George Kamel - 24 Minutes of People Drowning In Debt

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

📙 Check out my book, Breaking Free From Broke!   The average American has over $22,000 in personal debt—not including their mortgage. So today, I’m reacting to some of the wildest debt videos on TikTok to see how far people will go to pay it off.     Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video I Asked World Cup Fans What They Spent. • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Go to Boost Mobile to switch today! • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! • Sign up with Privacy today and receive a $5 credit just for being a George Kamel fan.   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The average American has over $22,000 in consumer debt, not including their mortgage. And that might sound like a lot to you, but not compared to the people of TikTok who make that number look cute. So today I'm reacting to some of the wildest debt videos on TikTok to see how far people will go to pay it off. But first, let's give an interest-free shout-out to delete me for sponsoring this channel. Let's jump on the Hot Mess Express. My name's Lindsay. I'm in charge of the family finances and I've done a bad job and I'm admitting my sins right now. going to start with the credit cards. I'm really nervous. At the top of the list is Apple. I owe $9,00.39. Next on the list we have my Amex card, $1,472.73. I hope you heard it.

I'm gonna write it on the screen, but I'm sweating. Mind you, I just paid that one off last month. Ooh. My Amazon card, $526.78. None of it was spent on Amazon. And I just paid that one home. It was not too. Okay. Okay, moving on to the debts that I agree. the last time I said I was going to get out of debt. You should get a debt consolidation loan and it'll pay off all of your credit cards, boost your credit score and you'll pay it at a lower interest rate. And I said, that sounds like a great idea. So on that loan, I still owe $23,000 and $64.

And then on top of that, we have our student loans. Oh boy. So I owe $33,302.61 cents. And my husband owes $33,159. All of this for a whopping grand total of $126,383. $16. I need a thumbs, a peptobismal. Give me all of it.

Lindsay, I feel for you, girl. That is a lot of debt. I appreciate you sharing that with me. And it sounds like there's a lot of self-awareness here of some of the mistakes made and some of the shame of, Hey, I paid it off and now I'm back in it. And I really hope that you guys can get out of the cycle. I know this was posted fairly recently as of the taping of this video.

So I can't imagine there's been a ton of progress. But if I can help it anyway, I'm here for you. Every dollar is on me. And let's talk about debt consolidation. She mentioned this. Debt consolidation usually trades a shorter, higher payment for a longer, lower one combining your debts, which can feel like progress, but it often means more total interest. and since it never fixes the spending habit that caused the debt,

means many people eventually get comfortable with the lower payment and stay in a debt cycle. So the key here is address the behavior issues behind the spending first. Oh, look you here, Andy. Financial Peace and Dave Ramsey start listening to The Ramsey Show. The Ramsey Show stresses me out. Just get a part-time job. Sir, I have children.

Sacrifices have to be made and it's all going to be overwhelming. Stop using money you don't have. Boom, Andy. Roast them. Okay, well, 120 grand. I don't know their income. I don't know their whole situation. This is going to take a while to get out regardless. But the key here is debt snowball it, get the income up as high as possible, get the expenses down as low as possible, use all the margin you have at the smallest debt. Good luck, Lindsay. Moving on.

I recently posted about the fact I'm 26 years old and I'm in $95,487 and 73 cents worth of debt. And I want to talk about it. Up until 24 hours ago, I did not know that was actually the total of all of my debt. credit cards and student loans. That number also does not include my auto loan and if we are adding in my auto loan, the total number is $110,938.83 cents. Since totaling up all of my debt, I don't think I've actually gotten one good breath of oxygen in the last 24 hours. I feel like there is a elephant sitting on my chest and I don't think I can sit still because all I keep repeating is $95,487.73. All of this debt was racked up through decisions I made between the ages of 18 and 26. My first associate's degree I got from a community college and I didn't have to pay for because of the Pell Grant, but I decided to go to a university

and got my bachelor's degree, which is where I really started to rack up the debt. Then in the last two years, I decided to finish a nursing degree at a community college in the last two years, but that's where I started to rack up even more debt. What really sucks is realizing that the majority of these student loans is not from tuition. It's actually from living expenses and living way above my means. My debt comprises of two credit cards, five federal student loans, and five private Sally made loans. This takes some guts to share this publicly. And again, the self-awareness tells me a lot.

