Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Things to Stop Doing With Your Money in 2025

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! If you want to have a “new year, new you,” you have to do new things. In the first episode of the new year, Rachel and George share bad money habits you’ll want to ditch in 2025. Next Steps: 🍸 Follow Smart Money Happy Hour on TikTok: @smartmoneyhappyhour.    📱 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. 🎥 Watch our video How to Start Becoming a Millionaire in 2024.   Connect With Our Sponsors: 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. 🌿 Get up to 40% off at Cozy Earth with code SMARTMONEY. Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🧊 Frostbite Tequila Cocktail Recipe: The Spruce Eats 1 1/2 ounces tequila 1 ounce blue curaçao liqueur 1/2 ounce white crème de cacao liqueur 1/2 ounce cream Luxardo Cherries, for garnish Instructions: In a cocktail shaker, pour the tequila, blue curaçao, crème de cacao, and cream. Fill with ice. Shake well. Strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a cherry. Serve and enjoy. Listen to 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

Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers, George. Cheers. Delicious. Amazing. Well, this is the show where two friends who have to be money experts talk about what

you're talking about. So everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And today's vibes are excellent already, Rachel, because it's the first episode of 2025. I know, you guys, Happy New Year. We made it. The haters doubted. And thanks for being here.

You know, maybe it's a fresh start. Maybe people think, hey, we want to listen to a money podcast. and start a new trail. A new journey. Yeah. We're all in a journey as we are. And today we're talking about money habits you should leave behind in 2025. Before we get to 2025, all things good and bad.

Let's share what we're sipping on, Rachel. Yes. It's a frostbite. What a fun drink name. And it's really good. It looks like the milk after you eat Lucky Charms. Oh my gosh. That's so true.

And I'm going to call this drink, oops, all booze. It's a boozy one for being such a fun color. It looks like you just be drinking. blue milk, but it's not. Oh my goodness. Well, for those of you that don't know, George and I, we are in the personal finance space when it comes to what we talk about in life. And one of the best parts of our job when it comes to this is just new beginnings, fresh starts, clean slates, a do-over, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, getting out of debt, maybe investing for the first time, getting that emergency fund in place. We love to cheer people on as they take control their

finances and to start rewriting a different story. Yeah, in the new year, it presents itself in that way, right? Everyone's looking for the fresh start. For some reason, January 1st, it's just a day, but it feels like a blank slate. It really does. Who knows what's possible? Who knows? We have all of 2025. Can you believe 2025?

I remember Y2K. Do you remember Y2K? Yeah. Man, and that was 20? I think I still have trauma from what they said was going to happen. Oh, yeah. Dave and Sharon may have had a few cases of water in the basement. I don't doubt it.

Yeah, we didn't know. I was too young to even know. Oh, you were? Well, I mean, I was in like fifth grade. I know. So I wasn't like a prepper at that point. I just remember everyone being like, the computers can't take a 2000.

They can't take it. Yeah, the banks are going to shut down. Yeah, it's all going to crash. Yeah. And here we are. Here we are. 25 years later. The world crumbled for different reasons.

A quarter of a century. Yeah. I was real nervous about what you were going to say. About a decade. And I was like, that's not the right word. That's not the right word. Wow. Oh, man.

Well, we're going to talk about, you know, some habits, good and bad, to look at in 2025 when it comes to your money. Well, when you leave behind a bad one, you've got to pick up a good one. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure James Clears talked about that. I'm sure he invented that somehow. Father of the habit.

Father of the habit. He birthed it, birth the habit. Yeah, so we are going to talk about habits in this episode. It's going to be fun, George. Yeah, we'll call out a few non-money-related habits and behaviors that we'd like to see each other leave in 2024.

I've got some bones to pick with you, Rachel. All right. I can't wait to hear about it. Okay, George, what's one habit you want to see leave in 2025? People who are putting their financial goals on the back burner. It's always a, you know, this is like with investing. Well, I'll just do it next year. I'll get to that later on.

