Ep912 Financial Pressure

Ever feel like you’re doing everything "right"—working hard, hitting milestones, making decent money—yet somehow standing on financial quicksand? You aren't alone, and you aren't crazy. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the "Invisible Trap" of modern life: the quiet, pervasive pressure of lifestyle creep, hyper-monetized culture, and systemic cost-of-living surges that keep even high earners feeling constantly broke.

We sit down with personal finance experts and behavioral psychologists to unpack why modern financial stress feels fundamentally different than it did a generation ago. From the subtle psychological toll of social comparison to the hidden tax of convenience culture, we break down how the modern economy is engineered to keep your bank account near zero—and, more importantly, how to break the cycle.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:02

Yo, it's your main man Brahing Brasia. Y'all ever had that pressure so heavy on you? That financial pressure that's so lightning and strong that you be like, man, no way now. Hell I gotta do all this. Man, who's gonna pay this shit back? Who finna put this shit in? No, no, no, no. Damn, who then? Why you ain't tell me this? Did you ever have that financial feeling? You dig even when you got a race or a promotion, you probably don't want on the other side up. You know, it don't matter if you're getting a lot of money and to little to no money. You still had that financial pressure that that same them same levels of cortisol was going up the same way that person with a little money and a lot of money had. You feel me? So today we're gonna get into the financial pressure. You dig? Like, why earning money, more money rarely fixes your financial anxiety? Like we all got it, financial anxiety, and how that system is designed to keep you feeling broke, period. I don't care how much money a nigga got, nigga still gonna somewhere magically get broke. Magically be playing the indirect race game. You feel me? So today we're finna get right into it, man. We're gonna break down why your brain freaks out every time you get too much money or you start feeling broke. You feel me? Why does why your mind shifts, you need to just feel secure. Like when you shift your mindset, man, you're gonna feel more secure after this one. Alright, today we're gonna talk about the first step is the heotic treadmill. This is the lifestyle creep. Right? Your brain is biologically ride to for adaption, right? When you become, what when your income goes up, your baseline comfort automatically rises to meet it. So they're saying, I feel like I got a little bit more money, let me go get me a little bit more shit. You dig? I got a little bit more, let me go get a little bit more. You feel me? And it's a little bit more debt every time. It's not you going to go get it and cashing out. It's you, she, I'm I'm making this shit like this. Man, fuck it. I'm gonna give me a little note. You dig? And then a little note turns into like a big part of your, you know, your worth. You dig? This is part of your base, this is your baseline now. So now I can no longer even succeed this, but go under this baseline no more. It's damn near over. If I do, I'm damn near super dead now. You dig? So you can't, you you you so much on the edge financially that you can't even think no more. You can't even move, you can't even do the thing to do that you used to do no more because your financial baseline is too damn high. You ain't got time to bullshit at all. This job is your damn your bread and butter. It's uh it's I can't this job gave it to me. I gotta pray and hope they keep giving it to me. I gotta still keep this shit. So their financial um baseline is real high. And once that shit gets too high, it's over with. You got this is it. Life sentence, bitch. You you can't leave me. I done fed you forever. When you finna go get it like this at? You feel me? And that's pressure. We don't look at it because it's in the moment, it's in the now. So when you got this shit coming, you see it coming, this time to make a plan. It's time to goddamn it, like, say, okay, I got some money, but I don't want no nice apartment. I got some money, but I don't need no better gym. I got some money, but I don't want no premium car quickly that becomes a new normal. You dig? Like, damn. I'll keep me a new car. Shit. I'm still motherfucking debt, don't it? You feel me? You end up spending twice as much as you just to feel the exact same level of satisfaction you did before the raise. Now you bet and your baseline, like, damn, man, this shit ain't now need another raise. You been there too long, man. We back stop with your ass. You gotta be a manager, nigga. You gonna you trying to get uh you trying to move? You gonna get transported? No. I can't move, I got my house and shit down here, man. I done build some shit. Well, what you gonna do?