It tells me that she knows what's going on. She's not here to go. Oh my gosh, debt is like crazy, but I'm not going to do anything about it. She is motivated to pay this off. You could tell. She's like, I can't breathe with this thing on my chest. And fortunately, that's actually a good place to be right now because it means you're willing to stick it through some hard times

in order to get out of this thing once and for all. And you heard her say, the majority of her debt was her living above her means. It wasn't everyone else's fault. She is taking the responsibility on herself to go, listen, I made choices from 18 to 26 that got me here, and I want out. And that's the thing. This is a gateway job.

People start at 18 and they go, well, you got to take out some loans for college. It's an investment in your future. Well, you got to have a decent car. Might as well take on a car payment. Well, I got to put some living expenses on a credit card, but I'm going to try to pay it off every month. Wrong!

And then all of a sudden, you're almost six figures in debt, just trying to live your life, paying off the student loan, paying off the car payment, paying for the past instead of building for the future. And then people like this are going, well, I can't start a family. I can't get married. I'll never buy a house. And it's due to this cycle of debt, which is why I am debt averse. I am allergic to debt. I never recommend it. And the only debt that I won't yell at you for is a mortgage, a 15-year mortgage. Outside of that, debt is not your friend. And even that, I'm going to tell you to pay off that mortgage as soon as you can. So I'm rooting for her.

I'm glad she eventually included the auto debt because I get this on the Ramsey show a lot. People call in, they say, here's my debt, and I go, is that it? They go, well, I have a car loan, but, you know, is that debt? I'm like, yes, it's debt. If you owe anyone anything, it is debt. I don't care if it's 0%.

I don't care how low the monthly payment is. It will weigh on you physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, until you get that out of your life. So she mentioned it feels like an elephant on her chest. What's the best way to eat an elephant one bite at a time? And that's why I love the baby steps. It focuses on one thing. Not the giant scary number, but just what's the thing I need to do today?

$1,000-dollar-emergency fund. What's the next thing I need to do? Pay off the smallest balance, make minimum payments on the rest, throw everything you can at that smallest balance. That is what actually gives you progress and hope for the future. So again, reach out. If you see this video, I will happily give you any resources I can to help you climb out of this thing. All right, ladies, who's next?

Oh my gosh, she's bald. She's bald and she's torturing people who have hair. Oh, that's funny. I needed a lighthearted win here. This one has a whole lot of truth to it. She's saying realizing people aren't doing better than you, they're just a massive debt. Whenever you get envious, just imagine this person's life isn't all that great. It may look great on the outside.

It might look great based on what they posted on Instagram, the vacation they took, the car they bought, the family situation they have. but you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Now, I personally, I try to give the benefit of the doubt. There's no joy in me going, well, I hope they're in crippling debt at least. I go, hey, maybe they worked really hard to afford this life and they have a great income.

Maybe they're in crippling debt. Maybe they had family help. Whatever it is, it has no bearing on my life. I'm going to run my own race based on my situation and not worry about what everyone else is doing. And the caption here is interesting. I may be broke, but I'm not in debt. There's a difference.

Hashtike financial audit. I guess a Caleb Hammer fan, I don't know. Being broke, I guess, is slightly better than being in debt, but I hope you can climb out of it. I mean, part of not being in debt gives you the ability to not be broke. So I would say you're off to a great start here. But 37% of adults say they're unable to cover a $400 emergency. And often that's where people find themselves. Even if they don't have debt, they don't have much to their name. And everything that happens in their life just kind of derails any financial plans they have

because something is always going to happen in life. And that is why I always recommend a fully funded emergency fund once you're out of consumer debt so that you never have to go back into debt. I call it a never go into debt again insurance plan. And that's what happened to me. Once you have 10, 15, 20, 25, 30,000 bucks sitting in a high-yield savings account,

there's not much that life can throw at you if you have good insurance across your world. That's really going to derail your financial plan. You can continue to invest. Yes, it's going to stink if you have to cover a $5,000 or $10,000, emergency, but it's not going to be a crisis. It'll just be an inconvenience. You can build it back up and continue on. She said my husband and I are 100% debt-free as of this week. A lot of celebratory.

