Is Anything Actually Cheaper in 2025? Let's Find Out!

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. Inflation is real right now . . . but we do have some things going for us. In this episode, Rachel and George reveal which things are cheaper now than they used to be, plus which purchases you can make that hold their value. Next Steps: 🎥 Watch our video What Will It Cost to Live in 40 Years? 🍸 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. 💵 The simplest way to budget. Download the EveryDollar app for free! Connect With Our Sponsors: Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. Get up to 40% off with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth. Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🥃 Godfather Recipe: @moodycocktails 1 ounce amaretto 1 ounce scotch 3 dashes Angostura bitters Instructions: Pour all ingredients into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice cubes. Stir gently. 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.

• 1:58George Kamel?

  Well, hey, it's not all bad. You're right, Rachel. A desktop computer is a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the latest iPhone right now.

• 2:04Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 2:04George Kamel?

  So it's a give and take.

• 2:05Rachel Cruze?

  I know, yeah. And inflation is real. Obviously, things are costing way more than they used to. But there are some things going for us.

• 2:12George Kamel?

  Yeah, so today, we're going to talk about all of those things that cost less today than they did in the past and add to the conversation in the comments as we go. And be sure to stick around till the end because we're going to share a few of our favorite investments, I'm going to put that in quotes, that hold their value that we swear by.

• 2:27Rachel Cruze?

  I love it, yeah. Because, I mean, when you think about inflation now, it's eggs, it's gas, it's all the things that continue to go up.

• 2:33George Kamel?

  College, housing, cars.

• 2:36Rachel Cruze?

  A lot of them.

• 2:36George Kamel?

  Just the main things in life that we need. That's all.

• 2:39Rachel Cruze?

  It's just a lot. But for, just to be on the happy side, George, you know what I mean?

• 2:43George Kamel?

  We need some good news.

• 2:44Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, some good news. So we brought you a full list to go back to be like, remember when this used to cost this? Well, now it only costs this. And there is good news, George.

• 2:53George Kamel?

  This is a silver lining episode.

• 2:55Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 2:56George Kamel?

  That's what it is.

• 2:56Rachel Cruze?

  Brought to you by Rachel Cruz.

• 2:58George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 2:58Rachel Cruze?

  Because George would live in the sadness if he could.

• 3:01George Kamel?

  That's just with my musical taste.

• 3:02Rachel Cruze?

  The depressive state of life.

• 3:04George Kamel?

  I have a lot of joy. But sometimes I need to listen to sad music to remind me, my life is actually pretty good.

• 3:09Rachel Cruze?

  Were you considered emo from like in high school?

• 3:11George Kamel?

  A hundred percent.

• 3:12Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 3:13George Kamel?

  Not, I was not, like, I'm gonna have my...

• 3:15Rachel Cruze?

  I was gonna say, did you have this, yeah, the sweep?

• 3:17George Kamel?

  No, I didn't wear makeup. It wasn't like goth.

• 3:19Rachel Cruze?

  Eyeliner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:20George Kamel?

  I was dashboard confessional emo.

• 3:22Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 3:23George Kamel?

  That's the genre of emo I was.

• 3:24Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, I got it.

• 3:25George Kamel?

  More pop punk acoustic vibes.

• 3:28Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. How about Blink-182?

• 3:29George Kamel?

  Huge number one for me.

• 3:31Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 3:32George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 3:32Rachel Cruze?

  All right, I got the vibe.

• 3:33George Kamel?

  That was the concert I was willing to pay 300 something dollars for.

• 3:37Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 3:37George Kamel?

  You couldn't get me out of the house for any band.

• 3:40Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 3:40George Kamel?

  For that kind of money, except Blink.

• 3:42Rachel Cruze?

  But it was emo. So we're gonna go, we're gonna go happy, we're gonna go like circa, like... NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney, Rachel's Taste.

• 3:51George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 3:51Rachel Cruze?

  Pop, it's exciting, it's short-lived, but it's great.

• 3:55George Kamel?

  That sums up Rachel. I love it. Well, we're kicking it off here on the list with music.

• 4:01Rachel Cruze?

  Music.

• 4:02George Kamel?

  So fifteen to twenty-five bucks for a CD in the early 2000s. I remember the days going to the store to get the CD the day it came out. And I was happy to pay sixteen ninety-nine.

• 4:13Rachel Cruze?

  I remember going to Salmon Goodies, remember that store in the mall? And I had a fifty-dollar bill from my grandparents, never forget this. And I went and bought two Mariah Carey CDs. Butterfly and Music Box. And I got back like seventeen cents, a fifty-dollar bill. You bought two CDs.

• 4:29George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 4:30Rachel Cruze?

  Which had what, probably twelve songs, ten songs if you're lucky?

• 4:33George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 4:34Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, that's like twenty songs for fifty bucks.

• 4:37George Kamel?

  That's how they made their money back then.

• 4:38Rachel Cruze?

  I know, CD sales, man.

• 4:40George Kamel?

  Yeah, so if two or three of your favorite artists came out with new music, you could easily spend fifty bucks a month on new music.

• 4:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 4:46George Kamel?

  Six hundred bucks a year.

• 4:47Rachel Cruze?

  Mariah, hashtag Mariah Carey.

• 4:49George Kamel?

  And then came the ninety-nine cent songs from iTunes. That was a big revolution.

• 4:53Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, that was.

• 4:54George Kamel?

  Thousand songs in your pocket. I remember the old advertising for that.

• 4:57Rachel Cruze?

  And you buy individual songs, which was actually very nice. Because if you had to go buy the full CD, you didn't listen to like eight of the songs.

• 5:04George Kamel?

  Well, if we're gonna be real, back in those days, as an artist, you could get by with like two or three good singles, and the rest was filler.

• 5:10Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, good point. I didn't think about that.

• 5:12George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 5:13Rachel Cruze?

  And you had to buy the whole CD. You don't have an option back then.

• 5:15George Kamel?

  And you just skipped that song, man.

• 5:17Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, so then when they went to iTunes to buy just per song, did artists, probably not like that, right? Digitalizing music is probably not great for the artist world.

• 5:27George Kamel?

  Yeah, well, it's only gotten worse. So back in the day, because I actually uploaded my album to iTunes and Spotify and all these platforms, and the cut from Apple was, I believe, seventy percent is what the artist gets.

• 5:38Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 5:38George Kamel?

  Thirty percent went to Apple.

• 5:40Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, wow. Okay.

• 5:42George Kamel?

  And that's if you just do it straight to Apple. If you have middlemen, labels, you know, you get way less.

• 5:46Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, your managers, glad we're not artists, George.

• 5:48George Kamel?

  I'm, trust me, I'm very thankful to have gainful employment.

• 5:52Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 5:53George Kamel?

  But nowadays.

• 5:53Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, Winston does Apple Music.

• 5:56George Kamel?

  Oh, wow.

• 5:57Rachel Cruze?

  I know, and I do Spotify.

• 5:58George Kamel?

  I'm a Spotify man.

• 6:00Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, why did you say, oh, wow? What's the difference?

• 6:01George Kamel?

  I just, I thought more of him. I don't know.

• 6:05Rachel Cruze?

  Is the platform just bad?

• 6:07George Kamel?

  Here's my take.

• 6:08Rachel Cruze?

  It's not user friendly?

• 6:09George Kamel?

  Their whole thing is audio. We are an audio platform. Apple, this is like one thing they do. So they're not gonna care as much.

• 6:16Rachel Cruze?

  They're more of a technology company, the most, right?

• 6:18George Kamel?

  Yeah, they're just trying to get market share. Same with podcasts. The Apple Podcast app is not the greatest. Spotify, I think, has a better experience.

• 6:24Rachel Cruze?

  Well, Spotify's starting-

• 6:25George Kamel?

  And this is coming from an Apple fanboy.

• 6:26Rachel Cruze?

  And Spotify's starting to play video. They're playing The Ramsey Show now. Video. They're adding some video to it.

• 6:30George Kamel?

  You could be watching right now.

• 6:32Rachel Cruze?

  Are you on Spotify right now?

• 6:33George Kamel?

  Shout out.

• 6:35George Kamel?

  You're welcome. You made it.

