In this informal YouTube Q&A, Matt Paulson and MarketBeat’s digital marketing specialist Lacey Kluhn field audience questions pulled from Twitter/X about life, work, and money. Matt shares what he’d do if MarketBeat vanished (venture‑capital work or making coffee at a friend’s shop), recounts the college grind that forged his tenacity, and explains how he scales MarketBeat’s revenue from a $1 M year in 2014 to $60‑70 M today. He outlines a systematic “say‑no” framework to avoid burnout—pre‑defining categories of events, investments, and meeting times he will decline. When deciding what to say yes to, he focuses on opportunities only he can execute well, such as speaking or coaching entrepreneurs, and emphasizes being present for his team and family. Matt’s core financial mantra is “don’t run out of money,” illustrated with personal stories of working at McDonald’s to pay tuition and planning for large future expenses (e.g., aircraft engine overhaul). He downplays small‑ticket waste, urging big‑ticket prudence (car, house) and recommends spending on experiences (family outings) and a Tesla with full‑self‑driving as worthwhile larger purchases. For young adults, he stresses living below one’s means, building an emergency fund, and keeping personal finance simple. His investment portfolio is roughly 40 % real estate (apartments and strip malls in Sioux Falls), 30 % stocks/bonds, 10‑15 % private equity, and 15 % cash, with apartments being his best recent non‑stock investment. Finally, he shares a personal favorite purchase—a $40 leopard gecko for his special‑needs daughter—highlighting the joy of small, meaningful family moments. The video ends with a call for feedback and subscription.
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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Matt Paulson Presents YouTube channel here with Lacey Kluhn from MarketBeat. She's our digital marketing specialist and also the original host of our YouTube channel. So we're going to answer some kind of life and financial advice questions that came from Twitter or X today. And then we're going to stick these on YouTube, which I guess you may now be watching. And then we're going to clip them out too and make some clips just for fun and see if you guys like these. And if you do, We can do more, and we'll see how it goes. So Lacey, do you want to start with the first question?
Yes. I feel like these are some fun questions. To start, if you weren't running MarketBeat, what would you be doing right now?
I think if MarketBeat disappeared overnight and I had to keep busy, I would probably spend more time doing the venture capital stuff. If it was really just like, you're not allowed to do anything professional anymore, I would just go work at my friend Mitch's coffee shop. And make coffee all day. I think that'd be a lot of fun.
You are pretty good at making lattes, but I hope that MarketBeat does not close overnight.
Yeah, that would be bad because your daughter kind of needs to eat.
Yeah, she does. Thank you for feeding my daughter. Yes. Where did the tenacity come from that helped you kind of grind through your tough years?
Where I really kind of like felt it was in college. In the dorm, I would write blog posts while my friends were— my dormmates were playing Halo 2 on screens, their TVs on the network. They were playing games. Well, if I don't work now, I'm not going to be able to pay tuition next semester, and I can't come back. So that's probably where it was the hardest, when everyone else was having fun, and I was just kind of grinding it out. So that was kind of tough. I don't know. Beyond that, like, it hasn't been that difficult over the years. It's kind of helped that MarketBeat's success has really stair-stepped over the years. I mean, 2014 was my first million-dollar year, and that had been after going full-time, I think, 2 years earlier. And I just kind of scaled up over the years. 2021, we hit like— maybe it was 2020, we hit $10 million. And now we'll do $60 or $70 million in revenue. Just kind of seeing the small wins throughout the years really encourages me to keep going and doing a little bit more and better every year. And that's really the aim. Like, you know, at this point we don't have any massive goals. It's just to do a little bit better every year and we'll see what we can do.
So one of the things I admire you for, Matt, is that you are good at saying no to things that, you know, your schedule obviously fills up so fast, but at the same time with that, you truly do show up for the people that you care about and the organizations that you care about. With that, how are you avoiding burnout? Being invited to all the things, being a part of all the things.
