Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Are These Common Money Habits Broke, Average or Wealthy?

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

💪🏼 Which side hustle is right for you? Get personalized recommendations with this Side Hustle Quiz.   When you think you’re slaying the personal finance game by following the latest money trend . . . but you’re really just taking one step forward and two steps back—no more! Today, George and Rachel are explaining why these common financial habits will make you broke, average or wealthy.   Next Steps: 🎥 Watch our video Habits Wasting Your Time (and Money) in 2024. 🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour    📱 Submit a Guilty As Charged question for Rachel and George! Leave us a voicemail with your question at 877-306-1517 or send a DM to @rachelcruze or @georgekamel on Instagram! Be sure to type “GUILTY?” at the top of your message so we don’t miss it.  💵 Sign up for EveryDollar today to create a free budget.   Connect With Our Sponsors: Check out the FAIRWINDS Credit Union exclusive account bundle. Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. Get up to 40% off with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth.   Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍋‍🟩 Cucumber Lime Mocktail Recipe: Vibrant Plate ·        1 large cucumber ·        1 cup of water ·        2 limes ·        3 tablespoons mint leaves ·        2 tablespoons maple syrup ·        Pinch of salt ·        1 cup carbonated mineral water ·        2 cups of ice cubes (or more as needed)   Instructions: Peel and dice one large cucumber, then add to a high-speed blender. To the blender, add one cup of water, the juice of two limes, three tablespoons of mint leaves, two tablespoons of maple syrup, and a pinch of salt. Blend until smooth. Strain the cucumber juice through a fine strainer or cheesecloth into a jar. To the jar, add one cup carbonated mineral water and two cups of ice cubes (you can add more ice cubes if you like). Serve in glasses with ice cubes. For decoration, you can add some cucumber slices, a lime wedge and some more mint.    Explore More From Ramsey Network: 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💰 George Kamel 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you think it's a financial slam dunk, but it's actually a major air ball. That's right. I can make sports references. And today we're playing a little game of broke, average, or wealthy. Nothing else will trip you up more when it comes to building wealth. And I think all of those three can play into it. Oh, this is going to stir the pot. This will make people mad.

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. This show are two friends who happen to be money. I start to talk about what you're talking about. Everything from pop culture, current events, and money. But first, we have to talk about what we're sipping on, Rachel. We must.

Okay. And our production coordinator went home to get a blender to make this drink. So be very kind with your words. The amount of effort that went into this. I have no blame toward the person who made it. I have a blame toward the recipe. There you go. It's the recipe's fault.

There we go. is a cucumber lime mocktail. That makes sense. We're going to give you the rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode and I highly recommend you stick around to the end if you want an unfiltered review of this drink.

Oh my gosh. All right. Moving on, have you ever seen an influencer? Don't answer yet. Post something they think is going to go viral but the comment section is just full of comments that's like, who's going to tell this is just not it's sys.

Which I find condescending, to be fair. I call her cis. Don't call anyone cis that you're not friends with deeply or related to. That's fair. That's fair. Just like you call me bro. Don't call me bro.

Dude, that's what my kids are saying now. Only my bros call me bro. Bra. That's what my kids are saying now. They came from school being like, hey, bra. Sweet Amelia is like, hey, bra. Not as much Amelia. Charles and Carolina.

Hey. Yes. Because Amelia respects her elders. I think so too. I know. But yeah, it's like they're not quite getting the vibe. You know what I mean? Yeah.

That's kind of the lesson there. That's the energy that we're going to attempt to bring in today's episode to set the record straight on financial habits that are broke, average, or wealthy. It's basically a fun way we can be judgmental, which I think is the goal of life. That's fair. Yes. I think there are a lot of things floating around that people just assume, oh, that's what wealthy people do, right? And it can be distractions at times.

So we're going to bring the reality to some of these, you know, money, trends or situations and be like, okay, is this really like what broke people are doing but they're acting wealthy? Average people, sure. It's kind of an average thing. Middle class, okay. Or is this what wealthy people do, right? So I like it. We're going to make it into a little game. We're going to read popular money strategies and decide whether it's broke, wealthy, or average and play along in the comments as we go or in real time as you listen to this. If you're with someone or if you want to talk to yourself, we don't judge unless it's inside of the episode. There you go. That's right. Perfect. All right. Right, first up, George, what is it?

Investing 15% in retirement. Is that broke, average, or wealthy? Oh, this is a little softball. A little easy pitch for the first one. I'm going wealthy. So there's a guy on Instagram. We actually talked about it in a meeting earlier today. Yes.

I'll give him a shout out because he's great. Sure, J.C. Rodriguez. J.C. Rodriguez. Nice guy. Yeah, and I found his account recently, and he interviews people on the streets. And a lot of them are like these like totally quiet millionaires. Like they don't look wealthy.

