George Kamel - Roasting My Viewers’ Financial Takes

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Well, I opened the floodgates. I asked you guys to tell me what you disagree with me about the most—and you did not hold back. So today, we’re looking at what you guys had to say about everything from my beard to mutual funds. And I’m going to address the criticism head on.    Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video Money Expert Shocked by Broke TikTokers. • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! Connect With Our Sponsors:   • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • 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

Well, I opened the floodgates. I asked you guys to tell me what you disagree with me about the most, and y'all did not hold back. There were hot takes, there were funny takes, there were, you might need therapy takes. So today, we're looking at what you guys had to say about everything from my beard to mutual funds, and I'm gonna address the criticisms head on. Let's get to it.

Alright, so here was the original ask on my YouTube community feed. I'm probably gonna regret this, but I wanna hear it straight from you. What's the one thing you disagree with me on the most? Drop it in the comments and tell me why. I'll be reading them, and I might even respond to a few of the spiciest takes in a future episode. Star, bonus points if you make us laugh. 932 of you responded. 900.

You know how hearted? I couldn't get 932 people to vote in my county, let alone respond to a YouTube community feed, but you guys came through in the worst way. Here's how you all responded. Mr. Girderso, I don't know, dot, dot, dot, dot. The sheer number of jean jackets you own? The immense volume of hair gel? Okay, first of all, it's a pomade, not a gel.

I'm not 15 years old. I'm a dapper dan, man. It's none of your business how many jean jackets I have, okay? What do you want me to do? What other jackets would you like me to own? All right? I've got a light denim, a medium denim, a dark denim, and a black. And I also have one in a tan corduroy.

and one and more of a stone, if you will. You got to have options, and maybe two more. But I collect that. I'm a collector. What can I say? I have one for every year. I've been cool. And so far, I've been cool for eight years. All right.

The Ugly Binnacle. 100% your stance on credit cards. I understand that a lot of people out there can be irresponsible with them, but as long as you're not stupid with them, you should absolutely use credit cards. I never use my debit cards. and I've never once paid credit card interest. Free cash back on my regular monthly expenses

sounds like a good deal to me. I'm not going to take this from a guy who has some sort of SpongeBob avatar going on, all right? So, ugly binnacle, at this stage of my life, could I use a credit card responsibly? I would hope so, but here's two reasons why I don't. Number one, I know it's going to cause me to spend more than I would have if I had used my own money.

Every study has shown this. This is just classic human behavior. Use other people's money. You have to pay back later. You're going to spend a little more. Use your money that you have now. You're going to feel a little more pain and tend to spend less. That's reason number one. Reason number two, all of these rewards, where are they coming from? Well, they're coming from gross credit card card companies that are screwing people over, and the rewards are largely from people paying a whole bunch of interests because they're struggling. And so I just don't want to be a part of a broken system at the end of the day,

on top of the fact that I'm going to spend less using my own money. Case closed. Goodbye. Next up in the disagreements, bulletproof 1395. Giving during the early baby steps. I get that it changes your mindset and attracts wealth, but it can wait. IMO. That means in my opinion.

Notice they didn't say in my humble opinion, which is very telling. Okay, here's my take on this. When I was doing the baby steps, getting out of debt, I still gave. Not because it made me a better person than you, but simply because I knew that if I didn't keep that muscle going, I would become a selfish jerk one day. And instead, I wanted to give a little until I could give a lot. And so keeping that habit going only made me want to give more. And what I found is that people who don't give during the baby steps, they don't magically start giving a whole bunch later on in life. And so if this is a normal habit in your life, you're going to

keep it going. And if you don't start it now, you're probably not going to start it. So that's the simplest answer, regardless of your faith background of whether you should give during a certain baby step or not. One man's take. OWG Garage 723 said, Gotta be the beard. Just own the fact that you look like a teenager without facial hair. We will still respect the advice. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's the reason most guys have beards

is to avoid looking like a teenager, right? But we have a chat GPT image, I assume, of me without a beard, and that's a thousand more reasons why I should always keep whatever facial hair I can grow. That man is a side. Also, do appreciate the very chiseled jawline that I, in fact, do not have. Chad GPT was very kind with that. I look sickly. I look unwell.

