George Kamel - The Best Money and Life Advice I've Heard All Year

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

2025 was one for the books when it came to guests on the channel. So today, I’m revisiting some of my favorite conversations from the past year and the advice that stuck with me. Next Steps:   ��� 🎥 Watch my video I Asked More People How Much Debt They Have. • 📈 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:   • Go to Cozy Earth with code GEORGE for an exclusive offer. • 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

2025 was one for the books when it came to guests on this channel. From tax experts and entrepreneurs to thought leaders and whatever it is Dr. John Deloney does, I got to hear from some of the smartest and best-dressed people I know. So today I'm revisiting some of my favorite conversations from the past year and the advice that stuck with me. And I hope it sticks with you. First up is a conversation I had with best-selling author Sahil Bloom. And I loved his take on sacrifice.

Your entire life will change when you realize you have to sacrifice. short-term freedom in order to build and earn long-term freedom. Sacrifice is the cost of entry. Instant gratification will kill the life of your dreams. And anyone is capable of going out and building that if they are willing to pay the price to achieve that thing. Going in with eyes wide open about what the price is is very, very important because you need to internalize what you are going to have to sacrifice in order to earn that long-term freedom. The problem is that people think that that there's an easy way. There's a shortcut, there's a hack, there's a thing.

And someone is always willing to sell you that shortcut. There is always someone out there who's gonna tell you like, oh, you're doing this the hard way. Here's the easy way for nine payments of 1999 that we can fix this for you. There is no such thing as a hack or a shortcut to building the life you want. Delayed gratification is the key to the life that you want.

I love that so much. Delayed gratification is the key to the life you want, sacrifices the cost of entry, And unfortunately, there are no discounts on that price. Thank you for that timeless wisdom, my friend. Next up, investor and entrepreneur, Cody Sanchez, on the real goals we should be chasing. Stop trying to tell people that the goal is just money. You guys say this too.

Oh, yeah. The goal is not just money. The goal is money, which equals freedom, which allows you to pick your impact, which allows you to feel like that the reason that you breathe is worthwhile. And so it's really not profit, it's purpose. And that serving people is actually an engagement. incredible way to make a ton of money, and that is the real goal at the end of the day. If you're good and you keep going for a long enough time, you're going to eventually make

a ton of money. If you keep learning, you keep growing, you keep earning, you keep investing, the path is pretty clear. But if you don't care about anything besides money yourself, that does lead to misery, I think. I love this. Purpose over profit. Because here's the problem. If you're just after money, you might get the money, but then you realize there's no meaning

behind it. You just got money for the sake of getting money, which is fine. there's no depth to it. So you need to have some purpose behind it, and the better way to do it is think about it this way. If you help enough people, you don't have to worry about money, because the byproduct of serving others is going to be revenue. Thank you, Cody. Now, one of y'all's favorite collabs I did this year was with tax attorney and expert, Jasmine DeLucci, and she set the record straight when it comes to riding off this expensive item. Get in, loser. I just got a new car. This car is sick. I know. I was considering a G-wagon or

or a range rover or a Porsche Cayenne. Okay, Daddy Warbucks. No dude, I didn't buy this car to be flashy. It's a great financial decision. What? Yeah, a Section 179 deduction. I own a business and can write the car off as an expense. With regular cars, you'd have to spread the car's price over five years

to deduct it off of your taxable income. But with Section 179 cars, you'll be able to deduct 100% of the cost the same year that you buy it. Wait, can I do this? Maybe. You have to have a business like an LLC or an S-Corp, and the deduction is proportional to what percent you use it for business. It's also not just luxury vehicles that qualify. Any car weighing over 6,000 pounds works. Here's a quick list. European cars, American cars, Japanese cars, they all count.

So she sounded like she had done her homework here. The 6,000 pound rule, like people just very generically. We care about whether is it 6,000 loaded, like assuming it's with, loaded up with people, loaded up. with all the stuff, or unloaded. And that matters a lot. And depending on the type of car, that impacts whether you can go with the easier threshold, which is 6,000 loaded, which a lot of cars meet. Or if you're really not a truck or a van, not one of those heavier cars,

and there's specific criteria, then it's 6,000 unloaded, which a lot of vehicles basically don't meet that. So that's the threshold number one. And then Section 179 specifically, people love to just say, like, Section 179, but there's an SUV limitation specific for it. And it's around $30,000 a year. to limit that first year deduction. So you can't just deduct like $500,000. Right.

Yeah, no, you definitely have limits. Yeah. And then, like, walk me through this. Let's say the G-Wagon is $300,000. Okay. And you said, I'm going to ride it off. So I can write off $300,000 in one year. But was that a good decision financially, like she said?

Sure. No. In my opinion. How does that work? Because you write off the car, you didn't make $300,000. So hurdle number one, is it even, fully deductible, which I think people make that assumption when they buy it because of videos like this, not always true.

