Pod Insights Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel Is Anything Actually Cheaper in 2025? Let's Find Out! About this episode 📈 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.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
1:58 George 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.
2:04 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
2:04 George Kamel? So it's a give and take.
2:05 Rachel 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.
2:12 George 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.
2:27 Rachel 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.
2:33 George Kamel? College, housing, cars.
2:36 Rachel Cruze? A lot of them.
2:36 George Kamel? Just the main things in life that we need. That's all.
2:39 Rachel Cruze? It's just a lot. But for, just to be on the happy side, George, you know what I mean?
2:43 George Kamel? We need some good news.
2:44 Rachel 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.
2:53 George Kamel? This is a silver lining episode.
2:55 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
2:56 George Kamel? That's what it is.
2:56 Rachel Cruze? Brought to you by Rachel Cruz.
2:58 George Kamel? Okay.
2:58 Rachel Cruze? Because George would live in the sadness if he could.
3:01 George Kamel? That's just with my musical taste.
3:02 Rachel Cruze? The depressive state of life.
3:04 George 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.
3:09 Rachel Cruze? Were you considered emo from like in high school?
3:11 George Kamel? A hundred percent.
3:12 Rachel Cruze? Oh, man.
3:13 George Kamel? Not, I was not, like, I'm gonna have my...
3:15 Rachel Cruze? I was gonna say, did you have this, yeah, the sweep?
3:17 George Kamel? No, I didn't wear makeup. It wasn't like goth.
3:19 Rachel Cruze? Eyeliner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:20 George Kamel? I was dashboard confessional emo.
3:22 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
3:23 George Kamel? That's the genre of emo I was.
3:24 Rachel Cruze? Okay, I got it.
3:25 George Kamel? More pop punk acoustic vibes.
3:28 Rachel Cruze? Yeah. How about Blink-182?
3:29 George Kamel? Huge number one for me.
3:31 Rachel Cruze? Wow.
3:32 George Kamel? Yeah.
3:32 Rachel Cruze? All right, I got the vibe.
3:33 George Kamel? That was the concert I was willing to pay 300 something dollars for.
3:37 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
3:37 George Kamel? You couldn't get me out of the house for any band.
3:40 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
3:40 George Kamel? For that kind of money, except Blink.
3:42 Rachel 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.
3:51 George Kamel? Wow.
3:51 Rachel Cruze? Pop, it's exciting, it's short-lived, but it's great.
3:55 George Kamel? That sums up Rachel. I love it. Well, we're kicking it off here on the list with music.
4:01 Rachel Cruze? Music.
4:02 George 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.
4:13 Rachel 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.
4:29 George Kamel? Wow.
4:30 Rachel Cruze? Which had what, probably twelve songs, ten songs if you're lucky?
4:33 George Kamel? Yeah.
4:34 Rachel Cruze? I mean, that's like twenty songs for fifty bucks.
4:37 George Kamel? That's how they made their money back then.
4:38 Rachel Cruze? I know, CD sales, man.
4:40 George 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.
4:45 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, for sure.
4:46 George Kamel? Six hundred bucks a year.
4:47 Rachel Cruze? Mariah, hashtag Mariah Carey.
4:49 George Kamel? And then came the ninety-nine cent songs from iTunes. That was a big revolution.
4:53 Rachel Cruze? Yes, that was.
4:54 George Kamel? Thousand songs in your pocket. I remember the old advertising for that.
4:57 Rachel 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.
5:04 George 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.
5:10 Rachel Cruze? Oh, good point. I didn't think about that.
5:12 George Kamel? Yeah.
5:13 Rachel Cruze? And you had to buy the whole CD. You don't have an option back then.
5:15 George Kamel? And you just skipped that song, man.
5:17 Rachel 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.
5:27 George 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.
5:38 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
5:38 George Kamel? Thirty percent went to Apple.
5:40 Rachel Cruze? Oh, wow. Okay.
5:42 George Kamel? And that's if you just do it straight to Apple. If you have middlemen, labels, you know, you get way less.
5:46 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, your managers, glad we're not artists, George.
5:48 George Kamel? I'm, trust me, I'm very thankful to have gainful employment.
5:52 Rachel Cruze? Oh, man.
5:53 George Kamel? But nowadays.
5:53 Rachel Cruze? Okay, Winston does Apple Music.
5:56 George Kamel? Oh, wow.
5:57 Rachel Cruze? I know, and I do Spotify.
5:58 George Kamel? I'm a Spotify man.
6:00 Rachel Cruze? Okay, why did you say, oh, wow? What's the difference?
6:01 George Kamel? I just, I thought more of him. I don't know.
6:05 Rachel Cruze? Is the platform just bad?
6:07 George Kamel? Here's my take.
6:08 Rachel Cruze? It's not user friendly?
6:09 George 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.
6:16 Rachel Cruze? They're more of a technology company, the most, right?
6:18 George 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.
6:24 Rachel Cruze? Well, Spotify's starting-
6:25 George Kamel? And this is coming from an Apple fanboy.
