Fierce competition for Europe's next-generation tanks shapes up

Multiple European arms makers are designing next-generation tanks like KNDS' Leclerc Evolution, seen at a 2024 defense expo in Paris.

Artur Widak/Getty Images

• A slew of new tank designs are emerging from European drawing boards.
• Many are alternatives to the pan-European tank envisioned by France and Germany.
• It faces domestic pressure to favor national projects that benefit a nation's workforce.

For years, the European tank market was fairly stable. Germany's Leopard 2 was the most common model in European armies, with Britain, France, and Italy producing a small number of indigenous models for their own armies.

But a slew of new tank designs are emerging from European drawing boards. This is partly spurred by the Ukraine war, which has seen the most intense armored warfare in Europe since 1945. But it may also reflect a lack of faith in the Main Ground Combat System, a joint project between France and Germany to develop a main battle tank by 2040.

"It seems that every industrial partner is working on its own alternative to MGCS," Léo Péria-Peigné, a French defense expert, told Business Insider.

It was inevitable that a new generation of tanks would emerge to replace the late Cold War designs that still dominate Western armies, such as the Leopard 2, M1 Abrams, and Britain's Challenger. Even the US Army is aiming for a next-generation version of the M1 Abrams that would slim down the 70-ton behemoth to less than 60 tons.

MCGS is meant to replace the Leopard 2 and France's Leclerc as the primary tanks in the German and French armies. Both nations recently signed an agreement to begin development and manufacturing of a prototype. But at the same time, MGCS seemed like it might also replace the Leopard 2 as a sort of pan-European tank. MGCS is supposed to be a modular design with advanced features such as a 140-mm gun, hybrid propulsion, advanced sensors, and the ability to team up unmanned ground vehicles. A conceptual model displayed in 2018 used a Leopard 2 hull and a Leclerc turret.

However, there are indications that Germany wants a fallback design, based on the latest Leopard 2A8 model, in case MCGS fizzles out. "The Leopard 2AX, an improved version of the Leopard 2A8 battle tank, is being developed by the German defense industry at the express request of the Bundeswehr," according to Army Recognition, a defense news site.

"This development also serves as a Plan B for Germany in case of failure of the Franco-German program, or even as a lever in future negotiations, thus confronting France with a fait accompli regarding the crucial decisions that remain to be made," Army Recognition said.

Meanwhile, two new designs are being offered by KNDS, a joint venture between German defense firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann — manufacturer of the Leopard 2 — and France's Nexter, which produces the Leclerc.

The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is a modular design with an unmanned turret with the crew nestled in the hull, similar to Russia's T-14 Armata. It can fire guided missiles and heavy cannon rounds, plus it has a 30-mm cannon and improved armor buttressed by an active protection system to stop anti-tank rockets. Existing Leopard 2 models can also be fitted with these features.

Significantly, KNDS "assesses the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 not only as a bridge solution until introduction of the next-generation land combat system MGCS, but also as a decisive technological precursor to MGCS," according to a company press release.

KNDS is also touting the Leclerc Evolution, which is fitted with the company's Ascalon turret and gun. The company describes Ascalon as "a main gun for battle tanks that is more powerful than all comparable barrel weapons. It can fire compact and programmable ammunition beyond the line of sight with minimal wear. Due to its scalability, Ascalon can be fitted with any barrel from 120 to 140 mm."

As if the procurement picture wasn't complicated enough, four companies — KNDS Germany, KNDS France, Germany's Rheinmetall and France's Thales — have also just announced a joint venture to develop the MGCS. Yet Rheinmetall is also marketing its KF51 Panther tank, armed with a new 130-mm cannon. Hungary has signed a development contract for the Panther, which Rheinmetall has also offered to Ukraine.

Political turmoil in France has also cast a shadow over MGCS, with far-right parties favored to win the upcoming parliamentary election. "It seems that even the German government believes the MGCS project could be abandoned if the right takes power," Péria-Peigné said.

"Things will get clearer over time, but it is obvious that both partners are keeping alternative solutions up their sleeves. Germany did for a long time. The new surprise is that even KNDS France seems to have done the same."

European defense budgets are already being strained by the need to replenish depleted stockpiles, sending a constant flow of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, and building up the manufacturing capacity to produce all these arms. This raises the question of whether there is enough money for all these various tank designs.

But the woes of MGCS also illustrate the problem that has always bedeviled joint European defense projects: the tension between saving money through joint development, versus domestic pressure to favor national projects that benefit a nation's manufacturers and workforce. If MGCS were to be abandoned, it would be a bad omen for the Future Combat Air System, a Franco-German-Spanish project to develop a sixth-generation fighter as well as air combat drones.

"Abandoning MGCS would be more of a burden for France than for Germany, as Germany does not need France to build a new tank," Péria-Peigné said. "Unlike in the FCAS, where France can do it alone technically but lacks the money to develop it alone."

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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5 tips from Jensen Huang on how to run a company and manage your team

Jensen Huang has shared some unconventional management advice over the years.

I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images

• Jensen Huang is becoming more of a household name as Nvidia's value skyrockets amid the AI boom.
• The CEO has some unusual management practices, including having 50 direct reports and no 1-on-1s.
• Here are some of Huang's most notable tips when it comes to business leadership and management.

Nvidia overtook Apple and Microsoft separately earlier this month to briefly become the world's most valuable company.

With the AI chip company's stock skyrocketing, Huang has also seen his fame — and fortune — grow, and there are plenty of eyes on him to see how he runs one of the world's biggest companies.

Here is some of Huang's most notable advice for leading teams and managing a business.

Manage a lot of people

Huang believes a CEO should have more direct reports than anyone else in an organization. He, in fact, has more than 50 direct reports, considered an unusually high number for any manager.

"The more direct reports the CEO has, the less layers are in the company," Huang said in an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit in 2023. "It allows us to keep information fluid, allows us to make sure that everyone is empowered by information."

Management exists "in service of all the other people that work at the company," he said in a separate interview with Stanford's Graduate School of Business earlier this year.

"I don't believe in a culture, in an environment, where the information you possess is the reason why you have power," he said.

Skip the 1:1 meetings

Huang has said he doesn't have one-on-one meetings with his many direct reports.

"Almost everything that I say, I say to everybody all at the same time," he said at Stripe Sessions 2024. "I don't really believe there's any information that I operate on that somehow only one or two people should hear about."

Give feedback publicly

In the same vein, Huang also believes in giving someone feedback in front of their peers.

