George Kamel Says Becoming a Millionaire by 25 Is a Terrible Goal: Here’s What Young Adults Should Do Instead

George Kamel, co-host of The Ramsey Show and Ramsey Solutions personality known for critiquing influencer money culture, sat down with Graham Stephan and B on The Iced Coffee Hour and delivered a verdict that cuts against most of YouTube’s financial advice for young adults.

Asked whether an 18-year-old could realistically hit $1 million by 25, Kamel pegged the odds at 10% and called it “a terrible goal” he would not recommend chasing. B pushed back with a 40% estimate, arguing social media consulting was the path. Kamel’s warning was sharper: chase the number and you end up “single, no friends with some money.”

The stakes are concrete. If you wire your early twenties around an arbitrary seven-figure deadline, you make choices (which job, which city, which relationships, how much sleep) that only pay off if the target is mathematically reachable. If it isn’t, you traded the foundation years for nothing.

The arithmetic of saving a million by 25

The arithmetic backs him up. Kamel did the rough version himself: making $40,000 a year makes the goal impossible because “that’s over $100,000 a year you need to be putting away or growing for you” across seven years. The average wage-earner cannot save more than they earn.

Context makes it worse. The Bureau of Economic Analysis pegs per capita disposable income at $68,617 as of Q1 2026, and the national personal savings rate sits at 4%, down from 6% in early 2024. Americans with full adult earning power are saving roughly four cents of every disposable dollar. An 18-year-old earning entry-level wages in a 4% unemployment economy is not going to outsave that crowd by a factor of twenty-five.

Inflation compounds the absurdity. CPI rose from 320.62 in May 2025 to 332.4 in April 2026. The million dollars you target at 18 is a smaller pile of real purchasing power by the time you reach 25. You are chasing a number that shrinks while you chase it.

Kamel’s alternative: “You can make $200,000 with a lawn care business at 18, and I’ve met those people,” he said, pointing to unglamorous service businesses (lawn care that scales into Christmas light installation in winter) where wealth follows the value created. His core line: “That number needs to be a byproduct of something that you added to as far as value to someone or a group of people.”

The variable that flips the math: equity versus a paycheck

The single factor determining whether a million by 25 is fantasy or feasible is whether you are a wage earner or an owner.

Wage earner path: Start at 18 with a $45,000 job, climb to $70,000 by 25. To bank $1 million in seven years from W-2 income alone, you would need to save roughly $115,000 a year, Kamel’s “over $100,000” rounded. That math fails at any realistic young-adult salary. Even maxing a 401(k) with employer match leaves you short.

Owner path: A lawn care operation clearing $200,000 in profit at 18, scaled and reinvested, can plausibly accumulate liquid net worth into the high six figures by 25, particularly if equipment depreciation shelters income and the business itself carries enterprise value. The challenge becomes cash flow plus equity rather than personal saving.

That is why B’s 40% estimate and Kamel’s 10% can both be defended. B even said he would “take it to 90% if I could have more than 5 minutes a day with them,” proposing social media consulting. He is talking about owners. Kamel is talking about everyone else, which is most 18-year-olds.

What to actually do if you are 18 to 25

1. Write down your actual required savings rate. Take your target net worth, divide by years remaining, compare to expected take-home pay. If the required annual contribution exceeds half your gross income, the target is a wage-earner fantasy. Either lower the target or change the income vehicle.
2. Pick a value-creation business before a wealth target. Kamel’s lawn care example is one answer of many. Mobile detailing, HVAC apprenticeships, pressure washing, bookkeeping for small businesses: any service where you can charge a real customer in 90 days qualifies.
3. Cap lifestyle inflation against business reinvestment. If you build cash flow, the ownership math only works if profit gets redeployed into equipment, hires, or a second revenue line rather than into a leased truck and a watch.
4. Ask Kamel’s final question of yourself. “What happens at 25 with a million dollars? What then?” If you cannot answer in one sentence, the goal is decorative.

Build the business. The number follows. Kamel’s framing holds because the arithmetic of W-2 saving in a 4% savings-rate economy says so, and because the alternative he names actually has people in it.