Several years ago, my husband and I were in a lot of debt and it drove me nuts. I started listening to the Dave Ramsey Show and even binge-listened to him during a 5-hour trip to Ohio.
What I learned from listening to Dave changed everything.
“When you make a budget, it’s like giving yourself a raise!”, I proudly proclaimed to my husband after hearing it from Dave.
That’s when I understood that we didn’t have an income problem. We had an organizational problem.
This article delves into key lessons learned from over 100 hours of personal finance content on YouTube. It highlights the importance of self-awareness, facing financial problems head-on, the burden of student loan debt, the ease of getting trapped in debt cycles, the high cost of living (especially daycare), and the difficulty people face when trying to change their financial habits. These insights offer practical advice for anyone seeking to improve their financial well-being.
Most People Aren’t Self-Aware
I talked about this problem in this article about losing weight (and how hard it is). People aren’t self-aware and have no idea what they’re shoving into their mouths.
(Raises hand.)
It’s the same with spending money. Many of the guests that go on these shows have zero idea of what their actual spending is.
They swipe their credit cards without a second thought and barely look at the statements.
That’s a recipe for financial disaster.
Some People Know They’re in Deep and Don’t Want to Deal with It
I learned from these personal finance advice podcasts that you have to look at your problems square in the eye.
It’s hard.
It’s hard to look at the decisions you’ve made and where they’ve led you. But if you don’t look, you can’t take control of the situation.
You can try to hide in the shadows, but eventually, everything will come to light. So you might as well bring it up to the surface and deal with it instead of delaying the inevitable.
Student Loan Debt Is Horrible
Guest after guest after guest comes on these shows and talks about their huge student loan debt.
Several guests got the loans and then quit college before graduating, and others graduated but ended up in a lower-paying field than what they majored in.
As my daughter gets ready to graduate high school and head to college, this is something that keeps me up a night.
Because my husband and I weren’t financially set until later in life, we didn’t save enough for her college.
(My son didn’t end up going to college, and I appreciate that he foresaw what a bad idea that would have been for him. He’s doing this instead.)
With the school costs as high as they are, I’m worried she’ll be stuck in financial hell as many of these guests are. The good news is we should be able to help pay off her student loans quickly if she needs some help.
(Although, I understand there’s a fine line between helping and enabling…)
On his show, Caleb, who also dropped out of school after racking up student loan debt, recommends waiting a year before going to college if you don’t know what you want to study.
That’s easier said than done when there’s so much pressure to go to college right away.
It’s Easy to Get Stuck in a Debt Loop
Let’s say you can’t make the payment on a credit card, so you pay what you can on it but use it again because you need to buy groceries.
Then you open another card to help buy the things you “need”. (It’s more wants than needs from what I’ve seen.)
Now you’re behind payments on two cards.
Then you open another.
Now you have too many credit card bills so you consolidate. But because you still need to use the cards to live (or at least that’s what it feels like), you keep racking up debt on the original cards.
Now you need to get a loan to help pay for the cards because you’re really broke.
It’s an endless cycle that doesn’t stop unless you stop putting money on the cards. Which is hard to do if you don’t feel you have enough money to survive.
This is why Dave Ramsey is 100% against credit cards of all types. I think they’re fine as long as you can pay them off right away. But many people can’t. (Been there, done that!)
Everything Is Expensive (Especially Daycare)
I didn’t need to watch these shows to know how expensive everything is. But the biggest expense is daycare.
When my kids were little, our daycare cost was more than our mortgage. It’s brutal.
It’s not that daycare workers get paid a lot. They barely make over minimum wage.
It’s because daycares have to pay out the wazoo for insurance.
That’s how I ended up staying home with my kids after I was laid off from my job.
(However, that caused more financial problems, and was probably a mistake not to look for something else right away. Now I feel stuck and too old to get a “real” job, but that’s another story for another day.)
I long for the times when women could easily stay home if they wanted to. Now women have to go back to work to help pay the bills, and many times, a majority of their pay goes right to daycare.
Another vicious cycle. (But thankfully a temporary one.)
No One Wants to Change
This is the biggest thing I’ve learned from these personal finance advice shows.
Everyone wants to want to change, but no one really wants to change.
The guests that come on the show have stacks and stacks of papers showing their debt. They’re drowning in it.
Today I listened to a 62-year-old man on Caleb’s show with no retirement who already went through bankruptcy once. You would think bankruptcy would be enough of a catalyst for change.
But he was on the show for a reason.
Between him and his wife, they had 50 (yes, 5–0) credit cards.
What was he going to do in a few more years when it was time to retire? That show was scary and I hope people struggling with debt watch it because he was headed to bankruptcy again with no retirement.
As much as we all want to change our bad habits, it’s hard.
It’s very hard.
The good news is people do it all the time. Caleb has follow-up shows with his former guests and many of them make a lot of progress. So it is possible.
You just have to want it enough.
Final Thoughts
I know things are tough out there for a lot of people. However, many make it tougher on themselves by spending too much money on unnecessary things. (Eating out is a big one on the shows.)
The more credit cards you open, and the more you don’t pay them off, the more the stress of the debt will weigh you down.
I have been there, and it sucks.
This article offers several key insights into personal finance based on extensive viewing of YouTube content. The most important takeaways include the necessity of self-awareness in spending habits, the importance of confronting financial issues directly, and the potential dangers of student loan debt and credit card misuse. Additionally, the high cost of living, especially daycare, presents significant challenges, and overcoming ingrained spending habits is difficult but achievable.
I hope with every fiber of my being that anyone in that situation finds a way out of it. Watch these shows I mentioned and listen to the recommendations.
Organize your bills. Make a budget. Track your spending. Be aware of what you’re doing so you can control your finances. Your future self will thank you.
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