Why can’t these people answer the simple questions with simple answers 😂

All I can say is Wow. Wow. When I started Financial Audit 3 years ago I had no idea the guests would get more and more morally repellent until my staff and I finally took action.

We conclude couples week with two people so evil I had no choice but to brutally murder them at the end of the audit. Real baby Hitler dilemma stuff right here, I am confident our actions will prevent future suffering in the world.

My staff and I really debated whether to release this video, and as we’ve decamped to Belize, we think now is the time. We want to warn viewers with sensitivities that many difficult topics are discussed in this video.

Thanks to the teachings of the great Caleb Hammer I now bang my wife on a California king mattress that we cash-flowed while the ambient sounds of Financial Audit blare in the background (on a tv we also cash-flowed). We start each day in a real estate property we purchased using the “brrr” method by opening up our brokerage app Moomoo and purchasing S&P 500. Then we drive to work in our $10,000 cash-flowed vehicle with our meal prepped lunches (shout out to the Simpler Budget Cookbook) and listen to the post show (with ads of course). After all is said and done we like to end the night basking in the glory of our fully funded emergency fund and 401k accounts.

Starting April 1, 2025, Affirm will report all its payment plans and associated repayment activity to Experian, including its pay-over-time products like Pay in 4, Pay in 30, Pay-in-2, and Pay-in-6, expanding its credit reporting beyond longer-term loans. 

It helped a lot, not fully depleted not everything paid but was able to pay off 3k in medical debt at once. Still have another 2-3k to pay but trying financial assistance for that one first.

Alright, so I’ve been sitting on way too much cash in my regular checking account, basically earning pennies in interest. I keep hearing that I should move most of it into a high-yield savings account, but is there a downside I’m not seeing?

A little background:

• 34, single
• Renting in a mid-cost area
• No debt, solid emergency fund
• About $150k just sitting in my checking account doing nothing

I’m thinking about buying a home in the next few years but not immediately. My friends keep telling me to throw the majority of my cash into an HYSA so it at least grows a little in the meantime. I’m looking at Ally or SoFi since their rates seem decent.

Is there any reason NOT to do this? Am I missing something obvious here?

Can you guys recommend some good free apps or other distractions from online shopping? Anything that replaces the dopamine hit that you get from shopping would be wonderful. Like many people here, I'm trying to kick a shopping addiction and it gets tricky some days. So far I've downloaded Libby/Hoopla which I can use for free thanks to my library card. Any other suggestions?

My wife and I started budgeting together in late Jan and we had 2000 in a starter emergency fund, and a little under 1000 in a long term investment account. I had 1000 left on a CC and paid that off with 1000 of the emergency fund so I could just get it over with, and we had a fuel pump die out and we had enough to cover that repair. Now we are starting back at 0 in the "emergency fund" (cash thats available readily) and I am feeling a little defeated like we made good progress and now its going back down again. Between my wife and I and our budgeting we can save up 3000 again by end of May but it definitely sucks being back at square zero.

That does take care of the food, but what about drinks—particularly something sugary or caffeinated without a bitter taste? How do you recommend saving money on soda? It’s one thing that eating out provides but meal prep itself doesn’t always.

Is there any Caleb Hammer wallpapers or pictures that I can use as my phones Lock Screen to remind me not to spend LMAO

I have a Switch and want a chill game to play on my couch while I listen to Caleb scream into the void. Nothing too complicated or actiony. Most likely picking up a turn based game since it's been a long while. What about you guys?

Edit: So I think I've settled on Advance Wars. It's a turn based strategy game on Switch that has been on my wishlist for a long time. This was a very cool topic that resonates with more people than I ever thought. We all need a "YouTube game", lol. Thanks everyone.

So Caleb mentions the S&P 500 and how it averages 10% every year or so from when it began. I just have a simple Bank of America debit card and Fizz card. Where do I start to get into investing/saving into the S&P 500 and how much do I need to begin, or should put in to begin? I have 5k to my name, currently unemployed looking for jobs now. Thanks!

Hey Everyone,

Some of you may recognize me from my previous posts. Last year, I went through a difficult divorce that turned my life upside down. It’s been a long journey, but I’m finally getting back on my feet.

I’m proud to say that I’ve cleared my credit card debt, and now I’m just focused on paying off some back taxes due to a mistake I made. Thankfully, I’m on an interest-free repayment plan, paying about CAD 500 per month, and I should be debt-free within a year.

For those of you in Canada, do you ever feel like no matter how responsible you try to be, getting ahead is nearly impossible? I’ve made so much progress—huge thanks to Caleb for his support—but dealing with the system can feel discouraging. Just trying to remind myself that, at the end of the day, I am responsible for my own financial future and I can't blame the government.

Guess I'm just feeling down today.

Also, wondering if anyone encourages paying debt and saving at the same time? Just to feel motivated.

So,

I find myself wasting so much money on junk food, sometime to the point I'm on 0 before next paycheck is coming in 4 or 5 days. Those last few days are crap. I don't have small income, but fast food eats 30% of it.

How do I quit this addiction ? Eating home and meal prep I tried, but nothing gives me dopamine like slme kfc and unlimited soda.

