Money-Saving Strategies for Financial Comfort and Security

Craig believes that true wealth comes from having savings for peace of mind, not material possessions.

### Saving Money: Practical Tips and Mindset for Financial Comfort
* 💰 "It's not what you can do with the money; it's **how comfortable it is to have it**," reflects Craig, emphasizing a mindset focused on **financial security rather than material possessions**.
* 🧑 At 44, Craig shares his journey as a middle-rung YouTuber for 15 years, highlighting that despite not being independently wealthy, he has a **decent savings that grants him peace of mind**.
* 💵 He recalls how even in his 20s, while making little as a waiter, he practiced the **$20 rule to save for a laptop**, demonstrating that **saving is possible regardless of income**.
* 📊 Craig stresses the importance of having **enough accessible cash** while investing the rest in **high-yield savings or stocks**, adopting a **long-term perspective** on financial growth.
* He advises against the impulse to buy on sale, promoting the idea of **researching and waiting before making purchases** to avoid unnecessary spending.
* 📉 Craig shares a mathematical approach to visualize long-term investments, explaining that **$1,000 invested today could grow to about $5,000 by retirement**, based on historical stock market growth.
* 📱 He recommends using tools like Rocket Money for budgeting, which has helped him **save significantly** by managing subscriptions and expenses effectively.
* 🎥 Craig concludes by encouraging viewers to adopt a similar mindset of **saving and planning for the future**, linking to resources for further learning on financial management.

- So I want to help you learn how to save money because I think I'm pretty good at it. My overall philosophy, which I think is the most helpful thing, is this: It's not what you can *do* with the money.

It's how comfortable it is to *have* it. So I don't think about wealth as having a bunch of fancy things. I think about it as having a bunch of money set aside in case I need it. Like, I literally think about it.

I imagine situations where I suddenly might need a lot of money: a car wreck, an injury, a sickness, an accidentally really big restaurant bill, a friend who has a destination wedding. Come on, friend! And it's such a good peace of mind,

knowing that I can just take care of it and not have to worry. Like, I think, "What if my butt fell off right now? I could afford a butt replacement." Wow, I'm wealthy! That's the mindset that motivates me to save money

instead of spending money. Yeah, but who the hell are you to have all that money set aside? Okay, talking about money is tricky because everyone comes from a different place. Let me explain who I am first. Hi, I'm Craig.

I'm 44 years old. I've been a full-time, let's say middle-rung YouTuber for about 15 years. I'm fortunate enough to have a pretty decent savings, and I make adequate money—enough money to not really have to think too much

about money. It's a very nice place to be. I'm not independently wealthy. If I stopped working, I would eventually run out of money. Luckily, these days, it would take a little while before that happened. I mean, maybe I wouldn't run out.

Depends on when I die, I suppose. I am trying to work on my health a lot. That's going to hurt my bottom line on my deathbed. Well, maybe I'll get lucky at the casino. I'll have to go to the casino a lot.

But just because someone gets paid pretty well, it does not mean they're going to have savings. There are many examples of people who earn millions of dollars who end up broke. I make nowhere near that, and yet I feel comfortable knowing

that I'm not going to be completely broke on my deathbed as long as I continue working until a normal retirement age, and I don't live to 120 and have to go to the casino. But also, I'll probably continue doing this

until I die anyway, because how lucky am I to be able to do things like this for a living? (light music) Also, back in my 20s when I was making very little money waiting tables, I was still able to put together

a bit of a savings with the $20 rule, which I talked about in a previous video. Basically, putting away $20 every time you get paid and save up enough money to buy a laptop and turn it into this career. I don't know your situation.

It might be uniquely difficult. And I'm sorry if it is, but the possibility of saving some money might be within your reach, even though it doesn't seem like it. And it's probably equally, if not more important, to learn the skill of how to keep money

as opposed to earn more money. But of course, it is easier to keep more if you earn more. I get that. I'm just trying to help you in the best way that I can, and that's just to tell you what I did.

So how did I do it when I was broke and how do I do it now? It's the same. First of all, that philosophy. It's not what you can do with the money; it's how comfortable it is to have it.

