The message has always been simple. That’s why they’re called baby steps. George is just making them into hip videos to draw our spastic attentions lol
I feel so much better about myself now 😂No debt except the house, putting away 15% into retirement, saving for the kids (granted it's like only $50/mn but it's better than nothing) 3mn emergency fund, we have a will in place and even though we make less than $90k/yr we're making progress! If you're reading this, it took us 5yr to get out of consumer debt; you got this ❤
I’m a plumbing contractor in SoCal and I can’t believe how many people live paycheck to paycheck Trying to keep up with the Jones’s. I see customers with over $3000/month in vehicle payments and $1500/month in travel trailer and off road toys. All this but they still struggle to afford the most basic plumbing repairs. I’m in a position to easily afford $3000/month in vehicle payments and toys, but instead choose to still drive my original vehicles I bought in 2002 & 2006.
Thanks for sharing this insight! I often wonder, what the heck am I doing wrong that I don’t have so much disposable income to afford all the fancy stuff?! 🤣
Buddy works HVAC and goes to these huge nice houses and these people argue about a few hundred bucks for basic service calls. Tells them to buy a window unit if they don't want the central air 🤣
38k in student loans, 6k in credit card debt. I felt called out and attacked. I'm working on it now. Only 3k left of my credit card before i tackle my student loans
@@thomas1942Not really. The average yearly income for one person is about $45k. That's barely enough to live off in most areas let alone save for retirement. Some people are just bad with their money, but many just don't make enough to save. The cost of living is so much higher now than it was 10 years ago and wages have not increased to keep up with that.
Love that I’m 22 and started on this finance journey when I was 19. I’ve been able to avoid all of the mistakes made by friends, family, and average people with making impulse purchases. NO DEBT at all and don’t plan on getting any besides a house. I also am able to have a 5 figure savings account and a 5 figure investment portfolio and retirement account. It’s great peace of mind
Lucky you. I'm 44 and just begining to learn this. Fortunately made better money in the past 3 years and got a paid off condo. Now working on retirement plans.
That reminds me of the time when I took my youngest to a tennis court for the first time to show him how to play. I hadn‘t touched a racket for years and so I apologized. He just said:“Mom, don’t worry, you are the best player I ever played tennis with….“
Makes me think about how keeping up with the Jones's can apply to more than finances. I wanna be the smartest dude on the internet. Some guy knows more than me? I gotta know more. As though Im taking out a time loan from the Intelligence bank. It costs an extra 10 seconds every comment I read to pay back that time loan.... and here I am talking with you like Im rich.
Glad I watched this. I feel a lot better about my situation. Wifey and I are retiring in about three years. We have almost 900K in our 403Bs, Mortgage paid off. House worth 750K, could go up, could go down. No other debt. Kids grown and on their own. 60K in savings. And will collect Federal and state pensions plus SS. Not bad for a federal worker and a teacher. We lived within our means. But most importantly for us was we bought our house when we first started our career and were at the bottom of our pay scale. We never moved, so the house took less and less of our take home pay every year as our salaries increased. So we put those saving into extra house payments and retirement.
Since it seems like a hot topic, meals at home as opposed to going out. My wife and I, with kids, prep almost all meals for $1.50 or less per person. Freeze meals and eat well all the time.
It’s all about portioning and buying stuff for the right price. We also try to make multiple different things out of something. So beef tacos one night get repurposed into a taco bake about two days later. So if I buy ground beef on sale at $2 a pound, the rest of the stuff is pieced together. Always, always, always buy meat by the pound price and never the total price. The 5 for $20 deal on meats is a huge rip off. I’ll buy a 4 pack of steaks at 4.99 a pound before I’ll buy 1 steak at $13 a pound. Just read the prices.
I also have to be completely honest, my wife and I have had gastric sleeve and bypass so we portion a lot. But also might be helpful is don’t drink liquids while you eat. It’ll, make you fuller faster and the longer you wait the more content you’ll feel
I used to be below average then i started saving and investing around 70 percent of my income in the financial market(high yield etfs, stocks etc) i started this about 6 years ago, pretty much how I made my first million although with an FA. I have a high paying engineering job, and I live upstate NYC. my expenses are low. I have zero debt, low rent and car truck paid off. So i can just save. feel lucky at this point I'm actually grateful for my advisor handling my portfolio.
@@walter.dlawson2580 I was able to find his webpage and leave a mail after going through his credentials, i'm willing to make consultations to improve my portfolio
@@walter.dlawson2580 he really seems to know his stuff. hope you don't mind but i also found his online page and read through his resume, educational background, qualifications and it was really impressive. he is a fiduciary who will act in my best interest. So, I booked a session with him
Large issue personal accountability. Trying to talk to someone financially irresponsible often leaves them feeling like you’re attacking them. Their like addicts only they can seek the help.
wonderful video- 44 years old- almost debt free- already have about 4 months of expenses saved- about 10 thou in retirement- its never too late and i look forward to continuing on
So glad I started listening to Susie Orman back in 1999 & then found the Ramsey way a couple years ago. Been debt free for awhile, I'm set for retirement but at 55- I love my job- I own a business & not looking to retire anytime soon & when I am ready, I'll sell the business & leave that fortune for my son who also listens to the Ramsey show. 🙌🏼
Suze Orman fan. Nice to see you here. I used to watch Suze Orman all the time. My favorite quote from her was Save like you are going to life forever. Life like you are going to die tomorrow. Thanks to her, I am doing well financially.
