"Money is only useful if you don't have it."

After six years of indie hacking and getting by on $1k/mo, Marc Louvion is making $60k MRR. He made that 60x leap within one year.

He gave me a peek behind the curtain at how he's handling this sudden increase in income. 👇

Creation; not consumption

💰 "Real happiness comes from creation; not consumption. Making apps, writing tweets, and creating videos are my real sources of happiness." —Marc

Marc doesn't budget at all. He says he doesn't need to. He was forced to live on $1k/mo for 6 years, and now material goods mean very little to him.

Even now, after his revenue increased by 60x, he has no interest in buying anything. Hence, no need to budget.

Here's his reasoning:

1. Things break all the time and you have to fix them.
2. Things bind you to a place and he needs to travel often to be with his French parents and Korean family-in-law.
3. It's cheap dopamine. You get excited when you buy, but it fades away quickly.

💰 "Spending money only creates cheap dopamine. Learning how to be happy by creating is the best way to save money." —Marc

And there are a few other things that keep his spending low.

He says he saves money by having a wife. They don't go out to dinners or parties much, so they save a lot. He lives in Bali, where the cost of living is quite low. And his favorite activity is surfing, which is free(ish).

So life is cheap.

The difference between 1k MRR and $60k MRR

💰 "The journey remains the same after 100x MRR. Make your work fun, like a game. Stick to small goals. And keep showing your work. Learn to enjoy every moment along the way." —Marc

Marc's shift from $1k/mo to $60k/mo was a quick one. And while his spending hasn't changed, his life has.

He says he's less anxious about everything now. He stopped working 12 hours per day and is somehow more productive. And he can afford healthy food.

He also has more leeway with business expenses.

💰 "Business-wise, I can invest easily in a tool if I need it. My newsletter costs $99 a month. That would have made me cry last year." —Marc

Hard numbers

Marc is running 6 projects right now. ShipFast is making over $60k/mo. Others, like ByeDispute and IndiePage are ramen profitable.

Here's what he's bringing in:

• Product revenue: Roughly $60k/mo across 6 products (mostly ShipFast)
• Twitter: $150/mo
• Founder pay: Everything he earns
• Personal account: $150k

That big sum in his personal account is his just-in-case cash reserve.

Here are his business expenses:

• Total: $183/mo
• Hosting → Vercel: $20/mo
• Database → MongoDB: $7/mo
• Analytics → Plausible: $30/mo
• Newsletter → Beehiiv: $99/mo
• Assistant → Co-Pilot: $10/mo
• Marketing → Twitter + Typefully: $17/mo

That's quite a margin.

And here are his personal expenses:

• Total: $1,915/mo
• Food: $1,000/mo
• Accommodation: $750/mo
• Health insurance: $80/mo
• Electricity: $50/mo
• Wifi: $35/mo

Plus the occasional broken surfboard.

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Keeping things simple

Marc keeps things simple with a Wise business account and separate personal account. He says the Wise account is easy, and it allows him to have a USD bank account for Stripe.

It also gives him 4% interest per year, paid monthly. He says it's like his account is bringing in $600 MRR.

Marc's products are all under a sole proprietorship in France, so taxes are straightforward: 24% on any revenue that lands in Stripe. He declares his revenue monthly and pays the following month. At the end of the year, he'll pay personal taxes, which are about 2%.

That's also why he pays himself everything his products earn — he's getting taxed directly on the revenue anyway.

All-in and move on

In 2021, Marc invested what he calls his "parent's legacy" in Tesla. It was about $150,000 and he plans to leave it there for 10+ years.

💰 "I don't touch the money, I don't look at it, and I have no idea how much it's worth now." —Marc

And he wasn't following the "invest only what you can afford to lose" mantra. That was everything he had. At the time, he had no savings and he was only making about $1k/mo from his products.

High risk, high reward.

In fact, the high risk is exactly why he doesn't look at the investment anymore. He lost $40,000 within two weeks of investing it and got so stressed that he had to stop looking.

As for why he chose to go all in on Tesla, he loves their cars and strongly believes roads will be filled with robotaxis by 2050.

💰 "Like many of the apps I build, I didn't think much. I was convinced it was the right investment to make, so I wired $150,000 to the broker in a day and moved on." —Marc

He hasn't invested a great deal since that initial investment, but now that he's making bank, anything he makes over his $150k cash reserve will go straight to Tesla.

Marc also invests in health, sleep, and books: He buys good food, never sacrifices sleep, and reads so that he can "learn and dream".

Speaking of which, while he doesn't buy much, he does have one not-so-guilty pleasure. Marc's morning routine is to wake up at 6am, surf for 2 hours, and then read a good book with a coffee... and once a month, in a delicious splurge, he'll add 5 donuts to the mix.

Money attracts attention (and money)

💰 "Money is only useful if you lack it." —Marc

Money may not buy him happiness, but it does benefit him in one significant way: It helps him make more of it.

He says money gets attention on the internet. People find his work because of it, and it increases the perceived value of his products.

He breaks his "attention journey" into three chapters:

1. No attention for years
2. Attention in the indie hacking community due to shipping lots of apps and making videos about them
3. Attention in entrepreneurship communities (Twitter, Reddit) now that he earns more than he needs

And all that newfound attention translates to dollars.

💰 "Money is universal. My parents won't understand 'I created a NextJS boilerplate for solopreneurs' but they do understand 'I earn $10,000/month.'" —Marc

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You can find Marc on X and his newsletter, Just Ship It. Or check out ShipFast.

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!