I'll save when I'm older, right? That's what people say to themselves. And it's like when you're scrolling Instagram on your couch after dinner and you're like, I'll get up, I'll go to bed at 8.30. 831 hits. You're like, make it 8.45. Then before you know it, it's midnight. And your spouse is waking up to feed your infant child.

and you're still rotting on the couch like a low life. It is weird how time just evaporates when you scroll. It's not good. And doing any, I was up late last night watching a Netflix series. And I was like, I'm going to regret this in the morning, but I just want to finish it and be done with it. See, I don't do that. I don't have that issue.

I'm so. Are you like, the clock hits eight and your... Because I'm physically tired. I'm like, I can't. Even if I wanted to try to stay up late, I really can't. Does your body just know, or do you have like an alarm set on your phone that says, It's day of o'clock bedtime.

No, my body. My body's like, good night, Rachel. Wow. Good night, moon. Yeah, good night, Rachel. Good night, Rachel. Is Winston the night owl? No, neither of us are.

He's out. Yeah, we both go to bed in an embarrassing early time sometimes, but we get great sleep, which is why we're so healthy. I'm just kidding. Didn't we just do an episode about your Sonic and McDonald's runs?

Yeah, we do. Okay. But you know what you make up for that with your other healthy habits? That's right, that's right. So healthy habits are great. Okay. You know the one, I hope,

stops in 2025. What's that? This whole, like, kind of cool factor of, like, not really knowing what's in your bank account. It has become trendy. It's like, a trend to be like, oh, my gosh, I don't really know, but we're just going to go for it. Or, like, whatever the excuse is. But some people, it's like ignorance is bliss.

Their head is in the sand. They don't even want to know what is going on with their money. We got to stop that, you all. Yeah, I saw the video the girl said, I don't want to look at my bank account because I don't need that negative energy in my life. Or it's, it's none of my business. Like, it's literally your business. It's literally your business.

If you are the business, your business is about to be bankrupt, girl. Yeah. Let's do something about this. So people like to make light of it because I think it's a coping mechanism. Yeah, and again, money's not everything in life. Like, we're okay to take some lighthearted approaches, for sure, right? But when it starts to, like, become a pattern and that's really how you function, you're not just kind of like joking about it with your friends.

Yeah, we, yeah, we're going to raise a little red flag. If it's like your personality trait to make fun of how broke you are, maybe you need a new personality. George, stop that. That's all I'm saying. Just like people who make CrossFit or veganism their personality. I think we need a better personality. Yeah, but there are people that like work hard. And it's like, yeah, it all goes.

And then they just like kind of have fun with the fact of like, oh, well, look at so-and-so over there doing that. But usually there's some toxic habits that they're sort of just like, yeah, but I'm going to keep my toxic habits. Yeah, if it's justifying it. Yeah. But some people are wise with it. Come on, George, don't be grumpy. I'm a fuddy-duddy. Don't be grumpy.

So grumpy. I want to see that in my feed. Okay, we get it. We get it. Okay, other things to stop doing in 2025, using your credit card as an emergency fund. This one grinds my gears. I bet it does, George.

The fact that you think the credit card company is your friend and your saving grace and your little security blanket, and they're going to charge you 25% APR on that purchase when you're in an emergency? Here's my theory. I don't think people think, I don't think people always are like,

oh yeah, the credit card companies are for me. I don't think they always think that. I think they believe I have no other option. And this is it. Like, this is my option. I don't have 10,000. So if I needed to spend 10 grand for an emergency, I could swipe the card. I could just swipe the card.

Yeah, they see it as kind of like the last line of defense where we want you to be the last line of defense. And to actually say, hey, let's have some goals around this so that the credit card doesn't become the safety net. Because what ends up happening is you have a car issue and then you got to fix it with a credit card. well, your car issues fixed, but now you have a money issue, versus getting the car fixed with money you've saved,

and then you're done. No more issues. No more issues, right? And I found there's a correlation between people who get ahead with money and people who aren't getting all these ankle bite or emergencies always dragging them down, using the card to swipe. And that's why the starter emergency fund is key. Getting a thousand bucks saved while it may not sound like life-changing money,

it really does cover those little ankle biters that keep throwing you off the wagon. Well, 40% of Americans, can't cover a $400 emergency in cash. So for a little less than half of America, a thousand bucks is pretty good. Which means you're swiping that card if you have a $450 emergency.

