the fact that the water is rising."

• Terri Daniel is a clinical chaplain, certified trauma professional, and end-of-life educator certified in death, dying, and bereavement by the Association of Death Education and Counseling.
• When her 16-year-old son died in 2006, she realized that the prevailing American imagery around death was violent and scary, so she began researching different death traditions.
• Eight months after her son died peacefully at home, she moved across the country and became a hospice volunteer, and began training to become an interfaith chaplain.
• After accumulating degrees related to religion, death, dying, and grief, she's learned that death and grief are medicalized in America — and that it's not something you "recover" from.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's not the kind of career you dream about as a kid. It's not glamorous like an astronaut or a rock star, and it's not easy to explain when someone asks what you do for a living. If you're self-employed like I am, there's no 401(k) or vacation pay, and you work seven days a week. But the good news is that there's no glass ceiling, and no age discrimination (maturity is an asset). All you need is an education in counseling and religious studies, some multi-cultural literacy, experience working in clinical settings, and a passion for helping people face death and grief. 

When I tell people l what I do, the standard response is, "Wow, how can you do that? It must be so hard."  

I tell them that it's hard to work in a coal mine. It's hard to be a soldier in combat. But this isn't hard. It isn't even work. It's worship.

Before you click away because you think this is going to be a religious tome, trust me: It's anything but. When I say "worship," I'm not talking about gods or religious traditions. I'm talking about the sacred passage from one dimension to another, otherwise known as death. And it includes the response of the loved ones who will miss the departed, otherwise known as grief.

I found my way into this unique profession the same way many hospice workers do: I was motivated by a profound personal loss and grief experience. My 16-year-old son died in 2006 as the result of a rare metabolic disorder that transformed him, over time, from a typical, active seven-year-old into a wheelchair-bound teenager who could not speak, use the bathroom, or feed himself. From the day of diagnosis, his life expectancy was five to 10 years.

Like most American kids, the only information he had about death came from television, movies, and video games. Although he couldn't verbalize this, I imagined that he thought of death as a violent, angry, terrifying event. So I began studying death traditions and afterlife beliefs from a variety of diverse cultures, looking for positive imagery and empowering cosmologies that would help him be less afraid. 

His peaceful death at home was pristine and beautiful, and I felt honored to be included in that rarified, numinous space. The experience of being present for a death was so spiritually expansive that I wanted to encounter it again. Eight months later, after moving across the country and starting a new life, I became a hospice volunteer.

From there, after hearing hundreds of dying patients and their loved ones express their spiritual concerns, I wanted to help them by addressing those concerns from a perspective that wasn't bound by religious conventions. So I began training to be an interfaith chaplain.

Even though I do not align with any particular religious tradition, I went back to school and got a bachelor's degree in religious studies (so I could better understand the views of the people I was working with). I then went on to get a masters degree in pastoral care, and eventually a Doctor of Ministry degree in pastoral care and counseling. I also accumulated a pile of certificates related to working with death, dying, and grief. When my son was a little boy, I sent him to school. Now, acting as a spiritual guide from beyond the veil, he was sending me to school.

I now travel around the US teaching workshops on loss, trauma, and grief. I've published four books on the subject, and I run a nonprofit organization that produces The Afterlife Conference, which helps people embrace a healthier relationship with death.

If I could sum up what I've learned and what I teach, I would offer these messages: 

In America, death and grief have been medicalized 

Many of our religious structures perpetuate the fear of death and complicate the grieving process. Traditionally, we have had very few effective tools for relieving that fear. But today, due to increasing multicultural awareness, new perspectives and practices are available. 

Grieving is not a disorder from which we 'recover' 

It's a normal and natural process that most of the time does not require therapeutic intervention. 

I use the term "being present with grief," rather than "coping" with grief. Coping is what we do when something is unbearable and we want to make it go away. Yes, grief can feel that way, but it also invites — demands — that we work with it in order to heal. If we have an adversarial relationship with our grief, we won't have a healthy mourning process. 

Healing comes from integration, not separation  

When we experience loss and trauma, it disintegrates us; it breaks us into pieces and shatters our assumptions and beliefs about how life is supposed to work. The healing process is about putting those pieces together again, rebuilding and restoring ourselves. The ability to accept the loss and honor the journey is the glue that holds those new pieces in place.

