George Kamel - 5 Middle Class Milestones That Are Quietly Dying

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

📊 Check out the Retirement Calculator!   These five financial milestones used to be part of a normal, middle-class life, but they're slowly slipping away. Today, we’ll break them down and, more importantly, discuss how you can still reach them.   Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video The Bulletproof Investing Guide to Avoid the Retirement Crisis! • 🏠 Check out the Home Buyers’ Course! • 💵 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

Five financial milestones that used to be part of a normal middle-class life are slowly slipping away. So are they just harder to reach or have they lost their luster? Today we're going to break them down and more importantly discuss how you can still accomplish them if you so choose. So let's give a chest bump to delete me for sponsoring the channel and hop right in. Milestone number one, the college degree. A college degree used to be the reliable ticket to a great life. You show up, you do the work, you get the piece of paper, you get the job, and you build the life you want. That was the deal. But the deal changed. That's not the case anymore.

What? So, if you got the degree and you're not using it right now, you're not alone and you're not stupid. You're in a system that sold you a credential before you actually knew what you wanted to do with your life. And if you got the degree and still can't land the job, you're not alone. Over half of college graduates are underemployed one year after graduating. Translation, they're working jobs that don't even require the bachelor's degree they just paid for. And if you got the degree but you're making less than you expected, welcome to the club. The typical college student expects to make $80,000 coming out of graduation,

while the typical actual salary is about $56,000. Missed it by that much. Here's the thing, though, you can't go back and undo the degree. The return policy sucks on these things. The only variable left that you can actually control is your income. Now, increasing your income, easier said than done. Nobody's pretending otherwise. But it is the only path to a better life,

where you have margin to pay off the debt, to save, to invest, and to give. So in the short term, this might look like taking on extra work to fill in the gaps or pay off the debt. And in the long term, you've got to get that core income up. You cannot side hustle your way to wealth. And this may take getting more experience, getting more skills, who knows for the field you want to get into. But don't give up and just say, well, I just can't make more than $14 an hour where I live. Then move. Nobody's keeping you there.

And my story is a great example of this. I started at this company 13 years ago as an intern and a temp. I was here 20 hours a week as an hourly worker without a full-time job. But I got my foot in the door. I hustled. I made sure they liked me. I made sure I like them. And I found a spot full-time doing email marketing.

Did I know a whole lot about email marketing? No. Did I convince them that I could figure it out? Yes. And that I did. I got a book on Amazon called HTML and CSS and I went to town. and I cranked out those emails for two and a half years before moving on to another role in social media. And then another role and another role.

And then I became a host and emcee for live events in the Ramsey Show video channel. And after four years of doing that, I became a Ramsey personality doing what I do today. So it's been a 13-year journey so far. And it started at the very bottom as a lowly intern in temp. So don't think that where you are now is where you're going to end up, but you got to be moving. You got to be moving somewhere. Maybe it's up a corporate ladder, depending on your front. field, maybe it's just more expertise and more clients.

Whatever it is, don't stop believing. My also number two, having kids. Having kids used to be something you just did. You didn't sit down with a spreadsheet first to make sure the numbers made sense. You just had them and figured out the math later. But these days, the cost of raising kids has gone through the roof. So marriage rates are down, daycare is up, and people aren't having kids like they used to. Coincidence, me thinks not.

For context, about 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2025. Now, that sounds like a lot of babies, and it is if you had them all in one room. But that number is actually down about 20% from two decades ago. Now, there's a bunch of reasons for this. Some people just don't want kids and prefer their child-free independence. For others, they want kids, but are unable to have them for a thousand different reasons. And some of the fellows out there haven't had kids because they haven't found a mate. Pro tip, have you tried shaving the neck beard, my guy?

Let's start there. It's a good start. Shower wouldn't hurt either. Don't tuck your graphic teas into your jeans. I think that's just a no for all women. That's, I think fertility rates go down when you tuck that graphic tea into the jeans. Bonus points if you got crocs, extra bonus points if you got gibbets.

And gibbet headlights, fast pass to singleness. Unless you find another woman who also is a gibbet headlight kind of gal. In which case, I'm so glad you found each other. I'm so glad. May you light each other's way. I'm not talking to any of those people right now. This is for everyone who wants kids and is physically able to have them, but they've hit the pause button because they don't feel financially ready.

