Taking the leap from traditional employee to solopreneur involves a number of decisions and considerations that may come as a surprise if youve always been on someone elses payroll. Being numero uno for every part of your solo enterprise can illuminate just how complicated it can be to keep any kind of business running.
Unfortunately, becoming a solopreneur can complicate your personal financial choices as well. Thats because money habits that felt innocuous while you were on a biweekly pay schedule can create financial mayhem on an irregular income.
Whether youre considering becoming a solopreneur or have been rocking the solo business world for a while, make sure you dont carry these common paycheck habits with you into your entrepreneurial venture.
Ignoring your bank balance
Prior to becoming a teacher, I worked a series of low-paying jobs, including several stints where I stitched together multiple part-time positions. During that period of what we might generously describe as my early career, it was my habit to check my bank balance daily.
This was in the early 2000s, when the internet still required a kerosene-powered modem to access Google, so it took some effort on my part to indulge in this habit. But since I was making so little money, I needed to know on an almost daily basis what was happening in my account to make sure I hadnt overlooked anything.
When I started teaching and bringing in the medium bucks, it was a relief to only check my bank balance when I paid my bills rather than every single day.
As a public school teacher, I knew exactly how much money I received in each paycheck, I knew exactly when it would clear my account, and I knew that if my mental accounting was off by a little bit, I didnt have to wait long for the next paycheck. (Ironically, the only time Ive ever overdrawn my account was during the regular-paycheck years of my life.)
Befriend your banking tools
Becoming a solopreneur is a little like going back to your early twentysomething career, at least financially. Keeping a weather eye on your finances is the only way to stay ahead of problems before they blow up. Theres no steady paycheck to smooth over any issues.
The good news is that banking technology has come a long way since I had to keep my modems kerosene tank full just to log onto the internet. These days, virtually every bank and credit union under the sun has an app that will allow you to set up personalized alerts and text notifications, among other tools.
This makes it very easy to set up regular bank balance check-ins, whether you create an alert to notify you when your balance dips below a certain dollar amount, or you have your bank text you the current balance every day at the same time.
Waiting for tax season
Paying taxes is no ones idea of a good timebut at least when youre working for a paycheck, the taxman knocks but once a year.
Whether you use a CPA or do them yourself, taxes are fairly straightforward for those who are traditionally employed. Once you have your W-2 in your hot little hand, you can typically get started sometime in early spring, then patiently wait for your tax refund to arrive . . . and youre done until next year.
But solopreneurs dont get the luxury of treating taxes like a sucky annual holiday. Because small-business owners dont have taxes withheld from their income, they have to pay quarterly estimated taxes, filing each payment with Form 1040-ES. The approximate due dates for each payment are as follows, but they may be pushed back if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday.
First quarter (January 1-March 31) Due April 15
Second quarter (April 1-May 31) Due June 15 (June 16 in 2026)
Third quarter (June 1-August 31) Due September 15
Fourth quarter (September 1-December 31) Due January 15
Solo business owners also typically have to deal with much more complicated tax reporting if they have multiple clients. That means they are fielding more tax formssuch as 1099-NEC and 1099-K formsthan traditional employees.
Build tax infrastructure into your business
Paying and organizing solo business taxes are overwhelming if you only think about them when theres a due date. But they can be an easy part of your daily routine if you build tax infrastructure into your business plan.
For quarterly estimated taxes, it starts with planning ahead for paying Uncle Sam. You can do that by creating a savings account where you transfer about 20% of each payment you receive. This will ensure that you always have the money you need to pay your estimated taxes each quarter, so youre not scrambling to find the cash every three months. Over time, you can adjust how much you set aside for taxes as needed.
As for organizing your taxes, this can also be a relatively simple and ongoing part of how you conduct your business.
Its important for solopreneurs to have an accurate account of their income, since its always possible a client will make a mistake on the 1099 they issue. An invoicing structure where you record income from specific clients at the same time you mark their invoices as paid can be a small tweak that will make tax organization much easier. This could be as simple as a Google sheet that you keep updated, as long as you are consistent.
Taking no vacation days
When you work a traditional job, it can be easy to forget to take time off. Whether you get a set number of vacation days per year, or your workplace offers unlimited PTO (which really means you get the hairy eyeball if you try to schedule any), its easy to reach the end of December before youve realized you never took a vacation.
This is obviously a serious problem within the American workforce, which is suffering from burnout, lack of work boundaries, and a bad case of the Mondays.
While none of that is good, many workplaces do at least offer regular time off in the form of weekends and federal holidays. Workers who habitually leave their vacation days unused can still count on several long weekends and other breaks throughout the year to give them a needed opportunity to rest.
Block off time for rest
Working for yourself means you dont have to stick to a 9-to-5 schedule, but it also means you might be working at midnight, on weekends, and through Thanksgiving dinner. The habit of working without a vacation can be especially tempting when your success or failure depends on your hustle.
But youre solely responsible for your business now, which includes the well-being of your only employee. You cant rely on the holiday calendar to provide you with time away from your work like you did as a paycheck employee. You have to set the boundariesor deal with the consequences of burnout. Which could mean not being able to work at all.
This is why you need to set the boundaries your previous schedule gave you automatically. You can do this by blocking off time weekly, monthly, and annually for rest. If you need to, imagine that your rest times are legally mandated so that youre not tempted to work through your vacation time anyway.