33,000 likes on that, 39 replies. Look, there's some good people in the comment section, congratulating her. Wondering why they travel every month, yet my job pays more than theirs, realizing I'm just frugal and they don't mind being in debt. There you go. I work her to bank, and trust me, you guys are good. I've seen some pretty bad stuff. I can't. I can't imagine what the bank tellers see. That's a dark place. Let's keep it going. Constantly getting hate for my frugal lifestyle.

Oh, I've seen this guy before, Bradley on a budget. Taking the trash shoes. Okay. Clean in the car. Wow. Quarter million in the bank. So he's comparing here. My extreme frugality has caused some extreme wealth.

Now, personally, I think there's some moderation here. I don't think you need to be wearing shoes that are falling apart in order to build wealth. But he's proving a point here that the things that he doesn't care about has caused him to build wealth for the things he does care about. So what is he doing in this video exactly? Well, let's walk through it. He is for sure cooking at home instead of eating out all the time. That's good. He's picking bottles from the trash, I assume, to go get, you know, five cents a bottle. Little side hustle there. He's not just dumpster diving here. He's wearing old shoes, even though he could buy some new ones. Again, cooking at home. I don't know what.

what that one was, reusing toilet paper? Is he taking paper towels from work? Cleaning the headlights of the car? Okay, driving a old used car that gets from A to B. There's some things I really like about this. And it says, welcome to my revenge era. I guess because now he's got a quarter million bucks invested. Please invest it, don't let us sit in the bank. I would hope he hasn't invested. He just says he has it saved and we don't know what that means. Life is to enjoy and live, not only to survive. Again, I think there's some modern I think you can enjoy your life and invest for the future, and you should do both.

Everything in moderation. And I'm all for a side hustle, but snagging the empty bottles and the extra rolls of TP from a public restroom, it's not for me. So if you want some side hustles that don't involve getting tetanus, I share a bunch of ideas that actually work. It's in Chapter 12 of my book, Breaking Free from Broke, and I'll drop a link in the description if you want to check that out. And if you're looking for an easy way to save money so you can keep attacking your debt, look no further than your phone plan. With Boost Mobile, a sponsor of today's video, you'll pay just 25 bucks a month on their unlimited plan. And the best news, that price doesn't change.

It's locked in forever. No price hikes, no hidden fees, no unwelcome surprises like your in-laws popping in from out of town on a Friday afternoon. Just a no-nonsense, great phone plan that makes sense while saving you hundreds of cents. Make the switch today at boostmobile.com slash ramsay, or click the link in the description.

$25 forever requires customers to remain active on Boost Mobile Unlimited plan. And I love people sharing their debt-free journeys on the internet, But one thing you don't want to share is your personal info. And that's where Delete Me comes in, another sponsor of today's video. We sign up for accounts, fill out the forms, use the same password, and before you know it, personal info like your name, address, phone number are falling to the hands of spammers and scammers.

Well, Delete Me tracks down your info from hundreds of these data broker sites and removes it and keeps it gone. Think digital sheriff meets internet Wild Wild Wild West. They do the dirty work so you don't have to. Less riffraff, more peace of mind. Get 20% off an annual plan today at Join DeleteMe. slash George or click the link in the description. There we go.

We start of the year till now. Could be better, okay? My Discover card is down to 71.1329. City card back up, 699-25. Oh. You can check some of my other content for why that happened. I'm pretty transparent about it. I don't have time in this video, okay?

Scroll. My Amix card down to 620827. Okay. My upstart 2, down to 7490-63. Finally making progress with that again. It was in a payment pause for a hot second. at the start of the year, finally making payments again. My 2024 taxes are at 188670 now.

My 2025 taxes are now at 7533, okay? Cause I did my taxes because April has passed. My Perkins loan is at 61, 488-7871. And my Nell Nut, which is my student loans, are up to 181, 681, 52, which means we have added a crap ton of debt this year onto our debt load. We're working on it, okay?

I had no will to live at the start of the year, Because my dog died in December. So I was unwell and I've been unwell until now. I'm still unwell, but now I finally have will to live again. So we're going to get going on these because the year's almost up. Okay, it's almost June already. Got to get going. Amber, you got a lot going on.

And I'm genuinely sorry about your dog. That is, that's real sad. Okay, so it says here in the caption that you are doing the debt snowball. I'm snowballing and paying least-the-most balances. But I'm confused because the credit card balance went from $0 up to thousands of dollars, which tells me that you had to put life expenses on the card. So one thing I'd recommend, you didn't ask for advice. I'm giving it to you because it's my channel now.

