Get Smart with Money (2022) - full transcript

[SOOTHING MUSIC PLAYS]

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]

[PAULA] My name is Paula Pant,

We are here to help people

save, earn more, invest, retire.

The way that we manage our money
influences every aspect of our lives,

and yet no one ever
formally teaches it to us.

Because of that, people are missing out
on opportunities to make money.

[ANNOUNCER] We have expert Ro$$ Mac
coming to the stage.

For me,
it was always Black wealth matters.

And the way I wanted to do that
was through information



and educating the community.

Welcome to this week's episode
of Maconomics. I'm your host Ro$$ Mac.

We are joined now
by financial expert Tiffany Aliche

who is also
a New York Times best-selling author

of Get Good with Money.

I'm almost like the preschool teacher
of financial education.

I really focus on the fundamentals.

Budgeting, saving, credit, debt,
and learning to earn.

These are the first steps
to what I call financial wholeness.

[NEWSCASTER] He's now become
a personal finance guru,

and not because he made millions,

but because he cut back
in some radical ways.

On the Internet,
my name is Mr. Money Mustache,

and 15 years ago, I had a dream



and was able to retire
just before my 31st birthday.

[AUDIENCE APPLAUDS]

The thing about money is
it really is not very complicated,

but what can you use it for
other than just buying more stuff?

You can buy freedom with money,

where you never have
to worry about money again,

but that's not what
we're trained to do in this country.

[ALARM BEEPING]

["BILLS" BY LUNCHMONEY LEWIS PLAYS]

♪ I got bills ♪

♪ I gotta pay ♪

♪ So I'ma gon' work, work
Work every day ♪

♪ I got mouths ♪

♪ I gotta feed ♪

♪ So I'ma gon' make sure everybody eats ♪

So everybody wants
to get better at money, right?

Maybe your budget is out of whack.

Your debt is mounting.
You don't know how to earn.

This year, we're gonna try something
strange and different and hopefully fun.

[TIFFANY] I'm going to gift one of you

one year of personal financial coaching.

You'll win a year of financial
and investing coaching from yours truly.

♪ I got bills ♪

♪ I gotta pay ♪

♪ So I'ma gon' work, work
Work every day ♪

♪ I got mouths ♪

♪ I gotta feed ♪

♪ So I'ma gon' make sure everybody eats ♪

Now how do you enter
to work with me one-on-one?

I want you to create a video,
and in that video,

I want you to share who you are,
what you need help with.

I'm looking to get some financial help
because we're trying to start a family.

Hopefully, by the end of the year...

I've got a little money in savings,

and I'd love to learn some ways
to have it do more...

I've never put a budget together.
I don't even know where to start.

I just have no idea
how much I should be paying,

how much I should be saving...

$30,000 of student loan debt,
which I may pay off in my 50s or 60s...

How do you get ahead
without taking out loans...

Honestly I have no idea what we're doing
when it comes to retirement.

I am definitely
in a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle...

I currently have minimal funds
in my bank account...

I never had that financial education...

Are we investing in the right areas...

I definitely need help managing my money...

- I really appreciate your help...
- Could really use your help...

- [WOMAN] ...help.
- [MAN] I need help.

["BILLS" BY LUNCHMONEY LEWIS ENDS]

Hi, I'm Kim and this is John.

We are earning a lot for the first time.

Uh, we're also spending a lot
and want to know what to do

with that money.

Uh, whether that's early retirement,
or even what the options are.

Kim and John are
kind of the perfect candidates

for financial freedom
and early retirement.

That just means you have
more free time, more mental health,

more time to spend with your kids.

Hi, I'm Ariana.

I am an emotional spender.

I am currently buried
in a mountain of debt.

I am super, super, super excited
about meeting Ariana.

Teaching women how to gain confidence

about their money is kind of my jam.

My name's Teez. I got a big payday.

A lot of money sitting in the bank.

I know I should invest it,
but I don't know where to start.

Teez, I would look at him and say he's
the epitome of a normal athlete, right?

You come from the inner city,

then you're thrust into
making a lot of money.

He doesn't necessarily know
what to do with it.

Hi there. Um, I'm Lindsey.
I've been living paycheck to paycheck.

I have two jobs,

but I still haven't been able
to save up any money,

and I'm trying to break out of this cycle.

Lindsey doesn't realize it,
but she has so much going for her.

