Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "The Financial Diet" channel.

The main issue I have with him is that he glosses over how he got to get those deals that wound up bankrupting him in the first place and how he climbed out of debt. You don't get banks to write those sorts of loans without money and connections. Also, his advice doesn't really work if you're already that far behind. You need to have more than enough money to cover the bare necessities, and set aside some in order to have any hope of making use of it. Personally, it's working for me, but probably only because I didn't have a massive amount of debt and am fortunate enough to be renting my place from a relative at a steep discount. That being said, I'm going to be a millionaire eventually, just because I'm not going out and buying cars and I'm saving a ton to invest in a combination of stocks, bonds and a real estate trust. If you're not already being crushed with debt and non-reduceable expenses, it can be done with a relatively small amount of money out of each paycheck.
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@johnny2003 It's bad advice. You should go for the 30 year mortgage in most cases. If you want to pay it off in 15 years, that's great, but with the longer term, you have smaller payments, which means that if you lose your job, you're in a much better position to keep the house than you would with a 15 year loan. There's nothing to stop you from taking the difference in payments and setting it aside to pay off early, or making additional payments (Depending on the terms of the loan)
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Never, ever co-sign on a loan. If the bank or lending institution wouldn't issue the loan, why should you? If for some reason you do want to help out, or think they will pay, you're better off just lending them the money yourself. As a co-signer on the loan your credit score also takes a hit when the loan isn't paid on time and after a period they can go after you for whatever wasn't paid.
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@RedRoseWhite I put most of my tuition on credit cards because the interest rates were lower and they could be discharged in bankruptcy court if something happened that preventing me from working for a prolonged period of time. That's beyond messed up.
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@heythere2174 Yep, you have to be making more than the cost of the bare essentials in order to have any hope of making use of his advice. He's got some good ideas like not borrowing money to spend on cars until you're a millionaire, but most of the rest of it isn't workable unless you've got a substantial income.
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I'm disappointed that you avoided mentioning the fundamental truth. Student loans are for chumps. (Yes, I realize that the person asking the question already screwed up by taking the loans, but that's no excuse for reinforcing the belief that student loans are unavoidable) You're much, much better off working part time while in college and only taking as many classes as you can afford with grant money and your earnings. That way, not only are you not saddled with debt, but you also have built up some work history and potentially gotten your foot in the door in the industry you're looking for. Which makes it so much easier to transition from college life to work life.
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I'm not sure who it is that is telling people that they need a lot of debt to build their credit, because it's not true. Just putting your living expenses on plastic and paying your bills in full and on time is sufficient to have a score over 800. Pay off the loan as quickly as you can without jeopardizing your ability to pay your bills and have a bit of money to enjoy your life.
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The only reason it hasn't been declared is politics. But, it's already been multiple quarters of contractions. We just haven't had significant layoffs yet.
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When I first moved out, most of my stuff was 2nd hand. Over time, I replaced it with stuff that was mostly on markdown at a significant discount. Lately, I buy mostly new, but it's mostly quality stuff to replace that stuff that I had previously and the stuff I had previously goes to a 2nd hand shop for redistribution. I do think that people should realize that there's a fairly nice stuff that can be had 2nd hand and that if they just replace the stuff that they use so much they wear out, they can save a lot of money on things that weren't contributing anyways.
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The main purpose of the estate tax is to reduce the rate at which all the money concentrates in the hands of a few people. Technically, it's not really the death that's taxable, it's more like the transfer of wealth and assets. Death is just the trigger for it, sort of like how getting married or changing jobs allows for certain other changes to be made in things like health insurance elections.
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This is terrible advice. People who ask for free work aren't seriously about ever paying for your work and there's frequently so much free work available to begin with, that there's no reason to obtain it from sources other than the public domain or creative commons. Perhaps doing an occasional "free" bit of work for a tax write off makes sense at some points, but certainly not early on and at that point, you should know how much the work is worth. What's more, it's frequently illegal to work for free. An awful lot of those unpaid internships are in violation of minimum wage regulations as private for profit companies are legally barred from having unpaid workers.
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Ah yes, rugged individualism for the poor, socialism for the rich.
