You got to get serious with this thing and you have to do more than you're doing right now. Now, some of you may be saying, "Hey, I do all I can do and I still don't have enough money left over. " Then you're not doing all you can do.
You're not making the sacrifices necessary to have the extra money to save up. Most people can always do a little more. Most people actually have another gear to get to to go to, but they don't go.
They don't push themselves. They don't think they can. They think that everything else around them is the issue and the problem why they can't save up money, right?
Something always happened, right? Murphy's law. If it ain't one thing, it's another, right?
Richard Dimples Fields, if you don't know that song, right? Look, a lot of us, we jumped on the hamster wheel at 18, 19, 20, 21 years old. And we haven't got off the hamster wheel yet.
Hopefully, the things I'm telling you in this video will help you get off of that hamster wheel sooner rather than later. Look, if you got less than $20,000 saved up, you're really just one big emergency away from being broke. And most people don't even realize that, right?
Let let me be real with you. Look, if you got less than $20,000, you're really walking a financial tight rope with no safety net underneath. You're exposed right now, especially in the climate that we're in right now.
Look, you got federal government programs being rolled back almost every day now. You got student loan debt repayment about to hit in full force here in a minute. You also have this potential big-time tariff war that's really taking place already, right?
It may go into full force mode with all countries around the world here shortly. But right now, you've got this tariff war that's happening. You got the stock market that's hitting all-time lows.
You've got the BRICS nations getting stronger and stronger and perhaps at some point maybe trying to dethrone the US dollar as the worldwide currency. Look, the last thing you want to be right now is out of money, out of cash that you can use in case of an emergency, a big emergency. Look, you can't go wrong with having $20,000 at least saved up for your emergencies.
You know, there's just times in life where you got to have cash. A recent Newsweek study found that only 20% of all Americans have more than $20,000 saved up. Right?
That means basically it implies that 80% of all Americans have less than $20,000 saved up. That's a huge amount of people that don't have $20,000 cash. So if you fall into that category of not having at least $20,000 saved up, this video is for you.
This is your wakeup call. I've got a few things I want to share with you on this video about what you can do to get to $20,000 saved up. Maybe you're at zero saved up right now.
Or maybe you have $8,000 or $10,000 saved up, but you don't quite have 20,000. Let me just give you this nofluff formula for getting to $20,000 as soon as possible. Right?
Because with some focus, with some intention, and with some discipline, you can get there as soon as possible. Right now, you're in danger if you don't have $20,000 saved up. and I want to help you get there and stack that 20,000 for an emergency fund.
So, here's what you got to do right now before it's too late. First, I always say this on my channel, but I always say it because it's very, very important. The first thing you got to do is track your spending like a hawk because you got to come up with some extra money to put towards your savings so you can build up to $20,000.
So, you have to watch what you spend more so than most people really feel comfortable doing. See, most people they say, "Look, I have my savings account and I save up a little money here and there, you know, and I'm just comfortable. " Listen, if you want to save up $20,000 and you ain't there yet and you ain't never been there, some people watching this have never had $20,000 in a bank account somewhere or in a high yield savings account somewhere, right?
So, if you if that's you, you've got to do something different, right? You can't do what you always did cuz if you do what you always have done, you're going to get what you've always gotten, which is not enough money saved up for emergencies. So, you have to start tracking yourself like a hawk, like you've never tracked yourself and your spending before.
Whatever goes out, you know it. Write it down. Have it on a budget, whatever it could be, right?
Whatever your own tracking system is. I don't have a a tracking system software that'll give you. I just want you to pay attention to all the money that you spend, right?
because you're not going to fix it if you don't measure it, right? If you don't have anything to actually look and say and track and read and analyze and go over and if you don't have that, you really don't know. And it's going to be difficult for you to actually come up with the extra cash to put towards savings.
So, track yourself, track your behavior with money, track your spending with money, right? I don't care if you use apps, right? Rocket money, uh, you need a budget, yab, whatever it could be.
I don't care Dave Ramsey stuff, right? whatever you use, whatever you need. Maybe you just need to track it through your bank account, right?
