INTERVIEW | Make Money Using 300 Years of Financial Lessons That Actually Worked with Joseph Moore

Joseph Moore, historian and author of *How to Get Rich in American History*, reveals that most modern financial advice is a recent invention—only about 100 years old—and that the strategies people actually used to build wealth over 300 years are radically different from today’s conventional wisdom. He debunks the myth of compound interest as a universal path to riches, showing it was largely irrelevant for most Americans before the 20th century. Instead, historical wealth was built through solving other people’s problems, not personal frugality. Moore shares startling examples: enslaved people issuing their own currency, families making cowboy hats at night to fund education, and even buying land on the moon as a speculative bet. He argues that side hustles are not a sign of economic failure but a proven historical strategy to escape poverty—once you’ve built financial stability, however, the real money comes from deep specialization, not diversification. His core lesson? Wealth isn’t built by saving money—it’s built by creating value for others, then focusing relentlessly on one thing you can do better than anyone else.