Building better habits
Working for yourself, by yourself, doesnt just require a change in how you structure your work dayyou may also have to revamp your personal financial habits.
Without the safety net of a steady paycheck, solopreneurs cant afford to ignore their bank balances like they did as an employee. Your banks mobile app and online tools can help you keep track of your finances with automated alerts and notifications.
While paycheck employees get to think of taxes as a single season of the year, solopreneurs have to deal with tax chores year-round. That includes paying quarterly taxes and keeping records organized. Setting aside around 20% of each payment can help solo entrepreneurs have the money they need to pay their estimated taxes every quarter, while recording their income as the invoices are paid can help make tax reporting easier come April.
And though all Americans need to take more time off, those working traditional jobs can often count on weekends and federal holidays, even if they forget to use their PTO. Solopreneurs can get stuck in an endless working cycle unless they specifically block off regular time for restand guard it fiercely.
Days before the Super Bowl, Anthropic dropped a handful of Super Bowl ads taking aim at OpenAIs impending advertising model for ChatGPT. The ads anthropomorphize OpenAI’s platform, imagining how the chatbot might answer everyday questions like What do you think of my business idea? and “Can I get a six-pack quickly?” The answers, delivered by actors in cheerfully sycophantic robot speak, start out sounding like stilted but helpful advice, before veering into promotional marketing speak for a hypothetical advertiser on ChatGPT.
Immediately, the ads sparked a firestorm online. Some called them brilliant. Others called them mean-spirited. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman felt so strongly, he crafted an earnest post on X about why Anthropic’s ads were so misleading.
But wrong move, bro. Anthropic, one of your AI rivals, just handed OpenAIand the entire AI industrya huge gift. Not to mention the ad business.
An ad battle for the AI age
Not since the days of Coke and Pepsi have we seen this kind of ire slung at a category competitor. And I just have to say: I’m here for it.
We are at a pivotal time for AI development and adoption across business and culture, with issues ranging from mass layoffs to people using LLMs for dating advice. But AI is also in its brand infancy, with some platforms building massive name recognition but very little brand image.
There is no better category than AI to start a full-on advertising battle in 2026, and there are no two better companies to wage it than Anthropic and OpenAI. Anthropic has long framed its Claude platform as a more refined LLM than its OpenAI counterpart. And its Super Bowl ads are delivering an implicit message about the competition: You can’t trust them.
Created by award-winning ad agency Mother, the new Anthropic campaign, A Time and a Place, has four spots in total (two are big-game bound). People want an AI they can trustone thats focused solely on working for them. We want Claude to be that choice, Andrew Stirk, Anthropics head of marketing, said in a statement.
When OpenAI’s Altman opined on X that it’s on brand for Anthropic doublespeak to use a deceptive ad to critique theoretical deceptive ads that arent real, perhaps he should turn that into a brief for his growing all-star internal marketing team (imagine a 1984-style ad for 2026). I mean, he even has Brandon McGraw, former head of consumer marketing at Anthropic, on the roster.
Same story with his second attempt at a clapback: More Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the U.S., so we have a differently-shaped problem than they do. What about an AI Challenge ad set in El Paso or Brownsville where they go full “Get a Mac” and paint Claude as the snooty also-ran to ChatGPT’s bot of the people?
This consumer-facing dichotomy is the perfect setup for an advertising battle. You’ve got two brands offering ostensibly the same thing (at least to the average person), just with different positioning. Butas Coke and Pepsi demonstratedeven though brands involved in street fights like this do get a few ego bruises, historically the creative arms race helps both emerge in a stronger position with their audiences.
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we wont do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2026
Challenger game
The decades-long scrap between Coca-Cola and Pepsi is well-documented, but its dynamics have been replicated in various ways over the years in other product categories like tech, fast food, and telecom.
There’s a typical anatomy to ad wars that cuts across industries. At their most basic, these campaigns always begin with a challenger brand calling out a much bigger rival by name. For Pepsi, which began the cola wars with less than 20% market share, that meant the Pepsi Challengeshowing real people choosing Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests. This year, it meant hijacking Coke’s familiar polar bear for the Super Bowl.
Apples Get a Mac is widely considered one of the best long-running advertising campaigns of all time. Apple was the challenger (if you can believe that) depicting the dominant PC brands (Microsoft Windows) as dull, cumbersome, and just plain uncool.
Of course, the challenger brand is in the eye of the beholder, and in 2011 it was Samsung mocking iPhone fanboys for lining up to get what it deemed an inferior product.
Over in fast food, Burger King had an award-winning run of work in the late 2010s under then-CMO Fernando Machado, much of which directly involved McDonalds. To promote the nonprofit Peace One Day, Burger King took out ads and built an entire website proposing to McDonalds that the rivals make peace to create the ultimate burgerthe McWhopper. The ad had $220 million in earned media value, and 8.9 billion impressions. In 2018, Burger King created print ads with photos of barbecue grills at former homes of ex-McDonald’s executives to highlight the flame-grilled taste of Whoppers.
That same year, it launched Whopper Detour, a promo campaign that used geofencing to offer a 1-cent Whopper to users who ordered through the Burger King app while within 600 feet of a McDonald’s. It got 1.5 million Burger King app downloads in nine days.
