Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - The REAL Reason Concerts Are So Expensive (Taylor’s Version)

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Is Ticketmaster the reason for the teardrops on your guitar? Rachel Cruze and George Kamel reveal why concert tickets are so expensive and how you can see your favorite artists without busting your budget.   In This Episode:   ·     Rachel reveals what she would pay to see ’N Sync ·     How JOMO can help you save money ·     Why George is afraid of being canceled by the air fryer community   Helpful Resources:   ·     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.   ·      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! ·     Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices ·     Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy   This Week’s Happy Hour Special:    Boulevardier ·     1 1/4 ounce bourbon (or rye) ·     1 ounce Campari ·     1 ounce sweet vermouth ·     Dash of bitters ·     Orange twist (for garnish)   Pour bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth and bitters into a mixing glass and add ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice. If you’re feeling fancy, garnish with an orange twist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. That was like a deep. Yeah. It's these glasses. You hear that, America? That's the sound of joy in our cup.

Oh my gosh. This is the show where two friends who happen to be money experts share our thoughts about money, pop culture, all with a drink in hand. I love it. And today, like true millennials, we are talking about live music. It is back bigger than ever post-pondemic, Rachel. People are clamoring to get out there to see their favorite artists. And unless you've been living under a rock, you know how expensive concert tickets have gotten

and that people have some pretty strong feelings about it all. Yes. So we're going to talk about Ticketmaster, the mayhem around it, music streaming, and how to comfortably afford it all. Which is great. First, let's start with our drink of the day. As you all know, every episode, we try a new drink and we talk until it's about done. So what drink do we have today, Rachel? I don't know how to pronounce it, George.

Give it a shot. A bolvadier? That was pretty good. What is it? A boulevardier. Oh my gosh. Sorry. That was extra.

But it was deserving. It's a French name. There you go. And unlike T. Swift tickets, it won't cost you an arm and a leg. Definitely not. Way cheaper than T. Swift tickets. Yep. Stick around until the end of the episode to get our drink rating, the recipe, and in true money fashion, the cost breakdown.

That's right. So let's get into it, Rachel. First, we have to start with Fangirl. That's part of the concert experience is fan-girling. I guess fan-boying is a thing. Yeah, that's a thing too. We all know concert tickets are crazy expensive. It's been in the news.

Everyone's freaking out about it. But I want to be a little honest with you and get your take on what artists would you pay like an exorbitant amount to see dead or alive? And what was the max amount you would pay to see this artist? Dead or alive. Yep. You can choose a few.

Start with your like out of three. be your third choice, not your first. I mean, shoot. I mean, dead feels like I need to do like the Beatles or something, but my heart is saying something else. Follow your heart. I'm going to go Britney Spears. Oh, Brittany's a good one. I'm going to go be Spears. I'm going to go, if I could get in sync back together. I never saw in sync in concert, like as a middle schooler, high schooler. If I could get in sync back on stage, I would pay good money. What are we talking? What's your max? You got to be honest. I pay 500.

That's it? Wait, really? I thought you were going to say like, I don't know, $1,500. Oh my gosh, no. No, I'm not that big of a music person. Wow. But I'd pay $500. Okay.

My number three, I'm going to start with alive. I'm going to say Coldplay. I just feel like it would be a magical experience, grew up listening to them, love their music. They've got a great long-term track record like the S&P 500. So that's my, and I would pay... You would.

I'd say $300, max, for Coldplay. Okay. Because they're alive. Okay. You're more of a music person than I am, so... That's true. Mm-hmm. What's your number two?

Oh. In sync. Oh. En sync. Got it. Rachel Funfack loves an artist that no one remembers. What was her hit song? Shoot.

I don't even know it. I had her single in a boom box alarm clock as a, like, eighth grader. Did you record music from the radio to tape? Oh, yeah, yeah. I did that. No, but this was an actual single-season. that I bought at Sam and Goodies, the store in the mall. Samantha Mumba, I can't believe, you don't remember that.

Her. It's stuck in my memory. It's seared, not in a good way, that you love Samantha Mumba. No, I'm going in sync. I'm going back to my... Brittany and N-Sink. Yeah, okay, your cold play and... Yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going to go Beatles.

I watch the documentary and I'm like, legendary. I mean, my ears would be bleeding from all the women screaming. My number one, probably Elvis. Yeah. I just watched the Elvis movie. and I was like, man, that would have been legendary. Gosh, I mean, do I go Goo Goo Dolls or Elvis? I'm going to go Elvis.

