Financial Audit - Dropping Out Of School To Become An Actor Making $0

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

Check out these fun things: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/calebhammer My socials: https://linktr.ee/calebhammer Do you want to be in a Financial Audit and you're in the Austin area? Email [e-mail] Sponsorship and business inquiries: [e-mail] _______________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Are you even making money? 03:45 How are you even surviving? 04:55 Not paying taxes... 07:40 Can you actually become an actor?? 09:19 Dropping out of college... 12:58 Overdrafting his checking account! 19:02 You can't afford to not work!!! 21:53 Credit score and limits 24:00 Not prepared for an emergency 25:30 Not willing to sacrifice for his well-being at all 30:00 What are you going to do after the 99.9% chance you don't make it? 33:24 WORK A JOB! 34:20 Getting a degree and having a career 36:12 You choose wants over needs... 40:00 Closing your brain off to critical thinking! 41:42 Hammer Financial Score --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/calebhammer/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name's Camton Cump. I'm 20 years old. I'm originally from Colorado, and this is financial audit. But do you live in Austin now? Well, I live in San Marcus. San Marcus. Okay. What do you do there? I'm an aspiring actor, so right now, my main job, I dress up as Spider-Man for birthday parties. Really? Yeah. It's been a while since we've had an aspiring actor on here, so this is pretty exciting. What do you do to pay the rent? Surprisingly, that birthday party job pays a lot of money. It pays $75. an hour and then my gigs are usually two to four hours long and then sometimes they'll be inclined

to give me a tip sometimes not but how many hours a month do you work on average i usually get like three or around three sometimes four if i'm lucky bookings four hours oh four bookings yeah so i'll get like four birthday parties usually three a month and then each birthday party could be anywhere from two hours to four hours long. And so, but that's not my only source of income. That's like... What else do we have? We have about $900 a month on average from that with those numbers.

What else brings in that cash? So obviously if I book anything, I get paid from whatever that is, whether it be a commercial or just like a short film, student film. What do you get on average on a monthly basis? That's the thing about acting. Sometimes you get work, sometimes you don't. Are there months you don't get work? There's months I get work.

So like there's good months I'd say and then there's bad months. A good month is where like I book a commercial. And then a bad month, which is still kind of a good month, but like financially speaking, a bad month is like I just did like a student film or something like that. So something on a much smaller production size. Would you like $1,000? Would you like $1,000? Yeah. Well, all you have to do to get $1,000 is being one of the first $50,000 subscribers here in one of the first $1,000.

person won't win it. So make sure you subscribe. You'll get it. Sorry, not to tease you too much. You're cool. You're cool. Yeah. So, yeah, make sure you're subscribed. What else brings in that monies? I thought I saw Target. Yes, I was going to say. So for a while, I've worked at a target maybe like over a year and close to a year and a half. I'm on demand now. So basically they don't schedule me

unless I tell them they can schedule me. So if like work to drive for me, and I'm not getting any birthday parties. I can be like, hey, I'm free to work this week and this weekend, and then it can work me into the schedule. I can also pick up shifts that are posted. And so just kind of when works dry, I'll pick up target shifts. Okay, so let's think on a monthly basis. What is your goal of essentially the minimum amount of money that you forced yourself

to earn in order to survive to bring in, whether that be picking up through target or whatever else? What is your just normal income that comes in on a monthly basis? It's a little dangerous that you don't know. The one that I want. What do you bring in normally? Oh, what do I bring in normally? Yeah. I think close to like a little over a thousand.

Okay, so it's mostly the Spider-Man thing then. Mm-hmm, yeah. How did you get into that? I just applied, and then I did like some audition where I read a monologue as Spider-Man. It felt weird, but, um, It was fun, and then I got it. You do have that, like, Twinkie Spider-Man voice. The Twinkie Spider-Man voice, that's cool.

Yeah, I think. So, I mean, I could see Tom Holland is under that. If there's a mask right there, I think, I don't know. So, but a thousand hours a month, it's not a lot to live on? I don't need too much, no. Why? So I used to work two jobs, and I'd work, like, 60 hours a week, and that was close to a year ago, and I was just, like, not really having it.

It was my first year of college, too. I just found myself not very happy. And so... Well, sure, but how do you not need that much to survive right now? Oh, because my only expenses are my rent and my food. What's your rent on a monthly basis? 600. Oh, okay.

