Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Reacting to Random Things People Used Their “Emergency” Fund For

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. Nothing screams emergency fund like a full-scale raccoon home infestation. In this episode, Rachel and George share the weirdest things listeners spent their emergency fund on and the lessons we can learn from these scary stories.   Next Steps: 🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour.     🏅 Help us make the show better! Please fill out a quick survey. 📱 Submit 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.  💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!   Connect With Our Sponsors: 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. 🌿 Get up to 40% off with code SMARTMONEY at Cozy Earth.   Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍹 Cubanada Recipe: Difford’s Guide   Ingredients: 1 2/3 ounces Caribbean blended rum aged 6–10 years 3/4 ounce lime juice (freshly squeezed) 1/2 ounce maple syrup   Instructions: Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass. Prepare garnish of lime wedge. Shake all ingredients with ice. Fine strain into chilled glass. Garnish with lime wedge on rim.    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

Today we're talking about emergency funds, and more importantly and more entertaining, the weird things people have spent their emergency fund on. I used the emergency fund because I had to bail my brother out of jail. Ooh. Raccoon removal. It costs $99 per raccoon. Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour.

Well, this is this show. We're two friends who happen to be money experts talk about what you're talking about. everything from pop culture, current events, and money. We're sipping on a Cubanada. Ooh. And we're going to give you the rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode. So stick around for that. That sounds so fun.

Okay, so this episode kind of started because one of my friends got in a car wreck. Not a bad one. Everyone's okay. But it was on this, like, highway in Nashville, in 96, if you're a Nashville person off, you know, in Franklin. And at a stoplight and she gets hit. well the guy keeps going. So she's like, no, no, no, you just hit me. You just hit me.

And so she ends up at a stoplight and he's like a car ahead of her. So she gets out of her car, out of the stoplight. Like taps on the window. She's like, that's not loud. I thought that was going to have a sound effect. Just a gentle tap. Just a, you know, she texts. And it's like this kid.

And he like looks at her and she's like, roll down your window. Roll down your window. And she's like, what are you doing? You hit me. And he's like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. And she was like, you need to pull over. And we have to do insurance and call the police.

Like, we have to do a police report. Like, you can't just drive off. This poor kid, like, had no clue what he was doing. And so, anyways, it was this whole thing about, like, when you're in an emergency, you don't always know what to do, right? And as an adult, it's like, that's a very adult-like thing. And if that's your first wreck and this poor kid, like, panicked, I guess. She was like, I felt like a mom.

Like, I felt like the old woman in the scenario. She's having to walk him through this. hold his hand. Yes, I know. So anyways, we were just talking about emergencies and then, like, the things that she had to pay for, right? You got to claim insurance and all of it. She didn't like to pay for much, but he had to.

He didn't have a lot of money. So we're just talking about emergency funds and all of it. And I was like, man, it is so great when you have an emergency funds. Like, there is a level of just calmness and peace when you're like, I just have cash in the bank because 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency in cash. So there is something to be said about having money in the bank.

and again, it's peaceful, but sometimes when we have money sitting in the bank, George, we end up spending it, and sometimes some weird emergencies come up. And some of them may not be emergencies by my definition, so I'm excited to get into that. Oh, well, strict about that one. Well, here's some stats, because, you know, I love a good stat to set it up.

Did you see my stat earlier? Did you see I just threw in that 40%? I noticed that. I was like, I hope she didn't steal one of my stats. I've been waiting to do these for a long time. I've been so excited. No, you didn't. You didn't encroach on my stats.

I'm so glad. Here's one. More than 25% of a million. Americans have less than $1,000 saved. Okay. So there you go. The average car repair is between $5 and $600.

Average urgent care visit is between $1 and $300. I don't think I've ever gotten out of urgent care for $100. That feels cheap. Yeah, I guess... Like, they always charge you way more than you want. Yeah, don't you do insurance, though, for that? Yeah, but I feel like urgent care is always

more expensive. Like insurance doesn't cover enough of it. Yeah, so urgent, right. So urgent. Yeah, so some of those, again, these are pretty common emergencies that pop up or things in, like, life. So that's why we recommend starting out with a $1,000 emergency bank. Because those can usually get kind of these ankle-biter things, right? As you're getting out of debt, having that $1,000 is so

important. And again, it covers these, not the big emergencies, but these little ankle-biter ones. Yeah. And my last few emergencies were all well under $1,000. So I can attest to this. But for more expensive ones, like replacing an H-FAC system, I mean, that's like $6,000. You know, we're paying $3,500 to meet a deductible for an ER visit. That's why you want to get to that fully funded emergency fund fast. It's one reason to get out of debt fast so that we can get the emergency fund fast. Yeah, it's good motivation in that way, right? Yeah. It keeps the progress going. So again, there's always something that comes up in life, but again, we're going to react to this episode. I'm kind of excited about it. This is going to be a good one. Can we get into some of the

listener submitted stories? Yes. Oh, I can't wait. Sad, but real. The last week of our golden doodles life cost us $9,000. Like, end of life care for a dog. I guess the, I guess the surgeries you do to like to try to save the dog? I know. That's super sad. We've talked about this on the show about, do you have a number? I do have a number in my head of like, here's how much you'd spend. Like let's say the doctor said it's going to be 12 grand to attempt to save the dog.

