last year I made $3.3 million and this is my 2023 tax report that I'm going to break down with you it's insane it's insane to even say that number out loud it feels surreal I'm like who are we talking about I want to go into detail on my income streams personal expenses business overhead some Tax Strategies and the overall reality of what it feels like to make $3.3 million so that you can do it too it still feels crazy to say this but when I think about my journey of my 9 to5 jobs building multiple businesses tons of business failures strategic Investments bad Investments that got me to this point makes me smile like I made it but I'm not making this video to brag I didn't have some special VIP Lane to get to this point and I would say for a long time it felt like everything that I got close to was taken from me Google job Microsoft job Facebook job mint exit I'm making this video to inspire you and show yall what is possible if you go down the path of Entrepreneurship because there is no better return than on the investment of yourself and Entrepreneurship you can make three .3 million or more let's break it down my first year I made nothing from appsumo even though we generated $300,000 in Revenue all of it went back into the business or hiring people and so forth I just wanted to make $3,000 a month so I could work on the beaches of Thailand that is all I wanted I could live I could eat and I could save a little bit to live my dream life doing work that I wanted to do I was able to stick with the business for 15 years to be able to get to this point where I took home $3.3 million now but I don't actually have $3.3 million in cash let's just say right here and we're going to talk about taxes we're going to talk about expenses uh and things of that nature but it's been it's been a long fun Journey could I ever imagine making this amount of money no but it's sure as hell sweet and you can do it too so let's do a revenue breakdown show me the money show me the money Jerry you guys are way too young to know about that movie show me the money so first off I made $1.7 million in my W2 salaried income from appsumo it's not as straightforward as that my base salary is 250,000 which is really good now only if we have profit at the end of the year do I get a distribution and so we pay everyone in the team we pay the leadership team we take everyone all expenses paid to Mexico we invest in ads we buy servers and then if there's stuff left me and my partner Chad get a distribution and so my distribution was around $1.5 million now next up I get a million dollar from appsumo to sponsor all the content you're seeing here on YouTube so that's another million now the other $600,000 that I made last year is a combination of real estate equities and some distributions from Investments I don't think it's as important in this video I think if you look at the numbers like the majority 80% is from entrepreneurship so we'll we'll focus a little bit more on that so that's where the $3.3 million comes from now the revenue streams have been interesting appsumo money is all over the place right so what does that mean in 2021 I made 97 ,000 so that's that's a big decrease from the almost $3 million that I got last year uh from appsumo so what happened Co happened a lot of bad decisions happened we hired a lot of people we spent a million dollars on Black Friday marketing which was a total waste and it was my idea I would say the maintainance is more of a thought about opportunity cost and what is the best use of your life for generating Revenue doing what you want to do I I've noticed with the real estate stuff you can get a 5% return a year on this real estate or maybe it appreciates 10% ABS suumo started with $50 and I was able to generate almost $3 million cash for myself and I'm not taking as much as I can and and I don't say that arrogantly I could definitely take more but I think I'm taking a pretty great amount uh and everybody else at the company is doing well whereas in real estate a lot of that stuff is capped all right expenses break down the number one expense you guys can all guess it it is Mr government a lady would never be so rude taxes number one that's 40% of around 3 million so that's $112 million just in taxes then I have half a million dollars in the team cost I told you appsumo sponsors into an LLC that all the money that takes to run this YouTube channel or my email list at noah.com or all the social content that's $500,000 a year so now you're like holy so that 3.3 is now down to about 1.5 then this house I live in a $2.5 million house this house alone without water without internet without the cleaner without the gardener without the pool person uh is $120,000 a year the costs add up you have insurance costs for when you get to different levels of wealth you have umbrella insurance so I have insurance that covers if someone trips in my house right there's there's more costs for that that go up I have a wealth adviser that's in the five figures a year I have a personal bookkeeper that's another five figureure expense a year I would say that there definitely a significant amount of expenses that just go up uh when you start making more money and and you want to have more conveniences and comfort uh it makes me feel sad and and really tough for a lot of people people out there but it also makes me feel optimistic that through entrepreneurship and through starting your own businesses there's no cap to your income there is unlimited income for entrepreneurship whereas in a salary job