I just did a video on Lifestyle Creep and the sad fact is this really does hold people back. It used to hold me back until I became aware of the issue and started actually paying attention to my financial situation. Now a raise is just an increase in savings.
We bought a house last year and our finances changed. Life creep is real and we started to hemorage money from our savings. My anxiety was through the roof and I was losing sleep over the future of my family. I used an online budgeting tool and tracked every expense. I found out that with a few simple changes, we had enough money for a mostly similar lifestyle but we could save $500 a month on top of our retirement and college fund savings. Wanna reduce stress, GET ON A BUDGET. It has done wonders for my anxiety.
Yes, and I think it’s important to note that a budget doesn’t have to be viewed negatively, like you’re restrained from spending money. It is about knowing where your money goes, being spent intentionally. You can set a monthly budget for eating out ( assuming you are debt-free, you MUST tackle debt first), beauty, “toys”, or whatever category you choose. That’s totally fine, as long as you consciously know you are spending (set budgeted amount $) in that specific, designated category. We get ourselves into debt and financially crippled by spending carelessly and not saving.
same here. my husband doesn't want a budget. he wanted a huge house. he'd gotten told all his life he was great with money and i've had to break news to him that he's actually crap with money.
Never have lived paycheck to paycheck even when young. Main reason is people living beyond means...gotta look good on the IG. If I only saved 15% I feel bad...normally live well and save 40 to 60% most months.
yeah, going into debt seems acceptable to a lot of people... that lifestyle creep to me just seems bonkers. I think carefully about purchases, and I do buy nice things, but only when I know it will be worth it, and I always shop around and research before big purchases. I haven't ever needed to budget, even when I was a dirt poor college student living on 10k a year. I just watched how much I had left, and bought cheaper essentials, and didn't spend on anything non essential if I was low.
At the age of 19, I graduated from trade school and managed to save up more than $30k in my bank account within a year. I bought my house at 20 years old and did a few things to it. Now I’m 21 years old with a 760 credit score, my vehicles are paid off, I have a beautiful son turning 1 in a few months and I still have a little under $10k in the bank account. No credit card debt and no consumer debt. I always feel like I’m behind in life, but videos like these help me realize I’m doing alright for myself.
I assume you have a specialist job so how hard is it to be doing ok? I used to make about $12 an hour and never had a short year income wise and that was not a specialist job....
Start contributing a little bit to retirement! The earlier you start, the more it can grow. 100 bucks a month from age 20 with a 10% return and you'll have a million at retirement.
George....this is awesome! I am 51 and in the past 2 years I was able to get out of debt and I'm working on getting my retirement turbo caught up. While doing so I'm also saving beyond my emergency fund to pay off the house. I have been investing for years, but my husband just started, so we are making sure we are Rothing HARD.
Congratulations 🎉 was in the same situation. Got out of debt in 2019 and in my mid 40s. Never had a penny of money saved for retirement, and never made more than $40k per year. Funny, after I turbo paid my mortgage in 2021 I suddenly had a huge surplus left over. Won't be long before I'm a babysteps millionare. Next year I'll join you in turbo saving for our company's 401k. And whatever is left will go into mutual funds.
A video commenting on 401k balance by age would be nice. Average and median 401k balance would have a better perspective based on age. $35,000 in a 401k sounds great for someone in their early 20s, pretty grim for someone in their 50s.
Exactly 1 year ago I only had $400 in my savings (making 90k per year) and 9 debts (CCs, mortgage, student loans, bank loan, car loan, 401k loan, store charge cards, etc). I was able to use the snowball to pay off 7 of the debts so far and saved over $10k because my car may go soon and I wanted a little more than the $1000 recommended emergency fund. I am now working on my last debt minus the mortgage, 24k student loan. This should be paid off around Christmas. If I had paused my work 401K contributions and put the money I had saved for my car into my student loan, I'd probably have that student loan already paid off and would be able to move on to step 3. It will feel good when that day comes.
One wrinkle in the average 401k balance statistic (that I don't have a solution for) is that it implicitly assumes that everyone has a single 401k and doesn't account for people with multiple 401ks in different brokerages, or people who rolled over a 401K from a previous employer into an IRA. As a result the average 401k balance only accurately measures a person's total retirement savings if they've only ever had one employer and don't use IRAs.
I was wondering this too… My 401K is terrifying…about one month of CURRENT living-expenses. But I look at the interest on my mortgage & because I’m only 3-years in, the interest is 50% of my Principle. What if I slam-that-out and THEN put the mortgage-payment into the 401K? I’ll still work until I’m 70, but if I pay the mortgage off in 7-10 years, I’ll have 20 years to invest..?
@@Laura-ed5kf your mortgage interest rate is likely lower than the expected return of the S&P500. That is why retirement contributions come before paying off the house.
This was really encouraging! Set to be done with paying off debt, 3-6mo in savings, and will be able to start working towards our 15% to retirement. Right now we are only at 6% of our gross income to retirement.
I think it'd be interesting to see a video about different kinds of insurance. Term life vs whole life, etc. Also like a timeline of what insurance you need at different stages of life. Like it's more important for me to have life insurance once I have kids, but I don't right now so it's less critical, etc...
Dave has covered this time and time again. Look up his old videos he rants about whole life every 6 months to a year, and explains the difference. Whole life is the time share of life insurance, stay away from it! Term life insurance is the only one you want.
