Is Online Business Still Worth It in 2026?

Captain FI sits down with Matt Raad from the eBusiness Institute to answer the big question on every digital entrepreneur's mind: has AI killed the online business model, or is it creating more opportunity than ever?

Matt shares why it's now a buyer's market for websites, how savvy investors are picking up undervalued "diamonds in the rough" for as little as $5,000–$50,000, and why the old passive income playbook has evolved into something more active — but potentially far more rewarding. They cover what's working in 2026 (community-driven sites, lead gen, course businesses, search everywhere optimization), what's dead (mass AI-generated content blogs), and how AI tools like Gemini and Claude are changing the way online businesses are researched, built, and grown.

Captain FI also shares a personal update — including selling off parts of his portfolio, reviving his email list, and doubling down on the assets that matter most. Plus, Matt makes the case for why online business remains one of the fastest paths to financial independence, especially for millennials navigating a tough economic climate.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale, this episode is packed with practical, no-fluff advice on how to build real cash flow online in the age of AI.

For Episode 68 of the Captain FI Podcast we are changing things up a bit and hosting a podcast Takeover!

I co-host a LIVE episode of the Catching up to FI podcast with Jackie Cumings Koski, recorded during the third annual FI Freedom Retreat in Bali hosted by Amy Minkley.

This is an awesome episode with lots of powerful stories and life lessons across a wide variety of FI experience - from relatively new starters, to experienced retirees!

On board today is Michael Quan, author of the book The FirePlanner, and the man behind the popular Financially Alert blog and the Breakthrough Millionaire Podcast. Michael reached FIRE in his early thirties and It was actually only after he sold his IT company to a larger provider and inadvertently found himself back in a nine-to-five corporate job that he decided he was going to pull the pin and FIRE at age 36, which is pretty impressive.

Post FIRE, these days, Michael is a stay-at-home dad in sunny San Diego. He loves raising his kids, spending time with his wife, and in his downtime, writing, podcasting, and financially coachinghis students and readers.

Michael's latest project has been setting upand running a real estate investor mastermind group, which he does a couple of times a month.

I really enjoyed my chat with Michael and he had heaps of awesome suggestions for learning resources and inspiration too!

Today, I have the absolute pleasure to be chatting toLiz from her awesome blog and amazing book that she wrote, Meet the Frugal Woods! Anyone who's been on the Captain FI blog knows that I'm a big fan of Liz and Nate, the Frugal Woods and they are literally living my dream!

They have an acreage in rural Vermont, which they call theFrugalwoods. There, they're raising their two beautiful daughters and they participate in a whole bunch of wholesome things. They're always gardening, the kids are always in the garden, and it really just looks like an awesome lifestyle.

Liz and her husband started working towards FI in 2014, both 29 at the time. They had white collar office positions and thought they were dream jobs but they realised they didn't actually feel fulfilled. They were forced to re evaluate and started to talk about other ways that they could live their lives.

Something that they really wanted to do was live innature. They were in Boston and did not feel energised, they wanted to be in the woods.

So they bought a property in rural Vermont in 2016 and have never looked back.

Liz has since enjoyed freelance writing, working one on one with clients doing financial consultations, writing for the Frugalwoods blog and she published the book, Meet the Frugalwoods which has been extremely popular!

This was a bit of a selfish interview as I wanted as much info as possible on Liz's homestead life so I can make this a reality for myself!

On board today is Phil Muscatello, the host and producer of theawesome podcasts, Shares for Beginners, Stocks for Beginners, ETFs for Beginners and Talking Companies.

Phil is not from a finance background, but he wants to learn more about becoming a better investor. So he hopes that his listeners come along for the ride and don't make the same mistakes that he has.

Phil actually has degrees in Media Production and Literary Studies. He played in some awesome, psychedelic, heavy rock cabaret bands in Sydney during the 80s, before moving into a more stable career in radio, working at the ABC, and TripleJ.

Phil describes himself as a seventies punk boomer, he loves playing guitar, ocean swimming, cycling, going to the gym, and anything to do with technology.

He grew up in Sydney, has always been interested in music, playing guitar, loves literature, arts and is an avid reader.

He went to UTS in Sydney and became a little bit of a political radical. After leaving university with a media degree, there was a recession and a lot of depair, as well as very limited jobs in media, so he ended up driving taxis for a few years before starting a career in radio, moving into commercial radio and then started his own recording studio.

He recorded one of the first podcasts in Australia, setting up his own server and fast forward to today, is still loving the podcasting!

Phil was incredibly interesting and had a thing or two to teach me too!

On board today is Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung from Canada, alsoknown from their popular blog, Millennial Revolution. Here's a quote from our guests, 'Money is the most important thing in the world'. Maybe a bit of a controversial take.

Whilst having money is certainly no guarantee of happiness, poverty is sure to make you miserable, and no one knows this better than Kristy, who has seen both ends of the wealthspectrum. Despite growing up in poverty and, at one point, living with her family on 44 cents a day, Kristy Shen, along with her husband Bryce Leung, went on to become self mademillionaires at the ripe old age of 31 and 32, going on to retire only a few years later.