"The problem I have with one-on-ones and taking feedback aside is you deprive a whole bunch of people that same learning," he said at Stripe Sessions. "Feedback is learning. For what reason are you the only person who should learn this?"

He added the learning from other people's mistakes is "the best way to learn.

"Why learn from your own mistakes? Why learn from your own embarrassment? You've got to learn from other people's embarrassment," he said.

Communicate briefly and often

Nvidia employees can expect to receive a lot of emails from their chief executive. Huang sends his staff hundreds of emails a day, many of which are only a few words long, The New Yorker reported last year.

He expects employees to keep their email communications just as concise.

One former Nvidia worker told Business Insider's Jyoti Mann that "you'd get in trouble for sending a super-long email to him."

"The idea was to nail down what you have to say, send it, and if he, or others, need more information, then it's a conversation, not another email," the former Nvidian said.

Show your work

Huang believes showing others how you reason through a problem is "empowering."

"I show people how to reason through things all the time — strategy things, how to forecast something, how to break a problem down, and you're just empowering people all over the place," he said in the Stanford Graduate School of Business interview.

He continued: "If you send me something and you want my input on it and I can be of service to you and in my review of it, share with you how I reasoned through it, I've made a contribution to you. I've made it possible to see how I reason through something."

That can lead to a lightbulb moment.

"You go, 'Oh my gosh. That's how you reason through something like this. It's not as complicated as it seems.'"

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People aren't spending like they used to and it's forcing companies like Nike and Walgreens to make drastic changes

American consumers are getting tighter with their wallets and pickier about deals.

Vickie Flores/In Pictures via Getty Images

• US consumer spending — especially on physical goods — has been in a yearlong squeeze.
• Even as inflation cools, high prices are still putting a dent in household budgets.
• The increased frugality means retail brands are having to balance creativity and discipline.

US consumers are in a weird place this summer.

People are still spending money, but there's an uncomfortable awareness that years of price hikes mean each dollar doesn't go as far as it used to.

Over the past year or so, US shoppers have been dialing back on buying physical goods while still springing for travel, restaurants, and other experiences.

And even though prices have largely slowed from their pandemic-era increases, they're still up roughly 20% from 2020 and unlikely to tick back down.

That's putting a sizable dent in household budgets.

Joseph Lewis, 33, told Bloomberg he has been looking for ways to preserve the financial cushion his family managed to pull together in 2021.

"We're in a space where we have to be financially creative in terms of really figuring out what it is you can do without and even what it is that you can perhaps do on your own," he said.

Now, retail brands are feeling the pinch from this slow-moving slowdown.

This week, both Nike and Walgreens reported earnings that were challenged by declining sales.

The shoemaker responded by saying it would reallocate $1 billion to "consumer-facing" initiatives to spur demand, while the drug store said it would close a "significant" portion of more than 2,000 underperforming locations in the next three years.

Meanwhile, Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison said things are going more or less according to plan for the home improvement retailer, which is to say not great.

"This consumer remains very cautious, specifically when you think about larger ticket discretionary purchases," he told Oppenheimer analysts Wednesday. "The sentiment for the DIY consumer remains a bit weak."

"We think it's going to be focused more on smaller projects and looking for value, and we are working to position ourselves to be in that space as effectively as we can," he added.

And for Walmart, which has fared quite well through this belt-tightening phase, CFO John David Rainey on Tuesday described customers as being "choiceful."

"If you look at our revenue growth, though, it's almost entirely driven by units versus price," he said, meaning that the retail giant is making more of its money from bigger shopping baskets than from higher prices.

The corporate commentary comes on the heels of reports from the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco and Philadelphia, which find a more precarious situation this year for US households compared with last year.

The San Francisco Fed said last month that the $2.1 trillion worth of "excess savings" in consumer accounts has been fully depleted, and the Philadelphia Fed found this month that higher-income households reported an increased concern regarding their ability to "make ends meet" over the coming year.

None of this is to say the economy is in a bad spot right now, but for a lot of folks it doesn't exactly feel good either, and that is a sentiment retailers are going to need to address with a mix of creativity and discipline.

Creativity — as a few companies have shown this year — means investing in products, services, and prices that get customers excited, while discipline is making sure the math still works for the business.

It doesn't have to be complicated, either. Look no further than Costco's beloved hot dog combo or Arizona Iced Tea founder Don Vultaggio, who made headlines for his commitment to keeping his price at 99 cents per can.

"We're successful, we're debt-free, we own everything," he said. "Why have people who are having a hard time paying their rent have to pay more for our drink?"

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She just moved into a neighborhood of 3D printed homes in Texas — see what it's like inside

Icon is building a community of 100 3D printed homes in Austin.

Icon

• Daniella Glaeze documents her 3D printed home on TikTok, amassing millions of views.
• Icon and Lennar are building a community of 100 3D printed houses just north of Austin.
• The homes, made with "lavacrete" and featuring biophilic designs, offer energy efficiency.

3D printed houses may sound like they're from a future filled with hoverboards and holograms. But for Daniella Glaeze, she's already living it.

Glaeze began documenting her 3D printed home on TikTok shortly after moving into it in April. Her videos showing off the futuristic concrete house have garnered several million views — and questions.

"I'm definitely excited to bring some of this content to viewers and anyone interested in seeing the process and how these homes work," Glaeze told Business Insider.

Glaeze also shows viewers a tour of a model 3D printed home by Icon.

Icon

"Homes," plural, because it's not just their house — it's a whole neighborhood. 3D printing construction startup Icon teamed up with home construction giant Lennar to build a community of 100 3D printed houses, called the Wolf Ranch, just north of Austin.

According to Icon, 95 of the homes already have their wall systems printed and all 100 are expected to be complete by 2025, but residents like Glaeze have already begun to move in.

First-time homeowners Glaeze and her husband, who are both software engineers, became interested after seeing some of these houses on TikTok.

"We're both in tech, so we know the type of engineering and innovation that goes into creating something like this, so we were really intrigued," Glaeze said.

The homes are built using a massive gantry-style printer, called the Vulcan Construction System, which spans 45.5 feet wide and 15.5 feet tall.

Icon's Vulcan Construction System spans 45.5 feet wide and 15.5 feet tall.

Icon

In one TikTok with over 4 million views, Glaeze toured her home, which has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a garage. Several commenters were worried about the potential of grime settling in the ribbed wall ridges, one writing, "I can't stop thinking about all the dust that would collect on the walls."