Yeah, it's a delicate balance because as a business leader here in Sioux Falls, you get invited to many events, either for like the Chamber or United Way or any number of organizations. And frankly, they're all good things. The problem is if you do all of them, that's like all you do all day, every day. So You really have to pick and choose the things that you're going to go to and not go to. I got invited to a breakfast that's a week from Tuesday, but that's going to be my first day back in the office after being gone for a week in Vegas going to a conference. So I just thought, normally I'd go to that, but I think I'm going to skip it this time because I'm going to need to be in the office after being gone for 7 or 8 days. Beyond that, I think ahead of time, if you can decide what you're going to say yes to in advance and what categories of things you're going to say no to in advance, that's really helpful. I'll often get asked to invest in things, and I get like 110 K-1 forms for my taxes every year, and it's just like, that's too darn many. So when private business hits me up to invest in them, it's like, yeah, I'm kind of done doing that. I'm sick of collecting these K-1 forms. I don't need another one. If you've already decided ahead of time you're not going to do something, it's much easier to say no as a category of like, yeah, I don't invest in this type of thing, or I don't do events before 8 AM because I take my kid to school, or I'm not going to do a business meeting on a Saturday because I just don't do that. You kind of decide what your ground rules are ahead of time. It's a lot easier to say no to things.
So saying no, but what— is worth saying yes to, like automatic yes for you?
Yeah, I think it's, you know, you kind of want to like pick and choose your priorities. Like obviously MarketBeat's my main priority, but I also have like a venture capital fund and some real estate stuff here in Sioux Falls, and then some community stuff. Like I'm on the executive committee for the Chamber of Commerce. And I really think the things that are worth saying yes to are more and more it's like, what are the things that only Matt could do really well? And I try to focus on those things. If it's a speaking opportunity where I'm being asked to provide insight or even coach an individual entrepreneur, I'm much more likely to say yes to that because entrepreneurship is kind of at my core, and I like teaching people and helping people. But if it's like, do you want to go to this event where you're going to be sitting at a table with other people? Listening to a speaker on stage, I'm just less likely to want to do that because I got plenty of content to consume. Listen to 30 podcasts a week. I don't need to go somewhere to listen to content. There's plenty of it out there. But if there are opportunities where I can provide unique value to the world, much more likely to say yes to that.
I will say too, when you think about— I'm sure everyone has different experiences with their bosses. But truly, Matt, you are in the office all the time. I feel like people will ask me, oh, what's Matt up to? You are not someone that just comes in at 10 o'clock, leaves at 3. Like, you're genuinely always in the office, always connecting with your employees. I really appreciate that, that you're available for us.
Thank you.
And you're also— I just love to— like, I feel like the only time that you're like, oh, I'm going to leave the office early, it's like, my daughter wants me home and my daughter wants to go on a walk. And like, I just love that you're such a family-oriented person and something to look up to.
Oh, thank you. Appreciate that.
So let's get some more advice from you.
Okay.
What would you say is your best piece of financial advice?
Don't run out of money. In business and in life, like that is the main thing is to not run out of money. You know, when I was like in my early 20s, like I was a big Dave Ramsey person and like I thought, okay, like I did not have like, I like almost did not go back to school because I didn't have money to pay tuition. So I had to work all the hours just to pay my tuition bill, and then that got me into my fall semester of my sophomore year. And it's like, okay, I gotta go make another $2,000 or $3,000, whatever the number was, and then I'll get another semester. And yeah, sometimes you just have to go take whatever job is available to you and go do the work. And my freshman year of college, that was McDonald's. So I didn't wanna work at McDonald's. I mean, really, who does? But that's the thing I had to do to pay tuition, and I did it. Then sophomore year, I got a slightly better job. I got a job as a tech fellow at the university doing IT work for the college, and did that, made enough money, and just know what's coming up, and if you do what you got to do to get the money to take care of that, that's the key to staying in the game is to know what's coming up in terms of expenses, and then figure out where is that money going to come from. And even today, a year from now my plane has to get redone, or the engines have to get redone. That's like a multi-million dollar expense. I'm going to have to pay for that. So I got to figure out where is that money going to come from? And that's just life.
So you say make sure you don't run out of money, but you are also famous for saying it's worth it to spend money on the latte, and that's not what's going to save you money.
Correct. Oh, 100%. The small expenses are not what kills you. It's like buying a brand new car when you can't afford to, or buying a house that you can't afford. A lot of us focus on being like Pennywise of like, I'm gonna make food at home and not go to the restaurant 'cause it's cheaper that way. The key is to get the big decisions right, like your car, your house, any major purchases that you make, and then the smaller stuff, They tend to be more rounding errors and they don't matter quite as much.
