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What's up, guys? George Camel here, and today's video is all about seven things that improved my financial life. In this episode, it's personal. We're getting deep. Almost as personal as my Zynga and LiveJournal from 2004. I deleted that, right? That can't still be up.
You should probably check on that. These seven things helped me get from where I was, which is broke with a bunch of debt, to where I am now, a net worth millionaire living with way more peace and margin. But before we jump in, hit those like and subscribe buttons and share this with seven friends who have improved your life in some way. All right, let's get to it. Kicking us off at number one on the list,
is my old 2009 Honda Civic. Now you might be wondering how a compact car could possibly improve my financial life. Well, let me explain. I bought a 2009 Honda Civic EXL from a coworker for $6,000 back in 2017. And this was the nicest car I had ever owned because it had automatic doors, automatic windows, leather seats, heated seats, sunroof,
Pure extravagance. And let me tell you, not having a car payment was the greatest wealth building hack I could give you. I didn't upgrade that car until my wife and I paid off our house back in 2021. And I'm telling you guys, driving an affordable, reliable used car improved my financial life big time. Highly recommend it. And I know it's not flashy. No one's impressed. But you know what? I was impressed by how much wealth it gave me. All right. The second thing that improved my financial life. Here's a left turn.
Lean Cuisine. Hashtag not sponsored. Who would get lean? Like who? What YouTuber is like, can we get Lean Cuisine as a sponsor? I don't want you anyway. Here's the deal. This, it means a lot to me. When I was getting out of debt, this was my debt freedom fuel. I would wait for these bad boys to go on sale at my local Kroger grocery store for five for $10. Because I knew if I could eat a $2 meal, I could trim some fat literally and financially off my budget. I
I have not since had a Lean Cuisine since I've been debt-free. I can't stomach the taste of them here. But here's the lesson. Short-term sacrifice equals long-term gain. And let me tell you, based on this ingredient list, I'm glad I stopped eating them back in the day because I don't know that I'd be alive today. Contains a bioengineered food ingredient. You think? You thought I thought these were authentic Swedish meatballs? Get out of here. Number three on the list is...
A skateboard. In fact, this is my skateboard that I've had going on, I don't know, 20 years now? ♪ Don't stop shaking ♪
And here's the deal. Skateboarding is one of my favorite things to do. Back in the day, as I was getting out of debt, I needed to find some free activities. And I know I don't look like much of a sportsman, but that's because back in my prime, I was into extreme sports, man. I will still crush you in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1, 2, 3, 4, Underground, Underground 2. I can keep going. Okay.
Let's do this. But really, one of the hardest parts of getting out of debt is limiting the entertainment, the lifestyle, the luxuries. So you got to find a hobby that you love to do that's free and good for your brain and or body. It makes all the difference. And you got to get out there. You'll forget that you're not spending money when you're just, you know, riding on four wheels or in my case, two wheels. OK, the fourth thing that improved my financial life was...
This denim jacket. Well, okay. Not this particular jacket, although this is my jacket, but all the clothes that I bought way below retail price. In fact, this particular J.Crew denim jacket I bought from the Poshmark app, which is an app where people can resell their clothing. And I refused to spend the retail price, pay the MSRP. No, no, no, my friend. This one was still new with the tags on it, but I didn't want to spend it.
But I paid way less because I'm a smart spender. And spending money on clothes is a tough one because while clothing is technically a need, it's easy to justify spending way more than you need and buying way too many clothes. Now, these days, I generally don't shop secondhand, but I'm still a fan of shopping smart. I'll wait for legit sales to drop. I'll use browser extensions and apps like Honey to help automatically search for and apply promo codes at checkout.
Heck, I'll even shop at TJ Maxx because they got some great shirts. $12.99. You can't beat it. Shop smart, dress cute. That's my motto. All right, before we continue, let me tell you about something else that improved my financial life recently, and that is switching to Tello, a sponsor of today's episode. They're a mobile service provider designed to save you money. They got crazy affordable plans with the same high-speed nationwide coverage you thought you could only get from the big guys. We're talking $25 a month for their unlimited everything plan.
They even have plans as affordable as five bucks if you don't want all the bells and whistles. And if single digit prices weren't enough, you can also upgrade, downgrade, change your plan whenever you feel like it. Because contracts and fees, not the Telo vibe. And because I love a good deal, you're gonna get an extra five bucks off the unlimited data plan for your first month if you go to this website, telo.com slash george, or click the link in the description below.
