George Kamel - I Became a Millionaire at 32 (11 Lessons For Anyone in Their 20s)

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. I became a millionaire at 32—without winning the lottery or building a business. In today’s video, I’ll share 11 lessons that helped me build wealth while everyone else was busy complaining about how impossible it is to get ahead.   Here are all your links, George:  • 🎥 Watch my video How I Went From Broke to Millionaire in Under 10 Years. • 🛡 ️Find an expert you can trust. • 📙 Listen to Breaking Free from Broke on audiobook. • 💰 Beat debt and build wealth faster with Financial Peace University. • 💵 Start your free budget today! Download the EveryDollar app.   Connect With Our Sponsors:  • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe.  • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle!    Explore More From Ramsey Network:  🎙️ The Ramsey Show  🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour  💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show  💡 The Rachel Cruze Show  🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman  📈 EntreLeadership    Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've been following this channel for a while, you know my story. Back in 2013, I was broke, and within a decade, I became a millionaire. And I didn't have a trust fund. I didn't win the lottery, and I'm definitely not a crypt. Do I look like a crypto bro to you? You serious, too? So how did I do it? Two words, beanie babies.

Bada ping, va da bini. I'm kidding. That investment didn't quite pan out. But if anyone's in the market for a mint-condish princess dive bear, hit me up. I'm willing to accept any offer at this point. You're so desperate. So in today's video, I'll share 11 lessons that really did help me build wealth while everyone else was busy complaining about how impossible it is to get ahead.

Now, the first one might surprise you because it's technically not financial advice, but it greatly affects your ability to build wealth. And that is choose the right spouse. Look, if you never want to get married, that's fine. But if you do, find someone who shares your values about money, or at least someone who's willing to get on the same page. And this was so true for my marriage. We were able to build wealth exponentially faster because we were headed in the same direction.

We both decided we want to get out of debt as fast as possible, house and everything, so that we could have flexibility, margin, options, and freedom. So when you're dating someone, pay attention to how they handle money. Do they have a budget? Do they impulse buy everything they see? Do they have a tattoo of Bernie Madoff on their lower back? These are what I would call financial red flags. Now, obviously, there are plenty of other factors to consider when it comes to finding your life partner, like which direction they think the toilet paper roll should go.

But if your future spouse is either going to help you build wealth or help you stay broke, you got to choose wisely. By the way, everyone knows this is the proper way, at least in my house. Awkward. It is awkward. Okay, lesson number two, buy things that go up in value. Some things get more valuable over time, like mutual funds and real estate. These are called appreciating assets.

Other things go down in value over time, like most cars, electronics, and sadly, pretty much all the beanie babies you held on to since the late 90s. These are called depreciating assets. Now, this might seem obvious, but if you want to build wealth, you need to buy more things that go up and value and less things that go down in value. And hear me say, I'm not telling you that you can't have nice things and you shouldn't buy things just to enjoy. Just know that if you want to build wealth,

buying a bunch of stuff that goes down in value is not a winning strategy. My two biggest appreciating assets are my retirement accounts and my house. It's that simple. So bottom line, buy things that make you, actually wealthy instead of things that just make you look wealthy. Okay, next up, don't DIY everything. Listen, come here. Stop pretending that you're on trading spaces, Braxton. Okay, just because you saw Ty Pennington do it doesn't mean you should also spray paint your couch. Look, I get it, we've all been there. You got a little plumbing issue. You don't want to pay a plumber $100 just to

come out and tell you it's going to be another $700 to fix it. Next thing you know, you're seven minutes into a YouTube video about how to get a rock dislodge from your garbage disposal, and the guy's still talking about what he had for lunch two weeks ago. Get to the point. Yeah, so, uh, at Turkey last week, thinking about switching up to ham. What was they talking about? Oh, yeah, the coffee. We don't care, Gary. We watched the video for one reason and one reason only. Get that rock dislodged. And when you finally get to the fix, you realize you're going to need to make a little Home Depot run to buy a drywall knife, but it's a little late for that, so you'll just do it tomorrow. Fast forward three weeks, still not fixed. The kitchen smells like someone let a barn full of

cheese on fire and your family is holding auditions for a new dad. Tale is old as time. Who's going to win? I hope it's Phil Dunphy. In all seriousness, YouTube tutorials can be a great resource when you need to fix something yourself, but sometimes it makes more sense to just pay a professional. This goes for home projects, but it also applies to financial stuff. A good financial advisor, a competent realtor, a tax pro who actually knows what they're doing. These people can end up saving you way more money than they cost you.

That's the goal. And if you need pros you can trust in any of these areas, I'll drop a link in the description. to a place where you can find experts that I trust and actually use. And sometimes spending money on expertise is the smarter financial move than trying to DIY. Next up, prioritize learning about personal finance. Now, I really wish they would have taught us how to handle money in school. And maybe you were lucky enough to go through the Ramsey curriculum when you were in school. But sadly, a lot of our alma maters don't have personal finance as part of their curriculum.

But hey, at least you learned about Isosceles triangles. And I'm not trying to be obtuse here. I'm just trying to be acute. You're not funny But even if you feel like you know nothing about money It's never too late to start learning Read a book like Breaking Free from Broke Listen to a podcast like The Ramsey Show

Watch videos like this YouTube channel Take a class like Financial Peace University Make a budget using the every dollar budgeting app But for real those are all the real things that you can and should do I will drop links in the descriptions And apologies to whomever had to actually drop all those links In the description God bless their ministry

Give them a raise You are going to give me this raise I deserve this raise And honestly, personal finance isn't really that complicated. Most of it is just common sense. I mean, Dave Ramsey says personal finance is 80% behavior and only 20% head knowledge. Don't be intimidated by complicated financial concepts. You just need to learn the basics and then actually do them. That's the important part. Next lesson, avoid comparison. It is so easy to fall into this trap of comparing your life to other people's.

And social media has made this so much worse. You got your friend Gina over here posting insta stories of her fancy drink from the rooftop bar, Scotto and Rosemary Beach. Meanwhile, you're over here in your apartment eating SpaghettiOs and explaining to your cat why Gilmore Girls could never be made into a full-length feature film. It could, don't even start. It can, it cannot. Well, if we don't try, we'll never know it will. And it's easy to let that make you feel bad. Okay, it can lead to spending money you don't actually have. In fact, that's probably what Gene is doing, dividing up her shrimp cocktail into four easy payments. So focus on your own financial goals instead of trying to keep up with people who are probably broke, but good at pretending they're not.

While everyone else is financing their fake lifestyle, you can be quietly building actual wealth. Next lesson, automate good money habits. Most people know what they should do with their money. It's just hard to actually do it. So make it easy. Set up automatic contributions to your 401k. Automate your savings. Set up auto pay for your bills.

The goal here is to make the smart financial moves happen whether you feel like it or not. That way, building wealth becomes inevitable. And along the same lines, the next lesson is add friction to bad money habits. Just like you want to make the good financial moves easier, you want to make the bad money moves harder. When I was in my 20s, I was using credit cards that made it frictionless to get whatever I wanted now and pay for it later using other people's money. And hopefully I had the money later. What changed the game for me was switching to a debit card and using cash, which added friction to the purchase,

and made me think twice, even three times, dare I say four, before checking out and parting with my hard-earned money. So how do you add friction? Delete shopping apps from your phone. unsubscribe from marketing emails designed to separate you from your money. Delete your payment info from your favorite websites. Instead of a one-click purchase, how about like a nine-click purchase? That might cause some friction. Set up alerts that shame you when you overspend,

whatever it takes to keep you from making dumb money moves that are holding you back. The goal is to create barriers between you and stupid financial decisions that can keep you from building wealth. Next up, hang around the right people. Again, this one might not feel financial, but it definitely affects your money and your goals. Your inner circle affects your behavior more than you might think. If your friends are always broke and complaining about money, guess what?

You're probably going to start acting the exact same way. So find people who are making smart money moves, people who understand the concept of delayed gratification, people who are actually building something with their lives instead of just consuming everything in sight and racking up tons of debt. And it's okay to limit time with people who are dragging you down. Find friends who aren't trying to flex, they're just trying to grow and get better. And this also applies to banking.

The right financial institution can make you, your whole experience so much better. And that's why I love Fairwin's Credit Union, a sponsor of today's video. Most of the big out-of-touch banks are just trying to shove debt in your face. But Fairwinds gets it. They literally put up billboards encouraging people to get out of debt because they want to actually see you win with money. And with over 33,000 free ATMs and over 5,000 credit union partners nationwide, you're covered just about anywhere. So go check them out and get started today at fairwins.org slash Ramsey or use the link in the description below. That's Fairwind. dot org slash Ramsey.

And before we get to the next lesson, I want to give you a little bonus life advice. While you're building wealth and playing offense with your money, you also got to play defense and protect yourself from spammers and scammers trying to get your money. And the way I do that is with Delete Me, another sponsor of today's video. Because it seems like every other day, there's a new scam to watch out for, but Delete Me helps cut the risk by removing your info from hundreds of data broker websites. And they don't just set it and forget it.

They have real data privacy experts working behind the scenes all year long to keep tabs on who's got your info. And with my special link, you can get a discounted plan that comes out to about $9 a month. So to get the deal, go to join delete me.com slash George or use the link in the description. Okay, next lesson. Stop caring about what other people think. Here's the deal. If you stop giving a flip about random people's opinions and you start making decisions based on your actual goals,

it will help you save money and build wealth so much faster. And I know you feel the pressure, you feel the fomo, you got a lot of voices in your life, and it may seem like you're behind compared to some of your friends. Your family might be judging you with comments like, you're throwing away money on rent, or why are you still driving that piece of junk? Why are you doing that other side hustle? But guess what?

Those people don't pay your bills, which means they don't get a vote when it comes to your money goals and your biggest financial purchases. So, remember this, if nothing else from this video. Not caring about what other people think is a superpower in today's world. If you can harness that,

you'll have more joy in peace and less stress and anxiety than almost anyone you know. And if broke people are making fun of your financial plan, you are headed in the right direction, my friend. Sure, there's moments where it's going to feel hard, but stay the course, practice gratitude and contentment while you work the plan. Next up, don't be afraid of boring. You build wealth by doing the same smart, boring things over and over again. Boring budgeting, boring saving, boring investing into boring retirement accounts.

So stuff like crypto and day trading, it might look flashy and exciting, but they're way too risky for me to consider them investments, let alone good investments. They're actually more like speculating than investing. So it's okay to just use your W2 income to build wealth and not feel like you have to go out and buy a bunch of vending machines and ATMs or drop ship online for some passive income scheme. According to the largest survey of millionaires ever, eight out of 10 millionaires said they invested in their company's 401k plan, and that simple step was a key to their financial success. And three out of four millionaires said that regular consistent investing over a long period of time is the reason for their wealth. So these people didn't get there by chasing trends and buying Trump NFTs. they got there by consistently doing boring things that actually work. Okay, this last one might be the most important.

Go do something. When I was young, I spent way too much time thinking about doing stuff, talking about doing stuff, researching, dreaming, scheming. The only thing I didn't do was anything. It's one thing to know what to do. It's another thing to actually do it. So at some point, you've got to stop consuming financial advice and actually go do something about your situation.

And the sooner you start, the better. Stop thinking about paying off your debt and should I do Avalent? Just tackle it. Use the debt snowball method. It's tried and true. It's the way I got out of debt. And if you are out of debt, stop talking about how one day you'll have some savings in the bank

and instead build the discipline and automate a chunk of your paycheck to go into savings every single month. And if you're past that, you're ready to build some wealth. Stop watching investing videos and actually log into your 401k and dial up that contribution to 15%. And then don't mess with it. If you're in your 20s, the money that you invest right now in your retirement plan,

has literally decades to grow. Which means by the time you actually hit retirement, 80 to 90% or more of your nest egg will all be compound growth. Only 10 to 20% was the money you actually put in. That is the power of starting early. You may have heard me say on this channel, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The next best time is now. Although technically, wouldn't the next best time be 19 years ago? Not as cool of a quote. I will say that. He's got a point. Anyway, the point is, stop waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect amount of money or income or the perfect plan,

perfect is the enemy of done. And done is better than perfect. And done two times means you're watching law and order. Get it? So just get started and then just keep doing the next right thing with your money over time. But here's the deal. Where you start depends on your current financial situation. So if you want to know what your exact next move should be,

I've got a free assessment for you that will take you just a few minutes. And when you're done, it's going to tell you exactly where you are and what you need to do next. I wish I had this thing 20 years ago. So use the link in the description to go take the assessment and find out your next step. And if you want to see how I went from Broke to Millionaire in under 10 years, just click right here to watch this video up next or use the link in the description. And don't forget to like this video, hit the subscribe button,

and share this video with your friend Gina who definitely puts the TP on backwards, or worse, on top of the MT. Who raised you? Just kidding, I know it was your mom tell her to stop texting me. Thanks for watching. See you next time.