More Money Podcast - 139 How Perez Hilton Bounced Back from Bankruptcy in a Major Way - Perez Hilton, Celebrity Blogger, Author & Media Personality

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 139 of the Mo Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode for season six. I hope you really liked last week's episode with the Buzz Bishop. I sure did. It was an awesome episode. But this week, oh my gosh, do I have a treat for you. And honestly, I'm kind of having a bit of a fangirl a bit. I'm having a major fangirl moment because I was able to get someone I've, you know, been a fan of for like almost a decade, I would say, on the show. And who am I talking about? Well, I teased it at the end of last week's episode. I have the one and only Perez Hilton on my show. He is, you know,

Starting point is 00:00:46 the go-to celebrity blogger, if not the biggest, one of the biggest bloggers in the world, quite honestly, right? I mean, he's been around for years. Everyone knows who he is. And he is a hustler. And the way, the kind of crazy way I got him on my show, honestly, was I was on his website, as I am most days. And he posted this video that he did talking about his personal finance journey and also the story about how he filed for bankruptcy a few years back. And I thought it was so interesting, especially getting that kind of information, that story from someone who was totally outside of the personal finance community. I thought, oh my gosh, how cool would it be if I got to get him on my show and talk more in depth about it. And so I guess I was feeling kind of confident and a little ballsy. And so I tweeted at him and said, I loved this video. Would he want to be on my show to chat

Starting point is 00:01:39 more about it? And he tweeted back saying, sure. I'm like, okay, I'm going. I don't know if he's in a great mood or he's just awesome, but I'm going to take this opportunity right away. And so I contacted his assistant and we got something in the books. And a week later, I recorded our episode, which is today's episode. So you are going to love it. It is such a great conversation. He's such an interesting guy. And yeah, without further ado, I will get to that interview. But here's a few words about this episode's sponsor. Support for this episode of the Mo Money Podcast comes from Tangerine. Did you know that over a

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Starting point is 00:03:03 and their investment experts are just a phone call away. To learn more, visit tangerine.ca slash investments. Once again, that's tangerine.ca slash investments. Thanks, Perez, for joining me on the Mo Money Podcast. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me about one of my favorite topics, personal finance. I doubt this is something that you probably talk a lot about to a lot of people. I don't know. I talk about it almost daily. Yeah. Primarily to my trainer, who's kind of like my therapist. I think it's important to be conscious of how you're spending money, how you're making money, how you can make more money, how you can save more, all of those things. And to have plans and goals and ambitions,

Starting point is 00:03:54 I have all of those things and things that I'm working towards. So I think daily thought is a good thing. Some might say I'm obsessing and I might agree, but that's because, you know, I grew up really poor when I watched this interview. I think you might've seen my video. I mentioned it. I watched this interview with Oprah Winfrey and JK Rowling, where they talked about this fear of theirs of losing all their money. And that's something that I have as well. I filed for bankruptcy in my 20s. My mom filed for bankruptcy too. And I wasn't blaming my mom for that. Some people took it that way. They're like, oh, so you're just blaming your mom. No, I was just giving context and explaining my situation. I take full accountability for my actions. Same as when I explain how I grew up eating a certain way and not knowing better about healthy eating habits because of the way I was brought up.

Starting point is 00:05:05 That doesn't mean my mom made me fat. It just means I didn't have the proper understanding of what it was to be healthy, just as the same way I didn't have the proper understanding of what it was to be financially healthy. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, what you mentioned is, yeah, that kind of rings true to me. That's my background too. Grew up pretty modest and that definitely, I definitely have that same kind of mentality and people kind of go both ways when they kind of had an upbringing where there isn't a lot of money. They kind of either have a scarcity mindset where, yeah, they kind of hoard money. They're afraid of losing it, they're afraid of going back to those, you know, broke days, or they want to make up for lost time and just spend, spend,