Yeah, yeah, you're swiping it probably a lot. So getting that emergency. So a thousand bucks to start, get that done really fast, takes most people 30 days or less to do this. Probably next paycheck if you can just hunker down, cut some expenses, sell some stuff. And then you want long term a fully funded emergency fund once you're out of debt.

And that's three to six months of expenses. Yes. I call this like the never go into debt insurance policy. Because when you have that, you never have a reason to go swipe the card. That's right. That's right. Yes. And that's a great place to be. Like when you're out, when you get to Baby Step 3 and it's done, it's like, oh my gosh, I have no payments and I have a fully funded emergency fund. Oh, I'm good. Like that's where really the stress dies down. And in my early, in my early 20s, I had the MX Sky Miles card. Yeah, you did, George.

Discover cash back card. Did you get a lot of cash back? No, I was broke. It's like when you think about this when you're, you know, 20 years old, you're making no money. And you're thinking like, well, this is, I'm going to get a great credit score. I'm going to get some sweet cash back. So I was in credit card debt. And finally, when I cut up the cards and I took debt off the table, it was amazing what happened. I just made very different decisions. Yes. And I got the thousand bucks saved, got out of my debt about 18 months, got a fully funded emergency fund. And I never looked back. No credit card since. You know, that's a really good point. It's almost like, even though the quote-unquote, I pay it off every month credit card idea. We see you. We need. We

know you're out there. We know you're out there. If other parts of your money are not great either, like, we don't really have a big savings account. We do have some other debt over here. You know, you're kind of just like, you kind of got all these like, what they call it, rods in the fire, sticks in the fire. Irons? Irons in the fire. There's a lot of irons in the fire. Been waiting to use the word irons. That's great. I was like, rods in the fire. Is this biblical? Spare the child, burn the rods. That's the line. You got a lot of irons in the fire that aren't great, right? Like, you're kind of just managing your money, like, barely getting by.

It's like, oh, my gosh, we've got all this stuff. So to completely turn your whole perspective around money, do something drastic, like cut up the credit cards. And it's not even the fact that, like, you had to depend on the credit cards because I think some people don't, but they're still paying car loans. They're still kind of, like, managing everything else just to keep their head above water. When you do something drastic with your money, it forces everything else to change. Oh, yeah.

So it's kind of a good, like, shock the monkey. There's another phrase for you. I got that one right. So irons in the fire, we're shocking them. How about this one? Go. Burn the ships. That's one of my favorites.

Wait, wait, don't burn them, right? There's some story about they burn the ships so they couldn't turn back. Oh. So there's this like, I'm never going back moment. I don't know. It probably, it was a great historical thing. Read the book about it. I'm not going to give you a history lesson.

The emergency phone, the emergency fund is the life boat on the burning boat. So burn the boats, get in the life boat, and then you're good. They're sailing, sailing away to new heights. Wow, we have analogyed this to death. The four people that are left listening are just hanging on for dear life to their little life rafts at this point. Oh my gosh.

Gonna keep it going. Okay, the next one's for me. This is for you. Stop buying things on sale just because they're on sale. This isn't one of my downfalls, you know? You see a great sale, so you throw in an extra sweater in the cart because it's 50% off, right?

You get a little dopamine hit just seeing the word sale? Yeah, and mine's not because I get to save more money, it's because I get more stuff. Oh, thank you for your honesty. It's not this like, ooh, I'm playing this great game. She's happy to pay full price. I get more for the same amount of money I was going to spend. More bang for the buck. I'm a quantity over quality.

I know it's not like the minimalism cool thing, but that is Rachel. All day, all day. Yeah, this is a big one. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean it's a good deal. Yep. Everything's 100% off if you don't buy it. and you can go broke while quote-unquote saving money. Right?