• 6:36Rachel Cruze?

  Watching us right now. That's amazing.

• 6:38George Kamel?

  You made it. You and Samantha Mumbau.

• 6:38Rachel Cruze?

  That's amazing.

• 6:39George Kamel?

  So yeah, seven to 12 bucks a month for unlimited music. Isn't that crazy? Like, if you told me as a child, one day, for $10, you can get everything you want.

• 6:48Rachel Cruze?

  Anything on demand is insane. Like-

• 6:51George Kamel?

  You had to listen to the radio, record it to your boombox-

• 6:54Rachel Cruze?

  Oh.

• 6:54George Kamel?

  Onto a tape to make the mixtape. And you always had the radio DJ coming in a little bit, because you were trying to time it.

• 7:00Rachel Cruze?

  Well, or you missed the first 15 seconds, because you had to run up and-

• 7:04George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:05Rachel Cruze?

  You know what we would do? We got fancy in the Ramsey house. We would have a- Mom and dad bought blank, um, video, uh, cassettes? Like, what's the- yeah, like VHSs?

• 7:15George Kamel?

  VHS?

• 7:16Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. And we started recording music videos on VH1.

• 7:20George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 7:21Rachel Cruze?

  So we'd put the cassette in, hit play and record on the VCR, and we started recording, uh, music videos, so we could re-watch them.

• 7:28George Kamel?

  And that's privilege, guys, if you're one of you. I had to sneak over to my grandma's house and illegally watch her cable before my parents found out. No.

• 7:36Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 7:37George Kamel?

  I only at my friend's house.

• 7:38Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 7:39George Kamel?

  Who watched TRL on MTV. Remember that?

• 7:42Rachel Cruze?

  Man, there's a- there's an Instagram account, and they play the hit songs of 2001 every week from TRL clips of the current, like, this week in 2001. It just makes me so happy.

• 7:56George Kamel?

  So nostalgic.

• 7:57Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh. Okay.

• 7:57George Kamel?

  So there's some good news, is that music costs way less.

• 8:00Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, my gosh. Next one is my favorite.

• 8:01George Kamel?

  All right.

• 8:02Rachel Cruze?

  This is how I cheated in high school. Are you ready for this?

• 8:04George Kamel?

  It's a weird disclaimer, but I love it. All right.

• 8:06Rachel Cruze?

  The T9 calculators. You gotta have the big T9 calculators. Well, this says the TI-50 calculator, I'm not sure, that may be an advanced version, cost $170 in 1974. Okay, that wasn't for me. Now, in today's- listen to this, in today's money with inflation, it's $1,100.

• 8:24George Kamel?

  On a calculator.

• 8:25Rachel Cruze?

  On a calculator, okay. Now, the T9s that we had to buy for high school and stuff. I mean, I think those were.

• 8:31George Kamel?

  They were really expensive.

• 8:31Rachel Cruze?

  I think they were a hundred bucks. I mean, I think they were. I think they were like a hundred bucks and we bought them. Now, they sell for $7 on eBay. And now, if you don't have to buy calculators.

• 8:41George Kamel?

  It's on your phone. And the new one, have you seen the new Apple iPhone calculator got updated?

• 8:45Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 8:46George Kamel?

  They have like a little like advanced tab. Oh, boy, you could spend a whole day in there, Rachel.

• 8:50Rachel Cruze?

  What does that mean?

• 8:52George Kamel?

  You can do like advanced calculations and it saves all your previous calculations.

• 8:55Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 8:56George Kamel?

  So you can go back.

• 8:57Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. What's an advanced calculation versus another calculation?

• 9:00George Kamel?

  Just think fancy stuff.

• 9:01Rachel Cruze?

  T9 stuff.

• 9:02George Kamel?

  Exactly.

• 9:03Rachel Cruze?

  Okay. I did see you can, and this may be in the new calculator, you can do currency exchanges on the calculator.

• 9:10George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 9:11Rachel Cruze?

  Did y'all know that? Mm-hmm. So if you're traveling, you can put your euros in and on your calculator, it shows what a US dollar is. So it's not really calculate, I guess you could calculate it, but it just shows the exchange rate on your.

• 9:23George Kamel?

  Interesting.

• 9:23Rachel Cruze?

  On your calculator.

• 9:24George Kamel?

  We've come a long way and that's built in. Now, the whole iPhone costs a thousand bucks and you have all of that built in.

• 9:29Rachel Cruze?

  It's true. All right, ready for this one?

• 9:31George Kamel?

  All right.

• 9:31Rachel Cruze?

  Photos. So you used to have to get your pictures developed. Do you remember going to Walgreens and doing that?

• 9:37George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 9:38Rachel Cruze?

  And it would be $3 to $6 at Walgreens in the 90s. And now, pictures are free via the iPhone.

• 9:46George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah, that's true.

• 9:47Rachel Cruze?

  It's like flying first class and like the drinks are free.

• 9:49George Kamel?

  But you have a physical version of it. So that you're getting something in return for your five bucks.

• 9:56Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, or you can just print off your picture from your home printer.

• 9:58George Kamel?

  Do you still keep a lot of your photos you used to get developed?

• 10:01Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, I think I have a, yes, I think I have a box full of old albums and stuff.

• 10:05George Kamel?

  Do you ever scan them in and digitize them so that you have them forever? Or is that not?

• 10:09Rachel Cruze?

  That sounds terrible.

• 10:10George Kamel?

  Yeah, it sounds like something you're not gonna do.

• 10:11Rachel Cruze?

  No, that sounds terrible.

• 10:12George Kamel?

  It sounds like a Winston project.

• 10:13Rachel Cruze?

  That sounds terrible.

• 10:15George Kamel?

  All right.

• 10:15Rachel Cruze?

  No, I'm not doing that.

• 10:16George Kamel?

  There are services that do this for you now. So I did this. I got old tapes, like my, from my skateboarding days, they're Mini DV tapes. And so I sent them all out and they send you back a thumb drive with all the video files. So I get to relive. Why is this funny to you? Because this is what I do for fun? This is how I want to spend my money?

• 10:36George Kamel?

  Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Is it charity? Is it a ministry?

• 10:43George Kamel?

  Did you swallow a piece of ice?

• 10:46Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, oh, I didn't do that part. You know what's funny? Because the alpha, what I would have digitized are like, me and my friends at Homecoming. George just says his skateboarding.

• 10:56George Kamel?

  You think I have photos from Homecoming? I didn't go. Who would go?

• 11:00Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, George.

• 11:01George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 11:02Rachel Cruze?

  I'm sorry.

• 11:03George Kamel?

  It's okay.

• 11:04Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know if we'd be friends in high school.

• 11:05George Kamel?

  We would definitely not be friends in high school.

• 11:07Rachel Cruze?

  I'm just kidding. I was friendliest. I'd be friends with everyone.

• 11:10George Kamel?

  Yeah, but that's like you having pity.

• 11:14Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 11:14George Kamel?

  You know what I mean? Like, guys, be nice to him. He's a good, he's a good guy.

• 11:18Rachel Cruze?

  No, stop it, George. I was, I, I appreciated everybody.

• 11:21George Kamel?

  Okay, can I just say this about the photos before we move on?

• 11:23Rachel Cruze?

  Gosh, yeah, sorry.

• 11:24George Kamel?

  I think we've lost something with the iPhone photos.

• 11:28Rachel Cruze?

  Because you don't get any more of just like the blinker.

• 11:30George Kamel?

  Well, when you take a photo with a physical camera and you get it developed, you taking that photo mattered.

• 11:37Rachel Cruze?

  That's what I'm saying, yeah.

• 11:38George Kamel?

  Now you take a hundred photos with your iPhone and you're like, mm, didn't look cute. I'll delete them. Or they just sit on your phone. You have 10,000 in iCloud. Your kids, like, imagine handing that over to your grandkids.

• 11:48Rachel Cruze?

  Totally.

• 11:48George Kamel?

  They don't want to go through 10,000 photos and screenshots of recipes. That's what our kids are really gonna get.

• 11:54Rachel Cruze?

  100%.

• 11:54George Kamel?

  No more grandma's recipe book. It's just like, I think that's a screenshot from Pinterest.