@life_0f_dani

Replying to @Andrea Salazar what does the inside of a finished 3d printed house look like? let me show you 🫶🏼 leave me decor suggestions pleaseeee #3dprinting #home #3dprinted #3dprintedhouse

♬ original sound - daniella

However, Glaeze reassured that despite the unmistakable grooves, she had yet to encounter any dust build-up. She said that a wipe or handheld vacuum has gotten the job done.

"The ridges on the wall are not like little shelves, they're very thin," she said. "Even if dust were to collect, I don't think it'd be very noticeable, and the walls are very easy to clean, honestly."

The simple solution seemed to be mirrored in most of her responses to other questions people brought up. Yes, you can hang things on the wall using a concrete bit. Yes, you can paint the walls with an airbrush. And yes, you can make the walls flat by sanding or using plaster.

"The walls are the only thing that are concrete and printed in the foundation," Glaeze said. "Everything else, like the electricity, the roof, the doors — they're all like a traditional home."

In fact, the only issue she has come across has been a spotty WiFi connection due to the thick concrete material, which she has combated with a WiFi booster.

So why print your home?

"My favorite thing about living in a 3D printed house is really the aesthetic," Glaeze said. "I think it's really cool; it's something new that's also different and innovative. "

Icon, which codesigned the homes with architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group, told Business Insider that aside from added structural support, 3D printing offers architectural freedom that would be far more expensive with traditional construction. They particularly lean into biophilic designs that include more organic forms with rounded edges and curves, the company said.

A 3D printed model home shows off curved walls and texture.

Icon

Glaze said she loves how the curved walls make "the whole house feel very seamless and clean" and has been experimenting with different light fixtures that "reflect really cool with the layers."

"It's really cool to see how people get creative with decorating the home," she said. "I have a neighbor who's playing with different light and textures and abstract art that pops off the walls."

Glaeze also said the thick concrete material, dubbed "lavacrete" by Icon, is not only well-insulated to keep temperatures cool against the Texas heat, but has also been "really sturdy" against rainstorms and outside noise.

"They have a lot of drills and heavy machinery outside, and I don't hear anything," she said. "I am sensitive to super loud sounds so being in this house is so quiet and so peaceful."

Icon's 3D printer is able to build a wall system as fast as two weeks.

Icon

Icon said its wall systems had been tested against hurricane standard winds and also announced in March a new formulation of lavacrete called CarbonX, a lower carbon emission cement material that will be used for the remaining wall systems.

3D printing promises to be cheaper — soon

While one of Glaeze's biggest incentives for moving in was the house's "really good interest rate," the actual price is pretty on par with other properties in the area.

Since the homes in this neighborhood are being sold by Lennar, their pricing is dictated by the current market, Icon said. According to the company's website, the homes range from $425,000 to $585,000.

An aerial view of the 3D printed homes.

Icon

However, Icon said that homeowners have reported lower lifecycle costs and utility bills due to higher energy efficiencies. It also said 3D printing offers lower construction costs and faster development.

According to the company, its robotic system typically requires two people to operate, and each wall system in Wolf Ranch took, on average, two weeks to complete.

"One thing that Icon told me is they do want to combat the housing crisis," Glaeze said. "They want to have more affordable and efficient homes."

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The lack of EV charging infrastructure is so bad it's driving owners back to gas-powered cars

A Volkswagen ID.4 electric vehicle (EV) charges via a CCS DC fast charger from Electrify America at a shopping mall parking lot in Torrance, California, on February 23, 2024.

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

• EV charging is so bad it's driving people back to fossil fuels.
• Lack of charging infrastructure is already a barrier for many would-be EV buyers.
• The last thing the auto industry needs is people ditching their EVs.

Issues with charging have nearly half of electric vehicle owners in the US considering going back to fossil fuels – the latest bad sign for the EV transition.

A recent consumer study conducted by McKinsey & Co. found that 46% of US EV owners surveyed are likely to switch back to a gas-powered vehicle, compared to a global average of 29% of EV owners who reported they will likely switch back to an internal-combustion engine.

The top reason respondents listed for ditching their EV was a lack of charging infrastructure. Other charging issues high on the list included a lack of charging at home and the impact of long-distance driving.

Range anxiety and access to charging infrastructure have long been considered one of the top barriers to electric vehicle adoption, but the revelation that these same issues may drive current battery-powered car owners back into gas-powered cars is a new blow for the already rocky EV transition.

While there are plenty of shoppers interested in an electric vehicle, the options on sale today are often too big, too expensive, or not practical enough to replace a gas-powered car.

Car companies are already scrambling to adjust to a sudden change in the electric vehicle market in order to draw more new customers. The slowdown in electric vehicle sales growth has rocked everyone from Ford to Tesla, denting sales and forcing executives to rethink their long-term plans for electric vehicles.

While the industry has made great strides in electric vehicle range and battery charging times, huge holes in the infrastructure make certain areas nearly impossible to navigate without a gas-powered engine.

McKinsey's study found this issue to be particularly acute in the US, which had the second-highest rate of respondents say they're considering ditching their EV. (In first place was Australia, with 49% of respondents saying they are likely to switch back.)

America's high placement shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Charging infrastructure here has long been a hot-potato issue, which has held back efforts to build more chargers.

While a push from the automotive industry to fund charging infrastructure has led to a boom in public charging stations in the last two years, these have largely been money-losing ventures.

On the government side, the Biden Administration has set aside $7.5 billion for charging infrastructure with a vow to add 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. But that effort in reality has played out slowly so far, with only a handful of stations going live since the funding was approved two years ago.

Addressing charging infrastructure is already high on the industry's list of priorities when it comes to removing barriers to adoption, but the fact that it might also drive existing EV owners away only amplifies the issue.

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My parents struggled in blue-collar jobs. Paying off their mortgage and retiring them is my proudest achievement.

Dhillon (far right) started his own business as a college student.

Courtesy of Simmy Dhillon

• Growing up, Simmy Dhillon watched his parents struggle in blue-collar jobs.
• During college, he started developing a meal delivery business with his brother.
• The brothers have since been able to fund their parents' lifestyles and retire them.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Simmy Dhillon, from London, about financially supporting his parents. Business Insider has verified their payments with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I come from a working-class family. My dad's parents moved to the UK from India in the 1960s and worked in factories. My dad also went into a factory job, where he stayed for 25 years.

My mum was born in India and came to the UK when she was very young. She worked as a cashier at Tesco, a supermarket chain, for 20 years.

They stayed in their blue-collar jobs for so long because they couldn't afford to take risks. They provided stability and support for myself and my brother, Jhai. As we grew up, we were both motivated to work hard. Many young people go out partying and drinking, but Jhai and I never really did that. It felt disrespectful to our parents.

