Why I'm not panicking about $215,000 in debt
Yesterday I said that I'm having fun being $215,000 in debt, and I absolutely am. At the same time, I very much have a plan to pay all this debt off, and I'll lay out that plan for you. And at jerrybanfield.com, especially if you join the chat or the Skool community, you may even be able to work with me and make some money together with me on a part of this journey.
And here's the key thing, though. In a lot of the messages I saw in my chat and in my Skool and from people posting online, when I lay out that, hey, I've got $40,000 in assets, $215,000 in debt, my net worth's negative $174,000, a lot of you, you go into panic mode. You're like, oh my God, Jerry, this is not working. Jerry, something's wrong with you. Jerry, you need to see a psychologist. These are psychiatric issues. Jerry, you need to, you need to move out with your mom and stop, you need to drastically cut your expenses. Like, y'all are going into panic mode.
I'm not. I'm cool. I am having a great time living exactly how I'm living today because I have a plan to pay all this debt off and to get the net worth above zero and to build and build on the assets. Now, some of these plans are still forming concretely. But others of them are right out there in the open.
And the baseline, the thing is, I'm testing so much stuff at once. I'm obsessed over making more income, because the things you all suggest of like, well, you need to get rid of this $2,700 a month rent from your house and move in with somebody, you need to downsize. It's like, no, I don't, because I can make so much money. It'll make all that other stuff irrelevant.
My shirts on eBay
Here's an example. So I just tested a couple of days ago listing some shirts. And the shirt I'm wearing right now will be sold at some point also. And I'm going to just start. I'm going to start literally. I am now. I'm selling my clothes on jerrybanfield.com.
So look at what these shirts are doing. The shirt I wore on Who Are These Podcasts is sitting on eBay right now, and what's the bid? Well, right now, somebody has bid $7,000 for that shirt. And the reason the bid's up there is because another person also bid $7,000 for it. There's only one of these shirts that I wore and that I was on Who Are These Podcasts with. I filmed a bunch of those videos in it. Someone has bid $7,000. Like, this is so high my mind's like, nobody's going to actually pay that.
Well, even if, for example, even if like worst case scenario, this auction doesn't end up getting actually paid, which I would say it's probably going to actually get paid, and there's still five days left. But even if it doesn't get paid, I now know I can start like, just put this on my website for several thousand dollars. And somebody will just pay for it straight on my website, not even using eBay.
Then there's the shirt I wore when I met the Queen. That shirt is now up to $10,000 on eBay, because one person bid $10,000 and the next bid was over that, $10,100. This is a Jerry Banfield shirt that I met the Queen in. There'll only be one ever like this.
And so this is an example. Like, let's say these do actually get paid. That's $17,000 of income. That single-handedly puts my net worth up and knocks my debt down. And because I've spent more than I made, I don't even have to pay any tax till I actually make a profit this year. So you see, just those eBay auctions alone, if paid, will knock my debt below $200,000. Do you see how? That's how I'm thinking.
Now, how many people could have come up with that kind of a plan, that I'm going to wear these shirts? And I was thinking of this for a while before I mentioned it. I was thinking I'm going to start selling my clothes, because that's something very personal. Like, this online stuff is kind of esoteric, and if you feel like there's no reality to it, but when someone can buy an actual shirt from me, and maybe I'll get into selling all my clothes, socks, underwear, shorts, maybe we'll sell all of them. Now you can't sell them all unwashed on eBay, but I may have stumbled on a new business. I might start making $10,000 or more a month selling my clothes.
And this is what I'm trying to communicate to you. When you go around looking like, oh my God, I need to panic and focus on cutting expenses. No, because I can make so much money. If I'm obsessed with money, I can make so much money that my expenses are pretty static. I spend about $5,000 or $6,000 a month. And it doesn't matter if I make $30,000 or zero, I still spend about the same a month. So I can make so much money in a single month that I can knock out an entire credit card. That in one single month, I could easily knock out 10% of the entire debt in a single month.
Feeling wealthy is the secret
And the key, the secret behind this, is the constant feeling of wealth I have. A lot of you, if you were in my position, you would feel broke. You'd be like, oh my God, I've got this debt. I need to panic. Like, most people wouldn't have the courage to even start down this path. Like, I know a friend that he was in such a broke, living-on-the-edge mindset because he refused to take on any debt.
Now in his situation, generating serious levels of income like I'm capable of is a bit less realistic. So I realize lots of you, you've got some fixed job that you work. It doesn't seem like a good idea to borrow $90,000 on credit cards to bet on yourself. But I know everybody has more earning potential than you actually realize. All of us have bigger opportunities than we often capitalize on. And what I do well is I expand what's possible.
And these eBay listings are absolute perfect examples of, who would think to try this? And then I've already set up the, because I've borrowed all this money, I've had time to build an audience. I've had time to put into doing my videos. And because I've done that, then I've got an audience that's interested. And some of you in the audience, some of you all have a lot of money. Now maybe most of the audience members don't, but there are millionaires that watch my videos that it wouldn't be a big deal to drop $7,000 on one of my shirts.
