Reacting to Myself: Living On $1.6 Million A Year In Los Angeles | Millennial Money

What's up, you guys? It's Graham here, and wow, what a time to be alive! We have officially entered the matrix. This is because I was just featured on the show Millennial Money by CNBC Make It. For those that are not aware of the significance of this, let me explain.

So, six months ago, I created a second channel called The Graham Stefan Show. The reason for this was simple: I just wanted to branch out my content, create a talk show-like format, and just make videos that were entirely unscripted, educational, informative, and just fun to make. I've always really enjoyed watching channels like The Joe Rogan Podcast, Dave Ramsey, and Dr. Phil, so I figured using that as inspiration, I would just create The Graham Stefan Show and produce a more carefree, informal dialogue when it comes to saving money and personal finance.

Well, wouldn't you know it, one of my very first videos on that second channel was watching and reacting to a video posted by CNBC Make It on a series known as what's called Millennial Money. I've always been a casual watcher of their YouTube channel, but when I saw one of their videos end up getting a pretty decent amount of views in the first few days, I figured I would just film my reaction to that video and critique it, coming from the perspective of someone who is really into personal finance. I honestly didn't think anything of it; I had no idea anyone would even be interested in watching a video like that.

Wow, it immediately blew up and got several hundred thousand views on a brand new channel with almost nothing else posted on it. So I decided to step it up and do something even more extreme. I booked myself a plane ticket, flew all the way to Detroit, and I met the subject of that video in person, Alex Pardo. That really solidified the trend of me watching Millennial Money videos, critiquing them, and then meeting the subjects of those videos in person and then going over their personal finances.

Now that second channel has over 220,000 subscribers in less than half a year, and even though I post on that channel four times a week, my most popular videos there by far that everyone wants to see is me reviewing and reacting to, wait for it, Millennial Money! From that, it's always been this running joke that one day I might be featured on the show too, and wow, it finally happened! We have come full circle, and I am now obligated to react to myself.

And the best part about all of this is that I have not seen this yet! They did not pass it by me before posting, so I’m just obligated to now react to myself. I will critique it; I’ll let you know anything that was left out or anything else that needs some explaining. And I’m nervous. My name is Graham Stefan, I’m 29 years old, I make 1.6 million per year, and live in Los Angeles, California. Welcome to, wait for it, Millennial Money!

Oh, what's actually funny here is that I do have my iced coffee sitting right on the side here—it's no cream in this today! But it is my iced coffee. Cheers!

So, I'm a full-time real estate agent, real estate investor, and YouTuber. Every day is going to be a little bit different. Some days, I'm going to be out with clients showing properties; other days, I'm going to be planning YouTube videos; and some other days, I'm going to be looking at properties for myself to invest in.

Now let me make this very clear: it is a very hectic schedule that I have and for the most part during the day, every hour of my time is really accounted for, and I try to make the most of it. Lately, a lot of my time has been spent making YouTube videos just because I realize how fickle the internet is and how quickly something like this could diminish into nothing.

So I figured at least while I have the opportunity, I may as well just give it a hundred percent, put as much time into this as I can because I realize that probably this is not going to be around forever, so I may as well take advantage of it while I can and try to keep the momentum.

My mortgage is just over $2,800 a month. The market value of the other unit next to me is about $2,500 a month. Then, between the equity I get and the tax write-offs from using the garage as my office, it basically works out to be a free place when we don’t live there. By the way, this is the entire premise of the zero dollar house video I posted a few months ago, where basically, I was able to buy a property, renovate it to increase its value, and then do a cash-out refinance to pull out all of my money from the property while still being able to live in the property for essentially nothing out of pocket.

So, I spent about $200 a month on groceries and I do price shop between grocery stores. I'll kind of make the rounds and just stock up on whichever item is the cheapest at which store.

Okay, so this is so weird! I'm going over my own budget here and I feel defensive; like I have to just explain myself on some of this. So, first of all, let's talk about the mortgage: $2,872? No, that is the total mortgage for the entire property that is not including the rent that I get on the other unit. So, once that unit is going to be remodeled, I'm going to try asking $2,700 for it. So, that should really bring my out-of-pocket mortgage down to really, there, $200 a month.

But one small critique I have with this is that property taxes were not included in this monthly budget amount, which is about $535 a month. Now, the good news is that half of that is a tax write-off against the rental income on the other unit! So, that means my out-of-pocket cost for property tax in the building is about $260 something dollars a month. But I also get back about a thousand dollars a month in equity by paying down the loan. So again, it’s still free, but property tax is not included in this figure, and I do want to mention that.

