Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - 5 Toxic Traits That Are Coming for Your Money

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

Some “toxic traits” are funny––like hanging up your clothes inside out or buying kale aspirationally. And then there’s the less funny kind. ☠️ ⚠️ Join Rachel and George as they attempt to find the line between a harmless quirk and a truly toxic money mindset. In This Episode:   ·      Rachel, George and a LIVE audience getting real about their own toxic money traits ·      A play-by-play of how to set boundaries when you know your friend’s toxic money trait is “splitting” a very one-sided bill ·      The celeb comedian who called George a “sad idiot child” on Twitter back in the day   Helpful Resources:   ·      Start making memories. Go NOW and get Tapple at Walmart or wherever you buy board games! ·      Booking a flight with Going is the best and simplest way to pay less to travel more. Sign up for free today at Going.com/smartmoney. ·      Get your finances organized, make a plan, build your confidence, and kick money stress out of your life for good with the EveryDollar budgeting app. Go to www.everydollar.com/smartmoney to get a free two-week trial and $15 off your premium membership to EveryDollar. ·      Do you have a Guilty as Charged question for Rachel and George? Send a DM to @rachelcruze or @georgekamel on Instagram! Be sure to type “GUILTY?” at the top of your message so we don’t miss it. ·      Learn more about your ad choices: https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices ·      Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/compa... This Week’s Happy Hour Special: Black Tea Sour Ingredients: ·      2 ounces chilled black tea ·      3/4 ounce lemon juice ·      1/2 ounce maple syrup ·      Dash of black pepper ·      1 egg white ·      Maraschino cherries (to garnish) ·      Orange slice (to garnish) Instructions: In a cocktail shaker, combine all of the ingredients except ice and shake well. Add ice and shake again. Pour through a fine strainer into a chilled coupe glass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live from Smart Conference Chicago with a live studio audience. I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. We don't have drinks, Rachel. I just went to clink you. This is a sad hour. I know.

Well, it was a happy hour for the live studio audience that was here with us because if you're listening on this and podcast or you're watching on YouTube, we just had a mixology class with resident bartender, Michael Reddish. And so, what do you think? Should we bring? You know what? Let me see if this works. Garson.

Does it work? It worked. It worked. The drinks are coming. The drinks are coming. The host with the most. You can tell he remade ours. Is that an acacia wood platter?

That's gorgeous. It is. Is that crate and barrel? Who's taking care of this? This is awkward. Take it, George. Take it. Oh, you don't want to know how much those costs.

You know what? You're Dave Ramsey's daughter. You can put the bill. That's living like no one else, baby. Honestly, I thought he was going to come out with an iPad and turn it with a tip. Make you tip in. I wouldn't be shocked. I would not be shocked.

Oh, boy. Okay, so this episode, we're going to talk about toxic money traits. Ooh, you know what that makes me think of? What? Britney Spears. Toxic. It's one of her great hits. You know, I love an ode to Britney.

Yeah, I appreciate the Brittany throwback, George. She's got a new book coming out, by the way, Rachel. She does. Yeah, it's a tell-all. Do you know I love celebrity memoirs? Jessica Simpson's book? I'm not kidding, ladies. It's so good.

I forgot to tell you this, and I feel like in front of all these people is the best moment. I'm so nervous. Brittany Spears follows me on Twitter. No, she doesn't. I promise you. Y'all, I don't even follow her. No, she doesn't. And I somehow found it, and I was like, she doesn't follow.

She follows like half a percent of her total followers. And now we have to get to the bottom of this. Does she like any of your stuff? So I will keep you posted if she responds. Unbelievable. There's your fun fact for the day. Yeah. Anyways, what are we sipping on, Rachel?

So we are sipping on a mocktail tonight, and it is a black tea sour. And the people in the crowd know exactly what's in it because of our mixology class. But if you want to know what's in it and how delicious it is, wait till the end of the episode. We'll give you our rating, the recipe. And something else. That's... Is that it? There's something else we do.

And the price breakdown, of course. Which you have memorized, so you don't even know your notes for those. Okay, so toxic money traits. This is kind of the Gen Zers, if you will, talk about like beige flags. We did a whole episode on Facebook. They're also called Zoomers. Did you know this? Gen Z?

