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Fortifying the Meaning of True Wealth and The Art of Mindful Spending · All About The Joy

0:00
Carmen: Hi everyone, welcome to All About the Joy.
0:02
Carmen: Rick Costa love that you're always here.
0:04
Carmen: So I sent you a message about what I wanted to talk about today and look at.
0:11
Carmen: I'm not saying it has to be the entire conversation, but I do want to talk about some of the tricks that I have, or some of the things that I think might help some people with some of the things I'm really really good at.
0:23
Carmen: Okay, rick, how was your week?
0:25
Carmen: Before we move forward?
0:27
Rick: Monday was horrible, but every other day was good.
0:29
Carmen: I did tease a little bit about Chris Hemsworth and Brad Pitt, so I made that mistake.
0:35
Carmen: But let me explain the gossipy thing.
0:37
Carmen: I was working with a bunch of staff people that was like five of us at a conference table and we were sitting and talking and we were having this conversation the topic of Chris Hemsworth we're all working really hard, clearly and how good looking they are and I was just minding my business, not saying a word, and of course they asked me and I said I think Chris Hemsworth is absolutely gorgeous, but he's not sexy.
0:59
Carmen: Okay, I know I think he is stunning, lovely, gorgeous, beautiful, whatever, beautiful, family whatever, but I don't think he's sexy.
1:08
Carmen: I think Brad Pitt is sexy.
1:11
Carmen: So the whole conversation became that I was wrong that they're both sexy in their own way.
1:18
Carmen: So that's what the whole gossipy thing was.
1:20
Carmen: And then I started saying, because someone said, well, brad Pitt is a horrible person because of what he did to Angelina Jolie, I was like, do you know him personally?
1:31
Carmen: Like what happened?
1:33
Carmen: And they were like, no, you know, I read about it.
1:36
Carmen: I'm like, so you read about it in the gossipy, like internet and whatever.
1:41
Carmen: So you know for a fact that everything that happened was true.
1:45
Carmen: So of course, I brought down the whole conversation because it was all light and lovely.
1:49
Carmen: But my question to you is how much do you deal with gossip?
1:54
Carmen: How much do you enjoy reading all the gossip, even if you can't verify it?
2:01
Rick: I don't like gossip.
2:02
Rick: Never have, never have.
2:04
Rick: I've never bought one of those trashy magazines at the supermarket, or whatever I'm gonna call you out on something.
2:12
Carmen: Yeah, because this and I've done this to many people it's not just you, right?
2:17
Carmen: But so when you can't verify something online, but then you forward it anyway, isn't that kind of the same thing?
2:26
Rick: Well, in the general sense of gossip, gossip is like ooh girl, did you hear?
2:32
Rick: Like that's how I view gossip.
2:33
Carmen: That's a style.
2:34
Carmen: That's a style though.
2:36
Rick: That's what I'm talking about, then that's the style.
2:38
Rick: I don't like.
2:39
Carmen: No, no, oh so, but okay.
2:40
Carmen: So my thing is okay.
2:41
Carmen: When I say gossip, I mean spreading untruths or things that you can't verify Misinformation.
2:47
Carmen: I don't even know if it's misinformation.
2:49
Carmen: I do not know Brad Pitt personally.
2:51
Carmen: I don't know him.
2:54
Carmen: I do not know Angelina Jolie at all.
2:56
Carmen: I've never sat down with them.
2:58
Carmen: I don't even know friends of theirs.
3:00
Carmen: You know what I mean.
3:01
Carmen: So, kimberly, oh, come on, those Shafiq magazines are just fun to read.
3:06
Carmen: Don't mean it's all real, but it's entertainment, it would be.
3:11
Carmen: Except that then it goes down this thing where people are hating on someone that they don't know.
3:17
Carmen: So people were trashing on Brad Pitt now because they're like oh yeah, I forgot.
3:22
Carmen: I forgot what he did to Angelina Jolie.
3:25
Carmen: He should have stayed with what's Rachel's name from Friends or whatever.
3:30
Rick: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:30
Rick: You know, as Jennifer Aniston.
3:33
Carmen: Jennifer Aniston, as if she wanted to keep him.
3:36
Carmen: You know what I mean.
3:37
Carmen: Like we don't know what you're talking about.
3:39
Carmen: So, yeah, so the gossipy thing that I was teasing about when I did this was more about you know, let's be careful.
3:46
Carmen: It's not just gossiping what you're talking about, which is old school right, hanging out in the neighborhood trash chalk, and it's not that.
3:55
Carmen: It's when we promote stuff that we can't verify, whatever it is, whether it's in politics or in the news or about a celebrity, and I think we need to be very careful about that.
4:06
Carmen: And it's also how we end up not liking or going to movies or canceling things, right, because we heard something we can't verify, you know.
4:17
Carmen: So, anyway, that was all that was that was about, okay, For me it's like if it ain't none of my business.
4:25
Rick: why are you telling me Like it just turns off?
4:28
Carmen: I think it's interesting because we've become this, we've become these people when it comes to the internet now, because we get all of our stuff from the internet.
4:37
Carmen: Kimberly said good point, like the-.
4:41
Rick: Kardashians.
4:41
Rick: I'm guessing that's Kardashian.
4:44
Carmen: Is she being funny on purpose?
4:45
Carmen: No, that's probably Cardi Gibbs okay, kardashians.
4:48
Carmen: That looks like she said on purpose.
4:49
Carmen: We are trash constantly, but do we really know them?
4:53
Carmen: But no, I don't gossip about people, right?
4:56
Carmen: I like the Kardashian Gibbs because it's funny.
5:00
Carmen: I mean, I know she didn't mean it, but I don't know anything about that.
5:04
Carmen: My only thing about the Kardashians and about some other people, like people who become famous for doing absolutely the bare minimum kill me.
5:12
Carmen: You know what I mean.
5:13
Carmen: Like that's just I don't know if that's a jealousy thing on my part or like why?
5:19
Rick: I guess for just living life.
5:21
Carmen: Yeah, well, it was kind of who's the woman, who's the hotel magnet?
5:24
Carmen: Beautiful young girl with a blonde.
5:26
Carmen: I don't know how young she is.
5:28
Carmen: It's the hotel.
5:29
Carmen: The woman who's the daughter of the-.
5:33
Rick: Oh, Hilton, Harris Hilton.
5:34
Carmen: Yeah, like I mean, what has she done?
5:36
Carmen: What do you mean, like?
5:38
Carmen: But she just rich and pretty and whatever.
5:40
Carmen: Oh, I like the Kardashians.
5:42
Carmen: Okay, I thought you wrote that like in funniness.
5:44
Carmen: You know what I mean.
5:45
Carmen: I always tell my niece this I couldn't pick out a Kardashian if she was standing in front of me.
5:52
Carmen: I couldn't.
5:53
Rick: I don't know what it was like.
5:54
Rick: I mean, if I recognize them as a Kardashian but I don't know their names.
5:58
Rick: Yeah, I don't, I just oh I remember that one was the one that was married to Kanye, but that's about it.
6:03
Rick: That's all I know.
6:04
Rick: I don't even know their names.
6:07
Carmen: Yeah, you know, it's just.
6:08
Carmen: It's interesting dynamic.
6:11
Carmen: People who become famous To me for doing I don't know what, I can't pinpoint it, but bravo to them.
6:19
Carmen: You know, you know I.
6:20
Carmen: You know what I wish I was famous for doing nothing.
6:23
Carmen: Just being me.
6:24
Carmen: That would be fantastic.
6:26
Carmen: And when I say famous, I mean be able to pay my bills and do nothing.
6:30
Carmen: You know what I?
6:30
Rick: mean Right?
6:31
Rick: Yeah, People are willing to watch.
6:34
Carmen: Yeah.
6:34
Carmen: So I don't have a problem with that, but I don't like the unkindness, but okay.
6:40
Carmen: So, talking about money, that's what I wanna talk about.
6:43
Carmen: So it's not just money, but I've had several people in the past few weeks give me compliments about a few things.
6:50
Carmen: My friend Mia, who I love with all my heart everyone knows she's one of my best friends Years ago she was always saying to me like I don't know how you do it, even when things are bad, you're still okay financially.
7:01
Carmen: You still figure out a way.
7:03
Carmen: And I was like, yeah, I'm good, I'm fine, and that's happened before, like people will always say that.
7:09
Carmen: So, number one, I just wanna preface this by saying I don't have children.
7:12
Carmen: So people have to understand.
7:15
Carmen: When you don't have children, I'm all irresponsible for me, so I can take a lot more risks than most other people.
7:22
Carmen: So if I'm living penny to penny, you know what I mean and I don't have nobody else to feed.
7:28
Carmen: There is that part of it too.
7:30
Carmen: And then, of course, I have friends who are in the same boat and they still can't make ends meet, right.
