Swifties, this one’s for you. It seems like Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has lasted eons. Yet somehow, there’s always something to talk about. Just thinking about how much she’s accomplished while on tour makes me want to buckle down, lock in, and channel my inner girlboss. But while I can’t even be bothered to cook dinner at home after a long day of work, Taylor is accomplishing milestones most musicians can only dream of. Let’s recap.
The Era’s Tour began in March 2023 with its North American leg. It’s set to go until December 2024, with dates in Europe, Australia, Asia, and South America— spanning 152 shows across five continents.
As the queen of multitasking, Swift hasn’t stopped at just selling out stadiums. Since the Eras tour began, she’s released multiple albums — both new and old — and shaken up the tour setlist with each new release. Her list of new releases started on the first day of her tour with “All Of The Girls You Loved Before,” which was quickly followed up by “The Alcott,” a feature on The National’s album — reciprocity for their work on her pandemic era albums, Folklore and Evermore.
She also released Midnights: Late Night Edition (including the iconic collab with Ice Spice), as well as not one but two album re-releases — Speak Now Taylor's Version and 1989 Taylor's Version. As if that wasn’t enough, she announced her latest album, The Tortured Poet’s Department, in a GRAMMY’s acceptance speech. Talk about legendary. Since its release, she’s also been churning out deluxe versions and remixes to keep us on our toes. The Eras Tour was even made into a Blockbuster film that brought Beyonce to its premiere. Star power: confirmed.
But that’s just her work life. Her personal life is just as eventful. She ended her 7-year relationship with Joe Alwyn in April 2023. Then entered into a brief but controversial fling with 1975 frontman Matty Healy. Though it didn’t last long, the relationship was enough to inspire a whole album and catapult her into her current romance with Travis Kelce, aka Amerca’s first nepo boyfriend. Now they’re the American Royal couple — and she somehow had time to fly from tour to his Super Bowl performance.
We all have the same hours in the day as Taylor Swift, but how she uses them will always be a mystery to me. I work eight hours a day and can barely manage a social life. Meanwhile, Taylor has it all — though conservatives are turning on her for daring to be a woman in her 30s who’s not married with kids. If that’s not proof that women can’t do anything right, I don’t know what is.
Clearly, she’s working late because she’s a singer. No wonder Taylor Swift became a billionaire months into her tour in October 2023. Her net worth is currently around 1.3 billion dollars, making her the only female musician to become a billionaire from her music.
Other entertainment billionaires like Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Jay-Z, and Kanye West have joined the three-comma club thanks to ventures like clothing brands, beauty products, and other entrepreneurial pursuits. Rihanna has her FENTY Empire. Kim has her award-winning SKIMS. Ye had Yeezy. But Taylor has an unbeatable catalog of publishing.
But Taylor isn’t just different from other Billionaires because of how she earned her money. She’s the Taylor we know and love because of how she spends it. Her rollercoaster Eras Tour is how she’s made much of her fortune. And she’s using it to give back in monumental degrees. From individual donations to investing in local infrastructure, Taylor is changing lives on a macro and micro scale. And teaching us what to expect from all billionaires in the process.
The Era’s Tour Bonuses — Talk About Workplace Benefits
First to make headlines were the Eras Tour crew bonuses. While some of us get rewarded with a pizza party or a $10 gift card to Starbucks, Taylor casually dropped $55 million in bonuses for her tour crew. The massive sum was paid out to everyone who makes the Eras Tour go around, from truck drivers to dancers and sound technicians.
In fairness, these bonuses are so well-deserved. Taylor’s shows are over three hours long. Imagine dancing for that long — because Swift certainly isn’t the one with the impressive moves — for hundreds of tour dates. Or remembering countless combinations of light cues to go with a setlist that changes daily. Yeah, they’re clocking in. And if my boss had millions to blow, I’d be expecting a comfortable bonus too. But $55 Million? That’s a testament to Swift’s generosity. It's like she's Oprah, but instead of cars, she's giving out life-changing amounts of cash. "You get a bonus! You get a bonus! Everybody gets a bonus!"
It’s similar to how Zendaya gave film equity to every member of the crew that worked on her controversial black-and-white drama, Malcolm & Marie. Filmed in a few days with a bare-bones crew during the peak of the pandemic, the film was Zendaya’s passion project with Sam Levinson, in which she starred alongside John David Washington. Though the film got mixed reviews, it captured the audience’s attention all the same. After all, it was Zendaya — and we’ll watch her in anything. So since the film sold to Netflix for a hefty sum, all the crew members got payouts from the deal on top of their salaries to reward their hard work.
