George Kamel - Dave Ramsey Fans Admit Their WORST Money Mistakes Again...

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

💵 Create a free budget. Sign up for EveryDollar today!  About This Episode:   Does junk just keep piling up? I'm exploring America's clutter obsession and the marketing tricks companies use to keep you buying more. You'll learn how to escape the consumer trap and save your hard-earned cash. Next Steps:   📗 Order George Kamel’s new book, Breaking Free From Broke .  🎥 Watch:  “Millionaires Who Lost a Fortune in Dumb Ways”  Offers From Today's Sponsors:  This episode is sponsored by Laurel Road. 💸 Open a high-yield savings account and make your savings work harder for you. Check it out here: https://www.laurelroad.com/george 🤑  This episode is also sponsored by DeleteMe. 🔒 Remove your personal information from the web at http://joindeleteme.com/smartmoney and use code GEORGE for 20% off. 🙌   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 🎙 The Ramsey Show   🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour   💡 The Rachel Cruze Show   💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show   💼 The Ken Coleman Show   📈 The EntreLeadership Podcast     Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, I got to speak to over 1,200 Ramsey fans at an event called the Total Money Makeover weekend. Here's a taste. Culliflowers arguably one of the worst vegetables out there. Told you, it was just a taste. And when I wasn't on stage captivating the crowd or in the green room eating a bowl full of only pink starbursts per my contract, I decided to be a man of the people and mingle with the attendees before the big show. And while I was mingling, they shared with me how they've mangled their money by telling me their biggest money mistakes. And let me tell ya, getting Ramsey fans to admit their biggest money mistakes is not the easiest task.

It's like trying to get out of Costco without spending over $100. It simply cannot be done. But I ended up getting some good answers that revealed some terrible decisions. So think of today's video as a little money confessional with hardcore Ramsey fans. But before we get to the money mistakes, hit those like, subscribe, and share buttons while I finish this bowl of Only Pink Starbursts. This is still in here! Someone's gonna have a field day with this one.

Not on my watch! I don't get no respect. No respect at all. Tell us your biggest money mistake. I co-signed on a car, and it cost me about $15,000. So the person, who did you co-sign with? It was a friend. Oh, no.

And so I co-signed on her car. She didn't pay for it. She also destroyed the car, so I couldn't sell it. I had to spend more money to get it fixed up just enough to sell it. And then when I sold it, I took a $10,000 loss. That's a sad story. So all in all, what did this cost you? It was about $14,000, $15,000.

Plus the friendship, I assume. Oh, yes. I had a really beautiful Sequoia at one point. And? I told him I'm going to drive that car in heaven. I sold it. Oh, she still regrets it because of the loan? Oh, yeah.

Was your big money mistake taking out a giant loan for the Sequoia? Yeah, yeah, the huge payment. 730 a month? No, no, yeah, but it was like 37 grand total. 37 grand, 730 a month, zero down. It was really pretty, though. It was. I stay awake, not sleeping, because I'm thinking about this.

A student loan, $13,000. Did you graduate? No. And you still had the debt, even though you didn't graduate. Correct. Was that even more heartbreaking for you? It was. It was more heartbreaking for him after he married me, he had to pay for it.

Oh, dang. We bought a piece of land to build a house, and so we closed on the land and the construction loan all at the same time, and we borrowed money for the down payment. Ooh, so you were so broke, because we were on the down payment. We're going to borrow that money on top of borrowing the rest of the money. We were Robin Peter to pay Paul. What was the total amount of this debt? The down payment and closing cost, everything, was around $34,000.

Okay. But the total project cost was going to be around $150. Leasing a car when I was 18. I released a Toyota Rat 4, XLE. And I actually got out of it through the SCRA program because I was an active duty service member. Wow. How did they get you out of that?

Actually, Dave helped me out. So I actually called in and actually helped me out through that. So basically, like, as an eligible active duty soldier, you're able to get out of a lease with no penalties? Exactly. Okay, so leasing the car, your biggest money mistake. How about you? I would say just, like, going to college and not knowing how to use a credit card. Oh, boy.

And I just kept swiping and swiping and swiping. Like, yeah, I'll just pay it. So you thought credit limit meant that's the goal. Come on, I'm like, $2,500. I'm like, the limit is what we want to get to, you know? Oh, gosh. Put it all on my credit card, my good man. Biggest money mistake, filing bankruptcy.

Woof. That's a big one? Twice. Twice. How does that even happen? What happened the first time? George, don't ask. This can go on forever. Oh, well, give me the spark notes. Did all the wrong money moves. I just, you know, I just made, I borrowed money. I shouldn't have borrowed. I tried to live beyond my means.

What happened the second time? Same thing. Same thing. You never changed your habits. No. And so you fell back into the same traps. Is that a good summary? Yep. Buying a brand new car, 2000 and I think 21 right off the lot paid full price, all the bells and whistles. and, you know, I thought it was the best day of my life. Soon found out it wasn't.

Okay, how much did the car cost in full? About 47,000. Woo! Yes. Okay, what were you making at the time per year? I wasn't making 47,000. Oh! All right, tell us your biggest money mistake, if you will.

