Finance Expert Reacts to Money Memes (These Hit Hard)
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This is fine. Everything's fine. And this meme pretty much sums up how most Americans feel when it comes to money. Research shows that over half of Americans are barely treading water financially, and they stress about money on a daily basis. But beauty is born from pain, my friends. Because you know how the modern millennial copes with stress? Memes. Or memeys, as my meemaw calls them. I don't have a meemaw? That's so Southern. Ah!

That's right. Today we're looking at some of the most viral memes, peeling back the flaky layers of bitterness and sarcasm, and getting real about the hard truth hiding underneath. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll laugh until you cry. You'll cry because you stopped laughing.

But first, before we get this meme train rolling, you know the drill. Like and subscribe. And if you're wondering, do I like, do I subscribe? It's a hard decision. Good news. You can do both. And while you're at it, share. There's an extra button just for you to do that. Share it with someone that you also share memes with. And I know who you are. You send 14,000 memes on Instagram and I got to go catch up. And I'm like, this is a lot. This is a full-time job just to keep up with the memes that you're sending me.

Too many, too many, too many! First meme on deck. My addiction to buying things that I don't need started at the Scholastic Book Fair. Now that is #relatable. All right, this was one of my favorite things growing up was going to the Scholastic Book Fair. I'd get like, I don't know, 10, 20 bucks from mom and dad, and I would get the latest Mary-Kate and Ashley book. Remember these, "The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley"? When they dropped "The Case of the US Space Camp Mission,"

When I tell you how badly I wanted to go to space and be an astronaut and get shot up there with my girls, Mary-Kate and Ashley. And so we solved the mystery of the space shuttle. Why is that the only book I remember buying from the Scholastic? Why? Why is that a core memory for me? Reading is a good thing. If you're going to spend money on something, I feel like books are not the worst thing out there. While, yes, our addiction to spending started with the Scholastic Book Fair, it also helped us become...

leaders and readers. And to that, I say thank you Scholastic Book Fair. My wife's superpower is acting surprised when the 12 to 14 packages delivered daily to our house are all for her. This one

is legit. I always get excited because I'm like, oh my gosh, who's this package for? It has my name on it. It's just because my name's on the Amazon account. That's it. They're all for my wife, Whitney. And they're all things she needs, okay? I'm gonna treat myself. But for real though, this kind of stuff can cause some tension

We'll be right back.

Let's get to the next one. That's real. That's real. And Will Smith and Fresh Prince walking around this very empty house looking very sad is it's an all too American story. And it reminds me of this word house poor.

where people are so broke, they have the house, but it's not the blessing they thought it would be because they're sitting around looking at this empty space of a box that they put all their money into and they can't even afford a bed, furniture, the living room set, whatever. So you've got to budget for it on top of the down payment, on top of the closing costs, add some extra cushion there. You want probably a few thousand bucks, but we got to have some livable furniture so that this house feels like a home.

Next meme. Property taxes, home repairs, gas prices, food prices, and my wallet, which has fallen flat on its face on the floor, thanks to all of these things. And here's what the caption says. But gas prices have gone down. What?

with all the uppercase and lowercase. That's a fun, I like using that one as that's the sarcasm font if you didn't know. So this is a big one because people want to get into homes. Inflation's at an all-time high and there's a hidden cost of home ownership. Everyone's going, I'm just going to get into a house. I'm sick of throwing away money on rent, but they don't realize how expensive it is to be a homeowner because here's the thing with rent. It's the most you're going to pay.

With a mortgage, it's the least you're gonna pay 'cause you have to factor in all of those other expenses like home repairs and maintenance and increasing property taxes and more expensive homeowners insurance. So please factor all of that in before you jump into a house. Next meme queen. Okay.

That's good. My income, how much I spend, the little drum djembe guy, he's really, he's going for it on how much I spend, while the income is a little more sparse, to say the least. What this is really speaking to is spending more than you make and not being able to live on less than you make. And there's a lot of reasons for this. And right now, we're still seeing about seven or eight out of 10 Americans living paycheck to paycheck every single month.

Disappointed! We've got to learn to live on less than we make. And it's worth doing because this life, while funny and a meme, is a very stressful life to live. So do what it takes to get out of that paycheck to paycheck cycle. Hairstyle that girls love. Hairstyle that girls hate. And the caption, which I think is very important, says, give me that supercut special.

