Is Anything Actually Cheaper in 2025? Let's Find Out!
47:08 Share

Is there anything on God's green earth that costs less in 2025 than it used to? We're about to find out. Listen to this, in today's money with inflation, it's $1,100. Everything's become a commodity and everything matters less. And I think that's the sadness of why we love the nostalgia. Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. ♪♪

Well, this is the show where two friends who have to be money experts talk about what you're talking about. Everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And before we get to the main event, we got to talk about what we're sipping on, Rachel. This is a godfather. Okay, no way. Because you know what I was going to say? What I feel like is like kind of an old man.

It does feel like an old man drink, and you'll find out later on. That's called the tease in the biz, Rachel. We're going to give you the rating and reveal the cost per glass at the end of the episode, so don't miss that. Okay, George, feels like everything costs more today. Inflation gets everyone up and riled up, you know? Everyone's complaining. You know what I'm not complaining about, though, is having to buy an individual song on iTunes for 99 cents. Those were the days. Did you ever have a shuffle? Oh, yeah.

Oh, I love the shuffle. Did you have a mini iPod? I didn't have the mini. I had the shuffle plus the normal size iPod. And it was around the wheel? Yeah. Wasn't that great? I had the older school one. It wasn't color yet. Yes, gray. It was kind of like gray color. Simpler times. That's when music really mattered. You really had to want it to pay the 99 cents. Yeah. Or you just downloaded it illegally on Kazaa.

Or Napster. Like I did not do. No, never. Gosh. Also, that's how I learned technology. The kids are missing these days. That's right. Had to edit my MySpace background with HTML. I had to learn that. Okay.

Well, hey, it's not all bad. You're right, Rachel. A desktop computer is a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the latest iPhone right now. Yeah. So it's a give and take. I know, yeah. And inflation is real. Obviously, things are costing way more than they used to. But there are some things going for us. Yeah. So today we're going to talk about all of those things that cost less today than they did in the past and add to the conversation in the comments as we go. And be sure to stick around till the end because we're going to share a few of our favorite things

investments, I'm going to put that in quotes, that hold their value that we swear by. I love it. Yeah. Because I mean, when you think about inflation now, it's eggs, it's gas, it's all the things that continue to go up. College, housing, cars. A lot of them. Just the main things in life that we need. That's all. Just a lot. But for just to be on the happy side, George, you know what I mean? We need some good news. Yeah, some good news. So we brought you a full list of

To go back, to be like, remember when this used to cost this? Well, now it only costs this. And there is good news, George. This is a silver lining episode. Yes. That's what it is. Brought to you by Rachel Cruz. Okay, you ready? Because George would live in the sadness if he could. That's just what my musical tastes. The depressive state of life. I have a lot of joy. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

But sometimes I need to listen to sad music to remind me my life is actually pretty good. Were you considered emo from like in high school? 100%. Oh, man. I was not like, I'm going to have my... I was going to say, did you have the sweet? No, I didn't wear makeup. It wasn't like goth. Eyeliner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was dashboard confessional emo. Okay. That's the genre of emo I was. Okay, I got it. More pop punk acoustic vibes. How about Blink-182? Huge...

Number one for me. Wow. Yeah. All right, I got the vibe. That was the concert I was willing to pay 300-something dollars for. Okay. You couldn't get me out of the house for any band for that kind of money except Blink. But it was emo. So we're going to go happy. We're going to go like circa like...

NSYNC Backstreet Boys' Britney, Rachel's Taste. Wow. It's pop, it's exciting, it's short-lived, but it's great. That sums up Rachel. I love it. Well, we're kicking it off here on the list with music. Music. So 15 to 25 bucks for a CD in the early 2000s. I remember the days going to the store to get the CD the day it came out.

And I was happy to pay $16.99. I remember going to Salmon Goodies. Do you remember that store in the mall? Oh, yeah. And I had a $50 bill from my grandparents. Never forget this. And I went and bought two Mariah Carey CDs, Butterfly and Music Box. And I got back like 17 cents. A $50 bill. You bought two CDs, which had what? Probably 12 songs? 10 songs if you're lucky. I mean, that's like 20 songs for 50 bucks. Wow.

That's how they made their money back then. I know. CD sales, man. Yeah, so if two or three of your favorite artists came out with new music, you could easily spend 50 bucks a month on new music. Yeah, for sure. 600 bucks a year. Hashtag Mariah Carey.

And then came the 99 cent songs from iTunes. That was a big revolution. Yes, that was. A thousand songs in your pocket. Yes. I remember the old advertising for that. And you buy individual songs, which was actually very nice because if you had to go buy the full CD, you didn't listen to like eight of the songs. Well, if we're going to be real, back in those days, as an artist, you could get by with like two or three good singles and the rest was filler. Yeah.

Good point. I didn't think about that. Yeah. And they had to buy the whole CD. You don't have an option back then. And you just skipped that song, man. Okay, so then when they went to iTunes to buy just per song, did artists probably not like that, right? No.

Digitalizing music is probably not great for the artist world. Yeah. Well, it's only gotten worse. So back in the day, because I actually uploaded my album to iTunes and Spotify and all these platforms, and the cut from Apple was, I believe, 70% is what the artist gets. Okay. 30% went to Apple. Oh, wow. Okay.

