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Instagram and influencers go hand-in-hand. 

The Meta-owned social-media platform has become a primary stage for influencers launching their careers.

Those careers can take off quickly. For example, the 26-year-old influencer Achieng Agutu, who had about 488,000 Instagram followers when Insider interviewed her, earned over $1 million in her first year as a full-time creator.

Check out how Agutu earned over $1 million from brand deals in her first year

Influencers don’t need tons of followers to start earning money on Instagram. As more brands turn to smaller creators like “nano” or “micro” influencers with under 100,000 followers, establishing a full-time career as a creator is no longer a pipe dream.

Typically, influencers rely on sponsored content to make money. From posting a picture to the main feed with #ad to sharing swipe-up links in a series of stories, sponsored content takes on many different shapes.

Rates for these types of brand deals also vary.

For instance, Nate White, a comedy creator who had 340,000 Instagram followers when Insider interviewed him, had a base rate of $3,000. Meanwhile, Jour’dan Haynes, a nano influencer, told Insider she can earn up to $600 per post.

To land on these rates, some influencers rely on formulas like charging brands $100 for every 10,000 followers. But not everyone agrees on one formula. 

Each deal has to also account for an influencer’s following, engagement metrics, and niche, as well as deal terms like exclusivity, usage rights, and timing.

But if influencers negotiate well, brand deals can lead to big paychecks. For instance, one influencer with 275,000 followers told Insider she had booked $700,000 in brand deals in six months. And two micro influencers told Insider they earned six-figure yearly salaries as full-time creators.

Sponsored content, however, isn’t the only income generator for these influencers — although it is generally the most lucrative.

Influencers on Instagram can also earn commissions on affiliate links, profits from selling merchandise, and proceeds from monetization tools Meta has introduced. One influencer who spoke with Insider made an average of $5,000 per month through affiliate links alone.

Instagram is even testing an ad-revenue sharing program that lets creators earn money for high-performing reels on the app.

Other platforms, like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, have similar programs for short-form video formats. YouTube also shares ad revenue with creators for longer-form videos through its Partner Program.

Insider has spoken with dozens of Instagram influencers about how much money they charge brands for sponsored content and how else they make a living using the app. 

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of Insider’s cover on how much money Instagram influencers make:

Many influencers earn money on Instagram by working with brands on sponsored content.

In 2022, Instagram launched a test of its Creator Marketplace, which connects brands and influencers directly on the app. Although the feature has received mixed reviews from creators in its first year of testing, Meta introduced more features and partners in 2023.

While other influencer marketing has a presence across the social media ecosystem, Instagram is still where a bulk of deals are inked, according to a recent report by influencer marketing firm Mavrck. Rates are also higher on Instagram compared to platforms like TikTok, the report found. 

Read 5 takeaways from a recent report on influencer marketing

So how much money are individual influencers making on Instagram?

44 Instagram influencers told us how much they charge for and have earned from sponsored content. Here’s a full breakdown of our coverage, in order of follower count at the time of interviews:

“Macro” and “Mega” influencers

• Alexa Collins, a lifestyle influencer with 1.2 million followers
• Nate White, a comedy creator and fashion designer with 340,000 Instagram followers (1.8 million on TikTok)
• Jenna Barnard, a food blogger with 285,000 followers
• JaLisa Vaughn-Jefferson, a lifestyle influencer with 275,000 followers
• Rahan Alemi, a lifestyle and fashion influencer with 200,000 Instagram followers (385,000 on TikTok)
• Katy Bellotte, a lifestyle influencer with 176,000 followers
• Natasha Greene, a food and lifestyle creator with 137,000 followers
• Jessica Ufuoma, a travel influencer with 128,000 followers
• Joel Bervell, a medical school student and content creator with 118,000 Instagram followers (475,000 on TikTok)
• Matt Upham, a tech content creator with 113,000 Instagram followers (522,000 on TikTok)
• Macy Mariano, a travel and fashion influencer with 102,000 Instagram followers

