First Time This Has Ever Happened...

20 Nov 2023 · 1 h 8 min

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Financial Audit Podcast Episode Summary: "First Time This Has Ever Happened..."

Episode Overview In this episode, host Caleb Hammer interviews Alex, a 22-year-old facility technician from San Antonio, Texas, who earns $105,000 a year but struggles significantly with debt and budgeting. The conversation dives into Alex's financial habits, the impact of lifestyle inflation, and the challenges of managing multiple high-interest loans.

Key Themes and Discussions

  1. Introduction to Alex's Background
  2. Profession: Facility technician working in critical environments.
  3. Income: $105,000 annually.
  4. Career Path: No formal education; started working at 17 with various hands-on jobs leading to his current position.
  1. Debt and Financial Habits
  2. High Debt Levels: Alex has multiple debts, including:
  3. Navy Federal Loans: $16,000 at 18% APR for a 2008 Corvette.
  4. Multiple Vehicles: Previously owned four cars simultaneously – a costly hobby.
  5. Credit Card Debt: Accumulated due to unwise spending and lifestyle choices.
  6. Spending Behavior:
  7. Relies heavily on Uber Eats and other convenience services.
  8. Minimal budgeting adherence despite having a budget in place.
  9. Confession of being "addicted" to car modifications and speed.
  1. Lifestyle Inflation and Its Consequences
  2. Lifestyle Choices: Alex discusses how earning a high income led to unnecessary expenses and debt accumulation.
  3. Impact of Lifestyle Choices: The importance of living within means to prevent financial hardship.
  4. Credit Management: Lack of awareness about the dangers of high-APR loans and their long-term implications.
  1. Introduction of a New Budgeting Course
  2. Course Launch: Caleb reveals a comprehensive budgeting course aimed at educating individuals on effective money management.
  3. Course Benefits:
  4. Designed to help break cycles of poverty and mismanagement.
  5. Features a personal budget review for the first 250 sign-ups.
  1. Financial Accountability and Forward Planning
  2. Recommended Actions:
  3. Establishing a budget and following it rigorously.
  4. Prioritizing debt repayment over luxury spending.
  5. Building an emergency fund to avoid future financial pitfalls.
  6. Encouragement for Change: Caleb emphasizes the need for Alex to mature financially and take control of his situation.
  1. Financial Assessment and Score
  2. Caleb's Score Breakdown:
  3. Spending and Budget: 0/10
  4. Debt Management: 0/10
  5. Emergency Fund: 1/10 (only $1,000 saved)
  6. Retirement Planning: 1/10 (due to a 401k loan)
  7. Overall Score: 0/10, indicating severe financial mismanagement.

Key Takeaways

  • Importance of Budgeting: Nearly every participant struggles with sticking to a budget despite knowing its importance.
  • Risks of High-Interest Debt: The dangers of taking on high-interest loans and the long-term consequences of poor financial decisions.
  • Need for Financial Education: There's a gap in personal finance education that can lead to poor financial decisions, which this episode aims to address with the new budgeting course.
  • Personal Accountability: Individuals must take ownership of their financial situations to enforce lasting change.

Conclusion This episode serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of lifestyle inflation, poor budgeting, and the importance of financial literacy. Alex’s situation illustrates that earning a high income does not guarantee financial security, and responsible money management is crucial for long-term success.

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Transcript

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0:00Hi, I'm Alex. I'm 22, coming out of San Antonio, Texas. and this is Financial Audit. Welcome up to Austin. So what do you do for a living currently? I work as a facility technician is what it's called. I work in critical environments. There's a couple companies that do it. A couple companies? Are you contracted to different companies? No, I just work for one, but there's a couple competing. Oh, okay. What are you currently making this role? I'm making$105 ,000 a year. You said$22 ,000? Yeah. Woo! $105 ,000 a year. What the f***? That is awesome. Congratulations, sir. Thank you. What do you... Wow.

0:43Okay, what do you need to get into this career path is what everyone is asking. I didn't go to any kind of school. I started working at 17. I lived in Germany. worked for a volkswagen audi dealership from there i did apartment maintenance hotel maintenance um and just gained a lot of knowledge about hvac mechanical electrical which is what i deal with um and part of the reason i got the job is i was just in the right place at the right time i was buying a motorcycle off a guy on facebook marketplace his ac was broken i was working an apartment so I had extra parts and he was like showing me the fan on it was out I was like I have a fan I can just bring you because I'm gonna come back and buy the motorcycle and so I brought him a fan helped him fix it and he ended up referring me for the job and that's incredible how long have you been making this kind of money uh since August of last year of last year yep so you must have lifestyle inflation the out of yourself.

1:48Like something must have happened. You've been making good money. Yeah. I mean that's more money than I've well that's more money than I've made before this job. I think with some sales stuff I may have gone slightly over on really good times but at 22 I was never even I wasn't even close to making that kind of money at 22. That's incredible. How are you possibly possibly why why in your situation have you gone and just taken out insane interest rate death across the board? I want to know why you've done that. And then I also want to know why have you not paid them off? Is this is something you should have easily been able to take care of.

2:30Is your family in San Antonio? Um, no. Okay. Even still San Antonio, you can live relatively cheaply. Yeah. What the? So. It actually used to be worse. Okay. Yeah, it used to be a lot worse, and I've been slowly paying things off this year. Slowly? It definitely could have been better. I.e., minimum monthly payments. Yeah, for the most part. I did have a car I got rid of, motorcycle I got rid of. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm going to interrupt you. I'm sorry. So that means at one point you had four vehicles? Might have been more. No, it was four at once. That was the worst I had. Why do you need that?

3:21I just love cars.

3:26That's what I love. It's a terrible hobby to get into because it's just so expensive. You can do it right. There are people who do it right. You absolutely can. I did not. Okay, this is honestly like the thing I've been most excited about for months and months and months. and I get to finally talk about it. My team and I have spent billions of hours, it feels like, going through every budgeting course that exists online. What did we find? Well, a lot of influencers and gurus like to do quick cash grabs and not go through a lot of detail. And they barely give a variety of situations that can apply to a lot of people other than a very specific narrow few.