Starting point is 00:05:49 spend because they never got to as a younger person. Now, was that like, when did you actually start kind of like taking care of your financial situation? Obviously, it was a little bit later because you did kind of make some money mistakes and have to file for bankruptcy. So what happened there? Like, how did that happen? Well, those are a few questions. Yeah. How bankruptcy happened for me was just making the huge mistake of getting a cash advance on a credit card and not making enough money to pay that off or even pay off a good amount of it every month. And it just started accruing interest and accruing interest. And then I would get another credit card

Starting point is 00:06:32 with a lower interest rate and another credit card and do an entire balance transfer. And then I had like 10 credit cards and so much debt, like $75,000. What were you purchasing? What were you doing with that credit? I was living. So were you paying your rent, your groceries, just everything? With all that credit, yeah. I mean, because I didn't even have a full-time job. I had a part-time job that didn't pay all of my bills.

Starting point is 00:07:05 And so I'm just wondering. time job that didn't pay all of my bills. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so you, so I'm just wondering. I was still out of college, you know. Yeah. I was trying to make it as an actor. Yeah. And I think everything was like, you know, this is just temporary.

Starting point is 00:07:17 You know, like I'm not going to do this forever. And you're like, I'm going to get a gig that'll pay me and then I can pay off my credit card and then everything will be fine. I mean, maybe some people think they can live that way forever, but that's, you can't. And I didn't, I didn't think I could or would, or why I didn't want to, it was all just, this is just temporary, you know, things are, I'm gonna, it's gonna, you know, I'm only out of college recently, but you'd be surprised how quickly debt can start accumulating.

Starting point is 00:07:45 Absolutely. And did you find, too, like the people you were hanging around, were they kind of doing similar things? Because sometimes I feel like when I talk to other people who get themselves into major debt, it's because they're like, well, everyone's in debt. Isn't that just like normal? Yeah. I would say I didn't really have any wealthy friends. Yeah, all of my friends were either just like me or maybe they weren't as in debt as me.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Yeah, but it was kind of like not a big deal until actually it's a big deal. So what happened to get you to that point where it's like, oh, I have to file for bankruptcy. Like this is the end of the line here. Well, I tried everything, you know, I even reached out to those debt consolidation services and I just had so much debt that even doing debt consolidation, I still couldn't pay the monthly fee or the monthly amount. Yeah. yeah. So what happened after you filed for bankruptcy? Like, how did that change your life? I mean, it definitely made things difficult for a long time after that. But thankfully, you know, around the time that my website started taking off,

Starting point is 00:08:59 I just knew I'm not good at this. And this is an important thing. If you're not good at finances, if you know that's not your strong suit, if you're really bad at it, like me, even if you're average, like I would never advise anybody to do their own finances unless they're good at it. If you're average to bad, seek professional help. And that's what I did. I had a business manager who helped me out and made sure that everything was taken care of. And that required a lot of help on his part because I had awful credit. So we had to rebuild my credit from scratch. When it came time to something like buying or leasing a car or buying

Starting point is 00:09:46 a home, it was problematic, but we got it done. So that also goes to show you that you can fight for bankruptcy and it isn't the end of the world. It will take time, but you can overcome it. And you've clearly, you're proof that, you know, where you are now to where you were back then, you've been able to turn your life around. And you've even mentioned in that video that you kind of mentioned earlier that you kind of live a little bit more, maybe mindful of your money and maybe even frugal. I would love to know what your perception of, or like, what does frugal mean to you? Like, what does that mean? It means doing everything possible to save money. Here's the perfect thing. And this is something that I practice daily. Okay. So, you know, Saturday night I went to go see Bruno Mars in

Starting point is 00:10:39 concert. I got free tickets. Of course. Yeah. Then I invited a friend of mine to go with me and he covered parking and then I was going to go buy us drinks and then he decided to buy us the drinks instead. So then while we're in the concert, you know, I just decided not to have any more drinks because if we would have had more drinks. Cause if we would have had more drinks, the second round would have been on me. I didn't buy him drinks. I would have had, then I had, I ended up having a free night, free parking, free drinks, totally free Saturday, fun night. That's just one of many examples, you know, like, um, I mentioned, and I'm trying to think of other ones that I, um, Oh, you mentioned in that video about, and this is actually a really good tip,

Starting point is 00:11:29 is if you can, especially if you're someone like you who is a blogger, an influencer, you have connections. If you do something, like you said, you have that food delivery service, you negotiate like, hey, can you drop the price for me? Because I'll maybe mention you. But even if you're a regular person, you could probably go to them and be like, can you give me a discount? I'll refer people. You can give me like an affiliate link or something like that.