Micro influencers

• Kara Harms, a full-time lifestyle blogger and influencer with 77,000 Instagram followers (283,000 on TikTok)
• Jehava Brown, a travel and lifestyle influencer with 70,000 followers
• Nick Cutsumpas, a plant influencer with 63,700 followers
• Jon Seaton, a college football star and creator with 58,000 Instagram followers (1.8 million on TikTok)
• Jade Darmawangsa, a YouTube creator (382,000 subscribers) with 52,000 Instagram followers
• Emma Cortes, a lifestyle influencer and podcast host with 47,000 followers
• Ashley Jones, a fashion and lifestyle influencer with 45,000 followers
• Tomi Obebe, a lifestyle and fashion influencer with about 40,000 followers
• Makenzie Steele, a college athlete and track star with 40,000 followers
• Diti Goradia, a fashion influencer who works a full-time investment banking with 34,000 followers
• Aisha Beau Frisbey, a lifestyle creator with 34,000 followers
• Chris Guerra, a comedy creator with 32,900 Instagram followers (760,000 on TikTok)
• Britney Turner, a lifestyle influencer with 27,000 followers
• Symphony Clarke, a TikTok creator (200,000 followers) with 26,000 Instagram followers
• Maesha Shonar, a creator with 22,800 followers
• Alexa Curtis, a lifestyle influencer and entrepreneur with 20,000 followers
• Mary Margaret Boudreaux, a lifestyle influencer with 20,000 followers
• Manasi Arya, a Gen-Z artist with 19,000 followers
• Tejas Hullur, a personal finance creator and entrepreneur with 12,000 followers (500,000 on TikTok)
• Reni Odetoyinbo, a personal finance and lifestyle creator with 14,000 followers
• Gigi Kovach, a part-time lifestyle blogger and mom of two with 13,500 followers
• Tyler Chanel, a sustainability influencer with 12,000 followers

Nano influencers

• Khadijah Lacey-Taylor, a fashion and lifestyle influencer with 9,800 followers
• Julie Tecson, an influencer and talent manager with  7,100 Instagram followers. 
• Paulina Perez, a lifestyle influencer with 7,000 Instagram followers
• Jour’dan Haynes, a lifestyle creator with 5,900 Instagram followers
• Tess Barclay, a lifestyle blogger with 5,600 followers
• Jack Betts, a college athlete with around 5,500 Instagram followers
• Laur DeMartino, a nano influencer and full-time college student with 5,200 Instagram followers
• Jalyn Baiden, a nano influencer with about 4,000 Instagram followers
• Stacy Kim, a travel and fashion influencer with 3,400 Instagram followers
• Jen Lauren, a part-time lifestyle influencer with 2,900 followers
• Amber Broder, a part-time skincare influencer and full-time college student with 2,300 followers

Influencers use platforms like LTK and ShopStyle to generate affiliate links or discount codes provided by brands to earn a percentage of sales. (Read more about the top affiliate platforms for influencers.)

Adding these links just got easier, too. In 2021, Instagram released the ability to add link stickers in Stories to all users — regardless of the follower count or verification status. Instagram now lets users include up to five links in their bios, too.

The platform also began testing native-to-Instagram affiliate marketing tools for influencers in 2021, but later shut down the program during the summer of 2022.

Read more:

Using Instagram’s suite of monetization tools

Since 2020, Instagram has announced several monetization features for creators. Although the platform’s ad-revenue share program for ads played on IGTV (which rebranded to “Instagram Video”) came to an end in 2022, creators have turned to reels as a way to earn money. 

Meta has an entire entourage of executives dedicated to helping creators on the platform, including monetization.

In May, Meta announced that it would begin testing a new ad-rev share model on Instagram reels with a select group of creators. Instagram announced it was ending its “Bonuses” program for reels a few months prior.

Creators can also make money on Instagram by receiving “Badges” or “Gifts” (tipping features for Live and Reels, respectively), launching Instagram Subscriptions, and selling their own merchandise or products in-app.

Read more:

When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Two of Rugby’s best teams have drawn each other in group stages of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and you don’t want to miss it. We’ll guide you through options to watch free Wales vs. Australia live streams. If you want to watch games further down the schedule, you’ll be happy to know these options will work for every tournament match.

Wales and Australia field two of the best teams in Rugby. The latter need this win more after dropping a win to Fiji last week, so look for them to play spoiler against Wales, who have been great thus far after a weak Six Nations showing earlier in the year. Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones is feeling the heat with some last-minute roster changes that he hopes will keep Australia from bouncing out of group stages for the first time ever. Suffice to say; there’s a lot on the line.

If you don’t have a proper watch option in your country, we’ll show you how to watch the Rugby World Cup live streams for free using a VPN. Short for virtual private network, these handy apps let your devices mimic various international locations of your choosing so that you can hop onto one of the all-inclusive streaming sources listed below.

