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Cassindy Chao now works as a full-time matchmaker.Courtesy of Cassindy ChaoCassindy Chao worked in finance, including at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, but felt she never thrived.She started matchmaking as a side hustle while working in corporate restructuring.Chao finds that her age and life experience are valuable assets in the matchmaking industry.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cassindy Chao, 57, a matchmaker based in the Bay Area. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.Finance is a young person's arena. Long hours and stamina are treated as essential markers of a coveted hire. As I got older, I found myself wondering where that left someone like me: a middle-aged mom of three.I couldn't control getting older, so in 2022, at the age of 54, I became a full-time matchmaker.For the first time in my career, my age is an asset.Have you made an unconventional career move? If you're comfortable discussing it with a reporter, please fill out this quick form. We want to hear from people who have stepped out of or into corporate life in nontraditional ways.I discovered matchmaking at collegeI'm American-born Chinese, and in families like mine, there's often a plan: get good grades, attend a reputable school, and secure a respectable job. My parents wanted me to pursue a career in medicine, but because I struggled with chemistry. I went to Wellesley and majored in Chinese studies and economics.In my sophomore year, I became involved with the Asian Association's blind-date semi-formal. I had a lot of fun, even though I made some of the worst matches back then.I was so engrossed by match-matching that I started organizing the semi-formal event during classes and even dropping classes to focus on it. I never imagined it could be a career.I worked at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, but didn't thrive I graduated in 1990 and got a job at an investment bank. I loved art and creative work, but I needed a career that paid well because I wanted to send money to my parents. I got rejection after rejection from JPMorgan in New York, but as Asia boomed in 1993, being fluent in Mandarin became an advantage, and I got a job in the Hong Kong officeA year in, Goldman Sachs offered me a role in Hong Kong as well. The culture was one of working hard and playing hard, ultracompetitive, yet tight-knit. You made close friends because you were working late nights together on deals.Working at Goldman was addictive: I was getting paid a lot, traveling, and generally having a lot of fun, but I struggled with the numbers, and writing reports never came easily to me.Cassindy Chao left a career in finance to become a matchmaker.Courtesy of Cassindy ChaoI also found myself sacrificing my energy, creativity, and life to fulfill the needs of an organization. Deals were time-sensitive, people are accustomed to quick turnaround times, and it was all-hands-on-deck for various projects.It takes a lot out of you, and I remember my mom telling me that if I stayed at Goldman Sachs, I'd never get married. I think she was right.In May 1999, after five years at Goldman Sachs, I returned to California and got married soon after. My mom was sick at the time, and as painful as that period was, it forced me to stop and assess where I was going and what came next.It became clear that investment banking was not where I thrived.Matchmaking became my side hustleFrom 2002 to 2016, I worked on various projects in financial consulting: I was helping close companies for VCs and businesses manage their overseas operations.I had to draw boundaries around my time because it was intense, but the pay was good.In 2013, I read an article in a magazine about a matchmaker in Chicago. I had no idea that it could be a career, and I read loads of books on the topic.In 2015, I trained with a matchmaker and initially did it as a side hustle, which I publicized by building a website and emailing my network — long before I understood the…

Some student-loan borrowers are at risk of having their tax refunds seized this year.Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post via Getty ImagesThe Education Department temporarily paused seizure of tax refunds for defaulted student-loan borrowers.Advocates urge student-loan borrowers to check if they're in default before filing their taxes.If borrowers are in default, they have several options to begin the process of returning to good standing.If you're behind on your student-loan payments, you now have more time to figure out a payment plan before filing your taxes.The Department of Education announced on January 16 that it's temporarily pausing wage garnishment and the Treasury Offset Program, which seizes federal tax refunds, to give defaulted borrowers more time to repay their loans.Prior to this pause, defaulted borrowers were subject to both wage garnishment and the seizure of their tax refunds. Advocacy group Protect Borrowers and the National Consumer Law Center issued a warning to student-loan borrowers before the department's announcement, urging them to check whether they're in default before filing their taxes to prevent their refunds from being seized.In May 2025, President Donald Trump's Department of Education resumed collections on defaulted student loans after a five-year pause, meaning that borrowers in default — which typically happens when a federal borrower does not make payments for more than 270 days — were once again subject to the consequences of defaulting, including wage garnishment and seizure of tax refunds.Without the pause in place, the government could begin seizing a defaulted borrower's tax refunds after they file, leaving them without sufficient time to make a plan to return their loans to good standing."Once you've already filed your taxes, that process is underway. It is going to be nearly impossible to get your loans out of default before your refund would go out," Abby Shafroth, managing director of advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center, told Business Insider of what would happen were the pause to lift. "And then it's very, very unusual to be able to get that refund back after it's already been seized. So the real moment of opportunity for borrowers is before they file their taxes."The two groups suggested that borrowers call the Treasury Department's Treasury Offset Program Call Center at 1-800-304-3107 to see if they're on the Treasury's default list for having some or all of their tax refunds seized.Business Insider wants to hear about the challenges, successes, and unique experiences you're facing with your student loans. Do you have a story to share? Please fill out this form, and we'll be in touch.Read more of our student-loan coverage:We heard from over 400 student-loan borrowers. Here's what's on their minds, from repayment to relief.How Trump's big spending bill will overhaul repayment for millions of student-loan borrowersStudent-loan borrowers in default are set to see their paychecks garnished in early JanuaryGetting out of defaultOver 5 million student-loan borrowers are in default, and Shafroth said that while the government is required to send a notice to borrowers informing them of their default status and that they're subject to garnishment and benefits seizures, those notices generally just go out once via physical mail, and they can be easy to miss or forget about.If a borrower is in default and is on the list to have their refunds seized, they can request an extension to file their taxes, giving themselves more time to figure out their options. Those options include loan rehabilitation, which requires a borrower to contact their servicer and sign an agreement to make 9 payments within 20 days of each due date over 10 consecutive months. While the process is time-consuming, it has the benefit of eventually removing the default status from a borrower's credit…

