💸 EARN:  How to pitch your startup (and get investors) courtesy of the guys behind Jobber. 

🏦 SAVE: Having a fake is no longer a fashion faux pas. In fact, the opposite is true—dupes (short for duplicates) are trending hard. Why pay for the real thing when an imposter will do?

🛍️ SPEND: Whether you want to beef up your home security or have voice-controlled lighting, BestBuy’s Smart Home sale has plenty of devices to help. The deal is on until June 9.

Is it better to stay in school longer and get a variety of work experiences or focus on a four-year end date? It might seem counter-intuitive, but staying in school longer leaves some Canadian students better off in the long run.

Driving the news: Canadian students are taking the opportunity to "earn while they learn" by participating in co-op programs that take a bit longer to complete but give graduates real-world work experience.

• Co-op programs require students to complete several work terms while they pursue their degree, resulting in a few extra semesters at school.
  
  
• Students get placements in jobs related to their field of study. As they gain experience and expertise, they can take on more complex roles within companies—it isn't just getting coffee and picking up dry cleaning. 

Why it's happening: Being a student is expensive. Canadian tuition has nearly doubled over the past two decades, not to mention inflation in food and housing. Taking a break from the books for some work experience can help finance the next semester's tuition. 

• Co-op students must be paid, according to the chair of the Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada Accreditation Council, something many internships don't require. 

Why it matters: Co-op placements don't just pad your pocket—they provide valuable insight into an industry and allow students to pivot their careers in one direction or another based on what they learn during their work terms. 

• It's also a great networking opportunity as many students can find part-time work with employers or even secure a full-time position upon graduating after a successful series of working semesters. 
  
  
• It's also a win for employers who benefit from fresh ideas and energetic employees. It allows them to develop relationships with talented candidates about to enter the job market.

Bottom line: Pursuing a co-op could be a career accelerator for many students as it allows them to develop essential workplace skills, build relationships and gain the confidence necessary to secure a good job post-graduation. 

Take an island girl, pair her up with a music mogul from NYC, mix in a series of chart-topping hits and garnish with sharp business acumen—you’ve got the music industry’s first female billionaire: Rihanna.

As a kid, Robyn Rihanna Fenty had a stage presence, winning her high school talent show in Barbados and joining a girls singing group before being discovered and signed to Def Jam Records with Jay-Z as a vocalist in 2005. 

• She signed a six-album deal that would produce an endless stream of pop and R&B chart toppers that would cement the Bajan songstress as one of the most influential artists of her generation.

$1,000,000: In 2007, at the age of 19, Rihanna’s album Umbrella (ella, ella) made over US$50 million in album sales, touring and endorsements—but in 2009, due to bad money management by her accountant, the singer was nearly bankrupt.

• She learned her lesson and developed a tour model to put more profit in her hardworking pockets. Her subsequent two tours would gross over US$130 million, and she signed a US$25 million deal with Samsung to promote the brand throughout her Anti World Tour. 
  
  
• She also retained the rights to all her music after parting ways with Def Jam in 2014, which allowed her to maximize her streaming and royalty earnings—she made over US$7 million off of streaming for her last album in 2016. 

$1,000,000,000: Now that she had conquered the music industry, she turned her attention to fashion and beauty. While other celebs simply slap their name on a product, Rihanna wanted to shake up the entire industry and create products for consumers who weren’t targetted by major fashion labels and beauty brands.

• In 2018 he partnered with TechStyle Fashion Group to create her online underwear collection SavageXFenty of which she owns 30%. 
  
  
• In partnership with luxury fashion house LVHM, she launched Fenty Beauty, the first major brand to offer makeup to match every skin tone. In 2022 the company made more than US$1.1 billion—and RiRi owns half. 

Today, Rihanna is worth US$1.4 billion, but her “self-made” score is 10, making her billionaire status even more impressive—she didn’t inherit or marry her money. She work work work work worked for it.

So what does Rihanna teach us? When you possess enough talent to dominate one industry, spread your wings and go for world domination—especially when you can fill a gap in the market. Rihanna found success by targeting customers long ignored by traditional fashion and beauty brands and cemented herself as a mainstay in the game. 

I am a fanatic about dryer lint. I empty the filter after every cycle and use a tiny vacuum extension to suck out any excess that may have escaped the confines of the trap. So you can imagine my absolute horror when I learned that washing machines have one too—and it needs to be cleaned once a month!?

Here’s how to keep your washing machine spinning:

• Locate the trap door and open it. Inside you will find a drain hose and filter (only front-loading washing machines have this feature.)
  
  
• Lay a towel down and grab a small container, then uncap the drain hose and let any excess water flow into the container. The Laundry-Tok expert suggests using a small brush to clear any debris from the drain hose. 
  
  
• Next, unscrew the filter and scrub thoroughly with a brush. If you have a habit of leaving stuff in your pockets, you’ll find it in there. I found $3 worth of change, a thumbtack and a hair tie.
  
  
• Make sure to clear out any gunk accumulated in the filter fitting before putting the filter back in.

This maintenance only takes a few minutes, especially if you stay on top of it. If your clothes aren’t smelling as fresh as you’d like or there’s a smell from your machine, you might be overdue. But regular appliance maintenance is vital to keeping them running for as long (and as efficiently) as possible. 

✉️ Is there any money to be made in stamp collecting? 

🤗 How to escape the “quiet quitting” doom loop and start caring about your work again. 

🍹 Still scouting your 2023 summer drink? Try this bone broth cucumber-melon cooler.

🤑 Two experts weigh in on active vs passive investing on this episode of the More Money Podcast.

🧵 This cooking hack thread on Reddit is worth the read (it’s like a culinary school crash course.)