Even Taco Bell took a swing at the golden arches when it launched a breakfast menu in 2014. For its largest marketing campaign ever up to that point, Taco Bell recruited real guys named Ronald McDonald to testify to the tastiness of its Breakfast Crunchwrap.
Whether people were emotionally invested because they loved one of these brands over the other, or they were just there for the LOLs, each of these sparked two things brands crave absolutelyattention and excitement.
Strategic response
A 2025 INSEAD study called The Power of Strategic Rivalry found that a well-managed rivalry can extend the story between competitors, keeping consumers tuned in longer andimportantlybenefiting both sides with ongoing engagement and relevance. People love a good brand fight.
Coca-Cola maintained its lead throughout the cola wars, but Pepsis market share shot up from 20% to a peak of 30%-plus in the 1990s. And their ad war not only helped increase overall soda consumption from 12.4% of American beverage consumption in 1970 to 22.4% in 1985, but each brand more than doubled revenues over the 1980s. And thanks to the sheer intensity and ad frequency during the most heated years of their ad battle, the brands elbowed their way to the center of pop culture. Between 1975 and 1995, Cokes annual ad spending went from about $25 million to $112 million, while Pepsis grew from $18 million to $82 million.
The haymakers from challenger brands are to be expected. But rarely, if ever, do the bigger brands respond with the same level of bite. In fact, the most successful responses have been investing in better creative brand work done more often.
McDonalds didnt use its global domination to swipe down at Burger King. Instead it invested in and celebrated its existing fans in fun and unique ways. Specifically, with the Famous Orders work that began with Travis Scott in 2020 and expanded to collaborators as varied as Mariah Carey, BTS, and Cactus Plant Flea Market, driving record app usage, hundreds of millions in sales, and making new fans of younger customers.
OpenAI appears to be taking a similar tack in its advertising, at least so far. The brand is focusing on how its tools can inspire and enable people to build new things. Its three regional Super Bowl spots are about how three different American small businessesa seed farm, a metal salvage yard, and a family-run tamale shopare utilizing ChatGPT to grow and thrive.
OpenAI CMO Kate Rouch admits the Anthropic spots are funny, but since ads havent landed in ChatGPT yet, its a complete fabrication of what that experience will be like. When I spoke to her this week, she took issue with the spots calling OpenAIs use of advertising to support free access to the tools as a violation, and reiterated Altmans point that ChatGPT has more free monthly users in Texas than Anthropic has globally.
And our perspective is that open, free access to this technology will enable individual people to build things that will benefit them and us all, Rouch told me. It really all comes down to self-empowerment and being able to do things that you either didn’t believe you could do before or you actually couldn’t do before. And that’s the whole game.
This is a more sound strategy, both overall and in light of Anthropics trolling, than last years animated Super Bowl ad that had many people guessing just what the hell it was trying to say.
If this is the dawn of AIs version of the cola warsand I hope it isits an impressive start for both brands.
Anthropics challenger strategy here hits, not just for the cojones to step up to the Super Bowl against a much bigger rival. The key to any challenger swipe that actually works hinges on its creative execution, and these spots steer clear of the slop to serve up a bona fide chefs kiss.
For OpenAI, creatively telling real stories about real people using its tools to solve real problems and build real things looks less like an advertising street fight and more like a turn for the high road toward the brand image promised land.
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market that is heating up.
Since the national pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country, that shift has varied.
Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months.
Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced, relatively speaking, more resilient home price growth over the past 42 months.
Where is national active inventory headed?
National active listings are on the rise on a year-over-year basis (+10% between January 31, 2025, and January 31, 2026). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some seller’s markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyer’s markets.
Nationally, were still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-17.8% below January 2019), and some resale markets (in particular, chunks of the Midwest and Northeast) still remain, relatively speaking, tight-ish.
While national active inventory is still up year over year, the pace of growth has slowed in recent months as softening has slowed.
Here are the January inventory/active listings totals, according to Realtor.com:
January 2017 -> 1,154,120
January 2018 -> 1,043,951
January 2019 -> 1,110,636
January 2020 -> 951,675
January 2021 -> 531,775 (Pandemic housing boom overheating)
January 2022 -> 376,970 (Pandemic housing boom overheating)
January 2023 -> 616,865
January 2024 -> 665,569
January 2025 -> 829,376
January 2026 -> 912,696
If we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+83,320 homes for sale), we’d have 996,016 active inventory come January 2027. (Note: Thats not a predictionIm just showing what the math looks like if that pace continued.)
Below is the year-over-year active inventory percentage change by state.
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While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, the pace of growth continues to decelerate across much of the country.
LEFT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between January 2024 and January 2025
RIGHT: Year-over-year active inventory shift between January 2025 and January 2026
And while active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it’s loosening in those places, too).
As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. Thats where home sellers in the spring are likely, relatively speaking, to have more power than their peers in many Southern markets.
In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro-area housing markets such as Austin and Punta Gorda, Florida.
Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched when compared with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Punta Gorda and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices.
This softening trend was accelerated further by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market: Some buyers, who would have previously considerd existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable dealswhich then puts some additional upward pressure on resale inventory.
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At the end of January 2026, nine states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbiawhich we left out of this table belowis also back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels. Softness in D.C. proper predates the current admins job cuts.)
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Big picture: Over the past few years, weve observed a softening across many housing markets as strained affordability tempers the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the pandemic housing boom. While home prices are falling some in pockets of the Sun Belt, a big chunk of Northeast and Midwest markets still eked out a little price appreciation in 2025. Year over year, nationally aggregated home prices were pretty close to flat.
