I'm Quitting. My Last Video.

You know, I originally had something planned out for this video, but then I realized it. I may as well just speak from the heart. So, I think I owe it to everybody to explain what's going on and why I'm going to be leaving YouTube.

It sucks because, you know, I've seen other creators make videos like this, and I thought, first of all, it would never happen to me. And even if it did, I would handle it differently. But here I am, having to explain myself.

As some of you know, I've been making videos here on the channel since December of 2016. Honestly, when I started making videos, I never expected anyone to actually watch me. I just had a fun time talking about the topics that I was interested in. Before I knew it, the channel hit 100,000 subscribers. I was spending 8 hours a day making YouTube videos on top of my normal job.

Within a few years, I transitioned into doing this full-time because it became this opportunity that I couldn't possibly turn down. Although, really in hindsight, now I should have probably kept it a hobby because going full-time was probably one of my biggest mistakes.

But anyway, as far as why I'm leaving YouTube, the honest answer is I never expected it to go on for this long. I just thought I'd post a few videos about credit cards, passive income, buying a duplex, getting a $78 Tesla. People would get bored of me just continually buying into the S&P 500. They would move on, and then I would have the freedom to pursue other passion projects.

But as the channel grew, I just couldn't stop. I wanted so deeply to provide meaningful content to anybody who wanted it. It made me feel so good to have a positive impact. So, I started my second channel, The Graham Stefan Show, as a way to shift away from providing three really detailed videos a week into providing something that was just a little bit more sustainable.

But when that channel started to grow even faster than this one, I recognized that maybe I had this really unique opportunity, and I would have been an idiot to have given it up. So, I didn't. I just kept going. At that point, I was posting every single day between two channels, doing almost all of the work myself.

When I was in my 20s, I had the time for that. I had the energy to do that. But once I hit 30, I just felt like I wanted to take things easy. So, as a way to slowly cut back on all of the content, I started a third channel, The Iced Coffee Hour, with my then assistant Jack.

I just thought that doing that would be really simple. I could do this once a week without a lot of work and without a lot of time, and everything would be fine. But after having Janette McCurdy on, I came to the realization of "I have this unique opportunity in front of me right now," and I would be stupid to give that away just because I'm tired of keeping up with the YouTube algorithm.

So, I just kept going, and I kept pushing and pushing myself because I had worked so hard already to build this up, to be able to get incredible sponsors like Front. For the last 5 years, my schedule has made it extremely difficult to keep track of and manage my investments, of which Front is there to help with.

With Front, you can see all of your assets in one place, to avoid opening and closing multiple apps to keep track of your investments. By connecting all of your brokerage accounts and crypto wallets, Front will show you a combined portfolio of everything—all in one app—so you know exactly what to watch out for. Plus, when you subscribe to Front premium, you'll also get access to a full portfolio analysis, including healthy and unhealthy assets, portfolio optimization, and a full ESG score breakdown.

Although, after years of making videos, it just got to a point where if I'm talking about investing, not much changes day-to-day. So I find myself having to repeat the same topics over and over, and it's just getting to be too much.

See, in the very beginning, when I first started posting videos, everything was new. No one else was talking about the best bank accounts or sharing exactly how much money they made from which sources, so it all just felt like this new exciting thing. But now, you have all of these great channels that provide phenomenal content, and it's really difficult for me to keep up.

On top of that, most people don't know that the YouTube algorithm works by recommending the newest content first. So, all of my new subscribers never go back to watch my old videos if they want to learn about something new. That means I have to constantly be improving and redoing my old content to make it relevant for those who haven't seen it yet.

Then, I have to find a way to reposition that content so it's not too repetitive for those who have been around since the beginning. To be honest, the concepts of investing don't change; it's the same six steps over and over again. So, I get it. I wish I could be someone who buys individual stocks every week or trades the market because then at least I'd have something new to talk about.

But statistically, it's nearly impossible to beat the index, so I'm not even going to try it. And that's why I just keep buying into the S&P 500 and building up a sizable portion of cash for when the time is right to do something else.

Although, before I tell you exactly what I'm about to do with that money, as a business owner, I've learned that it's really important to spot a good deal. That's why I'm excited to tell you about today's sponsor, NorthOne. They're business banking done entirely from your phone. You could apply for an account in as little as 3 minutes, and from there, you will never have to step foot in a bank ever again.

With NorthOne, you could easily move money and make payments, load money into your account from nationwide locations, budget on autopilot with tools that help you with business expenses, taxes, payroll, and rent. And tie everything together with QuickBooks and FreshBooks to streamline your accounting. Plus, they want to help kickstart your business by giving away $500 to 10 business owners and $5,000 to one business owner just for clicking the link down below in the description, applying for a NorthOne account.

And once it's approved, fund your account to enter. That's it! So click the link in the description to apply for NorthOne today. I apologize for all the sponsors, by the way. I usually don't like to put too many ads in my videos, but since this is my last video, I am contractually obligated to post them all, so just bear with me on this one.

But after taking an entire month off from posting on my vlog channel, I just realized how nice it was not to have to think about filming or having to use the same sad face in every thumbnail, or having to break the news to someone that they actually got the second comment on my video and not the first one, even though they thought it was the first one.

It just gotten to a point where for 5 years and over a thousand videos combined throughout four channels, I've just said everything that I need to say, and it's time to move on to something else that doesn't involve a doomsday headline that I could disprove while reassuring everyone that it's okay to keep buying.

That's why, throughout the last two years, I've been saving up money to get back into real estate. I'm in the process of purchasing a Starbucks franchise, and I really want the new Maserati MC20 to make me feel better. It's really relieving to feel like I could finally talk about flexing and splurging on things because throughout my entire career on YouTube, I've just painted myself as the guy who saves all of his money, who lives really frugally, who does anything to save money.

Once I turned 30, it was like, "What am I doing at all?" For like, I saw this gold Rolex for sale, and I thought that it might be a good thing to buy to be able to show people that I could afford a Rolex without actually having to tell them that I could afford a Rolex.

Maybe Dave Ramsey is right about how easy it is to get carried away with credit card spending. But the one thing that's helped me take my mind off things when everything is getting difficult is all thanks to our sponsor, Tesla.

With Tesla, their stock price isn't the only thing going to the moon because they have a literal Tesla floating in space. How many car companies could say that they've done that? Not to mention, you could enjoy completely free games right from your center console, spook your friends with the scary, quick 0 to 60 acceleration, and one of the best ways to save the environment is to drive a car that's worth at least $50,000.

So, if you want to help support the channel, feel free to buy a Tesla down below in the description using my referral link. So, order as soon as possible to lock in the lowest pricing, which starts as little as $44,900, which is also the same price as our other sponsor, Bitcoin.

I was thrilled when Craig Wright—I mean, Satoshi Nakamoto—reached out to me on Instagram asking to sponsor one of my videos with the number one digital asset of our generation, as made famous by the Silk Road and El Salvador. With Bitcoin, you could be a part of the biggest Millennial fad since the Tamagotchi.

And for a limited time, you—D chill out, dude, it's way too many sponsors.

It's my last video!

Jack, no, it's not! It's April Fools, dude. It is April Fools!

So, this is not my last video, but if I got you, how about this? Just hit the like button and subscribe for the YouTube algorithm, and, uh, I guess I'll post another video in a few days. Enjoy and until next time!