• 11:58Rachel Cruze?

  I know. George said it. It's so true, though.

• 12:00George Kamel?

  There's an ad for socks that's tied in here, okay.

• 12:02Rachel Cruze?

  And can I tell you this? The adrenaline I would get to go to Walgreens to pick up that, that envelope.

• 12:08George Kamel?

  You were so excited.

• 12:09Rachel Cruze?

  To go through them from the spring break trip.

• 12:12George Kamel?

  See if there's any good ones.

• 12:13Rachel Cruze?

  Just to, just to relive it, you know, four days after. Like, just felt magical. And now you just, you re, you.

• 12:20George Kamel?

  And it felt like, oh, you have.

• 12:21Rachel Cruze?

  You never go back, I never go back to pictures anymore.

• 12:24George Kamel?

  No.

• 12:24Rachel Cruze?

  You know what I mean? Where back then, it, yeah, it's just.

• 12:26George Kamel?

  And you needed to actually have a moment to take a physical photo. There had to be something worth taking a picture of.

• 12:32Rachel Cruze?

  And you know what I would do, too? If you, if I went on a trip with a friend, uh, we would do doubles. Where you could mark doubles. Do two copies?

• 12:38George Kamel?

  Oh, fancy.

• 12:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yep, and every picture had two, and then you would separate them.

• 12:44George Kamel?

  You know who's keeping the photos alive? The school picture scammers.

• 12:48Rachel Cruze?

  I'm sorry, what?

• 12:48George Kamel?

  They're single-handedly keeping the physical photo alive. School picture day. It's highway robbery.

• 12:55Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:56George Kamel?

  They just, they send your kid home and go, alright, it's 50 bucks if you want it. It's like a hostage situation.

• 12:59Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, yeah, so you know what's funny? This is a personality difference. Denise, my sister, has ordered every school picture of her children through every year of their lives. Like, she's so on it.

• 13:08George Kamel?

  So that's what a good mom looks like.

• 13:09Rachel Cruze?

  So then, they take, they bring you the, uh, they bring you the, the samples. You get to see it, but it has their name. Well, I just take a picture of that with my phone, and that's it.

• 13:19George Kamel?

  With the watermark on it still? And you go, good enough.

• 13:26Rachel Cruze?

  Like, there it is, there's your school picture. Because we don't do the, like, did you have the round? Like, George is a senior, and George is in kindergarten first, second, third, fourth? Like, around your senior picture?

• 13:35George Kamel?

  Was this a Ramsey tradition?

• 13:37Rachel Cruze?

  No, this was like a, maybe this is a southern thing? Or a parent, I don't know.

• 13:41George Kamel?

  Things were different in the north.

• 13:42Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, well, they would have your official senior picture in the middle, and then every school of picture around it.

• 13:48George Kamel?

  From like 10 years?

• 13:49Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, every, yes, my parents, yes.

• 13:51George Kamel?

  I don't want to see that evolution.

• 13:53Rachel Cruze?

  No, it's, yeah.

• 13:53George Kamel?

  You just see the loss of joy and innocence over time.

• 13:56Rachel Cruze?

  George. Anyways, I just thought, I won't, if I did that with my kids and printed out the picture on my iPhones, it's all gonna have a, yeah, a watermark over their face.

• 14:06George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 14:07Rachel Cruze?

  I know. It's probably not great. I'm kind of regretting that.

• 14:11George Kamel?

  I feel like out of all the things you spend money on, your children's memories might be one thing you want to keep. But no, that's up to you. You live your life. But that's a good one. Photos have gotten cheaper. I'm real, I'm seeing a theme here. Everything's become a commodity, and everything matters less. And I think that's the sadness of why we love the nostalgia.

• 14:29Rachel Cruze?

  All right, let's keep going.

• 14:31George Kamel?

  Video surveillance, so this is security. A video surveillance system used to cost up to $12,000 in the 1980s. With inflation, that's $43,000 in today's money is what you'd pay for a surveillance system.

• 14:43Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, that's wild.

• 14:44George Kamel?

  And now your doorbell has a camera in it.

• 14:46Rachel Cruze?

  Oh.

• 14:46George Kamel?

  What a time to be alive.

• 14:47Rachel Cruze?

  You know what's sad? We were talking about this with some of our neighbors. The, the years of, you know, ding-dong ditching and rolling and all that, it's gone. Because they get caught.

• 14:56George Kamel?

  Now you get that video uploaded to the neighborhood Facebook page. There's a warrant out for your arrest.

• 15:00Rachel Cruze?

  It is so sad for those kids. Would you be the parent that would take your kids rolling?

• 15:05George Kamel?

  I don't even know what that is.

• 15:07Rachel Cruze?

  Rolling?

• 15:07George Kamel?

  Like toilet paper in the trees, that whole thing?

• 15:10Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 15:10George Kamel?

  No, I think that's a terrible thing to do to someone.

• 15:13Rachel Cruze?

  Oh.

• 15:14George Kamel?

  Cause then it rains and it gets all clumped up there.

• 15:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, but it's like the boy that Mia has a crush on and all her friends, like, we gotta go get Jared's house.

• 15:21George Kamel?

  I don't know what kinda Clarissa explains it all, lifestyle you led.

• 15:25Rachel Cruze?

  And then the really cool moms would take you to do, get the toilet paper and then like take you and you'd all like go, cause y'all are all friends and it's all like a fun thing.

• 15:33George Kamel?

  What a life. What a privilege and luxury it is to have the cool mom taking you to prank people.

• 15:40Rachel Cruze?

  My mom didn't. Love you Sharon. Sharon wasn't one, but yes, we had like two moms that would take us to Walmart and buy the toilet paper.

• 15:47George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 15:48Rachel Cruze?

  You never went rolling?

• 15:49George Kamel?

  No, I think that's a crime today. I don't commit crimes. I think that's, here's the thing, I don't like.

• 15:55Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, okay.

• 15:56George Kamel?

  I'm, I'm not a fan of like pranks. It, to me, it's just bullying, but under another name.

• 16:01Rachel Cruze?

  No, okay. So now, if you, I would say this, if you were doing it to a kid in your class that was, was picked on, or like, like wasn't, you know, oh George, that would be mean. We did it with like our own friends.

• 16:16George Kamel?

  So you only did it to the most popular kids?

• 16:18Rachel Cruze?

  And it was always for the opposite sex. Like you'd go roll a boy's house.

• 16:22George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 16:23Rachel Cruze?

  Or if you got rolled, it was a bunch of guys coming to your house.

• 16:25George Kamel?

  Got it.

• 16:26Rachel Cruze?

  You know what I mean?

• 16:27George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 16:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. So it was fun. It wasn't like, you wouldn't do it as a mean spirit. That's so terrible. Why would you think people did it mean?

• 16:33George Kamel?

  Well, I think regardless, someone's gotta clean that. You gotta get a ladder up there.

• 16:36Rachel Cruze?

  Well, it's usually the parents. I mean, I hate to say it. Or it just fades away with the rain.

• 16:39George Kamel?

  My parents immigrated here for a better life, Rachel. All right? They didn't immigrate here to get on a ladder and clean up toilet paper. That's a, that's a hot commodity.

• 16:47Rachel Cruze?

  And Mia came and all her like five little friends and they're like, dad, dad, can we go to Jared's house and roll his house?

• 16:54George Kamel?

  First of all, she's friends with a Jared? Red flag.

• 16:57Rachel Cruze?

  Jarrett.

• 16:58George Kamel?

  Jarrett?

• 16:59Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know.

• 16:59George Kamel?

  That's even worse.

• 17:02George Kamel?

  No, I would say you need to find better friends, honey.

• 17:06George Kamel?

  You need to find better friends who have actual hobbies and want to produce good in the community. You know, we should be sending kids out to take down the rolling, not do it.

• 17:14Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh.

• 17:16George Kamel?

  And then they say, "We don't have time, we're in school, we don't have time for a job." You've got plenty of time. You've got time to lean, you've got time to clean.

• 17:22Rachel Cruze?

  No, even you roll, you roll at night when businesses are closed. All right.

• 17:27George Kamel?

  This is exhausting. Well, here's the deal.

