Why We Are Launching Premium Research After nearly Seven Years Of Free Financial Education

Dear Wheelers –

I have always believed in open, freely available education.

Banker on Wheels was built for impact. As some of the oldest readers know, it began as a way of paying back the life-changing experiences and the generosity I received from people during my round-the-world cycling adventures. Making a business out of it was not part of the plan for the first few years, because it risked narrowing the wide impact, which is what fuels me in the first place.

What kept the project alive was the mission: making a small bike the symbol of resources investors can trust, in an industry where intellectual honesty is rare. Like in investing, there are no shortcuts to blogging. So far, this has been a marathon, and it took a certain madness to keep dedicating the time against all odds.

We lead a fairly alternative lifestyle, so the opportunity cost so far has been our time and our retirement savings. I was always willing to make that trade, because it gives me real satisfaction that, in a very miniature way, we make the world a better place.

But the landscape has changed enormously since ChatGPT first arrived. Information is abundant, but genuinely independent research, real-world experience and human judgement are rare.

So we faced two choices: reduce our time, or make Banker on Wheels even better.

After thousands of hours spent building a free resource, we realised that creating a premium service was the only way to bring our research, guides and tools to the next level while preserving what makes Banker on Wheels special in the first place. That’s also what the majority of you wanted us to focus on in our last survey.

This premium setup allows us to partner with multiple data providers. Together, data and running costs amount to multiple times the price of a Tour de France bike. Some of these sources, to my knowledge, have never been available to individual investors, in Europe nor even in the US.

Centuries of academic-quality data, a non-US focus, our own quality checks and methodologies, and years of research and synthetic index construction make our apps genuinely different. We are building on deep data and rigorous research foundations.

Supplemented with guides you won’t find anywhere else, Premium Research will allow us to build one of the most complete research platforms available to non-US investors.

The upside of those nearly seven years of Banker on Wheels for you, is that we now understand our readers’ problems well enough to build a service we’re certain returns considerably more value than it costs.

Premium is how we fund the 90% of the site that is our core mission and will stay free. It’s how we maintain full independence, so there is no interference from third parties including ETF managers.

Instead of publishing pseudo-independent sponsored content which you see so often online, we get phone calls from brokers or asset managers’ executives, because we are different and criticise some of their products freely. We tell them when a product is not in our readers’ interest.

Because we can.

I would never want Banker on Wheels to become a media site chasing traffic, advertising, sponsors or outside capital. I want it to remain a small, authentic, family-run, built around a community of wise investors some of whom are becoming friends.

As producing AI content becomes easy, what becomes scarce is judgement, original research, trust and a community of people who care about getting things right.

Having interacted with hundreds of you, I know how unusually engaged and thoughtful this community is. Building the Rollers Community around like-minded people – and giving it the fuel to grow – is something I particularly look forward to in the coming years.

That’s why Banker on Wheels needs a second leg to stand on. Premium Research is that leg.

It allows us to build better resources for you, preserve our independence, and keep Banker on Wheels a family-run project with a community at its heart.

Banker on Wheels will always be free to ride. Premium is what will keep the wheels turning.

And Premium Research gives us the resources to build something truly exceptional. Discover some highlights below.

Looking forward to seeing you on board.
Good luck & keep’em rolling,
Raph