And then he starts interviewing. I'm like, what have you done? And like, well, and they talk about how they've become multi-millionaires. And one of the number one things always that helped them was investing. They all say, fund every retirement account you can and do it consistently. And they do it over 30 years. And they retire at like 60 with, millions of dollars and it's just like

it's just what you do like one guy which I wouldn't recommend this and say but he was like you don't have to understand it just put it in index funds that's all you got to do just put it in index funds and you're going to be fine basically you don't have to be a financial genius or some wall street guru no it's not for people of a certain IQ

no but it is the key of building wealth today it really is like tried and true you guys this is how people become wealthy yeah and I love it and in our seven Ramsey baby steps this proven money plan that we've developed over the last few decades, baby step four, once you're out of debt with an emergency fund, is to invest 15% in retirement. And so whether you are broke average or wealthy right now,

if you invest 15% once you follow those steps and you continuously do that for the rest of your life, it's almost a guarantee that you're going to have a seven-figure portfolio. For sure, yeah. It's amazing. Compound interest is an incredible thing. And with the tax advantages of retirement accounts where, you know, maybe it's a Roth account, it grows tax-free. It's a major win. That's like net income in retirement. Incredible. And here's the thing. If you're relying on Social Security, do better. Because the average

Social Security check falls just shy of about two grand a month. There's no guarantee this program will even be around when younger generations get there. So do not rely on it. We take calls on the Ramsey show all the time of people who thought it would be enough or they just didn't save for whatever reason and they're trying to live off of Social

Security. It's a sad, scary scenario. Yeah. And the wildest thing is people that do have Social Security, but they've done the baby steps and they like paid off their house and everything. They use that money. That's gravy. To like buy food and they take everything they saved to like go travel. Like it's funny.

Like they can like use it to their advantage versus depending upon it. Yep. And up next George, Helox. Home equity lines of credit. Broke average or wealthy. I would say average. Average people do this because broke people likely may not have a home yet. May not have equity.

May not have equity in the home. And usually helox are done to do middle class stuff like, build a pool or renovate the kitchen or maybe even pay off other debt or fund college because they didn't save. And this is really scary because your home is collateral. And so if you don't make the payments on the HELOC, which by the way, have a variable interest rate in most cases, you could lose your house. Yeah, for sure. And you go backwards in your equity, right? You're borrowing on it. This is basically a reverse mortgage for people under 65. Yes, totally, totally. So, but I would say, yeah, I'm going to go average here, too, George.

I don't like it. So, I've never heard some. do like a really wonderful thing. Usually it's just something they impulsively didn't have time or patience or know how to save up for. Well, I'll just take a heloc. Well, the crazy thing is, depending on how much you borrow on your home, the thing you're using the money for,

especially if it's like an upgrade or something, it's out of style anyways. It doesn't add value to the home. Like, yeah, it ends. It just moves you backwards. It does. It moves you backwards. So stay in the course, people.

Stay the course. Do not do it. You're just robbing yourself. and moving backwards. Yeah, but one way to propel yourself forward in a comfortable way, George, is when you have Cozyerathon. No, that's an investment worth making. Absolutely.

No debt required. It's an incredible company and everything that they sell you guys, the quality is outstanding. Everything from the bedding to the clothes, I mean, all of it. It is, it's incredible. It's incredible. And it holds up. They have a 10-year warranty on their betting just in case,

but it's really incredible. I've been rocking the T-shirt. I got the lakehouse clogs, the no-show socks. My wife loves the PJ sets. I've not yet delved into the PJs. Okay, well, you got Whitney PJs, and I saw them because they came to the office. I influenced you. And I was like, those are so cute, and I went and bought some.

Because they had the white with the blue pattern on it. Yes. Cozy Earth knows more about fashion than I do, clearly. Yeah, that's why you depend on them. That's why you need them in your life, George. Got a pair for my mom for Mother's Day? Yeah, I did that too. Who's the favorite son now? But really, check it out.

40% off when you use the promo code smart money at checkout or go to cozy earth.com slash smart money. We'll drop a link in the description, and you can thank us later for living your wealthiest life with cozy earth products. All right, up next, George, social membership clubs. Ooh. So you got like the Soho House country clubs.

This one screams wealthy. Golf clubs. Yeah, it's got to be. That's a lot. Yeah, I mean, these memberships can range from a couple thousand to 10 or 12,000 annually. Some have like buy-ins, like the initial buy-in, that would blow your mind, like six-figure buy-ins. Yes.

I don't understand it. I'm not at that place in life to be interested in that. Well, it's funny because I do think it depends on the circles you run with. Yeah. The more common these things are, right? So, like, I didn't grow up with country clubs. That wasn't like the circles my parents ran around in. And even today, like, I think we know some people have like golf memberships places.

But there's a whole world where that's like their societal, are these kind of things. And so, yeah, it's... And it is nice. I'm not here to knock it. But for people that can't afford it, it's a terrible idea. But most people that do this, it's a small part of their world. Yep.