Iabano goes on sale. I put it on the cards. I am Winston. A lot of people mistake me for Winston when I'm walking around the streets. I have to explain to them. He's a little bit taller. No, this is a good one.

It's probably the hardest one to pass up, especially holidays and sales and emotional spending, retail therapy. And now the phone apps, like, they go to you. The notification pops up, letting you know. See, I don't do notifications. What about emails? Do you get the email?

I do, but I do try to subscribe. Unsubscribe? I'm sorry, hold on. You feel like I'm old school? You just seem like an email newsletter kind of guy. I don't know why that's offensive. How else would you? I think that's great.

Would you rather me say it when you wait for the J-Crew catalog to arrive by Pigeon? By Pigeon. How do you find out about sales? Yeah, email. But I do try to unsubscribe. I will go through an unsubscribe because it'll, man. Yeah. It's a crazy thing amount of emails you get.

loved doing that right before Black Friday. November 1st hit, and it was like every company decided, go, go, go, descend, descend, and I just started unsubscribing en masse on November 1st because I was like, they're starting their campaigns. Yeah, they're, oh, and you'll get so much. So yeah, so don't fall for it. And you taught me this, George, that sometimes these stores, it's the same price, but they like just say it's on sale or something? I feel like that should be illegal. Well, they have the MSRP or retail price, and so they go, well, it's 40% off. And you go, it's still $78 for this cardigan, even 40% off. And next week when the sale's over,

they're going to have a new sale, and it's still going to be $78. So they use a lot of tomfoolery to trick you, Rachel. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. All right, another habit to leave behind George, talking to myself, comparing yourself to others. Can I just add with a little asterisk on social media?

That's the big one. I mean, man, social media. We always talk about it, but it's just true. I mean, and I think it's mostly Instagram, or do you see, like, Facebook and other places? I don't get on anything else. I think Instagram is the place you flex. Me too. I don't think Facebook, there's a lot of flexing.

It's mostly venting. Yeah. Mostly Facebook groups. That's where I hang out. Okay. Like the neighborhood Facebook group is, I'm like. See, we have a group me Facebook. I get popcorn.

We have a group me, the app for our neighborhood. That's pretty hip. Well. You think the guys are in there, too? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What are the guys posting in the...

Well, they have a guy's group. What are they? And a girls group. Well, like, that was the overall. So they split up? There's a lot of different groups. There's like referral group. There's, um...

Wine. Social group. There's book club group. There's... Are you in any of the groups? Yes, I'm in all of them. Are you like mayor of your neighborhood? What are you doing?

No, I just like to go to everything I can. Wow. I didn't know you were like social butterfly in your own neighborhood. Oh, yeah. I started a Bible study in my neighborhood. Got 12 ladies coming. That is actually shocking. I mean, you're a busy mom, you know?

Like, that's a lot on the plate. It's just per semester. It's like six times this semester. Wow. Do you come up with the curriculum? Are you ready for the title of it? Yeah. Jesus and wine.

Oh, wow. So we bring wine and we go through it with like a study or a book or, yeah, whatever it is. That's wonderful. We went through, we're ready for this? We just finished last night was our last one for the semester. What's the book of the pile? I just went through for the last semester that I'm blanking on, but you love it. Nope.

Oh, Ecclesiastes. I was supposed to say Ephesians. It was like, it wasn't Ephesians. We did Ecclesiastes. What did you think? We went through a book with it. Yeah, it was good. I need to read the book.

It's called Living Life Backwards. Oh. Yeah. You'll like it. Any favorite verses or takeaways from Ecclesiastes you like to share with the group? Yeah, since we're talking about, like, comparing others. I like the level of, like, moodiness of Ecclesiastes that, like, kind of get you down to like, what's really, like, listen, we're all going to die.

Oh, yeah. You know, but then it'll flip around and be like, but, but be merry. Enjoy your hard work. So I love that too. Yes. It's like Bonie Ver into Michael Boubley. It does. It's a very different way.