6:26 Rachel Cruze? And Spotify's starting to play video. They're playing The Ramsey Show now. Video. They're adding some video to it.
6:30 George Kamel? You could be watching right now.
6:32 Rachel Cruze? Are you on Spotify right now?
6:33 George Kamel? Shout out.
6:35 George Kamel? You're welcome. You made it.
6:36 Rachel Cruze? Watching us right now. That's amazing.
6:38 George Kamel? You made it. You and Samantha Mumbau.
6:38 Rachel Cruze? That's amazing.
6:39 George 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.
6:48 Rachel Cruze? Anything on demand is insane. Like-
6:51 George Kamel? You had to listen to the radio, record it to your boombox-
6:54 Rachel Cruze? Oh.
6:54 George 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.
7:00 Rachel Cruze? Well, or you missed the first 15 seconds, because you had to run up and-
7:04 George Kamel? Oh, yeah.
7:05 Rachel 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?
7:15 George Kamel? VHS?
7:16 Rachel Cruze? Yeah. And we started recording music videos on VH1.
7:20 George Kamel? Oh.
7:21 Rachel 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.
7:28 George 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.
7:36 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
7:37 George Kamel? I only at my friend's house.
7:38 Rachel Cruze? Wow.
7:39 George Kamel? Who watched TRL on MTV. Remember that?
7:42 Rachel 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.
7:56 George Kamel? So nostalgic.
7:57 Rachel Cruze? Oh, my gosh. Okay.
7:57 George Kamel? So there's some good news, is that music costs way less.
8:00 Rachel Cruze? Oh, my gosh. Next one is my favorite.
8:01 George Kamel? All right.
8:02 Rachel Cruze? This is how I cheated in high school. Are you ready for this?
8:04 George Kamel? It's a weird disclaimer, but I love it. All right.
8:06 Rachel 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.
8:24 George Kamel? On a calculator.
8:25 Rachel Cruze? On a calculator, okay. Now, the T9s that we had to buy for high school and stuff. I mean, I think those were.
8:31 George Kamel? They were really expensive.
8:31 Rachel 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.
8:41 George Kamel? It's on your phone. And the new one, have you seen the new Apple iPhone calculator got updated?
8:45 Rachel Cruze? No.
8:46 George Kamel? They have like a little like advanced tab. Oh, boy, you could spend a whole day in there, Rachel.
8:50 Rachel Cruze? What does that mean?
8:52 George Kamel? You can do like advanced calculations and it saves all your previous calculations.
8:55 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
8:56 George Kamel? So you can go back.
8:57 Rachel Cruze? Okay. What's an advanced calculation versus another calculation?
9:00 George Kamel? Just think fancy stuff.
9:01 Rachel Cruze? T9 stuff.
9:02 George Kamel? Exactly.
9:03 Rachel Cruze? Okay. I did see you can, and this may be in the new calculator, you can do currency exchanges on the calculator.
9:10 George Kamel? Wow.
9:11 Rachel 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.
9:23 George Kamel? Interesting.
9:23 Rachel Cruze? On your calculator.
9:24 George 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.
9:29 Rachel Cruze? It's true. All right, ready for this one?
9:31 George Kamel? All right.
9:31 Rachel Cruze? Photos. So you used to have to get your pictures developed. Do you remember going to Walgreens and doing that?
9:37 George Kamel? Yep.
9:38 Rachel Cruze? And it would be $3 to $6 at Walgreens in the 90s. And now, pictures are free via the iPhone.
9:46 George Kamel? Oh, yeah, that's true.
9:47 Rachel Cruze? It's like flying first class and like the drinks are free.
9:49 George Kamel? But you have a physical version of it. So that you're getting something in return for your five bucks.
9:56 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, or you can just print off your picture from your home printer.
9:58 George Kamel? Do you still keep a lot of your photos you used to get developed?
10:01 Rachel Cruze? Uh, I think I have a, yes, I think I have a box full of old albums and stuff.
10:05 George Kamel? Do you ever scan them in and digitize them so that you have them forever? Or is that not?
10:09 Rachel Cruze? That sounds terrible.
10:10 George Kamel? Yeah, it sounds like something you're not gonna do.
10:11 Rachel Cruze? No, that sounds terrible.
10:12 George Kamel? It sounds like a Winston project.
10:13 Rachel Cruze? That sounds terrible.
10:15 George Kamel? All right.
10:15 Rachel Cruze? No, I'm not doing that.
10:16 George 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?
10:36 George Kamel? Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Is it charity? Is it a ministry?
10:43 George Kamel? Did you swallow a piece of ice?
10:46 Rachel 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.
10:56 George Kamel? You think I have photos from Homecoming? I didn't go. Who would go?
11:00 Rachel Cruze? Oh, George.
11:01 George Kamel? Yeah.
11:02 Rachel Cruze? I'm sorry.
11:03 George Kamel? It's okay.
11:04 Rachel Cruze? I don't know if we'd be friends in high school.
11:05 George Kamel? We would definitely not be friends in high school.
