Blind Ranking the Internet’s WILDEST Investment Stories

🎟️ Get your ticket for Investing Essentials today! When it comes to money, is boring always best? From everyday internet scams to rare lottery success stories, today we’re blind ranking the good, the bad and the just plain dumb of investing. Next Steps: · 🎙️ Catch our episode Roasting the Latest Financial and Social Fads (Here to Stay?)! · 🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour · 📱 Submit a Guilty As Charged question for Rachel and George! Send a DM to @rachelcruze or @georgekamel on Instagram! Be sure to type “GUILTY?” at the top of your message so we don’t miss it. · 💵 Create a free budget and find more margin with EveryDollar. Connect With Our Sponsors: · Check out the FAIRWINDS Credit Union exclusive account bundle. · Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. · Get up to 40% off the exclusive bundles with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth. Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍾 French Blonde Recipe By: Join Jules 2 ounces fresh grapefruit juice 2 ounces Lillet Blanc 1 ounce gin 1/2 ounce elderflower liqueur 3 dashes lemon bitters Instructions: In a cocktail shaker, add all ingredients. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a chilled coupe or Nick and Nora. Garnish with a grapefruit slice! Explore More From Ramsey Network: 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 📈 EntreLeadership Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05George Kamel?

  When it comes to money, is boring always best? Today, we're blind ranking the good, bad, and just plain dumb of investing. Now, you couldn't have done it yourself.

• 0:13Rachel Cruze?

  See, I could have learned. I know chemicals.

• 0:17George Kamel?

  My life is flashing before my eyes.

• 0:18Rachel Cruze?

  This is gonna trigger Jonathan. It's about my pool.

• 0:26Rachel Cruze?

  Hey, guys. I'm Rachel Cruz.

• 0:28George Kamel?

  I'm George Kamel.

• 0:30Rachel Cruze?

  And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers, George.

• 0:34George Kamel?

  Cheers.

• 0:39Rachel Cruze?

  Delightful. Well, this is the show where two friends who happen to be money experts talk about what you're talking about. So, everything from pop culture, current events, and money.

• 0:47George Kamel?

  And today, before we get to the content, let's talk about what we're sipping on. It's a French blonde.

• 0:52Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, it's delicious, actually.

• 0:53George Kamel?

  Didn't come up with the name. It's not a blonde drink by any stretch, but...

• 0:57Rachel Cruze?

  Could be.

• 0:58George Kamel?

  It's tasty, refreshing, delicate, much like me. Stick around to the end. We'll give you our rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode. I like that we reveal it, like it's something people are waiting with bated breath for.

• 1:11Rachel Cruze?

  Reveal the cost.

• 1:12George Kamel?

  Tell me, is it $3 or $4?

• 1:14Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know.

• 1:15George Kamel?

  Okay, so I know you're not on Reddit, Rachel.

• 1:17Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 1:18George Kamel?

  I like to go on there. I find it to be the most honest, anonymous, worst people of the internet.

• 1:23Rachel Cruze?

  My question is, I've been on it before.

• 1:25George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 1:26Rachel Cruze?

  And I got on it recently to look up something. I can't remember what it was. And I kept asking about the app. Do you have the Reddit app?

• 1:32George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 1:33Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, wow. Okay, so you are committed.

• 1:35George Kamel?

  I'm committed.

• 1:36Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, keep going.

• 1:37George Kamel?

  But here's what I like about it. It's people being brutally honest because they're anonymous.

• 1:41Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but isn't it just kind of like, I get to be mean to feel good about myself?

• 1:46George Kamel?

  They're not always mean. I mean, there's subreddits of things people enjoy, so I'll go on there, like, I'll search a coffee maker followed by Reddit to see people's real thoughts about it.

• 1:53Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, that's fair.

• 1:54George Kamel?

  Because I can't trust Google and Amazon reviews.

• 1:56Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that's fair.

• 1:57George Kamel?

  So, there you go. But I once saw someone tell Reddit their investing strategy was based on the phases of the moon.

• 2:03Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, gosh. Well...

• 2:04George Kamel?

  It about sent me out of orbit on that one.

• 2:06Rachel Cruze?

  That's not good.

• 2:06George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 2:06Rachel Cruze?

  Out of orbit, phase of the moon?

• 2:08George Kamel?

  Out of orbit.

• 2:08Rachel Cruze?

  I gotcha. Yeah.

• 2:09George Kamel?

  Not into orbit.

• 2:10Rachel Cruze?

  Into orbit, out of orbit.

• 2:11George Kamel?

  Already in orbit. That's how the earth works.

• 2:13Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. If your retirement investing is around because you're a Capricorn, probably not great. Isn't the horoscope where you're born, when you're born, but also like, there's like deeper levels.

• 2:23George Kamel?

  We're a Taurus, I think, based on our birthdays?

• 2:25Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, we are. Yep.

• 2:26George Kamel?

  Okay. I don't know what that means.

• 2:27Rachel Cruze?

  Because of like the way the moon, yeah.

• 2:29George Kamel?

  I'm like, okay, sure.

• 2:32George Kamel?

  Whatever.

• 2:33Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I don't know it well, but teach it some.

• 2:36George Kamel?

  I just think anyone that says it's based on the phases of the moon, I just, you know, I got questions. I'm not making financial decisions based on a waning crescent. That's all I'm saying.

• 2:47Rachel Cruze?

  I'm not either.

• 2:47George Kamel?

  Don't you love a waning crescent? It's been a long time since I said that out loud.

• 2:51Rachel Cruze?

  I'm more in the clouds these days. Cumulus, you know what I mean? Like these like.

• 2:55George Kamel?

  What about nimbo cumulus? Often forgotten.

• 2:58Rachel Cruze?

  Oh.

• 2:59George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 3:00Rachel Cruze?

  That's a, yeah, we're deep in it. Well done, George.

• 3:03George Kamel?

  I once got a shout out by my local meteorologist.

• 3:05Rachel Cruze?

  No, you didn't.

• 3:05George Kamel?

  Kevin Lemanowicz, Fox 25 News, Dad of Massachusetts.

• 3:08Rachel Cruze?

  Because you wrote into him?

• 3:09George Kamel?

  It's like, send in your tweets. And I was like, I want to get on air. And I sent it in. I said, shout out to cumulus clouds. And he read it on air.

• 3:17Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 3:20George Kamel?

  It was one of the greatest days of my life.

• 3:21Rachel Cruze?

  I, I love it.

• 3:23George Kamel?

  That's the original influencers was local meteorologists.

• 3:25Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, you know what's funny? We had a local meteorologist come to the kids' school before they like broke out for summer, right? So they were like still in school. And she taught the kindergarteners all about tornadoes. So my son now is educating me on like what EF3s are and all this stuff. And he thinks that, yeah, he said, I don't want to live in Texas. There are too many tornadoes there.

• 3:45George Kamel?

  He's got a good point.

• 3:46Rachel Cruze?

  Don't worry, Charles. We're not moving to Texas. Yeah, local meteorologists, they have a pool with the heart.

• 3:53George Kamel?

  And they can always be wrong. It's what I wanted to be growing up because I was like, I can be wrong and get to keep my job all the time. Great.

• 4:00Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 4:00George Kamel?

  Sign me up.

• 4:01Rachel Cruze?

  Sign me up. I'll take it.

• 4:02George Kamel?

  Point at a green screen and go, yeah, looking like some cumulus clouds today.

• 4:05Rachel Cruze?

  The cumulus clouds are coming in. The moon shape anyways, we're not basing our investments on the weather, the moon, or gravity, all on just knowledge.

