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A few Young Money updates now that I'm back on Substack.

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Happy Thursday to those who celebrate! As noted last week, I have officially moved Young Money back to Substack, and I wanted to tell you about a few updates I’m making going forward:

First, no more ads. Young Money turns three this Saturday (time flies! here’s my first piece, for those curious), and I have been running advertisements on Young Money for two of those three years. Starting today, Young Money is an ad-free publication. I have a few reasons for making this switch:

• The “sponsored by” advertisements at the top of each article distract from the work itself, creating a worse reader experience.

• Negotiating with sponsors, communicating about creative, reporting ad performance, and following up on late invoice payments are time sucks that take away from writing.

• One poor sponsorship could negatively impact my reputation.

• And, most importantly, advertising has just been a necessary evil in the content world. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, but at some point, we all just agreed to deal with it. Not anymore.

In lieu of ads, I’m adding a $6 per month paid tier to Young Money. My rationale is that a paid subscription better aligns reader and writer incentives. Instead of hoping that X% of people reading an article will click the ad at the top, readers who enjoy Young Money the most can now support my newsletter directly, for the price of a Caffé Latte from Starbucks.

Why should you upgrade to a paid subscription? If you’re a long-time reader who has enjoyed my writing, it’s the best way to support Young Money directly! Additionally, moving forward, at least one article per month will be for paid subscribers only. I will also send monthly book reviews, as well as occasional audience Q&As, to paid subs as well. If you would like to upgrade to paid, please do so here:

Paid subscriptions will also help support an audio version of my newsletter. I’ve had several readers ask about an audio edition of Young Money over the last few years, and Substack has an excellent native podcast feature that syncs with Spotify and Apple podcasts. Beginning next week, I will be recording audio versions of my new articles, as well as my favorite archived pieces. I’ll include a link to the audio at the top of my newsletters going forward.

That’s all for today. As always, thank you for reading Young Money. If you’re like to further support my newsletter, consider upgrading to a paid subscription here:

- Jack

I appreciate reader feedback, so if you enjoyed today’s piece, let me know with a like or comment at the bottom of this page!

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Jack's Picks

• Tom Morgan wrote an excellent piece on generating a return on your reading time with regards to financial writing.

• Josh Wolfe is one of my favorite minds in venture capital, and I recently reread his Q4 2023 report for Lux Capital. It’s a great analysis of trends across the tech and VC space.

• Jared Dillian published a wonderful piece on the creative process.