So there goes 60% of your money before taxes. That's a lot. Right, right, yeah. And then food is the other 400? Is that how you do? How does it work? Well, kind of a lot of... Some of that goes to gas, but it's also...

most of the work that I do for acting, they cover my gas at this point. And so most of it is just for the groceries slash fast food if I want to eat out. Yeah. I don't know if I'd be eating fast food on a thousand dollar income, but we'll get into that for sure and how this budget breaks down and what your entire picture looks like. But first, $600 a month, 60% of your income, okay. Now, bringing in a thousand hours a month on average, you're just over. Are you setting 30% aside for taxes?

I used to. I'm not anymore. Why? Right now, I've just been happy to pursue acting and then break even slash come over a little bit each month, if you know what I mean? Like, I know that's not very... But what about the taxes you're going to owe in a few months? in a few months. Well, I have money set aside in my savings.

But as far as, like, this last month, I have not been doing that. Starting, I think there was the beginning of November that I went on demand. It's been November up until now. So the acting things really picked up just recently? Yeah, so I started, and then it was kind of slow, and I was like, I was at Target 40 hours a week as well as full-time college, and so it was hard to get into anything that was like not just extra work. And I really wanted to take time and pursue it while I'm still young and I still have the ability to do that. So instead of setting any money aside, because essentially

you wouldn't be able to afford it if you did because, I mean, you're rented 60% of your income and then you have to afford other things to survive. So instead of setting money aside for taxes, we're just, we're pulling from savings come tax season? For right now, yes. For right now. What do you mean for right now? So you are going to be saving in the future? Well, I plan to, of course. Okay. When? What's like stop? you from doing that now. What is the thing that in your mind you need to hit in order for you to flip that switch? Are you talking like money wise? Like how much I've lost? Anything wise. There's a reason you're not doing it now versus doing it at some point in the future. Well, the reason

I'm not doing it now is because I wanted to take just a little bit of time and really focus my all on trying to become an actor. Yeah, but the IRS gets its money. Right. But that's why for right now I'm just like when it comes up this when is it January? It's throughout the spring I forget the last file date and it's been extended these last couple years due to the pandemic but off the top of my head I don't remember them

Okay well whenever it comes up that's when I'll be pulling for my savings I don't plan on doing that every time I plan on going back to putting aside money for taxes like I used to Right now You used to Yes I used to because like I said, I used to work two jobs and set meaning aside. But this pursuing acting has been kind of like a time-consuming,

and it also takes a little bit of money to get started as well. It does. Now, no offense to San Marcos. You're trying to become an actor. Yes. Is San Marcos the city to become an actor in? San Marcos is not the city to become an actor in, but Austin is. And I'm only like 30 minutes away.

And like I said, most of the work that I do, they do cover my gas. And so I don't mind driving out. if it's for work. I mean, as someone who loves Austin speaks really well on Austin, I know we're getting one of the larger film studios being built here. We're getting a really cool thing, and South by Southwest is here. So there is certainly a scene, but if you wanted to make it, make it. Wouldn't it be like Atlanta?

Wouldn't it be L.A.? Wouldn't it be New York? So yes and no. my thoughts on that are one it's definitely more expensive to live in New York, L.A., Atlanta. Well, I don't know about Atlanta. No, I think here's more expensive than Atlanta.

Here is? Austin's definitely more expensive than Atlanta. Okay, so I was right to bring that back. I feel like in New York and L.A. and I guess maybe Atlanta, I'm not so sure about Atlanta. Still not a cheap city, I mean, yeah. The market for like people who want to make it it's so oversaturated, over-saturated in those places.

And so you're going to find so many people that are like, just give me a chance, just give me a chance. Whereas right here in Austin, the market is, like, the industry is getting bigger as we speak. And I feel like it's a good starting point for me. Obviously, if I continue to progress and I continue to make it, I guess, I would pursue things in New York or L.A. But for right now, I figured I'd start in the Austin market just because it's 30 minutes from here.

I can still attend Texas State for college. Well, this is, okay, this is a development. You go to college. Yes. Okay. Yeah, that's... What do you study? Right now, I'm undecided.

