Like they’re so shamelessly blatant about who their reader base is nowadays I just can’t
Here’s the article if you want to read it I can’t summon the energy 
https://web.archive.org/web/20240507210734/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/magazine/retire-early-saving.html
is listening to the scanner not a common pastime where you live?
It’s been a while since I’ve seen one (I don’t go in other people’s houses much anymore, and presumably most people don’t have a dedicated machine anymore), but it used to be super common to go in an older person’s house and see an emergency & police scanner in the corner. It was great for getting the latest, juiciest gossip and keeping track of what the pigs were up to, if you had the patience to listen long enough to decipher what they were saying. (As an unmedicated AuDHD kid, I did not.)
One of the most popular local Twitter accounts just did scanner posting all day for years, it was awesome.
They encrypted it in my city
Most police/emergency radio systems are trunked now, requiring more complex hardware to listen in. It makes using these apps a more compelling option, even though they’re charging money for(or inserting ads into) what is essentially public information.
More and more police agencies are encrypting their radios, so this will all be gone soon enough.