• 17:30Rachel Cruze?

  Well, George is very happy about ringing doorbells because there's no ding dong ditching or rolling.

• 17:36George Kamel?

  That's right. And Rachel, you know, I'm not a ring guy. You know what I am now?

• 17:39Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 17:40George Kamel?

  I'm a Simply Safe guy.

• 17:41Rachel Cruze?

  You are.

• 17:42George Kamel?

  I got Simply Safe set up, I love it.

• 17:43Rachel Cruze?

  And you love it.

• 17:44George Kamel?

  It's great.

• 17:45Rachel Cruze?

  So good, so easy.

• 17:46George Kamel?

  It's built in, it's all the alarms on the doors and the windows and the cameras, it's fantastic.

• 17:49Rachel Cruze?

  That's amazing. You know what else helps keep you safe?

• 17:51George Kamel?

  What's that?

• 17:52Rachel Cruze?

  On the internet is Delete Me.

• 17:53George Kamel?

  Now, that one I can get behind.

• 17:54Rachel Cruze?

  It's an incredible service, that really does help. I mean, because your personal data online, it's everywhere, right? And it's not just about spams anymore, it really is a direct line for phishing, attacks, harassment, fraud, I mean, there's so much there on the internet when your data's out there and you want it gone.

• 18:12George Kamel?

  And so this is surveillance, but for your personal info online. And Delete Me goes in, they remove your personal info from all of these data broker sites, cutting off access at the source. And we're seeing a lot of these like AI-driven scams, they can spoof someone's voice.

• 18:24Rachel Cruze?

  It's crazy.

• 18:25George Kamel?

  And so you gotta protect yourself, and Delete Me can help you protect yourself from all of these risks.

• 18:29Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, and there can be a level of fear, I feel like, in today's world, where you're like, "Oh my gosh, is this real, is this not?" Because you get like spam calls, you get all this stuff, and you're like, "I don't know what's real." So you don't have to live in fear, you can be proactive and use Delete Me.

• 18:41George Kamel?

  I love it. And they're giving our listeners and viewers a sweet discount, 20% off the annual plans, so it comes out to like nine bucks a month.

• 18:48Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, it's incredible, yeah.

• 18:49George Kamel?

  For this online surveillance. And there's a team of physical people going in, removing all of your info for you.

• 18:54Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 18:55George Kamel?

  And so this is not some AI tool, it's way more than that. There's real people, if you need help, there's a real person on the other side who can help you out. So it's been really great for my family, and they've removed me from over 250 data broker sites so far.

• 19:05Rachel Cruze?

  It's incredible, yeah, because these data broker sites will collect your information and then sell it to other sites, yeah, so they're making money off of you.

• 19:11George Kamel?

  Gross.

• 19:12Rachel Cruze?

  So, we always say, "Control what you can control, we can't control what..." All the scammers out there are doing, but you can't control what you're doing with your data online by using services like Delete Me to help and remove your data, especially from these data broker websites.

• 19:25George Kamel?

  That's right. So go to joindelete.me/smartmoney or use the link in the description to get that 20% off.

• 19:30Rachel Cruze?

  All right, next, a girl's best friend, diamonds.

• 19:34George Kamel?

  I thought you were gonna say Jarrett.

• 19:37George Kamel?

  You know Jarrett's getting friend zoned.

• 19:39Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man. Okay, so lab grown diamonds have become very popular recently. And they're worth 60 to 85% less than authentic diamonds on average. $950 on average for a 1.5 carat lab diamond.

• 19:56George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 19:56Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. So again, high quality diamonds again could be $10,000, $13,000, you know, in 2010, like very expensive. And lab grown, it's getting more popular.

• 20:08George Kamel?

  That is something to consider. Something that's gotten cheaper over the years as they've learned how to develop it. And there's a lot of people going for alternative stones in general.

• 20:17Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm, yes.

• 20:18George Kamel?

  You know, moissanite or a gem or whatever it may be. So that's helped cut down the cost.

• 20:22Rachel Cruze?

  So I rarely wear this ring and I have another bands. Winston bought me like these three rings together for our 10th anniversary. And this one, so there's diamonds missing. I think these are lab grown, George. I'm pretty sure.

• 20:34George Kamel?

  Can I, can I get a peek?

• 20:34Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, uh-huh.

• 20:35George Kamel?

  I can, I can tell the difference.

• 20:37Rachel Cruze?

  Because what that would cost in real life, I know Winston didn't spend it because I knew what he spent on it. And I do think those were lab grown.

• 20:43George Kamel?

  Wow, they look great to me.

• 20:44Rachel Cruze?

  I'm pretty sure. My weddings, my wedding ring and two bands are real and I think those are lab grown.

• 20:50George Kamel?

  What I want to know is where are these three little diamonds today? So little. How do they do it?

• 20:57Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know. I don't know. But isn't it pretty?

• 20:59George Kamel?

  Very, great job.

• 21:00Rachel Cruze?

  But you know what I do? Like it's missing these three on this end, so I always just turn it a little bit.

• 21:04George Kamel?

  Honestly, I don't think anyone passing by would ever notice.

• 21:07Rachel Cruze?

  No, no, I know.

• 21:08George Kamel?

  It's really just you.

• 21:09Rachel Cruze?

  But yeah, when we just read that, I was like, I think that this ring is lab grown.

• 21:12George Kamel?

  That's beautiful. All right, so that's one, one good thing for the guys out there who are buying these rings for the ladies, you're welcome. It's cheaper today than it was back then. All right, next on the list, Rachel, calling and texting is cheaper than it was back in the day.

• 21:27Rachel Cruze?

  No, that is true.

• 21:28George Kamel?

  Payphones, remember this?

• 21:30Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 21:31George Kamel?

  A whole quarter per call in the 1990s, I remember that.

• 21:33Rachel Cruze?

  25 cents.

• 21:35George Kamel?

  Before the age of cellphones, I had to go to the school payphone and make a call.

• 21:38Rachel Cruze?

  Y'all had a payphone in your school?

• 21:39George Kamel?

  Yeah.

• 21:40Rachel Cruze?

  I don't know if we had one in our school, I think we had to go to the office.

• 21:42George Kamel?

  The kind of technology we had in Dedham, Massachusetts.

• 21:44Rachel Cruze?

  Unbelievable.

• 21:46George Kamel?

  And then texting used to be limited to characters, T9, remember any T9 words?

• 21:51Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 21:52George Kamel?

  That was a tough time.

• 21:53Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 21:54George Kamel?

  It was like learning a different language.

• 21:55Rachel Cruze?

  That was a lot of punching, punching some buttons.

• 21:58George Kamel?

  Yeah, dexterity with the thumbs there.

• 21:59Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 22:00George Kamel?

  Used to cost around 10 to 20 cents for every SMS sent.

• 22:02Rachel Cruze?

  Is that not crazy?

• 22:03George Kamel?

  I remember rationing my texts.

• 22:04Rachel Cruze?

  Could you imagine paying 20 cents for every text you send?

• 22:08George Kamel?

  I'm all for going back to this. I'm done with random, just stop. If you want to text me, it better cost you money, it better be worth it.

• 22:14Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 22:16George Kamel?

  I think we're too flippant with our words. You know, you have those friends who do the like 28 texts in a row? And like, just say it in one thought.

• 22:23Rachel Cruze?

  Well, I do it and then I have another, I do it and then I have another thought and then I'm...

• 22:27George Kamel?

  And then the group chats, we could get rid of group chats entirely if it cost you money.

• 22:30Rachel Cruze?

  Those are tough.

• 22:31George Kamel?

  You send a meme, it better cost you a dollar and it better be worth the laugh.

• 22:33Rachel Cruze?

  Wow.

• 22:34George Kamel?

  I'm tired of your memes and gifs.

• 22:36Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh. Uh, Home Alone, the movie, we always watched it at Christmas, and it's one of my favorites when they get to the airport and they're all, have the phone book and her like, and they're all grabbing the payphone and stuff, it's my favorite.

• 22:47George Kamel?

  I loved using the phone book.

• 22:48Rachel Cruze?

  That was just the time, oh man.

• 22:50George Kamel?

  And then 411 was the big thing. You could call 411 to give you the number.

