The Secret of Fast Track Your Business and Personal Wealth, chat with Thomas Brandon Kovacs (Sparkojote)

Thomas was born and raised in, Zurich, with, after having completed for yourself, Prince trip and worked two years as a full-time employee at UBS, he quit his job and became a full-time entrepreneur in 2018. In two years’ time, he has dedicated, fully to growing his business and his personal wealth. At age of only 24, he’s now running an e-commerce store for training cards and the largest personal finance YouTube channel in Switzerland.

In this episode, let’s hear about what’s his secret in growing his business so fast and his money philosophy. 

Yasi: Hello. Welcome to the Fast track podcast. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Thank you very much 

Yasi: And today. We’re going to talk about personal finance money and also of course, your personal journey. And I know that you, you did work at UBS and like from age 16 to 22, what did you do there? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So, um, yeah. Thank you very much for inviting me here.

My name is Thomas, uh, Brenton kovacs. So, uh, yeah, I worked at UBS from 16 to 20. I did the apprenticeship at first, so it was four years here in Switzerland and afterwards, um, I still worked there almost three years. Um, and I was 22. And, um, I worked there as database administrator, so I worked a lot with SAP products, um, and had a lot to do with internal customers.

So I was like, not speaking with different customers, but it was like internal customers. I helped, uh, getting databases up for applications and also supported them. And yeah, that’s, that’s how I started my career at first. But, um, yeah, during. Like during, or especially after the apprenticeship, I noticed it’s not so much my thing.

And that always had ultra project ideas. Um, and that’s why I stopped working there in 2018 and followed like my own project, like personal finance blog to personal YouTube channel, uh, sparkojote , it’s called and it’s in German. And also like my other project, which is an online e-commerce store for Pokemon. And 

Yasi: yeah. Well, I’m definitely going to ask you about that later. And you talk about personal finance. You’re working in the it sector, like it departments and UBS, but how come you started to venture into this personal finance topic 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: back then it started somehow, um, that I read a lot of blogs, especially in German, right?

Because I, uh, I’m from the Swiss German par parts. So I speak Swiss German and German. And I read a lot of blogs, which, um, go into the topic, dividends, stock investing, and also long-term investing with index funds. And I started to like, um, like that quite a lot to like build long-term a passive thing comes on.

Not like you do something. And after a few months you get rich quick. Right. But it’s like something over decades where you build your wealth. And there, I stumbled upon like the financial independence and also then financial independence retire early, the fire, um, community, um, which I must say it started like that, but nowadays I’m not so much into fire anymore.

Um, because the main reason is simply. In fire, you set a certain amount of money and after that, you can do what you like. But I do believe you don’t need a certain amount of monitor to what you like. Yeah. 

Yasi: So what do you believe in? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Um, I actually do believe that you can, um, Like you, if, if you like something and you have passion for something, you can do this for a living.

If you go, or if you’re smart about it. I don’t like, especially nowadays with the whole internet, with podcasts, YouTube, with everything, with like, I mean, if you’re, if you’re, um, a diligent person, you can launch an online e-commerce store within a few days or weeks, right. It’s just like, you need to work on it.

You need to have the discipline to make it long-term and like, not, uh, stop it after three or five for six months, right? 

Yasi: Yeah. Talking about the e-commerce. So when you were 16 years old, you started your card trading e-commerce business. What is it about, why did you start this? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Um, so with trading cards, it was always like my kind of passion my hobbies.

So I started it when I was like four or some, lots of 20 years ago, basically, because now I’m 24. And for me, it was always a hobby. I collected the cards I played with the cards, but, um, I really early noticed that you can also earn money with the cards because people are willing to pay certain prices for certain cards or certain like trading card, game products.

And, um, back then, when I was a teenager, I already started like selling on tournaments. There was always like weekly tournaments on weekends, started selling they’re earning some, um, pocket money for myself then. Um, but then when I started the apprenticeship, I tried to do more things online. So then I went through a Ricardo here in Switzerland.

It’s something similar like eBay and, uh, that’s where it actually started on Ricardo, the e-commerce journey. And nowadays it’s a. It’s a real online store with its own web address. And, um, where we sell Pokemon Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards or the trading card signal cards, new product, uh, booster, packs, everything.

So it started out of a hobby basically. And, um, yeah, now I’m surrounded basically daily with, uh, reading cards. 

Yasi: Ah, interesting. So I think as a young Thomas would never thought about you were start a business with something that is your hobby. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yeah. I mean, it’s like kind of strange. Um, so think about it like that, because I was always thinking, or like, for me, like the concept of work was something I, I really didn’t understand till I got out of like school. Right. And then started my apprenticeship. And even there was far for me to understand, because like the first year in the apprenticeship in ITU, usually just to learning, you have like modular, um, um, lessons and you don’t actually work that much. So, um, the concept of work, like I was introduced with it when I was like 17 or so like real work, you know, and I somehow like in the apprenticeship it, was fine.