It's business exploratory technically. Okay. I have a deal with my parents where they're going to cover the first two years, and I'll pay for the second two years. And so, although I don't know exactly. what I'm there for right now. I'm assuming you're within that first two years then. This is the end of my third semester. So I have one more semester that's covered for me.

Yeah. Would you say you're 19? I'm 20 years old. So like when my parents split, part of the agreement was that my dad would cover that. So what happens a semester from now when you owe was like $6,000? Then I reevaluate. Because right now I'm like I don't have to

I know I should probably be setting money aside for that right now. Are we talking reevaluate in terms of maybe dropping out to become an actor? Well, it kind of depends on how things go. If I, I don't know, say I get like a series regular role and I'm doing really well and it's starting to take off, that's definitely something I would do seeing as how this is like, it's my dream to be an actor. But like if it's not working out at all and it's not bringing in what I need it to bring in, then I kind of drop that as a as the big thing and it becomes maybe like a side thing or just a hobby. So are you saying you're giving yourself a hard deadline of six to seven months to make it?

Then if not, make it, it depends on like how you look at or what make it means to me. Make it for me in something like YouTube for me when I officially decided I was able to do this full time. Or make it in any industry where there's a very. small percentage of people that want to do it that end up making it and it's very competitive to begin to. You being able to at least sustain what you need

to survive will, that's the cusp of making it because then you can grow from there. You can grow from there. That's very similar to how what I think making it is. I don't define making it as like I'm a movie star now. If I can bring in what I need to like cover my expenses for living

then I'm fine. And if I feel like recently, I've discovered that, although I'm not like a big name actor that anyone knows yet, I'm having much more fun in life, and I'm just a lot happier doing that than I am in college. Sure. Well, fun and happiness is good, but sacrifice, temporary sacrifice for future happiness forever is also very important, which is the conversation we have on this channel a lot. A lot of people, and I'm not saying this is you necessarily, we'll look at the full picture,

but they'll do the, yes, I'm much more happy right now. this is great. It feels great right now in the moment, but they're putting off temporary sacrifices that will produce them being happy for the rest of their life. Right. You think that sounds like something you might be doing? Oh, that's something I'm definitely doing. I think most actors do that.

I wouldn't sit here and be like, oh, I'm not doing that. I think I'm just kind of fully aware that that's what I'm doing, but that's why I want to just give it a shot while I can. And then I figure I'm young. I have a little bit of time to figure, some stuff out. And if it doesn't go my way, then I have a couple backup plans that I can fall back on as far as career-wise. Okay. You know, I definitely don't want to poo on anyone's dream by any means.

But I am real world when it comes to the conversations on this channel. So let's talk about that money. The money that came in, so we had $100, the first transfer was $100 from your savings to your checking account. Not a great sign. Then 103, this was a $100, this was a Venmo Cash. I assume you get Venmo paid a lot for your gigs. Because I see lots of Venmo on here. Benmo Cash app. And then half of them, I'd say over half of them. They're cash. And some Zell? Some Zell, yeah.

So you got Zeldin. It looks like a thing. And then a cash app that also. Venmo, again, that looks like, oh boy. I just saw something that I didn't see previously. But, okay, so far, those were probably from gigs. And then, so, yeah, I don't see exactly. $1.15.23. Right. Was transferred over from your savings to prevent you from going into overdraft. Can you define overdraft?

Overdraft spending, if you have $1 in your checking account, and you spend $2, that's overdraft. Gotcha. Yeah. Did you not know what an overdraft was? I did not. No. Okay.

No, that's okay. That's good. Well, it's a good thing to learn. I had an idea, but I wanted to make sure. No, I'm glad I could give you that right now because that's very important to know. Fun fact, you typically don't, and it shouldn't spend more money than you have. Right. As a general rule of thumb.

And that's usually what I'm, I'm glad that savings is connected because it saved you. You could have got hit with like a $25, $75. Who knows what it is for USAA. I don't have it. But they could have hit you with a fee. Right. It still isn't good, though. Not good.

It's forcefully transferring money from the savings because of that. That's a mess. 160 bucks of Femmosa, again, getting paid. And then here's a target payroll, 346. So that's by far the biggest you've had. It's still, unfortunately, not that much in terms of surviving in a pretty expensive area. And $12 came from a Venmo cash out. $600 from savings.

