My problem with Graham Stephan

Hi and welcome back to another YouTuber

review video. Today I'm going to be

reviewing this person called Graham

Stephan. Okay, so this is Graham Stephan

or Stephan, Stephan. I don't like his

name. I don't know how to pronounce it.

Anyway, he is an American guy. I, I assume

he's American. Could be Canadian. I don't

know. He has 693,100 subscribers and

he basically makes videos about money,

how to make money, um, business advice,

investing, real estate stuff. And to be

honest, I'm not really sure why this

channel popped up on my recommend—

recommended channels thing, because I'm

not interested in any of those things.

Anyway, his channel popped up on my

recommendation list, and I decided to

check out— decided to check out a few of

his videos. And after watching about 10,

I can safely say that this guy is a little

bit annoying. He's always going on and on

about how rich he is and how much money he

makes and how he became a millionaire by

age 26. Just by looking at his thumbnails,

you can obviously tell this guy is

completely obsessed with money. Every one

of his videos is about money. Look,

there's a dollar sign in every single

thumbnail. It just kind of feels like the

only thing this guy cares about is money,

how to make more money, and how to not

lose money. And it's, it's just kind of

sad. If that's all he cares about in life.

Look at this channel, his channel banner

art. It's this fancy sports car that he

probably owns. So pretentious, showing off

how much money he makes and his fancy

sport car. Anyway, so I'm going to review

one of his videos and point out several of

the things that he often does, which I

find a little bit irritating. So let's get

started. What's up, guys? It's Graham

here. So let's break away from some of the

com— Okay, so Number 1, his voice is way

too loud. I feel like he's shouting at me

all the time, and it's weird because he

has a microphone attached to his jacket

just below his mouth, so he shouldn't

really have to be shouting. His voice

should be able to be picked up by the

microphone without him shouting at the

audience. Also, I don't like the way he

keeps telling everyone he's Graham. Yeah,

we know you're Graham. Your channel is

called Graham. Maybe if your channel

wasn't already called Graham Stephan,

then it would be okay to keep telling

everyone that you're called Graham at the

beginning of every single video, but since

your channel is Literally, Graham Stephan.

I think we get the point that your name is

Graham. I hate these YouTubers that start

off every video with, hey guys, what's up?

I'm blah blah blah, when it says your name

in the channel name already. So let's

break away from some of the common

cookie-cutter advice out there when it

comes to building your wealth and 401.

Don't buy avocado toast. And most— so one

of the running gags on his channel is

avocado toast. And he mentions avocado

toast in nearly every video that I've seen

so far. It's supposed to be a joke, but I

don't find it funny at all. I don't know

why he keeps beating this dead horse.

Avocado toast, haha, so funny. Most

importantly, no matter what, always hit

the like button if you haven't done that

already. This is another thing he always

does in every single video before he

actually starts the video, or even at the

end or during the middle of the video. He

keeps telling you to press the like

button. Or he says, smash the like button.

It's so annoying when YouTubers, people on

YouTube, tell you to hit the like button.

I don't need someone telling me to hit the

like button. If I like the video, then

yeah, I'll press the like button. I'm not

going to press the like button just

because you told me to. And in fact, I've

actually pressed the dislike button, so

sorry about that. Strategy works really

well. He's so loud. Why is he shouting?

If you want to build your wealth really

fast. Okay, so this— shut

up, Google Home. This video is titled How

to Build Wealth with No Money, and the

advice he gives in this video is so basic.

I can't believe anyone out there doesn't

know these things that he's going to tell

us. So his first piece

of advice if you want to build wealth with

no money is be careful who you listen to.

Well, duh, obviously you have to be

careful who you're gonna listen to.

You're not going to take financial advice

from some homeless guy who lives on the

street, are you? I don't even know how

this is advice. It's just common sense at

this point. Yeah, be careful who you

listen to. That basically applies to

anything in life. Then you really need to

go against the grain and do what most

people are not doing and listen to the

people who actually have what you want to

achieve. Those are the people— oh my God.