Whatever it could be, your choice, but you got to pay attention to what you're spending. Know exactly what's leaving you, right? What you pay out every single month, your expenses.
This is going to help you find the money to actually save towards your $20,000 goals. Look, I'm having this conversation with you and doing this video specifically because I seem to keep having these conversations with people who want to invest their money, right? They want to grow their money.
They want to get in V and VTI and SCHD, right? They want to get in all these ETFs and index funds and buying Nvidia and buying Broadcom and and buying Apple stocks, but they don't have any money saved up, right? They're just buying a bunch of stocks and investments, but they have no cash just in case.
They have very little, if any, emergency savings fund. What good is it to have $20,000 in stocks, but you got $2,000 in your emergency fund? What's the point, right?
Let's go ahead and build the emergency fund and then you can do all the investing you want, but I guarantee you the tires will go out on your car. I guarantee you that the refrigerator will go out in your home. I guarantee you that something's going to happen that makes you have to come up with some money.
It may not be 20,000. 20,000 is just just giving you a safe buffer. For a lot of people, $20,000 is enough to cover a full emergency fund, right?
three to six months of their monthly expenses saved up. That's why I want to get you to 20,000 because most people, they understand the importance of having an emergency fund, but they don't want to put in the work to get there. They don't want to actually put in the sacrifices that it's going to take to build up that much cash.
Most people, that's one of the main reasons that 80% of all Americans don't have $20,000 saved up. We know we're going to run up against emergency. A lot of us have had emergencies that were very costly, but a lot of us don't want to actually do the work.
And that's what I'm trying to tell you on this video is you got to do the work. You got to do what it takes to put in the time, the effort, the intention, the focus to get there. Now, the next thing you have to do if you have less than $20,000 saved up is to make sure that you clear your debts.
And when I say clear your debts, I mean pay off your debts as soon as possible. Listen, the money that you're putting towards your debt, your bad debt, your car payment, your student loan payment, whatever it could be, that's money right there that you can plow towards a high yield savings account, but it's being taken all up by this stupid bad debt that you have that's around your neck and it won't leave your neck because you're sitting there paying all these monthly payments and you ain't got no money. And so first get you a small little emergency fund of $2 or $3,000 so you can take care of the immediate stuff and then immediately get rid of the debt as soon as possible.
Now some of you you have three 4 $500,000 of bad debt. Now I'm not talking about debt on a home you owe some land you own. I'm talking about debt on cars, medical bills, credit cards, things like that that are just dragging you down and dragging your ability to actually save money down because you have $1,500, $2,000 going towards this bad debt every single month.
Now, let me go back to something I said. I want to really hone in on this point. You need to have initially at least a couple of,000 for the small things that are going to come up.
Make sure before you pay on your debt that you have at least a few thousand as you're getting ready to go towards getting more money saved up. You have a couple of $2 or $3,000 saved up. Then attack the debt, pay down the debt, pay off the debt, get rid of the debt, and then hurry up to build up to this $20,000.
Now, listen, you can do them simultaneously. Let's not act like you have to do these things in the order that I'm saying. You could pay off your debt a little bit slower so that you can put more money towards this $20,000 goal of savings.
You could say, "You know what? I don't want to put all my money on debt right now. " Okay, cool.
Everybody's situation is different. I got to explain it like this, guys. The way I'm doing it may be different than the way somebody else does it.
Maybe different a little bit different the way you do it. Listen, there's few hard and fast rules when it comes to money. There's some absolutes, right?
We know for a fact that you want to get rid of bad debt. We know for a fact that you want to build up an emergency fund. We know for a fact that you want to invest more money.
Those are absolutes. But whether or not you stop all of your debt payoff to save up money or you stop all of your savings to pay off your debt, that's really going to be up to you, your preference, your risk tolerance level, what you think is the best move for you. Listen, in my opinion, you need to have at least $2 or $3,000 laying around in case something crazy goes on.
Then you need to pay off the debt. Then you need to finish up your goal up to $20,000. And do all this as soon as possible.