Okay. And that's if you just do it straight to Apple. If you have middlemen labels, you know, you get way less. Yeah. Your managers. Glad we're not artists, George. Trust me. I'm very thankful to have gainful employment. Oh, man. But nowadays. Okay. Winston does Apple Music. Oh, wow. I know. And I do Spotify. I'm a Spotify man. Okay. Why did you say, oh, wow, what's the difference? I just, I thought more of him. Okay. I don't know. Is the platform just bad? No.

Here's my take. It's not user-friendly? Spotify, their whole thing is audio. We are an audio platform. Apple, this is like one thing they do. So they're not going to care as much. They're more of a technology company, the most, right? Yeah, they're just trying to get market share. Same with podcasts. The Apple podcast app is not the greatest. Spotify, I think, has a better experience. And this is coming from an Apple fanboy. And Spotify is starting to play video. They're playing the Ramsey show now. They're adding some video to it. You could be watching right now. Are you on Spotify right now? Shout out.

You're welcome. They're watching us right now. That's amazing. You and Samantha Mamba. That's amazing. So yeah, $7 to $12 a month for unlimited music. Isn't that crazy? Like, if you told me as a child, one day, for $10, you can get everything you want. Anything on demand is insane. Like... You had to listen to the radio, record it to your boombox, onto a tape to make the mixtape. And you always had the radio DJ coming in a little bit because you were trying to time it. Well, or you missed the first 15 seconds because you had to run up and...

Oh, yeah. You know what we would do? We got fancy in the Ramsey house. We would have a mom and dad bought blank video cassettes. Like what's the, yeah, like VHS. VHS? Yeah. And we started recording music videos on VH1. Oh. So we'd put the cassette in, hit play and record on the VCR. And we started recording VHS.

music video so we could re-watch them. And that's privilege, guys, if you're watching this. I had to sneak over to my grandma's house and illegally watch her cable before my parents found out. No. Okay. I only at my friend's house. Wow. We watched TRL on MTV. Remember that? Man, there's an Instagram account and they play the hit songs of 2001 every week from TRL clips of the current, like this week in 2001. Wow. It just makes me so happy. Yeah.

So nostalgic. Oh my gosh, okay. So there's some good news is that music costs way less. Oh my gosh, next one is my favorite. All right. This is how I cheated in high school. Are you ready for this? It's a weird disclaimer, but I love it. All right. The T9 calculators. You gotta have the big T9 calculators. Well, this says the TI50 calculator. I'm not sure. That may be an advanced version. Cost $170 in 1974. Okay, that wasn't for me. Now in today's, listen to this, in today's money with inflation, it's $1,100. Wow.

On a calculator. On a calculator, okay? Now, the T9s that we had to buy for high school and stuff, I mean, I think those were... They were really expensive. I think they were like 100 bucks when we bought them. Now, they sell for $7 on eBay. And now, you don't have to buy calculators. It's on your phone. You have one on your phone. And the new one, have you seen the new Apple iPhone calculator got updated? No. They have like a little like advanced tab.

Oh boy, you could spend a whole day in there, Rachel. What does that mean? You can do like advanced calculations and it saves all your previous calculations. Okay. So you can go back. Okay. What's an advanced calculation versus another calculation? Just think fancy stuff. T9 stuff. Exactly. Okay. I did see you can, and this may be in the new calculator, you can do currency exchanges on the calculator. Wow. Did y'all know that? So if you're traveling, you can put your euros in and on your calculator, it shows what US dollar is.

So it's not really calculated. I guess you could calculate it, but it just shows the exchange rate on your calculator. We've come a long way and that's built in. Now the whole iPhone costs a thousand bucks and you have all of that built in. It's true. All right. Ready for this one? All right. Photos. So you used to have to get your pictures developed. Do you remember going to Walgreens and doing that? Yep. And it would be three to six dollars at Walgreens in the 90s. And now pictures are free.

via the iPhone. Oh, yeah, that's true. It's like flying first class and be like, the drinks are free. But you have a physical version of it. So you're getting something in return for your five bucks. Yeah, or you can just print off your picture from your home printer. Do you still keep a lot of your photos used to get developed?

I think I have a box full of old albums and stuff. Do you ever scan them in and digitize them so that you have them forever? No, that sounds terrible. Yeah, it sounds like something you're not going to do. No, that sounds terrible. It sounds like a Winston project. That sounds terrible. All right. No, I'm not doing that. There are services that do this for you now. So I did this. I got old tapes from my skateboarding days. They're mini DV tapes. And so I sent them all out, and they send you back a thumb drive with all the video files.

So I get to relive. Why is this funny to you? Because this is what I do for fun. This is how I want to spend my money. Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Is it charity? Is it a ministry? Did you swallow a piece of ice? Oh, I didn't do that part. You know, it's funny because the album, what I would have digitized are like me and my friends at homecoming. You think I have photos from homecoming? I didn't go.

Who would go? Oh, George. Yeah. I'm sorry. It's okay. I don't know if we'd be friends in high school. We would definitely not be friends in high school. I'm just kidding. I was friendly. I said I'd be friends with everyone. Yeah, but that's like you having pity. No. You know what I mean? Like, guys, be nice to him. He's a good guy. No, stop it, George. It's fine. I appreciated everybody. Okay, can I just say this about the photos before we move on? Gosh, yeah, sorry. I think we've lost something with the iPhone photos. Yeah.