I set high expectations for myself. I wanted to be able to take care of my parents so they wouldn't have to struggle.

I started my own business and retired my mum roughly 2 years later

I launched my business, Rice N Spice, in 2017 as a 20-year-old student. I cooked and delivered healthy meals to other students at my university. I initially ran it part-time, and after a few months, I asked Jhai to help me. Over the last few years, he and I grew it to the point where we could retire both my parents by the time I turned 27. It's been my proudest achievement, and I don't think anything can top it.

My brother and I now both work on the business full-time. He runs our kitchen operations team, and I run the office team, which has seven full-time employees, excluding myself.

Over the last seven years, we've grown the business into a national meal delivery service. We're now called Simmer Eats. Our revenue last year was £6 million, which is around $7.6 million.

My mum was involved in the business in the early days because we needed extra hands. She helped with cooking, delivering meals, and picking up supplies. For the first year, it was just the three of us.

By 2019, we were generating enough income that my mom could leave her supermarket job, and we could put her on a higher salary as an employee of Simmer Eats.

It was our long-term ambition to retire her. She made sure we had a good childhood, working multiple part-time jobs alongside her Tesco job. I felt we had stopped her from having the career she wanted.

In 2019, Jhai and I took my mum out for a birthday dinner and told her she could resign and never have to work for anyone else again. I rarely see one of my parents cry, but I could see little tears in her eyes.

She left her supermarket job, but she was having a lot of fun working with us, so she stayed involved in the business until 2022.

I'd dreamt of retiring my parents, but it was unbelievable that we could do it so quickly. I felt really proud.

I convinced my dad to quit his factory job

I felt a sense of urgency in retiring my dad, too. His factory job was physically demanding, and he felt trapped in it.

I recently found out that when my dad first got the job, his father told him to stay employed there until after he was due to pay off his mortgage. He thought it was a good job because it was relatively well-paid compared to other factory jobs. His father died soon after, and I think the promise my dad made to him is part of the reason he stayed in it for so long.

I eventually convinced him it was OK to leave his job, and we could take care of him financially. He left in January this year.

My parents live much more comfortably now

Now, we fully fund our parents' lifestyles, and they don't have to worry about being unable to afford things. This year, we gave them £37,500 each in dividends, as they are shareholders in the company. We'll likely pay them a similar amount each year.

Outside that, we take them out for dinner and to the cinema. Last year, I took my mom to India for a holiday, and we also got my dad a new car in February.

I've also paid for my dad to have surgery in a private hospital. He couldn't have afforded that on the salary from his job.

In June, we paid a lump sum of around £51,000 using dividends from the business to pay off my parents' mortgage. It's great that we've been able to take that pressure and stress off of them.

My parents are still relatively young, in their 50s, so they've got years to enjoy themselves. We go to the gym together as a family. Dad is trying to spend more time reading and says he wants to learn to play the trumpet. Mum does yoga, goes walking, and meets her friends. They're so unstressed now.

We felt we had more money coming in than we needed, so before we started upgrading our own lifestyles, it was only right to pay for things that would have a huge impact on our parents' lives.

That said, we haven't had a huge lifestyle inflation where we go all out on luxury. We can enjoy things like not worrying about menu prices or getting a taxi home from the airport instead of the bus — but we don't spend much on things we don't need.

Since my brother and I are quite frugal, we haven't had to reduce our spending to take care of our parents. We regularly save and invest so even if our business stopped growing so much, I think we would be OK.

I don't think I could have retired my family with a salaried job

The world is becoming more unequal and it's very difficult for people who grew up without money to become financially comfortable. I'm lucky that the business has taken off and has enabled me to provide my family with financial stability. It's fulfilled a childhood dream.

If I had a salaried job, even if it paid well, I don't think I'd be able to support my family in the same way. That's partly because running a business is more tax-efficient than being an employee, and there are no caps on earning potential.

I've achieved a lot already, but if my business became a billion-pound company, I don't think that would be as special as what we've been able to achieve for our parents.

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5 Breadwinning wives share the biggest obstacles that come with earning more money than their husbands

As women earn more money some are more likely to end up the breadwinner in their marriage.

Westend61/Getty Images

• Some women are earning higher incomes and becoming the primary breadwinners in their marriages.
• This shift is creating more stay-at-home husbands but can also cause jealousy and resentment.
• Communication is key for couples to navigate these changes and maintain relationship balance.

Women typically make less money than men in the workforce, but there are many professions where women earn more on average than their male counterparts. And as women's salaries increase, some become the breadwinners in their marriages and relationships.

This steady income growth for women can also create more stay-at-home dads and husbands, and the shift in responsibility can require some serious adjusting and getting used to.

Business Insider spoke with five women earning more than their husbands about the biggest obstacles they faced when they became breadwinners. For the most part, feelings of jealousy, resentment, and guilt formed, but ultimately the relationships grew stronger, and communication seemed to be the resolution.

Amy Porterfield is a breadwinner who retired her husband and was worried she'd resent him

"When I started my business, my husband was still a general contractor and contributed to the family finances while working to become a firefighter," Porterfield told BI.

Her husband eventually became a firefighter and earned up to $100,000. But within three years of launching her social media consultancy, Porterfield was earning $1 million in revenue and it became clear her husband didn't need to work.

When the opportunity to relocate from California to Tennessee came, it only made sense for Porterfield's husband to leave his job, even though he loved it. They decided he would retire from firefighting.

Porterfield said her husband was proud, celebrated her successes, and kept moving forward, but he expressed some concerns about not having a job that gave him purpose.

Amy Porterfield and her family.

Courtesy of Amy Porterfield

Meanwhile, Porterfield was afraid she'd resent her husband's free time, and eventually, she did.

Porterfield admitted that she occasionally became jealous of her husband's less stressful days when she felt overwhelmed with work. Still, the experience forced them to communicate more, which positively affected their marriage.

"Creating a life unlike most people's status quo forces you to communicate more, say the things you don't want to say but are necessary to grow, and show up in ways that stretch you."

Last year Porterfield's company earned $20 million in revenue, and she feels her family dynamic made her a better leader.

Karina Daves' income is four times larger than her husband's. Therapy helped him deal with it.

Karina started earning more than her husband about 8 years into their marriage.

Charlie Williams for BI

Once Karina landed her first tech job, the financial dynamics between her and her husband quickly shifted. "When we got married 11 years ago, Terrance made more money than me," she told BI. He was a master auto technician at Nissan, and Karina was a social worker.