My wife would look at the money in our account and assume everything after our required expenses and subscriptions was mad money, I told her that that's not how we should look at it but she didn't believe me. After we had a car emergency and barely struggled to pay it off I explained that we could have had that money if we didn't spend it on X Y and Z Now thanks to times being a little harder we went a little under our normal amount of money which is 2K and are slowly building back up to that amount. It really just takes a change in mindset.
Currently working 72 hours a week (7am-7pm) six days a week to pay stuff off and hopefully buy a new car with cash before the end of the year. My new born has needs lol 😂
Nailed it! Debt free, living within my means, budgeting BUT was unwise regarding my retirement ☹. Putting in the max allowed but I will be one of those who will not have enough in 15 years.
My husband got a 64 cent raise last month. I'm a 65 yr old stay at home grandma who is raising my 7 year old granddaughter. I want to go back to work. But raising her with all her health issues makes it difficult. We have a small savings some 401, a few other things but we are in no way ready to really retire. I'm ready to end this mess and do something about it. Thank you!
May I ask what you thought it was? I didn’t know it was having no surplus. I always heard it as being if you missed a paycheck you would have to go in debt or be late paying bills. To me even if 100% of the income is being taken up by expenses and you have a paycheck worth of money in the bank that’s not paycheck to paycheck.
Good info George and as always, it is usually never an income problem but rather a spending problem. If you have less than 400K saved for retirement after working and earning the median income for 40 or more years, that means your retirement savings have not been even 10%.
4:47 That median statistic is probably even more atrocious than we think. IIRC, it only takes into account people who have at least $1 saved for retirement. There are a massive amount of people with zero saved.
George, I know there is the every dollar app, but could you do a video walking us through how to create an old school (paper and pen) budget? Some of us think more clearly when we write things down, so it would be nice to see how our grandmother would have written her budget.
Very funny video, well done. And good financial advice. It's hard to believe how poorly the average adult is doing financially based on these statistics... wow.
Thanks for an awesome video George. Where can I take a financial literacy test? I have been through financial peace university but need to take that next step into building long-term wealth. Also, any suggestions when finances are not your day job? It is difficult to devote time to learning all of this stuff on the side in addition to keeping up-to-date in the industry I work in.
Yeah we make ~$210k/annually in Southern California and we’re solidly middle class. We’re trying to buy a home and there’s no way we can keep our total housing payment at 25% of take home income. And we’re not being picky - condos here are 600k with $500 HOAs.
I cannot believe how you can put 10% straight to giving, when somebody’s trying to improve their own situations and already in debt and paying hefty interest.
If you have teenage kids and they are smart make them get a job, any job while there at home. I was lucky and worked through high school and college which taught me how to save and stay out of debt. It was super simple when given a chance to learn those fundamentals before I got out on my own. Side note debt isnt bad if you know how to use it to your advantage but most people dont have the time or experience to deal with that.
You can put 30k in your 401k per year once you hit 50. I am in ‘catch up mode’ too and have been maxing out the 401k contributions. In order to hit that last year, I had my employer taking out 40% to make the max for that year (I started that job in June) This year it’s 20%, and I’ll hit the 30k on the nose (started getting monthly bonuses around December last year). It’s doable! I know it’s more than the 15% recommended, but I’d rather have that fat pre-tax deposit than a lot of consumer stuff.
I’m debt free, money in the bank, don’t live pay check to pay check and I’ve never created a monthly budget. No idea what my living expenses are over the period of 3-6 months. I buy what I need and try to be frugal and not purchase unnecessary things.
I always feel when the callers tell you their annual income, and Dave or others start talking about how quick debt can be wiped, etc, it’s uncertain to me if their incomes are Gross or Net. Big difference! I think as a whole things need to be more specific.
@@bryan_witha_whyy I think they use general formulas to come up with a timeframe. I personally find it helpful because it moves people from making a wish about their debt to having a measurable goal to achieve getting out of debt. To miss the mark by a few months is better than having no mark. And anyway I think the average persona who makes a timeline goal beats that anyway.
@@mightymouse9001I wouldn’t “lmao” quite so hard. The way he said it was that 70% of the 70% were correct. Which is 49% of the original set, making him correct (a little low, but let’s round a little). Of course this assumes that all the above average people were part of the original 70%.
We paid off our mortgage and it was one the greatest feelings. But then i started calculating non-mortgage monthly expenses. It's crazy expensive. Too many streaming platforms and other subscriptions in addition to power/gas/water/trash.
For me the shocking thing was property taxes. We paid off our modest 1300 square foot house and still have to budget over $500 per month to give the county its due. Ouch!
Could you do an episode on why $1000 is enough for a starter emergency fund? (Could just be the same points from the iced coffee hour). Maybe an episode on house affordability? Could look at zillow for different cities to point out if there are still cheap houses out there in bigger cities.
Basically the idea is that if you are on baby step 2, and the emergency is more that $1000, you are just going back into debt the amount of the emergency. So if your car engine goes out, you are going further into debt beyond the 1000 dollar fund. Once you get out of baby step 2, it's a true emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses.. so, several thousand dollars at that point. Basically the thousand dollar fund is a slush fund in case you had some budget issues. It's not for true emergencies
The idea is that if you have any savings, and you are in debt.. the money does more for you paying off the debt than sitting in a bank account. There's no reason to have extra money in your account. This will force you to pay things off faster as if freaks most people out to have so little liquid money
I think its generally implied that you have already worked on a budget to ensure you are cash flow positive every month; saving the $1,000 is a test run for that since you obviously need to save to achieve it (if you don't have the thousand already). After that point, ridding yourself of debt becomes the priority over everything else. Also, having more than the $1K can lead to "temptation" to spend it since it is just sitting there vs. applying it to and ridding yourself of debt.
