let's discuss financial rage bait & the morality of debt 💸 | Internet Analysis

TIME STAMPS:
0:00 - intro
3:58 - financial rage bait
5:03 - Caleb Hammer's Financial Audit
6:41 - is your Spotify subscription ruining your budget?
10:15 - thanks to Warby Parker!
11:23 - strict budgets & debt payoff plans aren't realistic
15:27 - mocking your guests under the guise of helping them??
18:05 - routes of debt payoff: consider bankruptcy?
20:20 - debt payoff should involve suffering?
21:04 - pay off your debts ASAP
23:23 - the slow but steady debt payoff

RESOURCES & REFERENCES:

TIKTOKS:

Tiffany Ferguson (she/her), 28 years old. #internetanalysis #debt #debtfreejourney

[tiffanyferg]

engaging with rage bait and getting mad?? I am shocked!! lmao hope y'all enjoy this one!

[oat]

I've been subscribed to Caleb since February 2023. His videos motivated me to pay off my debt quickly. I had roughly $15, 000 of credit card debt and now I'm almost debt free (I have about $1500 remaining). However, I really appreciate this video and your perspective. I've put myself through so much stress and mental exhaustion living solely off my necessities and putting everything else towards debt. I haven't given myself any room for fun activities, hobbies, etc. I feel guilty anytime I want to take myself out to eat. I didn't realize how much of a toll it's taken on me until recently. This video made me realize that enjoying life isn't a crime and what I'm doing isn't sustainable. I can still pay off debt but leave some room for the things I enjoy. Thank you so much.

[superlifeofparty]

I consider this genre financial BDSM - tell me I’m bad for spending, tell me I’m good for saving…I used my credit cards, punish me!!

[melissadill]

Coming from my personal experience, I felt like Caleb's audits really helped me understand that I had a major spending problem. His audits are exactly that, audits. He isn't giving financial advice because that's not the point of the show. However, he does set them up with a financial advisor for free as well as gifting them tools which teach them how to create their own budget. In many of his videos, he does give an allowance for "treats" which subscriptions like Spotify can go into.

The whole "treat" argument actually reminds me of when I was a kid and really wanted some toy and my parents would usually tell me no, but sometimes they would let me get it. Being an adult is partially about parenting yourself and realizing that no, you can't always get what you want when you want it, but that doesn't mean you can never have it.

[KerryAnnGL]

The Spotify charge is so insane. You should use budgeting like a diet. Fully restrictive diets have poor results. Completely cutting off any food someone might like that they deem a “treat” will make it more likely for them to eventually binge and have a bad relationship with food. That one slice of cake becomes all consuming and they lose any ability to learn healthy habits. Moderation is key.

Having a cheap treat ($10 a month for Spotify) being in their monthly budget means they learn how to well budget a treat. They understand it’s not necessary, but it’s a treat and we can pay for those when we budget for them.

[slushpuppii]

im glad more people are talking about Caleb, dudes such a hypocrite. Can insult his guest all he wants and as soon as someone calls him out he bans them from his subreddit

[reis]

The issue is that the small things add up. If you watch his audits, most people are spending 30-40% of their income eating out and "treating" themselves when they have high fixed costs.

[danijadedd]

Oh gosh, I dunno if I can get through this video without blowing my gasket.

I work at a credit union, and through that work I do a lot with financial education (financial well-being for all) and advocacy on a state and national level. There are SO SO SO many systemic issues that have led to where we are as a country. We've completely failed to educate people how to navigate our systems because our systems are already so fucked up. Good on you for trying to wade into this fire without developing high blood pressure.

[iTzDritte]

I wish algorithms didn’t reward rage-baiting, but it’s too hard to accurately auto-detect, so now it’s one of the dominant social media strategies because it works 😢

[wendystyles]

Caleb’s content makes a lot more sense when you watch the full YouTube videos rather than the shorts. A lot of his guests spend more on eating out or random shit than anything else, they go to him for help getting out of debt and they don’t realise where their money is going. He’ll show pie charts of their spending categories and then build them a budget.

[NJdaniels]

Last year I looked at my spending and was surprised that I really didn't have much to cut. I don't drink, go out to clubs, go on vacations, I barely ever buy new clothes. Really the only thing I treat myself to is restaurant food or snacks from the corner store. But even then, that was only around $150 a month. Then I got hit with multiple surprise car expenses back to back that added up to $3000 over 3 months.

Yeah mathematically the smart thing to do is just always be frugal but realizing that a year+ of frugality can be wiped out in a single bill leaves you wondering what would be the point.