So next we have transportation: $632 a month, and that is my Tesla car payment. Now that is something that I financed 100% of the car, and I financed it at a 3.75 percent interest rate. Now, I did that because I knew I was using the car mostly for business purposes, so the interest rate would be a tax write-off against my income, and I really need all the tax write-offs I can get since I don’t really spend a lot of the money. So that's really the reason why I've decided just to keep the $632 a month payment because it just doesn't make sense for me to pay off that loan early.

So next, we have insurance: $340 a month. I just want to say a huge shout-out to Tesla car insurance that came out with their own car insurance that saves you a lot of money since they know how much it costs to repair their own cars, and it's all kind of done in-house. So anyway, they're able to offer you a much lower rate going with them than you are anywhere else, and that's a great way to save money if you have a Tesla.

So next, we have food: $350 a month. That is groceries and eating out. Now, I will be posting a grocery breakdown sometime next week where I go over exactly what I spend the money on. So for those of you that are interested in where my money goes exactly for groceries, I will be doing a video on that. Then after that, we've got miscellaneous: $266 a month. Entertainment, cat, Amazon Prime, haircuts—I kind of like how they put the cat in the miscellaneous category. And the cat's name, by the way, is Ramsey.

So next, we got the one that everyone has been hounding me on nonstop, and that would be gym: $220 a month. This is one that I feel like now I'm getting defensive on, like I have to explain myself why I spend $220 a month, and there is a good reason for this. Right now, I'm going to Equinox Gym, and it's insanely expensive. Before that, I was doing 24 Hour Fitness, and I think I was paying $44 a month for the gym membership on that. However, I decided to give Equinox Gym a chance because it's right next door to my office, which means I could literally open up the front door of my office, walk 50 feet next door, and then be at the gym.

That saves me a lot of time in a car and traffic trying to park, and it also really motivates me to go to the gym much more because I'm spending so much money that it seems like every single day I don't go to the gym, I'm wasting money. So, I may as well just go to the gym, get that done—it's really easy, it's really convenient. So for me, spending $220 a month actually makes me go to the gym much more than if I were spending less.

And then we got the next one that I'm sure a lot of people are gonna be super confused on, and that would be credit cards: $129 a month. And that is for annual fees for four credit cards. Now, let me explain what those credit cards are. Number one, we got the American Express Platinum; we got the Chase Sapphire Reserve; we have the JPMorgan Reserve, and we have the Chase Ink—that's $95 a year for the business credit card. Now, between all of those, yes, it does come to $129 a month. But the thing is, I end up getting more value per month than I end up spending.

Like, for instance, the Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you $300 back as a travel credit. Same with the JPMorgan Reserve. The American Express gives you $15 to $20 a month back on Uber; you get airline credits. I definitely make all of my money back, plus some, in terms of how much I spend on credit cards. And then we got phone: $85 a month. This is just the basic unlimited plan from T-Mobile; nothing too special on that.

I refuse to spend money on two things. Number one, I think everyone knows is coffee. I think it's absolutely ridiculous, the markup of coffee at Starbucks and Coffee Bean and a lot of those places out there. So I just make it at home for 20 cents! See, that one is so true. For those that know me, know I will never go out and spend money at Starbucks unless someone gives me a Starbucks gift card, in which case that's kind of like—it's like a free coffee for me! So I would rather take free than spend 20 cents on it, but for the most part, I would rather just make it at home. I think it tastes better; I don't have to waste time standing in line, and it means I have more money left over to spend on what really matters, which is all-you-can-eat sushi.

So, I end up saving about 99 percent of my income just because my income is so high and I keep my expenses so low, and most of the property is just kind of like pay for my living expenses. So, anything else I make is really just seen as a bonus, and I see and invest it.

Now, for those that are curious about that and why it saved so much, I want to make it very clear that I really just don’t spend the principal, and I will only spend the interest that money generates. So for instance, if I have a million dollars that's producing like thirty thousand dollars a year, I will spend that thirty thousand dollars freely, and that is the money that I know is always going to be replenished. I never have to worry about running out.

But no matter how much money I make, I'm not gonna spend the principal. To me, that just never made sense; it's always better to invest it. And then whatever money that money makes you is yours to keep, and that has always been my philosophy.