It's like the Titanic is going down. Let's have a good time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Let the band play. That's exactly it. Dance, be merry. Don't worry about trying to be in control.

Like, just enjoy life. Yeah. So everything is mean. So stop comparing your life to someone else's. It's all back into. Stop comparing yourself to others. That is a good one. And it's difficult because even as you, you know, you get better in your career, you get better with money.

Well, there's always someone who's nine steps ahead of you that you're like, but we don't have that kind of money. Yep. And we live in this county where Ramsey is, it's like the 11th wealthiest county of the nation. So the level of wealthier is just mind-blowing. Yeah. People are, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just to.

Don't compare. And you talk a lot about contentment. That's a great way to fight the temptation to compare. You wrote a book about it. You've got a kid's book about it. You got a journal about it. You're all about it. I need more of it.

You are messes content. No, no, but seriously, there is a level of peace in life that is so worth chasing and to have and to rest and be like, life is good. Like, life is fine. Why do I feel like I have to just keep going and going? And having goals and striving for stuff,

it's not bad, but it's out of the motivation where that's coming from. Yes. Is what is so important. As someone who's goal-oriented and futuristic, it's harder for me to pause and be grateful and be content. And, you know, my level of like, oh, gosh, keep going, keep going. It's not because I want everyone else to think I'm great. It's not that.

It's this feeling of like, oh, but if I go there or get that or do that, accomplish that, something in my life is going to be better because of it. And that's just. And it rarely is. Rarely is. You go with you. That's one of my favorite quotes. Yes, it's so true.

So, like, get yourself to a healthy place internally. before you accomplish any external goals. Yes, I know. So deep. We were building our house and we were moving in. I was like nine months pregnant with Charles. We had a two-year-old and a four-year-old. And we were in the kitchen of our old house.

And it was like a few nights before we moved into our new house. And I remember telling Winston, we're like feeding the kid in the high chair and there's food. I mean, everything's just like a mess. And I was like, I cannot wait to get to the new house. It'll all be better. Well, yeah, and he, like, look at me, he was like, babe, just, like, pick this up and set it in a new kitchen. Move this mess into a nicer kitchen.

And all, it's going to be the exact same scenario. Maybe with, you know, a different countertops. There you go. But that's it. But, like, for real, you kind of have this belief of, like, oh, my gosh, if I just had that, something else is going to be fixed within me. And it is an empty promise, an empty promise, not fulfilling. Who knew? From a smart money happy hour podcast, you'd be getting such deep life lessons.

Oh, George. This isn't deep. This is life. Oh, wow. Wow, sorry. This is just vanity then. It's all vanity. She's been reading Ecclesiastes, clearly.

This is where we go. No, no, no, I mean, like, this is the level at which. This is a normal level of depth for you. This is a good, this is very deep for me. George, you're not that. This is shallow waters for Mrs. Cruz. I am deep sea fishing. Because your ship is burned.

I don't trust. I don't know where you bought that boat. I'll row us to deeper waters, George. We're rowing? We're in a rowboat? Oh, that is, yeah. No, let's have a. You should went to Rick's boats and got a nicer boat.

What you're doing? You can afford a better boat. Thanks for the callback. I'll sell you one. Thanks for the callback. All right, next habit to leave behind in 2025, paying for subscriptions you rarely use. This one is close to home.

And I have an honest confession that is also on growth. Oh, but cool. I finally quit my gym. Stop paying for the membership. Good job, George. How about that feel? Dave talks about, you know, know when it's time to quit.

Like quitting is good if you're quitting the wrong things. And for me, it was the wrong thing in the wrong season. Totally, totally. And so I've now, we got a workout bench. I'm going to start working out with Whitney at home in the garage. Oh my gosh, is what Winston and I do. That's what I said the cruises do this. You'll love it.

Yes. And so she's been trying, I found that Whitney is a type that needs like the support of spouse who's also doing the thing. It is a game changer. I'm not great at that. Yeah. Okay. I'm like, you should commit.