So basically his advice is if there's

something you want, then you have to

listen to the people who already have it

because they know how to get what you want

because they have it. That's so— you

should listen to them and take what they

say. Well, so obvious. Obviously, if you,

for example, if you wanted to become a

chef, then you're going to watch Gordon

Ramsay and listen to what he has to say

because he's a professional chef. Really

need to go against the grain and do what

most people are not He says,

go against the grain and do what most

people are not doing by following in the

footsteps of people who have achieved what

you want to achieve. How's that going?

Going against the grain? That's just using

common sense. Listen to his, his second

piece of advice. Secondly, the reality is

that in order to build your wealth without

starting with any money, you're gonna have

to go and make money. Make money. So he

says in order to become wealthy, you have

to go and make money. How,

how much more obvious can you get? That's

like saying if you want to make a tasty

soup, you have to start making a soup.

No, this is like Captain Obvious stuff

here, but yeah, it's pretty obvious. I

mean, in order to build your wealth fast,

you have to make a lot of money. There's

nowhere— in order To build your wealth

fast, you have to make a lot of money.

Well, duh. How how else are you going to

become wealthy without making a lot of

money? If you're not making a lot of

money, then you're never going to become

wealthy. This is my recommendation:

additional job unless that job is paying

you some exorbitant amount of money. So if

you're watching this right now and you

want to make a ton of money without

working a nine to five job, this is my

recommend. So basically, he's saying if

you want to make a ton of money. Don't get

a nine to five job because unless it's

some kind of super amazing nine to five

job, then you probably won't be making a

huge amount. You'll just be a wage slave,

which is kind of true, I guess. You're not

going to become extremely wealthy by

working nine to five in an office or

McDonald's very quickly. There's simply

just so many hours in a day that you can

physically be capable of working, and then

once you hit that amount, okay. So what

he's saying now is. If you want to become

very wealthy, don't get a job where the

amount of hours you can work is already

set for you. Get a job where you can

determine how many hours you can work so

you can make more money, I guess. There's

a solid chance that you're gonna fail and

you're gonna lose money, and there's also

a very solid chance that you're gonna

drive yourself mentally crazy. Everyone

would be doing it. However, if this is

something you want, then I can absolutely—

He talks a lot. 100% worth it. I just kind

of feel like he talks a lot, but he's not

really saying anything. The stuff he's

saying kind of makes sense, but then it's

also obvious. I don't know how anyone

could not know about the things that he's

talking about unless you're like 7 years

old. It comes to me, I really believe that

I put in one decade from 18 to 28 years

old working really, really hard, saving

everything I could, sacrificing every

luxury that I can possibly— yeah, yeah,

okay. He works very hard.

Well done. Do you want

a pat on the back? Good things don't

happen without putting in a lot of work

and taking some risk to make it happen.

And one last thing I want to say on this

topic is that you should not be afraid to

invest in yourself. In fact, I think this

is another really obvious point that he

brings up. His 3rd piece of advice is

invest in yourself. In order to become a

better person, you have to Improve

yourself. Well, duh. Must. You always need

to be doing something to improve yourself,

and that does not— Oh really? I didn't

know I had to be doing something to

improve myself. Need to cost you money.

For instance, you don't need to take $100

off my program, the Real Estate Academy.

This is another thing he keeps doing which

is irritating. Around halfway through the

video, he'll start shilling for his Uh,

YouTube Creator Academy, his own website

where he has some kind of online course.

Watch this. Link in description if you

guys— yeah, he always links in the

description. You can invest in yourself

for free if you want to. There's so many

free videos here on YouTube for you to

learn from, or you can pretty much learn

whatever you want with just a quick Google

search. But now I also recommend investing

in yourself. It's just so annoying, all of

these business-oriented YouTubers. It

feels like half of the video is is an

advertisement for their own online course

or their own product or their own website,

or they want you to press the like button

or click on the links in the description.