• 4:14George Kamel?

  Knowledge is helpful.

• 4:15Rachel Cruze?

  That's the key.

• 4:15George Kamel?

  And investing, it's full of highs, high highs, low lows.

• 4:19Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 4:19George Kamel?

  You gotta ride the roller coaster, as we say. But remember the Martha Stewart scandal of the early 2000s? Does that ring in any bells for you?

• 4:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, it does. Yeah, I think there was a documentary recently, but I kinda wanna watch it. But it was like insider trading stuff?

• 4:33George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 4:33Rachel Cruze?

  Right? Is that what she went into?

• 4:34George Kamel?

  None of us had heard of that really, until Martha. I feel like she popularized it, for better and worse.

• 4:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. Wasn't there like a big Ponzi scheme, though? I guess that's not insider trading.

• 4:44George Kamel?

  Let's see, I got the deets here. In late 2001, Martha sold nearly 4,000 shares of M. Clone Systems, which was a biotech company, at the advice of her broker. And her broker noticed the company's CEO had suspiciously sold all of his shares. So that's a tell, something's going down. So the next day, the company announced that its cancer medication was not granted FDA approval, and Martha avoided $45,000 in losses. And in 2004, she ended up serving five months in prison and five months of house arrest. Which, $45,000?

• 5:14Rachel Cruze?

  For $45,000?

• 5:15George Kamel?

  I was like, no offense, Martha, but do better. If you're gonna go to prison, let's go like, seven figures.

• 5:22Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Well, I'm surprised they put her in prison for $45,000. I don't know why, I feel like they'd have bigger fish to fry.

• 5:28George Kamel?

  Yeah, I mean, I feel like, I mean Nancy Pelosi hasn't gone to prison, and she's done far worse.

• 5:32Rachel Cruze?

  So what's wild, George, about our job is we hear the most unhinged financial stories when it comes to investing specifically.

• 5:38George Kamel?

  Some real dumpster fires.

• 5:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, some scams and everything, and you're like, what is going on? We also hear some success stories that are kinda out there too, right? We hear kinda the run in the mill, if you will, ones. Then you hear some, you're like, wow, that's out of left field, but it worked for them, that's great. So, we're gonna go through all of them. We're gonna go through the dumpster fires, and a couple of-

• 5:58George Kamel?

  From the boring to the exciting.

• 5:59Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and then some good examples.

• 6:01George Kamel?

  Yeah, and sadly, there's far more ways to do it badly than there are to do it well.

• 6:05Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 6:06George Kamel?

  Doing it well is actually really simple, but you're often distracted by all the noise, the glitz, the glamour, the trends.

• 6:12Rachel Cruze?

  Of everything else going on. Okay, so we're gonna do a little blind ranking, and with some real life investing stories from the internet. One being the best, five being the worst.

• 6:21George Kamel?

  Okay, so we have to just rank it as soon as we hear it?

• 6:24Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, when we hear it, we're gonna just, and I guess we have to agree, we gotta be on the same team, George.

• 6:28George Kamel?

  All right.

• 6:29Rachel Cruze?

  We got our little board here.

• 6:30George Kamel?

  Oh, I thought you were gonna like a hands in kinda thing?

• 6:32Rachel Cruze?

  Oh yeah, team. Go team.

• 6:35George Kamel?

  Well, for 99% of Americans, the boring, simple way of investing is the way to go. So later, we're going to do a round of sort of an explain investing like I'm five to show you what we mean. So stick around for that.

• 6:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, absolutely. But when it comes to your money, you do want your money placed somewhere that you trust, right? And there's banks and credit unions all over the place. But as we narrowed it down at Ramsey, we found that Fairwin's credit union is the best. Not only the people that run it, that started it, I mean, they are incredible. And George, there's actually a smart bundle for our listeners. You get a no-fee checking account, up to 10 high-yield savings accounts, and the debt-as-normal-be-weird debit card, which we love, all together for our listeners. So again, I think there's like a passiveness to our banking.

• 7:19George Kamel?

  You get comfortable. You've had the same bank for a decade.

• 7:22Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 7:23George Kamel?

  So add Fairwin's to the mix and see the difference. Get that smart bundle. You got the high yield, which is far more than you get in the average savings account, which is like less than half a percent.

• 7:32Rachel Cruze?

  Absolutely.

• 7:33George Kamel?

  You can do better with your money. So go check it out. Fairwins.org/Ramsey is the place to go.

• 7:38Rachel Cruze?

  All right, first up, we got a Bitcoin scam, George.

• 7:42George Kamel?

  I remember it well.

• 7:44Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, this was a call in The Ramsey Show to you and Jade, we're hosting The Ramsey Show, about her husband's Bitcoin investments. So it was a $250,000 in business loans, $100,000 in credit card debt, and $274,000 in a HELOC. So that is $624,000 in debt, trying to mine his business.

• 8:08George Kamel?

  Yeah, it was a crypto-mining business.

• 8:11Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, that was the business, was that?

• 8:14George Kamel?

  Yeah. This is what she said. It was kind of a game of telephone. She's like, "He told me that it was all because of this crypto-mining business. I think he fell for some sort of like scam, where it was a mining business opportunity to mine new Bitcoins, which is, you know, how you can make a lot of money, but it takes a lot of effort, know-how, energy. And so he kind of scammed his wife in the process, because she found out about all this.

• 8:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, $624,000 in debt in order to do this.

• 8:44George Kamel?

  I feel like you've defrauded your wife at that point.

• 8:46Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh. Could you imagine? $100,000 in credit card debt?

• 8:52Rachel Cruze?

  Come on dude.

• 8:53George Kamel?

  The question is like, do you think your marriage could move forward after something of that scale? I wasn't sure theirs could. Like, it wasn't my decision, but I was like, that is a gigantic, you know,

• 9:03Rachel Cruze?

  That's a huge, oh my gosh.

• 9:07George Kamel?

  A breach of trust. It could bankrupt them. Like, there's just a lot there that I was like,

• 9:10Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, that's hard.

• 9:10George Kamel?

  This is beyond just, "And I'm sorry."

• 9:13Rachel Cruze?

  Right. No, yeah, you're-

• 9:14George Kamel?

  That upends your entire life. That's like, we're losing the house.

• 9:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, because of the money. Okay, that's pretty bad.

• 9:20George Kamel?

  Where would I rank that?

• 9:21Rachel Cruze?

  I mean- Should we do number four? I think there could be something worse in here.

• 9:25George Kamel?

  I don't know what could be worse, based on the dollar amount and the financial infidelity that occurred within the marriage.

• 9:32Rachel Cruze?

  And the fact it's Bitcoin. Brr.

• 9:34George Kamel?

  So, I don't know what's coming, but-

• 9:36Rachel Cruze?

  What would you go? Four or five?

• 9:37George Kamel?

  I feel like it could be a five.

• 9:39Rachel Cruze?

  You think it's the worst in here, when it comes to?

• 9:42George Kamel?

  I'm willing to go four to make you happy. Nothing matters. So, let's just, we'll make it a four. How about that?

• 9:49Rachel Cruze?

  This is not real life. I'm really stressed about this.

• 9:51George Kamel?

  Do you want to write? I would like to see your handwriting.

• 9:53Rachel Cruze?

  I have terrible handwriting. I'm not handed.

• 9:55George Kamel?

  That's why I want to see it. That's exactly why.

• 9:57Rachel Cruze?

  My gosh.

• 9:58George Kamel?

  If you had good handwriting, then it's just a brag.