I don't want to have to commit because you're, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. She loves the accountability of both of us doing the thing. It'll feel great too. Yeah, that's great, George. So it feels good to cut that. Okay, another habit to drop. Justifying little treats.

This one's the easiest to justify because it's a little treat, Rachel. I know. It's five bucks here. Seven bucks there. And it adds up. I know. I was telling some of the girls today during content meeting where I was like, man, I missed because of my age, I think, the brunch era.

Like, you know how brunch is really cool right now? Yeah. Like, it wasn't 10 years ago, like, when I didn't have kids. Like, no one was going to brunch, 10 years ago? Maybe I just wasn't, I didn't know, it was, maybe I wasn't cool. And people were doing that. Nobody was inviting you to brunch. Maybe that was it.

I don't know. But now I see via Instagram, mom, mom. You center your whole week around what's going on for brunch. People like, girls going out to brunch with their friends. I don't know. And I'm like, man, I missed the brunch era. And I'm like, that's where I would, like, it's those things that I'm like, oh, my gosh, I would justify that.

Like, if I had the time and the bandwidth, all day. Like, give me a social situation and a restaurant. front, that would be my little treat. Or like when you're running errands. It's fine. Just bottomless mimosas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it.

Just add it to the tab. It's just a little treat. It's been a big week. We're going to just enjoy this. That's a, yeah, it's real. Do you do this when you're running errands? You're like, well, we should stop and get a little treat, a little Starbucks or something on the way.

You know, I'm nice. We're out. Let's get lunch. Okay, so mine's food. I'm not a Starbucks person. I've never seen you darken the door of a Starbucks. I wouldn't even know your Starbucks order. Oh, you ready?

either just a medium Pikes Place black coffee or a chitee latte. That's it. Pike Place? It's the best you can do? Yeah, it's what they have on tap. So the only time I really eat it is... Get there for noon, get a blonde roast.

Is an airport. So give me the bacon, Gouda sandwich, breakfast sandwich. Oh, that is a good one. And a Pikes Peak, medium black coffee. Pike Place. Just keep changing the name on us. But I respect that you drink black coffee. Is that true?

Yeah, no cream. Look at that. That's on growth. Yeah, I did that because... That's a habit to leave behind. Just pouring all of the dairy and sugar you can into your coffees. I do black coffee and curate, George. That I think you need to cover up.

That's worth putting some cream in. Yeah, I, yeah. That's a good one. So my little treat is not Starbucks. Mine would be grabbing lunch out. A little Shalotsky's run through, if you know what I mean. Uh, a little drive-thru action there. Number one without black olives.

Wow. Cracked pepper chips. I feel like you keep saying it as if you're hoping someone's going to like ship you this order or something. Like, it'd be disgusting. People that like Schlazke's appreciate this. Um, yeah, that would be mine and or if I was like at Target, I'd like pick up a sweater or something. That'd be a little treat. Yeah.

So I don't know if that's considered little treats, but those are mine. Those are mine. I went to this local coffee shop, very hip, thinking like, Well, I got to try it out. And of course the lattes are, you know, six something. Then you get the non-dairy milk. That's an extra dollar. So I walked out of there, and I was spending, like, for two drinks, $15.

Oh, my, geez. And they were fine. Not $15 worth. Sure. Totally. And it just made me a little disgusted at myself for falling for this little treat culture. Yeah, I get that. But it was our anniversary.

I get that, yeah. So I thought, if there's ever a day to treat yourself to a little treat, it's our anniversary. Go get the nice coffee. But let us say that we are pro treats. As long as it's in the budget, it's not impulsive, and you actually wanted to buy it, and you know what it's doing to your other financial goals. Yes. The problem is like, where'd my money go?

And I look at your bank statement, and it's just little treat, little treat, little treat, big treat, little treat, little treat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair. That's fair. That's the worst kid's book ever. It's like the worst Dr. Seuss book. Little treat, little treat. Okay, last one, letting FOMO control your financial decisions.

Ooh. So. This is real. This is a habit of like, oh gosh, I just don't want to miss out. So I'm going to go into debt for this thing. I'm going to use my emergency funds to go here or there. Like, whatever it is, and it's affecting your financial foundation, we'll call it. This happens a lot socially.

