George Kamel - I Triggered People With My “Outdated” Advice

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

💵 Create a free budget. Sign up for EveryDollar today!   About This Episode Well, it happened again. I made some people angry. Today we’ll take a look at some of my most hated advice, what the keyboard warriors said, and what’s really true.  Next Steps 📗 Order George Kamel’s new book, Breaking Free From Broke ▶️ Watch: I Ticked Off a Million People...   Offers From Today's Sponsors  This episode is sponsored by DeleteMe. 🔒 Remove your personal information from the web at JoinDeleteMe.com/George and use code GEORGE for 20% off. 🙌  This episode is also 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 🤑    🎙️ 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

Surprise, surprise. My financial advice ticked off a whole lot of people. Again. And typically I just block out the haters, but today I'm going to try out something new when it comes to hate mail, because there's actually a lot of ripe opportunity in all this criticism. Opportunity to, you know, prove I'm right. So let's take a look at some of my most hated financial advice, what the naysayers are neighing, and what's really true. But first, take a minute to channel your hate or love into a passionate click on those like and subscribe buttons. Consider them your emotional punching bags. And hey, feel free to send this to a friend who needs to let out a little aggression. Let them know how good it feels to smash those buttons and let it go.

It's okay to have some big feelings, bud. Okay, first up, we've got some big feelings about the housing market. Home prices are high, interest rates are high, and frankly, morale, low. But people, the math still maths when it comes to home ownership, and that's why I'm sorry not sorry about this dose of reality. This was the Facebook reel Herd Ground the Metaverse. All it was was a meme of the first. fresh prints in an empty house with the text when all your money goes to rent and you can't afford to decorate.

And the caption goes on to describe the housing parameters that I recommend, which is no more than 25% of your take home pay going toward rent or mortgage. Here's what some of the comments had to say. Simon says, I can't tell if this is parody or not. Juan said, he forgot the most important part of the sermon. They only recommend a 15 years mortgage. What a sick, outdated and unrealistic joke. Philip said, use this as the out-of-touch button with downward arrows. First of all, what are you young people doing on Facebook?

That's what I really want to know. We're wasting time. Okay, truthfully, this advice, it's a hard pill to swallow. And Dave Ramsey has been getting flack for this for 30 years now, because it wasn't easy then and it's not easy today. But the truth is, if you can stick to 25% of your income going toward that mortgage on a 15-year-fixed, your life is going to be so much better, so much more peaceful, and it will help you avoid becoming house poor, which means you don't have too much of your income going toward the mortgage, and that means you wouldn't have enough to fund other things like vacations, college savings,

or retirement. So hate it or love it, it works, and the math still helps people build wealth. Now, another thing I get a lot of hate about is cooking at home versus eating out. I mean, I feel like this should go without saying, but cooking at home will always be cheaper. But apparently, it goes with saying. So here's the clip that clip these people the wrong way. When you leave work, You make $0 an hour. Your time is not worth $25 an hour for 24 hours a day. It's eight hours. A pack of bacon may cost you over $4, but you're not eating the entire pack of bacon in one meal,

so the ingredients that you buy should be making you multiple meals. That's why you've got to be intentional about what you're buying. But let's take that bacon and hearty breakfast of bacon and avocado toast. And let's throw in some cold brew for good measure. Now, all of the ingredients, a loaf of bread, a pack of bacon, avocado, and even the cold brew, that might cost you close to 10 or 15 bucks. The purse serving, if you make this at home, it all adds up to $2.41.

I like this guy. I like what he has to say. And here's what other people had to say. The Sweet Life of Boo Boo Bear said this. You forgot my labor cost of cooking, dishes, cleaning the stove, water, dish soap, and more dishes. Looks like Bubu Bear woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Sowie Boo Boo Boo Boo Bear.

And he's a widow scale. Kevin said, Where are you shopping? The thrift store? Like, have y'all seen grocery prices now? My mind is blown. I did not know you could buy bacon at thrift stores. It's like slightly used?

Bacon? Bacon is good for me. Okay, let me hit you with some facts, not that you believe in facts at this point, because you're too emotionally overwhelmed with the idea of cooking. But in 2021, the average American consumer spent over three grand on eating out. And fun fact, restaurants need to mark up their ingredients on average by 300% to cover their overhead,

their labor costs, and still make a profit. That means you spent $16 for a meal that would have cost you $4 per serving at home. So here's the math. You would save about $190 a month by cooking those meals at home instead. So here's the key. Learn to love leftovers and you'll suddenly have some money left over. And while it's cheaper, is it as convenient? Debatable.

Is it as delicious? Usually not. If you're the one cooking, Boo Boo Boo Bear. Sickburn! Oh! And Boo Boo Boo Bear, if you need some cookbook tips, I think you're going to love my new cookbook. breaking free from bread. One man's journey from gluten gluttony

to gastrointestinal glory. Forward by Gordon Ramsey. I think it's going to be a hit. What are you? An idiot sandwich. All right, I think it's time to take a break from the hate and the vitriol and talk about something more uplifting.

Delete me. Delete me is like the anti-hater. They're your knight in shining armor when it comes to protecting your personal info online. Which, if you've had your identity stolen like I have, you know how much time and money it can take to get things straightened out. And that's why now I use and recommend

Delete Me. They diligently remove your personal info from data broker sites and people finder sites all across to web. And they'll even send you a clear report showing their work. Amazing. And the best part, with my code, you can get 20% off. So go to join deleteme.com slash George to get that deal or just click the link in the description below. This episode is also sponsored by Laurel Road. A great way to make your money work harder for you is with their high yield savings account. In fact, I was so inspired by their 5% APY, no minimum balance, and zero cost to open. A song began to blossom in my heart, and it sounded a little something like this. The lower road earned me son.