I'm the captain now. Please stop going into debt. If you're trying to get out of debt, you've got to stop going into debt. And it's why I recommend actually cutting up the credit cards. Closing the accounts. You'll still have the balance to pay, sure. But that's going to stop you from going further into the hole, moving backwards. And instead, you got to take debt off the table and go, okay, if debt was no option,

how am I going to cover these minimum payments? How am I going to cover the bills? That kind of creativity, resourcefulness, drive, grit. That's what will help you actually get out of this thing instead of spitting in circles on the old hamster wheel. Paying off 56K of debt by living in my parents' garage. I moved into my parents' garage so they can pay off $56,000 worth of student loan debt. And today, I'll be making my first payment.

I'm actually walking on top of my house right now, so let's get back home. My name's Sarah. I'm a 27-year-old single mom and nurse, and I move me, my daughter, into my parents' garage. And within the first year of living here, I'm planning to pay off all $56,000 worth of student loan debt. I'm calling this a student debt payoff challenge, and today is the first day that I'm making my first payment. As a reminder, I have $30,000 in federal loans and $18,000 in private loans. I'll be paying off the private loans first because of the higher interest rate. So let's go inside so we can make our first payment.

To keep it real with you guys, I did already make my first payment, but that's only so I can come with receipts. So on May 27th, I made a payment of $5,330. which brings our total loan amount down to $12,768. Where this money came from exactly is a combination of a bunch of things, which include my TikTok views, money of my own, and brand deals. So she's got some debt, she's making sacrifices, living with family here. I mean, we got to comment on this. This is like the biggest garage I've ever seen.

This is a warehouse. So good on you. LifeHack number one. Have awesome parents who have a gigantic house who go, hey, come on in. Bring the daughter. Just come live with us. That's a way to shave down your expenses and sacrifice for a season. I would recommend doing the debt snowball method instead of the avalanche method,

which is what she mentioned, paying the highest interest debts first, because you're going to make more progress, you're going to feel more momentum, which actually causes you to stick with it and get out of that debt. But this is interesting here. Saving money on your housing can make a huge dent in your debt. So the monthly mortgage for homeowners who moved in 2024, average was $2,225.

So just living mortgage-free for a year, and rent-free can cut your debt way down as long as you're actually focusing that amount toward the debt. If you're just going to get comfortable living with mom and dad and continually go into debt... Dad, what are you doing? It's Shark Week. This is a bad plan. And if you think no one's doing that, I have taken that call on the Ramsey Show where a couple is living with their mom and dad. They're married and they're going, well, we did it so we can get out of debt. And I asked them and they're further into debt versus further out. So be cautious with this plan. I would have an exit date, a strategy, a lot of clear communication. You need healthy adults on all sides if you're

going to try this. But it sounds like it's working for her and her daughter. Way to go. Telling my husband that we're completely debt-free part one. Oh, news to him. This is exciting. $791 of Costco hot dogs. I've never bought that much. I get hot dogs from Costco, but that's a lot of hot dogs. That's over 600 hot dogs at Costco. I haven't bought. I don't even think I haven't. I don't even think I've, Have you eaten that many hot dogs in your life? No, I haven't. There was a charge yesterday and it was named Debt Destroyer's Final Attack. And so I don't know if there's some fraud or anything going on.

I started checking on all the other debts that we have. Yeah. And the Discover card has nothing anymore. It's zeroed up. And the Apple card. Oh, he's realizing it? And UCCU is gone. I called my mom and that's...

that debt's gone, Mountain America is gone, and even the trailer loan is completely zeroed out. We're literally debt-free. My guy's crashing out in the best way. What do you mean we're debt-free? I might have started a little social media about four months ago, and I've been significantly paying off all this debt, so all of these charges, I renamed them. And so for the last four months, we call ourselves a little debt destroyers. And I have a million three hundred ninety three thousand nine hundred followers across

Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. They all came together and paid off over our 50,000. thousand dollars worth of debt and yesterday not only did they pay it off but they also um there was an excess in donations and i i sold a tour by the way um and there was an excess of $16,000 to put towards the expedition and cut that balance in half. Beautiful. Wow. What a story.

