We Predict the Future of 2026—Money, Celebrities and More!

Happy New Year! You know, we can't predict the future, but why not try? Here's what we think will happen to your money in 2026. Oh boy, I put my eggs in this very specific basket. I think I cried in my childhood bedroom. I think she needs to pray for me. I mean, I feel like she's closer to God than I am. Higher the hair, the closer to God. Hey guys, I'm Rachel Cruz. I'm George Camel. And this is Smart Money Happy Hour. Cheers. It's an awfully empty glass. We're going to fill it up in a second, but this is the show where two friends who have new money experts talk about what you're talking about. Everything from pop culture, current events, and money. And today we're popping a bottle to celebrate. Let's see if I can do it. I'm so nervous. Should I let it? No, I won't let it fly. I don't want to ruin everything. Ready? Woo! Happy New Year! No sound effect needed. Just a perfect pop. Happy New Year. Man, I love a Champs. And that sound just makes it feel like party. You know who loves it more? The producers who did not have to make us a cocktail today. I know. We're just doing this. Like, we're going to kick off the New Year by not working as hard. Let me see. I'm going to keep refilling. So you just give me a second. Okay. You go on. You do the work. You do the work. Maybe. But also just through here with the bubbles. It's that kind of year. Where the bubbles go down. There we go. Whoa. You're good, George. That's a heavy glass. George, that's a glass of champagne. I don't know where you come from. If you poured that into a wine glass, it would be the size of a glass of wine. We'll never financially recover from this. Oh, George. Lord. How is it? You know. That's some. It's okay. That's. It's technically. Look at the bubbles, though. It's technically sparkling wine. It's from California. So it's. It says California Champagne. Well, it's not. Can they call it that? No. They must have like trademarked that name because Champagne can only come from Champagne, France. That's a fun fact for Trivia Night. So that's why they called it California Champagne. It comes from the Russian River Valley. All right. Sonoma. I love it. It's okay. It's so good. Anywho. Feels like the new year. If you want our rating, which I know you do, we're also going to reveal the cost per glass. All at the end of the episode. Stick around for that. Okay. So in general, Rachel, how do you feel about the beginning of the year? Are you a person who's excited and inspired? It's just a new chapter, a new day, a new dawn? Yes. Or does it feel like a lot of pressure? Like, all right, new goals. What are the vibes? No. Remember, I don't really care for goals. I'm in my no goal era. Because, again, you've accomplished everything. It's just everything I need. Other than going to the moon. I think I'm just goled out, you know? Like I just, I feel like I just always were making goals. And the last probably two years, there's a level of like, hey, I mean, once I talk about like, what do we want to do like with our family and things we want. It's not a lack of intentionality. No. And like we want family dinners, like we have values, like there's all of that. But this whole like, I need a specific goal that I'm trying to hit. I just, I'm tired, George. Tired. I feel that. I'm tired. So I'm just enjoying it. So the new year feels fun. It feels. No pressure. I feel like a kid where it does feel like it's a new, um, a new leaf, turning over a new leaf, if you will. That's beautiful. You know, there's something in there. It's like, oh my gosh, when the calendar starts over and it's a new year, it just feels great. So it's very energizing to me. I don't get drained by it or overwhelmed. Do you? Uh, I don't think so. I think there's just a lot of things that you've got to do with the new year. It just feels like, all right, we got to reset some things, some bad habits, you know, for us, that's like eating. It's like, all right, We've had way too many frozen meals and just bad habits through the holidays. So you kind of want to – it's more of a detox versus a goal. That is true. It's like let's do less versus doing the most. Yeah. Dry January is not starting off good for us right now. We're struggling already. But you can do, you know, apple cider. For sure. Sparkling apple cider. 100%. That still hits. Yes, for sure. For sure. Well. Yep. What do you all usually do on New Year's? We used to when we were single and free and, you know, just a married couple. We used to go out to friends' houses and hang out there all night. Yeah, it's fun. Nowadays, you might get some friends and hang out for a little bit, but by 9 or 10, I'm out. I know. I'm out. Yeah, totally. I'm with you. And now with babies, I feel like, you know. Yes. Now I'm stressed out about fireworks and the dogs are barking and the baby's up. Yeah. I'm an old man now. It's like Fourth of July all over again. Yeah, I do think it's over. I think staying up till midnight is overrated. Okay. That's my hot take. Okay. You know, I used to be like that. And now there's a part of me, if I can stay up, I usually can't stay up that late anyways. If I could, one night a year, I think it's fun. But then you regret it the next day. You