Well, after three years with my Tahoe, I am finally getting rid of it.
Let me tell you why.
So three years ago, if you're an OG on my TikTok, you know
that I bought my Tahoe for a lot of money.
So I bought my car and I financed it for $84,000.
Which was fine, you know, three years ago, but I have been making
$1,400 a month payments.
For the past three years.
That TikToker is getting a lot of heat, a lot of people dunking on her
because of her financial decisions.
Her name is Blaze Arnold, and she's created a stir online because of
the extreme amount of money that she and her husband, which we'll get to in just a
moment, are spending on their car payments and general spending habits in general.
Now, let's hear more from her.
And before we do, I just want to let you know I feel bad
and I don't want to pile on.
I actually think there's a bigger, broader problem in the country
when it comes to personal finance.
We'll get to that in just a moment. Let's watch.
I have been making $1,400 a month payments.
For the past three years.
And if you do the math, you will see that $1,400 a month payments
in three years should be around $50,000 worth of payments.
Yeah, well, I I've only made off $10,000 of the balance.
So my $84,000 car that I bought three years ago is now still
at a balance of about 74, almost $75,000.
And honestly, that blows my mind
that I have paid $50,000 into this car and
have only paid off $10,000 of the balance.
So the reason why her car payments are so high, and the reason why she has paid so
little of the principal of that vehicle, is because of how high the interest
rate is for the loan for the car.
Her car payment is again $1,400
with a 10% interest on an 84 month term.
Do you know? How do you know how long 84 months is?
That's seven years.
That's crazy. Seven year loan.
No. Come on.
I want to hug her and just be like, you're getting played.
I know that we don't have education and personal finance in our education system,
which we absolutely should have.
So people know how to balance a budget, how to, you know,
balance a checkbook, all of that.
But man, I feel so bad.
Seven year loan, 10% interest and you don't need the Tahoe.
You just don't need you don't need an $84,000 car.
You don't, you don't. There are better options out there, right?
Of course. I mean, I have a look.
Mine's a lease, so it's a little bit different.
It's three years.
But it is like a fraction. A fraction of what she pays.
That is unbelievable.
And so the unfortunately, the Anna's right about the number one problem,
which is that we don't teach people about finance in school.
So now, look, my kids go to a public school here in LA,
and, my son is about to go to high school.
And we looked at some of the electives.
And in one of the classes they actually teach about finance,
I'm like, oh my God, that's amazing. I've never seen that before.
That is amazing. And that's awesome.
And by the way, it's at a public school and in of all places in California
where it's been decimated.
But some still exist that are good out there.
Okay, so anyways, the point is guys, interest rates are everything.
And so if you're collecting interest it's going to accrue over time
and it's going to allow you to build wealth a generational wealth.
But if you're paying interest rates, especially ones
as high as 14%. 10% in this.
Case 10%, some I saw were 14%, in, in, in these car loans, etc..
Oh my God, you're never going to be able to climb out of the hole
that you're digging, right?
And the more you pay that kind of sky high interest rate, let alone credit cards,
which we'll get to later, right?
That's why we can't climb out of debt, because interest rates look kill you.
Here, I'll give you one quick example here.
Trump did Taj Mahal at a 14% interest rate.
He borrowed money to set up his third casino in Atlantic City.
And at the time, people warned 14% is way too high.
You'll never get out even if you run a casino, which basically prints money,
you can't pay off a 14% interest rate.
And they were right. And he bankrupted himself.
And so that is what's happening to the average American on a mass scale.
You're so right about that.
And unfortunately for her household, she's not the only one who took out a massive
car loan with a high interest rate.
So did her husband. Let's watch.
Do y'all want to know what is worse than my Tahoe payment?
You guys thought that was bad? Wait till you hear this one.
It's my husband's truck.
My husband drives a 2020 GMC AT4 Sierra 1500.
We bought it in August of 2022, financed it for $78,000.