Now, 40 and 41 Kristy and Bryce have spent the past decadetraveling, exploring new cultures, spending time with family and friends, helping others succeed with their financial goals, and expressing their creativity as authors and publishers, both in personal finance, but also, interestingly, with children's books.

How did they do it? Well, as students, analyzing potentialcareer paths, they weighed up training costs, effort, and future salaries to work out their optimum return on investment, and the pair both very mindfully chose to work in the developing field of software engineering.

Kristy's heritage taught her to avoid debt at all costs, and theimportance of a high savings rate. Kristy and Bryce took it to the next level, saving and investing on average 80 percent of their large software engineer incomes over their nine-year working careers. In 2015, they pulled the plug.

They retired from their engineering jobs to FIRE and travel theworld together. They blog at Millennial Revolution, and have published the book, Quit like a Millionaire, which I found particularly helpful and inspiring on my journey to FIRE.

They believe that money is the most important tool we have to improve our quality of life.Kristy and Bryce swear by the numbers which led them to financial freedom and enabled them to pursue their passions for travel, writing, and helping others.

Jump on board, this one's a long one but Kristy and Bryce were just so inspiring to chat to!

On board today is Louise Howard, a Sydney-based executive who I met through the FIRE community. Louise is an incredibly talented, dedicated and successful person who has held executive roles in infrastructure projects in the public sector, as well as management and consulting in the private sector.

She recently decided to take a break from her government job and launched her own advisory business called Louise Howard Advisory, where she advises and speaks publicly, all over the world on topics such as infrastructure, development, career mentoring and leadership.

Louise is from a big Italian family and learned some solid financial lessons from her parents who provided a wonderful start for her and her siblings.

Louise lives in a high cost of living area in Sydney, but is a mean negotiator when it comes to her salary, and is passionate about pay equality for women in the workforce.

Louise is 5 years from her FAT Fire goal, has made some very smart money and investing decisions along the way and it was awesome to catch up with her again!

On board today is Dev Raga, a practicing clinician from Melbourne with a passion for personalfinance. Dev is a fellow podcaster and currently hosts the MyMillennial Money Professional Podcast, which is a podcast that makes money concepts simple for busy professionals.

Dev began podcasting because he wanted to leave a blueprint for his children and family in the rare event that he wasn't around to explain the basics of personal finance and investing.

He's a husband, father, doctor, podcaster and he's a first generation immigrant. His parents migrated here in the early nineties from India and Dev grew up in Adelaide actually, went to medical school and then moved to Melbourne.

Dev is a millennial and learned from his parents at a very early age, that while money was not the most important thing, that it is very important.

Dev wants to keep working in the medical field, even after reaching FI and continues to enjoy interviewing many interesting professionals through his podcast.

Dev has some very useful viewpoints to share with us, so strap in, this one will get you thinking!

On board today is Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. Michellereached financial independence through her online businesses and has enjoyed living a variety of interesting lifestyles post FI, including, but not limited to van life.

Now, Michelle and her family even live part-time on a sailboat, and get to travel the world via the seven seas, which is pretty bloody cool. Michelle used to work as a financial analyst and documented her journey towards FI through her blog, Making Sense of Cents, which she started in 2011, so her first series of blogs was aboutpaying off nearly $40k worth of student loans in just half a year, which is a pretty mind-boggling accomplishment in itself.

Michelle went on to write tips and insights aboutpersonal finance, budgeting, and how she was able to make more money which helped her to pay down these debts so quickly, and then she was able to turn this cash firehose into building her wealth.

Her blog became incredibly popular, and fast forward to today, Michelle's website has reached over 20 million readers, regularly goes out to over 300, 000 subscribers and has earned her a tidy USD $5 million in revenue!

Michelle has actually meticulously documented this income showing the various income streams through areas such as advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing and selling her own digital products and courses.

It's pretty awesome. And it's a transparency that youdon't often see online.

Jump on board, I learned a lot from Michelle!

On board today are Jess and Corey, better known online as The Fioneers.

Jess and Corey both spent the majority of their careers workingin mission driven non-profit organizations.

But in 2018, Jess experienced really bad burnout,which led to some anxiety and really needing to take a step back. So Jess had a six month career break to really focus on her mental health, returning the following year to part-time work. This gave her time to rest, reset, focus, and plan.

When researching and planning out her future career and finances, she discovered that they'd actually already reached coast FI, so decided to only continue working part-time and enjoy creative and relaxing hobbies on her time off, such as blogging.

In 2020, Jess launched her own business, Design A LifeYou'd Love, which went really well, and only a year later, she was able to leave her job to work full time on the business. Now, afterpurchasing and building out a camper van last year, Jess and Corey now travel the USA, living a location independent lifestyle.

It was a really interesting, 3 way chat today, learning about their attitudes towards FIRE and about designing a life you don't needto retire from.