I'm Ending Mandatory Paid Subscriptions

As the title states, after thinking about where to take this newsletter for essentially this entire year, I’ve decided to end mandatory paid subscriptions to my content for the foreseeable future. This means my content will be entirely free going forward for now.

All existing paid subscribers will receive refunds for the time remaining on their subscriptions.

In the near future, it is possible that I re-open subscriptions again (at around $10 per month on a monthly basis only) for those that still want to financially support the newsletter. This will likely have no benefits over free subscribers and will be there purely to support the newsletter for those that choose/can afford to do so for now. In the further future, I may once again put content behind the paywall, but this will not be until I’m confident I can deliver a large amount of value on a more consistent basis. I need to get considerably better at special situations first, something I have been working on this year (this would likely also be priced considerably higher).

I have thought for a very long time about this. I’ve finally determined that the reasons to remove the paywall are numerous, while the downsides are minimal. The main reasons for this are as follows:

1. After debating whether CFA is “worth it”, I’ve decided I’m taking the CFA level 1 exam in February. Not having a paywall will reduce the pressure of having to run a newsletter while preparing for the exam.

2. A free newsletter will open it up to a far larger audience. I see several benefits to a larger audience:

   1. I’ll be able to receive a much greater degree of feedback on my writeups that will hopefully lead to better and better writeups in the future.

   2. I’ll be able to establish a public track record.

   3. I may even get the same number of paid subscriptions supporting the newsletter as more people are introduced to my style and my free audience grows should I choose to open up optional paid subscriptions.

3. I have felt that I “borrow” a lot of ideas that are already posted from sites like MCC, VIC, and Twitter. It’s hard to justify charging for content that recycles ideas from others. This will also allow me to take a step back, refine my process, and ultimately develop an ability to come up with more unique ideas.

4. Not running a paid newsletter makes me easier to hire due to regulatory and compliance reasons should the right opportunity at a firm come up. It also allows me to demonstrate my current ability to potential employers more easily.

5. I ultimately feel I haven’t quite delivered enough value through the newsletter. By eliminating the pressure of having to write for a paid audience, I actually think the quality could increase. I want to deliver actionable ideas with unique and differentiated analysis. Going free gives me more options to get to a point where I can do that with less pressure.

6. Paid subscriptions have declined around 30% this year from last year. I attribute this to the bear market (a view that is reinforced after talking to some other finance newsletter writers that have experienced similar declines this year) but also to my inconsistency and lack of marketing as of late. It’s slightly easier to do this while subscriptions are down.

Ultimately my goal has been to become a full-time investor and while I believe I’m well on the way having compounded a low 4-digit account into a low 6-digit account over the last 5 years, I still have a ways to go before I can comfortably call myself a full-time investor (my target liquid assets would be $800k, though I could probably do it with $500k….anybody got any quick low-risk 5-baggers?).

Refunds for the time remaining on existing subscriptions should go out sometime this week.

Thanks,

Luke Wolgram