feel it at this age. Yeah, for sure. For sure. You got to have nothing going on the next day. 100%. I know, because we, for the last, gosh, seven years have been with my family over New Year's. Your entire family. Yeah, because we go to Mexico for that week. Oh, yes. It's a tradition. So we're always there for New Year's. So we actually end up watching the New York ball drop. Which is what time? Which is almost, I think it's two, sometimes three. The way that line is, depending on daylight savings time, it changes. It's either two hours. It's either mountain time or Pacific time, but it depends on, I never can remember what time of year it is. 10 p.m. and the ball's dropping. That's right. That's right. Beautiful. So that's what we do. Make that a rule. And then we tell the kids, like, it's happening. Yay. And then they get to celebrate with us because they're old enough now to stay up. to 10 o'clock. And yeah, so it's fun. But then you go to bed at 10, so it's great. That's what I'm all about. That's what we like. An early bedtime. I'm an old man. Well, listen, we're not the bedding kind, but just for funsies, let's make some financial predictions for the new year. And then we can look back a year from now and say, were we right? Yeah. Were we wrong? And we can do the money stuff, the housing market, inflation, all of that. But then let's also do some pop culture and some fun predictions in there too, George. Not that money predictions aren't fun. They're fun for me. But if you want to guess what celebrities are going to, who's going to date who, was Trudeau and Katy Perry on your bingo card? Never, ever, ever. Can you believe it? Goes to the moon. Now she's dating a promester. Golly. What a woman. All right, George. 2026 financial predictions. Let's start off with a little interest rates. What do you think is going to happen there? It's on everyone's mind. Well, what we've seen so far is mortgage rates dipping down slower than people would like, but still a consistent drop, you know, a half percent here, a half percent there. Mortgage rates started around 7% in early 2025. That's on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage, now sitting around 5.5% as of this recording. So no one can predict for sure, but I think everyone's hopeful that rates will continue to lower and lower. We're not going to see 3%, but I can see things landing in like a 4.5% to 5% range for a while. Which is actually – Reasonable. Very reasonable. I mean honestly. So yeah, I do think the trend is still going to be ticking down slowly. I don't think we're going to like skyrocket back up. It's a real slow drip from the Fed. They're not trying to make big moves fast. Yeah, big changes, I know. As much as Trump wants them to. It feels good. It feels good to be steady. And it continues to be a buyer's market, which I appreciate. Yeah. I mean things have been a little slow cooling down, and that is good news for buyers who don't have to then fork over and mess with the all cash offers and over asking and 12 people all at once before it even hits the market. So this could be a great time as rates go down and there's still some houses to be bought. I know there used to be so much competition when it comes to housing. You know what else is in competition out there, George? What's that? People are trying to get your information online. Hot commodity, my information. Did you know that? Your name, your address, your email phone number kids names it's out there but delete me goes in and helps remove your information from the internet to keep it away from spammers and scammers you know you know when your phone rings george you just want it to be a loved one calling that's right a good friend an old bff you don't want to spammer calling you so with delete me i'm telling you those those start to dwindle dwindle which we appreciate and they even send you a report they have the receipts to show you exactly where your info was where they removed it and how much time they've saved you I'm at 108 hours already. So I'm kicking off the New Year strong. Well, all that time saved, I could work out. Do I choose to work out? No, but I could with all the time Delete Me saves me. Do so much good stuff with your time. See how much time they could save you and get some digital peace of mind. Just go to joindeliteme.com slash smart money and you'll get 20% off their annual plans. We'll also drop a link in the description below. You're welcome. You are welcome. All right, next, George. Sports betting will continue sabotaging young men's lives. Good use of sabotaging. So 2025 Pew Research Center found that, ready for this, 36% of men under 30 had placed a sports bet within the past year. Goodness gracious. And this is a higher rate than any other age group. Young men, I mean, that's the target demo. I was going to say, I may have added to this percentage. Oh, no. You did a sports bet? I sports bet. $10. Did you win? On a horse race. Oh, gosh. Yep. I did. uh it was the Kentucky Derby and there was a party did you do it from home or what are you at the Derby and I was looking up at that screen and I had no idea what I was looking at but I was like what's a cute horse's name it was like bumblebee or something I was like cute how do you how do