Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • My name is Graham Stephan.

  • I'm 29 years old.

  • I'm a real estate agent investor and YouTube or living in Los Angeles, making 1.6 million per year.

  • I have $0 in credit card debt, $0 in student loans, 1.8 million and savings and just over $4 million in real estate investments.

  • I spent $585,000 on this duplex, and then I spent another $80,000 remodeling.

  • My mortgage is just over $2800 a month, and my utilities are about $110 a month light shows to buy and live in a duplex because I really wanted to save the extra money and at least have some other rental income coming in to subsidize my cost of living.

  • And this place took me about six months to find.

  • But when it came on the market, it was a really good deal, and I knew I could rent out the other unit to basically pay for my mortgage and most my property taxes and that way that would allow me to essentially live here completely.

  • Rent or mortgage free is growing up.

  • My parents did not have any sort of abundance of money or anything like that, and I definitely saw how hard they worked.

  • And a lot of times it really was paycheck to paycheck.

  • So I think seeing that really forced me to go in almost an extreme in terms of saving and investing and really making that a priority.

  • So I would never have to worry about money.

  • Even as a young kid, I would always just be obsessed about saving everything I could get.

  • And even from birthdays and Christmases haven't envelope with just all my like, $20 bills in there, and I get really excited when I would hit like, $100.

  • I actually got more enjoyment, I think, from saving than I did from spending.

  • So I became a millionaire by working as a real estate agent, originally had planned to go to college, but when I didn't get into college, I was basically screwed.

  • I had really bad grades in high school.

  • I figured I needed to do something and get some work experience for a year before I reapply to colleges, I got my real estate license, ended up really loving the career and Then, after I sold my first house, I was like, I'm never going to college after this.

  • So I've chosen to focus, really on the luxury high end market here in Los Angeles, I would say my average price points is somewhere between two and $3 million but the most expensive home I've sold is about seven million.

  • So my YouTube channel is just.

  • My name is Graham Stephan, and it's mostly about personal finance and investing and how to invest in real estate.

  • My each of income various month to month that usually it's anywhere between 150,000 month and $250,000.

  • Welcome to my living room.

  • For the most part, this is really decorative.

  • I don't spend a lot of time in here.

  • If I have any friends over, none of us are really hanging out in this room.

  • It's mainly meant for just like looking aesthetically kinda nice.

  • This over here is my couch.

  • That doesn't really get used that often.

  • These were the pillows that actually came with the couch.

  • I don't like them at all.

  • Looks a little too patriotic, red, white and blue.

  • But you know what they're here again.

  • We never really use it.

  • That lunch.

  • So these two chairs I originally found on Wayfair.

  • But then what I did to save money is they did a reverse image search on Google.

  • And I found the exact same chairs from another company for half the cost.

  • So in terms of furnishing my place, I was able to get the majority of it at wholesale cost.

  • So really only cost me about 30% of what it would if I bought it at retail.

  • The other thing I found is that you could shop online and usually find the exact same item in products somewhere else for a lot cheaper.

  • Lot of furniture is sold via drop shipping so that people mark up the cost and they make a lot of profit from it.

  • But if you just do a reverse image search on Google of the item, you want to get almost always you could find it somewhere else for a significantly cheaper.

  • And that's what I've done.

  • If I didn't get it wholesale, this was actually given to me by a subscriber.

  • Rust What?

  • Saltman, Your Lamborghini is right there that you ended up sending they do end up getting sent, some things from subscribers will find out my work address and then send me things like a lot of letters or sometimes gift cards to Starbucks is a popular one.

  • We're also subway.

  • And then, of course, without further ado, you have probably my most prized possession.

  • This is an autographed picture from Keenan and Count.

  • This is certainly one of a kind.

  • I've had this reception a long time.

  • This is another thing I found.

  • Add some antique store.

  • I think it's some sort of like replica Ray gun.

  • Someone's gonna comment down below and tell me what this is a replica from.

  • But my inner child came out when I saw this, and it's like you got, You got to get this.

  • This is just too cool not to buy.

  • So a period, my three YouTube subscriber play buttons.