Yeah. No. It sounds like something boomers would call Gen Z to try to minimize them. Like, that was zoomers. They're always zooming around on their smartphones. I don't know. want to point that out. Oh, man. Okay. Well, again, similar energy to like the beige flag episode, but the idea that toxic money traits are very real. Some are more serious. Others, you know,

you can have a little fun with. Yeah, we're going to go more lighthearted today. One example is, you know, someone saying like, oh, yeah, like I'm down for whatever. When in reality, it's like if it's after 8 p.m., if there's no food involved and the parking is bad, I'm probably not coming. Yeah. I have been there. It's one of those. Because you want to. sound like, yeah, I'm totally chill, bro. I'm good. But you're also like, what is there, does a paid part? Is there a seat?

What time will this event be over? Yeah. I need to know when I'm going to be back in bed. Yeah, yeah. Another one, this is a fun one, randomly singing parts of a conversation. Y'all know that person? Or the office hummer? Always humming for no reason.

That's a toxic trait in my book. The office hummer. Yeah. Someone's just down the hall in the office. If you don't know who it is, it might be you. What does it sound like? Rachel can't sing. I don't think she can hum.

Give an example. If you're walking down the hall and you have like Jerry behind you. They're probably humming a hit song, though. Do you have a toxic trait, Rachel, that you can think of? Let's be vulnerable and go first. I always, this is not money. I always hang up my clothes inside out.

I never take them. That's not even lighthearted. That's serious. Are you okay? I don't know. But every time I like take a shirt off, I'm like, every one of them is. But then you have to flip it inside out to then put it on. I know.

Again, it's a toxic trait. I don't know. What's yours? Stop looking at me. I want to pay for Winston's therapy. Like, this is poor guy. What's yours? My non-money one is probably my neurotic hygiene.

Like I cannot leave the house if I haven't flossed and mouthwashed. I can't do it. I floss mold. When the dentist asked me, he's like, do you fly? floss regularly? I'm like, I'm sorry. Are you really asking me that? That's rude. Can you not tell that I floss regularly? Your hygiene is impeccable. I will always be carrying a flosser in my pocket at all times. George has everything. I'm a Girl Scout meets. I don't know what else. Just really a Girl Scout, I guess. Why not Boy Scout? Why Girl Scout? I don't know. My money toxic

trait is I will always try to split an entree with my wife if we're eating out. I don't I'm that frugal. I'm like, why I pay for two words? Little people. There's so much food at the restaurant. They give you so much food. Some places, too. That is true.

Do you usually? Does Whitney say yes or does she want her own? She does oblige. She does. Yeah. Fahitas, great one. Oh, that's a good one, for sure. And you're the obnoxious person in the Mexican restaurant that's coming out with

the, like, psss. And everyone's like, who ordered these? Heads are turning. Everyone's always jealous. If you order fajitas and, you know, Rachel got the burrito or something. It's like, lame. not even, it's not even sizzling. Get a life.

So, any money ones for you? You're a sucker for things on sale. Yeah. And you're a quantity person. Yes. But I would, I'm not a, um, some people would think would be shocked by this. I don't like, I'm not a promo code searcher. Like I've heard you talk about you like.

Well, because Sharon Ramsey's big on like she's getting the deal. She's going to use a coupon. Yeah. And I usually rarely buy clothes that are just full price. I'll always wait because most of the places I shop always have sales. So I'll wait for those. but I'm not a person that's like every little thing. I'm like, I got to go search for a pro loco. That feels like a personal attack, Rachel.

It's all right. It's a orangey, George. No, I don't know. Is that a toxic money trait? We'll let it slide. All right. So what we want to do is play a toxic money trait game with the audience that is here. So they're going to participate in the game.

And the game is called My Toxic Money Trait. So it's very easy for the audience to participate. If you're listening or watching at home, you know, you can just participate as well if you want on your own. You can count on your fingers how many of these you're guilty of. Yep. So we're going to just ask a few toxic money traits. And we're just going to ask for a raise of hands. And we want to see what percentage of the room has these toxic money traits.

What a wonderful silent way to interact. I love it. Very peaceful. You can woohoo if you get really excited about it. I don't know. Okay. So the first one is looking at a price tag only to realize. that it is way out of your price range and budget,

but you still just casually walk around for a little bit, acting like it's so big deal before you leave. Anybody? Guilty. Okay. And Rachel, every time this happens, I'm the only person in the store, and it's dead quiet. It's just me and the, like, person working. But you can't just look at one price tag and then immediately leave. No, no.

You have to peruse, like, I have enough money. I just want to make sure I'm getting enough. I'm just deciding. I don't go into a store from the only person in there. Do you like go and put your head in the door and make sure? What does that even mean? I take a peek. I take a gander.

It's not illegal? That is such a toxic trait. That's a toxic trait. Do you stick your head in the door of a shop? She's trying to pin me as some kind of creep. And then close the door. This is why I don't leave the house, Rachel. Okay.