Where to watch Wales vs. Australia Rugby World Cup live streams free from anywhere 

You can catch all of the Rugby World Cup action, including Wales vs. Australia, using the free ITVX live stream in the United Kingdom, which offers up every match of this year’s Rugby World Cup. ITV1 will show most games, and the others will be shown between ITV3 and 4. While ITVX is a UK-based platform, you can access it from anywhere using a VPN.

A VPN virtually changes your devices’ location, so apps and websites think you’re connecting from servers within those countries. In the case of the Rugby World Cup, you can connect through a UK server, and ITV will let you in with no fuss after creating a free email login. You can also use VPNs to sign up for cheap streaming services such as Peacock (it’s also showing all Rugby World Cup games starting at $5.99 monthly).

Don’t have a VPN? There’s a fantastic offer right now on one of the best VPN apps we’ve tested and have been using for years for streaming and beefing up our online security. You can pick up Express VPN, save up to 49% on the usual price, and get three months for free. It’s the best investment in your sports-watching future if you know you’ll want to watch more international sports streams. If you’re unsatisfied, there’s a hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. Read our detailed ExpressVPN review to learn more about everything this magical app has to offer.

How to watch Wales vs. Australia with a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don’t have one.
• Install it on the device you’re using to watch the game.
• Turn it on and set it to a UK location.
• Go to: ITVX.
• Sign in/create a free login and watch the matches.
• When: Today at 3 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. BST / 9 p.m. BST / 5 a.m. AEST (Mon).

How to watch Wales vs. Australia in the USA

NBC is the exclusive broadcast partner for the Rugby World Cup in the United States. All games will stream live on its Peacock streaming service (starts at just $5.99 monthly).

You’ll also find over a dozen select matches on its network news arm, CNBC (available on live TV streaming services like Sling Blue + News Extra, currently just $20 for your first month). Or, if you have a VPN, you can watch all of the Rugby World Cup matches for free using ITVX, as described above.

Rugby World Cup schedule

Below is a full schedule of upcoming Rugby World Cup games that will run through the October 28 final. All times below are in US Eastern.

Groups and Pools

Sunday, September 24

• Scotland vs. Tonga, 11:45 a.m. ET; Pool B (free on ITVX)
• Wales vs. Australia, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool C (free on ITVX)

Wednesday, September 27

• Uruguay vs. Namibia, 11:45 a.m. ET; Pool A (free on ITVX)

Thursday, September 28

• Japan vs. Samoa, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool D (free on ITVX)

Friday, September 29

• New Zealand vs. Italy, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool A (free on ITVX)

Saturday, September 30

• Argentina vs. Chile, 9:00 a.m. ET; Pool D (free on ITVX)
• Fiji vs. Georgia, 11:45 a.m. ET; Pool C (free on ITVX)
• Scotland vs. Romania, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool B (free on ITVX)

Sunday, October 1

• Australia vs. Portugal, 11:45 a.m. ET; Pool C (free on ITVX)
• South Africa vs. Tonga, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool B (free on ITVX)

Thursday, October 5

• New Zealand vs. Uruguay, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool A (free on ITVX)

Friday, October 6

• France vs. Italy, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool A (free on ITVX)

Saturday, October 7

• Wales vs. Georgia, 9:00 a.m. ET; Pool C (free on ITVX)
• England vs. Samoa, 11:45 a.m. ET; Pool D (free on ITVX)
• Ireland vs. Scotland, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool B (free on ITVX)

Sunday, October 8

• Japan vs. Argentina, 7:00 a.m. ET; Pool D (free on ITVX)
• Tonga vs. Romania, 11:45 a.m. ET; Pool B (free on ITVX)
• Fiji vs. Portugal, 3:00 p.m. ET; Pool C (free on ITVX)

Quarter Final

Saturday, October 14

• TBD (Winner Pool C) vs. TBD (Runner-up Pool D), 11:00 a.m. ET; QF1 (free on ITVX)
• TBD (Winner Pool B) vs. TBD (Runner-up Pool A), 3:00 p.m. ET; QF2 (free on ITVX)

Sunday, October 15

• TBD (Winner Pool D) vs. TBD (Runner-up Pool C), 11:00 a.m. ET; QF3 (free on ITVX)
• TBD (Winner Pool A) vs. TBD (Runner-up Pool B), 3:00 p.m. ET; QF4 (free on ITVX)