Transferred over to my checking. To survive. So far, the majority of the money has been transferred over from savings for you to survive. Yes. $500 from savings. Now it's not even a competition between earning versus savings. Then 35 was transferred over. And then 15 was a Venmo cash out, 187 from Target.

I'm probably going to believe her name, but who's... Oh, that's my mom. What does it say? Does it say that there's money she gave me? Yeah. Okay, so I can explain that. Like I said, you know how most of my... My over half are paid in cash.

My mom would prefer, well, not my mom. My stepdad likes cash. And so when I have cash, I go and give it to... They live in San Marcos? They live in New Bromfels. But I go and, like, I see them like once a week when we eat dinner or something. I'll give them the cash and then they just move money from their account to my account because they'd rather have cash.

But are they subsidizing your lifestyle in any way other than your college tuition? No. Okay. $12 cash out, $12 cash out from Venmo. So, okay, cool. Yeah, that's not just her giving me money for free. Good. And then $52.

Money I had. Good. Good, good, good. That's good. Very good to know. So again, you survives off of you transferring from your savings. One of those transfers was because I was waiting to give cash. So that...

So not a good sign if you're waiting. Well, that's... Also, you could just go. to a USAA, which are everywhere, and deposit it. I know, but they prefer that they have cash. And I, I have, I can just transfer back and forth. And so I just, I just did that for that time. Started with $159.

Scary balance for a checking account. Ended with 196. 3,000 came in, 3,000 went out. Again, majority of that 3,000 was savings. And then, so you're barely surviving, my dude. You're barely surviving. And then we're doing app, Sorry, Faith Array, and you're sending Venmos out, and you're making a credit card, which I don't even have the same thing,

we're making a credit card payment, and you're paying for Google Storage. You have a subscription, Microsoft subscription, making another credit card payment, sending out Venmo payment, an Xbox bill looks like maybe Xbox Live, and an Apple subscription, sending Venmo out, Hawaiian Bros, credit card payment, credit card payment, Venmoing out money, tribal chimp and pay. Fair stuff. Okay, well, you know. Shop, some shop that uses PayPal and sending Venmo out and credit card payment, credit card payment, Hawaiian Bros, Apple subscription, Hawaiian Bros.

It's pretty expensive for Hawaiian Bros stuff that you've been doing as well. They're spending a lot of money when you don't have a lot of money. Now, these credit card payments, is this your credit card? Yes. All right. I pay it off. Can I see it on your phone? My credit card.

Uh-huh. Oh, my account? Yeah, I just like want to see where the money's being spent. Yeah. Well, I don't have the statement, so we're probably not putting it on the screen, but I'll give it a call out. So right now it's been paid. I don't think there's anything in it. Oh, good.

Okay. But because I'll look at this. So you don't have a credit card balance. No, I pay it off. Beautiful. Just to build credit, I guess. Disney just emailed you. Gotcha.

Mill Street Market, $150. Garcia's Mexican restaurant. Sonic. So here's all the fun. Mill Street Market, Chick-fil-A, Mill Street Market, you should cash in your rewards. You have a good amount of rewards.

Yep, building it up, saving it. Airport, parking. You're getting text, too. Talent Show thing. Mills Market, the route seller, Creekside concession. Dude, you're spending so much, just so much money on here.

There's a lot of text coming in. Oh, okay. I'm just going to hand that back and I barely look that far but you're, for some of that makes it, you spend more than you make, which is why you're sending money over from checking, from savings, I mean.

Yes, I don't know if November's a very accurate representation of the money I make though because normally I get a lot more than 340 from Target. I've just, yeah, well now you're like on demand so are you going to be getting more than 340 from Target? You had two targets in there, so it was like 500 in total or something,

but, oh, one of them was from before. I mean, my brother came in from Colorado, and I only see him, like, once a year. And so I think it's the last two years as well. I've had to work all, like, holidays, Black Friday, Christmas Eve. So I've kind of just taken off a little bit of time. And the week or a half he was here, I was not working at all. I was just hanging out with him. You can't afford to not work.