you bet on that just watch it I don't know they had like a big chart that they were like they came up with a big chart or something you were like with a group of people yeah yeah yeah it wasn't like an So that's my, that's my, no, no. Rachel cannot be bothered to download another app. I socially gamble. Only if other people are around do I gamble. Wow. That's true. You are competitive. Crap table. So if everyone's doing it, Rachel sucked in. Or, yeah, Kentucky Derby. That's the only one. I don't do fantasy football. I have no desire. But the horse biting, there's something kind of fun about it. And you're really rooting for that horse. It does feel like because it's an animal, you feel differently. Okay. Maybe that's it, George. Is that real? Yeah. I think so. It felt more okay. Because it feels even more out of your control. It felt more okay for some reason. It's like a little jockey, like my size, on the horse, just doing his best. But he doesn't have much control. You know, maybe that's what it is. I'm rooting for an animal, and I'm rooting for the little guy. You know, the little man can't get ahead. He's getting ahead now. The little guy's finally got some love. Yeah, instead of like some big football players, you know, I'm so big. There's more ego. Tackle. I've never seen ego from a jockey. They know their place. I think so. I think there's something humble about it. Maybe that's why I liked it. Just a humble sports bet. That's what I did. So much humility. $10. We're watching the Kentucky Derby. I had to confess that because I didn't want to go through this whole point about sports betting and be like, I don't do that. I did. I can proudly say I've never placed one, mostly because I don't know much about sports. So therefore, I don't invest in things I don't understand, and therefore, I don't bet on things I don't understand. Yeah. But it is an epidemic because now if you count – someone counted the amount of ads on like one ESPN video, had like 13 ads. Yes. All tied to sports betting and FanDuel and MGM Bet and all these different apps. It's insane. It's crazy. It is crazy. It's so heavily marketed. Yes. Oh, yeah. It's so easy to fall into. And the fact that it's becoming more normal makes it not as intimidating or scary for people. So it's like an easier point of entry. You know what I'm saying? Where it's like, oh, yeah, it's not that big of a deal. You're like, man, you're wasting so much money. And I miss the days when you could just enjoy a game and then be mad when your team lost. And that's it. Now you're mad your team lost and you lost money on top of that. Yes, totally. Go Vols. Thanks, George. I heard people say that Thanks George Go Big Orange GBO GBO If you know you know If you know you know All right back to something I kind of understand Let talk about Airbnbs Oh yes Prediction Airbnbs will continue to lose popularity and therefore be a money-losing scheme. It is on the down, right? Isn't that right? Isn't it slowly not becoming as popular? I mean, depending on the area, you might see it's steady. But in a lot of areas, people that jumped into the Airbnb game to try to make a lot of money, they're hurting. Yep. While Airbnbs can be cheaper on average for multiple nights, the cleanup after yourself culture, the hidden fees, I've seen one that was a $1,000 pet fee per night. Oh, my. Per night. Gosh. And somebody paid it, and they were like, wow, I'm making money hand over fist. Totally, totally. The scrappy conditions, the issues you deal with. Yeah. It's a lot of work for vacation. Yes. And so I know you prefer a hotel in most cases, unless you've got a big group of people. Yes. Yeah, if it's a big group with multiple families, a house is wonderful. And free breakfast at the Hampton Inn, just saying. There you go. You get to pour that batter into the waffle maker. That's true. I have trust issues with a hotel waffle maker. Oh, do you? The cleanliness of it? It just feels like a public bathroom for your mouth. You know what I mean? Oh, gross. It's just everybody's using it. George Campbell. George Campbell. I question the conditions. Oh, my gosh. When multiple people, thousands have used this. Thousands. I don't know. Yeah, but they clean it, I hope. The I hope is the part that I really lean into. Fair. Okay, fair. That's a good one. Do you have any favorite hotel chains when you're traveling? A Marriott? You do love a Marriott property. I think it's the pillows. It's technically Marriott, and I don't like that. It is Marriott, you're right. It bothers me. Yes, it is Marriott, and apparently Ralph Lauren instead of Lauren. Lauren? Lauren, yes. So, yes, Marriott. I've heard, I know, I know. But, yeah, that feels safe to me. A courtyard, you know, in the smaller cities. They have a scale from, like, budget-friendly to fancy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because their fancy property, I think it's the Ritz. I do think it's the same. In that family, in the family of hotels. It's like Toyota and Lexus. Yes, that's right. What's yours? You know, I don't go out often these days. Okay. When I do, well, you know my hack. So I use like a Priceline Express and then I'll find one that's just the best rated. So whatever the best rated. Like I love a Kempton in