• 10:00Rachel Cruze?

  I have bad handwriting.

• 10:02George Kamel?

  But mine is also terrible, so.

• 10:04Rachel Cruze?

  I'm putting it at four.

• 10:05George Kamel?

  Okay. Next up, we have, woman loses life savings in crypto scam.

• 10:10Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, another crypto!

• 10:12George Kamel?

  I'm seeing a trend here.

• 10:14Rachel Cruze?

  Tell me about it.

• 10:14George Kamel?

  The FBI identified 33 total victims of investment fraud scam. So far, the confirmed victims have lost a combined total of nearly $4.9 million.

• 10:24Rachel Cruze?

  Worse. Number five. This is number five.

• 10:25George Kamel?

  But that's across 33 people. So, if you did the math, per person, it's still a lower amount. One woman responded to an unknown number in November of 2023. First mistake.

• 10:35Rachel Cruze?

  Don't, yeah.

• 10:35George Kamel?

  Ladies and gentlemen.

• 10:37Rachel Cruze?

  They're calling. Let it go to voicemail.

• 10:38George Kamel?

  Her new friend, quote unquote, convinced her to share her personal info and open an account at crypto.com.

• 10:44Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, no.

• 10:45George Kamel?

  Thanks, Matt Damon.

• 10:48George Kamel?

  She lost more than 663,000 in total savings. So on a dollar amount.

• 10:53Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, did it say how old she was? Sorry.

• 10:55George Kamel?

  My guess is.

• 10:56Rachel Cruze?

  Elderly, which is worse.

• 10:58George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 10:59Rachel Cruze?

  Some crypto bro, whatever. Make your stupid decisions in your 40s and 50s. But when you're an elderly person, that is a victim.

• 11:06George Kamel?

  That's elder abuse. I know it's rude to say anyone past 60 is an elder, but that's just what it's called. That's not my words.

• 11:12Rachel Cruze?

  Is F O sixty-five?

• 11:14George Kamel?

  Is there a difference? Cause Dave Ramsey is sixty-five. Would you call him an elder? He's, is he elderly to you?

• 11:21Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, no.

• 11:24George Kamel?

  That took you way too long to answer. You can't have a five second gap.

• 11:29Rachel Cruze?

  You know, it's funny though. It hit me the other day. I think I was on the show with him when I realized like he could be pulling money out of his 401K right now.

• 11:36George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:37Rachel Cruze?

  Cause he's past fifty-nine and a half. I forgot about that. But I was like, you could start pulling money.

• 11:41George Kamel?

  He's almost at full retirement age for social security. As if he's gonna need it, but still.

• 11:46Rachel Cruze?

  My gosh, when he gets his social security check, I cannot wait.

• 11:49George Kamel?

  What's he gonna do with it?

• 11:50Rachel Cruze?

  I think we should just take a picture and put it on the internet.

• 11:52George Kamel?

  That would be fun. Dave Ramsey's first social security check. Like first day of school pic? That would be hilarious.

• 12:00Rachel Cruze?

  Um.

• 12:01George Kamel?

  I'm sure he'll, he'll be cool with that.

• 12:03Rachel Cruze?

  I'm, yeah, I think this is number five. Don't you?

• 12:07George Kamel?

  Yeah, I mean, I don't know about dollar amounts so far, but just the sadness of it. That's a pretty wild scenario though, to answer a call from an unknown number, give all of your personal info and hand over.

• 12:18Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:19George Kamel?

  Three quarters of a million dollars.

• 12:20Rachel Cruze?

  Let's don't do that. Not good. Yeah, but also your personal information being online, George, is not a good thing either.

• 12:27George Kamel?

  That's another path to fraud, scam, spam, phishing attempts, all of that. And that's why we love Delete Me around here. They're a service that actually goes into these data broker websites. They'll remove your info and keep it gone. And there's hundreds of these data broker sites they'll, they'll look out for to make sure that your info stays safe.

• 12:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and it's actually real people in their security department doing this, which is what I love. And they're doing it over and over and over. So you don't have to go back and keep checking these websites. Like they are scanning it constantly. Worth it in 2026 because of how much we use the internet and how much our information is online. So Delete Me is wonderful.

• 13:03George Kamel?

  And your family's information. Now they got young kids too. I'm just, I'm worried about them.

• 13:07Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 13:07George Kamel?

  And their digital footprint. So it's a great way to stay safe.

• 13:10Rachel Cruze?

  Old home addresses are out there, phone numbers, your relatives' names, like all of it. There's so much out there. So getting it wiped clean, so key.

• 13:17George Kamel?

  Very helpful. So go check it out for yourself and get 20% off their annual plans at joindelete.me/smartmoney.

• 13:25Rachel Cruze?

  All right. Next up is a lottery success story.

• 13:28George Kamel?

  You don't hear those two words together. Lottery and success.

• 13:31Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, we're going success here.

• 13:33George Kamel?

  All right.

• 13:34Rachel Cruze?

  So Tim Schultz won the $28 million Powerball in 1999. He retired a multimillionaire at age 21.

• 13:43George Kamel?

  Whoa.

• 13:44Rachel Cruze?

  He was like a kid, Tim. And he claims that one choice paved the way for his success. Dun, da, da, da. His financial advisor.

• 13:55George Kamel?

  That was the choice that paved the way. Okay, got it.

• 13:57Rachel Cruze?

  Perfect. Because he said, I had no idea what to do with this money, right? $28 million just landed in a 21-year-old's lap. It's crazy. And his financial advisor, yeah, helped pave the way to actually it being a success story.

• 14:11George Kamel?

  The most shocking part is a 21-year-old went, I'm going to reach out to a financial advisor instead of how many Lamborghinis can I get?

• 14:17Rachel Cruze?

  Can I buy? What kind of houses and vacations can I take? I know.

• 14:21George Kamel?

  Wow. What a legend. I want to know where he's at today. Okay, if he was 21 in 99.

• 14:25Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 14:26George Kamel?

  If you're doing the math at home, that puts him at, let's see, 78?

• 14:32Rachel Cruze?

  88? No, he was 21.

• 14:34George Kamel?

  Sorry, 78. 78. He was born in 1978.

• 14:37Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.

• 14:38George Kamel?

  That's what I was getting at.

• 14:39Rachel Cruze?

  I'm so sorry. Yes. Yes.

• 14:41George Kamel?

  I was trying to think of how old he is now, like a where are they now situation.

• 14:44Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 14:44George Kamel?

  The dude's almost 50.

• 14:45Rachel Cruze?

  Forty, yeah, I was gonna say forty.

• 14:47George Kamel?

  That's pretty wild.

• 14:48Rachel Cruze?

  Would that be 47? Um.

• 14:50George Kamel?

  Forty seven years.

• 14:51Rachel Cruze?

  But he said it, and he said it in a quote, "I had no idea what to do with that kind of money. I didn't want to become another lottery winner statistic." Good for you, Tim.

• 14:59George Kamel?

  We love to hear that.

• 15:00Rachel Cruze?

  We love that. Oh, my gosh, 28 million in the positive. Where do we rank that one?

• 15:05George Kamel?

  You gotta wonder how much wealth he has now.

• 15:06Rachel Cruze?

  You gotta write this one next.

• 15:07George Kamel?

  Okay, I feel like this has gotta be a number one for me, based on the level of wealth he has built, if he's taken care of it.

• 15:14Rachel Cruze?

  Age and what he did with it.

• 15:15George Kamel?

  I mean, that was 27 years ago.