I am using excel sheets to budget and I have a little verifier table where I put how much money we have in each account to make sure I am up to date and I really do have the same amount of money as the budget said. I couldn't budget while spending on a credit card because the math wouldn't work. I just spend, and still have the same amount of money as before. Next month I don't spend but I need to budget for the payments. Didn't make sense so I quit using credit cards.
Great stuff George! Happy to say I think I passed :) Maybe I’m not your target audience (26 yr old dude), but I’d recommend a few less memes. 3-5 a video would be nice, but they get a bit annoying after 10.
When I was paid an hourly wage in my 20s, my lifestyle creep was called Blue Cross Blue Shield. Every year when my cost of living raise was issued, the whole thing went to increased premiums. They knew the school district that contracted them was doling out the raise.
I wasn't financially free until I was 40 and I'm still in my 40s, already bought my 3rd home, earned monthly through passive income and achieved 4 out of 5 goals, just hope it encourages someone not to. It doesn't matter if you don't have any of them right now, you can start TODAY regardless of your age. INVEST and change your future! Investing in the financial market is a great choice that I made. I plan to retire at age 58 with a dividends portfolio valued at $4 million.
Darn it George!! We need to smack that like button of yours a few hundred thousand more times with this plethora of knowledge you are departing upon us. I shall get right on spreading your name across this land faster than a speeding ticket. 🙂 Seriously though George, we were those folks living paycheck to paycheck and making north of 150k a year. This is not a financial recipe I recommend for any 'intelligent' individual. "Hope I wasn't unclear?" as Dave would say...
It would be interesting to see how much the average bills are for the 4 walls. I’m always thinking “am I paying too much?” For things like utilities, car insurance, cell phone etx
George is killing it by simplifying the Ramsey message
Ramsey owns this channel cause her realizes he's too old to connect with young people.
@@rayb3000he’s smart to hire people who are in the genre George is speaking to.
theres always that one person on every video that says "george, you're killing it!" and you are that person. Stoooooppppp
The message has always been simple. That’s why they’re called baby steps. George is just making them into hip videos to draw our spastic attentions lol
The Ramsey message is already EXTREMELY simple… too simple in fact lol
I feel so much better about myself now 😂No debt except the house, putting away 15% into retirement, saving for the kids (granted it's like only $50/mn but it's better than nothing) 3mn emergency fund, we have a will in place and even though we make less than $90k/yr we're making progress! If you're reading this, it took us 5yr to get out of consumer debt; you got this ❤
Love this ❤❤
Yall are killing it! Im saving for a downpayment on a house and at 9k for student loans. Ill be there eventually!
Do have 21k saved right now.
@XxToptankxX davr Ramsey would have you pay off your student loan with those savings right?
I thought that was 3 million in emergency fund for a second! 😂
@@xxtoptankxx6873 pay off the loans with those savings
I’m a plumbing contractor in SoCal and I can’t believe how many people live paycheck to paycheck Trying to keep up with the Jones’s. I see customers with over $3000/month in vehicle payments and $1500/month in travel trailer and off road toys. All this but they still struggle to afford the most basic plumbing repairs. I’m in a position to easily afford $3000/month in vehicle payments and toys, but instead choose to still drive my original vehicles I bought in 2002 & 2006.
2002 and 06? your my hero!! :)
Socal firefighter here - our tradesmen, like yourself sir, are the silent wealthy in CA. I just love it! Keep at it
Thanks for sharing this insight! I often wonder, what the heck am I doing wrong that I don’t have so much disposable income to afford all the fancy stuff?! 🤣
Buddy works HVAC and goes to these huge nice houses and these people argue about a few hundred bucks for basic service calls. Tells them to buy a window unit if they don't want the central air 🤣
How do you know they have payments on those vehicles and toys? Lol
38k in student loans, 6k in credit card debt. I felt called out and attacked. I'm working on it now. Only 3k left of my credit card before i tackle my student loans
This dude was the best addition to the Ramsey team fo sho… no cap…
Agreed
I’m above average. However, that says more about how bad everyone else is doing vs how good I’m doing. 😢
That was the first thing that came to mind when i watched it. These 3 examples are such a low bar to pass.
Haha for real, my first thought was "holy shit there's a lot of losers out there"
@@thomas1942Not really. The average yearly income for one person is about $45k. That's barely enough to live off in most areas let alone save for retirement.
Some people are just bad with their money, but many just don't make enough to save. The cost of living is so much higher now than it was 10 years ago and wages have not increased to keep up with that.
I have no debt. Over a year of living expenses saved up. I know where every dollar goes. Everything is budgeted.
Love that I’m 22 and started on this finance journey when I was 19. I’ve been able to avoid all of the mistakes made by friends, family, and average people with making impulse purchases. NO DEBT at all and don’t plan on getting any besides a house. I also am able to have a 5 figure savings account and a 5 figure investment portfolio and retirement account. It’s great peace of mind
Must be nice freeloading off your family to accomplish that at your age.
Great job young man!
I am allowed to buy tax sale houses as impulse purchases. Seem to do good on them.
Your way ahead of most people.
I was able to retire at 49. Yahoo.
Keep it up and people will want to know what your doing different 🎉
Lucky you. I'm 44 and just begining to learn this. Fortunately made better money in the past 3 years and got a paid off condo. Now working on retirement plans.