You know, like there's the bachelor trip, the wedding, whatever the thing is that's going to be really expensive. You're out to dinner and everyone's ordering this thing and it's going to cost you this much. And you're like, I don't have the money for this. Yeah. I shouldn't be spending money on this. But you do it because of the, you know, the surroundings that you're in, your environment. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it can happen very easily.

And I would be guilty of this. This is where I'm like, let's just go. In the spirit of the moment with everyone there, you're like, sure, why not? Totally. So you've got to have the boundary in place before you show up. Yes. Know what you're going to spend. Know what's in the budget and know how to say no.

I love it. Yep. Well, y'all, some good habits to leave behind in 2024. That's right. because 2025 is going to be a new, beautiful year. Wow. You said it was such confidence and ease. I believed it.

That was like 20-24 me is what you can say. Like, oh my gosh, that was so 20-24. I remember 20-24 me? That was so-2020-for. This is 2025. And we're doing something new. Okay, what's a habit you're going to break, George? A habit I'm going to break.

Oh, my gosh. I think phones is the new thing I need to break. Like, it's just the, you just get used to just pulling out the phone. Anytime, anywhere, for as long. long as you want, just open app, close the app, scroll, tap the like button, get out of there, tap another app. I just need to put my phone away more and be more present and get outside more. Before we get to Guilty's Charge, what is in this drink?

This is called a frostbite. And why is it blue? Well, there's an ingredient that has the word blue in it. That's any indication. That's a good hint. It's got Blanco tequila, blue curacao, creme de cacao, and heavy cream. Okay.

So it's a creamy tequila blue drink. I don't know the flavor of blue curses. Are my teeth blue? Not that I can tell. But thank you for smiling at me. That's very nice. What would you rate this drink? I'm going 10 out of 10.

Wow. It feels like I'm inside of the movie Frozen. If I was out with friends and we were like, oh, let's get like a dessert drink, I'd like we should order the frostbite. Oh, yeah. Because it's such a fun. On a crisp night?

Yeah. It feels like, this is what Elsa would drink on her 21st birthday. If I may. Whenever she gets there, when Frozen Nine comes out, I hope they're having frostbites by the fire. That's very nice. Do you know that they think that the ship of which Elsa and Anna's parents died in

was actually the ship that the little mermaid was swimming around? Is that a conspiracy? I don't know. But they all connect. Did you know that all Disney movies? They like have a connection. I didn't know that. Yeah.

Wild. I didn't know you could have real conspiracies for fictional movies. That's amazing. I can find them anywhere, George. That's amazing. Thank you for that fun fact. Yeah, you're welcome.

Well, hey, try this drink, the recipes and the show notes. It costs $2.27. My rating, in case you were curious, 8 out of 10. Okay, why not a 10 out of 10? I'm just exhausted by the dairy drinks. I just... Michael keeps giving us dairy drinks, I know.

I'm just never like, you know what I'd love? It's a cold glass of milk with some booze in it. So, I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet, but it is a good drink as far as dairy goes. Because I'm going to say this, maybe the tequila, but there's like that aftertaste, that's great. Yeah, it's nice. It's nice.

And I will say mixologist Michael did an incredible job with the glass. I mean, it's beautiful. It's got the, like, frosted cranberries with the sugar and simple syrup on there. Try it some of. The coconuts that are glued on there somehow with Elmers. I don't know what he did to this. It's impressive. It's so great.

So go check it out in the show notes and make it for yourself. All right, George. Now it's time for Guilty as charged. And this is where our producer Kelly gives us a new guilty-a-charged question every week and if we're guilty, we take a sip. All right, have you ever made an ambitious purchase

that went with one of your goals or resolutions that you didn't do anything with? This feels like a personal burn. Almost every goal that it wasn't financial, I think. I mean, buying books that I didn't read that I was like, I'm going to read 50 books. I got to buy the books. Oh, no, you bought the books.