4:07Resources are rarely provided and thorough examples are not given of how to actually budget. So I partnered with people in the finance space who are really smart and have a lot of experience when it comes to overall finances. And we created the best budgeting course that has ever existed. Hands down, compared to anything else online, we cannot find anything even half as good as what we have made. We've spent months working on this and I've spent way too many thousands of dollars. But damn, it is good. It is going to change lives. It is going to create generational wealth and you can take advantage of it today.

4:44It is literally going to take people who have been in a generational cycle of poverty and take them to breaking that cycle and create wealth for the first time in their life and actually manage money for the first time in their lives. And unlike all those cash grab courses out there, ours is like half the price of the average price out there. We want to make sure it's accessible to anyone, but also hoping to at least break even on the thing. I always said from the beginning, I would never do a course unless I can make it the best it can be and fill a void that does not already exist. The simple truth is, Americans, we suck at budgeting.

5:22We suck at budgeting. We've created hours of truly educational material that actually teach you how to budget, actually stick to a budget, and change your life. We're launching it today right now in the description below. And the most exciting thing is, even though it's cheaper than every other budgeting course out there, it's actually 10 % off through this week, through Black Friday weekend, and through Cyber Monday. And even more exciting than that, guess what? The first 250 people that sign up for the course will get a free budgeting review by our team and delivered right back to you. That's your budget being reviewed personally.

5:59Personally, this is incredible, and I'm so excited to finally announce this, and you can get it in the description below. It's right at the top. I highly recommend it. Take control of your money for the first time in your life. Sorry, continue. When I turned 18, I got a cheap little$3 ,700 of GTI and spent more money than I bought it for in parts to modify it. Did the value go up with it? Isn't that one of those cars that maintains value quite well? Yeah, but then the engine blew and so I sold it. And then that happened with another car I got. And it's just been kind of this endless cycle of me buying cars because it's fun and I want to.

6:49What about the other debts? We're talking credit cards. The credit cards is just unwise spending. You make way too much money, though. I do. Are you telling me you have not budgeted ever? I have a budget. I just don't stick to it very well. Well, then that's not having a budget, to be clear. Physically having... Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. So, okay. Give yourself a score 0 to 10. Sorry. Is this you? It's this. I think, I think this is actually an exciting episode. I think this is going to fall down towards episodes that people have actually requested. A high income earner, but are just not doing well.

7:35And that is clearly you. What scares me is, man, you're developing these habits in your young twenties, twenties. Where, where are we in our thirties at that point? If this is what we're developing in our twenties, where are we in our 40s and 50s are we retiring i don't know you've put money to retirement i'm actually happy where you are there at 22 it's incredible but you've just negated the whole thing by putting yourself in top of the pile here is 18 i wouldn't be smiling i'm terrified that scares me give yourself a score zero to ten maybe a two

8:12your retirement's gonna be what carries you your retirement's gonna be what carries you So what is this? So what is this? So what is this? Because what we have here are three of these Navy Federal consumer loans of just death. Of just death. So what is it? Which one? 18%,$16 ,000. That's a Corvette. Okay. A what? A 2008 Corvette. You have a picture of it? I do. Can I see? Yeah, absolutely. I'm not a car person. I need to put this into visual for myself. So we owe$16 ,609 at a death. 18%. 18%. All right. I'll admit that it's a cute car. If I saw it, I'd be like, that's a cute car. Okay. I will admit that.

9:10By the way, could you email those to us? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Okay, minimum monthly payment,$413. These are going to add up. I already know. They do. Having obviously gone through it. It's terrible. It's terrible. Why do you... You don't need this, man. Okay. I don't. Okay. Let's step back for a second, even though we've barely even dipped our toe into this. You make$105 ,000. How much was the car? The car was$17 ,500. Okay. $5 ,000. You could afford that. That's great. Yeah. I could have got you to do that in cash. Okay. You don't do cash. That's fine. You might have to borrow for it. Okay, you borrow for it.

9:48If we have to borrow at 18%, is this a car worth getting? I don't think so. No stock market return. No stock market return is going to beat that. So what the fuck on a depreciating asset? Well, I don't know. Corvette, is it? How well does this maintain value? They kind of depreciate and then they hold value for a good while and they depreciate more. Shopping is hard, right? But I found a better way. Stitch Fix online personal styling makes it easy. I just give my stylist my size, style, and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want. No subscription required. And he sends just for me pieces, plus outfit recommendations and styling tips.

10:29I keep what works and send back the rest. It's so easy. Make style easy. Get started today at stitchfix.com slash Spotify. That's stitchfix.com slash Spotify. It depends on the model. This is a base model, so it's going to be worth$17 ,000 for a long time. But you bought it at? 18 % APR. Oh, you bought it at what? $17 ,500. Yeah. Just pretty low for this car. The only issue is that I blew up the engine running nitrous. So you've blown up two engines? Three. What are you? What are you? I'm confused. Why? Why are you blowing up engines? I like to add power to cars and go fast. It has wheels and goes fast.

11:16But why are you blowing them up? This is beyond me because I don't give a shit. I have a Jeep Cherokee. I'm going to run it in the ground. What are you doing? It's a hobby. You break it and you fix it. It's just an endless cycle. Okay. So you want to break it? I like fixing things. So you want to break it? I don't necessarily want it to break, but I want to go faster. I'm just trying to figure that out. The way you go faster is by adding more power, and more power breaks things. If you've been using Mint for your budgeting needs, I've got some news for you. Mint is shutting down, and that means you're going to need a new budgeting app in your life.

11:50So let me introduce you to an all-in-one finance solution that I personally use, Rocket Money. Rocket Money is here to help you take control of your finances. With Rocket Money, I found a new way to manage my money effectively. The app makes it super easy to monitor my spending by category and it allows me to create custom budgets that will send me notifications when I'm about to exceed their limits. Rocket Money has all my account charges in one place, from checking to savings to credit. Plus, they make it a breeze to find out your net worth. By linking all of my accounts in 401k, Rocket Money helps me track my net worth in real time.

