Reacting to People Justifying Their Outrageous Spending Habits

📈 Plan and save for the future with Ramsey’s Investment Calculator. We all have our weaknesses when it comes to frivolous spending—but some of you are next level. Today, we’re reacting to (and lightly judging) the internet’s most ridiculous spending habits. Next Steps: 🎙️ Catch our episode We Settle Your Heated Money Arguments. 🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour 📱 Submit a Guilty As Charged question for Rachel and George! Leave us a voicemail with your question at 877-306-1517 or 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. 💻 Figure out your next financial move with Ramsey’s Get Started Assessment. Connect With Our Sponsors: Check out the FAIRWINDS Credit Union exclusive account bundle. Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. Get 20% off with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth. Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🥃 “The Reddish” Maroon Manhattan Recipe from Smart Money Happy Hour mixologist Michael Reddish 2 ounces bourbon 1 ounce dry vermouth 1 ounce amaro 2–3 dashes black walnut bitters 2–3 dashes chocolate bitters Instructions: Add the bourbon, dry vermouth, amaro and bitters into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled. Serve in a coupe glass and enjoy! Explore More From Ramsey Network: 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 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?

  We listen and we definitely judge. If you ever justified an outrageous purchase or judged others for that, you're in the right place.

• 0:13Rachel Cruze?

  I think that dog is in pain. I do. I think that dog is in pain.

• 0:17George Kamel?

  I'll give you one that is also controversial. Private school. I think it's an egregious move.

• 0:24Rachel Cruze?

  If anything, fractions of pennies. When you think about the girl math we talked about earlier.

• 0:28George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 0:28Rachel Cruze?

  Because you open your garage at least once a day.

• 0:30George Kamel?

  Maybe twice.

• 0:31Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 0:31George Kamel?

  Things get crazy.

• 0:37Rachel Cruze?

  Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz.

• 0:39George Kamel?

  I'm George Kamel.

• 0:41Rachel Cruze?

  And this is Smart Money Happy Hour.

• 0:45George Kamel?

  Cheers, George. Cheers.

• 0:50George Kamel?

  Mmm.

• 0:51Rachel Cruze?

  I love, I love a Manhattan. Well, this is the show where two friends who have money experts talk about what you're talking about. Everything from pop culture, current events and money.

• 1:02George Kamel?

  And today we are sipping on the reddish maroon Manhattan. That is named after our mixologist, Michael Reddish. We've got a special cocktail today for a special guy. More on that later. Stick around to the end. We're going to review it, give you our rating and the recipe will be in the show notes.

• 1:18Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, George, I feel like one of our MOs is that we always tell people like, put the blinders on. Just do what's best for you and your family. Don't be looking at other people. It's none of your business. You know, don't judge, you know, look at yourself and your family. But you know, sometimes there is, I don't know, reason to judge. Would you agree?

• 1:35George Kamel?

  That's true. Well, speaking of reddish, he says this quote, "It costs you $0 to mind your own business."

• 1:41Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, there you go.

• 1:42George Kamel?

  I think about that often. I've not taken that advice. I would, I would much rather pay to judge than to not judge and it be free.

• 1:49Rachel Cruze?

  Right.

• 1:49George Kamel?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:49Rachel Cruze?

  Hundred percent.

• 1:50George Kamel?

  It's worth the cost to me.

• 1:51Rachel Cruze?

  Worth the cost.

• 1:52George Kamel?

  But it is fun and every now and then, you know, you, you do look around. Everyone's done this where they look at a friend or something on Instagram or someone driving a car and they go, can they really afford that?

• 2:02Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 2:02George Kamel?

  You see the friends with the keys for the house and they're like, can they really afford that? Did mom and dad help out? We all have these questions.

• 2:09Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, a hundred percent.

• 2:10George Kamel?

  You're great at the talking through the teeth. That's a special move for me.

• 2:13Rachel Cruze?

  Well, I usually am like, you don't know the story. You don't know what's really going behind, you know?

• 2:17George Kamel?

  We want the drama.

• 2:18Rachel Cruze?

  You know, like all of it, but yet debt wouldn't exist if everyone could just pay for everything. So there is something to be said.

• 2:26George Kamel?

  Sometimes the conspiracy theory is correct. They can't afford that.

• 2:29Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 2:29George Kamel?

  They are deeply in debt.

• 2:30Rachel Cruze?

  We can say out loud that America, we love our stuff. Sometimes we don't have the money for it.

• 2:35George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 2:35Rachel Cruze?

  So.

• 2:36George Kamel?

  But as always, while we judge, we are happy to call ourselves out. So let's go first. What would people say about you when they look at your spending? What is something you splurge on that someone else could never justify? They think it's so dumb and outrageous.

• 2:49Rachel Cruze?

  So crazy. Um, I always use this one because I do think it's overpriced. People probably think it's stupid. Valley parking at the airport.

• 2:58George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 2:59Rachel Cruze?

  It's my favorite thing.

• 3:00George Kamel?

  That is true. They're like, why would you pay? Which they just upped the price. Ask me how I know. Because I went to the garage.

• 3:07Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 3:09George Kamel?

  I just couldn't stomach it, Rachel.

• 3:10Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, you parked in the garage.

• 3:11George Kamel?

  I went to the garage. I was like, well, I'll save.

• 3:13Rachel Cruze?

  Parking in Nashville's airport is technically in the garage. It's just on the bottom floor.

• 3:18George Kamel?

  That is true.

• 3:19Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 3:19George Kamel?

  And someone else goes and parks for you. And to be fair, I don't know that I'll do it again. I circled for 15 minutes and I was like, I might miss my flight. I could not find a spot. And then finally I'll suck it up and go a mile away and walk.

• 3:31Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 3:32George Kamel?

  I was like, Rachel would be tsk tsk tsking me right now.

• 3:36Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, that is one thing. I am that. And maybe my shampoo, like I just spend a nice money on shampoo. Like I don't, I don't go drugstore shampoo.

• 3:46George Kamel?

  You're, you're on camera a lot.

• 3:48Rachel Cruze?

  Well, thank you for the justification.

• 3:49George Kamel?

  And if you use the drugstore shampoo, they're like, why does her hair look so dry? She can't afford a better shampoo. So either way, you're gonna get roasted.

• 3:57Rachel Cruze?

  That's true. That's true. Yeah. So yeah, there's probably some elements that I spend money on that people are like, that's crazy.

• 4:02George Kamel?

  Hmm.

• 4:02Rachel Cruze?

  How about you?

• 4:04George Kamel?

  Uh, almost everything. I mean, you name it. Haircuts wildly outrageous.

• 4:09Rachel Cruze?

  We love George's expensive haircut.

• 4:11George Kamel?

  How much I spent on my dogs in 2025. People would go, I haven't spent that on myself in the last fi- five years.

• 4:18Rachel Cruze?

  Put together, yeah.

• 4:19George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 4:19Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 4:20George Kamel?

  So those things, um, anything else?

• 4:22Rachel Cruze?

  Dogs is a good one for you.

• 4:24George Kamel?

  I would say, um...

• 4:25Rachel Cruze?

  How is, how is, how is Sweet Olive doing?

• 4:28George Kamel?

  Oh, Olive is, is okay. It's Blue that...

• 4:30Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, it's Blue, geez, sorry.

• 4:31George Kamel?

  So, Olive and Blue. Let me catch you guys up real quick. Recap.

• 4:34Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 4:35George Kamel?

  Blue had a disc explode in his spine in 2025, and we ended up doing a surgery to try to remedy it, and now he's been in rehab for the last several months.

• 4:43Rachel Cruze?

  George, tell everyone, what are a couple of the things that he's doing in rehab?

• 4:47George Kamel?

  Rachel, can I show you a little video that I got sent today?

• 4:50Rachel Cruze?

  Jeez.

• 4:51George Kamel?

  Just a little update.

• 4:52Rachel Cruze?

  If we can pause and go back to when Rachel made a comment about a dog in a wheelchair, and how I said, "It's not a do- like, I mean, the dog can't..."

• 5:03George Kamel?

  No, no, no, say what you said.

• 5:04Rachel Cruze?

  Live a dog life.

• 5:05George Kamel?

  If the dog has to be in a wheelchair, put the dog down.

• 5:07Rachel Cruze?

  Did I say it that bluntly? You seen these, though, dogs that are in like little mini wheelchairs? And that's, I'm, I draw the line. I'm sorry. You've had a great life. That is a terrible life.

• 5:16George Kamel?

  What if they could have a totally normal life?

• 5:18Rachel Cruze?

  If you are a dog and you are dreaming of running fields, and you're like in a wheelchair... No, I can't. I can't do that.

• 5:23George Kamel?

  Why can't they just be on a sidewalk? Why they gotta be going through a field?

• 5:26Rachel Cruze?

  Because I actually have a real dog, George, that likes to run and hunt and...

• 5:29George Kamel?

  Wow. No, I'd 100%, I'd get a wheelchair for my dog.

• 5:34Rachel Cruze?

  You would?

• 5:34George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 5:34Rachel Cruze?

  Did I say it that bluntly?

• 5:36George Kamel?

  I think you did. I think John Deloney supported your sentiment. And look at the video I got sent today.

• 5:40Rachel Cruze?

  Look at George's dog.

• 5:42George Kamel?

  Ready for this?

• 5:51George Kamel?

  No, no, tell it to his face. Tell him to his face. He doesn't deserve to live, Rachel. Go ahead. He can hear you.

• 5:56Rachel Cruze?

  George!

• 6:00George Kamel?

  Tell me that dog is miserable.

• 6:02Rachel Cruze?

  I think that dog is in pain. I do. I think that dog is in pain. And I think you are selfishly keeping it alive for yourself and your own enjoyment because you can't handle.

• 6:12George Kamel?

  Let me just tell you, the rehab people, the rehab people were very impressed.

• 6:16Rachel Cruze?

  I bet they were. They're all clapping.

• 6:17George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 6:19Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man, George. Well.

• 6:20George Kamel?

  God forbid, we have a little joy in our life.

• 6:24George Kamel?

  So anyways.

• 6:25Rachel Cruze?

  Has your dog done acupuncture?

• 6:26George Kamel?

  He's, yes.

• 6:27Rachel Cruze?

  Has your dog done underwater treadmill therapy?

• 6:30George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 6:31Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 6:32George Kamel?