Go to the next one. All right. Next one. My toxic trait is saying to myself, it's only 20 bucks, approximately 20 times a day. How many of you were guilty of that? Oh, yeah. those little purchases, and you're like, what's $10 going to do? What's $5 going to do?

And it all adds up to $400. To $400. That's a big one. Every penny counts, George. Okay, getting lazy with your monthly budget and shoving all the leftover funds into the miscellaneous category. We had some, like, enthusiastic people. Do you do that, Rachel? Oh, yeah, I will.

That makes me feel better that the budgeting queen has a junk drawer for her money. She's like, eh. That's a miscellaneous. Especially Amazon, it's the worst, because it's like in every dollar. They all come up separately, and sometimes I don't have time to, like, go on my Amazon out and see someone just like, and it's $9.89. I'll just throw in the miscellaneous. Miscellaneous.

Why not just have an Amazon line item? Because each thing is very specific, though, because like if dog food comes in, that goes in shoes. Oh, that makes sense. The dog's line item. Yeah. So sometimes you want to be specific, but sometimes you just kind of put in the miscellaneous. then Winston is none the wiser. Good for him.

All right, here's another one. This is a fun one. My toxic trade is thinking that if I pay for something in cash, it means it was free because there was no digital paper trail of more money coming out of my bank. Be honest, how many of you are guilty of that? At least half the crowd. That's a big one. We're seeing this with younger generations. They're making videos going like, cash is free money. We're always like, cash is king, baby. If you use cash, you'll spend, less and they're like, if I use cash, no one saw it.

Nobody knows. That's crazy, but it's true. And that's why, if you take out cash out of your bank, that needs to also be reflected in your budget. Yes, but I found an envelope from a Christmas party that we had at Ramsey. Oh my gosh, probably like four years ago or something, and it's an

envelope, and there was a $100 bill in it. And I literally feel like I just like one money. You're like, Winston doesn't even know this exists. But literally, I'm like, I just feel like it's just free. Yeah, you just can't go and just do whatever you want. Granted, that was a gift. Sure.

It was a Christmas gift. Then you have to find places that still accept cash, Rachel. The Gen Zier's like, I don't even know what to, do you have Apple pay? I don't even know what to do. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay, next is taking hours, filling your online shopping cart with things and then deleting it when you have to pay $7 for shipping. Oh.

Almost everyone is like no shipping. Doesn't it make you angry though? When you see shipping, you're like, no. Did Amazon ruin us with a two-day free shipping? Like, we used to pay for shipping. We're like, well, sure, they got to pay money to ship it. It makes sense. And now we're all of a sudden like, asking me to pay $100 for it.

You dog, you, trying to get me to pay for shipping. Here's my toxic trait, though. If something is $50 and $10 shipping, I'm like, I'll buy it. If it's $40 and $10 shipping, I'm like, no way. Highway robbery. I won't stand for this. I draw the line somewhere. Why are the way that we are?

That one got applause. We're like, I am that person. It's all psychological mind games. Oh, oh, for sure. That's a good one. Okay, here's one. Having a mindset anywhere between we need to save money and yolo, depending on the day. Just Tuesday is like we got to save money.

Things are getting bad. And then the next day you're like, what's 40 bucks? I mean, who's going to, it's not going to crush us. It's not going to crush us. We're fine. That's a lot of emotional roller coaster in a week for people to go through. Payday, though. Like you feel great on payday.

Does it put a little pep in your step? Oh, yeah. You're just like, I'll take on the world. We got up to brunch. And that's why I'm in such a good mood. It's the 15th. Yesterday, terrible mood. Today, you can do whatever you want.

Feeling great. You can do whatever you want. Okay, next. Noticing which of my budget categories still have some wiggle room at the ends of the month, and then you just go and just spend every last penny up to the penny. Wow, that's aggressive. Do any of you all do that?

Like, you got a little left over and you're like, that's bonus money. Let's just spend it, willy-nilly. Even if we don't need it, we're going to spend it. We got some, okay. I don't even know what I would spend it on. Again, I have no hobbies and no life, Rachel. I'm like, we can get dog food early this month.

I do this without to eat for sure. Going out to eat, that's a good one. Like, if we have out to eat stuff, I'm like, chick filet. It's take out. It's take out. Next one, my toxic trade is refusing to buy something that I think is overpriced on principle, even though I want it and it's in the budget. I have definitely been there.