• 15:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and I bet he's doing great.

• 15:18George Kamel?

  Which, if it doubles every seven years, if it's just been in the stock market, can't imagine how much it is. Now hundreds of millions.

• 15:24Rachel Cruze?

  I bet he's living on some of it, though.

• 15:25George Kamel?

  Maybe. But how much do you really need to live off of?

• 15:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, you take some of it, buy a house, invest the rest.

• 15:31George Kamel?

  But even if he lives off a million a year, which is a pretty insane salary, he still has 27 million invested.

• 15:37Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 15:38George Kamel?

  That has doubled every seven years. I love that. Well, for those of you who want to learn more about investing, we actually have a virtual event that Dave Ramsey and I are doing called Investing Essentials, happening September 1st and 2nd of 2026. So if you're watching before then, join us. It's gonna be a good time. You can watch from anywhere. Dave is gonna unpack his playbook for investing and wealth building. We're gonna drop a link in the description and a QR code as well. This is a first for us, I think. Should we do a Vanna White QR code?

• 16:04Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, take your phone out. Do a little snap, snap.

• 16:06George Kamel?

  I don't know where it's gonna be, so don't make me look bad, universe.

• 16:08Rachel Cruze?

  A little snap, a... over the screen.

• 16:10George Kamel?

  I'm gonna point everywhere, just in case.

• 16:12Rachel Cruze?

  Where it's gonna be?

• 16:14George Kamel?

  Don't tell me these things.

• 16:15Rachel Cruze?

  So good. Okay, um, yeah, lottery success story. What do we say?

• 16:20George Kamel?

  I'm going number one for this. I don't know.

• 16:21Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and you love the...

• 16:22George Kamel?

  I like extremes.

• 16:23Rachel Cruze?

  You do? Okay, do it.

• 16:25George Kamel?

  Do you feel bad about that?

• 16:27Rachel Cruze?

  No. I think that's good.

• 16:29George Kamel?

  I don't think there's gonna be a lot of success here, so...

• 16:30Rachel Cruze?

  Tim and lottery.

• 16:32George Kamel?

  What do you think about my handwriting?

• 16:33Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, let's see. Oh, yeah, we're about the same.

• 16:37George Kamel?

  Okay. I heard some "mms" in the crowd.

• 16:39Rachel Cruze?

  I know. My girls and their yearbook at the end of the school year, a lot of their teachers and old teachers, you know, library, everyone like wrote in it.

• 16:47George Kamel?

  That's sweet.

• 16:47Rachel Cruze?

  They all have beautiful handwriting. That is one thing.

• 16:49George Kamel?

  Oh, the teachers do?

• 16:50Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. I like looked, I was like, "Man, that's one thing I never got, George."

• 16:54George Kamel?

  It's one of those random things that like, it's not like that helpful in life, but it's, I would wish I had beautiful handwriting.

• 17:00Rachel Cruze?

  When I wrote like thank you note, you know, you're just like, "Aw, that's just sad."

• 17:03George Kamel?

  Yeah. Nobody wants a thank you note from a teacher.

• 17:06Rachel Cruze?

  And it was like I rushed it, and I really didn't. It's just bad handwriting.

• 17:09George Kamel?

  Yeah, well, the size just is kind of just moves and ebbs and flows. You go from very large font to very small font, and the kerning, just the spacing between the letters is bothersome. Not a care in the world. Elderly takes up most of it and then woman just sort of squeezed in there. If you want to just zoom into that with a sad face.

• 17:30Rachel Cruze?

  I have good spacing, visual spacing. It's very hard. Yes.

• 17:35George Kamel?

  You went to public school.

• 17:36Rachel Cruze?

  Do you know how many poster board projects I did without spacing? It was all this, and I was like, oh crap.

• 17:44George Kamel?

  Poor Dave and Sharon. How many poster boards did they have to buy before you could get it right? I can't imagine.

• 17:50Rachel Cruze?

  I'm very, I have an abundance mentality at the beginning and then it just shrinks.

• 17:56George Kamel?

  We got plenty of space. We're good. I imagine there was a lot of late night CVS runs for poster board at the Ramsey household.

• 18:03Rachel Cruze?

  And Annie Oakley project in third grade is fine. It's fine. It's fine. Oh my gosh. Okay. Next up is investment property fail. Okay. You ready for this? A guy called The Ramsey Show and purchased a short-term rental property in 2024. And he said, we were trying to build generational wealth, get tax write-offs, all the things. But now he's bleeding $3,000 a month because he's upside down on the property. And so he had a five-year pre-payment penalty on his DSCR loan and.

• 18:34George Kamel?

  I was on that call. I said, avoiding taxes is a terrible way to quote unquote, build wealth. So it was like, just because you can write off taxes, doesn't mean you should make this monumental financial decision where you bleed money. And it was because his tax pro was like, dude, you should get a rental property.

• 18:51Rachel Cruze?

  Cause you can like write off the taxes and like do all this. Yeah.

• 18:54George Kamel?

  Not thinking, can he actually ROI on this decision? And he couldn't. So we told him to sell it and I don't think he was super into that advice.

• 19:03Rachel Cruze?

  He wasn't, he didn't like it?

• 19:04George Kamel?

  I think he was happier to take the $3,000 a month loss on it than to sell it.

• 19:09Rachel Cruze?

  That's a great line though, George, of just do not base your investing. On saving tax, on taxes, right?

• 19:16George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 19:17Rachel Cruze?

  And we talk about that even with paying off the mortgage. We were like, hey, pay off your mortgage. But a lot of people are like, yeah, but if I keep it.

• 19:22George Kamel?

  Get the write off.

• 19:23Rachel Cruze?

  I get the write off and all this, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, people like, they try to use the tax system to like, make money. Don't. Make your money, pay the taxes and like, just keep on moving. Just keep on moving with life. But when you try to co-mingle them and like, play the game, you get stuck in this crap.

• 19:37George Kamel?

  And don't listen to your tax bro for investment advice. Like, use him for tax advice.

• 19:41Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 19:42George Kamel?

  But then go to an investment professional to say, hey, is this a good investment? My tax guy said to do it for the write off.

• 19:48Rachel Cruze?

  That's right.

• 19:48George Kamel?

  And hopefully if you have a good investment professional, they would be like, hmm, that's a very short sighted.

• 19:53Rachel Cruze?

  Way of looking at it. That's right. That's right. That's so good. So, yeah.

• 19:56George Kamel?

  That one hurts. I mean, you're bleeding 36 grand a year.

• 19:59Rachel Cruze?

  Just because of the stupidity, I may go three. Right? It's gotta be the next worst thing on the list.

• 20:05George Kamel?

  You want, I think you should write it down. I want to see where this goes. Let's see if you can use your spacing more wisely. I'm so nervous. That's a lot of words I just asked you to write.

• 20:14Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 20:16George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 20:17Rachel Cruze?

  Did better.

• 20:17George Kamel?

  That's really nice. It's a little up and to the right, but that's optimistic.

• 20:23Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. And you know, I like when I kind of like, bring in a little cursive.

• 20:26George Kamel?

  Yeah, you do have the weird.

• 20:27Rachel Cruze?

  At the end.

• 20:28George Kamel?

  When do you weave it in? Is that a strategy or?

• 20:31Rachel Cruze?

  Nope. Just.

• 20:32George Kamel?

  Just thought, well, let's end with a little.

• 20:34Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 20:35George Kamel?

  That's good.

• 20:36Rachel Cruze?

  Well, one investment that I do make is when it comes to good quality products that I use almost every day. Pajamas.