  • The gold one is for hitting a 1,000,000 then the two silver ones are for hitting 100,000.

  • Then I have a candle here and a few people may have seen my video with Molly, who also did the money tourists here on the channel and glamour.

  • Over here we have our mahogany teak wood candle.

  • It's my favorite.

  • We probably go through one a week.

  • It's kind of bad.

  • She was spending way too much.

  • She's been like $30 a week on candles, but I was telling her you can get candles for a few dollars each at Ross.

  • You have no idea how expensive there.

  • And I think this was like three bucks, but it looks like it could be a 15 or $20 candle.

  • It's a great way to save a lot of money.

  • This'd something I actually did myself with.

  • A friend.

  • A contractor wanted, like, $600 to go and redo this because Spanish tile is believe it.

  • Not really expensive, but I found a place that ships directly from Mexico, and this was $2 a tile, so I got it shipped.

  • Did the whole thing for really under about $160.

  • This is my dining room, and the dining room table is something that I never actually used for eating.

  • I mostly just use it for editing videos really late at night.

  • For some reason, this is my favorite spot just to sit there and edit the chairs or something that I absolutely hate them.

  • I was looking through a catalog when picking out the furniture, and I thought these were meant to match this set.

  • It doesn't match these look like grandma chairs, but I hope that nobody notices.

  • So I just pushed them in and just leave it.

  • These are things that I bought from Ross.

  • I like fish, but I didn't buy it specifically for the fish.

  • I thought it was just too good of a price not to get so over here You have my bar, and this is something I never really used.

  • This just visually looks kind of cool and fills the space I almost never drink.

  • This is Diet Coke mixed with water.

  • It's not actually Jim Beam, honey.

  • Same with this.

  • You would have no idea that this is not Jack Daniels.

  • Instead, it's just diet coke and water, and you find the right mixture and it looks exactly like Jack Daniels.

  • All of this is really just for decoration and want to make it seem like I have a fully stocked bar when, in actuality at the stocked bar full with water down Diet Coke and and water and by the way.

  • Proof, It's just water.

  • So this is my kitchen.

  • I remodel it about 2.5 years ago.

  • They used to be a big wallop here that I decided to take down, open up.

  • So now brings in a lot more natural lights.

  • I got the courts countertops here which are horrible to keep playing.

  • I thought it would be a really good idea to have white countertops.

  • And then I realised that anything you put on them is gonna leave a bit of a mark.

  • So I spend way too much time trying to keep this clean.

  • So a lot that I have in my kitchen isn't really that functional, but I think it looks kind of cool.

  • Like a lot of this I've made toe look really just aesthetically pleasing with things that I've kind of got for free.

  • Like this cellar was moving out and they were throwing it away.

  • So I'm gonna put it in my kitchen and same with some of these other things in here.

  • Admittedly, I don't really have that much in here because they don't really cook that often.

  • So I have a basic set of plates that I got off Amazon.

  • I prefer actually to use some of the paper plates so I don't have to do any dishes.

  • And then I keep these sitting here just because they look kind of good and it makes it look like I have some stuff in the cupboards.

  • And then, of course, we always gotta rest the merch.

  • This is one of the slogans I have.

  • You could find it exclusively.

  • It grand stuff in store dot com.

  • So I got some other stuff over here that kind of fills the space a little bit.

  • Some olive oil, Marondera sauces, pasta.

  • And then this is something I actually found it.

  • Ross, I saw this on sale for like, five bucks.

  • You know, it would kind of go here.

  • It looks pretty beachy and fits nicely in this space.

  • And then, most importantly, I have my mister Coffee coffee maker not sponsored, of course.

  • But I do really like Mister Coffee.

  • So this whole coffee thing really became another little bit on my channel because they never go out and buy coffee because I could just make it home for 20 cents.

  • And that's just what I've always done.

  • Just to save the extra money.

  • So underneath you have my trash can here, and one of the cool things I do to save money is I reused the old grocery bags and actually save a lot of money on doing this.

  • I don't buy garbage bags.

  • Just put this over and look.

