People are often advised to develop multiple streams of income to make ends meet. One person that has taken this advice to heart and now has a net worth of $6.5 million to show for it is Graham Stephan. A native of Los Angeles, California, Graham first cut his teeth as a realtor in his early 20s. He subsequently decided to share his career experiences with a large audience and so set up his eponymous YouTube channel in 2016.
Buoyed by his content on personal finance, investment, and savings tips, Graham’s channel grew in leaps and bounds and he accumulated millions of subscribers in just a few years. His view count now runs into hundreds of millions and he makes seven figures from the platform per annum. He has also been hailed as the golden boy of personal finance on YouTube. Despite all these achievements, Stephan is not resting on his oars but keeps on diversifying his portfolio every chance he gets.
Breaking Down the Sources of Graham Stephan’s $6.5 Million Net Worth
He Makes about $100k Yearly in Realtor Commissions
One of the earliest sources that contributed to Graham Stephan’s net worth is the real estate business. Upon finishing high school in 2008, the young man applied for college but was turned down by the schools he applied to. He thus decided to get a real estate license and work in that sector. It wasn’t easy at first, Graham had to work for free or miserable commissions (about $500 or $600 every few weeks) but he did not despair. He persisted at it and made his first big sale within 10 months of being in the business.
Graham is now an associate realtor at the Oppenheim Group, a premier luxury brokerage firm in Los Angeles. He has sold houses worth over $130 million and his clients include celebrities such as Orlando Bloom, Chloe Moretz, Suki Waterhouse, and Wale. It is estimated that he now makes about $8,572 in commissions monthly which gives about $102,864 per annum.
Does Graham Stephan Work for the Oppenheim Group?
Graham Stephan does work for the Oppenheim Group. He was one of the first agents that was hired by the luxury brokerage firm and he helped build them into the premier establishment that they are today, boasting over $1 billion in sales. Stephan remains with the firm to date but has scaled back his career due to the demands of his burgeoning YouTube channel.
His YouTube channel is so profitable that he can afford to abandon his real estate gig but he has not done so. He still makes an exception for big-time deals or long term clients that he has had the pleasure of working with before. Stephan, therefore, remains on the rooster of Oppenheim Group employees and it has even been rumored that he will soon join the cast of their hit Netflix reality series, Selling Sunset.
He Owns Six Properties Which Bring in about $60,000 Yearly
Graham Stephan has also grown his net worth by buying and leasing properties. He saved up the money for this venture during his first years as a realtor. During that period, Graham lived with his dad and saved all of his commission. This amounted to about $260,000 by the time he was 22 and he used it to buy his first property.
From one property, Graham has now grown his portfolio to six properties in Los Angeles which he rents out to people. The realtor estimates that he makes as much as $15,105 from the rent on these properties each month. He uses a portion of this to settle some outstanding mortgages as well as property taxes and insurance. This leaves about $5,000 in profit which translates to $60,000 per annum.
Stephan Graham Earns Over $1 Million from YouTube Every Year
The endeavor that contributes the lion’s share (about 85%) to Graham Stephan’s net worth is his YouTube earnings. The realtor grew up watching YouTube like it was regular television and aspired to someday be like the creators he watched. He however lacked the courage to do something until 2016 when he used his phone to make a video of himself discussing his challenges as a realtor.
This video attracted about 9-10 viewers and motivated Graham to keep on creating. He kept at it and within a couple of months, developed a decent following. By the next year (2017), he was making a couple of thousands of dollars off his channel and this sum rose to $250,000 for 2018. Graham Stephan presently has about 2.2 million viewers on his channel and his videos on personal finance, savings, and investment tips have been viewed over 178 million times.
These numbers of course translate into revenue. He made about $1 million from his channel in 2019, thanks to the ads that play in his videos; sponsorships, and Amazon’s affiliate program. The personal finance guru also sells merchandise such as shirts, caps, mugs, and hoodies, with his motivational phrase “Do Epic”. All of these have pushed his YouTube earnings to seven figures for 2019 and beyond.
His Teachable Courses Brings in about $344,000 Annually
The L.A. native sells two online courses via the Teachable platform and they are based on real estate and YouTube. One course is titled the Real Estate Agent Academy while the second is the YouTube Creator Academy. As you can tell by their names, the former is for upcoming realtors while the latter is designed to share helpful tips with people on how to grow their YouTube channel into a money-making business.
Both courses are well patronized and contribute about $28,837 to Graham Stephan’s net worth each month. He however has to pay the Teachable platform a fee of $90 monthly.
How Much Does Graham Stephan Make in a Year?
Thanks so much for the article! @Forbes https://t.co/DhVsXMsAkQ
— Graham Stephan (@GrahamStephan) October 28, 2020
Graham Stephan earns about $1 million from YouTube alone each year. He then earns approximately another 500k from his rental property income, real estate commissions, as well as online courses; making for a total of about $1.5 million each year.
One would expect him to use this and fund a lavish lifestyle but the opposite is the case. The realtor-cum-YouTuber is extremely frugal and takes care to cut expenses anywhere he can. He avoids shopping for designer clothing and skimps on health insurance. This means that he saves about 99% of his yearly income and he ends up investing this in high-yielding savings accounts. Some are also deployed to retirement accounts such as Roth IRA and SEP plans. Graham hopes to use his investment and buy another rental property in the nearest future.
A Recap of the Sources of His Wealth
- Realtor commissions – $102,864 per annum
- Income from rental property – $60,000 per annum
- YouTube Earnings – $1 million – $1.6 million per annum
- Teachable courses – $344,000 per annum
When Did Stephan Become a Millionaire?
Graham Stephan became a millionaire when he was 26. He is now thirty and in the intervening years, has been able to grow his fortune to $6.5 million. The Los Angeles native is not resting on his oars and intends to surpass the $10 million net worth mark in the nearest future.
He has however indicated that he does not want to be a billionaire as he doesn’t know what to do with all that money. Graham has also revealed that being a millionaire is not as exciting as it was when he was pursuing the target as one tends to get used to things after a while.