You know, they're not worth $500,000 and spent $200,000 and spent $200,000 on a country club membership. Yeah, right, right. And usually it comes with, like, a minimal, like, fee every month that you, like a food and drink beverage. Like, you have to like... You got to spend this much to stay in the club. Yes, to stay in the club. Or you just end up paying it and not even using the... food and beverage line item, you know.

That stresses me out. But hey, if you love golf and fanciness, country clubs are for you. There you go. I'm more of a put-putt-putt guy. Love a little put-puttut. I think we should start a country club for put-put-l lovers.

I'm sorry, but if pickleball can be a sport, why is put-put not up there? Does it not require a skill? You know what? Most of golf is short game. I'm going to say that's probably fair, right? Thank you. I've never played golf.

Never? Your family loves golf. We went on a personality's retreat. Yep. Were you on that one? Oh, I was there. Okay, so that's the only... The guys went.

Yeah, but we went, no. Some of the girls went. Oh, I wasn't on that one then. Okay. I was on one with just the guys. And I swung a golf club for the first time ever on a golf course. I don't get it.

I'll tell you this. I went, so it was Dave Ramsey, of course. He drags us out there. It's the only word for it. And it was very nice. took us to the club by the lake house. Deloney's out there. Cargo shorts, graphic tea. Sneakers. If you know anything about golf, like, the number one rule is you got to dress the part.

Your attire is important to the game. Ken Coleman looks fabulous. Walked out of a magazine. Like, he is mostly 99% he is there for the attire. 100%. 100% for the golf. So Deloney, Ken and I go her own way because Dave's a serious golfer. We didn't want to distract him.

Deloney almost breaks a window from the golf because he's just. He's just swatten. He's just happy Gilmore out there. I wouldn't say he's a golfer. I'm hitting air and dirt with guess who's clubs, Sharon Ramsey, because I don't own golf clubs, as you can imagine. And Dave's like, this is you, Sharon, you'll be fine. You're about the same height. First of all, rude. I'm at least two inches taller than Sharon. So then I go, well, Dale, let me clean these off at the end. They're covered in dirt, because that's all I hit. And Dave goes, no, I don't worry about it. He's then there in the truck just wiping off every club that I used. And I'm just so.

I'm so embarrassed. What a servant later. And I have not played golf since. Well, yeah, I'm kind of with you. It's a difficult, there's a big learning curve. I think I'm going to take it up at like 52. Okay. Is that when your mom took it up?

When I'm 52. She was like a late rumor. No, she was late. No, she was like 60. Wow. Yeah. I guess she just looked 50. Yeah.

Sharon watches every episode. So well done. Shout out to Sharon. And thank you for letting me use your clubs. I don't think you knew that happened, but you just found out. And it was a big blessing in my life. Oh my gosh. That's fun.

Okay. All right, moving on, broke, average, or wealthy combining bank accounts. Ah. Can I go wealthy, please? Yeah, I mean, I feel like anyone can do this. Oh, yeah, anyone can. So in that regard, it's a trick question because I think if you're broke, you should still combine bank accounts. I feel like it's the wealthy mindset of like we are one.

It's the mindset. Yeah, people that build wealth together win faster. And so it is a team sport, if you will. and when you're in it together, study show, you build wealth faster. Think about it. If you're in the same canoe rowing together, you're going to go faster than the guy who's in a separate canoe. I know.

I always go to canoe analogies. That's how my brain works. He just love water sports, George. Can I say? I know. And if I'm to be all sappy, I don't know. I think it would be kind of sad if it was like all separate. Like Winston had his own little world and he had your own kingdom.

He's like, I'm going to go do this thing. And then I have to like figure out this thing. I don't know. Part of me is like, it just feels good to do things together when you're married. You know, you're in it together. Well, I do think it's more complicated to have a shared account, but then you have your own separate accounts, which is a lot of people do.

Yes. So it's like, well, our income goes into this, but then we split it off into this, and then I have my money, he has his. Because here's the thing. What you guys don't hear is the Ramsey Show calls we take when someone goes, he's upset because he found out that I have more in savings than him,

even though he makes more than me. I'm like, this is a silly scenario. Why are we doing this? So since day, day one, my wife and I have had a shared joint checking account and a shared high-yield savings account since the day we got married. And it's the simplest way to go. Yes, totally. But we get hate for this. So much. It's our number one place of like everyone hates this idea. Because men go, well, she's going to take you into the cleaners. I'm like, do you not know how divorce works?

Women are like, don't depend on a man ever fully. Yes. I'm like, well, if that's the case, then don't marry that person if there's deep trust issues. So a. A, separate accounts will just hide the problems, which works for a season. Yes. The joint account will just expose the problems early on, and you can actually deal with it then. Yeah, and work through it, yeah.

And if something major happens in life, if there's like a massive shift in the marriage, you know, something comes out and you're not trusting your spouse anymore, then, then get, yes, you need your own account then, right? Like, there is a reality to that. You better have a good reason for it. Yeah, and we've told people that on the show.

People call in and we're like, you have to protect yourself. If there's a gambling addiction, yes, separate accounts while you work. through this. That's right. That's right. So I like it. Oh, you just got me riled up on that. But yeah, I think regardless of where you find yourself, broke average or wealthy, combining bank accounts, if you're in a healthy relationship. Yes. Is a great move. I love it. All right. Up next, day trading slash investing to cash flow big purchases, broke average or wealthy. Oh, boy. I mean, day trading for sure liens broke to average. Because here's the thing, day traders, they're really like smart people. If you looked at their IQ, they're

intelligence. Like, you have to know a lot just to be able to even attempt this. Sure. Get into that. Yeah. But I recently took a call on the Ramsey show of a guy who made a bunch of money after leveraging some debt and then was $100,000 in debt just due to day trading. Shoot. And his relationship was ending because of it. He was in a terrible place, mentally, emotionally, financially because of it. You know, I just had a thought. Call it the Holy Spirit, whatever we say. Some of this, we're just chasing. chasing, chasing, the next dollar just trying to get wealthily.

There's a spirit of greed there. Can I hit you with a verse to tie that in? I was going to throw out Judas, but yes. How Judas was like the treasurer of the disciples. Did you know this? I did not know that. He like, yes. And so there's like all of this.

Which makes sense. He would be the guy to embezzle. So yeah, I'm not kidding. There's a, there was like, I read this whole commentary about it. And I was like, that is so fascinating. I never knew that. Whether it's true or not. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying like,

that spirit of greed, what it will, lead you to, it's so dangerous. It really is. If you make money, you're going to go, well, I can do that again. And if you lose money, you go, I got to keep playing until I get back up. Yeah, the money thing, and we're a money show, right? We help people with their money. So we're not, we're not again. Smart money, happy hour. So it's not that we're against it. In fact, we are about building wealth to change your family tree, but we are very much on the slow train. Like, invest consistently, be wise. Like, you know, I mean, it's not. We want to make sure any.

can do it. It's not for a money grab, though. And I feel like a lot of this situation, it's a money grab. And let me tell you, money can be a blessing. And we say it all the time, but it also can be a curse. Like, it can be the thing that takes you out in life if that's all you're chasing. Like, I think there's a lot of, like, caution around it. So when I hear that, it's like, how can I make the most amount of money the fastest? And if that is, like, your number one thing in life, it's not, that's not going to suit you well in life. It's just not. Like, it's going to get you in a lot of trouble. So have some peace. financial peace, one of our taglines,

around the subject, and this kind of stuff doesn't create peace. It fuels the greed. And I don't like it, George. Hey, hey, what's your verse? I'll hit you with my verse. I'm not like a verse guy. Is it a proverbs?

Let me just put it out there. I'm not a guy who's like memorized all the verses, but this is one that's really stuck with me. It is Proverbs. Okay, I believe it. Because I like that speaks and tweets. Well, I'm reading through Proverbs right now because our church is doing like a two-year read-through the Bible plan.

Yeah. There is so much money stuff. You're just dropping little bombs in there. It's amazing. Okay, here it is. Proverbs 1411. Don't quote me on that, but I think it's right. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,

but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. And that's been a great source of encouragement to me. That's so good. Because I'm going slow and low like a crock pot. While culture and Instagram says, hey, microwave it, bro. You can do it in 10 seconds. Yes. Why wait six hours?

Y'all. So there it is. And in my book, I talk about the three stooges of wealth. And it's fear, greed, and pride. I believe it. Nothing else will trip you up more when it comes to building wealth and fear, greed, and pride.

And I think day trading, all of those three can play into it. Yeah. Or anything that's a get-rich-quick scheme. Yes. Which, listen, find another hobby if day trading you think is like, well, I'm just passionate about,

no, you just want to make money quick. I know, yeah, and there's a spirit in that, y'all. Check yourself. Check yourself. Yeah. All right. So what do you do instead, Rachel? Instead, I use my money for delete me,

subscriptions. That's way less risky. In fact, it helps protect you from the risks that are out there. 100%. Yep. So it ends up being less than $9 a month and delete me, goes in and removes your data from online data broker websites because these data brokers collect your data. And this is your name, your phone number, your address. Your family's names?

Your family's name. It's wild with all they have, you guys. And then they sell your data and make money because they sell it to other companies. and those other companies take all your information. And they put it out there into the world with emails and other companies and you are a major risk for scams, spam, harassment, harassment, fishing even, pH fishing.

So it's not good. Bad news bears. So if you sign up for delete me, here's what you get. You've got a custom report every few months showing you where they remove your data, how much time they've saved you. So far they've removed me from over 240 data broker sites, save me 94 hours.