And so if she wants
to launch a new career,

this is absolutely
the best time in her life

for her to be able to take those risks.

[UPBEAT MUSIC ENDS]

[MELLOW MUSIC PLAYS]

[LINDSEY] When I was in high school,
I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I was like, "Yes,
this is what's gonna happen."

Go to college, go to fashion school,
get an internship, get a job,

and by the age of 35,
be a name-brand designer.

One day, I begged my mom
for a sewing machine.

I wanted to make my ideas come to life.

Then we started looking
at fashion schools for me to apply to.

That's where I really learned
to hone my skills.

I will say I never completed school,

but I at least learned the basics.

So, I had this plan,

but things change.

Hi. How are y'all doing today?

- Good. How are you?
- Good.

- We have a keg of beer so far.
- [MAN] Watermelon...

Watermelon, hell yeah.

I have two jobs right now.
I am a waitress at a beer garden,

and I am also a bartender at a brewery.

I have you at $7.00 today.

Two jobs, 50 hours a week.

- Y'all doing okay? Lovely.
- [WOMAN] Yes, thank you.

[LINDSEY] I don't really have
a lot of time to be me.

Here you go.

Because it's all about
making that money just to survive.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

[DINGS]

I've got y'all's beer ready.
Sorry about the wait.

When I get my paychecks,
the first thing I do is pay my bills.

But, when you're waitressing,
you don't know how much you're gonna make.

I have not been able to pay all my bills
for about 14 months now.

My biggest issue is not just
that it doesn't pay more money,

but I wish I could have health insurance.

[MELLOW MUSIC PLAYS]

I struggle with depression and anxiety,

and I would like to take medication for it

because I know that it would help me.

However, I can't afford that.

The amount of money I make
definitely eats at me inside.

How I strive to be this image

that I grew up to believe was successful.

I just don't feel like
where I'm supposed to be

at this point in my life.

I feel like I am putting in a lot of work
and a lot of labor and a lot of hours,

and there's only so much
that I can put in,

but I don't want to be living
paycheck to paycheck anymore.

[PAULA] Hey, Instagram.

Today, we're talking about reimagining
the way we earn money.

So that's exactly what I did
when I ditched my nine-to-five

and built an online business.

And I want to help you find
a sustainable way to make money.

A way that matches your talents
and sparks your passion.

So, tell me about you.

Well, I am a waitress,
and I am a bartender,

but my ultimate dream is
to do something with art.

- Lindsey, how old are you?
- I am 27 years old.

- [PAULA] Twenty-seven. Okay.
- Yes.

So, I'll tell you
about myself in my twenties.

When I graduated from college,

I got a job as a newspaper reporter
and I made $21,000 a year.

That's the equivalent
of making $11.50 an hour.

I was always really frugal,
but I kept trying to save money.

- To improve my financial situation.
- Right.

So in spending,

the average American spends
the majority of their money

on the big three.
Housing, transportation, food.

If you cut back on those three things,

that's where you're going to get
the biggest savings.

Downsizing your house or apartment,

taking on a roommate,
renting out a room on Airbnb,

those are ways you can
significantly reduce your housing costs.

[LINDSEY] Okay.

[PAULA] And you live someplace
where a car is necessary,

go for the cheapest option

that will safely get you
from point A to point B.

Nothing fancy, just utilitarian.

Wonderful. All right, so tell me more
about, like, your food habits, generally.

I would say a majority of what we spend
our food money on is take-out.

- That's one thing I want to stop doing.
- Hmm.

[LINDSEY] My fiancé and I are both
in the service industry.

We've been around a kitchen all day.

The last thing we wanna do is

spend an hour cooking.

[PAULA] First of all,
restaurant food is more expensive

than food that you make yourself.

- [LINDSEY] Oh, absolutely.
- [PAULA] Then there's delivery charges.

And you're in the service industry,
so I'm sure you're a good tipper,

which is great, but like, that adds up.

[LINDSEY] It does.

[PAULA] So instead of getting take-out,
start meal prepping.

Go to the grocery store once a week.

Do a big batch run
of pre-cooked meals for the whole week.

Fantastic.

Spending less is
the quick and easy solution,

but there's a limit
to how much you can frugal down.

There's no limit to how much you can make.

I just wish I was making more,

and one of the main drawbacks
to the service industry

is the lack of benefits.

You could try to find
some type of side hustle

or some type of work
that you do on your own...

[LINDSEY] Hmm.