SEE ALSO: 4 strategies for coping with grief and your mental health at work after coming back from the holidays

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Taylor Swift is the world's highest-paid celebrity. Here's how she makes and spends her $360 million.

• Nannies who work for rich and powerful families often work 13-hour days filled with household chores and outlandish requests from parents.
• Business Insider spoke with several nannies across the US to find out what kinds of things they've been asked to do on the job and what they wish their bosses knew.
• One nanny, who Business Insider is keeping anonymous to protect their identity, noted that their responsibilities include far more than just shuttling the family's children to their afterschool activities. 
• The nanny also said that diapers, tantrums, and long hours aren't the most difficult part of the job — it's the parents.
• Business Insider is refraining from publishing the nanny's name or specific details about the family in order to protect her identity. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Being a nanny for an ultra-wealthy family may seem like a glamorous job — in reality, it's anything but.

The days are filled with household chores and outlandish requests from parents, one Durham, North Carolina-based elite nanny told Business Insider. She takes care of a four-year-old boy and his infant brother, having been hired by the family through an agency when the older child was born four years ago.

However, the perks and pay are unparalleled. Elite nannies can make up to $150,000 with full benefits, according to Katie Provinziano, the managing director of Los Angeles staffing agency Westside Nannies — but the costs are steep too. As a result, many elite nannies change careers after three to five years, Provinziano told Business Insider.

Keep reading to learn what life as an elite nanny is really like.

SEE ALSO: 7 nannies who work for the rich and powerful share one thing they wish their bosses knew — but would never tell them

DON'T MISS: Take a look inside the gala Marc Benioff hosted for USC, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed, James Corden emceed, and billionaires dined with Ashton Kutcher

5:15 a.m.: The nanny's alarm goes off.

She now has 45 minutes to get ready for her 13-hour day of caring for two children: a four-year-old and an infant.

The nanny told Business Insider she works Monday through Friday, about 60 hours a week. She's been with the family for four years.

6:00 a.m.: The nanny drives to the family's house in Durham, North Carolina.

When the nanny arrives, she lets herself in, as all of the family members are still asleep.

First, the nanny lets the family's dogs out and cooks breakfast before waking up the family's oldest son to get him ready for school.

That process is usually interrupted when the infant wakes up. The baby will immediately need a bottle and a diaper change.

7:45 a.m.: The parents and older child leave for the day, giving the nanny time to focus on chores.

The mother is a doctor and the father is the CEO of a local corporation, the nanny told Business Insider.

After they leave, the nanny then turns to household chores while keeping an eye on the baby. She uses the time to do the family's laundry, tidy up their house, cook lunch for that afternoon, and prepare a few extra meals to serve later in the week.

She also will take a break to play with the baby and take him for a short walk. Spending so much quality time with the kids is both the best and worst parts of the job, the nanny told Business Insider.

11:45 a.m.: She picks up the older child from school.

As soon as they return home, the boy eats the lunch the nanny prepared that morning.

"If lunch isn't ready by noon, all hell breaks loose," she told Business Insider. 

After lunch, they have some time to play before his swim lesson.

2:00 p.m.: The baby takes a nap and the older child has a swim lesson.

Both children are given baths afterward.

During this time, the nanny also finishes any chores leftover from the morning and begins cooking dinner for the family.

6:30 p.m.: The parents return home from work, and the nanny serves them dinner with the children.

After dinner, the nanny returns home to get some rest before doing it all again the next day. On occasion, she said she'll even spend the night with the kids if the parents are traveling.

The long hours, temper tantrums, and dirty diapers aren't the hardest part of her day, the nanny told Business Insider. Instead, it's dealing with the parents.

"The part I really hate is when the parents tell me something obvious to do," she said. "They always do it in a condescending way and it's like I haven't been taking care of their children from birth for four years."

But, despite the difficulties the job can come with, the nanny had a clear answer when asked about its positives, too.

"They can be the worst part sometimes, too, but there is nothing like loving and being loved by two amazing kids," she told BI. "They really are wonderful, sweet kids and I know that they view me as part of their family. I've been with them since the oldest was six months old so they really do know me as a concrete part of their life."

