Grant Sabatier created Millennial Money in 2015 as a side hustle while he was working as a higher education consultant. Millennial Money was one of the first websites to write about side hustling and became a popular platform within the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early).
Since 2015, more than 30 million readers have visited Millennial Money to learn about how to save more money, start a side hustle, make more money, invest intelligently, fast-track financial independence, and reach early retirement.
The website is still owned by Grant Sabatier today after it was acquired by The Motley Fool in October 2020 and re-acquired by Grant through his holding company, MMG Media Group, in July 2022. Millennial Money is run by a team of experts with over 50 years of personal finance experience combined, who share Grant’s passion for equipping millennials to make smart money moves and unlock financial freedom.
Grant and Millennial Money have been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNBC, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, ABC Nightline, Money Magazine, and many others. Grant even got to hang out with Rachael Ray on her daytime ABC Show.
Below is a brief history of Millennial Money, which will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next year!
A Brief History of Millennial Money
2015
August 8, 2015: Grant gets the idea for Millennial Money while walking his dog. He buys the premium domain in a domain auction for $1,995, the most he’d ever spent for a domain up to that point.
September 1, 2015: Grant launches the first post titled “Money is Freedom” at 2:39 am after a long night writing and stressing out about putting his real name on a blog post. He shares the post with his parents and a few friends.
October 4, 2015: The first comment is left on a Millennial Money post:
2016
April 25, 2016: The Millennial Money website crashes for the first time because of too much traffic. Grant has to upgrade the hosting plan.
July 18, 2016: The site gets its first paid sponsorship of $1,000 for updating a review of pay-per-mile car insurance company Metromile. Grant creates a YouTube video for it as well and it starts ranking #1 for Metromile Review on Google almost immediately.
July 19, 2016: Grant publishes his first viral post “The Millennial Millionaire Strategy,” which takes off on social media and gets over 30,000 visitors in just a few days. Other popular posts from the time period include the “Millennial Money Portfolio and “7 Millennial Money Mistakes.”
November 19, 2016: A reputable blogger offers Grant $45,000 for Millennial Money. After burning out on writing almost 100 posts in his first year blogging, Grant gets re-energized to keep building the website after receiving his first acquisition offer.
December 1, 2016: Grant and his friend Matt launch the Millennial Money Minutes podcast. They cover personal finance topics in 5 minutes or less, and their high-value short-form podcast content quickly builds a following.
December 17, 2016: Grant publishes “A Return To Frugality,” a post where he confesses about his spending. It’s his second post to go viral. Over 50,000 people read the post over the next month. Millennial Money hits 5,000 newsletter subscribers.
2017
February 16, 2017: Kathleen Elkins writes a profile of Grant and Millennial Money for CNBC and the post goes viral around the world. It’s the first millennial success story shared on CNBC and becomes the blueprint they follow when they launch their “Make It” websites and Millennial Money video series. Since then, Grant has appeared on CNBC over 200 times.
March 29, 2017: The Washington Post writes a feature profile on Grant and Millennial Money. This leads to an invite for Grant to appear on NPR’s Here and Now with Robin Young, which results in hundreds of messages from book agents, TV agents, and other journalists worldwide. The floodgates open, and Grant’s life is never the same. Millennial Money continues to acquire high-value backlinks, and its domain authority grows.
May 18, 2017: Grant meets Vicki Robin, whose book Your Money or Your Life radically changed his life. Vicki then sends him the manuscript for the revised edition she’s been working on for his feedback. He provides feedback and his testimonial gets added to the back of the book. Vicki and Grant develop a strong friendship and remain collaborators to this day.
July 3, 2017: Grant receives a 7-figure offer for Millennial Money, but declines due to how much fun he is having and the money he’s making from the website.
December 30, 2017: Grant publishes a detailed recap and breakdown of the $401,681 he earned from Millennial Money in 2017. The post goes viral amongst bloggers and generates significant interest in blogging as a side hustle. This is the last blog income report Grant will share. Some of the most popular posts of 2017 include “Money Is Not the Goal, Time Is,” “Best SEO Tips for Bloggers,” and “How to Retire Early: My $50 a Day Early Retirement Strategy.”
2018-2019
July 11, 2018: Grant launches the Financial Freedom Podcast (now The Grant Sabatier Podcast) and has his dad as the first guest. Over the next few years, he’s able to bring on some incredible guests including Tony Robbins, James Clear, Kevin O’Leary, Vicki Robin, Tiffany Aliche, and Dan Ariely. The podcast increases the visibility and reputation of Millennial Money and his book.
February 5, 2019: Grant’s first book Financial Freedom: A Proven Path To All The Money You’ll Ever Need is released by Penguin Random House. It gets translated into 17 languages and becomes one of the bestselling personal finance books of the past decade. The calculators for the book also become popular.
February – April, 2019: Grant embarks on an 82-event book tour in his 1981 VW Westfalia camper van. He gets to meet Millennial Money readers from around the country.
2020-2024
October 1, 2020: Millennial Money gets acquired by The Motley Fool in one of their largest acquisitions ever. Read about it here.
November 10, 2020: Grant co-founds MMG Media Group with Matt and Meghan Bundrick. They launch a new website Bank Bonus and continue working together post Millennial Money acquisition.
July 1, 2022: Millennial Money gets re-acquired by Grant through his holding company MMG Media Group and he owns the website once again. You can read more about the re-acquisition here.
January 15, 2024: Grant hands in his manuscript for his second book with Penguin Random House. Stay tuned!