Now, Karina is a regional manager of employee experience at a tech company, produces a podcast, owns a coaching business, and is a social media influencer. Her paystubs show that she makes four times more money than her husband.

To adjust to Karina's schedule and help out more with their two children, Terrance agreed to take a more flexible job at Princeton University and took a 50% pay cut. But he told his wife the transition was difficult and sought out therapy to help him make sense of it all.

Karina said that her husband's therapy sessions eventually helped him realize he was jealous of her and had started viewing her as an individual rather than a teammate. But through healthy communication they got back on the same page.

Katie Matthews' husband quit his job and made her the breadwinner, now they feel like they can breathe

After Katie Matthews' husband quit his job, she became the breadwinner in their family.

Courtesy Katie Matthews

In May, Matthews wrote about her experience as the breadwinner in her marriage for BI. She reported that her husband quit his job of 10 years at the end of 2023 after burning out.

"It was our sole source of income, but by the end, the money just wasn't adding up anymore," Matthews wrote. "So, six months ago, we did what many others dream of doing. We quit the job with no backup plan."

Matthews has stepped into the role of financial provider, earning money as a freelance writer while her husband is in charge of the housework and kid duties. Now that they've reversed roles, she says they're kinder to each other and better understand what the other person contributes. They also realize how much pressure they've put on themselves over the years, and she appreciates the support she now has to advance her career.

But this understanding doesn't stop Matthews from feeling resentful at times.

"Admittedly, I can feel resentful that I'm working while he isn't, especially when I've never had a clean break from work, not even when our babies were born."

Still, Matthews believes switching roles has expanded the couple's mutual empathy and made them a better team.

Andrea Mac loves being the breadwinner but feels like the second-choice parent

Mac and her husband have four children together.

Courtesy of Andrea Mac

After Mac gave birth to her third child, her husband decided to leave his electrical engineering job and became a full-time stay-at-home dad. He takes care of 90% of their home life, while Mac earns 100% of the income.

This arrangement works for their family of six, but it doesn't come without some sacrifices that traditional moms don't typically face — especially when Mac has to take long work trips.

"For days and weeks at a time, my husband was effectively a single parent," Mac told BI. "It wasn't easy when I finally returned home."

Sacrificing parenting moments to be a provider has turned Mac into what she calls the "second-choice parent." It's also led to her questioning if she's just a paycheck sometimes, but she loves her work. Her company made just under $550,000 last year.

Mac considers herself and her husband incredibly hardworking and committed to providing for their family's needs. They believe in shared decision-making and an equitable division of responsibilities, which keeps their marriage balanced.

Betsy Grunch is a surgeon, and her husband is a stay-at-home dad

Grunch is an active mom and full-time surgeon.

Jonathan Batdont; BI

Work-life balance has been difficult for Betsy, an active mom and neurosurgeon with an unpredictable work schedule. Fortunately, she's able to split childcare responsibilities with her husband, Ray, a stay-at-home dad and private investigator.

"Even before I got pregnant, my husband wasn't working that much and did a lot of the chores at home, so we knew he'd mostly be the one to stay home with the kids," Betsy told BI.

But this arrangement doesn't come without the guilt of missing out on family moments. Betsy said her son and daughter, who are 9 and 6 respectively, understand that she has to work. At the same time, Betsy notices her kids can get jealous when she has to step away to focus on work tasks.

Betsy said she's learning to ask for help juggling both worlds. She's even hired extra staff at her job and extra help managing household chores. This allows her to be more present when she's with her family

"Outsourcing certain responsibilities has been life-changing and helpful. I can spend a lot more time with my kids now."

If you're a wife earning more than your husband and want to share your story, please contact Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

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The S&P 500 could crater 48% when the stock-market bubble pops and recession finally hits, elite strategist says

Stocks could crash nearly 50% and a recession might hit this year, B. Riley's Paul Dietrich said.

Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

• The S&P 500 could crash 48% when the bubble in stocks pops and a recession hits, Paul Dietrich said.
• The elite strategist pointed to a massively overvalued market and cracks in the economy.
• Dietrich predicted inflation and interest rates would remain elevated, and taxes would rise.

The S&P 500 could be cut in half when the stock-market bubble pops and the US economy sinks into recession, Paul Dietrich says.

"I believe the upcoming recession will result in a deeper stock market decline than we experienced in 2000 and 2008," B. Riley Wealth Management's chief investment strategist said in his latest monthly commentary.

Dietrich detailed warning signs that indicate stocks are hugely overvalued and close to suffering a correction. For example, he pointed to the S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio and inflation-adjusted Shiller PE ratio, which, excluding past recessions, are both at multi-decade highs, and the benchmark index's historically low dividend yield of 1.35%.

He also noted the market's recent gains have been driven by investors' excitement about a handful of stocks like Microsoft and Nvidia, and their hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year — not fundamentals like rising corporate earnings.

Indeed, Dietrich compared the immense hype around AI with the internet mania during the dot-com bubble. He also flagged the Buffett Indicator, which has surged to 188% this year — close to the 200% mark where buying stocks would be "playing with fire" in Warren Buffett's view.

Moreover, the strategist noted the price of gold has jumped about 20% to record highs over the past year. He attributed that to institutional investors buying the haven asset as they expect a "major correction or stock market crash due to our wildly overvalued stock market and a slowing underling economy."

On the economic front, Dietrich argued that decades of excessive fiscal spending and artificially low interest rates have staved off a downturn.

He predicted rates would remain elevated for years to combat stubborn inflation, and the government would be forced to raise taxes to address its ballooning budget deficit, pulling down the prices of assets like stocks and houses and causing an economic slump.

"No one seems to notice that the economy is cooling and there are risks to the economy everywhere," he said. "I still believe there is a strong possibility the economy will go into a mild recession this year."

Dietrich noted the S&P 500 typically tumbles by about 36% during a recession, and the index would need to drop 12% from its current level of around 5,450 points to return to its 200-day moving average. Thus, he warned the index could plunge up to 48% to roughly 2,800 points — its lowest level since the Covid crash in the spring of 2020.

The Wall Street veteran is one of several top forecasters predicting pain for stocks and a recession ahead. But it's worth noting that Dietrich has been sounding the alarm for months, and neither the market nor the economy has run into serious trouble.

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A US diplomat says US colleges need more Chinese students to enroll — but in the arts, so they can be walled off from accessing sensitive tech

Asian students.