unknown 4:07

Shit.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

I guess I gotta work. You got to. Ain't no motherfucking way around it. Do the math. You gonna do or you not, you know, it's gonna do. Stand in line, get it, get the work. Like easy. You it's either way we setting ourselves up for failure or for success. Either way it goes you setting yourself up for one of them. If you ain't planning, oh, I gotcha. I got you checkmate for shit. So he done spent that motherfucking three million fucking with us. He didn't make about 4.5 million. He ain't he ain't got nothing to show for. He's still stuck. He needs a job right now. You dig, and this is how it goes when you stuck on that treadmill. You just running. This shit don't never end. Fuck that. I see a mile. I know how to run a mile. I know what I'm on lap three and lap two, lap four in real life, not in fake life. No, most niggas be running, and man, these niggas be on the same fucking treadmill forever. I'm like, I'm gonna play the long game with their ass. I'm gonna get over here. I'm finna go, I'm finna go sit down right here. I'm finna go sit up. I know how to go pack up my bags and go sit down for a minute. You dig? I know how to not get in niggas' way. I know how to look at niggas and say what's up, have a nice day type shit. You feel me? Like, this is the next thing. The system is engineered to absorb your margins, right? This is meaning that the modern economic thrives on frictionless spending from targeted algorithms to one clicking, buying, and infinite subscription models. The barriers to partnering with your cash are deliberately invisible. So this thing, this shit is like engineered. Like they've been studying us forever. Like, I'm listening, you know, listen to Dave Ramsey. He's gonna say yo, look at these credit card companies study you guys psychologically. They know more about money than you guys could ever know. You feel me? And that's how they get motherfuckers when this credit shit debt, this credit card debt. It says 75% or 85% of the motherfuckers that get credit cards do not pay them back. You feel me? They get so much of it that they say don't like they they meet you at your level. Like, yeah, this is how much you can spend. What's up? Spend it. Eventually this shit is gonna what? You feel me? Society pushes the narrative. The higher the income means you should upgrade your life. Period. You aren't buying, just buying things. You are buying a new and more expensive tax bracket of social expectations. Now I speak way more. You big player, big boss. I need 450 a month.