That's a tough spot to be in, and you're not alone here, over a third of childless adults, so they won't have kids because they can't afford to raise a child. But my advice here might surprise you. Here's what I recommend. Try not to think of kids as another line item on a spreadsheet, although I have many a line item for them in my every dollar budget. If you really want kids, have kids.

Because here's my bet. If you're responsible enough to worry about how you're going to afford them, you're probably responsible enough to figure it out and make it work. And yes, kids are expensive over the long haul, but you're not paying that as a lump sum up front. So when you see these stats that say, it costs half a million dollars to raise a kid from zero to 18, don't let that stop you, okay?

Year one, you got health care that baby's not going to cost all that much. You're covering diapers, wipes, formula, and childcare, if that's the route you go. Take it from a proud parent of two. Yes, it costs money to raise kids, but it's the best free entertainment that your money can buy. Milestone number three, a single-income household. Lots of millennials in Gen Z grew up with a mom and dad who made life work on one income. But that's becoming pretty rare for two-parent households. Well, maybe not rare, but at least medium-rare.

You see, back in 1972, almost half of marriages had a husband who was the sole provider. These days, the number is just 23%. And this has nothing to do with politics or how you feel about the tradwomen. wife movement, which I have my thoughts. It's a math problem, and the math has changed. The same financial blockers keeping people from having kids are the ones tying both parents to the workforce. Now look, plenty of couples prefer to both work full-time and not stay home with the kids. That is completely fine. But if a one-income household is the life you pictured, spending every day at work wishing you were home with your kids, or thinking about them sitting at daycare while you're

stuck behind a desk, is tough. So here's the advice I give to those people on the Ramsey show when they call in. If having one spouse stay-at-home is a non-negotiated. family value for you, you're going to have to make some trade-offs and sacrifices. Life is going to look different in that case. You can't just live wherever you want to live and do whatever you want to do. You've got to free up money in the budget wherever you can. That might mean you move somewhere more affordable, even if it means a longer commute. It might mean rethinking big expenses like vacations or private school.

And sometimes the sole provider needs to find ways to increase their income to cover the budget. So the people that do this, it's not because they're lucky or privileged most of the time. it's because they've decided what's most important to them and they've built their finances around that priority. Milestone number four, home ownership. Odds are your parents got their first home in their late 20s just driving down the road and saying, yeah, we'll take that one.

That one looks good. And now you're sitting there in your 20s, 30s, even 40s, doom-scrolling Zillow, and all you get is indigestion. And you're wondering, is that the anxiety and stress of not ever owning a home, or is it cyclospora? You just don't know anymore in today's America. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once. So how did we get here?

Well, the median home price has jumped 144% since the year 2000. And household income has only increased by 99% during that same time period. So if you're doing the math at home, it means home prices have gone up way faster than wages. That is data. That's not just how you're feeling. Let me comfort you. And that's why the median first-time home buyer is now 40 years old, an all-time high. Which means more and more people are settling into a forever renter mindset,

waving the white flag, and deciding they are never going to own. Now, that could become your story, too. Never owning a place, getting to retirements, and still paying rent every month. Still having a wait on Gary the maintenance guy every time your toilet starts gurgling again. And you're wondering, is it the toilet or is it cyclospora? Worst game show ever. Show me on the board, cyclospora. But dream with me for a second, all right?

Because you could still wind up owning a home one day. stabilizing the biggest expense in your budget, getting to retirement without a housing payment hanging over your head. It is possible. It just looks different now. It might take a decade of saving money and making sacrifices, maybe longer. And I know it feels like everyone's buying a home except for you. But the truth is, we don't know the full story. Maybe they made intentional sacrifices for a long time. Maybe they have great jobs and awesome incomes and they were just able to afford it. Maybe they bought before they were financially ready and now they're stressed out in house poor, which they don't post on Instagram. Or maybe they had family help with a down payment, which I know makes us all envious. No matter the reason, let's turn that envy into action.

Speaking of saving money, let's talk about your phone bill, because you can save a ton of money by switching to Boost Mobile, a sponsor of today's video. Make the switch, and you'll pay just $25 a month forever on their unlimited plan. No contracts, no price hikes, no fine print design to ruin your afternoon. Just bring your phone, keep your number, and start enjoying those sweet, sweet savings. And since most phones these days have an e-sim, you can make the switch. without ever getting up from your couch. Make it happen today at boostmobile.com slash Ramsey. $25 forever requires customers to remain active on Boost Mobile Unlimited Plan.