Because when you have a lot of money, the most precious thing is something where there's some emotional attachment to it, where there's something special or scarce, where it's not something everybody can have. So that's my level of thinking. I'm like, how do I offer something to somebody who's sitting there with tens of millions of dollars in the bank? And how do I offer something to them that they would think is special? And these shirts are a perfect example. Somebody who's watched my videos and really likes me and has a bunch of money, they're like, shit, I'll pay $10,000 for this guy's shirt. Because they could have that hanging in their house. They could have that. And that is something like, I've got the shirt that this guy met the woman in, that he sold this video. It's got all this emotion in it.
And then I'm out here. I have this lifetime chat access. People schedule calls, join my Skool. I've got a cameo I'm about to deliver for someone. I've got dating coaching. And I've just started offering dates with me as well. So that'll make for some fantastic dating content.
The outlier scenarios I'm speaking into existence
And I might meet a woman that's got plenty of money. And I know some of you might think this is ridiculous, but there are women out there that have so much money and they have such a hard time finding a guy that they feel anything for, that a woman like that might find me on YouTube and might go to jerrybanfield.com and schedule a date with me. And she might say, I'm going to pay off all your debt. I have millions of dollars. I love what you do. I'm going to pay all your debt off.
Now, a lot of you would think that's unlikely. And sure it is. But I'm tapped into all these as real possibilities. If y'all are into that quantum stuff, I've got my eye on all these different timelines. The timeline where I meet a woman on YouTube who finds my videos out of the hundreds of thousands of people who watch me every month. It would only take one woman to get really excited and to be like, this is a guy that, I can't find a guy like this. This is a guy that's special. I don't even know a guy who's even close to this. I've got to date this guy. I've got to make a life with this guy.
And that's certainly not going to be ordinary. But YouTube and being online sets me up for extraordinary things to happen. And I could have a woman that applies for a date with me and brings so much money into my life. And so many, like, all right, let's say the woman doesn't even have any money. But she applies for a date with me. We make great content together. I start getting even more views on my content. She comes and starts filming videos with me. And the two of us together start printing tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Dave Ramsey versus YOLO
What I, my plan to pay down this debt is to be tapped into so many of these outlier scenarios in my mind. And this is a level above what everybody, like Dave Ramsey's out here. I believe in paying, keeping your life reasonable and paying down your expenses, not having debt. But that Dave Ramsey mindset is not going to get me out of $200,000 in debt in an enjoyable, fun way.
And YOLO, you really got to, really got to let YOLO sink in. Like, you've got a limited amount of time here. I'm not going to piss my time away putting my head down at some job just to make money and then obsessed over getting out of debt. And then when I get out of debt someday, feel like I accomplished something. No thanks.
What I'm doing is I'm living large. I'm having fun. I'm doing stuff that's unusual. I'm getting people all over the world to find me. I'm setting up all these unusual, amazing possibilities. For example, there are people, as I said, that have millions and millions of dollars that watch my YouTube channel.
It would only take one of them to say what? I've got $100,000 in this investment that I don't even care about. I've got $300,000 in this investment I don't care about. And I don't have that much longer to live. I'm already giving my kids millions of dollars. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to get ahold of this Jerry Banfield guy. I'm going to go to his website, make sure that he notices me. I'm going to pay to schedule a call with this kid. And I'm going to say, look, Jerry, I love what you do. I want to support you. And I'm going to give you $250,000. I want you to use it. And you have to agree, Jerry, you're going to pay off all of your debt and not borrow any more money and just keep creating the content you are creating. And like that, see, again, many of you would be like, well, that's not likely. Even if it's not likely, it is possible.
The rich uncle in the UK
And when you combine all of these unlikely scenarios into a mind that's prepared to receive them, into getting out to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people with my content. And then what I'm saying is so interesting, and then people are using word of mouth to talk to me, like you could actually have somebody two or three people away from my videos. So let's say you have a, let's say you got a 30 year old guy that's watching my videos in the UK. And he himself doesn't have much money, but he has a friend. He's like, dude, you got to watch this guy's videos. It's crazy.
He sends his video to a friend. The friend has a rich uncle who's going to pass soon. The friend sends the rich uncle the video. And the friend already knows he's going to get plenty from the rich uncle. The rich uncle wants to have some meaning for the end of his life. Like, that's what matters. He wants the money he has to mean something at the end of his life. He wants the chance to help others, because he sees at the end of his life, that's all that really matters. Like, nothing else really matters. It's who you've loved and being able to help other people.
And then the rich uncle's like, all right, I'm going to go ahead and get ahold of this guy and pay off his debt. Because he can. Like, how much of a boss do you think you'd feel like? Like, how much would that make your day if you're like, damn, I'm going to pass, my kids, my nieces, nephews are all getting a bunch of money. I've got to do this. I've still got some leftover that I don't need. I'm going to pay this guy's debt off. Like, those are the things that are possible. And what an incredible story that would make for everybody involved.
