Is the American dream dead?
I’m taking a break from writing about tariffs and trade wars. There is not much more to say other than trade wars are not easy to win, which is why the S&P 500 wiped out $4 Trillion in it’s second-worst May since the ’60s. I’d estimate that half of my clients somewhat agree in principle of why we are fighting these trade wars, and half are counting the days until the next election day. What we all have in common though, is the hope that the president forgets his password to his twitter account for the next few weeks. The negative news cycle has been unrelenting, but there are some very good things still happening.
One of these remarkable stories comes from one of my clients that recently left his job. He was tired of his long commute, working long hours, and he wanted to spend more time with his newborn baby and wife. He moved halfway across the country and settled in a small town in MA to plan his next move. He spent the next few months researching different businesses so that he could figure out a way to restart his career. He settled on a franchise opportunity. This franchise is not a name that you would recognize. He hit the ground running and in the last few months his revenue is now supporting his family.
The strong U.S. economy is opening up many success stories just like this. Technology has changed the economy and transformed society. Peter Lynch who achieved annualized returns of 29.2% over a 13-year period from 1977 through 1990 as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund, was able to spot trends well before those on Wall Street.
I always watch to see how my children are spending their time. There are some unbelievable individual success stories from people leveraging the YouTube platform. The top 10 YouTube stars make over $14 million a year. The number one earner is on Ryan ToysReview. He’s a 7-year-old boy named Ryan who reviews toys for other kids. Forbes had him earning $22 million last year. My son follows someone called Pewdipie and he has 95 million followers. Pewdiepie lost in a race to 100 million followers verse someone called T-Series, but they are both winners. Pewdiepie makes foolish videos and pulls in $1 million dollars per month.
In my opinion, America is great when a 7 year old boy can make $22mm shooting videos of toys. It’s even better when one of my clients can go from earning $0 to replenishing his cash flow in just a few short months. I hope that this 7 year old boy can break $30mm next year and Pewdiepie can hit $20mm. The American dream is alive and well. I just hope that it doesn’t get destroyed by any Democrat or Republican sitting in the White House. If it does, you might find me one night selling gold on an infomercial at 2:00am. 🙂
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