Next on the list, I don't care about appearing wealthy. In other words, (beep) status. This is just kind of the way I've always been. I don't really care about my appearance all that much.

I don't really care that I'm losing hair. Sometimes, I do a video with a really disheveled beard. I didn't even shower before this video. I don't care about clothes. I kind of wish I cared about clothes more.

I made a whole video about trying to care about clothes more. It didn't really stick. I mean, the clothes. I'm not talking about how the clothes stick to my body. They don't stick; they hang on my body. Never mind.

But I really don't care if I appear like I have money at all. Oh, I think that's so stupid. The goal of having money for me is not to prove anything. It is to be free of worry about money. I'm not going to buy a fancy watch or some shirt

just to show people that I can afford it. If there's a nice thing that I genuinely like, I might buy it as long as I can do that without changing my lifestyle and worrying about money. But I probably won't because I generally don't buy

fancy stuff for fancy stuff's sake. This is not me trying to get on a high horse and say that there's anything wrong with it. I just legitimately am not interested in that, and that has helped me save money over the long term.

Wait, I did just refer to it as really stupid earlier. Oh, I think that's so stupid. Okay, maybe I think it is stupid. Giving off a perception of wealth is usually a lie. And if it isn't a lie, it's stupid.

Showing off a fancy new car you bought isn't saying, "Ooh, look how much money I have." It's saying, "Ooh, look how much money I no longer have." I just don't care about showing off a fancy, shiny shirt.

It wouldn't make me feel good. It would make me feel gross. What does make me feel good is if I'm eating a meal out with someone, I say, "I'll get this." That does make me feel good. Not because I'm like, "Ooh, look, I can afford it,"

But, because, you know, I'm just doing a nice thing. Actually, a lot of it is that I just don't want to deal with the hassle of splitting checks because it's annoying to the server, 'cause I've been on that side of it before.

And I also don't want to go through that rigmarole. Point is, I'm not as good of a person as it appears. We all have selfish reasons for things. I just think this attitude has helped me save money.

Another thing that I do in my money mindset: have just enough on hand. Similar to the $20 rule, except now that I have more savings, I always just try to make sure that I have enough money in a checking account that's easily accessible,

and then I put all the rest in a high-yield savings account or stocks and index funds where I don't think about it. I don't even think of it as my money. What money? I shouldn't even be talking about this.

That way, I really can't spend a buttload immediately, and I still behave as if this is the amount that I am only able to spend. I generally just make sure it's enough to cover about a month of expenses,

but I don't get too exact about it, which brings us to: don't get precious. I do set a budget, but I don't get extreme about it. I'm not going to meticulously look at every number and just destroy myself if I go over budget a little bit.

I don't really penny-pinch or dime-pinch. There was a dime sitting here; that's why I'm using a dime instead of a penny. I've just got dimes sitting all over the place. That's how much savings I have; I'm amazing.

We do still get nice things occasionally. I find if we get too extreme about it, then it's going to backfire. It'd be like, "Oh, we can't hit a budget. Well, fine, nothing matters."

Of course, everyone's situation is different. You've gotta find the right lifestyle you can comfortably afford, but also make sure it's comfortable; just as comfortable as you can make it while still saving a little bit of money here and there.

I just try to make sure I have a solid perception of the moment. Are all the numbers kind of going in the right direction? Good. Do we have a bad month? Okay, that's fine. We'll get it next time.

If everything goes south, are we going to starve to death? No? Good. Now I know what you're thinking: If you set aside enough for a month in your checking account and you accidentally go over, what do you do?

Well, fear not, mon frère. I check my accounts all the time. Yes, I know I said I don't get precious and I set aside my money and I forget that it exists. Well, that's not entirely true.

I am able to mentally consider the money that I put away as not my money to spend, but I also check in on it all the time. On my phone, I have apps for my business account, my savings account, my checking account,

and my stocks and index funds. I do check in on them pretty often to make sure I'm not going to run out of money. I don't do mathematical calculations, but occasionally, I will move money around if I need to.

