How did I end up with $80,000 in debt at 27 years old?

Caleb Hammer's recent video went viral—he confronted a girl named Rachel who claimed to be a "spiritual coach" and bluntly said: "You really are passionate about credit card debt, huh?"

The topic gets straight to the point: Rachel incurred a debt of 80,000 after only 2 years of using credit cards. It seems like she has a high income (an average of $6,500 per month, which is above the U.S. average), but what’s the outcome? She didn’t conduct market research, didn’t plan how to live during the off-season, and then started to "delulu" swipe her cards.

Hammer pointed out three issues:

**1. Not clear about one's actual income**
Rachel spends all day fantasizing about other coaches earning 40,000 a month, yet fails to see her own reality of 2,000 to 3,000 in the off-season. The result is spending without a budget, random payments on Starbucks and Venmo, and in the end, she can't even remember what she bought for 100 bucks.

**2. The budget is merely a formality**
Without a realistic budget framework, daily expenses are like a leaky bucket. Rent and LLC filing fees are necessary, but those fragmented expenditures? Purely self-destructive.

**3. Cannot save money**
Rachel has a small account on Acorns and regularly withdraws money - this is what you call robbing Peter to pay Paul. Hammer bluntly said: with your level of debt, you are not qualified to play with investment accounts; pay off your debts first.

**Key Lesson**: Earning a lot does not mean you know how to manage money. Without cash flow management and awareness of off-season reserves, any amount of income can be spent entirely. It's not just Rachel—many people have a decent income yet live in a difficult situation, and the fundamental reasons are that these three points are not handled well.