Like, all I can focus on is just like my hollow eyes if I don't have the beard to distract. And yes, it's patchy. Do I wish it was thicker? Do I wish it was darker? Do I wish it was a little more? Yeah, absolutely. But this is what God gave me, and I'm going to fly. It's what they disagree with me about.

Index funds over mutual funds. All right, this one, this is a confusing one. First of all, I know what they're trying to get at, but we got to make this clear. Index funds are mutual funds. Okay, they're just passively managed versus actively managed. What we're talking about here is a giant group of stocks that make up one fund. Maybe it's a growth stock mutual fund or a bond fund. This is just a selecting a group of stocks, and we're all rooting out of stocks,

and we're all rooting for them to do the thing we want them to do. So index funds over mutual funds, we say that actively managed mutual funds can beat index funds in the long run. You do you. This is a very nerdy argument. Unless we have a crystal ball, we truly just don't know what the future holds. But what we're betting on is that a bunch of professionals,

actively managing a fund, can hand-select ones that they think will beat the market, which is just made to say, here's the top 500 companies in the U.S., here's what they're doing. There's no real plan there. It's just these are companies that are winning. So here's my take.

I'm not against index funds. I think they have a time and a place. And for me, that's outside of retirement accounts. So if I'm investing in a brokerage account for whatever purpose, because I want to have access to money before I retire, I'll put it in a brokerage account in an index fund. And if it's in a retirement account, I choose actively managed mutual funds

because we're hoping that those fund managers are hand-selecting the companies they think will beat the market. which is, again, passively managed in the index funds. It's just tracking the index, the top 500 companies in the U.S., for example. So that's why I choose mutual funds and when I choose mutual funds, but I'm not anti-index funds. I think if you're doing that, you're doing the right thing. You're betting on the race track instead of the race horse, which is risky.

The Web Mindset said weightlifting, more specifically, the lack thereof, laughing emoji. All right, first of all, a guy with the handle the Web mindset, is definitely not working out. Okay? Golly. Do I lift weights? No. Could I?

Could I become jacked if I really wanted to? Absolutely. We've all seen it. If Chris Pratt can become who he is today, I can also become jacked. Now, here's why I don't do it. Ego. I don't want to, if I,

my head would explode if I was jacked. You can't imagine the insufferable person. You think I'm insufferable now. Wait until I have muscles, bud. And also, I have bought way too much wardrobe to now not fit in it because my arms are too big. So, could I lift weights? Sure. I lift my toddler.

She's like 30 pounds. So that's something. And I switch between the arms to make sure I don't get too ripped on one arm. Could I still take you in a fight? Probably not. It's not my forte. Not what I'm trying to do with my life at this stage of the game. But thank you for commenting on something that I never claim to be an expert on.

weightlifting. Golly. Next up on the disagreements. This is exhausting already. Pearl Escobar, 9449. I disagree with the million bots invading all of the comment sections in your videos. Maybe delete me can help get rid of them.

Laughing emoji. Laughing emoji. And a crying tinkerbell as the avatar. That's really, that's jarringly sad. Yeah, I'm with you on that. And I wish there was something I could do about it. I don't know that Delete Me has a service where they can clean up my comment section, but delete me.

If you can create this, like, hit me up. And if you guys know of a service or someone that can do this, hit me up. Because our team, they're busy like working. So they're not in there in the comments section. Just going delete, delete, delete, delete. That's all folks. We got stuff to do. Okay, we got people to help.

The bots are going to bot. Just ignore them. Keep scrolling. Move on with your life. And another thing. This is not just a me problem. This is a YouTube problem. Go to any channel, go to the comment section

on any super-uber successful YouTuber. You'll find the same thing happening. And it's a huge problem. And I think YouTube should be wants to deal with it. Not me paying some guy a salary to click delete in a comment section. All right? Any old monkey could do that,

but I can't afford a monkey. Because they know their worth. They know their worth. You seen Dunstan checks in. You think that guy did it for free? Now, while cleaning up a comment section isn't Delete Me's specialty, cleaning up your digital footprint definitely is. Delete Me will keep your personal data away from spammers, scammers, and creepy stalkers

lurking on the internet. They find and remove your info from hundreds of data broker sites that make money by selling your personal information. Then DeleteMe sends you a report showing you how much time they saved you from doing it yourself. So help protect yourself from the risks of online scams and data breaches with DeleteMe, a sponsor of today's video. Plus, with my special link, you can get 20% off their annual plans by going to join DeleteMe.com or just use the link in the description. And before we get back to the comments section, Sludge, let's talk about a better place to bank,

and that is Fairwin's Credit Union, another sponsor of today's video. They're not like the big banks because they're focused on helping you win with money instead of pushing you to their latest terrible debt product, and they're owned by their members, not by Wall Street. So Fairwins does what a bank should do, help you spend and save smart.