Well, I was just doing it right there. What do you mean? What? I didn't work. And you couldn't afford it. You transferred money from savings. Just hang out with my brother. I know, but you couldn't afford.

to do it. I guess so, yes. It was a choice you made. It was a choice. I'm okay with still hanging out with brother, but that doesn't mean

you can't hang out with a brother after you come back from earning some money to pay for your life instead of draining your savings. Not to be a hard- but. Yeah,

you're right. You couldn't afford it. You made a choice and you chose to take money from your savings. I'm happy you have savings. And we'll talk about that right now. In your savings,

5,933, starting. 170 went in Okay, not much, but 1,200 out ending with just under 5,000. That's not a trend that can continue.

If we pretend this month is the average month, and we never know, it's impossible to say within some 30 days, some you're making more with the acting gig, some you're spending more, some you're spending less, some you're making less, whatever. If that trend continues, in four and a half months, or four months, savings is zero.

Checking account is zero. What is it? say that it's at right now? 4,900? Oh, yeah. It's higher than that now. How much? I can pull it up right now.

I was going to say that sounds... Because I stake right under 6,000 with my checking and my savings combined. And so with it... So 5,500's in there. So we put in about 600. And it's still pretty scary balance of 137 in your checking. Right. Well, I'm glad it's back up because it's essentially...

something you have to do when you couldn't afford to live that month and you were just taking money out. Bad choices are being made, but it looks like you're kind of correcting from them. So that's a good thing. Glad to see them. Now, do you have the Credit Karma app? No. I'm going to get you to download it.

Okay. Credit card. Just under 700. Ooh, why did this recently drop 13 points? Let's see. What has changed? Balance increase on your savings? Why would that one really confused?

I don't check that app, so I don't really know. Well, you drop below 700, but pretty much at 700. Okay, so payment history 100%. Credit card, you use 24%. That's probably why. So your credit card balances, or, well, even with 118, your balance is actually zero. We just looked at it, but it just takes a bit to update. Right.

But $500 credit limit, that's very small. And, I mean, you put a good amount on it for such a small limit. That's going to hurt your credit. If your credit is something you care about. If not, then whatever, but. So you mean I put a bunch on it? You mean like I spent a lot on it? For the $500 limit.

Right. So the utilization goes up, but you always pay it off, which is good. Sorry, can you unlock this? Yeah. Is that your girlfriend? It is, yes. Aw. Another thing I can't put on screen, sorry.

It's the lock screen. Okay, so, yeah. So that's something to just think about when it comes to credit and maybe request an increase. If it doesn't cause a hard inquiry, maybe get another credit card. It looks like you are being disciplined on that, even if you're just not making much money. But either way. Total accounts, one, so that would be the credit card. So it looks like you don't have any other kind of debts.

No. Okay, good. Hard inquiries. It looks like we've applied for quite a few things, though. You applied for something at Capital One, Ally Financial. This was all this year. Oh, yeah. We were going to get another credit card, a Capital One.

You just got denied for them all? I'm not entirely sure. You must have because it just opened. What do you mean they're opened? They're not open, so you must have been denied. Oh, okay. Calic Enterprises, American Credit Financial, Capital One, Ally Financial. I think those, so basically a while ago, I say a while ago, maybe like half a year ago,

I had some issues with my car, and we've had a lot of issues. with my car recently, so I was talking to my parents, and I was like, should I just keep paying for this car, or should I look at getting a new one? And, um... What do you mean paying for this car? Paying for this car? By that, I mean, like, uh, repairs and stuff. Like, because it just, something new would come up every other day. Um, and then I went and I applied for like a bunch of loans and stuff so I could, I think, I don't know exactly. Um, I did it with them. I was confused. I won't pretend I know what I'm talking about. But, um, we couldn't, um, we couldn't

find a good like payment for the car that I wanted or the cars that I wanted. Oh so you're applying for car loans. Yeah. That's usually what ally is typically. Yes. I'm sorry. That's what I'm met. Um, car loans because I remember we applied for a lot and then we couldn't get any good, any good like, um, we couldn't get a number that was low enough that I could pay with my rent. Yeah. Well, yeah, you make no money. So that, I'm kind of happy you got denied instead of going into a car payment that would have been draining. There's not a single, but you're spending more money now than you make.

There's no wiggle room. If you had car dead, this would be a mess. What is your car that you have right now? A 2008 Ford-edged sport. Yes. Okay. Yeah, we need to get that replay.

So, if this has been a conversation with your parents, like, uh-oh, car bad, car causing money, what is the conclusion been saying? Because time has passed and supplying for those.