11:07 Rachel Cruze? I'm just kidding. I was friendliest. I'd be friends with everyone.
11:10 George Kamel? Yeah, but that's like you having pity.
11:14 Rachel Cruze? No.
11:14 George Kamel? You know what I mean? Like, guys, be nice to him. He's a good, he's a good guy.
11:18 Rachel Cruze? No, stop it, George. I was, I, I appreciated everybody.
11:21 George Kamel? Okay, can I just say this about the photos before we move on?
11:23 Rachel Cruze? Gosh, yeah, sorry.
11:24 George Kamel? I think we've lost something with the iPhone photos.
11:28 Rachel Cruze? Because you don't get any more of just like the blinker.
11:30 George Kamel? Well, when you take a photo with a physical camera and you get it developed, you taking that photo mattered.
11:37 Rachel Cruze? That's what I'm saying, yeah.
11:38 George 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.
11:48 Rachel Cruze? Totally.
11:48 George Kamel? They don't want to go through 10,000 photos and screenshots of recipes. That's what our kids are really gonna get.
11:54 Rachel Cruze? 100%.
11:54 George Kamel? No more grandma's recipe book. It's just like, I think that's a screenshot from Pinterest.
11:58 Rachel Cruze? I know. George said it. It's so true, though.
12:00 George Kamel? There's an ad for socks that's tied in here, okay.
12:02 Rachel Cruze? And can I tell you this? The adrenaline I would get to go to Walgreens to pick up that, that envelope.
12:08 George Kamel? You were so excited.
12:09 Rachel Cruze? To go through them from the spring break trip.
12:12 George Kamel? See if there's any good ones.
12:13 Rachel Cruze? Just to, just to relive it, you know, four days after. Like, just felt magical. And now you just, you re, you.
12:20 George Kamel? And it felt like, oh, you have.
12:21 Rachel Cruze? You never go back, I never go back to pictures anymore.
12:24 George Kamel? No.
12:24 Rachel Cruze? You know what I mean? Where back then, it, yeah, it's just.
12:26 George Kamel? And you needed to actually have a moment to take a physical photo. There had to be something worth taking a picture of.
12:32 Rachel 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?
12:38 George Kamel? Oh, fancy.
12:40 Rachel Cruze? Yep, and every picture had two, and then you would separate them.
12:44 George Kamel? You know who's keeping the photos alive? The school picture scammers.
12:48 Rachel Cruze? I'm sorry, what?
12:48 George Kamel? They're single-handedly keeping the physical photo alive. School picture day. It's highway robbery.
12:55 Rachel Cruze? Oh, yeah.
12:56 George 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.
12:59 Rachel 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.
13:08 George Kamel? So that's what a good mom looks like.
13:09 Rachel 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.
13:19 George Kamel? With the watermark on it still? And you go, good enough.
13:26 Rachel 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?
13:35 George Kamel? Was this a Ramsey tradition?
13:37 Rachel Cruze? No, this was like a, maybe this is a southern thing? Or a parent, I don't know.
13:41 George Kamel? Things were different in the north.
13:42 Rachel Cruze? Okay, well, they would have your official senior picture in the middle, and then every school of picture around it.
13:48 George Kamel? From like 10 years?
13:49 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, every, yes, my parents, yes.
13:51 George Kamel? I don't want to see that evolution.
13:53 Rachel Cruze? No, it's, yeah.
13:53 George Kamel? You just see the loss of joy and innocence over time.
13:56 Rachel 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.
14:06 George Kamel? Wow.
14:07 Rachel Cruze? I know. It's probably not great. I'm kind of regretting that.
14:11 George 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.
14:29 Rachel Cruze? All right, let's keep going.
14:31 George 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.
14:43 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, that's wild.
14:44 George Kamel? And now your doorbell has a camera in it.
14:46 Rachel Cruze? Oh.
14:46 George Kamel? What a time to be alive.
14:47 Rachel 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.
14:56 George Kamel? Now you get that video uploaded to the neighborhood Facebook page. There's a warrant out for your arrest.
15:00 Rachel Cruze? It is so sad for those kids. Would you be the parent that would take your kids rolling?
15:05 George Kamel? I don't even know what that is.
15:07 Rachel Cruze? Rolling?
15:07 George Kamel? Like toilet paper in the trees, that whole thing?
15:10 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
15:10 George Kamel? No, I think that's a terrible thing to do to someone.
15:13 Rachel Cruze? Oh.
15:14 George Kamel? Cause then it rains and it gets all clumped up there.
15:17 Rachel 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.
15:21 George Kamel? I don't know what kinda Clarissa explains it all, lifestyle you led.
15:25 Rachel 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.
15:33 George Kamel? What a life. What a privilege and luxury it is to have the cool mom taking you to prank people.
15:40 Rachel 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.
15:47 George Kamel? Wow.
15:48 Rachel Cruze? You never went rolling?
15:49 George 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.
15:55 Rachel Cruze? Okay, okay.