• 20:43George Kamel?

  It's a non-traditional investment.

• 20:44Rachel Cruze?

  robes. Yes. Loungewear, all of it, and Cozy Earth. Just the cream of the crop, George. So good. And it's worth the investment pieces. Like, there's some things I'll go cheap, I will, always. And you guys know that about me. And then some things like, no, it is worth buying quality products because I use them day in and day out, and I love them. And so, yeah, man, everything with Cozy Earth, I do. Everything I've bought from them, I love.

• 21:08George Kamel?

  Yeah, I mean, a lot of clothing in the past, I've bought and then I'm like, I don't, I'm not gonna wear this. The quality's lost. It went in the wash one time and it's toast. And Cozy Earth, everything is held up, from the sheets to the PJ sets. I wear the clogs every day, as you know. I can't stop to, I've never. I used to wear a clog in my life and now I use it all the time.

• 21:26Rachel Cruze?

  And it's in your bundle because we have bundles now, you guys, that we made within Cozy Earth. And you actually get 40% off if you choose the Rachel bundle or the George bundle. So I have luxe bath sheets, which are basically large towels.

• 21:37George Kamel?

  Gigantic.

• 21:38Rachel Cruze?

  The bamboo knit pajamas that I was talking about and the bamboo stretch neck kimono robe that I wore today, this morning, getting ready.

• 21:46George Kamel?

  Wow, look at you. And I've got the clog, the PJ, you know, short sleeve tee and short set and the calf sock four pack. So go check it all out at cozylearth.com/smartmoney and you'll get 40% off those bundles. And this is a limited time offer, so get yours while they last. I imagine they're getting bought up.

• 22:04Rachel Cruze?

  I hope so.

• 22:05George Kamel?

  Because everybody wants to be like Rachel. I imagine you're winning if it was a competition.

• 22:08Rachel Cruze?

  We should see which bundle is winning. Come on, ladies.

• 22:11George Kamel?

  It's like QVC.

• 22:12Rachel Cruze?

  Help me.

• 22:13George Kamel?

  Rachel's like, we're sold out of the Rachel bundles.

• 22:15Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know, I don't know, we're sold out.

• 22:16George Kamel?

  That's great.

• 22:17Rachel Cruze?

  All right, George, the boring 401k success story.

• 22:20George Kamel?

  All right.

• 22:22Rachel Cruze?

  We, we heart these. These are our favorite. We love a boring success story because usually success stories are the boring ones. You rarely get the flash in the pan, even though our number one is a lot of winner, which for sure is a flash in the pan.

• 22:35George Kamel?

  The numbers are bigger on that one, I'm sure.

• 22:37Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, but this actually came from Reddit. Should you read this?

• 22:40George Kamel?

  I feel like I should.

• 22:41Rachel Cruze?

  This is like your world.

• 22:41George Kamel?

  I guess I represent the Reddit community at large now, for better and worse. One Reddit user says, quote, "I started investing last year 10 years later than I should have. I make less than the median household income for my region, doing something I am passionate about. I'm up $50,000 from $0 across my retirement portfolio since May of 2024. The best time to start investing is years ago, second best time is now."

• 23:06Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, I like that, yep. I love this, you know, I mean, the progress that he's made is amazing.

• 23:13George Kamel?

  Yeah, modest income, supporting a family. And he says, "I know I'll thank myself later for making some sacrifices now." That's what it's all about.

• 23:20Rachel Cruze?

  It is so true.

• 23:21George Kamel?

  When you think like a 20, 30, 40 year decision, it's really hard to have the discipline and delay gratification to put a dollar away, knowing you're not going to touch it for decades.

• 23:31Rachel Cruze?

  You're not going to see it, yeah.

• 23:32George Kamel?

  Remember those old time capsules?

• 23:34Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 23:34George Kamel?

  You do in like school?

• 23:35Rachel Cruze?

  For sure.

• 23:36George Kamel?

  When you did those, you were like, well, I guess I'll be long gone by the time someone digs this up.

• 23:41Rachel Cruze?

  It does feel like it goes into a black hole. Like when we do fund our retirement and stuff, I'm like, Oh my gosh. Yeah. I feel like we're not going to see it for forever. Well, it's wild, George, you and I. I mean, we're about to hit 40 here soon.

• 23:53George Kamel?

  Don't remind me.

• 23:54Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, it's a

• 23:55George Kamel?

  My life is flashing before my eyes.

• 23:57Rachel Cruze?

  It's gonna be, like, I do think time goes faster and faster and faster. So we're, we're gonna see it soon.

• 24:02George Kamel?

  And you've been investing longer than me. You got the stuff earlier, being, you know, a Ramsey child. I didn't get it till, what, 20? I started here when I was 23. I started investing by 24, 25.

• 24:14Rachel Cruze?

  That's really good though, George. That's great.

• 24:16George Kamel?

  So 25 around there. So it's been over a decade. 12 years now I've been investing in the Ramsey 401k and into IRAs and all these things. And it's really cool to see like a decade into it where you're at.

• 24:28Rachel Cruze?

  The progress, yeah.

• 24:28George Kamel?

  Getting to that first, like, six figures, like, getting to $100,000 invested is really difficult. But getting to the next 100,000, you're like, oh.

• 24:36Rachel Cruze?

  It goes so much faster. You start to watch it all compound. Like, it starts to work.

• 24:39George Kamel?

  Yeah, compound growth.

• 24:40Rachel Cruze?

  Crazy. Wild, wild.

• 24:42George Kamel?

  I love it.

• 24:43Rachel Cruze?

  So it is. But that's the boring stuff, you guys. Those Roth IRAs, 401ks.

• 24:48George Kamel?

  I gotta rank it.

• 24:49Rachel Cruze?

  The consistency. That, I feel like our ranking is great. That feels like a solid number two.

• 24:53George Kamel?

  We did really good.

• 24:54Rachel Cruze?

  The Lotto winner, we loved him. I mean, you give it, you make 20.

• 24:56George Kamel?

  And dollar amount, if he's got hundreds of millions, that's, that's a number one slot. I'm trying really hard to write this.

• 25:03Rachel Cruze?

  I'm gonna see like what real effort for you was.

• 25:06George Kamel?

  I wouldn't say it's like amazing.

• 25:07Rachel Cruze?

  That's better than your top one.

• 25:08George Kamel?

  Thank you.

• 25:09Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:09George Kamel?

  A little less rushed this time.

• 25:11Rachel Cruze?

  We're getting better.

• 25:11George Kamel?

  Okay, so let's go over our rankings here. We have number one slot, the Lotto winner, who 28 million back in 99 and used a financial advisor. The person with the boring 401k. The numbers are less impressive, but the fact that they've been able to do this on a modest income, see steady gains, that's awesome. Then we have the investment property failure. He's losing three grand a month. That one hurts, but you can sell it and sort of get out of that. Then you have the Bitcoin scam, where this woman's husband was

• 25:38Rachel Cruze?

  Bad.

• 25:38George Kamel?

  over 600 grand in debt because of some mining opportunity. And finally, our elderly friend.

• 25:44Rachel Cruze?

  Our elderly woman. And 23 other people were 33. What did it say on there?

• 25:47George Kamel?

  Yeah, it was like 4.9 million dollars lost among 33 people. And she was one of them, giving her personal info and almost three quarters of a million dollars.

• 25:56Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, don't do that. Even when the post office texts you, still, don't give out your info.

• 26:03George Kamel?

  I don't think they text people.

• 26:04Rachel Cruze?