a nice city. Oh, Kemptons are fun. A Kempton can be really nice. Yes, yes. They can be a little quirky. Yes. And I like the quirkiness. Do you? All right. I like predictability. For one night, let's take some weird art on the walls. You know what I mean? And like a weird door into the, like sometimes like their like architecture is kind of funny too. Like a random just red walls everywhere. Like, all right, that was a choice. Yeah. Like that's what we're doing. But for one night, I feel like I'm in an art installation. Yeah, there you go. That's how I view it. There you go. Yeah, I know. There's something about a hotel. I don't know. I just like having my bed made when I come back. Oh, that's true. You know, there's just like those little perks, but you pay more for it. Yeah. That's what it is. All right, next prediction. What do you got? Stock market will stay relatively consistent. What a safe choice. No ups, no downs. You know, it's done well. Like we look back the past couple of years, the market's done great. It's done well. And I hope that it continues to, but it feels like it's done really well that I'm like, ooh, can we stay that good for this? Getting pessimistic, are we? A matter of long time. A lot of people think everything's kind of overblown, overvalued. The AI space is overvalued. Tech, Nvidia, healthcare. Hey, the guy, did you ever see that movie, The Big Short? Yeah. Such a good movie. Love that movie. About where he bet on the housing market and he shorted all the banks. And the banks were like, you're crazy because we're never going to fail. and then they fail in 08. And so, 07-08. And that same guy, I saw a news article, he's now betting, he's shorting the AI market. Oh, wow. Yep. So that's the trend that's happening. Because everyone's rushing to it, pumping money into it, and he's like, hey, this is... It's kind of like the tech bubble, the housing bubble. I don't know. I'm not even smart enough to go in there and short industries. You know what I mean? Yeah. But he's doing it. So let's just be on the lookout, people. You heard it here. Head on a swivel. Code orange. Coke. Condition orange. Here's my take. I have faith in the American economy above any politician. I just think America's resilient. What a patriot. That's who I am. And we've seen 20-something percent in the stock market multiple years in a row. Now, will we see a market that goes in the negative for a year? No. Potentially. No. For a year. I don't think it's going to go in the negative. You never know. I don't think so. That's my prediction. Also, the American economy, it's like Jenga right now. It takes one piece to spook people. So temporarily, I could see it. Yeah, we've had a lot of spooking, though, and nothing's really moved. That's what's interesting about it. Do you know what I mean? Well, for a day, and then it's like, all right, we recovered. Yeah, but nothing big. Like the tariffs we all thought was going to crash. And that didn't really move. Like the economy didn't move much. I don't know. There's been a lot of scares. The housing market was a scare for a little bit. Everyone really did think like, oh, my gosh, is this a bubble? I don't know. It would take like a COVID-level thing to see a long dip. Yes, I would agree with that. I'm still investing just the same. So that's a good reminder. is you want to stay on the roller coaster. So if you are not in retirement actively taking money out, just keep investing no matter what. Don't pull your money out. Because what happens is people jump out because they get spooked, and they forget to jump back in, or they try to time it. Or they try to jump back in, and it's already recovered, and then they're buying at the top. Exactly. Yeah, that's a good point, George, is to stay in it. So this year, it's not my prediction. But if it goes belly up, you just stay consistent, because two, three, four, five, six, seven years from now, you get all those returns, which is great. So stay in the game. Stay in the game. You know what game I'm staying in? What's that? It's the debit card game. And I pulled out my Fairwinds debit card, Debt is Normal. It would be weird the other day, but I went to get my nails done. And I was like, here it is. And I love it. You guys, Fairwinds Credit Union is amazing. And they have a smart bundle happening right now for Ramsey listeners, where you can get a no fees checking account, a high yield savings account, and the Ramsey, Debt is Normal, Be Weird debit card. And I love it, George, because the way that you use their bank on their app and everything, it's so easy. So we've plugged in all of our other accounts into our Fairwinds account so we can move money into the Fairwinds account so easily. It's awesome. And so whether we're traveling internationally or getting my nails done down the street, it's so great. I use it now. They got rid of international fees after watching my video. So shout out to them. They're changing their process. Shout out to you, too, George. That's what I'm doing is helping save the people money. They looked up and said, do we do that? Yeah, let's get rid of that. Let's serve the Ramsey listeners and Ramsey audience and Smart Money Happy Hour folks even better. Fairwinds is awesome, you guys. If you