She is extraordinarily giving, $670 donations a month (assuming 10% tithe), paying for her sister's college, and helping her parents pay off their house.
I think she is the sweetest person ever. In most of these videos it is about the financial success about one person, here it is about a family working hard together and Kristina showing gratefulness for what they sacrificed for her. If more people were like her family we'd live in a much kinder world.
Here’s the main kicker, I use to live in Northern VA, and the cost of living is no walk in the park. Living off of $85k on your own you’ll still be scraping by. However, the fact that she lives at home rent free making that much definitely gives her and her family so much financial flexibility. More power to that team!
Graham, you must have really nice parents because trust me, living at home has MANY cons if your parents suck and are emotional abusive or manipulative. Sometimes paying for your freedom and mental clarity by living on your own is literally priceless in comparison LOL
My dad used to work on Capitol Hill several years ago and sometimes I would accompany him as we would stay in the suburbs. 100k in Fairfax, Virginia is nothing. It’s like 35k in any normal mid size city. Everyone makes 100k in that area and they still don’t live well on that salary unless they choose an impossible commute each day. You need to make 350k plus to live comfortably in that area.
Thank you! Thats what Im saying. She's comfortable and able to make good decisions because her family is doing what family should do. Hopefully, she will be able to increase her finances so she can be financially secure if she stays in the region. I love that she's smart with the money, I think its being underestimated how smart her decisions are with what income she has. She's actually doing pretty phenomenal.
i think this was the most real, empathetic, and sympathetic ive seen graham, not that i didnt think he wasn't any of those things, this just affirmed that graham did trully start from humble beginnings. thanks for being real man.
Great content! That's crazy how she got her college half off. That's amazing how she is paying off her sister's student loan and parent's mortgage. Keep it up!!
One defense for the pre-tax 401k, you do take advantage of the long term capital gains tax on profits made from appreciation of investments. Yes you pay income tax on your contributions when you finally withdraw those initial investments, but if you're retired when you withdraw those funds and are not employed (receiving little to no income in retirement) you very well can pay less income taxes in the future than you would pay now in a higher tax bracket. The appreciation of a $1 pre-tax vs $0.75 (as an example) after tax can be a significant appreciation difference. You can speculate that taxes in general will be higher in the future, but you can also speculate that tax treatments to Roth accounts can very well change in the future as well due to regulations. All things considered, if you think you'll be in a lower tax bracket in retirement, pre-tax contributions (or a mix of pre-tax and after-tax contributions) may work to your advantage in the long-run.
So basically she had a stable an awesome family. All support each other. This is the biggest difference I've seen for those who have money and don't have money. It's similar to you Graham, and that your first thought of someone living at their house was cool you could pay all your bills and be done with it and there's no cost. But unfortunately there's a lot a lot a lot of people would not the best family life and some not even having a choice with to go back to family or not
This is the comment I was looking for. Especially if you have to be home TO PAY for your family to live. This is what the difference is Especially in the DMV region. I know so many ppl going through just that. Or have to be out of the home because of chaos and live paycheck to paycheck while making an average amount of money because of familial reasons. So they have no choice to have low rent or no rent. While others have to pay their family's whole mortgage.
Love the commentary Graham, but I disagree with you on the 401K. She did the right thing to prioritize 401K over brokerage. 401K has the benefits of tax deduction which is huge. Also, the added benefits of not having to pay tax on realized gains and dividends earned inside the 401K during the investment period are essential to the growth of the portfolio. She can also move to a no-income tax state when she is ready to retire to reduce the tax bill. Just my 2 cents.
Also Roth 401k is better than brokerage account in every way if graham is worried about taxes in the future. And as others said there are ways to take that money out penalty free b4 age 59
@Lorenzo Stewart yeah that is very true. I do have faith in gen z on the fiscal conservatism. Millennials (my generation) are definitely more on the social welfare side
Graham needs to redo his math on the 401k. You almost always come out ahead with the 401k over the taxable brokerage. Example: 100 bucks of earnings when put into a 401k is 100 bucks in investments. Over 20 years at 7%, that grows to $387, and you pay taxes on it depending on how much you're withdrawing that year. If we take the worst case scenario of you somehow paying taxes at a 40% rate in 20 years (which is highly unlikely unless you're withdrawing a ton of money AND taxes have increased substantially), you would have $232 to spend after taxes. If you put it in a brokerage account, you immediately lose on taxes at your top marginal rate (for Graham it would be 37% federal). So now he only has $63 to invest in the market, which would grow to $244 over 20 years at 7%. Since you're withdrawing a lot, your capital gains would be taxed at 20% (assuming capital gains taxes don't increase with income taxes, which seems unlikely). So you lose $36 to capital gains and you're down to $208 to spend. So even in a terrible tax scenario where income taxes have increased and you're earnings/withdrawals are extremely high, you still save $24 putting that money in a 401k. This doesn't even factor in other benefits like bankruptcy protection that 401ks have. Love your stuff Graham, but you should correct this.
@@jessysoulmanscofield idk why they laughed at this girl living with her parents but life is not as expensive in Europe than the US, so we generally make less but the cost of living is pretty good.
The laughs in European means that many of us live with our parents in adulthood and it is not considered a sign of weakness. This wasn't making fun of her, it was pointing out how judgy Americans are. And sure enough, here you are getting offended and making a competition of everything. Or at least that's how I interpreted this comment
@@issecret1 i was not making fun of her, at all. I'm European too. I was confused why the original comment would make fun of her because in my country it's pretty normal to live with your parents when you're 24.
For some reason the cupcake business in DC is something else. There's a cupcake store in Georgetown DC and before covid there would always be people in line WAITING OUTSIDE. usually about 20-30 people to get in into the small cupcake shop for some expensive cupcakes. Every time I drove by it, there would always be a line. LOL.