What has the conclusion been? So far it's just been, Like me still with the 2008. Suck it up, essentially? Because, I mean, I can't afford it, so. And this one I have paid off. And so I'm just going to afford it, but some things would need to change. Right.

Some things I don't necessarily want to change right now. Ah, there it is. Because I also like my car as well, but I... But what happens when this car doesn't work anymore or the repair costs more than the car's worth? At that point, I'm not exactly sure what I would do at that point, to be honest with you. That's scary. It is.

That makes me want to throw up What would you do? I'm not sure for right now Okay, so you'd be sitting without a car In San Marcos, a car-dependent city In the middle of two car-dependent cities San Antonio and Austin Do you take the bus to gigs?

Do you Uber around? So at that point, obviously I wouldn't be acting anymore And I would just, I would come off from on-demand My roommate was in a similar situation And I gave him rides to work all the time so I'm sure he wouldn't mind doing that. How many hours a week do you work in total? Across everything.

Across everything? I'm not sure. Give me the rough estimate. Think of their last couple months. How many hours a week are you working on average? I'd say probably still close to 40. All right. Very skeptical.

There's some pretty long shoot days. Then you're not getting paid for those. Well, that's how it is when you start. You have to start small and do student films and stuff like that until you can get an agent, and then you can start auditioning for the bigger stuff that's going to pay you a little bit more. But then again, there's also, like I said, the commercials

that, like, they pay me 10 times as much for, like, two or three hours in comparison. Oh, man, okay. I've had this conversation a couple times already. But it comes down, I mean, I know in your mind you think it's 100% worth it. Right. And there's pretty much no convincing.

see otherwise. It's the, man, okay. You're in such a privileged position. You're only able to survive because of that. You're getting two semesters, or two years of college is paid for, and then your in-state tuition isn't crazy

at Texas State for the remaining two years that you have to do it. And I could sit down with you right now, and I could get you to a way where you have money saved that for an emergency fund, you have money saved that to buy a car and cash. when that car inevitably breaks down and however long and cash flow college. But none of the, you're, I don't think you're willing to do anything that would get you to

those amazing places because it would give up the ultimate dream. Yes, yeah. I was going to say that's the one thing. It's a risk. It's pretty big, but something I'm willing to do for now. For six months, right? for the time being. Like I said, we'll see how it goes.

What do you need to look like six months from now in order to say that you've won, essentially? Be in a position where I don't have to do as many birthday parties to make rent. Or how about fucking transfer from savings? Right, that too, obviously. Who cares about them? I mean, work as many birthday parties you can. I mean, that's money.

There's nothing wrong with working for money. Right. But what's the financial figure that you have to be bringing in from this acting thing in six months to say, okay, this is paid off and now I can just do this? And at that point, I assume you drop out of college. Right, if it takes off. So what does taking off look like? What are we hitting? What is the goal that you have?

The goal that I have is kind of similar to what I said earlier, booking. a role that's kind of like a series regular or tell me the finances what are you making i don't know what the finances for that looks like you need to know well i haven't gotten the job like no no no no no you need to know your goal for the financial figure you are making that says okay i can commit to this full time and i can drop out of college okay that's fair that's fair um off the top of my head i don't have a number for you i don't think it needs to be necessarily a specific job that you land before then. I think it's a specific goal working the jobs in the field that you want to do.

Hitting the figure on a monthly basis. And then you can say, okay, I did it. Right. Now, allow me to be the bad guy. And let's just talk to statistic likelihood. I sound like such a dick. Is it less than 1%? Yeah.

Is that what it is? It is, yeah. Okay. Well, that's worse than I thought. Less than 1% chance that you make it within six months. then what are we looking at? We're looking at you don't have money saved up for a car replacement. You're still barely making rent.

And then all of a sudden, you have to start paying for school. Great. What are we looking to do at that point? Well, at that point, like I said, I pull back on that. And I will say that my car has had no issues at all. I thought you could say, oh, since what?

It was. So that was like four, five, or six months. months ago. Something like that. I can't remember exactly. What happened? Um, something about like the fan and the having issues like it was leaking coilent, coolant constantly it'd boil over. I don't know cars very well. So I don't know cars either. But it, it was, uh, it was like a thousand dollars. And since then, I haven't had any issues. It was just up until that point before that, before that, there were other issues. And it was like, maybe like two to three months where there was just issue after issue after issue.