And that's why they have a smart bundle, which features a no-feet checking account and a high-yield savings account. So if you're looking for a bank that actually cares about the every man and woman, go to fairwins.org slash Ramsey to sign up for the smart bundle. And you can even get this really fun. Ramsey co-branded debit card that says debt as normal be weird. Here's mine. Our next disagreement comes from Covert Channel.

I disagree with George about paying off cheap debt faster. It makes zero sense to pay off a mortgage that is 1.99% when you can earn double that in interest by leaving money in your savings and making payments. I also disagree on credit cards with rewards. If you pay them off each month, you benefit from their rewards. Okay, this is one I get a lot as well. If I can make more money in the market or in a savings account, why pay off my debt? Well, at that point, you would just become some sort of like Robert Kiyosaki trying to leverage as much debt as possible to then make a spread and make arbitrage.

But if you're a normal human, that has like a family and a reality to deal with, debt payments are not the answer. So what I've found for my family is that I don't miss my mortgage payment after paying it off. Regardless if the rate was 2% or 3% or 4% or 5%, the fact of the matter is, it's more than just about math when it comes to your mortgage. It's about peace of mind knowing that you own it, knowing that no one can take it away, knowing that whatever life throws at you, you won't have to worry about a mortgage payment. So if there's a job loss, if there's a health scare, if one spouse wants to stay at home, you're not going, oh my gosh, how are we going to stay in this house? We're going to have to sell it. We're going to have to live on the street.

We're going to have to downsize. I don't have to worry about that without a mortgage payment. So here's the other truth. I was investing the entire time I was paying off my mortgage. So I was investing 15%. I'm on track to have millions in retirement. I'm going to be just fine on the investment side. So I'm not obsessed with trying to make more spread, more arbitrage.

I'm concerned about having peace right now. Next up, KT4EQ7. Wearing rubber gloves to scoop up your dog's poop. Just pick it up with a poop bag. Okay, I'm like doing some real like matrix math here in my brain to go back to a moment where I talked about wearing rubber gloves to scoop up dog poo. Have I been known to do it? Sure. Who was watching?

That's what I want answers to. Here's why I do it. I put the gloves on and I have the scoop. All right? I have the scooper. I got the thing to collect it. And you're just in, you're in some sketchy territory is all I'm going to say. So I wear the gloves just to make sure nothing gets on my hands.

I'm not hand-grabbing the poop with the gloves. That's maniacal. I would not do that. I'm just simply using the gloves as one extra layer of protection while handling some sensitive objects. Pick it up with a poop bag. Yeah, of course I put it in a poop bag. What do you think I'm doing with it? Playing with it, making sandcastles a poop?

All right, that disagreement. That doesn't count. All right, don't put that on my record. Next disagreement comes from Jeff. S with one S sketchy. Maybe it's J.E.S. Like, it's their initials. I think Baby Step 1 should be a one-month emergency fund. $1,000 is a bit low these days, especially after all the inflation since that step was created. A one-month emergency fund step would also automatically adjust for inflation. $1,000 when Dave wrote the book, would be $1,760 now. Okay, this is a fair criticism that Baby Step 1 should be more than $1,000. But here's the deal.

what you're forgetting. A thousand dollars was never meant to be an emergency fund that covered you for everything. It was meant to just cover the little ankle biters, like the flat tire. So a thousand versus 1700, you're gonna still have people who go, well, I think it should be more. And then another guy's like, no, I think it should be more. It should be three months of expenses. Well, at that point, nobody's going to actually be able to do the baby steps. The point is create a quick win and create a quick buffer so that nothing throws you off while you get on the debt-free journey. And this is what Dave found. Dave kept telling people back in the day, hey, just go ahead and pay off the debt,

debt snowball, debt snowball. But then he realized that people had these little ankle biters come up they had to deal with. And so that's when he implemented Baby Step 1 to help cover for that. So the goal with this, and here's what it did for me, it lit a fire under me to only have $1,000 in savings so that I got out of debt faster. And for me, it was 18 months to get out of $40,000 of consumer debt. And after that, I built up to a three to six month emergency fund. And that's how it's been ever since.