• Television personality Scott Disick renovated a two-story farmhouse in California that hit the market for $6.89 million in September 2019.
• According to Zillow, the home received a $391,000 price cut in January.
• The property is located in Hidden Hills, a swanky, gated community in Los Angeles County where the median home value is $2,588,085.
• The renovated five-bedroom home includes a wine cellar, an outdoor pavilion, and a zero-edge pool and spa. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Scott Disick, a TV personality known for appearing on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and "Flip It Like Disick," remodeled another multimillion-dollar California home and is looking to cash in big. 

The two-story farmhouse sits in Hidden Hills, a swanky, gated community where the median home value is $2,588,085.

Disick bought the five-bedroom home for $3.235 million back in April 2018. After putting a contemporary spin on the traditional farmhouse, he re-listed it for $6.89 million. However, according to Zillow, the price was cut by $391,000 earlier this month. It's now listed for $6.499 million.

This isn't the first time Disick has remodeled a home in Hidden Hills. In 2015, he bought a home in the community for $5.98 million. Around six months later, he put it back on the market for $8.8 million. However, with no bites, he eventually listed it as a rental for $60,000 a night.

But Disick is hoping he'll have better luck with this reimagined, luxury farmhouse. If it goes for its current $6.499 million asking price, he'll still have sold it for more than double what he paid for it. 

Keep reading for a side-by-side look at the transformation.

SEE ALSO: The most famous home in every US state, from LA's Playboy Mansion to a 'Beer Can House' in Houston

DON'T MISS: 2 empty-nesters bought an abandoned farm in Pennsylvania for $220,000, and they've spent nearly 2 years and $150,000 renovating it. Here's what it looks like now.

Scott Disick, a popular TV personality, flips and remodels luxury homes in California on his television show "Flip It Like Disick."

Source: IMDb

One of his projects includes this multimillion-dollar farmhouse in Hidden Hills, California.

The entire home spans 5,663 square feet.

Source: The Agency

Hidden Hills is a swanky, gated community located in Los Angeles County. The median home value is $2,588,085.

Source:Google Maps, Zillow

Before: Here's what the exterior of the home looked like prior to Disick's renovations.

Disick bought the traditional-style home back in April of 2018, and it wasn't cheap: According to Realtor.com, he shelled out $3.235 million for it.

After: And this is what it looks like now.

Before: The home's entrance featured a dark wood floor and ornate accents in the window and the stairs.

The home dates back nearly 50 years. According to People, it was built in 1973.

After: That same entrance now has a sleek, modern look.

Details like a 10-foot-high glass pivot front door give the home a new, modern feel.

Before: The living room was defined by a large, rock-pattern fireplace.

Disick spent over a year putting a contemporary spin on both the exterior and interior of the home.

After: A modern fireplace and large white sofa have now taken the place of the outdated living room.

Before: The old kitchen appears to have been closed off from the rest of the house.

After: The kitchen now has an open floor plan.

The remodeled kitchen also boasts white-oak cabinetry, a marble island, and a built-in espresso machine.

Before: Prior to the renovations, another dimly lit living area in the home featured different colored chairs and a few scattered plants.

After: Now, living areas throughout the home are both bright and spacious.

Before: This bedroom featured a dark floor and heavy furniture.

After: Now, the bedroom has a light wood floor, new windows, and more minimalistic furniture.

Along with five bedrooms, the renovated home also has six full bathrooms.

Source:The Agency

Amenities include a wine cellar ...

Source: People

... and an outdoor, wooden pavilion.

Source:The Agency

The backyard also features a zero-edge pool and spa.

Source:The Agency

• Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. He was 41 years old.
• Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players to ever live, leading the Lakers to five NBA championships during his historic career.
• Take a look back at his amazing career in photos.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Sunday in Calabasas, California.

Bryant's tragic accident came just a day after Bryant had been passed by LeBron James for third place on the NBA all-time scoring list.

"Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames," Bryant wrote on Twitter, in congratulations to James' accomplishment. "Much respect my brother #33644."

Bryant is one of the greatest to ever step foot on a basketball court, leading the Lakers to five NBA Championships in his historic 20-year career. He was an 18-time All-Star, and won MVP in 2008. Take a look back at his career below. 