How many miles are on it? Like 160. I'm not a car person. I can't tell you if this is a good car or not. From the things I've read in the comments, I'm, my best guess is it's something that doesn't have the longest lifespan, especially with those miles and the money that you've already put into it. But you're going to need a car fund.

You're going to need an emergency fund. You're going to need a cash flow school in the, in the, in the, okay. If the odds, if we're taking these odds on anything, if I'm taking the odds on any kind I bet I'm putting or any kind of investing I'm doing or any kind of like thing I'm doing in life. If my odds are I could choose to be mature and prepare for something that has a 99.9% chance of happening, or I can just say F it and, you know, put all my money on red that 0.1% chance of it actually winning. aren't I being immature if I choose red definitely 100% yes so you're being immature yeah we can call it that I mean I don't find it immature but I can understand how well

how is it not immature financially speaking yes it looks very immature but for me personally because it's my dream and it's the only thing I can ever think of that I've like really wanted to do I don't but isn't immature selecting dreams over realities though I don't think so no I think I mean, if you have, I mean, right now I'm in a position where I can, and so I don't. Are you in a position where you can? You are transferring money from savings to checking. I do, yeah, but I have the savings because I've built them up to this point so that way I can take this. Before acting, though, by working a real job.

Yes. Yeah. A real job, yes. Yeah. I want you to be able to do this. Maybe you'll get there, but I'm super nervous. Oh, I'm nervous as well. Yes.

Why? I'm so confused. I'm so confused why you're not able to. Instead of doing what you're doing now, you work 40 hours a week, minimum at Target, save up all this money, and then work. You know, screw Target. Let's pick something where you can choose your own hours every day. What if you're driving Uber, Uber, Uber, Eads, DoorDash, everything like that? All the time that you do not have an acting gig, and then you're acting when you have a gig or something like that. And that's fantastic. Continue to take those, build a career. but you're working your butt off every other second on making money so that you're saving up an emergency fund because you have a little bit of emergency fund now.

We'd probably want to get it to 10,000 hours. So you're saving up a car fund on the side because eventually this car is probably going to break down at the age of miles that it's at and the brand. And so you're saving up to pay for school because guess what, six months from now, 99.9% chance, according to you, that you all of a sudden have to pay for school.

How do you pay for school? Well, there's another thing as well. like I'm not going to continue to go to school if I haven't figured out what it is I want to do in school right now. I just, I took that deal because if I didn't go immediately, they weren't going to cover the first two years. That's fair. I wouldn't want you as, but definitely don't want you going into debt and not know something that you want to do. I don't want you to also just be shoving out thousands of dollars if you don't know what you want to do. That's fine.

You can take a break and figure out what you want to do. Have you taken a career test of any kind? The ones that they have like in school and stuff like that. And? I can't remember the results exactly. Hmm. Okay. What do you enjoy doing that brings value?

Arts, any form of the arts. Mm-hmm. So. Art education, being an art teacher? Maybe. Yeah. I could see myself enjoying those. Okay.

I think they have a halfway decent theater program at Texas State, if I'm not mistaken. It's not bad, yeah. Yeah. Outside of that. outside of that, continue going. Outside of the arts? Sure. Anything that you enjoy doing

that brings value? That just brings value, not financially speaking. That brings value and then we can see if finances will come to it. Oh, okay, okay. I think, yeah, just all things,

arts, painting. I did a lot of theater in high school. I love to act. I love to draw. We have the arts. Outside of the arts. There's not. There's, well, I mean...

How do you enjoy serving people in any kind of way? I don't know. I mean... I do other things outside of the arts, but it's not anything I could, like, get a career off. Like, I'll go play basketball sometimes, but I'm not going to go become a, you know what I mean?

Yes. So, yeah. Okay. So we have a pro basketball player or a professional actor. These are the two possibilities. Okay, well, I mean, I don't know how much more can be productive from here, but again, 99.9% chance that all of a sudden, Okay, so actually I'm a little confused then because that's just kind of contradicted what you said, where you want to be going to school in like that six months when it's not paid for.