Yeah, many of you have to. Wow, a lot of y'all did that. I don't know. Well, there's just things that I'm like, I have the money. We plan for it, but based on principle, I think this is a rip-off. Yeah. And so I'll just wait until I absolutely need it or I find a better deal.

Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. All right. Well, thank you guys. Thank you for your honesty. This was like free therapy. That was very cathartic.

It shouldn't have felt as good as it did. Feels good. But it's also good to know I'm not alone. Like, I thought I was crazy. Yeah, no. I still am, but good to know you all are too. Crazy with us. It's very comforting to me.

Crazy with us. Yeah. And I think one of our goals is to help disrupt the toxic money culture. So some of those were fun, right? Those were lighthearted. Yes. If you called the show, we'd be like, all right, this was fun. Get a life.

Move on. Yeah. But there are some serious ones, some ones that you're like, oh, yeah, that is a pretty toxic. There are some toxic myths that I have been in the comments section battling out. And then I realize this is wasted effort. What am I doing here? What am I doing? Okay.

What's one of these? One of the biggest myths I'm seeing right now that is just a toxic myth is debt is a great tool to leverage for building wealth. And if you don't believe that, you're an idiot. Yep. Have you seen that one? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And this looks like a lot of things. But mostly, like I've seen one where they say max out your credit card and do a cash transfer and then use that money to go buy a property with a down payment. And then you can use that money and it just never ends. It's insane. It's like the cycle. You see this with a whole life insurance as a debt leveraging tool. nothing down real estate.

Even leveraging debt to invest like in crypto and stocks. Well, and because it sounds exciting. Like when I see this on Instagram Reels or something. Yeah, and you're like, oh, that's an easy way. That's simple. We could figure that out. So what do we say, Rachel? Your greatest wealth building tool is your income.

Is your income. Not other people's money. Yours. Not making the bank rich. Making you rich. That's non-toxic. Earning interest versus paying interest. We are detoxifying right now.

I feel great. That is. Okay. So another very common toxic money trait in our culture today is this belief and idea that the credit score is all you're shooting for and that it's an indication of wealth. It's an indication that you're wise with money. So people will throw out their credit score. Well, I have this credit score. I have this credit score.

When in fact realizing that that's just obviously meaning how you manage debt. And it's kind of back to our first point. but that idea that you're in debt, constantly in debt, paying debt on time, that's part of the score, accumulating new debt. I mean, it's just this debt game, but it's propped up in our world today as if you are really successful with money. Yeah, I've even seen this. People have shown me this, Rachel. They put it in their dating profile. No, they don't.

It's on their resume of like, I got an 820. No. You want to hang with me. I'm like, is any way, you might as well just hold out the fish at that point. Hold the what? Hold out the guys that hold out the fish on their dating profile. I don't know why women are like, yes. Teach a man to fish and he's the one to marry.

I don't know. But yeah, it's exhausting with the credit score because when you think about it, how they teach people, I'm like, it means you're great at debt management, not money management. That's right. Because you have to go into debt, stay in debt, pay it off perfectly, play their game in order to then get more debt, which is the whole point of the score.

And that's it. So the main reason, obviously, I'm sure most of you all know, but for those of you listening, that, yeah, you have your credit score to go into more debt, right? They pull that score for mostly going into more debt. And you can get a mortgage without a credit score, because that's the big one. That's the big argument is, well, how am I going to get a mortgage? Yep, through manual underwriting. So there's still a process to go through life without one.

And I did it just to see, Rachel, and it was not difficult. Yeah. They just will, it means a real person looks at your finances to go, oh, Rachel has the income to support this. They have a down payment. here's the loan. There it is. And you can rent a car.

You don't need to buy a car with a loan because you're paying cash. And so you can live your whole financial life without a credit score. And it's so much more freeing. For sure. Love it. Okay. Next one, credit card points. Credit card points are a great way to stick it to the man and get some money back.

For money I was already planting on spending, Rachel. Yes. You've heard that toxic myth. Yeah. What do you tell people when they say, I'm not, I spend exactly the same as I would with cash? study. I mean, it's, what we have to back up is we know that, yes, there's a percentage of people that pay their credit card off every month, right? And that's the big thing. Yes, that happens, absolutely. But it's way less of a percentage than people realize. I think it's only close to what

40% of Americans actually paid off in full every month. So majority of people are not. And there is studies and proof to be shown that you spend close to 12 to 18% more when you use a credit card. And again, we were laughing about the, the, the, zoomers and cash and all of that. But there is something with the debit card. When you make a purchase and you know that money is leaving and you know that there's not going to be a bill at the end of the month, even if you pay it off every month,

there's a psychological game there that when you spend your own money, you just spend it differently. You do. And so we had a debt-free scream on the show. It was probably two or three weeks ago. And she said that she was like, yeah, we did the credit card and we paid it off every month. And she was like, but we did a test to see,

okay, what if we don't use it for three months? Because she was like, we just used it for gas. and our bills. We used it for things we'd already be spending money on. And they ended up saving, like, it was like $6 or $700 within the first two months because she was like, we didn't realize that we were using it for online stuff. Subconsciously. Yeah, we were just, we ended up using it more than we even realized.