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Below is another version of the table abovebut this one includes every month since January 2017.
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If youd like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below.
Over the coming months, lets keep an eye on Florida, which has now entered its seasonal window when its active inventory typically begins to rise again. (To better understand softness and weakness across Florida over the past couple years, read this ResiClub PRO report.)
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At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the iconic cauldron of the Games is putting on a daily show just like its athletes.
This year, for the first time ever, there are two cauldrons lit simultaneously at different locations. Inspired by Leonardo da Vincis geometric drawings, both cauldrons expand and contract, respond to music, and emit their own lightand one will put on hourly performances for viewers throughout the Games.
The tradition of the Olympic flame and cauldron dates back 100 years or more. Historically, the Games are opened with a relay ceremony wherein torch bearers bring the flame to the cauldron, which remains lit until the closing ceremony. And while the cauldrons design remained relatively consistent for the first decades of the Olympics, in recent years it has become a major design moment. This years approach is an encapsulation of the cauldrons transition from a static object to a show in itself.
Spectators gather at Milans Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) to catch a sneak peek of one of the 2026 Olympic cauldrons on January 30. [Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images]
In the last editions of the games, more and more of the main focus has been on who is going to light the cauldron, its design, and what it means, says Marco Balich, the creative lead for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony who designed this years cauldrons. To make a long story short, I think over the years you see the history of the cauldron goes from very simple ones to [beautiful statements].
A brief history of Olympic cauldron design
While symbolic fire at the Olympics traces back to at least 1928, the first Olympic torch relay took place in Berlin in 1936. The cauldron that year was a small, bowl-like vessel standing on three legs on a podium. In subsequent Games, like 1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, and 1960 Rome, the cauldron format remained largely the same.
The Olympic Cauldron of the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin survived World War II undamaged; photographed at Berlin Olympic Stadium in 2005. [Photo: Nick Potts/PA/Getty Images]
Starting around 1968, designers began to take a bit more creative liberty with the cauldron. That years Mexico City Games featured a cauldron made by a womana firstshaped like a giant circular chalice. Since then, the cauldron has continuously evolved in shape and scope, from a 6.4-meter-high scroll-shaped one for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to a multi-shard monument for the 2010 Vancouver Games and a petal-inspired chorus of flames for the London Games in 2012.
The Olympic flame burns above Mexico Citys University Olympic Stadium on opening day of track and field competition at the 1968 Summer Games. [Photo: UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images]
According to Balich, who holds a record 16 event credits for Olympic ceremonies, recent years have seen the cauldron transform from a stationary symbol into a kind of high-stakes performance art. Balich coordinated the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games that featured a kinetic sun sculpture by artist Anthony Howe; powered by the wind, its tentacles fluttered and reflected the light of the cauldrons flame to spectacular effect.
Mariene de Castro performs in front of the Olympic cauldron during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics at Maracaa Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. [Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images]
And in Paris 2024, designer Mathieu Lehanneur abandoned almost all of the cauldrons recognizable design tradition in favor of a literal hot-air balloon, which took flight daily during the Games for a ticketed audience and remained in Pariss Tuileries Garden for nightly performances after the Olympics concluded.
Balich says that expansion of the cauldrons role during the Games and beyond inspired this years design. I was very inspired because it confirmed to me that the experience of this object is so relevant, that it was worth it to add this dynamic session that wuld enlarge the experience and be even more emotionally touching, especially for the younger generation, he says.
[Rendering: Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026]
A new cauldron experience
This year, Balich iterated on the idea of the cauldron as an experience by turning it into an hourly show complete with lights, music, and movement.
His concept started with two cauldronsone in Milan and one in Cortinato represent harmony between man and nature. The designs are inspired by a series of geometrical drawings by Da Vinci (who lived in Milan for several years), which used mathematics to imagine various intricate three-dimensional shapes. Balich says he did a quick drawing of his original concept, then called on creative director Lida Castelli and set designer Paolo Fantin to develop the final products.
[Rendering: Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026]
The cauldrons themselves are constructed out of aeronautical aluminum, with a whopping 1,440 components making up their intricate structure. A total of 244 pivot points allows them to smoothly expand and contract from a minimum diameter of 3.1 meters to a maximum of 4.5 meters. LED lights along the surface of these components give the cauldrons an otherworldly glow, while the actual Olympic flame is enclosed inside a glass-and-metal container at their centers. The final product looks like something you might expect to see descending from the heavensor a much less foreboding Eye of Sauron.
[Photo: Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images]
One cauldron is suspended in Milans Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace), where it will put on a three-to-five-minute show every hour during the Games from 5 to 11 p.m., accompanied by music from Italian composer Roberto Cacciapaglia. The second sits on a podium in Cortina dAmpezzos Piazza Angelo Dibona. And, just as they were lit simultaneously, theyll be extinguished simultaneously when the Games close.
I hope that everybody will gatherfamilies, friends, curious design lovers, design criticsto go there and be immersed in this music and this beautiful show around the arch, Balich says. My goal for that is to add an experience to watching the sacred fire from Olympia, which in a way is one of the most powerful symbols around the world of peace, fraternity, sports, and the values that the Games represent.
The notion of instant on-the-go translation is nothing new for most of us, thanks to the now-ubiquitous Google Translate service.