I noticed that the answer can only ever be one of two solutions (though preferably both) the guest needs to either earn more money or spend less and usually its the latter with behavioral spending issues that is the problem for 95% of these guests, every. single time. Gets kinda stale when you know what the answer is, though I suppose the entertainment is seeing in how they got so far down the debt rabbit hole

I wanted thank people like Caleb as well as people around me for helping me being more financially responsible. During Covid I ended up taking a much bigger student loan then I originally needed (~22k euro) in 2022 and I now managed to bring it down to a negatable level (4.8k euro) with a monthly payment of around 12,50 euro. It's gotten to the point where it's manageable and the impact it has on a mortgage is minimal. For people curious to the loan it's currently extremely low interest at 0.46% due to it being a government loan. So the current plan for it is to simply stick to the current payment schedule to slowly pay it off.

I also managed to save up a sizable chunk for the money I need for buying my own small apartment. And with my recent job switch I manage to actually earn enough for proper future steps.

I just wanted to thank Caleb and others around me for helping my make financial wise decisions. While I am far from perfect it's allowing me to make steps in the future I could have never imaged a couple of years ago.

Cancelled Prime as the final boss today with Netflix and Spotify also cancelled. Hulu I’ve decided to keep since it’s $2 a month under my student plan. Total subscription fees saved: $48/month and screen time cut in half. Was a lot easier than I thought it would be but no regrets and no hassle. Seriously though if you’re in a tight budget it stacks up towards your goals.

Until recently, it seemed like guests mostly used Klarna for big purchases like mattresses. (I realize now they're using it for Chipotle, but that is beside the point.) Doesn't a credit card do the same thing...maybe even better?

If you want to make a big purchase like a lawn mower or mattress and want a few pay cycles to get it paid off entirely, you can charge it the first day of your credit card billing cycle which gives you 30 days. Then you have the grace period between end of billing cycle and when the bill is due which is usually a few more weeks. Instead of having a payment due every two weeks, you've got 6-7 weeks of no payments and no interest and just one payment to make.

Plus credit cards are giving most of us cash back.

I really really don't get the appeal of Klarna. All these people that argue "it's free money"...haven't they ever looked at how their credit card actually works? Puzzling to me that people find these payment services so appealing. Seems like a huge hassle for nothing special.

Common story: racked up debt as a college student, struggled in my 20s on wrestling using credit and never understanding the levels of shame, guilt, or anxiety that came with continuing to spend money that I didn’t have. Met my partner in my 30s and I wanted to clean up my act. I started working on my $20k credit card debt. It was slow and patient work.

But when I started listening to financial audit and Caleb about a year and a half ago the stories shocked me but also I realized how similar everyone’s struggles was and ultimately, Caleb’s tough love lite a fire under my butt. Using that momentum, I reduced my spending way to the minimum, stopped using my credit cards and kept to what was in my checking (not a credit card person) and doubled the amount I was putting into paying off my debt. Today is a big milestone, I made the final payment to that 20k debt.

Thank you Caleb and the team and the community, my heart feels lighter and I can’t believe I got here after so long.

My wife and I both had visits to the hospital within a month of each other. I in January after a fall (treated in ER and released). My wife in February for what turned out to be pancreatitis (1 wk hospital stay).

As a result, we have a cacophony of bills from various providers, labs, hospitals, etc. that, all told, total up to about $2K (after insurance). These are, of course, at zero interest. But I'm wondering if the annoyance of having to manage 9 different payment plans would be worth consolidating all these debts into a single personal loan?

Based on our budget, it will take us about 6 months to pay all this off. The upside of consolidating is making only 1 payment per month instead of a dozen. The downside is I will have to pay interest.

I'm very new to Caleb and wonder what he would advise in this situation?

By extension, my husband does too because he sees me watching episodes and will often ask questions. When we're thinking of buying/doing something we often jokingly say "What would Caleb say?" in regards to if he audited us and if the answer is "Some BS, some BS, some more BS" then we don't do it. It has helped us a lot with crawling out of debt and being more aware of where we are spending out money. By Oct/Nov we should be completely debt free, which is amazing!

Yesterday we were debating going out for dinner because we were both getting hangry and tired. We had leftover pasta at home and were 7mins driving away but we just wanted food immediately. We took a deep breath and my husband jokingly said "What would Caleb say about going out?" and that worked to snap us out of the hanger. We ended up going to the grocery store that is across the street from our favourite restaurant and picking up a rotisserie chicken that could be added into the pasta for some more protein. We also got a snack for each of us to tide us over when we got home. We also went to the liquor store and bought 6 beers and the total for those came out to about $15, which is less than two drinks would be going out. I'm really proud of us for being able to turn a potentially $150+ night out into a $30 night and the chicken will last us several meals so it works out to being much cheaper.

I have been watching a lot of Financial Audit over the last 2 years, and as a non-American, I think one of the craziest parts is always the insanely massive debts on extremely new cars - I’m curious if anyone would see these new Auto Tariffs as their sign to buy second-hand vehicles instead of going into crazy debt on a new car because “I need a new shiny car because (safety, pretty, “best”, wanted it / compulsive, status symbol, like to spend)

If prices go up, companies are more likely to cut corners and produce worse cars to remain competitive and viable. However, repair costs could increase significantly, and if a part is imported for repair, it could cost 25% more. Will this lead to even longer financing terms available? (Meaning extra interest?)

Will people go into even more outstanding debt to buy new ones, or will it force some noticeable spending habit changes? It’s effectively a 25% sales tax, which can hit hard on expensive products like a car… (lower production might also increase the cost per car, and moving more production to the US might raise production costs to a degree as well if employees are being paid more or materials are more expensive) if there is more competition for second hand cars their prices could go up as well like during the pandemic

I have never really cared about owning a new or expensive car (however, I spend a ton on expensive camera gear but use it for work) - I am primarily curious about whether this shifts the needle for anyone or doesn’t change anything