That reminds me of the time when I took my youngest to a tennis court for the first time to show him how to play. I hadn‘t touched a racket for years and so I apologized. He just said:“Mom, don’t worry, you are the best player I ever played tennis with….“
Makes me think about how keeping up with the Jones's can apply to more than finances. I wanna be the smartest dude on the internet. Some guy knows more than me? I gotta know more. As though Im taking out a time loan from the Intelligence bank. It costs an extra 10 seconds every comment I read to pay back that time loan.... and here I am talking with you like Im rich.
Glad I watched this. I feel a lot better about my situation. Wifey and I are retiring in about three years. We have almost 900K in our 403Bs, Mortgage paid off. House worth 750K, could go up, could go down. No other debt. Kids grown and on their own. 60K in savings. And will collect Federal and state pensions plus SS. Not bad for a federal worker and a teacher. We lived within our means. But most importantly for us was we bought our house when we first started our career and were at the bottom of our pay scale. We never moved, so the house took less and less of our take home pay every year as our salaries increased. So we put those saving into extra house payments and retirement.
Since it seems like a hot topic, meals at home as opposed to going out. My wife and I, with kids, prep almost all meals for $1.50 or less per person. Freeze meals and eat well all the time.
Teach me please
What do you make to get 1.5 per person?
It’s all about portioning and buying stuff for the right price. We also try to make multiple different things out of something. So beef tacos one night get repurposed into a taco bake about two days later. So if I buy ground beef on sale at $2 a pound, the rest of the stuff is pieced together. Always, always, always buy meat by the pound price and never the total price. The 5 for $20 deal on meats is a huge rip off. I’ll buy a 4 pack of steaks at 4.99 a pound before I’ll buy 1 steak at $13 a pound. Just read the prices.
I also have to be completely honest, my wife and I have had gastric sleeve and bypass so we portion a lot. But also might be helpful is don’t drink liquids while you eat. It’ll, make you fuller faster and the longer you wait the more content you’ll feel
@@Allaiya. probably very little meat and lots of beans and rice
I used to be below average then i started saving and investing around 70 percent of my income in the financial market(high yield etfs, stocks etc) i started this about 6 years ago, pretty much how I made my first million although with an FA. I have a high paying engineering job, and I live upstate NYC. my expenses are low. I have zero debt, low rent and car truck paid off. So i can just save. feel lucky at this point I'm actually grateful for my advisor handling my portfolio.
Truly Stocks, ETFs and Mutual funds are the best investment decision you can make both short term and long term for steady money flow. Kudos
recently started in stocks and I don't mind investing a substantial sum, i'd like to know your advisor ?
@victoriaaldrin certainly, he goes by James Fletcher Brennan…he's quite known, search him up for his info
@@walter.dlawson2580 I was able to find his webpage and leave a mail after going through his credentials, i'm willing to make consultations to improve my portfolio
@@walter.dlawson2580 he really seems to know his stuff. hope you don't mind but i also found his online page and read through his resume, educational background, qualifications and it was really impressive. he is a fiduciary who will act in my best interest. So, I booked a session with him
Large issue personal accountability. Trying to talk to someone financially irresponsible often leaves them feeling like you’re attacking them. Their like addicts only they can seek the help.
wonderful video-
44 years old- almost debt free- already have about 4 months of expenses saved- about 10 thou in retirement-
its never too late and i look forward to continuing on
So glad I started listening to Susie Orman back in 1999 & then found the Ramsey way a couple years ago. Been debt free for awhile, I'm set for retirement but at 55- I love my job- I own a business & not looking to retire anytime soon & when I am ready, I'll sell the business & leave that fortune for my son who also listens to the Ramsey show. 🙌🏼
Suze Orman fan. Nice to see you here. I used to watch Suze Orman all the time. My favorite quote from her was Save like you are going to life forever. Life like you are going to die tomorrow. Thanks to her, I am doing well financially.
@@shailee9762 Susie was awesome!!
What is your net worth!
It is kind and compassionate to make these messages to help people suffer less
I just did a video on Lifestyle Creep and the sad fact is this really does hold people back. It used to hold me back until I became aware of the issue and started actually paying attention to my financial situation. Now a raise is just an increase in savings.
We bought a house last year and our finances changed. Life creep is real and we started to hemorage money from our savings. My anxiety was through the roof and I was losing sleep over the future of my family. I used an online budgeting tool and tracked every expense. I found out that with a few simple changes, we had enough money for a mostly similar lifestyle but we could save $500 a month on top of our retirement and college fund savings. Wanna reduce stress, GET ON A BUDGET. It has done wonders for my anxiety.
Yes, and I think it’s important to note that a budget doesn’t have to be viewed negatively, like you’re restrained from spending money. It is about knowing where your money goes, being spent intentionally. You can set a monthly budget for eating out ( assuming you are debt-free, you MUST tackle debt first), beauty, “toys”, or whatever category you choose. That’s totally fine, as long as you consciously know you are spending (set budgeted amount $) in that specific, designated category. We get ourselves into debt and financially crippled by spending carelessly and not saving.
same here. my husband doesn't want a budget. he wanted a huge house. he'd gotten told all his life he was great with money and i've had to break news to him that he's actually crap with money.