But a scrappy Google competitor thinks it can do better.
This month, a company called Kagi is officially launching its Kagi Translate app for both Android and iOS.
The app mirrors most of the same features Google Translate offers, with a few interesting new touches and one key point of distinction: It is all about protecting your privacywith no ads, no trackers, and no data being monetized or repurposed in any way.
Ohand its free, too.
Youll need all of two minutes to take it out for a test-drive.
Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures!
Instant translationsplus privacy
Once you’ve got the Kagi Translate app on your device, it’s really quite intuitive to use. At its core:
You can type or paste any text into its main translation box to have the text translated from and to any language you like.
You can tap the camera icon in that same box to take a photo of text in the real worldon a document, a menu, a whiteboard, you name itand then have the language auto-detected and translated into your native tongue from there.
A document icon in that same area lets you upload a file from your phone (or any connected cloud storage) for speedy on-the-fly translation.
And a microphone icon lets you speak aloudor have someone else speak aloudfor real-time translations of the words as theyre uttered.
Kagi Translate’s main screen is one simple promptwith plenty of power around it.
Beyond that, Kagi Translate offers some interesting extrasfor instance:
If you tap the three-line settings icon within the main translation box, you can change between a natural and literal translation style, a formal or informal voice (for languages where thats relevant), and also any available gender preference (again, where relevant for a dialect).
In that same area, you can also add your own custom context to help guide the translationtelling the app, in your own words, what type of conversation youre having, and with whom, so it can adjust its approach accordingly.
Poke around, and you’ll find all sorts of ways to customize and control your translation output.
In the apps bottom-of-screen Dictionary tab, you can simply get an on-demand, instantly translated definition of a word or phrase in another language.
The apps Proofread tab will review any text you type or paste into it and offer suggestions to make it work better in your chosen language.
And with any translation the app provides you, you have the ability to play the text out loud or copy it onto your system clipboardas well as request alternate translations for different ways to say the same basic thing.
Kagi Translate can give you different ways to say the same thing, if you aren’t entirely thrilled with its initial translation.
Again, though: Its Kagis commitment to privacy that really sets this app apart. You dont have to sign in or create an account to use it, and nothing you do or say within the app is ever shared or used for any type of ad targeting.
If that sounds familiar, it should: Ive written about Kagi and its similarly privacy-centric approach to regular ol search before, and that same mindset applies to pretty much everything else the company has offeredincluding, too, the excellent Android summarizing app I mentioned in these same quarters a few months ago. Kagi makes its money entirely from user subscriptions, which are required for its core search service but not for the assorted stand-alone apps like Translate and Summarize.
Whether youre using Kagi for any other purposes or not, though, this new tool is an interesting option to keep around and a welcome alternative to Google’s de facto defaultand maybe, just maybe, its exactly the je ne sais quoi youve been waiting for.
Kagi Translate is available for both Android and iOS. There’s also a web version for desktop computer access.
The app is completely free to use, though a paid Kagi membership will allow you to access some additional options.
The app doesn&8217;t have any ads or trackers and doesn’t require any sort of sign-inand even if you do opt to create an account, Kagi’s core promise is that it never shares any of your data with anyone, in any way, or uses it for any profitable purposes.
Treat yourself to all sorts of experience-enhancing treasures like this with my free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in delightful ways.
Weve all opened our mailboxes to discover an unsolicited credit card offer (or three) inside. Although there must be people out there who take advantage of these offers, most of us simply throw the unopened envelopes in the trash. Yet simply tossing these pieces of snail mail can leave you and your finances vulnerable. Heres why, and how you can get those unsolicited offers to stop for good.
Why am I getting unsolicited credit card offers?
While not as incessant as all the spam emails and text messages we get every day, unsolicited credit card offers are definitely one of the annoyances of modern life. The offers are sent by credit card companies via the U.S. Postal Service and arrive in our physical mailboxes without request. Yet unlike many types of digital spam, these unsolicited credit card offers arent illegal to send.
The offers are permissible under the decades old Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and other subsequent laws, which allow credit card companies to approach the major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, Innovis, and TransUnion) with a wishlist of the type of customers they are looking for (ones in a certain ZIP code or with a certain credit score, for example).
The credit card companies then pre-approve these individuals and send the offer in an unsolicited letter. Provided that the recipient still meets the credit requirements when they reply, they are legally entitled to that offer. Pre-approved offers differ from pre-qualified offers in that, with pre-approved offers, the credit card company is essentially scouting you as a customer. With pre-qualified offers, you have to take the initiative to contact the credit card company, telling them that you are interested in applying for a card.
But regardless of whether the letter waiting in your mailbox is for a pre-approved card or pre-qualified one, that piece of physical mail can leave you and your finances vulnerable.
How do they leave you vulnerable?
Credit card offers are tempting by nature: they seduce you into racking up debt at incredibly high interest rates. But unsolicited pre-approved and other credit card offers are risky for an entirely different reason, as well: They leave you vulnerable to identity theft.
The letters already contain your name and address. Pre-approved offers reveal that you will likely have no problem securing a new line of credit. Many of these letters also include a unique code that lets you easily reply to the offer online without having to manually re-enter your identifying information.