Dr. Darshan Shah said doing the small things consistently had the biggest impact on his personal health journey.Madeline Tolle for BIThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dr. Darshan Shah, the 53-year-old founder and CEO of longevity clinic Next Health, who's based in Malibu, California. It's been edited for length and clarity.I've been a physician for 30 years. For the first three quarters of my career, I did all sorts of surgeries, from trauma and emergency surgery, to general and reconstructive cancer surgery.I loved surgery, and I still miss being in the operating room, but I was totally burnt out. I was not happy. I did not want to go to work, and I thought, who wants to live this way?I switched into longevity medicine about 10 years ago. I made the transition because I was 50 pounds overweight, had high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and an autoimmune disease.Business Insider's Power Hours series gives readers an inside look at how powerful leaders in business structure their workday. See more stories from the series here, or reach out to editor Lauryn Haas to share your daily routine.I learned the science of nutrition, exercise, sleep, and functional medicine, brought all of that to my life, and got off all my medications and diagnoses of chronic diseases.The experience made me realize that reversing chronic diseases is the kind of medicine that I want to practice. I started health optimization and longevity clinics to help people improve their lifestyle, optimize their hormones, and get them to think about how to prevent and reverse chronic disease.I always say the most important thing is to have a really good daily routine. It doesn't need to be any medications, injections, or anything fancy. I saw the biggest movement in my own personal health journey when I did the small things consistently.Dr. Shah said he goes outside first thing in the morning.Madeline TolleI wake up at 5 a.m.I start off my routine first thing in the morning because the whole world is asleep, and it's the only time I really have for myself.The critical thing is what I don't do when I wake up. I don't wake up with my phone anywhere near me. I charge my cell phone by the coffee machine when I sleep, which is at the opposite end of the house.That's a critical piece of my routine, because the phone deteriorates our mornings and stresses us out the minute we wake up. I don't look at my phone until 15 minutes after I've woken up.I go outsideI'm lucky to have a little puppy now, but even before I had a puppy, I would go outside. I think it's extremely important to go outside first thing in the morning. If the sun isn't up yet, I go back outside when it's up because sunlight exposure is so important.The physical act of taking your body outside is something that has been ingrained in our biology since caveman days. Going outside sets your circadian rhythm, decreases your stress levels, and improves your heart rate variability.I do a quick workoutMy morning routine is my sacred time. It goes until about 6:15 a.m.The physical piece of my morning routine involves a quick 10- to 15-minute workout that includes stretching and lifting weights. Even if I don't get to the gym for the rest of the day, at least I got my workout in first thing.Dr. Shah said he drinks a vitamin mix called IM8.Madeline Tolle for BIIt's so important to get quick wins. You can even start off with two minutes or five minutes a day. It doesn't matter. Once you get that quick win, it will build upon itself.After I do the workout, I grab a cup of coffee and take all my supplements. I put creatine in my coffee and drink a vitamin mix called IM8. I also take a couple of other supplements, including True Nitrogen, Urolithin A by Timeline, and a probiotic.I read for 20 minutesThe second part of my routine is learning something new. I read for 20 minutes. I'm usually reading two different…

L'UEFA a désigné les arbitres des matches de la septième journée de Champions League et c'est l'Anglais Anthony Taylor qui a été choisi pour diriger le Sporting/PSG de ce mardi soir. Un arbitre qui connaît très bien les Parisiens, l'équipe non britannique qu'il a le plus arbitrée.