But during like the. Like the real drop. I started didn’t liking it and there were a lot of issues I had with it, with the work itself I didn’t like it, I mean, the people were really nice and everything, but it was like the stuff I did on a daily basis, the daily business, which I didn’t like, and it wasn’t, wasn’t a match nowadays it’s like, I can just do what I want with my hobbies and I earn money from my hobbies. So it doesn’t actually feel like work even, even if I do it professionally and. And earn money with it. Right. So it’s kind of, kind of strange living life and doing what you like and getting paid for. 

Yasi: That is like a dream for many people.

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yeah, I think so. But. There are not only the good sites. There are also downsides, I think, because sometimes you don’t want to do like, like for example, if you play soccer for, um, or just for fun, right. You can just say, okay, I don’t want to play next week soccer. What if you’re like a pro and you’re playing it for a living, you still need to go to training.

Even if you don’t want to at the moment, and it’s kind of this thing, right? So, um, there is some moments where you don’t want to do actually anything, but you still have to, because now it’s your, uh, your job and not only your hobby. Right. So this is, I think the trade-off, but I’m fine with it. 

Yasi: Yeah. And you mentioned that you have like a, also social media presence and you have so many followers, like the biggest one in Switzerland, the personal, personal finance.

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: In the personal finance community, especially as a personal brand, not like a platform, right. Um, where I’m just writing about my journey, about my personal finance, where I invest, what I do believe, uh, is an interesting investment. I’m. As far as I know in the, uh, German part of Switzerland, I’m the biggest at the moment, uh, especially on YouTube with, um, almost like more than 15,000 subscribers, which is in Switzerland, actually, especially for this kind of niche personal finance is quite huge. Right? So, uh, uh, I don’t believe you will find any Swiss, uh, um, uh, YouTube channel, uh, in this, uh, niche, whereas like, uh, the same amount or more subscribers or viewers and even on Instagram and on my blog. Um, as far as I know, I’m not the only one, but I’m probably at the moment, um, the largest.

Yasi: And when did you start it? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Uh, 2016, actually, I started with two blog, uh, on the 1st of September. Um, it was just like, I think it was like a month after I, uh, because I was two weeks in military because military service here in Switzerland, it’s like, you have to go basically. And, but I left after two weeks because it wasn’t a fit.

So I had some head of issues and then I left basically. And after this, um, uh, like after I left the military service for me, it was like, The best day, because I knew now what is freedom? So basically not going to the military for me, at least then after that, I don’t know why, but I just started like this blog.

I wanted to document the journey I’m going on the financial journey, like how I invest and what mistake I will do. And then I wanted to write it down on the blog. Um, soon after that, a few, like a hall for year. So after the blog, I started the YouTube channel and then all the other social media stuff.

And then when I, um, 2017. Uh, when I moved out from my parents’ home after my apprenticeship, so half a year after the apprenticeship. I moved out, I really started to take like this hobby or this project a more serious. And then I put more time and effort into the blog, the YouTube channel, and also onto the, um, e-commerce, uh, store, which was, or is still growing to today.

Yasi: And when you said you quit your apprenticeship or you quit your job?

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Apprenticeship I did. The apprenticeship is four years. I finished that like with a pretty good grade, but like nowadays it doesn’t matter anymore. Um, then I worked two and a half years at UBS, like as a full-time employee and earn normal, uh, money.

So my salary was back then 72,000 per year. And, um, yeah, and also two and a half years, then I quit basically because I wanted to pursue my own projects and, uh, be self-employed be my own boss and to, or work on my projects. 

Yasi: And at that moment, how did you get the courage to quit your job, but not knowing what’s coming to you or you already have something planned out?

You, you have certain kind of confidence what you can achieve. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So basically, um, I mean, I had like an SDX safe stop, right? I always had like a good say, like I already invested into stock more into the stock market. I saved already money. I budgeted everything. So when I resigned, I basically had over 100,000 Swiss francs in the bank, like basically in investments, some of it was cash.

Some of it was in other investments. And, um, I already had like proof of concept of my projects, right? So the, the, the, the e-commerce business, which started on Ricardo already made revenue, which made also, which meant also profits already. And also the blog and YouTube channel, uh, through AdSense. I already earned money through this also. And, uh, it was then only a thing, like, okay, when I resigned, then I have like almost 50 hours more per week, because like with also traveling back home and to the office and everything, I saved like 50 hours per week, which is 200 hours per month. And I mean, back then I earned maybe like, 200 francs per month, additionally in profits.

Right. And my calculation was okay if I have 200 hours per month more to put into my projects, it should work out. Right. I mean, you never know, but it should work out. And that’s why then I then decided, okay, I have to do this now because, when not now, when then, and then I gave myself like a three year, um, like deadline.

So basically it’s that, I’m 25. So I’m not 25 yet. So it’s two years ago when I did this decision. And, um, I assume like, from like in retrospective was one of my best decisions in my life financially other aspects like, um, health wise, or even like, um, mental health, especially, uh, or like almost every aspect that it’s changed, like to the, to the better, because now I can do what I like.

And, um, the thing is I even earned more than I did before, which is also ridiculous. And so for me, it was a win-win, but I don’t think like it will work for everyone out that quickly and that good, like it worked out for me. 