  • It's pretty much the same thing, and you don't need to buy any garbage bags, so don't really do that much cooking.

  • But I will make breakfast every single morning.

  • I religiously eat the exact same thing.

  • It's two eggs, cheese, ham and then sometimes, if I'm feeling really adventurous, I'll have half a bagel with coffee.

  • Of course, I spent about $200 a month on groceries and another $150 a month eating out.

  • I also like to look for happy hours.

  • If you're gonna go out to eat, you may as well just go and find that two hour window where things were gonna be half price and just eat as much as you can then, and that's gonna usually save you about like 30 to 50% in your food bill.

  • Happy hour, sushi or all you can eat sushi is the one thing that I just I love it.

  • Any time I could go and eat sushi or find all you can eat sushi, I will find a excuse to do it.

  • Normally, this is about $1200.

  • But I waited for a Labor Day sale and got both of these for 800.

  • Welcome to my bedroom.

  • The bed frame I got years ago from my Kia.

  • The mattress was given to me for free by Casper.

  • I represented them as a company many years ago, was a real estate agent.

  • And they gave me a free mattress when I found them a house which is pretty cool.

  • This is my Nicolas Cage pillowcase.

  • A subscriber sent this to me.

  • I joked about it in one of my videos and now I own one.

  • I never thought I would say this, but I sleep on Nicolas Cage every single night and I will see you in your dreams.

  • So this is the only TV in my house.

  • I really don't watch that much TV, so I don't have one in the living room.

  • But every now and then, if I want to watch Netflix, YouTube could turn this on here.

  • I again, I really don't watch that much TV.

  • Then over here I have my YouTube subscriber play button.

  • This was given to me as a gift during one of these speaking engagements.

  • I went Thio, so I set it up.

  • I looked it up here and it keeps track of my second channel.

  • So this is where all the magic happens in the film.

  • All my videos.

  • It's a 400 square foot garage that I remodeled to turn into my studio.

  • I had a dry walled added electricity, recess lighting, and I added some sound deadening materials just so that it's not as echoey in here.

  • This table I got from Urban 95 I really liked these restoration hardwork desks with the aviation style, but they were all like 3 to $5000.

  • But I found that Urban 95 had the exact same desk for under 1000 bucks.

  • I bought two books.

  • These air totally random E Bay books that I bought for a dollar each.

  • That makes it look like I'm a lot smarter than I really am.

  • And then this dinosaur skull here this is a replica from away fair and I got it.

  • I thought it looked really cool.

  • I spend way too much time making a video.

  • I would say every video that I make usually takes about 8 to 10 hours to produce.

  • And some of that is researching the topic, actually planning out the video, filming the video and then editing it and trying to piece together a good title and thumbnail soas faras my equipment.

  • I keep it very simple.

  • I have a cannon.

  • 70 D with the Sigma 1.8 lens.

  • So they used to fill most of my videos.

  • And then I have a cannon a d D.

  • Which is the wide angle lens for any wide angle shots they need.

  • Or if I'm filming out somewhere, I use that camera for audio.

  • I just use a comic, a wireless mike.

  • They ended up giving me that for free to test it out and just review it.

  • And it's free, and I really like it.

  • As faras lighting is concerned, I have an L E D ring lights that I use as my main source of lights in the night to led panels that are used for more like soft lights as well.

  • It might look a little weird to see the towels on my lights, but what I found is that these towels work really well for light diffusion.

  • That way, it's not too harsh on the background.

  • These towels were perfectly for that.

  • So I taught myself everything.

  • When it comes to editing, I had no idea what I was doing so well on YouTube, and I searched like how to edit on my movie.

  • And even to this day, I'm using I'm movie, the Free Software on My Mac and that's it.

  • And I figured I would use I movie just because it was free.

  • Why spend extra money if I didn't have to and it was already there, So why not?

  • I would say my favorite thing about this place is that it really doesn't cost me anything to live here, and that gives me a lot of financial peace of mind just knowing that, you know, worst case scenario, if just everything stops entirely that I will be totally fine here.

  • But I don't have to stress about glamour.

My name is Graham Stephan.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it