Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruze and George Kamel - Throwback to Junior High: Financial “Would You Rather”

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!    Would you rather retire in style or broke? (All right, that’s an easy one.) In this episode, Rachel and George are putting you to the test with a financial twist on “Would You Rather.”     Next Steps:   📱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.    Connect With Our Sponsor:  🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe.    Today’s Happy Hour Special: 🍸 Casino    Recipe: Jean-félix Desfossés on Instagram  2 ounces Bombay Sapphire gin  1/2 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur  3/4 ounce lemon juice  1/4 ounce simple syrup  2 dashes orange bitters    Instructions: Fill a shaker with ice and all ingredients, and shake for 10–15 seconds. Strain and pour into a coupe glass. 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  💼 The Ken Coleman Show  📈 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. Wow, that'll really salt your apples. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Salt the apples, huh? Yeah, I'm trying to go old-timey. Sounded like an elderly man. Responding to Gen Z coming up with new terms. I'm just going to keep getting older and older. So I'm back to a transatlantic accent going, yeah, she? Anyways.

That's my secret strategy. in case you're wondering what's going on in the show. Well, this is a show. We're two friends who happen to be many experts talk about, which you're talking about, everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And nothing says relevant like old-timey sayings. Just the, I tried to do your, that accent.

What's it called a transatlantic? Transatlantic. And it's like, oh, that's like what they sounded like in the 20s, right? You remember what's that Christmas movie that you love? It's a wonderful life. Yeah. George Barley. George Barley.

I know. So where did that come from? I want to know what that was. What? That can't sound transatlantic? I don't know. Oh, my guess. We're getting older and older.

Well, speaking of getting old. We're throwing it back today, Rachel. We are. Back to the junior high bus days. I know. Where I was getting bullied. No. Don't act like you're surprised.

Did you? Yes. I stopped taking the bus at one point. I thought, why'd go through this? Oh, my gosh. Remember that game, Knuckles they would play with the quarters? Yeah. Yeah.

George. You ever get nuggeted? Did you ever say anything? If you didn't get nuggeted... No, I don't think I know what nugget it is. Then you were part of the problem. What? Arbus was nice.

They would take my little Jan Sport bag because I couldn't afford the LL Bean and they would flip it, take everything out, flip it inside out, put everything back in and then zip it back up. George. Nuggeted. That's when we called it.

I don't know why. Hold on. If that happened in today's world, you would like go to J. You would go to Jube or something. Like, I mean, like, that doesn't happen anymore. I mean, sorry, that may have. happen. But I feel like parents would be

on it these days. You couldn't even reach the school back in my day. You know, there's no way to just phone up the school. We're really sorry about that. That's okay. I really am. That's so sad. You know, when they put me in the locker, it was like, all right, I got a missed a break. No, you didn't get put in the locker. Might have happened.

Okay, were you mean to them? No, no. He said, get in the locker. And I said, okay, and I got in the locker. And to be fair, that kid ended up going to jail for other reasons. Okay. So I made the right choice. And he's, yeah. I had to knock because you can't open it from the inside. Oh my God, that makes it claustrophobic.

I had to knock until. And you had to give someone the combination? And like the gym teacher had to, no, it was an open locker. So the gym teacher came and opened it and she's like, who did that? And I was like, nobody and I ran away. Wow. All right. You're asking to get your lights knocked out.

I had a better middle school experience. I was nice to people and they were nice to me. And I must say that you were nice. Can we just say there's a reason, Rachel, you were popular and cool. I wasn't. No, I wasn't like, part of that crew. Okay. Anyways, what are we sipping on?

Today it's a casino. Oh, well, that sounds fancy. So let's, yeah, let's take it back. If you're okay with going back, you know, in the young days, because we used to play games like MASH, you'd play the Fortune Cookie game, you would play... Kiss Mary Kill? Kiss Mary Kill? Was that when you did?

Yes, terrible. But we did. Yeah, all of those kind of, and then, like, would you rather? Oh, that was a fun one. Yeah. So I think we should do that for this episode, George. A financial would you rather, if you will. Because there's a lot of scenarios out there, and you're thinking,

huh, which would be the better pick? So some financial, some not, but shall we play a little would you rather this episode? I'm in. I posted financial Would You Rather on Instagram, and people loved it. And so I thought, let's bring this to Smart Money Happy Hour. And it hit home for a lot of people. And I think there's another aspect of this that's worth discussing. being an adult is realizing that things almost never feel 100% perfect.

And we have the power to change our circumstances with our money, our career, our relationships. And we know the world is a broken place, Rachel, not to get too dark, too deep. There will always be things slightly out of your control. For sure. Yeah, things will happen. But yeah, playing kind of a hypothetical game. It sounds fun. More fun than the conversation we've had for the last six minutes. And maybe we'll disagree, which is the most fun you can have.