12:26It automatically updates the value of my assets and remaining debt balances, giving me the complete financial picture. But here's a game changer that I know a lot of you will be doing. With Rocket Money, you can easily cancel unwanted subscriptions with a simple tap. Say goodbye to those endless customer service calls and watch Rocket Money handle it for you. Rocket Money even attempts to get you a refund for the last couple months of unused subscriptions you were getting charged for. It's like having a personal financial assistant. And for those avid money savers out there, Rocket Money lets you set up smart savings.

12:58You choose the amount and frequency, and it automatically deposits your savings into a smart savings account from which you can withdraw at any time. So try out Rocket Money today for free, and if you want to unlock even more features, you can do that with premium. Head to rocketmoney.com forward slash Caleb or click the link at the top of the description below. Rocket Money is the better budgeting alternative to Mint, and it's here to make your financial life easier. Get started today, and don't ignore the importance of taking control of your money.

13:27my gosh so i mean i'm just okay where are you driving these mexico this is weird man i did not know what i was walking into what so san antonio so you drive uh like what six hours south yeah there's no speed limits on the highways in mexico in some stretches yeah but Couldn't you get someone else killed? I mean, and yourself. Yeah. Fast is fun. I get it. Go fast on a roller coaster. I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Cool. But what about the other person's life in the highway? You go when the highways are empty. 3, 4 a.m. And you can guarantee there's not going to be a single other person? Because nighttime, now that becomes more dangerous.

14:16There's very few people. What about spending a little money? Well, I mean, if you manage your situation correctly, you could. What about some time at a strip, right? The closest strip is five hours, I think. Is it Mexico, five hours? Something like that, yeah. They shut down the strip in San Antonio a while back. Okay, why not go the five hours to the more safety-oriented thing? I'm just thinking of, okay, obviously I want you to live, but it just becomes a selfish thing. It becomes the selfish thing where you're doing this and putting the risk in other people. Mexico doesn't have any speed limits?

14:54Some stretches of the highway there. Interesting. It's kind of unregulated. Interesting. Yeah. How are you doing this? Well, not anymore because the engine blew up. So it blew up. So what does it take to fix that? Too much is the answer. I take it to the machine shop sitting. Eight if I'm lucky. um i take it to a machine shop see if the scratches on the cylinder bores are fixable and if they are then probably eight grand all said and done if they're not i'm probably in 12 for a new engine so you keep blowing these things up what did you have to do i'm just this is just for me i i hope it's interesting to y 'all but i'm just like what did osama bin car over there do to blow up all these engines?

15:45A lot of nitrous and a lot of boost from turbos. So the Vette was a 300 shot of nitrous. It was doing a 200 okay, which 200 shot adds 200 horsepower, 300 allowed three. Didn't like the three as much. So what I'm hearing is just stupid. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know what's not stupid? Hitting the subscribe button. We're trying to get to a million subscribers and I can't believe I'm even saying that. You guys are awesome. You guys are amazing. You're amazing for being here. Not amazing for blowing up cars. Thank you. Because we talked about one thing already, and we've already gone down the rabbit hole of death and insanity.

16:20Starting to blow up a little less as time goes on. Yeah, I'd go for zero blowing up is what I would go for. Personally, in my car experience, I go for my car is not blowing up ever. Might just be me. Might just be me. What is the 17.75 % interest rate of death? How much is it for? 1 ,577. That's what's left on it. That was the first car I bought. It was a Volkswagen GTI. Does it exist anymore? Has it blown up? Yeah, it's not running and it's not worth fixing. Because actually last month I brought the balance down to$1 ,000. So it's like in the next paycheck I can pay it off. But to be very clear, you have these insanity, 18 % interest rates on things that are not operable.

17:09Yeah. you can't use them and you owe 18 % on them yep it's like because I have a car that works and works well now I'd rather just pay it off than spend the money to fix it

17:26what would it cost to fix and what would it be worth after fix I don't know what the market is on those right now that one has like 220 ,000 miles and I'd have to pull the engine out and have a look at it How long have you owed this? I bought that car in like 2019. So for four years, for almost five years now. No, 2020 was when I bought it. You have been paying at basically 18 % interest rate. Yeah. Minimum monthly payment of$94. Yeah. Okay. My soul just hurts. I just have a little pain. That's all. My wallet feels it. All right. What do we own an insane death? 12 % on$4 ,309. That one is a Subaru WRX.

18:14It's an other car. Yep.

18:19What's this worth? Let me see a picture. I don't have one on hand of that. You have all these cars to get off to and you don't even have a picture? I have one of the Corvette. I like the Corvette. Why do you have this if you don't like it? Because I did like it and the person that sold it to me said they rebuilt the engine and then within about three months of owning it, it blew a head gasket. At the time, I wasn't making a whole lot of money. Did you take it to anyone to inspect and check out and be like, yo, this engine's not going to blow? I had a look at it. Wait, this doesn't work either?

18:53No, because Subarus can blow head gaskets in very odd ways and they aren't necessarily detectable when they start blowing. so what they had done the previous owner had removed the thermostat on it so that the coolant would not blow out but when the car got under boost it would blow the coolant out the reservoir and so eventually it just blew all the way open and car stopped running at the time i didn't have the money to fix it or a garage because i was living in an apartment did you're like addicted to this hobby. Oh, yeah. I'd say it would have been more financially reasonable for me to develop a hard drug addiction than to get into cars.

19:37Well, not encouraging that. Well, I probably wouldn't be making what I make if I did that, so. 12.14%, minimum monthly payment, $141. That's the third car. Okay. This says Audi at the top of it. Yes. So we have a fourth car. Yes.