Bonuses and equity payouts are common in many industries, but not entertainment. Even though it’s one of the most lucrative and recognizable American industries, most entertainers don’t make enough to survive. The SAG and WGA strikes last year were proof that there needs to be systemic change in the industry. LA County has even identified show businesses as risk factors for being unhoused — after all, how many stories do we hear of actors who were living in their cars before their big break? And for many, their big break never comes. For even more, they get hired on amazing gigs with giant performers … then go right back to the grind afterward. While individual actions from our favorite stars won’t fix everything, Zendaya and Taylor are providing models for how Hollywood should treat the people who make this town go round.
And in this economy, even a little bit could go a long way. Inflation and the cost of living are not a joke. Especially when, like with many creative careers, you often have to invest in lessons or equipment for your craft. With all this considered, the impact of Swirt’s donations can’t be overstated. Imagine getting a lump sum of cash for dancing to your favorite Taylor Swift tracks? Talk about a dream job.
The Economic Impact of Swift - Swiftonomics, if you will
Like Barbie and Beyonce last year, Swift is still on a tear to boost the economy of the cities she’s in just by traveling there — ad inspiring others to make the trek, too.
The Barbie movie proved that by marketing to women (instead of just making Marvel flops like Madame Web that aren’t really targeted to women at all), the entertainment industry can make giant profits. Barbie fever went beyond the theater. Thanks to a plethora of product collabs, the phenomenon rippled through retail.
Similarly, Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour tour generated an estimated $4.5 billion for the American economy. According to NPR, that’s almost as much as the entire 2008 Olympics earned for Beijing. People were taking money out of their 401ks to pay for Beyonce tickets and the glittery, silver-hues outfits to rock at her shows. Cities even started calling her effect the “Beyonce Bump.”
Swift has the same effect. She’s not just proving her generosity on a micro-scale for the people close to her, she’s having actual, tangible effects on the economy. It's like she's leaving a trail of dollar bills in her wake, and cities are scrambling to catch them like it's a country-pop, capitalist version of musical chairs.
The US Travel Association called it the Taylor Swift Impact after she generated over $5 Billion in just the first 5 months of the Eras Tour. But how does this work? It’s not like Taylor is printing more money at those shows, but it almost is. Her tour dates are pretty much economic steroid shots for local businesses. Hotels are booked solid, restaurants are packed, and let's not even get started on the surge in friendship bracelet supplies.
“Swifties averaged $1,300 of spending in local economies on travel, hotel stays, food, as well as merchandise and costumes,” say the US Travel Association. “That amount of spending is on par with the Super Bowl, but this time it happened on 53 different nights in 20 different locations over the course of five months.” That’s not to say one word about her effect on the actual Super Bowl and the entire NFL season thanks to her ball-throwing boyfriend.
It's like she's created her own micro-economy, and everyone's invited to the party. And unlike some economic theories that rely on wealth trickling down (spoiler alert: it doesn't), Taylor's wealth is more like a t-shirt cannon or the confetti at her shows — showering everyone around.
Donations that truly do good
Taylor isn’t just stepping into cities and calling it a night. She’s also not just throwing pennies at problems - she's making significant contributions that are changing lives. And more importantly, she's using her platform to encourage her fans to do the same.
She kicked off her tour with quiet donations to food banks in Glendale, Ariz., and Las Vegas ahead of the Eras Tour. Once the tour was in full swing, she continued this practice. In Seattle, she donated to Food Lifeline, a local hunger relief organization. In Santa Clara, she showed some love to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. And let's not forget about her $100,000 donation to the Hawkins County School Nutrition Program in Tennessee.
She’s been making similar donations overseas. Taylor Swift donated enough money to cover the food bills for an entire year across 11 food banks and & community pantries in Liverpool. Swift also covered 10,800 meals for Cardiff Foodbank and many more banks across the UK and EU. Her impact is so profound that her numbers are doing more to combat issues like hunger than the government.
Can billionaires actually be good?
One thing about me, I’m always ready and willing — knife and fork in hand — to eat the rich. Because fundamentally, can any billionaire really be good? In our late-stage capitalist horror story, the answer is usually no. Look how many of them are supporting the Trump campaign just to get some tax breaks.
But here's the thing - Taylor Swift might just be the exception that proves the rule. She's not perfect, sure. She still flies private jets and probably has a carbon footprint bigger than Bigfoot. But unlike most of the others in her tax bracket, she's not flaunting her wealth like it's a personality trait.
Take a look around. We've got billionaires trying to colonize Mars instead of, I don't know, helping people on Earth. In this context, Taylor's approach is more like Mackenzie Scott’s — Bezos’s ex-wife. She's not trying to escape to another planet - she's trying to make this one better.
And look, I'm not saying we should stop critiquing billionaires or the system that creates them. But she's just setting the bar for what we should expect from all billionaires. She's showing us that our collective power as fans can translate into real-world change. That our love for catchy choruses and bridge drops can somehow, improbably, lead to food banks getting funded and crew members getting life-changing bonuses.