Semi-finals

Friday, October 20

• TBD (Winner Quarter-final 1) vs. TBD (Winner Quarter-final 2), 3:00 p.m. ET; Semi-final 1 (free on ITVX)

Saturday, October 21

• TBD (Winner Quarter-final 3) vs. TBD (Winner Quarter-final 4), 3:00 p.m. ET; Semi-final 2 (free on ITVX)

Bronze Final (Third-place matchup)

Friday, October 27

• TBD (Losers: SF1) vs. TBD (Losers: SF2), 3:00 p.m. ET; Third place play-off (free on ITVX)

Final

Saturday, October 28

• TBD (Winners: SF1) vs. TBD (Winners: SF2), 3:00 p.m. ET; Final (free on ITVX)

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

• Cassidy Hutchinson said she once ran into Mike Lindell walking around the White House unescorted.
• She says Lindell said: “We can still win,” referencing an effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.
• Hutchinson wrote about the interaction in her forthcoming book.

Former GOP aide Cassidy Hutchinson says she once ran into MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell roaming the White House unattended, making remarks backing former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election claims.

In Hutchinson’s forthcoming book, “Enough,” the onetime aide to ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows wrote of how the White House was steeped in paranoia while also describing how it could also be a place with little oversight — which explained her interaction with Lindell.

Lindell was a fixture in the conservative push to overthrow now-President Joe Biden’s electoral win immediately after the election that November.

On January 15, 2021, a week after the Capitol riot and just days before Trump was set to leave the White House, Hutchinson writes — according to excerpts of her book — that she found Lindell walking throughout the building without a staffer or a guide before he said: “We can still win.”

That same day, Lindell was captured on the grounds of the White House by Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford, where the executive held a set of notes detailing his agenda during a meeting with Trump.

One of the visible phrases on the paper read: “Insurrection Act now as a result of the assault on the … martial law if necessary upon the first hint of any…,” before trailing off out of view. Another note referenced a continued examination of the 2020 presidential election.

Hutchinson’s book is set to be released on September 26.

The United Auto Workers union is changing the way bargaining works in Detroit.

The union’s historic strike at all three of the Detroit car companies implements a new strategy, in which Ford, GM, and Stellantis are forced to compete against each other at the bargaining table.

At the same time, the UAW is slowly rolling out targeted work stoppages in a surprise-attack approach that allows the union to use strikes as leverage — while only slowly dipping into its $825 million strike fund it uses to pay workers in lieu of their regular paycheck.

Workers at three assembly plants have been on strike for a week, and the latest escalation came Friday when UAW President Shawn Fain said 38 GM and Stellantis plants in 20 states would be joining the walkout. Fain is targeting GM and Stellantis specifically because he’s unhappy with their offers in comparison to progress made at Ford since the strike began.

“To be clear, we’re not done at Ford,” Fain said Friday. “But we do want to recognize that Ford is showing that they’re serious about reaching a deal. At GM and Stellantis, it’s a different story.”

The UAW’s decision to target GM and Stellantis with parts depot walkouts that will cripple production while sparing Ford is the union’s first move in using its unique strike strategy to pit the Detroit 3 against each other. Leaked messages from the union’s communications director, first reported by The Detroit News, more clearly illustrate this plan.

“We’re breaking pattern and they’re bargaining against each other for the first time in 70 years,” UAW communications director Jonah Furman wrote in a private group on X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter. The messages were reviewed and confirmed by Insider. “We can calibrate it exactly to their moves at the table. If Ford and GM won’t move but Stellantis will, we can spare them.”

After Furman’s messages leaked Thursday night, the Detroit car companies expressed their displeasure with the union’s strategy. Ford and Stellantis called the messages “disappointing” and “disturbing,” while GM said the message “calls into question who is actually in charge of UAW strategy.”

The union didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, but told The Detroit News the messages were “private.”

Why the UAW is breaking pattern

For most of the UAW’s 88-year history, the union has engaged in pattern bargaining with the three Detroit companies to avoid competition at the table. In the past, the UAW has chosen a “lead company” to complete negotiations with and then taken the first completed contract to the other two companies as a guide for completing a deal.

This more aggressive strategy comes as the UAW is fighting to reignite its relevance in a revived labor movement after years of declining membership and a yearslong criminal probe that eroded trust with union leaders.