  They did. Oh, yeah. No, the real one doesn't.

• 26:08George Kamel?

  The real one.

• 26:09Rachel Cruze?

  The one that says it is.

• 26:10George Kamel?

  The fake ones text you.

• 26:12Rachel Cruze?

  Do you know how many people I've saved because of that? I still get DMs that are like, "Thank you for sharing your story." And I'm like, "You're welcome."

• 26:18George Kamel?

  You know what happened, though? I got, uh, I'm not gonna call it blackmail by my local USPS, but they wouldn't... So, I moved. I moved homes.

• 26:27Rachel Cruze?

  Sure.

• 26:27George Kamel?

  And for some reason, I had a subscription box coming to the old house.

• 26:30Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 26:31George Kamel?

  And so, they wouldn't deliver it, even though I had mail forwarding on. They said, "No, you have to come get it at the post office and pay $12 in charges."

• 26:39Rachel Cruze?

  No. No.

• 26:41George Kamel?

  Yes. So, I literally had to fork over my 12 bucks to get my own package.

• 26:45Rachel Cruze?

  Why? Because they all, like...

• 26:47George Kamel?

  Because I didn't have the... Yeah, the address was wrong, and they're not like, "We're not gonna ship it for free" a couple miles down the road.

• 26:53Rachel Cruze?

  Do you get cards from anyone in the mail?

• 26:55George Kamel?

  Um, my wife's grandmother still says beautiful handwritten cards.

• 26:59Rachel Cruze?

  She does.

• 27:00George Kamel?

  Just like cute greeting cards for no reason.

• 27:02Rachel Cruze?

  For no reason? Not for birthdays?

• 27:03George Kamel?

  No. She'll do birthdays and Christmas, but also, just like, on a whim, she just loves sending a little greeting card.

• 27:09Rachel Cruze?

  I love that. I love that.

• 27:10George Kamel?

  Like, she thought of us, saw a little cute dog on it, and just wrote a little message.

• 27:13Rachel Cruze?

  Winston's grandmother and his mom still send birthday cards.

• 27:16George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 27:17Rachel Cruze?

  And I get notes in them.

• 27:19George Kamel?

  Money?

• 27:20Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, I do.

• 27:21George Kamel?

  Let's go. Are you gonna be the grandparent that sends money?

• 27:26Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, well, if I go off the Ramsey side, no. I don't buy anything. Well, they don't... Oh, yeah, I love my parents. Y'all are wonderful, but...

• 27:37George Kamel?

  But they don't get the grand...

• 27:38Rachel Cruze?

  They don't do birthday gifts. No. I mean...

• 27:40George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 27:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, for the kids and stuff, I don't know. They just... It's just not a thing. Not a big thing. Winston's family, very much so. It is like...

• 27:48George Kamel?

  It's a big deal to them.

• 27:49Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, yes. So, I don't know what side. I am more non-sentimental. I lean more on the Ramsey side, naturally on things. I want to be more sentimental. So, I don't know. Who knows? What do you think you'll be? I take my green girls to like get their nails done.

• 28:06George Kamel?

  More experience based versus just straight cash.

• 28:09Rachel Cruze?

  What would you do?

• 28:10George Kamel?

  I just think a kid loves cash.

• 28:12Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 28:12George Kamel?

  Yeah. I just saw comedian John Mulaney, he, for his kid's birthday party, like a four year old, he put a dollar, he did these like, you know, the little goodie bags for each kid, thirty kids. He got all this random stuff, but then added a dollar bill into each one. Kids went ballistic over a dollar bill. And I went, you know what? I'm gonna start doing that in my kids' goodie bags. And the parents are gonna be like, where did this come from?

• 28:32Rachel Cruze?

  Put a dollar in.

• 28:33George Kamel?

  That guy put a dollar in your goodie bag? Yeah, I did. One up yourself, parents. I got you.

• 28:40Rachel Cruze?

  You're welcome. Well.

• 28:42George Kamel?

  That was fun.

• 28:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. Okay, so let's talk about investing though, because all these examples were extreme, pretty much, except for our 401k guy.

• 28:49George Kamel?

  Our boring one.

• 28:49Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, so let's talk about investing like you're five, okay? I'll do that in ChatGPT sometimes.

• 28:54George Kamel?

  You're gonna explain it like I'm five?

• 28:56Rachel Cruze?

  Well, just like us.

• 28:57George Kamel?

  Not investing for a five year old.

• 28:58Rachel Cruze?

  Us to the listener or watcher right now.

• 29:00George Kamel?

  Okay, don't be condescending.

• 29:01Rachel Cruze?

  But this is my favorite thing in ChatGPT. If there's a very complicated subject matter, I love to say, talk to me like I'm in kindergarten. And it like restates it and you're like, thank you. That makes sense now. Yes.

• 29:12George Kamel?

  I should try that more often.

• 29:13Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, I love it. It's like my favorite feature.

• 29:15George Kamel?

  Especially for things I don't care about, like astrology. I'm like, hey, explain like I'm five.

• 29:18Rachel Cruze?

  A hundred percent. If there's like some theological thing that I hear, I'm like, okay, just explain it to me like I'm five. Like, let me, let me see what this is.

• 29:24George Kamel?

  Explain egalitarianism like I'm five.

• 29:26Rachel Cruze?

  There you go. Absolutely.

• 29:28George Kamel?

  Perfect.

• 29:28Rachel Cruze?

  And it will. Um, okay. So let's do investing like that, okay? You just tapped it in ChatGPT, you know, you explain the Ramsey way of investing like I'm five. Here we go.

• 29:39George Kamel?

  How do we do this? Okay, think, think, think.

• 29:41Rachel Cruze?

  Let me just say, to start investing, we want you to be completely debt free and have three to six months of expenses saved in the bank for your emergency fund, okay?

• 29:49George Kamel?

  Free requisite.

• 29:50Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. And then you're gonna start investing fifteen percent of your income into retirement.

• 29:54George Kamel?

  So, good example, if you make, let's say, a household income of a hundred thousand dollars, gross income, fifteen thousand, that's fifteen percent, should be going into these retirement accounts. The reason is, there are great tax advantages when you invest into a retirement account, especially if it's a Roth account, which means you're using money after taxes, so you don't get a tax deduction come tax time. But that money then grows tax-free with compound growth, and you can take the money out tax-free once you're actually retired.

• 30:25Rachel Cruze?

  Which is amazing because like we were saying earlier, so much that's going to be in that retirement, especially if you start early, is going to be mostly growth in that account. So if you don't have to pay taxes on the growth, it's wonderful. So after-tax money. And we have kind of a formula when you think about 401ks and Roth IRAs or traditional IRAs. But all of that is are the main buckets of retirement investing that people use. And so just remember the formula. Match beats Roth beats traditional. So in a perfect world, you're going to go up to the match and you're going to say, okay, if I buy company matches, 3%, 4%, 5%, go up to the company match, whatever percentage is left of that 15% that we tell

• 31:06Rachel Cruze?

  you to invest, go over to your Roth IRA, go ahead and fill it up. And if you haven't hit your 15%, you can go back to your 401k and put money in. But that formula is very helpful as you're prioritizing what to invest in. Now, once you are doing that, and your house is paid off, and your kid's college is funded, that's baby steps five and six, you're on to baby step seven, which means at that point, you just continue to invest and build wealth and be very generous. And that's where you can go beyond retirement investing, really at that point. After your house is paid off is the big thing.

• 31:41George Kamel?