7:34
Carmen: So I wanna share some little tricks of things I know and I actually still practice these today and I don't think anyone would call me frugal or cheap, or what do people call me Boojie.
7:52
Rick: I will freely say I am cheap, yes, I am.
7:55
Carmen: Are you really?
7:55
Rick: Ooh, yeah.
7:57
Carmen: Are you serious?
7:59
Rick: I'm cheap, oh yeah.
8:01
Carmen: Okay, wait, what does that mean?
8:03
Carmen: Exactly Like if you really want to buy something and it costs X amount of dollars, you won't buy it.
8:10
Rick: I mean I'm gonna find the cheapest possible way.
8:12
Rick: If it takes me a half an hour to find it, I'll do it.
8:16
Carmen: Oh, really Okay.
8:17
Carmen: So see, I'm not that Like if I want a pair of shoes and those are the pair of shoes and they're out of my price range, I will wait and I will save money, but I'm gonna buy them.
8:28
Carmen: Jimmy Choo's, I am not gonna go buy, not gonna.
8:30
Rick: I knew you were gonna say Jimmy Choo's.
8:31
Rick: I knew it.
8:33
Carmen: Well, before they were bought out.
8:34
Carmen: I mean, I don't buy Jimmy Choo's anymore because they were sold, but it's just a different quality now.
8:39
Carmen: But yeah, well, I love Jimmy Choo's.
8:41
Carmen: I am cliche love shoes.
8:45
Carmen: I don't wear heels that much anymore, though I'm gonna work that magic soon again.
8:50
Carmen: But I have no problem spending a thousand or $1,500 on a pair of shoes If I want them and if I.
8:59
Carmen: You never need a thousand or $1,500 pair of shoes, but I'm just saying I don't have a problem with that.
9:05
Carmen: But I would never not pay my rent to buy shoes.
9:08
Carmen: Do you know what I mean?
9:09
Carmen: I would never do anything like that.
9:10
Carmen: And also, I love them.
9:12
Carmen: And then they keep them forever so they don't go out of style.
9:16
Carmen: You know what I mean?
9:16
Carmen: I'm not buying like crazy stuff, but all right.
9:19
Carmen: So I just wanna give some tips.
9:21
Carmen: I just told you why I'm bringing up the subject, so the first one's gonna be on ways to save money.
9:26
Carmen: It's not gonna be a boring conversation.
9:27
Carmen: I just wanna know if people know this.
9:29
Carmen: What are you looking at, Rick?
9:30
Carmen: What happened?
9:32
Carmen: No, I'm just looking at the camera, looking at you, I was like what's going on, some on my face, some on my face Okay.
9:38
Carmen: So I think one of the interesting things and people do this all the time and I learned this lesson a long time ago People who have money don't spend money on crap.
9:51
Carmen: So you know how people are always spending money on, like everyone in LA has to have the latest newest car or the latest newest iPhone, right?
10:00
Carmen: I just I know two people who I work with who had perfectly working iPhones, but they went and bought that new iPhone and these are people whose salaries I know, cause I hired them for my client.
10:11
Carmen: Are we having feedback issues?
10:14
Rick: Oh, I have all the settings set up.
10:15
Carmen: No, no, I'm not saying you, but I think it's me.
10:18
Rick: Oh, okay.
10:19
Carmen: You hear me.
10:20
Rick: I hear nothing.
10:20
Rick: Yeah, but did they trade the phones in, or?
10:24
Carmen: It doesn't matter.
10:25
Carmen: They had to pay money to buy.
10:26
Carmen: Why do you need a new phone if your other phone's working?
10:28
Carmen: You're gonna, you don't?
10:30
Carmen: It's not free to trade and stuff.
10:32
Carmen: They're doing it cause they're gonna get you to pay more money somehow.
10:35
Rick: Yeah, I'm that way with the phone too, like I with-.
10:40
Carmen: You buy the new phone.
10:41
Rick: No, no, no, no, no.
10:41
Rick: Opposite I till it runs down and dies.
10:45
Rick: I'm keeping this forever.
10:46
Carmen: But you don't have an iPhone.
10:48
Rick: Well, I technically have an old pass down from my son iPhone just for the heck of it.
10:53
Carmen: But I don't pay for it.
10:54
Carmen: You got an Android.
10:55
Rick: Yeah, mine, this is my Android.
10:57
Carmen: Look it, don't get me wrong.
10:58
Carmen: I've spent $1,000 on my phone but I've had it for four years now.
11:02
Carmen: You know what I mean.
11:02
Carmen: So I don't like I always have a Samsung and I always have the good one, but like this one's the Samsung 20.
11:08
Carmen: And I think they're already on, like S24 or something you know, cause they keep trying to, they keep sending you those notices saying really will upgrade you for free because then you're gonna make my plan be more money, like I know how this works, you know.
11:25
Carmen: Right right, right.
11:27
Carmen: There's also this thing where people buy stuff based on a label as opposed to quality, and so Steve says, no, I'm keeping my iPhone 11 till it die.
11:38
Carmen: That's the way I do it.
11:39
Carmen: Yeah, it's gotta be broken and dying or not working.
11:42
Carmen: Something's gotta not be working.
11:44
Rick: Funny that this came up today because, remember, I told you this phone that I just got literally, so this was my phone, the old one, and then this is the new one, that this literally died on the same day that I finally backed everything up to this phone.
11:58
Rick: So today I said let me plug it in again.
12:00
Rick: Maybe it was a weird fluke, cause it won't turn on.
12:03
Rick: So I plugged it in yeah, so it's gone.
12:05
Rick: It still won't.
12:05
Rick: Yeah, it's dead, it's dead.
12:08
Carmen: Yeah, I mean, look at again.
12:09
Carmen: I just said I would spend $1,500 on a pair of shoes.
12:12
Carmen: So I'm not balking at anybody who spends money on an iPhone.
12:15
Carmen: I'm just saying if you don't need it, I'm never gonna buy a pair of shoes.
12:20
Carmen: You don't need a $1,500 pair of shoes, Nobody.
12:24
Carmen: I don't care how rich you is, Right.
12:26
Carmen: But one of the things that's happened as I've worked for over 25 years for extremely wealthy people both people who've made their money or people who have just old oil money right, I've seen it all and what I realized is that it's only poor working folk who care about labels Like when you have actual money, you don't need to be bling, bling it all over the place, you don't need to be proving that you have money.
12:54
Carmen: Yeah, so it's an interesting thing.
12:57
Carmen: So someone said to me like ooh, you're always wearing t-shirts.
13:01
Carmen: Where do you get your t-shirts?
13:02
Carmen: Are they James Pierce or James Purse?
13:04
Carmen: I guess is how you say it.
13:06
Carmen: Those are like.
13:08
Carmen: Those t-shirts are like $300, $400 a piece, and I've had them in the past when I had to go into work and I worked for a design company.
13:14
Carmen: You dress the part, you do what you gotta do, but no, I wear gap t-shirts.
13:18
Carmen: I wear gap t-shirts Like.
13:20
Carmen: I love gap t-shirts.
13:21
Carmen: They're like $30, they're fine, so I think that's one of the things that is probably the biggest saver of money for me is that I'm never chasing the latest thing.
13:34
Carmen: And I've said it a million times I've had the same car for 20 years, and that's a big deal in LA, In LA you do not keep the same car for 20 years.
13:43
Rick: Yeah, I think that's cool.
13:44
Rick: I think the first time I even realized labels were a thing was in high school, because they were like what brand of jeans is that?
13:52
Rick: Or something?
13:53
Rick: I was like I don't know.
13:55
Carmen: Oh no, we all wanted.
13:56
Carmen: I wanted the remember.
13:57
Carmen: It was like I was gonna say Gloria Estefa, but it's not that.
14:00
Carmen: Remember Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.
14:03
Carmen: I wanted those ones.
14:05
Carmen: Or the God Jordash.
14:07
Carmen: Do you remember Jordash?
14:08
Rick: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:10
Carmen: Oh yeah, I mean that's being a teenager, though, and back then labels were a thing.
14:14
Rick: I mean they still I didn't know.
14:15
Rick: It was even because I didn't care.
14:17
Carmen: I knew because everybody had them and I didn't, and I wanted them so bad.
14:20
Carmen: I wanted my Nike sneakers, you know, and I eventually got them.
14:23
Carmen: But you know, it's kind of like that's different.
14:25
Carmen: When you were a teenager, that's a different ballgame, I mean teaching that.
14:28
Carmen: The weird thing is, gen Z isn't like that now.
14:31
Carmen: Gen Z is the complete opposite.
14:33
Carmen: They don't want labels.
14:34
Carmen: It's just.
14:34
Carmen: I appreciate that They've figured it out much quicker you know what I mean Than the rest of us, but so that's probably the biggest saver of money for me.
14:44
Carmen: Like, I'm not hooked on brands at all.
14:48
Carmen: It's all about quality.
14:50
Carmen: That doesn't mean cheap stuff.
14:52
Carmen: It doesn't mean buying cheap stuff.
14:54
Carmen: So that's one of the things I wanted to talk about.
14:57
Carmen: The other one that I think is really important is people get so messed up about coupons.
15:02
Carmen: So I'm gonna talk about coupons because I think that's the biggest one and during, kind of when things were really bad 2008, 2009, when the economy dipped down this was kind of like where I really did my best with the whole.
15:15
Carmen: People get confused about coupons and you can do digital coupons.
15:18
Carmen: I still use coupons today and I make plenty of money to turn around and buy whatever I want in the grocery store.
15:22
Carmen: But like anything, once it becomes a habit, you just do it.
15:26
Carmen: Here's the problem with coupons when you get coupons in the mail, or even the digital ones, the mistake people make is they clip things they don't need.
15:34
Carmen: Use a coupon of something you've never bought and if it's not the name brand that you buy, do not buy it, because that leads you to more coupons from that brand name.
15:44
Carmen: Like if you don't buy Johnson and Johnson baby oil or something, but you're like, oh, look at a coupon, dollar off.
15:52
Carmen: Now you're gonna get coupons from Johnson and Johnson for everything and then you're gonna get sucked into buying more stuff.
15:58
Carmen: It's just.
16:00
Carmen: You know what I mean too.
16:01
Carmen: I see me says my mom loves saving money, like she will argue with an employee over a fine molecule one.
16:06
Carmen: Okay, but that's that's wasting your energy.
16:08
Carmen: See, I won't do that.
16:09
Rick: I'll never forget.
16:10
Rick: I was at the supermarket and this lady was in front of me and she had maybe like three bags worth the stuff, and then she pulls out all these coupons.
16:17
Rick: I'm like $2.50 no, they ended up.
16:24
Rick: It was negative.
16:25
Rick: They gave her money.
16:26
Rick: I was like you walked out of here with all that stuff.
16:31
Carmen: What I'm mad at you every time.
16:34
Carmen: So I'm keepers, I'm like, take your time, go here, because you worked hard to collect them all and you doing to do justice.
16:40
Carmen: You know, now I, I really like digital coupons and I only use the coupons that are cash Right.
16:47
Carmen: So the ones that are like two dollars off of something you know not like, oh, if you buy five, like that's that thing too.
16:54
Carmen: So this is the other one on the list.
16:56
Carmen: I Don't I said this before I don't need 35 rolls of toilet paper.
17:01
Carmen: I am one person.
17:02
Carmen: So that's not really saving me money, because then what is it gonna do?
17:06
Carmen: It's gonna be sitting in a box in my little apartment Annoying me in my 10 years.
17:13
Carmen: I'm accident assault, I don't know.
17:17
Carmen: But you don't need to do that either, because you also want to save your space and your energy and you want things to be aesthetically pleasing.
17:23
Carmen: So you got to think smart.
17:24
Carmen: You know Nobody needs to wear all stuff, but I know the whole coupon thing.
17:28
Carmen: People don't like to do it, but it's free money.
17:32
Carmen: It is and once you get into a habit of it, it really is just easy.
17:36
Carmen: Like it comes in the mail from my grocery store, I clip all the ones I know I don't need because I've never bought those before, and I know the trick.
17:45
Carmen: They'll start sending me all that crap.
17:46
Carmen: And also, if you've never eaten that before, why do you need to start all over?
17:50
Carmen: You know what I mean?
17:51
Carmen: Yeah, one of the easiest tricks too is whenever you go to the grocery store I only have two more things about grocery stores, but they're important always go with a list and never Deviate from the list.
18:03
Rick: So my what I?
18:04
Rick: Because I, like I said, I never leave the house because I'm right, you order in everything's everything's delivery.
18:08
Rick: So on my grocery store they have an awesome thing which I don't know if everybody has it maybe they do and I just don't know.
18:14
Rick: But it has a thing where click what you bought before and I just go buy that list.
18:19
Rick: I don't look at nothing new, nothing whatever, and yeah, sometimes it'll be the two of the same thing with the different size.
18:25
Rick: One has a coupon, one doesn't.
18:27
Carmen: I'm gonna go with the the thing about delivery and I know you have to, whatever the way they make money on delivery is not just by the delivery amount, but and and because I am crazy about trying to save money, I did a comparison when I had groceries delivered, because I always have the same things, and then I went to the store they up everything by like 50 cents or a dollar and when it's delivered and that is what angers me about it's not fair.
18:55
Carmen: If you're playing also a delivery price, so yeah, you should use your coupon because that's how they're making their money.
19:01
Carmen: So if I buy baby, clearly Carmen uses Johnson's baby oil on her skin after showering, so I keep bringing it up, but that you know that might cost $3.99 right in the store, but then they're gonna charge you for $9.99.
19:17
Carmen: What's Uber Ears?
19:19
Rick: Uber Ears.
19:20
Carmen: Uber Eats.
19:24
Rick: Door door dash, sometimes Once a while with mom's.
19:28
Rick: I mean, if I'm stressed out, whatever I want to cook, I'll just go.
19:31
Rick: I'll begin door dash today.
19:32
Carmen: Yeah, here's the thing I eat out all the time.
19:35
Carmen: I'm not trying to say I think if you're doing it to the extent that you're stressing yourself out to save money, then you're doing it wrong.
19:44
Carmen: Like I'm just saying, use it in a casual way so that you can.
19:48
Carmen: You know, look it, I save about $800 a month on my little tricks that I do.
19:54
Carmen: $800 a month is quite a bit.
19:58
Carmen: You know and and it's only because like, if people don't know I handle money for a living for my clients.
20:03
Carmen: So I'm basically a glorified bookkeeper, but I'm really good with money.
20:08
Carmen: So that's the other part of it.
20:10
Carmen: Right, I know every penny I spend.
20:11
Carmen: The other thing this is something most of you already know, but just in case someone out there doesn't know, when you walk in the grocery store, everything that is eye level Is something they're trying to sell you.
20:22
Carmen: So everything that is when you're looking at shelves, that's not the stuff you usually buy.
20:28
Carmen: The stuff you usually buy is either way on top or on the bottom Right, because they're trying to sell you something all the time.
20:34
Carmen: So be careful of that.
20:36
Carmen: Always look for what you came in to get Bread people are always consumed with the color of the bread tag.
20:44
Carmen: Right, if it's a yellow, it's a Monday, if it's a blue, it's a man, none of that.
20:49
Carmen: Always get your bread.
20:51
Carmen: This is not to do a saving money People, just about getting your freshest bread.
20:54
Carmen: If you're not going to a bakery which I don't do bakery bread, cuz whatever, it's just me your bread is in the front right.
21:01
Carmen: Always reach to the back.
21:03
Carmen: The freshest bread is always in the back of the shelf, so always grab that.
21:07
Carmen: That's just a little trick, you know I've done that.
21:09
Rick: I've done that.
21:10
Carmen: I always do and like people get mad at me because like they'll be waiting for me to move and I'm like I need to get the freshest, I know where it is, and then I'll leave.
21:17
Carmen: And they're doing the same thing because they realize.
21:19
Carmen: And the reason why I know that is because I asked the bread guy when he came one day.
21:24
Carmen: I was like which is the front?
21:25
Carmen: What color tag he's?
21:26
Carmen: Like it's not the tag.
21:30
Rick: Because they have to put the oldest stuff in the front to get rid of it, so it doesn't go bad.
21:33
Rick: Obviously I mean that makes sense.
21:34
Rick: That's right when I did go physically shopping, I did have a list and I just went by the list.
21:39
Rick: I wouldn't look at nothing else.
21:40
Rick: Where's this?
21:41
Rick: Boom?
21:43
Carmen: You know, digitally now it's very different.
21:45
Carmen: You don't have to have a, I have my list on my phone too, you know.
21:47
Carmen: I mean I'm just saying don't deviate, because you know you should always eat before you go to the grocery store too, because yes.
21:53
Carmen: I'm more stuff when we're hungry, right?
21:56
Carmen: So I always eat something before I go to the grocery store, because I know how I am, all of a sudden, I need chocolate cake, I need ice cream I didn't need none of that.
22:05
Carmen: I was supposed to be going there to get some eggs.
22:07
Carmen: You know what I mean.
22:09
Rick: Donuts Steven.
22:09
Rick: What Steven gets his donuts probably.
22:13
Rick: Oh, donuts yeah same with milk freshest is in the back.
22:16
Rick: Yes, yes, yes.
22:18
Carmen: Yes, you know what?
22:19
Carmen: I haven't bought milk in so long, and I'm not against dairy, I love cheese.
22:24
Carmen: I just I drink almond milk now, but I think it's the same concept.
22:28
Carmen: You know, it's the.
22:29
Carmen: It's always going to be a freshest if it's in the back, for sure.
22:32
Carmen: Yeah, so those are.
22:33
Carmen: Those are some of my things on saving money.
22:35
Carmen: Do you have some?
22:36
Carmen: You kind of already shared what you were talking about.
22:38
Rick: I mean, there's one thing that I use.
22:40
Rick: I have these Browser plugins I think they're called, and I have several of them, and if I go to a site it automatically pops up and says we have a coupon code, do you?
22:50
Carmen: want to try it Like capital.
22:52
Carmen: One has that.
22:53
Rick: Yeah, I have that one.
22:54
Rick: I have honey.
22:55
Rick: There's one called honey, there's several of them, and it automatically tries the code for me.
23:00
Rick: I don't even have to type anything, and a lot of times it's saving me $10, $20.
23:04
Rick: I'm like, hey, that's $20 to $20.
23:06
Carmen: So yeah, yeah, that that is a great, great thing to do.
23:10
Carmen: I have a capital one credit card, so that's why I use that one.
23:13
Carmen: I get worried sometimes, though, too, because then they start sending you emails you have to, or text messages, so you have to.
23:19
Carmen: You have to make sure you put stop to that.
23:21
Carmen: You know what I mean, because then it's just getting annoying.
23:23
Carmen: But, yeah, those are great.
23:24
Carmen: I always use those when I'm shopping online for, like, clothes, you know, like if I'm buying socks or if I'm buying something, because you can always get these codes and they.
23:33
Carmen: You're right, you don't have to do anything, you just have to show up on the website and then it automatically goes from your browser.
23:39
Carmen: The only one I use is capital one.
23:41
Carmen: What did you?
23:41
Carmen: You called one, honey.
23:43
Rick: One's called honey.
23:44
Rick: There's a bunch of them.
23:45
Rick: Actually I found even more, but okay capital one and honey usually cover coupon birds.
23:50
Rick: I'm looking at my computer deal.
23:52
Rick: Drop Retail me not Okay, which is all over it.
23:59
Carmen: So you're like the woman at the cashier.
24:00
Rick: I was like I wish I was like that woman at the cashier.
24:03
Carmen: Like with amazon.
24:04
Rick: What I would do is so if I'm looking up, I don't make up something vitamin c, whatever just make it whatever, and that gives you a whole list of all this stuff.
24:12
Rick: Well, if you look, it'll tell you the price per Each, whatever it is.
24:18
Rick: So it could be like 11 cents, 12 cents, 15 cents.
24:21
Rick: So I just I scroll down the whole thing till I find the cheapest one.
24:25
Rick: As long as it doesn't look like it's a crappy product, then I'll be there.
24:27
Rick: All right, there it is.
24:28
Rick: That's one of my get the cheapest one.
24:29
Carmen: Well, see, and so I'm a little bit against buying the cheapest thing, because if it's something you want, that is like I'm not gonna buy cheap cream from my face.
24:37
Carmen: I'm a bother.
24:38
Carmen: You know what I mean.
24:39
Carmen: Like I hear what you're saying, like depending on what it is.
24:42
Carmen: But I would also stay away from as many subscriptions as possible, because here's, here's what I noticed.
24:47
Carmen: For me, if I have, this is more bulk stuff, like if I buy Three things of my cream right, because I'm like, let me just buy it in bulk because it's gonna be cheaper.
24:59
Carmen: So if you have all your cream and you don't do your due diligence to get all the cream out of the one you have, because you know you have a second one, shake it all out.
25:08
Carmen: But when I only have one, you know I'm in there scraping, pushing it through like whatever, and sometimes there's a lot left over.
25:17
Rick: Yeah.
25:18
Carmen: So you have to be very good.
25:20
Carmen: The same thing with hand soap or whatever, like I try only have.
25:23
Carmen: Like.
25:24
Carmen: My whole thing is like I buy one and I buy two and then when one is done I replace the other one.
25:30
Rick: That's what I do.
25:31
Carmen: You know what I mean, I don't buy in bulk so much.
25:34
Rick: That's what I do, everything in this house.
25:35
Rick: When I, I always have one, one ones out.
25:37
Rick: There's already another one ready for the.
25:39
Carmen: But then that's when you know to order the next and that's when I would another one.
25:42
Rick: Yep, that's, I've always, I've done that for years and use my mom's like we ran out of cream cheese.
25:47
Rick: I was like, look at the drawer in the bottom of the kitchen and the boot refrigerator and you go see right there, right?
25:52
Carmen: Yeah, no, I think these are small little things, but all of these things add up, and I'm not saying people have to run around with coupons or whatever, but I think the other part of it too is being good about subscriptions.
26:04
Carmen: You know, do you think Amazon, amazon Prime, is worse?
26:08
Carmen: They keep increasing prices.
26:10
Carmen: So I'm going to tell you the truth, steve.
26:12
Carmen: Steven, I'm sorry.
26:14
Carmen: I got rid of Amazon Prime three years ago and that's kind of.
26:18
Carmen: You know, that was a thing on the list.
26:20
Carmen: The reason why is because for me it wasn't worth it.
26:23
Carmen: I don't use it all the time in order for Amazon Prime at $119 a year I think that's what it was when I was paying for it.
26:31
Carmen: To be worth it, you have to at least order at least that minimum order at least.
26:36
Carmen: I think it was 12 to 15 times a year, which I did not.
26:40
Carmen: So if you order on there and you use their music and you, you know, use their whatever other things that they have, they have like I don't know, if they have like grub hub, you can use that for six months for free or something the delivery there, like, if you use all of that stuff, then it might be worth it, but I don't use Amazon Prime at all and also all my other subscription, rick knows.
27:03
Carmen: Rick was like oh, you have to watch this show on Paramount.
27:06
Carmen: I got Paramount for three months, got rid of it like I haven't, you know, because you keep paying for all of these things whether you're watching it or not.
27:15
Rick: Yeah, I just read to somebody yesterday say oh yeah, if there's a show I really want to watch, I'll get it, binge it and then I cancel it.
27:21
Carmen: Yeah well, you just have to be good about it, because they automatically do it on your credit card.
27:26
Carmen: So I have one credit card for all my subscriptions.
27:29
Carmen: So it's really easy, right?
27:30
Carmen: I use that credit card and then I I make sure I go in like once a month to see which ones I have to.
27:36
Carmen: Now I know I I handle money for a living, so it's a little bit Crazier.
27:41
Carmen: But if you're gonna do that, if you're gonna get subscriptions to everything, you should be at least watching that once or twice a week, because if not you're just throwing money away.
27:49
Carmen: You are that is like and it's a lot of money Hulu, disney, paramount, amazon, apple.
27:57
Rick: You gotta think for the year, not like whatever it is, month by month.
28:01
Rick: Think of it for the year, for that whole year.
28:02
Rick: Then it adds up.
28:03
Rick: I Fortunately have Amazon Prime through my brother, so I don't pay anything people should do is share.
28:11
Carmen: They don't want to hear that, though they don't want to hear that, right, no, not they.
28:15
Carmen: I mean, amazon doesn't want to hear that you're sharing it.
28:18
Carmen: I'm sorry.
28:21
Rick: I do use Amazon a lot, but again, because I'm stuck here, I have to have everything delivered.
28:26
Rick: So I actually do use it a lot, but it's nice too, maybe you shouldn't.
28:29
Carmen: I'm just saying people who don't use it, like me, don't pay for it.
28:32
Rick: Yeah, yeah, and it is nice to be able to get something in one or two days instead of waiting for a week and then they're gonna lie.
28:38
Rick: It's kind of nice.
28:40
Carmen: Look at that.
28:40
Carmen: I think you're absolutely right.
28:43
Carmen: I also am trying to be better about you can't do this because of your situation, but I also am trying to be better about supporting local shops or being in the neighborhood or talking to people or using it as an excuse to walk to the store.
28:58
Carmen: You know like I went today to Ulta, which is not a mom and pop store at all.
29:03
Carmen: I went today and I bought some foundation Fenty, fabulous.
29:08
Carmen: I feel like my skin is shining, but I've never used it before so good.
29:13
Carmen: But I walked up there and it was just kind of nice.
29:16
Carmen: You know where.
29:16
Carmen: I could have just ordered it online and had it delivered, but so I kind of use that as a whole kind of exercise excuse to make sure I get out of the house and do things and get out of the office.
29:28
Rick: Right, and just thought of another one too is like with I used to do it more, but Cash App and that's not only Cash App, I think, how we pay pal, venma, whatever they have.
29:38
Rick: They call it a boost, and so it has certain stores and you turn on the boost for that store and you get like 10% off, 20% off whatever the boost is for that week, and then you just use that credit card and you get money off just for when the boost is.
29:52
Carmen: So you have a credit card with Cash App.
29:54
Rick: Oh no, it's a debit.
29:55
Rick: It's a debit, but I got it Okay.
29:59
Carmen: Steve said I think I just need to work more.
30:01
Carmen: And then the other thing I'll say, which look at all the other stuff.
30:05
Carmen: Everybody knows you should have three months worth of money saved up in case you lose your job.
30:10
Carmen: Like that's really hard for people to do.
30:13
Carmen: I used to.
30:13
Rick: I used to, everyone used to.
30:18
Carmen: Now, after COVID, that's the whole other ball game.
30:20
Carmen: Now it's too hard.
30:23
Rick: I just heard this the other day that they were saying people that make triple digits have gone through their savings now and they don't even have savings.
30:31
Carmen: I'm like wow, I read the same article.
30:33
Carmen: People making over $100,000 a year still are living paycheck to paycheck.
30:38
Carmen: I'm going to go back to Tony and Brian where they were making fun of me for the hotels I stay at or that I was suggesting to them Again, that's like those are the things I spend money on.
30:48
Carmen: But those are the things I spend money on because I don't have children, and I'm not trying to say that.
30:53
Carmen: You know, having children is the issue.
30:55
Carmen: I'm just saying when you're comparing yourself to other people, remember you don't know other people's, you don't know what else they're dealing with, you know?
31:06
Rick: we're not saying if you want to be rich, don't have kids.
31:09
Rick: We're not saying that.
31:10
Carmen: I am not saying that at all.
31:12
Carmen: One last thing about money money is just a thing and I know people I've said this before.
31:18
Carmen: I know people who are extremely wealthy.
31:20
Carmen: I work with people who have so much money.
31:23
Carmen: I think they are the most saddest, angriest, most miserable people on a daily basis.
31:31
Carmen: And I know people who are poor or working or heart, you know, like blue collar, regular people and even though there's the struggle and there's sadness, sometimes not being able to pay your bill or do what you gotta do, much happier, much more sane, much more realistic about things.
31:49
Carmen: That's not to say that all rich people are all poor people.
31:51
Carmen: I'm just saying in my experience and I've been doing this for so long now I feel very comfortable admitting that I think some of the people that are the hardest working people, if they were given an abundance of money, would do a much better job of handling it.
32:11
Carmen: I'm not saying the lottery type of thing.
32:13
Carmen: I'm saying like, let's say, like you know, this show blows up or something and we're getting an abundance of money and we're doing well or whatever.
32:20
Carmen: We'd be able to handle it, I think a little bit better, also because we're older.
32:24
Carmen: But some people who like born into money that I worked for, or people who made their money and made millions really, really fast and they just went through so much trauma before they got on an even keel.
32:37
Carmen: You know and have just as many issues, and we've all heard the cliche that money doesn't make you happy.
32:42
Carmen: It doesn't, but it does give you a whole hell of a lot more choices.
32:46
Carmen: No doubt about it.
32:47
Carmen: You know I'm talking about how hard it is to find a job with a college degree.
32:52
Rick: Nowadays, we can I was saying to go back to what you just said, before we switched to that.
32:58
Rick: I was just saying to somebody yesterday I was like I heard that somebody.
33:01
Rick: They were like oh, her net worth is $26 billion.
33:05
Rick: I was like why does one person need $26 billion?
33:11
Carmen: Right, why?
33:12
Carmen: Who was that?
33:13
Carmen: That must be someone.
33:14
Carmen: I can't remember who it was Must be the Spanx lady.
33:17
Carmen: $26 billion is actually.
33:19
Carmen: I don't think it would be her.
33:21
Carmen: So look at, that's our capitalist system, right?
33:24
Carmen: I don't know if it makes life easier, but not so sweet P Leslie, I would actually say I don't think it makes life easier.
33:33
Carmen: What people don't understand about money is you know what?
33:36
Carmen: I'm going to give you an example.
33:39
Carmen: It's not that it makes life easier.
33:41
Carmen: It actually makes it much more complicated, because when you have this much money, a lot of my clients that I've had in the past, they were so worried about who their friends were because they started questioning why people wanted to hang out with them.
33:55
Carmen: And I don't mean in a little way, I mean anybody, anybody who would call them, anybody who would try to network with them, anybody who would try to have dinner with them, anybody, even their friends they'd had for a long time, who have just as much money as they do, you know like, because with money comes some power, right?
34:12
Carmen: So now it's not even about money.
34:13
Carmen: So if you and your other person are making millions of dollars and you're both doing well and you've been friends since high school, now it's about who has more power.
34:21
Carmen: So it's an interesting dynamic to watch these people fight about now power.
34:27
Carmen: It's a next level thing.
34:29
Carmen: So money doesn't make life easier, it just gives you more choices.
34:36
Carmen: I think that's really important to understand.
34:40
Carmen: Going back to what Steven was talking about, a college degree is not what it used to be.
34:45
Carmen: It just doesn't mean the same as it used to be and in this day and age of the internet and social media and content creators and people who can make money doing things technically online or on the internet, I wanna encourage people to go to college and get a degree.
35:07
Carmen: I'm not trying to say people should not.
35:08
Carmen: For me it was life saving.
35:10
Carmen: Patty Corcoran, who was on earlier, was one of the people that, when I was in college, was my saving grace, because I was someone who should have probably never been going to college.
35:20
Carmen: I wasn't ready for it and she helped walk me through it.
35:23
Carmen: You know, but a college degree nowadays isn't enough to secure a job.
35:30
Rick: Yeah, yeah.
35:31
Carmen: Especially if you're older.
35:32
Carmen: I'm sorry, right.
35:34
Rick: Certain things you kind of have to like.
35:37
Rick: Medical, if you wanna be a doctor or a nurse, you kind of have to get a doctor?
35:40
Carmen: Well, that's not a college degree.
35:41
Rick: I'm saying you can't avoid that's the word in doctorate level.
35:44
Rick: But you can't avoid college education for stuff like that.
35:49
Carmen: Well, here's the thing about a degree, and this is why I think a degree is really important and do not regret getting a degree.
35:54
Carmen: When you get your degree, it's like anything else in life you've learned something.
35:59
Carmen: It wasn't just the degree in psychology, it was the experience in getting that degree that makes you a better person.
36:06
Carmen: Education and learning is never a waste of money, and I'm never gonna regret my degree from the University of Vermont because the people I met, the person I've become, all the things I learned while I was there, all the friends I made, all the family I made.
36:22
Carmen: Don't do that to yourself.
36:24
Carmen: Don't sit in regret.
36:25
Carmen: That's not gonna help you at all.
36:27
Rick: And you never know if you could use it later.
36:29
Carmen: No, he's using it now he's doing critical thinking.
36:32
Carmen: You always use your degree, that's what I'm saying.
36:35
Carmen: Education, ted Hicks, carmen Rick.
36:38
Carmen: Business administration I moved over to IT.
36:40
Carmen: I opted not to be an accountant Best decision I ever made.
36:44
Carmen: Yes, yeah, cause IT is the thing.
36:46
Carmen: Steven, if you haven't decided yet, maybe you'd be interested in IT, there's another.
36:51
Carmen: There are certain jobs like no offense, accounting and bookkeeping.
36:56
Carmen: Here's the reason why I keep my job, because, don't matter what's happening in the world, rich people always need people handling their money.
37:03
Carmen: It's very hard to write your own bills, but jobs like being an IT person, electrician, those jobs are never gonna go out of style.
37:11
Rick: Or now the hot thing, AI.
37:13
Carmen: Not a lot of people know a whole lot about AI, so I know, and you gotta be open to that, and right now is the time to start learning.
37:21
Carmen: I think there were Google classes that are for free to learn about AI.
37:25
Carmen: That might be something you're interested in, steven, I don't know.
37:30
Carmen: This is such an interesting conversation.
37:32
Carmen: We were talking about money but talk about making more money.
37:35
Carmen: Yeah, you know what?
37:37
Carmen: Try not to be negative about what's I mean.
37:40
Carmen: I know it's easy for me to say right now, but I was in the same boat back in 2008.
37:44
Carmen: I lost my home.
37:46
Carmen: I didn't have a job.
37:47
Carmen: It was hard times, right during the economic downturn.
37:50
Carmen: It was really tough to get a job.
37:52
Carmen: I couldn't get a job for like three years.
37:54
Carmen: Three years I was doing odds and ends.
37:57
Carmen: I cleaned out this woman's garage for like $1,000.
38:02
Carmen: I was just putting myself out there doing a, you know, and I changed every resume.
38:05
Carmen: I'm like I am an organizational whatever.
38:09
Carmen: I forget what I wrote.
38:10
Carmen: I made it some major thing like and I came out and was organizing people's stuff.
38:14
Carmen: You know, I felt pressured to go to college after high school and I didn't know what to study.
38:19
Carmen: That's why I chose psych.
38:20
Carmen: That's okay.
38:21
Carmen: You're not supposed to know what to study.
38:22
Carmen: I didn't know either.
38:23
Carmen: I was an economics major, which I can't believe.
38:26
Carmen: I was like economics major for a minute.
38:28
Carmen: I was polysine major, political science.
38:32
Carmen: I ended up not knowing for so long.
38:34
Carmen: I then became a film and English major.
38:36
Carmen: So cause I had so many credits in English and then I was doing a minor in film.
38:41
Carmen: So, yeah, don't beat yourself up for the good thing that you did, which was become a smarter, more evolved human being.
38:52
Carmen: Don't ever do that to yourself.
38:54
Carmen: By the way, can I finish this off this way?
38:57
Carmen: Money ain't nothing but a thing.
38:59
Carmen: So whether you have money or you don't have money, it does not define who you are.
39:05
Carmen: You are in a situation right now where you need to pull yourself out of a situation.
39:10
Carmen: That's okay.
39:10
Carmen: That's the journey we're all on in life and we've all been there at some point or another.
39:16
Carmen: And if you haven't, then you're not doing life right.
39:18
Carmen: You know what I mean.
39:19
Carmen: So see the blessing in it.
39:21
Carmen: It's a tough time for you.
39:22
Carmen: I'm not trying to minimize that, but you're gonna get to wherever it is.
39:26
Carmen: You need to be Trust in that and be positive and joyful about who you are.
39:32
Carmen: And look at your critical thinking.
39:34
Carmen: Just in this stream alone, you're doing like you know.
39:37
Carmen: I'm thinking about this.
39:37
Carmen: I'm thinking about that.
39:38
Carmen: I'm analyzing why I did that.
39:40
Carmen: That's all critical thinking.
39:42
Carmen: That's all great stuff, you know.
39:44
Carmen: So you're gonna be fine and your mom cares about you, right?
39:48
Carmen: That's what mom's supposed to do.
39:49
Carmen: So she worried about you.
39:50
Carmen: She gonna ask her questions.
39:52
Carmen: Everybody's gonna ask their questions.
39:53
Carmen: You keep true to you.
39:55
Carmen: Keep true to you, you're gonna be fine.
39:57
Rick: Yeah, cause ultimately you have to be happy, like if you're rich and unhappy, that sucks.
40:03
Carmen: I know so many people, rich and unhappy and when I say unhappy I mean they have all the stuff they could need and they still complainin' miserable.
40:14
Carmen: Their kids hate them.
40:15
Carmen: Their kids are on drugs.
40:16
Carmen: You know, like I cannot, I'm generalizing, but that experience I've had with wealthy people is a normal thing.
40:27
Carmen: I cannot tell you how many kids of the people I've worked for who are older hate their parents, and I don't mean like mommy, I hate you, you did it.
40:39
Carmen: I mean like they're not talkin' to them and they're like 15.
40:42
Carmen: You know what I mean.
40:43
Carmen: Like they've moved to another country cause they can.
40:45
Carmen: You know what I mean.
40:46
Carmen: It's weird, you know.
40:48
Carmen: So I know no one believes me.
40:51
Carmen: I would not trade my life, and Dre and I talked about this all the time, cause then Dre has had the same clients I've had, like we've worked for the same people.
40:58
Carmen: We would never, ever trade our lives for any of the people we've worked for.
41:04
Carmen: I am telling you on my mother's grave I would not trade, I would rather go back.
41:12
Carmen: I swear to you and I'm saying this with love and kindness to give some people some hope on there A lot of you know that as a kid I had a really tough time.
41:20
Carmen: I would not.
41:21
Carmen: I would rather go back and have to live through that again than live any life of the rich people I've worked for.
41:28
Carmen: It's just, life is not about money, and the reason why we are obsessed with money is because it's marketed to us all the time, it's pressured to us all the time and we think what we don't have, our life would be better if we had it all.
41:49
Carmen: You know what I mean.
41:50
Rick: I've heard more than one person say they've been a millionaire and then they lost everything, and then it became a millionaire again, and then they lost everything again.
41:59
Rick: And then it became a millionaire again and there's like money's just a thing.
42:02
Carmen: Well, look at lottery.
42:03
Carmen: People are a great example People who win the lottery.
42:05
Carmen: Just do a little Google search.
42:07
Carmen: Do you know what happened to people who win the lottery?
42:10
Carmen: A lot of people who win the lottery end up wishing they never did, because you gotta be able to know how to handle money.
42:16
Carmen: So what I'm telling you is anybody here listening?
42:20
Carmen: If you win the lottery, call me, I'm gonna hook you up.
42:22
Carmen: Okay, I'm gonna help you.
42:24
Carmen: But seriously, like, look it, I know I'm kind of different on this.
42:29
Carmen: It's not that I hate money.
42:31
Carmen: I love that, no matter what kind of money I have, whether I have it or I don't have it, I love that.
42:40
Carmen: No matter what situation I've ever been in, I'm gonna tell you when I have money and I'm gonna tell you when I don't have money and I'm gonna treat you exactly the same way, whether I have it or not.
42:50
Carmen: And I'm telling you the only reason why I'm like that is because I've been working so long in this town and I've seen how money changes people.
43:00
Carmen: People become so paranoid, people become so questioning of their own self-worth.
43:06
Carmen: Like, do they like me because I have money, or do they?
43:09
Carmen: I'm like, why would you even question that?
43:11
Carmen: Okay, I'm gonna tell a little story.
43:13
Carmen: So I had this client once.
43:15
Carmen: I think I said this before.
43:16
Carmen: She has since passed away but I had a client once who we met at Barney's.
43:22
Carmen: I told the story before because that's where we had to meet to do some work and she wanted to meet there because she was shopping or whatever, and we were eating popovers.
43:29
Carmen: That was a thing I guess it still is and I went to go to the bathroom and what I did was I paid for lunch.
43:35
Carmen: You right, I wanna just pay for lunch and be nice to her, because she was always paying for everything, whatever.
43:40
Carmen: And when I came back to the table she asked the waitress I think it was a waiter, a man, it was a man, the waiter if she could have the check or whatever, because we had to go.
43:48
Carmen: And he was like, oh, it was all taken care of.
43:50
Carmen: And she would look this is how crazy she was.
43:53
Carmen: She was looking around, she was looking to see if one of her friends had paid it, because her lowly little PA assistant would have never paid it.
44:01
Carmen: You know what I mean.
44:02
Carmen: And I was like I paid it.
44:05
Carmen: She got upset about it.
44:07
Carmen: Why would you do that?
44:09
Carmen: Why would you do that?
44:10
Carmen: I'm like because you always pay for everything.
44:14
Carmen: Like I just wanna do something nice, I just wanna be.
44:16
Carmen: It was really hard for her to take it.
44:19
Carmen: She thought I wanted something from her.
44:23
Carmen: Are you gonna ask me for a re?
44:25
Carmen: I mean, look at me, and Arlena since pass away, so I don't mind saying her name.
44:29
Carmen: She was a wonderful woman and we became pretty close after a couple near the end of her life and our Andrea knows her too, knew her as well too, and she was a lovely lady.
44:40
Carmen: But one of the things that was interesting about her is that she would she talked about the things that she regretted in her life.
44:44
Carmen: And the things she regretted in her life was she always had nannies for her kids.
44:49
Carmen: You know what I mean.
44:50
Carmen: She always had.
44:51
Carmen: She was always doing non-profit stuff or she was always out doing stuff and she wasn't around for her kids.
44:57
Carmen: And she would say things like you know the way in which you talk about your mother.
45:02
Carmen: I don't think my kids will ever talk about me that way.
45:05
Carmen: Like it's an interesting thing, like now, I know her kids love her, or whatever.
45:11
Carmen: You know what I mean.
45:12
Carmen: Like it's just an interesting thing to see someone who is so powerful and has so much money and is doing such good in the world, like she gave her money away to people all the time, like she had a non-profit and she was, but still in the inside she was not happy.
45:31
Rick: Right.
45:32
Rick: It's.
45:33
Rick: An interesting thing too is like they've done studies, I guess, of people on their death bed and what are their last things that they say, and they say almost every time I wish I spent more time with my family.
45:45
Carmen: Well, you don't even have to do a thing.
45:46
Carmen: It's kind of like who have you ever known to die?
45:51
Carmen: Who's like, like, oh, I wish I bought a yacht.
45:57
Rick: I wish I climbed Mount Everest.
46:00
Carmen: At the end of the day, money matters because of the society we live in, but work really hard not to define it.
46:08
Carmen: And what that means is don't feel bad about it and don't feel overly good about it.
46:14
Carmen: It is a tool.
46:16
Carmen: It is a thing we need.
46:17
Carmen: Don't have emotional connections to money.
46:20
Carmen: When you get a lot of money, you get a bonus.
46:23
Carmen: I'm not saying don't be happy We'd all be a little happy if we got a little extra money but you got to put it in perspective.
46:28
Carmen: It's a tool.
46:30
Carmen: So how can you use that tool to the best of your ability to make it grow, to move it forward?
46:38
Carmen: Don't go and spend it crazy.
46:39
Carmen: That's what everybody does when they get a lot of money they go spend it on crazy stuff.
46:42
Rick: Now I can finally buy fill in the blank, whatever.
46:46
Carmen: If you couldn't buy that thing with the money you have before, you shouldn't be buying it.
46:51
Carmen: When you got a little bonus money, you know what I mean.
46:54
Carmen: And that's not being mean, that's being like if it's just a little bit of bonus money, you got to try to figure out a way to make more money with that or put a little bit aside.
47:00
Carmen: You have a little security, you know.
47:02
Carmen: So you'd say, yeah, I try to really make the most of the time I spend with my see, that's the beautiful thing right there.
47:09
Carmen: I'm telling you, time is your wealth.
47:14
Rick: Yeah.
47:15
Carmen: Family, friends.
47:17
Carmen: That's your wealth, if you got that.
47:20
Carmen: I went out one time with this guy.
47:23
Carmen: We weren't dating, he was much older than I was, but I went out and met him for lunch.
47:28
Carmen: It was like a two hour drive down to San Diego whatever Extremely wealthy man on CNBC, you know.
47:35
Carmen: He's somebody who talks all the time about money, about the stock market, whatever.
47:38
Carmen: And we were collaborating on a project together.
47:40
Carmen: So I drove down to actually meet him face to face and we were sitting there and I was like, yeah, but how did you make all that money?
47:47
Carmen: And he was sitting there with his drink.
47:49
Carmen: It was like 11 o'clock in the morning or 12, you know what I mean.
47:53
Carmen: Like with the drink and we're in the bar.
47:54
Carmen: He wanted to meet at a bar restaurant.
47:58
Carmen: Okay, so I'm giving you some hints here about drinking at 11 o'clock.
48:02
Carmen: And he was like you'll make money, carmen, don't worry about it.
48:07
Carmen: Keep all the other things you have, your reputation, your friends.
48:11
Carmen: He's like I know all the people you work with.
48:13
Carmen: It's like you have the.
48:14
Carmen: And he was.
48:15
Carmen: I was like yeah, yeah, but how did you?
48:18
Carmen: Like I wanted to know, how did you make all this money?
48:20
Carmen: And he was like I would give it all up to have what you have.
48:25
Carmen: And I was like okay, then Drop the mic.
48:30
Carmen: Every time I see him on CMBC I always remember that Like yeah, that's a drop the mic moment.
48:35
Carmen: Yeah, so anyway, so is Ted on right now.
48:41
Carmen: We should jump off so we can go visit him.
48:42
Carmen: That's the goal.
48:43
Carmen: I'm glad we talked about this a little bit.
48:45
Carmen: I think I hope it helps some people and, at the very least, I hope people understand that you'll have money.
48:54
Carmen: You won't have money, but you still want to be your best, authentic self, and that's what you should be working on every day.
48:59
Carmen: Every day, yeah.
49:01
Rick: Ted is not on, by the way.
49:02
Carmen: Why not?
49:03
Carmen: Did he text me to tell me?
49:05
Rick: I mean, I don't think he's doesn't usually go on exactly, you know, at the top of the hour.
49:09
Carmen: I know, look at me.
49:09
Carmen: I'm always thinking I'm messing up his show or something.
49:13
Carmen: You know what I mean.
49:14
Rick: So but yeah, money definitely.
49:16
Rick: I mean it's nice to have.
49:19
Rick: But if you're looking for it to like make you happy, you're looking in the wrong place.
49:23
Carmen: Yeah, look at, we all want money.
49:26
Carmen: I'm not trying to say we don't want money, but it's not going to determine whether or not I'm happy or not If I had more money today.
49:32
Carmen: Let's talk about that for a minute.
49:33
Carmen: If he's not on, we can stay on a little bit longer, because I feel like I'm have a lot of edits.
49:37
Rick: Steve, I gotta go to the care of everyone.
49:39
Carmen: Thanks for your wise words.
49:40
Carmen: Hey Steven, thank you so much.
49:42
Carmen: I'm so glad you were here and, honestly, if I can help you in any way, dm me.
49:47
Carmen: I don't mean money wise, I know you know what I mean Resume or, if you want to talk privately.
49:51
Carmen: This is what I do for a living.
49:53
Carmen: I manage people, so maybe I can help you and I'm not going to charge you nothing.
49:58
Carmen: That's not how I do it.
49:59
Carmen: But I'm just saying if I can help with your resume or anything like that, please let me know.
50:04
Carmen: Happy to help in any way I can.
50:05
Carmen: That's the best I can do.
50:07
Carmen: What was I saying?
50:08
Carmen: I forgot what I just said.
50:09
Carmen: Oh, I know what I said.
50:10
Carmen: If I had a lot of money right now, or even just oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
50:13
Carmen: Like, if I had an extra let's say $3,000 a month, that's a lot.
50:17
Carmen: I had an extra, I would just hire someone to do edits.
50:22
Carmen: Like I already talked to somebody, I don't have the money to pay him, but he would be so worth it to do all the clips, the editing for the podcast, because, you know, after this I download it and then Friday morning I'm up trying to edit for the audio and then Saturday, sunday, I'm sitting here doing the clips, putting it on social media, then I'm trying to answer any and all emails or whatever, and I'm just trying to really come up with it.
50:46
Rick: And.
50:46
Carmen: I love Gary Vee and he's like you got to do the hustle, I'm tired.
50:50
Rick: It's a lot of work.
50:50
Rick: It's time consuming.
50:52
Rick: It's time consuming.
50:53
Carmen: Yeah, yeah, but I want to make this happen.
50:56
Carmen: You know, oh, thanks, thanks, leslie, but yeah, so, like if you had an abundance of money.
51:02
Carmen: If somebody said, rick, we have an extra $3,000 a month for you for the next year, what would you do with it?
51:10
Rick: Honestly, I have a lot of debt.
51:12
Rick: I'd probably put it towards that.
51:13
Carmen: OK, no, that's fair, that's fair.
51:15
Carmen: Because if I could be debt free, whoo, debt free is a thing, and let me tell you I've been there too.
51:22
Carmen: I've been in the past with all the collection calls Leslie, you still Leslie, I'm not mad, I'm just messing with you, girl, I love you.
51:30
Carmen: Come on, I'm not mad.
51:33
Carmen: That's me getting mad.
51:34
Carmen: That's me getting mad.
51:35
Carmen: That's about how mad as I get.
51:37
Carmen: You know what.
51:38
Carmen: Look at it.
51:40
Carmen: Everyone's had debt.
51:41
Carmen: Everyone's had debt.
51:42
Carmen: Richest people I know have a lot of debt right, which that always kills me.
51:48
Carmen: I remember talking to Andrea one time being like this is how rich people have money.
51:52
Carmen: They borrow from Peter, they pay Paul, they make a profit off of Paul and then they sell it.
51:59
Carmen: You know like what is this?
52:01
Rick: Yeah, a lot of people say it's not like they have a lot of money in the bank, it's on paper.
52:06
Carmen: Yeah, it's not like they're loaning and refinancing or whatever.
52:09
Carmen: So but the thing about being in debt is that you can always get out of debt, so you shouldn't feel bad about being in debt.
52:16
Carmen: We got to do what we got to do.
52:18
Carmen: That's part of this capitalist society we live in.
52:20
Carmen: The only thing I would say is that people be careful of credit cards.
52:25
Carmen: If you can pay off your credit cards as much as possible every month.
52:29
Carmen: It took me a long time.
52:31
Carmen: I only have two credit cards and people are always trying to give me more credit cards.
52:35
Carmen: I'm like that's good, it's all good, Thank you.
52:37
Rick: No.
52:38
Carmen: You know, like I go to the Gap to buy my t-shirts, you know you could get 20% off and get a credit card.
52:43
Carmen: No Like, because they want you to get a credit card and they try to hook you in with the 20% off of whatever you're buying.
52:50
Carmen: But what ends up happening is you end up buying more and then you're paying 27% or 28% on a credit card that you didn't need to begin with and you're paying a yearly fee to have it or whatever.
53:02
Rick: No, I just maybe two weeks ago, I was like you know what I don't even remember, not remember, but I wasn't sure.
53:09
Rick: Like what is the percentage on the credit cards?
53:11
Rick: I don't even know, like I'm still thinking.