So we would just, you know, throw out the challenge. What if you just used your debit card for a few months? I wonder what would change. I wonder. And these credit card, the airline miles, what gets me, Rachel. Like, they're like, I got 50,000 airline miles. I'm like, where does that? gets you like that's Chicago to Boise if you're lucky it's not actually 50,000 travel miles so you

spend a dollar to get one mile but when you redeem it it's worth 1.5% that's insane you're getting 1.5% cash back and then bragging to your friends that you got a one-way flight out of the deal for spending 20 grand in a year it's insane so I'm with that challenge that's a real one okay another toxic trade is car leases keep you from losing money on a depreciating asset oh boy Go, George. I feel it your bones are now. Well, I did this video on car leases on my YouTube channel, and it was hilarious to see all of the people defending their bad choices. And I found most of the people doing car leases are like young bros. You know what I mean? Like, they're like, well, bro, actually when you do the math, I'm like, this is about your ego. This has nothing

to do with math. And so car leases are the worst way to operate a vehicle. Dave's been saying this for years, but I break down the math on the YouTube channel. What you're doing is basically you're renting a car very expensively and paying all the depreciation up front and then giving them back the car and owning nothing and having to restart this process. That's it. It's like the loop. Yep. The people will say, well, I like to have a new car or we enjoy having a new car every three years. So we do this so that we still get our new car. We're not buying a new car and it's right. Well, and then a car that's over three years old is a death trap and you must hate your family, Rachel. Y'all heard that one too? It's unreliable. I don't want to pay car repairs. They

pay for it. I'm like, they're making so much. Much money off of you. They make the most money off Carlises. So how can you both be winning? It's so true. It doesn't work out. I know. All right, last one. You can build wealth overnight with the right money hack. Y'all seen all these get rich quick stuff that's happening out there. I know this because y'all send it to me on Instagram going, is this true? Oh yeah. Is this infinite banking hack true, Rachel? And that one is exhausting to me because people are looking for a shortcut. Well, you explained that. I made Dave explain it on the, we did the, we host of the Ramss you show together like two days ago because I see that one all the time because like real wealthy. Have you all heard about infinite banking? It sounds really cool. They just say like wealthy people

use life insurance while they're alive. So it's basically like you get this money to live life that you're not having to go and make and they make it, you watch it and you're like, godly, what is going on? Can you guess who's creating all these videos, Rachel? Whole life insurance. The life insurance salespeople are the only one saying that this is a good idea to spend a whole lot of money on their insurance policy. So the essential way it works. is they say, you can borrow money from your own policy tax-free. So it's a tax-free wealth building. Oh, okay, I got it.

But because of inheritance tax, because there's interest on money you borrow from yourself, it doesn't ever work out. And you're paying insane premiums for the privilege of borrowing your own money. So do the math. Versus just putting it in a mutual fund and you could live off the return, you know. Yes. You could do that way with your own money, not having the pay premiums. You're 401K, your IRA, and paying off your house.

That's literally all you need to build wealth in America today. Don't listen to anyone who says otherwise. So good. Okay. So we talked about, obviously, some toxic money traits going on. That's right. But what happens when you're like, okay, I feel like I have some knowledge about this stuff. But maybe the people, the family in your life don't follow the same principles.

Have you all experienced that? Where you've had some awkward encounters? And you're like, you've got to listen to the here's. And then they go, you. what, you're an idiot. I've been there. I've been called an idiot. You know who called me an idiot, Rachel? And it hurt my feelings. I'm so sorry. Y'all won't believe this. Steve Martin on Twitter. The Steve Martin. How do you have all these celebrities? Britney Spears and Steve Martin. What is happening? I run with a different crowd, Rachel. I got clout. No, it was 2010 and I wrote

something, I tagged Steve Martin because that was bad, you know, I was a punk. I was like 18, 19. Why did you tag Steve Martin? Like I replied to one of his tweets. Oh. Yeah, he was on some weird Twitter comedic rampage. And I was like, Steve Martin's like that old crazy grandpa that you keep around out of pity. And he responded. And he said, and you are the sad idiot child. And I was, at first I was upset, but then I was like, Steve Martin called me a sad idiot child.