  You might be investing 20, 30% of your income, and that might mean you max out your 401ks and IRAs, and you can move on to non-retirement investing, which is called a taxable brokerage account, which just means it's not a retirement account, you don't have the penalties that are involved with taking money out of a retirement account early. And then we haven't talked about what to invest in, because that's an important caveat. People always want to know, okay, just because you put money into the Roth IRA does not mean it's invested.

• 32:08Rachel Cruze?

  That's right. You have to go the next step to invest it.

• 32:10George Kamel?

  It's usually just sitting in this sort of settlement fund. So it's just like a savings account, basically, until you actually invest it into the stock market. And so there's a lot of things you can invest in the stock market. The simplest way to think about it is you want something called a mutual fund or index fund, which is a giant group of stocks, like 90 to 200 companies or more, where you own partial ownership of each of these companies. That's called a share.

• 32:32Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, versus the opposite of that would be a single Stock, right? You put all your money in Apple stock or you put all your money in Tesla or whatever it is. These index funds and mutual funds have all the companies you've heard of. So massive companies all together. So if one of them kind of goes down, that's okay, because majority of them are probably up because over the course of the stock market, when you look at the S and P 500 or the Dow Jones, over the course of time, it looks like this is the chart, but it continues to go up over time. The American economy continues to grow. There may be some dips in the market, absolutely. But over time, it's going to grow. And that's what's important. That's why we have the confidence that we do with investing. There's a lot of fear around it. People are scared of it. But here's the deal. It's like, I mean, even from the biggest

• 33:17Rachel Cruze?

  life events in our time, right? Of everything from the housing market crash, you know, in oh eight or September 11th or COVID, like any of these big times.

• 33:28George Kamel?

  The dot com bubble.

• 33:28Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, the Y2K, all of that. You'll see some dips, but even past all of that, it's surpassed it. And people are making a lot. You're making good money, especially the last couple of years in the market.

• 33:40George Kamel?

  Yeah. So investing is for the long term. So if you're going to invest, don't touch it. Leave it alone. Never jump out of the market and jump back in. We always say that the only people who get hurt on the roller coaster are the ones who jump off early.

• 33:52Rachel Cruze?

  That's right.

• 33:52George Kamel?

  So do not do that. And if you do that, you'll see over the course of time, you can use our investment calculator. We'll drop a link in the description. Just type in, hey, I'm going to put in a hundred bucks a month from 35 to 65. What could happen? You will be shocked because it's not about the amount you contribute. It's about the time that money has to grow.

• 34:11Rachel Cruze?

  And that one example, George, that's just 1,200 bucks a year.

• 34:13George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 34:14Rachel Cruze?

  Right? Which, again, we're telling you to invest 15% of your income. So it should be way more than that at that point. But you can see the power of it with just a hundred dollars a month, like 1,200 bucks a year. It's amazing what it'll do. But when you put even more in and more of that momentum, it's fabulous.

• 34:29George Kamel?

  The key is get started early. And early can just be today. If you're out of debt and you got the emergency fund, don't feel bad because you're in your 40s now. Get started. It all matters.

• 34:39Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. And we'll actually put a link down below for our investment calculator. So you can do that. Plug in your numbers and see, see what the future holds for you. It's a beautiful thing. All right. Before we spill the tea on our guilty as charged segment, George, what's the details of the drink?

• 34:53George Kamel?

  This is the French blonde. It's got Lillet blanc.

• 34:58Rachel Cruze?

  L'ailé Blanc.

• 34:59George Kamel?

  For my French viewers out there, I didn't want to mess up since it's called a French blonde. L'ailé Blanc, which is like a wine liqueur, like 85% wine, about 15% citrus liqueurs in there. Very nice. And then it's got gin, elderflower liqueur.

• 35:13Rachel Cruze?

  Oh.

• 35:14George Kamel?

  Fresh grapefruit juice and three dashes of lemon bitters, no more, no less.

• 35:18Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. You know what? I love this drink.

• 35:20George Kamel?

  It's a very elegant drink. I will say that.

• 35:22Rachel Cruze?

  Well, it's crazy because I was drinking it and I was like, I really like this drink. And everything you listed out in the ingredients, I like. So I was like, well, that makes sense. It all together. I'm going nine out of 10.

• 35:32George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 35:34Rachel Cruze?

  I really liked it.

• 35:35George Kamel?

  That's great. I mean, I also like everything in here. What is missing is I'm not feeling the punch of these ingredients. Like, I can't tell you.

• 35:42Rachel Cruze?

  That's why we're so opposite in drinks. That lemon one the other day that you loved.

• 35:45George Kamel?

  I love lemon.

• 35:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Where I'm like, I do like lemon, but I just want three dashes of lemon. I don't want to eat a lemon.

• 35:51George Kamel?

  Give me all the dashes. But I'm not, I'm not tasting the gin. I'm not tasting the elderflower explicitly.

• 35:56Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:57George Kamel?

  I'm mostly tasting grapefruit juice, which is great. I'm a big fan of grapefruit juice. But it kind of just tastes like a grapefruit.

• 36:03Rachel Cruze?

  And because we have a hunk of grapefruit in there too.

• 36:06George Kamel?

  Yeah. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna still go six and a half out of 10.

• 36:09Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, fair.

• 36:10George Kamel?

  I think if you made this at home and you punched it up a little bit, it would be a 10 out of 10.

• 36:14Rachel Cruze?

  All right. It is a pricier one, though.

• 36:15George Kamel?

  $4.55 because it knows it's worth.

• 36:19Rachel Cruze?

  Probably because all those ingredients are pricier.

• 36:22George Kamel?

  And much like the French. Very uppity.

• 36:25Rachel Cruze?

  Very bougie.

• 36:26George Kamel?

  Very uppity.

• 36:27Rachel Cruze?

  Very bougie.

• 36:28George Kamel?

  So get the recipe in the show notes. Give it a try this weekend if you want to feel fancy. And props if you use an actual grapefruit wedge slice in there with a little toothpick or, you know, a piece of metal going through it. I figure they're called picks. Is that what they're called? Cocktail picks?

• 36:44Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know.

• 36:44George Kamel?

  You can get some on Amazon.

• 36:45Rachel Cruze?

  I'd say fancy toothpick.

• 36:47George Kamel?

  Yeah, I like the long metal ones. Do you have some of those at home?

• 36:50Rachel Cruze?

  No, we don't have any of that.

• 36:51George Kamel?

  I know what to get you for Christmas now.

• 36:53Rachel Cruze?

  Thank you.

• 36:55Rachel Cruze?

  Christmas gift.

• 36:56George Kamel?

  I'm always trying to think, what would Rachel want for Christmas?

• 36:59Rachel Cruze?

  I'll get you some stationery, so you can write more.

• 37:02George Kamel?

  Appreciate that.

• 37:03Rachel Cruze?

  All right, now it's time for

• 37:04George Kamel?

  Guilty as charged.

• 37:06Rachel Cruze?

  And this is where we ask each other a guilty as charged question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip. All right, George, are you guilty of outsourcing a job you could have done yourself? And was it worth it?

• 37:17George Kamel?

  Okay, the part that says you could have done yourself, I think is generous. To assume that I could do most things myself. That's a funny one. The most recent one, because yes, I do this all the time. Whether, I mean lawn care, anything involving the outdoors.

• 37:31Rachel Cruze?

  You outsource.

• 37:31George Kamel?

  I don't want to be out there in 100 degrees in Tennessee.

• 37:34Rachel Cruze?

  Vitamin D, who needs it? No.