A lot can be said about someone willing to do this much for their family. Living at home to help pay her parents mortgage and pay for her sister College! Mad kudos!
@@dylangreen8018 don't have that option, I'm in the military. But if I did then I would most certainly move as soon as I can. I love the DC region but yeah COL is not cheap like you said.
I love when people like her are willing to acknowledge and count their blessings to ensure they pay-it-forward. Meanwhile, you have people who take all of the credit for their "hardwork and success" when they have been given so many opportunities
11:29 Speaking of own family experience: When your parents get in trouble because of a crisis and they integrate children into showing the costs and trouble and financial things, that is when teenage kids LEARN from that and will therefore have a much more frugal lifestyle and business plan. If my parents were not involving me in the 2000s, showing me earnings, insurances, housing costs, savings, and incalculable costs that happen (broken things), I definitely would not have that stable and good life nowadays. I am always thinking about the time, my parents had it hard and my mom was unlucky for years getting a proper job, etc. It was definitely something I learned that I could never learn at school! I really LOVE how she is supporting her sister financially, giving her social benefits that actually a government should take care of for all students, no matter the life background.
This was pretty cool. Our son moved back in (FL saving $1300 a month on rent) after he finished a contract in TX for almost 2 years. He started a company and his goal was to move out by 30 (out at 29), he bought a tri-plex for cash and is doing great and just made his $2nd M. Proud dad here :-) but he gets it from his mother lol
I’m just two minutes in but it looks like Graham’s reaction video would be more epic. I liked the insights from Kevin & the wife’s video but it somehow sounded preachy and a bit culturally tone-deaf.
I get angry on a daily basis about how expensive higher education is. Pay off extremely high student loan debt, when the cost shouldn't be that high to begin with :(
VA resident here: From the looks of things Kristina graduated from a public university (based on the colors it is JMU) which comes with a lot of perks. Here in VA we get grants and scholarships that basically covers like 40%- 70% of tuition if we attend a public university. (Good merits play a role as well.) So, the $55,000 is more than enough to cover her sister’s tuition IF she decides to stay in-state which by the looks of things she probably will. *FAFSA plays a role as well so if you have kids or are a student fill that out ASAP* **And the schools give out scholarships for the littlest things such as: attending an open house. The point is to really do your research and school won’t be so expensive. Even if you’ve exhausted all your resources you can go to community college and take 1-2 courses here and there so you can chip away at the degree you intend to receive.** ***If you don’t want to go to University that’s fine too. A lot of successful people didn’t go or didn’t finish.*** Love the content btw.
I was waiting for two days to see this reaction. Fairfax is my home town and I miss driving around the city of Fairfax, but won't ever miss the traffic. My childhood home over there is worth nearly 7x what my parents paid for it, then again interest rates on homes were around well over 10% back then.
Is that how it is now? Graduate college and step into a $100k project manager role? And her expectation of increasing her salary to $130 in a few years. I’m questioning all my life experience now. 🤷♀️
@Lorenzo Stewart actually, you are wrong, it’s both, as I said. There are direct correlations between those things. Yes, fed govt is the big one. And not just military but ALL of govt contracting. And beyond some defense contracting, they need educated people. However, DC/NOVA is historically among the most educated population of the US, which means better jobs and higher incomes (with both govt and private sector). Also, diverse populations have multi lingual skills and attract international business. So all 3 reasons make the Capital region among the wealthiest in the US. I’ve lived here most of my life and work in the sector.. there is PLENTY of data that supports what I’m saying... it’s not SJW pandering, it’s data and facts...A quick search on google will educate you on it...
7:53 Love your mindset Graham. You have a creative/entrepreneurial way of trying to monetize everything. Plus it's positive with no shame in the monetization arts.
The benefit of the 401k comes from being able to shift your tax burden between your working years and retirement in addition to not having to pay capital gains tax.
All I’m trying to get at is to live off of as little money as you can. It is human nature to go spend more when we make more. It’s your own future in your hands and I always explain this on my videos. Save as much as you can and put it towards investments and your future instead of consuming materialistic things that mean nothing
@@twincherry4958 I am! hopefully with the help of my fellow coworkers, a program for immigrants to get higher education/for older immigrants who are still working at 85 because they don’t get retirement money. I am giving back to my community. I grew up poor so I know what it’s like to struggle.
Check out Meet Kevin's & Lauren's assessment of this episode, they dawg the poor girl😂 on helping out her sister's college, but if you hear her sister and her mom are working for her! She doesn't lift a finger in the kitchen while they're baking the cupcake, I think she's handling the boss status very well!
Good stuff as always. I do have a nitpick though. The 401K advice needs to be unpacked a bit. I would recommend that folks max out, as much as they can, obviously up to the company match, but if you can swing it, all the way to the max. The tax implications is where it needs to be expounded upon. A couple of points in favor of going the 401K route, is that one, you can get in and out of positions without creating a tax event. If you were to put that money into a regular investment account, that would not be the case. Secondly, while you are likely right taxes will go up from today, we need to consider current to retirement income levels. Presumably, while you are working and in your prime earning years, you will be making substantially more income, and thus, your tax rates will be considerably higher than when retired. So even if rates go up, due to the progressive nature of the tax brackets, even if you did withdraw say $50K per year from your 401K, your effective tax rate is going to pretty low, I think for most, much lower than while employed. So in order, it would be 401K up to employer match, Roth IRA, additional pre -tax 401K, then taxable investment account. Now if you need the money for buying a home or saving for your children's college fund, you would have additional savings/investments, but purely for retirement purposes, this would be my recommended order.