What an honor. So, yeah. That was kind of mean what you said about him. I deserved it. Yeah, I think you kind of did. So I forget, there's real people on the other end of those. Jeez. There we go.

So should we, should we, should we? Should we show them what it looks like to battle a toxic situation in real life? I think we should. With a little role play. Yeah. I think we did. Okay, but before we do it, this podcast is only possible by great sponsors. And Op Games is one of our sponsors, and they're fabulous.

They have some really fun games, including one George that I happen to have right here. Yeah, it's called Tapples. Okay, explain how it works. So Tappel is a very easy game. You pick a category, and you have all these letters around. at the outside of the board, and whatever words you pick associated with the category you pick, you hit that letter down and then the middle button

and you go back and forth until somebody chokes. They can't think of another word where the letter isn't down. Did I explain that right? So if the category was Ramsey personalities, I would hit D for Deloney and then hit the button. And then it's your turn. Yep, and you keep going, going, going until someone chokes or runs out of time.

Okay, so let's do a quick game. What's your category? Let's do... Should we let the audience choose? Does that feel bold? You know what? Let's have the audience help. Let's, okay, okay, how about this?

How about this? Oh, I like where you're going with this. If we get stumps, we get to, like, phone a friend, phone the audience. Yes. So the guys can help George, the girls can help me if we get stuck on something, okay? That's not a fair fight. Let's do like a really random one. Like, we both had dogs.

Let's do dog breeds. Okay, y'all, do the guys know dog breeds? We're really good. Okay. All right. This guy is apparently a pro. He was so confident. He was like, I got this.

I run a dog. I'd breed trivia night. All right. Thank you, sir. Looking out for you. Okay. I think I pressed this first before I start. Okay, ready?

Okay. No, we didn't turn it on. That's an important part of the game. I did turn it on. I did turn it on. I think they had it on. Okay, here we got ready? Uh, hound dog.

You ain't know the little? Uh, a Labrador. Help me out, guy. What? What did this guy? He yelled the longest dog name ever. Do you say Chihuahua? Belgian Palinwa?

I regret everything. Okay. Well, that was an unfair fight. I would have done better on my own without trying to listen. I could have won. But you know what? You at all. I blame George.

Rachel is very competitive, and so it's more fun when she wins because she's very upset. It goes into a tizzy if she loses. No, I don't. Not if I lose. If I win, I do internally get very excited. You didn't talk to me for a week after I won the last round, Rachel. That is not true. It is a fun game, and honestly, I realize my brain hasn't worked in a while until I play this game,

and I went, oh, I actually had to think for once. Yeah. So it is a great game. So you can find at Tappel and other board games at Walmart or wherever you buy your favorite board games. So make sure to check it out. Okay, so one area that George and I differ on, I would say, with money when it comes to like these social type settings, tell me if I'm wrong, is the idea of splitting the bill. Because my argument is if we go out with friends, for the most part, for the most part,

again, if it's an obvious nod, that's fine. But for the most part, we're all in it together. You know, you order some appetizers. Everyone does that. Usually everyone, you know, may have a cocktail or a glass of wine. everyone gets an entree, we may all split a dessert. Everything feels pretty equal. So I'm always comfortable if they're like, hey, do you want to just split the bill?

That does not bother me. George Camel hates it with everything inside of him. A burning undying passion is a nice way to put it. Hates it. Can I tell you why, though? Okay, we're going to sound like a great person. And I sound like that's, I couldn't, Rachel, not with you here. Go, go, because you split an entree.

That's probably one. That is part of it. That is part of it. And can I just say? It feels like we're on like Dr. Phil and you guys like, yeah, what she said. Can I say that if we were out with a couple that split an entree, I probably wouldn't offer to split the tap then because that's a very obvious. Oh, that's an obvious sign that like, this is not the couple to try this one.

Okay. Yeah. Well, let's roll play this in the toxic way. So you are the toxic friend. Okay. I'm going to be super toxic, Rachel. Which I think is on brand for you. if you will. I'm kidding. Unbelievable. So let's do a, yeah, a scenario where we're out to dinner. Oh, yeah,

there you go. We have a check. Okay, so we're double date. Whitney's in the restroom. Winston went to go get the car because it's raining. Why is he such a gentleman in this scenario? What a gentleman. What am I doing? Why am I not getting the car? Because you're all worried about the bill. Winston's getting both cars. He's that amazing. He's doing the ball. Okay. So the waiter brings over the check. The check. This is always the moment, right? Like, y'all feel the anxiety when the waiter's coming over.