So you can get 20% off their annual plans by going to join deleteme.com slash smart money or click the link in the description. Amazing. All right. Next, George, giving money away or being generous. Ooh. I love that.

I'm going to say this is wealthy trait. You can do this in any stage, broke average of wealthy. But I think the people who have the heart plus the means to do it, lean wealthy. We call them philanthropists. There's a fancy word for it. Yeah.

I don't know, George. I may go all. three. There's broke people who are very generous. That's what I'm saying. There's average people who are very generous. Yeah, yeah. So this goes all three for me.

There's wealthy people who are very stingy. So we can call that out too. A hundred percent, for sure. It's not like just because you have money means you will give. It's a habit that you build from broke to wealthy. Yes, that's right. Yeah, but be doing it regardless of which category you are in. If you are broke, if you are average or wealthy, be generous.

But it does create, I don't know, a level of joy in life. and bees. I don't know. There's something about it. When you live life with an open hand. Yeah. Can I quote Rachel Cruz?

Yes. Give a little until you can give a lot. Thank you. That haunts me. Mine. That quote. I'll wait here in the middle of the night. I'm like, give a little until you can give a lot.

Oh my gosh. Love your life's not theirs. Know yourself, not your money. Smart money, smart kids. Oh, I love it. It's so good. But that is a true statement. And we talked about fear, greed, and pride just a moment ago.

I think giving is the antidote to most things that ail us in life. Because it's in our control. We can make impact. It makes it not about us. And you're kind of releasing control in a way when you're given. Yeah. Very freeing. I think it's great.

All right. Next up, broke average or wealthy habit. Refinancing the house. Ooh. Tricy, tricky. If you're refinancing. I'm going to say this is like an average to wealthy. decision.

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, if the interest rate drops for long enough, we're like, oh, we're going to refinance. Or you were in a bad mortgage and you want to refinance to like a better. Yeah, that's true. If you're not in like a fixed rate mortgage... So I guess depending on which way the financing is going,

but hopefully if it's going to the better side. Yeah, well, back, you know, during the pandemic era, we saw those like 2 and 3% rates. We have not returned to those as of this recording. We're still sitting in the 6 and 7s. And so if rates do come back down and you do have a seven and rates go down to a five, you can do the math pretty easily and figure out your kind of break-even point to go, all right, within a year we're going to recoup the cost for this refinance

and pay off our mortgage earlier, especially if you're going from a 30-year to a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, that can be a great deal. But yeah, I think this does, it kind of depends on where you're at. It's not like all wealthy people do this, but I do think it's smart to look at your options and to shorten your timeline anytime you can. Absolutely. Because that's a forced savings plan. A lot of people think, well, if I get a 30, I'll just pay it off like a 15.

I haven't seen any data that proves that's actually happening. But when you get a 15, worst case, it's paid off in 15 years. Yeah, it forces you into it. That's great. So I like that. All right. Next subject is budgeting. This one's a trick question.

Because everyone should be budgeting. Who is actually budgeting? I think it would have to lean average to wealthy. Yeah. Because by definition, if you are totally broke consistently and doing a budget, you're doing it wrong. Because the purpose of a budget is to live on less than you make. And I'm going to say we've been doing these every dollar webinars more and more. And when you're talking to people, and it's groups anywhere from three to 900 people that are in these.

We do multiple a week. And most people that are in there for this one, like the majority of the audience is living paycheck to paycheck. And most of them have been living that way their whole adult life because we'll ask them like these questions. little poles they can take. Yeah. And so it's just a good baseline to kind of see. And so I do think budgeting helps you go from broke to average and then eventually average to wealthy.

Because to get out of that paycheck to paycheck cycle, unless you have this crazy jump in income and you're really disciplined, budgeting really is the thing that helps control that income coming in to find margin to make moves because you actually know where your income's going. So. Well, Anna, I found most people who are having aversion to budgeting, they either go, well, budgeting is for broke people or they go, well, budgeting is for like Excel-loving nerds who have money. Yes.

And I found that I was broke until I started doing a budget. And so once I downloaded every dollar, it changed the game because it just held up a mirror to what was happening in my life and it showed me a plan out. And so if you guys want to check it out, we'll drop a link in the description or you can go to every dollar.com and start your budget for free today. makes it super easy to get control of your money. Yeah, it's great. And what else is really easy

is setting up a Fair Wins account. That comes with a budget. You gotta have a bank account for money to come in to budget with. So Fair Wins is a credit union, it's not a bank, and if you're working the baby steps, you want your financial institution

that you're using to be on your side. And there's a lot of big banks out there, you guys, that just aren't. Like they are advertising debt out the wazoo, you know, pushing all of this stuff on you and Fair Winds is such an incredible credit union because it's run by the people, which we love. And the setup, even to set up an account, George, is so easy.