need a banking institution, check them out. You can go to fairwinds.org slash Ramsey and sign up for the Smart Bundle today. All right. Back to our predictions. Self-driving cars will become normalized. I'm part of the problem. I don't think that's going to be true. Really? Normalized is a very big word. Well, it's going to be happening all around us. You won't know it, hopefully. No, but it has been happening. I just don't think it's going to like suddenly every car is going to be self-driving. No one said every car. But normalized makes it feel like more cars than not. I see a lot of Teslas on the road now. Yeah. And my guess is at least half of them don't have their hands on the wheel. That car is driving itself. I know. Do you feel like even in the Ramsey parking lot, we have some charging stations? We only have eight total. Yep. They're gone. I mean, you used to. What was that? three years ago, four years ago, there was always one empty, always. So I never charged my car at home. Now you got to kind of play the game. Actually, before this shoot, I went out there, saw an empty spot and I'm charging for three hours. Yeah, I know. Just get as much as you can. Free charging here at the office if you're an employee. So people take advantage of that. I charge at home because I'm a good person and I like to leave that spot open. You are always charged to the point. There's someone out there who really can use the free Recharge. Okay. I'm willing to pay. I was parked and you were like, at the same time, George goes, Rachel, there's an empty spot. And I said, I know, but I'm at 73%. Like, I don't really need it. And George was like, I would take it. And I was like, all right, I'll fill up to 80%. So I'm back. I was trying to be nice. I was trying to turn a new leaf. Oh, but no, I have used the self-driving feature and it is amazing. It's amazing. Does it have a few bugs here and there? Yes. Do I fear for my life on occasion? Sure. But that's part of the journey. So I do think it's going to get better. And Elon just said, now the time of this recording, he said it'll be a month or two where you can text and drive. So it's not going to be as – you don't need to be as attentive. Yes, because you normally have to look up. Like they know your eyes, where your eyes are. So your car will beep at you if you're not looking up, which is smart. Yeah. They want to keep you safe to make sure that you're ready to take over at a moment's notice. But I think soon it will become unsupervised. Right now it's supervised. Soon enough. No, I think that that's happening. I agree. And they got the cyber taxi, robo taxi, all of that. And it's cheaper. I saw a screenshot where instead of getting an Uber, it's like five times less expensive to just take the robo car. But your control is nowhere to be found when you are – well, I guess it's not even in an Uber either. I have very little control in an Uber. You just yell at the driver and be like, stop, slow down. I don't know. My guy, last time I was in an Uber, full-on conversation of foreign language loudly for 40 minutes. Oh, man. On speaker. Oh, no. Like, can I have some peace? Luckily, I had my noise-canceling headphones on. Yeah, that's a lot. But I was like, man. That's a lot. At least let me into the conversation. Oh, at least let me know what you're talking about. I don't know. I can't speak. Hey, don't they have a new technology where you can, like, translate languages? The new AirPods have that. I need to get those. Oh, my gosh. That'll be fun. That's so good. All right. Buy now. Play later will become more predatory. So loan stacking, consumers can take multiple Buy Now, Pay Later loans at once. Yikes. And they are targeting low-income shoppers, more hidden fees, late penalties, all of that, all hidden in the fine print. It's becoming more and more normal. Yeah. I was scared of this years ago when it first came out. And we've had Buy Now, Pay Later in certain forms, but it just, again, became so much easier. Yes. It's just an app now and just add it to my tab and it's right under the add to cart. And so people are just making smaller and smaller purchases on buy now, pay later. Yes. And then it just keeps adding to their tab and they can't make the full payment at the end of the month. Yeah, it starts adding up. And again, it's that whole psychology where you justify, oh my gosh, that's not that much money. Well, I can just add a couple more things because I can definitely make that payment. I was expecting to pay the full thing, but if I don't, and then you end up spending more. And to your point, overspending. And if you don't make the payment, then it's all this backed up fees and everything. So it's just not a good plan. And my prediction on top of that, apps will start pushing you to the buy now, pay later option. Before you even check out, they're going to go, hey, this is the smart option. Just make it on payments with our partner, Affirm or Klarna or DoorDash or whoever. Because Costco partnered with Affirm, DoorDash is with Klarna. So I think you're going to start to see that pop up more and more. More and more. Because they make more money. And the more you do buy now, pay later, the more you're willing to spend on their app. And companies know