• 37:36George Kamel?

  So like pest control, lawn care.

• 37:39Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 37:39George Kamel?

  All that kind of stuff. I'm outsourcing handyman stuff. The latest one, though, this is the first I've ever done, is a car sale. I did a consignment car sale.

• 37:48Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, tell me more.

• 37:50George Kamel?

  So there's a, it's an auto broker. So what they do is I bought my car from him originally.

• 37:54Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 37:55George Kamel?

  He'll go find the car you want in your budget at auction.

• 37:58Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 37:59George Kamel?

  And then get it for your budget and just that plus sales tax.

• 38:02Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, well, that's great.

• 38:03George Kamel?

  It's amazing.

• 38:04Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 38:04George Kamel?

  So he said, oh, I also sell cars.

• 38:06Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, like you pay a fee or something for him?

• 38:08George Kamel?

  No, he just makes like the spread. So let's say he buys it at auction for 25 grand. He gets it shipped, he cleans it up, he does all the work.

• 38:15Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 38:15George Kamel?

  And your budget was 30.

• 38:17Rachel Cruze?

  Uh huh.

• 38:17George Kamel?

  Great, he'll go, okay, it's yours for 30 plus tax. And then he'll take whatever margin was on it.

• 38:22Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 38:22George Kamel?

  So it's very, it's very reasonable. And he's a Ramsey fan.

• 38:25Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 38:26George Kamel?

  So I've used him in the past and I found out he also will sell your car for you for a fee.

• 38:30Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, and that's what you did?

• 38:32George Kamel?

  So for like 700 bucks, I offloaded this entire thing. I left the car with him. He got it detailed, he'll deal with test drives, with Facebook Marketplace messages, with the title.

• 38:43Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 38:44George Kamel?

  The finances, all of that, with the negotiation.

• 38:46Rachel Cruze?

  That's amazing.

• 38:47George Kamel?

  And so I didn't want to be a part of it.

• 38:49Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, do you know how much you would save doing that, buying a car? Using someone like that? Do you save like 5,000?

• 38:55George Kamel?

  You can save, because buying it at auction is, that's where the money is made for people who are selling cars.

• 39:00Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 39:01George Kamel?

  It's when they buy it at auction. So yeah, there's some cost savings there. It depends on what car, you know, and how new and what the desire and demand is for that car. But overall, I think it's a great business model.

• 39:12Rachel Cruze?

  Well done.

• 39:12George Kamel?

  So yeah, and he sold it this past week. Sold it to a Ramsey team member.

• 39:16Rachel Cruze?

  No, you could have done that yourself.

• 39:22George Kamel?

  Yeah, but I didn't want to have to deal with the test drives.

• 39:24Rachel Cruze?

  How funny is that?

• 39:25George Kamel?

  The test drives, the paperwork.

• 39:26Rachel Cruze?

  Does that guy live in our area, like Nashville?

• 39:29George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 39:30Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 39:30George Kamel?

  He lives in Columbia. So it's my old Tesla. He's like, I just need a commuter car.

• 39:34Rachel Cruze?

  I thought this guy was like in Kansas City or some, I don't know. And then it happened to be in Ramsey City.

• 39:38George Kamel?

  No, he's a local guy.

• 39:39Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, okay.

• 39:40George Kamel?

  Everything's local.

• 39:40Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, okay.

• 39:41George Kamel?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hope that helps.

• 39:42Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh, wow.

• 39:44George Kamel?

  But happy to, I would do it again.

• 39:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I think that's a, that's a great one.

• 39:47George Kamel?

  Because when I thought about listing on Facebook and the messages I would get with my, if people found out that I have like a public persona and then they're coming after me, I was like, I don't want, I don't want to deal with that.

• 39:56Rachel Cruze?

  George.

• 39:56George Kamel?

  Negotiating with me.

• 39:58Rachel Cruze?

  You're so famous.

• 40:00George Kamel?

  I'm just saying, I don't need a guy, I don't want to be sitting in my car while someone else is test driving it and it's like nine o'clock at night.

• 40:06Rachel Cruze?

  I'm with you, I'm with you. I get it, I get it.

• 40:08George Kamel?

  Do you want the car or not?

• 40:09Rachel Cruze?

  I get it, I get it. Yep, fair.

• 40:12George Kamel?

  How about you?

• 40:12Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, I was saying, mine's like way less exciting. This is gonna trigger Jonathan. It's about my pool.

• 40:17George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 40:18Rachel Cruze?

  Um, but we, we did like a contract when we built it to have someone come clean the pool.

• 40:23George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:24Rachel Cruze?

  Um, and then at one point though, we kept saying, oh yeah, Winston can just do it because he, you know, he likes chemistry and like looking at the.

• 40:30George Kamel?

  The levels and the chlorine.

• 40:33Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 40:34George Kamel?

  Uh, he likes chemistry.

• 40:37Rachel Cruze?

  But then it just gets really convenient when you don't have to think about it because someone's just doing it. So we kept it for another year.

• 40:44George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 40:45Rachel Cruze?

  So we're still paying for someone to do it.

• 40:46George Kamel?

  Kept your pool service.

• 40:47Rachel Cruze?

  We did.

• 40:47George Kamel?

  Yeah, my friends just got, they, they bought a home that already had a pool.

• 40:50Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 40:51George Kamel?

  And so I was finding out like, how much does it cost to maintain a pool?

• 40:53Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 40:54George Kamel?

  And I'm going, man, I should be in the pool business.

• 40:56Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 40:57George Kamel?

  They are making good money showing up for their weekly cleaning.

• 41:00Rachel Cruze?

  And you know what? And I see him out there and I just assume they're doing great.

• 41:04George Kamel?

  He's checking the levels.

• 41:05Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, yeah, I'm like, I don't, I don't really know.

• 41:07George Kamel?

  Gives you a thumbs up through the window.

• 41:09Rachel Cruze?

  I know, and I'm like, thanks.

• 41:11George Kamel?

  But it is nice.

• 41:12Rachel Cruze?

  They're great, they're great guys though. Uh, but yeah, that, that is a, that's a luxury.

• 41:16George Kamel?

  Now, you couldn't have done it yourself, but Winston could have done it himself.

• 41:19Rachel Cruze?

  I could have learned. I know chemicals.

• 41:24George Kamel?

  Yikes.

• 41:26Rachel Cruze?

  And levels? I don't know. Oh, man. Okay. Well, I guess we're both guilty.

• 41:31George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 41:31Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh. But outsourcing to get your time back is big. Are you drinking the French? Oh, my gosh. It's gonna turn into a bonjour. I was gonna say bonjour.

• 41:42George Kamel?

  Oui, oui, monsieur.

• 41:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, there you go.

• 41:44George Kamel?

  Why did I sound like a character from Beauty and the Beast?

• 41:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I was gonna say.

• 41:47George Kamel?

  It was like a caricature of the French.

• 41:49Rachel Cruze?

  Channeling, bell and guest.

• 41:50George Kamel?

  I apologize to any of our French listeners.

• 41:53Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 41:53George Kamel?

  If you're French out there, hey, leave a comment. I want to know.

• 41:57Rachel Cruze?

  No. Well, if you have a guilty George question, make sure to DM us at Rachel Cruz and at George Kamel. We love them. We screenshot them. We send them to Jenna, our producer. Thank you for them. And if you loved this episode, you're definitely gonna love our episode. Roasting the latest financial and social fads. Here to stay? We don't know. So click here to check it out and make sure to subscribe. So you don't miss an all new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.

• 42:25Rachel Cruze?

  Happy hour.