George Kamel is a true Dave Ramsey disciple and an advocate of practicing what Ramsey preaches when it comes to gaining wealth. On the Ramsey website, Kamel is described as “a Ramsey Personality and personal finance expert.”
And Kamel used Ramsey’s tactics in his own life. “Following Ramsey’s proven money plan, George went from a negative net worth to a Baby Steps Millionaire in under 10 years … His goal is to help people spend less, save more, and avoid money traps so that they can live a life with more margin, options, and freedom,” according to the Ramsey website.
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Along with being a podcast host and Ramsey-ite, Kamel has a YouTube channel. And in one of his recent videos, Kamel shared seven things that improved his financial life. Here is a breakdown of the things that changed Kamel’s financial life and ways to implement them into your finances.
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Never Have a Car Payment
Kamel recounted how in 2017, he purchased a 2009 Honda Civic EX-L from a co-worker for $6,000. It was the nicest car he’d ever purchased at the time, and after buying it, Kamel explained that he did not switch up vehicles for years.
“Not having a car payment was the greatest wealth-building hack I could give you,” Kamel shared with the viewers. “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.”
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Short-Term Sacrifice Equals Long-Term Gain
During his years of struggling to get out of debt, Kamel ate one thing: Lean Cuisine. He’d wait for a sale to go on at his local Kroger to get 10 Lean Cuisine meals for $5, and that was what he ate while he got his financial life in order. They weren’t his favorite meal, but Kamel knew that if he gave up buying high-end products for a short while, it would pay off big in the end.
“I knew that if I could eat a $2 meal, I could trim some fat — literally and financially — off my budget,” Kamel joked on camera.
Find Free Activities
For Kamel, nothing beat skateboarding back in his youth as he sought to sow the oats of his financial future. To do that, though, he needed to balance his desire to do something fun with his goal of saving money. That’s where his skateboard of 20 years came into the picture.
“One of the hardest parts of getting out of debt is limiting the entertainment, the lifestyle, the luxuries. So you’ve got to find a hobby that you love to do, that’s free, and good for your brain and/or your body,” Kamel explained.
“It makes all the difference,” he said. “You’ll forget that you are not spending money when you are just riding on four wheels.”
Shop Smart, Dress Cute
Another item that exemplified how Kamel was able to live frugally while getting out of debt is a denim jacket that he purchased on Poshmark way below the offered retail price.
“I refuse to spend the retail price, pay the MSRP,” Kamel said. Referring to his J.Crew denim jacket, Kamel went on to describe how he bought it “still new with the tags on it” but ended up paying significantly less for it because he’s a smart spender.
“Spending money on clothes is a tough one,” Kamel admitted. “Because while clothing is technically a need, it’s easy to justify spending way more than you need and buying way too many clothes.”
Kamel confessed that these days he does not buy much in terms of secondhand clothes, but he still is a savvy shopper, waiting for sales to drop, using browser extensions and apps like Honey, and buying from discount retailers like T.J. Maxx.
Opt To Not Buy
Once Kamel stopped going to Starbucks and other coffee shops for his daily cup of java, choosing instead to go with the free brew offered at his workplace, he noticed that there was a difference in how much money he was saving nearly every day.
To his skeptics who thought saving a buck here and there would not make a difference, Kamel said “I can tell you, this was one small piece of a bigger plan that 100% worked for me … skipping Starbucks for a while helped me to find some extra dollars.”
Doing the math, Kamel showed how consumers can waste $5,000 annually by randomly spending $13.70 on treats such as coffee. If you can intentionally save $13.70 every day by not purchasing items on the fly, you can save $5,000 each year.
Side Gigs Work
As Kamel was trying to get out of debt around 2014, he ended up driving for Uber and Lyft, which were relatively new services at the time, so they were offering drivers $1,000 signing bonuses. After about three years, having saved some money, Kamel quit driving because he’d managed to get control of his finances.
Kamel explained that presently, working a side hustle for apps like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and others can provide additional income in the range of $15 to $30 per hour before expenses.
Get Some Financial Literacy
When Kamel wanted to figure out how to get out of debt and start building up his savings, he took a course from Financial Peace University. Not only did it give him many of the tools and tips described in the video, but it educated him on how to make his money grow and not become burdened by it.
“This course deprogrammed all the lies and myths I’d come to believe about money,” Kamel said. There are lots of different financial literacy programs and courses available for purchase, either in person or online, making it easier than ever to learn how to get out of toxic money culture and habits that are consistently putting people in debt.
Kamel claimed that after getting some financial education under his belt, he went from broke to being a millionaire in under a decade.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: George Kamel Says These 7 Things Improved His Financial Life — Here’s How You Can Learn From Them
