What Most People Don't Know About Meet Kevin

As California's COVID-19 case numbers reach the lowest average they've seen in over a year, many Californians are breathing a huge sigh of relief (via The Mercury News). That's because at one point, the state was in a very different position with the highest number of daily cases in all of the United States (via Deadline). With all the fear and frustration coming out of the pandemic, it's no wonder that a lot of the blame for what went wrong fell on California Gov. Gavin Newsom's shoulders. 

However, beyond the pandemic, the petition to recall Newsom cites other grievances as well, according to ABC 7. The petition covers immigration, homelessness, and property taxes, and it received over 1.6 million signatures. A date has not been set yet for the actual election, but many people have already announced that they will be running, including Caitlyn Jenner, John Cox, and now, YouTuber Meet Kevin — aka Kevin Paffrath.

Unless you're one of his 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube, you may not know who Meet Kevin is. Before announcing his plans to run for governor of California, Meet Kevin was just a real estate broker and investor who would post videos on his channel trying to help people grow their real estate portfolios. According to his "About" section on YouTube, Meet Kevin, who is now 29, has been working in real estate and construction since he was a teenager. 

Paffrath also claims to have over "$20,000,000 in real estate" and "$20,000,000 in stocks," but according to Nailbuzz, the YouTuber only has an estimated $15 million net worth. However, that's still nothing to scoff at, and he'll be needing the money if he wants to stand out amongst the growing list of candidates lining up to face off with Newsom in the recall election.

While real estate and investments are two of the ways Meet Kevin actively makes his millions, the YouTuber also claims that making videos for his channel is part of his passive income. According to Oberlo, passive income is when you make money without having to do any "active" work. It's the real dream way of making some dough, and apparently, Meet Kevin has a course called "Make Money And Build Passive Income With YouTube By A #1 Trending Creator" where he'll teach you his ways (via Meet Kevin). 

The problem is you'll need to spend money in order to start making it, because the class costs $579. That's just another way that Meet Kevin is making passive money, through his online courses that are pre-recorded. On his Teachable site, you'll also find courses on how to start real estate investing and learning the psychology of money to invest in the right stocks.

According to CNBC, Paffrath owns a real estate business, The Paffrath Organization, with his wife, Lauren. While Meet Kevin is off working on his active incomes, Lauren takes care of their two sons, Jack, 5, and Max, 2, full-time. Before the pandemic, the family even went on a Disney Cruise together. Even on vacation, Paffrath couldn't stop working and recorded a YouTube video while hanging out in one of the many pools on deck. In between telling people how to make money from a passive income, you can see shots of Paffrath walking around the ship with his sons. 

The family must love Disney vacations, because recently, the YouTuber posted a photo in front of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty castle on Instagram with the caption, "First vacation in 15 months! Let's goooooo!!!" However, it seems Paffrath and his wife don't follow rules very well. According to Disneyland's mask policy, face coverings must be worn at all times, even for pictures. Hopefully, if elected governor, Paffrath can follow the rules a little bit better.

One of Meet Kevin's biggest issues with how California is run right now is what he claims is "taxation without representation" (via YouTube). The YouTuber even claimed that many big content creators were leaving California, because they could make more money in other states. While it's true that you could find homes cheaper in other places, creators move to big states with big cities like LA for the culture and experiences. That may not be as much of a draw for someone who spends most of their time indoors making YouTube videos, but Meet Kevin decided to stick around after posting a video titled "leaving california..." back in October. 

In the video, Meet Kevin says, "quite frankly, we probably just one day need a YouTuber to run for governor of California to clean this mess up." And a few months later, it seems that's exactly what he's attempting to do. Since taxes seem to be his biggest gripe in the video, it makes sense that no state-income tax for the first $250,000 is on the top of the list of Meet Kevin's 20-Part Plan, according to PR Newswire.

You can't deny that Meet Kevin works hard with his many business endeavors and has a multi-million dollar net worth to show for it. But the YouTuber got his start just like anyone else, working part-time. According to Millyuns, one of Paffrath's first jobs in high school was working at Hollister over the summer. At the time, he wasn't as good at investing and spent the roughly $3,000 he made on random things. 

At his next job working for Jamba Juice, Paffrath made a bit more money, $8,079, which he talked about on the podcast "One Rental At A Time" (via iHeartRadio). With his Jamba Juice earnings and the money he was also getting working as a busboy at Red Robin, Paffrath was able to "control a three quarters of a million dollar property" that both he and Lauren could fix up (via Bigger Pockets). This was all before he graduated high school. If he's able to fix up California the same way he was able to fix up his first home, that might bode well for him in the recall elections this fall.