Because you don't get any more of just like the blinker. Well, when you take a photo with a physical camera and you get it developed, you taking that photo mattered. That's what I'm saying. Now you take a hundred photos with your iPhone and you're like, didn't look cute. I'll delete them. Or they just sit on your phone. You have 10,000 in iCloud. Your kids are like, imagine handing that over to your grandkids. Totally. They don't want to go through 10,000 photos and screenshots of recipes.

That's what our kids are really going to get. 100%. No more grandma's recipe book. It's just like, I think it's a screenshot from Pinterest. I know. George said it. It's so true. There's an ad for socks that's tied in here. Okay. And can I tell you this? The adrenaline I would get to go to Walgreens to pick up that envelope. You were so excited. To go through them from a spring break trip. See if there's any good ones. Just to relive it.

You know, four days after, like just felt magical. And now you just, you, you. And it felt like, oh yeah. You never go back. I never go back to pictures anymore. No. You know what I mean? Where back then, yeah, it's just. And you needed to actually have a moment to take a physical photo. There had to be something worth taking a picture of. And you know what I would do too, if I went on a trip with a friend, we would do doubles where you could mark doubles.

Do two copies. Oh, fancy. Yep. And every picture had two and then you would separate them. You know who's keeping the photos alive? The school picture scammers. I'm sorry, what? They're single-handedly keeping the physical photo alive. School picture day. It's highway robbery.

Oh, yeah. They just send your kid home and go, all right, it's 50 bucks if you want it. It's like a hostage situation. Yeah. So, you know, it's funny. This is a personality difference. Denise, my sister, has ordered every school picture of her children through every year of their lives. Like, she's so on it. So that's what a good mom looks like. So then they bring you the sample. So you get to see it, but it has their name. Well, I just take a picture of that with my phone and that's it. With the watermark on it still? And you go, good enough. Yeah.

Like, there it is. There's your school picture. Because we don't do the, like, did you have the round, like, George is a senior and George is in kindergarten first, second, third, fourth, like, around your senior picture? Was this a Ramsey tradition? No, this was like a, maybe this is a Southern thing. Or a parent, I don't know. Things were different in the North. Okay, well, they would have your official senior picture in the middle and then every school picture around it. From, like, 10 years? Yeah. Yes, my parents, yes. I don't want to see that evolution. Yeah.

You just see the loss of joy and innocence over time. Anyways, I just thought if I did that with my kids and printed out the picture on my iPhone, it's all going to have a watermark over their face. I know. That's probably not great. I'm kind of regretting that. I feel like out of all the things you spend money on, your children's memories might be one thing you want to keep. But no, that's up to you. You live your life. But that's a good one. Photos have gotten cheaper.

I'm seeing a theme here. Everything's become a commodity and everything matters less. And I think that's the sadness of why we love the nostalgia. All right, let's keep going.

Video surveillance. So this is security. A video surveillance system used to cost up to $12,000 in the 1980s. With inflation, that's $43,000 in today's money is what you'd pay for a surveillance system. Yeah, that's wild. And now your doorbell has a camera in it. Oh. What a time to be alive. You know what's sad? We were talking about this with some of our neighbors. The years of, you know, ding-dong ditching and rolling and all that, it's gone. Yeah.

Because they get caught. Now you get that video uploaded to the neighborhood Facebook page. I know, it's so sad. There's a warrant out for your arrest. It is so sad for those kids. Would you be the parent that would take your kids rolling? I don't even know what that is. Rolling? Like toilet paper in the trees, that whole thing? Yeah. No, I think that's a terrible thing to do to someone.

Because then it rains and it gets all clumped up there. Yeah, but it's like the boy that Mia has a crush on and all her friends, like, we got to go get Jared's house. I don't know what kind of Clarissa explains it all lifestyle you live. And then the really cool moms would take you to get the toilet paper and then like take you and you'd all like go, because y'all are all friends and it's all like a fun thing. What a life. What?

What a privilege and luxury it is to have a cool mom taking you to prank people. My mom didn't. Love you, Sharon. Sharon wasn't one. But yes, we had like two moms that would take us to Walmart and buy the toilet paper. You never went rolling. No, I think that's a crime today. I don't commit crimes. I think that's a... Did y'all go rolling? I don't like... Okay, okay. I'm not a fan of like pranks.

To me, it's just bullying, but under another name. No. Okay. So now, I would say this. If you were doing it to a kid in your class that was picked on, or like wasn't, you know, oh,

Oh, George. That would be mean. We did it with like our own friends. So you only did it to the most popular kids. It was always for the opposite sex. Like you go roll a boy's house. Okay. Or if you got rolled, it was a bunch of guys coming to your house. Got it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So it was fun. It wasn't like, you wouldn't do it as a mean spirit. That's so terrible. Why would you think people did it mean? Well, I think regardless, someone's got to clean that. You got to get a ladder up there. Well, it's usually the parents. I mean, I hate to say it.

Or it just fades away with the rain. My parents immigrated here for a better life, Rachel. All right? They didn't immigrate here to get on a ladder and clean up toilet paper. That's a hot commodity. So you would not take it. If Mia came and all her like five little friends and they're like, Dad, Dad, can we go to Jared's house and roll his house? First of all, if she's friends with a Jared, red flag. Jarrett. Jarrett? I don't know. That's even worse. No, I would say you need to find better friends, honey.

You need to find better friends who have actual hobbies and want to produce good in the community. You know, we should be sending kids out to take down the rolling, not do it. And then they say, we don't have time. We're in school. We don't have time for a job. You got plenty of time. You got time to lean. You got time to clean. That's what I say. You roll at night when businesses are closed. All right. This is exhausting. Well, here's the deal. Well, George is very happy about ring doorbells because there's no ding-dong ditching or...

That's right. And Rachel, you know, I'm not a ring guy. You know what I am now? No. I'm a SimpliSafe guy. You are. I got SimpliSafe set up. I love it. And you love it. It's great. So good. So easy. It's built in. It's all the alarms on the doors and the windows and the cameras. It's fantastic. That's amazing. You know what else helps keep you safe? What's that? On the internet is Delete Me. Now that one I can get behind. It's an incredible service. That really does help. I mean, because your personal data online, it's everywhere, right? And it's not just about spams anymore. It really is a direct line for...

phishing, attacks, harassment, fraud. I mean, there's so much there on the internet when your data's out there and you want it gone. And so this is surveillance, but for your personal info online. And Delete Me goes in, they remove your personal info from all these data broker sites, cutting off access at the source. And we're seeing a lot of these like AI-driven scams. They can spoof someone's voice. It's crazy. And so you gotta...

protect yourself and Delete Me can help you protect yourself from all of these risks. Yeah. And there can be a level of fear, I feel like, in today's world when you're like, oh my gosh, is this real? Is this not? Because you get like spam calls. You get all this stuff. You're like, I don't know what's real. So you don't have to live in fear. You can be proactive and use Delete Me. I love it. And they're giving our listeners and viewers a sweet discount, 20% off the annual plans. So it comes out to like nine bucks a month. Yeah.

It's incredible. For this online surveillance. And there's a team of physical people going in, removing all of your info for you. Yes. And so this is not some AI tool. It's way more than that. There's real people. If you need help, there's a real person on the other side who can help you out. So it's been really great for my family. And they've removed me from over 250 data broker sites so far. It's incredible. Yeah. Because these data broker sites will collect your information and then sell it to other sites. Yeah. So they're making money off of you. Gross.

We always say control what you can control. We can't control what all the scammers out there are doing, but you can control what you're doing with your data online by using services like Delete.me to help and remove your data, especially from these data broker websites. That's right. So go to joindeleteme.com slash smartmoney or use the link in the description to get that 20% off. All right, next, a girl's best friend, Diamonds. I thought you were going to say Jarrett. You know Jarrett's getting friend-zoned.

Oh, man. Okay, so lab-grown diamonds have become very popular recently. And they're worth 60% to 85% less than authentic diamonds on average. $950 on average for a 1.5 carat lab diamond. Wow. Yeah. So again, high-quality diamonds, again, could be $10,000, $13,000, you know, in 2010. Like, very expensive. And lab-grown diamonds,

It's getting more popular. That is something to consider. Something that's gotten cheaper over the years as they've learned how to develop it. And there's a lot of people going for alternative stones in general. Yes. You know, moissanite or a gem or whatever it may be. So that's helped cut down the cost. So I rarely wear this ring and I have another band. Winston bought me like these three rings together for our 10th anniversary. Yeah.

And this one, so there's diamonds missing. But I think these are lab-grown, George. I'm pretty sure. Can I get a peek? Yeah, uh-huh. I can tell the difference. Because what that would cost in real life, I know Winston didn't spend it because I knew what he spent on it. And I do think those were lab-grown. They look great to me. I'm pretty sure. My wedding ring and two bands are real. And I think those are lab-grown. What I want to know is where are these three little diamonds today? I know I met three fell out.

So little. How do they do it? I don't know. What an art form. I don't know. But isn't it pretty? Very. Great job. But you know what I do? Like it's missing these three on this end, so I always just turn it a little bit. Honestly, I don't think anyone passing by would ever notice. No, no, I know. It's really just you. But yeah, when we just read that, I was like, I think that this ring is lab grown. That's beautiful. Yeah.

All right, so that's one good thing for the guys out there who are buying these rings for the ladies. You're welcome. It's cheaper today than it was back then. All right, next on the list, Rachel, calling and texting is cheaper than it was back in the day. That is true.

Pay phones, remember this? Yes. A whole quarter per call in the 1990s. I remember that. 25 cents. Before the age of cell phones, I had to go to the school pay phone and make a call. Y'all had a pay phone in your school? Yeah. I don't know if we had one in our school. I think we had to go to the office. The kind of technology we had in Dedham, Massachusetts. Unbelievable. And then texting used to be limited to characters. T9? Yes. You know how the T9 worked? Yes. That was a tough time. It was like learning a different language. That was a lot of...

punching some buttons. Dexterity with the thumbs there. Yep. Used to cost around 10 to 20 cents for every SMS sent. Isn't that crazy? I remember rationing my texts. Could you imagine paying 20 cents for every text you send? I'm all for going back to this. I'm done with the random text. Just stop. If you want to text me, it better cost you money. It better be worth it.

Wow. I think we're too flippant with our words. You know, you have those friends who do the like 28 texts in a row. And like just say it in one thought. Well, I do it and then I have another thought. And then the group chats. We could get rid of group chats entirely if it costs you money. Those are tough. You send a meme, it better cost you a dollar and it better be worth the laugh. I'm tired of your memes and gifs. Oh my gosh. Home Alone, the movie, we always watch it at Christmas. It's one of my favorites when they get to the airport and they all have the phone book.

And her like, you know, they're all grabbing the pay phone and stuff. It's my favorite. I loved using the phone book. That was just the time. Oh, man. And then 411 was the big thing. You could call 411 to give you the number. Give you the info that you need. Fun fact, texting was free or discounted after 9 p.m. and on weekends for a while. Oh, my gosh. Your nights and weekends plan. Right next up, we're gonna get healthy and go gym memberships. So they were $70 to $100 minimum for gym memberships in the 1990s.

That's $240 for today's money with inflation. Yeah, definitely considered a luxury. And now you can go to Planet Fitness for 15 bucks. You know, just...

They've commoditized fitness. And there's so much competition now. Back in the day, there was like one gym in my town. It was like Gold's Gym is where you got to go. And only serious people went there to work out. Now, just any old person like me can walk in there. Well, that or apps. You know what I mean? Or you can watch free stuff on YouTube. So there's a lot of options. I like a lot. You know what I realized about working out? I don't want to see other people do it. It's none of my business to see other people work out. It's why I don't like the gym. Actually, I think that's very fair. Yeah, I get that.

Some things are meant for me and me alone, and that's me working out. I don't want you to look at me. I don't want to look at you. You know what? I, yeah. I've worked out now in our garage for so long that I'm like, I don't know if I want to. We're in the era of the home gym. Yeah. We were on the Ramsey Cruise, and I worked out in the gym like three times that week, I think. Brag about it, okay. And I...

But I went on days that we poured it. So there weren't, it was not busy. It was like maybe one or two people in the whole place. But even with those one or two people, I found myself like, what, like. Distracted a little bit. She was buff, man. She was killing it. I was like, what is she doing? I want to do what she's doing. So then I find myself like kind of watching her and like, you know, but I had my workout plan, but it's just, but all the things, you know what I mean? And you're just like, man. I can't focus. It's just a lot. But you know, it can be inspiring. Sure. I can know what could have been if I just was born in a different body.

That's great. And YouTube has a ton of free workouts. Yeah, for sure. But there's a lot of options out there today. So that is something that has gone down in price over time. Yes. Next, computers. So the Gateway Solo 2000 cost $3,499 back in 1995. Wow. That's $5,776 in today's money. And now you can buy a brand new MacBook Air 4K.

For $1,000? $999. With way more storage and computing power than the computers back then. Yeah, it was five times more for what it was before. You remember when like a thumb drive was a big deal that you could store like 128 megabytes? Never mind, I'm talking to the wrong person. I'm just going to abort this entire conversation. You ever get into a conversation and realize not the Target demo? I was like, I don't remember that. I was like, I have to explain megabytes now versus gigabytes and then don't even get her started on a terabyte. Don't know. Can I help you or do you not want to know?

I don't really want to know. Okay, no, that's fine. Yeah, I don't really care. I thought the audience might want to learn about megabytes. Yeah, which you know what I do want to know? When Cozy Earth has some new products. You're the target demo for that for sure. Because they have pajamas now for the summer. Short sleeves, shorts. It's the same material as my long sleeves and my pants set that I have for the winter. Now they have it in a summer version. Oh, the best. With a beautiful pattern that actually you got for Whitney. Yes.

And I saw it on George's desk. I was like, those are cute. And he was like, yeah, they're Whitney's pajamas. I was like, oh my gosh, give me the name of that pattern because I want to go order them. Limited edition. I mean, honestly. So Cozy Earth products, they hold their value. The best. I was a hero this Mother's Day because I got my mom a set, got Whitney a set, and I was done. Didn't have to think about it. That's it too. When you know you're getting quality products for people, if it's gifts or yourself, yep. And they have great stuff for the guys too. Buttery Soft. Sweet.

sweatshirts and workout gear, athleisure is what the kids call it these days. Yeah, yeah, no, it's incredible. Yeah, and again, it's the quality that we're looking for because you can go buy dupes and all the things, you know, and we're not mad at that, it's fine. But when you actually go and invest on something that's quality after you wash it, like,

five times, it still holds up, which is what we're going for. I'm in that stage of life. Or I'm tired of just buying cheap crap that I have to replace. This is stuff you buy. And you find what you like. Yeah. And it's great. And they have a 10-year warranty on their bedding, which is amazing. Gosh. So it is. Check it out. It's amazing. You'll get up to 40% off when you use the promo code SMARTMONEY at checkout. So go to CozyEarth.com slash SMARTMONEY or use the link in the description and show notes. All right. Next on the list of things that cost less today than they used to, flights.

Really? Okay. Who knew? $288 for a round-trip flight in 1990, which is $550 in today's money with inflation. And our writer Savannah just flew round-trip to New York City for $130. Okay. So I think there's more competition, more budget airlines. That didn't used to exist. You were just stuck with the one airline that flew there. Now that's true. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Because there can be some pricey flights for sure. There's more variable pricing. But the variable pricing, you can get a deal if you're looking for it.

Get this, round trip flights to London, around 500 bucks at the time of this recording. No way. Should I go to London? Yes. Hello, old pal. Wow. That was offensive to all of Europe, not even just London. Cheerio. Even the Scots are like, no, we don't claim her.

What is your descent? Where do you hail from? The Ramsey clan? Scotland. Mostly Scotland. Yeah. Can I tell you this? So there's a Ramsey castle in Scotland, but it's Ramsey. So dad went on a kick, okay? He went on this big kick of like finding your origin. Ancestry and all that. Yeah, so he went on all the things. He got... He...