• 22:54Rachel Cruze?

  Give you the info that you need.

• 22:56George Kamel?

  Fun fact, texting was free or discounted after 9pm and on weekends for a while.

• 23:00Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh.

• 23:01George Kamel?

  Go nights and weekends, plan.

• 23:02Rachel Cruze?

  Fancy. Right, next up, we're gonna get healthy and go gym memberships. So they were 70 to a hundred dollars minimum for gym memberships in the 1990s. That's 240 dollars for today's money with inflation. Yeah, definitely considered a luxury. And now you can go to Planet Fitness for 15 bucks. You know, just in and out.

• 23:22George Kamel?

  They've commoditized fitness and there's so much competition now. Back in the day, it was, there was like one gym in my town. It was like Gold's Gym is where you gotta go. And only serious people went there to work out.

• 23:32Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 23:33George Kamel?

  Now, just any old person like me can walk in there.

• 23:35Rachel Cruze?

  Well, that or apps, you know what I mean? Or you can watch free stuff on YouTube, so there's a lot of options.

• 23:40George Kamel?

  I like a lot, you know what I realized about working out? I don't want to see other people do it. It's none of my business to see other people work out. It's why I don't like the gym.

• 23:47Rachel Cruze?

  Actually, I think that's very fair. Yeah, I get that.

• 23:50George Kamel?

  Some things are meant for me and me alone, and that's me working out. I don't want you to look at me, I don't want to look at you.

• 23:55Rachel Cruze?

  You know what, I, yeah. I've worked out now in our garage for so long that I'm like,

• 24:00George Kamel?

  We're in the era of home gym.

• 24:02Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Uh, we were on the Ramsey Cruise and I worked out in the gym like three times that week, I think.

• 24:08George Kamel?

  Brag about it, okay?

• 24:08Rachel Cruze?

  And I, but I went on days that we poured it, so there weren't, it was not busy. It was like maybe one or two people in the whole place. But even with those one or two people, I found myself like, what, like,

• 24:19George Kamel?

  Distracted a little bit.

• 24:20Rachel Cruze?

  There was one woman, she was buff, man, she was killing it. I was like, what is she doing? I want to do what she's doing. So then I find myself like kind of watching her and like, you know, but I had my workout plan. But it's distrac, but all the things, you know what I mean? And you're just like, man.

• 24:31George Kamel?

  I can't focus.

• 24:32Rachel Cruze?

  It's just a lot. But you know, it can be inspiring.

• 24:35George Kamel?

  Sure. I can know what could have been if I just was born in a different body. That's great. And YouTube has a ton of free workouts.

• 24:42Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 24:43George Kamel?

  But there's a lot of options out there today, so that is something that has gone down in price over time.

• 24:47Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. Um, next, computers. So the gateway Solo 2000 cost $3,499 back in 1995. That's $5,776 in today's money. And now you can buy a brand new MacBook Air for a thousand bucks, $999.

• 25:07George Kamel?

  With way more storage and computing power than the computers back then.

• 25:10Rachel Cruze?

  Five times more for what it was before.

• 25:12George Kamel?

  You remember when like a thumb drive was a big deal that you could store like 128 megabytes? Never mind, I'm talking to the wrong person. I'm just gonna abort this entire con. You ever get into a conversation and realize not the target demo?

• 25:24Rachel Cruze?

  I was like, I don't remember that.

• 25:24George Kamel?

  I was like, I have to explain megabytes now versus gigabytes? And then don't even get her started on a terabyte?

• 25:30Rachel Cruze?

  Don't know.

• 25:30George Kamel?

  Can I help you? Or do you not want to know?

• 25:32Rachel Cruze?

  I don't really want to know.

• 25:33George Kamel?

  Okay, no, it's fine.

• 25:34Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, I don't really care.

• 25:35George Kamel?

  Thought the audience might want to learn about megabytes.

• 25:37Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. But you know what I do want to know? When Cozy Earth has some new products.

• 25:43George Kamel?

  You're the target demo for that, for sure.

• 25:44Rachel Cruze?

  Because they have pajamas now for the summer, short sleeves, shorts. It's the same material as my long sleeves and my pants set that I have for the winter. Now they have it in a summer version.

• 25:55George Kamel?

  Oh, the best.

• 25:56Rachel Cruze?

  With a beautiful pattern that actually you got for Whitney. And I saw it on Georgia's ass. I was like, those are cute. And he was like, yeah, they're Whitney's pajamas. I was like, oh, my gosh, give me the name of that pattern because I want to go order them.

• 26:07George Kamel?

  Limited edition.

• 26:08Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, honestly, so Cozy Earth's products, they hold their value.

• 26:11George Kamel?

  The best. I was a hero this Mother's Day because I got my mom a set, got Whitney a set, and I was done. Didn't have to think about it.

• 26:18Rachel Cruze?

  That's it, too. When you know you're getting quality products for people, if it's gifts or yourself.

• 26:22George Kamel?

  Yeah, and they have great stuff for the guys, too. Butter soft sweatshirts and workout gear, athleisure is what the kids call it these days.

• 26:30Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, yeah, no, it's incredible. Yeah. And again, it's the quality that we're looking for because you can go buy dupes and all the things, you know, and we're not mad at that. That's fine. But when you actually go and invest on something that's quality, after you wash it like five times, it still holds up, which is what we're going for.

• 26:46George Kamel?

  I'm in that stage of life, where I'm tired of just buying cheap crap that I have to replace. This is stuff you buy.

• 26:51Rachel Cruze?

  And you find what you like, and it's great.

• 26:53George Kamel?

  And they have a 10-year warranty on their bedding, which is amazing.

• 26:56Rachel Cruze?

  Gosh, so it is. It's amazing.

• 26:57George Kamel?

  Check it out. You'll get up to 40% off when you use the promo code SMARTMONEY at checkout. So go to cozylearth.com/smartmoney or use the link in the description and show notes. All right, next on the list of things that cost less today than they used to, flights.

• 27:12Rachel Cruze?

  Really? Okay.

• 27:13George Kamel?

  Who knew? $288 for a round trip flight in 1990, which is 550 bucks in today's money with inflation. And our writer Savannah just flew round trip to New York City for 130 bucks.

• 27:23Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 27:24George Kamel?

  So I think there's more competition, more budget airlines. That didn't used to exist. You were just stuck with the one airline that flew there.

• 27:30Rachel Cruze?

  Now, that's true. Yes. Yeah, yeah, because there can be some pricey flights, for sure.

• 27:33George Kamel?

  There's more variable pricing now.

• 27:34Rachel Cruze?

  But the variable pricing, you can get a deal if you're looking for it. So, yeah.

• 27:38George Kamel?

  Get this, round trip flights to London are around 500 bucks at the time of this recording.

• 27:43Rachel Cruze?

  No way.

• 27:43George Kamel?

  Should I go to London?

• 27:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. Hello, old pal.

• 27:49George Kamel?

  Wow. That was offensive to all of Europe, not even just London.

• 27:54Rachel Cruze?

  Cheerio.

• 27:54George Kamel?

  Even the Scots are like, no, we don't claim her. What are, what is your descent? Where do you hail from? The Ramsey clan.

• 28:02Rachel Cruze?

  Scotland.

• 28:03George Kamel?

  Mostly Scotland.

• 28:04Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Can I tell you this? So there's a Ramsey castle in Scotland, but it's Ramsay. So Dad went on a kick. Okay, he went on this big kick of like finding your.

• 28:14George Kamel?

  Ancestry and all that.

• 28:15Rachel Cruze?

  So he went on all the things. He got, he, he like, kind of like, was like, you have an Alexa in your house? They're listening to you. I'm like, you sent your DNA to a website to figure out your ancestry. That's a little bit more dangerous in my opinion, but it's fine.

• 28:31George Kamel?

  I love that Dave starts sentences like a 1950 detective. Mersey. Mer, mer.

• 28:37Rachel Cruze?

  I know, but, uh, yeah. So found out all the way back to Scottish and found a Ramsay. R A M S A Y castle, like a small castle out in the middle of whatever. And there's a lord and it was kind of a whole thing.

• 28:53George Kamel?

  Was there a moat? I love a moat.