It's just so irritating. His 4th piece of

advice is learn how taxes work. Obviously

you're going to have to learn how taxes

work if you're going to be self-employed

because you have to sort out your own

taxes. Everyone knows that. I don't even

know how this is advice. It's just

pointing out obvious things again, which

is basically this whole video.

Very few people ever get to the point

where they actually need to learn about

these things. CPA— I could talk about this

forever. The biggest recurring expenses

that Americans have by— His next piece of

advice is saving money. Let me

guess what he's going to say. In order to

save lots of money, the best thing to do

is to not spend it. Right now isn't in the

cards for you, just consider living with a

roommate, even just split. So basically

he's saying in order to save money on your

rent, then buy 2 houses and then rent one

out. Then you'll make money and you won't

have to— you won't be losing any money by

paying rent. Great, so we all have to buy

2 properties now, or rent out 2

properties, and then live in one, rent out

the other one. As if that's possible for

most people. Because I have one-third left

over because I don't have this housing

expense hanging over my head. And if

buying a property right now isn't in the

cards for you, just consider living with a

roommate, even just splitting your cost of

housing with someone else to share. So he

says if you can't get a second property to

rent out, then just share, share property

with someone else.

That's what pretty much everyone does when

they're young. They, they move into a

city, they They can't afford to live by

themselves, so they get roommates. This is

all pretty common knowledge at this point.

Maybe even share a bathroom with. Doing

something like that— how about share a

bedroom with? But if your car doesn't

matter, then I just recommend— listen to

this— 5 to 8-year-old car. So basically

his advice for saving money is get a

roommate and then get an old car that's 5

to 8 years old. Pretty obvious stuff.

Must to do, so just get in the habit of

doing this consistently. And then finally,

after you've done all of that, invest your

money in something other than your

business that you intend to keep for a

very long time. Now he talks about

investing money. To me, I pretty much

invest all my money in real estate and

index funds. That is pretty much all that

I do. It's no surprise that I just make

way more money working as a real estate

agent and making YouTube videos than I do

for my investments. But those investments

will be around forever, whereas the money

that I make from working as a real estate

agent and a YouTuber is only going to— So

basically he says the money he makes from

being a YouTuber and a real estate agent

is only going to last while he's doing

those things, but if he invests his money

into something long-term, then he'll

always be making that money, which, um,

is also pretty obvious. Also, I don't

think it's entirely true because even if

he stops making YouTube videos, his videos

are still going to be making him money,

especially if one of his older videos goes

viral and then gets loads of views. Then

he'll still be making money off his

channel even after he's stopped. Because

you do that, boom, financial independence,

and all of a sudden you've built wealth

without starting with any money. I started

this journey in high school. So he says,

boom, you've got wealth without starting

with any money. But if I don't have any

money, how am I supposed to invest in

things? How am I supposed to get a

property to rent out to people? $0 in my

bank account. I would work part-time after

school saving. So basically his advice

boils down to, first of all, get a crappy

job and then save up your money and then

rent out a property. And then move into a

career that pays you based on your

results, not on how many hours you work.

That's it, you guys. Thank you so much for

watching. I really appreciate it. If you

haven't already, smash that like button

yet. There he goes with his bloody like

button. Smash that like button. No, I'm

not going to press the bloody like button,

okay, Graham? So that's my, my thoughts.

Those were my thoughts on Graham. I don't

think he's a bad guy, and I don't think he

doesn't know what he's talking about. He

obviously knows what he's talking about.

And he's probably very smart. I just don't

really find his videos very interesting or

very helpful. I think the advice in most

of his videos is just so basic and so

obvious. Maybe I'll watch more of his

videos. Maybe there's something I can

learn from his channel. Who knows? If you

like this video, then smash the dislike

button. I don't really care. Piss off.