The "Adulting" Handbook

I have been meditating for decades. And while I can testify to meditation’s many benefits, I can also say from my own extensive anecdotal research that there’s basically nothing more boring than listening to some new age blowhard opine about why you…

The pandemic has spawned a lot of discussion about our collective inability to focus. “My ADD is out of control,” will flippantly fly out of people’s mouths. The reality is that ADD (the disorder now referred to as ADHD) involves much more nuanced…

When I visited my parents' home recently, my mom told me that she'd begun adding castor oil to her beauty ritual, massaging it into her scalp every few days, and combing it through her brows and lashes every night. “It’s supposed to make your hair…

Leyla’s in-laws' attempts at connection, though well-intentioned, can be exasperating, to say the least. Once, her mother-in-law, who’s white, remarked that a neighbor’s multiracial South Asian daughters looked “just like” Leyla, who’s also South…

With vaccines widely available, more of us are feeling confident enough to fly again. And while that’s exciting news, there's still the daunting reality of how to actually get some rest when you're on a flight. I can almost never relax enough to…

There’s a guy that cruises up and down my street every day on a sleek, fast-moving, mint-hued bike that for the longest time I thought was simply a traditional bicycle with an attached motor. I even credited him with a newfangled invention that I…

Niamh Jordan, a 28-year-old editor in Dublin, Ireland, got into a relationship right before the pandemic. After she and her partner helped each other through a long and difficult quarantine, they decided to call it quits at the beginning of summer.…

Leyla’s in-laws' attempts at connection, though well-intentioned, can be exasperating, to say the least. Once, her mother-in-law, who’s white, remarked that a neighbor’s multiracial South Asian daughters looked “just like” Leyla, who’s also South…

I met my partner on Tinder. I hate online dating, but I resigned myself to it at the beginning of the pandemic because, well, what’s a they to do? Frankly, I was about to delete the infernal app, but he swooped in like some kind of queer Romeo just…

If there's one thing humans are confused about, it's sex. While we could discuss the topic with doctors, friends, teachers and  — most importantly — our partners, the truth is most of us don't. Instead, we leave our most intimate late-night musings…

Working from home creates an emotional and professional paradox: Many of us much prefer virtual meetings in sweats, but we also want to get to know the people we work with and enjoy non-digital banter. In short, some people are virtually exhausted…

A few years ago, my former roommate, her friend, and I were bemoaning the state of online dating. At some point, my then-roomie and I — both women of color — segued into how white guys who exclusively dated BIPOC women of a certain race made us…

Name: Precious and Chaun Ares Age: Precious, 31 and Chaun, 32 City/state: Inglewood, CA Amount of debt: Approximately $126,000 Type of debt: A car loan of $3,751, student loan of $46,000, credit card loan of $10,000) and personal loans of $64,000 —…

Name: Josh Age: 35 City/state: Houston, TX Amount of debt: $65,000 Type of debt: Student loan How long it took to pay off: Five years (ten was the planned payback period) Jobs held while paying the debt: Internal audit staff, demand planner,…

For most of us, debt is a necessary evil. Paying it off can be one of the most freeing, empowering accomplishments in the world, worthy of celebration. Mic's new series Paid in Full tells the stories of these triumphs, and just might help you figure…

Fashion Nova’s recent, oblivious text encouraging customers to spend their stimulus checks on its latest sale confirmed my irking suspicion: that our current financial reality is a confusing one. We’re just beginning to crawl out of an era that…

Doing your taxes during a pandemic is stressful enough. Filing your taxes for the first time during a pandemic can feel even more stressful. Before you start spiraling, though, some words of reassurance: “As a young person, it’s actually pretty…

Starting a business is hard for anyone, but it comes with additional challenges for BIPOC founders. Both the cost and lack of access to capital take an outsized toll on BIPOC-owned businesses, according to a report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman…