Reading HATE Comments on My Viral Post (Y’all Wild 😭)
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Well, friends, I did it again. No, not releasing another indie folk album, though I know you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats for the follow-up to The Great Coward from 2012. Just kidding. I only have 528 monthly listeners on Spotify.

I'm talking about riling up a large number of people on the internet for my financial advice. How did I do it? What was everyone so miffed about? Was I in the wrong? Well, hold tight because we're gonna answer all of those questions and more. But first, you know the drill. Be sure to subscribe to the channel, click the like button, and everyone goes home happy. Nobody has to get hurt. - Mom, can you pick me up? I'm scared. - All right, here's the down low.

A couple of months ago, I thought it'd be fun to take a break from posting glamour shots of my Frenchies and throw this on Instagram. And it got nearly 6 million views and over 5,000 comments, very few of them kind. So what was the post? Let me read it to you. After 60 months of payments, you've got a paid-off car that you bought for $40,000 that ended up costing you $50,000 thanks to interest that's now only worth $16,000 thanks to depreciation.

So as astronomically stupid as that is, why are people still buying new cars on payments? Or worse, leasing them? End post. Basically, I was just sharing the commonly known and commonly ignored fact that car loans are a total ripoff. Harmless, right? Nay. Apparently this post was full of harm. The comment section got ugly real fast, and lots of people

took time out of their busy day to vehemently defend the auto loan and tell me what an idiot I am. By the way, who raised you people in the comment section? Just kidding. I know who it was. It was your mom. How do I know? Because I know your mom. Tell her to stop texting me. Just kidding. I blocked her. She can't text me. Oh yeah. Double this. They couldn't even react. Too fast. Dude, I'm Steph Curry.

What was that? But I have to admit, this kind of behavior has happened before. And just like the last time, people literally worked through the stages of grief in the comments as they were confronted with the possibility that they've basically been throwing money out of their new Tahoe's window. I'm talking about denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and yes, even acceptance. Right there for everyone to see. So I thought it'd be fun and honestly educational to classify the comments by those five stages of grief and

and bring back everyone's favorite segment, Where's the Grief? They're going to add music and stuff. Don't make me look like an idiot and don't add the music. Don't do that to me, editors. What am I paying you for? Okay, fine, I'll do it. Where's the Grief? Welcome to Where's the Grief. Where do we start? How about denial? That's where our friend HappyShot2000 is currently situated. They wrote, First off...

If I were living in La La Land, I wouldn't still be making YouTube videos. I'd be floating through planetariums and dancing on Malibu mountaintops. By the way, one of the best movies of all time. And yes, I own it on Blu-ray. And no, that is not a joke. You kid, I'm gonna name my next kid Seb. That's how much I love that movie.

Just kidding. I'm going to name him Ryan, obviously, because that's the real person's name who played Seb. Okay, never mind. So it's Seb, Sebastian Ryan Gosling Camel is the full name. That's what we're going with. Poor kid. But in all seriousness, could my post actually be delusional? Well, no, because I didn't just make those numbers up. As usual, your boy is sourced, and I'll show you the math to prove it. I've got more receipts than Baldoni, you understand? Is this still relevant?

By the time this releases, I hope you all know who Baldoni is and what he's done for America. He's done more for America than Elon. He has the receipts. So let's talk about the source. According to Edmunds, new cars lose about 60% of their value over the first five years on average, which means after five years, on average, the typical $40,000 car will be worth...

$16,000. Check my math. Bada bing, bada boom, get off my case. So hear me out. What if you bought a five or six-year-old car and let someone else take that 60% hit on depreciation? Crazy idea, I know. Let's move on to anger, which is the second stage of grief and my favorite character from Inside Out. Big Louis Black fan. Who's my little angry guy? Who's my, you're my little angry guy. Don't ever...

The biggest source of anger I found in the comments is perfectly summed up by Rudy here, who said, because people don't have a spare $40,000 laying around. It's the old anger masked by sarcasm trick.

Works like a charm. Well, clearly, Rudy has run into some misinformation somewhere along the way because he seems to be under the impression that you can't buy a car unless you spend at least $40,000. When, believe it or not, you can buy a car for a lot less than that. But I have to be careful because saying that also gets people riled up, like this Instagram account, at Block Liberal Pages. That's just the name of that account. I'm not advocating to Block Liberal Pages. I'm just telling you what their username is. Here's what they said.

This guy thinks you can buy a car for $5. Oh, he didn't. First of all, add a K if you want it to be thousand. Let's try that again. This guy thinks you can buy a car for $5,000 or $6,000. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Why three laughing emojis? Is it that funny to you? Three is aggressive. One, I'm like, okay, that's...

