Forget your property portfolio or that management buy-out bonus. When it comes to your finances, say Zachary Trebbi and Joshua Kiley, your greatest asset is knowledge. Without it, how can you maximize the value in what you have? How can you ensure your nest egg will last into retirement and beyond? The Tik Tok sensations turned online stock market educators are on a mission to bring financial knowledge to the masses.
The problem, they say, is that financial literacy is omitted from the standard school curriculum, leaving children lacking in the knowledge to properly manage their own investments and finances as they journey through life. According to Trebbi, “There is no age boundary to start learning about finance. It is never too late to start your journey to becoming a more knowledgeable investor.” Through their online education program and informative Tik Tok videos, Zachary Trebbi and Joshua Kiley are empowering the average Joe and Jane to take control of their assets.
They are the co-founders of CEOWatchlist, initially set up to disseminate data tracking the trades of prominent business CEOs via social media. Their videos quickly went viral – thanks to their quality content and work gathering data on the effective ways to reach their audience – and their education program was born.
Zachary Trebbi says, “The actual name CEOWatchlist came to be thanks to the original idea of copying and following the trades of CEOs, but the actual business model came to be because of a need for proper education in a social media-filled world full of misinformation.”
Misinformation is a challenge when it comes to online financial education. Combating the widespread misrepresented advice and false data is one of Trebbi and Kiley’s biggest challenges. It’s why they believe knowledge is one of the most powerful assets anyone interested in investing can hold. “We give our students the opportunity to learn how to have their money make money for them,” say Trebbi and Kiley. “It’s just like the old saying – give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for life. That’s our goal”.
Zachary Trebbi and Joshua Kiley believe with just a little bit of reliable knowledge, the average person who is interested in improving their financial future can have the independence and capability to become financially free with just a little hard work.
They attribute their popularity to a shift to at-home investing driven by the pandemic. Trebbi and Kiley say, “During the pandemic, there was a clear rush to the stock market and investing as a whole.” With academic backgrounds in mathematics, finance, and family involvement in investing, the duo is now on a mission to help people with zero or minimal prior knowledge of the stock market make informed, pertinent decisions about where they invest their money.
For Trebbi and Kiley, knowledge is power. And for new investors, in particular, it could be the most valuable asset they own.
