I Thought a Financial Advisor Would Give Me a Roadmap…
I thought a financial advisor would give me a roadmap.
I was wrong.
It was a few years after the 2008 crash…
I didn’t come from money but I was curious about the stock market and eager to pave a new path for my family.
I sat across from them expecting real wealth building guidance.
Instead I was told to just put my money in a CD and play it safe.
No mention of stocks. No curiosity about my goals.
That was the moment I realized: No one was going to teach me how to build wealth.
I’d have to figure it out myself.
Later, I found out most financial advisors don’t even work seriously with clients unless they have hundreds of thousands to invest.
After realizing traditional financial advisors weren’t built for people in my financial position, I knew I had two choices:
I could accept that “building wealth” wasn’t for me or I could figure it out myself.
I chose the second.
At first, I just kept paying attention wherever I could:
I’d watch CNBC.
I got a Wall Street Journal subscription.
I even went to business school thinking it would teach me how to actually invest
Eventually, I opened my first brokerage account at E-Trade.
Back then, you had to pay a $7 commission for every time you bought or sold a stock.
And like a lot of new investors, I learned by doing… and sometimes, by messing up.
One of my first moves? Penny stocks.
Specifically, weed stocks around 2014, when legalization was starting to gain traction.
My logic was that “This is a growing trend. These companies should take off.”
I bought into a few stocks without much real research. Just riding the hype of industry trends I noticed, reading scattered financial articles, and watching the prices of similar stocks skyrocket... then crash just as fast.
Turns out, the penny stocks I bought were mostly pump-and-dump games.
It opened my eyes fast:
Not everything you read from people with “CFA or CPA” letters after their name or fancy job titles is trustworthy.
Not every opportunity is as good as it sounds.
And most importantly, you need to know what you’re investing in. Not just hope it works out.
At that point, I started taking learning seriously.
I found books like One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch and The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.
The Intelligent Investor was a brutal read early on…
Half the words went over my head.
But I stuck with it. Researching terms I didn’t understand, taking notes, rereading chapters until I could take something meaningful away.
And honestly that grind changed me.
I didn’t memorize every “technical” concept in the book.
But I walked away with the mindset that wealth isn’t built from guessing and hoping.
It’s built from understanding, ownership, and thinking long-term.
That mindset kept me moving even through the early doubts:
When the market was pumping, I doubted if I was playing it too safe.
When the market was crashing, I doubted if I was playing it too risky.
But the more I understood the assets I was buying and how they fit my own investing style and goals, the less reactive I felt
Real financial control started when I saved up my first emergency fund after college.
Just knowing I had 3 months of living expenses saved changed everything.
I stopped feeling desperate for every paycheck and I could take more risk on building my own business.
I put distance between myself and other people controlling me financially.
That was the first real taste of financial breathing room.
And once I felt it, I wanted more.
Looking back now, it would’ve been easy to quit early and never start my financial growth journey.
To tell myself the system wasn’t built for me.
To believe investing was only for people already rich or connected.
But I didn’t quit.
I kept learning and kept refining my approach.
And that choppy journey is exactly what led me to building The Market Hustle.
To help show that wealth isn’t just for the privileged and 1%...
It’s for anyone willing to invest 20 hours of their time to learn.
The good news is you don’t need to know everything to do well in the stock market.
Warren Buffett said it best: “You don't have to be an expert on every company or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence.”
Most things in the finance world are just noise.
One day, everyone’s celebrating the stock market.
The next day, they’re predicting the next great depression.
If you follow the headlines, you’ll always feel like you’re one step from disaster or one step from getting rich.
The real game is tuning out the noise and sticking to a plan.
That’s why what you really need is a solid foundation.
One of the biggest problems with investing advice today is that it forces you to pick a side.
You’re either told to play it safe forever by parking your money in places with very little downside.
Or you’re told to go all-in on high-risk plays… Be a day trader, swing for the fences, or gamble your future chasing quick wins.
No one talks about the real middle path.
The path that actually builds long-term wealth without losing your mind or enjoyment for life along the way.
That’s why I built The Market Hustle.
I’m a firm believer in building a solid foundation first because I saw what it did for me and the options it opened up.
When I built up my emergency fund, it gave me a peace of mind that’s hard to put into words.
It gave me space to think clearly and take action strategically.
And when I built an index fund foundation in my portfolio, it unlocked a whole new level of freedom.
I could still take risks (invest in individual companies, start a business, test new investing strategies) but without gambling my future to do it.
I knew my financial core was solid. My long-term wealth was already growing in the background.
Starting The Market Hustle itself was a risk.
A lot of people told me it would never work…
“People don’t want to learn about money.”
“You should just stick to money management content like Dave Ramsey.”
“No one wants to think on social media, they want cat videos.”
But I knew better because I was one of those people who wanted to learn and couldn’t find clear advice anywhere.
And so were thousands of others I’ve helped get started in the markets.
That’s who The Market Hustle is built for.
If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this:
Keep it simple.
Start with index funds (which hold hundreds of even thousands of the best stocks).
Make investing a habit and then learn how market cycles actually work so you don’t get lost being pulled in different directions by the noise.
And when you’re ready, you’ll know how to take bigger risks.
Whether it’s picking individual stocks, buying real estate, starting your own business… without gambling everything you’ve built.
Because you’ll be moving from strategy and strength, not fear and desperation.
The Market Hustle is here to help you build that foundation and find your own rhythm.
And it’s just getting started.
If you’re feeling lost and ready to start building your own financial foundation, Money Mastery was built for you. It’s the step-by-step system I wish I had when I was first starting out. Check it out.
