So in Russia they have a saying that nobody talks about how they make their first million dollars. I'm going to tell you how I made my first million dollars, and I'm going to show you how I made my first million dollars, both gross and net profit. And there's a big difference between these two. You'll hear a lot of marketers talk about how much money they made gross, but that doesn't mean they took it home at the end of the day. And I'm also going to go over four strategies for you to keep as much of that income as possible. Now note that I'm not a financial advisor, I'm just a [Music].
The first million dollars I made gross was between 2013 and 2014. I earned over 1.3 million dollars two years after I had started my business. I made my first million dollars in that time period. I made roughly 50 net profit. Still not a millionaire yet at this point, but well on the way to becoming one. Now the way I made this money was two ways. I was running a little ad agency, doing work for clients and earning about a thousand bucks per month per client that I was managing their Google and Facebook ads for. I was also doing affiliate marketing which actually made me the majority of my money during this time, for a gold investment company in the financial services niche. Again, people were doing moving parts of their retirement over to gold, and I would make a percentage of whatever they decided to move over.
Now my first million dollars net was made the following year, in 2015. I earned 2.7 million dollars gross. Gross means that's the total amount of money that I made, it's not the money I kept in my pocket. That year, I also put in 755,000 profit in my pocket. So you add that all up, and this became the first year that I was a millionaire. I had over a million dollars in the bank. It was mine. And if you're on that path, if you've done it, congratulations to you. But this is everybody's goal, and this was almost purely through what is known as affiliate marketing, where you're marketing other people's businesses and you're earning a commission if you can sell their products. Similar to realtors, insurance agents, really most many professions out there. If you...you know, insurance agents, they sell insurance and they get a commission. Realtors, they sell houses and they get a commission. Same thing, but I'm just marketing products on the internet, you know, whatever it is. Supplements, backpacks, t-shirts, whatever you name it.
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, there's a link in the description. I have a training course if you want to learn more about that. But I'm going to go into the four ways that I actually kept this money, because making money is not as important as keeping it. Nobody really cares that you're earning money if you spend it all. The goal is to get rich. You need to keep it, not just earn it. Now, the ways I was able to keep the money – there are four different methods I used to not pay all of my money out in taxes. And one of the major ones is 240,000 a year in retirement accounts. Most individuals here in the United States are only able to put aside 24,000, about a tenth of this, because they are in the system and they're doing what they think society tells them to do. Whereas, I'm able to write off 240,000 a year off of my tax bill and put that money aside for safekeeping. Because I'm using what's called a deferred benefit plan, and I'm using that to put aside a lot more money than most people are able to. Now, going back to this example, when I say I put aside 755,000 in profit this year, I also put aside a quarter-million dollars tax-free into retirement accounts on top of that. So that is added to this. It adds up to about a million dollars in profits, right? I put a quarter-million in my retirement accounts and I have 755,000 in cash.
The second tool that I use to not pay as much money in taxes – and you might be thinking, John, why are you talking about taxes? You're supposed to be talking all about earning money. Well, again, I'm talking about how I made my first million dollars in profit. It's important to keep that money. Okay, taxes are understanding and being able to keep your money and not pay as much in taxes is the single biggest correlation I see among wealthy people that I am friends with. Actual wealthy people who have multi-million-dollar homes, who have private jets, who have boats, who have exotic cars. How to keep their money. They understand the tax laws of their particular country. So when I am focusing on this, I'm focusing on it for a reason, because you need to know this if you are going to get ahead in life. Otherwise, this money that you are earning, whatever it is, 666,000, that will be cut in half, and you'll end up thinking the whole year you think you're earning all these profits, but all that money is going away because you focus simply on earning and not on keeping.
The third tool to reduce your taxes and keep that money that you're earning is called accelerated depreciation. So just to give you an example of accelerated depreciation, any of my computer equipment is accelerated depreciation. Meaning if I spend $5,000 on my computer, I can write that all off in the first year off of my taxes through a measure called accelerated depreciation. Typically, people don't write any of these things off, but you can with accelerated depreciation. The other way you can use accelerated appreciation is you can actually buy a private jet. Let's say it's $5 million. You put 20 percent down for a million dollars, you can write $4 million off of your taxes for buying a private jet. So it's almost like it pays for itself, and you don't even have to put that much money down. Rich people do this all the time with artwork, with yachts, with exotic cars, with private jets, with multi-family housing. All of these categories can be...you can use accelerated depreciation, but they're relegated to the rich and the super rich to use this tactic. They don't let you know about this. The government doesn't encourage anybody to know about the tax code, because again, the world would be crazy if everybody is rich.
The fourth tool to write more stuff off your taxes is donations. Now, if you give money, anything to donations, I know many of my followers are Christians here and believe in tithing and donations, are a great way. You can just write those off your taxes. I forget up to a certain amount, but all this stuff is great, and it just reduces the amount of money you have to pay. And it was through a combination of working hard and earning money using my online business and also saving money that earned me my first million dollars and made my life a lot different from where it was before. So I hope you enjoy this video, and if you're looking forward to more killer content, we're coming out. We got a new office here, I don't know if you guys see it all around, but we got some cool stuff here. We're going to be making it look a lot nicer for you all very soon, and I'm excited to bring you into my new space. So talk soon.
Q: How did you make your first million dollars?
A: I made my first million dollars through a combination of running an ad agency, affiliate marketing, and utilizing strategies to maximize my earnings.
Q: What is the difference between gross and net profit when making a million dollars?
A: Gross profit is the total amount of money made, while net profit is the amount of money kept after deducting expenses. It is important to focus on net profit as it reflects the actual earnings.
Q: What strategies did you use to keep your earnings and reduce taxes?
A: I used methods such as maximizing contributions to retirement accounts, understanding tax laws, leveraging accelerated depreciation, and utilizing donations to reduce tax liabilities.
Q: Can you explain more about affiliate marketing and how it helped you reach your first million?
A: Affiliate marketing is a practice where you promote other businesses' products and earn a commission for successful sales. It played a significant role in helping me reach my first million dollars in earnings.