Another thing that can improve your financial life, a good high yield savings account like the one offered by Laurel Road, one of the other sponsors of today's video. You can earn a great interest rate and you're basically making money while you sleep or while you skateboard or drive your busted up old Civic. With Laurel Road, your account balance earns 5.15% APY right now. And there's a ton of other great perks.
There's no minimum balance required to open an account. Your deposits are FDIC insured and there's no bogus monthly maintenance fees. So let your money start making you even more money by going to laurelroad.com slash George or just click the link in the description. That's laurelroad.com slash George. All right, back to our list of things that improve my financial life. Number five, coffee. Not just any coffee. I'm talking about office coffee. What flavor coffee is that? Updog? What's that? I don't know. Nothing. What's up with you?
And I'm telling you, I saved some serious money by switching from Starbucks or whatever local coffee shop and just drinking the free coffee at work. And people are going to give me hate about this one and say, George, this is stupid. Saving a few bucks here and there is not going to make a difference. But I can tell you, this was one small piece of a bigger plan that 100% worked for me.
Because I had this habit of stopping by Starbucks every single morning on my way to work. I would place a mobile order for a tall blonde rose coffee and a grande cup so that it wouldn't spill. And it was like $2.87 after tax, which added up to about $70 or $80 a month, which is a lot when you look at the course of a year. And look, I was trying to throw every single extra dollar I could at my debt snowball to pay off my debt, get my emergency fund in place, get the down payment saved, and skipping Starbucks for a while helped me find some extra dollars.
And I dare you to add up how much these little treats are costing you. That $6.42 transaction three times a week, well, that's 20 bucks a week. That's 1,000 bucks a year. So think about this. What does it take to blow $5,000 a year? Just $13.70 per day of random spending. What does it take to save $5,000 a year? Just $13.70 per day of intentional saving. There you go. That's old. But you get what you pay for, huh? Okay, the sixth thing that improved my financial life is ride-sharing.
Look at that. Yeah, I actually drove for Uber and Lyft while I was trying to get out of debt to earn some extra money. Now, back in the day, Lyft and Uber were new to the Nashville area and they were trying to gain market share and compete. So they were offering a $1,000 sign-on bonus for drivers. So in 2014, I made around $1,000. Then in 2015, I made $1,529. And in 2016, I made a whopping $138 because that was the year I got out of my consumer debt and I quit driving for Lyft and Uber.
I guess I also got tired of having awkward conversations with strangers about how long I've been driving for Uber and Lyft and why I do this. I do it because I need to, not because I want to hang out with you. Who needs friends? Not me. And generally these days, driving for Uber and Lyft or using some of these rideshare apps, delivery apps, you can make 15 to 30 bucks an hour before expenses. Not bad. Look into it. Okay, the last thing on the list has probably improved my financial life more than anything else because it taught me the principles I needed to get my financial act together. And that is...
Financial Peace University. And you'll notice my face is on there now, which is cool. But back in 2013, when I took it, my face was nowhere to be found because I wasn't in it. I was on the other side. I was trying to get out of debt and work this plan. And I'm telling you, it changed everything. Nine lessons. That's all you need to do. Nine lessons will change everything.
And as part of the onboarding process here, when I started at Ramsey, I went through this course. Once a week for nine weeks straight, I would meet up with a bunch of strangers at a local church and I'd watch a video lesson about money, followed by some candid group conversation. And these strangers came from all walks of life, but we all had one thing in common. We wanted to be better with money and we realized our plan thus far wasn't cutting it.
And through the videos, I learned about this toxic money culture in America today and how it thrives on keeping people broke. And more importantly, I discovered the many ways that I bought in and made dumb money mistakes because of it. So this course helped me deprogram all the lies and myths that I'd come to believe about money for the first few decades of my life. Following the stuff in Financial Peace University, I went from broke and in debt to net worth millionaire in under a decade by following the plan.
And these days, FPU has helped millions of people take control of their money and build wealth. And if you want to be one of those people, you should definitely check it out. I'll drop a link below. And if you want to learn about my financial transformation from broke to not so broke, be sure to check out this video to see the exact steps I took to reach millionaire status in under 10 years. And as always, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share this video with all of your friends who are currently driving busted Honda Civics and eat linguisines, or as I call them, future millionaires. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.