What It's About
An ambitious man hustles to create an early-arrival retirement fund.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Notice that nowhere in the story do we focus on his money-saving strategies. Clearly, he had some—it’s hard to save 80% of your income. But when you consider that most of that income over time came from his side hustling earnings, maybe it’s not that hard. If he wasn’t doing all those projects, he would have been like most people in the sense that his salary was his total income.
So one way or another … if you want to achieve financial independence, you need to make more money.
Fun Fact
Grant’s first side hustle, creating a WordPress website, earned him $500. Mere months later, the exact same job earned him $50,000! It goes to show that the perception of the value of a service is often much greater than the actual value.
Notes from Chris
Episode 893
In 2010, Grant Sabatier was in his early twenties and unemployed with a net worth of $2.26. He had a college degree but was going nowhere fast. The fact that he couldn’t even afford a burrito left him feeling helpless and out of control. He knew something had to change, sooner rather than later. Disheartened by his minuscule bank balance, he set himself an audacious goal. To save enough money so that he could retire when he wanted to, and never have to worry about money again. But the first thing to do was find a job. He had to start earning money, at least some. He took a role at a digital marketing agency on a modest salary. At the same time, he started reading books about investing and personal finance. Over the coming months, he devoured so many books that he became somewhat of an armchair expert on all things money. That knowledge was the ‘ka ching’ he needed to set him on the right path. Grant realized that if he invested every spare dollar he could, then, over time, his nest egg would start producing a profit on its own from the interest generated. He ran the numbers and calculated, if he could save one million dollars—still no small feat—and invested it, he’d earn enough every year to cover all his expenses. It was ambitious but at least now he had a target, a financial bullseye to aim for! Soon after, the same math made him realize there was no way he could achieve this goal just by working a day job. Even if he got a raise, it would take him decades to save a million dollars: an unacceptable timeframe. So, Grant began looking for ways to make money outside of his day job. He was about to become a serial side hustler! He started by looking through Craigslist for opportunities. One stood out more than any others: a law firm willing to pay five hundred dollars for a new website. It seemed like a good bit of money and Grant was interested in learning WordPress—a popular website builder—anyway. He pitched for the job, over delivered on the project, and deposited the money in his savings. With pockets flush with cash, many millennials would splurge, buy a fancy car, or take an Instagram worthy trip. But not Grant, he stuck to his plan of saving and investing. He poured his excess funds into different investments. It is one of the best and easiest ways to make compounding work, where the interest your investments make get reinvested into buying more of fund. Eventually, instead of reinvesting the interest, you can withdraw the money to live off. When you think about it, it makes total cents... Since Grant was still working a day job, almost all his side hustle income was invested. In fact, he was so dedicated that 80% of everything he earned went straight into his millionaire grand plan! A year into the journey, he didn’t stop at websites. The thrill of making income on the side was addictive, so Grant looked for more ways to do it. He tried dozens of ideas, including reselling concert tickets, flipping domain names, and freelance writing. But soon it became increasingly clear that building websites was the most lucrative. The main thing Grant liked about it, was that it wasn’t a direct trade of money for time. But, now it was 2015. He’d achieved his goal of saving a million dollars and was earning enough after investing that money to cover all of his living expenses …. sooooo, now what? Well, it was time to teach what he knew. Grant started the Millennial Money blog. It wasn’t intended to be a money maker in the beginning. He was just interested in sharing what he’d learned about financial independence and investing. He wrote, and wrote, and wrote some more. Over time, the blog began to reach a critical mass. Grant was being featured in media outlets everywhere. He signed a book deal and the profits rolled in, almost by itself. Currently, his blog is earning around $10,000/month from advertising and affiliate commissions. For now, the Millenial Money blog is Grant’s main focus. It seems side hustlin’ is so much in his nature, that he’ll keep doing it even when he’s retired.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Millennial Money: Learn more about Grant's money saving process over on his blog!
- Vanguard: The investment platform that Grant used to bring in passive profits
SEE ALSO:
- Piggy Bank Disaster Turns Millennial Into Money Master: A British millennial keeps her savings in an old-fashioned piggy bank … until it’s stolen! Upon recovering from the loss, she invents an all new career
- JP Morgan Employee Starts “Money Therapy” for Millennials: She leaves her job to join a startup, then starts a business of her own—and then starts a side hustle to fund the business. Did you get all that? If not, just listen to hear how she earns $250/hour on the side
- Target Store Manager Makes $45,000 Per Month Writing a Blog: A college student starts a blog, grows it for 7 years while he works full-time at Target, and now makes more than half a million dollars a year
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Resources
CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE
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To infinity and beyond,
