Andrew and his family, his closest, most immediate circle, meaning the people he lived with: his parents and his little sister, had moved about four months earlier. Or, more precisely, they had bought a house.
After years of renting, they finally had space of their own.
They bought a house in the same area where his uncles lived, which made sense considering Phil worked as a real estate agent and knew the local market perfectly well.
The area they chose was Cheviot Hills, a typical upper-middle-class residential neighborhood, home to families like the Dunphys.
In reality, most families in the neighborhood had purchased their homes through bank loans. It wasn't a matter of poor financial management, but simple economic reality: in neighborhoods like Cheviot Hills, a house could cost between $600,000 and $800,000, amounts that were impossible to pay in cash, even for well-paid professionals.
Mitchell, for example, earned around $10,000 a month gross as a lawyer. But that number was misleading. In California, taxes aren't exactly low: with a burden close to 33%, his real net income dropped to about $6,700 per month.
Paying $600,000 in cash would mean saving his entire salary for five years, something completely unrealistic once you factored in the cost of living, rent, food, and supporting a family.
In the past, they were renting a house for $2,500 a month.
Now the home they found cost $680,000, so taking out a loan was inevitable. The usual arrangement was to put down around 25% as a down payment, about $170,000, and have the bank finance the remaining 75%, after analyzing income, debts, and job stability.
The most common term was 30 years, with a fixed interest rate close to 5%, which was exactly what they were offered.
The problem was obvious: Mitchell didn't have $170,000 saved. Even though he earned a good salary, between rent, daily expenses, and feeding three people, accumulating that kind of capital simply wasn't possible.
That was when Andrew stepped in. With the money he had earned and accumulated on YouTube since November 2010, he decided not only to cover the minimum down payment, but to go further and reduce the monthly mortgage burden.
Andrew put in $200,000 of his own money, and Mitchell added $100,000. In total, they made a $300,000 down payment, a much higher percentage than usual.
That meant the bank only had to finance the remaining $380,000.
The final mortgage payment came out to $2,040 per month.
On top of that were property taxes and homeowners insurance, which added about $700 more.
The final total was a monthly payment of $2,740. Only $200 more than what they had been paying in rent.
The difference was enormous: they were no longer throwing money away on a house that would never be theirs, but investing in a home of their own, building equity and securing long-term stability.
Although, to be honest, Andrew's original idea had been even more radical: paying for the house in a single payment.
The obvious question was: how the hell could a 17-year-old do something like that?
The answer was YouTube: AdSense and sponsorships. Being the number-one channel on the platform for over a year was paying off.
By the end of October 2010, exactly one year earlier, Andrew had an estimated net worth of around $225,000. His biggest expenses up to that point had been cars: the Camaro and later the BMW, although the latter had been paid for by three people, Andrew, Mitch, and Jay, splitting the cost evenly.
Even so, $225,000 in savings at 16 years old was an absurd figure. Andrew had more money saved than his own father.
But that was only the beginning.
In November and December of 2010, his income exploded.
In October, with games broadcast nationally, he had already earned around $65,000 between AdSense and sponsorships.
What came next was a completely different scale.
In November alone, his channel surpassed 55 million views, after posting "just" 32 million in October. The reasons were clear:
The final against Long Beach Poly, which shattered historic high school records, even surpassing milestones associated with LeBron James.
The semifinal against Mission Viejo, where Andrew broke Jimmy Clausen's record and took Mater Dei to a final for the first time in eight years.
Regionally televised round-of-16 and quarterfinal games also helped.
That month, Andrew earned approximately $140,000 from AdSense and $25,000 from sponsorships, $165,000 in a single month. More than 70% of his entire previous net worth.
December was even wilder.
The state championship, with every game broadcast nationally on ESPN, culminated in an epic final against De La Salle. The game was played at the Rose Bowl, setting an attendance record for a high school matchup, with a TV audience that even surpassed the media impact of the game against Long Beach Poly.
On YouTube, Andrew crossed 100 million views in a single month with videos of the final and related content.
The revenue was massive: more than $300,000 in December alone.
Andrew closed out 2010 with a gross net worth of approximately $705,000.
But the tax reality is unforgiving: with a tax burden exceeding 30%, the actual money he was left with was closer to $445,000.
And then came 2011.
During the first months of the year, Andrew continued to bring in huge numbers. However, it wasn't a full ten months of income, only eight. Why?
In September 2011, Andrew turned off monetization on his YouTube channel and stopped accepting sponsorships.
That month officially marked the beginning of his senior year, and with it, he fell directly under the NCAA's scrutiny. Universities could now make him official offers, pay for campus visits, and treat him for what he was: an elite prospect.
Continuing to monetize at that point would have put his college eligibility at risk. Unlike before, any new income could be interpreted as an improper benefit.
So Andrew made the decision to shut off monetization on August 31, 2011. That meant nothing would generate money anymore, not even his older videos, which could have continued to rack up views and generate passive income, so to speak. Nothing.
Even so, Andrew didn't abandon his channel. He kept uploading the same content as always, he just did it for free.