Didn't read 50 books. Oh, no, George. Man. That's a tough one. Man. The other one is literally any workout gear or equipment. I was like, well, if I get the right shoes, I'll work out better. But you're about to start a home gym, so you got to use it. We did buy the bench.

I have not used said bench so far. Do you have free weights? I have some dumbbells. Okay. I need to up my dumbbell game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not quite there yet. Yep.

Okay. It's good, George. How about you? Yeah, I think the worst one for me, it was a workout. This was like, I don't know, maybe two years ago. And I bought a workout app because of a girl I followed on Instagram, swore by it. And I was like, oh, yeah, this would be good. I could do this like by myself, like, you know.

And I went to buy it. And, of course, they give you a deal that they're like, if you buy it for a year, it's $149. Or if you buy it for a month, it's $20. So you get a better deal if you buy the year-long subscription. And I was like- It's you trying to save money. And I was like, well, of course I'm going to use it for a year. Yeah.

So I bought a $150 workout app. Yep. And? Didn't use it. Ooh. And then the worst part of it all. Say it, Kelly. Oh, no.

It renewed. Renewed to the next year and I didn't know. I just home alone. Oh, my gosh. Oh, no. That is awful. Do you know what I did? The renewal hurts my soul.

Oh, it was my stomach. I literally got it, and my stomach dropped. I was like, oh, no, no, no, no. No, that was 2022, Rachel. Like, that's like, no, that's not good. Oh, gosh. But you know what I did is I submitted it to the Apple store. Oh, for a refund.

And they refunded me. Thank you. That is the most George thing you've ever done in your life. That is the life hack. If it charges you, as soon as it charges. It was within 15 minutes. Yeah. Because I got the, like, the email.

Look at her getting emails. I got the email. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. And yeah, and it was great. It refunded me and it was fine. So I felt good about myself. I'm really proud of you for even knowing that was a possibility. And you know what else I did?

And that was so great. This isn't guilty's charge. This is like amazing as charge because I did that. And then the other thing I did was I want to do my steps. I'm into steps right now. Oh, that's right. You just found out that the Apple Health app tracks your steps. That's my story.

Yeah. So I downloaded a step app. Did you pay for it? Well, that was the thing. The step app was like, oh, you get 30 days free. But, you know, whatever, whatever. So I bought it, but it wasn't going to charge me until after the, like, 30-day trial.

Well, then I learned that Apple's been keeping my steps, which is another conspiracy theory. They know where I've been for, like, a long time. And I was like, oh, my gosh. But they tracked my steps. So then I went through George and I canceled my trial of the other app so I didn't get charged. Wow.

I felt very responsible. That really is growth for you. I know. I felt good. It felt good. Also, you should just text me before you make any life decision so I can show you the better, easier, cheaper way. And it's free on the Apple version.

It is free on the Apple. It's great. This is really good. Yeah, the other things are like we bought a Peloton during COVID. Never used it. Oh, that was the hot thing. Where are Pelotons gone? I feel like they kind of dropped off on that.

Then there was the portable treadmill. It's just like a flat little nice little treadmill. Okay, I thought about doing that for the winter to get my steps in. I should have sold you the one that we never used. Was it good? It was great. We just never used it. And so then I was like, we're going to sell it.

Yeah. And so there's a lot of things. things that we buy and then sell for a loss and then go, we'll never do this again, and then we go do it again. Man, the workout industry of it makes a lot of money. Oh, yeah. Well, they can pray on your insecurities. Yeah.

Yeah. Good intentions is a great business model. It's great. So good. All right. Okay, George. Well, if you guys have any fun, guilty as charge questions, send them our way. We're on social, just DM us.

We look for them because they're always fun when they come from you all. And make sure to follow us on social. Subscribe to this, share the episode with friends and family. and make sure to check out our episode on how to start becoming a millionaire in 2024. So we're going to go back a year, but all the advice still applies. Because we talk about timeless money advice, don't we, George? That's right. It still works year after year.

Yep. And so we'll see you guys next Thursday on our all-new episode of. Smart Money Happy Hour.