30 Under 30: Jeremiah Brown is a Living Testimony to Achieving Financial Freedom Despite Any Setback
Achieving financial freedom should be everyone’s goal. No one should have to nor want to live in debt for the rest of their lives.
Any extra money that is earned should be used how one prefers to use it. Whether that be saving and/or marking that once in a lifetime trip off of your bucket list.
It should not be going into having to constantly pay bill collectors. Some may be reading this thinking, “Yeah, financial freedom…sounds nice. But that’ll never happen for me.”
However, no matter what setback is standing in your way, financial freedom is attainable. Financial expert, Jeremiah Brown is a living testimony of how to achieve financial freedom.
Jeremiah J. Brown is a tech entrepreneur, product strategist and best selling author of the book, Financial Freedom: My Only Hope. At eighteen, he became a real estate agent in his hometown of New York City.
Before graduating from Elon University with a degree in finance, he launched and sold his first company and mobile application.
In addition to being an entrepreneur, Brown owns various properties throughout the United States. He’s invested in the stock market and experienced firsthand its many ups and downs. Over time, Brown has learned to be an effective leader and he build his wealth from the bottom up.
Even before the age of thirty, he has already achieved success with multiple business ventures. He’s also been featured in various publications, including Ebony Magazine, Newsweek, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
Brown’s entrepreneurship has allowed him to become an investor; an investor in people and in the education of those who desire to be financially free. In fact, Brown has taught financial literacy to students in classrooms throughout Los Angeles where he currently resides.
Despite the obstacles, Brown has shown that it is possible to achieve financial freedom in spite of any setback.
I recently, had the opportunity to interview Mr. Broen. Check out the interview below:
What inspired you to get into finance and how long have you been in the field? Did you have any financial mentors growing up? I know many in our community did not have mentors to teach them and show them how money works, how to invest, etc.
The inspiration behind me to get into finance derived from my personal experiences. I never had any financial mentors growing up and rarely did my mother show me her financial situation. However, my intrinsic curiosity and my observation gave me the ability to see what others would miss.
At 17, I witnessed people in my family fall victim to the buy-hold-and pray strategy and loss half of their wealth during the ’08 crash. This led me to realize that there was a more intrinsic factor plaguing people from achieving financial success. There is too much of the same financial juice being poured by mainstream media and financial ‘experts’. The reality is, when it comes to advice about improving our finances, we are actually drowning in a sea of information.
However, all of the information seems to be backed by rhetoric. It makes me wonder if their advice is any good. If their advice to save money, pay down debt, buy, hold, and pray, or even to avoid debt is good advice, the advice that the masses adhere to, then why is 99 percent of the population forced to share 40 percent of the nation’s income while the 1 percent has 60 percent of it? So with this esoteric knowledge learned, I set out on a journey to shift the mindset and prove how leveraging our current debt based monetary system could in fact help you achieve financial freedom.
You are the author of, “Financial Freedom: My Only Hope”. Can you give us a synopsis of what the book is about? Is it a biography, self-help book or a mixture of the two?
Financial Freedom: My Only Hope is a financial ‘watershed’ moment. An awakening! This is a self-help book challenging conventional financial wisdom given to the masses, and is sure to change how we think about building wealth. Simply put, the years of buy, hold and pray are over! This book offers a new financial strategy for our new economy and is written in a way that is easy to read.
What other services does your business offer?
I offer both one-on-one consultations relating to money management, investing and entrepreneurship, along with honorarium for speaking opportunities. Thus far, I have partnered with many non-profit initiatives including Youth Business Alliance, NFTE and MKE Fellows initiative.
Who are some of your business inspirations?
Some of my biggest inspirations many people are unaware of. They include Reginal Lewis, Robert Smith, Carl Icahn, Mukesh Ambani, and Jay-Z (which I am sure is quite familiar).
What advice do you have for millennials and this next generation coming up (Generation Z) on how to understand money?
The one critical advice I’d give to millennials (as it relates to finance) is to invest for cash-flow; not capital appreciation. Contrary to what popular financial rhetoric would say, if there is an “asset” —whether oil, technology stocks, cryptocurrency or real estate, that doesn’t produce cash flow for you, then it is NOT . . . I repeat . . . it is NOT an asset!
If you are buying something hoping to sell it to a bigger fool than you, for more than what you purchased the asset for, it is called “speculation”. Can you make money speculating? Sure, you can! There are many people who make money at the casino every day. However, would you recommend gambling at the casino as a plausible financial strategy? If not, you should invest in things that have sound economics and return cash to you, while you wait for the asset to appreciate.
How can people follow you and keep in touch?
I welcome everyone find me on Instagram @iamjeremiahb, Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to ask me anything; I am an open book – literally and figuratively speaking.