Jack Sommer wrote an earlier version of this story. 

SEE ALSO: 22 examples of Kobe Bryant's insane work ethic

When he entered the league in 1996, 18-year-old Bryant was the youngest man to ever play in an NBA game. He also became the youngest winner of the Slam Dunk Contest that same season.

Alongside his teammate Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant won his first NBA championship in 2000.

Bryant battled it out with Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers in the following year's NBA Finals, but the Lakers once again emerged victorious to win their second consecutive title in 2001.

The Lakers completed their three-peat by winning the NBA Finals again in 2002.

From 2000 to 2002, the Lakers were unstoppable. Bryant played a big part in that.

Bryant continued to shine, but the Lakers weren't able to keep their championship-winning streak for a while.

During this time, however, Bryant broke more and more records. In 2005, he scored 62 points in three quarters against the Dallas Mavericks. As a result, entering the fourth quarter, Bryant had outscored the entire Mavericks team 62–61. This is the only time a player has ever achieved this feat.

In a 2006 game against the Toronto Raptors, Bryant scored a career-high 81 points, second in history only to Wilt Chamberlain's famous 100-point game in 1962.

Bryant was awarded the NBA MVP Award for the 2007/2008 season. Here, he's given the trophy before Game 2 of the 2008 NBA Western Conference Semifinals.

The United States National Team defeated Spain in the men's basketball finals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Here, along with teammate Dwight Howard, Bryant playfully bites into his gold medal.

After the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic to win the NBA championship in 2009, Bryant celebrated by holding up both the Finals MVP Award and the championship trophy.

Bryant dives for a loose ball while playing the Boston Celtics in the 2010 NBA Finals. The Lakers would go on to win the series, and Bryant was once again awarded the Finals MVP trophy.

During the parade celebrating the Lakers' 2010 NBA Championship, Bryant holds his daughter, Gianna, while his wife, Vanessa, and another daughter, Natalia, stand by his side.

"I played through the sweat and hurt — Not because challenge called me, but because YOU called me," Bryant said of basketball in his retirement letter. "I did everything for YOU because that’s what you do when someone makes you feel as alive as you’ve made me feel."

Source: The Players' Tribune

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Bryant at the end of the men's preliminary round match at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The national team would once again go on to take gold, defeating Spain in the gold-medal game.

On November 30, 2015, when Bryant announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season.

"You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream and I’ll always love you for it. But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer," Bryant said in his retirement letter. "This season is all I have left to give."

Source: The Players' Tribune

In his final game on April 13, 2016, Kobe put on an absolute show, dropping 60 points at the Staples Center in a win over the Utah Jazz. He walked off the court to a standing ovation that felt like it would never end.

"What else can I say?" Bryant asked during his farewell speech. "Mamba out."

In his post-playing career, Bryant pursued other interests, winning an Academy Award for his short film, "Dear Basketball" in 2018.

He also spent time teaching and coaching his daughters.

But Bryant was never far from basketball, and on January 25, 2020, congratulated LeBron James for passing him for third-place in all-time NBA scoring.

"Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames," Bryant wrote on Twitter. "Much respect my brother #33644."

The next day, Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash. He was 41 years old. His daughter Gianna was also killed in the crash.

Read more on Kobe Bryant's legacy:

Neymar honored Kobe Bryant after a goal for Paris Saint-Germain following the NBA legend's death

Moments of silence honoring NBA legend Kobe Bryant were held at a Rockets-Nuggets game and at a Biden campaign event

Kobe Bryant's last public appearance was at an NBA game with his daughter Gigi

Kobe Bryant's last tweet before he died was to congratulate LeBron James on surpassing him for the NBA all-time scoring list

The sports world is reacting to the sudden and tragic death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant

• Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani is worth about $60 billion, making him the richest person in India and all of Asia.
• Forbes ranked the Ambanis the richest family in Asia in 2017.
• Ambani, the chairman and largest shareholder of oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries, is almost four times richer than the second-richest person in India.
• Ambani and his family live in a 27-story skyscraper in Mumbai that cost an estimated $1 billion to build, which would make it one of the most expensive homes anywhere in the world.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Mukesh Ambani has been India's richest person for 12 years in a row. He's also the richest person in all of Asia, according to both Forbes and Bloomberg.