Yasi: And what do you think are the factors help you to work it out faster than you expected?

What did you do? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: I mean, I mean, there’s a lot of stuff, so, but I mean, there’s obviously timing which needs to be right. There is probably portion of luck and all those things, which we don’t have like, um, control over it. But I mean, there are things you have control over it, which is like working 80 hours to 100 hours, especially in the beginning.

I, I worked like for a few months, a hundred hours per week, which is ridiculous. Well, I do believe it was needed nowadays. I don’t do that anymore. Nowadays. Like the usual work week is like 60, maybe 70 hours at max. I don’t even want to do 80 hours. It’s too much, even if it’s your hobby and you like it.

And I do believe the sweet spot is probably for me between 50 to 60 hours, which I’d like to, to be, which I’m still a bit. Um, over this sweet spot. So I need to, um, a little bit back down work a bit less probably. And, um, this is probably one of the perk because a lot of people, I do believe don’t want to work that much and they want to like, for example, um, During the pandemic, right.

Everyone needs needed to be staying at home during two months. Like I told him, I said, okay now, okay. Now I don’t go out. I don’t meet friends. I don’t do anything basically like outside of my home. So what I did back and I use this time to. Like push my business, like totally had side, basically worked during the pandemic more than Fremont being a half months, I think, 70 to 80 hours per week made daily streams, daily YouTube video, daily content, and also worked diligently on the online store, made purchases for the store, uh, placed Facebook ads for the store, for the e-commerce store and everything.

And I mean, I think those favors every business or like every person that wants to be self-employed it needs, but not like forever. Like it’s just maybe once a year, a month where you really double down and then, um, or maybe once every twice a year, a few months where you really double down and then you can reap the fruits already after a few months or after a year.

And I do believe this is one of the big portions that it needs and you need to basically work also like efficiently. So, um, what I noticed a lot is that, um, for example, working eight hours doesn’t mean anything. The, the, the variable is how efficient you are or how efficient you are in this eight hours. How many, or how much work can you get done?

So basically there is someone that. Let’s say he works eight hours and he produces one, like one X and there’s another person working in the same eight hours producing three X and someone else, five X. So basically the person with five X does something in eight hours where the first person needs 40 hours.

Right. So, and 40 hours is a normal workweek here in Switzerland and eight hours, one normal Workday. And that’s like the all’s the thing. Um, Yeah, it needs to be put into consideration. So basically if I work 80 hours, if I want to do that, and I’m double the efficiency than someone else that I’m basically doing something in one week, what the other person would do in a whole month.

Right. And that’s the approach. I always look into those kinds of things, which I didn’t do when I was employed, because I didn’t have the understanding of. It’s kind of view. 

Yasi: Yeah, exactly. Now, did you assign certain tasks to other people or how did you achieve high productivity? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So, I mean, most, most of the high productivity I achieved by myself.

So basically I batch my work, for example, just a simple example. Um, most of the people, if they would approach like grating a video, they make video one by one by one. So they capture like all the, the video, uh, they, they need, then they cuts the video. Then they create a fountain and then they. Maybe do something as we for the video.

And then they go to the next video. So for example, but every time you switch, like the task from like, um, recording a video to like cutting or editing the video, you, you lose staff, the focus, right? You have like 15 minutes until you’re in again. And you’re efficient. Again, what I do is I, I record maybe three or four videos at once.

Then I edit all three or four videos and then I do all the fun nails. Like batch, why sometimes I even, um, um, just record videos for two days and then I, um, edit like eight videos at once. Right. And then you’re more efficient because you always save like her video. You, you, you would have like three to four times where you need to switch the task and then you lose focus.

And if you do eight videos, you lose, like, um, I don’t know, more than 20 times your focus and with this kind of approach, you basically lose. Maybe four times to focus, right? Because you’re basically then three, four, five, six hours just editing the videos. And then before five, six hours just recording videos.

Right. And you’re still in the flow and that’s how I. I approached, uh, efficiency. And then after that, I, um, started to, I don’t outsource much, but I do outsource things like accounting. Um, like, uh, my podcast editing, I do outsource or even, um, stuff like, um, tax or SEO I sometimes do also. So there are things are outsourced, but.

But not much because I’m already that, uh, efficient actually. And, um, I also want to still keep my business at the moment really leading, because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few months or or years during like the whole situation with the, um, mr. Corona or with COVID, right. 

Yasi: Yeah, exactly.

And I’m pretty impressed by your typical working week, because that is much more than having like a normal job. Right? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yeah, and this is just like, um, this is just like the, the person, the finance and blog. Right. So we, we didn’t start about like the online shop, so we didn’t even do that now. So there, I also have other stuff to do, which is mainly like, especially searching for products, um, to buy actually negotiate prices and, um, buy in larger quantity.

Like for example, this year, um, We bought in on average between 20 to 30,000 Swiss francs products per month. So, um, every month we bought for between 20 to 30 K in product, but those products needs to be found and, uh, you need to have suppliers and sometimes, especially if you want one to have older products, special products, which are not produced anymore because they are 10 years old, 15 or 20 years old, like vintage cards.