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It is for many men. Most of the clubs and activities that allowed us to interact with other men and figure out what's going on have been infiltrated by women that bully their way in and cause changes to be made to make them feel comfortable. Women have many opportunities to interact with other women without men being around. A large part of why feminism has been able to redefine masculinity is that most men don't have real opportunities to talk with each other in a setting where we're not going to get in trouble with the womenfolk if we have an opinion they don't like.
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You don't need the emergency fnd to be completely liquid, I don't know who told you that, but it's not true. That's only the case if you don't have credit cards that have enough left under the limit to put the expense on. The actual thing is that you need to be able to get at the money within a month. Which is typically enough time to get it in time to pay the credit card bill on which the charge occurs. The key though is that wherever the money is parked, you have to be able to get at the money when you need it.
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@Cindy Giesbrecht, that's more or less what I'd recommend. Unless somebody lives in an area with no options for used bikes a membership is just too expensive. But, if you live where there are no used bike shops, there probably aren't any rental places either. Buy your own used one and make sure to perform routine maintenance. That way, you should have a bike that's convenient and safe. But, really, don't ride bikes in the street, it's ridiculously dangerous. Get a moped or scooter if you really want to save the money while being at least somewhat safe.
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Women are a lot smarter about finances that they generally get credit for. It's how they know when to take advantage of one of those no fault divorces to force their ex to pay their way into the future without any benefit for him coming of it. Which is also why men have to be so careful about the women they date as there is no piece of paper you can sign that can't be overruled in family court by a judge that probably doesn't care about the well being of the soon to be ex husband when confronted by an enraged woman demanding that she be allowed to continue her current standard of living even without cause for divorce.
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TBH, I'd automate as much of it as possible. I get as much of my investments deducted from my paycheck and sent directly to my investment accounts as possible. I then use a robo advisor to make sure that the allocation is maintained. The more of the mandatory expenses that can be automatically siphoned off and put into a separate account as possible the easier managing your money is. Good luck.The Automatic Millionaire is one of the most sensible reads on the subject I've seen. It doesn't really oversell things and if you follow the advice, you'll at least spend less time messing around with money.
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@Deich Ironic, in many cases, it's just as realistic.
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For most people, it's possible over time. The issue is that not everybody can do it at once. At least not until robots take all those essential jobs. The key though is that you've got to have more income than expense. If that's not the case, because rent is unaffordable, you're not going to get there.
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It's amazing how out of touch you are with how ordinary Americans live. Yes, for some of these things most people could afford them, but there's a huge number of people who cannot afford things like travel, a healthy diet or a professional side business. The statistics have a huge number of people living paycheck to paycheck and having less than $400 of savings.
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My wife and I wound up with cheap rings for our wedding bands. Mine is gold colored stainless steel and she has something with similar metal and Swarovski Crystals rather than gemstones. It was her idea and I'm so glad she didn't want to spend that kind of money on rings.
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@Victoria-ot5om And even if the borrower does pay, it may mean something like the amount being paid is excessive. My parents cosigned on a car loan for my brother. He did make all his payments on time, but he also massively overpaid for the car. They should have gone back to the dealer and said no, we'll only pay what the bank will lend, or something less.
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Precisely, I'm basically out of debt and saving money every paycheck in investment accounts. But, I was in a fairly good position to begin with due to my relatives and avoiding taking on much debt in the first place. The only debt I have right now is my student loan and I'm holding on to that until they start making me pay interest on it. I've got the funds to pay in full right now, but there's little risk in waiting until the end of the summer to see if they cancel any of them. But, if I pay now, I know I won't get any of that money back.
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@johna9994 Some banks will allow you to automatically round the debit purchases up and transfer the difference to a separate account. It both makes saving and budgeting easier. I just round my expenses up when I'm budgeting and my income down to make the numbers easier.
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@04beni04 Yes and on that topic, please don't charge less than double minimum wage. Charging much less than that means that you're either not paying the taxes you're supposed to be paying, or you're making less than minimum wage. Depending on where you're located, taxes can eat up half, or possibly more, of the money the students hand over. Social security and medicare taxes alone will be double when working as an independent contractor. Also, charging too little can be bad for the students as they shouldn't be developing a dependency or coming to sessions unprepared.