this. Stay away, please. If you're listening to this, I hope you don't do that junk. No. our listeners never would. They're too smart. The job market will continue to slow. So as of late September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said job openings are down, oh gosh, 422,000 from a year ago. Yikes. That's tough. Yeah, we're in a soft market. Will it continue to slow? I do think so. I think it's going to take, it's going to be a slow burn to ramp it back up. I don't think it's going to be one thing where we just turn the faucet back on and there's jobs. Yes. Yeah. And I guess It just businesses overall what are becoming more conservative watching cash flow you know pausing some hiring Trying to utilize you know AI and technology instead of making that next hire and spending 50 grand or whatever. Can they be more nimble? Yeah. With less people. Yeah. And I think the sad answer is they're going to figure out a way to do that. To do it. Yeah. To save money. In order to keep the revenues up. Yes. Yes. Oh, that's hard. That is hard. What do you tell someone if they called into the Ramsey show and said, hey, my job is being replaced? Yeah. Yeah, I think, well, yeah, and if you have to replace your job, I think more than ever, knowing someone inside the company is vital. Like, I think longer the days of just applying online and just hoping you get in. I mean, genuinely, I think that there's so much competition now. So knowing people, having relationships, putting your name out there, your story out there, like, hey, I'm looking, talking to people. I think that networking piece is going to become more and more vital. Yeah. And I think truly you have to learn AI, how to figure out how to use it for your job, because that makes you irreplaceable. That's good. Because we always are going to need people who can utilize it to do their job better and faster. Yeah. That's what's going to happen. Those are the people who I think will excel in this market. All right. Next up, next prediction. Housing market will stay a buyer's market. Oh, yeah. We just mentioned that a little bit earlier, but I think that's true. So houses have been sitting on the market a little longer lately, which also leads to lower prices over time in general. And if it's a buyer's market, maybe it's your first house, this could be a decent time to shop around. So this is good news. Now, housing prices are still really high. I don't think we're going to see prices budge a whole lot. No. But I do think with interest rates coming down, more people will be letting go of their homes. Yes. They've been sitting on sort of these golden handcuffs of like, well, I have a 3.5% rate. Why would I ever move? Yes. They might be willing to jump to a 4.5% to finally go where they want to go. So I think that will loosen up the housing market a little bit. and buyers will be more likely to buy if the rates are a little bit lower. Helps with the payment. Yep. And negotiations will be in play as they are now, which is so helpful. If you are buying a home, you're going to have some power, which is great. And so that's hopefully going to get some people in the market and get it moving. Can I add a bonus prediction to this housing market? Oh, I love it. Yes. Trump just talked about on Truth Social, the 50-year mortgage. No. You've heard about this trend. Now, at the time of this recording, they just put it out there. and they're confirming they're working on this. That scares me because I think what's going to happen is home prices will go up because more people can afford it. So it's going to flood the market with more buyers. So that does scare me a little bit as the prediction. Here's the overall prediction. Which would be a more terrible interest rate. Oh yeah. That interest rate goes up. I did the math for you. A $400,000 loan on a 15-year, for example, will cost you like $569,000. So $170,000 in interest. On a 50-year mortgage, it's over a million dollars in interest alone on a four hundred thousand dollar loan so you're basically renting from the bank instead of a landlord that's all we've done with this 50 year mortgage you'll never actually own anything because you're going to be crawling to get any equity man but we've seen this in the car market too seven-year car loans now normalized so what i think is going to happen overall is we're going to keep dragging out the loan terms yeah it's to lower the payment so that people can afford things yep so they can still have their nice car and their nice house. And still live the life they want. Please don't do that. But they're in debt that much longer. Oh, man. What a prediction, George. Thank you. Unbelievable. That's a bonus. Didn't even pay for that one. Man. All right. Let's end the year on a positive. Yeah. You know, I think the goal here, don't let fear 50-year mortgages and millions of dollars in interest paid. Don't let fear drive your decision. Actually, that one should drive your decision. Yeah, let's be fearful of that. Let's don't do that. things as a healthy fear of doing something really stupid. Yeah, we don't want to do something stupid. But this overall sitting and wringing your hands of, oh my gosh, you know, like, is the Fed going to lower rates? Is the housing market? What's, you