George Kamel - Millionaires In Cars Getting Coffee with Graham Stephan ​

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

In today's video, finance YouTuber Graham Stephan and I grab a cup from the best coffee shop in town... well within a 5 mile radius. Start Your EveryDollar Budget Now! Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I mean, for 300 bucks, I would buy it for $300. For $1,000, you know, realistically, I'd probably pay all the way up to $5,000. Because I would take a gamble on that. Let's talk about the best money advice you've heard or taken. You're going to hate this. I keep going back to this. I won't hate it. Building my credits, screw.

That one, I will hate it. What's up, George? It's guys here, and I'm super excited about today's video. And before you jump in the comment section going, Um, that's Graham's thing to say that. Listen, I know, because he's in today's video, so I thought it was appropriate. That's right, I'm hanging out with the one, the only, Graham Stephan today.

He's a real estate agent and investor who got into the biz at the age of 18, and since then has done over $130 million in residential real estate sales. And of course, he's kind of a big deal on YouTube. As you know, Graham talks a whole lot about personal finance and real estate, a lot of the same stuff that I'm into, but we don't see eye to eye on everything. And despite all of that, our friendship has blossomed. Now, Graham was a millionaire at age 26, but the guy is frugal as all get out. He refuses to spend any money on coffee.

So when he was in town here in Nashville, Tennessee, he stopped by the Ramsey Solutions headquarters, and I bought him the best cup of coffee in town. Well, at least the best cup of coffee within like a three-mile radius. And I took him for a spin in the old Tesla because we're both Tesla fans, and we talked about all sorts of things. NFTs, crypto, the best and worst money advice he's ever received, and we captured the whole conversation so we could share it with you guys. right here. Enjoy. So I thought because you're a frugal guy, you never spend money on coffee.

And so I thought, let me treat the guy. Oh my gosh. To some of the world's best coffee. You know what's so funny is that I literally made my own coffee this morning from the Airbnb. That is next level. To avoid going and getting coffee. How do you justify like I'm going to spend six figures on a car, but I won't spend $3 on an occasional coffee? Because the car's an investment. Like if my car, if I could buy this and have it be worth the same amount of year from now or go up in value, You could probably do it. You could probably do it. Graham, Stefan, year old coffee on eBay.

$4. For me, a coffee's gone when I drink it. Um, car is something that I could drive for a year, enjoy it for a year. Well, in the cars you're buying our investments because you can't, they're like collector cars. Oh yeah, yeah. I would never go and buy like a... Generally cars are a depreciating asset.

And if you buy, you know, the car is generally going to be worth a lot less than you paid for it. Yeah. Down the line. Did you skip the line or no? No, this is a, this is starting the drive-th Chick-fil-A in the South is a different animal. We got the double-triple-drive-thru lanes. I saw all the cars.

I'm like, oh, man, did you just skip that? Listen, I'm like, I got precious cargo. Yeah. Okay, we're skipping the line today. Oh, my God. I'm just going to say, I got Graham in here. They're going to be like, come again? The 14-year-old working at the drive-thru is the homeschooler.

He's not going to know. Couch this because our friend is about to ask us questions. Hello, good sir. Joel? Yes, sir. Pleasure. This guy, he doesn't spend money on coffee, so I'm treating him today.

He's got the money. Don't worry. He just doesn't want, he likes to make his own. Do you have a cold brew with like very, just cold brew with a little cream? Yeah. Yes.

Joel, lean into the camera and say what's up. Where's it? Right here. Glean it, look, you're on, you can see it right here. Get in there. Right there. That's Joel.

Grand fan. I love it. That's funny. I have to load my balance. You know how that goes, Joel. If it declines, I'll pay for it. Don't worry. Oh my gosh.

You know what? I'm just going to do this. Is that a credit card? It's a debit card. Don't be fooled. How many cards you have now? Credit cards? I don't know.

Maybe 8 to 10. 8 to 10. No! No! Okay, so NFTs. NFTs. Non-fungible tokens. An NFT.

I don't care if you buy an NFT. I just don't care. I'm doing my first official Donald J. Trump NFT collection right here and right now. NFTs, I feel like. 99.9% is a rugpole scam, selling pictures of dinosaurs that sparkle and calling them an an NFT that, I think it's a scam. There's some BS there.

Where I think the benefit of an NFT is, is a verifiable source of ownership. Let's say you buy a Rolex watch. Having an NFT assigned to that watch that proves on the blockchain that you are the owner of that watch, or buying real estate, instead of having title, you might have an NFT that says you own this, but it's like a tag. It's no different than like a tag on a purse that says, you own this. But this is what people are always like, well, the technology.