Starting point is 00:11:53 Actually, you know what? This is, it just occurred. It just, I reminded myself, this is something that I first did when I went to college. Oh yeah.

Starting point is 00:12:03 I got a pretty close to full scholarship to NYU when I was a senior in high school, but I didn't get quite a full scholarship. So I just told them, you know what? I really want to go here, but I can't afford it. You're not giving me enough. And they gave me more. There you go. Sometimes if you ask, you will receive. Yeah. It's supposed to show you got to ask. You got to ask. Absolutely. So I know you also mentioned in your video, you talked a lot about values, which I love because I always talk to people about.

Starting point is 00:12:44 It's not, you shouldn't feel like it's a bad thing to spend money. Obviously, spending responsibly is always a good thing, but you shouldn't feel guilty about spending money as long as you're spending it on what you actually value. And sometimes you do have to take a look back at what you actually value. And there is so much pressure I find these days, especially with social media and websites like yours where you see all these awesome celebrities. You're like, oh my gosh, I need to keep up with all these people. There's all this cool stuff going on. And that's how I think people kind of get caught in this like, oh my gosh, I'm spending more than I'm earning. In your mind, like how can people really just get back to the roots and like, whoa, like let's figure out my values and then make sure they only spend their money on stuff that they actually personally value. Yeah. Like, you know, I knew deciding to have a third baby would change my lifestyle a lot.

Starting point is 00:13:39 It, A, would cost me a lot of money because I went the surrogacy route. It's not cheap to do that. Yeah. I mentioned the price in the video. For me, it costs about $200,000. Wow. I had no idea. Wow. That's cash. Okay. Wow. They're not doing like a monthly plan. Not a payment plan for that baby. So that's a lot of money. And not only that, was it a lot of money upfront, but you know, that's all the other costs that come along with it. So knowing that I decided to do that happily and that, you know, it's a thousand percent worth it for me this entire year, 2017, I had to make a lot of other changes and adjustments. Like I was never

Starting point is 00:14:27 a huge spender on fashion because that's not where my values are, but I enjoy fashion. So I would always buy cheap, disposable, fun fashion, like statement t-shirts or fun sweaters that cost 60 bucks or something like that, which is, which is in some people's minds, a lot of money in other people's minds. Oh, that's not 60 bucks. That's nothing. I spent $600 on a sweater. I never would ever, ever, ever, ever spend more than a hundred dollars on fashion. That was my limit. Shoes, nothing. Like I don't believe that fashion should cost more than $100. So this year, I have not bought a single piece of fashion. Ooh. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:08 Also, I, you know, I used to just spend more money on random things. Like, you know, I love the holidays. So every Christmas, I would buy holiday decorations. And I would buy a ton of new ones every single year, even though I already have a ton of Christmas decorations. This year, I haven't bought any Christmas decorations. And then this is where some people might think I'm really cheap. But you know what?

Starting point is 00:15:38 You got to do what you got to do until you're at the point where you want to be. And I'm not at the point where I want to be yet. And that point where I want to be is I really want to just be diversified and have passive income coming in every month, which I'm not really there yet, but I'm working towards that. So I've completely stopped totally my charitable giving. Okay. That's interesting. That makes me sad because, you know, I used to be very charitable.

Starting point is 00:16:12 I used to give a ton of money every year for charitable giving. But I don't need to give to charity to get my deductions and all that stuff. Yeah. My business manager knows what I need to do. You know, like buying a house, having a house, all that stuff. Yeah. Counts towards my own deductions and all that stuff. So, you know, I've stopped my charitable giving.

