Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - How 8 Overnight Millionaires Made Their Money

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

From the inheritance scandals to the Antiques Roadshow to pension stealing, Rachel and George uncover wild stories of people who became overnight millionaires. Plus, they’ll walk you through what it really takes to hit your first million. In this episode: ·     The craziest get-rich-quick stories George and Rachel could find ·     Why 70% of lottery winners end up broke ·     How you can become a millionaire—even if it doesn’t happen overnight   Helpful Resources:   ·     Booking a flight with Going is the best and simplest way to pay less and 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 started today. Use code 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: Strawberry Mint Summer Sparkler Recipe by Elliot Clark, @apartment_bartender   Ingredients: ·     2 ounces gin ·     1/2 ounce ginger liqueur ·     1/2 ounce strawberry syrup ·     1 ounce lemon juice ·     2–3 dashes aromatic bitters ·     soda water ·     5–6 mint leaves   Instructions: Combine all ingredients except for the soda water and mint in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake to chill the drink. Strain into a cocktail glass over crushed ice, and top with soda to taste. Add more crushed ice, and garnish with a sprig of mint.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Campbell. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. This is a big old drink, George. This is a boat of a beverage. I will say that. This is a workout. This is a five-pounder.

Yeah, we're going to get a workout and a sipper with this one. But this is the show where two friends who happen to be money experts talk about, which you're talking about, everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And today we are talking about overnight millionaires. who actually got a huge sum of money instantaneously, and it changed their lives for better and worse, which we'll get to. Yeah, like, could you imagine, like, going to Rome, like, for a school trip or something, and then you're mistaken as, like, a pop star, but it's, like, Lizzie McGuire.

Oh, I was like, where's she going to this? It's a Lizzie McGuire reference. Yeah. No shock there. Or more my speed, pulling a Jordan Belfort, wolf of Wall Street, if you will, and going from entry-level Wall Street guy to millionaire in less than five years. All the way up, yep. And some Gen Ziers out there, you know.

Outer Banks. The treasure hunting teens on Outer Banks. We're hip to it. Those vibes. The writers fill us in on what's happening on Netflix. We know the lingo. We're so unaware. It's sad.

But there's some cultural references and some real-life references to people that become millionaires overnight. But for most of us, it's not in the cards. We will not be overnight millionaires. But we can teach you how to reach millionaire status in many, many nights, which is still awesome. Hundreds of thousands of nights, but we can all get there. We're going to get you there by the end. So stick around to find out how. Yeah, and we are sipping on a what, George today.

This is a, I can't even say the name seriously. It's a strawberry mint summer sparkler. So happy. Why is it a summer sparkler? I don't know. Couldn't be a spring sparkler? Already, I'm going to just say it's delicious. Yeah, so stick around to the end.

We're going to give you the recipe, the highly coveted recipe. That's right. Okay. So let's give a little background. on this George. That's a good idea. Yeah, this topic. They may be new because you've been sharing this with your friends.

Now the friends are listening. They're like, who's George and Rachel? Yeah, who is this? So George and I work at Ramsey Solutions and we talk about money. This is like the main part of our job. So it's everything from the Ramsey show. We co-host that with our other Ramsey personalities. We write books.

We have YouTube shows and podcasts and all that. So like one of our big goals is helping people get control of their money. And as we say on the Rachel Cruz show, and create a life you love. But the idea is getting in control of your finances. And building wealth. Yeah, is getting out of debt, budgeting, saving, investing, being able to retire and actually have money, all of that. So the idea of building wealth is a key part too of our message. So this felt like a good subject. And we want you to do it wisely. That's the key here. And wisely looks a lot like the tortoise versus the hair. So you got to do this slow. And today we're kind of covering the other side.

of that were crazy stories of people who did it really quickly. But as you will find out, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I know. That's what's a little tough about this. So sometimes, you know, if you just are handed a bunch of money and you don't know how to handle it, well, things can go a little sideways, George. So that's what can happen. You know, for the record, we are both net worth millionaires. And, you know, it's not something that I thought was ever possible for me. And so I want to be the every man showing you guys how to get there by the end. And Rachel and I will share kind of our path to getting there.

