- Hey, everybody, I have Humble the Poet here.
He is gonna share with us his story about being in debt
and getting out of it.
(upbeat music)
So tell my viewers a little bit about
what you do on your channel.
- So I go by the name of Humble the Poet.
I am a rapper, an author,
and I put words together for everything else in between.
- And I'll put all the links to his stuff
in the description so you can check out what he does on
YouTube and his books and
all of that wonderful stuff.
But today, we're gonna talk a little bit about
being in debt and I know you put out
a video about it before
and I'll also link that in the description
but tell my viewers, I guess
we'll start at the beginning,
kinda like how it started, what happened?
- Well, this, the, the ironic thing was
I got in debt when I started making money.
So before when I didn't have any money
I couldn't go into debt so.
- Isn't that true, like
you get used to spending it,
I think or something.
Like, when you're broke you're just broke.
- Yeah, when you don't have money,
you're not thinking about money,
you're not really worried about money,
'cause you don't have any of it to worry about.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Interesting.
- So, yeah, what happened was I went to school
and I got a degree in education
and I got hired as a schoolteacher
and I got hired in the month of May,
for the following September,
and knowing that I had a job coming meant
I was gonna spend the entire summer spending money
I didn't have on my credit card
so that kinda started it off
and then once I started the job,
it took three months just to pay off
that credit card debt
from me enjoying my summer
and when it comes to salary
you kinda have no surprises.
You know exactly how much money you're gonna make
every two weeks, so you slowly start allocating
every single dollar of that paycheck.
So, you know, this much money
is gonna go to my cell phone.
This much money is going to my car insurance,
this is going to my car,
this is going to some other service
that I probably don't need.
And, you know, there's unlimited
opportunities to spend your money these days
and when you know exactly how much money you have,
you become much more automated in that.
So, I started living that life and buying
stuff I didn't need and
eventually I thought the secret was to get
more money so I could buy more stuff
and I started getting a little risky with my money,
started learning about investing
but not learning as much as I did
just straight investing, not knowing what I was doing
and that kinda got me into a hole
and then I started learning about lines of credit
and the next thing I knew,
two or three years later,
I accumulated a gang of debt
but I thought it was manageable
'cause I had my day job
and I still had that money coming in
and I allocated parts of my salary
to making all my minimum payments
on my lines of credit, on my credit card,
and all of that stuff.
It wasn't until I actually left my full time job
to become an artist
where everything kinda changed because
now I didn't have that regular money coming in
but I was also still spending
'cause I had actually thought
I was gonna be coming into some money
and actually get a record deal.
So what ended up happening was
because I was told that that paperwork
was gonna take a little while,
I did the same thing I did when I became a teacher.
I spent money I didn't have
thinking that it was gonna come soon
and I was gonna pay it off.
And what changed for me was I actually
had to go to people, to get some money.
And that's when I kinda had my realization
that I was just trying to dig myself
out of a hole and really just getting deeper and deeper
and now I was no longer faceless banks
who I didn't have a relationship with.
These were my really good friends,
some were family members, these were people
that I cared about, and I didn't
want to destroy that relationship.
It was more so the issue that I
got to a point where I couldn't see where
I was gonna make money to pay them back.
- Yeah, like there's nothing coming in.
I don't know where my next paycheck.
- Yeah, exactly. - Like I don't have any steady
income. - Yeah, so it wasn't like I
could pay them back in increments.
It wasn't that I couldn't do anything,
it was, I had no way to pay them back
and they meant something to me.
These are people that I cared about.
- Yeah.
- And I didn't wanna become the people that we all know
that borrow money, then disappear from you
and I learned that they're not disappearing
because they're bad people.
Some of them, they're ashamed. - Yeah.
- They feel guilty, they don't know how to handle it,
they don't wanna be seen in public
spending any money around you.
- Yeah, because they haven't paid you back.
- They haven't paid you back. - Yeah.
- So I didn't wanna become that person
' cause I have experienced those people before.
- Yeah, that could be isolating, I'd imagine.
- Completely. - You know, like 'cause those,
you're not gonna ask for money from people
you don't see all the time
or people you don't talk to and know well.
- There's people that care about you
and people care about your well-being.