Never have lived paycheck to paycheck even when young. Main reason is people living beyond means...gotta look good on the IG. If I only saved 15% I feel bad...normally live well and save 40 to 60% most months.
yeah, going into debt seems acceptable to a lot of people... that lifestyle creep to me just seems bonkers. I think carefully about purchases, and I do buy nice things, but only when I know it will be worth it, and I always shop around and research before big purchases. I haven't ever needed to budget, even when I was a dirt poor college student living on 10k a year. I just watched how much I had left, and bought cheaper essentials, and didn't spend on anything non essential if I was low.
At the age of 19, I graduated from trade school and managed to save up more than $30k in my bank account within a year. I bought my house at 20 years old and did a few things to it. Now I’m 21 years old with a 760 credit score, my vehicles are paid off, I have a beautiful son turning 1 in a few months and I still have a little under $10k in the bank account. No credit card debt and no consumer debt. I always feel like I’m behind in life, but videos like these help me realize I’m doing alright for myself.
I assume you have a specialist job so how hard is it to be doing ok? I used to make about $12 an hour and never had a short year income wise and that was not a specialist job....
Start contributing a little bit to retirement! The earlier you start, the more it can grow. 100 bucks a month from age 20 with a 10% return and you'll have a million at retirement.
You're gonna be a multimillionaire if you keep it up
George you’re on fire with the snark and trending stories
George....this is awesome! I am 51 and in the past 2 years I was able to get out of debt and I'm working on getting my retirement turbo caught up. While doing so I'm also saving beyond my emergency fund to pay off the house. I have been investing for years, but my husband just started, so we are making sure we are Rothing HARD.
Congratulations 🎉 was in the same situation. Got out of debt in 2019 and in my mid 40s. Never had a penny of money saved for retirement, and never made more than $40k per year. Funny, after I turbo paid my mortgage in 2021 I suddenly had a huge surplus left over. Won't be long before I'm a babysteps millionare. Next year I'll join you in turbo saving for our company's 401k. And whatever is left will go into mutual funds.
A video commenting on 401k balance by age would be nice. Average and median 401k balance would have a better perspective based on age. $35,000 in a 401k sounds great for someone in their early 20s, pretty grim for someone in their 50s.
Exactly 1 year ago I only had $400 in my savings (making 90k per year) and 9 debts (CCs, mortgage, student loans, bank loan, car loan, 401k loan, store charge cards, etc). I was able to use the snowball to pay off 7 of the debts so far and saved over $10k because my car may go soon and I wanted a little more than the $1000 recommended emergency fund. I am now working on my last debt minus the mortgage, 24k student loan. This should be paid off around Christmas. If I had paused my work 401K contributions and put the money I had saved for my car into my student loan, I'd probably have that student loan already paid off and would be able to move on to step 3. It will feel good when that day comes.
Hope your debt free today!
This is one of the best videos on money, where you're at and where you need to go. Great job!
“I need this job” made me chuckle. Subbed! Also, I saw your debt free scream a couple months back; congratulations!
I love how you make the message sink in with your witty humour, puns etc. Keep it up👍🏽
One wrinkle in the average 401k balance statistic (that I don't have a solution for) is that it implicitly assumes that everyone has a single 401k and doesn't account for people with multiple 401ks in different brokerages, or people who rolled over a 401K from a previous employer into an IRA. As a result the average 401k balance only accurately measures a person's total retirement savings if they've only ever had one employer and don't use IRAs.
And over what age group or groups? Wasn't stated, so the number is meaningless really.
I was wondering this too… My 401K is terrifying…about one month of CURRENT living-expenses. But I look at the interest on my mortgage & because I’m only 3-years in, the interest is 50% of my Principle. What if I slam-that-out and THEN put the mortgage-payment into the 401K? I’ll still work until I’m 70, but if I pay the mortgage off in 7-10 years, I’ll have 20 years to invest..?
@@Laura-ed5kf your mortgage interest rate is likely lower than the expected return of the S&P500. That is why retirement contributions come before paying off the house.
I like Dave, but I LOVE George Kamel! Thank you and your whole team for the work you do. Ya'll have never met me, but you've changed my life.
This was really encouraging! Set to be done with paying off debt, 3-6mo in savings, and will be able to start working towards our 15% to retirement. Right now we are only at 6% of our gross income to retirement.
That social security part had me dying 😂😂 Great content as always George!
I think it'd be interesting to see a video about different kinds of insurance. Term life vs whole life, etc. Also like a timeline of what insurance you need at different stages of life. Like it's more important for me to have life insurance once I have kids, but I don't right now so it's less critical, etc...
oh just go watch the old bald guy then LMAO
I second this!
George and Dave always recommend you buy the most expensive whole life policy you can get!
Yes!
Dave has covered this time and time again. Look up his old videos he rants about whole life every 6 months to a year, and explains the difference. Whole life is the time share of life insurance, stay away from it! Term life insurance is the only one you want.
My wife would look at the money in our account and assume everything after our required expenses and subscriptions was mad money, I told her that that's not how we should look at it but she didn't believe me. After we had a car emergency and barely struggled to pay it off I explained that we could have had that money if we didn't spend it on X Y and Z
Now thanks to times being a little harder we went a little under our normal amount of money which is 2K and are slowly building back up to that amount. It really just takes a change in mindset.
I was in this head deep until I came across Dave's channel. Thank the Lord things can change and you can get out of debt. Love your new channel.
You're killing it, George!
Currently working 72 hours a week (7am-7pm) six days a week to pay stuff off and hopefully buy a new car with cash before the end of the year. My new born has needs lol 😂
Why are you having kids when you're broke?