The Indian businessman, the chairman and majority shareholder of $100 billion conglomerate Reliance Industries, is worth about $60 billion, making him the 14th-richest person in the world.

Ambani's wealth has more than doubled in the past 10 years, and he continued to grow richer in 2019 even as most of India's richest people lost money.

Here are nine mind-blowing facts that show just how wealthy Asia's richest man really is.

SEE ALSO: India's richest man got $16.4 billion richer in 2019. Meet the Ambanis, Asia's wealthiest family, who live in a $1 billion skyscraper and mingle with royals and Bollywood stars.

DON'T MISS: The 15 richest people in India, ranked

Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India and all of Asia, has more than doubled his wealth in the past 10 years.

In 2010, he was worth an estimated $27 billion. Today, he's worth about $60 billion.

Ambani and his family live in a 27-story skyscraper in Mumbai that cost an estimated $1 billion to build.

That would make it one of the most expensive homes anywhere in the world.

Although most of India's richest people lost money last year due to slower economic growth, Ambani added more than $16.4 billion to his fortune in 2019.

India's automobile and consumer goods industries suffered in 2019, but Ambani's wealth continued to grow largely thanks to his five-year-old telecom company, Jio, which now has 340 million subscribers, according to Forbes.

Ambani is almost four times richer than the second-richest person in India.

India's second-richest person, tech entrepreneur Shiv Nadar, has an estimated net worth of $16.2 billion.

Ambani gets approximately $31,202 richer every minute.

That's based on his his $16.4 billion growth in wealth in 2019, divided by the 525,600 minutes that make up a year.

His income last year was 7.2 million times the average annual salary in India.

In 2018, the average salary of regular workers in India was 162,744 rupees, or $2,283,  according to a 2018 study from Azim Premji University, "State of Working India." 

In 2019, Ambani made an average of almost $4.5 million per day.

That's based on the $16.4 billion he added to his fortune throughout the year.

Ambani's wealth is greater than the entire GDP of Belarus.

Belarus' GDP was about $59.6 billion in 2018, according to World Bank data.

In fact, his net worth is roughly equal to the GDPs of Afghanistan, Botswana, and Bosnia and Herzegovina — combined.

The Indian billionaire's wealth has made him influential friends such as Hillary Clinton and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, both of whom have attended the weddings of Ambani's children.

Clinton attended the wedding of Ambani's daughter, Isha, in 2018, and Pichai attended that of his son, Akash, in 2019.

• Lil Nas X is one of the most popular musical artists in the world right now with the wildly popular, record-setting song "Old Town Road."
• The 20-year-old artist rose to fame in 2019 after his hit song first went viral on short-form video app TikTok, and has since set a record for the longest-running song at the No. 1 spot on Billboard Hot 100.
• He also made headlines when he came out as gay during the height of his viral career, saying he felt "pushed by the universe" to come out during Pride Month in June 2019.
• Here's everything you need to know about Lil Nas X, who won his first two Grammys last night at the 2020 awards ceremony for his collaboration with country artist Billy Ray Cyrus.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SEE ALSO: A Google employee created a new 'Old Town Road' remix that pokes fun at the absurdities of living in Silicon Valley

Lil Nas X, 20, was born Montero Hill. He grew up outside of Atlanta in a poor household and, feeling alone, turned to the internet where he found memes and an avid following for a popular Nicki Minaj fan account (though his involvement is widely debated).

Sources: Time, New York Magazine

At 19, Lil Nas X decided to drop out of college in the summer of 2018 after just a year at a Georgia university. He crashed at his sister's house while he pursued a music career and posted some songs on SoundCloud that got little traction.

Source: Rolling Stone

Then, right around Halloween 2018, Lil Nas X discovered a beat on YouTube from a then-19-year-old Dutch producer named YoungKio. Lil Nas X bought the track for a mere $30 off of a music-licensing website called BeatStars.

YoungKio's beat isn't entirely original — the producer put a trap beat under a snippet of banjo playing from a Nine Inch Nails song called "34 Ghosts IV." However, neither YoungKio nor Lil Nas X reportedly got the needed clearance to use the Nine Inch Nails song, so Lil Nas X may have had to pay the rock band some money in back royalties when his song got popular.