So sorry to my neighbors who hear me belting “Cruel Summer” and “right where you left me” at the top of my lungs (and range). Just know it’s for the greater good.
How This Health-Monitoring Litter Saved Us Tons In Vet Bills
I've always had cats but one cat really racked up the medical bills: Batman. When Batman was about 4 years old, he started peeing outside of his litter box.
We mentioned this to the vet at his annual checkup, and she said that our cat might have crystals in his urine, the equivalent of kidney stones for a cat. The vet told us that cats will often urinate outside of the litter box if they're sick because they've come to associate pain with the litter box.
We were lucky to avoid surgery but had to change his diet, and there were numerous trips to the vet to check on his progress. Had we known sooner, we could've saved him from weeks of pain and ended up with a lot fewer vet bills. Batman is fine now, but our experience still haunts me. Recently a friend told me about a new kitty litter that keeps tabs on your cat's health by changing color, so I had to give it a try.
PrettyLitteris a new type of litter that monitors your cat's well-being and can often detect issues before your cat shows symptoms of physical illness or pain. Unlike clay or clumping litter, PrettyLitter is made of a formula that changes colors if your cat is sick. Yellow means normal, red means blood in the urine, blue and green represent alkalinity or acidity, and so on. Not only that, but it absorbs and eliminates moisture, meaning less odor and less litter to use throughout the month. Because of this moisture absorption and evaporation, you don't need to scoop the pee, only the poo.
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We got a month's supply to see how our cats would do and if we liked it. When it arrived, I couldn't believe that such a small box could actually fit two bags of kitty litter to last us a month. Turns out, it did. One PrettyLitter bag is only 4 pounds and was about the size of their cat food bag, only lighter. I didn't have to lug it around the house, and there was no dust cloud, no pellets scattering about on the floor, just crystal-like grains.
The odor-controlling aspect is real -- I didn't realize how stinky our cats were until we changed litters. On top of that, PrettyLitter's non-clumping crystals are safer for cats, because it's created from naturally occurring minerals and clumping litters can be bad for cats prone to UTIs.
The best part is the delivery service. I hate going to the pet store and buying a 34 lb bag of clay litter and schlepping it home. PrettyLitter is a subscription service that includes free delivery. I let them know how many cats I have, and they send me a new bag of litter every month. No more wondering how long I can go before the cats go on strike because I can't make it to the store.
Being able to tell if there's anything wrong with our cats, has given me peace of mind. It won't stop our cats from having health issues, but it will help us identify issues sooner and prevent anything from getting too serious. For us, PrettyLitter was an obvious choice for our cats' well-being, and the delivery service makes my life so much easier!
UPDATE: The folks at PrettyLitter are offering a SPECIAL promotion to our readers! Follow this link and use promo code PRETTY2020 to get 20% off your first order of PrettyLitter today!
Everything You Need To Know About The Most Advanced Cat Litter On The Market
I never thought I'd be a cat person until I found Bubbles, or Bubs for short, the shivering wet kitten hiding under my car in a mall parking lot. On the way to drop him off at the nearest shelter, he climbed onto my shoulder and that was that.
With tears of joy in my eyes, I decided I'd give him the greatest life possible, but I almost had regrets when I had to start buying cat litter. The bags were so heavy, I was stepping on litter all over the house, and my whole laundry room stunk.
I worried that I was buying the wrong kind, and that's how I found PrettyLitter. With less smell, less mess, and an amazing, unique feature to keep your kitty healthy (keep reading!), it's helped me make the full transition from cat-hater to crazy cat lady. I have cat magnets on my fridge now.
PrettyLitter made being a catmom so much easier. Here's everything you need to know:
Okay, why do you love this cat litter?
It's a low-maintenance cat litter that addressed all my litter gripes - it's lightweight, non-clumping, and fights odor.
One bag lasts for an entire month - you just scoop the poop, and switch it out when the new bag arrives to your doorstep. No more lugging heavy bags into the car or across the house.
How is it so different?
It's made from naturally occurring ingredients that are safe for cats, and it looks like sparkly white sand! Most other brands are made from clay and can have harmful ingredients like bentonite, that help clump the urine, but may also harm your cat's digestive tract.
And, with this litter, there's no dust cloud! No more holding my breath as I dump in new litter.
How does it work?
PrettyLitter's white sandy litter is made of "highly absorbent microgels" that trap the urine and absorb moisture. This means no more clumping, no more litter scattered all over the floor, and no more scooping bricks of pee.
Why is it called PrettyLitter?
