Hey Rebels! Let's dive into this week's issue to help you become smarter about money, investing, and business in less than 10 minutes a week.
Weekly Intel
Stay current with top news from the business, money, and investing world.
Top Stories
🥺 The Friends-To-Enemies trope goes to court: Elon Musk, an OpenAI co-founder and original funder, accuses former business partner Sam Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman of breaking their promise to keep OpenAI a nonprofit. OpenAI responds with “but, the money…???” (more)
🌄 Hope on the horizon: Stock markets ended Friday mixed, with the S&P and Nasdaq closing at record highs as investors look optimistically to a restart to US-Iran talks (more)
🛬 Might need to rethink those European summer plans (again): The conflict in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted oil supplies to the point that Europe will be out of jet fuel in weeks, says the International Energy Agency. $20 to choose your seat, $60 to check a bag, $World Peace for fuel, $10 for wifi, etc. (more)
By the numbers
🙀 Six weeks: when European air carriers think they’ll run out of jet fuel. (more)
🚓 $400,000: how much a US soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro won on Polymarket (he was arrested—don’t try this at home) (more)
🏃🏽♂️💨1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds: how fast Sabastian Sawe ran the London Marathon, setting the new world record and blowing my mind. Excuse my humble brag, but I ran exactly 90 minutes slower than Sawe two weeks ago at the Milan Marathon, and I still can’t walk normally. (more)
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The Financial Rebellion Way
Stop Googling “How to Invest” and Just Start
Analysis paralysis is keeping you broke. You don’t need a finance degree or perfect strategy. You need an account and $20. Here’s your no-BS starting line.
Your investing starter pack (pick ONE today):
Open a Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab account. Buy their S&P 500 index fund. Set up $50 monthly auto-invest. Done. You’re an investor.
Download the Acorns app and begin investing spare change and more like millions of other people like you.
Work has a 401(k)? That’s investing. Increase your contribution by 1% right now. If they match, max that out—it’s free money.
First investment checklist:
Pick platform (5 minutes)
Link bank account (2 minutes)
Choose S&P 500 or let Acorns automatically choose the fund for you (1 minute)
Set up weekly or monthly auto-invest (2 minutes)
Close the app and fogettaboutit
Big picture: The “perfect” investment platform doesn’t exist. Pick one, start small and learn by doing. Six months from now, you’ll wonder why you waited so long.
Markets - stocks and crypto
In under 3 minutes, start investing spare change, saving for retirement, earning more, spending smarter, and more.
Click the image above or this link to earn a special $40 bonus.
Prices for the week ending April 24, 2026:
▲ S&P 500 | 7,157 | +0.56% |
▲ NASDAQ | 24,799 | +1.54% |
▼ GOLD | 4,708 | -1.44% |
▲ INTEL (INTC) | 84.29 | +25.21% |
▼ UNITED AIR (UAL) | 92.12 | -7.57% |
▼ BITCOIN (BTC) | 78,212 | -0.20% |
▼ ETHEREUM (ETH) | 2,325 | -2.16% |
Stock and Crypto Moves
Happy belated 4/20 to all who celebrate: The U.S. is moving marijuana from a highly restricted Schedule I drug to a less strict category (not legalizing it), which could ease research and business regulations—but markets are still unsure how big the impact will be. (more)
Coming back bit by bit: Bitcoin ETFs just pulled in over $2 billion in eight days, signaling big institutional money is piling back into crypto and helping push prices higher. (more)
The merger that never left the group chat: United Airlines explored a mega-merger with American Airlines, but American shut it down fast over antitrust concerns, killing what could’ve been the biggest airline deal in years. (more)
Intel’s partying like it's 1987: Intel’s stock had its best day since the 80s last week after earnings, as investors reacted to its performance and outlook, signaling renewed (but cautious) confidence in its turnaround. (more)
New high, who dis?: Nvidia is closing in on another record as the AI boom keeps fueling demand for its chips, reinforcing its position as the biggest winner of the AI race. (more)
Real Money Moves
Each week, we feature a reader’s smartest and dumbest money moves. We’re all in this together; let’s learn from each other.
Stepan, 21 - Tampa, FL
Best Money Move - Playing Minecraft at 14
“When I was 14, I played Minecraft. That was also the first time I was actually buying Bitcoin. It was around $6,000 at that time.”
“I just wrote on a chat, hey guys, I just bought Bitcoin under $10,000. Is there anyone else who did it too?”
“This one person responded to me that he did it too. So we connected on Discord. So that’s how we kind of met our angel investor, just through Minecraft.”
Worst Money Move - Going all in on one crypto project
“I was actually doing pretty well. I got my portfolio from low or mid four figures to mid six figures.”
“And then I went basically all in on one project and it went down quite a bit.”
“So I’m back a little bit lower than I [started] but it’s still fine. Like I’m up. But it was probably my worst financial decision that I didn’t sell anything and it was a year ago now in January.”
Got a story? Send it in. You might help someone dodge a mistake or make a smarter call.
Side Hustle Differently
Each week, we focus on money-making opportunities for a side hustle that could potentially become a full-time venture. No MLM schemes, no “passive income” lies, just real strategies for stacking cash outside your 9-5.
Turn Every Restaurant Visit Into Revenue
What it is: Stepan Mruzek, 21, a student athlete at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida, built Flaer—an app that pays users to post Instagram stories of their favorite local spots. This is how a Czech tennis player revolutionized local marketing:
The Lightning Bolt Idea: Setting up ads on Facebook can be confusing. “Why don’t we use the customers of businesses to promote the business?” Stepan asked.
How It Works: A person goes to a business, they spend money like they normally would (buying food or coffee or a product), and then they take a picture of the food. They post on their story, tag the business and earn a few dollars from Flaer.
From Zero to Funded: It started with his best friend who dropped out of college to learn coding in 3 months. Built the entire marketplace from scratch. Now has a 6-person team and over a year of runway from an angel investor he met playing Minecraft at 14.
Stepan’s advice? “Just make the first step, make the second step. At the beginning, it won’t spin like this. It will be very slow. People will maybe even laugh at what you’re doing… But if you’re really convinced that that’s something that you want to do, just take the first step.”
P.S. It’s no secret that we are big fans of credit unions over here at Financial Rebellion. Our fav thing about Stepan?? He’s also a proud credit union member (USF Credit Union). Follow the newsletter to learn more about doing money rebelliously, with the help of your local credit union.
Check out the Financial Rebellion podcast to learn about how to turn your passion into profit.
The Rebellion Challenge
Want to win some gear?
How old were you when you started investing? Email us your age (bonus points if you have a good story about how you got started!) and enter to win Financial Rebellion swag!
Bank Like A Rebel
While big banks profit from your mistakes, credit unions invest in your financial education. Weird how doing the right thing is considered rebellious.
Did you know the myths about credit unions versus banks? Debunked here.
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Interested in becoming a Financial Rebellion Partner? Reach out to [email protected].
We’ll catch you next week. Rebels OUT.
Todd Romer: Founder and Writer
Corinne Clarkson: Writer and Editor
Dallin Merrill: Chief Newsletter Overlord
Disclaimer: The advice provided in Financial Rebellion is not considered to be financial or legal advice of any kind. It is your responsibility to dig deeper on any opinions or recommendations given.