Starting point is 00:16:32 I'm sad about it. But also you think that's temporary though. Like it's not like forever. Yes. No, it's definitely not forever. Like I'm a charitable person. Even something as simple as like, I used to only drink smart water because

Starting point is 00:16:46 I thought it tasted better. Smart water is not cheap. Smart water is expensive. So I've stopped drinking smart water and now I just drink out of the tap that I had filtered. Yep. It's like little changes like that, that it's so funny, like also hearing this from you. And this is why I really wanted to talk to you is because I think the perception for someone, you know, like you, you're, you know, out there, you're on TV, you have books, you look very successful. Most people would not think that Perez Hilton is like, I have to cut back on my bottled water because it's too expensive. You know, it's just operating costs. Yeah. Well, that's the thing I think people don't realize too. And I'd love to get into that too, because most people think you're a blogger, but you put out a ton of content.

Starting point is 00:17:30 So clearly it is a business. I think people forget that you have multiple websites. Oh, you're a personal operator. Yeah. Well, that's the thing too. You run your household. Yeah. I have my, my, my lifestyle is not cheap.

Starting point is 00:17:43 I've got three kids. I have to have help with the kids, so I have nannies. I have two nannies who split the week, and I also financially support my mom. So that's like four kids. Exactly. And the other expenses coming up, school, college, that's far away. But still, you have to start saving now, right? I do already start. I'm already saving now.

Starting point is 00:18:08 Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's incredible. I love hearing that you're frugal and cutting back. I love that. That makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. I just want to make sure I'm making all the right decisions and I don't have any regrets in the future, you know? Yeah. I would love to know a couple of things. That's also one of the reasons too why, you know, I was living in New York City for a while. Yeah. And I moved from New York back to Los Angeles because this is one of the things like that not even a parent, but any person should tell themselves, yes, I can afford to do this. Yes. I could afford to live in New York City, but it was costing me so much to live there.

Starting point is 00:18:46 And now here, Los Angeles is not cheap, but it's literally half the cost. Really? New York City is twice as expensive as Los Angeles. Not just rent, but also the basics, like milk for kids costs double in the supermarkets. And it makes sense because the supermarkets have to pay so much more money in rent. They got to pass that off to the consumer. Here, everything

Starting point is 00:19:11 is less expensive. Schooling is less expensive. Nannies are less expensive. Groceries are less expensive. Housing is less expensive. And you get double the space. So yes, I could have afforded and I could have stayed in New York City, but the smarter thing was what I did, move back here and save every month. Yeah, exactly. Save that difference, which a half, that's a lot of money. Oh, yeah. So that's the thing you should also be asking yourself. Yes, I can afford to do this, but should I?

Starting point is 00:19:38 Do I need this? And I think that's a big thing, too, especially I think younger people like us who like to live in the city. I mean, I live in Toronto, an expensive city in Canada. And yeah, there's always that like, oh, I can afford this. Like, yeah, but you can also afford to not do it and save that money when you want to. Like, it's about just changing your perception of what money is, which kind of goes into my next question. Since you've made mistakes, you've learned from them. What does money mean to you now? Money is a great motivator. Money is my ultimate motivator. Money is what keeps me working so hard. But I don't have FU money in the bank yet. And that's a real number for me. And that's a real goal. You know, that's to me like, okay a real goal you know that's to me like okay after you know being with my daughter for a while and my newborn um i would think like maybe in a year or two or maybe three years i would really be able to get a clear understanding of how much it costs me to live every year yeah these are the schooling costs this is what it's going to realistically be. These are the averages of these three years.