Yeah, we can't. You're saying no. No, oh for, for 12 grand, George? No, I'm just, I'm putting a number. I'm not saying that's my number. Yeah, 12 grand. I mean, the dog's been great, but I, yeah, we're not, I'm not doing that. You would spend $12,000.

saying I would or wouldn't. I do think, here's my thing. I'm okay having like a, you know, we have a high deductible health care plan that covers like, hey, this is worst case scenario. Sure. I'm okay with that for dogs. Yeah, that's right. You talked about this. Pet insurance, you're not mad at. Pet insurance, like, I try to get the lowest cost possible. This is my kind of like, just, I want it for peace, knowing that if there was a medical event and a surgery that had to be done for my dog, that was $10,000, my out-of-pocket max would be a fraction of that. That's fair. Okay. Pita's going to probably cancel us for this

next question, but I'm going to ask you. I don't want to be involved in your cancellation. You can do that yourself. You're ready for this question. If your dog had to have a wheelchair. 100%. Are you kidding me? They would go ballistic on Instagram for a dog in a wheelchair?

What are you going to do with on Instagram? Just content? Yes. I'd quit my job and go full-time dog and wheelchair Instagram content. I know. Have you seen these dogs that are in like little mini-wheelchair? And that's, I draw the line. I'm sorry, you've had a great life.

That is a terrible life. What if you're a dog? And you're a dog and you're dreaming of running fields and you're like in a wheelchair. No, I can't. Why can't they just be on a sidewalk? Why they've got to be going through a field? Because I actually have a real dog, George, that likes to run and hunts. Wow.

I thought you were going to get canceled for breeding dogs, not the whole wheelchair situation. Only once. No, I had 100%. I'd get a wheelchair for my dog. You would. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's a tough one.

That's when you feel like I'm willing to sink a lot of money because this is a family member. Okay, here's one that I feel like I have more of the right to say out loud than you do. Got an epidural without planning on it for uninsured people. The cost of an epidural during childbirth can range from $1,000 to over $8,000 for an epidural. Again, this is for uninsured people.

So this person was not planning on getting it. Make up a story in my head. Natural childbirth going in with the birth, plan what they want, you know, and then all of a sudden it's like, phew, we're getting the epidural. There's no other option, essentially. There was a Ramsey show called. Do you remember this a few years ago of,

it was a woman calling in and saying that her boyfriend was making her pay for the epidural bill? He was like, well, that's something you chose to get, therefore you got to pay for it. You got to pay for that couple every day. If you ever had to have a baby, George, would you get an epidural? Would I pay for an epidural out of pocket? 100%. Yeah, you would do it. You wouldn't go like natural?

I feel like delivering my human child is the one thing I should be like, yeah, let's go ahead and make sure this goes well. We're going to make sure this is covered. It's insane. Yes, I know, I know. I'm team epidural. I'm willing to say it. Bravery.

Oh, man. Now, there's some crunchy moms that I'm sure would come out for me. Do you know what's in that? Do you think dog wheelchair people and non-epadural people are the same? Or do we think these are like all different camps? Let us know in the comments. You will let us know. I didn't know that was like we're separating the team epicurial.

DURL or Team Wheelchair for dogs. I know, I feel like you think fall on wood. So we're pitting them against each other. All right. How about this one? Here's an emergency. $3,400 IRS bill in the mail. Ouch.

It's not the mail you want to get. That's not what you want. IRS, that's a scary one though. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that moves up in the debt snowball. If you have debt and you're paying enough debt and you get an IRS bill, that's the first thing.

Number one thing that gets paid off. You don't mess with them. Gosh, I'm so controversial today. Here's another controversial stance on this one. I think I would rather owe I mean, that's a lot. But, like, I would rather owe than... Get a refund.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. And I'm saying from, like, a small amount. Not owe, like, 25 grand. Gosh, no. But just, I'd rather owe a thousand than have a refund of a thousand. Because that means you didn't give the government your money all your loan. And I guess it's depending on where you are in the baby steps, would that be true. But to get to that point would be...

And for reference, we recommend trying to get as close to zero as possible. Yes, not getting this massive refunds. You didn't pay too much, you didn't underpay. That's right. Yeah, for sure. All right. How about this one? Covered a family member's funeral costs.

So the median cost for a funeral, get this, is $8,300, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. That's a hefty bill. I kind of think funeral homes are a scam. Oh, well, tell me more. I just feel like, what are you paying for? You know what I mean? Like, they can charge what they want because you're going through all this grief and you have no other

option. Yes, that's true. So that part, I'm not saying funeral homes shouldn't make money. The casket, like all of that's very expensive, and people get, like, very nice, beautiful. Just go to Costco.com. They have some beautiful options. They sell them. Stop it.