It’s not that easy. You cannot go to wholesale and say, Hey, I want to buy Pokemon base at booster first edition, uh, booster boxes. This won’t work. You need to then go to like other sites or like connections, which you build up through the years and try to, um, get a deal there and then buy it from them.

Make sure it’s a real, a real product and not like a counterfeit product and everything. So those kinds of things also come into work with what I usually do is, um, um, either I do a mix or I split like the whole week. Now this week, I just work on my online e-commerce store and the next week I just only work on a personal finance, uh, business. And, um, yeah, that’s how I actually do it. So that’s what I mean. Like, um, for me, like actually a normal working week is 60 to 70 hours at the moment, but I like what I do. So I don’t, um, yeah, I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I still would like to go through 50 to 60, I think is the sweet spot.

Yasi: Yeah. And if you think about it, you are actually doing multiple jobs and then still you are working less than. Like a 40 hour week plus two jobs or three jobs. You still, you do like 60, 70, for basically three to five times more efficient. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yeah. That’s what, yeah, that’s the, that’s the thing, right? Because if you start to get more efficient, um, Usually most of the people that ask you, like, how can you earn that much money?

Right. For example, if you earn a lot of money, but the thing is, it’s, it’s all about the efficiency. Like how much you can get done by yourself in a certain amount of time. And you can even leverage that if you outsource stuff. Right. So at the moment you could say, okay, I’m basically at my, almost like let’s say my efficiency level is 90% already.

Right. I cannot get more efficient because like you’re not a robot. Right. And then the next thing would be because you’re not perfect. You cannot reach 100%. You need to outsource stuff. But, um, there is then at some point a question, do you even want to be more efficient? Do you want to earn, because in the end, if you are more efficient, What’s happened is you earn more money, but the question is then do you want to earn more money?

Because then you start to do different tasks and then you’re not into the operative business anymore. And then you’re just like you having all the people under you and you basically just need to coordinate and you are not in the real business anymore. So do you actually want that? And for me, I decided at the moment, I don’t really want that.

That’s why I keep a lot of stuff, which I do still at me because I like doing it. Um, well, which is then also the bottleneck in the end. Right. For my efficiency, because I’m just a human 

Yasi: being. 

Yeah. Yeah. But sometime down the road, maybe you do something differently with your business. Right. You’re still, you still have so much time.

So 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I believe so, but like, I, I do believe I’m, I’m still too young and I want to still do a lot of operative stuff. And like, for me, if like, let’s like, just for, if we take some numbers, even like, I’d rather still do what I do at the moment. Right. Still do the same process, the same, uh, daily work daily business.

I do. Um, then I would change a lot. Um, and earn my 100,000 per month more, not worth it for me, like, or even 200, it’s just not worth because I just like what I do. And then I earn so much enough that it’s, it’s, it’s fine. And I can finance like all my businesses because there’s enough cashflow and everything.

I mean, it would be nice to have more income and hopefully it grows over time, but, um, I don’t really need to like, uh, grow that fast because if I grow that fast, then I start or need to start to change my process. And I would be starting to delegate more, which at the moment I don’t really want, I mean, in the future, maybe in a few years, I want to start delegate more because I got more experienced.

But at the moment I want to be active in the daily business instead of delegating a lot. 

Yasi: Yeah. Yeah. 

So you find a balance between what you enjoy doing and what is the like revenue for you right now. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Exactly. So there’s like basically for the moment, a sweet spot I reached and I only want to earn more if it’s like a fitting with my process I’m already doing or not changing too much of my process.

Obviously I do know during the years, if you get more experience, I probably will start to delegate more, but I do believe. In the next five years, I can still do it in five years or in four. It doesn’t matter if I do it now or in three or four or five years. And I do believe, um, uh, the patience is, or especially in this topic is kind of good because then I can do what I like. Right?

Yasi: And I want to touch on, on the personal finance side. What is your personal financial goals? Do you have one? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Um, I mean, I do have a lot of goals and. I mean, it depends. Right? Like, like for example, back then when I was still employed, like my, my first financial goal was like reaching by 30, 1 million Swiss Francs and network.

So with all the investment like network, right. And. If I reach that, then I I’m basically financially independent. We call self like the 4% rule, which is known. So basically if you have 1 million fully invested, diversified, you can take out 4% per year forever. I have, which is 40,000. I would then be financially independent.

Then I can do what I’d like. Right. But this changed after I started working on my projects because I noticed I can already do what I like. With less than 1 million and it still works out and paradoxically, which is probably maybe also portion of luck. Um, I’m really near to one million, I’m currently at almost 750,000 already Swiss francs and net worth.

So basically quarter-million is missing. So, um, I managed to in the past two years basically, uh, build my network from 140,000 to almost 750,000. Yes in two years, which is not normally possible if you’re normally employed, right? You need to be self employed either or, um, basically, uh, being an entrepreneur and that, so that your working hours are not your leverage.

