‘A 50-year-old adolescent': This middle-aged YouTuber makes $1,600 less than he needs to survive each month — Caleb Hammer bluntly warns he'll 'die in poverty' if things don't change fast

Vishesh Raisinghani
‘A 50-year-old adolescent': This middle-aged YouTuber makes $1,600 less than he needs to survive each month — Caleb Hammer bluntly warns he'll 'die in poverty' if things don't change fast
‘A 50-year-old adolescent': This middle-aged YouTuber makes $1,600 less than he needs to survive each month — Caleb Hammer bluntly warns he'll 'die in poverty' if things don't change fast

While some Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, others can’t even predict their next payday.

Arkansas-based YouTuber Steven Jason Williams, who goes by the username Boogie2988, appears to be in that latter position.

Despite being one of the first content creators on the platform — his oldest video dates back to 2006 — his channel has experienced a significant decline in recent years.

In a recent episode of Caleb Hammer’s YouTube series, Financial Audit, Williams said that, at one point, he was considered “LA poor [and] Arkansas rich” and was once “close” to millionaire status.

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His income from uploading content online is highly variable, and he claimed it’s now roughly $1,600 lower than his monthly expenses.

But, as Hammer noted, if things don’t change soon, Williams is “going to die in poverty.”

An apparent lack of financial knowledge shown by Williams in the episode led to a number of negative comments on Hammer’s video, including one that described Williams as “essentially a 50-year-old adolescent” and an “example of arrested development.”

However, the challenges Williams faces go far beyond his own questionable financial decision-making and reflect other trends playing out across the broader economy, specifically around health care.

Mounting medical bills

In late 2022, Williams announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he had been diagnosed with polycythemia vera, a rare blood disorder.

“It’s extremely slow moving and many people live with it for decades,” he wrote at the time.

Unfortunately, the condition required him to live in “northwest Arkansas near my medical professionals,” he told Hammer.

Managing the condition is also a serious drain on Williams’ monthly budget. He pays $775 a month for health insurance and roughly $600 a month for medication.

These costs are eye-watering, but Williams thinks they would have been even higher without the Affordable Care Act.

“If it wasn't for the Obama administration that made it possible for me to purchase insurance as a self-employed person, I would have never had access to health insurance,” he said.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study, roughly half of American adults said they struggled to pay for health care, and about 4 in 10 of those surveyed reported having debt from medical or dental bills owed to various lenders — including hospitals, banks, credit cards and family members.

Williams also opened up about his mental health, something that has been exacerbated by his recent health concerns and financial woes.

But he’s not alone: a Forbes Advisor survey found that 54% of U.S. adults with debt admit they “always or often feel stressed because of their debt.” This debt-related stress caused sleep problems (for 48% of respondents), higher anxiety (40%), diminished social lives (38%) and depression (34%).

Read more: Here's how you can invest in rental properties without the responsibility of being a landlord

The precarious income of a content creator

In addition to ballooning medical costs, Williams’ finances are complicated by his variable monthly income.

His YouTube channel has just over four million subscribers and, collectively, his videos have more than 930 million views. Despite these impressive numbers, Williams said he earned only $3,000 a month from YouTube in the previous year.

Williams’ situation could be a cautionary tale for wannabe influencers. According to a survey by Morning Consult, 57% of Gen Z said they believed they could make a living as an online content creator and influencer. But, as Hammer pointed out, where you put your money matters.

Williams hopes to generate more income (potentially an additional $2,000 a month) from new projects, such as a podcast, but his monthly income is still significantly lower than either his personal target of $7,000 or Hammer’s target of $10,000.

Hammer admitted that earnings from YouTube can be unreliable and he himself has put much of his income into cash-flowing properties “if YouTube goes away.”

Unfortunately, Williams invested his YouTube income in riskier assets.

Financial misinformation

Despite his current health challenges, Williams should have been in a comfortable financial position given his success on YouTube. He estimated that he earned roughly $2.5 million in aggregate over the last decade of his career alone.

In fact, he said he was “close” to being a millionaire at one point.

“When I say ‘close,’ [I mean] for two days I had about $780,000 to $800,000 in crypto, went to bed one night and it was worth half that,” he told Hammer.

Williams also owns some alternative assets, with a portion of his wealth tied to Magic: The Gathering playing cards. He’s been playing the game and buying cards since the 1990s and estimated his total collection is worth $50,000.

Williams said he’d sold some cards whenever he needed to meet living expenses; however, even he admitted that this “backup plan” is “incredibly stupid.”

He blames his current situation on a lack of good financial advice.

“I didn't come from money,” he said. “I'm the son of a coal miner so no one in my life was ever trying to teach me what to do with money.”

To help his financial recovery, Hammer suggested Williams make a tight budget to save money and stay on top of monthly bills.

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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

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