All of this information is mouthwatering to an identity thief as it means they have to take little actionbesides snatching the offer letter you tossed into the trashto accept a card issued in your name. And often during the acceptance process, they can reroute the card to their address or PO Box with minimal effort, and begin using it to rack up debt at your expense.
How to stop pre-approved credit card offers from hurting your finances
To protect yourself from having a stolen credit card offer open up a black hole in your financial life, you can do two things.
First, under no circumstances should you simply toss an unsolicited credit card letter into the trash or recycling bin. Anyone can fish it from the garbage and use the information it contains to apply for a card in your name. Instead, you should securely destroy the letter’s contents by shredding it.
Second, and better yet, stop unsolicited credit card offers from landing in your mailbox in the first place. You can do this by informing the credit bureaus that you do not want to receive any such offers. You can opt out of receiving offers for two timeframes: five years or forever. Once you inform the credit bureaus of this, they are legally required to comply with your request.
To opt out, youll need to have your name, address, date of birth, and Social Security or tax identification number. Once you have this, youll go to OptOutPrescreen.com, which is run by the four major credit reporting agencies.
To opt out of getting unsolicited credit card offers in the mail for five years:
Go to OptOutPrescreen.com.
Tap the Click here to opt-in or opt-out button.
Select Electronic Opt-Out for 5 years.
Click Continue and follow the opt-out instructions.
If you are opting out for only five years, you can submit your entire request online. However, if you want to permanently opt out of receiving credit card offers, you must physically mail a form to the credit reporting agencies.
To permanently opt out of unsolicited credit card offers:
Go to OptOutPrescreen.com.
Tap the Click here to opt-in or opt-out button.
Select Permanent Opt-Out by Mail.
Click Continue and follow the opt-out instructions. Youll be asked to download a Permanent Opt-Out Election Form and then print, sign, and date it. You must then mail this form to the address provided on it.
And not to worry. If you change your mind in the future and decide you want to be eligible to receive unsolicited credit card offers again, you can opt back into them at any time. But if you do, just keep an eye on your mailbox before an identity thief does.
Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issueseverything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.
A reader asks:
I manage a team of four. One of my staff members, Jeff, asked to go to a conference that was about a five-hour drive away. I approved the request as the conference would be good for his professional development. Three other staff members from our closely connected teams were also going.
Jeff registered for the conference. A couple of weeks later, he asked me about booking a flight to it. I was surprised by this, as the conference was a reasonable driving distance. I explained that the department would rent a van and the attendees would drive there together. (Our department wants to minimize expenses when reasonable, so this is normal unless it doesnt make sense logistically or financially.)
He pushed back with a couple of reasons that he wanted to fly, such as it would save time and he didnt feel comfortable driving. I said that flying wouldnt save time since the airport is at least an hour away, you need a time buffer to go through security, etc., and the flight is two hours. I also knew the others going were comfortable being the drivers.
He then said that he didnt want to be in a car for long periods of time since he sometimes has digestive issues. I empathized but suggested he make up a reason he might need more rest stops than usual and give the others a heads-up at the start of the trip. Something like, Sometimes I get woozy when Im in the car for a while, so I need to take more rest stops than usual. This was not acceptable to Jeff, and he ultimately decided not to attend the conference. It wasnt a huge issue, but he was salty about it for a while and complained to a few other people.
Is it reasonable to expect employees to drive to conferences? Are there situations other than distance and cost where we should make an exception to our norm?
Green responds:
I think a five-hour drive one-way is a really long drive, and Im not surprised he expected to fly.
Some businesses, especially those with more limited resources, do use a five-hour rule on business tripswhere if the drive is less than five hours, people drive instead of fly. Personally, it strikes me as too long. Yes, flying can take nearly as long when you account for security, delays, etc., but you can work on planes and in airports; its much harder to work in a car.
But this also varies by field and, in some cases, by professional level. I did five-hour drives without blinking as a 20-something working at a nonprofit. I would not do it now.
But even if this is the norm in your field, Id still make an exception for Jeff because of his digestive issues. Telling him to make up a story about why hed need frequent stops wasnt reasonable. Bathroom issues are private ones, and asking him to come up with a cover story while inconveniencing and possibly annoying his colleaguesand thus making that trip a lot longer than five hourswasnt fair to him. Plus, digestive issues can be urgent in a way that doesnt always leave time to wait for a highway exit, pull off the interstate, find a place with a bathroom, park, etc. Its very possible Jeff can only travel confidently if he stays within a few minutes of a bathroom.
Personally, Id be pretty unhappy if I told a manager I had a medical condition that made long car trips prohibitive and was told, essentially, too bad.
Im wondering if, at some level, you didnt fully believe Jeff and thought he was exaggerating to avoid having to do the drive. As a manager, you really need to default to believing people about their own health unless you have a specific reason not to. Otherwise, you can end up doing things that are really, really problematiclike denying people accommodations they actually need, or making them feel they need to disclose details that they should be able to keep private, or making them feel discriminated against. Thats not to say you cant ever ask for more info or propose a different accommodation (you can, and there are ways to do that legally), but in general, your default should be to believe and try to accommodate a good employee with a health issue.
Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.By Alison Green
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc.com.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
If I had a dollar for every time a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum has been charged with fraud, Id have $5. Which isnt a lot, but its weird that it has happened five times.
By now, the Forbes curse has been well documented, from Charlie Javices JPMorgan fiasco (who was on the Under 30 list in 2019) to crypto poster boy Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrating one of the biggest financial frauds in history (he appeared on the list in 2021). This week, another honoree has been hit with federal charges.