Yep, that's right. So, again, this is not, the way we teach it is not a get-rich-quick type of mentality. It's very much a long-term play, changing your habits. It's who you're becoming in the process to. So this is not an overnight thing, long-term play. That's very eat, pray, love of you. I like that. Oh, thanks.

It's about the journey. So the path to wealth, we found, is actually pretty boring, but it works. And we're going to reveal that path towards the end. But in the meantime, let's have a little fun. Do it for the plot, as the kids say. Do it for the plot. Yep. So we're going to look at the wildest overnight millionaire stories that we could find.

This is everything from like inheritance scandals to pension payment stealing. Ooh. Skims and scams. Yeah, there is a lot. So again, we may be boring when it comes to our advice. But what we're about to dive into, George, is anything but anything but. Prepare your heart. Let's react to some of the most outrageous overnight millionaire stories, George.

All right, let's start with the GameStop stock surge. That's a tongue-quister right there. Oh, yes. This was a big thing. Some of you all heard about this. But in January of 2021, a group of small investors on Reddit collectively decided to inflate the value of GameStop stocks. And they do that.

How? They all just had to like buy in together and like drive the price up? Yeah, it's kind of like if we all decided to like go to Target at the same time. But there's like thousands of people then. that did this. I mean, it was a huge community called Wall Street Betts. It's a subreddit community. Very nerdy.

Too much information for Rachel. But an entire community all at once was like, hey, guys, let's screw the rich people. Yeah. And let's all go buy the stock. And it works. And it drives the stock price up. It drives the stock price up. So they wanted to take a stand against the 1%.

And it kind of worked. GameStop stock value went from $18 a share to $380 a share in a matter of weeks. Yeah. And Keith Gill, the man who helped inspire. the inflation, he lost over the $13 million in the end. So at the record high, Gill's return increased more than 2,000 percent to $33 million. And he lost $13 million by the end. So he was up to $33 million, then down...

Because he didn't cash out? Or he spent it? You can do a lot of stupid things when it comes to investing, like, you know, options, trading, margin trading, all these crazy things. He's like doing a bunch of all this stuff. You basically can leverage debt to invest. then if it doesn't work out, you're now in debt. Sure, totally, totally. So who knows what happened there, but that is frightening.

And some people did make money. The problem is all the people that were like, oh, I got to go make money, but it was too late. They were like way on the tail end of the curve. That's right. That's right. They missed the spike. It's like me getting to skinny jeans. I was just, I was too late. And now it's already gone.

And now it's gone. Hey, look, I actually had, I know. Are they back? Are they back? Oh, no. I found these back there. I haven't worn these in a long time, but there they are. I'm back with the skin.

2007, Rachel is back. But blinging in shoes for the old wealthy millionaires. It's abrasive, to say the least. But I thank you for that. That's a crazy story. Yeah, that's nuts. The lesson learned there is don't follow the trends. Okay, are you ready for the next one?

Dog inherits $12 million from owner. George, is this you? This is something I aspire to that I will have $12 million to give to my dogs. human child, and I feel like she's going to rank above the old dogs and the inheritance. The child can figure out how to make income. My dog can't do that. So I feel like if you're going to leave money to something, it should be the dog. Stop it, George Campbell.

I'm just saying it. Stop it right now. The kid can go get health insurance and get a job. Your child has a soul. Well, here's a story. Leona Helmsley was a socialite, much like you, and a billionaire. Much like me. She's been described as a socialite.

So she's a socialite billionaire with a terrier named Trouble. Okay. I can't. I can't. I can't. So she showed her love to the dog by bestowing upon it $12 million. I know. This is the stupidest thing ever.

Which was more than the 10 million she gave to her own brother. Y'all, I can't. Here's the worst part. Her two grandchildren left out of the will entirely. Zero dollars to the grandkids, 12 million to the dog. Oh my gosh. I want to know this. I want to know her.

I wish I had known, like, were the grandkids just terrible people? And she's like, you know what? Here's the middle. I'm going to just give it to you. Is she like a Cruella Deville type? I don't know. Maybe it's one of those. Or, I mean, but the fact that she leaves that to a dog.