  Anything else?

• 6:33Rachel Cruze?

  Nope, it's just great. I'm just, all I'm saying. And did you just have a newborn baby, George?

• 6:37George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 6:38Rachel Cruze?

  And are you stressed in life?

• 6:40George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 6:41Rachel Cruze?

  Is there a lot going on?

• 6:42George Kamel?

  Yes. What are you, my therapist?

• 6:47George Kamel?

  I can't afford therapy from Rachel Cruz.

• 6:49Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, I'm just kidding. I'm so happy for you.

• 6:52George Kamel?

  But yeah, if I, just top of mind, dogs and hair would be the two that people balk at. B A L K. We don't use that word enough. I think we should bring it back.

• 7:02Rachel Cruze?

  I do love dogs, by the way.

• 7:04George Kamel?

  She is a dog lover, but she would put it down the moment it is in physical distress.

• 7:10Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 7:11George Kamel?

  Okay, so let's move on.

• 7:13Rachel Cruze?

  Let's do it the other way around.

• 7:14George Kamel?

  What's that?

• 7:15Rachel Cruze?

  Um, things that we see people buy that we think are ridiculous.

• 7:20George Kamel?

  General themes that you would say Rachel Cruz thinks this is a waste.

• 7:23Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 7:23George Kamel?

  Okay, go.

• 7:25Rachel Cruze?

  Um, I'm gonna say it, and it's so controversial, and it's not, again, we don't judge. It's not a judgment thing. But the, I'm, okay, the category is travel sports, okay? Big category, because there's much diff, they're like, I'm, I'm in this world.

• 7:41George Kamel?

  There's levels.

• 7:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. It is the highest, craziest level for the youngest kids, age-wise. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, there's a part, if they're still in high school doing it, that's making more sense. But when it's the six and seven-year-old doing the absolute most of like, everything.

• 8:04Rachel Cruze?

  I mean insane, like that feels, that feels crazy to me.

• 8:08George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 8:08Rachel Cruze?

  It does.

• 8:09George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 8:09Rachel Cruze?

  At that point, so I feel like I justified it a lot, just to temper everyone watching.

• 8:13George Kamel?

  That's a good one. That's a good one. I'll give you one that is also controversial.

• 8:19George Kamel?

  Private school. Now, not in every case, but I think private school.

• 8:23Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 8:23George Kamel?

  When you have adequate, quality, public schools that you've already paid for with your taxpaying dollars.

• 8:28Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:29George Kamel?

  I think it's a, it's an egregious move. Unless you have really good reasons.

• 8:33Rachel Cruze?

  Wow, that's a big deal.

• 8:34George Kamel?

  Like if your kid is just not doing well for whatever reason. And you think they do better in this, that's no judgment there. But it's the like, well, my kid has to go to a private school. I can't put them in that public school with the peasants.

• 8:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 8:45George Kamel?

  They have that vibe.

• 8:46Rachel Cruze?

  I, you know, I'm, we're on your fence. I mean, our kids are public school, so I would, uh, I tend to.

• 8:52George Kamel?

  And I know people are watching and they go, well, I put my, and uh, my school, we did a book burning. Hey, whatever, that's fine. You have your reasons. I'm just saying.

• 9:00Rachel Cruze?

  For you.

• 9:00George Kamel?

  I wouldn't do it unless my child does not thrive in the public education system.

• 9:04Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, there you go. Okay, well, what's fun on this episode is that the team has pulled together some, um, videos from the internets and it is people's extreme spending. And it's their confessions, like we hear it and.

• 9:20George Kamel?

  And they're putting it on the internet for all of us to judge. Like, I think they're kind of wanting us to be like.

• 9:24Rachel Cruze?

  Maybe so. Yeah, maybe so. And like, and again, we will, we, we usually are a judgment-free zone, but this episode, we just felt a little feisty. And we just thought, let's see some examples of stuff that we're all like, okay.

• 9:35George Kamel?

  That we can all agree.

• 9:36Rachel Cruze?

  That's crazy.

• 9:37George Kamel?

  That's wild.

• 9:37Rachel Cruze?

  That's wild. That's wild.

• 9:38George Kamel?

  We need to call it out.

• 9:39Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, can you just say it out loud? Yeah. Okay.

• 9:42George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 9:42Rachel Cruze?

  Let's, um.

• 9:43George Kamel?

  Let's check it out. All right, we're about to get to the first video and let me just call out, there's no need to be a comments warrior and shame us for judging. We're all just having a good time. It's fun and games and these people willingly put this content on the internet for all of us to consume and comment on.

• 9:59Rachel Cruze?

  To see.

• 10:00George Kamel?

  Just gonna put that out there, but you can let us know your thoughts and confessions in the comments. We'd love to hear that as well.

• 10:05Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and we love to be affirmed. So if you agree with everything George and I say, just like, oh my gosh, I agree, you guys.

• 10:10George Kamel?

  I need constant affirmation.

• 10:13George Kamel?

  Thank you. All right.

• 10:15Rachel Cruze?

  All right. First one, George.

• 10:16Speaker 02

  As a perfumatic, here are some ways I justify purchasing my perfumes. I mean, we might as well keep this trend going because I really like to make fun of myself because I'm ridiculous. I just got paid. Of course, I'm going to buy a new perfume. Going on a first date? Yes, I'm going to buy a new perfume. Did I break up with somebody? Yes. So now I'm sad, so I'm going to buy a new perfume. But I also have to declutter the perfume that I had with that person because I don't want that scent memory anymore. Bye. I'm going on vacation. Of course, I have to buy some new perfumes. And while I'm on vacation, I have to buy some perfumes of that place. So when I come home from my vacation, I remember it through that perfume. Am I bored?

• 10:54Rachel Cruze?

  I want to see her perfume collection.

• 10:56Speaker 02

  Am I depressed, anxious, angry, uncomfortable, in a weird mood? I'm probably going to buy a perfume. And then I'm going to be anxious and depressed that I bought the perfumes because I feel guilty and ashamed for buying so many perfumes. I'm just going to go ahead and declutter half of my perfume collection to justify the fact that I'm going to buy more perfumes. Is there a season change? Well, you know, it has to happen.

• 11:20George Kamel?

  Where's Brian Brown when he needs her?

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Is it my birthday? Well, the whole month is my birthday, so it's just a whole month of perfume shopping. Any special event that's going to happen? Probably going to buy a new perfume.

• 11:31Rachel Cruze?

  No way.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  And I'm definitely going to be influenced by people on TikTok, especially new perfume drops by Chiari, Flur, and Smith.

• 11:40George Kamel?

  Serious.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  I'm also going to become hyper fixated on a particular note. And so then I will definitely have to seek out perfumes with those notes and buy those. I also will have perfumes scattered in carts all throughout the internet. And then when they go on sale, I'll buy them. Or if I find a discount coupon code that will justify the purchase being a little less, I will definitely buy them. I will also be on Facebook, not really looking for perfume, but somebody will be selling something. It will pique my interest and because it's free shipping and no tax, I'll probably buy it. So there you have it. Some ridiculous ways I justify my perfume purchases.

• 12:19Rachel Cruze?

  That is so interesting.

• 12:22George Kamel?

  That was a lot.

• 12:22Rachel Cruze?

  Because I think what's hard is I'm like, I could go through, I mean, it takes me, I have.

• 12:27George Kamel?

  Okay, I love her bio. Dairy-free diva and perfume lover. As a gluten-free gladiator, I'm with you, sis.

• 12:36George Kamel?

  I'm kinda all over the place. Okay, I'll agree with that. Gen X perfume girl. That's her link tree. Okay, so she, this is her thing.

• 12:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 12:42George Kamel?

  She's like a perfume influencer.

• 12:43Rachel Cruze?

  That's what it sounds like.

• 12:45George Kamel?

  I didn't know those existed.

• 12:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, because I mean, to go through a bot- do you wear cologne?

• 12:49George Kamel?

  Um, yeah, but very light and sometimes not. I do like the natural one because my wife is somewhat crunchy.

• 12:54Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 12:55George Kamel?

  And I'm holding babies, you know.

• 12:56Rachel Cruze?

  So it's all, yeah.

• 12:57George Kamel?

  We're in that phase.

• 12:57Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, okay.

• 12:58George Kamel?

  But I love, there's a dusty sleigh, one of my favorite comedians, and he has a thing about, he's like, I used to wear cologne, but people would always be like, who's wearing cologne? Nobody wants that.

• 13:08Rachel Cruze?

  That's funny.

• 13:09George Kamel?

  But perfume.

• 13:10Rachel Cruze?

  I was gonna say.

• 13:10George Kamel?

  A little goes a long way.

• 13:11Rachel Cruze?

  Well, and I do perfume every, I mean, I will, but it's like one, two, I mean, it's like one or two sprays.

• 13:17George Kamel?

  How many perfume bottles?

• 13:18Rachel Cruze?

  That's what I'm thinking. I'm like, I think I have like three that I rotate through.

• 13:21George Kamel?

  Okay, that sounds reasonable.

• 13:23Rachel Cruze?

  And it takes me a long time to get through them.

• 13:25George Kamel?

  Yeah, they last like a year.

• 13:26Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, oh yeah, easily, yes.

• 13:28George Kamel?

  That's why I'm questioning.

• 13:29Rachel Cruze?

  That's why I'm very interested in all of it. And, and I'm picky. I'm like, I don't think I would like, she, she named so many that she was buying.

• 13:36George Kamel?

  I'm guessing she's buying nice perfume, which can be hundreds of dollars.

• 13:40Rachel Cruze?

  It is, yeah, for sure. A hundred percent, yes. Now, one thing I did do, which is kinda what she said, that I was like, oh. Someone said this, they said, get a different perfume per pregnancy, so you can remember.

• 13:52George Kamel?

  Oh, that's fun.

• 13:53Rachel Cruze?

  That scent is one of like your triggering of memories.

• 13:55George Kamel?

  But that's one per pregnancy.

• 13:56Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, that's, yes.

• 13:57George Kamel?

  It's like a max total of three or four or five.

• 13:59Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, I did three different ones through my pregnancies, and I thought it was such a great idea because like, yeah, you can, but I still smell the scents. I'm like, oh my gosh, I like, remember, it's weird.

• 14:07George Kamel?

  That's fun.

• 14:07Rachel Cruze?