This might not work for everybody, but I'm able to constantly check in on how my stocks are doing without going, "Oh no, it's going down. Sell, sell, sell!" Ah, ah, ah. Hold the dip. I actually kind of enjoy looking at the money occasionally.

It's like gamifying finances, but like a really lame game that you don't interact with. So I'm able to set it and forget it, and check in on it all the time. I contain multitudes. Speaking of multitudes, I think in multitudes of time.

In other words, I think long-term. When you're setting aside money to save it, it can be challenging because there's no reward. We do things for rewards. Well, I have a trick that helps me really conceptualize

what I'm doing for future Craig. So I made a video pretty recently about investing in stocks and index funds, and what they are. And I'm going to briefly give you a rundown of that because that's required for this long-term game.

I'm going to show you. In brief, index funds are designed to mimic the entire indexes of the stock market, like the S&P 500. Historically, since the beginning of the S&P 500, it has grown on average about 10% per year.

It's had many ups and downs, but if you average it out, 10% growth per year. About that. You can invest in index funds that are designed to mimic the S&P 500. Meaning, if it continues to behave the same way

it behaved in the past, it will continue to grow 10% per year on average, with ups and downs. Conservatively, we could say seven to 10%. I've had money in the stock market for over 10 years

and this growth rate has been shown to be true. So here's a little mathematical equation I like to do when I put money in the stock market to show what the money actually will be when I'm, say, 65, which is in 21 years.

No, yeah, 21. So old. Say I put $1000 in the stock market today. Pull out a calculator, 1,000. Let's say it grows on average 8% per year. You'd multiply 1,000 by 1.08 for 8%.

And then what I do is increase my age in my head and hit the equal sign. 45 years old, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. By the time I'm 50, that 1,000 is 1,600-ish.

51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65. $5,000. So that $1,000 I'm putting in

is actually like giving future Craig $5,000 if it grows at 8% and it isn't a really down year when I'm 65, but it is a good educated guess. I'll try it with 7%, I'll try it with 10%.

So let's say you're 30 years old and you have $5,000 to put away. So you put $5,000 in an index fund, times, again, let's say it grows at 8%. Now there are equations that will help you do this quicker,

but I like to do the equal sign method because I watch it grow over time. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45,

46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65.

That's almost $75,000 when you turn 65. Again, that's assuming 8%. It could be higher, it could be lower, but you'll also likely be putting in more as the years go on. There's also inflation,

Which will make the money worth less in the future, but it will still be worth it to put it in there because that's the best option I can think of for getting a seven to 10% growth rate. The best low-risk option.

Also, side note, I had to download a calculator because, for some reason, the new calculator app on the iPhone doesn't do the equal function anymore. I mean, it does the equals function, but you can't repeat the equation by just hitting equals anymore. Why did you do that, Apple? You just made it worse.

And you know how hard it was to find a calculator that I didn't have to pay for that wasn't inundated with ads that does the equals function? So, thinking long-term is generally something I've always been pretty good at.

Always basing my decisions on how future Craig is going to be. Hence, all the exercise, trying to eat healthy, and the saving money. Future Craig is such a stickler, which brings us to the next thing.

I don't buy stuff right away. Okay, I might impulsively buy a candy bar at the grocery store or a copy of *Emu Today*. I love learning about the latest emu news, but in general, I wait.

I sit and I'm like one of the Ents in *Lord of the Rings*.  We never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.

- I don't pay attention to deals and things on sale. If you're buying something because it's on sale, you're probably buying something you wouldn't have bought. So you're not saving money. And if there's something I really want,

I like to do two things: a bunch of research to make sure I'm getting the exact version of the thing I want. And I also just wait to see if I actually really want it. Often, after waiting a while, I discover I didn't actually want the thing to begin with.

Much like what the girl who dated me once in high school said, "It was a brief lapse in judgment." I'm always skeptical of every product, every deal, every commercial, even though I make my own commercials for these videos,

and I'm going to make one for this video as well. And I'm usually probably annoying in a meeting because I'm always hesitant to pull the trigger, make a decision right then and there. Not just about buying stuff, but about doing stuff.