...that makes enough money
that it compensates for that.

- Okay.
- [PAULA] Right?

So, let's talk about
the income side of the equation.

- That's where the real potential exists.
- Yes.

What I saw was that in order to make more,
I was gonna have to go independent

and start my own side hustle,
start my own business.

There are two different types of side gigs
that I want you to be thinking about.

Okay.

One is gig economy stuff.

And so that's immediate,
short-term, quick cash,

something where boom,
you can make money today.

What other types of jobs
do you think could fill in that gap?

I used to, uh, dog sit for families.

I love dogs. I love being around animals.

- A side hustle dog walking or dog sitting...
- [LINDSEY] Mm-hmm.

...that's gonna get money
in the door this week.

And then also there is the art aspect.

I'm really good at illustration.

If you can sketch really quickly,

imagine if you went to a dog park

and you walked up to someone
and you're like, "Hey, I love your dog."

"Do you mind if I just do
a little 2-minute sketch?"

You give them that sketch.

You put your phone number at the bottom.

By the way, I walk dogs.

I love that idea!

And then the other type of side gig is
building out your own business,

but it's going to take a lot longer.

[LINDSEY] At some point, I would like
to get out of the service industry.

Deep down at my core,

I am an artist, and I always have been.

I do a little bit of everything.

I do painting.

I make costumes.

And that's been my dream my entire life
of what I would like to do.

[PAULA] So the most important thing is
that you have the hustle.

I've got the drive and the heart.

I feel like
I just don't have the know-how.

- Easy. Easy. I got that. I got that.
- [LINDSEY] Awesome. [CHUCKLES]

Art is my passion.

So I would love to find a way
to make money from my art.

That is the ultimate dream.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

[DOOR OPENS]

[TEEZ] Growing up, you look
at playing football as this big dream.

You know, the promised land.

It takes one person to break through
the generations of poverty

or living paycheck to paycheck.

[WOMAN] I love the pink one.

Go show Daddy. You can show him.

[TEEZ] Oh, Mama. A princess.

You look sweet!

You got on your crown.

Who your best friend?

My best friend Mama.

- [WOMAN LAUGHS]
- Oh.

- You played me.
- [WOMAN LAUGHS]

[TEEZ] I thought
Daddy was your best friend.

[CHUCKLES]

[TEEZ] Somebody like me,
a young, Black African-American male,

that come from where I come from,

I thought football was the only way
to make money and make a lot of it.

[COMMENTATOR 1] It's off! Tabor!

Picked up by Tabor.
Tabor racing to the end zone!

[TEEZ] After my third season in college,
everybody was talking about me.

[COMMENTATOR 2] One of the best
quarterbacks in the nation is Teez Tabor.

This could be a pick six!
Touchdown! Tabor!

[TEEZ] Once I realized
I can make a career out of it,

it was no way I could stay in school.

They talk about you making beaucoup bucks.

You got people you gotta take care of.

[MAN] With the 53rd pick,

in the 2017 master football league draft,

the Detroit Lions
have selected Teez Tabor.

[CROWD CHEERS]

[TEEZ] My first check says 1.6 million.

A young kid from Maryland,
21, instantly rich.

But I had to pay my agent out the gate,
and taxes is 40%.

I bought my mother a house.

I bought this house.

A couple jewelry pieces.

[SCREEN WHIRRING]

Those were the big purchases.

I went to Paris.
I went to Saint Lucia, Hawaii.

Man...

But I went from 1.6 to two-something.

Two eighty. I'm like, "This will go fast."

I'm gonna cool off
'cause I see how quick it can go.

[REFEREE BLOWS WHISTLE]

Only goal in mind
was keep playing football.

The money will keep coming in.

I played two seasons in Detroit.

[COMMENTATOR] On the sideline,
he makes the catch,

right in front of Teez Tabor.

[TEEZ] Everybody in the NFL know
if you're not producing at a high level,

they're gonna get rid of you.

[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYS]

I ended up getting released.

After I got released from Detroit,
I ended up going to San Fran.

But I break my foot
right before training camp.

So, they had to release me.

Right there.

[GRUNTS SOFTLY]

[TEEZ] My world came crashing down.

[THERAPIST] Let's take it back down.

[TEEZ] There were some long nights.
Some long nights thinking like, "Why me?"

"Why get me all the way here
and then take it away from me?"