They sell caskets. They do. I'm not buying it from the funeral home. I'm getting it in bulk. Get one for the whole family while I'm at it. I don't know. But do you think it's wild to get, like, a fancy casket? That part always throws me off.

Rachel's so bougie. Dead or alive. There's just something about, like, going out. I want it been dazzled. It just feels right. It just feels right. Like me and a Costco casket. Why are we dogg in the Kirkland Casket?

You want a name brand casket? Name one brand of casket. I don't know. Does Louis Vuitton make one that you'd like to have? No, I went and do a designer casket. That's a thing too? No, I don't know. You just said Louis Vuitton.

I'm like, I wouldn't do that. I don't know. There is something, God, it's so morbid. But, like, people you love that you're like, I don't know. You just want to, like, honor. There's like an honoring. There's a, I don't know, there's something to it.

I mean, I understand the practicality. Yes, you're not alive. You're not going to know. I get it. But I do think there's something about laying to rest. I don't know. Would you get cremated? I'm still iffy on that one.

Although I like the idea of me, like, turning into a tree that thing gets made into a guitar. Like, that kind of thing that's very intriguing to me. You know what I mean? That's a thing. You can, like, plant it and then it becomes a thing, and then you can use that thing to make things. I like being useful.

I feel like I haven't been useful for most of my life, so after I'm gone, I want to contribute. You can keep being reused. Yes. A pipe. Smoking. Yeah, that's beautiful. I think that's great.

Keep it in the family. Oh, my gosh. How about you? You know, George, I would get a memorabilia. Thank you. Yeah, I could sell it as merch. You want a piece of me? 995.

To all my haters. You can now get a piece of me. I would want to monetize my funeral. That's fair. You know, I feel like I'd go out with a bank. That feels right for you. I think that feels right for you. Pay for the live stream.

You pay for some ashes. You know, I think it's a beautiful way. I want to go out with comedy. Oh, George. But that is an expensive one. I hope family can all chip in or, you know, I want to make sure my family's not worried about that. And, you know, we say to have life insurance

for people that are dependent on your income. But I have heard people say, I'm going to get life insurance as a single person, a very, very small coverage. to cover, you know, funeral expenses. But I think I would say instead of going through that, kind of all that process, just save up. Have the money in the bank. Yeah, yeah.

Have a separate fund for that if you really are, you know, concerned about that. That's beautiful. All right. Next one. Unexpectedly went into labor and had my baby at home. Oh, my goodness. Emergency fund covered the ambulance bill. Oh, my dear.

Could you imagine? Now, there are home births, right? All about it. Whatever. You go, girl. But an unexpected one is scary. Well, you weren't planning for that. You were not planning for that.

No dual. no midwife, just, oh gosh, here it is. That's a, that's a scary one right there. I got scared that was going to happen to us. Yeah? Because Whitney woke me up in the middle of my slumber. She claims it was very calm, but she was like, hey, I should need her know. Like, I think, you know, you should get up and shower.

She knew that was a big thing for me. I wanted to be showered. Because you've got to be, I don't want to be unshowered for seven days on end. I'm going to be in a bad mood. So she said, hey, get up and shower, get ready. I think we need to go. And I jumped out about him. It's happening.

Like George Banks. Yeah. I'm father of ride too. Just like that. I know. Just all panicky. So that's a real scare. But luckily we made it in time.

But not making it and then having to go, you know, to the hospital. Once the baby's delivered safely, we got to get right to the hospital and do all the things they do there. Yeah. It's a lot. That's stressful. Uh-huh. Yeah. Caroline came about an hour after got to the hospital, which is cutting in too close.

Yeah, that is. I need a few more buffer hours there just making sure. No one's not coming out or they should. Very difficult. I got a lot of empathy for people stressed out about the timing. It's a lot. It's a lot. All right.

Next, my 48-year-old hot water heater. It was going to be. Died. Sorry. The sentence was all jumbled in my eyes. Thank you. Yeah, no, it was perfect on paper. Yeah, it was just.

48 years. When it went through your brain into your mouth. I saw 48-year-old and then died. I thought, no, we're going back to funerals. But no, it's just the hot water heater. And paid $1,353 for a new one. without batting an eye. Are water heaters that cheap?

Can anyone verify? Okay, I thought they were way more expensive in my head. I guess I'm thinking more H-FAC, but water heater's cheaper. 48 years old, that's a heck of a run. That's a... Well done. You know, they don't make them like they used to. In water heater years, that might as well be 170.

Amazing, amazing. All right, how about this one? Surgery on my wrist costs $3,500, but I play instruments for a living, so I had to. Now that is fair. I didn't think about that. Okay, have you heard this, that musicians will... insure parts of their body for more. Oh, like my hands, because I need that for work.