During the last eight months in which he was allowed to monetize, he took it completely seriously. On average, he earned around $170,000 per month, although some months were stronger and others weaker.
In total, those eight months generated approximately $1,360,000.
After paying roughly 36% in taxes, about $490,000, he was left with close to $870,000.
Added to the savings he already had, his final net worth rose to approximately $1,315,000.
More than one million dollars net.
And that was after paying close to $700,000 in taxes over the entire process. In gross terms, Andrew had generated two million dollars.
Andrew never imagined that when he first opened his YouTube channel back in Palisades, on Howard and Leonard's recommendation, created almost as an experiment, it would go this far, or bring in that much money.
From that final sum, $200,000 had to be subtracted, the amount Andrew put toward the down payment on the new house.
That left his liquid net worth at around $1,115,000, and even a bit less once you factored in the everyday expenses he personally covered: maintaining two cars, personal purchases, and indulgences he didn't always leave in his parents' hands.
Andrew never wanted to be completely independent, not out of necessity, but out of respect for them. Still, he never lived off someone else's money.
With that amount of capital, Andrew could easily have paid for the entire house in cash. If he had put up $580,000 and his father the $100,000 he originally contributed, Andrew would still have had more than $700,000 left in his bank account.
Why pay a bank for 30 years and end up giving back almost double what they lend you?
But Mitchell wouldn't accept it.
It had already been difficult for him to accept Andrew putting in $200,000 as help. The idea of his son directly paying $580,000 for the house was something Mitch simply wasn't willing to tolerate, not out of empty pride, but out of conviction.
Accepting that would mean crossing a line that, in his view, should not be crossed.
With arguments from Cam and Andrew himself, stability, space for Lily, no longer living forever in rentals, and paying a mortgage that would eventually end, Mitchell finally gave in, but only to a point.
He put in $100,000 of his own savings, money he had accumulated since he started working as a lawyer. It wasn't everything he had: in total, he had managed to save around $150,000, originally intended for Andrew's and Lily's future college education.
But with Andrew's college fully covered by his athletic scholarship, tuition, housing, food, and everything, Mitchell could afford to use part of that fund.
What he could not accept was Andrew paying for the house outright.
In the end, Andrew understood. Everyone had their own pride or convictions. And he knew that if he had a child, he probably wouldn't accept a gift of this magnitude either.
Since Andrew started making money on YouTube, Mitch had never used it. His role had always been to advise, to warn, to talk about saving, about safe investments, and about not getting too comfortable.
Jay, who was literally wealthy, with a house worth over a million dollars in an exclusive neighborhood, luxury cars, and zero debt, had never been one to hand out money.
He didn't buy houses for his children, Mitchell or Claire. He didn't pay off their mortgages or fix their lives with checks.
And with his grandchildren, it was the same: Andrew, Haley, Alex, or Luke never received absurdly expensive gifts or unexplained checks. Jay believed in one thing only: that everyone should earn their own way.
With the exception of extraordinary achievements, like Andrew's in football, when he wanted to give him a car, and later help pay part of the BMW.
It wasn't stinginess. It was a way of teaching.
The house had one bedroom for Cam and Mitch, another for Andrew, another for Lily, and a fourth that had been left empty. At first, the idea was to turn it into a mini home theater. But beyond that, it ended up becoming a trophy room, by Cam's merit, or perhaps his fault.
Cam had always liked displaying mementos, and for years Andrew's trophies had lived packed away in boxes, on improvised shelves, or simply in the garage, because there were too many of them. Now, with an extra room, he decided to do them justice.
Andrew stood still for a few seconds, silently looking around the room.
Cam broke the silence. "Do you want to finish watching the documentary with me?" he suddenly asked, excited. "The final part is coming up! The head coach of De La Salle praising you, then what Bruce says, and Rinaldi's conclusion, it's one of the best parts!"
Andrew gave him a strange look. 'If you already know it by heart, why are you watching it again?' he thought.
But he immediately remembered all the times he himself had rewatched the different Star Wars or Spider-Man movies with the guys, knowing every line before it came out of the actors' mouths. He wasn't exactly in a position to judge.
"No, thanks," he finally said. "I have a date."
Cam's eyes lit up instantly. "A girl!?" he asked, clutching his chest theatrically.
"Yes. What else would it be?" Andrew replied casually. If he were gay, he would have said so long ago, with the parents he had, it never would have been a problem.
"Which girl? The neighbor? She's very cute, and I've seen her talk to you several times," Cam said, picking up speed.
"No, it's not the neighbor," Andrew shook his head. "It's… a secret for now."
"Come on, tell me. What's the harm?" Cam insisted, grabbing his arm.
Andrew smiled faintly. "You'll find out this Friday. She's coming to watch the quarterfinal game."
"That's amazing!" Cam said, practically bouncing.
"Yes… great," Andrew replied, holding back a smile. "She's totally your type. You're going to get along really well."
Cam opened his mouth to ask something, but Andrew said his goodbyes quickly, went downstairs, and left the house, he was already running late.
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