ORLANDO, Fla. — For decades, the digital publishing landscape has operated under a singular, relentless commandment: grow or die. Creators across blogging, podcasting, and video platforms are continuously urged to maximize traffic, expand their funnels, convert casual viewers into paying customers, and chase the ever-elusive metric of viral engagement. But for J.D., the veteran voice behind the long-running personal finance site Get Rich Slowly, a recent industry gathering in Orlando served as the final push to step off the treadmill entirely.
Reflecting on a career that spans from humble beginnings in a rural box factory to the glittering heights of the modern creator economy, the author is charting a radically different course—one that involves removing advertising entirely from his platform, accepting a fraction of his former income, and embracing a philosophy largely foreign to the modern internet: a deliberate lack of ambition.
A Legacy Rooted in Simplicity
The roots of this perspective stretch back far beyond the launch of Get Rich Slowly. Walking his dog on a crisp morning recently, the publisher found his thoughts drifting back to 1992, fresh out of college and working a modest job for his father at a rural box factory.
At the time, company headquarters operated out of a dilapidated, threadbare trailer house—a physical environment the author recalls as an absolute pit. Despite his familial connection, the job paid a meager $16,500 a year with zero commissions, roughly equivalent to $35,500 in modern currency. Yet, it was during this period that he had his first direct collision with the corporate gospel of relentless ambition.
A travelling consultant who specialized in training salesmen—identifiable by an unyielding, permanent grin etched into his face—visited the remote facility to pitch his services. After leading the young employee through a textbook series of qualifying questions, the consultant dropped his presumptive close: "When can I schedule you for training?"
The response was a blunt rejection. When the salesman asked why he wouldn’t want to make more money, the young worker offered a perspective that baffled both the consultant and his own father. "I’d love to make more money," he explained, "but I’m not like most salesmen. I’m not ambitious."
While his father, whom he describes as the most ambitious person he ever knew, expected his son to leap at the chance to climb the corporate ladder, the younger worker recognized a fundamental truth about himself. His academic success in grade school, high school, and college—including editing literary magazines and competing nationally in the Future Business Leaders of America—was never driven by a desire for prestige or status. It stemmed from genuine intellectual curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and a love for the work itself.
Allergic to Making Money
That same friction between traditional ambition and personal values resurfaced recently at Fincon, the premier annual conference for financial bloggers, YouTubers, podcasters, and digital influencers.
Gathered around a conference room table in Orlando alongside peers who generate substantial revenue and wield immense digital reach, the author found himself once again cast in the role of the outlier. While the group’s lively discussions naturally gravitated toward scaling operations—how to secure more readers, higher viewership, greater publicity, and increased profits—the conversation inevitably turned to the current state and future trajectory of Get Rich Slowly.
Describing his vision for the site, the publisher shared his intent to transform the platform into a reliable, unvarnished online encyclopedia of personal finance, free from corporate noise. When he casually mentioned that the site currently generates a modest $500 per month, a colleague voiced a sentiment shared by many in the room: "I don’t get you, J.D. Why are you allergic to making money?"
The answer, the publisher maintains, is rooted in his upbringing. Having grown up poor in a dirty trailer home, the financial reality of his adult life already far exceeds anything he once thought possible. He feels no burning internal mandate to become rich or famous.
Moreover, observing the broader world has led him to a stark conclusion: many societal problems stem not from outright malice, but from a specific brand of ambition—a form of self-absorption accompanied by a deficit of empathy and a willful blindness to the consequences of one’s actions on the less fortunate.
Pointing to standard industry practices, the publisher notes that he could easily command substantial revenue by promoting credit cards on Get Rich Slowly. However, having personally suffered through the agonizing weight of credit card debt years prior, he refuses to act as a conduit for others to experience a similar fate.
Comparing the promotion of high-interest debt to offering whiskey to an alcoholic, he chooses to keep that particular product off the table, recognizing that while many readers use financial tools responsibly, vulnerable individuals can be irreparably harmed. Similarly, he rejects the pressure to chase viral trends, cover ephemeral financial apps, or manufacture outrage simply to capture fleeting algorithmic attention.
Unclouded by Ambition
Conferences like Fincon are undeniably electric, designed to invigorate attendees by showcasing creators who are dominating their niches and pulling in millions of views or dollars. For someone inherently competitive and responsive to measurable metrics, the temptation to adopt these scaling strategies is always present.
Yet, returning home from this year’s gathering brought a profound sense of clarity rather than a renewed drive for expansion. Convinced that the endless pursuit of audience funnels and engagement metrics is ultimately a trap, the publisher has resolved to exit the traditional game entirely.
The year 2022 has prompted a significant reassessment of perspective. Rather than participating in the standard cycle of digital publishing—creating content designed primarily to maximize clicks and ad impressions—he aims to focus exclusively on storytelling and helping others, operating entirely unhindered by conventional markers of success.
This realization means casting aside accepted industry playbooks and forging an entirely independent path. It is a transition that carries tangible financial consequences. By the end of December, the publisher intends to strip Get Rich Slowly of all advertising.
Charting an Unexplored Path
Where this independent path leads remains entirely uncertain, and for the author, that lack of predictability is precisely the point. It is entirely possible that the coming years will be spent producing content for a very small audience while earning a meager $500 a month—or even nothing at all during the transition. In fact, earnings for October sat at $486.60.
While the site’s formal sabbatical continues through the end of the year, exploratory work is already underway. Readers can still expect occasional updates, including reflections on exercises from the book Designing Your Life and personal essays addressing the recent death of his mother.
Rather than viewing potential dead ends or wrong turns as wasted time, the publisher embraces the uncertainty of cutting a fresh trail through the undergrowth. Accompanied by a loyal readership that values substance over scale, the journey forward promises to be defined by curiosity and authenticity rather than the relentless pursuit of growth.