Gökçe Güven, the 26-year-old founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, faces 52 years in prison after being charged with fraud, accused of cheating investors out of millions. Güven was also featured in last years Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Marketing and Advertising category.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that, during Kalders seed round in April of 2024, Güven raised $7 million from more than a dozen investors, presenting a pitch deck that misrepresented the number of brands working with the startup and inflated revenues.
The 30 Under 30 to prison pipeline has not gone unnoticed online.
Getting on the Forbes 30 Under 30 is weird: 2% likelihood you become a billionaire, 35% likelihood your company fails, 63% likelihood you end up in white collar prison because you stole money trying to become a billionaire, and then your company fails tech entrepreneur Chris Bakke noted on X on Monday.
Someone needs to write about what it says about contemporary capitalism that SO MANY of the Forbes 30 under 30 list are frauds! another X user wrote. They should make a 30 under 30 where the people are doing legal stuff, another suggested.
Güven joins the ranks of other infamous alleged fraudsters, many of which Forbes featured themselves on their inaugural Hall of Shame for Under 30 picks we wish we could take back in November 2023.
Regrets, weve had a few, the publication wrote at the time.
Among them is Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture after defrauding his customers out of more than $8 billion.
Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Frieds sometimes girlfriend, who ran his Alameda Research crypto trading operation also followed in his footsteps, making the 30 Under 30 list the next year. In December 2022, Ellison pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering.
In September 2025, Charlie Javice was sentenced to more than seven years for defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million to push through the sale of her student financial aid app, Frank.
In 2023, real estate investor and 2016 30 Under 30 honoree Nate Paul was charged with various counts of wire fraud. Five years after making the list, Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli was sentenced to 7 years in prison for fraud in 2018, after hiking the price of a life-saving HIV drug by 4,000%.
Many more 30 Under 30 alumni, while avoiding felony charges, have faced accusations ranging from sexual harassment to fostering toxic workplace culture.
While its easy to dunk on Forbes for jinxing these bright young things by inviting them into an exclusive club with a not unremarkable number of grifters and fraudsters, the real culprit here, as Arwa Mahdawi wrote for The Guardian in 2023, is the fetishizing of youth.
30 Under 30 isnt just a list, its a mentality: a pressure to achieve great things before youth slips away from you, she wrote. The pressure can lead certain ambitious people to take shortcuts.
For those hoping to make the class of 2026, just know the Securities Exchange Commission is watching.
Kristin Cabot, the HR exec at the center of last years Coldplay kiss cam scandal, is headlining a crisis communications conference happening later this year.
Cabot will be seated on the panel “Taking back the narrative” at the PRWeek Crisis Comms Conference in Washington, D.C., on April 16, where individual tickets start at $875 per person.
“While attending a Coldplay concert in July and unwittingly appearing on the kiss-cam for a few seconds, Kristin Cabots life blew up in an instant,” the description of the keynote presentation reads. “From the outside, it was an amusing, if unflattering meme; but for her, everything changed that day.
It continues: Cabot experienced firsthand the extremity of public shaming that women have long experienced when in the negative spotlight of the media, one their male counterparts often seem to avoid.”
In July last year, Cabot told The New York Times that following the scandal the meme had left her unemployable. She described being called every sexist tropea homewrecker, a slutby keyboard warriors, having her number doxxed and flooded 500 times a day, and her physical appearance scrutinized and torn apart by strangers online. While the other party in the scandal was also dragged online, much of the worst criticism has fallen on Cabot.
Cabot will be joined on the 35-minute panel by journalist and communications professional Dini von Mueffling, who Cabot employed as her PR representative in the aftermath of the scandal alongside PRWeek Senior Reporter Jess Ruderman. The panel will unpack “the strategy both immediate and long-term that has helped Cabot take control of her narrative and rewrite her story.”
Thrust into the national spotlight last summer (for those who spent those months living under a rock), Cabot is the former head of human relations at the tech company Astronomer. While attending a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts last in July, Cabot was caught in a 16second viral clip embracing the company’s CEO Andy Byron.
Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said as the jumbotron panned on to the pair. At the time Byron was married, while Cabot was separated.
Before those details were able to come to light, however, Cabot and Byron had made headlines worldwide, inspiring countless memes and mocked even by their own company. Both Cabot and Byron resigned from Astronomer not long after.Cabot said in the Times interview: “I want my kids to know that you can make mistakes, and you can really screw up. But you dont have to be threatened to be killed for them.”
Why does uncertainty make us less rational with money? And who should we trust for financial advice online? Vivian Tu, financial educator and CEO of Your Rich BFF, breaks down todays personal finance risks and opportunities, from lifestyle inflation and the most common money mistakes smart people make to how Gen Z is navigating 2026 volatility and a shifting job market.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
Today there’s so much uncertaintyin prices, jobs, politics. Do you see that shaping how people behave with their money? Are they less rational in financial decision-making?
It’s like, well, if you don’t think you’re going to be able to afford a home or you don’t think you’re going to be able to go on that actual vacation you want, it becomes like the Estée Lauder lipstick index of, “Oh, well, I can’t afford a new TV, so I’m going to go to the drugstore and get myself a little lipstick.” Or, “I’m in a dollar dribble for a little coffee, I’m going to do this.” You’re spending on things that you will not ultimately derive true happiness out of, true pleasure, true joy, just to get a dopamine hit. When you are in a position of uncertainty, it is more important than ever to have a plan, because if you just leave it up to hope, it’s not going to get you there.