Drazen_/Getty Images

• The US says that Chinese students are welcome to study in the US, but in arts, not the sciences.
• Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that Indian students can fill the gap in STEM fields.
• He cited security concerns with letting Chinese students access sensitive technology.

Chinese students are still welcome in the US, but less so in fields of science where sensitive tech could be involved, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said.

Speaking to the Council of Foreign Relations think tank on Monday, Campbell said more students were needed in STEM fields because Americans were not filling out those spots in universities.

However, the ideal international students for these fields are Indians, not Chinese, Campbell said. But he added that the US does need more Chinese students, too — just not in STEM.

"I would like to see more Chinese students coming to the United States to study humanities and social sciences, not particle physics," Campbell said.

He also cited security concerns about letting Chinese students access sensitive technology.

"There's been careful attempts now across most American universities to support continuing higher education, but to be careful about the labs, some of the activities of Chinese students," he said.

He added: "I do think it is possible to curtail and to limit certain kinds of access, and we have seen that generally, particularly in technological programs across the United States."

Chinese academics have already faced Trump-era restrictions

Back in the Trump era, there were policies in place to restrict Chinese access to developments in the US academic space — like denying visas to Chinese graduate students based on the Chinese universities they attended.

Former President Donald Trump also enacted the China Initiative, a program aimed at countering China's economic espionage and preventing trade secret theft. The China Initiative was scrapped by the Department of Justice in 2022 after critics said it promoted an anti-Asian bias.

But even now, Chinese students say that they have been facing extra scrutiny while entering the US. The Washington Post, citing online discussion forums, reported in March that Chinese students were questioned for hours at US border controls, or had their visas canceled without valid reasons.

Chinese students make up the largest international student body in the US, with almost 290,000 students enrolled in US institutions in the 2022-23 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education.

Indian students are the second largest group, with about 270,000 enrolled in the 2022-23 academic year. And Campbell said that there is space for this group to grow.

"I believe that the largest increase that we need to see going forward would be much larger numbers of Indian students that come to study in American universities on a range of technology and other fields," he told the think tank on Monday.

Worsening US-China relations

Campbell's comments also come amid worsening US-China relations, particularly in the tech space.

In April, the Senate passed a bill that, if signed into law by President Joe Biden, will force Chinese tech company Bytedance to sell video site TikTok.

The White House also announced in May that it would impose tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese goods.

In particular, new measures target Chinese electric vehicles, with tariffs rising from 25% to 100%. This provided relief for American EV companies nervous about the competition from cheap Chinese EVs entering the market.

China, meanwhile, is squeezing the US tech companies that operate within its borders. Apple is one of them, with its iPhone sales in China dropping 24% in the first six weeks of the year, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

And homegrown Chinese companies are taking a larger share of the domestic pie, aided by the state.

China banned its officials from using iPhones in September, a move that coincided with Huawei's launch of its Mate 60 Pro, a breakthrough phone whose capabilities rivaled those of the iPhone.

Sure enough, unit sales of Huawei phones climbed 64% in the same period iPhone unit sales fell by almost a quarter.

The Council of Foreign Relations think tank and representatives of Campbell didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

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I live rent-free in NYC. Moving into a van has allowed me to save, avoid taking out loans, and live a life of adventure.

Gerardo Rios Garcia and his van.

Gerardo Rios Garcia

• Columbia graduate student Gerardo Rios Garcia lives in a van for financial security and adventure.
• He drove his van from Mexico to NYC and sleeps in it while balancing school and multiple jobs.
• Although he says it's challenging and can be scary, he saves $2,000 a month and doesn't have loans.

I'm a 26-year-old graduate student at Columbia University and an intern at the United Nations who lives in a vintage Volkswagen van in Manhattan. I made this choice driven by a goal for future financial security and a thirst for adventure.

My journey into van life began when I was a kid, listening to my grandpa's stories about road trips around Mexico and the US. During my junior year of college that same van my grandpa had driven was passed down to me.

Though it was no longer in the best condition — plagued with rust, brake issues, electrical malfunctions, and motor problems — I decided to renovate it.

The van before renovations.

Gerardo Rios Garcia

I got into Columbia University for graduate school, and my van was the most affordable and fun way to go

After completing my undergrad degree in business, I knew I wanted to continue my studies. I had no idea where to go, other than it had to be in North America, so I could take my van with me. I also wanted to avoid taking out loans or asking my family for financial support.

I applied and was accepted to Columbia University's MS in sustainability management program. After working full time in consulting in Mexico for two years, saving as much as possible, and selling or donating everything that wouldn't fit into my van, I set out to drive to my graduate program.

After crossing the border in Arizona, I had 2,500 miles and 10 states to cover. I experienced engine issues in Albuquerque, Kansas City, and Indianapolis, and I had to tow the van with a U-Haul at one point. Still, I made it to NYC on a Sunday morning and had orientation on Monday. My Volkswagen van became my home in September.

The inside of the renovated van.

Gerardo Rios Garcia

I wanted a lifestyle that allowed me to focus on my studies and work to secure a good professional standing while living life to the fullest and gaining as many new experiences as possible. The van was a solution that was both economically viable and incredibly liberating.

Living in a van in Manhattan is hard, scary, and stressful

The van on a Manhattan street.

Gerardo Rios Garcia

At just over 46 square feet, my van poses significant challenges. I must constantly find free street parking, deal with extreme temperatures, and stay aware of my surroundings. I use the WiFi at coffee shops, libraries, restaurants, or the gym. I also typically shower at the gym.

I have a mini fridge, an electric stove powered by a solar panel, and basic cooking utensils, so I cook sometimes. I also frequent diners, Columbia's dining halls, and coffee shops for meals.

I have friends over from time to time, but because the space is small, it's not something I do very often. My mom visited me a few months ago when the weather was nice for a week, and she stayed with me in the van.

I'm more involved in my community

A small living space has encouraged me to become more engaged in my community and vastly increased my productivity. Balancing three part-time jobs — a teaching assistant position, a research assistant role, and my internship at the UN — while joining student clubs, volunteering, and maintaining a 4.0 GPA has been feasible because I don't feel the need to always be at home.

I study in the van when the weather permits, watch movies, and take naps. During the coldest months of winter and hottest parts of summer, I mainly just sleep in it.

The inside of the van.

Gerardo Rios Garcia

My unconventional lifestyle has become a talking point. Colleagues and professors find my story intriguing. In the professional world, I've encountered a range of reactions, from admiration and curiosity to skepticism and judgment. These interactions have taught me valuable lessons in communication, resilience, and growth.