Source: Rolling Stone

YoungKio's beat inspired Lil Nas X to create "Old Town Road," a song that's part-trap, part-country. He told Rolling Stone the song was "basically what I was going through, but in another lens," and that he chose the title "Old Town Road" simply because of how country it sounded.

Source: Rolling Stone

"Old Town Road" was officially released December, along with a since-deleted music video featuring scenes from the Western video game "Red Dead Redemption 2." From its beginning, "Old Town Road" was intended to go viral, with catchy lyrics and "quotable lines that people want to use as captions," Lil Nas X told Rolling Stone.

Source: Rolling Stone, Billboard

It didn't take long for "Old Town Road" to go viral, as Lil Nas X wanted. By the start of March, cowboy-related videos were popping up across the popular short-form video app TikTok. Millions have taken part in the "Yee Haw Challenge," where they transform in a matter of seconds from everyday teens into lasso-holding, plaid-wearing, Stetson-sporting cowboys and cowgirls.

Source: BuzzFeed News

The virality of "Old Town Road" boosted the song to the Billboard Hot 100, where it debuted in mid-March at No. 83. Popular music label Columbia Records signed Lil Nas X just a week later.

Sources: Complex, Billboard

However, "Old Town Road" was embroiled in controversy before the end of March. Besides the Billboard Hot 100 list, the cross-genre song made it to both the Hot Country and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop lists. But Billboard quietly removed the song from its hot country rankings, and claimed that "Old Town Road" should have never made it there in the first place because "it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version."

Source: Rolling Stone

However, things took a turn when country singer Billy Ray Cyrus recorded a new verse for "Old Town Road." The potential for a collaboration dates back to December, when Lil Nas X tweeted, "twitter please help me get billy ray cyrus on this." The duo released the remix for the song in April, bringing a more traditional country voice to a song Billboard initially shunned as not being country enough.

Source: Insider, New York Times

Shortly after the Billy Ray Cyrus version of"Old Town Road" dropped, the song rocketed to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Source: Pitchfork

The forthcoming music video from Lil Nas X and Cyrus, released in May, was star-studded. Celebrities who appeared in the video — which now has more than 282 million views on YouTube — include Chris Rock, Vince Staples, Diplo, and YoungKio, the original "Old Town Road" producer.

Watch the music video for the "Old Town Road" remix here:

As the "Old Town Road" remix remained at the top of the charts, Lil Nas X doled out more remixes of the song featuring Diplo, rapper RM of K-pop group BTS, Young Thug, and Mason Ramsey of "Walmart yodeling kid" fame. Lil Nas X has floated hints for potential remixes with Dolly Parton, Mariah Carey, and Megan Thee Stallion.

Source: Popsugar

However, one collaboration Lil Nas X didn't want to do was with presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Lil Nas X was invited to appear at a BuzzFeed event alongside Buttigieg to recite the lyrics for "Old Town Road," but the singer reportedly refused to participate in order to avoid seeming like he was endorsing the candidate. Buttigieg later dropped out of the event altogether.

Source: Business Insider

At the height of "Old Town Road" hype, Lil Nas X released an EP in June simply called "7." The EP featured six new songs, including "Panini" and "Rodeo."

During Pride Month, Lil Nas X came out as gay, and tweeted he had "made it obvious" with the cover art for his EP. "I never would have done that if I wasn't in a way pushed by the universe," he told Time. "In June, I'm seeing Pride flags everywhere and seeing couples holding hands — little stuff like that."

Source: Time

By the end of July, "Old Town Road" became the longest-running No. 1 song in US chart history. Its 17-week run put the song ahead of previous record holders "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, and "One Sweet Day," a Mariah Carey-Boyz II Men collaboration from 1995.

Source: Pitchfork

Lil Nas X landed on the cover of Time magazine in mid-August. "Everything lined up for this moment to take me to this place," he told Time. "Not to sound self-centered, but it feels like I’m chosen, in a way, to do this stuff."