Listen, everybody don't have debt. I totally get it, right? There's some people that are watching this video that don't have debt.
And if that's you, you go right to plowing all your money towards $20,000 to make sure you get that emergency fund saved up. If it is you, get the debt out the way as soon as possible after you save up about $200 or $3,000. Get that debt out the way and then plow money towards your $20,000 savings goal.
Right? But the debt is a wealth killer. It's a destroyer.
The bad debt is a destroyer of wealth. It's a destroyer. It's it's blocking you from doing everything you really want to do and accomplish with money.
The debt just blocks you. It's a big old barrier between you and financial freedom. So, you want to get it out the way as soon as possible, right?
Whether you use the avalanche method, the debt snowball method, totally your choice. I don't even care if you use the I ain't paying them fools no more money. They better quit calling me method.
I don't care what method you use. Just get rid of the debt. Now, another piece of this strategy is to making sure you cut your monthly expenses down to the bare bones, right?
To the bare bones. The more you cut your expenses, the more money you'll have to actually pay off the debt or the more money you'll have to actually put towards your savings goal of $20,000. But you have to cut some expenses.
You got to hurt. You got to have some pain. You got to sacrifice some things, right?
When you don't have $20,000 saved up and you got a bunch of debt and things laying around, listen, you got to make some sacrifices. What are you willing to sacrifice? Ask yourself that question, right?
What are you willing to put down to the side and say, "I'mma stop doing that for a while or I'mma cut that out all together. " You got to make some changes. You got to get ruthless with this change in your life.
You got to get ruthless with this notion that every single dollar that you spend matters, right? You got to count the small stuff because the small stuff adds up. If that means you got to lower your rent and maybe move in with a friend, move in with a cousin, move back home with mom, whatever it takes, right?
You may have to do it, right? Maybe cutting some subscriptions, maybe you change your insurance, right? Or you shop for better insurance, cheaper insurance.
Whatever it takes, you got to do something different, right? You got to actually put yourself out there on a limb a little bit and take a chance and make some changes so you can free up some cash. No changes should be off limits if you're trying to save up $20,000 fast, right?
Get out of debt and save up $20,000 fast. Nothing should be off limits. All changes should be on the table and negotiable in your own mind, right?
And it may be downsizing for a season in terms of where you live, in terms of what you have, right? Maybe you take a step back from some of the things that you normally do that are costly and perhaps you need to try to increase your income, right? And when I say increase your income, I'm talking about making more money in terms of your side hustle, your side gig, working a few extra hours in terms of overtime at your current job.
Maybe you ask for a raise at your job. Now listen, don't ask for a raise unless you are a top tier performer at your job. But otherwise, maybe you can ask for a raise and see if they give you more money.
Cut expenses, but at the same time increase income. Cut expenses so you have more money, even if you don't have extra income, and then go out and get a little more income, right? Do both of those things.
Don't feel like you just got to cut all your expense and that's it. Don't feel like you got to go out and get a side hustle and that's it. You can do both, right?
You can do both because I want you to double your money as opposed to just getting a little extra because you work a little overtime. I want you to have way more money so you have way more money to plow towards paying off debt and saving towards your $20,000 in order to reach that goal. So, you may have to go hustle mode for a couple of years, two or three years, maybe 6 months, whatever it could be.
Maybe you got to dig in and say, you know what, I'm going to plow into this thing for real, right? I'm going to go extra. I'm going to go ahead and get that part-time job delivering pizzas or I'm going to go ahead and get that part-time job get delivering Door Dash or not just Door Dash.
Or maybe I want to work at Amazon in the warehouse for 6 hours a day or 20 hours a week so I can have more income coming in. A lot of times people can do more. Right?
Listen, if you're single, you have no children, you have no responsibilities. Maybe you got to have a season of your life where you're in a year or two where you're working two jobs and sleeping 8 hours, getting up, going to the next job, sleeping 8 hours, going back out to the next job. You got to get serious with this thing.
and you have to do more than you're doing right now. Now, some of you may be saying, "Hey, I do all I can do and I still don't have enough money left over. " Then you're not doing all you can do.
You're not making the sacrifices necessary to have the extra money to save up. You're not doing all you can do because I talk to people all day long, every day, and I'm looking at their expenses, and I'm looking at what they do. And 99 times out of 100, people have excuses.
They make excuses for not going the extra mile. They make excuses for not sacrificing. They think that they're doing all they can do.
But listen, we live in America, right? America. In America, let's just be honest, right?
In America, a lot of people are spoiled. They're spoiled. They'd rather blame the government and the economic system and and who the president is.
They'd rather blame all that stuff than actually get out there and do the work than actually make the sacrifices necessary. A lot of people are like that. Let's just be real, right?
Cuz I see it. I see it in people's stories that I hear them tell me and in their when we put all their stuff on paper and we look at their expenses and we say, "Wow, you spend $500 and 600 and $800 a month on hair care and getting your nails done and maybe even your gym shoes and your gym membership is $150. " And I'm looking at these numbers and I'm saying and then this is the same people that turn around and say, "I can't do anything else.
I'm doing the best I can. I'm working as much as I can, right? working 45 hours a week as much as they can.
Listen, I haven't worked 40 hours a week only in about 25 years. That's just the truth. Now, I'm not saying it to brag or boast.
I'm just saying most people can always do a little more. Most people can always cut back in an area in terms of expenses. Most people actually have another gear to get to to go to, but they don't go.
They don't push themselves. They don't think they can. They think that everything else around them is the issue and the problem to why they can't save up money, right?
Something always happened, right? Murphy's law. If it ain't one thing, it's another, right?
Richard Dimples Fields, if you don't know that song, right? I think that was back in the 80s. But the point is this.
You have to make some sacrifices on this journey. Nobody's going to drop $20,000 in your lap and say, "Here's your emergency fund. " But guess what?
If you don't have $20,000 saved up in this climate, this environment we're in right now in America and around the world, you're going to struggle. You're in danger. And you may not even know you're in danger.
But I'm telling you, you got to do some things. Now, another thing you need to do is make sure and commit to the idea and the notion that you're not going to go back into bad debt when you're on this journey in general, right, for the rest of your life. But specifically on this journey to save up $20,000, make sure you don't go back into debt.
Just have a commitment to yourself. Talk to yourself. Make a note to yourself.
Put it on the refrigerator. Put it on poster board. Make it your screen saver on your computer that you will not go back into bad debt.
Right? Credit card debt. Look, that quick swipe with the credit card sounds simple, sounds innocent, right?
You know that you're going to pay it off, right? But listen, that simple swipe can lead to three or four swipes in a week. Can lead to five or six or seven swipes in a month.
Next thing you know, you're getting a credit card bill every month and you owe 300. Then it's 3,000. Then it's 10,000.
I know. Been there, done that. It happens.
But so you got to make a commitment to change your habits and behaviors around money and how you spend money and how you think about money because otherwise you're going to find yourself creeping back into debt and you're going to find yourself using the money you were saving up for $20,000 to get out of debt or to pay on a car payment or to pay on a credit card or to pay on a a payday loan that you picked up. Right? And throughout this process, you're budgeting.
You're doing a budget. Making sure that you're again, like I said at the beginning, tracking your money. And you're also, by the way, I suggest every three or four times a year doing a net worth statement so you can keep up with how your liabilities are going down and how your assets are going up as you save money.
Remember, remember the money you put towards your emergency fund, this $20,000, that's an asset that gets counted on the asset side of your net worth statement. And all the debt that you pay off is sitting on your liability side of your net worth statement. And it should be going down and down and down unless it's already at zero now.
And then also you're educating yourself on a regular basis. You need to start reading some money books. You need to start listening to more money podcasts, right?
You have to get new information to help you think differently. The new information that helps you think differently is ultimately going to help you behave differently with your money. So you got to be reading the books.
You got to be listening to YouTube channels like this, right? sharing these YouTube channels with other people to help out others along the way. But you got to make sure that you're bringing in new knowledge so you can ultimately transfer that into new behaviors with money.
