My first post ever (shown on the second slide) was on January 11th, 2019. When I started this account, it was purely a hobby and passion project. I didn’t even know there was a world of “financial influencers” and definitely didn’t expect to turn it into a business! But I set out with a goal of growing and helping people learn about personal finance and investing for (early) retirement!

They say overnight success takes about a decade. I don’t think we’re there yet, but hopefully we’re tracking for three years in?! When I’m hosting my own show on Netflix and appearing on national talk shows and everyone asks “where did this guy even come from?!” they won’t see the decade of grinding, often creating crappy content, but striving to improve along the way. I definitely have a long way to go to get there!

While a lot has changed since three years ago, some things still haven’t! We still have never done any sort of paid or sponsored post, or any sort of pay-per-click affiliate deal. That’s usually the bread and butter that makes social media influencers all of their money. I don’t think those deals are BAD necessarily, but in the financial realm there’s an inherent conflict of interest. If I’m trying to help people with money, but then accepting money that may give me a misaligned incentive, it may end negatively impacting the quality of my information. It’s nice that I’m already financially independent so I can take hard line stances like that. Truth be told, if I was struggling to eat as I was with my first business, I’d probably welcome corporate sponsorships with open arms.

If you’re curious where that $868K came from, it’s from selling our course! We made it $79 at a time (sometimes $59 when we have a sale). I believe the course is an amazing resource that is changing lives, but I don’t like talking about it TOO much. I’d rather focus on creating awesome free content! And occasionally bragging about myself for internet likes to validate my self worth, like I currently am doing.

As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Don’t invade sovereign democratic nations and 2.) Don’t succumb to hateful propaganda.

-Jeremy

via Instagram