Only taking home €75k/yr with a $4.5M/yr business

Elliot Boucher's companies are bringing in $380k/mo. His shares are worth millions. Despite all that, though, he lives cheaply. He takes home €75k/yr and invests most of it.

I caught up with him to understand how he handles his finances. 👇

Being a "cheap" millionaire

Elliot was raised by a single mother on a teacher’s salary of $2k/mo. He says it was a great childhood, but money was just something they didn’t have.

And that still affects him today.

💰 "I'm cheap. Go figure. I would rather starve than eat something expensive. I need to learn how to spend money for fun." —Elliot

Elliot doesn’t own a car, and he’d rather walk for two hours than take a taxi. He prefers to have friends over instead of going out. And he doesn’t have expensive hobbies.

💰 "I'm not happier when I spend more. I'm way less stressed living cheaply because every dollar that I put aside or invest is more freedom." —Elliot

He refuses to be in the position his mother was in. If he doesn’t have money when he has kids, it’ll be because he chooses not to be liquid. And it will come with a sense of freedom; not stress.

So he's cheap. And that has paid dividends in his career.

💰 "I'd say my financial background and aversion to spending has been a net positive, when it comes to business — I'm more hungry than others. But it’s a net loss in my personal life." —Elliot

Hard numbers

Let’s take a look at what he’s bringing in.

• Edusign revenue: $300k MRR

• AppScho revenue: $80k MRR

• Founder pay: €75k/yr

• Personal bank account: €20k in cash accounts

• Business bank account: €2.6M

And yes, €75k/yr is pretty unusual for a founder whose business is bringing in $380k/mo. But he says it's a solid income in France.

💰 "I don't need more. And money in my pocket is money taxed. So I'd rather invest in the business at the moment." —Elliot

Elliot didn’t share his net worth, but he says his Edusign shares are worth a few million and he has some investments to boot.

💰 "It’s enough fuck-you money to quit, travel the world for a few years, and launch my next venture, if that time comes." —Elliot

Here are his business expenses:

• Total: ~€300k/mo

• Salaries and associated taxes: €216k/mo

• Software: €15k/mo

• Agencies and subcontractors: €30k/mo

• Servers: €15k/mo

• Marketing (events, paid ads, etc.): €15k/mo

• Finance and legal: €9k/mo

💰 "We could lower our costs, but we don’t want to right now. We’ve been a bit too conservative, so we’re trying to spend more to grow faster." —Elliot

That’s why Edusign has $2.6M sitting in the bank.

💰 "In theory, it would be better to invest the $2.6M. But we have the curse of being profitable." —Elliot

And here are his personal expenses. They're minimal. And split between two people:

• Rent: €1200/mo

• Food: €600-800/mo

• Travel: €200/mo

• Misc (books, clothes, fun): €200/mo

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Raising $1M (and not spending it)

Elliot loves bootstrapping. But he raised $1M back in 2021. Given what he said about being cheap, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he didn’t spend a dime of it.

💰 "We were profitable and still are. I don’t regret taking the money, though. It still gives me some stress relief." —Elliot

He says it’s sad that folks are so opposed to funding. Either approach can work. You just have to make the right choice for your product and your situation.

Invest for the long run

💰 "Most people see their money as something they need to spend. I see it as a coin in a game. The more I have, the more I can invest, and the more I have. You must invest to win the game." —Elliot

Elliot tries to invest about $40k/year.

He’s been investing 50% into crypto and 50% into ETFs for a while and has put over $100k into each. But right now, it’s 100% ETFs. He says his crypto portfolio was getting disproportionately big compared to his ETFs, thanks to a high ROI, so he’s recalibrating.

His crypto spread has been 80% Ethereum and 20% Bitcoin.

💰 "Crypto is here to stay. I believe in the infrastructure. ETH is, in my opinion, the best bet." —Elliot

And his ETF spread is 75% Vanguard Information Technology (VGT) and 25% Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI).

💰 "When you ask anyone if there will be more or less technology in the future, the answer is always more. The best country in the world for tech is the USA (ATM, at least), so I'll bet on that if I'm looking to invest in something for the next 30 years." —Elliot

He also invests for fun in NFTs ($10k), art ($5k), and startups ($10k).

And he recently invested in some real estate — an apartment to call home after a long time traveling. He took out a $250k loan for it, and he’s happy he did it, but he says it wasn’t the best investment.

💰 "Nobody knows what's going to happen. Old wealth was generated differently from new wealth. But investing in new tech regularly seems to have been a good idea in recent decades. So I'll bet on tech." —Elliot

Invest in yourself first

ETFs, crypto, NFTs, art, startups, real estate... Elliot is big on investing and he's got quite a spread already. But he says there's one thing you should invest in before you put a dime into the stock market: Yourself.

💰 "Investing $2k per year won’t change your life. Instead, invest in yourself first. Read books, listen to podcasts. Build an income stream. Then, once you’ve got some cash flow, start investing." —Elliot

You can find Elliot on Linkedin or check out Edusign.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!

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