know, I mean, there's so much that we cannot control. And so this year going into 2026, just have the pep talk of like, hey, the decisions I make on a day in and day out basis with my money, they're going to affect me either in a positive light or a negative light. And the more positive light in the long-term decisions that you make when you think long-term, I think is the key. So it may not feel good in the moment. You may have to say no every now and then. That's not fun. But if you're doing that, it probably means because you're staying within your means, you're sticking to a plan and the long-term you is going to be thankful. So just be remembering the 2027 you, if you will. Yeah. Next year. Just don't shortcut it. Like I know it's going to be harder. I know it's going to take longer. It's going to be slower, but that's the right way to do it. The more boring your financial plan is, the better off you're going to be long-term. That's right. All right, before we jump into our pop culture predictions, George, those are going to be fun, let's chat about something that we have loved this year, Cozy Earth. That's always going to make your year better. Man. Upgrade your year. That's what I'm saying. It's time. I mean, literally, last night I had my joggers on, my sweatshirts, my Cozy Earth blanket, and a fire, and I was happy as can be. So it is amazing. Their clothes, their bedding, their sheets, their blankets, everything that Cozy Earth has, you guys. The quality is incredible. Can I tell you something honestly? I took off my Cozy Earth sweatshirt because I didn't want to get baby spit up on it. That's how much I love it. I'm like, I cannot ruin this. I don't want to have to wash this right now. So I'm going to protect it. I'm going to protect my Cozy Earth. If I'm holding the baby, the Cozy Earth comes off temporarily. I can't risk it. No. You got to keep it. Keep it clean. Yeah. I know. But it is. It's incredible. So if you are looking to upgrade your life a little bit, you guys, it is worth it. The Cozy Earth products, anything that you find, again, we are fans of. And you can take advantage of Cozy Earth's best discount right now when you go to CozyEarth.com slash smart money. Use promo code smart money at checkout and you'll get 20% off. Not a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all. All right. Let's do some rapid fire pop culture, shall we? Predictions. Shall we? Okay. I'll start us off. Taylor and Travis, when are they going to get married? Oh, a specific wedding day? I'm going to predict. Let's go June feels right to me. Okay. She loves the number 13, so let's go June 13th. That's a Saturday? Shall we? I don't know. What more evidence do we need? Let's check it. She loves the number 13. Let's check it. Is June special to her? Do we know? You know, I probably should know that as a Swiftie. Oh, it is. It is. It's my best. Oh, my gosh. One of our best friends' birthday. What if her birthday was Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's anniversary? Now that you could sports bet on. That would be pretty cool. Rachel would be in for the pool on that. She'd throw 10 bucks in the mix. I know. At one of our conferences we had here this year, there was a sweet couple. And they were talking to me. And they're from Kansas City. She's like, are you ready for the royal wedding? And I literally went British in my head. I was like, the royal wedding? She's like, no, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. I was like, oh my gosh, that royal wedding? Yes, I am. Are they going to get married in Kansas City? Is that for sure? No, no, no, no, no. But he plays for Kansas City. obviously yeah yeah i just thought that's okay like we're gonna go the family oriented route yeah no i don't think they would i mean who knows she has a nation wedding to limit the amount of people i could see like yeah i could see them doing like a beautiful estate in like france or something but it's all like blocked off they don't need they showed us their engagement pictures i think we need one wedding picture yeah trav and tay just one we don't need the whole thing i think you keep that to yourselves. I think that's smart. Can we go back to my idea? Live stream it for charity. Pay-per-view. You could solve world hunger if you live stream Taylor Swift's wedding. It's so true though. It is so true. Like the water crisis solved. 20 bucks if you want to watch this thing. Oh man. And then the amount of betting you could do on what's going to happen during the wedding and make all of that go to charity too. We could fund public education. Yeah. We could give teachers a raise. So much for the world. All right. Next prediction, nostalgia will continue to make money. The Dawson's Creek reunion happened last year. We love you, James Van Der Beek. Kristen Cavallari, Lauren Conrad, Stephen Coletti. Am I saying that right? Executive producers. Working on a two-hour Laguna Beach reunion special in 2026. That feels like a lot, but also not enough if you're a big Laguna Beach fan, I guess. Hilary Duff is coming out with new music. Miley is working on something special for the Hannah Montana 20th anniversary. Yeah, they're just taking the millennials and they're just... You're about to see