I've been obsessed lately with a YouTube show and podcast called "Financial Audit," which was created and is hosted by Caleb Hammer. Hammer, a 28-year-old based in Austin, Texas, brings people into his studio and meticulously combs through their financial records. He critiques their spending habits, and then helps them create budgets and financial plans to help them get out of debt and build more stable financial lives. He draws upon his own past experiences–he was once drowning in debt and was driven to educate himself about personal finance–and then uses his knowledge and experience to help others. He's incredibly entertaining (at least to me, and the rest of his almost 600,000 YouTube subscribers), and also provides sound financial advice.
Insider recently published this great piece on Hammer. Here's an excerpt:
He started out posting on local forums and casting sites for people who wanted help with their finances, offering to pay them for their time.
"I have lots of respect for the people who do come on and put their situation on full display," Hammer said, adding that he hopes people in similar boats can "recognize the terror of their situation."
Hammer never plays down the debts people have racked up, because he wants people to truly understand how much trouble they could be in.
"I dig into people so much so they can really realize how scary the situation is," he said. "It's certainly emotional when you realize, OK, I got myself into this mess."
I find him really funny as he gets all worked up over someone going to Whataburger for burgers or to the gas station for taquitos every day. But even though he gets really irritated with the financial decisions his guests sometimes make, in the end he's incredibly compassionate and really tries his best to help people get on track. If you want to check him out, here's his YouTube.