I've learned how to prioritize what's truly important

I now know that I want a minimalist lifestyle focused on my goals and passions, free from the distractions of excessive materialism.

Financial independence is another significant benefit of my van life. I save around $2,000 each month and avoid student loans. This freedom gives me the cushion to explore the culinary richness of NYC, play sports, attend events, and do other activities that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

Van life has been an incredible journey of self-discovery and growth

The van parked on a city street.

Gerardo Rios Garcia

Van life has shown me there are endless possibilities when you choose to live authentically and embrace the unknown, but the uncertainty is the biggest challenge of this lifestyle. Not having a comfortable place to retreat and dealing with added stress can be challenging.

Materially, there's limited space, and being essentially homeless can be taxing on relationships. There's also the constant concern of potential break-ins and mechanical issues. However, I truly believe living in a van has positively impacted my professional and academic life.

I want my story to be a reminder that there are many ways to live and thrive. I like to think that my van, parked amid the urban chaos, stands as a symbol of resilience, creativity, and the enduring human spirit.

I finish my courses in December and plan to stay in the van until then. I don't intend to live in my van for an extended period after finishing school, but I haven't decided on my next steps. I'm open to exploring different opportunities and locations.

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I'm an American sending my kids to camp in Italy. It's cheaper and kids eat freshly cooked meals.

Imgorthand/ Getty Images

• I'm an American mom of two kids, ages 5 and 9 months old. 
• I'm married to an Italian man and gave birth to my children here. 
• Summer camp in Italy has less structure, and my daughter eats freshly cooked meals. 

I'm an American living in Italy. I've lived here for almost 10 years and have two children, a 5-year-old daughter and a 9-month-old soon. Last year sent my daughter to summer camp for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised.

Summer camp in Italy is nothing like what we think of in the US. But there's good and bad to that, on certain ends.

Camp is cheaper in Italy

My daughter goes to camp where we live in our small town. So while I can't relate to the cost of camp in bigger cities like Rome or Milan, the camp she goes to costs 160 euros a month. Yes, a month. And that is for a full day of camp, which includes fresh lunch that is made and served on the campus.

While it's been years since I was a child and went to camp, all I know is that when I was younger and my parents sent me to a prestigious theater summer camp and it was around $2,000 a month and we're talking 20 years ago.

My child plays freely and there's less structure

At summer camps in Italy, the children are sort of like free range chickens. There are not always organized activities and the children are encouraged to play freely with their friends. Also, kids of all ages play together and they are not separated into age groups.

I like that a lot. I believe that in the summer, children should have the freedom to just have fun as opposed to a more strict routine and schedule like when they are in school. But on the other hand, children, especially at a certain age, can benefit from more structure.

My daughter learned about agriculture

Italy is a country that very much relies on the land. Italians are very proud people and want that tradition to keep going, especially when it comes to taking care of their own land and reaping the benefits.

The camp my daughter attends is based in the countryside surrounded by olive trees, cherry trees and a beautiful vegetable garden. There are also baby goats, a donkey and chickens. On the first day of camp this year, they picked fresh cherries from the cherry tree. Cleaned them. And then made fresh cherry jam. The children were sent home with bags of fresh cherries and a small jar of jam. Last year, the kids collected eggs from the chickens and made frittatas for lunch.

I love that at such a young age they are teaching children about the benefits of having and keeping land and everything that you can get from it.

She eats freshly cooked food

Food served at camps in Italy — and schools for that matter — is made fresh and on site. At my daughters camp, no processed food is served. Every day the children are served a first course (pasta, usually) and a second course. Lunch last year included pasta with beans, pasta with peas, pasta with cheese, prosciutto with fresh mozzarella, chicken cutlets with cucumber salad and baked fish with carrots. You won't see any lunchables served at camp here.

Camp in Italy is great. My daughter and all of her friends love it. Yes, it's completely different from an American camp which usually has more structure and routine, much like going to school. But that's what makes it so wonderful.

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Ukraine needs to stop fighting the war Russia wants

Ukraine is increasingly fighting an attritional conflict against Russia, which can build more tanks and field more troops.

Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images

• Ukraine is trapped in a strategy that favors Russia, a Ukrainian security expert argues.
• Without a grand strategy for victory, the most that Ukraine can do is try to hold on.
• "The lack of a strategy for victory will turn this war into a war of attrition," Oleksandr Danylyuk told BI.

Ukraine is caught in a strategic trap. It barely has the strength to keep Russia from making major advances, yet it is not strong enough to eject Russian forces from the territory it held prior to the 2022 invasion. The result is a war of attrition that Ukraine can't win.

The solution? Build up Ukrainian military power and compel Russia to agree to peace, argues a Ukrainian security expert. But that can't happen unless Ukraine devises a grand strategy that extends beyond mere survival that's characterized much of the war in 2024 as Russia exploited the long delay of US arms support.

"The lack of a strategy for victory will turn this war into a war of attrition for Ukraine, which completely coincides with Russian interests," Oleksandr Danylyuk told Business Insider.

Danylyuk dismisses the notion that even with Western aid, Ukraine can match Russia in the sheer numbers of military power like tanks, artillery and troops. "Trying to win a war with Russia at the expense of only a symmetrical mass increase is a flawed strategy, given that Russia has a larger number of [military-age] human reserves (about 30 million people in Russia, compared to about 8 million people in Ukraine), significant stockpiles of weapons and military equipment inherited from the USSR or built by 2022, as well as a developed defense-industrial complex and a powerful mining industry that satisfies its needs for a significant amount of strategic materials," he wrote in an essay for the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

That leaves improving the quality of Ukraine's military. But this involves more than better weapons and tactics. Danylyuk argues that political mobilization is just as important, a view that seems reminiscent of the 19th Century German military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz, who envisioned a nation's war effort as a trinity comprised of the people, government and military.

"The political effectiveness of a military organization consists of its ability to receive financial support, the provision of weapons and military equipment, and the replenishment of human forces in the volume and quality necessary to eliminate existing threats," Danylyuk wrote. However, "the political effectiveness of the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] remains insufficient, as Ukraine's defense needs are currently only partially met."

Danylyuk blames Western restrictions on the types of weapons being supplied, and how they can be used. The US and Europe have long imposed restraints on using long-range weapons, such as ATACMS long-range guided rockets, to hit targets deep inside Russia. Only recently has the Biden administration begun to relax that policy. Easy victories with Western weapons have failed to materialize as the war has dug in. It's also clear that even with robust EU and US support, Ukraine is still at a disadvantage against the Russian war machine in a years-long fight.

