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 week’s newsletter, we’ll discuss:

• Current Events and News: How early should you get your kids investing?

• Financial Tips and Tricks: There’s a lot of financial advice on money, but people forget this one MAJOR thing.

• Entrepreneur’s Journey: Learn how Brian Feroldi went from making dumb investing mistakes to growing his returns and educating others on the stock market

• What’s Happening at Carry: An upcoming event for business owners and a new product feature that just made it WAY easier to move your existing plan to Carry

Current Events And News 🗞️ 

Start Investing Education Young

A new law passed in Illinois now protects child social media influencers by requiring a portion of the money they earn (or money earned in family vlogs they appear in) to be placed in a trust that will be available when they turn 18.

It’s designed to protect “kidfluencers” who are often used to increase video views and engagement.

This law is also a great way to help kid vloggers learn how to manage money.

Even if your kids aren’t social media stars, think about how you can start teaching them about long-term investing.

For example, you could help them start a lemonade stand and then teach them how to spend a percentage of their earnings and invest the rest of the money in a long-term investment account.

This is a great way to help them build a healthy relationship with money and understand the fundamentals of how compound interest works.

Financial Tips and Tricks 💰️ 

There's a lot of financial advice on how to make more money.

But it's important to remember that it's a tool to improve your life.

If you're not spending it, you probably aren't maximizing your quality of life.

Many founders live a lean lifestyle while growing their startups but then struggle to spend money later in life. Thomas Kopelman highlighted this in a recent Tweet.

If this resonates, consider taking Ramit Sethi's $100 challenge. You simply spend $100 (or more if you're a high earner) on something you LOVE in the next 48 hours.

What will you spend it on?

Entrepreneur’s Journey 💬 

Meet financial educator and author, Brian Feroldi!

I've been intensely interested in money, personal finance, and investing since 2004, when I began teaching myself about how finances work.

I had no idea what I was doing and made a lot of dumb investing mistakes, but as my experience and knowledge about the stock market grew, so did my returns.

In 2015, I switched careers and became a full-time writer for the Motley Fool. That switch dramatically improved my life.

I discovered that I love to help other people do better with their investments and have since written over 3,000 articles on stocks, investing, and personal finance.

In 2019, I started posting regularly on Twitter, and in 2022 I published my book Why Does The Stock Market Go Up?

In 2021, I started a financial education company with my friend Brian Stoffel. We teach people how to understand the stock market.

What financial setbacks or challenges have you faced, and how did you overcome them?

I was blessed with parents that were excellent financial role models. They always earned a good income and lived below their means. They fully paid for my college, which was a massive blessing. Starting life with zero debt to my name and great personal finance role models was a huge advantage.

However, that doesn't mean that it's always been smooth sailing. I rushed into buying a condo in 2006 to "stop wasting money on rent." I ended up selling it 18 months later and lost about $10,000 in total from buying it. At the time, that was a huge amount of money.

I also made a number of dumb investments. I bought penny stocks, used options, and high-dividend stocks with no fundamental understanding of how to use them. These bad investments cost me money but weren’t massive hurdles.

What lessons did you learn from those experiences?

There's no better financial teacher than learning a lesson the hard way! I've since learned that real estate is NOT a "no brainer" investment that so many people claim it to be. There's nothing wrong with renting, and in many cases, it can be a great deal.

As for investing in stocks, I've learned A TON of lessons by losing money. I detailed many of them in this thread, but here’s a quick overview:

1. You don't need leverage

2. Optimize for longevity, not upside

3. High conviction does not mean I'm correct

4. Stock prices & business results are 0% correlated in the short-term and 100% correlated in the long-term

5. Not having a system

6. Not understanding valuation

7. Panic selling and panic buying

8. I didn't study history

9. I focused on what I can't control

10. Not changing my mind

You can read the full thread for more details.

What’s your top “money rule” that anyone can follow?

My biggest rule is to master your personal finances BEFORE you start investing. Investing is hard, but it's 10x harder if your personal finances are a mess.

Here's the optimal order that I suggest people follow to get their financial life setup the right way:

If you want more details about this, I created a free 5-day course that walks you through this process.

You can follow Brian on Twitter, Youtube, and LinkedIn. He also wrote a book on everything you should have learned in school about investing.

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!

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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