So I try not to beat myself up over my spending a bit here and there over the one thing I allow myself.

[ArchIVEDCinema]

Ok, I'm all for Caleb criticism, but one thing I'll say to clarify: (That I wish *HE* would make a better point to clarify) is that when he's rattling off all the random small expenses, often times his point is that they are making those purchases on a credit card that is already past its limit and is carrying a balance/acrewing interest. In that case, any purchase made specifically ON THAT CARD better be extremely justifyable, otherwise its very financially stupid because it is unnecessarily contributing to a growing snowball of debt.

But that nuance is completely lost in translation with how Caleb presents his content, which I would argue is due to irresponsibility on Caleb's part.

[SparklesNJazz]

i also have to mention Caleb doesn’t always recommend people go cold turkey. he has told many guests that if getting a treat once inna while will keep them on track then do it. there’s a lot of misconceptions about him here. watching a few videos and shorts doesn’t showcase the entirety of what he does.

[tiff]

There's a mixture of issues happening here.

1.) Caleb Hammer (I believe) originally had good intentions with wanting to save people from their own bad financial decisions and guide them to get out of debt because it is incredibly frustrating and easy to feel hopeless.

2.) People ARE living above their means, and live with high fixed costs to chase the American dream BUT nobody has informed us that the American dream is dead. It's okay to not own a home, or to live with roommates, or to live in a 1 bed room apartment, or with your parents. These debts 99.9% of the time are from high fixed costs trying to chase a lifestyle that is far outside of their means.

In summary, enjoy your coffee, enjoy your Spotify, go on vacation BUT when you make long term financial decisions like renting an apartment, buying a car, taking a loan out etc etc, , think about how much it will actually cost you and what sacrifices you'll have to make in order to pay those things off.

[mikemonaghanphoto]

Spotify also blocks skipping songs after a while if you don't have Premium. God forbid someone wants to listen to the music they want without ads & being able to listen to the songs they want. The rage bait got me!

[angienicolehernandez]

Some of Caleb's episodes are helpful. So many people are terrified of even looking at their finances, many guests don't even know how much they spend (one woman guessed 2k/month when her real expenses were 8k) and think just because life's hard that they don't have another option but to live in perpetual debt. The episodes where Caleb does the math and shows them they can be debt free in X amount of months if they just temporarily sacrifice immediate pleasure for long-term rewards are great imo, if I was in their situation that'd give me so much hope. That being said, those episodes where the guests are so stubborn that they just yell all the time amd never even reach the budgeting part are so frustrating they're not even fun.

[linzertorte]

I’m in the middle. I paid down 30k in two years by using cash-stuffing and working a second job. I learned a lot from the discipline and it feels great to be debt free. I can’t stand the holier-than-thou attitudes towards debt though. There will always be discomfort when paying off debt, but different people need different approaches.

[OhiChicken]

One thing in particular that I dislike about Caleb and his fans is Caleb always says "no one in the comments should make fun of my guest. I only do it because we have a friendly raport outside of the show and they sign a waiver basically saying I can yell at them for entertainment purposes and they're here getting help and you're not...so mleh"

But then he doesnt censor or prohibit guest mockery in the comments on ANY platform, whereas comments directed at him are almost instantly modded out.

Any and all negative feedback about his 100$ budgeting course and 100$ investing course are removed on every platform, too. If you see a negative comment about Caleb or his show on any of his pages, it just hasnt been deleted yet. Thats why I'm so vocal in your comments right now... Caleb cant censor his critics here. You deserve the views and comments more than he does.

[nopeabb]

If you watch several of Calebs audits, at the end he shows pie chart of spending and you will see that majority of those guests "struggling and living paycheck to paycheck" in fact spend huge amount of money on bs. The majority of them, after having a budget, can pay off their "bad" debts in a year with the current income. This means that INCOME is not a problem, spending is.
...
And yes there are people who are really struggling, but I cannot comprehend complaining that you cannot pay off debt and that it is problem of society while at the same time spending 800-1000$ per month on bs. At the end, I feel like I'm the stupid one who makes sure to pay off her bills, that doesn't go on tropical party vacation several times per year, or reviewing wardrobe every season, or eating in a restaurants every meal.
Perfect example are guests who make over 100 000 per year and still complain that they are living paycheck to paycheck.
But yes, maybe I'm the stupid one and should feel sorry for them and forgive their debts so they can go on vacation for the 5th time that year.

[iTzDritte]

There’s such a big gap between how rich and poor people are treated by society for their money mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, but only rich people are afforded the grace to recover from them.