Breaking Free from Broke | The Minimalists Ep. 426 

How much debt have you paid off in the last year?

I’ve paid off all credit cards and have cut them all up. I am now paying off my home and building a share portfolio for retirement

I love TK's comment about living generously no matter how much you "have". Because you always have something to give. (minute 24). George - give a little until you can give a lot. It's a tool.

It is amazing how freeing it is to be frugal, giving serious thought before each purchase. Whatever you call it, minimalism or frugality or something else, it just feels good to be careful about how I use my money.

I'm a senior and I have no debt, but my net worth probably isn't even 50k, but I am content with what I have and am living simply and enjoy life! I feel we spent worrying about whether we're going to be able to be a millionaire. Debt free, simple and contentment makes a happy life!

I almost broke my leg running to download TK's book. He has such a brilliant mind!

24:29 Timestamping to back to T.K.’s words about giver mindset. Love it!

I paid $2,400 in interest in 2023….. nothing off the principal 😳 but 2024 & 2025 are gonna be my getting outta debt years!

My daughter did not go to dream school she went to where we could afford without debt. State school with some scholarship. The whole dream school is so ridiculous. Besides. All colleges let kids in the second semester when kids leave. It’s a business.

Working on paying off all our debt this year! Want it gone! It's my biggest form of clutter and it's definitely the most stressful! I started this journey 3 years ago with getting my house in order by decluttering, then I decided to declutter excess weight off my body, now I'm working on decluttering our debt. 😊

Love T.K's views. Always switches the narrative for thought.

TK is very wise, he has some really great insights

TK is on fire with his insightful response to giving!!! Absolutely love it!!! 24:18

Creative energy: Your not getting rid of the collection, your letting it go to give someone else that joy that you felt when it was blessing you. Now it’s blessing someone else.

Maybe I was just lucky but have never had debt, even when had nearly nothing. We always paid off our credit card bills from the start. We own our house, not the bank. Never bought more than we could afford. Could we be living in a more expensive house and property and buy more expensive cars, etc. etc.? Yes. But, there is a trade off as we have peace of mind not owing on anything. Our stuff does not own us.

Committed to living a life of generosity TK that is a word. We all have something to give it’s all about perspective 👏🏾 👏🏾

Great advice from T.K. around minute 11:00 that can be applied in most situations where we beat ourselves up.

I'm a minimalist in almost everything but 1 room in my home is just lego madness 😂 I believe to be minimalistic on almost everything besides those few things that really bring you happiness, lego and travelling for me.

This really hit home with me. Where do i want to go? I'm good with debt, everything I buy I put on a credit card, and pay it off each month. My issue has been taking on jobs I thought would be a source of joy, helping people, enjoying the situation. This has not been my experience. I need to really soul search and find out where do I want to go.

This is all preaching to the choir for me so I do not necessarily learn a lot from it. However, I find this to be a highly entertaining podcast. It supports my moral beliefs and I always have a few good chuckles. Thank you all!

I appreciate the minimalize the minimalism and keep the creativity. I love to cook, can and host. I have a lot of things in my kitchen and storage. I feel a lot better. The rest of my home is pretty minimal…so hosting is comfortable.

Amen TK on abundance and giving. I have debt and am working to get out of it, but i have a giving spirit, whether its time, treasure or talent, i will always give it freely....❤

Regret- something to avoid in the future! And what to move on to. Love this.

Excellent, thoughtful and philosophic conversation.

I'm so happy I made productive decisions about my finances that changed my life forever,hoping to retire next year.. Investment should always be on any creative man's heart for success in life

To answer the question: "how much debt did we pay off last year?" our answer is we paid off no debt. That is because in 2023 we had no debt. That was not always be the case, we had a ton of debt and used the debt snowball following the 7 Baby Steps to get that monkey off our backs. I understand Taylor's feelings about wasted time and money for past bad financial decisions. At the end of the day that is what happened to us, but we grabbed that tiger by the tail and here we are, debt free, living frugal and saving (setting aside for the future) way more money than we ever thought possible. What George is saying about debt, to avoid debt, pay off debt, live debt free is for many of us mortals the best path. It may or may not be true that I can leverage low interest debt for high interest investment returns there is a cost to everything and that cost for leveraged assets is stress. We then have to decide if the return on our stress investment is worth all that work.