20:02So this one, hear me out, hear me out. This one makes sense. Because it's low miles. For what it is, the price wasn't bad. And I actually had two Corvettes, an 89 and an 08. But I'm preparing for a move across the country. So I sold the 89. What is happening? This story evolves, evolves. and driving the 08 I was spending about 600 a month on gas because I drive about 2 ,000 miles a month because a round trip to work is 60 miles and so I was like I need something more fuel efficient 600 a month is pretty good car payment and having something that isn't in need of repair because it's an older vehicle and a modified one um would be better and so I got this car and I'm getting like 70 miles per gallon on it.

20:55It's 37 ,000 miles. What's it worth? What's it worth? I think about what I, probably 22, 23. Bought it for 25, 5 out the door. Yeah, but it's at 13 % interest. Yeah. So it's, sure, it's slightly dipped and it's kind of maintaining, but you're, I mean, you're losing more than the S &P gains. Yeah. So it's just like, fuck me. And also, is this one operable? Yes. It sounds operable. Yes. So one out of the four we have Okay So you've done two things That were quite bold today One you've walked into the lion's den Of someone who hates debt and we have this Two you've walked into the lion's den of someone Who doesn't give a shit about cars And honestly kind of dislikes them So it's just like Alright

21:46$24 ,000 $1 ,000 of interest $1 ,500 of interest stolen from you this year So far minimum monthly payment of $505 what do you want what do you want what do you want you're on like yeah scheduled pay off date 2029 the end of this decade the end of this decade of course 13 % interesting you're making my heart pound like actually I can feel it oh my gosh should we check what my heart rate is like I can it's like killing like I'm slightly shaking and yeah, I'm at 108. How the f*** are you going, man? No kidding. A Jared card? Yeah. Who did you propose to?

22:38I bought my previous girlfriend quite a lot of jewelry. On debt? Yeah. Because it was like they do 12 months, no interest, and I was like, I'll pay it off. I didn't pay it off. Yeah, it's accruing interest, and that's why I like to finesse the system. I like to do zero-dollar things. It's great. You figure out what it takes to pay on a minimum monthly basis in order to pay it off before interest accrued, and you do that, and you did not do that. So you went into debt for an ex. An ex that is no longer here, right, in your life, and you still essentially owe money for her. Yeah. When did you break up?

23:17uh what's today today is Sunday no dude I'm sorry no no that sucks it's life it happens it's life I didn't know it was so fresh before I made no you're good I'm sorry I'm not worried about it you have that strong outer core that you're trying to present I respect it But like when I get broken up with, dude, I'm like a mess for minimum three months. It was a mutual thing. She needs time to grow and she's not ready to be in a relationship right now. So we were together for almost two years. Well, you owe$5 ,123 on this card. You've made$185 payment, but$131 of interest occurred. That's the killer.

24:11That's probably the worst card because that card is like 30 % APR and it's killing me. $5 ,132.24 is owed. And$180 minimum monthly payment. I have a death interest rate. Yep. Let's see.

24:35I can't find it. It's 30 % on that one. Okay. gosh so this is just like never going to be paid off in the way that we're going about it yep uh personal loan force um okay a personal loan for what uh that was when i moved um i didn't have the cash to pay the security deposit in first month's rent why haven't you paid it off well that's not just for first month's rent first month's rent unless unless it's like a okay, you opened it for$5 ,000. First month's rent wasn't$5 ,000. The reason I haven't paid that one off is because for whatever reason, it seems like they charged the interest all at once with the loan.

25:18So I'm not accruing interest. I'm not losing any interest by paying it off. It was definitely more of a predatory company. The original loan was for$3 ,000. Have you looked into the terms though? Because what some can do is they can show interest that is accruing, But if you pay it off, you pay it off, like that interest, like won't be hit in the end. But it may have been in this situation. I can't see because this isn't really a statement. I remember reading the terms and I think they said that the interest accrued and that it wasn't charged up front. But I'll have to go back and see because I thought it was odd when I looked at it that it had been.

25:55What's the interest? I don't remember on that one. I can pull it up and check, though. It's up there, though. Well, currently, it's like in the 20s. Death. Currently you owe$2 ,293.92 with$127 minimum monthly payment.

Read the full transcript

26:17Okay. So we continue. Navy Federal Card.

26:27You owed$4 ,967. You made$122 minimum monthly payment, which is the minimum monthly payment, which is now$123.

26:37123.39. You purchased$85 of things. Why? Why? And then new interest, 73. Now you're over the balance. You're over the credit limit. You're over the credit limit. You're over the credit limit. So if you're over the credit... I'm just saying the same thing over and over. That's when I know I'm just dying. The overall credit, none. You're$3.94 over.

27:04it looked like you were going to say something whenever I see that card go over the limit I pay it down but that doesn't make sense why don't we just pay it down why don't we go over the credit limit I think it goes over because of interest Like I buy it and then it accrues interest and then at the end of the statement, it's over the limit.

27:39Buddy, you're killing me. I'm like actually like shaking. I haven't felt this way in a long time. I'm so anxious for your situation. And it's Uber Eats and it's Uber Eats and it's Uber Eats. It's three Uber f***ing Eats. I'm disgusted. $700 in interest loss this year so far and some fees as well. It's Uber Eats. So what?

28:06Oh, you're lucky that the episode that, you know, we're uploading the day of is the day that we're announcing the budgeting course and you're going to need it, man. You're going to need it. And I'm giving it to you for free. And I assigned to you as a prescription. You are taking it, man. You're going through the hours. There is no, it, it is literally the best thing you can do to change your life, man. I'd love to. You, you need to, you need to. people in your situation you need this we designed it specifically for you yeah that's the reason i came because i know it's it's like with the things i want to do with the cars or even like buying the corvette if i wasn't in debt i could buy that car in four or five months of saving if that yeah man and and now it's just i'm paying it for forever almost it feels like it's at 18 yeah it's just I'm losing hundreds every month to interest.

29:01It sucks. You know what's unacceptable to someone making$105 ,000 a year? Overdrafts. You didn't overdraft this month, but you've overdraft this year so far.