So this, like, that's not a plan by itself. I'm not, you see how I'm not just holding on to one single unlikely possibility and being like, well, I'll find a rich woman, or me and a woman will make content together, or some rich guy will pay off my debt. Or, you see, I'm putting all of these into play at the same time. I'm speaking all of their possibilities into existence, all of them. I'm sharing all of them with other people. So it's one thing if I was just to share this stuff in the house by myself, but I'm speaking these and they're going out on the internet all over the world and people are listening to these. And therefore I am speaking things into existence.
And then it'll only take one or two of these things. Like, for example, with the eBay auctions, that single-handedly, I literally, it is possible, I could sell several hundred thousand dollars of my clothes over the next year. And that single-handedly could pay off all my debt. Again, you might think, before you would have seen these auctions, you would have thought nobody's going to pay $10,000 for a shirt from this guy. Well, this person has agreed to bid on both of these and has agreed to pay collectively $17,000 for two of my shirts.
So that's an example of when you would think that's never going to happen. Nobody is going to pay. You're never going to make tens of thousands of dollars selling your clothes. I say to you now, it's actually realistic to expect I can make hundreds of thousands of dollars selling my clothes. But these are not the only plans I have. I also am being invited to go on people's shows, because what I share is unusual. It is not the put your head down and grind. It is, you need to get into a magical mindset.
Feel wealthy now
And the secret to everything is how wealthy I feel on a day to day basis. That's why I borrowed this money. Because if I moved in with my mom and got a job, I would feel broke even though my net worth would be much higher. And that's what a lot of you are doing, is your net worth is much higher than mine, but you feel broke. And it's because of your own thoughts and your own choices. And you've been conditioned to feel broke. Everybody else is encouraging you to feel broke. And you've been trained to think that, well, I can't go into a negative net worth. I can't borrow money.
To me, number one, feel wealthy now. I got into negative net worths and debt by feeling broke. I started going negative. I had a positive net worth when I was a teenager. And I started borrowing money. It wasn't much positive. But as soon as I started borrowing money, that broke mindset crept in. But the secret is that you've got to feel wealthy now.
Do you see how wealthy I feel? The shirt I'm wearing is a $100 shirt I bought on a credit card at 14% interest, which, on the surface, might have looked like a dumb idea. Well, this is a shirt. And the glitter one was like a $30, $40 glitter shirt I ordered on Etsy on a credit card. That was a $100 shirt I ordered on a credit card. Now, it doesn't look like such a bad move now, does it? But I felt so wealthy and abundant and was having so much fun with my friend Lindsey when we went to buy that shirt.
So you see, when I'm going around feeling wealthy and having fun, that is my attraction point for manifesting. So then I am sensitive to these other opportunities to manifest the same thing. But if you go around feeling broke and feeling like you don't have enough, you could easily have a higher net worth than me, but your lifestyle feels sad and broke and scary. And my lifestyle with a lower net worth feels fun and abundant.
How scarcity put me $600,000 in debt in 2018
And then over time, the trick is to maintain that feeling of wealth over time. Because I got into negative net worth from having this same kind of mindset in the past. I sabotaged and crashed my own net worth from an internal feeling of not enough. And I give the best example of that in 2018.
In 2018, I had several years in a row where I collectively had made like a half million dollars in profit in my business. Millions of dollars in sales. Hundreds of thousands paid out to my friends to help with my business. I had years of huge abundance. And it started with, I started with feeling wealthy and then executing based on that.
In 2018, I switched into this scarcity mindset. That even though I had a house I bought, that my ex, now ex wife, then wife at the time, had a brand new car that I'd bought for her. And I had a car that I loved. I had everything I needed materially. I had all my credit cards on automatic payments. Everything was perfect financially. I started feeling like it wasn't enough. That I should have more. That I deserved more. That why wasn't I further ahead? And I started to go into this fear of, I don't know exactly how I'm going to make more money going forward. Even though there were so many opportunities right at my fingertips.
Internally, I switched into this fear, scarcity, and lack of gratitude mindset inside. And when I did that, within a year, I manifested a much worse financial situation than today. Because I was providing for a family at the time. And the debt numbers, combined with my ex wife's, were staggering. Over $600,000 in debt then. And only maybe $100,000 or so in assets. So, much worse debt, to have an entire family's burden. Whereas now, my ex has her finances separate from mine. And she's perfectly capable, if I couldn't, for providing for the kids. So, today's situation is easier than what I've already been through.
The bankruptcy lawyer in 2019
And do you know the turning point? In 2019, when I went to see a bankruptcy lawyer, I came out of the bankruptcy lawyer's office saying, I'm not declaring bankruptcy. No way am I doing that. I'm going to find a way out of this. And the story of how I do it will be awesome. And that's exactly what I did. And I started feeling wealthy, even in the worst financial situation of my life. And then, all kinds of money came to me. Then, I switched back into that scarcity. And it happened again.
So, to me, number one rule, if you're going to pay everything off, you've got to feel wealthy as often as possible, all the time. And live abundantly. And feel wealthy. And I'm here at jerrybanfield.com if you want help with that.
I am right in the middle of the best I've done with this. That's how all these unexpected, amazing opportunities are coming to me, and I keep the whole story of the money, the debt, and the plan going in my Money playlist.
So, thanks for watching. Would love to see you at jerrybanfield.com. Grab yourself one of my shirts.