15:56 George Kamel? I'm, I'm not a fan of like pranks. It, to me, it's just bullying, but under another name.
16:01 Rachel 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.
16:16 George Kamel? So you only did it to the most popular kids?
16:18 Rachel Cruze? And it was always for the opposite sex. Like you'd go roll a boy's house.
16:22 George Kamel? Okay.
16:23 Rachel Cruze? Or if you got rolled, it was a bunch of guys coming to your house.
16:25 George Kamel? Got it.
16:26 Rachel Cruze? You know what I mean?
16:27 George Kamel? Yeah.
16:27 Rachel 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?
16:33 George Kamel? Well, I think regardless, someone's gotta clean that. You gotta get a ladder up there.
16:36 Rachel Cruze? Well, it's usually the parents. I mean, I hate to say it. Or it just fades away with the rain.
16:39 George 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.
16:47 Rachel 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?
16:54 George Kamel? First of all, she's friends with a Jared? Red flag.
16:57 Rachel Cruze? Jarrett.
16:58 George Kamel? Jarrett?
16:59 Rachel Cruze? I don't know.
16:59 George Kamel? That's even worse.
17:02 George Kamel? No, I would say you need to find better friends, honey.
17:06 George 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.
17:14 Rachel Cruze? Oh my gosh.
17:16 George 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.
17:22 Rachel Cruze? No, even you roll, you roll at night when businesses are closed. All right.
17:27 George Kamel? This is exhausting. Well, here's the deal.
17:30 Rachel Cruze? Well, George is very happy about ringing doorbells because there's no ding dong ditching or rolling.
17:36 George Kamel? That's right. And Rachel, you know, I'm not a ring guy. You know what I am now?
17:39 Rachel Cruze? No.
17:40 George Kamel? I'm a Simply Safe guy.
17:41 Rachel Cruze? You are.
17:42 George Kamel? I got Simply Safe set up, I love it.
17:43 Rachel Cruze? And you love it.
17:44 George Kamel? It's great.
17:45 Rachel Cruze? So good, so easy.
17:46 George Kamel? It's built in, it's all the alarms on the doors and the windows and the cameras, it's fantastic.
17:49 Rachel Cruze? That's amazing. You know what else helps keep you safe?
17:51 George Kamel? What's that?
17:52 Rachel Cruze? On the internet is Delete Me.
17:53 George Kamel? Now, that one I can get behind.
17:54 Rachel 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.
18:12 George 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.
18:24 Rachel Cruze? It's crazy.
18:25 George Kamel? And so you gotta protect yourself, and Delete Me can help you protect yourself from all of these risks.
18:29 Rachel 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.
18:41 George 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.
18:48 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, it's incredible, yeah.
18:49 George Kamel? For this online surveillance. And there's a team of physical people going in, removing all of your info for you.
18:54 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
18:55 George 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.
19:05 Rachel 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.
19:11 George Kamel? Gross.
19:12 Rachel 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.
19:25 George Kamel? That's right. So go to joindelete.me/smartmoney or use the link in the description to get that 20% off.
19:30 Rachel Cruze? All right, next, a girl's best friend, diamonds.
19:34 George Kamel? I thought you were gonna say Jarrett.
19:37 George Kamel? You know Jarrett's getting friend zoned.
19:39 Rachel 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.
19:56 George Kamel? Wow.
19:56 Rachel 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.
20:08 George 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.
20:17 Rachel Cruze? Mm-hmm, yes.
20:18 George Kamel? You know, moissanite or a gem or whatever it may be. So that's helped cut down the cost.
20:22 Rachel 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.
20:34 George Kamel? Can I, can I get a peek?
20:34 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, uh-huh.
20:35 George Kamel? I can, I can tell the difference.
20:37 Rachel 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.
20:43 George Kamel? Wow, they look great to me.
20:44 Rachel Cruze? I'm pretty sure. My weddings, my wedding ring and two bands are real and I think those are lab grown.
20:50 George Kamel? What I want to know is where are these three little diamonds today? So little. How do they do it?
20:57 Rachel Cruze? I don't know. I don't know. But isn't it pretty?
20:59 George Kamel? Very, great job.
21:00 Rachel 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.
21:04 George Kamel? Honestly, I don't think anyone passing by would ever notice.
21:07 Rachel Cruze? No, no, I know.
21:08 George Kamel? It's really just you.
21:09 Rachel Cruze? But yeah, when we just read that, I was like, I think that this ring is lab grown.
21:12 George 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.
21:27 Rachel Cruze? No, that is true.
21:28 George Kamel? Payphones, remember this?
21:30 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
21:31 George Kamel? A whole quarter per call in the 1990s, I remember that.
21:33 Rachel Cruze? 25 cents.
21:35 George Kamel? Before the age of cellphones, I had to go to the school payphone and make a call.
21:38 Rachel Cruze? Y'all had a payphone in your school?
21:39 George Kamel? Yeah.
21:40 Rachel Cruze? I don't know if we had one in our school, I think we had to go to the office.
21:42 George Kamel? The kind of technology we had in Dedham, Massachusetts.
21:44 Rachel Cruze? Unbelievable.
21:46 George Kamel? And then texting used to be limited to characters, T9, remember any T9 words?
21:51 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
21:52 George Kamel? That was a tough time.
21:53 Rachel Cruze? No.
21:54 George Kamel? It was like learning a different language.
21:55 Rachel Cruze? That was a lot of punching, punching some buttons.
21:58 George Kamel? Yeah, dexterity with the thumbs there.
21:59 Rachel Cruze? Yep.
22:00 George Kamel? Used to cost around 10 to 20 cents for every SMS sent.
22:02 Rachel Cruze? Is that not crazy?
22:03 George Kamel? I remember rationing my texts.
22:04 Rachel Cruze? Could you imagine paying 20 cents for every text you send?
22:08 George 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.
22:14 Rachel Cruze? Wow.
22:16 George 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.
22:23 Rachel Cruze? Well, I do it and then I have another, I do it and then I have another thought and then I'm...
22:27 George Kamel? And then the group chats, we could get rid of group chats entirely if it cost you money.
22:30 Rachel Cruze? Those are tough.
22:31 George Kamel? You send a meme, it better cost you a dollar and it better be worth the laugh.
22:33 Rachel Cruze? Wow.
22:34 George Kamel? I'm tired of your memes and gifs.
22:36 Rachel 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.
22:47 George Kamel? I loved using the phone book.
22:48 Rachel Cruze? That was just the time, oh man.
22:50 George Kamel? And then 411 was the big thing. You could call 411 to give you the number.
22:54 Rachel Cruze? Give you the info that you need.
22:56 George Kamel? Fun fact, texting was free or discounted after 9pm and on weekends for a while.
23:00 Rachel Cruze? Oh my gosh.
23:01 George Kamel? Go nights and weekends, plan.
23:02 Rachel 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.
23:22 George 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.
23:32 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
23:33 George Kamel? Now, just any old person like me can walk in there.
23:35 Rachel 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.
23:40 George 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.
23:47 Rachel Cruze? Actually, I think that's very fair. Yeah, I get that.
23:50 George 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.
23:55 Rachel Cruze? You know what, I, yeah. I've worked out now in our garage for so long that I'm like,
24:00 George Kamel? We're in the era of home gym.
24:02 Rachel Cruze? Yeah. Uh, we were on the Ramsey Cruise and I worked out in the gym like three times that week, I think.
24:08 George Kamel? Brag about it, okay?
24:08 Rachel 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,
24:19 George Kamel? Distracted a little bit.
24:20 Rachel 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.
24:31 George Kamel? I can't focus.
24:32 Rachel Cruze? It's just a lot. But you know, it can be inspiring.
24:35 George 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.
24:42 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, for sure.
24:43 George Kamel? But there's a lot of options out there today, so that is something that has gone down in price over time.
24:47 Rachel 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.
25:07 George Kamel? With way more storage and computing power than the computers back then.
25:10 Rachel Cruze? Five times more for what it was before.
25:12 George 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?
25:24 Rachel Cruze? I was like, I don't remember that.
25:24 George Kamel? I was like, I have to explain megabytes now versus gigabytes? And then don't even get her started on a terabyte?
25:30 Rachel Cruze? Don't know.
25:30 George Kamel? Can I help you? Or do you not want to know?
25:32 Rachel Cruze? I don't really want to know.
25:33 George Kamel? Okay, no, it's fine.
25:34 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, I don't really care.
25:35 George Kamel? Thought the audience might want to learn about megabytes.
25:37 Rachel Cruze? Yeah. But you know what I do want to know? When Cozy Earth has some new products.
25:43 George Kamel? You're the target demo for that, for sure.
25:44 Rachel 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.
25:55 George Kamel? Oh, the best.
25:56 Rachel 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.
26:07 George Kamel? Limited edition.
26:08 Rachel Cruze? I mean, honestly, so Cozy Earth's products, they hold their value.
26:11 George 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.
26:18 Rachel Cruze? That's it, too. When you know you're getting quality products for people, if it's gifts or yourself.
26:22 George 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.
26:30 Rachel 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.
26:46 George 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.
26:51 Rachel Cruze? And you find what you like, and it's great.
26:53 George Kamel? And they have a 10-year warranty on their bedding, which is amazing.
26:56 Rachel Cruze? Gosh, so it is. It's amazing.
26:57 George 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.
27:12 Rachel Cruze? Really? Okay.
27:13 George 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.
27:23 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
27:24 George 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.
27:30 Rachel Cruze? Now, that's true. Yes. Yeah, yeah, because there can be some pricey flights, for sure.
27:33 George Kamel? There's more variable pricing now.
27:34 Rachel Cruze? But the variable pricing, you can get a deal if you're looking for it. So, yeah.
27:38 George Kamel? Get this, round trip flights to London are around 500 bucks at the time of this recording.
27:43 Rachel Cruze? No way.
27:43 George Kamel? Should I go to London?
