Fish out of water
The consumer debt crisis and the crashing housing market
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One of my favorite stories about perspective goes like this: Two young fish are swimming along in a river when an older fish passes by and asks “How’s the water today boys?” After a minute or two, one young fish turns to his friend and asks “What’s water?” I found this story hilarious at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how blind we are to the context that surrounds us. Our lifestyle, spending habits, plans for the future, and the way we structure are all determined by the culture we live in.
For example, the median American worker brings home an estimated $54,132 per year. The lowest-paying jobs can go as low as $25k a year. But even having $4,210 to your name puts you in the top 50% of the globe – and having $92k puts you in the top 10%. That isn’t any consolation though, because you aren’t comparing yourself with the unfortunate citizens of other countries but rather the people who live next door or down the street, or your friends from high school who drive a better car than you. This… can be problematic – because 51% of Americans earning $100,000 or more annually are living paycheck to paycheck!
You see, setting the standards of your life based on Keeping up with the Joneses can balloon into spending more than you can afford on things that you don’t need. It doesn’t help that our culture hands out money through credit cards and encourages people to spend – but now that the era of free money is coming to an end, consumer credit is becoming a worrisome issue.
Debt is one of those insidious things that builds up slowly and doesn’t make its presence felt till it’s out of control. It might seem overwhelming and unsolvable if you’re stuck in debt, but getting out is all about a change of perspective. In this video, I talk about the consumer debt crisis looming over America, and a sure-fire plan to get rid of debt in six easy steps. Check it out!
The housing market is getting worse
You now need to make a six-figure salary to afford an average home in the United States. On the other hand, month-over-month housing prices are falling for the first time since 2012. This news could put you in a position to make some money if you’ve been waiting for the right time as a buyer.
You see, from a sellers’ perspective, investments in residential housing are turning out to be expensive – with home-buying companies stuck with houses that they can’t get rid of, and Phoenix AirBNBs having less than 50% occupancy during the Super Bowl! But as Barbara Corcoran gives some sage advice, the worst time to buy might also be the best time to make an investment. She’s been in real estate for more than 50 years and I’ll let you find out for yourself what she means, in the video below:
Billionaires behind the scenes with Ryan Serhant
Ryan Serhant’s story is truly inspiring – from being a teenager with dreams of theatre struggling with rosacea and graying hair to selling over $6 Billion worth of real estate, Ryan turned his problems into unique features and built one of the greatest property and YouTube brands of all time, while also starring on Million Dollar Listing New York. Jack and I got to catch up with him and pick his brain – he had some interesting things to say about the 2023 housing crash, how billionaires really are behind the scenes, and how New York city shaped his career.
Do you watch The Iced Coffee Hour? Who’s your favorite guest so far? Who would you like to see on the show? Let me know in the comments.
The Graham Stephan Show
This week on the Graham Stephan show, I first took a look at Iman Gadzhi’s $2.8 million house in Cape Town that seems to have more security than something out of Mission Impossible. I thought there were some really interesting and crazy things about the place, and I had fun reacting to it. The second video this week took me back in time – it’s about this guy called “The coupon kid” who saved so much on supermarket coupons in high school that the store ended up paying him at the end of his shopping. If you’re a fan of getting great deals and the 2000s TLC aesthetic like me, you’ll have fun watching this too:
Advice from parents
One of the things that I love about our community is that people always step up to help one another. I sent out a tweet yesterday asking this:
The tweet got more than 422 comments with people sharing their life experience, engaging with other members, and learning from others. So I’m asking the same question to you: What’s one piece of financial advice from your parents that worked out great for you? There’s no character limit here, so fire away in the comments!
So that’s it for my Sunday round-up. For the new folks here, in this newsletter, I give a quick recap of whatever you may have missed over the week on Sunday over all my different channels, and on Wednesday, I will be doing my deep-dive article on one of these topics.
See you next week with another bunch of exciting videos!
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It's really sad 51% of people making >$100k are living paycheck to paycheck. I wish people realized how freeing it is to live well below their means, invest, and generate passive income. So much less stress and presents so many options in life.
Really good one this week! I also think a video on dividend investing would be great. Similar to the 3 fund portfolio but for dividends! I think dividend investing is one thing your channel could tap into a bit more and a lot of people would like it!