Finance YouTuber Caleb Hammer uses his past money struggles to help people fight their huge debts: 'I was in a really bad situation'

• Caleb Hammer has grown over 360,000 subscribers with his podcast "Financial Audit."
• In it, he lays out the financial messes of his interviewees and tries to help them. 
• He told Insider his brutal approach helps people face the realities of their situation.

YouTuber Caleb Hammer was a "little prick" in middle school and a class clown in high school before he got his act together, he said.

"I'm a very forward, open-book person, and I try to be transparent about a lot of things," he told Insider. "I'm not even close to a perfect person and anyone can back that up throughout me growing up."

Though he is now famed on YouTube for giving finance advice — one of those imperfections used to be his trouble with money. Hammer told Insider he struggled with debt when he was at college, racking up credit-card debt, car debt, and a $15,000 private student loan with massive interest.

"I was in a really bad situation," he said.

He said advice from other finance personalities helped him get out of that hole — he read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Millionaire Next Door," and binged videos by Dave Ramsey and Graham Stephan.

After that, "I got on a commission-based job, I just grinded and grinded and I was able to then just kill that debt as quick as possible and then start investing," he said. "That's what I'm about now — hopefully bringing that same level of discourse to other people."

Aged 28, Hammer is helping people out of their own tremendous debts with his YouTube show "Financial Audit."

In two uploads a week, Hammer lays out his guest's finances in excruciating detail, going through every credit card, car loan, student loan, and whatever else they have borrowed and are struggling to pay back.

Hammer doesn't mince his words either, explaining to one recent interviewee who loved his Toyota 4Runner: "Yeah, well, it loves fucking you."

Hammer came from what he describes as "the average American family" in Michigan. His parents were 18 and 19 when he was born, and they "didn't have a lot of money" while he was growing up.

This is part of the reason Hammer wanted to soak up as much knowledge as he could about financial literacy. It's a passion that helped inspire his YouTube channel, where he tries to take the shame out of the massive debts people can easily amass.

He started uploading to YouTube last summer, and quickly grew his channel to over 360,000 subscribers.

He has another 250,000 followers on TikTok, where his clips of his brutal advice often go viral.

In one of his most-watched interviews, Hammer makes 31-year-old Paul cry by telling him he shouldn't be paying for his girlfriend's credit card payments.

In another he dresses down 41-year old Brent for his apparent refusal to get a job, and, in a third, makes no attempt to hide his disbelief at how much 31-year-old Aleena was spending in monthly car payments.

In one viral clip, Hammer scolds an interviewee, 25-year-old Edwin, for how much he spent on fast food.

"You spent more than triple what the balance is on here on bullshit," Hammer said, looking at Edwin's regular payments to the local Austin sandwich shop Bird Bird Biscuit. "On bullshit, that's bullshit!"

Making people realize how dire their situation it

Hammer now lives in Austin, Texas, where the majority of his interviews have taken place so far. He started out posting on local forums and casting sites for people who wanted help with their finances, offering to pay them for their time.

"I have lots of respect for the people who do come on and put their situation on full display," Hammer said, adding that he hopes people in similar boats can "recognize the terror of their situation."

Hammer never plays down the debts people have racked up, because he wants people to truly understand how much trouble they could be in.

"I dig into people so much so they can really realize how scary the situation is," he said. "It's certainly emotional when you realize, OK, I got myself into this mess."

In one recent video, a 30-year-old former Marine named Taylor came to Hammer with $75,000 of high-interest debt which was costing him $1,900 a month — some 70% of his income.

"That's insane, dude," Hammer said.

"That's an uncomfortably high number," Taylor said in reply. "It makes me disappointed in myself."

Taylor said he was a former US Marine who left service after a run-in with a superior in Okinawa, Japan, that left him with PTSD. The trauma of this encounter had left Taylor feeling like he may as well be in debt the rest of his life.

Hammer, who has an anxiety disorder himself, said it's stories like Taylor's that make him always talk about the importance of mental health on his show.

"I am a big proponent of therapy, mental health and everything," he said. "When people get locked in that situation, it's not even the debt necessarily that's completely holding them back. It's just that mental state."

One interview that haunts Hammer is one of the first he ever did, where a woman named Teryca said she had over $250,000 worth of private student loans from her undergraduate degree at Baylor. Teryca was spending $1,694 a month paying it back, and was also reluctant to sell her car to make some headway on it.

"That is just dire," Hammer said of her situation. "That's where it gets to the point where it feels like it's impossible to get out of. That really sticks with me — that was a crazy one."

Hammer said he's been thinking about putting the interviewees of "Financial Audit" in touch with each other for mutual support and to "hold each other accountable."

"Some of these people are just straight up on their own in life," he said. "And it's much easier to slip if you don't have a good support system."

His plans are aggressive, mandating that people immediately stop eating out, and sell their beloved cars because of the high interest rates.

He said people too often "minimize" their debts out of denial, which is why he goes so hard. He said people need to know the reality of the situation and be willing to "work their butt off" to make it better.

"The way I go about it is to say, 'Hey, no, this is actually bad,'" he said. "If they think, oh, it's not the best situation, but it's not the worst, then they're not gonna sacrifice, they're not gonna do anything to actually get out of it."

There's a lot of shame associated with money problems, which Hammer knows first hand. While his technique is savage, he says it's also successful in giving people a new perspective. Financial education is so bad in the US, he said, so he hopes viewers learn from his videos too.

Hammer said he wants people to know their spending has been "stupid," but then helps to ensure they're "not being stupid in the future." He's done a couple of follow-up episodes so far, and hopes to do more down the line.

"Personal growth is a big part for me," he said. "And you get that from not dwelling on the past, but learning from the past."