Love a debate. We love a good debate. Here's the thing. I want everyone to play along while they're watching or listening. Yeah, and comment below on what you would do. Drop your hot takes in the comments or like nudge your buddy you're listening to. All right, you go first. Okay. You got to just grab a sheet of paper.

Okay. Yeah. That's all we got to do. Would you rather fly first class for free for the rest of your life? Oh, man. Or get your dream car for free with fuel, maintenance, and insurance covered for life. Oh, car. All day.

What? Does not make sense. Wait, I heard you right, though. You get your car for free. Do you get your dream car for free for life? Like you get multiple? Because a car is not going to last you your whole life. That's the question here.

Do you get the car once? Oh, I see what you're saying. Flying first class for free for the rest of my life. That means I can travel anywhere for free. I would much rather take that over a one-time car purchase with maintenance insurance and fuel covered. Yeah, but a car could last you a good 15 years. That's fair.

on nothing, and I wonder what you'd say of doing that. And a dream car, so this could be a range rover, right? I mean, you could go... Yeah, I don't have a dream car. 300,000 or what... Do you have a dream car? 100,000? No, but I'd pick a really nice SUV.

You wouldn't get like a Rolls-Royce or something crazy. I would be scared to drive that around. Yeah, no, no, no, I would get, like, a big SUV. You might as well, like, play football with Fine China. Like, why would you risk it? Wait, so you would go first class. Now, I love bouginess. I love a good first class.

but that's not what I would... The idea of not paying for travel ever is so much more exciting than the idea of like, we'll cover your gas and maintenance and insurance. I don't know, there's something more exciting about travel. I agree. Shoot. Am I supposed to you my answer?

Well, the caveat is do you get continuous cars for the rest of your life? I think if that's the answer... Yeah, if that's the answer, what do you say? Hmm. Do I have to pay for Whitney to fly first class with me or can she fly coach in the back? That's the real question. Oh, that's another great one.

Wow. Do you make your spells? Really, really pulling the split-ins. Here's the problem. It will cause marital strife. Marital strife will happen if I'm like, hey, listen, I'm going to be up here in first class. Like, I'll try to sneak you a drink. Okay, but here's the thing too.

We both drive Tesla's so we plug in. We don't even pay for gas. Yeah, maintenance is cheap. Fuel is electricity. Really? I'm going first class. If I won prices right, like you can have free insurance or first class travel forever.

I'm like, yeah, I'll take the flights. Okay, let's go flights. Final answer. I'm still gonna noodle on that one. You don't have to shake it up, it doesn't do anything. We're not like mixing up the card deck here. It just really makes it more fun.

Would you rather magically end student loan debt or magically end credit card debt? Oh. Is it a one-time magic ending? Mm-hmm. What would you? Oh my gosh. Student loan debt.

100%. Wow, 100%. Yeah, no questions asked. Wow. For two reasons. Number one, I have more empathy for students that signed the dotted line at 17 for fake money. Yeah. Versus I got a credit card and I was, you know, I used it improperly, carried a balance. And then the numbers of the second part were about $1.2 trillion in credit card debt in the U.S.

While in the student loan world, we're at like $1.7 trillion. So you're forgiving more? I would do more good in the world by a for. giving student loan debt. The caveat is we need to do something about student loans. I'd be like, hey, you can't, government, you can't just keep letting people do this. We're going to like, we're going to, we're going to cancel it, but you don't, you can't do it anymore. If it's so bad that it must be forgiven, let's stop hanging out. And then you know what's going to happen. Not everyone's going to go to college, which means tuition will start to drop. You know, this is a whole thing. Like, this,

this is the conspiracy theory I can get behind. This is, this is it. So what are you choosing? Okay, well, my first thought was credit card debt. And what came in my head was a single mom really trying to make it and she is stuck with a couple thousand dollars because she's truly she's truly the one that's like using it as a backup for like necessities so my heart goes there but i know through the ramsie showing through all the work that we do that's not always the case you know we get people with 40,000 dollars in credit card debt because they just rack it up well you make a good point i didn't think about this but credit card interest rates are at like 22% on average where student loans are more like five six seven right right so you'd actually do more good

and help people get out of that cycle with the credit card debt. I know, because it's more of a life decision. Student loans, you're usually in at once and you're done. You usually don't go back into student loan debt, most people. But here's the deal. There's like this, like, if I could get you out of the cycle and you never go back, could you change your habits more? And personal finance is 80% behavior.

It's only 20% head knowledge. Here's the deal. If you could, if they had to sign a contract, so you have to cut up your credit cards and never use them again, and we'll forgive it. Yeah, I'm going credit card debt. I would go student loan debt because then I could become president. I can't run on...

I don't want that job. Not that I want it. Would you rather sit here and sip a cocktail and us talk about fun stuff for the people of America and the world? I didn't say I wanted. I said I could, which the power of just I could become president is enough for me. Knowing that I could run a marathon is enough. I don't need to actually ever run a one. I just know I could. If I trained, I could do it.

Yeah. I got enough satisfaction. Okay, I'm going credit cards. You're going... Student loans. You're welcome, America. I'm doing the good. Remember that when you cast your votes. All right. You're next. You don't have to shake the bowl. You don't have to shake the bowl. I don't know what that's even doing. Would you rather have a job you love making 50 grand or have a job you hate making 150 grand?

Ooh. Man. How long and how much hate? That's the question. I know. Well, technically, if you were 150, you would have to. to you could work less amount of time because you could save an invest, you know what I mean, like you could get to a money goal faster.

You could have a 20-year career versus a 40-year career, for example. But it would suck the soul out of you to have a job you hate. Oh, that would be terrible. Okay, I'm going to go have a job you love, but there's some caveats. How about you?

As long as like the dollar amount, we can self-sustain as a family. Because there is a true idea that getting your income up is a really big deal. in the financial space, right? Like, we talk about that with people that you can't sustain, and that's going to cause stress and anxiety.

Like on one end, that can cause stress anxiety. Well, my thing is, if you're making $150 at this job, is there another company or role or position or field? No, no, no, no, you're not leaving. Like, this is where you're here. You have to stay in this sort of career health. I'm going job, I love. All right.

And I think we can figure out the lifestyle. But you have to make $50,000 forever. I mean, we're making up the rules. But if I wake up every day excited to show up to work. I know. No, it's way better. Can you imagine that, Rachel? We literally were talking about this the other day with the team.

I was like, I just can't imagine going to it. And I have empathy because I know people do this, right, to make a living and they go to a place they hate. But go to King Coleman and see if there's, you know, a better opportunity out there. But to go to, yeah, to go in an office or something with people that are just miserable and that you don't like, it's way more fun. I agree. I mean, look, we've got a dream job that we love. Amen, hallelujah.

And everyone in this room who's paid to be here. So Jobby Love. Yeah, I think job you love. I think so too. I'm just not the type that could just like gruel it to work and just do something to hate. Yeah. Because like Winston, he's, Winston would pick $150. He's like, I could.

He's like, yeah, in his head, like, because we talked about, there is a point that it's like, oh, yeah, work is worse. Is there a level of sociopath? And I get more of a lifestyle and a more of a freedom on the lifestyle lens with the 150 that I would enjoy that. You need your cup filled from career more than Winston does. Yes, I would say that's true. what we would call a sociopath. Very utilitarian. I'd like to go utilitarian.

But yes. He's just like, I do the job, I get paid, I go home. Yep. I don't need to make buds. Yeah. I'm good. No, he's got his good friends. Four quarters, if you will.

What? That's what he calls it. He's a four quarter kind of guy. What is that me? Oh, like four great friends. Yeah. Whereas I have a lot of penny friends. Yeah, I do too.

I'm fine with that. I do have some great. I do have some quarter friends. Okay. No, me. Sorry. Why would you do that to me? I didn't know where we were.

Okay, are you ready? Receive a one-time gift of a million dollars or receive a hundred thousand dollars a year for ten years. I'm going one-time gift. One time. Because you invest it and you let it ride. Yeah. Well, if you think about it from an investing standpoint,

the question is, are you going to invest it? Because I could see people, if this is the lottery winner, they might blow a million dollars. But if they have 100,000, they'd be more responsible with that money when you sort of, you know, portion it out. Yep. So I can see someone who has no financial responsibility, terrible habits blowing through the million, where it would be wiser to take the $100,000. But in my case, if I didn't need it and I could just invest it, the lump sum of a million versus getting a million over 10 years will compound at a much better rate. Yep, I agree.

We actually did the math. If you're interested, I'm so interested. If you're not interested, I'll skip over it. No, I cannot wait. I'm on the edge of my seat. Well, you don't have to be so coy about it. If you invested that cash one time at 35 years old and left it alone to grow through compound interest till 65, assuming an average 10% annual rate of return, it would turn into $19,000, $837,000.

My, jeez. It's almost $20 million. $1 million to $20 million, if you just let it sit for 30 years, 10% return. $100,000 for 10 years, if you invested that over 10 years, same thing, till $65,000, $10,000, it would only grow to $12,500,000.

Dang. $7 million difference. Seven million difference from investing it immediately versus gaining in retirement. 35 to 65. So a 30-year time span. So if you ever win the lottery, take the lump sum and invest it. Yep. That's my advice.

That's good. All right. Would you rather pay for everything in pennies for the rest of your life or be required to donate a dollar a week to a politician you disagree with? Wow. If this was Dave Ramsey, he would be paying in pennies. for the rest of his life. I will tell you that.

I would absolutely donate a dollar a week to a politician I disagree with. It's $52 a year. That's not going to make a dent in their campaign. No. And pennies? Could you imagine paying pennies for the rest of your life? That would take so much time. It would be so inconvenient.

I would never buy anything. That would be the benefit, because I would stop buying things. Yeah, it's so true. You have to pay your mortgage and pennies? That's funny. Yeah. But what if the person on the other side is just everything you're against

in your soul and in your being. Which is usually not that extreme. Yeah, I don't have that much beef with policy. I feel like they're all just sort of... They're like good actors. It's like how much do they even believe in this? On both sides. Except for Bernie.

That guy really believes in it. You've got to respect him for that. For 40 years, he's been consistent, and he always has his finger in the air. He's always talking about soup. And I think those are things that I can stand for. I appreciate that. I do. I appreciate that.

Yeah, so given Bernie 50 bucks, even though I disagree with his policies, I'm like, all right, good luck, Bernie. Sure. Good luck, RFK Jr. Good luck to your family. Rachel's got a soft spot for leathery old men. It's nice.

Quote that. Put that in your quote book. Oh, my gosh. So you're saying you'd rather donate a dollar. I donate a dollar. There we go. Are we doing that? Well, hold on.

I think it's fun and cathartic. What are you, a flower girl at a weird wedding? I'll chuck this one at Lindsay. It's a real DIY wedding where they have to use little pieces of paper. All right. Okay, would you rather have a $10 million net worth when you retire because you won the lottery or have a $500,000 net worth when you retire because you own a small business that helps your local community? I'm taking the $10 million.

Sorry, community. What kind of do-gooder is choosing a community? I'm not trying to run for mayor. I know. I mean, I love my community, but... It's Nashville. Is it like a dry cleaning business? Like, how much impact are we making here?

I'm going 10 million, too, because then I can donate. Selfish. That was a trap, and you fell for it? You're not going 500. You tell me I had half million dollars in retirement? So I have to live broke while being like a do-gooder in my community. Why not do both? If I had 10 million in retirement, I could do a whole lot of good in my community. Yeah, yeah.

Take that. Entrapment? Good luck. I'm not falling for it. following for that one. All right. All right. Can we do a pause and a little throwback to an old episode? George, I listened to our episode, which I normally don't. If you knew me, you would know Rachel does not watch herself on video, listen to herself on audio. You don't watch Rachel Cruz YouTube. You don't watch Ramsey show that you were in. Nope, it makes me very nervous. You know, no one likes to hear themselves. It's not fun. Public speaking, Rachel, oh, cringe when I see her. Like we just, yeah, I don't know. I just don't like it. But I did. I was on a walk.

and I had nothing to listen to. I'm walking real fast. You ran out of conspiracy podcast? And I was like, and I was like, oh, and I am subscribed to Smart Money Abiyar. I am a subscriber. And it came up, but I was like, you know what I'm going to listen to it. And I listened to it. I smiled a couple of times on my walk.

I was like, that's a great conversation. Who do you think carries the episodes if you had to just... Actually, you do. I'm going to say, George. I did think. I did. 30,000 birds eye view. I did think George has a lot of info on these episodes.

Or episode. I would love to know what you think you bring. Everything that you were saying, I thought in my head, and then I said on the podcast. And I was like, well. She's like, I like her. She's great. I'm very consistent. Anyways, but the last episode was on the challenge that I actually accepted on the show.

And I just want to say out loud, because I'm sure we would not have gone back to it, that I fulfilled my challenge. I did not shop for 30 days. What? Way to go, range. It is true. So I need to ask you, George. You weren't going to drink for 30 days on your challenge, except for on the show. Can we see if you won or lost?

Guilty as charged. Oh, okay. So you lost. I did not make it. Okay. I knew you probably didn't. That's why I was just bringing it up to tell you all that. I did.

I did the challenge, y'all. Can I tell you what I am committing to do, though? Okay. Versus full abstinence, which is very difficult when you host a show called Smart Money Happy Hour. I talked to Arthur Brooks, who you talked to on your show. He's been on my show. Yes, great guy. Harvard professor, happiness expert, amazing.

Yes, I have a take away from him too. He told me. He said, two drinks per week, not in succession, but like a drink on a Tuesday and one drink on a Thursday, no adverse effects. Okay. Long term on your health. Okay.

So I went, I'm going to try to commit to that. That's good. So like today's drink, that counts as my one drink for today, and I get one more shot in the next six days. And that's it. Now we can. Very fascinating. Time back into this episode.

Time in. Remember when Zach Morris used to do that on the same by the bell? Oh, I love that. Time out. And everyone freeze? George, did you? Yeah, George did you... Okay, we're back in this episode.

Would you rather? Time in. Here we go. Ooh, oh my gosh, this is a great one. Okay. Would you rather own a vacation home in your favorite place on Earth or be able to give 50% of your income away

every year until you die? Oh, gosh. I know. We can conflate the two. We are terrible people. I think in my heart of hearts as a fallible human who was part of the fall of man long ago in Genesis.

I'm going to choose that. a vacation home. Me too. Now, I still want to give. I think it's still, I'm going to have goals to still give very generously. But I have no goal to give 50% of my income every year until I die.

I don't, I'm not like at a Bill Gates level of wealth. Right, right, to be able to do that. Yeah. I'm with you. I think I'm going, I think I'm going vacation home. If I can do both, I'll go for it. Yeah, I know. I think, where would you? I would be curious in the comments of any of you all genuinely

were like, no. I would 100% rather give 50%. than us. Let us know in the comments below. Genuinely, because I do think, and I'm going to just throw it out there, I bet 9 out of 10 people would say vacation home with their family and their friends and like their... 50% of your income of your take-home pay is a huge number. Yeah.

So you'd have to be making a lot of money. Oh, man. Where would you have your vacation home? Ooh. I know what mine is. You know, my knee jerk is always beach. I want to be able to get to it quickly, but I also want it to be warm your, round.

Okay. So I'm going South Florida. I'm going like I'm going to go in Naples. I'm going to go Fort Myers. I'm going to go

Markle Island. Never eat soggy I'm going to go west of Florida. Never eat. What was that? It's my compass. East Florida.

I don't, not, no offense for Waterdale and Miami. You're amazing. But I think I'm going to go more West. Tell me what the acronym stands for?

Never eat soggy worms. It's my compass. Why not choose an edible word that starts with W? Why worms? I don't know. That's what we learned in school. Have you not heard this? It could have been watermelon.

Wait. Like, never eat soggy watermel. Oh, we got waffles back there. Never eat soggy waffles. Okay, we had worms. I don't know. I'm from Tennessee. That's what they taught us in public school.

Never eat soggy worms, but eat the crispy worms. It's what we learned. Good for you. But yeah, I'm going. I'm going Fort Myers. Interesting. Yeah, Naples. Actually, Naples.

Yeah. Okay. Where are you going? I was going to go Alice Beach on 38 in Florida on the Panhandle. Yeah, that's great. But what are you doing like January? It's cold. It's not that cold.

I actually like a little bit of like swing in the climate. You do. Okay, you don't mind that. See, if I have a beach house, I want to go to the beach every time I like... There's something about wearing like a sweatshirt on 38 Florida. Oh, you're one of those. It feels like, ah, it's nice. Like a nice crisp morning.

I don't want to be just wake up and it's hot. That's gross to me. Okay. I think our writer Savannah's with me on this one. Here's my thing. I'm gonna, if I'm gonna be cold and chilly, take me to Golden Colorado. Oh. I just.

Who are you? Are you like, is this an audition for an ad for Colorado? The worst audition. I just went last week. Are you gonna submit this to the tourism bureau? It's a suburb, hold on, it's a suburb of Denver, and it is right at the foot of the mountains, and it is this like small mountain town with a river through it. And we tubed on the river, you tube down through it, and like breweries and, and, like, breweries,

And like... You tubed? And like... What does that mean? You're in like an inner tube. Charles cried the whole time. What is an inner? I'm sorry.

Like a... It's water. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's a long river. So they take you like half a... Like a lazy river. Yeah, lazy river.

Through the town, y'all. Oh, that's fun. And it is just wonderful. There's no humidity. I mean, it's really... It's beautiful. It's right close to the red rocks. It's that whole...

I don't know. I could be a... I'll pay them a visit and I'll say Rachel Cruz sent me. I'm not kidding. And they'll hire you for their ad where you say, take me to Golden, Colorado. Next, would you rather,

would you rather receive a 10% 401K match for the rest of your career or receive a 20% raise every five years? This one is pretty nerdy. Takes some math. Five, okay. 10% match on your 401K, so that's 100% free money.

You know, okay, I don't know the math. You probably do, George. My knee jerk is the rates because you can use the money currently, right? Whether you choose to put it in retirement or choose to pay off your home, like you get to use the cash,

the 401K, it's stuck there to your $59.5. You make an interesting point. Thank you. I'll be a weak argument. It's interesting, though. What's the math? Here's the math. On the 10% 401K match forever,

if you're already investing 15% on your own, like we teach, once you're out of debt with an emergency fund, an added 10% match would equal 25% of your salary invested each year. So think about this, investing 25% on a $75,000 salary over 30 years with an average 10% return would give you $3.5 million in retirement. Okay.

And your contributions were $562,000. So the difference is almost $3 million of free money over your career. Okay. 20% raise every five years, starting with that $75,000 salary at age 35, 20% increase every five years. You'd retire at 65, making $224,000-ish. Okay. So, still good. But the return, that 10% guaranteed return

compounded over that period of time, it wins. At 65, though? It still wins. No, I know it wins, but is that the age? Because when I'm 65. Like, I think about Dave and Sharon. That's very sweet. It was his birthday yesterday.

Yeah. Happy birthday. And it turns 64. So they're still rocking and rolling. I'm thinking, like, will you, like, use all that money? Like, you got enough juice to really enjoy life. Yeah, you want to be able to enjoy life versus, like, oh, I'm 55

and I'm making great money because of my race. Now, you can still enjoy the money before then. You know, at 60, you can begin enjoying that money. You're 59.5. That's true. 59.5. That's true. Okay. Would you rather have Post Malone or Dolly Parton as president?

Dolly? All day. Sorry, love you, Posty, but like Faced hats have to stare at that during the State of the Union, it's a lot for me. It's a lot for my children. I'm going to explain that. Dolly's going to be, she's going to be looking good on TV when she gives that speech and it's going to be one heck of a speech. And sweet Dolly, I mean, she just, she, and I will say this, in Nashville.

We just signed up for her library, the Dolly Parton. Oh, the imagination library. You get a free book every month until age five or something in Tennessee. It's amazing. We just signed up. I mean, she is the most. Is this true parents? Yes, it is so true.

And y'all, and I will say in Nashville, we hear kind of the ends and outs of like the famous people. And you hear different stories. People's, you know, are writer Savannah. Like she has family in the music industry, not that she gets. any secrets. But you just know people that are connected

in the world of the celebrities of Nashville. And word gets out if you're not like a wonderful person. Yeah, you kind of hear the consistent like, oh yeah, this person, that person. Dolly, consistently, people love her. How does she do it? Every interaction you've heard from anyone that has spent time with her or knows her,

it's always positive. It is. If she ever gets canceled, I will lose my faith in humanity. No, I don't, yeah, that's so true. It can't happen. We're moving the camera. All right, sorry, post. All right, would you rather

have a 2.5 mortgage rate for the rest of your life or until you pay off your home, or get a $300 monthly grocery stipend forever. Ooh. I'm going to go with the free money of the grocery stipend. Oh, I was going to go interest rate. Because currently, think about if you're buying a house today. Five, six, seven percent. So with the current rates, going from a six and a half to a two and a half, big savings monthly, big savings on interest.

Yep. Yep. Okay. Oh, but this is forever, $300 a month forever. But here's the thing. I'm not going to have a mortgage forever. You're going to pay it off. I'm paying it off early, and therefore the 2.5% loses its power very quickly.

So that's why, and I do have math. Let's say we're both 35. We're close to that. Average lifespans around 77, so 42 years to go. 300 bucks every month, 12 months. That's $3,600 a year, 42 years. About $150,000 is what you're getting that about. Okay.

And for the mortgage rate, let's look at this. Median home price around $400 grand. We recommend a 15-year mortgage. Most people use a 30-year, so let's use that first. Current interest rates around 6.5%. So you'd spend about $500,000 in interest paying off your home over 30 years with the current interest rates, which is more than the purchase price of the home. That's insane.

It's crazy. You spend over $900,000 for this home. With a 2.5% interest rate, you'd spend only about $169,000 in interest over 30 years. but with a 15, you would spend 80 grand in interest with that 2.5% interest rate. Okay. So if you're doing it the Ramsey Way, the grocery stipend of 150 grand beats the 80 grand interest savings over 15 years. Well done.

I rest my case, your honor. I'll take it. I'll take it. Did you ever get sick of how annoying and nerdy I am? Don't answer that. Last one, would you rather? Never be able to save a fully funded emergency fund or never be able to buy a house. dark times how close to fully funded can I get says never I can't save a fully funded I think I'm going

with the emergency fund I think I make an emergency fund because if I have to rent for the rest of my life no matter where I am no matter how high rent gets that's scary yeah I'll figure out a way how to cash flow an emergency yep yep I'm with you I think you have more options with the non-emergency fund than with the renting yeah highly recommend both by the way if you can get both we do love both We love homeownership and a fully funded emergency fund. But a house, when you get a paid for a house, that's a game changer. Yeah. Versus the emergency fund is a really important, nice thing to have,

but I can live with a little bit less than fully funded. Okay. I'm with you, George. Glad we agreed on something to end the show. Yeah, let us know in the comments if you hate our takes and if you have better takes. Yes, because you may have some better ones. We're open to feedback. Listen, weighing the pros and cons in life, it is important because situations,

maybe not these specifically. They do come up and you sometimes do have to choose, okay, this or this or the this, at least for a season, right? So I think the idea, though, is, again, being intentional, knowing exactly what your plan is, and having a plan is going to hopefully help avoid

some of this. Absolutely. Except for Dolly. We still will support Dolly. We will vote for that. That one is not financial. Yeah, but I know she would have a great fiscally conservative policy that I could get behind. Oh my gosh. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. She's not going to increase the deficit. Dolly wouldn't do that to us.

She would somehow find a way, to like make the bad guys pay off the U.S. debt. It's so true. Right? Yeah, she'd make Putin pay the U.S. She would. I swear, she could do something great. She would do like a go-fund me

and we could somehow pay off the U.S. The president of Iran would be like, you know what, you're right. I'm going to help the U.S. I know. That's my final thoughts. Along with, so we weighed the pros and cons, and what I found hosting the Ramsey show with great people like you

is that most people put themselves in these weird A-B scenarios where there's only options. A that sucks? That's a great point. Or option B that sucks. And we often tell them, hey, have you thought about option C, D, E, F, G? There's so many more options that you can open yourself to. And part of it is getting creative, being resourceful, and getting on a plan. And when you finally look at that budget, and we always love and recommend every dollar, you can check it out for free, just go to every dollar.com slash smart money. What you find is that

there's more hope than you think when you actually look at the numbers, look at reality, and go, what's the gap? What do we actually need to do versus the feelings of an emotion. That can sometimes block you. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think you will feel like, oh, this, would you rather A or B?

But I think that is a good point because always, if you don't have a lot of options, you're not thinking creatively. So push yourself out of that box and say, hey, I'm going to find different ways and different avenues. And they're out there, right? They really are.

But they may not be comfortable or what you think of immediately, but it is still possible. But, yeah, using every dollar, though, in the day-to-day and the month-to-month is really key because that will help you open up ideas, though. When you're looking at your budget,

you will be able to say, oh, we can cut this, we can add this back in, or maybe, oh, you know, we did a side hustle, and we're actually adding more incomes. That's going to give us other options here or here or here. Yeah. And while I did a lot of math, and it's important to do the math when weighing the decisions,

it's not all about math. You also have to factor in your own quality of life, the piece that you have in your life. And so adding in risk and debt, never going to be beneficial. All right. Well, George, it's almost the end of the episode. and we close out every episode with Guilty as charged.

And this is where our producer, Lindsay, gives us a new guilty-of-charge question every week, and if we're guilty, we take a sip. Lins? Have you ever been guilted into giving to charity, then regret it? Oh. Charity, charity, charity. I got scammed once, story of my life.

And you were kind of guilted, I feel like. I wanted to do it, though. And then it was a scam. The guy came to our front door. and he said, oh, he was doing this entire program with inner city kids with like a community garden and they were selling the produce to like A, B, and C store. He had this whole, like, pitch and it was great. I loved it.

I was like, oh, my gosh, this makes so much sense. So I was like, I can't remember how much he was asking for. $200? I can't remember it. And I was like, yeah. He said, we just take check. I said, that's great. So I went and got a check and I wrote it out to him and I gave it to him.

And then about two hours later on our group me neighborhood, there's a scammer going around and apparently there was a lawyer in the neighborhood that got all this guy's info to like test it and then he ran it through some system and realized it is not a true whatever whatever they couldn't find the website it was a complete scam

I know so then I called Winston I was like hey babe I just wrote a chick to a guy that I didn't know but believed in his mission anyways and it's I'm seeing a theme here

Rachel you're getting scammed a lot So Winston called the... I know, so Winston had to call the bank and void the check. True story. So he made it. He voided it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He hadn't cast a check yet because it was within like three hours.

But y'all, I mean, how terrible is that? That's messed up. That is so sad. So I regretted that, even though it wasn't a real charity. But no, I don't think there's ever been anything that I've given to that I'm like, oh, I wish I didn't. Like, I haven't had a bad experience. Like, I feel like most of the things we give to... You've done your due diligence.

Yeah, they're pretty reputable. I mean, we do research, except if you knock on my front door, apparently, I just give you money. But usually. No, I didn't get scam, but this said, have you ever been guilted into it and regretted it? Yeah. Twice, both involving a front door. There's a theme here. Wow, just don't answer your front door.

One was a co-workers kid came to our door selling like the tumblers for the band of the school. I'm buying four. And it was. I love a school fundraiser. It was not like a Yeti. It wasn't like a nice name. brand. It was like a bobo brand with the school logo on it, and I paid $25 because I felt bad, and then the tumbler went to Goodwill the next week. I was like, I'm not using this tumbler.

I have a thousand tumblers. They were just donating to that sweet kids. But I was gilded into it, and I regretted it. And I should have said, no, kid, keep moving. Skidaddle. Skiddle. Then this happened again. But this time it was our neighbor, and they were selling the mums for the kids, whatever the thing at the school. I don't know what a mom is. And the plant died within a week. The mums died shortly after I donated the 25 bucks for the little mum that I could have gotten for five bucks at the grocery store

and I regretted that too. I would have just rather given to the cause and not received an object that I wanted to immediately throw away. I hear you. Wow. That's my hot take. Jeez. Well, I'm not exactly Scrooge.

It's for the children. Yeah, but here's the other thing. Wait till Mia's out doing that. Can I just say? I just want the kids to earn the sale. And these days, the parents doing the work for them, hey, little Jimmy's doing a thing. I want the kid to show up to my door, make listen.

Wait, it was that mom that showed up and said, hey, it was like a text. Like, hey, would you want to? Yeah, that's different. You know? No. But you come to my front door as a child. I am giving you money.

Let it be known, parents. Send your kids to Rachel's house. Y'all, our little neighbors are boys. They had garland, and they came to the front door with their little pad, and I just said, I'll take it all. Yeah? Just like, what do you want to sell me? Wow. I think it's great.

I think it's really great. I've stopped answering the front door. If I don't know them, I just don't go. Because I don't know what's going on. I agree. Yeah, you're with us. It's too risky out there today. Oh, my gosh.

You don't know what's going to. Who knows, is there a car with growing adults who are ready to break into your home? Hey, listen, this little kid as bait. We've heard. You know what I mean? We don't know. it's a wild world out there. I've got a one-year-old to protect, Rachel.

Don't show up to my door. I ain't answer it. I'm going to talk to you through the camera and say no soliciting. And here's the bylaw or H-O-A code. Step away. Get off my lawn. Get off my lawn.

Start a go-fund me and go fund yourself, kid. What have you turned into? I am. What's the old guy? Scrooge. No, he had a movie where he told kids to get off his lawn. He was kind of racist, which doesn't relate to this story. Grand Torino.

Who's the guy's name? Clint Eastwood. Oh, Grand Torino. That's me, minus the racism. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Not racist, just want you to get off my lawn because I just got aerating seed

and it will not be ruined by you stepping on my lawn. You are literally an old man. George. I am the youngest living boomer. Oh, my. You can all agree on that. What a way to end an episode

that could have been fun. Well, anyways, we could end up a high note. Anyways, yeah, so who finished her drink first? Clearly, you need another sip. Yeah. You need to chill out, George. You sound like my therapist, Rachel.

I'm kidding. You don't go to therapy. Clearly, it shows. If I become healthy, who's going to carry this show? Who's going to carry the show if I become a healthy whole person? George emotional needs to be unhealthy to keep this boat afloat. I'm doing it for you. Thank you so much.

All right. This drink was called a casino, and we didn't mention this in beginning, but we're going to give our rating and reveal the cost per glass. Yeah, I'm going to give it a 10 out of 10. I would order that. Is it a classic cocktail if you say the casino? I've never even heard of it. I don't know.

I haven't heard of it. Like at a restaurant, if you said, can I have a casino? Could they make that? Let me know. Order it next time you're out. We'll see. Okay. I'm going to go 10 out of 10. I think this drink is exactly what I've been waiting for.

Me too. In a smart money happy hour cocktail. It's delicious. It's fresh. Sweet, it's sour, it's got a complexity. Yeah, but it has some, like, boozyness to it, which I always like. It's like, it's a good mix. I want it to kind of, like, punch a little bit.

It does, exactly. And it does that. It's great. The cost per glass, $3.30. Not bad. And here's what's in it, Rachel. You've been asking gin. Okay.

Luxardo, which is like a, I believe, like a cherry liqueur, if I'm not mistaken. Lemon juice, simple. syrup and orange bitters. So it's actually fairly simple. Other than Luxardo, most people probably have these ingredients at home. Yeah, for sure. And I love a gin-based cocktail. I have realized that.

I'm not usually like a gin person, but with this situation, is great. It adds a little oomph into it. So get the recipe in the show notes. Give it a try this weekend if you are of age. And let us know how you like it. It's wonderful. Well, it's closing time, George. And if you guys enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review.

And if you haven't already, make sure to listen or watch our our other episode, which is Savvy versus Sketchy, do these money saving hacks go too far. Make sure to check it out. Thanks you guys for listening, and we will see you next Thursday on an all-new episode of. Smart Money Happy Hour.