Okay. Even if they're over that 6,000 pound. And then, yeah, I mean, you're not getting like a dollar for dollar. Not a dollar for dollar deduction. And you probably still have a huge loan attached to that because most people doing this crap have to take out a giant car loan to make it happen, which then has its own interest. What I would say is like the worst situation that I actually see pretty often is they buy the car, they get the debt, they put it in an S corp.

And then there's a way where, not to get too technical, but it's basically like when you have debt and assets, depreciable assets and debt on an S-Corp, you incur a layer of double tax. It's what we call, like, exceeding your tax basis, but you basically pay tax on the loan money. If the loan was $100,000, you could owe taxes on $100,000 as if you had earned it. Yeah, and it's an indirect impact of it. It's not like you're literally directly taxed on the loan, but it's an implication because of the loan. You get that extra layer of capital gains tax. Okay.

And I know a lot of people are wondering, well, how do I hit the $6,000? pound limit, just put your mom in it. That should do it. There you go, Brad. I'm gonna be honest, that's all I was thinking about. Okay, sadly, Jasmine's brilliant advice was overshadowed by my killer joke that I was holding on to for way too long as she nerdyly and expertly explained double taxation.

Listen, tax me once, shame on me. Tax me twice, I probably have a G-wagon that I'm about to write off. Moving on. I always enjoy a good, concise chat with the minimalist guys. guys. And this time, Joshua Fields Milburn explained his 90-90 rule for living with less. We often buy a thing because we think it's going to complete us, but it does the opposite. It incompletes us. It gets in the way. Anything that gets in the way is clutter. The minimalist came up with the 16 rules for living with less. And they're not really rules. They're just boundaries.

They're adjustable for your life. If you go into your closet, one of the rules that works really well for me is the 90-90 rule. You pull out anything that's in your closet, you know, those old sweatpants from 1998, or maybe you have like an oversized jacket you haven't worn in a while or that sweater, and you ask yourself, have I worn this in the last 90 days? And if the answer is no, then okay, well, I wear it in the next 90 days because right now it's the end of summer and no, I haven't worn my winter coat in the last 90 days, but yeah, I know I'm going to wear it within the next 90 days. So I'm going to hold on to that. But if the answer is no to both of those questions, then I give myself permission to let it go. I'm going to be honest. I was very convicted by the

90-90 rules so much so that I've decided to admit live on this channel that there's something I have to get rid of. I have not worn this in the last 90 days and I do not plan on wearing it in the next 90 days. I wore it one time for a video on this channel and since then it has been collecting dust and probably asbestos based on just the vibe and the general smell. I think this was worn exclusively inside of Waffle House kitchens. I think that's how you get the So, Joshua, I'm gonna make you proud, and I'm getting rid of it. Hey guys, make sure to put that back on the rack when we're done with this. Thank you.

You sit on a throne of lies. Now one thing I will not be purging from my closet, because I've definitely worn it in the last 90 days, maybe too much, is my favorite pair of pants from Cozy Earth, a sponsor of today's video. Their men's everywhere pant is a pant that I wear, frankly, everywhere. And that's because it's the rare combo of structure and stretch. And their brush bamboo joggers are my go-to the second I get home, because they're so, soft, breathable, and built to last. So if you want to treat yourself to some S-tier pantalones, look no further than Cozy Earth.

And best of all, you can get up to 20% off right now by going to CozyEarth.com slash George and using the promo code George at checkout. You can also use the link in the description. And before we get back to the conversations, I've got my own piece of solid advice for you. Sign up for Delete Me, a sponsor of today's video. Delete Me finds and removes your data

from hundreds of data broker sites that are out there selling your personal info to spammers and scammers. Now, trying to remove all, this yourself, you could try, but it would take you so much time. And Delete Me periodically sends you a report showing you exactly how much time they've saved you, and I'm currently at 108 hours already, which means I'm essentially living a few days longer thanks to Delete Me. So help protect yourself from the risks of online scams and data breaches with Delete Me. You can use my special

link to get a discounted plan that comes out to about nine bucks a month. Go to join Deleteme.com slash George to get the deal or click the link in the description. All right, back to more advice from this year. My friend Dr. John Deloney is always dropping words of wisdom, but I loved what he had to say in this clip about the question that changed everything for him. The question that changed my household that my wife asked me was, how do you want this house to feel like when you come home? And that started, oh, I'm not going to solve for wealth and I'm not going to solve for net worth, I'm going to solve for peace in my house. And so, yes, I would love to have

a $110,000 shooped up tundra in my driveway. I would. And, dude, I love that when my son drops something all over the tundra or bangs into it with something, my first thing I do is laugh. Because it costs $8,000. Like, I love that. And so I'm solving for peace. And one day, I may have enough wealth that I can buy that $100,000, I probably won't, but I can buy a nice truck and have it sit in the driveway. And it won't all laugh if somebody dings it or whatever. But I want that life.