I'm like, okay, well, I don't invest heavily in Blu-ray because the technology's cool. He also doesn't care about Blu-ray. You know, they sold Jack Dorsey's tweet for over $2 million. The guy is now trying to sell it for $40 million and he can't get $300 for it. So if that doesn't tell you this whole thing,

the thing is I think that NFT should have got way more, Because, I mean, for 300 bucks, I would buy it for $300. For $1,000, you know, realistically, I'd probably pay all the way up to $5,000. Because I would take a gamble on that. It's just, you know, $5,000 to see what happens. For you, that's, like, funny money. For a lot of people, this is like my life savings for some people.

I'm never going to financially recover from this. Like, even for me, crypto, I think is really important to keep it under 5% of your total portfolio as a gamble, as a risk. Instead of going and say, I'm going to put it in Tesla stock, you know, take it even bigger risk with crypto. I think there's a place for it. I think you could use it to diverse if it plugs you're not going with stupid stuff. Yeah. I think Bitcoin Ethereum are the only ones that I would ever have faith in. Have you thought about making your own coin? Oh gosh, no. Because then you'll instantly lose all credibility. And what would the coin do? I mean, there's, yeah, there has to like what every other coin does. No. I mean, any influencer that's ever done a coin that I've seen,

instantly I lose respect for and I never want to be associated with them. Well, most people, it's a It's like, oh, I have, and your buddies, it's like Pokemon cards. Like, what do you, I got the holographic Charzard? What do you have? It's a little bit of that. But, man, but then you got to time it, like, with Twitter and those, what are the, board apes, Crypto punks. It's like, then you got to time it perfectly, and a lot of those are down 50%, sometimes 70%.

Not a great investment. I'll stick to my 401K for now. Let's talk about the best money advice you've heard or taken. Was there, like, a thing that stuck with you? We're like, man, I have this conversation. You're going to hate this. I keep going back to this. I won't hate it.

Building my credit score. That one, I will hate it. You really need a credit score at your level? Yes. What is it doing for you these days? Loans. So I was able to buy my last place for 15% down at a 2.875% mortgage for 30 years fixed. Because of excellent credit.

Because I had flawless credit. And that's something that I take a lot of pride in. Making sure everything is paid off on time. So do you carry any debt outside? of the mortgages on properties. I have a small loan on the Tesla Model 3 that I first bought. But besides that, no. Your debt payments are this much.

For a lot of people, we're seeing now car payment averages over $700. They're drowning in student loan debt and hoping for forgiveness. I mean, like, the average American, this is a really bad situation. I agree with that. And I think that's where I differ slightly is that I would say for the average person, like if you take a blanket statement, I would say what you use. talk about is correct, and that is the best way. I talk to that maybe 5%. It feels like they could handle that comfortably, whereas I think most people are better off to staying away from it.

Now, with your advice, basically, not everyone wants to, wants to or should get into real estate, which is how you got your start at 18. What do you tell those people? Is it still like you should buy real estate? Is that the path to wealth? Like if you had a, here's the step-by-step plan. Makes sense for most, I think at the beginning I was more adamant on real estate, because That's all I knew. But once I started doing other things, I realized it's not the way to do it, and there are other ways. I would say if you're settling down and you know you're going to be there for 15 years, 10 years,

makes sense. And I think for most people, most wealth is built in real estate because it's a forced savings account. And so I think for a lot of people, a house could be one of the best ways to make money. Just a primary residence. A good primary residence, you know, in a good area in a place that you intend to live for 10 to 15 years or like a duplex or a triplex or a fourplex. Preferably that. So you could rent out the other units, live in one, build that.

Which you did for a while. That's what I love. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay, before we go, biggest money regret. It can be a $4 or a $400,000 purchase. I lost money in one venture that I did, and it was because it was not involved. I was very busy doing other things, and I didn't give it any attention, and I've learned a lesson from doing that. And I've realized that if I'm putting money in something, I have to be there. I have to be present. I have to be... You can't put it on autopilot. Yeah. And even though you might, you know, trust other people and have your faith in other people, I think at the end of the day, it's like whatever you're involved and you're responsible for. Yeah. And so if I'm not able to get

something my full attention, I shouldn't be doing it. You're over it. I love it. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Thanks, Graham. Oh, make sure to hit the like button. Smash it. Destroy it. I like by you. Destroy it. Huge thanks to Graham for stopping by and being on the channel. And let me know in the comments who else you want to see me hang out with on this channel. By the way, did Dwayne Johnson ever get back to us? No?

We'll send him some Omaha steaks.