- Exactly. - And the last thing I want to
do was be somebody
who would take advantage of people who care about me.
- Yeah.
- And that's one of the reasons I had got into debt
'cause the people I was doing business, at the time, with
I considered them very good friends
and they took advantage of my kindness and my trust
and whatever money I thought was coming in
turned out to be completely fraudulent
so I had no money coming in
and I had accumulated even more debt
at that time so I think it was probably
maybe a full year, since leaving my job,
so I think it was the end of 2011,
when I kinda came to this realization that
there is no magic check coming in the mail.
- Yeah.
- There is no lottery winnings that's gonna happen.
There's no big break, you know.
- You think of that stuff, though.
That's the thing, if anybody's ever been in debt
or like, I have student loans up the wazoo,
and you dream of like,
oh, all of a sudden this thing will go through
and people will promise,
especially, I find being a YouTuber,
being in, I guess, you know,
we're kind of like creatives, in a creative space or,
so we always think like, oh, that deal might go through.
Maybe I'll get that check for whatever x.
- Or maybe this video will go viral.
- Exactly (laughs).
- I get a big check off of that.
- Yeah. - And I learned that there's
three things that we all do
when we encounter a problem.
And we do this as a society,
we do this as individuals.
We encounter a problem, we have three options.
Option A is we ignore it
and things just get worse. - Yeah.
- Option B is we pray for a miracle.
- Yeah.
- Whether it be a lottery ticket,
whether we're thinking, you know,
that, for example, in talking about the environment,
the miracle that everybody's
kinda depending on is science. - Yeah.
- To solve all our environmental problems
and number three, which is the one that
we all could do but we don't is
take a step back, stop,
reevaluate the situation, and, excuse the pun but
humble ourselves to a healthier level.
- Yeah.
- To deal with either our environmental situation,
our financial situation, or what have you and.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I went through the denial
and I let it get worse.
Then I started praying for the.
- The magic. - Miracle.
- Yeah.
- Or even pursing quick money
gigs, some which weren't even above board, you know.
- Yeah.
- I started meeting some shady people who were
trying to put me in situations
'cause they knew I was desperate
but they actually took advantage of me even more.
- Yeah.
- And then finally, I came to the point
where I realized nothing is going
to happen until I, you know,
buckle up and become a responsible adult
and address this realistically.
- Totally, so what was that,
'cause that's kinda more of what I'm interested in,
is like this shift in yourself
when you, 'cause we've already gone through like
how it happened and then realizing it.
Did you ever, like how did you start talking about it?
I guess that's the next thing;
like to friends or family,
like were you just like I can't afford to do that?
Like I think that's the struggle I hear
from a lot of my viewers like how do I
turn things down or say no
like but I literally can't afford it
and I keep going into more debt.
- Completely, I think, well, it's a two part thing,
especially when it comes to money.
A: it's focusing on
making money but as well the more important one
is focusing on how you spend the money you make,
- Yeah.
- And so the first thing I did
and this was a lot of people actually telling me.
It wasn't that I had originally just
come up with the idea to just sort myself out.
A lot of people were like, listen, man, no money's coming
in, you gotta figure something out,
and you might have to sell some of the stuff you own.
I lived on my own at that time.
I'd owned a property, I was living on my own.
I had a lot of stuff,
I had a lot of equipment, I was making music.
- Yeah.
- Had a lot of really nice computers,
had a whole bunch of stuff that,
some of it I didn't even need. - Yeah.
- And it got to the point where
I remember pretty much looking around my apartment
and saying, what do I need to survive
and putting everything else on Craigslist.
And in Canada, we have something called Kijiji,
which is the equivalent,
you guys have that here?
- No, I know 'cause Sean's Canadian.
- Oh, okay. - And he talk about Kijiji.
- Yeah, so Kijiji and Craigslist
became my friends and legitimately
everything that wasn't bolted to the floor, I had sold.
Everything; all my furniture.
I sold all my equipment, I sold my camera,
and I sold them for, you know,
discounted prices 'cause I. - To sell it.
- Was desperate for cash. - Need the cash, yeah.
- And I sold all of that and then
I eventually sold my place,
which was heartbreaking because I had spent.
- Yeah.
- A solid six, seven years saving up for that place.
- Yeah.
- But I couldn't afford a mortgage payment anymore.
I wasn't renting, I owned it. - Yeah.
- So I sold that.
Moved back home with my parents.
You know, as an adult that wasn't
feeling too good for the pride.
- Yeah.
- But, I mean, they were happy to have me back.
- I'm sure. - They were more so like we
don't care if you make a million dollars tomorrow,
don't ever leave, again. - I'm sure.
- 'Cause they like to just kinda keep me close and watch
and I mean, in addition to that,
I had lost about 20 pounds and I'm not.
- I'm sure it was stress.
- Yeah, I mean, 20 pounds from what you see here.
This is me at a healthy weight.
Imagine me 20 pounds more, so. - You were sick.
- I was just a beard, pretty much.
(Kati laughs)
- It was a lot of stress and I didn't notice it.
You don't really notice your weight loss on a daily basis
looking in the mirror.
You need somebody else who hasn't seen you
for a white to kinda point it out.
- Yeah. - And, yeah, I was also,
you know, super stressed.
I was making really irresponsible decisions.
I was drinking a lot of NyQuil
to go to sleep 'cause I was just.
- Self-medicating. - Self-medicating, just
because I didn't know what to deal with
and I felt like I was, most of my
solutions were to wait on things,
to kinda work out. - Yeah.
- So it was like, I'm just gonna sleep today
and then things would just kinda work out so
I remember when I finally had my awakening,
I printed up a lot of
motivational quotes but they weren't really positive
and inspiring, they were a lot more aggressive.
So it was like: you now, you want a vacation?
Go back to your day job.
You know, this is sink or swim,
this is go time, you know, while you go for this
and just put them all over the walls.
So now as, while I was fixing up the apartment
to get it sold, I just had all these on the wall
and just woke up every morning
and all I had was a chair and
a very tiny desk
and every day I just figured out and worked on it
and I start talking to people
about just, you know, what ways are creatives making money.
I went back to my old job.
So I talked to them about the options and
bless my principal, she actually said, I'll take you back.
I had gone to her in like in December,
and I said, can I start back in January?
And she said, if you can do me a favor,
if you could hold off 'til September,
I can, I can give you,
I can give you a better position in September,
if you think you could survive for six more months
and I didn't even really tell her it was about finances,
I just said I want to be able to come back
and I said, sure.
So then I told myself, you have six months to figure this
out or you're going back.
- Yeah.
- And then within that six months,
I started learning a little bit more about
our business, what works now behind the scenes.
You know, whether it be, I've learned about crowdfunding.
I crowdfunded my first book
so many of you, who are watching this,
who have read my books
or are learning about me now,
you guys completely helped me
get out of that hole
and I focused, first, on paying off my friends
and the people who had lent me money
and my family, as well.
I made sure that these people that I knew
understood that they did not make a mistake
lending me that money.
And once that was settled
then I spent slowly probably about
three years paying off all my bank debts.
- Yeah. - And my loans and pretty much
I spent next to nothing.
I didn't do anything luxurious.
I didn't take any trips.
A lot of bachelor parties
that my friends were having,
I skipped out on them. - Yeah.
- A lot of wedding stuff. - Yeah.
- You know, they needed,
oh, everyone's gonna be wearing this color suit,
everyone's gonna be doing this,
I skipped out on all of it.
I let them know I didn't have the money for it
and I think it really matters
if the type of people you surround yourself with
'cause it does impact your priorities.
- Yeah.
- So, you know, at one point I was dating a girl
who put a lot in my head like, yo,
if you're not a man if you don't
have your own place.
- Oh. - You're not a man if you
don't, if you can't take care of this,
if you don't drive this and
later on, meeting other people,
you know, I've later on met another girl,
who said, what type of guy would leave his parents
to move out on his own?
You need to stay with your family, you know what I mean?
- It's different priorities.
- Different people, different priorities.
- Yeah. - And God bless my friends.
They've never, you know, held
my finances over my head.
If I said I couldn't afford something,
at one point, they all chipped in
and brought me for one of these trips
'cause they said, it's not an option
for you to miss it.