He kind of was like, you have an Alexa in your house? They're listening to you. I'm like, you sent your DNA to a website to figure out your ancestry. That's a little bit more dangerous in my opinion, but it's fine. I love that Dave starts sentences like a 1950s detective. I know, but yeah. So found out all the way back to Scottish and found a Ramsey.

R-A-M-S-A-Y, castle, like a small castle out in the middle of whatever. And there's a Lord and it was kind of a whole thing.

Was there a moat? I love a moat. Nope, no moat. But we went to it when we went to Scotland like 10 years ago. Of course, we had to go visit the castle and he got the coat of arms. So then it was everywhere for like a solid five years of his life. He put that coat of arms on everything. Oh man. So long story short, fast forward to today and Amelia just said last week,

to one of our friends that was over. She was like, yeah, my great, great, great grandparents were the king and queen of Scotland. Wow. That was the connection she had. And I was like, what? She was like, yeah, there was a castle and everything. Papa Dave told me. I was like, oh no.

I was like, they weren't the king and queen. It was just like people had castles then. That was like the architecture of the day. But who's going to question her on that? I know, but she was very disappointed. I think she got a little embarrassed because I think she told people that. But still, you owned a castle. You probably knew the king and queen if you had a castle. No, I kind of think they were everywhere. Anyways, we are way off. So does middle class have a castle? Is that what you're telling me? Flights. Flights.

Go to London. I do think, I feel like flights have gotten more expensive in recent memory. Like every time I go to book. But I think the point in this, you can find a good deal. Yes. If you're willing to go for a budget airline or you're flexible with timing, you can fly at 5 a.m. or get in at 2 a.m. There's some deals to be had. Yeah. All right. Last but not least, digital storage. So it would cost $20 for a floppy disk in 2002. That's $35 with today's money.

And now it's only $9.99 for extra iPhone storage that probably, you know. I pay for that. It's that random charge that you get. I think mine's two terabytes. Now do I get to explain terabytes to you? How do you know what your storage is? Okay, go to settings. Then click on your name at the top. Si, senor. Then go to iCloud. Okay. And it'll show you the storage.

Two terabytes, George? Look at you. Well, really, look at Winston. I assume he's the man behind all of this. Oh, man. Possibly. So the terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. You got that? Yes. And a gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes. Okay. So mega. And what is a picture? A picture could be, I mean, depends on the phone. It could be 13 megabytes for a large, high-quality photo. Okay. Could be three megabytes.

But video is what adds up. You're filming like 4K on your phone. How do we know? I bet I beat you on my video storage. Oh, that's a good one. So if you go to storage. Yep. Wait for it. Oh, I see my iCloud photos. What do you got? What do you have? I'm nervous. Okay, you ready for mine? Yeah. What's in your iCloud photos? 250.7 gigabytes. 289. I beat you. I don't feel so bad. What about messages?

54. 101. Oh, gosh. Backups, 147. You've done a lot of backups. I'm only at 25 on backups. All right. I'm at iCloud Drive. Yep. It sounds like a road. 67. 67.

Those are my highest ones. 4.6. I don't know what you're storing in your iCloud drive, but there's got to be some. What's happening? And I'm paying for it. I know I am because I get these Apple random charges. I'm paying for the cloud. I'm paying for terabytes. You're just- Paying for a lot. It's $9.99 for the two terabytes. But what's in the cloud? That's what's in the cloud. It's storing it all in the cloud. So I have a lot in the cloud and you don't. You're not storing all that in your phone. Your phone has a different level of storage. I thought I have terabytes on my phone. No. No.

Two terabytes is what you have in iCloud. Okay, so I have more in the cloud than you do. You sent it to heaven. So let's think about earth and heaven. Yeah, I hear it, but I have more than you because I have 64. How do I explain this? Let me see your phone. Never mind, it's fine. Capacity on the phone is 256. Available for me is 144. So if you go to settings and then about, I feel like this is back in my Apple Store employee days and I'm having to really hold back, be kind, be patient. Keep going. General, general.

General. About. Yep. You're doing great. I'd hire you for the Apple Store today. Okay. And then you see where it says capacity? Yes. What does it say? 512. 512. So you've doubled the storage on your physical device. So I have a lot on my phone then. Yes. A lot of storage. What do you have available? 261. You're doing great. Okay. I'm halfway there. Yeah. You don't need to fill it up. It's not that kind of competition. It's not a race. It's not a race.

That was a lot of fun. Wow. We're living in a better world today, y'all. I'm going to say it. If you told 10-year-old George, hey, you can get two terabytes for $10, I'd be like, they make terabytes now? Yeah. I cannot tell you how many physical hard drives I have that are like...

256 gigabytes, 500 gigabytes. And I thought, we are living in the future. We're going to have 500 gigabytes on a single hard drive. Now that's nothing. And when 10-year-old Rachel's friends were like, we should roll George Camel. I'm like, don't. He's worried about megabytes right now. He's going through a lot. Don't do it. Don't do it. I feel that. All right, we promised the people we would share our versions of this. So we're going to do a little rapid response and share a few investments. I put this in quotes. Just things that you own that have stood the test of time and still have held their value.

Okay. So you could sell today for what you paid for it, if not more. Oh, man. I don't know if I know this, but I can try. Vintage clothes, purse, shoes. Okay, so I'd say our house. Great. If this was Family Feud, that'd be number one on the board. I mean, honestly, from what we built in 2018 to today. That's solid. I mean, honestly, I think it's doubled.