So what do you do at that point? I need to know if you're not going to school and you're not acting as much, it becomes a side hustle. What are you doing? Well, I come off of demand at Target and then I just work. So we're just working target? Well, yes, but I also am working towards figuring out what it is I want to do. That's not that or what it is. is taking up time now. I think I was a little unfair with the time when it came to working and

the acting. I did forget the hours that going to school. Yeah, I am a full-time student. Yeah, that's fair enough. Okay. So then you're just committing everything to target and acting? Target and acting or a target and something else that's not acting. So that would just be figuring out what it is I want to do. Like I said, I have a couple backups. So like my mom worked at a fire department, or still works at a fire department she has for like the past 12 years. And I could always just try and become a fireman if I wanted to. I think that that would be a cool time. Something you're interested in?

Slightly, yeah. I mean, they make decent money and they only work like a third of the year because of how their shifts run. And so that would still allow time for me to pursue my hobbies that involve the arts and stuff like that. But like, you know, that's just one example. because like I said, it's just at that point I just, I work at targets. That way I can make the money I need to survive.

And then I start working towards something else. Dude, if your parents are willing to pay for any aspect of school and being a firefighter or something you would actually want to do, why don't you just agree with them, get them to agree to just funding you becoming a firefighter? Just get to a goal instead of just wasting time or just wasting time. Well, it's not something like I really want to do. It's something I could do. Do you know what I mean?

You know, there's a million things you could do. We need to figure out what you want to do that's realistic. I don't think anything I want to do is realistic, to be honest with you. You know what I mean? Okay. So there's a lot of things I could do. The things I really want to do, though, not very realistic. And you choose wants over needs.

Right, yeah. Normally I don't bring like this up, but how far in the relationship with your girlfriend do? We're a little over a year and a half. Okay. So, I mean, is marriage on the horizon? Like, you never know. Yeah, I think so. Okay.

So what are you doing that situation? Because then you have a responsibility. And you're, you know, right now you're not doing anything for your career. You're not doing anything for your finances. Right now we're just kind of putting wants over needs. What kind of responsibility do you feel there to a potential future partner? Could you maybe say the question again, but just a little slower. There's a lot of parts to it.

I'm sorry. Well, since we've agreed you're being irresponsible. Right. Do you feel responsibility to choose needs over wants right now for the sake of a future partner? Do I feel responsibility to choose needs over wants for the sake of a future partner? In relationship and everything, the marriage, yeah. I mean, if it came down to like this or my partner, I would definitely choose my partner, if that makes sense. It sounds like, okay.

your vibe seems to be more of I'll deal a shit when it happens and I'm not even going to think about it until it does dangerous I mean like I said it switched I used to not be like this but I was I'm decided that I want to kind of try this out if that makes sense and I mean there's clearly nothing I can say at this point I mean you're

you're very dead set well you have to be yeah or else it won't work Isn't that bad? Yeah. That's bad. Closing your brain off from critical thinking, that's usually not a positive. I wouldn't say closing my brain off from critical thinking, but I mean you have to be dead... I know.

You have to be dead set on your goal and you have to believe so much to the point where it's almost unrealistic or else it won't work. So putting beliefs over facts, though. That is kind of closing your mind off to critical thinking. Well, I'm aware of the facts. I know they're there. I'm just like... You then just immaturely choose to do your wants

over the facts. Yes, to pursue this, yes. Okay. So again, there's clearly nothing I can do here. I mean, I could help get you to a point where within a year or two, we're cash flowing school, getting you into a great paid traditional career

in something that you would like. Maybe it's not your absolute perfect dream, you know, that like every toddler has, to become an actor or anything like that. That's okay. People have to do it. There's a demand for it. I'm not against that.

I want you to be able to hit your dream. But what I'm saying is I can get you to a point where we're getting a realistic, good salary with benefits and everything. We're cash flowing in school. We have an emergency fund and you're able to buy a car and cash when this thing breaks. But you're not willing to do any of those things now.

So it doesn't even make sense to kind of go into that. It's clear your mind is made, but I would love to give you the final word. Any final thoughts? Any final thoughts? I don't think so, no. Needed to transfer money from savings in order to survive and not being able to take the necessary sacrifices

to improve financial life and actually meet the realistic standards that the world will eventually come. Captain, I will give a hammer financial score of four out of ten because at least he doesn't have a bunch of debt or anything like that, but it's just the lack of sacrifice, a lack of willing to meet realistic goals.

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