Danylyuk also worries that political divergences between Ukraine and its allies are undermining Ukrainian military effectiveness. Ukraine's current government wants to liberate all occupied territory, which is "undeniably fair and rational, but it ignores the fact that the liberation of territory does not necessarily mean the end of the war," he wrote. On the other hand, US and European desires for a negotiated settlement "will be viewed by Russia as a tactical respite which can be used to restore and build capabilities and plan a new phase of aggression."

In other words, Russia could exploit a peace deal to rebuild its battered forces before launching another invasion of Ukrainian lands.

A Ukrainian serviceman carries a reconnaissance drone during training near the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region on May 19, 2023.

REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

The result is that the Ukrainian military isn't sure what kind of war to prepare for. "The AFU are in an extremely difficult situation, as the political leaderships of both Ukraine and its partner countries see these goals in different ways, which negatively affects the ability of the AFU to develop and implement a military strategy aimed at achieving them," wrote Danylyuk.

Without a grand strategy for victory, the most that Ukraine can do is hold its own, Danylyuk told Business Insider. "The planning of individual operations, the assessment and provision of the needs of the AFU, the development of training programs and preparation, and the introduction of new tactical techniques can at best support Ukraine's ability to conduct the war, but not to win it."

There are too many competing visions of Ukrainian victory, he argues. These include retaking all lost Ukrainian territory, threatening Russia's hold on Crimea to force it into negotiations, punishing Russian industry and exports to try to force Russians to reconsider the war's costs, or exacting such a heavy toll that Russian leaders are compelled to withdraw similar to the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan.

Danylyuk does fault Ukraine for some military mistakes, such as failure to adequately prepare and train for the failed counteroffensive against well-entrenched Russian forces in summer 2023. But he considers tactical improvements to be at the bottom of Ukraine's to-do list.

The West can boost Ukrainian military power by focusing on weapons that have already proven devastating against Russian vulnerabilities, according to Danylyuk. This includes cheap naval drones that have sunk numerous Russian warships and driven Russia's Black Sea Fleet from the Ukrainian coast, as well as giving Ukraine more Western aircraft and air-to-air missiles to contest Russian airpower.

Interestingly, Danylyuk blames the West for failing to adapt its equipment to the lessons of the Ukraine war. "This concerns, first of all, their ability to quickly improve military equipment not only because Ukraine needs it, but also because the security of the partners themselves depends on its improvement. The current pace of this improvement is completely unsatisfactory, and the approaches to identifying and eliminating the shortcomings of such systems require a complete revision."

Danylyuk's analysis does leave some questions unanswered. For example, as the Germans discovered on the Eastern Front in World War II, quality doesn't always triumph over quantity. And as Ukraine's failed 2023 counteroffensive demonstrated, achieving decisive battlefield success is no easy matter. With Russian society mobilized for total war, and with Moscow able to procure resources from allies such as China, North Korea and Iran, Russia's ability to wage a long war is considerable.

Also, choosing a grand strategy is easier said than done. For example, the Ukrainian government vows to liberate all occupied territory, including the Crimean peninsula and eastern Ukraine which Russia has annexed. Some critics say this is unrealistic, and Ukraine will have to accept some loss of territory.

Whatever strategy Kyiv chooses, Danylyuk argues, it can't be the status quo.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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I went on my first cruise with 3 generations of my family, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life

Adam England went on his first cruise with his parents, sister, and grandmother.

Courtesy Adam England

• I recently went on my first cruise with my parents, sister, and grandmother. 
• I'd never been on a cruise before and was surprised that there were things for all of us to enjoy.
• We all had a good time and I'll treasure the memories we made together. 

Until last month, I had never been on a cruise. Neither had my parents or my sister, but my grandmother — my nan — often travels by cruise ship, so we decided to join her on a cruise.

We decided on a trip to the Norwegian fjords, which we all wanted to see, and traveled on the 5,206-capacity Iona — the UK's largest cruise ship until 2022.

It was the first time we'd all gone on vacation as a family of five. My 16-year-old sister, me at 25, my parents — both 50 — and my nan, who is 72 — were there.

Adam England enjoyed traveling with his whole family.

Courtesy Adam England

The environment took some adjusting

The cruise took us a couple of days to get used to. The idea of being at sea felt almost claustrophobic when compared to the pedestrian-friendly city vacations I'm used to, and my nan didn't adjust to the sheer number of children (and the noise) on board at first, because she's used to going on cruises when children are at school.

But we gradually found a rhythm. My family are early risers, but I don't usually eat breakfast, so I'd wake up with them, have a coffee in bed, and then head to the gym while they went to get food. If we were spending a day in a port, we'd enjoy a few hours exploring, probably getting a coffee or some lunch, before heading back on the ship for the rest of the day.

There were plenty of places on the ship where I could spend some time by myself, too. There was an adults-only area on one of the top decks, so as we were blessed with surprisingly good weather, I'd go up there, order a beer or a cocktail, and read my book in the sun. I also enjoyed spending time in one of the quieter bars on the ship. I bought the WiFi package largely so I could keep in touch with my girlfriend and keep an eye on emails, but it also allowed me to kill some time scrolling social media or checking the soccer news.

Adam England and his family enjoyed scenery while on the cruise.

Courtesy Adam England

It was good to spend more time with my family

I was a little nervous about spending so much time with my family. Apart from a short trip to Madrid with my dad last year, it was the first trip I'd taken with my parents and sister in two years, and the first with my nan since 2015.

It wasn't always easy to go without the space I'm used to — and to go longer than usual without seeing my girlfriend — but the trade-off of seeing more of my family was worth it. The trip was only for a week, and it was good to spend time with both of my parents, as well as my sister, who, at 16, is getting older and looking toward university. I liked spending more time with my nan, too, particularly now that she's in her 70s and is still in good health.

Now that we're back, I find myself missing the trip. While there are aspects of being on a cruise that I don't necessarily love — the bars and restaurants can start to feel a bit samey after a while, for example — there was a lot that I enjoyed.

The places we visited were unforgettable, too. From riding the Skylift in the village of Loen and taking in the picturesque surroundings to visiting the coolest coffee shop in Stavanger, one of Norway's biggest cities, there were some great destinations I probably would never have visited had we not decided to go for the cruise.

I always associated cruises with retired couples and families with young children, but I found plenty to do as someone in their 20s, particularly because I wanted a relaxing vacation. And being able to spend time with my family made it all the more memorable.

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