29:14So I share rent, and the rent payment goes, and sometimes my roommate tells me he's going to get the money, and the money doesn't come. So it gets overdrafted. How often does that happen? And then... How often does that happen? Way too often. Okay, so you know what happens. So you have a buffer in your checking account like an adult. Sucks that he does that. Yep. And you, you know, maybe he's not a roommate for the future. Okay. But if you know what happens after a couple times, it's like, okay, we're going to have the buffer because we're not going to pay a$30 overdraft. That's what I started to do.

29:47Did it? Because you only have$1 ,000 in here. That's enough to cover his share of rent. And your share? not well there you go both but I get another paycheck before rent hits so I always have no other automatic payments come out after that um I have a car payment but I always make sure I have enough to cover his share rent and my share and what else I need to cover um and then he he pays me when he pays me and then what do you do through here you go to the vending machine and you go to the vending machine. You're obsessed with the vending machine. Cash happening out of money. Vending machine. Cash happening out of money.

30:29What's 365 pay? It's one of the... They have like a little food market at work. Food market. Food market. Bobatopia. Yeah, Bobatopia. And I'm a slut for Boba. Not when we have that, my dude. Not when we have four car debts, three of which the cars are not even operable. Natural Bridge Caverns, great. Red Rooster Food. Natural Bridge Caverns. Cash-epping out money. Zell-ing out money. Rooster Food. Vending Machine, Vending Machine. Lens Express. The Food Court. Ubering. Vending Machine, Vending Machine, Vending Machine. But if we just... Oh, you have such an opportunity to be in such a good position.

31:24It makes me so sad to see it being thrown away right now. A place to shoot. It's expensive. It's an expensive place to shoot. Ammo costs money. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you just throwing away money and ammo, though, when we have dead? It doesn't make sense. Logic is just not there, man. Vending machine. Grubhub. Wingstop Wingstop Rooster Food Whataburger Uber Eats Vending Machine Amazon Affirm Great Another thing in the mix Oh that's not Debt I use Affirm's High Yield Savings It gives you like Four points So you put a buck in there Some percent Or is that That was to open the account Okay Four point what Four point I can I think it's like Four point three five You still find dudes Four point six Okay Fending machine, diner, sushi, fending machine, fending machine, fending machine.

32:27You don't need to be spending that money. You're killing me. You're killing yourself. You're destroying your future. Any balance in this other checking account? Seven bucks. Yeah, that's not the one I use. I only use that one to send money to it to pay the Navy Federal loans. Everything else goes through my main checking. Everything else except for this Apple bill and the Chipotle and taking money out of the ATM. Who knows where that went? ATM fees. And, of course, tolls of which you do not need to take in Texas. I live in Texas. I know you don't need to take them. And Boba Tea and Amazon. The toll road's a story, actually.

33:03So I sold a car and left the license plates on. Oh, no. The car never got re-registered. Ever. And so I get a toll letter and legally I'm still responsible for it. And I tried submitting a title transfer notice and the car won't show up in the system for whatever reason. And they also went and ran a red light with it too. But, and they got caught in a red light camera. You don't have to pay those. they can't come after you for them they can't send them to collections they don't affect your insurance in San Antonio they're legal in Texas but the contracts they still have contracts with the companies up until I think like 2025, 2028 they can't legally pursue them though they just hope that people pay that's it oh not even that dude then Chick-fil-A and pancakes I thought that was it.

34:13And then Apple bill, Amazon, the vending machine, vending machine, Chipotle, pizza, Academy Sports, Uber, a place to shoot again,$287. You can't afford to live and you're doing$287, a place to shoot. Then another$130, a place to shoot. Vending machine, vending machine, Apple bill. It's a Mexican place, Apple bill, Amazon, dude. You lied to me. I put money there so I can Pay off my navy federal credit First of all your navy credit Thing is over the limit And number two in there is this You spending You lying don't me What's the point of here if you're gonna bull me Why dude I'm sorry just why I feel like I always gotta do something Gotta go be busy I'm like being home Why don't you go on walks Go on like runs or something then.

35:13That'd probably be a good idea. Do you have a dog? I do. I have two. Take them on walks. That's what I do. To a dog park. That's doing something. That's nice. I take them to the dog park next to the house. Cool. There's a. Do that twice as much. It's quite a nice one. In this half as much. Okay. Fidelity,$3 ,000. Not super exciting. It looks like it's within. That one's for an HSA. Oh, okay. Cool. That's lovely. Yep. And then the other one is the 401k. $4 ,000. It's okay. I'm glad you're getting started. Yeah. You're going to hate this. There is a 401k loan on that, though. The reason I took that loan out was because I anticipated to move across the country because I had a company that reached out to me and wanted me to go work in Virginia.

36:09and I need to get a trailer hitch and pay for U-Haul for my car. You make too much money. What's the interest rate on your 401k loan and how much did you take out? 9 % and two grand. 9%. 9%. 9%. So the S &P 500 has beat it by 1 % this year if that's what you're even investing in.

36:34The 401k loan At 22 Is disgusting It's disgusting I feel the vomit Writing your projectile Onto you Because of how disgusting this is 9 % Your future man You're destroying it You're destroying it Oh I'm scared Okay I don't want you to be a and we constructed these rules to not be a f*** up. You're breaking in, breaking rule number one immediately. Does that fit in the budget? Absolutely not. Rule number two, you need an emergency fund. Do you have it? I didn't see it. Do you have any money in savings? Keep$1 ,000 cash. Okay, you do not have an emergency fund. Great. Don't hold the credit card balance.

37:20You know you broke that, so you broke one, two, and three. Stop buying cars you can't afford. No s***. You're getting them 18%. You can't afford that. My goodness, you broke immediately the first four rules. Live someplace you can actually afford. What's your portion of rent? $7.50. That's incredible. That's incredible. You're doing great with work, too, so that's great. School, we don't need to worry about that because you're doing great with work. You're not self-employed. Fantastic. Subscriptions, I didn't see a bunch, but you should cancel them if you have them. Okay. Want to know how to not die in the Walmart floor?