Wow. Almost. That's amazing. Well, yeah, I feel like Nashville, which... You guys bought in a really great area too. Yeah, we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm like, no, it's like insane. Like we would not be able to afford to live where we live today. Like if we entered in, we couldn't buy that. That's strong. Yeah. Okay, I got one. My guitar.

Oh, that's good. I won it in a songwriting contest. And I think at the time it was probably $3,000 guitar. I think I could sell it for that today. And that was 12 years ago. Okay, that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's a win. Winston has a beautiful piano. Pianos. They hold their value really well. And I think, yeah, we could probably sell it. Baby Grand? Yes. He got it when he was a teenager. What is it, a Yamaha? No, it's a Kawaii. Oh, yeah, that's a good brand. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's beautiful.

It's great. It's great. Well, that's good. But most things are going to go down in value and that's okay. I know. When you use stuff, it does. But just know like it's not worth buying something that's going to immediately plummet. Sometimes it's worth buying used or just know your TV that you spent $4,000 on is going to be worth jack squat five years from now. Yeah. Because everybody wants the latest and greatest. Totally. So I think that's the thing. I think you have to stop living on this high of like I need the newest thing.

Because that will keep you in this like rat in a wheel mentality for a long time. Because there's so many things. It's the newest thing, right? So whether it's a car, oh, this is the newest model, to fashion, to technology. I'm like, you could constantly be living in that.

And if that's your only motivation in life, just to have the newest thing or the latest thing, you're going to lose a lot of money and satisfaction of quality of life. You just run this endless marathon. Yeah, there's like no contentment in it. So it's not that the stuff is bad. It's fun. Get some great stuff. But yeah, don't think like, oh my gosh, everything's going to be okay if I just have the best because the truth is...

most things in life that we see go down to value. Yeah. And no, I mean, it sounds a little bit too deep, but you know, you can't take it with you. So all the stuff sitting around, like someone's going to have to deal with all your crap one day. Yes. And you thought someone's going to love my old photos and the old clothing and the,

Sometimes, but then sometimes your kids are just like, mom and dad are hoarders. I know. And they left us with a mess. That's right. And they saved everything just in case. And we don't need the china. I know. You know what the minimalists say to do is to take pictures of everything? Oh, I like that. So you have like the visual memory of it. And I do think, I am a little bit in the camp of like, there's some things that are sweet to save. They're sentimental. Yes. Like a jewelry or like, you know, you pass things down. Like I do think there's a time and a place for that.

But like, I don't know if your parents were like this, but when we got married, I was given like bins and bins and bins of like artwork from my second grade year. And I do that for my kids. I save my kids stuff. But I'm like, I never go back and look at it. It's fun to look at once every five years. I guess, but like what, you know what I mean? There is a point, what you're saying of like stuff can just collect over time. And it's like, okay. Yeah.

What are we doing here? Yeah. Oh, you know, I forgot to add this one. Speaking of things that are passed down, the Rolex from Whitney's grandfather who passed. We love the Rolex. And so this is like, that's what I think is worth, what are the things that you're like, someone, one of my grandkids would fight over this one day. Well, that's something that's probably worth purchasing. Yeah. Yes, that's a great way to bring it. And if not, don't put a lot of thought into it. Just do a little bit of research and go, okay, I'm buying an iPhone cable here. It's not that expensive.

I'm talking to myself now. This is therapy for me. It's all for you. All for you. That's good. And then budgeting for things. Make sure you pay cash. Don't go into debt for these things that are going to go down in value that end up in goodwill. And so use a great budgeting app like EveryDollar to just make a plan for every dollar coming in, every dollar going out. You'll be more intentional and less wasteful. For sure. So I'll drop a link in the description to EveryDollar if you guys want to check it out. Yeah, because you imagine going into debt for something and by the time you pay it off, two new versions have already come out.

You're like, oh, yeah. That's what happens with cars. It does. It's so true. Yep. And iPhones. No fun. And now Klarna and DoorDash and all financing a burrito. We've lost our minds. Where are we? Vacations. This is happening with Disney. Coachella. Coachella festivals. Like a high percentage of people at Coachella. It used to be physical stuff. Now it's experiences. So it feels like you can justify it. Yeah. I'm going to make this amazing memory. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't do it. But then you leave with a bunch of debt. Not good. Yeah.

All right, before we spill the tea on our Guiltiest Charge segment, tell us about the drink, George. This is the Godfather. And like you said, it tastes like an old man drink. It does taste like an old man drink. I think you really enjoyed it. My rating on this one, let me give one more sip. I'm going to go 8.5 out of 10. Man. So I'm going to go 8 out of 10 because I would have a specific...

that I would order it. It would not be a go-to cocktail like some of the others we've had. And why is that? I don't know. It's a little unique. I'll tell you why. I don't want this before dinner. Okay. This would be like an after. If we all did dinner and everyone's like, hey, let's stay. Kind of a late night drink. Let's stay and I'll pour something. And they poured this, I'd be so happy. You know what I mean? Perfect. That's a great scenario. I wish that happens to you.

You know, New York City, late night with friends. I didn't say New York, but sure. It felt right. So the Godfather costs $2.71 per drink. The ingredients are amaretto, which is like an almond liqueur, scotch, and Angostura bitters.