Nailed it! Debt free, living within my means, budgeting BUT was unwise regarding my retirement ☹. Putting in the max allowed but I will be one of those who will not have enough in 15 years.
My husband got a 64 cent raise last month. I'm a 65 yr old stay at home grandma who is raising my 7 year old granddaughter. I want to go back to work. But raising her with all her health issues makes it difficult. We have a small savings some 401, a few other things but we are in no way ready to really retire. I'm ready to end this mess and do something about it. Thank you!
Where are the parents?
You should create a playlist series that covers the answers for each of these questions -- call it the Financial Literacy Course (to Pass the Test!)
You're killing it, George! I always enjoy your thoughtful, humorous content.
Thanks for explaining what “living paycheck to paycheck” means. I had the wrong idea about it for years!
May I ask what you thought it was? I didn’t know it was having no surplus. I always heard it as being if you missed a paycheck you would have to go in debt or be late paying bills. To me even if 100% of the income is being taken up by expenses and you have a paycheck worth of money in the bank that’s not paycheck to paycheck.
It means you're barely keeping a roof over your head, the utilities on, and food on the table.
Anything beyond that you simply have a spending issue.
“Good nite nurse!” 😂😂. Love the new channel, GK, you’re a national treasure!
Good info George and as always, it is usually never an income problem but rather a spending problem.
If you have less than 400K saved for retirement after working and earning the median income for 40 or more years, that means your retirement savings have not been even 10%.
The sad part is I’m a decent amount above average on all these things and still don’t feel very rich haha 😂 still grateful though
Same. I watch too much finance TH-cam to feel rich.
4:47 That median statistic is probably even more atrocious than we think. IIRC, it only takes into account people who have at least $1 saved for retirement. There are a massive amount of people with zero saved.
George, I know there is the every dollar app, but could you do a video walking us through how to create an old school (paper and pen) budget? Some of us think more clearly when we write things down, so it would be nice to see how our grandmother would have written her budget.
George, love your show! I would like to see a show for boomers who have not adequately prepared to retirement.
George this is FANTASTIC!!!
Very funny video, well done. And good financial advice. It's hard to believe how poorly the average adult is doing financially based on these statistics... wow.
Long time fan of Dave Ramsey and me and my family love your show.
This is hilarious because I just got back from a trip to Italy! We're debt free though and paid cash for the trip, so I don't feel too bad about it :)
Thanks for an awesome video George. Where can I take a financial literacy test? I have been through financial peace university but need to take that next step into building long-term wealth. Also, any suggestions when finances are not your day job? It is difficult to devote time to learning all of this stuff on the side in addition to keeping up-to-date in the industry I work in.
I remember saving ~$50 for a Hot Topic belt with a seat belt buckle in 2006. I still show it off today.
I am enjoying this fresh new channel
George - you rock ! You should be the new leader face of the Ramsey Brand.
$100,000 a year is a good amount of income in the Midwest but it's pretty average in the northeast, west coast and Hawaii.
Yeah we make ~$210k/annually in Southern California and we’re solidly middle class. We’re trying to buy a home and there’s no way we can keep our total housing payment at 25% of take home income. And we’re not being picky - condos here are 600k with $500 HOAs.
I would like to learn more about how to stay the course for baby steps 4-6
You packed a punch there, George!
George, I really thought you had dandruff all over your shirt. Love the show! You the man.
Giving, how many times do you have to be lied to before you stop giving.
Love these videos. Keep up the good work. (And I love checking out the LP's in the background!)
Someone is a south park fan. “Bar mitzvahs, chewpacabras”…great video as always!
I cannot believe how you can put 10% straight to giving, when somebody’s trying to improve their own situations and already in debt and paying hefty interest.
well produced video! goals
George Kamel!! Love the show!!
Get um coming George, great videos!
"There's just no excuse for being average..." By definition, most people are average!!!
If you have teenage kids and they are smart make them get a job, any job while there at home. I was lucky and worked through high school and college which taught me how to save and stay out of debt. It was super simple when given a chance to learn those fundamentals before I got out on my own. Side note debt isnt bad if you know how to use it to your advantage but most people dont have the time or experience to deal with that.
7:22 onward. I do a busget weekly...every paycheck...everytime
New Subscriber here, you're funny and informative. Young people could relate and understand you, good job, thank you!
I'm 50 with 45k in retirement, man I need to step my game up😢
But you're still above average!
Why only 45k?
The best time to start is yesterday, the second best time is today. You got this J!
You can put 30k in your 401k per year once you hit 50. I am in ‘catch up mode’ too and have been maxing out the 401k contributions. In order to hit that last year, I had my employer taking out 40% to make the max for that year (I started that job in June) This year it’s 20%, and I’ll hit the 30k on the nose (started getting monthly bonuses around December last year). It’s doable! I know it’s more than the 15% recommended, but I’d rather have that fat pre-tax deposit than a lot of consumer stuff.
I also save on credit union CD....
I have to say I enjoy George’s presentation style, very relevant!
Happy Birthday, George! 🥳
I’m debt free, money in the bank, don’t live pay check to pay check and I’ve never created a monthly budget. No idea what my living expenses are over the period of 3-6 months. I buy what I need and try to be frugal and not purchase unnecessary things.
I can't look at that Bon Iver poster in the background and not think of the SNL skit where... "Bon Over put himself to sleep!"...
