Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Safe Thanksgiving Conversation Starters (Plus How to Survive Black Friday)

Episode Date: November 24, 2022

Cringey family convos with a side of dry turkey? 😵‍💫 No thanks! Rachel and George invite Dr. John Delony to happy hour so we can all learn to ask better (and safer) questions this holiday season.   In This Episode:   ·     George’s delicious Middle Eastern alternative to sweet potato casserole ·     Actual questions you can use to start fun, friendly conversations with family ·     Why those infamous Black Friday deals may be better than ever this year   Helpful Resources:   ·      Get your finances organized, make a plan, build up your confidence, and kick money stress out of your life for good with the EveryDollar budgeting app. Click here to get started today! ·     Be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card when you take our listener survey! Click here to let us know what you think.    ·     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   This Week’s Happy Hour Special:  The “Not Terrible” Sparkling Rosemary Grapefruit Mocktail ·     4 ounces grapefruit juice ·     2 ounces sparkling water ·     1 sprig rosemary ·     Grapefruit wedge Muddle fresh rosemary in the bottom of a tall glass. (Bonus: Pause for some aromatherapy!) Fill glass with ice. Pour in grapefruit juice and sparkling water. Garnish with a grapefruit wedge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. And I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers, George. Cheers. Well, this is a show where we are two friends who happen to be money experts, and we talk about all the things you're talking about, whether it's pop culture, things going on in the world, and money.

Money, money, money, money. So on today's episode, we're going to do things a little differently, Rachel, because it's Thanksgiving. And let's face it, sometimes the absolute worst things to talk about during the holidays with your family, are culture, current events, and of course, money. This exact podcast. I would choose politics, religion, and sports over money with my favorite.

I'll tell you that much. I know you wouldn't because, you know. Oh, I love it. Your dad's Dave Ramsey. So you guys are always talking about mutual fund and interest rates. All the time, George. No, it's not that. It's mutual fun.

So we're going to have some fun. We're going to do Dr. John Deloney's Questions for Humans. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, George. And then we're going to talk about some Black Friday shopping. I love it. Well, for those that don't know who Dr. John Deloney is, he is a fellow Ramsey personality of ours, a friend, a mental health expert, a best-selling author, hosted the Dr. John Deloney show. And Rachel, can I say that he's in the room with us right now?

I know that's a special, the first guest ever on Smart Money Happy Hour. How do you feel? I can hardly breathe, guys. Wow. Like, I've had two life goals. One was to get on TikTok, and one was to get on this show. And you've a conference. TikTok hasn't happened, but it has happened. But this show, like, guys, I'm not going to be able to sleep for a week after this. I can't wait.

I'm so glad. We somehow had enough drink for you, John, and today's drink, it is Marmany Happy Hour after all, is a mocktail. It's a rosemary grapefruit moktail. So I hope you enjoy it. I actually have been drinking this. It tastes like somebody had old water and steeped it in lawn clippings and then garnished it with the most bitter fruit possible. I was going to say it tastes like if I threw up on my mouth, with ice cubes in it.

Y'all. Yeah. It's bad. It's bad. Producer Lindsay's chiming in. I literally said I don't want anyone to make this. Can I please stick up for the mocktail? Yes.

It's not terrible. Oh, it is. Rachel, if you described your marriage as not terrible, you would be in counseling. Like a whole lot more. Hey, honey, how do I look? Not terrible. Oh. This is happening.

This is super happening. It's not the best, but it's not terrible. You'll get the full rating and review, the breakdown of the cost, the recipe at the very end, and maybe you can make it better at home. So, John, we brought you on because we're playing a little questions for humans. You invented this. I thought you brought me on to poison me with your drink, so I'm glad they're doing something else. That would have been me who poisoned you not think.

Unintentional byproduct. So can you tell us why you even created these decks of cards called Questions for Humans? Yes, I had a buddy who was like a chief information officer of a big fancy university. He was on the board at Apple and Google. Real smart guy. And when I was deciding whether to take this job to leave my former career to come do this, I called them and said, hey, what's the thing? the book that has not been written yet.

And, because I didn't want to just add my voice to a chorus of noise, which is the world. Kind of like this this pot, right? Yep. So, this is a beautiful noise. Yes, it's a beautiful noise. That sounds like an 80s, like a 90s emo band. Beautiful noise.

You write sad poetry about our dad. You play the violin. I'll rock. Exactly. That's yellow card. So, um, so he said, uh, well,

I've been listening to you. Deloni and we were friends and he said I turned all my screens off in my house and I truck the phones away and the iPads away from my daughters. He has three incredible brilliant daughters. And he said, now we're all staring at each other. What do I do now? And I was like, just talk to your daughters. And he goes, okay, don't know. Just talk to him. And they clicked right then. Oh, you don't know how. I, and then I thought, oh, I don't know how. Because I had a little, my Hank was little. And I was like, I don't know how to talk to him. And then I realized, Oh, it's just a skill we don't have.

And what if we just create a little cards and we just hit them to people and said, just read the card to the person in front of you or to the group in front of you. Well, you released a Christmas edition of the card, so we thought we'd pull a few out of that deck and have some fun. What do you think?

Yes, and here's the thing. There's no COVID questions. There's no politics questions. It's just... I thought you just put a little grenade in there for fun. It's what you're saying. No, trust me. I want to have a friend, like,

you want to end friendships? Like, a deck a card that would just have like an X on it. It would be incredible. Instead of how to win friends and influence people, it's how to lose friends and hurt everyone you love. People always like, hey, I don't know how to break up with friends. There's no formal breakup process. Like, I got you.

Yes. Just buy the set of cards. Okay, I'm going to go first. Let's do you. Here's the first card. Ready? When should you put up Christmas decorations? And when should you take them down?

Oh, this is a grenade job. This is a controversial question. I have my answer. Okay, go. November 1st. Put them up. Put them up. Enjoy it for two months.

Before Thanksgiving? Oh, yes. Consumerism over gratitude. Figures. Figures. Y'all, you work so hard and do so much for Christmas, you have to enjoy it.

And that makes me sad that the Delonies, if that's your rule of thumb, the after Thanksgiving people, it makes my heart sad. You lead a sad life. Because I think you only get to see that joy for like really two and a half weeks, especially if you travel for the holidays.

So we're going big. I'll play referee. What's your take, John? I'll hear yours first. I think if you put it up on November 1st, Thanksgiving is just a meal on the way to Christmas. Exactly.

That's exactly what it is. I can skip it. It's like Connecticut. It's meant to go through. You know what I mean? It's just, we're on a way somewhere. Sorry, Connecticut people. I'm with Rachel on this, John.

I think you're wrong unequivocally. I'm never, I'm not. So here's what I think. I think you wait until Thanksgiving's over. The day after Thanksgiving is a great, you transition your Thanksgiving stuff away. You set up all the Christmas stuff. And then here's the catch.

You leave it up for a long time. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's even worse. strict. Why? No, after New Year's. I mean, first week of January, it's got to be down. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

But that's a month plus. I think John loses this one, Rachel. Matt doesn't count in this conversation. All right. Moving on to a less controversial question, Rachel. Here's another card. What's a holiday memory or story you tell every year? Oh.

What's yours, George? Here's a holiday memory that they still do for some reason. So my family's Middle Eastern, as many of you know, like very Arabic. Like I'm talking we sing Arabic carols, the whole nine yards, Arabic Baptist to the nine. My grandpa would come through the front door at some point in the night, probably around 11 o'clock, full Santa Claus gear, sunglasses, and a sombrero. And we would all just start chanting, Santa Claus, Santa Claus. And he would just prance around the room and just yelling names out and throwing gifts. That's incredible, dude.

And so after he passed, my uncle took the torch, and he still does it every Christmas. comes through the front door, doorbell ringing. Even as grown adults, we still are like in shock and awe into this moment. All right, next card. What's your family's staple, holiday dish, or dessert? Oh, man. You guys are so uncultured. I mean, mom makes, I would say, yeah, very similar food every year.

I mean, I feel like it's pretty stereotypical. Well, I'm curious, I didn't grow up in a traditional. Like sweet potato, casserole. with almonds and brown sugar on top. I mean, like, a ham. We always have cranberry sauce, like, all that kind of stuff. Buy sauce even the stuff out of the can that shouldn't be illegal? No, mom makes, I think.

I think Whole Foods has now provided it for the last, like, two or three Christmases. God bless Sharon Ramsey for having standards. I do like the sweet potato casserole because it was like, hey, there's a vegetable. There's something in there. Do you think there's a way we can take that vegetable and help everybody get diabetes? Yes.

So, compete. There's jump brown sugar all over. It's awesome. When I moved to the South, I was like, wait, y'all just eat this as like a dish? It's not even dessert yet. It's not even dessert. It's not even dessert.

And like, no, we're eating brown sugar and marshmallows with tons of sugar in this potato thing. It's so good. Very confused. We have, we switched to my mom's incredible cook, and she, we started cooking Mexican food for Christmas. Oh, that's fun. And like enchiladas and fajitas and stuff, and it's awesome. Wow. That's fun.

A staple dish, it's a camel household for Christmas. Yes, Arabic give it to us. Weta Anab. Whoa, say it again. Weta Anab. It means grape leaves in Arabic. And it is literally, leaves from a grape tree, and you wrap it with cooked rice and beef and spices and lemon and garlic.

And it's one of the best dishes known to man. Tell me this. If I was in Israel at one point in my life, would I have had that? I think I've eaten that. That's plausible. Yes. And then dessert, baklava. Oh, and your mom?

My mom makes the best baklava. I heard a rumor she's coming down. Yeah. We'll get you some, John. But here's the thing. It's not the Greek style that's like, no offense to the Greeks. Yeah, you got racist real quick here. No offense.

I love the Greeks, but their baklava is like soaked in honey, and it's like way too sweet. Oh, yeah. May Camels is perfectly sweet. She makes her own simple syrup, walnuts crushed up with some cinnamon sugar in there, beautifully crunchy. Oh, just the best. Kind of sounds like sweet potato casserole. No. This is a dessert, Rachel, we don't count it as a vegetable in our household.

So there you go. Oh, I love it. Y'all, Christmas, I can't wait. I'm getting excited about her already. See, we're already skipping Thanksgiving, John. I know. I'm going to spend a season being grateful for what I have

and then I'll get to being excited about what people are going to give me. So part of the Thanksgiving spirit though is the shopping. You get your Black Friday. We're grateful for like half a second and they're like, cool, shove things in my face

and I want to spend a lot of money. Cyber Monday, all the things. Okay, Black Friday shoppers. What are y'all? I feel like there's two stereotypes. It's like the people that still get up, go to the store, or are you online? Like, where are you guys?

In that? Have you ever been a Black Friday? Friday shopper? Yes, but not like the doorbuster deals. Like I was always like a, I'll roll up at 10 a.m. instead of six. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But nowadays, the last few years, I strictly go online. Like, I love waking up day after Thanksgiving, in bed in the matching jammies,

and just going to town and seeing what deals are happening online. John? Yeah, I'd rather set myself on fire and then get up and go Black Friday shopping. We should go together. Did you ever go as a kid? No. Yeah. I don't think I ever did either.

Can I tell you what I've got a bad habit of? Like, I do get in the season of buying things. And one of my favorite things is buying gifts, but I also start buying stuff for myself. And I have a bad habit, like in November especially. I'll start buying things, like gifts, and then I'll be like, I need that. And I'll buy it.

And then Black Friday is like, and Cyber Monday are like the weekend of shame for me. Because I buy stuff like two weeks before, not remembering that there's this big sale, and then it ends up being 40% off. You just paid for it. Yeah, I get all mad at myself for not waiting, and then I feel shameful that I bought gifts for myself during the gift of the season of the day.

This is a safe space. I do buy things a lot for myself on Black Friday, I will say, in Cyber Monday. Because I wait because I know it's going to be the best year of any retailer. Hey, around here we say, if it's a good deal, it may not be a good deal for you, but it would be if it's in the budget. That's right. And it's a plan. So, John, welcome.

Thank you for your honesty. I appreciate that. I hear you. I'll shame you for a lot of things, but not for that. Yeah, there's a big thing that I want. You're like, I wait for the sale. Yeah, I wait for the sale. I'm racial-s-frikin cruise.

I buy whatever. No, no. It's if I have like a thing, a large ticket item, I will. I'm like, oh, I'll wait, like a month. Okay, but a tip. Like, things that look like they're a good deal, but actually aren't, that really riles me up. So on Amazon, it'll be like, MSRP, $120, it's on sale for $60. And then you're like, wait, it's always on sale for $60.

It's not on sale at all. This is just the normal price. Now, that's the emotion. So there's a website out there, literally called camel, camel, camel, camel, dot com that tracks the Amazon price history. And so I will use that, unironically, on Black Friday. It's a little bit on the nose. To actually figure out what's a good deal or not. No, but I should have. It shows you a charts and graphs of like, here's the best price. That's pretty amazing. This is a good price. You should go ahead and buy.

Oh, my goodness. All right. So some interesting things that the New York Post was talking about some trends that we're going to see this year. So the first one is that Black Friday, 2022 is beginning earlier than ever, and some retailers have already started this sale. I've already tried to get in emails. I know. Right after Halloween. Get your Black Friday prices right now. The urgency. It's like three months of sales. I mean, it just doesn't, like, are you ever really in a sale if it's always a sale? Ooh. I got awfully meta. So deep. That was very deep. This is another one, Rachel, retailers will have excess inventory, meaning you may see Black Friday level savings in addition to official promotions. So they just have a lot of stuff laying around they have to get rid of. Oh, wow.

So this may be a great year for deals. Yeah, can I ask you to money gurus this question? My understanding is there's been a huge, like a backlog of inventory because there was such a there was such a demand and then a search. There was such demand

that companies built a bunch of stuff and then all of a sudden it started to fall off. People stopped buying things because of an impending possible recession. And so there's just going to be a ton of things on the shelves and that could be a great season for your own cash, right? Yeah.

Well, according to the New York Post, you are correct. Really? You're a genius, John. No way. You're a genius. All right. Third prediction is that Black Friday

2022 will blow up online again. That's not even a prediction. Is that a prediction? New York Post? Popular toys will sell out fast and retail experts recommend buying them ASAP, i.e. Black Friday might even be too late. Are these all predictions?

You know what this reminds me of, though? The movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, where he is trying to fight for the... Jingle all the way. Jingle all the way, one of the best Christmas movies of all time, that's what's going to happen. Me and Arnold, there's going to be battling it out over the last Turbo Man in Times Square. Is that a prediction? Hold my drink, guys.

Listen to this. The best toys are going to sell out. You're good, man. Always are. Well, thanks to New York Poist. New York Post for stating the obvious. That's right. So remember you guys, as you're out, Black Friday shopping, Cyber Monday,

make sure you have a plan going in knowing what you want to buy. and you have the money and it's budgeting. John, do you want to stay for our last segment? This is like the best segment of the whole show. Do you want to stay? Hard sales pitch, yes, I'm in. All right, so it is time for our last segment. Guilty as charged.

This is where our producer gives us a new guiltiest charged question every week, and if we have done it, we have to take a drink of what I think is a great mocktail. You all just, John finishes. Look at John's over there. Well, I'm a trooper, man. But this is like sewage water, but I'm in. I'm in. I'm in.

The good news is if you've ever thrown up, you've already tasted this cocktail. Exactly. Oh, my gosh. You're terrible. Not near as awful as this drink. It's so good. That's fair. Okay, what if I asked you a question that wasn't necessarily like a guiltiest charge question,

but because we have three Ramsey personalities here, it might be fun. Okay. Someone wrote in, what do you think your life would look like at your age if you didn't follow the Ramsey principles? Oh, I would know where I would be. Like if you didn't do anything that is taught here, where do you think you'd be right now? Because this is fun. It's like by God's grace I was born into the family I was born into just to be told from a young age to only buy with money you have.

Y'all, I would 1,000% be a credit card and deeply in debt, not just like, I paid off every month for the points in airline miles. I mean, I would probably easily be 40, 50 grand in credit card debt. I would consumer spend unlike anything else. And you would justify it all. You know me so well, George. You know me so well. I know from working here, just I've been here with almost three years, the number of times I've been like about to buy something and thought,

I'm going to go sit on the Ramsey show next to Dave on Tuesday. Like, I can't do this. So that level of accountability, like I'm sitting at the tape, I'm giving advice. That has been an accountability. metric for me. I would take whatever Rachel, however bad you would be, I'd be like, I've hit rock bottom and I'd be like

hand me your shovel. I can dig deeper. I would be an absolute train wreck, because I can rationalize anything. I love buying just junk and I like, yeah, I would be a mess. An absolute mess. Wow, thanks for your honesty, guys. I'd be amazing.

It reminds me the Monopoly game at McDonald's where you buy tons of McDonald's and eat your weight and have diabetes, but you like, could win the monopoly game at McDonald's. Except there's one park place and it's like in Kentucky. You never get it. But you're like, I'm going to beat the system.

That would be me. I would be the guy who thinks he's beating the system and like so proud because he moved his credit card from the 0% to this one and he's going to beat the credit card. I'm going to play the game and I'm going to feel like I'm winning and yet be totally broke and have payments all over and not be actually winning with money. So. See, I'm too lazy for that. I would just go charge everything.

Lazy spender and really smart. I guess is me. And John is somewhere in between. I'm sad and depressed. I owe so much of money. I'm so anxious. I'd have real nice stuff. Well, on this Thanksgiving episode,

I'm grateful that we are not that way, and I'm grateful to be around smart people like you too. George. That was so nice. And Lindsay, us three. You're sitting right at me, and you didn't include me. I'm so sad. I'm sorry.

Of course, Lindsay producer. He's got to take it. So thankful. He shows about honesty and directness. I am. I am thankful for you all. And I'm thankful for this mocktail, Lindsay, even though they don't like it, but George,

give us the rundown. My rating is negative 4 out of a thousand. Oh my God. Yeah, I don't blame you on that one. Guys, my rating, genuinely, though, Lindsay, I mean, I'm going to go 4 out of 10. I don't take it personally. I'm going 4 out of 10.

I'm fairly certain that my pee is going to glow. Oh, my God. So here's what's in it, if you're wondering, it includes a sprig of rosemary, grapefruit juice, and seltzer water. And you're wondering, how could those three things be terrible together? I don't know, but we found a way today. Well, I think I know part of the problem is I didn't know that if you pour in sparkling water from a certain angle into a cup, it just turns flat.

I didn't know that either. It loses its sparkle. Yeah, it needs more sparkle. So basically I remember it already. It's not like an Instagram tattoo. If you pour it wrong, I'll never lose your sparkle. I don't know how I was to say it. The fizz, it's like gone.

So that's part of the problem too. Well, if you want to never lose your sparkle. I will try to. If you want to tweet that, go ahead. If you want the recipe, that is in the show notes. Let us know on social if you tried it out. Or don't. Or don't.

Avoid this one. We'd love to know what you thought. And if you have any drink suggestions that are better than this, which is literally anything, also let us know for future episodes, both cocktails and mocktails. And before we go, John, I have a quote that I think sums up everything we've experienced today. What's that? This season, instead of the presence, how about your presence? You like that?

I've heard like eight people on the office saying that. And I think it's precious. I love it. But there's something true because, John, everything you preach is like, hey, you need to be connected and off your devices and stop trying to just spend and spend, like be with people and connect. Yes. So that's my takeaway. This is the first year. We're trying it where in all seriousness with our kids, my wife and I look.

We like, man, they got enough stuff. They got enough stuff. And so this is the first year we are going to surprise them and take them on adventure. And we've been prepping them. Siana's not bringing as much stuff this year. But hang on there. It's going to be cool. So it may be a dismal failure.

But when they're our age, you're going to be like, remember that time? You tried to skimp on Christmas. But I think I'm way more into adventures and spending quality time together than another shiny object. For sure. Well, Rachel, it's that time. It's closing time. I think John should have to sing the first line of closing time. Closing time.

All right. And we're off the air somehow. So you can follow us on social. Make sure to hit that follow button and subscribe to our podcast if you haven't already. and if the spirit leads, you can leave a review. And if you've got a friend who needs to hear this, make sure to send them this episode and ask some of the fun questions we asked on today's episode.

And if you want the full deck of questions for humans, Christmas edition, or any other, you can get that at ramsysolutions.com. That's right. Well, you guys, happy Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for you, all the listeners, and making this podcast so fun that we get to do it every week and hopefully we bring you great content that's inspiring and fun.

And George, we'll see everyone next Thursday on. Smart Money. Happy hour.