Graham Stephan reacts to influencer “What I Spend in a Week” money diaries. Youtube; The Graham Stephan Show Millionaire Graham Stephan critiques influencer “What I Spend in a Week” vlogs in a popular series. “Millionaire Reacts” isn’t snarky, though there are many shocked reactions to artisanal coffee.
Stephan shares personal finance tips and spotlights voyeuristic tours of wealthy people’s spending habits. Ask any influencer and they’ll tell you: You have to spend money to make money. A YouTube influencer’s weekly bill might include a $50 spray tan, $500 in personal training sessions, and a $16 bag of influencer Emma Chamberlain’s “Chamberlain Coffee.
” For others, it might include $43,700 in rent for an LA creator house that has drawers full of candy. Whatever the case, rest assured that Graham Stephan, a 32-year-old personal finance YouTuber whose 2021 net worth was $15. 5 million, will have something to say.
Stephan, a former real estate agent who now earns about $6 million per year on YouTube, produces a “Millionaire Reacts” series for his 889,000 subscribers in which he critiques the spending habits of influencers. He kicked off the series at the tail end of May 2019 with a video reacting to the CNBC “Make It” millennial money diary of a Detroit-based hairstylist banking $280,000 a year. “I’m gonna go ahead and watch it and comment from my perspective of someone who became a multi-millionaire in their 20s,” Stephan explained at the time.
“And I like to think that I’m pretty good with money, I try. I’m pretty cheap. “Years later, YouTubers have come to actually anticipate Stephan’s critiques.
His latest video looked at a “What I Spend in a Week” vlog from 27-year-old YouTuber and musician Niki Demar — who wondered aloud if he’d roast her for purchasing a $17 Erewhon smoothie (he did). “What I Spend in a Week” videos are an ever-popular YouTube genre, and as Stephan acknowledges in the Demar reaction video, “we have an ever-growing amount of content to react to. ” Money diaries, in general, remain a voyeuristic “glimpse into a stranger’s usually private personal finances” that we’re rarely afforded.
Critiquing the financial habits of strangers goes hand in hand with the broader cultural pastime of critiquing millennial spending habits, though many have pointed out that granular digs at avocado toast and Starbucks lattes fundamentally misunderstand the financial disadvantage millennials find themselves in after 20 years of crippling economic turmoil. The criticism has become so internalized that 2018 Bank of America report found 64% of millennials believe their generation has worse spending habits than other generations, despite data showing they’re on the whole more conscientious about money. “In a way, millennials are part of a vast and accidental social experiment,” Kenan Fikri, the director for research at the Economic Innovation Group, previously told Insider.
“We’ve never launched an entire generation with so much financial baggage. ” And prospects aren’t exactly better for Gen Z. Stephan, himself a millennial, critiques the spending habits of the young and the hyper-visible, but doesn’t fully engage with the internet’s overgrown sense of outrage.
Stephan will regularly react in disbelief to the cost of a Starbucks drink — asking viewers to imagine spending the equivalent of an hour of minimum wage on a large iced tea — but he’s also relatively free with compliments on what he perceives as good financial decisions (living at home, choosing a cheap gym, spending money on health, etc. ). He also has more flexible views on astronomical expenses such as $43,700 in monthly rent, and (albeit unsolicited) ideas for how they could diversify revenue streams with related sponsorships.
Stephan’s content combines the voyeuristic thrill of money diaries and the potential for personal finance lessons. While it may be easy to blame the aforementioned $7 Starbucks tea as the straw that broke the camel’s back, Stephan critiques tuition costs and student debt lenders just as much for their role in sinking his millennial audiences into debt. “I think there could be more people in the space just digging into people and being like ‘don’t spend money, don’t do that,’ giving them a hard time,” Stephan said in the September 10 video in a tone that conjures the image of a wagging finger.
“It’s all in good fun, by the way, it’s all lighthearted stuff. ” Graham Stephan did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Email tips on all things internet to mleighton@insider.
com. For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/millionaire-reacts-influencer-what-i-spend-in-a-week-vlogs-2022-9