Starting point is 00:20:48 This is what it's going to cost you every year. This is how much money you have in the bank. If you budget and you give yourself this much money for everything and this much money for like uncertain things and this much money extra, then like, can I live the next 40 years or 30 30 20 years and then more money for my retirement all that like i want to you know like realistically that's probably not going to happen anytime soon but i am still working so hard so that maybe by the time i'm 50 i can have that fu money in the

Starting point is 00:21:20 bank and that to me means freedom and means being able to do whatever I want and I'll still work, but, but you know, like I'll, I'll spend less time on social media. I love social media, but will I make a video a day on YouTube? No. Will I be as active on all the platforms? No. Yeah. You'll have more of your time back for sure. Yes, exactly. I'm only on there now because I feel like I have to be. I know. Yeah. Like you're so busy. No, it's so funny that you mentioned that. There's actually, so there's this, you probably don't know because you're not really into the personal finance community, but there's a niche in that community called FIRE and it stands for Financially Independent

Starting point is 00:22:09 Retiring Early. And I think you're actually a FIRE person and you don't even know it. If that is one of your goals. Yeah, man. That's really awesome. I really always want to work. Yeah, of course. Oh yeah. And that's the thing too. I think within that community too, they talk a lot about how retirement doesn't mean what retirement used to mean for kind of older generations where you just kick back, have a mojito on the beach and you're good to go. It's, no, it's like basically, yeah. Kind of like having that FU fund, being able to say no, whenever you want, being able to take your time back, being able to work if you want to.

Starting point is 00:22:42 Exactly. And doing whatever I want, like doing a play here in Los Angeles that nobody will watch, but would make me happy being in that play. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is really, really cool. So we kind of, I want to talk a little bit about this. I was actually looking on your Twitter earlier and you retweeted this interesting thing. And this has been kind of a, since I'm a blogger myself, I kind of get some flack about this too, is being a blogger, a content creator, an influencer and making money. Obviously we need to make money.

Starting point is 00:23:13 It is your business. It's my business. But a lot of people don't like that. They think that you should be creating content for free. And what are your kind of thoughts on this? I'm sure you do get a lot of flack for being like a sellout or whatever as you've kind of gone, you know, bigger and bigger. I want to make as much money as possible.

Starting point is 00:23:32 I love money. I'm not going to lie. And the thing is, too, it's like, yeah, if one of my posts a day is a sponsored post, I don't care. I still post so much every day. Exactly. And I feel like, I mean, if you do have sponsored posts, I certainly don't even know that they are because they're so quality, right? It's still your voice. Yeah. I need to do more sponsored posts. Yeah. Well, you've talked a little bit about how you want to do more passive income, which again, highly recommend that is absolutely like the way to kind of continue and not work so much, but still earn money. Like, what are your ideas on that? Like, how do you intend to kind of do

Starting point is 00:24:14 that? That is actually kind of a new thing that lots more bloggers are trying to incorporate, like by making an evergreen course to sell and then people just buy it and you're just like, all right, just collecting that paycheck. No, no more old school i'm trying to just go to real estate oh that is old school but also good for you that's awesome yeah maybe you could have your own real estate show prez maybe flip or flop whatever i'm not looking to i'm not looking to flip properties. I'm looking to buy like work boxes. That's awesome. Yeah. Because also it's like that's when you really make money.

Starting point is 00:24:53 Like in 10 years from now. You're not going to make money now with the property. You'll make money in 10 years when you've almost paid off. Not all of it, but you know, my whole goal is like I really only want to buy buy property that can put like 50% down. I'm already cash positive right away and want to hold on to it for a long time. I'm not looking to flip like that. That's risky. I'm going to be Mr. Low risk, Mr. Guaranteed on my return. And also to me, like I'm real old school school. I don't believe in the stock market. I don't trust that. That's not real. It's not tangible. Saying you own a duplex or a triplex or a fourplex, that's real. And also, it gives you a backup plan. Let's say things go real bad and I need to sell my house.

Starting point is 00:25:43 Well, you know what? I can move into the fourplex that I bought or whatever. And people, no matter, even if there is another economic collapse, people always need a place to live. So there you go. People will always need a place to rent. Yes. If they're losing their homes, they've got to rent. Exactly. Exactly. So beyond real estate, how else do you kind of, I would love to know, like, how do you manage your money? Do you just kind of leave it up to your kind of money manager and then you just kind of put those things into place? Or do you actually have, like, a budget? Do you, like, track your spending and all that kind of stuff?

