Hi, everybody. Suze O here.
I'm about to watch a millennial tell me how he happens to live on $118,000
a year, and then I'm going to tell him what I think about it.
Ready to watch? Let's do it.
Words can't really explain how free I feel now that I don't have any debt.
I feel like a new person.
I feel as if I can do anything.
Before we even go on, I just want you all to take note what this person
just said. He said he can't explain how it feels that he doesn't have any
debt. I want you to remember that because you could be making a whole lot
of money and you can still have a whole lot of debt.
My name is Roy Patterson.
I'm 31 years old. I make $118,000 a year and I live in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. I think about money and finances about 90% of the time.
Mainly, how can I make more money?
How can I save more money and what can I do with the money?
Self-care is very, very important and because of that, I spend a lot of
money on skincare.
As you can see, it looks good.
You got to look at this pie chart, everybody.
He actually puts $1,900 a month away in savings and $1,200 in investments.
That's $3,100 a month.
This man is saving 50% of his take home pay.
This is a man who really, really wants to retire rich.
Money plays a big part in my relationship with my girlfriend.
I would say that she is more frugal than I am.
So there will be times where we want to do things.
But she doesn't want to spend the money on it.
You do all understand that 1 out of 2 people that get married, couples that
get married, they end up in divorce, and the reason they end up in divorce
is arguments over money.
But when you both have the same financial values, then everything is great.
Did you also notice that his girlfriend pays less in rent than he pays?
Because you don't just divide expenses 50/50 if you're making more money
than your partner.
Your live-in partner.
You do it proportionately to how much you each make.
So again, he's making the absolute right move.
I can't believe Suze Orman isn't criticizing him yet for anything, but
there's nothing to criticize him about at this point.
I just started to get serious about paying off my debt, I would say, my
senior year in college.
I felt that my parents did the ultimate sacrifice by putting their names on
these student loans.
And so if I didn't pay that off, that's something that they would be
straddled with. I used to watch The Suze Orman Show every Saturday at 9
p.m. I really took that to heart and kind of used her as my unofficial
mentor to really stay focused and stay motivated to really start my debt
repayment. Now, obviously, no way I didn't know he watched me.
I can't criticize somebody who really spent most of his time watching me.
But here's what's really important.
What Roy obviously heard me say in all the years he was watching me is that
student loan debt is the most dangerous debt that you can have because in
most cases it's not dischargeable in bankruptcy.
So if there was one debt that you really wanted to get out of, that would
be your student loan debt.
But here's what's interesting.
The fact that he looks up to my philosophies on money just shows you how
really intelligent he is.
One person who was by my side the entire time was my mom.
We started watching Suze Orman together.
She was looking to pay off her credit card debt, mortgage, car bills and
just miscellaneous items.
We really held each other accountable in order to make sure that we
accomplished getting rid of all this debt together.
Sometimes when you're younger, your mother or your father, your parents
tell you to do something.
And rather than listening to them, you go,
No no. That's alright. It's alright.
I got it. I don't want to be like you.
I don't want to learn from you.
I've got it. I want to be like my friends.
I'm old enough now to be independent.
And that's when you make mistakes.
What was so fabulous here is that Roy joined forces with his mother and
both of them simply did what I asked them to do.
And now they're both out of debt.
They're both doing well.
But now they are a financial team.
So, so proud of him.
I can't even tell you. One of the things that I really got into recently
was cooking a lot of Jamaican dishes.
Being from a Jamaican background, my dad did a lot of cooking for us and we
didn't really go out as a kid.
And that's one of the things that I hold near and dear to my heart.
You all waste so much money going out to eat.
Now, I understand that it hasn't been easy to go out to eat these past few
months or almost the past year very shortly here.
How much money have you saved if you simply cook at home like Roy is doing?
I'm a very wealthy woman.
I don't like to go out to eat because I don't like to waste money.
And I don't care how much money I have.
I value every single penny that I have.
So cook at home, save money, just that simple.
So I started this career actually by accident.
I went to school for business management and I had a friend who started an
internship at Cigna and she told me about this program called the
Technology Early Career Development Program.