Winston and I did it. I think I even did it on my phone. It was just like, it was so simple. You didn't have to walk in anywhere. You just pull up the website on your phone and knock it out. Yes, and they send you the debit cards, and it's great. And you can access a lot of ATMs around the country, but they have, like, business with.

And it's fantastic. So make sure to check out. Fair wins. Yeah, it's cool because, you know, they've been fans of us, and now we're fans of them. They want to help Ramsey fans win with money. And so they've set up a smart checking and savings bundle designed specifically for our fans. And it's simple, it's practical, lines up with the baby steps. So get started today.

Head to fairwins.org slash Ramsey to open your account or click the link in the description. All right. So next one, chasing the trend cycle. Ooh. So this could be like fashion, luxury brands. what's in... Outdoor gear. Outdoor gear.

It's all Rachel. Oh, even ways of like making money. The trendy cycle. Okay. It could be a coffee shop that just launched in town. There's one that just launched in Nashville. Mm-hmm. That is very...

Do I want to go? Yes. So I'm going to say the, like, die hard of this is average. Yeah. Like, if you are on the trend cycle all the time, I'm going to go average. because I do think you can get to a place where you're like exhausted by the change of everything

and you're like, I'm fine, I'm content, I'm good. Well, you found like the truly wealthy people they're into the sort of quiet luxury. So they're not as concerned with the flashier brands, the flashier trends. Yeah, they're great with like apparel loafers, jeans, and a cardigan that could cost a lot still. Could be cashmere.

But it may not like look on trend necessarily. But see, I like it. You know, that's where I fall in towards. This is my trap. I do. You know what I say. If you follow the trends, you fall for the traps. And Rachel consistently, but intentionally, falls for these.

Well, and I buy inexpensive trendy things. That if they go out next year, I'm fine. So there's a trend, but you're going to get the Amazon version. It's like a pair of like $80 jeans versus $300 jeans or something, right? Yes, or Amazon. I wanted you to tell us what the trends currently are, because I don't know. Okay, there is a trend and I just don't like it. Or the mesh shoes.

Mished? I know if anyone has the mesh shoes. I don't like them. What is that? They're out there. Who is this is a target, fine. So these, like, strappy sandals are kind of in. I'm going to say the barrel.

You're talking about, like, medieval mesh? The mesh. Well, what kind of mesh are we talking? Yeah, it's like, oh, look, look, look, she's got it up for you. So they're, yeah, but they're, like, see-through shoes, and you can see your toes. And it's a part of me that, like, if you want to show, like, the feet, just show it. I'm making sure no one has mesh shoes on right. Just show it.

Don't be, like, kind of hiding it, but then I'm not under this mess. mesh material. I agree. Don't go have zies. It's kind of like spider webby or something. Part of me is like, I don't know. I don't like it. There's a lot of trends.

But yeah, the barrel jeans are in now where it used to be these. Like these were last season, these jeans. So out of style. They're like the wide leg. And now it's like the barrel leg. 100%. There will be comments on this episode saying, Rachel, tell us where you got your jeans and your top.

I know. Never is it. Where did you get that tiny denim jacket, George? Lost Abercrombie Target shoes. So, like, that's my thing is I'm like, I will go buy, yeah, stuff like that. But if the next season comes around, I'm like, you know what? I bought it for the, I bought it for the moment. Yeah.

It wasn't like an investment kind of thing. So I don't know. My goal is to never be on trend and that way I'll never go out of style. You know what I mean? It's just an easier life. I think that's fair. I go for timeless, out of style. That's a wealthy mindset.

But even trends like, you know, sports betting can be a trend that people chase of the latest app people are downloading. are people spending their money. And so I don't like any of it because I find that it tends to cause you to stay broke. Yes, that's fair. There's nothing wrong with them inherently, but the marketing is so good

and you're so tempted and you want to keep up with the Joneses that it causes you to stay there. So outside of fashion trends, financial trends, I stay away from. I've literally been doing the same thing with my money for like 15 years. Just your 401K. I mean, yeah.

Actually, we've done some real estate, so that's, yes. That's pretty trendy. You've done some flips. I know. With cash. Yeah. Way to do it. Winston.

Still waiting on a TV show, Winston. Man, it would be good. Sledgehammering. I think that's what mostly women want to see is just Winston's sludge hammering through a wall. Just working the real estate houses. Like, why can't you be like him? Look at it.

A thousand reasons, Whitney. It's fine. Oh, George. All right, last but certainly not least, financial education. This was a trick question. This one's for everyone. Yeah.

There's no one this is not for. No. How you like that for a double negative? But I think people that study it and want to be intentional with it, great mindset. Yeah. It's going to lead to the wealthy.

And that's kind of the space we are in is financial education. Now we sneak it because we're really cool and we have drinks and we make it real fun and conversational. But the goal here is to kind of make financial education great again and just make it mainstream. to where it's normal to want to tune in to your favorite personal finance YouTubers like George and Rachel. Yeah, not great.

And to learn about it. But for real, like, yeah, and the purpose of all of it, again, is to have peace in this area of your life, to be able to do amazing things for your family, to do amazing things for other people, and for money not to be this paralyzing issue in your life. Like, it is for so many people. And that's what we do not want for you.

So the goal is not just to become rich, rich, rich, rich, rich. rich, that's not why we're doing this. No, it is for you to get control of this area of your life, to sleep good at night, where this doesn't keep you up and stress you out, and you have the ability to do fun things. Live your dreams. Yeah, if you want to travel, start a business. And again, the generosity piece is big in this,

is to be a generous person through it all and to help a lot of people. Like, it's incredible what we can do. So, yeah, that's, I think it's a great thing. I like to say that I want to talk about money so we can stop talking about money. That's not the goal. Love it. But we have to talk about it so you get control of it so that you can focus on everything else that's important in your life.

Yes. And you're talking to a guy who loves to nerd out online. Yeah, and like anything else, if we get so obsessed with it, even if you're doing well, then you end up becoming so obsessed with the topic and you end up not doing anything great with the money that you've earned and made. And you end up hoarding it. And that's not what we want. It's like people that are really into health.

And they're like, oh, my God. It's just like paralyzing in a way. Yeah, they like literally can't enjoy themselves ever because they're so paralyzed by it. Well, and then nobody else can enjoy them because they're so obsessed. Like I don't hang out my friends. I'm like, hey, guys, can we talk about this latest mutual fund? That's right. So it is.

I'm like, it's for the benefits of, to your point, getting control of it. So it's not a thing in your life. So don't make it a thing once it's not a thing. Get it? Well said. Tweet that. Get it? This is good.

Makes sense to me, George. This is good. What's the takeaways today? Okay. Broke average wealth. I think that there are common themes that each group of people can tend to fall for or do. So let's all lean towards the wealthier mindset, not again, just so you have a bunch of money, but so that money doesn't have to be an issue and you can do great things with it.

Yes, I would say wealthy people are earning interest, broke people are paying it, and average people are trying to keep up and just keep up with the status quo. It's not going to get you anywhere. So leaning toward that wealthy mindset means living on less you, you make investing the surplus not owing people money and it's a better life i don't care who you are where you're from what you did as long as you love me that's my final takeaway good time all right before we get to guilty is charged uh let's share the details on our drinks and what do we rate them this is a cucumber lime mocktail as you can see mine is still largely full of liquid

let me get a second opinion okay i'll go two out of ten oh I think that's fair. Here's the thing, if I was at a spa... That's what I just thought. This is a spa drink. This is a spa drink. I'm going seven out of ten. I'm going seven out of ten.

Would I order this at a restaurant and take it back? Absolutely. But if I was at a spa and it was served for free after my $150 massage, I would gladly be like, hmm, so refreshing. It is very hydrating. And I love cucumber. I would want more lime in this if it's a cucumber. lime cocktail, and I think it needs some fizz.

So add some LaCroix, Blackberry cucumber to this, and you might have a real winner. Here's what's in it. Cucumber, lime, mint leaves, maple syrup, salt, and carbonated mineral water. I'm not tasting the carbonation.

Did that... It's in there. Oh, we just waited. You waited too long to drink it. It fizzled out. Okay, maybe. But here's the good news. We needed some silver lining.

It's only 98 cents per glass. I'm not sure. water is that cheap. I don't know how this turned out to be 98 cents, but I do think it is refreshing. It is. I'm willing to concede 2.5 at a time. Okay, he's going up. Final rating. It's growing on them. Get the recipe and the show notes. Make it for your kids. You might sneak a vegetable in there. There you go. They like vegetable water. Oh, all right. Now it's time for Guilty as charged. And this is where we ask each other, guilty's charge question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip of our spa water. All right, question. Are there

there any internet rabbit trails you're guilty for falling for. Have you lived if you haven't gone down on internet rabbit trail? It's one of the joys of humanity. Okay, what's your latest one, I think is the real question? My latest one, church history. Do tell. Pray tell, I think is the better word there. I have. I've been down, you know? I don't know. I just always knew that there were the apostles and then Martin Luther. That was in my time frame of Christianity. Okay. Had no clue what was in between all of that.

Ecumenical councils. You got the great schism in 1054 from the Catholic Church split, the first big split. You go back all the way to see what happened and how did church become what it did. What's your big takeaway so far? Like who was the original church in your mind? Oh, this is going to stir the pot.

This will make people mad. Here's where, here, as I'm an innocent little Protestant over here. Okay, just doing my research. It does keep going back to the Orthodox Church. Okay. Those that are Catholic will not like that. So I love y'all.

Can you explain? We're all under the Nicene Creed. Like where does Orthodox fall? In between like Catholicism and the Protestants, where does Orthodox fall? Oh God, I'm not an expert, y'all. I'm going to go in the middle. I would say,

Because the Orthodox is not Catholic, but it's not Protestant. No. So it's just floating in the middle somewhere. It's more liturgical. Is that fair? For sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. A little more tradition, a little more pomp and circumstance. Very Eastern.

So a lot of like, osmosis. Like, yeah, yeah, it is. There's more robes and hats. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, but they would claim, as Catholics would, that they are the original church. Okay. So there was a big split that happened in 1054.

or the first split ever of church and then off the, and then the Catholics, which again, depending on who you are, which way you would take my hands, but go with me. You got Catholics that split from the Orthodox, okay?

And then out of Catholicism is where Protestants split. Oh. So then over here, but I don't know. It's, it is, it is so fascinating. And I love it. I love researching. That, or the Denver airport.

Those are your two. Yes. Wow. Okay. Denver Airport, wild. That's a good one. Pizza gate. Here's my question.

Don't go down that rabbit hole. Have you researched? I grew up Arabic Baptist. I imagine that was invented in 1962. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in the Baptist realm over here. Sure.

Like, when was that invented? And when did the Arabic get a hold of that? That's a good question. I don't know. Because the Middle East is largely Muslim. But there's like 5% that are Christians in their Middle East. So that's interesting is when you look at the split. You have a lot of Orthodox in that world.

Yes, I was going to say. So really, out of the five original churches, Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome, Rome was the only one that went west. All the others stayed east. Oh. So Rome took the western part of Christianity, which is largely Catholic. So when you go... Again, I'm saying all of this that I am not an expert.

Please roaster in the common section if you are a historian or a theologian or both. Seriously, this is very, this is like chat GPT rabbit hole stuff. But yeah, you go over, you go over to Western Europe, and it's cathedrals. It is very Catholic, but then you go Eastern and very Orthodox, like in the map when you see it. That's helpful. It's just the truth. I mean, I think that's what happened. There's worse things to delve into.

So I'm proud of you. So to take Orthodox over here to float it to little Rachel in Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee in 2025, took a jump. but I like it. It's interesting. It is fascinating. Have you been to a Coptic Orthodox Church? No, so Coptics, they came out of, so they're in Egypt, mostly Egyptian,

and they split, I think, after the second Ecumenical Council because they were talking through like the theology of the Trinity. Very fascinating. Yeah, I mean, it gets real nerdy real fast. I'm really trying to follow. My brain hurts.

It's really, it's so interesting. But here's what's crazy too, George. Well, we can stop about this. But a lot of that was, a lot of them were meeting to figure out theology before the canon of the New Testament was even created. Wow.

So they're very, I mean, and it's pretty, and it's pretty wild when you go back and read the stuff because it's a lot over the branch of Christianity, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, of what we all still really truly believe from like the Trinity standpoint and all of that. Like, it's really crazy, but they did all of that. They're Constantine.

Wow. Cheers, Constantine. Cheers to Constantine. He doesn't get a lot of cheers these days. Drop a comment in the section if you're a Catholic Orthodox. I think everyone's gone at this point. I think it's just us.

I know. I think it's fine. Okay, what's your rabbit? Washer dryers have been my latest rabbit hole. Specifically, top load versus front load. Why did we make the switch as a society? Do you know that I think top load is better? Well, technically because of the agitator,

but it uses more water. Okay. So it's more efficient to go front load. But front load has the issue of mold because of how the water sits. Oh, no. So now there's a GE profile that is an odor control, and it actually has a drying cycle that will dry out the water sitting inside of it.

Wow. But they do say if you're a front loader, you've got to keep it open to let it air out. To let it air out. I've learned that. But we've been a top load family. We're about to make the switch, and I'm nervous. Okay. Why are you switching, though?

Why do you want to switch? The efficiency. A lot of the modern ones just happen to be front load. Yeah. They look nicer. I almost got the pedestals with it so that it raises the entire thing. Yes, and then you have a drawer underneath. We did that.

I asked Whitney, she said, I'd rather be able to fold on top. So we're getting like a platform on top to fold. Yep, fair. But I was like, we're going to break your back doing that. But hey, it's your funeral, you know. So that's been my journey, spiritually. Is washer dryers, while Rachel has been, I guess,

trying to convert those who are maybe not of the faith. Hey, it's just good to know where we've come. There's at least one atheist listening who's going, I'm intrigued. That's fair. By my washer dryer conversation. So good. Well, if you have a great guiltiest charged question,

let us know your rabbit trails in the comments. We're not the only ones. If you enjoyed this episode about being intentional with your money decisions, you're going to love the episode. Habits that are wasting your time and money, you can click the link down below to check it out because it is a great episode.

And also, if you don't want to miss a future episode, make sure to subscribe. So we will see you next Thursday on an all-new episode of. Smart Money Happy Hour.