He still has a remaining balance of. I think it's 72 or $74,000.
I haven't really checked recently.
His payments are $1,600 a month, so y'all
got my $1,400 Tahoe payment was bad.
His truck payment is $1,600 a month
with an Apr of 14%.
So yeah, y'all stop coming after me for my bad finance decisions
and go after him because he fucked up too.
Too bad he didn't buy his truck for him. I did.
- So yeah, I missed him both up. - Oops.
No, no, I changed my mind. Keep dunking on her.
Yeah, go for it. Like, what are you doing?
Why do you guys need so many trucks?
We didn't even include the N where she said, I'm not sure we need any of this
because I like our Audi the best.
What? Oh my God.
What are you doing, lady?
And why are you saying these things online?
Why? Why?
Like, you know, you're telling on yourself.
Has that occurred to you?
Oh my God. Wow.
The Tahoe, they financed $84,000 for the Tahoe at 10% her husband's car.
They financed $78,000 at 14%. We didn't even get to the Audi yet.
Jake, you're stepping on my lines, bro.
Sorry. Okay, we'll get to that in just a moment.
But, like.
No, this goes beyond not having any education in personal finance.
Like.
I. I. But but why? Yeah.
Why why do you need the trucks? Like, do you get what I'm saying?
Like I get there's only one reason I could imagine.
Look, there's two different problems at large for the American people.
One is the, the financial literacy that we talked about.
And and of course, people pushing you.
Oh, you got to buy bigger, you got to buy more, etc..
Ignore those people. Yeah.
- They're not looking out for you. - Not at all.
Okay.
So on the other hand, and then the second problem is a sense of entitlement.
Like it's clear from her attitude that she feels entitled to endless trucks
and out.is and all these different things.
Right.
Like, I don't know if she grew up wealthy, you know, and that doesn't apply
to everyone, but it does.
It seems to apply to her and a bunch of other people.
I don't know if it's entitlement. I think it's something different.
Obviously we're speculating here, but look, Americans have been conditioned
to be consumers, and we've also been conditioned through mass media
to constantly compete with one another, like, keep up with the Joneses
and flaunt your wealth.
And at some point in my life, I realized I'm not really doing this for me.
I'm doing this to impress other people and honestly, other people, right?
I want to have a I want to have peace of mind when it comes
to personal finance, right?
I want to know that my I'm not in like I'm not drowning in debt.
I want to know that I'm living within my means.
I bought a used car, I used I bought a used Honda Civic.
And you want to know something? That car is great.
It does exactly what I need it to do, which is get me to my job
and get me back home as soon as possible.
Okay.
Yeah, well, I drove a Pontiac Grand Am for a couple of decades.
Yeah, I remember that. And it's.
Look, I totally get if you're like a car nut, and it's something that gives you
a tremendous amount of joy.
I totally understand that there are better ways to find the car of your dreams
without going into massive debt by buying, you know, the car brand new, for instance.
Like, I think the best trick in buying a car is to specifically seek out
slightly used vehicles, right?
Cars that were three year leases and they just returned the car.
And then obviously the the dealership wants to sell that used car and they sell
it for a lot less compared to the new car.
- It's the same car. - It's the same car.
Look, guys, I get it. Sometimes it has real world effects.
When I drove my Pontiac Grand Am for all those years.
Did I miss out on a couple of, dates?
Yeah, I remember I picked up this gorgeous girl.
I'd convince her to come out on a date. She sees my Pontiac Grand am.
- Good. - No. No good.
It's perfect.
It's a great way to, like, you know, basically weed.
Out people who are looking for the money.
Exactly. Especially in those decades.
I didn't have any. Right.
And so it was two for the price of one. It's same time.
I would have loved to have hooked up with her.
Keep it real. Okay?
You didn't have to specify that we do. Okay.
So I'm saying, though, that's a rare case where it makes a difference
and people way over focus on it.
I just want clown ass friend who was like, he hadn't gone out on a date
in a couple of years.