That's good. Two, little off the handle. Three, you're the problem. Shame on, three emoji, shame on me. So these guys seem to think that you have two options when buying a car. Buy something brand new for $40,000 with payments or buy a beater car for a few thousand bucks. Well, call me crazy. I tend to think there's at least a little space in between. So what if you spent, say, $25,000 on a quality used car? That's plenty.

That's plenty to buy a great ride with low mileage, like a 2023 Camry or a Honda Accord. What if you spent $20,000 or even $15,000, even $10,000? It's totally possible to find a quality, reliable, and safe used car for any of those amounts. And if you don't believe me, I recently made a video breaking down five reliable, safe used cars that you can find for under $10,000 and again,

It was sourced. I actually went and found these cars. So if you wanna watch that video, I will leave a link in the description below. Bottom line, you don't need to drive something that's falling apart to avoid spending $40,000 on a car. Which brings us to the third stage of grief, bargaining. This is when our grief-stricken brothers and sisters start making deals to regain control. They look for ways to minimize their pain, to justify the whole situation.

Well, seems like that's where our friend Tommy has found himself. He wrote, "Everyone can't buy a used car. Someone has to start the purchase."

What a performance, Tommy. I can't say I saw this one coming. I thought I had heard it all when it comes to justifying a new car purchase. This is definitely the first time I've seen someone take a moral stance. Someone's gotta do it, might as well be me. I think old Tom has genuinely convinced himself that buying a new car is somehow an act of charity. You're so brave. - Am I a hero? I really can't say, but yes. - Those are some impressive mental gymnastics, Tommy. With those skills, I hope to see you at the 2028 Olympics in LA. So here's where I do agree with Tommy. Yes,

every used car was once new.

Put that on a motivational poster. But look, no matter how loudly I scream about it, plenty of people will still buy new cars. You and Tommy have no need to worry. And by the way, I'm not even completely against buying a brand new car, but there are two huge tiny caveats to that. You should only buy a new car if, number one, you're paying for it in cash, and number two, your net worth is at least a million dollars or more. At that point, you can afford to take the hit on depreciation because it's such a small part of your world. For everyone else, used is still the way to go. But

Which brings us to the fourth stage of grief, depression. But before we dive into that, you know what else is depressing? The interest rates being offered by these brick and mortar banks. And that's why I keep my money in a high yield savings account with online bank Laurel Road, one of the sponsors of today's video. Laurel Road offers top tier interest rates that will grow your money a whole lot faster than a traditional savings account.

Plus, there's no minimum balance required to open an account, and all your deposits are FDIC-insured. And best of all, they don't charge any dumb monthly maintenance fees. So quit letting your savings collect dust and make the switch to Laurel Road today. You can get started by going to laurelroad.com slash george or click the link in the description below. That's laurelroad.com slash george. Okay, back to the grief. And like I said a second ago, we've arrived at the fourth stage –

The depressive, hopeless emo energy in these comments manifested into one major question summed up by this. What am I supposed to do? Walk everywhere? But here's how I think it really went, because I assume this person is from Long Island. What am I supposed to do? Walk everywhere? Wait, I'm walking here. I can't afford a new car. A guy on the Instagram said don't buy a new car. I'm here walking everywhere. What are you trying to do, huh? You don't like my mama's sauce? You get out of here. Capisce, capaz?

Bingo, bango, bongo. Guys, I missed my last acting class. I think this is where they covered that. They covered offensive accents. Good. We've done more than enough. So let me answer very clearly. Yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say. Thank you for understanding. I'm advocating for America to walk everywhere. Make America walk again. Mawa. That's it.

That's my campaign slogan. You see, we're right back to the crazy extremes with this one. It's either spend $40,000 on a brand new car with ventilated rear seats or grab your trekking poles and start walking to work through the dirt, mud, and snow uphill both ways like Pop Pop used to do. You know why they call him Pop Pop? Because he was in the mafia. What did he do? Pop Pop. That's what he did. It was an honest living back then. It was an honest living. Ma couldn't work. She had to go. What's she supposed to do with the gout?

This is my last episode ever. Just know I had a good ride. I had a good ride. I'm proud of what we built together. You will be missed. But for real, maybe you can't afford to pay cash for a used car right now. I get that. Totally fair. But it's not an excuse to take out a giant car loan. It just means you need to start saving, find a way to make more money, and probably both. And hey, the average new car payment right now is $742.

So if you're telling me that you can't afford that, then why not drive a low-cost, reliable used car in cash for a year and then upgrade with the nearly nine grand you would be saving by not making those payments? And listen, I'm not here on my high horse telling you to do something that I haven't done or wouldn't do. My car in 2017 was a $6,000 old 09 Honda Civic EXL with a bunch of body damage. Was it pretty?

No. Did it get me from A to B? Absolutely. And so with the money I saved by purchasing that used car in cash instead of buying a $40,000 car, I just saved that away. Saved away. And a few years later, four or five years later, I upgraded in car to another used car, which is now still 12 years old. So moral of the story, no, I don't want you to walk everywhere and debt is not the only way to avoid that. Just buy the car you can afford now and then upgrade over time in cash until you get the car you really want. Now, before we complete our grief journey with the fifth stage,

I'd like to touch on a bonus stage at no extra cost. Because while the psych world only recognizes five stages of grieving, the folks in the comment section seem to be experiencing a detour into insanity. And a great example of that is Bianca, who wrote, Hey, I have to admit, I do love a good write-off. And for years, women wrote me off, so I'm no stranger to this. There's just one problem, though.

That statement is nonsense. It's almost never true. With very few exceptions, you can only write off your car if you're self-employed or if you own a business. And by the way, those write-offs apply to used cars too. And look, a car write-off doesn't mean you get it for free. It just reduces your taxable income by a little. It's not a dollar-for-dollar savings. You can only deduct the business use portion, and even then, it's not a full refund, just a small tax savings.

So don't believe this myth that you should go buy a freaking G-Wagon for the write-off. And spending money just to get a deduction is always a bad deal. It's bad math because you're still paying most of the cost yourself. And Bradley also seems to be experiencing a bit of delulu. Here's the comment. Simple. The enjoyment people get out of the car is worth the price of the car and the cost of interest.

I'm tired of seeing self-proclaimed personal finance experts say over and over again, Herder, if you finance a car, you're stupid. Maybe that's what he meant. I don't know, Bradley. Let me know. Bradley, if you're watching, let me know in the comments what variation you were going for there. You...

Nailed it. And managing your money under the guiding principle of YOLO seems like a good idea until you're drowning with an $800 car payment and living paycheck to paycheck, which is eight out of 10 Americans, by the way. And whining that inflation and the president are the root of your problems is not gonna get you anywhere. Plus, if you have to get a $40,000 car loan to enjoy your life,

You need a better life. You need better friends. Who are you trying to impress? What happened to you, man? Get some help instead of spending 40 grand on payments. All right, let's get back to the real stages of grief. We've arrived at the finish line now. Stage five, acceptance. Decent falsetto. I've seen better, but I'm no Bon Iver, but I get the job done.

- I thought it was Von Iver. - It's Von Iver. - Von Iver. - Von Iver? - And I gotta say, several folks in the comment section seem like they've made it here. Mike wrote this, "Yup, worst trap to sink your hard-earned money into." Justin said, "Most people really don't have a clue how money works, only if they can afford a monthly payment."

Amen, Justin. And Missy said this, "If you can't pay cash, it's too expensive." It makes me feel like a proud dad. Seriously, I haven't felt this warm and fuzzy since watching the season finale of Blake Lively's career. But for real, these folks are all right on the money, and they've given us three great points. Number one, new cars are the ultimate money trap because nothing kills your ability to build wealth quite like going into debt for a huge depreciating asset.

And that's why the typical millionaire, real-life millionaires, drive a four-year-old used car they paid cash for, on average. Number two, most people only care if they can afford the monthly payment. But here's the thing, broke people ask how much per month, how much down. Wealthy people simply ask, how much? Can they afford it in full? So don't let an affordable monthly payment fool you. And finally, number three, if you can't afford it in cash, you can't afford it at all.

And if you want to know where this post came from, is there more of that? I wrote a whole chapter on car loans in my book, Breaking Free From Broke. You can get the hard copy or the audio book, which I read myself with the link in the description below. Be sure to check that out. So the bottom line, no matter how my post made you feel, it doesn't change the fact that new cars are a ripoff and payments are keeping everyone broke.

And I'm sorry, but also not sorry that I triggered thousands of you. Thank you for helping me make great content out of it. You know, monetize the haters. That's what I always say. And you helped me do it today. And if you're still not convinced that car loans are America's number one wealth killer, I made an entire video breaking it down. It's one of the most popular videos on this channel. So keep watching or click the link in the description below. That's it for today. Thank you guys for watching. We'll see you next time.