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There's a special place in hell for people that push this kind of foolishness. You managed it, but basic math and economics says that everybody can't. If everybody was making that kind of money, then you'd need to be making 8 or 9 figures in order to enjoy that lifestyle. I feel sorry for the suckers that don't realize that. There is, at least in the US and Europe, enough wealth being produced for everybody to have a roof over their heads, food on their table and health care taken care of. There's probably enough for everybody to have a modest vacation and eventually retire. Beyond that, there is not enough for everybody to live the kind of lifestyle that people making 6 figures are typically living. Yes, we can grow the economy some and we can reduce the amount of effort needed to produce that wealth, but we're nowhere near the point where most, let alone all, people can manage what you've managed and it's cruel and self-serving to suggest otherwise.
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This is generally good advice, but, I don't think it should automatically be a 50/50 sharing of things, especially if the guy is making more and we're talking about a married couple. Men are going to need that extra money in case the woman gets bored and demands a divorce. In which case, he'll likely lost everything, not just the things she contributed, but probably the assets he brought into the marriage as well. It's hard enough to justify taking on the risk knowing that if you screwed up the screening process that no pre-nup will protect you against family court judges renegotiating after the fact or outright disregarding it. And part of that is standard of living.
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This week, the company I work for screwed up the paychecks, resulting in them being taken back before being redeposited later in the day. Because I've got my ducks in order, I was able to temporarily transfer money to cover the withdrawals that I knew would come out that day and avoid over drafting the account. Unlike many of my coworkers, I didn't need to stress as I've got nearly a month's worth of earnings in my emergency fund and I have already set aside the money to pay the current month's bills. As long as the company doesn't avoid paying me for a month, I'd be fine. I do kind of get how my coworkers would be in a mess. We don't make much money normally and housing expenses around here are a lot. I'm fortunate to be paying below market on my rent to a relative, but I've also been extremely frugle. I buy most of the things that I get on clearance, I'm not afraid to accept 2nd hand items and to buy from the local thrift shop. I've got pretty good taste and as time has gone by, I have a place that has gone from looking like a college student's to one that is actually pretty nice. The key is being willing to accept stuff that's basically just functional and safe, and set aside a few dollars as you can to buy nicer and then wait until there's a sale to replace anything that isn't a legitimate emergency.
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@happyglowup7736 I've become a fan of 3 checking account finances. One for personal spending on anything I want to buy. The only rules are that I can't overdraft the account, borrow from another account or have shame for that spending. Another for expenses that I know are coming, but may take time to process, so the money in my other checking accounts is what's available and not specifically spoken for. And the last is for my general household adulty spending that hasn't already been automated. It sounds more complicated than it is, but with an alert to tell me when the balance drops below what I expect to pay out through the month, I can mostly just leave it alone as all those expenses either have an automatic transfer to cover them from each paycheck or I personally transfer the money when I agree to pay for it. Once I got used to it, it really helped my panic over money kick in at an appropriate time. I get to see the money getting low before it really gets low as all my crucial bills are already accounted for.
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Yes, but then you're paying for extra space that could be used for other things. Life is full of tradeoffs.
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Our library has kill-a-watt meters that can be used to help find wasted electricity, saving large sums of money over the years.
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You shouldin't put money into an employer 401(k) until you've maxxed out the contribution limits on the Roth IRA. That is unless there's a match. In which case, you'd max out the contributions to get the match, then max out the contribution limit on the IRA and if you still have more to invest, you'd then put more into that 401(k).
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I think part of the reason for blaming women has to do with the way that women have benefitted from a rigged educational system that places female achievement ahead of male achievement. Afterall 2/3 of college students and graduates are women these days and there hasn't been a single year where more men graduated from college than women since 1981. And despite that, there's an excessive focus on how 60% of the student loan debt is owed by women, which is obviously absurd that the gender that's getting 2/3 of the degrees would have roughly the same amount of the debt. It is definitely overstated, but the resentment is also justified. The educational system is rigged in favor of women, whether it's intentional or not is going to depend on your political beliefs, but with virtually no men in primary or secondary education, it's pretty much inevitable for the schooling to favor girls at the expense of boys unless specific measures are taken to prevent that outcome..