53:13
Rick: It was like from way back in the day and I'm like most of them are like up to 29.
53:17
Carmen: I'm like oh, it's crazy 29?
53:20
Rick: When did this?
53:20
Carmen: happen.
53:21
Carmen: It's crazy, yeah.
53:22
Carmen: Yeah.
53:23
Carmen: That's why, if you can't look at it, it's easy for me to say but when you get your stuff cleared up right, when anyone gets your stuff cleared up, by the way do not worry about your credit score, do not worry about your credit rating.
53:33
Carmen: Because let me tell you one of the first things I did when I got into this business, I was asked to clean up my boss's credit rating.
53:41
Carmen: When you have money, all you got to do is use that money to clean up.
53:45
Carmen: You can clean up your credit rating like that.
53:47
Carmen: When you have money, you just call those collection things, you pay them the bill, they go in and they fix your credit rating and all of a sudden you had like a whatever, a five-something.
53:57
Carmen: All of a sudden he had almost 800 in like a week, maybe three weeks, and I was like see, that's just the lack, because his father gave him money.
54:05
Carmen: So it's like wait a minute.
54:09
Carmen: Are we over here stressing OK now?
54:13
Carmen: So if you don't have a great credit report or a great credit rating, that's OK.
54:18
Carmen: You're going to work on it and fix it.
54:20
Carmen: But again, do not let it define who you are.
54:24
Carmen: Do not let it.
54:26
Carmen: When someone says no, you can't take out a loan because your credit ain't good, say thank you very much.
54:30
Carmen: Thank you.
54:31
Carmen: I appreciate you.
54:31
Carmen: Thank you, move on.
54:32
Carmen: That's not someone you want to do business with, because all of that is a facade.
54:37
Rick: I don't think you should think of yourself as a less, because your credit score is not enough Like what.
54:43
Carmen: Your credit score ain't nothing but a thing, and it drives me insane because they make billions of dollars trying to scare people like, ooh, you should buy this.
54:52
Carmen: Like I don't know what is it?
54:53
Carmen: Norton Lock or whatever.
54:56
Rick: All of these things you don't need none of that.
54:58
Carmen: You don't need any of that.
55:00
Carmen: Let me tell you what I do.
55:01
Carmen: You want to protect your credit rating and your credit scores?
55:06
Carmen: All you need to do is go to the three credit rating places and I'm not gonna remember top of my head, but it's like trans union Experience.
55:15
Carmen: Okay, go to those three.
55:16
Carmen: What you can.
55:17
Carmen: Go to the websites now.
55:18
Carmen: Go to them and tell them that you want to lock them.
55:22
Carmen: Okay, they will freeze them or lock them, which means nobody can go in and try to get a loan against, like.
55:30
Carmen: So if somebody steals your social security number, for example, and they try to take a loan out, they're not gonna be able to go and get a loan because they can't.
55:39
Carmen: Your credit report will be locked.
55:41
Carmen: My credit report has been locked Since like I don't know two thousand whenever they started doing it all three of them.
55:49
Carmen: Now.
55:49
Carmen: You're probably wondering yeah, but what if you get an apartment and you need the landlord needs to check your credit report?
55:55
Carmen: Then and now, it's so much easier.
55:58
Carmen: Before I had to call three days beforehand.
56:00
Carmen: You know what I mean and I just did this gesture, which lets you know it was before cell phones as opposed to this.
56:06
Carmen: All you have to do is go online and unfreeze it, and you can unfreeze it for whatever days you need to, and each one is a little bit Different, but it's it's like instantaneous.
56:17
Carmen: So like when I got this apartment three years ago, whenever it was during COVID, you know my landlord's like, yes, I'm gonna have to look at your credit report.
56:24
Carmen: I said, okay, great, which one like you can even ask him.
56:27
Carmen: He's like trans union.
56:29
Carmen: I said, great, I opened it and he was able to go look and then it closed again.
56:33
Carmen: So you can try to steal my stuff, but you're not gonna get a loan, you're not gonna nothing, because it's going to say you need to unlock your blah blah so you don't need all of those $15 a month things.
56:47
Carmen: They're making so much money scaring people have to death.
56:51
Carmen: Also, if you have a credit card, you can look up your credit score for free usually on any credit card nowadays, because they offer that.
56:59
Carmen: But still, don't let that define you.
57:02
Rick: Don't let that and even the credit and debits to you can lock those two.
57:05
Rick: To clearly kind of some people that say they always have a lot there when they make a purchase, they unlock.
57:10
Carmen: What it's done, they lock but that's your credit and debit card, right?
57:12
Carmen: Is that we talked about?
57:13
Carmen: Yeah, so your your credit cards.
57:17
Carmen: If somebody steals your credit cards, I think you're only responsible for like the first $50.
57:22
Carmen: You should never really use your debit card if you don't have to, because that's taking money out of your Bank account and even though most banks will, will try to get the money back for you.
57:33
Carmen: That's your live cash.
57:34
Carmen: You don't know how long that's gonna take.
57:36
Carmen: So I always advocate, even if you can't get a credit card because of your credit rating or whatever, you could definitely get one of those credit cards at the store and put money in there, because if that gets stolen, it's only the money in there.
57:50
Carmen: It's not your check and it's not your savings account.
57:53
Carmen: It's not whatever any other counts you may or may not have.
57:56
Carmen: So, man, I did not know.
57:58
Carmen: We won't talk about.
58:01
Rick: Finance day.
58:03
Carmen: Day on all about the foot.
58:04
Carmen: Look at, this is what I do for a living.
58:07
Carmen: I'm fortunate and I hate it.
58:08
Carmen: It's not gonna do.
58:08
Carmen: It's not gonna be what I do for a living any more.
58:11
Carmen: But I will always help people, because I had to learn about money the hard way.
58:16
Carmen: And let me tell you, the richest people I know, who are friends Okay, some of them are the cheapest People I've ever met, you know, and and like they're not, like that's kind of what I'm saying is like money is such a big deal to them that when you actually Go to that person and ask them for money, they're all of a sudden like, oh, I can't, I ain't got no money.
58:38
Carmen: I'm like oh, I Know what you drive, I know how much money you got and you just did that to me.
58:44
Carmen: You're out, it's us.
58:46
Carmen: You know, and that's how I know, when money defines you or defines your relationships, you're not somebody I want in my life, right?
58:54
Carmen: Hmm, hmm, no way.
58:58
Rick: Yeah.
58:58
Carmen: Yeah, wow, we didn't even get to my other subjects.
59:02
Carmen: I was gonna teach you about how to.
59:06
Rick: I keep checking on Ted.
59:07
Carmen: He's not on so that's okay, we don't have to check on him.
59:09
Carmen: I don't know why.
59:10
Carmen: He's right, gonna go.
59:10
Carmen: Maybe he's waiting a little bit.
59:11
Carmen: This is getting now to the 130 mark, so we should probably jump off, but I did not realize this would be so interesting.
59:19
Rick: It always is.
59:21
Carmen: It's because I hate it so much, right.
59:25
Rick: That's fine, we'll do time management next time.
59:29
Carmen: I'm not trying to be boring, it's just because so many people, you know I mean it's it's just a weird time, like what Steven was talking about.
59:36
Carmen: You know, I mean it is a tough time, people are having a hard time and I'm happy to help when I can.
59:41
Carmen: And you know it was also.
59:42
Carmen: It was a compliment and I always forget that because I get stuck on how much I hate some of the things that I have to do.
59:48
Carmen: You know, and I manage a team, I help people and I know I'm good at it.
59:53
Carmen: But just because you get it something doesn't mean you want to do it all the time right, exactly.
59:58
Carmen: You know, somebody said to me you should have been a therapist.
1:00:01
Carmen: Like you're an amazing therapist, like you always get us motivated, help us, and I'm like, ah, you could not pay me Enough money to sit down and listen to people's crap that I don't care.
1:00:13
Carmen: That's funny but yeah, okay, all right, rick.
1:00:17
Carmen: Well, thank you so much.
1:00:19
Rick: My pleasure, as always always a blessing.
1:00:22
Carmen: And what are we doing next week?
1:00:23
Rick: I was just thinking the same thing.
1:00:26
Carmen: You know it's so great though we are gonna have that co-lab show with 10 late night parents, but that should be fun.
1:00:31
Carmen: There's gonna be, like, I think, nine of us on screen.
1:00:33
Rick: That's not to be missed.
1:00:34
Rick: I'm just saying that's gonna be really fun.
1:00:37
Carmen: I'm gonna be quiet and they're gonna be my show, so it's gonna be a record on Ted show.
1:00:43
Carmen: But yeah, all right, everyone remember, it's all about the joy.
1:00:47
Carmen: Thank you for stopping by and have a great one, and we'll see you guys next week.
1:00:50
Rick: Bye guys See ya.