enRICHed: volume 132

halfway through 2025

Jun 01, 2025

Volume 132

Hey Besties!

Now, that week went by FAST! Over the holiday weekend, Boo and I got to relax and reconnect while making our favorite dish—PASTA! Well…when I say “we” made pasta, I mean he made pasta, but I was the one who picked out the spicy vodka sauce to go on top of our rigatoni. There’s something downright magical about the way cream, tomatoes, and vodka come together to make a perfect sauce. And I wanted to know how the magic happens *pun intended*! That’s why I sat down with chef and restaurateur Mario Carbone on this week’s episode of Networth and Chill! We chatted about how he picks locations for his restaurants, how food businesses really make money, and of course, where he came up with the idea for his famous Spicy Rigatoni! New episodes of the podcast drop every single Wednesday so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE or follow Networth and Chill wherever you get your podcasts!

Plus, keep up with the podcast on Instagram and TikTok!

As a reminder:

HYCU, pronounced haiku: how the news impacts you and your wallet, aka How You Can Use
The Prosperitea: think discount codes, non-boring finance articles, sales, and personal links from the week. The fun stuff 😉
We love your comments, but please remember to keep it positive! And don’t take investing advice from anyone who isn’t your registered financial advisor!

Now that you’re up to speed, let’s get you enRICHed.

The White-Collar Wipeout 💼👔

Sorry to bring more apocalyptic news, but gird your loins: Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic (the company behind one of the most powerful AI platforms, Claude), announced that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next 1 to 5 years, according to a new interview with Axios.
In this sunny and fun announcement, Amodei said AI companies and the government need to stop “sugar-coating” the future, which looks like the mass elimination of jobs across tech, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions—especially entry-level gigs.
Why say this at all? Amodei, 42, said he's speaking out in hopes of jarring the government and other AI corporations into preparing the nation. Other CEOs like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang are speaking up as well, saying that ignoring AI is basically a one-way ticket to unemployment.
HYCU; Mind you, this is the guy who is making the AI who’s saying this, not some theoretical study or idea. If you work in these fields, and especially if you’re about to graduate from college and trying to snag one of these jobs, it will be incredibly difficult. It’s not even clear if they’ll exist—lots of companies are actively replacing their employees with AI at this moment. Yes, this feels like a dystopian movie plot, like Mission Impossible, but it’s important that you read about the pros and cons of these large language models and figure out how long your job’s shelf life is, because if things continue the way they are, there will be an expiration date. Things aren’t helpless—it never is! You have to figure out what you can control, whether it’s urging your representatives to take action against the rollout of AI or planning for your short-term career future, taking stock of what skills you have that aren’t replicable and figuring out a path that may be plausible for you. Read more books! Talk to friends! Why use ChatGPT when you could do research on your own and expand your brain?

Tariff Tug-Of-War 😒

In case you’re wondering about what’s happening with the tariffs, we’re in a true Trump timeline, where you have to be glued to your phone to know what’s going on—a federal court blocked most of the Trump tariffs from going into effect earlier this week, which the markets celebrated, but then on Thursday, an appeals court basically undid the block, meaning that temporarily, they’re back on.
Getting a headache yet? You’re not the only one. The Trump administration urged the case to be taken to the Supreme Court on Friday to “put an end” to the drama, so we’ll have to wait and see how things go in court.
A lot of companies are lowering their profit predictions in light of all the uncertainty.
HYCU; Of course, there will be ripple effects beyond our ballooning cost of living. Experts are predicting that inflation will also climb in the next several months, which means that consumers lose purchasing power, and borrowing rates (like for a house, car, and more) tend to rise, which hurts everyday people more—especially people in the bracket of middle and lower-class incomes.

Literal Fake News 💊🤨

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been on a tear as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, most notably rolling out a major “Make America Healthy Again” health commission report aimed at children’s health, focusing on ultra-processed foods, environmental chemical exposure, lack of physical activity, “overmedicalization” and “capture” of regulatory agencies, which sounds interesting enough, except that there were a huge amount of errors and misinformation throughout the entire thing.
In a new investigation, US publication Notus found that not only was a lot of the information in the “MAHA” report misrepresenting research, it also contains citations to studies that straight-up do not exist.
Two of the “studies” on ADHD medication advertising just don’t exist in the journals where they are claimed to be published. Virginia Commonwealth University confirmed to Notus that researcher and listed paper author Robert L. Findling never wrote such an article, while another citation leads only to the Kennedy report itself when searched.
HYCU; Let’s be so clear—an error like this in school would get a “see me after class,” maybe detention or suspension, and definitely a big red F on your paper, so it’s wild to see this happening at the very top levels of government. You can’t just make stuff up when it’s concerning the health of all children in this country. The White House acknowledged the errors in the paper, though, and will be issuing a follow-up in August. But this also probably means that you should take the government-issued health warnings with a healthy dose of suspicion, which is sad, because we should be able to trust that our government is at least telling the truth.

Osmary asks, “Hi Vivian! I've been living in a rented apartment for 9 years. The rent is under $2K in a good, quiet area. However, sometimes I wonder if it would be a good idea to buy. What's better? To keep investing in the stock market, or to use part of the money I’ve invested to buy a home? If I buy a house, I’d probably have to invest less since my expenses would go up.”

Hey Osmary! Great question! The rent vs. buy debate is A LOT more complex than people realize, so I’m glad you’re putting so much thought into it! Buying a home can be an exciting step, but it also comes with significant costs and responsibilities, and right now, it is cheaper to rent than buy in the US’s largest 50 metro areas. Here's how the decision typically breaks down:

Renting vs. Buying

Renting:

Flexibility: You can move without the hassle of selling a property.
Lower upfront costs: Usually just a security deposit and first month’s rent.
No maintenance costs: If something breaks, it’s usually the landlord's problem.
More to invest: Since you’ll have lower upfront & monthly costs, you’ll be able to invest more as you mentioned which may lead to higher yields than investment in a home would.

Buying:

Building equity: Every mortgage payment helps you own more of your home.
Stability: Your monthly payment (if fixed-rate) won't increase like rent might.
Potential appreciation: Over time, your home could increase in value.

If you’re solely coming at this from a financial perspective, let’s compare the stock and real estate markets:

Risk: Stocks can be volatile, while real estate tends to be more stable but can also fluctuate based on local market conditions.
Time Horizon: Real estate is often a long-term investment, while stocks can be more flexible, depending on your strategy.
Costs: Homeownership comes with additional costs like maintenance, property taxes, and insurance, which can eat into your profits.

I suggest using the NYT Rent vs. Buy Calculator to help make your decision. You put in info about where you live, how much you pay in rent vs. a mortgage, and how long you want to live there, and it can help figure out what’s the best financial decision. HOWEVER—buying a home isn’t just a financial decision. Homeownership offers security and the ability to put down roots and paint the walls. At the end of the day, it's a very personal decision, but I hope this helps!

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