Fain and workers Insider spoke with on the picket line have said the UAW’s fight is bigger than the Detroit three. The UAW president is decidedly taking on a larger fight between the working class and their wealthy employers, previously saying in a now-viral clip that, in his opinion, billionaires “don’t have a right to exist.”

The hope of Fain and his members is to reset the standard for work in automotive manufacturing.

Targeted strikes allow for longevity

Fain had been hinting at the historic strategy to strike all three companies at once since the start of bargaining this summer. The idea was met with skepticism by many, who said that an all-out strike would quickly drain the UAW’s strike resources.

Enter the UAW’s targeted strategy. The first week of the strike at three assembly factories in Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri cost the union an estimated $6.5 million, according to Deutsche Bank. That leaves plenty in the union’s $825 million strike fund as the work stoppage expands Friday.

This kind of longevity in the strike is important for the UAW, as their opponents on the other side of the table have every reason to dig their heels in.

Ford, GM, and Stellantis – whose labor costs are already higher than most of the industry – are each spending billions of dollars to electrify their lineups and must weigh costly R&D expenses in the future with these increased labor costs.

Our experts answer readers’ credit card questions and write unbiased product reviews (here’s how we assess credit cards). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

If you have a small business or side hustle, it really helps to keep your expenses separate from any personal spending — especially when tax season rolls around. But limiting your business spending to certain credit cards doesn’t just help organize your finances; it can also earn you even more rewards, since the best business credit cards offer bonus points or cash back on common business categories like office supply stores, internet, and phone services.

Two of our favorite business cards — the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card — just brought back their highest-ever welcome offer that can earn you even more than usual for meeting a minimum spending requirement as a new cardholder.

Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited elevated welcome offers

Starting today and running for a limited time (we don’t know the end date yet), the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card are offering new cardholders $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.

That’s $150 more in value than the typical welcome bonus. You don’t even have to meet a higher minimum spending requirement to earn this higher bonus.

Which card is right for you?

Both the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card have a $0 annual fee and offer an intro APR of 0% intro APR on purchases for the first 12 months, then 18.49% – 24.49% Variable APR.

But the way the two cards earn rewards is different. If the new welcome offer has you interested but you’re not sure which card is a better fit for you, here’s a rundown of how they differ.

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

This card earns bonus cash back on different business-related spending categories:

• 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable, and phone services each account anniversary year
• 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year

You’ll earn 1% cash back on all other purchases, with no cap on what you can earn.

Read our Ink Business Cash card review for more details.

Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

Instead of earning bonus cash back on certain spending categories, this card earns 1.5% cash back on every purchase, with no cap on what you can earn.

If you don’t spend a lot at office supply stores and internet, phone, and TV, this earning structure will likely be the better option. It’s also a better option for those who prefer simplicity and don’t want to keep track of bonus categories.

You can learn more in our Ink Business Unlimited card review, and check out our comparison of the Ink Business Cash vs. the Ink Business Unlimited card.

We don’t know how long this elevated welcome offer will stick around, so don’t wait too long to apply if you’re interested!

• Florida residents Natalia and John were increasingly squeezed by rising insurance and utility costs.
• They fled to Wisconsin after their homeowners insurance premium doubled, seeing no end in sight.
• As lifelong Floridians they didn’t want to leave but chose their family over their homestead.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with John, 41, and Natalia, 38, who asked that only her first name be used for privacy reasons, about their decision to move from Plantation, Florida, a city just outside of Fort Lauderdale, to Dell Prairie, Wisconsin, 127 miles from Milwaukee. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Natalia: In 2016 my husband and I purchased the home I grew up in in Plantation, Florida, from my parents.

John: It’s about 15 minutes from Fort Lauderdale and about 20 minutes from Miami.

Natalia: It’s about 2,400 square feet with five rooms and three bathrooms. We did have a pool, but pretty much everybody in Florida has a pool.

We got a letter in the mail from our home insurance carrier in 2021 saying, “Hey, your roof is X amount of years old. You either need to replace it or we can’t guarantee that we’re going to insure you for the upcoming year.” We were thinking, we’re new homeowners — we’re freaked out about everything. We thought, what are we going to do?

We didn’t have enough money for a new roof. We went out and got quotes. The cheapest I could find just to replace the shingles was $28,000. We emptied out our savings and I had to borrow against my 401(k).

We weren’t ready for that kind of expenditure, but we did it.

