Back in 2017, I discovered you could make money online, specifically freelancing.
That one discovery ended up generating me six figures at the age of 19.
Fast forward to now — I run a consulting agency that helps small businesses with advertising.
When I first started making money, I basically just let it sit in my bank account for a few years. I felt like, “Oh, I made it.” But as time went on, I quickly learned what inflation actually was…
It happened so fast. The money sitting in my savings account was slowly losing value right in front of me.
So I tried to educate myself — while also running a business as a beginner, going to school, and working a part-time job at the same time.
I know you might be thinking, Why did you work a job if you were already running a business?
Welp… I thought, “The more money coming in, the better.” Plus, I’m not too good to clock in, lol.
And the job paid for my classes in college — so there was that.
Anyway, back on track… yeah, my hard-earned money was devaluing the longer it sat.
Around that time, my boyfriend put me onto a YouTube channel called EYL. You’ve probably watched it yourself.
It was super informative and brought a lot of insight back then. They opened my eyes to the idea of making your money work for you.
It only took ONE video to push me to open my first Roth IRA and then my first brokerage account.
I started maxing out my Roth every year — and don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy. I started with just $100–$500 and slowly worked my way up. Because real talk, part of me was like, I could use this money to grow my business… or pay bills… or take a trip.
But I also told myself, “Okay… an iPhone costs more than a share of Apple. I can at least try.”
This was in 2022 — I bought 5 shares of Apple at $168.22.
At some point I just had to try. I told myself, What else am I going to do? Just let my money keep losing value?
So I went for it.
And honestly, that’s how it started. Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. Just a little reality check that changed everything.
Because no matter how much money you make, if you don’t let it grow — your returns shrink.