[CAR ENGINE REVVING]

That made me take a step back
and open my eyes up to my money.

One of my good friends told me
about the guy who they feel help people

with their finances.

- What's good, Brodie?
- Yes, sir.

- Oh. How you livin', fool?
- I'm good. How are you?

Man, I'm all good, thank you.

[RO$$] I'm a financial educator.

I opened up my brokerage account
to start buying stocks at the age of 18.

I'm 31 now, but I'm close
to being financially free already.

My kids will be financially free.

What we're talking about
right now is the future,

and the way
you get invested in it right now

is getting out
of your own logic of thinking.

[RO$$] You know, I ended up working
at Morgan Stanley for three years,

so for me it's like, man, I just want
to start helping our community get

better exposure to investing.
Better exposure to financial literacy.

Like, when did it trigger in your mind,
like, "All right, I need to be investing,"

or any conversations like that?

I felt like after my second season,
when I ended up getting hurt,

me realizing like,
"What are you going to do?"

Football's been my life
since I was four years old,

so when I step outside this box,

I don't even know where to go,
like, where to even start.

I'm a fish out of water.

-Mm-hmm
-[TEEZ] You know...

We gotta look at this and say like,
"What happens right now?"

- If you never get another football check.
- Right.

[RO$$] And you don't know where to start.

The easiest way to become a player
at the game,

just put your money in the S&P 500

because on average,
that's gonna grow at 10% each year.

So what is that... You said S&P S...

S&P 500. They made...
They made an index to say

we're gonna buy
all of these 500 companies.

[SCREEN WHIRRING]

[RO$$] So, look, when you're thinking
about investing, here's the...

Put it in layman's terms, right?

By buying a stock,
you literally are able to buy

a very small piece of a company.

An index fund is
literally a basket of stocks.

You're not just buying one stock.
You get to buy a basket of them.

And what's great about it,
it gives you inherent diversity.

In the S&P 500,

you have all the sectors
that you could think of.

Retail companies. There's banks.
You got healthcare companies.

Technology companies.
You got oil and gas, airlines.

Now, obviously, the market,

you can have disclaimers
that the market could go down.

There are years
the market could go down 10%,

but Warren Buffet,
if you Google him right now,

he's going to tell anybody...

He's the smartest investor of all time.
He make money the slow way.

Right? He's going to tell you,
anybody at the crib,

Mom and Pop,
Grandma know, Uncle Ray Ray know,

- just put your money in the S&P 500...
- Put your money...

...and it's gonna really build over time.

- All right. Let's get into it.
- For sure.

- [WOMAN] Whoo!
- [GIRL LAUGHS]

- Not so fast! Want fast? Okay.
- Run in the grass though! Be careful!

[TEEZ] Our parents always taught us
how to, like, fend for ourselves.

A hustler's mentality, so,

that's what they did teach us, uh,
but as far as, uh, savings plans,

investment plans,

we... we don't know. It's...
It's a language that's never taught to us.

Daddy gonna catch you.
Daddy gonna catch you.

- [WOMAN LAUGHS]
- [GIRL LAUGHS]

I wanna go to the skies.

You wanna go to the skies?

[TEEZ] I just wanna help my daughter.

- Okay. One...
- One, two, three, four.

[LAUGHS AND SCREAMS]

[TEEZ] I wanna make it easier for her

than, you know,
my people's made it for me.

- [TEEZ] Whoo. Yum.
- [LAUGHS]

[ARIANA] The night Max wore his
wolf suit and made mischief of one kind

and another..."
Look, he's chasing the puppy.

He's chasing the puppy.

He's chasing the puppy.
"...his mother called him Wild Thing"

and Max said, 'I'll eat you up!'

"so he was sent to his bed
without anything to eat."

Oh no!

Money was something
to be spent growing up.

My parents came
from the Dominican Republic

when I was three.

And I distinctly remember
my parents having a lot of conversations

around like, "Well, we deserve this,"
or "I want this so I'm going to buy this."

I was the first person in my family
to go to college.

It was like,
"Just take out loans. It's fine."

But no one explained to me
my student loans were accruing interest

from the minute I signed them.

Or like, why are you
allowing an 18-year-old

to take out $25,000 a year?

Like, how is that okay?

And now I'm sitting here
with $108,000 in student loans.

[BABY COOING]

[MUMBLES]

The credit card spending
started when I was young.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

I got my first job out of college,

and I wound up getting an apartment
in New York that I couldn't afford.