Loved this episode! The Minimalists + George Kamel = PREACH 🙌🏼

The lack of disconnect of the struggles of living month to month for people whose rents just continues to increase, it’s fucking disgusting,

Y’all blew the question out of proportion. The question was do you have a million dollars. Just answer, yes or no. This is why it’s hard for ppl to trust these things. Just answer the question.

My debt came from paying for childcare using a credit card last year during a period of making minimum wage, before benefits kicked in. It feels terrible after a lifetime of previously having excellent credit, and always paying the entire balance each month. I’m hoping I get a tax refund this year that allows me to pay it off entirely. Being charged $100 in interest every month for childcare my son received a year ago feels truly terrible.

Hey JFM & T.K., I wonder if you know George Kamel is not only a really great personality on the Ramsey Network, but he also makes pretty good music. Plays guitar and sings. Pretty good stuff too. His music is beautiful and intentional.

Me- frugal, minimal, no debt besides mortgage and paying that down fast. Also me... bringing home a new $5 plant to slowly unintentionally kill every 3-4 months.

Love your podcasts - but sorry the laughter in the background seems over the top

I'll definitely check out the Emotional Clutter!

There is a reason it is named "LEGO"....you are meant to Le' go of it ;)

I really liked the episode and I relate A LOT to Noemie's note on how minimalism helped her connect to her intuition about purchases she makes :) I feel blessed and protected haha that i'm a minimalist and always question myself about things i want to purchase :) i now feel ok about purchasing things i like (even if i don't need them) because i know they add aesthetic/ emotional value to me and at the same time, i don't buy what I myself consider clutter and always allow myself some space to buy things i like and not beat myself up about it anymore.

24:50 "You don't have to be a millionaire to give." Amen, T.K. We don't have to wait until....to be generous TODAY. Don't wait for your neighbor or the owner of a corporation to fill the need. Your scale may be different but most of us can do SOMETHING to leave today better than yesterday.

Just reserved my tickets, thank you so much, your talks have changed my life for the better. I’ve gleaned so much insight and have made real tangible changes and I’m so glad for the opportunity to see you guys in person.

Distracted by the loud laughter in the background. If that's a laughtrack please lower the volume.

TK you are my hero!!! 🖤🌞🙏🏽

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel

TK is very insightful. Enjoyed this episode

Omg ❤❤❤ George Kamel on The Minimalists!! Am such a fun of both of you

Excellent insights from all thank you George, T.K and Joshua.

This is great. Also DA and UA are great for folks who need support and a spiritual approach.... some folks need more than self willed change. Great episode.

The laughing of the woman is completely exaggerate

I love watching the Ramsey show. I love being a baby step millionaire even more. I am single income debt free no kids living in California on a clerk salary. I lived a minimalist lifestyle for years to achieve financial freedom and peace.

Didn't realize Denzel entered the chat. Love the look, TK!

Thank you for another great video

I liked this episode a lot!

I'm a minimalist in almost everything but 1 room in my home is just lego madness I believe to be minimalistic on almost everything besides those few things that really bring you happiness, lego and travelling for me.

Great video!

The gal's laugh in the background 🤣🤣

Appreciate how u avoid advertisements and paid promotions. Did george also chant “advertisements suck”?

T.K ❤❤❤❤ big thank you from Belarus

Listen to the Ramsey show and you will get all the baby steps you need 🤔😉😃👍 in life 😃

So what about those of us that actually need more income due to poverty? I can budget all I want, but I'm still trying to juggle between being able to eat vs being able to keep a roof over my head. A lot of us go into mandatory debt because there's literally no other choice. I've realized that this podcast episode is not aimed at those of us with less privilege, but I'd love to hear an episode that is.

I got rid of all my credit cards and my credit score tanked more than 100 points; but since I'm not needing to get a car or home loan, my demoted credit score, matters not

Minimalism and frugality CAN go hand and hand Frugality you don’t want to spend money and are content .Minimalism contentment with not many things so usually spend less money on things.

My dad was frugal and a hoarder lol

He used the debt snowball that Dave Ramsey recommends. It is very helpful

debt free on personal loans, no credit card debt, except for real state investment made on 2020, that has revenue going straight to a saving account, is set up to be paid off by the tenants in 13 years and not in 30 years, second real state investment is cash, no loans, took me 4 years to paid off 50k and saved 50k, making 55k per year, it took an effort to go from a spender to a saver and living below your means, now I just feel guilty/shame of buying things I didn't need in the past.