Lots of folks are using AI tools these days for financial decisions, budgeting, investing, even taxes. But a lot of surveys say that for a lot of these folks, it’s led them to some bad decisions sometimes. Where do you think AI can genuinely help with money? Where should we be more wary?
Well, I want to be very clear that none of the AI LLMs, like the ChatGPTs of the world, none of them are financially licensed. Not to be so self-serving, but that is in part why I built out my venture called Ask Dolly. Askdolly.com, check it out. We are actually an SEC-registered RIA, and if you ask Ask Dolly too complex of a question that is not knowledge-based, but rather personal-based, we transfer you to one of our CFPs.
I just want to say RIA is registered investment advisor. CFP is certified financial planner, right?
Oh, sorry, guys. Yeah.
We saw that AI is the next iteration of financial exploration and it really does help people on their financial journeys. They get to ask the embarrassing questions that they’re too ashamed to ask. But I don’t think that AI can operate independently of a little bit of human touch, and frankly, someone who is licensed to provide you financial advice, because it is so personal and there are so many factors to take into account.
There are a lot of people online, creators like yourself who offer financial advice. Not all of them are licensed.
Reputable.
Or registered. How do you know if something you come across on a social platform or online, that it’s reputable, that it’s worthwhile? We get this with health advice, we get with money advice.
What I say is, even with my content, if you see something and you’re like, “I wonder if this is true,” you need to be doing your own research. Watch my video and then go online and check, “Can I find three reputable sources that back up what she’s saying?” You’ll always be able to because I actually research my topics. But go look at articles from The Wall Street Journal, from the Financial Times, from Barron’s, from law firms or banks. Compare them. We have unfettered access now, so there is no excuse for falling for a trap. You actually have to do your own research.
And you have to understand how the people who you’re engaging with, how they make their money, right?
Exactly. Exactly.
Are there things you’ve learned as a creator yourself that you think people don’t really understand about how creators make money?
Yeah, 100%. You wonder why all of those lifestyle influencers were pushing Stanley Cups and all of the little charms that then go on the Stanley Cup and then all of thethey make an affiliate commission on the backend. She doesn’t love her Stanley Cup, she wants you to buy one so she gets money.
I always am very, very honest. When I do brand partnerships, I’m like, “These keep my content free. This is why you don’t have to pay a subscription fee for this. This is why I can do all of this editorial work unpaid: Because I make money.” But at the end of the day, whether or not you get the high-yield savings account I recommend, you should just get one anyway.
Are you saying that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck don’t love Dunkin’ Donuts? Is that what you’re saying?
I’m saying that I have tasted Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. It’s good, but it’s not the only coffee out there.
I’d love to ask you a few rapid fire questions if I can, get your advice on things.
Let’s do it.
All right. So what’s the biggest money mistake that smart people make?
I think it’s just lifestyle inflation, especially for people who start to make more money. You make a little bit more money, you spend a little bit more money, you make a little bit more money, you spend a little bit more money, and at the end of the year you’re like, “How come I don’t have any additional money saved?” All of us fall victim to the comparison trap where we compare our lives with everybody we see on social media, and suddenly you think that if you don’t have X, Y, and Z, you have a bad life. You don’t need to be spending on stuff just to impress other people.
All right. Next question. If I could focus on just one thing financially this year, what should it be?
Trying to increase your income, because my mentor told me this one line and it’s stuck in my brain forever, she said, “You can only save as much as you earn, but you can always earn more money.” We talk so much like, “Cut out the avocado toast, don’t buy the latte, don’t get the little treat.” Imagine how many little joys in your life you would have to cut out to save $5,000. Now imagine how easy it is to ask for a $5,000 raise. Frankly, people get much larger raises than that. It is so much easier for you to make more money than to try and cut every little thing out.
Home ownership. Rent or buy in 2026? How do we decide?
This is an insane question because real estate is so geographically focused. I cannot sit here and be like, “You should rent or buy.” I don’t know where you live. And in some cases, the answer is different based on were you live. What I do know is that it is currently cheaper to rent than buy in 70% of all major metros. And frankly, we should all be looking at our own lifestyles and asking ourselves a couple questions.
One, do we plan on being here for longer than five to seven years at a minimum? If not, you’re not buying. Are you in a position in your career to potentially have the opportunity to make massive leaps and bounds for a little bit of flexibility? So is there a chance you might be transferred to the Tokyo office? You being able to be flexible might be the reason why you get that position versus somebody else, and having that flex might help you. So renters win.
But there is something to be said about building equity. Ask yourself this question. Do you want to build that equity in your primary residence or would it be smarter to maybe just buy an investment property somewhere that is a little cheaper and then continuing to rent your primary residence? If you are planning on building out a family and you really want to paint the walls and you want to have the nursery and you want to do all of these things, maybe renting is not the right move. Maybe you want to buy.
Again, we go back to that five to seven years at a minimum, because the fixed costs of buying a home are very expensive. You have mortgage origination fees and youve got to pay some broker fees. Youve got to pay fee-fi-fo-fum. If you’re going to pay all that, youve got to be staying there for at least a little bit.