37:52This is usually for, like, crypto and, like, day trading and all that crap, but you're doing a 401k loan. may as well be broke. So you're breaking five rules of do not be a f***. I don't want you to be a f***. You're heading down the path. If you want your rules for not being a f*** up, you can sign up in the description below. It's free. It's fun. I made it for fun. I don't like that you're breaking the rules. It's actually very upsetting. Debt payments are only 14 % of your spending. You're like, the minimum monthly payments are too big and I can't do things. It's 14 % of your spending. so transportation total though that is another 16 % and that does go into debt but your bullsh** eating out to eat 7.1 % where your necessary grocery shopping is only 4.2 % so great unknown shopping Amazon 5.4 % miscellaneous it's the vending machines it's the taquitos it's anything and everything else that you just don't need 8.3 % that could be going towards that so So, so far, that's 8, 7, 5.

38:57That could be going towards debt. That is not necessary. 8.9 % other large purchases. That's ATM withdrawal. Who knows where that went? And Central Market, which is actually groceries. I don't know why we put that there. Central Market. It's an expensive way to do groceries. It's basically the HEV version of Whole Foods. Just making some steaks for a date. Cool. Get some HEV steaks. They're not as good. They're not as good. It'll be okay. Central Martina has better cuts. I don't know if she'll know the difference. She does. Is that the one that broke up with you? It was mutual, but gave her some...

39:35But it's that one. Yeah. Gave her some HEB stakes and she noticed a difference. No offense to this. Or no offense to you. Looks like it didn't make a difference. That was mean. I'm sorry, but... No, you're not wrong. I mean... Call it how you see it. that's the only way I live life so we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of the most disgusting debts I've ever seen right yeah you're gonna take that I'm sending it to you I'm sending it to you and you're gonna take that course dude because you need to change your life now but I'm gonna help you put together a rudimentary budget as we do on this show but is there even a point I mean that's honestly my question I ask people that sometimes sometimes so i'm actually curious is there even a point of making you a budget just the way you've lived man it's just like we go get another car we got to go do this because i got to go do something this is like if i make you a budget man you've made a budget before you've never followed it that's one of the reasons why we made the thing so you can actually we teach people how to actually stick to it and follow it but a lot of it is with the eating in terms of the budget yeah um and going to the range that's not in the budget those are the two categories i overspend but the past year i've paid off a pretty significant amount of debt how much you weren't putting anything extra on this i didn't see it not we're going to the boom booms instead yeah i can i can show you i've made 500 payment on that 1500 loan on the gti um last month it was like right right and that's why we You put it down to$1 ,000.

41:13Right. So, okay, what have you paid off? Last month, I also paid off a$900 balance on a credit card. I don't know if it was last month or the month before that, but I paid off like another$800. I had like two cards with credit one that totaled like$1 ,300 together and then the spy card, that was$900. So, you've had even more debt. My gosh. I paid all of those off. You've put yourself into a situation. I can be happy about that. Yeah. We can be happy about that. not to just go negative, but I will say with the income you're doing and where like 30, 40 % of your money was going and the choices you're making.

41:50The world moves fast. Your work day, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use. Helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work learn more at microsoft.com slash m365 copilot with the income you have buddy you could have tripled what you did yeah tripled you're extending your situation you're borrowing against your 401k you're preventing yourself from living life yeah your portion of rent 750 and then car insurance i pay 300.

42:39The insurance bill is like 5. Or I pay 250. The insurance bill is 550. My roommate and I share insurance. For car insurance? Yeah. Why? He drives your cars? No, it saves us both money. You're on them together? Yeah. He has a car on it. The Corvette isn't insured right now because it's just sitting in my garage.

43:04Audi's insured. And then he has a car on the insurance. so we just pay for that. Rentals insurance? Yeah, 16-something a month. It was lemonade. It should be on one of the bank's statements. Your portion of utilities and internet? The utilities is included in rent. Wow. San Antonio, cheap? Well, it's three of us in a house, and it's a pretty big house, but it's not too bad. Internet? 55 a month. Gas? 140 usually between 140 200 is what I spend any ongoing medical things to pay for prescriptions anything we should put in the budget I've been trying to take steps in the right direction slowly been doing that no I have a home gym so I work out at home I saw a plan of fitness in that might be something you need to cancel I need to go cancel that I just wasn't going to call it out because I'm like Jim I'm happy to put in the budget but yeah no I just need to go cancel that one groceries 300 toilet paper anything else you need to survive essentially 100

44:26phone bill

44:32just 122 Anything else you have to take care of on a monthly basis? Do you mind if I pull up my financial? Obviously, I have to add up your debts, but yeah, go ahead. Let me double check real quick. See, card insurance, phone bill. Phone bill is 127.

44:57I have a subscription to... You said to cancel this. Okay. No. You can put your subscription in your total paper fund if you have anything left over. That's essentially what I allow. Then debt, no surprise, and it's all going to stupid cars,$1 ,584.

45:21Killing yourself, man. Yeah. I've been trying to take steps in the right direction. It's just slowly breaking bad habits that I've had since I was 18 that just snowballed. I'd sell what I can, obviously, when it comes to the car stuff. I'd do all that and try to do what you can. But just because they're broken and there's a lot of stuff, let's just put it in the situation and let's just go from there. But that would speed up the process. Yeah, absolutely. You do not need this stuff.

45:50$3 ,322 is what you need to survive.

45:57we had income coming in at 7 ,644. Yep. Cool. Sounds about right. And this is why, again, you follow my budget. Use the, this is what I want you to do though. I want you to, in the template that we have that we're going to give you in the budgeting course, I want you to use that actually use that on a monthly basis, man, hold yourself accountable and it's going to show you things. and you rate your priorities on the items that you're spending in your budget so you know what you can cut back on things that aren't giving you pleasure. Yeah. Not pleasure, but like, you know, actual like happiness.