Eating healthy poor person, food more important than hording stuff

Here’s a quandary: it seems like people feel like they should be able to live wherever they want to, but that’s not a reality. Certain areas require a substantial income, like Newport Beach or Malibu. BUT, there are businesses in those communities that pay their employees the market rate, albeit an amount way below what’s required to live in that community, or even any neighboring community. So what do you do? Is reasonable that an employee should be able to afford to live within a reasonable commuting distance of their job? (I would say less than 30 minutes.) If so, how? If not, is it reasonable to expect an employee spend 3-4 hours a day in their commute?

Interesting.. regret, resentment and debt seem to all have a correlation. If not careful, all can be poisonous and stifling to your choice of independence

How do you bring yourself to get rid of stuff a deceased parent gave you that you don’t need without feeling guilty?

Buying sales is not necessarily frugal. A healthy desire for frugality, the intentional practice of prudent economy shouldn't result in overconsumption.

Good talk but DISAGREE on your definition of frugality. You described "cheap" not "frugal". Frugal is being intentional with your spending. Look at Ramit Sethi I Will Teach You To Be Rich - spend on what you love, spend as little as possible on the rest. Frugal people do spend money. Cheap people often save money at the expense of others. **You should have Ramit or some people from the FIRE community on your podcast.** I am frugal which allows me to do what I want, treat friends just for fun or because they couldn't otherwise join me in something such as a movie or even a trip, help my family in life. I LOVE TK's view that you don't have to be wealthy in order to be a giver and live a life of generosity. To some extent, my frugality allows me to be more generous. I agree that we all need to live within (or below) our means. Sadly, there are situations in which families truly can't make enough to pay for housing and food, and the usual advice of "increase income, decrease expenses" doesn't apply.

The LEGO people are called Minifigures

Love you guys! Joshua reminds me of Beavo on Instagram, but with great teeth and hair

You can be debt free with savings, but a false civil lawsuit against you can take it all away in defense lawyer costs that they say will Never be reimbursed. When you sell a property, KEEP ALL CONTRACTS and all papers and everything, especially if you get divorced, make sure you get your own copy of everything and gather every document and search for all Discovery IMMEDIATELY. Do NOT wait for a lawyer to do it for you. You have to save yourself and you have to know what exactly is going on. Speed is essential.

Its crazy that millions of students have debt but student athletes now have nil deals…… they’re basically millionaires right out of high school…..

🤯

Great message but HAHAHAHA!!!

Why do i feel bad if i don't have a business or striving to be a millionaire?? Why can't i just be

I’m not a Patreon subscriber 😂

I had to turn this off even though I was enjoying what they were saying because the woman laughing in the background was making my skin crawl.

Anybody that you see regularly on the internet is probably a millionaire. That should surprise noone though. I don't think it matters much.

Are you guys sponsored by Ramsey ??? I’m confused

Why do the staff you cant see laugh louder than the people speaking? 🤔

JFM, so what do you drive nowadays?

Sorry, frugal is not cheap. When you discuss hoarding thats cheap, collect crap, free stuff, whatever feeds and fills the void. But, frugalality is a different kind of intentionality, where you have decided what and how much you will spend money on and look for deals on those things with coupons,buy one get one etc. But, still NOT buying unnecessary things. Minimalism takes it one step further to thw question of...do I even need this in my life and does it add value. If not, I will not waste money, time or space on it.

Why in all your podcasts you talk way more than your guests?

14:02 i wish he stopped making that comparion! It makes him sound stupid! In italy you can buy a beautiful 4 story town house for 40k, higher education is free, health insurance is almost free! In switzerland, education is free, transportation is dirt cheep, health insurance leass than half of the US, minimum wage 27 chf an hour.examples of one the most corrupt worst run countries in EU and one of the most developed countries in the whole world😡

I love this podcast but that chick laughing in the background makes me not want to listen sometimes. It sounds forced and fake

Lose the "laugh"...it is hideous!

The annoying woman’s laughter in the background 😣

As a minimalist I will not be buying your guests book. Plus Dave Ramsey SUCKS