I always feel when the callers tell you their annual income, and Dave or others start talking about how quick debt can be wiped, etc, it’s uncertain to me if their incomes are Gross or Net. Big difference! I think as a whole things need to be more specific.
@@bryan_witha_whyy I think they use general formulas to come up with a timeframe. I personally find it helpful because it moves people from making a wish about their debt to having a measurable goal to achieve getting out of debt. To miss the mark by a few months is better than having no mark. And anyway I think the average persona who makes a timeline goal beats that anyway.
Happy Birthday George🎉🎉🎉!!
You should do a series of react videos (millennial money episodes, what I spend in a month vlogs, and the like). That would be super entertaining
George is hilarious and makes great points!
70% of people believe they’re above average
And 85% of statistics are made up
70% of those people are
@@lorenantolik2735 that’s not how averages work lmao
It’s impossible for 70% to be above average 😢
I’m below average
@@mightymouse9001I wouldn’t “lmao” quite so hard. The way he said it was that 70% of the 70% were correct. Which is 49% of the original set, making him correct (a little low, but let’s round a little).
Of course this assumes that all the above average people were part of the original 70%.
We paid off our mortgage and it was one the greatest feelings. But then i started calculating non-mortgage monthly expenses. It's crazy expensive. Too many streaming platforms and other subscriptions in addition to power/gas/water/trash.
I also subscribe to streaming services and many papers and magazines. I want to be well informed.
For me the shocking thing was property taxes. We paid off our modest 1300 square foot house and still have to budget over $500 per month to give the county its due. Ouch!
If you’re able to itemize, it still lowers your income.
Great video George! Enjoying the new angle on the Ramsey method
Could you do an episode on why $1000 is enough for a starter emergency fund? (Could just be the same points from the iced coffee hour).
Maybe an episode on house affordability? Could look at zillow for different cities to point out if there are still cheap houses out there in bigger cities.
Basically the idea is that if you are on baby step 2, and the emergency is more that $1000, you are just going back into debt the amount of the emergency.
So if your car engine goes out, you are going further into debt beyond the 1000 dollar fund.
Once you get out of baby step 2, it's a true emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses.. so, several thousand dollars at that point.
Basically the thousand dollar fund is a slush fund in case you had some budget issues. It's not for true emergencies
The idea is that if you have any savings, and you are in debt.. the money does more for you paying off the debt than sitting in a bank account. There's no reason to have extra money in your account. This will force you to pay things off faster as if freaks most people out to have so little liquid money
I think its generally implied that you have already worked on a budget to ensure you are cash flow positive every month; saving the $1,000 is a test run for that since you obviously need to save to achieve it (if you don't have the thousand already). After that point, ridding yourself of debt becomes the priority over everything else.
Also, having more than the $1K can lead to "temptation" to spend it since it is just sitting there vs. applying it to and ridding yourself of debt.
I am using excel sheets to budget and I have a little verifier table where I put how much money we have in each account to make sure I am up to date and I really do have the same amount of money as the budget said. I couldn't budget while spending on a credit card because the math wouldn't work. I just spend, and still have the same amount of money as before. Next month I don't spend but I need to budget for the payments. Didn't make sense so I quit using credit cards.
I started paying mine off in the same month I spend. It helps keep spending and saving on track.
Great stuff George! Happy to say I think I passed :) Maybe I’m not your target audience (26 yr old dude), but I’d recommend a few less memes. 3-5 a video would be nice, but they get a bit annoying after 10.
When I was paid an hourly wage in my 20s, my lifestyle creep was called Blue Cross Blue Shield. Every year when my cost of living raise was issued, the whole thing went to increased premiums. They knew the school district that contracted them was doling out the raise.
Keep it up with the funny memes. It makes the video very entertaining to watch and gets the message better across IMO.
You‘re amazing George!
I wasn't financially free until I was 40 and I'm still in my 40s, already bought my 3rd home, earned monthly through passive income and achieved 4 out of 5 goals, just hope it encourages someone not to. It doesn't matter if you don't have any of them right now, you can start TODAY regardless of your age. INVEST and change your future! Investing in the financial market is a great choice that I made. I plan to retire at age 58 with a dividends portfolio valued at $4 million.
Oh hey you just hit 100K subscribers!!! Congratulations!!! Great videos!!
Thank you!! So grateful!
Darn it George!! We need to smack that like button of yours a few hundred thousand more times with this plethora of knowledge you are departing upon us. I shall get right on spreading your name across this land faster than a speeding ticket. 🙂 Seriously though George, we were those folks living paycheck to paycheck and making north of 150k a year. This is not a financial recipe I recommend for any 'intelligent' individual. "Hope I wasn't unclear?" as Dave would say...
Sorry George If this isn't a bot which it probably is I don't do Instagram or Twitter or Snapchat which I guess is kind of funny because I'm a tech 😁
Awesome video George, love it.
😘
This is the video I share with friends I want to help.
Funny!! I just went to Italy in April. Was so crowded.
King George is putting out some bangers! So many videos!
It would be interesting to see how much the average bills are for the 4 walls. I’m always thinking “am I paying too much?” For things like utilities, car insurance, cell phone etx
It’s not an ish-me, it’s an ish-u 😂 hilarious 🤣. This is why I’m a dedicated viewer. Thanks for the information Mr. Kamel. ❤
Subscribed. Loved this. Educational, though provoking and fun.
Just curious... what yall say that you are putting away 15% into your 401k, is that including your company match?
Thank you George!!!! you are indeed a motivator!!!! you're killing it!!!!!