46:32Yeah. It's like a happiness skill. It's a really good way to budget. I want you to do that. I want you to follow it. And if you put in these categories like the way I said, man, I mean, dude.

46:43Extra$4 ,322 a month. There's no, no, no reason why you should have this debt to begin with. and there's no reason why it shouldn't be paid off. Yeah. It's disgusting. First month, put half of it towards that$1 ,000 that you already put aside. Let's just call it the end of this month. Okay, cool. You have a one-month emergency fund, end of this month. Starting fresh, next month, Volkswagen, as you said, paid off. And then pay off a 401k loan and put$1 ,000 to the personal loan. Okay. Okay. Month number three. Step right up. Paying off the rest of the personal loan

47:34and putting$3 ,000 towards WRX. Month number four. Finish WRX. Put$3 ,000 towards Jared. next month put 2000 uh um are we on month number six i think it's five i do have a question i am saving for a move um how much is the move gonna be and why are you moving i have a job offer how much are you gonna make uh same as i'm making now just half the days where are you moving to Virginia. Okay. Yep. Cost of living is going to be a little bit higher. Yep. But I'm just going to run a room in somebody's house. How much is the move? I'm thinking about just taking a 6x12 U-Haul and the car. So really all I'll have to pay for is the new place because the company is going to reimburse up to$7 ,000.

48:36I can't happen under$7 ,000. I just need to have the money up front. You've got to have the money. Okay. Cool. So add two months for that. Add two months at the beginning. So we're heading into five. So we're heading into month number seven now. So, yep, do that first. And then I should have a pretty good tax return this year as well. Okay. I'm getting a$4 ,000 credit for buying the Audi because it qualifies for used clean energy vehicles. It's electric? It's a plug-in hybrid. Interesting. So I can get 16 miles of range. Well, obviously, you put that towards the Interlex salad. But we're headed into month number seven right now.

49:15Pay off the rest of Jared with$2 ,000. And then$2 ,000 put towards Navy Federal. Then the next month, pay off Navy Federal with$3 ,000. Put$1 ,000 towards the 2008 Corvette. That time that's going to be around, let's just call it. We're headed into month number nine. Say that's worth about$12 ,000. And you have about$5 ,000 left over on a monthly basis now. It's going to take 2.4 months to pay off that. so let's just round up, say we're headed into month number 11, the odd is there, the interest is probably like 20 ,000 hours left,

49:53probably about 1 ,000, 20 ,000, divide that by about 5 ,400, okay, and then that's about four months,

50:10so let's just say conservative conservative a year and a quarter you should be able to pay it off year and a quarter and then what i need you to do from there your rent's going to be more so this is considered the 3 ,322 which you need to survive anyway because your cost of living is going to go up even though debt payments are going to go down okay times that by six we need to get let's call $20 ,000 saved up for a six month emergency fund. $5 ,000 at that time$5 ,500 it'll take an extra three and a half months to do. So again let's just be conservative. Let's call it a year and a half. There is no reason why if you actually grow up about this and discipline yourself a year and a half man and your life has changed completely.

51:00And you're 23, 24. It's insane. 23, 24. And you get to count. 23, 24. And let's just use the average stock market return. Going to 65. 64. Let's make it easy. 64. So 40 years. Average stock market return from the history of the United States, 8%. You already have$4 ,000 in the stock market. It'll probably be like$6 ,000 by that time just with the contributions you're doing, whatever. Okay. According to the survey I ran, 33 % of you are not investing. So I don't know if you just want me to yell at you or if you're genuinely unsure of how to get started. Either way, you need to know about the brokerage app that I personally use for my single stock picks.

51:53And that's Moomoo, a brokerage platform that makes it super easy to go from a total beginner to a well-informed investor. Similar to basic brokerage apps, Moomoo has a super user-friendly platform that can be accessed either from your phone or on a desktop. However, unlike most platforms, Moomoo provides you with a much more in-depth look into international stocks, bonds, ETFs, and more. And speaking of ETFs, I love how easy they make it to research all of the different ETFs that are available on their platform, which, in my opinion, makes it much safer and more simple to invest my money. And whether you're a complete beginner or are just hoping to take the next step in your investing journey, Moomoo has free classes for you.

52:37They have things like how to read an earnings report and a lot of other lessons that are designed to help you learn the valuable lessons that most go to college for. And to help you get started, Moo Moo's offering my audience a welcome bonus of 15 free stocks when you make your first deposit with the link below. I did many months of testing of this app to see if it's something I actually wanted to recommend to you all. And I can honestly say that I love their analysis, their education, and I use them for my single stock pick. So check it out. It's pretty cool. So 20%, you're doing 20 % on a monthly basis.

53:11You might max out your 401k. I could. with the new job, they're going to let me work overtime. And so I should be able to somewhere between 130 to 160 ,000 a year. Let's just say you're putting in 1 ,900 on a monthly basis, which is the minimum you should do. You're retiring at$6.7 million. Yep. $6.7 million or after inflation. I mean, that'll be after inflation about like$3.3 million in today's money. That's incredible. $3.3 million following 3 % rule. My goal is to retire by 45. And that's part of why I wanted to come here. Okay. Well, that would be$100 ,000 a year for the rest of your life.

53:54But 45. Okay. Well, you're talking... Okay. So you're talking a little more fire situation. Yeah. With the job I'm doing and how young I am in it and how... But you actually have to sacrifice and pay off your debt first. Yeah. And get a fully funded emergency fund. Okay. So what... What... How much do you want to make a year to survive? What do you need to make a year survive in your mind? To retire? Yeah. A year. Pulling from your investments. About 150. 150. I can't believe we're even having this conversation because you're not even close to being in the conversation of fire, but I'm going to humor it.

54:33Okay, so you need$5 million. And this is regardless of what Dave Ramsey says, by the way. because according to Dave, you could have 1.5 million. No, you could have about 2 million bucks and withdraw 8 % a year because you'd be getting 12 % in your mutual funds, which apparently he doesn't consider the actual management fees on that. And then he considers a little bit of inflation. But either way, the statistics that I have using just a basic, very basic thing, If you retire for only 20 years, his plan is going to only succeed about 60 % of the time. It's going to fail 40 % of the simulations based on historic returns in the stock market.