  But again, that's three, you know?

• 14:10George Kamel?

  Well, this is, every emotion I have is a reason to buy perfume.

• 14:14Rachel Cruze?

  I'm gonna buy, I know.

• 14:15George Kamel?

  Um, I think she should spend some of that on therapy, which could avoid some of the perfume spending. That's just one man's take.

• 14:20Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh, all right, we're gonna say it's Lil' Cray Cray. Lil' crazy.

• 14:24George Kamel?

  Yeah, I don't need to be attracting bee communities, and especially if you are in a workplace, tone it down.

• 14:30Rachel Cruze?

  Well, we don't know how much she's putting quantity on herself.

• 14:34George Kamel?

  One spray goes a long way. That's what I say.

• 14:37Rachel Cruze?

  What's the whole, what's the, what's the saying, Winston says it, that you want to, um.

• 14:41George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 14:41Rachel Cruze?

  You want to be discovered, not announced.

• 14:43George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 14:44Rachel Cruze?

  Oh.

• 14:47Rachel Cruze?

  I'm discovering a great sense. I'm not being announced in the room. When you walk in the room and everyone's like, whoa, wow.

• 14:53George Kamel?

  Too much.

• 14:53Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 14:54George Kamel?

  All right.

• 14:54Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, the Abercrombie cologne.

• 14:57George Kamel?

  Remember walking in, like, early 2000s into an Abercrombie. It was dark. It was like club music.

• 15:03Rachel Cruze?

  It's terrible.

• 15:03George Kamel?

  You're immediately like spraying your way in.

• 15:05Rachel Cruze?

  Hollister was worse, I even think.

• 15:07George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 15:07Rachel Cruze?

  It was darker. I remember being like, I have to like.

• 15:09George Kamel?

  How do you buy clothes in there?

• 15:10Rachel Cruze?

  We don't know. Well, you don't know.

• 15:12George Kamel?

  I didn't darken the door of a Hollister.

• 15:14Rachel Cruze?

  You didn't?

• 15:14George Kamel?

  No. No, I wasn't that, that guy.

• 15:18Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 15:18George Kamel?

  I was a little too skateboarder. I was a little too like wannabe surf culture.

• 15:23Rachel Cruze?

  Hot topic. What were you? What was it?

• 15:24George Kamel?

  No.

• 15:24Rachel Cruze?

  Pac Sun?

• 15:25George Kamel?

  A little Pac Sun was thrown in there.

• 15:27Rachel Cruze?

  Throw, mix in a little Pac Sun.

• 15:28George Kamel?

  Yeah, that was more my speed.

• 15:29Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you.

• 15:31George Kamel?

  Little less shirtless, little more shirted.

• 15:35George Kamel?

  That's how I prefer it.

• 15:36Rachel Cruze?

  Little less surfboard, more skateboard.

• 15:38George Kamel?

  Exactly.

• 15:39Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. All right.

• 15:40George Kamel?

  All right. Moving on. Let's roast the men.

• 15:43Speaker 03

  You hear it all the time. Travel ball is a big money grab. So let's do the math and find out. For this example, I'll be using my youngest child's nine U baseball team. This year's team fee was $1,100. The $1,100 bucks, you got seven tournaments, a 12-game battle season, which is like league for travel kids during the week, uniforms, two sets of uniforms and a helmet, four one-hour private one-on-one lessons with a professional trainer, and the use of the world-class facility that he gets to play in, in the winter and practice in, in the winter and so on and so forth. So let's break this down. $1,100, 11 players on the team, that's $12,100. You have seven tournaments. I'm gonna use a conservative

• 16:26Speaker 03

  number and say each of those tournaments costs 400 bucks. I know some of the perfect game tournaments cost like $600 for entry fees, but we'll be conservative and say $400 per tournament, seven tournaments, that's $2,800. You got a 12-game battle season that cost the team $1,100 for entry. You have uniforms, like I said, two sets and a helmet. We're gonna call it 200 bucks for the uniforms, the pants, the socks, the helmet, 200 bucks a kid. And then the four hour or the four one hour private lessons, the one on one lessons. If you were to get these lessons at our facility outside of being on a team, they'd be $75 for the hour. You get four of them, that's 300 bucks. So we'll call it 300 bucks a kid. That's 3,300 bucks.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  And then the use of the facility for practices and games and such in the winter. If you add all those up, the seven tournaments at 2,800 bucks, the 12 game battle season at 1,100, the uniforms and the helmet at $200 per kid, 2,200 bucks, the four one hour lessons, that's 3,300 bucks. And then the facility use is the facility use, you get 9,300 dollars. Now there's 12,100 dollars total and there's 9,300 dollars that are put into the team. That leaves you with a 2,800 dollar discrepancy. You take that 2,800 dollar discrepancy and you divide it by 11 kids, 254 dollars and 54 cents. Now the facility that we get to use during the winter and throughout the season is world class.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  16,000 square feet, a gigantic full length baseball field, a smaller practice field, seven batting cages, three pitching lanes.

• 18:01Rachel Cruze?

  Is he justifying it?

• 18:03Speaker 03

  And it gets plenty of use. Now if you take that beautiful facility that we get to use, and I gotta pay 250 dollars for us to be able to use that facility year round to have practices and get hitting in and get pitching in. I'm gonna do that because other teams are renting gyms.

• 18:20Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, so he's basically saying to use a nice facility, it's only gonna cost this much, even though we've paid.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  To have a facility like that.

• 18:27Rachel Cruze?

  All of this per kid.

• 18:28Speaker 03

  Also keep in mind that all these costs are just the cost of tournaments and battle games and uniforms and lessons. Facility, we haven't even began to talk about.

• 18:36George Kamel?

  Full time job for the parent.

• 18:37Speaker 03

  All the time that they're spending with practices throughout the year, once a month in the deep winter months, a couple of times a month.

• 18:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Here's my thing, is so much of youth sports now is like a big business. Like they're doing it for the money. They go into these areas.

• 18:54George Kamel?

  Making money off of this.

• 18:55Rachel Cruze?

  A lot of money.

• 18:56George Kamel?

  Just to cover the cost that no one's making a cent.

• 18:59Rachel Cruze?

  They are making so much money, whether it is baseball, soccer.

• 19:03George Kamel?

  Someone's making some money. The facility, the company making the uniforms, like everyone has to make a profit to stay in business.

• 19:08Rachel Cruze?

  Totally, 100%. But these leagues and everything.

• 19:12Rachel Cruze?

  Man, so I don't know. This is a hard one for me because I think what's difficult is, or I feel like what we've heard parents say that we know is either the kid loves it. So like, they love it. What do you do? And then I've heard Dr. Jones alone, he say like, well, my kid loves ice cream, but I'm not gonna let them eat ice cream for every meal. Like you as, you as a parent.

• 19:35George Kamel?

  You still set the tone.

• 19:36Rachel Cruze?

  Where do you set the tone of the mountain? Yep.

• 19:38George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 19:38Rachel Cruze?

  And then the other end is like, okay, if they, if they're not in all these amazing leagues at eight, nine years old, they're not going to make the middle school team at school. Because every other kid is doing these, you know, these types of leagues. And if they don't make the middle school team, then they're definitely not gonna make the high school team. And if they don't do high school sports.

• 19:54George Kamel?

  Did this pressure exist when we were kids?

• 19:57Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 19:57George Kamel?

  Has it gotten worse because of social media?

• 19:59Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I don't know why it's gotten worse, but we never had, I mean, like, I knew one or two girls that did travel soccer in like, high school, and that was it. But like, that's the norm now. Like, if you don't put your kid, at least in our area, in a travel type sport competitive league.

• 20:13George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 20:13Rachel Cruze?

  Outside of rec by fourth, fifth grade.

• 20:17George Kamel?

  It's over.

• 20:18Rachel Cruze?

  That's what it.

• 20:19George Kamel?

  You got nothing to brag about as a parent.

• 20:21Rachel Cruze?

  I know. And, and again, we didn't do, like, we do rec leagues because we don't have ti- I'm like, I don't have time to.

• 20:26George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 20:27Rachel Cruze?

  Do all this on the weekends.

• 20:28George Kamel?

  Even if you have the money, it doesn't mean that it's worth the time and energy to put into it.

• 20:31Rachel Cruze?

  Well, and then the other hard thing you hear again from people that are ahead of me in parenting is once they hit high school, like, they get to be like sophomores and juniors, and they're kind of like, I don't really want to play more. I just want to go to football games and like, hang out with my friends, you know? And then they're done. So you're like, okay, I don't know. I guess you have to ask.

• 20:47George Kamel?

  What was that all for? We had some fun memories?

• 20:48Rachel Cruze?

  If it's great, if it's not, yeah. So, again, as they get older, for some reason, I can justify it more for them. But it's like, the elementary school, even early middle, I'm like, just like, it's just, it's wild.

• 21:02George Kamel?

  Well, if you take, who's playing travel sports, and then who's gonna get like, a college scholarship based off of this?

• 21:07Rachel Cruze?

  Volleyball's the other big one.

• 21:08George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah.

• 21:09Rachel Cruze?

  Very competitive now. And they're all the girls are now doing volleyball. Like it's and they're getting cut and these teams are intense. Like you can't like wear nail polish. Like they they're these intense volleyball leagues in the fifth grade. Like it's crazy.

• 21:21George Kamel?

  That is so wild.

• 21:22Rachel Cruze?

  Isn't that wild?

• 21:23George Kamel?

  I want to see the stats. Like, how many of those continue through high school? How many go to college? How many get a scholarship for that in college? How many then continue after college? How many go, you know, semi-pro? How many go pro? The numbers would dwindle down to where you're like, it's the lottery to assume your kid is gonna do something with this.

• 21:38Rachel Cruze?

  But I don't think the parents do it for a professional outcome. I think it's an in the moment outcome. Like,

• 21:44George Kamel?

  Yeah. Is it a keeping up with the Joneses?

• 21:46Rachel Cruze?

  Well, because you don't want your kid to be left out. And I've thought about that. Like, like one of my kids loves soccer and I'm like, and we're not doing travel. Again, not saying we'll never, ever, ever.

• 21:55George Kamel?

  Well, all my friends are doing travel.

• 21:56Rachel Cruze?

  Well, it's not even friend thing, but she's like, I won't make the middle school team. Because every, every girl, because like sixty girls, sixty girls try out for a team.