So this is a temporary stopgap to cover the little things. And if something did come up, we would tell you. Pause the baby steps, stack as much cash as you can, sell as much stuff as you can, cover the emergency, and then hit play on the baby steps. All right, next criticism comes from Gage for a day. The negativity toward Android phones and how Apple phones are superior. The facts are that it isn't true. And when you keep pushing Apple, even to the point to suggest a used device versus new Android,

is fan-boying and ignorant of factual data. Android is better for people who want to take their phones worth seriously. Wow, them fighting words, Gage, their phones worth? What about yourself worth? Why aren't we thinking about that? And to be fair, I've changed my tune on this. In fact, I recently switched. I'm an Android man now.

This is the stock photo that came with the phone, and I've decided to keep it. It's a lovely couple making out, doing what couples do that are in love. And it's so easy to use this phone. Look, it's, I can get to the camera so quickly just by, okay, nope, how do what, okay. So into, I love how in two of it, anything you swipe just, okay, where are we going? I think I just called 911. All right, still got a lot to learn with Android. But I do love that they're just slowly becoming an iPhone.

They're just, they're so close. They're so close to just being an iPhone. Uh, okay, I'm kidding. That was not my phone, and whoever I stole that from, I'm sorry. But you shouldn't have left it in the bathroom. But truthfully, I have no hate toward Android users, no hate toward Android phones. I just don't want to be friends with you. That's fair. Okay, that's fair.

DMZ rights, 1853. Criticism. Never do company match until you're completely debt-free and any debt, no matter what is for or the circumstances is wrong. Okay. Your username is DMZ rights, and I don't know if that's aspirational, but you got ways to go. Did I read that wrong? Did I have like a brain? Never do company match until you're completely debt-free.

Okay, got that. Got that. That part makes sense. And any debt no matter what is for or the circumstances is wrong. Okay, so there's two things there. Number one, they don't like that I tell people don't invest at all, including any company match. go to 0% until you're completely debt-free with an emergency fund. Let's address that one here.

Here's what I found when I did that. It lit a fire under me to get out of debt faster so that I could get back to investing. That's what it does for most people. So it's less about the math, because the truth is, most Americans aren't investing enough. Even if they're doing the company match, they think, well, I'm doing the match.

I should have millions in retirement. I'm doing the match. I'm getting free money. The problem is they're investing like 3% to get a 3% match. it's simply not enough to sustain a great retirement. So I tell people invest 15%, which means if you just pause to zero for like 18 to 24 months,

which is the average time it takes to get out of debt using our method, the debt snowball method, well then you're going to go from 3% to 15%. You're going to 5x your investments just by getting out of debt faster once and for all. So that's why I did it. That's what I've seen work. Next criticism. Not taking on any debt no matter what it is

for the circumstances is wrong. Yeah, it's not a moral thing. It's not like it's wrong in that sense. I just think once you take debt off the table, you change your value system and you decide I'm not a person who wants to owe someone money. So therefore, I'm going to get creative. I'm going to have the discipline to save up and cash flow

the thing that I want to do or need to do. And once you do that, you realize it's like a superpower. You become invincible when you don't have to rely on a lender to fund your goals, fund your dreams, while you become a slave to them. That's what the Bible says. The borrower is a slave to the lender. I believe in that, and that's why I don't borrow money.

It's why I paid off my mortgage early in my 30s, because I decided I wanted to be a free man through and through. Hope you decide to do the same. Hope you get better at writing, too. Sick burn. Darth Bomber is next. Well, he has quite the, wow. Hello, Dolly, get ready for this one.