So, let me recap. One, track your spending. And you can do that through a budget, a written budget that you write down on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet every single month.
Also, make sure you pay off bad debt as soon as possible. the debt is going to get in the way of your ultimate $20,000 goal. Don't forget that you should first have $2 or $3,000 put to the side before you pay off debt or do anything just in case you have a small emergency.
Then after you do that, you go ahead and pay off the debt. But get that little small emergency fund first to cover the little stuff. Then make sure you pay off the debt.
Then make sure you never go back into debt. You don't go back and say, "You know what? Just a little swipe here and there on the credit card.
" Don't do it. trust me, don't do it. And then, of course, you're analyzing your budget to cut your expenses.
Kind of cut them to the bare bone if you can, so you have more money to put towards this $20,000 savings goal. And then also, don't forget to track your net worth so you can kind of keep up on a broader, bigger scale on how you're doing in terms of lowering debt, adding assets, and then ultimately, you want to plow the money towards your $20,000 goal. And listen, for some of you, this process will take a month.
For others of you, this process may take 18 months, right? 20 months, maybe two years, who knows? But the sooner you reach the goal of $20,000, the better you'll be able to sleep at night, the more you can breathe easier, right?
Because you get that weight off your back of not having enough money in case you have a big emergency. And stay educated, stay disciplined, try to get as much new information as you can. Right?
If you're watching a guru or a person on YouTube and you got a funny feeling about them, there's about a thousand more people on YouTube you can turn on and watch and listen to, right? Or podcast, right? Whatever it could be.
The goal is not for me, the goal is not to get you into a seminar. The goal is not to get you to buy a course. The goal is not to get The goal is simply this.
For me, the goal is to get you to be better with your money and to get you some cash saved up. And we don't have 80% of all Americans who don't even have $20,000 saved up. It's a big number for a lot of people, but with the right discipline and the right focus and the right habits, you can do it.
That's the motivation for me. I don't have anything to sell you. I just want to give you that information.
And also, you got to sacrifice something to free up some money. Maybe you sacrifice some time and take on a part-time gig. Maybe you sacrifice some time and work overtime, right?
whatever it could be. Maybe you sacrifice some time and really put more energy and effort into your side hustle that can make you some additional money to make all this stuff happen faster. But don't be afraid of the sacrifice.
Don't be afraid of the things that you have to give up because really in the end when you get your $20,000 saved up and you have all your debt paid off, what you're really getting is you're getting some financial freedom in the long run. Look, a lot of us, we jumped on the hamster wheel at 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, and we haven't got off the hamster wheel yet. Hopefully, the things I'm telling you in this video will help you get off of that hamster wheel sooner rather than later.
Look, if you already have $8,000, $10,000, $15,000 saved up. Bravo. Congratulations.
Kudos to you. You've done an excellent job. Just a little bit more work will get you over the $20,000 mark.
And for some of you, you may have monthly expenses that are higher and you want 6 months of emergency fund laying around. And this $20,000 is probably more needs to be more like $30,000 for some of you. Everybody's situation is different.
But the point is, finish strong. Be intentional. Be disciplined.
Stay focused. You can do it. It's hard.
It's going to be hard for some of you because some of you have a low income. Some of you have poor habits. Some of you have never had 20 never had or seen $20,000 in your life.
Listen, you can do it. It's possible, right? It's a goal that's attainable and reachable if you're willing to do the things that it takes to get there.
Look, I hope I've offered some value for you on this video. If you did get value, you can smash the like button. Drp a comment and say, "I got value.
" Drp a comment and say, "I appreciate the video. " Whatever you want to do, just let me know, hey, do you have $20,000 saved up? And if you got it saved up, what was your method?
How did you get there? Because I like the comment section of these videos to be like tutorials to help other people out to encourage and motivate other people to get their stuff together. So, drop me a comment below and let me know.
The best person who's going to take care of the old you is the young you. Guys, do me a favor. Take care of people, but take care of yourself because you're people, too.
Until the next video. Peace.