• 22:04George Kamel?

  That is heartbreaking.

• 22:05Rachel Cruze?

  And you get twelve spots. They're definitely probably not gonna pick a girl that's never, that hasn't been that competitive. You know what I mean? Like, so.

• 22:11George Kamel?

  That's brutal for a child.

• 22:13Rachel Cruze?

  I know. So it's more of that. They don't want to be left out. They don't want like,

• 22:16George Kamel?

  And to be fair, this exists.

• 22:18Rachel Cruze?

  Feel like they're like missing out.

• 22:19George Kamel?

  Yeah, this exists outside of sports, too. So it's not dogging on sports. This happens in band. If you're in music, like this can happen. You travel cheerleading, like you're traveling the country to do these things.

• 22:28Rachel Cruze?

  So here's my parenting philosophy. My oldest is ten years old. This could change next year. I think I want well-roundedness. Like, I want beach vacation. I want to go on vacation. That's the other thing. Spring break, they're all done. All your vacations are donezo with sports. Because you're traveling.

• 22:45George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 22:46Rachel Cruze?

  So I want, I want family time. I want adventure. I can't believe I'm about to say it, but I am. Like, I need something like, like y'all need to be a little outdoorsy. You know what I mean?

• 22:55George Kamel?

  Go on a hike.

• 22:56Rachel Cruze?

  Unlike your mom.

• 22:57George Kamel?

  Take a hike.

• 22:57Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but like, do something there. Or like for Charles especially, I'm like, go hunting with dad. Like, like have weekends to go, like go do things other than one thing in life. And that's what worries me is like this one lane that that's all they know. And they don't get these like experiences elsewhere.

• 23:13George Kamel?

  Yeah, I'm with you on that. Team sports are great. I learned a lot being on a team.

• 23:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

• 23:18George Kamel?

  But don't make it your entire personality.

• 23:20Rachel Cruze?

  And our rec leagues have been amazing. Like, we've loved, like, the teams we've been a part of.

• 23:25George Kamel?

  Shout out to the rec leagues.

• 23:26Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 23:27George Kamel?

  That was good.

• 23:28Rachel Cruze?

  Keep it up, YMCA.

• 23:30George Kamel?

  We see you, we love you, we respect you.

• 23:32Rachel Cruze?

  We appreciate you. And if you choose to do travel sports, we love you.

• 23:36George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 23:36Rachel Cruze?

  Because all my friends do, so it's great.

• 23:40George Kamel?

  Well, I'll tell you.

• 23:40Rachel Cruze?

  They do. All my friends.

• 23:41George Kamel?

  I'll tell you, Rachel, one service that costs way less than a bottle of perfume, way less than travel sports, a Delete Me plan.

• 23:47Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yes.

• 23:48George Kamel?

  That's adding some real value to your life.

• 23:50Rachel Cruze?

  It is. That's protecting you in a lot of ways. Because it is amazing. When they go and they remove, like, your address that you lived at eight years ago, you know, and it's still out there floating around the internet, like, that's crazy. So removing those, that information from your address, your phone number, your kids' names, all of it, off of data broker websites, like, thank you.

• 24:10George Kamel?

  That's huge.

• 24:10Rachel Cruze?

  And amen.

• 24:11George Kamel?

  And to bring back the sports reference, you're playing defense here.

• 24:13Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, that's right.

• 24:14George Kamel?

  You know, everyone's all about the offense. You forget about the defense. That's how they win the game.

• 24:18Rachel Cruze?

  That's right. Look at your sports analogy. Be on the defending side.

• 24:22George Kamel?

  Appreciate that. So, check it out. They'll send you a customer report every few months showing you exactly where they removed your personal info from, how much time they've saved you, and because you're a listener of this show, you get a really sweet discount, 20% off their annual plans, when you go to joindelete.me/smartmoney, or just click the link in the description to make it easy on yourselves.

• 24:42Rachel Cruze?

  All right, George, what's up next?

• 24:44George Kamel?

  Moving on.

• 24:44Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, we got a car payment. Okay. Doesn't feel as controversial on this show. We're getting into parenting and private schools getting nervous over here.

• 24:59George Kamel?

  No, no, no, no, no, no. Is that number correct?

• 25:06George Kamel?

  Me paying $1,300 car payment, justifying it because I've had this car on my Pinterest vision board for five years.

• 25:15Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, stop it.

• 25:16George Kamel?

  And then the caption, "Just girly things."

• 25:18Rachel Cruze?

  Just girly.

• 25:21Rachel Cruze?

  So to me, like, I don't know why the whole, like, I have a nice luxury car and here's my car payment, isn't a flex to me. Cause there's a part of me that I'm like.

• 25:29George Kamel?

  Yeah. But is that what she's wanting? Is she wanting us to be upset about it to drive engagement? Cause this has 127,000 likes.

• 25:37Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, really?

• 25:37George Kamel?

  2,700 comments.

• 25:38Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, no, I bet they're all positive, right? They're probably all like, go girl.

• 25:41George Kamel?

  I hope not. Oh, these videos make me realize I'm really not that bad with money.

• 25:46Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 25:47George Kamel?

  Top comment, 20,000 likes on that comment.

• 25:49Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, there you go.

• 25:50George Kamel?

  I'm genuinely confused. If you save for a long time, why is your monthly payment still 1,300 bucks a month? Fair point. 1,300 as a whole mortgage. Another fair point.

• 25:59Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 25:59George Kamel?

  Girl, you should have left it in your vision board.

• 26:02Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, no.

• 26:04George Kamel?

  That's strong.

• 26:04Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 26:05George Kamel?

  That's good.

• 26:06Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I think the like, I don't know, the flex to me, it's almost like there was a Real Housewives episode, I remember of Orange County, and one of the boyfriends bought the girl a car, but she had a car payment. She had to pay, like.

• 26:19George Kamel?

  So he bought it for her in her name to pay for.

• 26:22Rachel Cruze?

  I guess, I think so. Like she like had a car. So like to me, I'm like, that's not a flex. Like the flex is I can afford the whole car, right?

• 26:30George Kamel?

  And the flex is I don't need to make a video about it.

• 26:32Rachel Cruze?

  No, that's true too. Put it out on the internet.

• 26:34George Kamel?

  Yikes.

• 26:35Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 26:36George Kamel?

  Remember, you are the only person that knows what kind of car you drive, unless you're posting about it on Instagram. Or your neighbor sees it in the driveway. But how often do you think about other people's cars? Never.

• 26:48Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 26:48George Kamel?

  If you're a healthy person.

• 26:49Rachel Cruze?

  And the other thing is too, I'm like, it gives you like an ego boost for a second, right? For a little bit, maybe a few months. And then it goes away and you're going to be on to the next thing. Like, it's just not, I don't know. It's just, it's not the thing that that's going to last a long time with that feeling that you're probably wanting.

• 27:04George Kamel?

  Yeah. And people can justify, they can justify payments so easily. They go, well, I'm in it a lot. Well, I need something reliable and safe. Well, I need these nicer features.

• 27:13Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 27:13George Kamel?

  Really gotta have the heated steering wheel.

• 27:16Rachel Cruze?

  Heating steering wheel, all of it. So here's what's crazy. If she invested 1,300 dollars a month. And retirement for over 30 years, so 35 to 65, she had, she would have more than $3.6 million with an 11% rate of return.

• 27:29George Kamel?

  So she kept driving cars she paid for in cash. She's saving on the side, you know, upgrading over time in cash.

• 27:35Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 27:35George Kamel?

  And instead invested that amount. That is so wild to think about.

• 27:39Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 27:39George Kamel?

  And that's just using our Ramsey investment calculator. It's totally free. If you want to play around with the compound interest there to see the potential, we'll leave a link in the description for you to do that. I love playing around with that. It's a fun tool.

• 27:49Rachel Cruze?

  Wild. All right, next up.

• 27:51George Kamel?

  Goodness gracious.

• 27:52Speaker 04

  Okay, round two, here we go. My roommates and I spend $6,000 on a one-bedroom apartment that we flex into multiple rooms in Manhattan. Is it small? I mean, by New York standards, it's actually maybe big. Is it small by anyone else's standards? Yes, it's a one-bedroom apartment. We live on the water with a beautiful view of Freedom Tower in Manhattan. That is like stuff that people dream of. That, these are my dreams that I've had. And when I was unhappy in the beginning of college, when I was going through bad times, like, living in my own apartment in New York City with a beautiful skyline view was literally my dream.

• 28:26Rachel Cruze?

  Mine too.

• 28:26Speaker 04

  That's okay if it's not your dream. Some people want a big house on a farm, and that's totally fine. Some people want a house in the suburbs right away, totally fine. But what people who don't want to live in big cities maybe don't understand is that you're not paying for the small amount of space. I'm not paying, we're not paying $6,000 because we love this small little space. We're paying that money to be where we are. Because location, location is everything. So being in Manhattan, in the capital of the world, is going to pay the most dividends for our career, for opportunities, for networking, for meeting people. That is why people move to New York City. And that's okay if you don't want to, that's okay if it's not for everyone.

• 29:07Speaker 04

  But I mean, for me, it is absolutely perfect.

• 29:12George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 29:13Rachel Cruze?

  And I want to see the whole apartment.

• 29:15George Kamel?

  Yeah, I just can't get over the fact she said that's the capital of the world.

• 29:18Rachel Cruze?

  World.

• 29:19George Kamel?

  I didn't know the world had a capital.

• 29:23George Kamel?

  But you know what?

• 29:23Rachel Cruze?

  But people that live in New York City believe that they are the capital of the world.

• 29:26George Kamel?

  I think the education system needs an overhaul. They taught her at some point, "New York City, capital of the world." Alright, so she's justifying this, so she's paying $2,000 for her share.

• 29:37Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 29:37George Kamel?

  To live in like a flex space in this one bedroom.

• 29:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, yep.

• 29:41George Kamel?

  Which, that's what I want to see. The view, gorgeous, I'm sure. I want to see, like, are you guys on like, sleeping bags?

• 29:47Rachel Cruze?

  That's what I want, I know. I'm like, is it coming down like a cruise ship? Like a bed out of the...

• 29:51George Kamel?

  Like a Murphy bed?

• 29:51Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I want to see it.

• 29:53George Kamel?

  Why, I would just, I guess, share a king.