The Goo Goo Dolls are very flattered that you would even have them in the lineup. Wow, okay. I know, I just like music back in my like high school days. That's the nostalgia era of music for me, for sure. Take me back. I would say Beatles, I would pay $1,000 to see Beatles or Elvis. That would be my max.

I mean, I would probably pay more because they're dead. Well, yeah, they're not coming back from the dead. I'm just saying... Unbelievable. Okay, so let's talk about what people paid. Also, all the Beatles aren't dead. Can we just put that out there for the record?

We still have a few, what, Ringo and McCartney are still with us? All right, so what's crazy is that even though we are willing to hypothetically pay, you know, $500,000, $1,000 to see some of these artists, it doesn't even come close to what some high-demand tickets are selling for currently. T Swift. Taylor. Can we talk about what happened last month? What happened?

I almost don't even understand it. I really want to break it down because it was everywhere. The news that she like broke ticket master. I had multiple people. I went to gymnastics that night for my, not for me, for my daughter. And I was sitting in the stands

and all the moms were talking about it. They were all online trying to get tickets and they couldn't. They were in this like queue is what they called it. Yeah. I love that the moms were online. Like it was like AOL dial-up So they got online They got on the internet

On to the internet Okay but for real though She she really did I think she broke Ticketmaster So let's talk about it Yeah so if you're not in the no Last month her eras tour went on sale Eras meaning the different eras of Taylor Swift

So big deal that she's like playing songs from Oh my gosh so freaking good The last I don't know five or six albums or whatever And she essentially broke Ticketmaster Like literally the site So how did it happen? Well here's the scoop So they announced that there was this verified fan system.

And how do you get that? So you have to, there's different stipulations. Number one, you could have a capital one card, debit or credit. Okay. Hopefully debit. Or you had to have some kind of connection, like you bought something in the past of Taylor's. Okay, okay. To get you into this verified system.

And they use this, which is a good thing, they use it to prevent scalper bots from buying up an already limited number of tickets and reselling them for crazy amounts of money, and it's supposed to help the artist keep more profits. Okay, because they did this with like Bruce Springsteen, Paramore, and Blink 102. They used that Verify Fan method. So that's what's crazy is you could have a Capital One card.

Again, credit or debit to get into this queue, to be a fan, what's called? A verified fan. So the market for credit cards is like, I'm sure skyrocketing for people to apply for these credit cards, get a credit card just to pay. Get a concert ticket. For these concert tickets. And then you know what happens?

That credit card sits in their wallet, sits in their purse, and something happens. I don't have the money for that. I can just swipe this credit card real quick. I'll get my rewards. I'll get my boys. And guess who had a plan for the emergencies all along. Capital one.

Yeah. So if you're a mega fan of a particular artist, keep an eye out for special presale offers, early bird pricing, but do not fall for the tricks of these credit card companies and these lenders. They are traps. So not worth it ever.

Do not do it for that reason. And don't do it for any other reason. You can do this with a debit card. Live your life with no debt, no ragrats. That's right. Don't do drugs. Yes. Now the downside of this is it causes super high prices

and tons of anxiety for fans because, number one, a lot of fans aren't able to get verified. And number two, the hype made millions of people perform literally billions of actions on Ticketmaster's site, which caused it to crash. And this is before the pre-sale even went live. people are just waiting in the queue. Yeah, so the queue, so people waited in there for eight hours.

And even verified fans had to wait there for eight hours. Oh, my gosh. Our team member, Jenna, who's an associate producer on a lot of our shows here, she waited for six and a half hours as a verified fan just for the chance to get tickets. And did she? She did, but it was not cheap because of this newfangled thing called dynamic pricing, which we will get to in a second.

Or worse, fans didn't get tickets at all. Like the system spit them out, there was errors, and they couldn't get it. Yes, I heard that too. Someone said that they had two tickets in their cart and they went to buy and it was like, your card is empty. Could you imagine? I would punch my phone or computer. One of our Ramsey team members, Sean, he bought the VIP package that was $700 a ticket.

So I even heard that maybe you have a realtor friend who had clients that couldn't apply for a mortgage anymore. So I got the message showing screenshots of the texts with their clients. And they said, hey, we had the down payment for the house that we were going to buy for the mortgage, and now we have to delay it by six months because of Taylor Swift tickets. George. Which means they must have spent enough to delay the home purchase. They must have spent thousands of dollars.

Oh my gosh. To where it's going to take them six months to save that back up. No. No, I can't. We draw the line there. Somewhere. We have to draw the line somewhere. Do not delay your financial goals for a concert.

Okay, y'all. So all of this like breaking ticket master, the whole thing. that was just for the pre-sale. So then they had to cancel, the public sale, because everything was sold out. I mean, like, arenas, multiple nights. So if you didn't get presale access, that means you're looking at resale tickets

on sites like Stubhub for prices literally in the tens of thousands. The highest number we found was $35,000 for tickets in Atlanta. And I just looked up the Nashville shows, which is where we are. She's playing, like, multiple shows in the world. She's playing three at Bridgestone, yeah. The cheapest, was at Nissan Stadium.

Oh, no, even bigger. And. The biggest stadium we have in Tennessee. And how much were tickets? The cheapest prices, we're talking nosebleeds, five, six hundred bucks. Stop. And the most expensive were upwards of $6,000, $7,000. Oh my gosh.

You could go on a nice week-long vacation. Or you could go see Taylor Swift. And some people value that concert more than any experience. That's intense. That's intense. So, again, pre-sales like this, you guys are now normal for concerts and music. and that dynamic pricing. So talk about that, George, because that's...

Yeah, this is a newer thing, and if you've used like Uber or Lyft, you know about surge pricing. And so it's very similar to where, hey, if there's more demand... The price is going to change. The price changes. And of course, with any big concert,

there's going to be a ton of demand when the tickets open up, which means ticket master, like the nice people they are, can just jack the price way up into the hundreds of dollars range, even more. Okay, so here's my thing. In a moment.

You know, in a capitalistic society that we live in, I mean, if people are willing to pay it. It's worth whatever people are willing to pay. I guess, right? But, oh, man. But I don't, I, first of all, I am not a fan of Ticketmaster and their policies. I mean, it's a monopoly. It's terrible. Yeah.

They're not here for the people. Terrible. Why are they terrible? I don't buy music tickets. I don't buy concert tickets. Because of all of this, Rachel. What about Stubhubh? Because they screw fans over.

And there's Stubhubhubhub. Stubhubhub is fine. I mean, it's just Stubbub alone. I mean, they're just a platform. Yeah. It's the scalpers that make me angry. The people who are buying it for $100 and then reselling it for $900, and they don't care about Taylor. They don't care about the fan experience. No, and they're stealing money from her. That's true. And so artists are upset too because they're like, wait, I'm not getting $900 a ticket. I'm getting the $100 because of the scalpers. So this is a major issue. I just experienced this with buying Blink 1-82 tickets. This is one of those like, Blink 182 is back. So Tom DeLange was a member.

He left, started Angels and Airwaves. He is now coming back. Wow. We're reforming the band with Travis Barker, who you know. Stop it. Because of your Kardashian life. Courtney, I see you. So I paid the most I think I've ever paid for concert tickets.

Tell us. Tell us. It was about $300. Okay. For like Floris. Which is a lot to me. Like, it made me want to throw up. But I said 600 for B. Spears and you were like, that's it? Yeah, because it's Brittany.

Wow, really? I think she'd put on a heck of a show. Now, I just have like a nostalgic, you know, Blink 1-82 was a part of the fabric of my childhood. A hundred. Skateboard, George. You know? Yep. I dressed up as Mark Hoppus, one of the lead singers for Halloween one year.

Look at you. Spiked hair, long socks, whole nine. The whole thing. So I was willing to pay 300 bucks. So like this is probably once in a lifetime. All the small things. Oh, mm-hmm. I love that you knew.

They sing small things. George, I was cool. I knew music back then. I love that it's past tense like Rachel was cool and she's now not today. I was the cool mom. So yeah, it's very frustrating

because the surge pricing I could have got tickets cheaper but I got nervous and I was like, well what if there's better tickets and the seats are all moving and so you're just adding to the cart and in a frenzy there's an urgency that you just go

and like I'm just going to buy whatever I find. Totally. Because there's thousands and thousands of people buying at the same time. So part of this drama is that the government

has gotten involved. Of course they did. And mad respect to Tennessee's Attorney General launched an investigation into consumer protection laws with Ticketmaster. And even old Joe was tweeting about it. Biden. Biden tweeted about Ticketmaster. He's in. He knows what the kids are doing. And so is Taylor.

Okay. So why is this all happening? Why are tickets so expensive? Let's break it down. Well, according to Billboard, there are several factors behind these crazy prices. First, it all goes back to COVID. Dang you, COVID. Blame you on everything.

But the story is that when nobody was out touring and going to live events, artists and their crews and venues lost their main source of income. That was sad. So, of course, they're going to raise the prices to make up for that loss. And we know everyone in their mother suddenly is touring again.

Is Sharon Ramsey touring? That would be awesome. And there, they're fighting for production resources, all of it. Like, everyone's out now, and we as consumers are ready for them. So now the costs are going up Because to get that bus, well, there's a bunch of other people who want the bus. And so we know with supply and demand because of inflation, it means you're going to pay more.

And these costs are going to get passed on to the fans. Yes. The cost of what it takes artists to put on a show now is more expensive. So naturally, the ticket prices are going to get up more because, yeah, supply and demand. And so we mentioned supply and demand, which is another huge factor where there's a limited number of tickets for any given show. And some of these artists have a whole bunch of really devoted fans. and so that's why we're seeing this dynamic pricing, which is kind of representing the supply and demand curve here,

where there's a million people who want tickets, and there's only 10,000 tickets. That's right. And so the last reason that concert tickets are so expensive now is streaming services. So years ago, artists made big money on album sales. Because you were going to the store to buy a CD and paid 12 bucks.

That's right. And now everyone streams. Thank you, Spotify. Yep. So now artists are having to make up. basically their net worth what they make by raising concert ticket prices and taking a larger cut of the profit. So according to Billboard, artists typically take home 85%, meaning the promoter, or Ticketmaster, gets around 15%. That's not bad. So then the promoters want more too,

so they slap on fees and charges, and then it just gets ridiculous, George. Service fees, order processing fees, facility charges, and the worst, Rachel, a print-at-home fee. No, they have that. these days? You should be paying me to figure out how to get my printer working and have to go buy a cartridge of ink because mine dried up after three prints apparently 19 years ago and we're just getting started.

Service fee, order processing, facility charge, transaction fee, delivery charge, convenience fee, handling fee, equipment charge, the print at home fee, inactive account fee, administrative fee, cleaning fee, non-refundable damage deposit, late fee, early fee, deposit fee, charge fee, fee. A bunch of those weren't even real, but you believe me, Rachel, because that's how insane. You got cash in it.

Things have gotten. And can I just say, our friend, the team member here, she sent me a screenshot of her actual receipt of the Taylor concert. And here's just one of them. So she got nosebleed seats. Like the worst seats in the house were $119. There was a $24 fee service fee. This is on top of the $1.19.

On top of the $119, a $24 service fee, a $3 facility fee, and an order processing fee of another $4.25. All day, though. pay that. That's good pricing, Jenna. So that ticket came out to about $150 a ticket. Now, the other one she did was the VIP package. She did that one too? For the next night, hardcore, hardcore fan. She paid $749 for the ticket. But wait, there's more. The service fee was $11. Stop it.

Which is about 15% of the ticket price. And that's ticket master. Probably jacking up those prices to give money. And then there was the facility fee of $3, the order processing fee of $4 just to add insult to injury. and then you pay tax as well on a portion of the service fee, I imagine. So that came out to $877. Oh, my. So thank you, Jenna, for being vulnerable. Is that one ticket?

That's one VIP ticket. You know what, George, here's the deal. If you have the money. Yep. If you're living debt-free, you got your emergency fund, you live like no one else. We teach this. That's true.

You live like no one else to sacrifice, get above ground when it comes to your money, right? And then later you get to live and give like no one else. So she is living like no one else. So good for her. You know what? You know what? She budgeted for it and she said,

I have my max limit. She was willing to pay like, all right, I'm willing to pay up to, you know, $900,000 bucks for the ticket. And so if it's below that, you're like, okay, it hurts, but I'm willing to see my favorite artists of all time on this epic tour. Because you know what I've learned in all my years

on this earth, George. What's that? I no longer will say, I would never pay that for that. I'll never pay that for a vacation. I would never pay that for a vacation. or a car, never pay that for a concert. I wouldn't say that because you never know people's situation, right?

If you have the money. And we talk about ratios a lot. And you're not, yes, so it's all about it. Like if you make a million dollars and you spend $100,000 on a car, that's not a big part of your world. That's like someone making $40,000 who bought a car for $4,000. Right. And so it all comes down to ratios.

And as long as you're not doing to impress people, you're not going into debt for it, you've budgeted for it. It's important to you. It's big. You're doing it for the right reasons. Okay, so what do we do about all these high ticket prices, though? Because there's a lot of things in life we can't control. We can't control what they charge,

but we can control what we pay and how we pay. So let's talk through some tips in this high, expensive concert, world ticket, world. Number one, I have what's called Jomo, Rachel, the Joy of Missing Out, and that's what I did with Taylor. I was like, I'm not going to get into this frenzy. I'm not going to get into this mess. I already did it with Blink 102. I already have my concert for the year that I paid too much for.

The it's scratched. You're good. The it has been scratched. And so just say no. A lot of people just want to get in on it because everyone else is in on it, And they don't want to have the phomo of like, well, what if I don't go to the concert of the year? Yep.

And all my friends are talking about it. Tip number one, just say no. Tip number two, set up a sinking fund. Yes, this is huge. So the sinking fund is when you just, you save a little bit of money each month. So you're looking ahead. Let's use Jenna as an example.

Yes. She looks ahead. These, what, these went out in November, the tickets, T-Swift tickets. So maybe in, let's just pretend, August. She's like, okay, I know they're going to be out there. So she knows how much to save each. each month, so by the time November hits and she's ready by the tickets, she has saved a little bit

each month to prepare. That's a sinking fund. Yeah. So if it's four months away and we know the tickets may, she's willing to spend 800 bucks, save 200 bucks a month for four months. That gives you 800 in your budget ready to go. That's right. Another tip, I would say set a price for yourself and stick to it. Now, this can be hard because your emotions can get very involved, especially when you're explaining that the seats were moving and numbers of the prices, all that. You have to set that limit emotionally. You have to. We have to be adults here. And that's hard, though.

Yes. That's hard. Now, have some grace. Like, if your limit was 1,000, and the ticket short $1,000,000, and $2, like, you don't have to be like, no, I'm not doing it for the principle of it. I might, because it's me.

And I'm like, no. Sticking it to Ticketmaster. This is ridiculous. But it's good to set that limit up front. Set those boundaries. That's right. Okay, I'm having foam all already with T. Swift. You want to go?

I've been to so many concerts of hers. Did you know that? And I, and I didn't get in on the front. I didn't have time. I didn't have the energy. I didn't have the mental bandwidth. Agreed. I don't have seven hours to sit in a queue and hope.

And I didn't really know what was going on. Can I say that? I didn't realize until after. You're a busy mom. You got a lot going on. You work hard. But it's T. Swift. I mean, I just, I really do love her.

Yes. I know that there's mixed feelings out there. But the big reminder. And God bless her for breaking ticket master. I mean, she's impressive. She really is. That's impressive. Regardless of if you like her music, which I personally am a fan of, the new album is fire.

I will say that her. fans, like the way she has built her fan base and the way she cares about her fans, the things she does, the culture around it is very impressive. All right, George, I think we should just cheers to T. Swift. Cheers to all the Swifties out there as well. If you're going to the concert and you've got an extra ticket, DM me and Rachel. Please, me first before George. If you are going to the Nashville show.

I will pay a plane ticket to go to another city. We don't know. Is that a European plane ticket? We don't know. All right. It's time for our last segment, George. guilty as charged. This is where our producer

gives us a new guilty as charged question every week and if we've done it we have to take a drink and explain ourselves. All right, Lindsay. Explain yourself. What is the question?

Have you ever bought something for someone so you could enjoy it? Oh. Oh, man. That's... I feel like for sure I've done this. I'm going to take a drink.

Yeah, me too. We're guilty here. Mine? the first one that popped to my head was... Take some self-awareness. Was Disney World. That's... I remember you telling me about this trip.

I know. We took the girls for fall break last year. And I mean, honestly, I was like, I don't really care if they enjoy it or not. We are doing it. We are doing teacups. We are doing Tower of Terror. We're doing it all.

We're doing it all. And like it or not, girls, it's happening because I wanted it. I love that attitude. Like it or not, you're going to Disney World. I know. It was yours. Oh gosh.

That was a big one. I mean, Disney's big, so I get it. Yeah, I don't know that I have a giant one. I feel like I can justify like little purchases like Amazon. I'm like, well, Whitney will use this. Whitney will enjoy this. Yeah. But it's probably mostly around like little like appliances.

Like I'll get the air fryer because it'll help us meal prep. How do you feel about the air friar? We returned ours. Wow. We weren't fans. Not good. We need to talk offline about this more. Maybe I wasn't good at it.

You know what I mean? Like I'm not going to blame air because I know the air friar community will cancel me. just for saying that. And I know that it's sad. There's an air fryer community, but they exist, Rachel, and they're mean. They're mean-spirited people. Would you rather go against a T-Swift fan or an air-friar fan?

Oh, gosh. Probably air-friar because T-Swift fans will stop at nothing. They have nothing to lose. The other thing I just recently bought, Black Friday, I bought a four-in-one milk frother. Yes, you did. And here's the thing. My wife and I will go to Starbucks on Saturday.

It's kind of our treat. It's in the budget. Don't at me. And we'll get like, we love the, like, Irish cream cold brew, the pumpkin cream cold brew. And they use a cold foam on top. And I noticed this frother was on, it was a good deal on sale. I did the price tracking, comparison, shopping. And I'm like, this is a good deal.

And it does cold foam. And I was like, well, we can save money, Whitney. For sure. From going to Starbucks. I can make the cold foam at home. Hey, I'm all for that. So I justified it. It was really for me, but I was like, this is really for you, honey.

money for you, Whitney. So I do it all the time. Yes, you're a little guilty. I think we've all done it if you really think back and your heart of hearts. True. We're not as pure as we think we are, George. No.

No one is. No one is. So how pure was this drink, George, for you? Wow, was pure as a daisy. I'd give it a 10 out of 10. Wow, okay, I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10. All right. There's like a bitter taste that I can't get over.

That is true. You have to enjoy that. If you are a fan of a Nogroni, which has, come to fame now because of TikTok, the Nogroni Spagliato. Is this what we're drinking? Which is, no. Negroni Spagliato means you add some champagne.

Mm-hmm. Okay. So this is a boulevardier, which basically swaps the, I believe it's gin for bourbon. So that's what it is. So what's in it? Bourbon, Campari, which I think is what you're tasting. Yeah. Vermooth of your choice.

You can do sweet. You can do dry. This one was a red vermouth. Bitters, so some Angostura, in there, and that creates the boulevardier. Okay. But I enjoy the flavors because I'm used to the Nogroni. I think Winston would like this.

I'm a big, I like bourbon. So this drink comes out to about $3.13. Okay. So if you want to feel fancy, take an orange and take a little edge off the orange as a garnish. A little peel. Express it. Express the peel.

I see you. You know, and then wipe it around the rim and drop it in, and it just gives you that beautiful citrus finish. That citrus flavor. comes right in. It's great. And there's no hidden fees. This drink will cost you exactly $3.13. No service fee, no convenience fee, no print at home fee. Because that would make it like $85. That's right. So if you want to make it at home,

make sure to check out the recipe in the show notes and let us know on social if you tried it out and what you think of it. And of course, feel free to suggest a cocktail or mocktail for future episodes. Just DM at George Camel with a K or at Rachel Cruz on social. We'd love to hear from you. That's what's up. And that's it for this episode. unfortunately, unlike a T. Swift concert, no encore. We're just going to, like, leave. What's your thoughts on encores, Rachel?

You know what? I would say, good for them. If they've put on an hour and a half show. I love that date. Good for them. If they put on an hour and a half show, they deserve an extra applause. I will say if I'm ever, like, good enough that people want to stick around after the end to hope I come back, you're doing something right. You've made it. Like, even if you're nickelback. Sorry.

Or creed. Or creed. So chant all you want, but we got to get out of here. That's right. Don't forget, share this episode with your friends who may be paying too much for concert tickets and follow us on social media. And click the subscribe button to the follow button if you want to learn more about how to be smart with your money. And if you're feeling extra generous, leave us a review.

We appreciate those. And hey, you guys, happy New Year's. Happy New Year's as well. I mean, 2020. It's coming, George. Are you ready for it? No. I love New Year's.

I wasn't ready for Y2K. little on 2023. You know what's funny is I'm like, I remember 2019 going into 2020. I remember because we were on a family trip and we like went around and talked about our goals and life was just going. That's such a Ramsey family thing to do.

We did. We did. We totally did. And then 2020 hit. So I'm like, who knows what the next year's going to bring? So we gotta remember this. We just don't know. I had a hat that counted down to Y2K.

Like a digital clock was on the hat and it flew off on my way to six flags and I cried in the car like a baby. and my dad had to console me. Was your head out the window in a car? Yes, I stuck my head out the window to get some, you know, like a kid does. Hat flies off. I see a car slam over it and Y2K was ruined.

And ever since 2000s, I pray that this New Year's is better for you and better for everyone listening. So everyone, thanks for listening to this episode. We love you guys. Happy New Year's. And we'll see you next Thursday for Smart Money Happy Hour. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Rachel, George, Rachel.

George. I wanted to give the people what they wanted. I wanted to give the people what they wanted. We're doing something right, George.