So she started this account, this little debt payoff account. It blew up, obviously. And I guess through their own income, the social media income, people donating, they got out of all this debt and started knocking out some of the car debt as well, that'll never get old. Very sweet, very heartwarming. I got to see the comments here. This is lovely.

Whose debt we pay in next? There's some outrageous generosity here. I think it's pretty cool that, I mean, if this many people follow the account, it means that they are invested in watching someone transform their finances. And that's a win for humanity, I think. If we can all just be a little bit more honest with ourselves, have a little bit more hope. And all these people chipping in, just to be a part of something bigger than themselves, is beautiful. And it's one of the reasons why I love the baby steps.

Baby step number seven is build wealth and give. being able to give generously because you have the option to, you have the abundance and the overflow in your income with the margin you've created to give to whatever you want to. Donating, maybe it's a tithe to your church, giving to a charity or nonprofit,

that's what it's all about. And I love that there's a community that rallied around them to make this happen. Still shocked that this guy never found out. Like nobody was like, Hey, dude, by the way, your wife's got a secret account with like a million followers

and is secretly paying off your debt. And she renamed things in the bank account? I don't know if he was just aloof to it. Busy eating Costco hot dogs. I don't know what was going on, but pretty cool. I don't know if I could keep that from my wife. I think I'd somehow be in trouble. But a lot of celebration in the comments.

He was so stressed. Him crying is so sweet. He's so grateful. Oh, I needed a win. That was lovely. All right, as per usual, producer Alex has chosen a video at random for us to enjoy as a little treato for going through the journey we just did. Let's see what he has for us.

Hi, I found a new way to get rich quick. I'm at the airport and they called me up and said, Hey, your flight's oversold. We'll pay you $700 to skip it and go to the next one. And I went, yep. And then the next one came. They just called me up and they went, look, this one's oversold too. We'll pay you $1,000 to skip this one and go to the next one.

And then I went, let's do $2,000. And they go, no, we're going to have to call her a supervisor. And I'm like, call them up. Let's deal or no deal this, Howie. And now I'm getting more money. And they said, I can do this three more times today. No. So here's a thing.

Don't go to college. Don't get into Bitcoin. Don't get into day trading, buy a $300 plane ticket to Raleigh, show up at the airport, and volunteer to skip the flights, and make $6,000 a day and sleep in the men's bathroom. That's the new way to make it in America. Okay, I mean, there is some truth of this. Now, can you replicate it? Probably not. It's been a while since I was offered money to not get on a flight. But I'll take it. You see me on a flight. You want to pay me to not get on it? I'll take that money all day long. That's pretty incredible. Life hack.

And I agree, it is better than crypto. I'd rather be doing that. I'd rather sleep in a man's bathroom than get into crypto. Clip that out of context. I'd rather sleep in a man's bathroom than get into crypto. Why else is on? Yeah, let's do what else is. First a TV guy.

Okay, while I love these people sharing their debt-free journeys, being very honest about the process, showing what it actually takes, being very self-aware about the mistakes they've made and how they're getting out, the best way is to never get into it in the first place. If you want to build wealth, imagine not having to spend years sacrificing to undo the mess that you created. That is the key.

So preventative maintenance is the goal here. So if you don't have any debt or you're about to get out, please don't go back in. Please let nothing tempt you to go get a car loan or that credit card or the student loan, no matter what people are saying to you or telling you, don't pay it off, it's low interest, or just open another card. You need a credit score to buy a house. Stop listening to everyone around you because everyone is broke. debt-free is the way to be I'm living proof.

After getting out of my 40,000 in consumer debt back in 2013 through 2015, I'm not touching this stuff ever again. I'm never going to have a car payment. I'm never going to have a credit card because it's not a blessing in my life. I have found that using my own money is way better than using other people's money and trying to pay back later. And if it worked out perfectly, nobody would have credit card debt. And yet we're $1.2 trillion in credit card debt,

another $1.6-something in car loans. So, America. This is not the answer. Say no to the payments, only pay for things you can afford in full, and that might mean making a lot of sacrifices. Now, if you thought these people were serious about paying off their debt, check out the lengths some World Cup fans were willing to go to see the big game. For one guy, it was his kidney.

Click here to watch that up next or use the link in the description. That's it for today. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.