5% passive in car, field savings. Tell your mama, earn some dough. Road.com slash George. Link in the description. And tell them George sent you. Well, I guess they'll know that if you just use, use that. Let's go link. All right, back to the haterade, and this next one gets spicy. It's set my mouth on fire, and I had to drink a two later of Mountain Day.

Here's the Instagram post. After 70 months of payments, you've got a paid off car that you bought for $40,000 that ended up costing you $50,000 thanks to interest. That's now only worth $16,000, thanks to depreciation. So as astronomically stupid as that is, why are people still buying new cars on payments? Or worse, leasing them. Okay. I said what I said. And the caption goes on to talk about how you should buy use cars with cash and upgrade over time to get out of this cycle. And while I said what I said, here's what other people said. Super A-Train said, leasing saves you money.

Been leasing for 20 years. I have not paid for one repair or any maintenance. Let's hit on leasing real quick. Leasing a car is the most expensive way to operate a vehicle. And the worst part is, you'll likely have paid more than the car's actual depreciation during the lease period. And at the end of all of that, you still don't even own a car. You have to give it back to the dealer after paying you. the worst of depreciation plus other fees.

Paul Gerard says, all the new cars that I have purchased have either been zero percent or very low interest rates. All right, let's talk about the zero percent deals. Most zero percent financing deals are only offered on cars selling at full price. That just means you got screwed. There's no discount. There's no negotiating. Some dealerships even mark up the price to make up for their loss on interest.

They are winning, my friend, not you. You cannot defeat me. And finally, Michael Rodriguez said, Sorry I don't have 50K to buy a car in cash, laughing emoji. Okay, we weren't saying that you should buy a $50,000 car. In fact, I don't think you should if you don't have the net worth and wealth to stomach it. So let's lower our expectations here. All I'm saying is what I did was drive a used car.

It was not impressive. It was an 09 Honda Civic. I bought it for $6,000 and I paid in cash. And if you are unable to save up $6,000 in cash, We have some deeper problems here. But here's the key. You drive that car while saving up, because you don't have a payment, so save up that payment in a savings account,

upgrade to the next car with cash, and continually do that until you're driving your dream car paid for in cash. It's that simple and it's that hard. Okay, if you thought I'd save the best for last, you were right. Here's a little something I had the audacity to post on my Facebook page back in March. Let's say you invested $10,000 at age 22 and never put another dime in. After 40 years, with a 10% average annual return, your account balance would be $452,592. You only contributed $10,000.

The other $442 grand is compound growth. Don't underestimate the power of time, consistent habits, and compound growth. And more importantly, don't underestimate yourself. How could you be mad at that? It basically reads as a nerdy motivational poster. Well, here's how. One person said, where on earth are you receiving that? Another person said, 10%, yeah, you wish, average highest offers are 5 to 5 and a half, maybe 6.

And the last one said this. Let's say people who don't come from money don't have an extra 10K to invest at the age of 22. I didn't, and times are much tougher now than when I was 22. I wish you and Dave lived in the real world of today. I imagine the arms will cross at the end, just for a little bit of sass and pizzazz. Let's talk about this. Let's hit some actual facts here. The average rate of return over the last 20 years.

of the S&P 500, which is the 500 largest companies in the stock market, and that's really the benchmark for the stock market, the return has been 10 to 12% over time. To not in a single year, rarely will it be 10% exactly every year, it's going to be up 30%, down 20%, up 25%, down 5%. But over time, if you do the average arithmetic here, you're going to find that it's 10 to 12%. So that's where I'm getting this number from. And the other comments saying, I'm getting 5%, 6%, well, you're talking about a savings account or bonds. I'm talking about investing this money into the stock market through index funds or mutual funds.

Okay? So it's very different. I'm not saying you're going to earn this kind of money just by saving it. You can't save your way to wealth. You have to invest. And for the last guy, listen, I get it. I didn't have 10K at 22 either. All I was trying to show you was the power of compound growth and how little you had to put in and how it really is all about time.

And so if you consistently invest regardless of your age and let compound interest do the work, you will end up building some serious wealth. So listen, when you take a firm stance on anything, you're going to receive pushback. It's something I officially accepted back when I started carrying a satchel in high school. And no, it's not a man purse. Indiana Jones had one. Take it up with him. Now, sometimes criticism can be constructive.

But if you're in the comment section, it's a needle in a haystack to find some constructive criticism. And let me just say to all the haters, I get it. A lot of my stances about money and lifestyle is the exact opposite of what culture says and does. I mean, I barely scratched the surface. I didn't mention my other hot takes like combining bank accounts with your spouse, having $1,000 in a starter emergency fund, and ditching credit cards forever. But listen, I believe in this stuff because I've seen it work. I've seen it work in my own life,

and I've seen it work in the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of people. So here's the deal. You can either choose to follow the way of culture and just live a woe-as-me life where you just complain about everything on social media and jump into the comment section. Or you can do something much more difficult. You can buck this toxic money culture altogether and decide to have this thing called hope

instead of this thing called cynicism. And it's what I talk about in my book, Breaking Free from Broke, and if you want to know more about that, we'll drop a link in the description. And you want to know the funny part about all this? It's not even the most viral heat I've gotten. Like, I'm talking eyebrow scorched hot.

So if you want to see how I ticked off a million people, check out this video. As always, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.