High-school sweethearts started a blog while carrying $40,000 in student debt. By 30, their net worth topped $1 million.

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Kathleen Elkins

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Before launching The Savvy Couple in 2016, Kelan Kline had reached a breaking point.

He and his wife, Brittany, had recently married, bought a starter home, and begun paying down roughly $40,000 in student loans. Brittany was an elementary school teacher, while Kelan worked as a jail deputy.

The couple, who grew up in Rochester, New York and began dating in ninth grade, had little control over their schedules. Their shifts rarely overlapped, leaving them with little time together.

"We were working opposite shifts," Kelan told Business Insider. "We never got to see each other."

One night, they sat down at their dinner table and tried to define their "ideal lifestyle." Their vision looked little like their current lives: It centered on family, flexibility, and control over their time.

"I was after time freedom," Kelan said. "I was so sick and tired of someone else telling me when to come to work, forced overtime, and denying my vacation."

Turning a $2.95-a-month blog into a 7-figure business

With a clearer picture of the life they wanted, the Klines began reverse-engineering it. Inspired by two personal finance blogs they followed, Making Sense of Cents and Millennial Money Man, they decided to build an online business focused on money.

The subject fit their experience: They had spent years budgeting and paying down debt, and the income reports published by the bloggers they followed suggested that the model could scale. For Kelan, the biggest appeal was the possibility of becoming his own boss and controlling his schedule.

The startup costs were minimal — they launched The Savvy Couple in 2016 with a web-hosting plan that cost $2.95 a month — but the low cost didn't eliminate the learning curve.

For nine months, the blog generated no revenue. Then they earned $50 for a sponsored post.

That first payment convinced Kelan the site had potential. Two weeks later, he proposed leaving his day job to focus on the business full time — and Brittany signed off. They still had tens of thousands of dollars in debt, but about six months of living expenses in savings gave them a cushion.

Even with the cash runway, giving up predictable income was stressful.

"There were probably 100 times I considered going back to work and getting a 9-to-5," Kelan said. "Business goes up and down. It's a roller coaster."

With Kelan focused on the business full time, it gained traction. In 2019, the business generated enough income to cover Brittany's teaching salary, allowing her to leave the classroom. The couple made their final student-loan payment that December.

The company later expanded to include The Savvy Mama, a brand focused on household finances, meal planning, and family routines. Across their businesses, the Klines earn revenue from display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and their own digital products and services.

Their revenue peaked in 2023 and 2024. BI reviewed profit-and-loss statements from Savvy Media Marketing reporting a total income of $1.3 million in 2023 and $1.1 million in 2024.

Their revenue has dropped over the past couple of years. Kelan attributed the decline largely to changes in Google search, which he said cut traffic to their blogs by 80% to 90%. In response, the couple shifted their attention more toward YouTube, memberships, digital products, and marketing services for local businesses.

They still believe online businesses can offer low startup costs, flexibility, and room to scale, but if they were starting from scratch today, a traditional blog dependent on Google traffic wouldn't be their first choice.

Investing the difference between income and spending

As their income climbed, the Klines prevented their lifestyle from rising at the same pace. They stayed in their starter home for seven years, drove used cars, rarely ate out, and spent about five years as a one-car household.

Rather than treating higher revenue as permission to spend more, they directed much of the difference between their income and expenses into investments.

Kelan describes their portfolio as "super boring." It includes Vanguard's VTSAX, the technology-focused VGT, retirement accounts, and taxable brokerage accounts. Over the past two years, they have also added rental real estate near Rochester, New York.

The couple said their household net worth — including the estimated value of their businesses, investments, and primary residence — surpassed $1 million in 2020. Business Insider reviewed a screenshot from their Rocket Money account showing a seven-figure net worth.

For them, the clearest payoff has been the ability to organize work around their two daughters. Brittany spent the past school year homeschooling their oldest, while Kelan said he typically works from about 9 a.m. until noon or 1 p.m.

"We protect our time like crazy," he said. "It's night and day having complete time freedom."

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Kathleen Elkins

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Kathleen is a correspondent at Business Insider, covering investing and the path to financial freedom. She's been writing about personal finance for BI and other publications, including CNBC, since 2015.Her coverage includes the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement, real estate investing, and side hustles. She also occasionally covers small businesses and enjoys writing personal narratives about her own experiences navigating the world of money.Elkins graduated from Williams College in 2014 and resides in Los Angeles. Outside work, she trains for marathons and triathlons in the Santa Monica Mountains.Follow her on LinkedIn.Popular articles:

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