Starting point is 00:26:16 I do. And I want to make sure, like, what I'm doing is working. So, like, you know, I have people who help me. I was like, okay, give me a comparison. Like, I want to know this summer, these months, compared to last summer, those months, how much did I spend each month so that I could see? And also, like, I want to know, like,

Starting point is 00:26:33 is my time being used effectively? So, like, am I making more money on YouTube? Is spending more time on YouTube being effective for me? Like, things like that. And in addition to having a business manager, I also do have a financial planner who also helps me with all of that stuff. So I'm in it. I'm in the stock market, but my priority is not the stock market. My priority is not stocks and bonds and all those things. Of course I participate. I'm there. But that's not like my number one.

Starting point is 00:27:02 Yeah. Okay. So kind of wrapping up, one of the things I really appreciated in your video was you, well, I first, I'd love to know what inspired you to do that video. Cause it is kind of a little bit different than the stuff that you usually put out. I just thought it would be a good click baby title. Well,

Starting point is 00:27:18 it worked. I just thought it was a good click baby, but honest type. Like I loved it. Cause I feel like there's more, there should be more people in your position who, you know, people just assume, oh, they're rich. They're living it up. They're living that best life.

Starting point is 00:27:32 But we need to talk about like, no, literally like what are they doing to have that lifestyle? Most people just assume if you make a lot of money, you have a lot of money. But as we know from all these like retired football players that are, you know, filing for bankruptcy, that's not actually the case, is it? No, you've got to be really smart. You know, that's why the ones that are smart are the ones that buy, you know, like McDonald's or whatever. Like the ones that use their money and buy things that will generate them income. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:28:01 And it's not all about just like keeping up with the Joneses or Kardashians or whatever. It's really about not being influenced by external forces and really kind of going internal and being like, yeah, again, back to the values and all not kind of follow in some of your footsteps. So kind of to wrap up this episode, what are some of the most important things that you learned that you want other people to know so they can move forward with their personal finance journeys? I mean, the most important thing is really do not get a cash advance on your credit card. Yes, be careful with credit. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:50 If you're struggling to pay your credit cards, also don't get other credit cards to do balance transfers. It's best to like limit the damage than do more damage. Because it's honestly better to just tell that credit card company, I can't pay right now, but I will. They may not listen to you, but it's better to like only owe $5,000 than $50,000. Yep. So, you know, don't get more credit cards. Don't get cash advances. Don't spend more than you have to. Don't, you know, don't go out on fancy dates with fancy restaurants and fancy vacations i don't do that anymore yeah don't live beyond your means like it sounds so simple

Starting point is 00:29:31 this is this goes back to here's another one like you know this is why i moved back to los angeles don't even live within your means below your means i think if you can live i mean some people live paycheck to paycheck and they're doing all they can yeah but almost everybody can also analyze and be like how can i save more can i can you can yeah so everybody i think can a little bit if you're living paycheck to paycheck then i truly understand that, but almost everybody can live below their means if they work really hard at it. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:30:11 If you can do it, so can anyone because I mean, I find your story inspiring because you are in a really good position now, but you always weren't and you kind of put your money where your mouth was, so to speak, and you, you put your stuff into action and now you are where you are, which is

Starting point is 00:30:31 rocking it as always. Thanks Perez for joining me for this episode. I really, really appreciate it. I'm a big fan and I know this is going to inspire a lot of people. Oh, thank you. Well, I was happy to do it. And if you enjoyed me on this, I have my own podcast. Everybody could check that out. It's quite creatively called the Perez Hilton podcast. And you have a fabulous YouTube, of course. I'll link to everything in the show notes. I have two YouTube channels. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:31:02 No, I love it. I'm such a hustler. You're such a hustler. Well, I think that's another thing, right? Like I'll leave you with a couple more things. Um, and I don't want to, not everybody, but I would say a lot of people are lazy. Okay. And I work just as hard now, if not harder, maybe not harder, but just as hard now as I did when I first started. And when I was getting up there, like some people might achieve success just by luck, but very few people are able to maintain success that are lazy. Yeah. Success on the sustained level requires hard work. And it oftentimes requires more work than most or a lot of people are willing to give.