Source: Time

Although "Old Town Road" was the bonafide song of the summer last year, the track lost its spot at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after a 19-week run. "Old Town Road" was dethroned by Billie Eilish's "bad guy." Lil Nas X congratulated Eilish on Twitter, writing, "u deserve this!!"

Source: Pitchfork

In August, Lil Nas X performed for around 45,000 Amazon employees in Seattle to celebrate the company's Prime Day. Photos from the event show Lil Nas X posing with Katy Perry, who also performed, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. On Instagram, Lil Nas X posted: "i am the now the new owner of amazon and i stole katy perry's dog."

Here's the photo that Jeff Bezos posted from the Prime Day event, which shows the Amazon CEO sporting Lil Nas X's graffiti-laden jacket.

Source: Business Insider

The artist's success earned him 6 nominations at the 2020 Grammy Awards. He took home 2 wins: best pop duo/group performance and best music video, both for the "Old Town Road" remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. Billie Eilish's "bad guy," which unseated "Old Town Road" on the Hot 100, won song of the year and record of the year.

Source: Insider

In his first release of 2020, Lil Nas X released a remix to his song "Rodeo" featuring Nas, the legendary rapper known for his wildly popular 1994 album "Illmatic"

Watch the lyric video for the "Rodeo" remix on YouTube.

• The NBA and Louis Vuitton have announced a multiyear partnership which will include a capsule collection designed by Virgil Abloh, Vuitton's creative director of menswear, Women's Wear Daily reported. 
• In announcing the deal, the NBA deputy commissioner said that many professional athletes are often seen wearing luxury clothes, and they are the ones "setting the trends and setting the culture." 
• Vuitton will also design the travel case for the Larry O'Brien Trophy, which is given each year in June to the NBA team that wins the finals. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Luxury just can't get enough of the sports industry.

On Wednesday, Women's Wear Daily reported that the NBA has entered a "multiyear partnership" with Louis Vuitton. In addition to Vuitton designing an exclusive travel case for the Larry O'Brien Trophy (given each June to the NBA team that wins the finals), the newly formed collaboration will include a capsule collection designed by Virgil Abloh, the creative director of menswear for the legendary French fashion house.

Mark Tatum, NBA deputy commissioner, called the league's partnership with Vuitton "unique" and said the NBA had never done anything "at this scale" before.

"We have done other collaborations with other fashion houses before, but nothing at this level and at this scale," Tatum said, according to WWD. "We know from social media that our fans follow and are big fans of the Louis Vuitton brand. We know that they're going to be excited about this new partnership and collaboration."

Luxury and sportswear is fashion's hottest new couple 

The NBA x Louis Vuitton announcement follows the reveal of other big-name luxury houses partnering with various sports and sportswear entities, in the hopes of capitalizing on the $55 billion sportswear market, Business Insider previously reported. 

In recent months, Puma released a collection with Balmain, Raf Simmons announced the release of a shoe inspired by athleticism, and Balenciaga debuted a martial arts inspired shoe. Dior is teaming up with Nike Jordans, while Vuitton itself previously collaborated with the streetwear and skateboarding brand Supreme.

Even as luxury embraces street and sportswear culture more, many professional athletes have always worn these high-end brands, as Tatum pointed out. In that sense, a partnership between a league like the NBA and a brand such as Louis Vuitton is not all that surprising.  

"I think that's why some of these luxury brands are looking to players, influencers, because they are the ones setting the trends and setting the culture, if you will, and these fashion brands are very much a part of that culture," said Tatum. "Our players are often seen in Louis Vuitton merchandise."

Meanwhile, the capsule collection that Abloh is set to design will be inspired by three highlight moments in a basketball player's career: the press conference, the match, and the frequent traveling. WWD reports that the collection, set to launch in October, will include "branded luggage, clothing, and other Vuitton products."

"The NBA participates in that meeting of style, art, fashion, sport and music," said Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO Michael Burke. "Louis Vuitton has long been associated with the world's most coveted trophies, and with this iconic partnership the legacy continues — victory does indeed travel in Louis Vuitton."

Read more at WWD»

SEE ALSO: Louis Vuitton just dropped 'millions' of dollars to buy the second-largest diamond in history

DON'T MISS: LVMH just agreed to buy Tiffany for $16.2 billion — here are 17 of the most iconic brands the French luxury giant already owns

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