And so how do I want this place to, I want my house to feel, be filled with laughter and with joy. And that means, dude, let's drive corollas then, right? Let's drive used Camry's. And let's live in a smaller house so that we can go do silly things. And we can have pizza nights randomly. And we can go on fun trips and whatever. Instead of lifestyle creep and pushing it all to the limit and running on the house. How do we want this place to feel?

So, yeah, but yes, whether it's a picture of what you want this to look like and some people do that well. Or whether it's what do you want this to feel like. There's some sort of end game that we're going to reverse. How do we get there then? And then here's what's important. I think you have to hold that in-game really loosely. Because they can become an idol. I love it.

I'm convinced at this point that John is sponsored by Toyota. Because it's the only kind of vehicles he's going to have in his house where Toyota family, we celebrate Toyot-a-thon, not happy Honda days. But this is actually really good advice. Too many people, they're doing the math. They're solving for a number instead of solving for peace in their homes. And so that hurts their relationships. It hurts their careers.

And it hurts their soul. soul. There's a sole tax to be paid when you're chasing after the wrong thing. So I love that John's going, we could have nicer stuff, but that stuff's going to have us. So I'd rather have the cheaper stuff and focus on being present for my family. Good advice, John. Now, I've had Graham Stephan and Jack Selby from Ice Coffee Hour on several times now. But in this episode of Millionaires and cars getting coffee, I learned something very surprising about these guys whilst going through a car wash. Would you rather have perfect timing in the stock market or in the real estate market? Stock market.

Stock market. You wouldn't want a 2008 crisis and you're stacked with millions of dollars? No. Stocks. Yeah, perfect timing in stocks? Oh, that's way easier. Yeah, way easier.

Less to manage. Less hassle factor. That was a no brainer. Okay, here we go. I can't read the question. Oh, my gosh, I'm getting nervous. All right, would you rather have the jobs you have now or be a successful rock star?

Oh, that's a tough one. Graham just had a flashback to his days as a drummer, didn't you? How successful are we talking? I'm talking to you're filling arenas. I'd fill arenas. I mean, if we're filling arenas, I would do that. Would you guys ever be in a band together? Yeah, I would do it.

Yeah. What would you play? I would do piano or I'd sing. Can you do both well? No. What can you still do? Drums, piano. It's going to be a heavy piano band.

Probably too much. What genre could you agree on? I think like a chili pepper is five. I would do that. I would do that. That genre would still sell today? I do. If it's good, if the music's good enough, it'll sell. Don't you just love those guys? I love that Jack said he would do piano, which is not what you do in order to make piano make noise.

You play piano, you do not simply do piano. You do karate. You don't do piano. But aside from that, and they're banned dreams that have failed, I love their idea of trying to time the stock market. You can't do it, but if you could, you know, I think the timing of that is simpler. Less hassle factor than real estate. So I'm with these guys if I could choose one. Next up, Lewis Howes reveals the key ingredients for building a truly rich life.

And one of the keys that I've learned in creating a rich life internally and externally is that gratitude and generosity, they are the gateway to abundance or to living a richer life, to living a more abundant life. And when you have no money or you're in debt, you can't think I'm going to give money because I can't do it.

But what you can do, and you don't have to give money to be generous, but what you can do is you can give time, you can give attention, you can be present with someone when you're looking at them. You can be generous with resources and say, I have a knowledge,

I have a wisdom, and I can connect you with my friends to help you thrive. And if we can start being in that state of how can I be a giver and how can I be grateful with every single day where I'm at, while also trying to improve to become better, that is the pathway to abundance and peace. I love it.

So he's saying gratitude, generosity, that is a gateway to wealth. Now, is it a ticket to just getting more money? I don't think that's what he's saying here. What he's saying is it creates an attraction to you, not a manifestation, but people want to work with you. They want to give you money because they trust you when you're a giver. If you're stingy and selfish, nobody wants to work with you. That's unattractive.

But if you're grateful and you're generous, I think you're going to be successful in life, and that will lead to having more money later on down the road. Hope you guys enjoyed those tidbits as much as I did. Be sure to check out the full conversations right here on this YouTube channel. A big thank you to all of my guests this year that have added so much value to this channel and to everyone watching. And comment below who you want to see featured on this channel as a guest, and maybe we'll reach out and make it happen.

And if this video scratched in it, there's plenty more where that came from. Check out this video for more awesome life and money advice from previous guests on this channel. Give it a click or use the link in the description. Don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe, and share this video with at least three friends if you want good luck in the new year.

And if you don't, you don't want to know what's going to happen. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.