Please don't date a guy just because he seems like he has it together. It's great to date someone who actually has it together. Like they're out of debt, they're on a budget, they actually own the stuff that they have, like a car paid in full. But sometimes, just sometimes, and maybe more than sometimes, these guys are super broke. They're up to their eyeballs in debt and they want to look wealthy,

without actually being wealthy. And sometimes the guy driving the beater car who lives in a very reasonable, modest house actually is doing better financially than the guy who's faking it. My wife didn't choose me for my money. I'm just gonna put that out there. She chose me for...

I honestly don't know why, but I'm glad she did. And now we're building wealth the right way. We actually own our stuff instead of it owning us. Me after paying $45 to get a sandwich delivered two miles to my house. And it's a photo of wrestler Ric Flair looking at his phone. And he seems like he's dying. I don't know what's happening in this photo. He's very sweaty, very shirtless. The hair is not doing well.

I have a lot of empathy for a lot of things, but you paying $45 to have a meal delivered to your house when you could just, I don't know, drive there or make food at home is ridiculous. Now, a pizza once in a while, you're throwing a party, whatever. But otherwise, the delivery fees that is being charged through Uber Eats and DoorDash is insane. Your burger is now $25 with no sides, LMAO.

The toothpick is laughing at you because you paid $25 for a burger with no sides. I have a burger place that I love that uses these toothpicks and it is insanely priced. When you're going out, if it's got the toothpick, you may want to jet out of there and get a smaller burger that's more like this size that doesn't require a toothpick to hold it together. The whole thing falls apart with one bite anyways. It's not a sustainable burger.

I don't wanna have to eat it like a salad after three minutes. 1993, you'll be living in a van down by the river. 2023, if you save up 45K, maybe one day you could live in a van down by the river. That's 30 years ago. We were like, well, you're gonna have to live in a van down by, Chris Farley, you're gonna live in a van down by the river.

Now you're lucky to just do that. You know how expensive vans are? A waterfront property? Are you kidding me? In this economy? But listen, I get it. A lot of people are feeling hopeless out there. They're feeling like they'll never be able to afford anything and you can't stay there. It's fun to wallow for a little bit, have a laugh, look at some memes, but then we gotta do something about it. What is in your control?

Would you have to move in order to afford a home? Do you have to get a better paying job? Do you need to get out of debt? Do you need to get on a budget and really save hard for that down payment so that you can afford a house or a van one day?

One day, you can do this. I was meant to be rich. I can tell by the way I spend money. People, they act like they have more money than they actually do. And what happens is lifestyle creep creeps in, which means the more money you make, the more money you spend, and you don't even realize that you don't have that raise you just got. It just disappeared in your lifestyle. And here's one of the top comments on this post. When it's checkout time, there's that little voice that says,

Yolo beach, Yolo. Can I say that? Beach? No, you can't say that. That's the mentality. It's a very Yolo mentality. The problem is that yes, you only live once, but you also could live like 90 years and be broke for most of those years. So...

Maybe don't YOLO everything. Maybe just think about the future too. All right, fun and games aside, if money problems are taking up more and more space in your mind these days, living in there rent-free, it doesn't have to be that way. And truth be told, a major factor that contributes to whether someone is stressed about money is whether or not they have consumer debt. Look at these numbers.

64% of those with debt worry daily about money compared to just 45% of those without debt. 39% of those with debt said they're struggling or in crisis when it comes to their finances compared to only 25% of those without debt. 64% of those with debt said they're living paycheck to paycheck compared to 39% of those without debt.

People without debt are leading less stressful lives and more peaceful lives when it comes to money. So if you identify on a weirdly deep level with some of these memes, it's time to take control of your finances. And for me, this course called Financial Peace University was the single most important thing I did to turn my financial situation around.

In the course, it teaches you some common sense personal finance stuff. Plus, it's helped millions of people change their lives, including me. It helped me go from debt-free to a millionaire. So I'm going to link that course below if you want to check it out. So if you like this video, be sure to share it with your friend who you only communicate with via memes in your Instagram DMs. And if you have a beloved money meme of your own, let us know in the comments. All right, that's it for today. Thank you guys for watching. I'll see you next time.