it it can be limited taxes uh so I put out a book maybe we'll make it free for this video how do I approach tax optimization my tax liability in 2022 was 300,000 my tax in 2021 was 1.1 million I think government's inefficient so I'm not as excited to give them my money I'd give it to private businesses when I had more free time I was doing a lot of tax optimization so conservation easements it's when you buy land and then you say you're not going to build on it and the government gives you a tax credit and then I did Art donation so you buy art you donate it somewhere you get another tax credit those are little gray zones uh there's new ones that I've considered which is like uh box options Boxx so if you buy t- bills you get taxed at ordinary income but if you buy box spread you can get taxed at a lower income rate rate other ones I've considered is Energy Credit buying so you can buy energy credits today yes look that up you can buy them for 80 but you get $100 worth of tax credit so you get a 20% uh discount on your taxes now I just don't have time for all that stuff you know I'm married I'm trying to do be a good father good be a good husband I'm trying to make sure I have time to do this content run app suumo and the amount of money I'm saving to me doesn't seem worth it but there's tax strategists out there I think in my personal life and this is a f fascinating point in my personal life I don't really have budgets which is is luxury I don't have a lot of modeling or how am I trying to retire and these certain things cuz I just have so much money honestly and I don't mean that bragging but you can get to that point too whereas in our business at appsumo we have models and budgets and a whole team dedicated to every single penny and I like the fact that I can not have to worry about that or have to figure out how to optimize my taxes with you know more questionable activities I don't know I guess I'm rich I never thought I'm I'm a rich person or not a rich person I I think what I I try to think about is like when I'm at the restaurant just treating everyone equ and I will say there are times candidly where I might go on YouTube and I look and they're like here's what top 1% make and I go there and it makes me feel worthy when I feel like wow I'm making in the in the top 1% cuz I think I've felt So Unworthy in this whole journey for so long like oh I don't think I'll be able to do it how do I finally make money I'm going to ruin it all and so it is it is a form of of comfort I think what I'm thinking about is like how much do I really need and what do I really want to spend my days doing and I think this is kind of the counterintuitive thing about entrepreneurship whereas if you actually do the thing you really like doing and you you keep getting better over a long period of time you'll actually end up making the most amount of money so I'm really trying to dial back in less how do I get more views here how do I get more Revenue there just like what do I think is good for me what do I think is good for our customers good for the audience good for our team and we enjoy and I think that will benefit uh a lot of people down a longer period of time the way that I thought about my finances and you know personal spending is that I want to basically have like enough cash I want to have enough cash to live forever and so I did analysis with uh with my wealth managers and I basically never have to make another dollar and I can spend 20,000 a month until I'm 90 and that that actually gave me that was really relieving think about for yourself like what is your spending habits and then if you mapped it out to 90 you know I think there's a great book die with zero by Bill Perkins and he's talking about like don't spend it at 90 when you can't really enjoy it as much as you can enjoy it today and so really finding that right balance where can you save yourself time can you pay for convenience can you enjoy the experience now whereas when you're 65 retired finally being able to tap into your 401k you really physically can't do stuff like my back is hurting I'm 42 you know like I have to go to physical therapy and all and it's like oh man this is what they talk about and when you're when you are younger you don't give a about it when you are older you're like oh I should have spent it then so thinking about our my priorities in my personal spending getting out of the tax stuff it's easy for me to gift give I think that was my dad's love language and uh I love like spoiling my wife I'm excited to get my daughter the nicest things possible I'm happy to treat my brother to things take my I took my parents on a nice vacation last year I think I'm still value conscious right I'm still like oh that those glasses are 10 bucks or let me try to find a coupon just more now I'm more aware of how much time I'm spending looking for that discount like heck think about it I got most of my money from a deal website check it out abs.com I love saving money I I love being value driven uh it doesn't mean I want to just go waste it what areas am I willing to splurge I probably Splurge more on hiring people right cuz I think I run a company we have 100 people there and so I'm kind of used to hiring and and having people help me so like an EA Two Chiefs of Staff I'm trying to get a PA you know just having more assistance I I'm willing to spend because it saves me time and and peace of mind I I think food I'm not really splurging but I don't really look at the menus as much technology like I just buy the latest