The insurance company came back and said, “Thanks for doing your roof, it’ll now be $29,000 to cover you a year.” We told them, “Thank you, but we can’t afford it.”

John: Before the roof, we paid about $6,000 for our insurance premium.

After the roof, we got a quote from the statewide insurance, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. It was the most affordable one.

Natalia: But our premium still doubled from the year before. Before we left, we were paying $12,000 for insurance.

We couldn’t keep up with the rising monthly expenses on top of childcare. It’s what finally convinced us to move.

Natalia: In the house, we took care of the MEPs: mechanical, electrical, plumbing. Those are my biggest important things. I could care less if my house is beautiful aesthetic-wise, I was more worried about making sure that we had new insulation, we redid the duct work, we put in a new AC, and we changed out the electrical panel.

John: The FPL (Florida Power & Light Co.) man came out there and did a synopsis on the home and told us that we’re doing everything correctly, but the reason why we’re paying $100 more for electricity this year than the previous year was because of the FPL rate increases.

Natalia: Our electric bill would be up 33% by this summer, and that would’ve given me a $1,000 bill for the months of August, September, and October. Those are your hot months out there. And I was like, I can’t afford this.

I put up the white flag, unfortunately.

John: We started looking at upcoming trends as far as cost-of-living increases. We have four children, three of them are in school and you have to pay the daycare expenses on top of it. So we ran the numbers for a year, it was going to cost us $31,000 for daycare and after-school care while we work in Florida.

It was just kind of like you’re walking, you’re walking, you’re walking with your head down, and then when you finally look up, you realize you’re lost. That’s the feeling you get once you realize the costs of childcare on top of your monthly expenses — and FPL kept on raising their prices.

Natalia: By the time we left, we were paying about $2,400 a month for the house, and that included taxes and insurance.

We chose Wisconsin because of an affinity for ‘Happy Days’

Natalia: We sold the house for about $700,000 and some change, and we only owed about $260,000 on it. So we had nice equity.

But that broke my heart. I was really hesitant on moving — that’s my stomping grounds. That’s where I grew up. I wanted to die there. I wanted my kids to learn to swim in the same pool I did. I wanted them to fish the same canals, and climb the same trees, and go to the same schools I did. I wanted them to have the same experience that I did because I think that my youth was good. I was very fortunate.

John: Growing up my dad would make me watch “Happy Days” all the time. And then later on in his life, he was a huge fan of “That ’70s Show” and for whatever reason, I was feeling nostalgic and I started watching it and I was like, “Oh, Wisconsin doesn’t seem so bad. Let me look it up.”

And then I found out “Happy Days” was Milwaukee and I started doing a little research about Wisconsin. That’s the main reason why we chose to move here.

We live in the township of Dell Prairie, which is actually on the outskirts of Wisconsin Dells. It’s a nice, small city.

We definitely did a lot of research on the real estate around the area, looking at lot size, home size, and schooling. We found we can get a lot more bang for our buck here than back home.

Our lot was 0.31 acres in Plantation, and we were able to come here and now we’re on over two acres.

One of the first things I did as soon as we got here was started planting corn just to see if I could grow it.

Natalia: And he can.

The costs in Wisconsin are a fraction of what we’re used to

John: The home we purchased was about $325,000. It’s five bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Natalia: That left us a little change to be able to pay off a bit of debt.

John: We haven’t paid insurance yet, but all our neighbors tell us that insurance is about $1,200 a year.

The landscape is awesome, my kids actually get to enjoy nature. They have always been outside kids. It’s just in South Florida and that landscape, you can’t go outside.

Natalia: I joke with everybody, but at the end of the day I say it’s like living in a Disney forest.

John: You get a lot of squirrels, chipmunks, deer, turkey, and an occasional bear in the middle of the night.

Natalia: I’m excited to have a white Christmas. That’ll be fun for us. Taking the kids out, having snowball fights and sledding and snowmen and the little snow angels, all that good stuff. And literally having a reason to make hot cocoa.

John: A lot of people that I worked with would always wish they could move and find somewhere cheaper. There are a lot of people who are scared of walking away from everything. But you have to do what you have to do for your family. Your family comes first.

I don’t think people can swallow their own personal pride to do what’s best for their family. And that’s what me and my wife did. We didn’t want to leave Florida. We just didn’t see a future there for our kids. And if there was a future, it was a future of hardship.