unknown 6:24

What?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

4,500 player. What's the what's the problem? What? You ain't got no means of this shit coming in forever like this, but you will go do that if you just got it. You feel me? You don't you don't think you're not thinking like that, you're not moving like that, but you you just got it. Fuck it. And the majority of motherfuckers gonna move like that. What the fuck is you broke? What the fuck is your broke ass talking about? You feel me? Depending on their text breaker, they gonna feel like that's nothing to them. You dig? But guess what? They spending the same thing you is on your broke level. You dig? So it don't matter who you is, it still gon' matter. It comes down to do you know about this damn lifestyle creep? This shit is engineered to make you spend way what you got. Come on. I got a market for it over here. Come on, I have a number of big spinners over here. We making a hundred thousand a pop off niggas over here. You feel me? We I'll come people come spend 60 of battle over here. Like, man, this is no game. It's a market for everything. So once I done push that nerve on you, look at you need to get up, upgrade some shit. Now what you do? You can't go lower. If you do, you'll you're gonna blow it. Everything finna come back. You finna be losing the house, the cars, the clothes, everything gone. Because you can no longer what afford this. This is this was it was this was never bought. Nothing was never bought. So the next thing is, man, this is this is this is all pressure. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Right? Your nervous system isn't just stuck. You feel me? It's in schetry mode. Financial anxiety isn't just a math problem. It's often a trauma response. If you grew up with financial instability or live patiently, paycheck in your 20s, your body remembers that stress. Period. It said, bitch, it's time to get it on. It's time to rock this motherfucker. Uh-uh. I've been broke too long. Nigga, you remember we couldn't get them J. Man, get all of them. Fucking spend all your money on that shit. Fuck that. What the fuck is you talking about, nigga? We can go get that shit back tomorrow. No, man to yourself like a motherfucker. You feel me? Just lying. No, you got bills tomorrow. You ain't even forgot about the bill now. You don't think because just because that emotional scratch didn't hit your ass. Yeah. So a promotion doesn't so well. Like when you at work, you get a motherfucking promotion. It don't even feel like one. Your brain is still bracing the for an emergency, meaning your panic over money because your nervous system expects it to be subtly gone. Motherfuckers get money and they keep on thinking about this shit finna be gone tomorrow. It's finna be gone any minute. And they and they pressure themselves to spend it. They pressure themselves to go do something. They pressure themselves to get outside. They pressure themselves to go do something. And it's hard. You feel me? If you're not disciplined, you're not thinking about that. This ain't no pressure. I just I'm just doing what the fuck I want to do. Nah, you doing what the fuck you don't gotta do. That's why your ass still broke. You feel me? It don't take much for your brain to be tricked into, oh, I need this, oh I need that, oh I want this, oh I want that. And the day you on that phone shopping all day, man, that shit's so easy to just say boom, boom, bam. You done bought 60 things. You got 80 books you ain't finna read. Now you feel me? I'm guilty of this shit. Like, man, I had to stop buying books. I just used to be on, motherfucker, let me get this. I be in why I'm gonna buy all the books. Go to the bookstore, buy every book. I just spent all my money on the books. Now I done bought, I got like six books I ain't read yet. You feel me? I dought these books almost over this year. I only read like three, four books total, but I've been reading a lot of books, the same books. Man, I said, damn, it just was a it was a me and my book thing. I just had a book habit. I bought all the books I wanted in one. You know, off Amazon just had a cart full, full of shit. Just stupid shit. Just buying, I see a book a week. I mean, you spending several thousands on books, nigga. You always need to be fucking a millionaire real soon. You feel me? So just thinking like that, man, you're gonna move the goalpost. The next thing is, man, move the goalpost of the comparison game. Stop comparing your fucking self. We rarely measure our financial success in absolute terms. We measure it in relative to our peers and our creative social media feeds. As you earn more, you naturally enter circles with higher interns, and you feel like the poorest person of in uh in in your newest lifestyle bracket, keeping that zodiac loop running. You dig? So basically, you look at the other motherfucker like, ooh, I supposed to be here, I suppose to be there. You comparing yourself, nah, fuck that. I'm gonna sit over here until I can move over there. Don't don't get that mindset. Oh, I'm shit. What's the name doing this and ain't this and ain't got that? What the fuck that got to do with you? You need to get one bedroom apartment. You need to have shit. One motherfucking car paid the fuck off. You need to have this, you need to have that. You were my day's motherfucking pocket trying to have three and four, five, and six beds. This ain't gonna work. This ain't gonna get it. This is unnecessary. This is why we are behind. This is why we are not moving the way we need to be moving. Because we are doing shit that's unnecessary. Well, I tell you the other yesterday we doing shit because other people doing it. We doing shit that's causing so much pressure and anxiety because we're doing it because they wanted to do it. Fuck that. This is why my pockets are not having pressure right now. That's why the pressure is on the pockets. Like you gotta stop having so much pressure on your pockets to do shit to make other people think, oh, I got it. I got it. Who gives a fuck what you got and what you don't got? Nobody but you, honestly. I know don't nobody give a fuck about what I got going on. That's why I do it. I'm like, shit, nobody really think about me. I can stay in the hood, the project, the shit. I can stay in, goddamn, in a white folk neighborhood. Who will give a fuck? What would what what they what would matter? Okay, then let's stay in the best place to stay in right now