Backstreet Boys at the Sphere for the second time. So nostalgia makes money. And Rachel is willing to pay. Didn't you read something about nostalgia and music and how it's ingrained in our souls at that age? I know. Yeah, we talked about this at Ramsey Show Live in Chicago. But yeah, there was a study. Someone sent it to me after I went on and on about Backstreet Boys making me have all these emotions that I didn't even know were inside of me still. I was like, oh my gosh. and they said yeah as your brain is forming between the ages i think it's 10 and 16 literally when like the neuro circuits are connected like certain parts of your brain music specifically holds in a part of your brain than any other like decade or even beyond movies or tv shows it's like music emotionally takes you to a place well it's also your most formative years because you're awkward and i think it's that too yes figure out who you are you probably have your first kiss first breakup yes i mean all of it it's all during those years yeah it's it's a big deal so wow i love that and i think about that amelia's 10 oh what is she i know so i'm just like i'm trying to like what am i gonna you know i feel a little out of the loop i'm not sure do they even listen to music or is it like a trending song on tiktok we've listened to taylor i mean my kid my girls on tiktok i mean yeah they don't know um yeah i mean taylor's new album has a couple cute songs so like we'll listen to that forrest frank oh they do love forrest frank um and then randomly this is so funny caroline she got a karaoke machine for christmas last year so it's been a year and it has the radio dial on it so there's a station in nashville called mix 92.9 it's like oldies and like kind of some current but it's like it used to be soft rock but now it's like like music that was popular probably 10 years ago i feel like they like play a lot of It's vintage now. Yeah. And she listens to the radio. She listens to Mixed 929s. I'll hear like the traffic report coming from her room sometimes. Wow. It's like the radio, the actual radio. So she like hears these songs and she like she memorizes them. And something will randomly come on and she starts singing it. And I'm like, Carrie, how do you know that song? And she's like, oh, well, they play it on the radio like all the time, you know. But it's like some random song from like No Doubt or something. I mean, like it's like random. And I'm like, that is so funny to me. So long answer. I don't know what the kids are listening to. What their nostalgia will be. What the 20th anniversary of Blippi will be. Yeah, I don't know. Who knows? That's frightening. Let's hope, yeah, that there's some, for my own boredom in life, so I'm sorry people's pain I take as entertainment, but some high-profile court cases. Oh, boy. Is it going to be happening? So the big one that we're all kind of on pins and needles about is Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. So they're supposed to meet in court on March 9th. Really? It's still going on? Still going on. I thought the whole thing got dropped. No, his side got dropped at some point. But, yeah, I don't know. So we're going to be – I will be watching and waiting because apparently I have no life and I have to live through. What about the crazy ones, like the Luigi Mangione and the Charlie Kirk shoot? Oh, interesting. I think they talked about should those be public or not. Sure. Why would they not be, right? I don't know. But I think that, again, pay-per-view, make it all go to charity. Oh, my gosh. Why are we not doing this guys Why are we not doing this Okay you threw this out but it is true um backstreet boys had a very successful reunion so the prediction is NSYNC will try to compete and I did hear this I heard a few of them say like it'd be you know that we're gonna try but I don't think they can get Justin he's too too out of it he's like no I'm not going back that's why backstreet boys work because there wasn't like the one that like yeah well can we be honest There wasn't a lot of ego with Backstreet Boys. I know. You know? Yeah. There was only like one hot one. You know what I mean? Like NSYNC was like, oh, okay. They're all pretty good looking. You know? Backstreet Boys are like, oh, those are just a bunch of dudes. You know? Fair. Yeah. Yeah. I thought some of them were good looking. Okay. But yeah, we'll see if NSYNC does a reunion. Be interesting. That would be big. All right. Here's the next one. Prediction. Dolly will recover and her Vegas show will resume and be amazing. i pray someone said um this past weekend i don't know if it's true or not that she's stopping all public appearances after 2026 like this is this is like one of yes because the interviews i think we were trying to get her on the ramp i think we have some connections i think we've been trying to get dolly for a while not on this show she's too big for us but dolly if you're watching we'd love to have you but um yeah apparently she's like like a lot of her people are saying i don't know that may be all rumors so please don't sue me dolly if that is not true but well she came out with a video and she was like, I'm fine, guys. Like, my sister blew it out of proportion. I'm doing okay. Okay, I know. