Hey there! Welcome to the Independent Money newsletter 👋 We’ll be exploring the latest financial news and discussing how it affects entrepreneurs like you. Plus, we'll share some awesome wealth creation insights from successful entrepreneurs that you won't find anywhere else.

Let’s dive in! 🏊‍♂️

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In this newsletter, we’ll discuss:

• Financial Tips and Tricks: Alex Lieberman confessed that he was not financially literate after selling Morning Brew. Here’s what he did to make himself more financially literate.

• An Entrepreneur’s Journey: Learn how Meagan Loyst is helping Gen Zers become successful VCs, and the money rule she lives by.

• Financial Security Tip: Steph Smith talks about when she finally felt financially secure… and it wasn’t a dollar amount.

Financial Tips and Tricks

Alex Lieberman, the co-founder of Morning Brew, said that the sale of the business helped him achieve financial freedom, but not financial literacy.

So here are three things he did to improve his financial literacy:

1. Turn on notifications so that you’re notified each time your credit card is charged. This creates awareness around the expense side of your income statement.

2. Build an income statement and place a recurring monthly invite to update the sheet.

3. Build a balance sheet that provides a simply, but accurate picture of how your money is distributed across everything from cash and crypto, to public equities, real estate, and angel investing.

Some of the comments in the original Tweet provide templates you can use to track this information.

You can also listen to the complete episode on Morning Brew.

An Entrepreneur’s Journey: Meagan Loyst

Meagan Loyst is the Founder/CEO of Gen Z VCs, the largest community of next generation investors and innovators with 26,000+ members from 80 countries. She was a VC for the past three years at funds like General Atlantic ($80BN AUM) and Lerer Hippeau ($1.5BN). Today, she’s focused on empowering Gen Z VCs to elevate the next generation of investors.

She’s created plenty of resources to make the VC ecosystem more accessible, including:

• A Job Board that has facilitated 10,000+ job applications into VC and Tech

• A Marketplace that saved Gen Z Founders $8M+ on their startup stack

• A VC 101 Class that educated 1,300+ gen zers on the fundamentals of VC

• Mentorship for 300+ students and recent grads from 100+ universities in two years

She’s also a prolific content creator with 80K+ followers across Twitter and LinkedIn (2x Top Voice).

What does your retirement plan look like and do you have any long-term financial goals for yourself?

I contribute to my 401K yearly, and long-term, I'd love to be able to buy a house. That's at the top of my list!

I also want to be smart about things like setting up a college fund for my (future) kids early given how crazy the cost of education has become.

Have you noticed a trend or difference in how Gen Z is approaching personal finance?

Word of mouth from friends (or content creators they follow and trust!) seems to be one of the most powerful avenues to introduce people to the power of personal finance and why you should start.

Through Gen Z VCs, I've also seen the rise of angel investing into companies becoming more popular which historically hasn't been as accessible to young people. Now with syndicates and changes to accreditation, things are changing.

I've also found young people don't always solely invest for the purpose of returns. Many Gen Zers invest because of FOMO or clout (Wall Street Bets), experience (breaking into VC with an angel track record), or impact/culture (invest in companies tackling problems you care about and/or that you like and use).

What’s one “money rule” you live by?

I'm a big believer in spending on experiences and the things that bring you joy. It's important to save and prepare for the future, but also to live in the present. So if you find yourself dropping more than you expected on tickets for The Eras Tour (or whatever it is that makes you happy), don't sweat it.

Where can our readers follow you to learn more?

LinkedIn is where I post most frequently! You can also subscribe to my newsletter where I break down trends, industries, and tech with a Gen Z lens.

My most recent one on leveraging first and zero-party data features case studies on Spotify, Google, Pinterest, FamousBirthdays, Parade, and a bunch of other cool companies in the consumer space.

Financial Security Tip

A lot of entrepreneurs don’t feel financially stable and have irrational fears around spending money. Steph Smith shared an interesting insight that hit home for many of her followers and entrepreneurs:

So how can you discover that one thing you can deliver that you know people want?

Start a side hustle! And then open a solo 401k to invest it (we might know one you can use 😉). *see disclaimers in footer

If you’re already an entrepreneur, know that the skills you’ve gained make you much more competitive in the talent market than a W2 employee that isn’t actively building their skillset despite having the traditional “stable” job.

So even if your current venture doesn’t work out, nobody can take away your current skills… so that should give you confidence.

What’s Happening at Carry?

Here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks

See the full list of events here. ⏰

Want More?

Still can’t get enough? Well, we’ve got you covered!

Think your friends might like it? Be sure to share it with them! 📩

If you want more resources on building wealth as an solopreneur/entrepreneur, check these out:

• The Solo 401k handbook 

• What is a Solo 401k?

• How to Open a Solo 401k

• Common Solo 401k FAQs

• Solo 401k Contribution Calculator