So yeah, this is something I haven't really mentioned much on the YouTube channel just because I wanted to keep this part of the business somewhat separate. But all of these clients I met just doing leases in Los Angeles, and working as a real estate agent, and then getting referrals—like where Lando Blum was from a referral from a lease I did from a client I met on Craigslist. Same with Chloe Moretz; that was a lease I did years prior that ended up to me selling her a house. And same with Wally; that was a referral from a lease client I met on Westside Rentals dot com.

So just crazy how one client could lead to another, can lead to another, and you have no idea! Like, I did not grow up with any A-list celebrity clientele or anything like this. This was a totally separate world from anything that I am used to, but it's just something that I've slowly just built up to over time and meeting one person who's just led to another, and then just, over time, it's happened organically.

The first property I bought was when I was 21 years old. It was a short sale for $59,507. It was a foreclosure that was being sold by the bank. I bought that property in cash. It actually appraised and was refinanced for like $260,000. Now two things I want to mention with this: number one, that first home was the property where I had my very first eviction. The first tenant I ever picked ended up growing weed in the garage. I had an issue trying to do a cash-out refinance on the home. I couldn't do it because the appraiser went in there, so the garage was full of growing stuff and I had to evict the tenant. He totally trashed the place; it was a learning experience, but I never did a cash out refinance of that property.

But I think when they were editing the audio in that, it accidentally got mixed up that I had done a cash out refinance on that property, and I didn’t. So that property is still owned outright, and yeah, it’s worth anywhere between $250,000 and $280,000, which is way more than it's like four times what I ended up spending on it back in 2011.

And let's be clear: that $15,000 a month is before mortgages, property taxes, insurance, repairs, and everything else that goes into that. And afterwards, my net amount that I actually get to keep is about $5,000 a month. My investing strategy really hasn't changed since I was 21, and all of it has really just been about real estate. If anything, I'm just looking to buy more expensive real estate now that makes a little bit more money.

But otherwise, I've just kept doing the same thing over and over again. I'm such a firm believer that the best thing you could do if you're interested in building your wealth is just do the same thing consistently and don't stop doing it. If you're investing, just invest consistently. If you're buying properties, just do that consistently. Investing, really at its core, is very simple; it's easy to understand, and there's not a lot to it.

And it is repetitive, and for a lot of people that do start to say that my videos seem repetitive after a while, it's because it's true! The principles of investing don’t change. Real estate investing is going to be the same ten years from now as it is today, and it's all about just starting now, doing it consistently, and building it up over time.

I just made a video one day, spur of the moment; it was a slow open house, and I just filmed with my iPhone the selfie side, just talked about how I got started in real estate, and that was such a fun experience. And I remembered that video getting like 9 or 10 views and just being like, "Oh my god, like nine people have seen this video!"

So I started making more videos, and once I started doing about two videos a week, it just, the growth really just exploded, it seemed like. And that's one of the things I really want to clarify: I started making YouTube videos without the intention of ever earning any money from it, and I was just purely doing it for fun! I just enjoyed making videos; I enjoyed talking about real estate and personal finance and credit cards and the fact that there are other people out there that enjoy talking and hearing about that too.

And we built this really just supportive community around personal finance. I think it's just absolutely incredible, and I realized how fortunate I am now to be in a position to make more money than I have ever made in my entire life doing something that I have so much fun doing! I would say 99.9% of the comments are so positive and so supportive; I absolutely love them, and it really feels like a sense of community. Then, you get some funny ones. The negative comments, at this point, I’m so used to them.

Then after a while, I think I realized that it has more to do with them and their own problems that they project onto you than it does about you. That is really one of the things that took me a very long time to get used to was the negative comments.

And when I first started, I felt like I was putting all this work into the videos and really putting myself out there and getting past my comfort zone, and to have someone say that you suck or that you’re stupid or that you should quit or that you’re not good or whatever it is, it was really difficult to hear.

And I do remember a few specific comments in the very beginning that completely ruined my entire night. I would be in a great mood, and then all of a sudden read one negative comment, and all of a sudden the entire night I would just be in my head really sad, just questioning all of my decisions.

And that took me a while to get used to, and that is the reality of just putting yourself out there online is that you open yourself up to criticism. So right now, probably like 85% of my income is affiliated with YouTube in some way or another, and then the remaining 15% is through real estate sales or real estate investments.

Now, this is something I definitely want to address and talk about because it seems like every single time I post an income breakdown video, there's a small percentage of people out there who do get upset that I make more money talking about selling real estate and investing than I do actually from selling real estate and investing.