Like, how is this going to go? And let's see what Rachel does. Here's your check. Great, sir. Mr. Waiter. Mr. Waiter is what you call him? It's offensive. Here's my debit card.

George, why don't you just let your debit card on here, too, and we'll split the bill down the middle? Because that's easier on him. Oh. And it's our job to make his life easy? Is that what we're here for? He works hard. Well, I didn't get, like, appetizers.

But you, Winston did. You ate some of our appetizers. I ate some of your appetizers? I saw a mozzarella stick. It was one mozzarella stick. That doesn't count as I ate some of your appetizers. And then I asked, what kind of appetizers do we want? And you listed, like, three out.

What you said, what would you guys like? I was like, well, artichoke dip is always a good go-to-appetizer. Yeah, that's an assumption. But we never talked about who's paying for it. Yeah. Because we're normal. I assumed you guys were going to get the apps. You guys love that.

You're an app family. We do love an appetizer. And then you were trying to eat Winston's dessert. You ate half Winston's dessert. I had a bite of the dessert. He said this creme brulee is to die for. You must try it. And then we didn't get, we got waters to drink.

You guys got two cocktails each. And a bottle of wine to go. To go. I mean, that is some gift card behavior. You don't do that. You have to drop off at your house after. I just don't understand why we should be splitting the bill when we got two orders and split an entree, no apps, no desserts. Literally, our total bill was $28 plus tax and tip.

And you're wanting to split the total bill, which was $128 plus tax and tip. That's not fair, is it, Rachel? No. I mean, your dad is Dave Ramsey. You're pretty good at math. I'm just saying you're pretty good at math. The math ain't math in here. I was under the impression that you both were very involved in the eating and consumption of the meal.

We just had a baby, Rachel. We're spending so much money on diapers right now. Do you know how nice the baby gift I bought you was? I wish this wasn't true, but she got little Mia this most beautiful, smocked southern dress. It's so sweet. That's going to make her look like a weird porcelain doll out of Southern living. Stop.

Get back in character. Okay, you know, Rachel, that's fine. We'll just split it. Great. Mr. Waite. And Winston appears, and he's like, what's going on, guys? I just got both cars. What did I miss?

And we're like, nothing, everything's great. Nothing, everything's fine. Okay, that was a very awkward, toxic environment. Would you guys agree that was awkward if you had to do that with your friends? And honestly, I would have a hard time. If it wasn't Rachel, I would have a hard time even speaking my truth in that moment. I'd probably just be like, okay, it's fine. Okay, it's fine.

And then I would have, it would breed resentment in my heart for weeks to come. And then I would say on my end, don't be the person that is so unaware that the poor new baby guy got waters and split an entree. Thank you. Be aware. Also, I'm the baby guy now. Don't mean. You have to have a bad thing. I'm not a father.

Just the baby guy? Okay. Well, if we replayed that, we're like, rewind mozzarella. How could we have done this a better way? Guys, thanks for joining us tonight. So glad we could make it work in your busy schedule. Wow, thank you.

Well, with the newborn getting a babysitter, we've already spent a lot of money to be here, Rachel. So I appreciate your awareness of that. I hear you. I hear that. So tonight, you know that Wednesday, I love a good appetizer or two. So tonight, we are going to order some appetizers.

Cool. We are going to. You're really explaining this. We'll put it on our bill at the end of the nights, but you're welcome to have anything that you want. That's so kind. I appreciate that, Rachel. You're so welcome. So you're good to just, we'll just split the bill.

You take your side. I'll take my side. We're not splitting the bill. Splitting the check. No, that means you're splitting it in half, George. Does it? Is it split in the middle? Separate checks.

That's the verbiage. Right, let's just do separate checks. We'll make it easier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We're not going to get much. We're just going to split pie split montres and stuff, but you all are welcome to, you can eat Winston's creme brule at the end of the night because he loves it.

It's Winston and I's thing. We always split a creme brule. You all apparently love it. It's kind of our bromance we have going on. I love that. What a great night this is going to be with no animosity or resentment. End scene. And done.

And complete. That was pretty easy. That's good. Like the hardest part is just communicating expectations up front, even if it's a little weird up front, so it's not a whole lot of weird at the end. Especially if you're the one that's like, oh, yeah, we're on a budget. We're getting out of debt.