• 28:55Rachel Cruze?

  Nope, no moat. But we went to it. We went to Scotland like 10 years ago. Of course, we had to go visit the castle and he got the coat of arms. So then it was everywhere for like a solid five years of his life. He put that coat of arms on everything. Oh, man. So, uh, long story short, fast forward to today. And Amelia just said last week to one of our friends that was over, she was like, yeah. My great, great, great grandparents were the king and queen of Scotland.

• 29:24George Kamel?

  Wow, that was the connection she made.

• 29:27Rachel Cruze?

  And I was like, what? She was like, yeah, there was a castle and everything. Papa Dave told me. I was like, oh no. I was like, they weren't the king and queen. It was just like, people had castles then. That was like the architecture of the day.

• 29:41George Kamel?

  But who's going to question her on that?

• 29:42Rachel Cruze?

  I know, but she was very disappointed. I think she got a little embarrassed because I think she told people that.

• 29:47George Kamel?

  But still, you own a castle.

• 29:49Rachel Cruze?

  Great, great grandparents.

• 29:50George Kamel?

  You probably knew the king and queen if you had a castle.

• 29:53Rachel Cruze?

  No, I kind of think they were everywhere. Anyways, we are way off.

• 29:56George Kamel?

  So is middle class have a castle? Is that what you're telling me?

• 29:59Rachel Cruze?

  Flights, flights.

• 30:00George Kamel?

  Wow, yeah, back to flights. I do think, I feel like flights have gotten more expensive in recent. Memory, like every time I go to book.

• 30:08Rachel Cruze?

  But I think the point is you can find a good deal.

• 30:10George Kamel?

  Yes, if you're willing to go for a budget airline or you're flexible with timing, you can fly at 5 a.m. or get in at 2 a.m. There's some deals to be had.

• 30:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yep. All right, last but not least, digital storage. So it would cost $20 for a floppy disk in 2002.

• 30:25George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 30:26Rachel Cruze?

  That's $35 with today's money. And now it's only $9.99 for extra iPhone storage that probably, you know.

• 30:35George Kamel?

  I pay for that.

• 30:35Rachel Cruze?

  That random charge that you get.

• 30:37George Kamel?

  I think mine's 2 terabytes. Now do I get to explain terabytes to you?

• 30:41Rachel Cruze?

  How do you know what your storage is?

• 30:43George Kamel?

  Okay, go to Settings, then click on your name at the top.

• 30:46Rachel Cruze?

  See, senor, got it.

• 30:47George Kamel?

  Then go to iCloud.

• 30:49Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 30:49George Kamel?

  And it'll show you the storage.

• 30:52Rachel Cruze?

  2 terabytes, George?

• 30:53George Kamel?

  Look at you. Well, really, look at Winston. I assume he's the man behind all of this.

• 30:58Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man.

• 31:00George Kamel?

  So a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. You got that?

• 31:03Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 31:04George Kamel?

  And a gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes.

• 31:07Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 31:08George Kamel?

  So mega.

• 31:08Rachel Cruze?

  And what is a, what is a picture?

• 31:11George Kamel?

  A picture could be, I mean, depends on the phone. It could be 13 megabytes for a large, high-quality photo.

• 31:16Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 31:17George Kamel?

  Could be 3 megabytes. But video is what adds up. You're filming like 4K on your phone.

• 31:22Rachel Cruze?

  I bet I beat you on my video storage.

• 31:25George Kamel?

  Oh, that's a good one. So if you go to Storage.

• 31:28Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, yep.

• 31:30George Kamel?

  Wait for it.

• 31:31Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, I see my iCloud photos.

• 31:34George Kamel?

  What do you got?

• 31:35Rachel Cruze?

  What do you have?

• 31:38George Kamel?

  I'm nervous.

• 31:39Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, you ready for mine?

• 31:41George Kamel?

  Yep. What's in your iCloud photos?

• 31:44Rachel Cruze?

  250.7 gigabytes.

• 31:46George Kamel?

  289.

• 31:47Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, I don't feel so bad.

• 31:49George Kamel?

  What about Messages?

• 31:52Rachel Cruze?

  54.

• 31:53George Kamel?

  101.

• 31:54Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, gosh, Backups, 147.

• 31:58George Kamel?

  You've done a lot of back. I'm only at 25 on Backups.

• 32:00Rachel Cruze?

  All right, I'm at iCloud Drive.

• 32:03George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 32:03Rachel Cruze?

  It sounds like a road. Uh, 67.

• 32:09Rachel Cruze?

  67.

• 32:11George Kamel?

  4.6. I don't know what you're storing in your iCloud drive, but there's gotta be some...

• 32:14Rachel Cruze?

  What's happening? And I'm paying for it. I know I am, because I get these Apple random charges. I'm paying for the cloud. I'm paying for terabytes. I'm paying for a lot.

• 32:21George Kamel?

  It's $9.99 for the 2 terabytes.

• 32:24Rachel Cruze?

  But what's in the cloud?

• 32:25George Kamel?

  That's what's in the... It's storing it all in the cloud.

• 32:27Rachel Cruze?

  So I have a lot in the cloud and you don't?

• 32:29George Kamel?

  You're not storing all of that in your phone. Your phone has a different level of storage.

• 32:33Rachel Cruze?

  I thought I have terabytes on my phone.

• 32:35George Kamel?

  No. 2 terabytes is what you have in iCloud.

• 32:38Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, so I have more in the cloud than you do.

• 32:40George Kamel?

  You sent it to heaven. So let's think about Earth and heaven.

• 32:43Rachel Cruze?

  I hear it, but I have more than you, because I have 64.

• 32:46George Kamel?

  How do I explain this? Let me see your phone.

• 32:49Rachel Cruze?

  Never mind, it's fine.

• 32:50George Kamel?

  Capacity on the phone is 256. Available for me is 144. So if you go to Settings and then About, I feel like this is back in my Apple Store employee days, and I'm having to really hold back, be kind, be patient. Keep going. General? General?

• 33:08Rachel Cruze?

  General. About?

• 33:09George Kamel?

  Yep.

• 33:11Rachel Cruze?

  You're doing great. I'd hire you for the Apple Store today.

• 33:14George Kamel?

  And then you see where it says Capacity?

• 33:17Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 33:17George Kamel?

  What does it say?

• 33:18Rachel Cruze?

  512.

• 33:19George Kamel?

  512. So you have double the storage on your physical device. And what do you have available?

• 33:25Rachel Cruze?

  I have a lot on my phone, then.

• 33:27George Kamel?

  Yes.

• 33:27Rachel Cruze?

  A lot of storage.

• 33:28George Kamel?

  What do you have available?

• 33:30Rachel Cruze?

  261.

• 33:31George Kamel?

  You're doing great.

• 33:32Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, I'm halfway there.

• 33:34George Kamel?

  Yep. You don't need to fill it up. It's not that kind of competition.

• 33:37Rachel Cruze?

  It's not a race.

• 33:40George Kamel?

  That was a lot of fun.

• 33:41Rachel Cruze?

  Wow. Well, you know what? We're living in a better world today, y'all. I'm gonna say it.

• 33:44George Kamel?

  Yeah. If you told 10-year-old George, "Hey, you can get 2 terabytes for $10," I'd be like, "They make terabytes now?"

• 33:51Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 33:52George Kamel?

  I cannot tell you how many physical hard drives I have that are like 256GB, 500GB.

• 33:57Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, funny.

• 33:58George Kamel?

  And I thought, "We are living in the future. We're gonna have 500GB on a single hard drive."

• 34:02Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 34:02George Kamel?

  Now that's nothing.

• 34:03Rachel Cruze?

  And my 10-year-old Rachel's friends are like, "We should roll George Kamel." I'm like, "Don't."

• 34:07George Kamel?

  He's worried about megabytes right now. He's going through a lot.

• 34:10Rachel Cruze?

  Don't do it. Don't do it.

• 34:11George Kamel?

  I feel that. All right, we promised the people we would share our versions of this. So we're gonna do a little rapid response and share a few "investments," I put this in quotes, "just things that you own that have stood the test of time and still have held their value."

• 34:24Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 34:24George Kamel?

  So you could sell it today for what you paid for it, if not more.

• 34:27Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, man. I don't know if I know this, but I can try.

• 34:30George Kamel?

  Vintage clothes, purse, shoes?

• 34:33Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, so I'd say our house.

• 34:35George Kamel?

  Great, if this was Family Feud, that'd be number one on the board.

• 34:38Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, honestly, from what we built in 2018 to today.

• 34:44George Kamel?

  That's solid.

• 34:45Rachel Cruze?

  I mean, honestly, I think it's doubled.

• 34:47George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 34:48Rachel Cruze?

  Almost.

• 34:49George Kamel?

  That's amazing.

• 34:49Rachel Cruze?

  Well, yeah, I feel like Nashville would.

• 34:51George Kamel?

  You guys bought in a really great area, too.

• 34:53Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm like, no, it's like insane. Like, we would not be able to afford to live where we live today. Like, if we entered in, we couldn't, we couldn't buy that.

• 35:01George Kamel?

  That's strong.

• 35:02Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 35:02George Kamel?

  Okay, I got one. My guitar.

• 35:05Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, that's good.

• 35:06George Kamel?

  I won it in a songwriting contest. And I think at the time, it was probably $3,000 guitar. I think I could sell it for that today, and that was 12 years ago.

• 35:14Rachel Cruze?

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

• 35:16George Kamel?

  So that's all.

• 35:17Rachel Cruze?

  Winston has a beautiful piano.

• 35:19George Kamel?

  Pianos. They hold their value really well.

• 35:21Rachel Cruze?

  And I think, yeah, we could probably sell it.

• 35:23George Kamel?

  Baby Grand?

• 35:24Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, he got it when he was a teenager.

• 35:27George Kamel?

  What is it, Yamaha?

• 35:28Rachel Cruze?

  No, it's a Kawaii.

• 35:30George Kamel?

  Oh, yeah, that's a good brand.

• 35:31Rachel Cruze?

  Uh huh. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's great, it's great. Well, that's good. Well.

• 35:35George Kamel?

  But most things are gonna go down in value, and that's okay.

• 35:37Rachel Cruze?

  I know. When you use stuff, it does. Yeah.

• 35:39George Kamel?

  But just know, like, it's not worth buying something that's going to immediately plummet. Sometimes it's worth buying used. Or just know your TV that you spent $4,000 on is gonna be worth jack squat five years from now. Because everybody wants the latest and greatest.

• 35:52Rachel Cruze?

  Totally. So I think that's the thing. I think you have to stop living on this high of like, I need the newest. Because that will keep you in this like rat in a wheel mentality for a long time. Because there's so many things. It's the newest thing, right? So whether it's a car, oh, this is the newest model, to fashion, to technology. I'm like, you could constantly be living in that. And if that's your only motivation in life, just to have the newest thing or the latest thing, you're gonna lose a lot of money and satisfaction of quality of life.

• 36:21George Kamel?

  You just run this endless marathon.

• 36:23Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, there's like no contentment in it. So it's not that the stuff is bad. It's fun. Get some great stuff. But, yeah, don't think like, oh, my gosh, everything's gonna be okay if I just have the best. Because the truth is, most things in life that we see go down in value.

• 36:36George Kamel?

  Yep. And no, I mean, it sounds a little bit too deep, but, you know, you can't take it with you. So all the stuff sitting around, like, someone's gonna have to deal with all your crap one day.

• 36:45Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 36:46George Kamel?

  And you thought, like, someone's gonna love my old photos and the old clothing and the... Sometimes, but then sometimes your kids are just like, Mom and Dad are hoarders.

• 36:54Rachel Cruze?

  I know.

• 36:55George Kamel?

  And they left us with a mess.

• 36:56Rachel Cruze?

  That's right.

• 36:57George Kamel?

  And they saved everything just in case. And we don't need the china.

• 37:00Rachel Cruze?

  I know. You know what the minimalists say to do is to take pictures of everything?

• 37:04George Kamel?

  Oh.

• 37:05Rachel Cruze?

  So at least you have like the visual memory of it. And I do think, I am a little bit in the camp of like, there's some things that are sweet to save.

• 37:11George Kamel?

  They're sentimental.

• 37:12Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, like a jewelry or like, you know, you pass things down. Like, I do think there's a time and a place for that. But like, I don't know if your parents were like this, but when we got married, I was given like bins and bins and bins of like artwork from my second grade year. Right, and stuff that, and I do that for my kids. I save my kids' stuff. But I'm like, I never go back and look at it.

• 37:32George Kamel?

  It's fun to look at once every five years.

• 37:34Rachel Cruze?

  I guess, but like what, you know what I mean? Like, there's a, there is a point, what you're saying of like, stuff can just collect over time. And it's like, okay. It's just stuff.

• 37:42George Kamel?

  What are we doing here?

• 37:43Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 37:44George Kamel?

  Oh, you know, I forgot to add this one. Speaking of things that are passed down, the Rolex from Whitney's grandfather who passed.

• 37:49Rachel Cruze?

  We love the Rolex.

• 37:51George Kamel?

  That's what I think is worth, what are the things that you're like, someone, one of my grandkids would fight over this one day? Well, that's something that's probably worth purchasing.

• 37:58Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. Yes, that's a great opening.

• 38:00George Kamel?

  And if not, don't put a lot of thought into it. Just do a little bit of research and go, okay, I'm buying an iPhone cable here. It's not that, I'm talking to myself now. This is therapy for me.

• 38:08Rachel Cruze?

  It's all for you, all for you.

• 38:10George Kamel?

  That's good. And then budgeting for things, make sure you pay cash. Don't go into debt for these things that are gonna go down in value that end up in goodwill. And so use a great budgeting app like EveryDollar to just make a plan for every dollar coming in, every dollar going out. You'll be more intentional and less wasteful.

• 38:23Rachel Cruze?

  For sure.

• 38:24George Kamel?

  So I'll drop a link in the description to EveryDollar if you guys want to check it out.

• 38:27Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, could you imagine going into debt for something? And by the time you pay it off, two new versions have already come out. And you're like, oh my God.

• 38:34George Kamel?

  That's what happens with cars.

• 38:35Rachel Cruze?

  It does, it's so true. Yep.

• 38:37George Kamel?

  And iPhones.

• 38:38Rachel Cruze?

  No fun.

• 38:39George Kamel?

  And now Klarna and DoorDash and all, financing a burrito, this, we've, we've lost our minds.

• 38:44Rachel Cruze?

  Where are we?

• 38:45George Kamel?

  Vacations, this is happening with Disney.

• 38:47Rachel Cruze?

  Coachella, did you see that?

• 38:48George Kamel?

  Coachella, festivals.

• 38:49Rachel Cruze?

  Like, a high percentage of people at Coachella.

• 38:50George Kamel?

  It used to be physical stuff, now it's experiences. So it feels like you can justify it with, I'm gonna make this amazing memory.

• 38:56Rachel Cruze?

  Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:57George Kamel?

  Don't do it.

• 38:58Rachel Cruze?

  But then you leave with a bunch of debt. Not good. All right, before we spill the tea on our guilty as charged segment, tell us about the drink, George.

• 39:05George Kamel?

  This is the Godfather. And like you said, it tastes like an old man drink.

• 39:10Rachel Cruze?

  It does, it's like an old man drink.

• 39:11George Kamel?

  I'm, I think you really enjoyed it. My rating on this one, let me give one more sip.

• 39:18George Kamel?

  I'm gonna go 8.5 out of 10.

• 39:23Rachel Cruze?

  Man, so I'm gonna go 8 out of 10 because I would have a specific situation that I would order it. It would not be a go-to cocktail like some of the others we've had.

• 39:34George Kamel?

  And why is that?

• 39:36Rachel Cruze?

  Hmm, I don't know. It's a little unique.

• 39:40George Kamel?

  I'll tell you why.

• 39:40Rachel Cruze?

  I don't want this before dinner.

• 39:43George Kamel?

  Okay.

• 39:44Rachel Cruze?

  This would be like an after. If we all did dinner and everyone's like, "Hey."

• 39:47George Kamel?

  Kind of a late-night drink.

• 39:49Rachel Cruze?

  Let's stay and like, "I'll pour something," and they poured this, I'd be so happy.

• 39:53George Kamel?

  Perfect. That's a great scenario. I wish that happens to you. You know, New York City, late night, with friends.

• 40:01Rachel Cruze?

  I didn't say New York, but sure.

• 40:03George Kamel?

  So The Godfather costs $2.71 per drink. The ingredients are Amaretto, which is like an almond liqueur, Scotch, and Angostura bitters. So that's where it got knocked down a peg. I'm not a big Scotch guy. And the peatiness, which is kind of that tire-fire taste you get in there.

• 40:23Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 40:23George Kamel?

  It takes me a while to get over that.

• 40:25Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 40:26George Kamel?

  But as the ice is sat, it's actually a lot better now.

• 40:28Rachel Cruze?

  Mm-hmm. It's watered down a little.

• 40:30George Kamel?

  It's still a great one. It's probably the best Scotch cocktail I've had. So if you want the recipe, it's in the show notes. Give it a try this weekend and let us know what you think.

• 40:37Rachel Cruze?

  So great. All right, now it's time for

• 40:40George Kamel?

  Guilty as charged.

• 40:42Rachel 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, have you ever bought anything that was once worth way more than it is today?

• 40:56George Kamel?

  Oh, my goodness. I'm gonna rattle a few off that are just the most egregious to me because when I spent the money, it was a big investment for me. And here's the thing, in my head, I went, "I'm gonna use this so much, it's gonna ROI."

• 41:10Rachel Cruze?

  Okay, that's good.

• 41:12George Kamel?

  Here's one: my Canon video camera.

• 41:15Rachel Cruze?

  Yes.

• 41:16George Kamel?

  So it's a big DSLR, but it does video too.

• 41:19Rachel Cruze?

  Yep.

• 41:19George Kamel?

  It was the D70, if you know your cameras, if you know, you know. And I thought I'm gonna be a vlogger, YouTuber, I'm gonna make a lot of money off of this doing gigs. It's been sitting and for what I paid for it, I went to go sell it.

• 41:33Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah.

• 41:33George Kamel?

  And I went, oh my gosh, I think I bought it for like a thousand dollars.

• 41:36Rachel Cruze?

  No.

• 41:37George Kamel?

  I went on eBay, they're selling for like a hundred and fifty dollars.

• 41:40Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah, shoot.

• 41:41George Kamel?

  And then same with the GoPro. I thought I'm gonna be Mr. Adventure, I'm gonna strap this GoPro to every... I got like the waterproof...

• 41:48Rachel Cruze?

  When I think adventure, I think George Campbell.

• 41:51George Kamel?

  I got all the gear to go with it. I was like, I might strap it to my head, I might strap it to my chest, I need all the gear.

• 41:56Rachel Cruze?

  Oh my gosh.

• 41:57George Kamel?

  What if I'm in the water? I need a floating. So I bought all the gear, I ended up giving it to Deloney's son.

• 42:02Rachel Cruze?

  The GoPro camera. I forgot about that.

• 42:05George Kamel?

  And from what I paid for it, which was probably five or six hundred bucks, it's worth a hundred bucks now if I'm lucky.

• 42:09Rachel Cruze?

  Okay.

• 42:10George Kamel?

  And then lastly was the, uh, my iMac. I went to go, I was like, I don't use this iMac, the desktop Mac.

• 42:17Rachel Cruze?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:18George Kamel?

  You know, from back in the day. I went to go sell it, I was like, oh, people don't want a fifteen-year-old computer, why not?

• 42:24Rachel Cruze?

  Why would you not?

• 42:25George Kamel?

  It still works great.

• 42:26Rachel Cruze?

  Why would you not want this?

• 42:26George Kamel?

  So there's some embarrassing things that I... Technology is where I go wrong.

• 42:30Rachel Cruze?

  Technology's big. I bought an underwater camera when I was like in high school.

• 42:36George Kamel?

  Cause you were big into... You're Scuba certified.

• 42:38Rachel Cruze?

  I am, I am Scuba certified.

• 42:39George Kamel?

  Dave Ramsey told me this. I did not know this about you. And he was bragging, he was the proudest I've ever seen of... He was like, oh Rachel was at... She was twelve years old.

• 42:46Rachel Cruze?

  Uh, well, they changed the age that you could do it. So it was like sixteen and they went down to thirteen. When I turned thirteen. And Dad is a big... I will say that about my parents. This is one thing, Mom and Dad, it was such a gift. They were not anxious people. Like Mom and Dad with adventure, it was like, you would snow ski, water ski. I mean, we did stuff all the time. And there was never this like nervousness. And so Dad scuba dived and Mom scuba dived. And they changed the age to thirteen. When I turned thirteen, Dad was like, you wanna get scuba dived? Like, or certified to be scuba dived? I was like, yeah. And Denise was nervous, so she said no. Um, so I did, I was like, sure, I'll do it. So you gotta go to a quarry to do your open water dive.

• 43:30Rachel Cruze?

  And that means you had to spend two days with an instructor and you had to go down. And they made you take off your mask in the water. You had to take out your regulator, you had to take off everything. You had to basically go through the whole procedure. If everything went wrong, could you get back and be okay? Like, could you put it all back on, take the regulator, clear it, get your extra regulator? You had to have a partner regulator. I mean, it was the whole thing, y'all. It was like an intense, and I was 13. Did it all.

• 43:54George Kamel?

  Flying colors.

• 43:55Rachel Cruze?

  Yeah. And, uh, yeah, and I scuba dived for years because dad would on trips. So I'd go out with him and that was like our thing.

• 44:04George Kamel?

  Can you still do it in your mid 30s? Like today, if you jumped in right now?

• 44:07Rachel Cruze?

  No, no. So we went, when I, we went probably like six years ago. And I got probably 40 feet down and I, it wasn't a full-on panic attack by any means. But I started like breathing through this. And I'm like, I have property tax to pay. Like I have children.

• 44:26George Kamel?

  As an adult now.

• 44:27Rachel Cruze?

  I have things to do on this earth.

• 44:29George Kamel?

  Did I update my will lately?

• 44:30Rachel Cruze?

  And I am down here with fish. Like, that's what I'm doing. I'm with fish. For what? My life? Nope. And I tapped out and they did this whole thing where you're like, not okay, I'm going up. And you have to, but you have to, you have to take your time to go up because your lungs.

• 44:47George Kamel?

  You got the bends. Dave told me about the bends.

• 44:50Rachel Cruze?

  Yes, so it's a, it's a whole thing, y'all. And I haven't been back since. So as an adult, the fear sets in. You know, but as a kid, just go, I don't know.

• 44:59George Kamel?

  So back to the question at hand, did you ever use the waterproof camera?

• 45:03Rachel Cruze?

  Yes. But you had to go get it developed at Walgreens, so it was great. Um, okay, next, yeah. And then my other one would be my first designer purse I ever bought. And I still have it. I want to, I should put it on Poshmark and see how much it would go for.

• 45:18George Kamel?

  But you're saying it's not worth what it was?

• 45:20Rachel Cruze?

  Well, it was a Tori Burch. I don't know if Tori Burch is considered a designer. Oh, I'm getting some, I'm getting some drugs.

• 45:27George Kamel?

  That's embarrassing.

• 45:28Rachel Cruze?

  It was. It was my first big purchase as an adult. And it was this big bag and it was like a Robins egg blue kind of color. And I don't, I don't think it's probably worth what it was.

• 45:39George Kamel?

  Wow.

• 45:40Rachel Cruze?

  I know. That's the only one I can think of. That and my underwater camera. So that's all I got, George.

• 45:46George Kamel?

  Big life regrets over here. Thanks for being vulnerable with us, Rachel. And be sure to send us your guilty as charged questions via DM on Instagram. We'd love to add it to the list. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a review. Hit the like button, share this with a friend. And if you liked this episode, you're going to love this next one coming up. What Will It Cost To Live In 40 Years? We dug into the details. We're going to also link it in the description below for you to check out.

• 46:09Rachel Cruze?

  Yep. So we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all new episode of

• 46:12George Kamel?

  Smart Money Happy Hour.