And from that, I think it's really important that I clarify and distinguish that first of all, YouTube is a very active business where I'm spending like 8 to 12 hours every single day producing new content for people to watch. So obviously that is going to make a lot more money than passive investments, where I maybe spend an hour a month on.

So when you look at the time difference and how much time I spend on YouTube versus my investments, it’s no surprise I make way more money talking about investing on YouTube than I do from my investments, which take almost no time whatsoever. Not only that but with YouTube, I am able to scale my business just exponentially with the exact same work, and that's just how I end up getting paid.

And I also don't hide; I’m very upfront with the fact that right now, YouTube just ends up paying me more than my investments make, and I'm not ashamed of it, I’m not embarrassed about it; it's just the nature of the business. But YouTube is also such a career where it's extremely fickle, and I have no idea if this is going to be around next year. So I may as well just try to run with the opportunity while I still have it rather than spend my time on anything else that isn't yielding as big a return.

I've always been self-employed; I've never had a formal like 401k, but I do have a SEP 401k. I've thrown some money in there at the end of the year just if it's left over, just as a hedge.

So now let's go over and review my own income. So first of all, we got the YouTube main channel: $81,428 per month January February. I think I made $40,000 January, $50,000 February, so that brought down the average. But as of right now, the YouTube main channel is doing a little bit over $100,000 a month.

Then we got the next one: Teachable: $28,837 a month. For the most part, this one has been fairly consistent every single month. I mean obviously it fluctuates, maybe plus or minus five grand either way, but for the most part it has been a pretty sustainable income source. And a lot of people have really been happy with that, and I honestly took a lot of pride in the amount of time I spent creating that and really trying to make it the best it could be because they know the stigma out there with people who sell courses on YouTube, and I did it because I came from the perspective of a viewer, and I was just as skeptical.

So I figured at least stand behind the product that I make, and that way, if someone is really truly unhappy with it, I'll give them a refund. I’m never gonna try to stiff anybody for money, and I believe my reputation is more important than any amount of money out there. So I really put everything I had into the courses, which by the way, link down below if anyone is interested.

So next, we got my YouTube second channel: $9,256 a month. Now that channel does do over $20,000 a month, but because it was really started in May, they took the average for the entire year.

And then we got real estate commissions: $8,572 a month. And admittedly, this is something that has been on the back burner lately as of this year just because the opportunity for YouTube really presented itself, and I felt like I would be an idiot not to take the opportunity and give this everything I can while the going is good because, again, I don't know how long this is gonna last for.

Next, we have affiliates and sponsors: $7,222 a month. And I do sponsorships every now and then, but I am very selective about who I have sponsoring a video, and it needs to be a company that I personally use myself and really like; otherwise, it's just not worth me mentioning just to make a quick buck.

But I also think that it is important for me to make relationships with some of these sponsors, and in the process, I do end up turning down about 99% of the sponsorships that reach out to me. I say no to them because I don’t like the company, I think they're scammy, I think they're sketchy, and I in no way want to affiliate myself with anything in regard to that company.

And I have been offered, by the way, a lot of money for sponsorships. One person offered me $50,000 to make a video review of their platform on the main channel, and I said no to it because I didn't like it at all, and I thought it would just die. I just—I don't want any part of doing that, so there is no price tag for me to try to buy me or anything like that.

But again, if it's something I use and like, I had no problem with it. I'm gonna get rental income: $15,105. Again, like I mentioned, that is gross. It's also from YouTube that I was really able to branch off into other aspects of this as well in the sense that I was able to create two programs. One of them teaches people how to work as a real estate agent and build their career, and the second program that I created was how to teach people to grow on YouTube.

And both of those this year have probably done a little bit over $300,000 in sales. And since it's all online, that's pretty much all profit; there's almost no overhead whatsoever with that.

So we talked a little bit about the stigma between YouTubers that sell courses, and unfortunately, there are a lot of bad apples when it comes to YouTube gurus telling you how to make money online. I totally get that, and even part of me feels just like dirty about kind of getting in the same space.

But at the same time, I do realize that there is an opportunity for knowledge out there and there is a value in providing a program at a premium that really teaches people everything you know in a condensed form. I spent a long time creating those programs, so I really tried my best to do it as tastefully as I could and give it a value where I felt like someone would get more out of it than they would pay for it.

And I also really try my best not to like push it down people's throats every single video or like running ads or stuff like that. So I really value the overall perception of the program and myself and just the image that I have online and not being one of those like YouTube sales guys—I really try to avoid that if at all possible.