With no savings.

And it went from there.

Brunch was easily, like,
$100 every weekend.

And then, like, my friends were going out,

and, you know,
they were all buying new clothes.

I couldn't always afford it.

But I was like, "I deserve this,"
or "I had a really hard week. It's fine."

And then we had kids.

And then Amazon and Target became things.

I got more credit cards.

Buying things for the kids,

buying clothes,
buying things to entertain ourselves with.

I look around sometimes,

and it's almost like
I see dollar signs everywhere.

If I look back
at the credit card statements,

I couldn't even tell you what it was.

And just like buying to buy.

My husband was covering
the majority of bills

so I can focus on paying things off.

And it just didn't happen. Like, I tried.

I wound up getting personal loans
to pay off the cards

to make it one lump payment
and a lower interest rate.

And that decreased my monthly payments,

which was helpful because, you know,
I wasn't making that much money,

but then it freed up all my credit cards.

And they wound up getting maxed out again.

- Okay.
- [BABY COOS]

[SIZZLING]

It feels like
I'm just gonna always have debt.

Like, I just am not making
the right decisions.

[TIFFANY] One of the first steps you have
to take when you're that deep in a hole,

is you have to ask for help.

I know firsthand
there are other people that were in debt

that are no longer in debt.

Tiffany Aliche was a preschool teacher
who lost it all and fell into debt

during the recession in 2008.

I was 30 years old
with $300,000 plus in debt.

I was like, "Okay. Let me start
with the bare-bones basics."

Let me list my bills.
Let me figure out what my expenses are.

She pulled herself out of debt

and began teaching
financial literacy seminars to women.

[TIFFANY] What I just shared with Ariana
is even though I made

every mistake possible with my money,

I was able to regain my footing,

and so can she.

So, how do you feel that you do
when it comes to spending?

[CHUCKLES]

- Depends on the week.
- [BOTH LAUGH]

Um... [BREATHES DEEPLY]

There are some days that I'm really good,

and I spend literally
no money on anything,

and then there are other days
where it's not so great,

and I talk myself into buying things
that we don't necessarily need.

- Before you spend any money...
- Mm-hmm.

...there are four questions
you should really ask yourself.

And those four questions are:

- Do I need it?
- [ARIANA] Mm-hmm.

- Do I love it?
- [ARIANA] Okay.

- Do I like it?
- [ARIANA] Okay.

Do I want it?

Need it, love it, like it, want it.
I'm gonna write these down for you.

Okay.

"Your needs are," I must have this thing

to maintain the health
and safety of myself and my family."

- Okay.
- [TIFFANY] Right?

So give me some examples of some needs.

- Mortgage, groceries.
- Mortgage. Mm-hmm.

Loves are this.

I want you to imagine if you had...
Who is one of the wealthiest people

in the world that you're like, "There's
someone that can talk about wealth."

- Oprah. [LAUGHS]
- I was gonna say, yup! [LAUGHS]

- Everybody, right? If you had...
- [ARIANA] Oprah money.

- You get a car! You get a car!
- [TIFFANY] Everybody! [LAUGHS]

Yeah! Like...

Yes, if you had Oprah money,
what would you do or do more of?

Oh God.

[ARIANA EXHALES]

- Go on vacation. Travel with the kids.
- Right?

And often times we skip over love
'cause it can be a little pricey.

- Yeah.
- You know?

So we skip right to likes and wants.

So a like is something
that will bring you joy

for about less than six months.

And so wants are just...

There's no joy there,
just temporary satisfaction.

I feel like most of the things
I buy from Amazon fall into that category.

- [TIFFANY] Okay.
- [ARIANA] It's like...

- It's easy to press that purchase button.
- [TIFFANY] Yes.

I want you to think of your needs
and loves like a quadrant, right?

So needs and loves are on this side
and then likes and wants on this side.

So when you are focused
on your needs and your loves,

you're really living in more of your life.

And when you're focused
on your likes and your wants,

you're really living less of a life.

[SOOTHING MUSIC PLAYS]

At the end of this journey,
if I can... not be afraid of money,

if I can have the confidence
to know that I will get out of debt

and I will stay out debt,

it would be huge.

[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]

[JOHN] Do you want kids or kitchen?

[KIM] I don't care.

[JOHN] Okay.

I'll do kids.

- Just yell if you need me.
- [JOHN] Okay.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

There you go! All right!