laptop I don't even think I literally if there's a new Macbook Air it's instab maxed out it's like $3,000 and I know that could be a lot for you but that's literally the cheapest investment in something that can generate Millions if not billions I do fly mostly first class but I use points so I I feel like when people Flex fly first class like using points yeah spend this $8,000 on a ticket and you'll you'll say think differently cuz it is it is a lot of cash to fly first class I splurge sporadically on Rolexes to commemorate moments like when my buddy sold his company when my buddy got his house when I got my wife you know it's just moments to kind of recognize that that makes me feel special when I got my pilot's license when I came back to CEO of appsumo and you know you'll see them in some of the videos and it's just a nice like you know wrist tattoo there's also things I just don't care about like I don't have a Ferrari I could buy Ferraris I could buy some of that stuff I haven't really cared I think one of the things about wealth is shame and feeling like we have to show off which most people who are showing it don't have it or we need to show it to others versus showing it to ourselves I'm trying to think of when I finally got like a Million Dollar Payday at the end of the year it's definitely underwhelming from an external success blah blah blah it's super cool but it just goes to the bank it's like I worked my ass off I'm really proud of my stuff and then like the numbers transferred to here and I'm like that's okay so I don't think that that's as magical as I think people imagine I think the magical part is finding the work that you love to do and it turns out maybe you can get paid to do that and I think a lot of people don't realize that you know no amount of money is going to make you feel good about yourself I really wish it would I'll tell you making a lot of money definitely makes it easier to like yourself more but it just doesn't you know you're not going to feel worthy until you feel worthy about yourself and think about the things you do that make you feel worthy maybe it's going for a walk maybe it's reading maybe it's being a good person maybe it's falling through and making something you said you would do maybe it's being on time uh those are things that make me feel worthy maybe that's a lot of what the money is about is just feeling proud of you are and that is the scorecard externally but finding your internal scorecard of this money I think everyone has a money relationship which is really fascinating it's not that one is better or worse and and evolves over time evolves how much you have it evolves what's important to you uh evolves how where you came from I think it's sad sometimes how much we make money this all everything and maybe yes I have it a little bit of it or I have a lot I don't know it's all relative but it just seems sad to like separate relationships or separate friendships or separate how you want to be living your life and I would say the wisest thing is find the life you want to live and find money to be able to support that make that your living I think when I look around my house or I look around my life you know detached from the success externally detached from having to achieve I feel really grateful I know that I was playing pinball earlier today but I was always earning and making money but I never enjoyed it I was just like you know and I think a lot of these videos are like how I got rich in 40 days how I have this giant mansion ass thing but it's like how do people enjoy it normally like a normal real human I wish everyone gets out there and is living the life they want making the amount they want seeing how money supports you not you just working for the money the money needs to work for you I think being entrepreneur has been an awesome part of making money because I think you look at money a lot as return on investment like when you're entrepreneur you're like how much does it cost what does it make me and that is sometimes harder when you're in your personal life cuz you're like okay what's this vegetable and how much is it going to benefit my health really stick with it you know like if you look at the appsumo journey I made almost Z for myself first year I think it's 50 to 70 the second year then it was like 100 for the next 3 to 4ish years and then only finally in like the last you know half of appsumo the past like six seven years have I been making like 1 million 2 million 3 million and so it's it's sticking with it I feel comfortable experimenting sharing my income and if negative things and security risk increase then I will definitely pull back from doing something like this the the benefit to me is that I think it's inspiring that people there's going to be one person out there watching thinking hey I can do it too maybe it's going to be in software like Noah did with appsumo maybe it's going to be in car washes maybe it's going to be a food delivery business but huh that seems like a pretty cool life and like there's and it is you know buying whatever pinball machines you want or being able to eat wherever you want or travel whenever you want and and having those options is is priceless and so being able to share how I was able to get here be able to share what it looks like it's been amazing to get to to the point I'm at and I I hope for you there's going to be one of you out there that that'll choose to take action today uh to be able to get there and maybe beyond all right y'all love you smooches [Music]