• 29:55Rachel Cruze?

  So my ques-

• 29:56George Kamel?

  Make it a slumber party. I mean, how do you, can you fit three twins in there? Are they bunk bedding?

• 30:02Rachel Cruze?

  I know, that's what I want to see. Okay, but $2,000 for that little space a month.

• 30:07George Kamel?

  Which is a lot for rent, for anyone. They must have really good jobs.

• 30:12Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 30:13George Kamel?

  One would assume, or there's a trust fund.

• 30:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but $2,000, yeah, but $2,000, they could do that, on like...

• 30:20George Kamel?

  If they're making, they've got to be making like, six grand a month.

• 30:23Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and in New York...

• 30:24George Kamel?

  Take home.

• 30:25Rachel Cruze?

  Let's hope that that's the case.

• 30:26George Kamel?

  Let's assume they're all making six figures. They're making over $100,000 in a fancy Manhattan job.

• 30:32Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, yep, which I would assume.

• 30:34George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 30:35Rachel Cruze?

  For standard living.

• 30:35George Kamel?

  She does have a point. This is not everyone's dream. Some people go, "Oh, I would hate to live in New York City." That's fine. Some people go, "I would hate to live in Ankeny, Iowa."

• 30:44Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 30:44George Kamel?

  That's fine, you know what I mean, like, everyone thinks where they live is awesome, if they enjoy living here.

• 30:49Rachel Cruze?

  Sure, sure, sure.

• 30:50George Kamel?

  And they wouldn't live anywhere else.

• 30:51Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, yep.

• 30:53George Kamel?

  And she's young, she's single.

• 30:55Rachel Cruze?

  I know, a part of me, I'm like-

• 30:56George Kamel?

  Good for you.

• 30:56Rachel Cruze?

  Good for you.

• 30:57George Kamel?

  I actually don't shame her for this, as long as she's not in crippling debt, making terrible financial decisions.

• 31:02Rachel Cruze?

  Because if anything, if it's your dream to be there, and you've got a good job, you actually may be saving money on rent to do it this way. Versus your own place, and you're being stupid, you know, from like, a ratio perspective, so...

• 31:13George Kamel?

  Yeah, if you bought a place in Manhattan.

• 31:14Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 31:15George Kamel?

  You, your mortgage payment would be $8,000 a month.

• 31:18Rachel Cruze?

  Right, right, right. So, uh, okay, not too bad, George.

• 31:22George Kamel?

  We had one that wasn't egregious.

• 31:24Rachel Cruze?

  Absolutely horrible.

• 31:25George Kamel?

  Okay, that's a win for me.

• 31:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. Alright, next up, is this a Disney one?

• 31:32George Kamel?

  I hope so.

• 31:32Speaker 05

  "Oh, Nicole, you go to Disney too much. Oh my gosh, Nicole, why don't you go visit somewhere else? Nicole, don't you want to see anything new? Oh my gosh, why are you, it's Disney again? Aren't you sick and tired of it?" No, I'm not. Do you know why? This is why. I just went through, it's like Mouse Life. It's this app that you can go and like you cross off like all these different things that you've done. And you can keep track of different things. I've only done 38% of Disney World. 38% and for someone who's been going since they've been like five. And we used to go every year as a kid, but now that I have like adult money, I go like six or seven times a year. And the fact that I've still only have hit 38%.

• 32:10Speaker 05

  Cheers me, cheers to you, cheers to I'm about to go book a Walt Disney World trip or two.

• 32:18George Kamel?

  That's funny.

• 32:18Speaker 05

  That is funny.

• 32:19George Kamel?

  I like her energy. I like her personality.

• 32:22Speaker 05

  She's fun.

• 32:22George Kamel?

  And she, she fell for the gamification where an app tells you, well, you haven't done, there's so much more to explore.

• 32:28Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 32:28George Kamel?

  That's brilliant marketing.

• 32:30Speaker 05

  A hundred percent because you're missing out on something. So you gotta go back.

• 32:33George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 32:33Speaker 05

  To fulfill it.

• 32:34George Kamel?

  She's gonna do every kiddie ride there is as an adult, just to fulfill this.

• 32:39Speaker 05

  Just to say, I can do this.

• 32:40George Kamel?

  Dream.

• 32:41Speaker 05

  Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah. The Disney conversation is funny because we love, we love Disney World. I am happy about it, but last time you went, didn't you do like a man on the street and there's so many people that just.

• 32:53George Kamel?

  Oh, that, yes. If you're wondering how do people afford this, they can't.

• 32:57Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 32:58George Kamel?

  They're just adding it. Put it on my tab. They're already a hundred grand in debt. What's a hundred and five?

• 33:02Speaker 05

  That's right. That's right. No big deal.

• 33:04George Kamel?

  We'll pay for it later.

• 33:05Speaker 05

  Yep. We'll figure it out.

• 33:05George Kamel?

  Now there's, I'm sure a subset of people who paid cash, they saved up, worked really hard, and this is a trip of a lifetime.

• 33:11Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 33:12George Kamel?

  Also, a lot of people who have, you know, $50,000 in car loans and $80,000 in student loan debt. And they're just swiping a credit card and they're like, well, we'll get some points for it.

• 33:21Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 33:21George Kamel?

  I talk to people like that. So I don't know her state.

• 33:25Speaker 05

  But if you're going seven ti- and if she's having to like fly somewhere.

• 33:28George Kamel?

  Let's assume she's going for a few days each. It might be like 1500 to two grand.

• 33:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 33:34George Kamel?

  A trip at least.

• 33:35Rachel Cruze?

  And seven times a year?

• 33:37George Kamel?

  Yeah, so maybe fifteen, twenty grand?

• 33:39Rachel Cruze?

  That's a lot.

• 33:40George Kamel?

  Of take home pay to spend on Disney?

• 33:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, I'm gonna say that's a lot of money.

• 33:44George Kamel?

  It is a lot.

• 33:45Rachel Cruze?

  Especially compared to probably what she's, I don't know what she's making. That's the other hard part. Some of this is like a

• 33:50George Kamel?

  Four hundred thousand dollars or thirty? Cause there's a big difference.

• 33:53Rachel Cruze?

  That's right, that's right.

• 33:54George Kamel?

  In affordability.

• 33:54Rachel Cruze?

  But she looks young. And so you would think like, oh my gosh.

• 33:59George Kamel?

  And I always wanna go like, who are they? And so I always click their profile.

• 34:03Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, look, she said she runs, she's a runner.

• 34:06George Kamel?

  Yeah, she has like four thousand followers. So she's not an influencer by any stretch, but this post took off, obviously.

• 34:12Rachel Cruze?

  Funny, yes.

• 34:13George Kamel?

  So it's not like she's making, I'm like, she's not making a hundred thousand dollars from TikTok.

• 34:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:18George Kamel?

  You know, she probably has a normal job.

• 34:20Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, right, right.

• 34:20George Kamel?

  Made a fun video and people engaged with it. So I have no problem with it. If this is what you wanna spend your money on and you're not derailing other financial goals and you've got a sinking fund, you're paying cash for these trips, good on you. And a lot of these people are young, single girls.

• 34:35Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 34:35George Kamel?

  They're living their life. You know, they don't have families, they're abandoning. They're not not putting money in a college fund for the kids. She's living her life.

• 34:43Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 34:43George Kamel?

  What else is she gonna spend money on?

• 34:44Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, just as long as she can afford it.

• 34:46George Kamel?

  I can't believe I'm defending a Disney adult.

• 34:48Rachel Cruze?

  I know, this is amazing. Look at you.

• 34:49George Kamel?

  What has happened?

• 34:50Rachel Cruze?

  Look at you.

• 34:51George Kamel?

  Who am I becoming?

• 34:52Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh, but the gamification thing is real. But you're right, you can spend money on whatever you want and a place where, you know, I would spend my money, Cozy Earth.

• 35:01George Kamel?

  Oh, now that, that's worth it. I need to gamify that.

• 35:04Rachel Cruze?

  Worth it.

• 35:05George Kamel?

  To where it's like you've only experienced two percent of Cozy Earth products.

• 35:08Rachel Cruze?

  I know, you're like, Whitney, look, I gotta buy more.

• 35:10George Kamel?

  I need more joggers.

• 35:11Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, my mom actually had a Cozy Earth, like, pants and a shirt matching set on vacation and she said, I want one of these in a different color. Cause she like loves it so much. I was like, uh huh, you should mom.

• 35:24George Kamel?

  And Sharon has great taste, so if she likes it, it's quality.

• 35:26Rachel Cruze?

  It's great though, but like even, I wore the joggers yesterday on a walk and it's like, there's just something about the material. That's just amazing.

• 35:32George Kamel?

  I got the socks on right now, let me tell you. I feel like a million bucks.

• 35:35Rachel Cruze?

  Love it, love it, love it.

• 35:36George Kamel?

  It's great. So they have all the things, home, bedding, men, women, they've got it all and they've got a sweet discount for our Smart Money Happy Hour listeners. Just go to cozylearth.com/smartmoney to get twenty percent off and use code SMARTMONEY at checkout and let them know in the post purchase survey that you heard about this. You heard about Cozy Earth on Smart Money Happy Hour. That means the world. We'll drop a link in the description as well.

• 36:00Rachel Cruze?

  All right. Um, okay, let's go to the next one.

• 36:03George Kamel?

  These are fun. I'm enjoying. This is really a good time.

• 36:06Rachel Cruze?

  Making us all feel better about ourselves.

• 36:07George Kamel?

  When your job is like watching TikToks, this is a pretty cool job. Not gonna lie.

• 36:12Speaker 06

  If you would have told me a few years ago that I purchased a $30 mug, I would have said, buddy, somebody come get me. Cause I'm not well. If I'm spending $30 on a mug, I'm not well. Okay. But here's the thing. This is the infamous Yeti mug. $30. When the Dollar Tree has $1 mugs, I bought a $30 one. Okay. Whenever I'm shopping, I'm going to justify like a more expensive purchase. I use what's called the cost per use or cost per wear method when it's close. Basically, what you do is you take the cost of the item and then you figure out how much you think you're going to use it to calculate how much cost you'd use it per time that you actually use it. I've probably used this like over a hundred times because it is the best coffee mug and genuinely keeps your coffee hot for so, so long. That the cost per use is actually really, really, really low. But if I bought this fancy schmancy $30 mug and then I didn't really use it that much, the cost per use is going to be really high.