I'm an engineer.

- Nice job!
- [BOY] Nice job!

[JOHN] When COVID hit,
they cut a bunch of the team.

And I was just part of the...
part of the cut.

I'm a stay-at-home dad now.

Good, buddy.
Oh, should we put gas in the car?

- Like that's my primary responsibility.
- [BOY] It's Dad.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS]

Right now, John does everything.

Like everything.

It's a lot.

And it's not always been that way for us,

but he's had to learn all of it.

- [JOHN] I'm super happy about it.
- [KIM] Yeah.

[JOHN] 'Cause I have
an amazing bond with our kids.

[KIM] You do, which is so beautiful.

And I'm, like, really jealous
all the time. [LAUGHS]

And then my ego gets jealous of,
you know, how successful you are.

- Like, 'cause you are really successful.
- Yeah.

It's just so ingrained
that the way I contribute as a man

is to make money.

What's up?

[KIM] When he started being
a stay-at-home dad,

I really struggled
with becoming the sole income maker

and working so much
and being unavailable for my kids.

Hello!

- [WOMAN] Hi! [LAUGHS]
- How are you?

I am a psychotherapist
and women's empowerment coach.

There's all kinds of different ways
that you can embody a change,

a transformation.

Part of the reason
that we chose to have John stay at home

is because my business
was growing financially.

It was exponential growth.

In 2018, it was maybe 70K for the year.

And then in 2020, it was about 150,

and then this year,
in theory, I'll be around 300.

But every time we make more money,
we spend more money.

I want to kind of like,
go to the other end of the spectrum

and learn how to save,

but we need... we definitely need
somebody to help us with that.

But we learned... Yeah.

[JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS]

You're about to meet a young man
who retired at the age of 30.

- Let's get rid of this mop.
- [CLIPPER BUZZES]

When you do the math on this,
it's something like $10,000 of haircuts

that this $40 device has saved me.

[REPORTER 1] He preaches
his financial gospel on his popular blog,

Mr. Money Mustache.

[MAN] It has become
a worldwide cult phenomenon,

which has grown to reach
about 23 million different people

since its inception.

[KIM] I've gotten
Mr. Money Mustache's emails for years,

and I didn't even think
that was a possibility

that you could retire early.

I just assumed that my life
was going to be just what's expected.

You work until you're 65,
and then you can finally have a life.

- [MAN] Happy to finally meet y'all!
- [BOTH] How are you doing?

[MAN] So like, what brings you to me,

and what's your goal
in changing your life?

We're on the cusp of a high income.

And so now that we have this resource,

we want the tangible steps
where we can set ourselves up

for the next five, ten years with a plan.

So that we can be
financially independent after that.

Like, what tangible steps
did you take at age 30?

I was just earning
kind of an engineer's salary,

which back in that day
was $80,000 a year...

[JOHN] Hmm.

...and cutting our expenses
where we were living on $40,000 a year.

You invest the surplus
in just a standard index fund,

and it just kind of builds up.

And then when we got
to the level of investments,

um, that was enough to live on,

that was when
we felt safe quitting our jobs.

And the definition of "enough to live on"

just very roughly is that you have
25 times your living expenses

in investments.

If your expenses are $100,000 a year,

you need 2.5 million dollars invested
to sustain that lifestyle.

So it's not really your income
that matters. It's your spending choices.

So I think the first step would be
figuring out where your money is going,

like, what do you think
is the most spendy stuff?

- [KIM] This is the embarrassing part.
- [PETE] Okay, this is great.

So I see shopping,
which is a very big category.

- [KIM LAUGHS] Yeah.
- It's almost $2,000 a month.

- Lots of Amazon.
- [PETE] Yeah.

[KIM] Let's see.

I just purchased dumbbells
for my Soul Cycle classes.

Ballet slippers,

birthday supplies,

hair stuff,

more dog stuff.

Everybody's brain has this thing
that I call the PJM.

- It's Purchase Justification Machine...
- [KIM AND JOHN LAUGH]

...and it's a little machine
running in their head and it's like...

[MIMICS ELECTRONIC BEEPS]

...and it spits out excuses for why
you really want to buy something

even if you don't actually need it.

So the idea is to throw some dirt
and grit into the gears of this PJM

- to slow it down.
- [MACHINE RATTLES]

What that means
is asking yourself questions like,

"Am I really gonna use this thing?
How often would I use it?"