So that's where it got knocked down a peg. I'm not a big scotch guy. And the peatiness, which is kind of that tire fire taste you get in there. Yeah. It takes me a while to get over that. Yeah. But as the ice has sat, it's actually a lot better now. It's watered down a little. It's still a great one. It's probably the best scotch cocktail I've had. So if you want the recipe, it's in the show notes. Give it a try this weekend and let us know what you think. So great.

All right, now it's time for Guilty as Charged. And this is where we ask each other a guilty as charged question every week. And if we're guilty, we take a sip.

All right, George, have you ever bought anything that was once worth way more than it is today? Oh my goodness. I'm going to rattle a few off that are just the most egregious to me because when I spent the money, it was a big investment for me. And here's the thing, in my head I went, I'm going to use this so much, it's going to ROI. Okay, that's good. Here's one, my Canon video camera.

Yes. So it's a big DSLR, but it does video too. It was the D70, if you know your cameras, if you know, you know. And I thought, I'm going to be a vlogger, YouTuber. I'm going to make a lot of money off of this, doing gigs, whatever.

It's been sitting and for what I paid for it, I went to go sell it. And I went, oh my gosh, I think I bought it for like $1,000. No, really? I went on eBay. They're selling for like $150. Yeah, shoot. And then same with the GoPro. I thought I'm going to be Mr. Adventure. I'm going to strap this GoPro to every... I got like the waterproof... When I think adventure, I think George Campbell. Yeah.

I got all the gear to go with it. I was like, I might strap it to my head. I might strap it to my chest. I need all the gear. Oh my gosh. What if I'm in the water? I need a floating. So I bought all the gear. I ended up giving it to Deloney's son. The GoPro camera. I forgot about that. And from what I paid for it, which is probably five or 600 bucks, it's worth a hundred bucks now if I'm lucky. Okay. And then lastly was my iMac.

I went to go, I was like, I don't use this iMac, the desktop Mac. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, from back in the day. I went to go sell it. I was like, oh, people don't want a 15-year-old computer? Why not? Why would you not? It still works great. Why would you not want this? So there's some embarrassing things that I, technology is where I go wrong. Technology's big. I bought an underwater camera.

When I was like in high school. Because you were big in this. You're scuba certified. I am. I am scuba certified. Dave Ramsey told me this. I did not know this about you. And he was bragging. He was the proudest I've ever seen. He was like, oh, Rachel, she was 12 years old. You started young. Well, they changed the age that you could do it. So it was like 16 and they went down to 13 when I turned 13.

And dad is a big, I will say that about my parents. This is one thing, mom and dad, it was such a gift. They were not anxious people. Like mom and dad with adventure, it was like, you would snow ski, you'd water ski. I mean, we did stuff all the time and there was never this like nervousness. And so dad scuba dived and mom scuba dived and they changed the age to 13. When I turned 13, dad was like, you wanna get scuba dived? Like, or certified to be scuba dived? I was like, yeah. And Denise was nervous, so she said no.

So I did. I was like, sure, I'll do it. So you had to go to a quarry to do your open water dive. And that means you had to spend two days with an instructor and you had to go down and they made you take off your mask in the water. You had to take out your regulator. You had to take off everything. You had to basically go through the whole procedure. If everything went wrong, could you get back and be okay? Like, could you put it all back on, take the regulator, clear it, get your extra regulator off?

You had to have a partner regular. I mean, it was the whole thing, y'all. It was like an intense, and I was 13. Did it all. Flying colors. Yeah. And yeah, and I scuba dived for years because dad would on trips. So I'd go out with him and that was like our thing. Can you still do it in your mid thirties? Like today, if you jumped in right now? No, no. So we went when I, we went probably like six years ago and I got probably 40 feet down and I, it wasn't a full on panic attack by any means, but

But I just remember like breathing through this. And I'm like, I have property tax to pay. Like I have children. As an adult now. I have things to do on this earth. You're like, did I update my will lately? And I am down here with fish. Like that's what I'm doing. I'm with fish. For what? My life? Nope. And I tapped out and they did this whole thing where you're like, not okay. I'm going up.

But you have to take your time to go up because your lungs. You've got the bends. Dave told me about the bends. Yes, so it's a whole thing, y'all, and I haven't been back since. So as an adult, the fear sets in. Wow. But as a kid, you just go, I don't know. So back to the question at hand, did you ever use the waterproof camera? Yes, but you had to go get it developed at Walgreens, so it was great. Okay, yeah, and then my other one would be my first designer purse I ever bought.

And I still have it. I should put it on Poshmark and see how much it would go for. But you're saying it's not worth what it was. Well, it was a Tory Burch. I don't know if Tory Burch is considered designer. Oh, I'm getting some. I'm getting some. That's embarrassing. It was. It was my first big purchase as an adult. And it was this big bag. And it was like a robin's egg blue kind of color. And I don't think it's probably worth what it was. I know. That's the only way I can think of. That and my underwater camera.

So that's all I got, George. Big life regrets over here. Thanks for being vulnerable with us, Rachel. And be sure to send us your guilty as charged questions via DM on Instagram. We'd love to add it to the list. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a review, hit the like button, share this with a friend. And if you liked this episode, you're gonna love this next one coming up. What will it cost to live in 40 years? We dug into the details. We're gonna also link it in the description below for you to check out. Yep, so we'll see you guys next Thursday on an all new episode of...

Smart Money Happy Hour.