Have to stop here again.
Did you just hear him say he started his career by accident?
Always stay open to things that come your way.
You might not know what you really want to be.
And just because you've got a degree in X doesn't mean you have to become
X. My degree was in social work and look at me now.
So you have to stay open like Roy was.
He was open to see.
"Oh, I'll try that.
Let's see." And look how it worked out for him.
$118,000 a year?
Think about it.
I grew up in Connecticut and I actually started working at Cigna in
Connecticut. But I do just have to say one thing, which is, did you just
notice that Cigna paid for his master's degree?
That's a big deal.
So many of you, when you don't know what you want to do, what do you do?
You go back to school and before you know it, you're in serious student
loan debt and then you can't even find a job to pay off that debt.
Look for a job possibly in an area that you might want to work in where the
company that you're working for would pay for your degree.
Brilliant move. I love this guy.
Want to be my son?
Oh, my God. So proud of him.
Anyway. My salary has gone up about I would say
almost 80% since I started about 7 years ago.
I have to say something.
Did you just hear that? His salary has gone up almost 80% over the past 7
years. Why?
It's because Roy made those that he was dependent on a paycheck for
dependent upon him.
You don't go in always saying to somebody, "Give me a raise.
I need more money."
You show them that they can't do without you.
And that's exactly what this man has been doing.
Roy went to be getting a raise.
80%? He's almost doubled his salary in 7 years.
Learn from this video.
Learn from this man.
You can do it as well.
Make those that you are dependent on a paycheck for dependent upon you.
Now that I'm debt free, some of the goals that I have is to start really
diversifying my portfolio.
One of the things that I'm working on right now is saving up enough money
to buy my first rental property.
Alright, Roy, you have to start to be careful here now.
There's a big difference between buying a property where you live in it as
your home and where you buy a rental property.
So you are going to have to make sure that if you are buying a rental
property, then not only are you going to put 20% down.
Not only do you need 8 months of an emergency fund for that rental property
alone, but you really need a working capital fund for that property
because you're in business now.
If your tenant all of a sudden can't pay.
Look at what happened during covid.
If you're financing this and you have a mortgage payment and your tenant
can't pay you for whatever reason, you have to be able to carry all the
payments on that for at least a year.
I think that I'm good with money.
I... I believe I'm good with money.
You know what? I know that I'm good with money.
My friends look at me as their financial guru where they come to me with
their specific problems and I help them break it down into a manageable
portion. I love that he corrected
himself. Remember, your words and your thoughts have the power to create
or the power to destroy, and the choice really is up to you.
You have to know that you're good.
You have to feel that you're good.
You have to believe that you're good.
If you start out as a wimp, as he did a second ago, "I think I'm good with
money. Maybe I'm good with money."
And then at the end, he said, "I know I'm good with money."
That's how you need to feel.
There's no, "I think I am."
"Maybe I am." You have to know.
"I know I am great with money."
Also, when it comes to helping friends, just be careful there because
sometimes your friends can't quite do what you want them to do and then
you start judging them.
So just be a little bit careful there, Roy, because sometimes people aren't
as disciplined as you are.
The most important thing that I learned about money is that money doesn't
make who you are. Money brings out either the best or worst and what's
already in you. So, he's right.
Money will never define you.
You define your money.
It's just that simple.
If I were to be grading you, Roy, I would have to tell you, I would be
giving you an A plus, plus, plus.
The only thing I don't know is: Do you have a will?
Do you have a living revokable trust, an advance directive and a durable
power of attorney for healthcare?
Do you have the right type of life insurance?
All of those things are also really important.
So we didn't talk about those things here because you didn't mention them.
But there are things you need to look into.
But boyfriend, in my book.
Yeah, you are doing great.
Thanks for watching, everybody at CNBC Make It.
You should always follow along right here.
However, I got to tell you, you should also tune in to my Women in Money
podcast as well as the Men Smart Enough To Listen.
Are you kidding me?
Look what Roy and his mom learned from me.
Maybe you can learn something as well.
Come on over and join me there right now.