The idea that you need to share all your premarital assets with your spouse. Divorce rate in the U.S. is 50%. Why would you want them to take half your stuff in this, very common scenario. And before you say, quote, relationships are built on trust, remember that the worst part of betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies. What in the art of war is this? Blaming someone for picking a partner that ended up divorcing is victim blaming and is counterproductive. If you don't want a pre-nup in your marriage, good for you. But to act like it's not a good idea,

does real damage to those who will get screwed financially by divorce. So many questions for you, Darth Bomber. First of all, who hurt you? I'm sorry. If you went through a divorce, I truly am sorry. That sucks. That's usually where this is coming from. Or someone who was, they were bitten in the past by a relationship and now they're spooked by the whole idea of marriage because they think women exist to take them to the cleaners, which is just, it's just insane. It's just insane. So let's address some of your things here. Share all your premarital assets to their spouse. Here's what I found. If you come into it going, well, I'm coming in with $4,000 and some equity. And that's not yours. And then they come in and go, well, this is my. pile, you've already have a disjointed relationship. And so what I found is that when you have total unity, you have shared goals, shared values, it doesn't matter. Because where we're at now,

we're going to be light years ahead in the future if we're moving the same direction with all the firepower we have from our dual incomes, dual assets, dual everything. We're a team. Maybe that's paying off debt. And the couples that I found that are trying to keep it all separate and keep my account and her account and my house and her house, I just don't find they have healthy relationships long term. I don't find that they build wealth at the rates that married couples do that have combined all their assets. So you do you. If you want a pre-up and that's something you guys align on, I'm not mad about that. And then this other thing blaming someone for picking a... I've never blamed someone for picking a partner. Now, sometimes there's red flags they should have caught

that they didn't catch. That's human nature. But I don't blame people for being like, you picked the worst, but I can't believe it. What we do, when we take calls on the Ramsey Show, we help people pick up the pieces from whatever decisions or life is throwing at them, and that's what we're at. So I'm sorry you have such a cynical take on marriage. That's not how I view it, but I think everything in marriage is 100%. 110% for that matter, all in, not 50-50. Okay, let's address old Johnny Pinball up next. That's a great...

Oh, he's got a... Oh, he's got like a channel. Should I be... Let me look into his YouTube channel. Has anyone looked into this? He's got like a logo. It says JP. A thousand subscribers.

What kind of content is? is he putting out there? Harry Potter pinball. Harry Potter pinball art. King Kong ping ball. Okay, let's see, based on all of that, now that we have that context, that helps frame up this question.

10% returns in your calculation seems optimistic. What can I say? I'm a half glassful kind of guy. Here's the deal. I don't pull that number out of thin air. Like when it's my opinion, people get mad, and when it's data, they get mad. So they're just mad.

I think we're just mad people. But since 1928, the S&P 500, which is the largest 500 companies in the U.S., has averaged an 11.46% annualized rate of return. Now, you can make the argument, well, you got to include inflation. That's just the numbers. That's what it returned. If you put $100 bucks in back in 1928, you'd see that return year after year. Now, it's a roller coaster.

Some years you see negative 20%. Some years it's plus 20%. But overall, that's the rate of return. So is it optimistic? Sure, I don't know what the future holds, but it's also insane to assume that the next 100 years is going to be hellfire and brimstone and 3% returns. I think with the U.S. economy, I'm betting on it, it's going to be strong. We're going to see AI and tech and health care continue to grow, continue to make money, which means your returns and your investments will also make money. So, I don't know, man.

Stop with the pinball and just get to investing. What are you doing? What's your game plan here? Just don't invest because 10% seems optimistic. If it's 9% we'll all still high-five and we'll go play some pinball Up top But hey shout out to Johnny Pinball he's doing the dang thing he's uploading content I assume regularly his last video

Two months ago Johnny we could do a little bit better than that but I'm gonna encourage everyone to subscribe While knowing nothing about this channel so subscribe at your own risk I hope it's family friendly but a lot of stern I don't know what stern is that a brand of pinball machine I'm aloof to the pinball world, so I got a lot to learn from old Johnny Pinball. All right, I am close, this close to hitting my daily quota on disagreeing with people. But if you're still having fun watching me react to ridiculous stuff on the internet, keep watching this next video where I take a look at broke TikTokers, including one bold man

who financed an in-ground pool with the intention to never pay it off. Give it a click or use the link in the description to check it out. And be sure to hit like, subscribe to the channel, and share this with your most disagreeable friend. Maybe it will finally give you to some common ground. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.