27:45 Rachel Cruze? Yes. Hello, old pal.
27:49 George Kamel? Wow. That was offensive to all of Europe, not even just London.
27:54 Rachel Cruze? Cheerio.
27:54 George 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.
28:02 Rachel Cruze? Scotland.
28:03 George Kamel? Mostly Scotland.
28:04 Rachel 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.
28:14 George Kamel? Ancestry and all that.
28:15 Rachel 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.
28:31 George Kamel? I love that Dave starts sentences like a 1950 detective. Mersey. Mer, mer.
28:37 Rachel 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.
28:53 George Kamel? Was there a moat? I love a moat.
28:55 Rachel 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.
29:24 George Kamel? Wow, that was the connection she made.
29:27 Rachel 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.
29:41 George Kamel? But who's going to question her on that?
29:42 Rachel Cruze? I know, but she was very disappointed. I think she got a little embarrassed because I think she told people that.
29:47 George Kamel? But still, you own a castle.
29:49 Rachel Cruze? Great, great grandparents.
29:50 George Kamel? You probably knew the king and queen if you had a castle.
29:53 Rachel Cruze? No, I kind of think they were everywhere. Anyways, we are way off.
29:56 George Kamel? So is middle class have a castle? Is that what you're telling me?
29:59 Rachel Cruze? Flights, flights.
30:00 George 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.
30:08 Rachel Cruze? But I think the point is you can find a good deal.
30:10 George 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.
30:17 Rachel Cruze? Yep. All right, last but not least, digital storage. So it would cost $20 for a floppy disk in 2002.
30:25 George Kamel? Wow.
30:26 Rachel Cruze? That's $35 with today's money. And now it's only $9.99 for extra iPhone storage that probably, you know.
30:35 George Kamel? I pay for that.
30:35 Rachel Cruze? That random charge that you get.
30:37 George Kamel? I think mine's 2 terabytes. Now do I get to explain terabytes to you?
30:41 Rachel Cruze? How do you know what your storage is?
30:43 George Kamel? Okay, go to Settings, then click on your name at the top.
30:46 Rachel Cruze? See, senor, got it.
30:47 George Kamel? Then go to iCloud.
30:49 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
30:49 George Kamel? And it'll show you the storage.
30:52 Rachel Cruze? 2 terabytes, George?
30:53 George Kamel? Look at you. Well, really, look at Winston. I assume he's the man behind all of this.
30:58 Rachel Cruze? Oh, man.
31:00 George Kamel? So a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. You got that?
31:03 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
31:04 George Kamel? And a gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes.
31:07 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
31:08 George Kamel? So mega.
31:08 Rachel Cruze? And what is a, what is a picture?
31:11 George Kamel? A picture could be, I mean, depends on the phone. It could be 13 megabytes for a large, high-quality photo.
31:16 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
31:17 George Kamel? Could be 3 megabytes. But video is what adds up. You're filming like 4K on your phone.
31:22 Rachel Cruze? I bet I beat you on my video storage.
31:25 George Kamel? Oh, that's a good one. So if you go to Storage.
31:28 Rachel Cruze? Uh, yep.
31:30 George Kamel? Wait for it.
31:31 Rachel Cruze? Oh, I see my iCloud photos.
31:34 George Kamel? What do you got?
31:35 Rachel Cruze? What do you have?
31:38 George Kamel? I'm nervous.
31:39 Rachel Cruze? Okay, you ready for mine?
31:41 George Kamel? Yep. What's in your iCloud photos?
31:44 Rachel Cruze? 250.7 gigabytes.
31:46 George Kamel? 289.
31:47 Rachel Cruze? Oh, I don't feel so bad.
31:49 George Kamel? What about Messages?
31:52 Rachel Cruze? 54.
31:53 George Kamel? 101.
31:54 Rachel Cruze? Oh, gosh, Backups, 147.
31:58 George Kamel? You've done a lot of back. I'm only at 25 on Backups.
32:00 Rachel Cruze? All right, I'm at iCloud Drive.
32:03 George Kamel? Yep.
32:03 Rachel Cruze? It sounds like a road. Uh, 67.
32:09 Rachel Cruze? 67.
32:11 George Kamel? 4.6. I don't know what you're storing in your iCloud drive, but there's gotta be some...
32:14 Rachel 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.
32:21 George Kamel? It's $9.99 for the 2 terabytes.
32:24 Rachel Cruze? But what's in the cloud?
32:25 George Kamel? That's what's in the... It's storing it all in the cloud.
32:27 Rachel Cruze? So I have a lot in the cloud and you don't?
32:29 George Kamel? You're not storing all of that in your phone. Your phone has a different level of storage.
32:33 Rachel Cruze? I thought I have terabytes on my phone.
32:35 George Kamel? No. 2 terabytes is what you have in iCloud.
32:38 Rachel Cruze? Okay, so I have more in the cloud than you do.
32:40 George Kamel? You sent it to heaven. So let's think about Earth and heaven.
32:43 Rachel Cruze? I hear it, but I have more than you, because I have 64.
32:46 George Kamel? How do I explain this? Let me see your phone.
32:49 Rachel Cruze? Never mind, it's fine.
32:50 George 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?
33:08 Rachel Cruze? General. About?
33:09 George Kamel? Yep.
33:11 Rachel Cruze? You're doing great. I'd hire you for the Apple Store today.
33:14 George Kamel? And then you see where it says Capacity?
33:17 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
33:17 George Kamel? What does it say?
33:18 Rachel Cruze? 512.
33:19 George Kamel? 512. So you have double the storage on your physical device. And what do you have available?
33:25 Rachel Cruze? I have a lot on my phone, then.
33:27 George Kamel? Yes.
33:27 Rachel Cruze? A lot of storage.
33:28 George Kamel? What do you have available?
33:30 Rachel Cruze? 261.
33:31 George Kamel? You're doing great.
33:32 Rachel Cruze? Okay, I'm halfway there.
33:34 George Kamel? Yep. You don't need to fill it up. It's not that kind of competition.
33:37 Rachel Cruze? It's not a race.
33:40 George Kamel? That was a lot of fun.
33:41 Rachel Cruze? Wow. Well, you know what? We're living in a better world today, y'all. I'm gonna say it.
33:44 George 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?"
33:51 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
33:52 George Kamel? I cannot tell you how many physical hard drives I have that are like 256GB, 500GB.
33:57 Rachel Cruze? Oh, funny.
33:58 George Kamel? And I thought, "We are living in the future. We're gonna have 500GB on a single hard drive."
34:02 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
34:02 George Kamel? Now that's nothing.
34:03 Rachel Cruze? And my 10-year-old Rachel's friends are like, "We should roll George Kamel." I'm like, "Don't."
34:07 George Kamel? He's worried about megabytes right now. He's going through a lot.
34:10 Rachel Cruze? Don't do it. Don't do it.
34:11 George 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."
34:24 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
34:24 George Kamel? So you could sell it today for what you paid for it, if not more.
34:27 Rachel Cruze? Oh, man. I don't know if I know this, but I can try.
34:30 George Kamel? Vintage clothes, purse, shoes?
34:33 Rachel Cruze? Okay, so I'd say our house.
34:35 George Kamel? Great, if this was Family Feud, that'd be number one on the board.
34:38 Rachel Cruze? I mean, honestly, from what we built in 2018 to today.
34:44 George Kamel? That's solid.
34:45 Rachel Cruze? I mean, honestly, I think it's doubled.
34:47 George Kamel? Wow.
34:48 Rachel Cruze? Almost.
34:49 George Kamel? That's amazing.
34:49 Rachel Cruze? Well, yeah, I feel like Nashville would.
34:51 George Kamel? You guys bought in a really great area, too.
34:53 Rachel 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.
35:01 George Kamel? That's strong.
35:02 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
35:02 George Kamel? Okay, I got one. My guitar.
35:05 Rachel Cruze? Oh, that's good.
35:06 George 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.
35:14 Rachel Cruze? Okay, that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:16 George Kamel? So that's all.
35:17 Rachel Cruze? Winston has a beautiful piano.
35:19 George Kamel? Pianos. They hold their value really well.
35:21 Rachel Cruze? And I think, yeah, we could probably sell it.
35:23 George Kamel? Baby Grand?
35:24 Rachel Cruze? Yes, he got it when he was a teenager.
35:27 George Kamel? What is it, Yamaha?
35:28 Rachel Cruze? No, it's a Kawaii.
35:30 George Kamel? Oh, yeah, that's a good brand.
35:31 Rachel Cruze? Uh huh. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's great, it's great. Well, that's good. Well.
35:35 George Kamel? But most things are gonna go down in value, and that's okay.
35:37 Rachel Cruze? I know. When you use stuff, it does. Yeah.
35:39 George 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.
35:52 Rachel 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.
36:21 George Kamel? You just run this endless marathon.
36:23 Rachel 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.
36:36 George 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.
36:45 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
36:46 George 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.
36:54 Rachel Cruze? I know.
36:55 George Kamel? And they left us with a mess.
36:56 Rachel Cruze? That's right.
36:57 George Kamel? And they saved everything just in case. And we don't need the china.
37:00 Rachel Cruze? I know. You know what the minimalists say to do is to take pictures of everything?
37:04 George Kamel? Oh.
37:05 Rachel 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.
37:11 George Kamel? They're sentimental.
37:12 Rachel 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.
37:32 George Kamel? It's fun to look at once every five years.
37:34 Rachel 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.
37:42 George Kamel? What are we doing here?
37:43 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
37:44 George 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.
37:49 Rachel Cruze? We love the Rolex.
37:51 George 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.
37:58 Rachel Cruze? Yeah. Yes, that's a great opening.
38:00 George 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.
38:08 Rachel Cruze? It's all for you, all for you.
38:10 George 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.
38:23 Rachel Cruze? For sure.
38:24 George Kamel? So I'll drop a link in the description to EveryDollar if you guys want to check it out.