until we can really live there and be there comfortably. I'm in this house, goddamn it, all I can do is be in this house. Shit. People want to get outside sometimes from here and there. Even though I ain't no outside person, when I want to leave the house, I want to leave the house. I'm just I'm trying to go home and pay no fucking bills and be stuck in the house. Can't even take the kids outside. You so goddamn broke. The rent took all your money. Your condom took all your money. Who the fuck? No, I'm about to live like that. No. When I want to get up and go, I need to be able to get up and go. You feel me? This is how you breathe. This is how you know this is a party, you know. You private, you you poor, and you in private, you can't do something. It's a mindset, you can't do that shit. You should be able to save up a lot of money. You you broke. You feel me? If you didn't trick the, you need to go get another second job and say, look, this is all this is one job I got or something. You need to know how to do what you need to do. Y'all females are on that government assistant shit, man. Y'all killing that game with that shit. They I'm supposed to feed the fuck out, y'all. You feel me? But if you know how to do other shit, man, go do that. Don't be don't be getting the fucking free money. I hate that type of person. You got got fucking legs and arms. Go get a better job. My job ain't making enough. Well, you need to go get one that's doing it. You need to go do find something. You shouldn't be having all them babies. Take the baby to school with you. You feel me? Like, get out there, goddammit. I gotta, every time I get some money, I'm I'm moving the goalpost. Like, damn, no. Fuck damn. I'm not moving this goalpost. Bitch, damn right here. I'm finna I'm finna let that shit nah. I'm finna oversee this goalpost here. I'm finna, I'm finna know, no, that goalpost finna stay right there. You gonna take the goalpost, which no, leave that pole right there, bro. What you doing? What the fuck is you doing? Now I'm finna be making the same thing, doing the same thing as like you played a percentage game with yourself. I'm finna I'm spending the same percent of the money that I was spending. Man, just oh hell no. You feel me? Now you steal, now you just like Omo. You feel me? Because you make my homo now. I can pay for it though. How to escape that trap, man? More money only buys choices, not peace of mind. Peace requires actively deciding what your personal enough looks like, independent of marketing and peer pressure. Like independent of a motherfucker saying this and that. How do it look like? What'd it look like then? What would you have? Okay then. Let's get there. Let's get working out. Let's get to working now. You feel me? Like once you shift the shift the goal from growing income to buy more, to buying back your economy, automatically your baseline investments ruthless cut spending and status symbols and anchor your safety and liquidity rather than a higher monthly paycheck. So your real peace of mind comes from the inner man. Like, you can't buy no happiness, bro. You know, for how much money you got. This is shit on YouTube I watched the other day. They swap families. Like the rich go with older with the poor. Like, man, it wasn't like no different. You see, what it was qualities and it was benefits to both sides. One side like this all day, the other side like this all day. You dig in it, both of them had they cues and they, you know, their goods and the bads. But man, we all wanna live comfortably though, without pressure to have to do this. You feel me? Like it's good to be able to go buy what you want in this, though. It's good to be able to have the thing that you want to have, you feel me? But shit, if you gotta do what you gotta do, man, let's just do what we gotta do so we can do something new. That's it. When you tired of doing some old shit, you're gonna do some new shit. And then new shit just make it good. Just make it right. And once you make it right, you're gonna live a better life. You're gonna feel better, you're gonna chill better because now you really thinking. You ain't really no more, you no longer caring about what a motherfucker's talking about. Man, like, man, bitch, what? I drive this motherfuckin' paid for Honda all day. I pay I drive this paid for a Tahoe all day. I drive this motherfucking paid, goddammit, tau coma all motherfucking day. You dig? That's how you gotta feel, man. I drive this full runner all day. Like, you can't let a motherfucker stop your shine. Cause when they get out of the car, bitch, you walking. You feel me? Bitch you paying that car, no. You tired of paying that bitch. I know you tired. After about four, five, six months, you tired of the car, no. I don't give a fuck what you say. You like, ooh, I gotta paint this car note again. Nah. You don't get the more happier that the more you pay the car, no, the high, ain't it ain't the happier you get. The more you pay that car, no, the sadder your ass get. You like, damn, this shit ain't gonna never end. $1,200 a month. It's how they got me. Niggas be paying. No, it's not $1,200 a month, it's like $700 a month.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Then the nut the um insurance like $500. Like, oh buddy, you're not paying that, you're paying $700 a month. Like, how the hell did I ought to get you like that?

SPEAKER_01 16:20

They runs be tripping me the fuck out. I said, this man don't play. But that's real deal, though. Nigga can pay all that money to a car note. This is a lot of stress on your ass now. And this is a lot of power that's for now. Hey, I need that. Come on. Mm-mm. I need that. Then you want the car to get some old boy. You need to have your shit together. If you end up doing that in in on any circumstances, you feel me? Because this is a big ass liability because it got no value. I think you didn't doll it out and deal what you have to do to the man, it butt fucking work for zero dollars. Can't get your money back for it. So be smart, man. I start playing your time. Y'all stop playing with your life, man. Any financial situation pressures are on y'all ass, man. I pray they get off you. You feel me? I pray they find their way to a new place and you got all the financial stability and cash you need to do everything you need to do. You dig if you're listening, keep it up, man. Y'all start playing your time. Y'all stop playing with your life. Get a let's go, man.