I can't. Well, the brother. So I look this up because I was like, what? You can't legally give money to a dog. So it's to the brother. And he's like the... The caretaker. So the brother is now the executor of the will for the dog, which I think is humbling.

Like he's got to manage $12 million for this dog. What is he going to buy for this dog? That's where it's like that. You think he made a little pet living room with like luxury furniture? It's the most absurd thing ever. I don't know. You have to admit, it's kind of funny that a dog has a higher net worth than almost any American. That's humbling on its own.

I wonder what kind of dog it was. It's just a terrier. I know. Named trouble. Named trouble. It sounds like kind of like the worst dog ever. Terrible dog. Oh, boy.

Sorry, man, you're not in a second. Moving on. Okay, how about this one? An elderly woman sues doctor. She can't remember. So in 2005, Irene Finley was rushed to the hospital with a severe infection in her knee. She never met Dr. Roy, the doctor who assigned to operate her on her knee. And so she eventually sued him in 2007 for negligence because she couldn't remember anything about him.

Okay. So I don't know if she was missing, like, official paperwork. Like, she's like, I have no recollection that's happened, therefore I shouldn't have paid for this. I don't know if she thought, like, maybe they drugged me and she, like, didn't know. I don't know what it was. But all I know is that a jury awarded her $7 million. And Dr. Roy had a file for bankruptcy. Come on, Irene.

Come on, Irene. You know what I mean in this moment. But for real. Wow. Okay, I don't. So something, if a jury, 12 people, right, come to a unanimous. sane, reasonable people. Yeah. Then obviously there was

information in the case that was odd that they were like, she deserves the money, right? Yeah. Because our... I've seen jury duty, so I feel like a capable jury should be able to get to the bottom of this. I mean, in that wild, though? Wow. Well, that's one way to make your millions.

Yep. Okay, the next time I love is the antique road shows. Oh, yeah. This is a good one. The painting called Al-Abn. It's so difficult. Spanish is a beautiful but difficult language for me. How do you say it? L.

Alabalabaline. Alabanine. Arabanil. Alabanil. Alabanil. Which translates to the laborer, and I've done a lot of laboring just trying to get this word out. It was a painting from 1904 by Diego Rivera, and it was valued between $1.2 million and 2.2 million in September 2018. It was originally appraised between 800 grand to a million.

on the show in 2012, but the value was updated to reflect the high sales price of other works by Rivera. Another painting of his, the rival, sold for $9.7 million. Oh, that's $10 million. And so for somebody at the Antigrote show, they obviously just had it, right? And that, like, part of the show is, like, you find stuff. It's like, I just had this painting in my attic. Yeah, that it was like passed down or whatever.

And this person got, yeah, it would have been, well, this one specifically, like a million dollars. Art is the one part of life. I can't fully wrap my mind around. That, like, stuff like that. Like, do I'm saying? Like, that could be anything, anyone? Don't you think it's kind of like, you kind of do it for the flex a little bit? Like, yes, it's because it's beautiful, but it's also like, I have a $2 million painting in my house.

Is that it, though? Just saying. But I would rather have, like, a $2 million, like, three cars that totaled. Here's the difference. You know what I'm saying? Like. Rich people see them as assets. Yes. Versus a car depreciating.

They're like, well, this painting will. That's fair. Gain value over time. That's fair. That's fair. Like, it's not usable. I don't know. It's, it just brings a joy. I'd rather buy a real estate than a painting to be.

If I had $2 million, I'm buying real estate. Yeah. And you make passive income from? I mean, like, yeah, like, I don't know. But I've never heard of Diego. I'm sure he's a nice guy or was. I can't imagine he's alive anymore. I mean, I bet he's great.

Yeah. But hey, your work. It's making it to Smart Money Happy Hour. What a legacy. What a legacy he's living. It's the only thing he wanted in life and it's coming true. Okay. Okay, the next one I love is that a waitress receives $500,000 from a regular customer.

So this technically was more than just an overnight half-millionaire, if you will. Okay. But Bill Cruxton was an elderly man who visited a local restaurant, and he sat in the same section every day. And Kara Wood would always, you know, take care of him. And not only just at the restaurant, but she would also run errands for him. She would go to his place and help him around this house. Okay. And so obviously she became one of his favorite.

at waitresses and like a really good friends. When he passed away in 1992, he named her the sole beneficiary of his estate, y'all. That's wild. So that means he probably didn't have family. And I just think that is a lovely story. He was a lonely old man. You're right.