We probably shouldn't be eating out anyways, but we're going to. And we're going to, like, yeah, get the inexpensive stuff and just like make a good date out of it. Yes. And if they're really your friends, they should understand. And if they don't and they have a tizzy about it, find new friends. That's all I'm going to say. Find new friends.

Okay. Good. So good. All right, George. Well, we're almost to the end of the episode, and we close out every episode with guilty as charged. We have sound effects? We got sound effect money? We're doing really well. We're doing real well. Eggs sound effects? We're crushing it. So normally, this is where our producer, Lindsay, gives us a guilty and charged question. If we are guilty, we have to take a sip. And so since Lindsay's not here, why don't you do? do the honors, George. I'll be Lindsay. Should I do an impression of Lindsay? Oh, people love Lindsay. We're getting some yeses. I think Lindsay's going to be offended by any impression I'm about to do. But she's so, if you've watched the podcast or on YouTube, whatever, she's so effervescent and bubbly and fun.

Yeah, she's awesome. But also very, have you ever? Oh my God. It's a little bit of that energy and I'm here for it. Lindsay, I love you. She's going to be listening to this. Okay. Have you ever left the grocery store? store with a car full of groceries and then stopped at a restaurant on the way home. Oh, yeah, I'm guilty of that. Guilty. Guilty. Do you remember the last, how many of y'all have done this?

Make some noise. I know. Well, don't be so proud about it. It is. Sometimes it's so overwhelming after you buy everything and you think, oh, gosh, then I got to go home. But it's like a little rebellious toddler inside of me that's like, like, heck, I'm going to cook all these groceries.

I'll show you. I'll show you life. Because you know, that bag of kale is going. to sit unopened for seven days until it gets thrown out and be replaced with a new bag of kale. I shop kale aspirationally. You got a massage. It's such a needy vegetable. Why you buy it?

Because I know it's good for me. And I'm like, I know I could make something amazing. But the idea of massaging it with like oil for 20 minutes, it's exhausting. I'm not a kale connoisseur. I didn't even know. Well, I'm a romaine. Get ahead of romaine and you just make a great. salad out of that. Okay. Well, we've got to go to the cruises, apparently, for a great salad.

But do you remember, like, what is your go-to? Are you a chick-fil-a person after groceries? Do you have a go-to? Yeah, my kids love Sonic. I don't know, do you have Sonic here? It's, I think it's a, okay, yeah. They love a son. They love a sonic. And where do they get that from? Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Rachel. Listen, I'm not mad at fast food. Some people are very anti-fast food. It's not consistent, but I'm a good Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich is so good. Give it up for the Wendy's spicy chicken. I mean, that's the most applause we've had tonight is over the Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich.

I can go through a name like my fast food orders. We don't do it a lot, but it's easy with kids. I'd say that or Mexican night. Like we'd go to like a Mexican restaurant. While the groceries are still in the car? What kind of monster are you? I have a thing about refrigeration. You do.

Oh, see, I'm wet. I only do it if I have nothing. refrigerated in the car. It might be fast food on the way home, but if it's refrigerated, I'm belining at home. I have, I'm very neurotic, Rachel. That is so funny. See, I go against all those rules. You're just like, let it thaw, let it thaw, let it thaw. This was, I drank more than you though on this moktail. It was really good. So this was a moktail, a black tea sour, mostly black tea, lemon juice, some other things to spice it up. It's got black tea, maple syrup, black pepper, lemon juice, egg white, marasino cherry, and an orange slice to garnish.

It's beautiful. I'm going to give this a 10 out of 10 mocktail. Wow. 10 out of 10 for me. I don't think you can do better for a mocktail. It's true. What do you think? I don't know why I was going 9 out of 10.

I feel like we've had some mocktails that maybe... Is it because of the egg white? I think it's the pepper. That's what threw you off? Yes. Did you see all the pepper that he put in? I like it peppery. Yeah.

All right. Okay, I'm going to go 9 out of 10. That's still really good. It's great. No. Oh, yeah. It's delicious. Well, if you want the full recipe, we're going to include it in the show notes for this episode. Go make it at home. Make us proud. The cost breakdown, Rachel, $2.21. For a very extra drink. So wonderful. All right. Well, it's closing time. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of Smart Money. Happy Hour. Did you enjoy it? Live in Chicago. Such a great audience. So fun. That's fun. So if you are listening on podcast, And you too, please leave a review. Actually, on podcasts, it would be fun to leave the city that you want us to come to because maybe one day.

Take it on the road. Maybe we'll go on the road. So if you're listening, leave a review in the city you want us to come to. And make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an all new episode next Thursday of Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers. Cheers.