Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of Fanbytes.
Tim Armor.
Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of influencer marketing company Fanbytes, isn’t your idea of a multimillionaire.
He owns no mansion or property and says he prefers to spend some of his money on eclectic investments, from an exotic fruit business in Africa to financing the sale of a lithium mine.
Armoo made the money by selling Fanbytes to digital marketing agency Brainlabs for an eight-figure sum in May 2022 (the exact amount has not been disclosed).
But the young entrepreneur told CNBC Make It that after growing up in public housing in south London, he felt he “barely had any money to spend”.
“I was convinced that if I started spending money, everything would start disappearing,” Amo said, describing the so-called “scarcity mentality” he developed growing up.
“I track it every week, maybe twice a week,” he said. “I have a spreadsheet where I track how much money I have.”
Amu knew he had to find a way to accept the fact that he was now rich and didn’t want to lose everything – so he called the bank. “I said: ‘I want to come and get a million pounds in cash.'”
After many checks, Amo took the cash from the bank and put it in a big bag to take home. Then he spread it all out on the bed.
“I just looked,” he said. “The reason I did it is I wanted to know deep down inside me: ‘Man, if all else fails, if you spend all your money gambling, or you spend your money on cryptocurrencies, or at least On something bad, you have a million pounds in cash.
A ‘Totally Exotic’ Investment
Armoo said he invests his money in index funds – passive funds that track an index, such as S&P 500 Index – and owns a variety of stocks, including Shopping and Yunyao.
“So I basically have two camps: One is the ultra-safe bucket: index funds, super heavy cash, bonds, guilt and Treasuries. And then the other side of things is completely exotic.”
Some of Armoo’s more unusual investments include financing avocado, soybean and mango operations in Kenya, Angola and Tanzania that supply supermarkets in Europe.
Armoo’s banana farm in Angola
Tim Armor.
He also admitted he was involved in “random things” and “alternative investments” such as buying uranium and financing the sale of lithium mines.
“I like finding different arbitrages and different cool ways to spend money and invest, rather than ‘let’s just throw all our money into index funds,'” he added.
Armoo is a minimalist who doesn’t own a house
Most rich people like it Invest in real estatebut not Amo.
“I don’t actually own a house. I’m not involved in any residential properties or any direct commercial properties,” he said.
“Most people look at property as a way to build wealth but I use business as a way to build wealth and I don’t have a family and now I don’t have a partner so why?”
Amu said he expects more young millionaires to make this choice, rejecting property purchases in favor of more travel and activities. “I’ll probably only be in London for half a year,” he said.
Unlike his peers, he is less willing to buy extravagant things.
“I’m generally a minimalist person,” he said. One example of a “flashy” purchase he gave was buying a first-class flight to Bali for him and his now-ex-girlfriend. “That was so cool. I remember thinking: ‘Yo, this is gangster.'”
The young millionaire stresses that sometimes it’s good to reject the traditional way of doing things.
“I think there’s actually a more important point here, which is to examine the rules of your life. You should examine them and say, ‘Okay, why am I doing this? Why am I choosing this career? Why am I investing in myself? That’s all for the money? he said.
“You should really check the rules because if they aren’t, you’re going to wake up later and realize you’ve been living by someone else’s rules.”