Here's the best part - it can change colors! The crystals in the litter react to your cat's urine and will change color if there's a potential health issue detected. Red, green, blue, and orange indicate different issues like UTIs, inflammation, kidney issues, and more. The litter can identify potential problems before visible symptoms or pain occur. As a first-time cat mom, I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have a warning system for my baby's health.
It's also beautiful on its own!
How does the subscription work?
Tell PrettyLitter how many cats you have, and they send you the proper amount every month. Then voilà, litter at your doorstep!
What does it cost?
For one cat, it's $22 for a month's worth, which is less than I was paying before AND this litter lasts much longer. Shipping is always free, and the more cats you have, the larger the discount you get per cat.
This litter helped me finally feel like a real cat owner. When I rescued Bubs, I knew nothing about cat issues, but having a litter that'll confirm any suspicions I have about his health is such a relief.
The litter box has always been an eye-sore in my laundry room, but this white, sandy litter is so pretty in my home. Bubs is also a huge fan of the new litter, but that's because it's in a loving home.
UPDATE: PrettyLitter is offering our readers a special OCTOBER promo! Follow this link and use promo code PRETTY2019 to get 20% off your first order of PrettyLitter today!
The Truth About Kibble and Why Our Dogs Deserve Better
I had no idea what I was doing when I got my first dog, Holly, but my husband had over 14 dogs growing up so when we started dating, I felt she was in good hands. He had always fed his dogs kibble, so Holly (and later, our second dog, Hugo) ate the same way. But something wasn't right. Hugo was gassy and Holly vomited often. We spent so much time and money at the vet trying to figure out what was wrong with them, but kept hearing about more frightening theories and serious tests we'd have to run! And recently, I saw a horrifying story on ABC 7 about how dogs have been poisoned by their kibble. In one record-breaking year, 8,000 pets died after being poisoned by their food, and more recently, 27 brands of dog food were pulled from warehouses for containing pentobarbital, a sedative used to euthanize pets. That was the final straw for my family and kibble.
Many people assume their dog food is safe because of the FDA and the AAFCO, but health and safety has been a problem for years, and the legislation isn't always followed. So, how can you keep your pup safe? Read the labels and buy human-grade dog food. That's where OIlie comes in. Ollie is a dog food company that is committed to being completely transparent by listing every ingredient in their food and working to educate dog owners. It was a bit on the pricey side compared with kibble, but my husband and I didn't need much convincing after we saw the news about poisons found in store-bought kibble, and how changing to human-grade food has been proven to help improve your dog's health.
The team at Ollie takes all factors into consideration to provide the right caloric intake and nutrient balance for each individual dog. And that personalized attention pays off. After a few weeks of feeding Ollie dog food to Holly and Hugo, we've seen the difference that healthier ingredients can make. You can't always trust what's on the label of your dog food. Almost all shelf-stable commercial pet foods contain processed grains, which are terrible for a dog's GI, as Holly and Hugo have experienced. Protein-rich foods are much better for dogs, resulting in more energy and less digestive issues. The kibble industry often classifies dog food as "feed," and the regulations behind pet food is nothing like the regulations for human food. Kibble companies don't even have to ensure the same safety standards that "human-grade" food promises. Just like humans do, dogs feel a difference when they eat fresh meals full of real ingredients (and when they aren't being poisoned!). But it can be very difficult to know where to start and how to meet your dog's nutritional requirements for essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, so Ollie takes care of all that.
Besides the peace of mind for me and the dogs loving the food, the main benefits Ollie boasts are health-related, and the food is even backed by canine nutritionists. An all-natural, unprocessed diet can help prevent and treat disease and can help with managing and maintaining your dog's weight. It can also improve their GI tract because when you put the right ingredients into your dog's system, they are able to digest their food better. Having an antioxidant-rich diet can even make your pup smarter, while the filler-free ingredients full of healthy fats can help improve your dog's skin and coat. These things can, in turn, increase your dog's lifespan (my favorite perk!)
The real proof that Ollie works is that Holly doesn't vomit anymore! And our Hugo's poo is also nowhere near as smelly. In fact, even when they use the wee-wee pad, the apartment doesn't stink anymore! It's amazing how much your dog's diet can better their lives, and yours too.
After feeding our dogs Ollie for over a month, Holly and Hugo are noticeably healthier, with shinier coats, less digestive issues and more energy, and we're a happier family as a result. My husband won't feed them kibble anymore, and even convinced my in-laws to start giving Ollie to their two dogs, Libby and Moxie. I can't believe the crap we were feeding to our beloved pups. Our days of kibble are over, and it's clear my dogs are pretty excited about it too. They haul butt to the kitchen when we put down Ollie's human-grade dog food. My whole family- dogs included- recommends Ollie without hesitation.
Update: The folks at Ollie are extending a special offer to our readers. Follow this link to get 50% off your first Ollie delivery!