I'll give him the ben for the doubt. Someone's being kind and their generosity pays off in $500,000. Now, to play devil's advocate, do you think Homegirl knew he had some money and was hoping to make it into the will? Do you think that was ever a part of it? No, no, not half a million dollars. Maybe if he had like millions or something, but half a million, I think he can fly under the radar.

Yeah, if his entire estate's half a million. You're not like, I'm going to do all this for the money. It's not like he, like has paintings in his house that are worth a lot or something. Do you know what I'm saying? Once again, Rachel wins in the Good Person Award. I'm much more cynical than her. But that's still, it's a love, that's actually a lovely story. I think it's sweet.

There's no malice involved here from what I can tell. I liked it. Okay. Next one is creepy. I'm going to have you take it because it's just weird to me. Japan's oldest man had actually been dead for 30 years. Okay. We'll see how that one tracks.

Oh, my gosh. In 2010, Sojan Kato was believed to be the oldest living man at 111 years old. When officials went to his home to wish him a happy birthday, strange enough on its own, and congratulate him on holding the record, they found his dead but well-preserved body lying in bed. His daughter, who was 81, had mummified his body and set it up to look as, if he were sleeping for over 30 years. No, I'm out. I'm sorry.

I lost me at... I'm out. The mummification of a human... I don't even know... What in the weekend at Bernies is going on here? It's like human taxidermy. That is like... Could you imagine having a debt party?

Gross. Like in a bed, in a bedroom, y'all? The family, here's where it gets extra gross, but financially scammie. The family admitted to doing this in order to... to continue collecting pension payments from the government on his behalf. Because as long as he's alive, he's getting those payments. He's getting money and they're just spending the money.

An estimated $117,000 had been stolen since his death in 1979. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's a juicy one. Would you have a dead body in a room in your home if someone paid you for it? No. If you're like 100 grand to keep this thing alive for 30 years, I'm like, no, I just go get a job. I get a side job, whatever it takes on.

I have a dead body in my house. Oh, so this fraudulent case made the Japanese authorities realize over 234,000 people over the age of 100 were not insured to be alive due to poor record keeping. Wow. Wow. Man. That's a lot of knock on the door. Hey, just checking in. Making sure you're alive. They obviously didn't take a pulse for 30 years. Or like talk to him. Isn't that funny? It's so bizarre. Okay, next one is that maid inherits $40 million from a father she never met. So an Argentinian woman, Ava Pauola, Paolo, was, yeah, she didn't have a father, and she was working as a housekeeping maid. And after some research, she discovered that her father's father was a rich baron who died in 1983. She demanded a paternity test, but the baron's estate was so against it that they exhumed the body and replaced it with another man.

Wait, what? Man. They took the body out and replaced it with another man. Anyway, she got the DNA finally from the Baron's mother, and she won. Dang. And in the end, she established a relationship with her biological father and went home with millions, $40 million. There's a happy ending. Man.

Reconnected with the bio dad, $40 million. Dollars later. Sure. I'd watch that movie in theaters. But they replaced the dead man. Oh, man. So obviously the biological dad was part of the estate switching body thing, right? Oh.

You assume? That's interesting. There's your plot twist in your movie. But then they end up, like, in a nice, loving relationship. The father's father was a rich baron. Yeah, he, and so, I don't know. So grandpa. Yep.

Very interesting. She walked away with 40 million. If you could choose any rich, famous person to be related to, that's not Dave Ramsey. Who would it be? Oh. That's a good one. I'm going to go Bezos. Really?

Why? I like Amazon. I like Amazon. And I'm sure behind the scenes there's a lot going on there, but I just feel like he kind of flies under the radar. Oh. So, and he's like, what, the fourth? Like, wouldn't you pick like one of the richest people if you could pick anybody?

That's fair. Plus you'd probably get free stuff on Amazon. That's what I was thinking. I was just going on Amazon. I don't even think he, is he even involved anymore? I don't know. You don't just get a free prime subscription. I'm sure not.

I'm sure not. But I would like a free prime subscription. That's all I want from my dad. I'm going to go Warren Buffett. Good one. Oh, man. Just a sweet old man who's very reasonable. Yes, very reasonable. You know what?

That's a great one. Not making headlines. But then like a short shooter, like a Mark Cuban or something would be fun. Oh, that would be. Where it's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. He's the cool dad. Yeah.

He'd be the cool dad. That's fair. That's fair. Moving on. We got one more, Rachel. Are you ready for it? Yes, I'm ready. Billionaire jackpot winner.

Someone out there won a $1.08 billion powerball jackpot a few weeks ago. And the odds of winning this thing, won in $292.2 million. Let that sink in. So when you think, like, well, someone's got to win it. You also have to think if you get on any airplane, this is going to be the one that gets struck by lightning and go. Yeah, yeah. You have to also grapple with that as well. Yes.

So here's the story. This is the third largest winning since 1992, and the person or group that has won has not come forward yet. So there's no name. Okay. Spooky. They have like a year, right? They have one year to claim the prize.

Yeah. The craziest part is that the store that sells the ticket gets a million dollars as like a fun thank you. Yeah, it's more of just like a spoof of, hey. Sure, why not. Out of a billion dollars, a million is not that much. Yeah. That's a, you know, it's a thousand millions to get to a billion. It's a lot.

That's insane. But here's the sad thing, though, for most lottery winners. 70% lose or spend all of their money and five years or less. Can you believe that? 70% go bankrupt. Most winners very much like impulse spend and then end up regretting it. And the minute you become a lot of winner, for a large sum, you become a target. So again, lots of cases where people were poisoned, robbed, or even murdered for their money.

And most lot of winners claim that winning the lottery, strained their relationships. No shocker there. I know. Well, because the instantaneous wealth that is built with the lotto and probably the other things we're talking about is that you haven't formed good habits on a journey, if you will, to building wealth. It's just like placed on you. So all your bad habits are just going to be magnified with all this money. Well, and truthfully, actual wealthy people don't play the lottery. So the people that do play are generally broke.

Yeah. And so it's life-changing money, but they don't know how to handle it. How to handle it. So, but it's, we'll have 70% go bankrupt. So, like, I wonder what the average, because not all lotteries are a billion dollars, right? You could win a million. But, yeah. Which is more reasonable.

Yeah. So that, that, yeah, I could spend that. We could, we could get through. We could get through that. We could get through a million. But, like, even people that, you know, that win, like, 50 million or that, like, win a lot of money that you think, how can you run out of that? They just run out.

They find a way. What would you do if you won this thing? I mean, obviously, a billion dollars turns into half of that. after taxes. Yeah, taxes and stuff, yeah. But let's see you took the lump sum. Let's see you got $500 million lump sum or $400 million. I would get houses.

I would get like that. Like vacation? Where at? Yeah, I would go warm. So I'd go Caribbean. Okay. Islands, not sure specifically what, like Exumas or something, like something kind of exclusive, but that you could still get to restaurants. Close proximity to food.

I guess you could have a chef if you won that. So yeah, I'd bring the chef with me. So I don't matter where. I would have like a city, a city like Paris or London or something, you know, like a cool apartment. I thought you would buy a city. I'm sorry. I'm like beach mountain city. I would have all those places because I would feel like I just need to go.

And then for sure a plane. Okay. But like a big plane. So I can bring a lot of people with me all the time. Bring all your friends. Those are my top. Those would be like big purchases. Houses and a plane.

What would yours be? I like the idea of. buying a city now that you mentioned it. I want to go full, like, full Schitts Creek. A village. Like I used to be the mayor of the town. I make all the rules. Hey, Johnny Depp had it.

I think it was Johnny Depp. Has a town in like, like some obscure place. And it's a small little village and it's on, it's for sale for like 70 million. And it's been for sale for like years and years and years and years. But it's like a little village. It has like a few like little stores and houses.

I know. You should get in on that. That's impressive. Yeah, I for sure buy some vacation homes. I mean, at some point you just kind of get. Board of the money. Maybe. Rachel would not.

No, that's something. I would want to, like, do something like with Jen, I'm not to be that guy, but like something really cool and generous that, like, changed an entire city or something. Oh, totally. You know? Yes. Like, go to my hometown and pay off everyone's debt in the entire city. I would do that first before my plane. Sure.

Just invite me. That's all I'm asking. Invite. Well, oh, oh, because we both can't win. Yeah. So if I win. If you win, invite me. Okay.

And if you win, invite me. To my city. To your city. Georgetown. It's already a place. Wow. That's a good one. Being an overnight millionaire, Rachel, not all it's cracked up to be, to say the least.

So what can we learn from this? Well, I think one of the biggest things is the likelihood of this happening is very small. So not to like bust the bubble of everyone out there. So there's a sense of ownership that you have to take over your own life and to be like, okay, here's my situation. Here's what I have. What am I going to do with this? Right?

And so one of our big things is like you have to stop giving your money to other people, aka debt, to banks and credit lenders, all of that. So when you actually have your own income, you're able to build wealth. So the biggest thing is your habits and choices that you make long term. I mean, because it is, it's going to be a long journey. It doesn't happen overnight. And part of it, it sounds cheesy, but you have to believe it's possible for you. Most people never create the habits because they're like, well,

I'm never going to be a millionaire anyways, or a million bucks isn't enough in today's world. And so they have a very cynical attitude towards money. And therefore, it's just yolo, spend everything you make, go into piles of debt. You're never going to get there if you think that like that. And what's interesting is that mindset to me, I'm like, that leaves you stressed, broke. Like, that's a level of hard to me that I'm like, why would you want that versus saying, hey, I can actually try. Like, let's just give it a try. Let's get out of debt.

let's invest and just see what happens because the thing is that's more of a proven record of actually having money and keeping it than the latter so yes and this is not theory so i followed the ramsie baby steps 10 years ago when i started here ramsie and i went from 40,000 dollars in debt to net worth millionaire in a decade and people are like well how did you do it like what's the secret you must come from wealth or you have like a really crazy job it literally i just got out of debt yeah which is baby step two got a fully funded emergency fund, Baby Step 3, started investing 15% into our company 401K. This is boring stuff that anyone out there can do. Yes.

And so obviously my wife, she works here at Ramsey, we have dual income. And so because of both of our incomes, getting rid of the debt, paying off our house early, investing over a long period of time into our 401K into mutual funds, all of a sudden you wake up and you look at the numbers and you're like, okay, your house is an asset. That's worth something. Your 401K accounts, that's worth something. something, and it adds up over time. And the older you get and the longer you do this, it compounds. It grows faster and faster because of compound interest. That's right. Exactly. Yeah,

and I feel like I get knocked sometimes being Dave's daughter. Oh, yeah. Like, with Rachel, you can't grow. Yeah, and I get that. And I'm like, yeah, I hear that. But also I'm like, but the truth is, like when I started working at 21 and a half after college graduation, I'm like, I was making $42,000 a year. Yeah. And my husband was working. So we had a dual income. But it's like, that was 14 years ago. And we continue to live below our means, continue to invest, like within our own family unit, regardless of Dave or anything that way, right? I mean, obviously, Ramsey Solutions I'm plugged into.

But I'm like, even our nuclear family, like, we're doing, yeah, we're not worth millionaires because we've done it. You've stayed on a budget. Yeah, all of it. We do it every single month. Yeah. And it's consistent. And dad doesn't send us, like, secret checks in the mail. Do you know what I mean?

People think, like, oh, my gosh, if anything, I'm like, Dave, can spread the love a little, you know? If you want, we're here for it. We're here. The character is built. Well, we also need to define, Rachel, what millionaire is. Because a lot of people out there are like, well, I'll never make a million dollars. I'm like, you don't need to make a million dollars to become a millionaire. It's all about your net worth, which is just a financial calculation.

It's not a feeling. It's not your opinion. It's just accounting. Yeah. So your assets minus your liabilities equals net worth. What you own minus what you owe. And so when you don't have debt, you don't have liabilities. That's right.

gives you a big up on the asset side. Yeah, for sure. And so that is the key of just investing for the long term, getting out of debt. And it may look different for a lot of you. It may not take five years or 10 years. It may take 17 or 20 or 25 years. But you can absolutely get there in your working life. Oh, for sure.

I mean, it's possible. And we see this all the time that people get out of debt and have their emergency fund funded those two steps alone in three years. And then within seven years, they pay off their house. So that's a decade. Right. So that's a decade of working towards something. And then beyond that, you're just, you're building wealth.

So it's, yeah, it's a very doable thing. And that's, I think, the advantage of our jobs is that we hear from people day in and day out that are doing it and have done it. So we know it works versus playing all these, like, risky things on the side. They think you have to be super risky in order to build wealth. Yeah. And use other people's money and leverage that. Yeah, that our side is like the boring side. But it's the proven one.

Anyone anywhere can do it. And I love this, quote, Rachel. So people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year. They underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade. Oh, that's good. So we have these lofty goals of like, I've got to make a million dollars in the next year else my life is over. Instead, think in terms of a decade from now, where do you want to be? And start building towards that with small habits.

And that's why I love the Ramsey Baby Steps. And budgeting is a huge part of that. We get a bad rap because we're like, oh, here they go, talking about budgeting. But it really is such a key to just create an intentional spending plan and pay attention to where your money's going. Yes, track your spending, know what's going on. actually have a pulse on it. And it relieves so much stress and anxiety when you know what is happening with your money. So that control part is really big.

And you do that. If you're intentional with that over time and, hey, the more you win with money when you've been doing this over a decade, even the budget, you can kind of be a little bit more loose with it if you wanted, right? Well, you have more margin. Yeah. And bigger categories. You know, your categories can be more broad, not as specific, right? Like there's tweaks as you go along this process. But, golly, I mean, just I had a friend and he said to me, he was like, I just like I work.

too hard to like budget every single penny. Oh boy. And I was like, man, I so feel the opposite. I'm like, I feel like I work too hard not to. And not pay attention. Yeah, where I'm like, no, I want that money going somewhere very specifically to know that I'm working for something, right? So that's a good word. I don't know. There's different mindsets out there, but we believe in ours, George. That's right. Right. And if you guys want to check out our favorite budgeting app, it's called Every Dollar. And it's the one we use to track our budget every day to make sure that we're living on less than we make. hitting our goals. So that makes me feel good because I know I don't have to go get some high value painting or like do some illegal government scheme to get pension payments from a dead body.

You don't have to have a dead body in another. You don't have to do that. And I didn't know that's where the advice was going to end for today's episode, but where we are. And we have to just come to terms with that. That's what it is. If people do come into lump sum overnight, because we do get calls on the Ramsey show. Someone calls in like Rachel, I got an inheritance from my mom or dad who passed for my grandparents. Yeah. I have $100,000. What do I do?

What do you tell them? Well, step one would be if it was someone close, like a spouse or an unexpected parent, like let the grief settle. Like we say like wait like six to 12 months to do anything big financially, especially if there's a lot of grief, right? But if you're beyond that and you have the ability to do something, I would pay off debt immediately, take that and pay off all your debt. I would put some in savings, three to six months of expenses.

I would just have like in a money market account or high yield savings. And then the rest, yeah, I would look to invest. I would talk to an investment professional, smart investor pro, or someone that is able to look at the investment side of where you're at. Because, I mean, you could even just put that in a good mutual funds. Yeah. And let it just sit there and live off the interests of it. Yeah, that's pretty great. So if you don't need it to live off of, you're still working, you have an income.

Yeah. I would try to invest the majority of that and let it grow for you. For sure. That's awesome. Be wise. Don't just go, like, spend it on nice stuff out of, you know, grieving. Yeah, for sure. But, I mean, if you have the ability to take some and enjoy a portion of it, I think that's okay, too.

But the bulk of it I would be wise with for sure. That's a good word. Good advice. All right, George. It's almost the end of the episode, and we close every episode with Guilty as charged. And this is where our producer, Lindsay, gives us a new guilty-as-charged question every week. And if we are guilty, we have to take a sip. All right.

Lindsay. Have you ever regretted donating money to someone or a company? Okay, I have one. Go for it. It ended up being a scam. Oh, boy. Yes. So we had a guy come to our front porch.

First red flag. I know. And I'm usually not this person, but I believed him all. I mean, I got, I was like, sucked right in. And he was doing like a community garden in the inner city. And he was showing us flyers of, like, kids that were helping with it. And they would take proceeds home. It was a really well-thought-out scam.

Yeah. It was a really well-thought-out idea. We'll have a thoughtful scammer. I know. But I told Winston, I was like, I think we should, like, give him a few hundred bucks. Like, because it would really, I don't know. It just, I love the idea of the work part. There was a lot of things that checked the boxes for me that I thought, you know what, this is great.

They pulled the heartstrings. Yep. And so we wrote them a check and gave it to them. And about 45 minutes later, our neighborhood, group me came up and they were like, hey, this guy, da-da. And someone was like, yeah, I just looked up his, like, 501c3 and it doesn't exist. I mean, it was this whole thing, y'all. It was a complete scam.

So, but Winston called the bank and we got the check canceled, which is great. But he would have totally walked away with a few hundred bucks. Oh, no. Is that terrible? I was like, there are people. I can't believe there's people out there like that. Lots of them. Yeah.

It's so sad. They pray on women like me. Okay. Vulnerable people. Have you, George? Yeah, you know the people who stand, like, on the median on the road and, like, families, and they'll be like, we have all these kids. I gave to one of those ones, and I later found out through the Facebook group, they're like, do not give to these people. It's a total scam.

And I felt, you have that sinking heart, like the sinking feeling in your heart. Like, I try to do a good thing and it backfired, and it's like anger and shame and guilt, and you feel like you're gullible, and it makes you not want to give, but then you don't want to stop giving. It's just so many emotions all at once. It's so funny because I have the eye, not the opposite, but I don't go towards like, oh, me, how am I? So I think about who, what, what, what story did that man live in his life that he would go knock on houses and lie? It was very sad. Maybe he should have kept a couple hundred dollars. Well, apparently he needed it.

Or it's working for him. Well, and I've heard the same stories. I had a friend and she gave, yeah, it's a similar situation. And she said literally she drove back by like an hour later after an appointment. And there was a group switching off and they got into an escalation. There it is. But the fact that they use, like, children as pawn in the scheme makes it extra gross. Now, there are people that are struggling.

But then how do you tell the difference? And then you want to give without worrying about it. You don't. That's why we always talk about when you're giving to be wise and to do research. I mean, like, there's a wise way to do this and to really make an impact and help people. So there's research, look online. You're able to see people's websites. They put their budgets out. I mean, like, we very much are big on being wise with your giving because it's just like you're investing.

You're going to just put your money in something. I do like getting them a meal or something where it's something I know that they can consume and not. For sure. I'm not going to get scammed. If they just enjoy a meal, I'm fine with that. Totally. Absolutely. I feel you, George.

I know. Wow. Thank you for being vulnerable. Thank you for sharing your shame with us, George. Share your shame. I'm sure Brune Brown said that once. Thanks, Brunei. Good stuff.

Okay. Well, hey, DMS, your guilty is charged questions because we need a new bank of fresh questions to be vulnerable about. So you can DM us on Instagram At Rachel Cruz with a Z At George Camel with a K And we look forward to seeing what you have to say Absolutely. All right, who This was a...

This was like a 30 ounce beverage It was just too much liquid for my tiny body. So Let's talk about the drink of the day. This was the strawberry mint Summer Sparkler, Rachel. Yes. A fan favorite soon, I'm sure, once they try it.

Here's what's in it. Gin. Ginger liqueur. strawberry syrup, lemon juice, mint leaves, soda water, and some bitters. I mean, all great things. It's a lot of ingredients. And all together it worked. Yeah, it really came together. You might think that's probably a $10 drink.

None or no. $3.84 per glass. There you go. And you actually get a large glass with it. It's a lot of beverage. A lot of that. So check out the recipe in the show notes. We'll drop it in there.

Give it a try this weekend. Yes. All right, George. It's closing time. Thank you guys so much for listening and watching. Leave a review if you can. We love reading them. They're so fun.

That's what it's all about. That's what we want. So make sure to leave a review. Subscribe so you don't miss a new episode next Thursday of Smart Money Happy Hour.