I'm like, why not?
And he's like, well, I lost my BMW for a number of reasons.
And until I buy a BMW again, I can't in good conscience ask any girl out.
I'm like, of course you can, bro.
I take him to Taco Bell. Who cares?
Right?
So people over focus on that one thing where status could help you, etc.
But outside of that, you're basically a walking billboard.
Like whether it's a bag or it's a car or any luxury item.
Totally.
You're basically saying like, I'm substituting this label for my confidence.
And personality, right?
Like, honestly, I would say that if you are a guy who's funny, that's going to get
a lot more mileage in your dating life than your Tahoe or whatever car you
think is going to get the ladies look.
And by the way, are there women out there who care deeply about, you know, the
flashiness and the show and the wealth?
Yes, of course.
But do you really want to attract those women, like for a long term relationship?
Probably not. Yeah.
And and look, I don't know for sure, but I it sounded like in the background,
you know, she has a child so I'm assuming she has children.
Dude that money like put it in a savings account.
Okay.
An education savings account. Let it grow.
- Compounding interest. - Imagine if she had taken that.
Yeah. I'm sorry.
Anna.
Imagine you know how she only paid off 10,000 when she paid 50,000?
Because most of it went to interest. Yes.
Take the $40,000 difference.
Put it in as a interest bearing account for your kids education and their set.
Yes.
Even with a massive amount of, of of money that higher education costs these days,
40,000 with a compounding interest over 18 years.
And you're going to be good. Okay.
Instead you blew it on a Tahoe and you.
Paid down 10,000 of it. You're driving me crazy, folks.
Look, guys, stop hating on her.
She's. Look, she's a civilian, okay?
I'm serious, and I use this.
What do you say that? Yeah.
She's not a politician. She's not in media.
She's not a giant influencer. Right?
She's just a rando, okay?
And I call them civilians, which apparently amuses Anna.
- It does so for the civilians. - Let's not be too harsh, okay?
Like she made a mistake.
But really, others of you haven't made that mistake.
I think she's representative of a ton of Americans.
And I'm not saying that to insult Americans.
It's just it's what our culture is.
And I think it's really important to, like, deprogram Americans
from believing in that culture of like, oh, the material stuff is what makes
you happy, being flashy and having like, the newest, nicest cars.
Super important.
It's not be less of a consumer and more of a saver.
- Really? - Yeah.
And, my last thing on this is that.
Look, guys, it's not like I haven't done that drug when I couldn't afford it.
I would have to keep credit card bills sometimes for a long time.
And credit card interest rates are the worst.
They can get up to 24%.
You're never going to be able to dig out of that mess, right?
So I know it's super hard and I just told you I've already I also had that problem.
Right. But try not to get into credit card debt.
Try to pay those things off as much as you possibly can, because every month you wait
is a month they rob you of the interest, that that you're paying.
They're they're not robbing you on purpose.
Well, that's another long conversation, right?
But you know what you're getting yourself into.
So try super hard not to because value your money.
You can buy other things with that instead of paying interest.
Final thing I'll say, because we promised it, she's drowning in this debt.
Car related debt. That household is at least.
And, she decided that in response to it, she would buy an Audi in cash
and then brag about it, which, by the way, had over 100,000 miles on it, like, just.
Stop.
- Stop with the cars. - Just stop.
I just told you, buying used cars is actually probably a pretty good idea.
Yes, unless you're buying a European car that has 100,000 miles on it.
Most likely to break down of all cars.
I don't know about Audi's in particular, but and getting parts
for some of those cars is hard.
What did you do?
I can't imagine making worse decisions in this case.
But again, leave her alone. Rando civilian.
Yeah, just learn from those mistakes. All of us collectively.
Exactly.
And stop trying to impress each other with useless crap.
Okay, cars are for getting from one place to another.
I'm with Anna. You love cars?
That's a different category of people, right?
But everybody else stop all the pretense and just be confident in who you are.
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