So for someone that does have some extra spending money, and I mean regardless of lifestyle or tax bracket, but what do you think is something that's worth spending the extra money on aside from the latte?
Oh, hmm. You know, I think the best things in life are like cost less than $100. A good meal. Obviously good coffee. Like opportunities to spend time with people you care about, like taking Addie to the zoo or the reptile zoo or the butterfly house. Like those are not expensive things to do, but you know, it's time with family, time with your kids, and what can you spend money on to spend time with people you love? Like that is what's worth it. In terms of like big extra expenses that are like worth money, like, A Tesla with full self-driving is the best thing you could ever spend money on. Like, I can press a button at my house, 17 minutes later I'm at work. I haven't touched the steering wheel once. I can listen to a podcast, kind of do whatever. Like, that is the best car out there. And like, when my kids are old enough to drive, he'll drive my Tesla. I will go buy another Tesla because I am ruined for all other vehicles.
You are a big Tesla promoter these days. Yes. So you had talked about what your best piece of financial advice is, but what would you say is a financial habit that you think everyone should develop starting in their 20s?
Yeah, and we have a couple younger people, graduates. Lily's going to graduate next year and probably will get her first real job somewhere. We have Savannah who just graduated, and she said, what advice do you have for me? I just graduated. What do I do? And she's like, I have no debt. What should I, you know, it's like, well, you should probably go save up an emergency fund. And like, I know you don't have a nice car, so maybe you go save up for a new car after that. Really, I mean, the main habit is just to spend less than you make and put some money aside. And I mean, it's like personal finance is not complicated and doesn't need to be complicated.
I don't know. What would you say is your best investment that you've made lately? And I guess tell us non-stock market related investment.
Yeah. So my investment portfolio is probably like 40% real estate, 30-ish percent stocks, bonds, 10-15% private equity, 15% cash. So it's pretty well diversified. I've obviously bought a lot of kind of like apartments and strip malls in Sioux Falls. And like, those have been good investments for us. I think the best investments have probably been apartments. We probably have about, me and my partner Kevin, have about 2,000 units in town and growing. We're building more every year. And they've been great from like, you know, if you can build them for $150,000 a unit and they sell at $200,000 a unit, like you've made money, at least from your balance sheet perspective, overnight. And then as you get them going, people pay you rent, and you can typically get like 3 years of interest only on a loan. So like you'll be getting rent in and you're only owing interest payments. You can take out some of your down payment like kind of at the 3-year mark and get most of your money back. And it tends to, you know, they've done really well for us.
Awesome. Okay, this is a fun question.
Okay.
What What is your favorite purchase that you've made so far this year?
In 2026, um, okay, so here's the story. It was a $40 purchase, um, and it was a leopard gecko for my daughter named Clementine. We'll put a picture up of Clementine. But my daughter Addie had a leopard gecko in her school classroom, Mr. Peterson's classroom, and she would take pictures of the leopard gecko with her iPad every day at school. She's special needs, so she has an iPad that's kind of her speech device. So she'll take pictures of the gecko and like, after school got out, you know, leopard gecko at home? Leopard gecko at home? And we were like, no, we've got two dogs, we're good on pets. And, you know, that kind of settled it down for a while. She had a stuffed leopard gecko. I thought we were good. And then we made the mistake of going to the reptile zoo and they had a leopard gecko for sale for $40. And I resisted the urge that day, but then that night Addie came out of her room with $40 from her piggy bank and said, "Daddy, go buy a leopard gecko for $40," and handed me $40. I'm like, uh, and it's like, okay, I guess we're getting a leopard gecko. So then when she was gone over the Fourth of July at Grandma's house for a few days, Dad went to the Reptile Zoo, bought the leopard gecko, went and got the tank, went and asked ChatGPT, "How do you take care of a leopard gecko?" Because who knows how to do that? And went and bought some crickets to feed the leopard gecko, and now we have a leopard gecko, and it is bringing a lot of joy to my family.
I love it.
I think that's it for, for this video. If you liked it, if you like the question, this format of, you know, questions, different topics on YouTube, either as like a long-form video or shorts, definitely let me know in the comments. Leave some feedback, subscribe to the channel. We'll go from there.