Anything you could throw in front
is going to slow down your purchases,

and you'll end up spending less.

[MACHINE HISSING]

The second-highest category is groceries.

How many cheeses did you get this time?

- [JOHN] Four.
- [KIM CHUCKLES]

[PETE] You're spending
$1,200 a month on groceries.

That is like banquet-level spending
for a small family.

- You must be...
- Doesn't feel like it to us.

You must be feeding, like,
royalty every night.

You potentially
could get that down to 500,

and that's $6,000 a year,

$60,000 a decade,
just by tweaking your food spending.

Literally have no idea how
you could possibly do that differently.

I wonder if I could come
to like a guest grocery shopping.

- [JOHN] Yeah, let's do that.
- [LAUGHS] Great.

- Five years from now...
- [JOHN] Okay.

...what would you like
your lives to be like?

The idea of retiring early sounds amazing.

I'm totally into it,

but also creating more space
and time to be with the family,

to have, um, the bandwidth
to, like, actually be present.

Yeah. That sounds really sustainable.

Like, your plan is not
very far-fetched at all.

It feels far-fetched to me.
I'm glad you think so.

- [LAUGHS]
- [PETE] Okay.

Let's go play with your train set.

[KIM] The last few years,

we allowed ourselves
to be more consumeristic

to cope with stress...

Only one.

...and as a reward
for the hard work that I do.

All right. Three.

So at the end of the day,
I'll, like, buy myself clothes

or I'll buy them a toy...

[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

...but now, like, we're ready
to start making good long-term decisions

as opposed to just, like,
getting through that time period.

[RO$$] So, like, right now, realistically,

all else fails, in two years,

you would technically
blow through your savings.

Right.

For me, we got to get
all the expenses down.

[DINGS]

Because you want to invest
a portion of these savings.

Right? And still be comfortable.

How much did you splurge
on a couple chains, a couple earrings,

a couple watches?

- [HESITATES] Sixty...
- 60K.

So let's do this.

Right now, if you would've put
$60,000 into the S&P 500,

the stuff we was talking about,
that $60,000 today...

...would be $112,000.

Hmm. All right.

Right? Nah, this ain't broke.

I want you to see the numbers to just say,
"Okay. I've been missing out on money."

Know what I'm saying?
That one little thing you forgot about.

'Cause we bought a watch
and something with it.

So for me, my biggest thing is
to just show you how the money works.

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

[RO$$] When you own it, you in the game.

- Okay.
- You feel me? Like you done laced them up.

You between them white lines,
and you really in the game.

- You feel me? It's game time.
- [CHUCKLES]

[TEEZ] The only thing I know
it's second and ten, third and five,

X receive a cut split. Like, I don't...
That's what I understand.

I just know that I got this much money
and I don't have the knowledge

on how to keep it.

Or how to really make it
run a marathon for me.

That's why I'm just trying to learn.

[TIFFANY] So, first things first.
Whenever you're doing a budget,

a budget is just a picture
of what your money is doing.

And if you don't like that picture,
you have the option to change it.

So your "money out" list looks like this.

So let's talk about money in.
What do you take home monthly?

Um, about $5,000.

And then you said you had a second job?

- Yes. So I'm...
- Okay.

I picked up some virtual assistant work.

[TIFFANY] Which is about $700 a month.

- Sounds right.
- Okay.

The good news is,
there's actually money here.

Yeah.

[TIFFANY] At your job,
do they allow you to split your paycheck?

[ARIANA] Yeah.

[TIFFANY] See if they'll do it
up to five splits.

Split it before you get it.

Your five splits are
your bills account for the home,

your Ariana bucket for bills,

you have your spending account,

and you have two savings.

Savings has two functions.
For emergencies and dreams.

So you're going to put some
in your emergency savings account

and some in your dream savings.

So this is your budget. That's it.
A little bit of automation,

then you don't have to
at the grocery store scramble.

- Yeah.
- Because you know,

"I put aside my money already.
It's there. I asked my job to do it."

It's there for you to lean into
instead of your credit card.

[ARIANA] I've tried almost every budget
under the sun,

and it's never really worked before.

So this is really the chance.

I'm ready to, like, do this work.

I'm ready, like, to get to the point
of financial wholeness

that Tiffany keeps talking about.

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYS]

[WOMAN] Nina, here!

[KISSES] Hey!

[LINDS