Starting point is 00:32:03 You know, when I talk to young people in their teens and twenties, they're bringing up the concept of balance and this and that. I'm like, no, you should have no balance in your life if you're 19 till 30. The concept of balance shouldn't even be introduced until you're 30 something. Up until that age, it's all about work. That needs to be your sole focus. That means everything else must suffer. Your friendships, your love life, your family, your health, everything. I mean, clearly not ignore it all. No. But the number one priority should be work. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:32:42 If you are that determined to be successful. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It takes that kind of focus and dedication. Yeah. If you are that determined to be successful. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It takes that kind of focus and dedication. Absolutely. You can't, yeah,

Starting point is 00:32:51 basically the idea that you can't have it all at the same time. You just can't. Yeah, there's that saying, there's like five things in life, right?

Starting point is 00:32:58 Like, finances, health, love life, family, and friends. Mm-hmm. You can have three out of the five at one time,

Starting point is 00:33:06 but you can't have all five at the same time. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you're, yeah. Like I feel like you, not only have you like reached this amount of success, but it's clear because you're a hustler, you're talking to me, you're busy all day, you work nonstop, but because you have, you know, clearly a really big goal and you're working towards it. And you'll only get to that goal if you keep on working and, you know, motivating yourself. Absolutely. Absolutely. And there's not a lot of bloggers like you that have maintained such a long career.

Starting point is 00:33:38 Like really, there really isn't. They usually go by the wayside after like a couple of years. I know. And YouTubers as well and Instagrammers. I mean, I feel really lucky that I was, I was like the first, the first of things. So, you know, I was able to transcend the genre and become a household name. Like a lot of people, I would say most, I would say not, maybe not everybody, but a lot of people know would say most i would say not maybe not everybody but a lot of people know perez hilton yeah and um and and that really helped me and the fact that i also um

Starting point is 00:34:12 like nothing is beneath me i'll do anything for a paycheck and i'll also be like yeah i'll be a youtuber again i used to be on youtube and i used to be making tons of videos. And then I got into a fight with YouTube and then I quit YouTube. And now I'm back on the YouTube because videos, where is that? It is. That's the other thing too that I think is really interesting is you keep reinventing yourself and you evolve. And I think that's also the key to your success is you don't stop or like, oh, this is too hard or I'm getting too much flack for whatever. You're like, okay, I'm going to pivot. Absolutely. You got to keep reinventing. And I have so many ways.

Starting point is 00:34:52 There was nasty, old, fat, mean Perez. Then I lost weight. Then I became nicer. Then I had kids. Now I've been doing a lot of acting. Now I'm doing the YouTube thing too. I do a ton of different things and you have to. Look at Joan Rivers. She's one of my biggest inspirations. Joan Rivers kept reinventing throughout her career from writer, comedian, actress, director, jewelry designer,

Starting point is 00:35:15 red carpet correspondent, and so on and so forth. Reality TV shows, you've got to keep evolving and reinventing, which is why, and also being authentic and human and not being fake. You can keep up an act for a long time, but you can't keep up an act forever. And if your act is an act, that's one dimensional and people get tired of that. I think one of the reasons people still pay attention to what I have to say and people still listen to me is because I'm real and I'm not faking and people resonate with that. Yeah. Well, I think that's why I've been reading you for literally probably as long as you've had the blog, as you've evolved is, and the reason I keep coming back to you is because

Starting point is 00:36:09 I don't feel like you are fake. You are real. When you mess up, you own it. You apologize. You move on, which I mean, I literally could not do what you do. I mean, I'm a personal finance blogger and I like get hurt. My feelings get hurt when someone's mean to me i don't know how you deal with all of the stuff that you do you have a thick skin i would babble people say mean things about me then not talk about me at all there you go that's true that's true but uh yeah so you're awesome i appreciate you um i'm excited to keep on checking you out i check you like once a day it's kind of a problem but i'm one of your canadian fam well listen to my podcast i will enjoy it yep for sure all right bye and that was episode 139 with the one and only perez hilton make sure to check out his blog

Starting point is 00:36:59 get addicted just like i am at perez hiltoncom. And as he mentioned, he also has a wonderful podcast called the Perez Hilton Podcast. And he also has a YouTube channel because he does all the things. So make sure to subscribe on YouTube. Again, if you want to check that out really easily, just go to the show notes at JessicaMorehouse.com slash 139. I will put all of those links and even the video that I referred to about his bankruptcy. I'll put that in there too, so you can take a look. But thanks, Perez, for getting back to me and getting on my show. You are amazing and awesome. I really, really appreciate it. And I also really appreciate my sponsor for this episode. And here's

Starting point is 00:37:43 a few words about them. Support for this episode of the Mo Money Podcast comes from Tangerine. I don't have enough money. I'm worried I'll lose it all. I don't know enough about investing. It's just too complex for me. Have you ever thought like this before? You're not alone, but that still shouldn't stop you from investing your money so it can grow. And a great way to do this is through long-term index fund investing, which you can do easily through Tangerine. Tangerine is focused on following a smart indexing strategy and offering funds with a low MER and global diversification. And the best part is you can get started without ever having to

Starting point is 00:38:21 leave your couch. To learn more, visit tangerine.ca slash investments. Once again, that's tangerine.ca slash investments. And that was my episode for you today. But lucky you, I've got another episode in the queue for you tomorrow. My Lister series is back, and I've got a great episode to kind of kick it off for the new year, January. I am interviewing two listeners. There are a couple who embarked on a no spending challenge to kind of become more mindful of their spending and save some money and just, you know, kind of embrace minimalism and frugality and all that kind of stuff. And they want to share their journey with me. And I'm like, hell yeah, this is amazing. I know a ton of people would love to hear from people that actually did it, what their experience was like,

Starting point is 00:39:08 and maybe motivate and inspire them to do the same. So you can look forward to that tomorrow. Some other really cool and interesting things that you may want to get involved in. So again, highly recommend that you just sign up to my email newsletter because I always put all this information in there and I don't want you to miss anything. You just go to JessicaMorehouse.com slash subscribe to do that. But I am relaunching my book club for the new year. I'm so excited. My first author and the first book that we're going to be reading is a book that I just read that I am obsessed with.

Starting point is 00:39:43 Also, she is a podcast guest from the early days of the show. So if you are a longtime listener, she was episode, I believe, number three. I'm talking about Kate Flanders, also a good friend of mine. So that'll be fun. So she just wrote her book called The Year of Less, just came out. I devoured it, loved it. Such a good book. And so I've got her as my next book club guest. So basically, if you want to join in the fun, just go to jessicamaraz.com book club. Again, I'll put this information in the show notes if you want to learn more.

Starting point is 00:40:18 But basically, Kate will join me on a Facebook Live where we will talk about the book, do a Q&A. So if you join us live for the Facebook Live, you can ask all of your questions. You can tell her what you think about the book, whatever the heck you want. That is where you can do it. So make sure to go to JessicaMorales.com slash book club for all the deets. You know, the important details really are it's on Wednesday, February 7th at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Starting point is 00:40:45 It gets broadcast on my Facebook page and in my Facebook group. Now that I've mentioned my Facebook group, did you know that I had a Facebook group? Well, you should because it's awesome. It's grown quite a bit in the past little while, over 1,200 members now, and it's awesome. It is basically just a positive, no judgment zone where people can ask questions, share resources and articles about money and life and balance. And it's just like a cool online hub to just learn more about money and what other people are doing with their money and to get some suggestions and advice from other members. So if you want to join in the fun, join the Facebook group, just go to facebook.com slash groups slash money life

Starting point is 00:41:26 balance and you can get right in there. All right. I've talked long enough and I'm going to let you go, but I hope to see you back here tomorrow for my next episode, part of my listener series. this podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network find out more at women in media.network

More Money Podcast - 139 How Perez Hilton Bounced Back from Bankruptcy in a Major Way - Perez Hilton, Celebrity Blogger, Author & Media Personality

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