You know, it was a, it was a, it was a
tricky time but I think from pretty much
middle of 2011 to the end of 2014,
it was just keeping my head down and
working, working, saving, saving, saving,
not spending any money on anything
I didn't need to spend it on.
Even my own work,
I wasn't investing in stuff
that could've even helped my work at that time,
I was just saving and then October 2014,
I got out of debt.
(claps)
And it was. - I know, I was like, you
remember like writing the last check or
sending the last payment in.
- It was, it was. - I would want to throw.
I'd like dance in my house.
- Yeah, it was one of those things
were I had like sent in a payment
like online and then I would check,
you know, it takes a couple days to process
and I would check it every single day
and I overpaid it by like $200 bucks
to ensure. - Just to make sure that like.
- Just to make sure, yeah, 'cause I think
that I, you know, sometimes they
still put some interest on it. - Yeah.
- And I didn't want to see any of that.
- Yeah.
- So it was definitely, it was definitely
October, I remember and then
I just remembered a good piece of advice
somebody had said actually to my father,
'cause my father had paid off
his house mortgage very quickly.
And he said, well, once you paid off
that house mortgage, keep making mortgage payments
so put them somewhere. - To yourself, like to save
or to some, yeah.
- So then I kept, I'm, like, look
if you were able to pay off a boatload of debt.
- Yeah, how much was it, if you don't mind?
- It was probably in the ballpark of about $80,000.
- Yeah, wow, that's amazing. - Yeah.
- That's about my student loan debt.
This gives me hope.
= And going back to the original question,
it's having that honest conversation
with yourself is important.
It brings up anxiety, it brings up shame,
it brings up guilt, it brings up a lot of regret,
a lot of woulda, coulda, shouldas.
- Yeah.
- But any moment is a new moment to stop that.
Like things that feel like they're going out of control
and, you know, are getting away from you,
you gotta just press the pause button,
stop, take a breath, figure it out,
and it's gonna be a slow, semi-painful process.
But I mean you'll make baby steps
everyday and the progress will add up.
- Yeah, and I'm curious.
What advice would you give to either
like Humble, let's say, six, seven years ago or
to like someone who's in debt now.
- Well, if it was myself, there'd be a little bit of
physical violence involved as well.
A lot of smacking.
- What are you do? - Yeah.
- To be honest, I want to say
to, especially if there's anybody here
still in high school or going to university,
especially for your age,
credit cards are the devil.
When you actually physically hold money in your hand
and you spend it, you will feel it.
Swiping a card, the reason they exist
is because that affects you psychologically
and you don't realize
how much money you're spending.
And I think a lot of the times we spend money
on things that we think might be important
because we see everybody else spending money on it.
- Yeah. - But it's not, it's
really not; stuff will never make you happy.
- Yeah. - And I mean, it left me
with a phobia of debt so,
I mean, I am not even comfortable like if
Kati gave me five bucks (claps) right now to
go buy something because I didn't have
the cash on me, it will stay with me
even if Kati forgets about it.
There's a lot of friends,
I hand them $20 dollars, $40 dollars
for something that they covered once
and they don't remember why
but, for me, that anxiety that comes with
being in debt, I just don't ever want it ever again.
Nothing is more valuable than your peace of mind.
- Thank you so much for being here and sharing your story.
- Sure. - Wanna leave us with a little
bit of your spoken word talent?
- Sure; ♫ Raindrops doing laps like a stopwatch
♫ Rapping all the way to the top spot
♫ I won't ever stop ' til the (mumbles)
♫ Even then I'ma spend it all
♫ 'Til my (mumbles) plops
♫ In a room pull a goose mast up
♫ Like a slipknot from the womb to the tomb
♫ I am hip hop
♫ You assume I could do what I cannot
♫ I'm a fool I could do what you cannot
♫ Cardi B booty in a hooptie
♫ Hanging out the window screaming
♫ Knew you, knew me, and sometimes I'm loopy
♫ Sometimes I dicky animal and the (mumbles)
♫ Rapping a beat thinking I'll keep
♫ (mumbles) bump up on me.
♫ Watch how I do this so effortlessly
♫ And magnificently I'm the best on this beat
♫ And the rest can't compete
- For more of that,
click the links down below.
See you guys next time.