And before we get to the final milestone on our list, allow me to tell you about delete me another sponsor. Here's something most people don't think about. Your personal info is being packaged and sold across hundreds of data broker sites right now. I'm talking phone number, email address, home address, even your family's information. And that's part of the reason why you're getting these spam texts and spam emails with questionable links that never stop.

Well, Delete Me removes your info from those sites and sends you a custom report showing you exactly what they've done to help spare you from all the spams and scams. There were 15 data exposures removed in my last report alone. Thanks, Delete Me. But wait, there's more. Get 20% off an annual plan at join deleteme.com slash George. All right, milestone number five, retirement. Your grandpa worked one job for 40 years, got a gold watch, and collected a check for the rest of his life. Safe to say the game has changed.

Now, only 20% of people between 25 and 54 have a pension, aka that guaranteed check for life. So translation, you're on your own now, bud. And you may be staring down on empty retirement account and feeling behind. After all, the median total household retirement savings in America is just $56,000. And that's not much. And it's a huge reason why one in five Americans aged 65 and older were still working in 2024. And that could be you. Still clocking in through your 60s, worn out, tiny nest egg, no room for travel, no

room to spoil the grandkids. But go with me for a second. Picture the opposite. You hit 65 with a full nest egg. You do travel. You do spoil those grandkids rotten with all the need-o ice cubes their heart's desire. You've got margin. You've got peace. And work becomes optional instead of mandatory. So how do you get there? Is it still possible? Well, all you have to do is invest. Seriously, that's it. You see, two out of five working Americans aren't contributing anything to an employer retirement plan. Which means simply doing something, anything, already puts you ahead of the game. And it does not take a massive income or some weird, complicated strategy.

Let me show you with our free retirement calculator, which I will link in the description of this video, so you can crunch the numbers yourself. So let's say you're 35 years old, you don't have a dime to your name. You are feeling so behind for retirement, and you're starting to wonder, is it even possible for me? Am I just going to work till I die? Should I just yolo it and put it all in a polymarket bet? Please don't do any of that.

35 to 65, you have zero in retirement. savings, and let's say you just start contributing $100 a month. Now, most people, if we're going to be honest, could find $100 a month in our budget if we got things a little dialed in. We're not going to door dash as much. We're going to get out of debt, free up those payments, and you could easily find $100 with any income. So, $100 a month? Every single month for 30 years, I'm going to go with a 10% rate of return. And if you come at me, I'm just going to make fun of you because you haven't googled the average rate of return of the S&P 500 for the last 75 years. Here we go.

$226,000. That's not bad. Can we do better? I think so. Let's say you upped it to $250 every single month. 250 from age 35 to 65 every month gives us $565,000. So now let's go, okay, what would it take for me to have a million-dollar nest egg at 65? And this is in this one account.

do nothing else, you never get a raise, you never add more, let's bump it up to $500 a month, which is probably less than most people's car payment. Calculate $1.1 million. And here's the cool part. You didn't actually invest a million dollars. You put in $180,000. The rest of that was compound growth. Those pieces of ownership you had in the stock market and these mutual funds, they grew. And you reinvest those dividends. And so that new pile grows and that newer pile grows until you've got over a million bucks in there. So if you're saying, well, George, a million dollars is going to be nothing when I'm 65. Okay, bro, more than you had.

And if you want to complain, go invest more. Let's do $1,000 a month. That's about 15% of an $80,000 household income. Calculate, now you got $2.2 million. Well, George, $2.2. All right, fine. Invest $1,500, bud. Go wild.

Have a good time. $3.3 million. And if that's not enough, I can't help you. I don't know what you want for me. Just go play the lottery if you really think that you'll never have enough in retirement, but somehow you'll win the lottery. You do the math, bud. I already won the lottery.

I was born in the U.S. of A, baby. Now, this is a good start. This shows you what could be, but you're probably wondering, okay, what's the game plan? What do I actually invest in? What type of accounts do I use? What's the order and priority? I made a video breaking it all down. So click here to watch you next or use the link in the description.

Thanks for watching. See you next time.