This attitude doesn't make me a good get-stuff-done businessman. I'm always sitting and thinking and trying to make sure things are going to go in the right direction. I don't want to make a rash decision. This has served me well in life.

My career is stuff I want to do. I'm able to save money, but I've also taken too long on things that probably didn't need to take so long. So all in all, how to save money? Be like me: a boring dude who doesn't buy a lot of things.

and make sure to have enough money to shield himself from the big, scary world out there. I'm super boring. When I see people on game shows and they're asked, "What would you do if you won blah blah blah dollars?"

And they're like, "Oh my God, I'm gonna buy my favorite car or whatever." I'm like, "That's stupid." I know how I would answer. I would say, "I'm gonna invest it all in an index fund

and sit on it and be able to pay for my healthcare until I die, and have enough leftover for my family to take care of my remains and, you know, clean out my house or whatever," which probably will have only two things in it.

So that's what it means to save money. And you know what else you can do to save money? Make a budget. And a very easy way to do that is with the sponsor of this video, Rocket Money. Thank you, Rocket Money, for sponsoring this video.

I know I said I'm skeptical of commercials. Well, I legitimately use Rocket Money and I really like it. It has helped me make a budget better than any software I've ever tried. Rocket Money is the personal finance app

that helps you cancel your subscriptions, lower your bills, and manage your money better. Right off the bat, it helped me save $200 a month from subscriptions that I had been meaning to unsubscribe from and maybe thought that I had unsubscribed from, but I'm stupid.

And they negotiated down some other things I was subscribed to, to a cheaper rate. I didn't have to do it. I don't like talking to people. As you know, I'm not good in meetings. I would have been like, "Can I pay less for this?"

And they'd be like, "We could probably lower it." And I'd be like, "Wait, hang on, let me think about it." "I hate conversations about money," said the guy who made an entire video about money.

I contain multitudes. The budgeting is really useful and can get really detailed. See how much you're spending on each category; like, you're spending a little too much on groceries? Maybe get the generic milk next time.

Too much on clothes? Get generic clothes next time. Too much on fabric? Get generic fabric next time. Too much on weapon handles? Get generic hilts next time. Like I said, I don't like to get too precious,

but Rocket Money makes it really easy to just quickly check and it notifies you when you hit your limits. Rocket Money has helped save its customers up to $740 a year, with over $500 million in canceled subscriptions. To save more and spend less,

join the over 5 million members using Rocket Money today. To save less and spend more, make it rain! Go to rocketmoney.com/wheezywaiter or click the link in the description. You can also unlock more features with premium.

That's rocketmoney.com/wheezywaiter to get started for free. Okay, I genuinely hope this video helped you, not because I'm a good person, but because I want to feel useful. That makes me feel good.

I'm selfish. I'm gonna link to more helpful videos in the description. One about the $20 rule, the one about investing in stocks and index funds, which I really think more people ought to do.

No, because I genuinely think it's less risky and easier than a lot of people think it is. My previous video is a very fun video in which Chyna and I pretend to have difficulty talking to each other. YouTube thinks you'll like that video.

You can go there to subscribe. And I have a Patreon where you can support me.

The Best MONEY SAVING Advice I Can Give

WheezyWaiter

Focuses on the comfort of having money, not on material possessions.

Views wealth as having money set aside for emergencies.

Imagines scenarios requiring significant funds (car accident, illness, etc.).

Introduces himself and his background as a YouTuber.

Reiterates his philosophy: comfort over material possessions.

Doesn't care about appearing wealthy; prioritizes comfort over status symbols.

Keeps enough money in a checking account for immediate needs, placing the rest in savings or investments.

Sets a budget but doesn't strictly adhere to it, avoiding extreme penny-pinching.

Regularly checks accounts to monitor finances without obsessive micromanagement.

Emphasizes long-term thinking and investing in index funds.

Explains index funds and their historical average growth rate.

Uses a simplified calculation to illustrate long-term investment growth.

Provides another example showing the potential growth of a larger initial investment.

Avoids impulsive purchases; waits before buying to ensure the need.

Ignores sales; focuses on research and ensuring the item is truly desired.

Summarizes his approach: being frugal and having sufficient savings for security.