But I bought my Tesla in April of 2019; you get so many rebates back for it, the financing is so cheap. I calculated that it was going to cost me $78 a month out of pocket in the first year. I figured like, "Oh, you know, that's the video I'm gonna make." Then that video ended up getting now almost 6 million views. I think the total cost of a car with everything all out the door with taxes and like all of the options, everything was like $44,000, so I ended up making money from getting the car.

Yeah, I gotta say, by pure chance or luck or whatever you want to call it, that single video completely catapulted my channel to the next level, and that Tesla has probably been the best thing I have ever done in terms of my investment. My total out-of-pocket cost for that car was like $4,437 and one cent that I put on a credit card, and spending that amount of money ended up getting me a few hundred thousand more subscribers.

My views just went through the roof after that video. It really took my entire career, I want to say, to the next level. That was just luck; that was by chance; I did not intend on that. I wasn't even sure that video would do well in the channel, and it did, and for that, I'm so fortunate.

I have an amazing girlfriend, and her and I share a lot of the same values in terms of saving and spending money, and I find it fun that she is just as frugal as I am, and she’s the one, too, that’s also very encouraging. I’m like, "We don’t have to go out tonight to happy hour sushi!" She doesn’t sound like that, by the way, but she urges me to like—oh man, I did not know they were gonna be using that clip.

She does—she does not sound like that, let me make that very clear. But on the serious note, speaking of relationships, I think it's so important that if you're gonna be with someone, to find someone with similar values as you do. So I would say if anyone wants relationship advice from me, I mean, I don't know if I'm qualified to give relationship advice, but if I am, really hold out and wait for that person that it really kind of meets all of the check marks. And once you find that person, hold on to them.

So one of the things we actually do when we go out is we will end up just splitting a meal because usually I'm not hungry enough to eat the entire thing myself, and neither is she. Oh yeah, that's another thing: find someone who is cool with splitting a meal with you; that's how you know they're a keeper!

Okay, I know it sounds weird, too, but I do end up rewarding myself every now and then at McDonald's from the dollar menu. I will purposely use that as an incentive to get all my work done, and if I'm able to do that before midnight, I go and get the two double cheeseburgers. It's not something that happens too often, but it does become this thing where it's like, "That's my treat!" Thank you!

There is something in those double cheeseburgers; I have a feeling they're just adding a chemical to them that just makes them irresistible because now it's gotten to the point where I really just crave them, and that becomes my motivation for just like finishing the work by a certain time. And if anything, that ends up making me more money because I'm able to get more work done because that is what I'm looking forward to!

Because I know that there's an immediate reward at the end of the tunnel when I'm done with my work, I will go and get this; I'm gonna eat my two cheeseburgers while watching YouTube videos, and to me, that is bliss!

The only thing I really want to do is travel; that I haven't done—that's the only thing. But I could do that if I wanted to; it's just not the right time to do that. I would love to do that without having to answer emails or pick up phone calls or do any work whatsoever and really just truly be in the moment and experience everything this world and this planet has to offer. And then coming back to this with a brand new, fresh perspective.

You don't need to be as extreme as I am; you don't need to skimp on every purchase at all; you don't need to work 12 hours a day. But you do need to think outside the box, and you do need to be creative. Leverage your time appropriately, and that's something I really want to make very clear is that I realize that my lifestyle is not for everyone.

I just have a thorough enjoyment of going out there and saving money. To me, that's what gets me excited! If I find a way to save a few dollars on something, that makes me happy! I don't know why my brain is wired that way, and I get that not everyone is like that. No one is more frugal than I am!

Wow! So we finished the video. I feel almost sad knowing that like I never thought I would actually be on Millennial Money. And then to finally realize this and then watch and react to myself is just a totally trippy experience that I never thought that I would ever be able to do. I am just—I'm truly honored to even be a part of Millennial Money and to have this come full circle, coming from a video I posted a few months ago, totally spur of the moment, to now being in this position today.

Just goes to show you that you have no idea what's in store for the future, and truly anything can happen. And I am so happy to have had the opportunity to be on.

So, with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it, and if you wouldn't mind going over to CNBC Make It and subscribing to their channel, I'm sure they would really appreciate it. They're not asking for any of that, but just as a token of my support, if you guys wouldn't mind going and doing that, that would mean a lot to me. And they have some really interesting content that I think you're really going to enjoy.

Besides, make sure to destroy the like button, subscribe button, and notification bell! Feel free to add me on Instagram; I post pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there! All the links and everything down below in the description. Thank you again for watching, and until next time!