• 36:56Speaker 06

  Next time you want to actually like treat yourself something nice, like treat yourself, but just be smart about it and calculate. How much is it going to cost me to actually use this item? And is that actually worth it?

• 37:05George Kamel?

  That's smart. Now, the title is how to justify expensive purchases. I'm not going to label a $30 mug in general as an expensive purchase. Now, it's a lot for a mug, but.

• 37:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but for the Yeti that genuinely technology wise in that mug, it does keep it.

• 37:21George Kamel?

  It's actually, it stays too hot. Sometimes I gotta take the cap off.

• 37:25Rachel Cruze?

  And sometimes I'll put ice water in mine and the next, the next, next night.

• 37:29George Kamel?

  The ice is still.

• 37:30Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 37:31George Kamel?

  Ice.

• 37:31Rachel Cruze?

  Over 24 hours. I'm telling you, it is like, and then we got Yeti cooler. We had a Yeti cooler. That ice will stay all weekend. It's cra- I mean, it's pretty wild. So.

• 37:41George Kamel?

  You know what I got from Costco for Whitney for Christmas? Because she's a mom who can never drink coffee because she's always busy running around is the mug where you can set the temperature on the mug.

• 37:50Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. How do we feel about that? Do we feel like there's like, like technology inside that is active and like, I'm surprised Crunchy.

• 37:57George Kamel?

  EMF.

• 37:57Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Crunchy Whitney would have like a battery that she's.

• 38:00George Kamel?

  Well, don't tell her. Now she's gonna freak out. Don't listen to this portion of the episode, Whitney.

• 38:05Rachel Cruze?

  We love you, Whitney.

• 38:06George Kamel?

  It's great. I've used it so far.

• 38:07Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 38:08George Kamel?

  And it's been amazing.

• 38:09Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 38:10George Kamel?

  Cause I can't stand when coffee gets too cold and, you know, so you can set it at like, I like it at 132 degrees.

• 38:16Rachel Cruze?

  Are you ready for this, Jordan? Just remember this. You're going to be so proud of me.

• 38:21George Kamel?

  It's about time I was proud of you. What is it?

• 38:23Rachel Cruze?

  Speaking of coffee.

• 38:26Rachel Cruze?

  And it was a Winston purchase. Winston bought it. Guess what Winston bought me for Christmas this year?

• 38:31George Kamel?

  A coffee maker?

• 38:32Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 38:33George Kamel?

  And it's not a Keurig?

• 38:35Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 38:35George Kamel?

  Is it? Can I guess what it is?

• 38:37Rachel Cruze?

  He took the Keurig to the dump? It's over 10 years old, y'all.

• 38:41George Kamel?

  As he should have.

• 38:41Rachel Cruze?

  And I still have my K cups. It's gone. It is gone.

• 38:45George Kamel?

  Put the K cups on the neighborhood Facebook.

• 38:46Rachel Cruze?

  I know. I was like, I have, I have Green Mountain K cups if anyone needs.

• 38:51George Kamel?

  Can I guess what he got?

• 38:53Rachel Cruze?

  He went, he'd be on this thing.

• 38:54George Kamel?

  So he did the research, I'm sure, on the coffee maker? Is it a brand I would know?

• 38:58Rachel Cruze?

  And yes, and he's experienced this brand multiple places.

• 39:01George Kamel?

  Is it a Jura?

• 39:01Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 39:03George Kamel?

  Final answer.

• 39:03Rachel Cruze?

  Are you so proud?

• 39:04George Kamel?

  I'm very proud. It's a beautiful, high-end, super-automatic coffee machine.

• 39:09Rachel Cruze?

  Very nice. Yes. And, and he said he's done with the Keurig. He said, I think we're, I think we can step it up, Rachel.

• 39:18George Kamel?

  The goodness. That is real coffee.

• 39:20Rachel Cruze?

  Do you know what he got me? So he got, he got me that.

• 39:23George Kamel?

  He got you a bean grinder?

• 39:25Rachel Cruze?

  No, we have that for his pour-overs. A new, this is my old woman thing. I have a heating pad that I have in my bed that I turn on. Well, it's honestly his, I didn't even know this, his from college. So this is like a 20-year-old and it's plastic?

• 39:39George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 39:40Rachel Cruze?

  And he's always like, I just feel like you're gonna like burn the house down.

• 39:42George Kamel?

  Yeah, that's a hazard.

• 39:43Rachel Cruze?

  And he's like, Rachel, you're pretty low maintenance. That's what he said. He's like, so he upgraded the heating pad and my coffee maker. I feel like I'm living on cloud nine.

• 39:52George Kamel?

  What a hero.

• 39:53Rachel Cruze?

  In my room. I know.

• 39:54George Kamel?

  And selfishly, that benefits him. He gets great coffee and he doesn't have to worry about a house fire.

• 40:00Rachel Cruze?

  That's it. I think, I think he did it for himself.

• 40:03George Kamel?

  Husbandry.

• 40:03Rachel Cruze?

  So the justifying the purchase, I would be curious if we make like four cups a day out of that thing? How many years would it take?

• 40:09George Kamel?

  When will you break even? When will you ROI?

• 40:12Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 40:12George Kamel?

  We just upgraded Whitney's coffee machine. That was a Christmas gift.

• 40:15Rachel Cruze?

  You did? What'd you do?

• 40:16George Kamel?

  We got an Aiden Fellow is what it's called.

• 40:18Rachel Cruze?

  Wow, so fancy.

• 40:20George Kamel?

  It looks really beautiful. So she wanted something aesthetic.

• 40:22Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, yeah, she wanted like a pretty.

• 40:24George Kamel?

  So we went aesthetic with it and it's really not, you can use an app, you know, and schedule it and all that. But it's supposed to mimic like a pour-over. You can really dial in, you know, the bloom and the temperatures. Like you can get nerdy with it or you can just make coffee like normal. But it's just really pretty.

• 40:39Rachel Cruze?

  Good for you.

• 40:39George Kamel?

  So there we go.

• 40:41Rachel Cruze?

  Anyways, what a, what a purchase. Okay.

• 40:44George Kamel?

  You can justify any purchase. That's the lesson. You got one more?

• 40:47Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 40:47George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 40:48Speaker 07

  So I'm planning a wedding and the thing that I've realized with wedding planning, which I kind of knew also before I started, is that you do have to compromise. Unfortunately, like, there's just no way to kind of have everything you want and like be within your budget. So like unfortunately, there are things that you have to compromise and like give up. For me, um, I'm compromising on my budget.

• 41:15George Kamel?

  What?

• 41:16Speaker 07

  I'm compromising on the fact that if I I'm gonna have to spend more than I probably wanted in order to have what I want.

• 41:28Speaker 07

  Compromise.

• 41:30George Kamel?

  I don't think she understands what that word means.

• 41:32Rachel Cruze?

  Is she joking?

• 41:33Speaker 07

  To spend a certain amount of money, but it looks like I'm gonna have to. And that's just how compromise works.

• 41:39George Kamel?

  Yeah, this is satire, but I can tell she means it.

• 41:42Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, she will.

• 41:42Speaker 07

  Before my fiance sees this and has a literal panic attack, I'm joking.

• 41:47George Kamel?

  Okay, the good news is they're not married yet and it's not too late.

• 41:52Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 41:53George Kamel?

  Run.

• 41:55Rachel Cruze?

  That's funny. That's funny though. If I have to compromise something, I have to compromise. Yeah.

• 41:59George Kamel?

  My chaotic digital diary. She's 25, 2026 bride. She wants to make that clear and she lives in Boston. Thank you for that tidbit.

• 42:08Rachel Cruze?

  Good for her.

• 42:09George Kamel?

  And her caption, who else's budget has magically increased? LMAO.

• 42:16George Kamel?

  We're still doing LMAO? We're still doing the skull emoji? Wow. Okay.

• 42:21Rachel Cruze?

  We're still there.

• 42:22George Kamel?

  Yeah, I personally didn't care for her energy on this one. Not someone that I would want to be in proximity to.

• 42:28Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh, George.

• 42:30George Kamel?

  It's just me being on, the other girls, hey, I said, I like their, I like their vibe.

• 42:33Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, you like the vibe.

• 42:34George Kamel?

  Didn't like her vibe. Little entitlement, little, I know I'm doing something dumb, but I don't care, cause I'm just, it's my life.

• 42:41Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, I think she was joking, but I think it does show though, that it's so easy to like have not put a boundary up when you need to, right? Where you do feel like, I don't wanna, I wanna do everything I wanna do, so I'm gonna just do it regardless of the money.

• 42:55George Kamel?

  Gosh, well, and don't compromise on the budget. Now, if she's actually doing a budget, I'm proud of her. And if she's not, she needs to check out every dollar. We'll drop a link in the description. Super easy budgeting tool. There's no compromise. You just make a plan for your money, and then you stick to it. And you can move. There's compromise in, hey, I'm going to move money from this category to this one. But the goal is, I didn't spend more than I made.

• 43:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 43:17George Kamel?

  It's that simple.

• 43:18Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. If you have the money, you can buy it. If you don't have the money, you say no.

• 43:21George Kamel?

  What a concept.

• 43:22Rachel Cruze?

  Um, yes. She feels very like, you know.

• 43:26George Kamel?

  I'm worried about what her wedding is going to cost. Now, she has in the caption, compromising for your wedding budget tips. So maybe this is just satire to get some engagement.

• 43:35Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 43:35George Kamel?

  And she's actually very reasonable.

• 43:37Rachel Cruze?

  But I do think that that mindset is for a lot of people have that mindset, though. So she's probably just saying out loud what a lot of people already think you do.

• 43:43George Kamel?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 43:44Rachel Cruze?

  Now, one thing you should not compromise on, though, George, is where you're banking. Because where you put your hard-earned money, your, for a checking account, or even a high-yield savings account, you know, to have a banking institution or a credit union that aligns with your values, I didn't realize how important it was, honestly. Because there was a little bit of this flipping, like, just, yeah, go bank, you know, do what you do.

• 44:06George Kamel?

  They have their bank by default. Well, it's the bank I've had since I was 16, and so I'm just going to stick with it. And you don't know that it's being eaten up by fees. They don't have your best interests at heart. They're constantly peddling more marketing to get you into debt.