She looked at him like... Right. Tell him, why don't you? Get in a car that we actually paid triple for. How does that even work? Just financing. Wrong finances. Oh, no.

What kind of car was this? Uh, 2020 Equinox, Chevy Equinox. Okay, what did you pay for the Equinox? It was actually 21,000. Okay. And we probably paying about, well, it's like two and a half times, probably about 40,000. Is that because of crazy interest rate? How does that?

Yes, yes. What was the interest? Do you remember? Um, 22%. Yes. All the things. Yes, we did all the things. Twenty-two percent interest on a car low. Yes.

Were you married at the time? Yes. What did you think about this? Listen. Did you know about this? Yes. I was crazy back then. Hey, if you're enjoying today's video, it's partially because of our friends at Delete Me, one of the sponsors of today's video.

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Thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy Christmas. It's Christmas. Merry crisis. All right, well, it's good to hear. I'm not the only one who's made some mistakes with money. And some of those were pretty bad.

But look, these people are here at the Total Money Makeover weekend to transform their money habits. So to end on a high note, I asked them to share the best money moves they've made and they delivered. What's been your biggest money win so far? I think so we really only started getting into the Ramsey plan back in September of 2023. And since then, we pulled about every lever that we could. So we were $90,000 out of debt since September of last year. Oh, my goodness. So we got really gazelle intense.

So in less than a year, you've paid off over 90 grand. Yeah. That's amazing. You're in Baby Step 3? We're in Baby Step 3 right now. Save up the emergency fund. Then it's going to become sinking fund for a new Sequoia. New to you, Sequoia. Yeah. Well, speaking of Baby Step 3B and saving up that emergency fund,

a great place to store it is in a high-yield savings account. Do you have one of those? We do. What's the interest rate? It's at 4.25 right now. I can do better. Our friends at Laurel Road, one of the sponsors of today's video, they're an online bank.

They have a great high-yield savings account, and right now their rate is 5.15% AP. Why? No monthly maintenance fees. No hebi-giby stuff. And it's FDIC insured so you can rest easy while your money works hard for you. How does that sound? Sounds pretty good. You're thinking about switching over now, weren't you? Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you want to switch over, go to laurel road.com slash George and get started today. That's Laurelroad.com slash George. Link is also in the description. I got, I already got one customer right here. I feel good about this. Yeah, absolutely. Always be closing. All right, what's been your biggest money win so far in your adult life? money win. I don't know. I just, I save about 40% of my income and I've been consistently budgeting since 2018. I bought my house at 22 and I've just been keep, keep doing what I'm doing, you know. You're crushing it, dude. Way to go. We started following Ramsey. So I listened to the Ramsey podcast like every single day. So I've just, we started implementing the principals. We have our emergency

fund. We're paying off our debt. We're so close. It's really just the car. We got to turn around and sell. And then we cash load our wedding. So that's a big win. We're both in the military. I deployed over to the Middle East in a combat zone, so it's a tax-free area. And I decided, hey, instead of having all that extra money and go have fun and play when I come home from it, why don't we all that toward debt? We're almost in baby step, out of baby step two, and we only have one more debt to go. So you're under the final debt? What is it?

It's a car loan. It's a car loan. You know a lot about car loans. Yeah. Whose car is my car? It's your car this time. We paid off mine, and I have an official Dave car sticker on the back now. It says official Dave car on the back.

It says official Dave car. It says official Dave car. Who makes those bumper stickers? Etsy. Thanks, Etsy. Thanks, Etsy. My sister was telling me about Dave Ramsey, and I said, you know, if she's telling me about him, they've been telling me in church, I got to look this guy up.

So I looked him up. And from then on, I've been following the baby steps. That was just last year. Wow. Okay, so how much debt do you have now? None. Probably our 401K, right? Yeah.

Setting up for retirement, you know, IRAs, just setting up for the future. and, you know, just understanding it a little bit better so we can make it work for us later on. My biggest money win, one, was paying off a $47,000 vehicle in three years because I had no business getting it in the first place. Does it drive differently now? I sold it. Oh, it's gone.

It's gone. I don't, it's trauma. So you bought it, you paid it off, and you went, I don't need this PTSD in my life. I sold it. Good, thank God. Good rivers. Okay, what's been your biggest money win so far? Coming here, finding Ramsey.

Real tough. We are trying to. get out of that hole. That's our goal. So just being willing to climb out and submit yourself to another plan, you're like, that's our biggest win so far. It's just realizing it doesn't have to stay this way. That's right. That's inspiring. Finding hope. Yes. Find and hope. That's what we're all about here, Ramsey. Okay, so the point of all this, it's not about the mistakes you've made with money. It's about what you're going to do about it. You can get ahead financially. Regardless of your background with money, the mistakes you've made, we can all get better

and build wealth. And these people are living proof. It's all about knowing the traps to avoid, learning how to manage your money the right way and deciding that you're in the driver's seat when it comes to your financial future. Oh, and let me know in the comments what your biggest money mistake is, and please go full Brunei Brown. Okay, this is a safe place, be vulnerable.

And if you think these financial foe paws are bad, check out this video to find out how much Nick Cage spent on an octopus. Thanks for watching. See you next time.