Yes, yes. So if something happens to my hand, I need it to replace my income. Yes, so like guitar, yep, that's exactly right. It's kind of like a living life insurance. Yeah, that if you literally can't work anymore for the job that you have. It's a very specific version. Would you ever do that for like your voice because you need your voice to do your job? Think about it.

Maybe I should. With pikes like that, you should be insured. 100%. You and Adele, you and Adele both have insurance. All up there. I bet Adele does. I bet those singers too. Can you get insurance on like,

I know you're like, but is your voice considered, I guess your vocal cords is part of your body? Yes. Your voice isn't. It's sound. Yes. Closer, warmer, Marco.

This is great. Yeah, I mean, I would consider surgery on your wrist. That is an emergency. I don't know what level of like, you know, if it's just, you know, is it, what's it called carpal tunnel? Like, is that surgery? I don't know. Okay.

Well might have judged. Man, we are moving on. Are you ready for this one? Yep. We are on the same theme. Dog broke a leg chasing a bone in the yard. $6,000. $6,000, y'all.

That's a lot of money. It's like a really... So the dog broke a bone chasing a bone. That's interesting. Broke a leg chasing a bone. Yes, broke a bone chasing a bone. The irony is not lost. on me. Man. We got to get rid of the bones in the yard.

Six grand? That's a lot. That seems like a lot, doesn't it? I feel like they got ripped off on that. Don't you just put them on a little cast? And that's what you, I would go get like multiple opinions. Do you feel like vets are one of these like industries I did, depending on who you go to. Yeah, who you go to of what, yeah, of what it costs. And like an emergency vet is 48 times more than your normal vet. That's right. That's right. Like, have you ever been to those emergency animal hospitals? We had to go in. So, so. Thank you, so, George. I'm trying to think.

I don't know if we ever had to do it. I have very few fears in life. One of my greatest fears is paying the bill at an emergency animal vet. Oh, yeah, I could see that, yes. Because a lot of them, it's like 2 a.m. when something happens, and you're like, who's open? You can't go anywhere. It's like one. Can I tell you why we went?

My dog Olive ate a dryer sheet. And apparently, they can just die from eating a dryer sheet because of the way. Did you Google it? Yeah. Should never Google it. It's like going to WebMD when you have an ailment. Never Google. So, like, you got two hours, Bucco.

Yeah. So, yeah, we went and they said, hey, not worth it. Like, just see if it will pass. And this, too, shall pass. Wait, and you paid a ton of money for it? No, no, they said, like, we're not even going to let you in the door. Like, hey, here's nice. How nice of them.

Very kind of them. Here's one. Husband got laid off and applied for 260 new jobs before he found one, lived off of the emergency fund. Wow. that's a how unqualified or overqualified was this man

260 who has the time and I think what's hard these days when people apply for jobs they just put in applications in where truly King Coleman would be proud of us for talking about it but honestly one of the best ways to get your foot in the door

and a company is knowing someone like that personal connection is huge even posting in your neighborhood Facebook group or text in does anyone know someone who it doesn't have to be someone you're already friends with

because a lot of companies they do they just get filtered in all these resumes is not all of them look at them. So I think that's what's tough. If you can just get to the top of a stack and have a real person look at it, you've just increased your chances.

So much. And when you're filling out applications like this, your personal data is now going to 260 more places, right? Yes. All over the internet. And all of our data is all over the internet and our information because we live in 2025 right now. That's a new currency is data.

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If you go to join deleteme.com slash smart money, you'll get 20% off any of their plans, and it is well worth it. We'll also put the link in the description of the show. All right. Next, use the emergency fund because I had to bail my brother out of jail. Ooh. Kind of sounds exciting. I don't have a jail story.

I don't have a jail story. Do you have a jail story? Have I been to jail? Not you or someone you know how to bail anyone out? No, I don't roll with those crowds. I don't know if you've seen me. I don't even have friends that could commit a crime. You also be like hacking.

Really? Or hackers? It's like you'd be on a computer. No, the worst crime. That'd be your crime. I'm trying to think of a crime that my friends would commit. You know what I mean? That's a fun game.

Skateboarding. We almost got, yeah, we almost. ended up, we'd had to go to the police station a few times because of that. You did? Yeah, because you're trespassing, illegal property, destruction of property. You went to the police station. We were part of a sting operation. They popped up out of the bushes.

Stop it. Stormed us, took our skateboards. Wow. We had to pick it up from the scariest police station in the Boston area at like 11 p.m. at night. So you come after 11 p.m. to get your stuff. Unbelievable. To teach us a lesson.

Would you bail your brother out of jail? Yes. What's the number? We all have a number. Oh, this. This is good. What's bail? What if bail's 10 grand? What if it's 100 grand? For brother? For brother. For brother.

I would go high. If I had the cash available, I would get a family member out of jail. As just a gift. As a gift. Oh, wow. I don't know. I think I want them to really sit in whatever it is they did for a little bit. I probably do it eventually. I would try to help them post bail. I mean, I think I would. I think, yeah, if I have a family member in jail. I don't want them going on one of those bail bonds.

place. Those places are scary. Yeah, for sure. They're like the payday lenders of criminals. So I guess I would do it just to help them avoid a predatory lender. Yeah, and I guess I would have to believe that they weren't, I mean, we're talking about my brother. Who is the least likely to commit a crime? Out of all of us, for sure.

You're number one. 100%. I think, and again, I think if you had a family member though, that you were worried about them in society, I wouldn't want to be the responsibility of, you know, getting some people out of jail. Yeah. Some people, you know. That's the key.

Depends on what they did. Yeah, I think that's fair. Here's one. Bought Grandma a new car battery because I left it running all night when I borrowed it. Oh. First time with a push-to-start engine, oops. You know, what a great grandson. That's very responsible.

It's the least you can do. I know. And a new car battery. It's not that expensive, too, which is nice. See, I don't even know. A couple hundred bucks? You never had to replace a car battery, and it shows. And it, it's not, you can get it like Walmart for like, you know, 100 bucks, 150 bucks?

Oh, yeah, there you go. Yeah, the men are nodding. Yeah, yeah. Plus sign, minus sign. All the batteries. I know. I usually have the AAA guy do it. Yeah, for sure.

It's a little more, but he's already there. He's got the battery. He knows what he's doing. Helped my best friend pay for her marriage license. That's sweet. But how much are these? That's inexpensive, though. Marriage licenses are not that expensive.

It's like $100? Someone Google that. They can't be a lot of money. I gotcha. I love Google. It's a weird thing to be excited about. Do you not get to Google a lot outside of work? This is my chance to show them I can Google.

Okay, around $100. Is it just a gift? Like, hey, I'm excited for your marriage. I don't know. But $100, like, okay, we're getting married. And this has helped. I don't know. I mean, the fact that you had to use your emergency fund to help a friend cover $100

scares me. That's what I'm wondering. I'm scared a little bit for everyone here. We're getting married here. Everyone's guilty. We're getting married. We're doing grown-up things. Wow.

I don't know. But we're back on track with this next one. Yeah. Raccoon removal. He cost $99 per raccoon. Per raccoon. How many raccoons were there? Apparently enough to say per raccoon.

They don't say it costs $99 to remove a raccoon. What would be the worst animal that you would have to remove? I could tell you because it happened to me. It was a snake in the garage. Gross. I had a four-foot gigantic snake in my garage. Four. I guess that's pretty.

I mean, check you have to. Like double this mic stand. Think about that. Gross. And like pretty sizable. Yeah. So I called the, I found like a wildlife removal guy.

100%. This is so fun too. Well, I called him and he said, he said, send me a picture. I went, all right, here's the photo from zooming in like a, you know, like a boomer. I'm zooming in from far away. But getting the stripes,

because it could be poisonous. And he said, ah, you know what do you mean I'm fine? I'm fine. He's like, ah, I don't think it's worth coming all the way over there. I'm about 20 minutes away. I'm about George Campbell. You'll be all.

You'll be all. You'll be all right. So I had four neighbors over there, all trying to coax this thing out. Stop it. We had to dismantle the entire garage to get it out of there. No. So it was free. Didn't have to pay the wildlife guy.

There you go. Who knows what his charge would have been, but that was an emergency. Oh, so terrible. Well, how about you? I'm trying to think if we've, at our old house, we had some, I can't remember. It was under the house, though. And they had been like a raccoon kind of thing. Now, my sister-in-law, are you ready for this?

Had a rat, y'all. A rat in her kitchen. She had the pest control guy out there. they could not. Couldn't find it? Couldn't get this wrapped because of where it was, it was all behind everything. I mean, it was like they couldn't. They did all the tricks and stuff.

For like probably two to three weeks, she would lay trap. I mean, she did everything, but this thing, and they caught it on camera. I mean, it was like every, oh. Did they get it out? Yes. They didn't just burn it down? Warned up the house? Yeah, we tried.

I know. And that's terrible. It's the worst rodent, um, store. I've heard like from like firsthand. I mean this thing is a saga for like two weeks. I mean we were getting rat updates. What's the other ones that will, uh, they'll destroy your garden? A mouse is like, do, do, do, do, do, do, a rat's like, whoa.

Yeah. What's the one that destroys gardens? Are those moles? Moles? Armadillos. Amadillos, moles. Gross. Armadillos are nasty.

Skunk is a bad one. Yikes. Yikes. All right, pick your animal. I got snake. I'm going, I'm sticking with snake. Is the worst? No, it could be deadly.

It's true. Fair. All right. Fair, fair, fair. Ooh, brown recluse. Oh, I didn't think about that one. I'm going that one. Worst.

That's a good bad. And they can procreate, like wildfire. Like really quick, yes. And you can never catch them because, yeah. All right, we're done. Moving on. Gross. Okay, insurance rep called and told me I had 30 days to get a new roof.

I don't trust them. Insurance rep. But is insurance covering the roof? They said they'd use their emergency fund, maybe for the deductible? I don't know what's going on there. I don't like urgency on... Well, I guess if it's the insurance rep. It'd be different if a roofer was like,

you got to get a roof in 30 days and use me. Yeah, I guess they were saying it's in such disrepair. We're not going to cover it. You've got to get this thing done now versus waiting for it to, I don't know, fall through. Yeah, possibly. There's more risk there? Yeah.

I don't like urgency with money, though. Always remember that. If someone's like really, really urgent and trying to sell you something, Red flag. 100%. Our writer, Savannah, decided to put herself into this. Here's her story. She bought a house, used equity from the sale of the previous home.

Love that. To cash flow a six-month renovation. Also love that. HVAC went out the week she moved in, and she's currently nearing the end of her pause investing era. So she paused investing while this was all going on, very wise, but she's excited to get back to being a wealth girlie. That's how I pictured her saying all of this.

It's very good stuff. That's a very... Great story. You know what Sav needs for her new renovated condo? I know where you're going. A big cozy earth. Blanket. A big throw on the couch?

Yes. It's one of the best. That's what makes a house a home. I mean, seriously. But cozy earth, the blankets, the sheets, the joggers, the socks. I've gotten a lot from cozy earth. Lounge pants. I mean, all of it, you guys.

They make the best products. The pajamas, it's amazing. Cozyest products on Earth. I guess that's where they got the name. I don't know. It should. It's true. hashtag truth. But no, this is a really great company because we do talk about a lot,

you know, saving money, budgeting, all of it. But when you get quality things, there is a difference. And you feel certain things like, oh my gosh, this is what heaven's going to feel like. Just this little, the sheets. It's incredible, you guys. So make sure to go to Cozy Earth, get some great stuff. And they're giving an incredible discount to our listeners. Yeah, up to 40% off. If you go to CozyEarth.com slash smart money or use the promo code smart money at checkout. And let me tell you, this is your living like no one else era. When you get cozy earth, obviously do it on a budget, do it with cash, get out of debt. But if you want to upgrade your life, check out their products. It will elevate you.

You'll feel just luxurious. You deserve that. When Winston had socks, cozy earth socks delivered, one foot says cozy, the other one says Earth. He was a new man. I mean, it's amazing. Change his family tree. Make sure to check it out. We'll put the link in the description as well. Well, those are some good testimonies, you guys. Okay, George, what's the last thing or one of the big things that you guys have had to use your emergency funds for?

Oh my gosh. Our most recent one, we had one of the classics. We had a water heater situation. Yes. The expansion tank on the top started leaking and just spraying water at the wall. Oh, not good. And of course, when does this happen?

On a Sunday. And what do they do? They charge it double on Sundays for Jesus. I don't know what they're doing out here with these emergency calls. The weekend stuff is tough. Yeah. Yes.

So that was 360 bucks gone. Oh, man. And not soon after that, in HVAC situation, it would not blow cold air. This is the summertime. And so I had a bad capacitor needed to be replaced. That was another 300 bucks right there. Yeah.

So it could have been worse. Totally. But still not a fun thing to deal with. Yeah. Ours have been like medical stuff. Amelia chipped her tooth a few weeks ago. Oh. How do you do that?

Falling? Yeah, she like hit it on something. But it wasn't even that hard. She was like, I don't feel like I even hit it that hard. But, man, she screamed. And I was like, what was going on? And she was like, it was like a little shattered tooth in her hands. Oh, no.

But she looked like just. Does she get a little like veneer thing? What do they do? Yep. That's amazing that they can even do that. Yes. Well, and they did it pretty quick the next day. She's in fourth grade.

So she's at the age where she's like aware that people, you know what I mean? Like when you're little, you don't even know. Yeah, well, yeah, she's like, I don't want to go to school like this, mom. And I was like, oh, man, poor little tooth. So yeah, so we got her in. We had to do that. Charles broke his leg. Oh, boy.

This was a few summers ago. I remember that. Tough. He was like three at the time at the beginning of the summer, y'all. He couldn't go in the pool or anything. It was terrible. And he loves to be on the move. Yeah, so he had this like little, he called it his big boot.

He was like, my big boot, and he just would have to like walk around. He kind of crawled. It was terrible. But I did not, okay, this is where I'm not a great mom. Medically, I always, like, I always lean towards the like, we're going to be okay. We don't need to go to the doctor. We don't need to go to the emergency room. Like, that's where I lean.

Winston's a leaner the other way. He's like, just take them in, just take them in. And I'm like, I think they're fine. He's just to be safe. Let's just go ahead and do that. But yeah, so after it happened, Charles, like, wasn't walking. He was like, I think he broke his leg. I was like, he didn't break his leg.

Look at him. And you're like, he's fine. Get up. Take a hike. For about an hour. I was like, just watching him. I was like, he's going to get up and walk. You really just said, walk it off.

Well, I really was like, I mean, it didn't look that bad the fall. And then after about an hour, Winston's like, we're taking him in. I was like, oh, man. And then you felt bad. Yes, he broke his leg, poor little thing. What a trooper. I know. But that's the stuff that's like, man, just boom, boom, boom.

Yeah, that's life. It's going to happen. The question is when and what is it going to be? That's right. You've got to be prepared with this emergency fund. So that $1,000 emergency fund we talked about earlier, that's your starting point. And then once you're out of debt, you bump that up to three to six months of expenses. That's your fully funded.

Yeah, and that's like a good marker to have because that's if, you know, big medical emergencies come up. You can cover that. I think job loss is a big one. Just to know if income doesn't come in, you have that three to six month marker there is just, it's great. And a lot of people, that's happened, right? Throughout the years, you know, people lose their jobs, and they actually end up living off of that emergency fund,

just like our friend who applied for 240 jobs. 260. Two-60. An extra 20 just to get there. That's a lot. Yeah, so let's talk about where to put it, when to use it. So where to put it, I recommend a high-yield savings account. The goal is not to, like, make money,

so don't invest it into the stock market, but it's good to let it at least grow at the rate of inflation. Yeah. So park it in a high-yield savings account. You want it to be liquid, FDIC insured, no monthly maintenance fees and junk fees, all that good stuff. For sure. And then when to use it, I like to ask three questions.

Is it urgent? Is it necessary? And is it unexpected? Yep. So someone said they bought a new iPhone because I was trashing Android. So they spent a thousand bucks on an iPhone because, I mean, don't blame that on me. That's not urgent.

That's not necessary. It is necessary in the grand scheme of the world. life if you want to have friends but it's not urgent it's not unexpected that's right yeah it says are good filters too i mean that is a true emergency when things come up and it's like wow so let's talk about what's not an emergency yeah a vacation travel funds oh man christmas tough you knew it was coming what's the date of christmas one two three December 25th but we could all say it together we know it's coming uh pregnancy and childbirth like that is child care even You've got a nine-month lead time, guys.

Come on. You know what's happening. So, again, we're going to prep for it. Routine car maintenance. Can I say, though, if you are pregnant and expecting, pause the debt snowball and then, like, build up a big emergency fund because the epidural, right, things cost during this process. I'm making sure you have money for it. If things go perfectly, you'll probably fine.

But until mom and baby are home safe, just stack away some cash. Last one, routine car maintenance, this is a big one. You know you're going to need an oil change. You know you're going to need new tires at some point. So set up sinking funds in your budget in every dollar. to get these going. And every dollar is my favorite app to budget for all things,

investing, saving, giving, emergencies, and you can set up these sinking funds to where you go, all right, I know tires cost $1,200 bucks. I need them a year from now. I'm going to put away $100 into the sinking fund for new tires so that when that time comes, it's not a surprise.

I'm not stressed. And it's all there. It's a beautiful thing. Planning ahead of time. This is like far out thinking, right? So good. Well, before we spill the tea on our guiltiest charge, what's in our drink, George?

This is a Cuban. Bonata, which is a fun name, and it's, I think it's personally. You love it. One man's opinion, I think it's a perfect drink. Yeah. I'm going nine out of ten. I'll agree. Oh, look at us. Nine out of ten on this one. Here's the cost breakdown. Two dollars and seventy-eight cents. Not bad. Pretty affordable. It's got aged rum, lime juice, and maple syrup. So these are things that are very simple. You could

make this at home. That's a great one. Give it a try this weekend. We'll put the recipe in the show notes for you to make it easy. All right. Now it's Time for guilty as charged. And this is where our producer Kelly gives us a new guilty charge question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip. Kelly. What are you going?

All right. Have you ever caused an emergency? Oh, shoot. Like it was our, we were at fault. Yeah, it was your fault. This emergency could have been prevented by us not being involved. Correct. Got it.

Yes. Yeah, I guess I'm guilty. Okay. I want to hear yours, George. Mine involves driving. Mm-hmm. Mine too. It involves my car.

And I was trying to be a hero, trying to pick up our friend, Dr. John Deloney, from his house, which is in Narnia, apparently. And my car told me, so first of all, what you need to know, John had multiple cars. He had zero keys to any of these cars. He let us know, way too late

on our way to the Blink Win 82 concert in downtown Nashville, that he does not have the keys to these cars. I did not plan for this. You got to pick me up. Didn't plan for all this driving. And as you know, I have an older Tesla. The mileage, you know, it doesn't have a crazy high range.

And I went, I'm going to be a hero and try to get John and get back in time to charge. The car let me know. Let me tell you, this is not Tesla's fault. As soon as I was on my way to John's, it was like, hey, you're going to Narnia. There's no chargers nearby. You're going to run out of juice. And I went, I'll risk it for the biscuit. I got John on our way back.

We were one mile from Ramsey where there's chargers. And it just... just completely died. So what did you do? I think I've heard this story before. Well, what I didn't know is that when a Tesla completely dies, you can't even get back into the car because the battery is dead and it needs electronics to then open the car door because it's stupid.

So I ditched the car. I called the police and I said, hey, I'm going to leave this car here for a day. I've got to go to a concert, but rest assured, I'm going to come back and get it towed. You, like, wanted to go to this concert so bad. We couldn't miss Blink when it. This is a concert of my lifetime. Oh my God.

And so we ended up getting a ride from my third friend who was going to the concert. He picked us up. We got to the concert just in time, got the car towed to my house, had to get it jumped just so I could open the charging port to get it charged up. Oh, my gosh. And then I still had to pay to get a new battery installed because once that happens, once that thing goes on the fritz, it's safer to get a new battery. No way.

I didn't know that. Yeah. Now it's new like 12-volt battery, not like the big battery underneath the car. Don't freak out people. Yeah. So it was, you know, a few hundred bucks, totally. Wow. But I learned my lesson.

When it hits zero on your Tesla, there's not an extra secret 25 miles in the tank. Yeah, I was going to say, it's like going on empty, you can ride on empty for like a solid 15 miles and you're fine. No, Elon loves math. He says zero is zero. He's a precise man. He's put people in space. That's my most embarrassing. Not on the moon yet.

But in space. I'm just making the point. We're all up there. Why aren't we going on? the around the outer space place. The outer space place. We haven't yet. Anyways, mine's a car one too, George.

Oh, good. What'd you do? We bought a minivan. Was that your first? Is that the problem? Well, yeah, a little bit. My soul died, but we bought a minivan. And we had it for literally not even 48 hours, George. We bought it on a Monday night, and this happened Wednesday morning. and I am pulling out of the garage to take our kids to preschool. And I just hear this, like, crunch.

And I thought, oh, my gosh. No, no, no, no, no. You know, it's that feeling where you're just like, oh, no. So I get out and I go to the back, but I'm like, the back was fine. I thought I, like, ran into the garage. The back was fine. And I was like, what was that? I was so beside, so I'm walking around.

And I step on something and it just cracks. And I was like, well, that was weird. and I looked. It was a computer chip. And I was like, well, that's weird. And I was like, and then I look again, there's pieces all over the garage. And I'm like, what is happening?

Like, what happened? And then I look up, George, and there are wires sticking out of the roof of the van. I had sliced that thin thing that's on the top of the car. Yeah, that's not for like decoration. I didn't think it was. Yeah, that has stuff in it.

No one thought, Oh, that makes it look cool. I don't know. I just always thought, like, wind? Do you know how people have, like, spoilers on their back? I was like my little spoiler up at the top of my bin van. I think that's, like, antenna and, like, internet and other... And GPS, and all the technology of cars is in this little thing.

It's the entire brain. And so then I looked up in the garage, and there's a little hole in the bottom of our garage that I had just... I didn't let the garage go up all the way. And I was like, oh, my God. And the hole, and I got a ladder because I went and looked. There was like a hole in the top of the van like this. Oh, gosh.

And I was like, oh, my gosh. Oh my God, oh, my God. And I called Winston. And I was like, babe. He was like, what happened? And I was like, I think I hit something. I think nothing happened to the van. And I told him he was fine.

He was like, oh my God, we just got to take it to a body shop. But it's like a full on. That's an expensive repair. It was the whole technology of it. I mean, it was just, it made me sick. Wow. We were just so mad at yourself. You're like, if I had waited two seconds, Rachel, two seconds.

So the garage hadn't fully opened yet. It hadn't fully come up. Yeah, like it was down, right? So I opened the garage. And you started backing out while still? Yes. I mean, lesson learned. Can I say props to Winston for handling it with, I would have not have, I would have lost my cool a little bit.

Would you have? Yeah. I don't know. He was actually kind of chill. I mean, I was a chill guy, which I respect about him. Yeah, he's not easily shaken up by something. Yeah, but I think he probably was like, this is why we don't rush, Rachel. And I'm like, what do you mean, we don't rush, what do we mean? We don't rush. I'm not a rusher. I don't rush. I rush, I rush, I rush. I rush. Do you rush? I don't. Rushing? Urgency? Wow. No car accident since? Not even a scrape? No car accidents since.

No. I'll jinx it. No. I've gotten, no, not since that. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Thank you for being so honest and vulnerable with us. You're so authentic.

Love that about you. Make sure to deem us your ideas for Guilty's Charge. We love to get your ideas. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out this other one coming up here. Harmless purchases that drain your bank account. That's coming up next. If you're listening on podcast, we'll put a link below. Make sure you guys.

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