• 44:18Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 44:18George Kamel?

  And that's why where you bank matters. And that's why we love Fairwin's Credit Union, because they're the good guys in the banking world.

• 44:24Rachel Cruze?

  And then you want to make sure that you sign up for the Smart Bundle, because it includes the no-fee checking, the Beware debit card, which I love, and then the high-yield savings account. And it's all, and it's so easy to use. And that's the other thing is, is when we signed up for it, George, we even put the banks that we were banking at, like, into it, too, to transfer the stuff. And it's so easy.

• 44:42George Kamel?

  Seamless.

• 44:43Rachel Cruze?

  Like, it was quick. Yeah.

• 44:44George Kamel?

  And I love that my high-yield savings is connected to checking. So if I have an emergency, I could move the money over instantly versus needing to wait a day or two or three business days for that money to get in there. So it gives me a piece of mind, too, that I could access that money in a pinch. And if you go to their website, go to their app, you're going to be like, this feels like Ramsey. They want people to become debt-free, which is so wild for a bank.

• 45:05Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 45:05George Kamel?

  So check it out. You can go to fairwin.org/Ramsey to sign up for that Smart Bundle and partner with a bank that's going to help you win with money in 2026. We'll drop a link in the description as well.

• 45:16Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, George, so the takeaway, I think it reminds me still as we watch these videos, like, there's still more questions. Like, to just make a judgment call on like, one 30-second video you see, right?

• 45:27George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 45:27Rachel Cruze?

  I think a lot of times, it's like, I think some of it, we can, I'm gonna say the $1,300 car payment, I think that can be a quick judgment from us, that's fine.

• 45:34George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 45:34Rachel Cruze?

  But a lot of the other ones, it's like, okay, give me more of the situation, what's going on, income matters a lot, I really do think that, where you are financially is a big deal, and...

• 45:44George Kamel?

  Location, cost of living, in your area.

• 45:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, there's a lot, yeah, there's a lot of factors.

• 45:47George Kamel?

  Are you single or married?

• 45:49Rachel Cruze?

  Because some of these are values conversations, even the travel sports thing, I'll go back to it, right? It may not be like, our thing as a family, but maybe people, I don't know, they love it, if they can afford it, that's where they want to spend their money, like, that's great, like, that's, so I don't know, some of it's a values conversation, everyone's value's gonna be different, but I think from the financial perspective, just making sure that, like, okay, let's get the, um, let's get all the information before we make the judgment call. That's why I love the Ramsey Show, because we actually are talking to the person.

• 46:15George Kamel?

  We get the context from them.

• 46:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 46:17George Kamel?

  Because you might say, can I spend $100,000 on a car? Or like, well, what's your net worth? What's your income?

• 46:23Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 46:24George Kamel?

  And they go, well, I make $4 million, and we're like, buy the car.

• 46:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, that's right.

• 46:27George Kamel?

  But if they go, I make $40,000, we're like, do not buy this car.

• 46:30Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, that's right, that's right.

• 46:31George Kamel?

  So the context matters, there's no bad purchases, if you're doing it in cash, you can afford it, and it's not a big part of your world.

• 46:37Rachel Cruze?

  That's right, yes.

• 46:37George Kamel?

  So it's a good thing to remember, you don't live their financial life, and it really doesn't benefit you at all to look at someone else's financial world.

• 46:45Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 46:45George Kamel?

  Because if they're doing better than you, well, now you're envious.

• 46:48Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:48George Kamel?

  If they're doing worse than you, well, now there's judgment, of like, hm, I'm better than them.

• 46:52Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 46:52George Kamel?

  And so, none of that compares and helps.

• 46:54Rachel Cruze?

  No. It's always just a little fun to be a little judgmental every now and then, you know?

• 46:58George Kamel?

  It is, but it's also...

• 46:59Rachel Cruze?

  Totally for the entertainment, which is...

• 47:00George Kamel?

  Toxic trait.

• 47:01Rachel Cruze?

  This episode.

• 47:02George Kamel?

  So here's the deal, if you find yourself constantly saying, "Must be nice," to other people's lifestyles, consider taking some actual steps to get there. Instead of being jealous, go, okay, what did they do? If they earned this the hard way, what can I do to get there?

• 47:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 47:17George Kamel?

  If that's really a thing that I value, a thing that I want. So check out the Get Started Assessment, it'll help you look at your life and your money, and set some tactical goals, some next steps to get you there. We'll leave a link in the description for you to take that.

• 47:27Rachel Cruze?

  All right, before we spill the tea on our Guilty as Charged segment, George, what were we sipping on?

• 47:32George Kamel?

  Okay, so this was the reddish maroon Manhattan. The reason reddish is in front of it is because this is kind of a custom recipe that our mixologist, Michael Reddish, came up with, and it's one of my favorite drinks now. And the reason it's different is you've heard of the Manhattan.

• 47:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 47:46George Kamel?

  Which is made with vermouth.

• 47:48Rachel Cruze?

  I love a Manhattan.

• 47:49George Kamel?

  You've heard of a black Manhattan.

• 47:50Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:50George Kamel?

  Which is made with the Mauro. Well, Michael decided, why not both?

• 47:55Rachel Cruze?

  He mixed it all together.

• 47:56George Kamel?

  He said, yes, and.

• 47:57Rachel Cruze?

  Mixologist Michael.

• 47:58George Kamel?

  And so the reddish maroon Manhattan.

• 48:00Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 48:00George Kamel?

  Was born, and it's a way to honor him for his service on this show. For three years, he made us wonderful cocktails.

• 48:07Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 48:08George Kamel?

  And he's retired as the mixologist. He's still working at Ramsey. Everything's great, but he has a lot on his plate, and now it's the producer's job.

• 48:16Rachel Cruze?

  We got the boot.

• 48:17George Kamel?

  We were the first thing to come off the plate.

• 48:18Rachel Cruze?

  He said, I can't do this anymore.

• 48:20George Kamel?

  So the producers made this, is that right? I think they did a fabulous job. I did give them his recipe, verbatim, so.

• 48:27Rachel Cruze?

  Worked well.

• 48:28George Kamel?

  Hard to screw up, but.

• 48:29Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, we need to make it again, George. I hate to be this person. I lie. Can I just be?

• 48:33George Kamel?

  Explain to the audience why your drink is full.

• 48:35Rachel Cruze?

  Well, I will randomly go through like periods where I'm like, I'm not gonna drink for three weeks and just kind of like, you know. I'm in one of those moments right now, I know.

• 48:43George Kamel?

  You went dry this month.

• 48:44Rachel Cruze?

  So I, at the beginning of the episode, did you see it? I pretended like I stepped in, I didn't. I didn't do it.

• 48:50George Kamel?

  What an actress you are.

• 48:52Rachel Cruze?

  Where's my Oscar?

• 48:53George Kamel?

  Cheers. Mmm.

• 48:57Rachel Cruze?

  I love, I love a Manhattan.

• 49:00George Kamel?

  Eagle-eyed viewers might notice.

• 49:01Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 49:02George Kamel?

  The drink is still full.

• 49:03Rachel Cruze?

  I'm gonna have to give this to someone, but I love a Manhattan.

• 49:06George Kamel?

  You couldn't even just?

• 49:08Rachel Cruze?

  I know, sometimes if I have like my thing that I'm doing, I gotta like stick to it.

• 49:11George Kamel?

  Wow, the discipline is impressive.

• 49:13Rachel Cruze?

  Like the no dessert, if I go through, I don't know, like I do those like things through life, just a little cleanse every now and then of something.

• 49:19George Kamel?

  Maybe you shouldn't have signed up for a show called Smart Money Happy Hour, is all I'm saying.

• 49:22Rachel Cruze?

  I know, I'm very, I'm actually really sad about it. Manhattan is like one of my favorites.

• 49:26George Kamel?

  I'm gonna vote for both of us and say this is a 10 out of 10 drink, and if you disagree, you hate your grandmother. That's how strongly I feel about this drink. It is one of the all time best bourbon cocktails you could make.

• 49:38Rachel Cruze?

  That is out there.

• 49:39George Kamel?

  So if you enjoy Manhattan's, you're going to love this. It comes out to $4.35.

• 49:45Rachel Cruze?

  It's expensive.

• 49:46George Kamel?

  Well, you know, Michael is a man of taste.

• 49:49Rachel Cruze?

  He's high class.

• 49:51George Kamel?

  Class. So it's got the bourbon, it's got the vermouth, it's got a moro, and then it's got some black walnut bitters and chocolate bitters.

• 49:57Rachel Cruze?

  Beautiful.

• 49:58George Kamel?

  So, pick your poison, make it at home, $4, well worth the money. You'd pay 20 bucks for this at a nice cocktail bar.

• 50:04Rachel Cruze?

  For sure.

• 50:04George Kamel?

  So get the recipe in the show notes. I can't believe we're giving this recipe out for free. This feels like grandma's special recipe that we can't release in public.

• 50:11Rachel Cruze?

  Thank you, Michael, though.

• 50:12George Kamel?

  So yeah, shout out to Michael for a wonderful three years of making us cocktails. We appreciate it. Give it a try this weekend in honor of our friend, Michael Reddish.

• 50:20Rachel Cruze?

  All right, now it's time for Guilty as Charged. And this is the segment where we ask each other a guilty as charged question every week, and if we're guilty, we take a sip.

• 50:29George Kamel?

  Or take a fake sip. It's up to you.

• 50:30Rachel Cruze?

  I'll smell it. All right, question is, are you guilty of shamelessly hanging on to an overpriced subscription?

• 50:39George Kamel?

  Oh, that's a good one. When we're talking about stupid things we spend money on.

• 50:43Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 50:44George Kamel?

  You got one?

• 50:45Rachel Cruze?

  I got one.

• 50:46George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 50:47Rachel Cruze?

  Should I smell the cocktail?

• 50:48George Kamel?

  Just smell it.

• 50:49Rachel Cruze?

  Out of reverence.

• 50:49George Kamel?

  Yeah, I think the fumes might get you like a second hand.

• 50:52Rachel Cruze?

  It smells so good. I'm gonna give this to Will after. Will, this can be yours for today.

• 50:56George Kamel?

  All right, you know he's on the clock still. He's got about another three hours of work today. But sure.

• 51:01Rachel Cruze?

  Just goes sip on it. Um, okay, I pay $8 a year, um, for the Marco Polo Premium app.

• 51:10George Kamel?

  Wow. What was the brushing of the hair doing?

• 51:13Rachel Cruze?

  Do you know Marco Polo is?

• 51:14George Kamel?

  Marco Polo is, it's like FaceTime but recorded, so you can talk to friends and send them like walkie talkie video messages.

• 51:21Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, that's it. That's a great way of putting it. Walkie talkie. Well done. Yeah, I like that.

• 51:25George Kamel?

  Because you can't always FaceTime with a friend when they can FaceTime.

• 51:28Rachel Cruze?

  That's right, that's right.

• 51:29George Kamel?

  It's hard to schedule it.

• 51:30Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and it's better than a text or a voice message sometimes because you can see their face.

• 51:34George Kamel?

  And you can make it nine minutes long versus a text.

• 51:37Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, so that's my point. So with the premium version, you can 2X the person. Now, some of my friends, I can't even 2X because they talk too fast. And that's probably like me.

• 51:47George Kamel?

  Hashtag Christie right.

• 51:48Rachel Cruze?

  You gotta, yeah, Christie's a fast talker. 1.5, like 1.5, we got her. Some other ones for sure 2X, for sure.

• 51:56George Kamel?

  Where they're like, um, and then you're like, alright, come on, girl, get it out.

• 52:01Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but they just talk and as they're processing what they're thinking, right? Did you feel that speed?

• 52:08George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 52:08Rachel Cruze?

  You're like, so they just talk and as they're processing what they're thinking, I'm like, I got you, I got you, I got you, I got you, I got you.

• 52:13George Kamel?

  Can I give you a hot take?

• 52:14Rachel Cruze?

  And I love it.

• 52:15George Kamel?

  Don't put that on video. Just wait until you've processed the thought. Then share it. I know that's a wild concept.

• 52:22Rachel Cruze?

  Right, but my friends, I feel that they're not just like, they're not, they're not filler, filler friends. Where like nothing is being said. But what's hard is like, we talk about therapy sessions and life and theology.

• 52:33George Kamel?

  It gets deeper because it's on video and you can really share.

• 52:35Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah, and we're like, hey, so this and this, and then you want to get back to them. So sometimes it is a little bit hard because you can't get that ping pong.

• 52:41George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 52:42Rachel Cruze?

  Not walkie talkie, ping pong back and forth, you know?

• 52:44George Kamel?

  Wait, does it ever hurt if they don't respond? And you've just shared something really vulnerable?

• 52:48Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, sometimes it'll be a day or two and then they come back and they will say, "Hey, I know you just shared that. I'm so sorry." Like, we acknowledge it to each other because sometimes you do.

• 52:58George Kamel?

  I'm deleting the app.

• 52:58Rachel Cruze?

  You do, you do. You put your heart out there. Sometimes people are busy, you know? And I have that, what if this gets leaked?

• 53:08George Kamel?

  Oh, because you're sharing vulnerable things, like what if?

• 53:10Rachel Cruze?

  Like, yeah.

• 53:12George Kamel?

  Yeah, hacker, you know, Marco Polo videos released to Rachel Cruz.

• 53:16Rachel Cruze?

  There has been one season of Life, I did tell my friend, delete it. I was like, after y'all watch each one, delete it, like, because I don't want it on the internet if it gets leaked. Because it's personal stuff, you know?

• 53:25George Kamel?

  That's the content we need. Does Winston use it?

• 53:28Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, so Winston started using it and he got the free version and I told him, "You need to upgrade to premium babe, like you need to..."

• 53:36George Kamel?

  Yeah, guys notoriously talk too slow. I can't stand talking to guys.

• 53:39Rachel Cruze?

  He only has these two friends, it's this one group, so that's mostly who they, who he talks to. And I was like, "Yeah, so I think we may do the family plan this year."

• 53:47George Kamel?

  Oh my gosh, that is wild.

• 53:51Rachel Cruze?

  You need a 2X, you gotta be a 2Xer, because you gotta, we gotta be efficient.

• 53:55George Kamel?

  And that's smart of them to charge for that, and it's good marketing.

• 53:57Rachel Cruze?

  I know. You know they reached out to me one time on Instagram, because I tagged them or something?

• 54:02George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 54:02Rachel Cruze?

  In the Marco Polo Instagram app, like, messaged me and I was like...

• 54:05George Kamel?

  They need to just give it to you for free.

• 54:07Rachel Cruze?

  I felt so...

• 54:08George Kamel?

  This is free promotion. Dave's gonna be mad that you were like, "Why didn't you just like lift their whole brand?" You just got 100 people to go get premium right now.

• 54:16Rachel Cruze?

  I know, it's worth it, it's worth it. Thank you for your ministry, Marco Polo.

• 54:19George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 54:20Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, uh, do you have anything that's crazy?

• 54:22George Kamel?

  Yeah, mine's much nerdier and less exciting, it doesn't involve social interaction, but um, MyQ is an app connected to your garage doors. So your garage door will automatically open when you get, you know, within 50 feet of your garage, which is very nice, very helpful. And so when I got my new Tesla, for some reason, it would not work for free anymore. The garage would not open without a subscription. So something updated in the hardware where they wanted to charge me monthly. But then they were like, "Hey, you can get a 10-year subscription for a fraction of the cost." You'll save a whole lot of money. And the saver in me said, "Well, that's smart."

• 54:59Rachel Cruze?

  Because you're gonna be using it for 10 plus years.

• 55:01George Kamel?

  I'll have a garage for the next 10 years, barring, you know, something terrible happening. So I thought, "I'll just pay for the 10..." And it was like $250 for 10 years.

• 55:11Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, that's not terrible, though.

• 55:12George Kamel?

  So, but it was a one-time fee, and I'm like, 10 years from now,

• 55:16Rachel Cruze?

  For sure.

• 55:16George Kamel?

  I'll be in my mid-40s, going, "Oh yeah, I gotta re-up on my garage subscription."

• 55:21Rachel Cruze?

  If anything, fractions of pennies, when you think about the girl math we talked about earlier.

• 55:24George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 55:25Rachel Cruze?

  Because you open your garage at least once a day.

• 55:27George Kamel?

  Maybe twice.

• 55:28Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 55:28George Kamel?

  Things get crazy.

• 55:29Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, if you're leaving twice, George.

• 55:31George Kamel?

  I leave, I gotta come back.

• 55:32Rachel Cruze?

  That's right, yes.

• 55:33George Kamel?

  And so it is really nice, don't have to like think. When you just pull up on your street, the garage magically opens.

• 55:38Rachel Cruze?

  It's good.

• 55:39George Kamel?

  And it's a, it's a real blessing in my life.

• 55:41Rachel Cruze?

  Look at you.

• 55:41George Kamel?

  So yeah, both guilty, I will take the sip on behalf of both of us, since you are a better person than me.

• 55:46Rachel Cruze?

  No, I'm just a disciplined person in this few weeks of my life.

• 55:50George Kamel?

  Now I'm undisciplined?

• 55:51Rachel Cruze?

  And then I'm gonna be back on the train.

• 55:52George Kamel?

  Now I'm undisciplined?

• 55:53Rachel Cruze?

  No, you're great.

• 55:54George Kamel?

  I just don't, I don't make commitments like that.

• 55:57Rachel Cruze?

  You know, and sometimes I fall off the train.

• 55:58George Kamel?

  I don't have resolutions, goals are silly.

• 56:01Rachel Cruze?

  I know, but I'll do it randomly. And then when I'm in it, I usually don't last as long as I think I will.

• 56:07George Kamel?

  Is it a health thing?

• 56:08Rachel Cruze?

  I'm in a probably, um, no, it's a cleansing thing. Like I'm doing like a tea at night. I'm doing a bunch of water, no alcohol. It's like a, yeah, kind of like a cleanse.

• 56:19George Kamel?

  Not doctor ordered?

• 56:20Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, no, no, no, no.

• 56:21George Kamel?

  You know when they ask you in the physical, like, how many drinks do you have per week?

• 56:24Rachel Cruze?

  You're like, how many smart, how many happy hour episodes?

• 56:27George Kamel?

  Well, I got a drink for work purposes legally.

• 56:29Rachel Cruze?

  Three times this week. Uh, what do we?

• 56:31George Kamel?

  I said two to three a week. That was my number. He seemed to believe me.

• 56:35Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, just take it. I bet those doctors, if you say you drink, I bet they, I bet they two X it in their mind. Like if, what people actually say about their life.

• 56:43George Kamel?

  If you're a doctor, let me know in the comments what you secretly do in your mind.

• 56:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, when people say how many drinks a week?

• 56:49George Kamel?

  But hey, ran the blood work. I'm a specimen.

• 56:52Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, what kind of blood work did you do?

• 56:53George Kamel?

  I did all of it.

• 56:54Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 56:55George Kamel?

  And he said, literally, he said, everything's perfect. In fact, I would maybe introduce more carbs if you can. Your triglycerides are impressively low. So much so, maybe eat more carbs. I went, okay, loud and clear, doc. Loud and clear.

• 57:08Rachel Cruze?

  Good for you, George.

• 57:09George Kamel?

  So I will not be working out this year. I will not be moving my body.

• 57:12Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 57:12George Kamel?

  I'm gonna keep doing exactly what I'm doing.

• 57:14Rachel Cruze?

  What I've been doing is it is perfect.

• 57:15George Kamel?

  Staying way too anxious, on my phone and enjoying a cocktail.

• 57:21Rachel Cruze?

  You know what? That's the good life. Oh, man. Well, if you have a guilty charge question for us, make sure to DM us at Rachel Cruz or at George Kamel. We love to see them because we see them.

• 57:30George Kamel?

  We don't get enough. Let me say.

• 57:31Rachel Cruze?

  We bank them.

• 57:32George Kamel?

  You might think we get just so many DMs.

• 57:35Rachel Cruze?

  We start to not get as creative. So help us. Help us out.

• 57:38George Kamel?

  And don't go with the like, have you ever returned an item? Be a little more creative. Don't make it weird.

• 57:44Rachel Cruze?

  Go a little unhinged.

• 57:45George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 57:46Rachel Cruze?

  And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to leave a review and to check out the episode. We settled your heated money arguments. That's the next episode. We'll link it for you. And make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an all new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.