38:27 Rachel 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.
38:34 George Kamel? That's what happens with cars.
38:35 Rachel Cruze? It does, it's so true. Yep.
38:37 George Kamel? And iPhones.
38:38 Rachel Cruze? No fun.
38:39 George Kamel? And now Klarna and DoorDash and all, financing a burrito, this, we've, we've lost our minds.
38:44 Rachel Cruze? Where are we?
38:45 George Kamel? Vacations, this is happening with Disney.
38:47 Rachel Cruze? Coachella, did you see that?
38:48 George Kamel? Coachella, festivals.
38:49 Rachel Cruze? Like, a high percentage of people at Coachella.
38:50 George 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.
38:56 Rachel Cruze? Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:57 George Kamel? Don't do it.
38:58 Rachel 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.
39:05 George Kamel? This is the Godfather. And like you said, it tastes like an old man drink.
39:10 Rachel Cruze? It does, it's like an old man drink.
39:11 George Kamel? I'm, I think you really enjoyed it. My rating on this one, let me give one more sip.
39:18 George Kamel? I'm gonna go 8.5 out of 10.
39:23 Rachel 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.
39:34 George Kamel? And why is that?
39:36 Rachel Cruze? Hmm, I don't know. It's a little unique.
39:40 George Kamel? I'll tell you why.
39:40 Rachel Cruze? I don't want this before dinner.
39:43 George Kamel? Okay.
39:44 Rachel Cruze? This would be like an after. If we all did dinner and everyone's like, "Hey."
39:47 George Kamel? Kind of a late-night drink.
39:49 Rachel Cruze? Let's stay and like, "I'll pour something," and they poured this, I'd be so happy.
39:53 George Kamel? Perfect. That's a great scenario. I wish that happens to you. You know, New York City, late night, with friends.
40:01 Rachel Cruze? I didn't say New York, but sure.
40:03 George 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.
40:23 Rachel Cruze? Yep.
40:23 George Kamel? It takes me a while to get over that.
40:25 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
40:26 George Kamel? But as the ice is sat, it's actually a lot better now.
40:28 Rachel Cruze? Mm-hmm. It's watered down a little.
40:30 George 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.
40:37 Rachel Cruze? So great. All right, now it's time for
40:40 George Kamel? Guilty as charged.
40:42 Rachel 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?
40:56 George 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."
41:10 Rachel Cruze? Okay, that's good.
41:12 George Kamel? Here's one: my Canon video camera.
41:15 Rachel Cruze? Yes.
41:16 George Kamel? So it's a big DSLR, but it does video too.
41:19 Rachel Cruze? Yep.
41:19 George 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.
41:33 Rachel Cruze? Yeah.
41:33 George Kamel? And I went, oh my gosh, I think I bought it for like a thousand dollars.
41:36 Rachel Cruze? No.
41:37 George Kamel? I went on eBay, they're selling for like a hundred and fifty dollars.
41:40 Rachel Cruze? Yeah, shoot.
41:41 George 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...
41:48 Rachel Cruze? When I think adventure, I think George Campbell.
41:51 George 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.
41:56 Rachel Cruze? Oh my gosh.
41:57 George 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.
42:02 Rachel Cruze? The GoPro camera. I forgot about that.
42:05 George 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.
42:09 Rachel Cruze? Okay.
42:10 George 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.
42:17 Rachel Cruze? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:18 George 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?
42:24 Rachel Cruze? Why would you not?
42:25 George Kamel? It still works great.
42:26 Rachel Cruze? Why would you not want this?
42:26 George Kamel? So there's some embarrassing things that I... Technology is where I go wrong.
42:30 Rachel Cruze? Technology's big. I bought an underwater camera when I was like in high school.
42:36 George Kamel? Cause you were big into... You're Scuba certified.
42:38 Rachel Cruze? I am, I am Scuba certified.
42:39 George 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.
42:46 Rachel 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.
43:30 Rachel 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.
43:54 George Kamel? Flying colors.
43:55 Rachel 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.
44:04 George Kamel? Can you still do it in your mid 30s? Like today, if you jumped in right now?
44:07 Rachel 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.
44:26 George Kamel? As an adult now.
44:27 Rachel Cruze? I have things to do on this earth.
44:29 George Kamel? Did I update my will lately?
44:30 Rachel 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.
44:47 George Kamel? You got the bends. Dave told me about the bends.
44:50 Rachel 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.
44:59 George Kamel? So back to the question at hand, did you ever use the waterproof camera?
45:03 Rachel 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.
45:18 George Kamel? But you're saying it's not worth what it was?
45:20 Rachel 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.
45:27 George Kamel? That's embarrassing.
45:28 Rachel 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.
45:39 George Kamel? Wow.
45:40 Rachel Cruze? I know. That's the only one I can think of. That and my underwater camera. So that's all I got, George.
45:46 George 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.
46:09 Rachel Cruze? Yep. So we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all new episode of
46:12 George Kamel? Smart Money Happy Hour.
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