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:

• Taylor Swift’s Empire: Inside the biggest VMA star’s investment portfolio (and what she could be doing to make it grow).

• Financial Tips and Tricks: We overcomplicate a lot of financial investment advice. Keep it simple with these tips from Codie Sanchez.

• Solopreneurship Tips: Solopreneur Brian Dean built his blog Backlinko into a $15.1 million company. He recently shared his tips for building this side hustle into a multi-million dollar business with zero employees.

Taylor Swift’s Empire 💰️ 

Taylor Swift has won 23 VMAs in her career, placing her just behind Beyonce for the most overall VMA wins.

However, Swift’s catchy tunes have earned her much more than trophies.

A new report from Forbes estimates that her current net worth is around $740 million, which is a massive jump from her estimated net worth in 2022 of $570 million. 

As the daughter of a stockbroker and wealth management adviser, Swift has made her parents proud with an impressive investment portfolio. According to a Business Insider report, here’s where the money comes from and what she’s doing with it:

Partnerships: Swift has partnerships with Capital One, AT&T, Stella McCartney, Elizabeth Arden perfumes, American Express, Keds, Diet Coke, Walmart, and Apple. There aren’t any estimates on how much revenue she generates from these partnerships.

Ticket Sales: Swift’s Eras tour famously crashed Tickmaster’s website and some news sites estimate it will generate over $2 billion in revenue. Various estimates predict that Swift will earn anywhere from $300 million to $1.5 billion from the tour, but there isn’t any confirmed data.

Merchandise: In addition to ticket sales, her merchandise is also generating plenty of revenue. Sources estimate that the average price of Taylor Swift merchandise is about $80, which could add up to about $87 million.

Album Sales: Taylor Swift has sold approximately 114 million album units worldwide, though the revenue she earns from this varies as her re-released songs earn her significantly more money. One estimate from August predicts that she makes about $8.5 million per month from streaming royalties on her re-released albums.

Taylor Swift also has an impressive real estate portfolio of about $93 million, according to an estimate in August 2023. Her eight properties are situated in New York, Tennessee, California, and Rhode Island.

Despite her popularity, we’re surprised she hasn’t started her own product lines or companies. For example, billionaire Rihanna is still significantly richer than Swift, thanks to her makeup empire, Fenty.

Financial Tips and Tricks 💸 

We tend to overcomplicate finances.

Here’s a reminder from Codie Sanchez that financial freedom is pretty straightforward:

To further simplify your life, create rules and automate your finances as much as possible. This way, you don’t have to make financial decisions daily and your money will compound over time:

Finally, surround yourself with people who value your financial principles. In fact, truly wealthy people will respect you more for avoiding the status game and making smart, boring investment decisions.

Solopreneurship Tips 📚️ 

Brian Dean built his SEO blog, Backlinko, into a $15.1 million business that was recently acquired by SEMrush.

He recently made a video on how you can turn any side hustle into a multi-million dollar business without any employees, and here were his top tips:

1. Be willing to work on it for at least five years

2. Don’t rush to monetize

3. Focus on one channel at a time

4. Learn how to sell with email

5. Getting out of plateaus

6. Focus on compounding channels

You can listen to the full video of this solopreneur’s journey here:

What’s Happening at Ocho?

Here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks

See the full list of events here. ⏰

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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