55:17But if you retire for 30 years and you're going to be retired for more than 30 years, his 8 % withdrawal rate succeeds only 32 % of the time. 30 % of the time. Now, a four - Sounds like a car loan I'd take. What? Sounds like a car loan I'd take. Okay. Yeah. So a 4 % used to be the rule that succeeds like 95 % of the time. People just want to be, you know, obviously safer and just want to hit that 100%. 100 % in order to hit that 100 % success rate, simulating all historic returns in the United States, you've got to do 3%. So 3%, you need to get to, what did we say? 5 million bucks. So 5 million bucks by when?

56:0045? Yeah. Why am I even entertaining this? Because right now it's just so scary. Whatever. Okay. Let's say you're done by 24 because you actually follow what I say. So you have 21 years left. You need to get 4.5. Or 5. You need to get to 5. 7 ,000. Or, what was that? 7 ,750 is what you need to contribute on a monthly basis, which is more than you make currently. So I don't know how you're doing it unless you're working more jobs. I'm planning on picking up a second job. My buddy is doing solar sales, which is something I can do on my off days. But it's all taking hot leads through calls. Yeah.

56:44No, I would. He's been doing pretty well with it. How many hours a week are you going to work in your new job? It's not. You make your own schedule. How many hours a week are you going to work? Starting, I'm probably going to do 20 to 30. And depending on how well it does. What is the job? It's basically sit, take hot calls, hot leads from people who are inquiring. Is it commission-based? Yeah. No, no, no, no. No, in your job you're moving for. How many hours a week are you working? About 40 hours, but I work three or four days, 12-hour shifts. Cool. Why don't you find a similar job that is less paying even and just go do that for the other.

57:25If you're doing fire. I can just pick up shifts. Usually. Yeah. Then pick up shifts. Work as many hours. Okay. Because we're talking about fire. Normally I say, okay, get out of that half of a fully funded emergency fund and live 50, 30, 20. 50 % on needs, 30 % on wants, actually living 20 % on investing so you can retire. But you're trying to fire. If you're trying to fire, man, you're going to have to continue the sacrifice for 21 years. You're essentially not going to – people fire at like a million five, two million. You're trying to fire at five million in 21 years. So you're going to have to work your ass off and you're honestly not going to really live the next 21 years, which is, it's hard, man.

58:04That's really difficult. But if that's what you want to do, this is what you have to do. Yeah. With my current job, I will most likely be a manager before 30. And in the sector, I'm going to be working in management for these places. Okay, we'll don't bet on that. Can make usually$200 to$250 a year. I hope so. I root for it. you're betting on that, but I don't know. You're 22. Yeah. So you don't, you've been working since 17. You've been working since 17. What I love the golden, like vision, optimistic, bright eyed. Yay. Things never work out the way you're going to think they're going to work out.

58:51There's always going to be bumps in the road. Absolutely. So I wouldn't bank on that. I hope you get it. That's great. And I encourage you to shoot for that and make that your goal and work, do what's necessary to do that. Just know that the next 20, if you want to hit your actual goal, it's like your needs need to be very minimal. You're not going to really spend much, if any on fun and everything's going to go into investing. Cause again, you have to do 105 % of your current income to meet that goal for 21 years. That's hard. Either way, I'm glad that was, it was a fun part of the conversation and I'm glad, we can at least get there.

59:27Now, maybe the market will outperform. That could happen. Maybe. The average S &P 500 return over the past decade has been like 12%. But the average stock market return in the history of the United States has been like 8%. 80%. That's what I went off to be. A little more conservative. Either way, none of this is even a part of the conversation because you head down the path you're currently going down and you're I'm going to work until I die. Yeah, and you're working until you die, and what if anything happens, and you're just settled with the debt, then you're going through bankruptcy. At least you don't have student loans, which wouldn't get forgiven.

1:00:07But only having$1 ,000, I don't know. It's a scary situation. You keep blowing up your cars. You're just being immature and irresponsible. And if a 22-year-old, it's like, okay, kind of not excusable, but at least understandable. If you have the goals you said you have, and you want to go and get them, It's time to grow the f*** up. Mature. Be an adult. Be a big boy. And take control of your financial situation for the first time in your life, man. This is it. This is your moment to change. Started making a little progress. You should have been making much more progress. Those spending statements were ridiculous and they pissed me off.

1:00:44Barring against your 401k? Unacceptable. Buying a car, taking on an 18 % debt, blowing it up, and then doing it again three more times? No. fix it fix it any questions any final thoughts

1:01:04I want to get the bet running I want to put a new engine in it which adds another two or three months but what the f*** how is that even possibly on the priority list of what we just all right no i'm i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm done i'm done that's the first i go through this and we get through the how to fire and all this stuff and the first thing you give about is your corvette i'm done what i'm done let's let's finish it we're done we're done that's let's i had to cut that interview off that that pisses me off that pisses me off if we go if i go through all that time and energy and work and caring about someone and wanting them to succeed they immediately come No, but this is what I want at the end.

1:01:49A want, an unnecessary want. Nah, that legitimately upset me. Hammer financial score, spending and budget, obviously 0 out of 10. Debt, 401k loan, obviously 0 out of 10. Emergency fund, there's$1 ,000, that's a 1 out of 10. Retirement, I wanted to give it a higher score for his age, but the 401k loan brings it to a 1 out of 10. Real estate, 0 out of 10. It's going to be a hammer financial score, 0 out of 10. make sure to check out all the resources linked in the description below they are what i use or would use in specific situations thanks to all of our patreon producers for making this episode possible if you want to participate in an episode of financial audit and you're able to make it to austin texas please fill out an application in the survey linked in the description below you can also send a link to your friends or family who you think might be good to be on the show if you have any questions you can email casting at caleb hammer.com

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