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@patryuji This is true, for example Armoni t-shirts are about $40 for 2 which is roughly the same price as other manufacturers, but since they're intended to go under and Armoni suit jacket, they tend to be of high quality so as to not screw up the look of the much more expensive suit.
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@pangaeamenslijk9183 IKR, for that price you can just about get a high end t-shirt from Armani.
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To be fair, that was before people had any reason to believe that the Republicans were the ones that couldn't figure out how to balance a budget if their lives depended on it.
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Sexplanations has a video where she effectively just sits there and "listens" through the internet.
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Cavities are essentially the result of poor diet. Cut all of the sugar, make sure you're getting adequate vitamin d and calcium and you'll likely see marked improvement. The big issue with dentists is that they have a vested interest in filling cavities and the like. So, people get very little advice as to how to avoid cavities beyond brushing and flossing, but brushing and flossing are a best minor contributors to oral hygiene.
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@Iamthenextmultimillionaire4400 at a certain point, you're better off using different storage methods though. Having 3 months of savings in just a regular bank account is fine, but much beyond that, you should be able to find something like TIPS from the federal government that can still be accessed Before you run through the first couple months savings and protects against inflation.
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The right way to do it is to take payment after the work is done and offer to completely waive the fee if the work isn't at the promised level. If they're not willing to pay at least a few dollars for the work, then you haven't adequately sold your skills. Part of freelancing is marketing. Sometimes, it does make sense to give things away, but usually that's things like razors where you can make the money back on the blades.
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You definitely don't need a lot of fancy equipment to get a quality resistance training experience. Perhaps a mat if you've got hard floors, loose fitting clothes and a pull up bar. But, you may not really need one if there's something that's roughly the same, in your environment. Outside stairs may be good enough if you can reach them and there's something to grab.
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This is generally good advice, but as somebody who mostly has transferable skills, it can be extremely hard to get the information to be accepted by online applications. Sometimes the company won't even allow an applicant to list a degree unless it's specifically one of the ones that is on the list. Makes it extremely hard for the application to even be seen by HR let alone the person who is making the final decisions.
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Soda stream is made in Israel. Sure, you can buy it, but you're encouraging the wanton murder of Palestinians with the purchase. Most of them aren't even armed and many of them are just protesting
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@jcg03002 What we pay attorneys in public service, especially the ones working as public defenders, is a travesty. In most states you're legally required to attend law school before passing the bar before being allowed to practice, which is an extremely expensive proposition. Even in states where you just need to pass the bar, that is a ton of time and effort and probably cutting back on how much you can work to manage.
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Unpaid internships have skyrocketed because entry level jobs don't really exist any longer. Even when I graduated nearly 20 years ago, there no entry level jobs to be found in many fields. The "entry" level jobs would require a specific degree and 3-5 years of relevant industry experience. The millenials taking unpaid internships are doing it because it's often times the only way to get the experience as companies are too cheap to pay for training.
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I've objected to the idea that anybody can become rich for the simple reason that if everybody did it, you'd have hyperinflation. Before they ended their currency, Zimbabwe had everybody with billions of dollars. Those billionaires need those billionaires just for the bare necessities. But, as more of the work gets automated, we could have more or more wealthy people over time as the work the poor had been doing is done by computers and robots.
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It's because a bunch of rich Americans set up think tanks to invent reasons why the government helping people is bad, so that they don't have to fund those programs.
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@TheDecoCottage You can somewhat mitigate that by having a fully funded emergency fund, pay current expenses with previous month's earnings and have appropriate long-term care insurance. But, at some point that won't be enough and before that happens, the government should be providing a safety net to prevent running out of those things.
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@BoringTroublemaker That's a lot less common than you're making it out to be. The only way that would be the case would be for somebody to be spending more than they make on essentials. That definitely does happen, but it's not common and no matter what you do in that situation you're screwed. To not have an emergency fund means that you're either just starting out, or things are already out of hand. Sure, for some people $5 a paycheck is legitimately a lot of money, but even at $1 a month towards the emergency fund, you should be able to break free of payday loans and the like. Sure, it would take years to build up a proper emergency fund, but any emergency fund is better than none.
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