So basically I don’t like I have basically no instance where I get paid per hour. There are some, um, There are some, um, like exceptions, for example, if, if a company wants to, um, book me for speaking, then I’m basically trading hours for money, right? Because like they book me for one hour webinar or a speaking or whatever, and then I charged them a certain amount.

Right. But usually I don’t do this kind of relationship, so I never want to get paid per hour. Um, so. I mean, when you start doing that and it works quite out well, you can then earn basically almost non-limited amount with like reflective kind of concept, especially in social media, like the, um, How you call it the multiplier standard, your working hours.

It’s basically how many people you reach in your certain demographic. Right? So, um, for example, if you reach a thousand people and then after five years, you reach a million people, the probability that you earn thousand time’s amount than before, it’s really high, which is ridiculous. So for example, if you earned, um, when you reached a thousand people and you earn per month, let’s say.

50 bucks. Right? And now you, you reach a million people, then you would probably earn 50,000 or even more right. In the same time period because you read times people more. Yes. And so the scale effect, or like the multiplier is the audience or the reach you have, and not your working hour, which in the normal employment, it’s your working hour because you wouldn’t do overtime.

You can pay it out or you can take time off. But, uh, for me, this is not like a, a good way to like leverage your time. Right. Because you’re basically bottle-necked already. Yeah. You’d rather have a bigger bottleneck, like example for me, the biggest bottleneck is only, I think 200 million people on the planet can understand me in German.

That’s my bottleneck. I spot, you know, this polling. I will never reach that and will never, never, never, ever reached that because no, like those 200 million peoples, most of it, they don’t like finances. They, they, they are not interested in. Right. But still, this is like the biggest bottleneck I could get.

If I would do it in English, it would be even bigger. I don’t know how many billion people, um, do speak English, but a lot, a lot more than German. Right. But that’s the thing. 

Yasi: Well, it’s interesting as you are very strategic about how you run your business, how you use your own time. And did you learn from someone?

Did you get a mentor? Did you read it somewhere? Or where did you get all this, um, thought process? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So I was like, I was trying to be efficient, um, with, with a lot of things, especially if it came through gaming, like I play, I still play a lot of world of Warcraft. And I started 13 years ago with world of Warcraft and also all browser games and everything, and always noticed what I would do is play the play like the, um, how you call it the in game currency. I had stopped for world war II, work off this gold, and there was a browser game now. Neopets, which was new points or Hubble, which it was, um, coins. And I always wanted to basically get in the game rich to buy like the stuff I’d like in the game, right. Or at least by the mounts in world of Warcraft, which I liked and always try to do it efficient.

And I search the way, like how many gold per hour can I get when I do X, Y how many gold per hour can I do when I. To X, Y and mostly. And you always come to one point in every game. Usually it’s not actual, it’s kind of funny. It’s not actually playing the game who earn money or gold. It’s basically to be, um, um, how you call a merchant, you buy stuff low, you sell high, you buy stuff low, you sell it high, you buy stuff low, you sell it high.

Right. And basically on that’s the kind of interesting thing, which a lot of people don’t understand it. You can get a pension, which is what I’m buying for free on social media. You get it for free. You basically put in time. Okay. You trading your time, but you get it for free. No monetary value. And you sell it for a certain price to a certain company.

If you do a sponsorship or whatever, or if you work with companies together, so you basically buy low and sell high. And since you’re basically buying at zero costs usually, or at a low cost, um, but the attention is much more worth. You can really leverage that, right? Same principle. 

Yasi: Yeah. And also with social media, there’s a ripple effect.

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So you mean, like if you get traction, it grows even bigger and bigger, or what do you mean? 

Yasi: Maybe not directly, maybe sometime later when you put something else on top of it for the. The person has heard about it or heard about it before. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yes. Yes. So the more you do and the longer you do it, and the more consistent you do it, like at some point it’s going, uh, by itself, right in the beginning, it’s really hard to get like the first subscribers, the first followers, and first people to like yourself, or even comment your stuff.

And at some point it’s quite easy or it grows basically by itself. If you’re just doing content that is fitting the audience you want to reach. And for me, it’s always, I want to put out content, which I like. So it’s stuff about trading cards, stuff about personal finance, stock investing, maybe sometimes funny stuff, which has nothing to do with anything like that.

Just personal stuff. And, um, That’s what I do. And it, it, it works out. I mean, like if you, if you compare like the growth with like other lifestyle YouTubers or bloggers or whatever, it’s, it’s obviously not that high of a growth, but, um, the thing is because the audience and personal finance it’s really quiet, like really niche, but, um, it’s niche where you can say, like, for example on lifestyle Instagram, a lot of people that are following them.

Um, our certain demographic, right? Certain age, maybe they’re even under age, especially in gaming. Right. So they have not a lot of financial potential or. It will be in the future. Right? So for the advertisers, like this kind of reach is it’s a lower quality you could say, right? Because in the end, what an advertiser wants, they want to make at some point some profit or gain some traction.

Right? And, but especially in the finance niche, you have a older audience, you have audience, which is full in their carreer. They are working, full-time working on their own businesses and what not. And they have a discretional income. They want to invest that long-term. And for example, let’s say buy stocks from alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, or whatever, right.

They want to do long-term investments. And then, um, for me example, I work with like the, the services I also use by myself. So for example, uh, we have here in Switzerland, uh, the three a pillar, right. Or, um, Um, also for investing, you can put that money there money every year. And I work there with, uh, zurichkontonal bank, which is ZKB.

Right. It’s a good fit. I use their product, frankly. And also I can, because I use it. I’m really happy with it. I can. Recommend it to the people that, Hey, look, look into it. I, uh, I think it’s a good thing. And then I do a review. I show it to them how it works and what are the benefits, what are, what is not so good?

And that’s, that’s how I work the stuff out on. And it works really well actually. Because you, you make a good fit because the customer is also happy because they were on the search for this kind of thing to, um, build up long-term their wealth for their retirement, right. Especially the three a pillar here in Switzerland.

And, um, that’s a good thing. Right. And especially because I reach out to younger people in my age, 20, 24, 25, it’s also good for like the other parts, for example, ZKB because they want also young people to long-term invest. Right because it’s for both, uh, both sides beneficial. 

Yasi: And who is, who are your audiences?

You mentioned the younger ones and professional ones. How do you describe

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Most, most, 

mostly between. So 95% is, uh, are men or men and 5% are women. So it, it takes usually like that in the, in the personal finance, especially if, if a guy is talking on video, Um, and, uh, most of them are, I think between 24 and 39. So most of them are basically in their career in their best time ever.

Right. And I have also, um, people that are older and so two third of it or between 24 and 39 and the rest is mostly like, um, between 49 and 56. So I also have the older audience, but most of them are basically my age or a bit older and just like are in the best time of their life basically. Right. 

Yeah.

Yasi: And also your YouTube channel is called Thomas sparkojote. So what is your, what is your money philosophy? 

Um, 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: so sparkly oughta means like savings, uh, coyote rights. Um, it started like that because, uh, Saving is a big part. I do believe. Um, because if you earn 100,000 per month and if you spend 110,000 per month, you, you don’t save anything.

Right. But you earn a lot. So, um, earning a lot, doesn’t help because you also need to save, uh, money, but, um, save money and earning not a lot also doesn’t have, because then you can only save a certain amount because you cannot live for free. At least not that I know usually. Right. Um, so, um, I do like to save, especially if I don’t need to, um, make compromises and save on something, which I really like, which I don’t do.

Um, What, what, what, like my perspective is like you should save, or you should start saving hardcore like really the extreme, because then you know what you really need. And then you get those things back, what you need. Right. Because you noticed, okay, I needed this in my life, but I don’t want to save on that.

Right. And then after that, you know, what is your like perfect lifestyle for the moment it’s could take two or three months. And then after that, uh, instead of focusing on only saving, because now you know what you need to live and how you like to live, right? Cause you optimized it and you went to the extreme to know what you’re missing in life.

When you’re saving too much, then you can start on focusing on, um, if you want increase your income grew. If you’re employed, you can do like a whatever trainings. There’s a lot of things you can do. You can, um, um, uh, go study further in your, uh, in your job. You can do bachelor master, whatever. Right. And then you were starting to, um, uh, gaining more income, but staying, um, Uh, with your lifestyle, which you like Ryan, that’s important to find out which lifestyle you like.

And then also know that in the future, maybe have kids, then your lifestyle may increase because you need a bigger apartment or whatever, or you need an, a car because we have three kids and it’s the hospital to go anywhere if we get, uh, in this age. So, um, you need to keep this in mind and have when you have a lifestyle inflation, keep it slow.

Right? So for example, if you get, um, Let’s say you earn 50,000 per month and then you get a pay raise. And now you’re earning 55,000, sorry, 55,000 per year. So 5,000 increase per year. Then you don’t take like the 5,000 increases lifestyle increased. So maybe you take half of it. So half of it, you saved without the 500 and the other half you can take to increase your lifestyle, which is about 200 francs per month, right?

Something like that. Um, I would, uh, approach it to always also keep growing your savings rate, but, um, you don’t need to save everything. You can always keep a bit to increase your lifestyle if you want, but you always have to save. A bit more when you get a pay rates for example, or earn basically more. 

Yasi: Uh, huh.

And did you go through the process of letting go everything? Just keep the essentials? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: yes. Yes, I did that. Um, I did that especially. I mean, I did it multiple times. Um, last year in, in, in February, 2019, um, during, uh, like it’s the shortest months, but I did like a crazy thing where I then, um, only lived for 1300 Francs in Switzerland, which is ridiculous.

And there I even noticed, okay, there’s a lot of stuff I’m actually missing, like for food or other things. And, um, this is what, when I really noticed, okay. It, like, you can save as much as you like, but you should still keep your life lifestyle, which you like. And for me, it’s around about. If you don’t take vacation into consideration.

So all the costs except, um, a vacation and Taxes obviously is for me about 2000 francs privately here in Switzerland at the moment. I don’t have any kids or so about 2000 francs, everything less than that is for me. Um, Uh, like it’s not worth it because there’s 10 stuff I’d like, or something I’d like to eat.

And I don’t want to save on that. Right. So I think, um, those extremes help people to find out what they really want and what they want, what they really want to spend their money on. Right, because then they noticed, okay, I’m missing that. But the other thing I’m not missing and it’s costing 50 francs per month, but I’m not, not missing it.

So I don’t need to get it back into my life. Right. 

Yasi: Yeah. And people can be more cautious about what they spend, uh, spend money on. Maybe they spend on something not conscious about if it’s needed or not. Yeah. I like this exercise. I wish I could have learned this like years ago. 

I mean 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: it’s, it helps quite a lot.

If you do that, it takes maybe a month or two. Because you need to really know, like, you need to go really hardcore on it. And if people are saying, yeah, let’s go to this. No, no, I don’t go there. I need to save this part five. And then if you do that and you notice what you’re missing, then you know, Oh, maybe I’m going for dinner once a week or whatever it is something I really enjoy and I want to do, and then you do that, but maybe.

Um, you have a gym membership and you go once per month there and then you are not having it anymore. And then, yeah, I don’t miss that. I rather invest those hundred francs per month into one day, one or two dinners per month. Right. But also the kinds of things I would, I would certainly do and recommend to everyone to try it out, to go to these extremes, to know what you’re asking, want life 

and 

Yasi: personally, what is the one thing that you miss most when you are in this month? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Um, basically it was food. It was food because, um, like I paired it with a challenge where I want to eat as one person, only for 100 francs for the whole month, which it worked out. 

Yasi: Like, how did you manage that? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So you basically just eat like, um, spaghetti for like, you know, Like propagate the, like, just like the really simple, simple stuff.

You don’t eat anything special. And, um, only certain vegetables when they are like, um, uh, put down 50% in COOP or Migros. Right. So it’s kind of hardcore. And then I noticed, okay, food is something. Um, since then actually, um, I don’t really look onto the price of food anymore. Um, unless it’s really unreasonable.

high priced obviously, but, um, since then I know, okay, food is something I really enjoy. So I just put into my, uh, baskets, what I’d like to eat, and usually it works out. So it’s not like that I’m paying 1000 francs per month for food, but it’s like, Depending on the month, maybe it’s like here 300, sometimes 400, 450.

Sometimes just 250, then again, 400, but I don’t look onto it anymore because I know, okay. On average, I like to eat this and that and just eat that and buy that. 

Yasi: Yeah. Yeah. And also it impacts how you feel every single day because you, if you eat well, you feel good right. 

Yep. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yeah. And even if you’re like, um, you’re happy to like, I mean, the thing is, I think goodness also taste well.

Like for me, just for me, it doesn’t matter how other people think how it tastes, but for me it’s also taste well, and this is something, um, I noticed for me, like during this extreme challenges, like, yeah, food for me is like an important, like, especially the taste is really important, uh, for me, which before that I already knew that too.

But like in this extreme, I didn’t see the contrast. Right. 

Yasi: And what do you think. Are the most common money mistakes either you have made in the past, or you think many people are making it.

Believing 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: that you’re going to die tomorrow. So the Yolo mentality. Okay. Because I can tell you if someone tells us that in 10 years from now, if he did live the same, and then he starts getting, having kids maybe.

You will probably regret some of the decisions you did financially. Okay. Because the person, like let’s say Thomas in 10 years, 34 years old is still Thomas. Thomas, not the same time it’s like today, but it’s the same Thomas in the end. And Thomas from 34 years, doesn’t need to be Oh man. Why didn’t I do this and that?

And this, maybe I just had to put 10% away per month. That would have be enough, but I want to be the Thomas that can say in 10 years. Okay. Hey Thomas, you were 24. You did a great job. Thank you very much. Now I can, I have no money problems at all anymore. Thank you very much. Right. So I always look at, in this way, even if I will die tomorrow, doesn’t matter because I do what I like.

So the other combination, right. Um, which is basically the perfect combination, but. I do believe that this Yolo mentality it’s really, um, destructive for your future self, because statistically you will at least live to, let’s say 40, 50, or even older if you’re living, for example, in Switzerland and if you’re a healthy person.

So, and that’s, I think it’s one of the biggest mistakes, which a lot of people will regret because probably they, because people want to like, um, Compare themselves to other people’s right. And then they see maybe other people, they did it right. Or not right or wrong is maybe the wrong word, but they did it differently.

And then they see, Oh, those people don’t have any of the problems I have, uh, uh, in the end. Um, it’s because the other person, 10 years ago that maybe put a one 10% of their salary per month. Right. Just 10 percent, but even like, but like 10%. And that’s like the, I think one of the biggest mistakes people will do, especially when they are young or because a lot of people, yeah, you’re young.

You need to live your life, right? Yeah, man, you can live your life, but you can still put away 10%. No big deal. 

Yasi: Yeah. I testified that. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yeah. So between 10% and 10% is a lot over 10 years. 

Yasi: Yeah, indeed, indeed. And what do you think in Switzerland, particularly, what is the do? What do you think is the one thing that most people spend money on, which they can either reduce or get rid of completely?

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Food is quite expensive in Switzerland, especially going through the restaurants. So going every time for lunch every day, it’s cost 20, 30 francs or even more right. And dinner, especially, I do believe a lot of people go really a lot outside to eat. I think it’s okay. If you can, like let’s say, um, for me example, um, I could go every day, every day, two times or three times in a restaurant and my budget wouldn’t hurt at all, but the thing is, if I will do that, it won’t be anything special anymore.

Which I don’t like, I want to read something special when I go to the restaurant. Right. But, uh, I think this is one of the things you could, um, reduce basically. And if you’re reducing it, you probably, if you’re going then the next time, maybe once a week, instead of once every day, you would notice, Hey, it’s really nice thing to go to the restaurant.

You would like really appreciate it instead of just like, you know, you just go for it. Yeah. So I think this is one of the, the, the biggest, uh, uh, expenses a lot of people have and if they would reduce it, they would even get benefits of it because they would really appreciate it more. 

Yasi: It comes back to your challenge.

I think it’s many things. People take it for granted. They should go through certain process or appreciate the things that, you know, 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: I mean, like kind of extreme, you could try to live like really ascetic life. I think it’s an English word like that you basically say, okay, for a week or a month, I just do nothing that is involved with more.

If possible, obviously there are some barriers maybe for your job, but like, and then you will see like really what you really, really need. And it’s kind of, you, you only notice it once you’re missing it. It’s always like that in every aspect of your life, your, you won’t notice it unless you’re missing it.

Um, because it’s, it’s there, right? It’s like, um, you need to like most of the people, even I can, I, I’m not able to manage, to notice a lot of those things unless I’m missing it. Right. And if you know that about yourself, then you need to, um, Um, you put this keep distance and try to do like a challenge or whatever, or try to, for example, um, sometimes I don’t really like to work and I just would like to do something else, even if it’s better, what I like to do, but.

If I would then distance myself for a week and just don’t do any work at all. I would notice, Oh my God, I have such a good life. Have such a nice job. I can do whatever I like. That would always, Oh shit. I’ll have that every day, every single damn day. And then all you notice it because you were missing it, what you’re actually doing, but they’re doing a time you’re doing it.

Or during the daily business, we just don’t notice it. Right. Because it’s always here. 

Yasi: Yeah, yeah. Back to the other thing is just do not take it for granted. Appreciate what you have.

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.Regardless of what it is. 

Yasi: My last question. My last question is what is your investment philosophy? 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Investment philosophy.

So basically, um, I’m really, uh, a long-term investor, regardless of what it is, my own businesses, um, stock market, um, uh, commodity, whatever. Like for me, it’s a long-term game, so it’s not like I. Great. And, uh, do day trading or whatever I want to do long-term investments and I want to grow, uh, my wealth long-term not like overnight, so that I’m basically, uh, I am doing this. And then after week you’re already rich. No, it’s like just long-term investing and, um, basically only invest what you understand. Or if you really want to invest really in risky stuff, then just put that much money into it where you’re fine with losing it completely.

For example, Bitcoin, um, I put at max 1% of my net worth into Bitcoin. Or cryptos right. So, because I mean, I’m not an expert on cryptos, right. But I’m fine. If, if I lose 1% of my net worth to this asset class, I’m fine with it. It doesn’t, it doesn’t kill me. Doesn’t hurt me. It doesn’t change my life. It hurts, but it doesn’t change my life.

Right. So this is the kind of approach I have. And especially, um, don’t put all eggs into one basket. So I’m really a fan of diversification. So my portfolio, like my whole networth is basically, there are three main parts. One is like the. Stock market park. One third of my networth is into the stock market, invested through ETFs like index funds, stocks and whatsoever, right.

One third is into my own businesses, invested at the moment. And one third is particularly cash on, on different bank accounts. Um, but what I want to grow even more, it’s like my own business part, and I want to leave like the stock market investments. Not about one third of my network. Maybe in the future, there will be some real estate, but for me, it’s like a long-term game and I don’t want to get rich over a night and only invest into what I understand.

Yasi: Great. Thank you. And I feel like I still have 100 other questions to ask you. Have you have talked about so many like valuable information and it’s very inspiring given that you’re only 25 and you have realized your personal networks to 700 K from 100 K in two years, I think you have done a great job. So where can the audience find you? If they want to learn more about you, they want to consume your content. Tell us the platforms. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: So for everyone that’s German speaking, hopefully. Um, so I have also a podcast which is called Finanzrudel podcasts, and which is also everywhere on iTunes, Spotify, and co uh, also I have obviously YouTube channel, website sparkojote.ch. So basically if you Google me ‘Sparkojote’ you will find me every, where is, I think there’s no place, which I’m not even, I’m even, don’t take the same everywhere, basically.

Yasi: That’s why you work like 70, 80 hours per week. 

Thomas Brandon Kovacs: Yes, exactly. Thank you very much for having me here. 

Yasi: Yeah. I will leave all the information in the show notes and I hope the audience will find some interesting content from your platform. And, uh, yeah. Thank you very much for coming here today. And bye-bye.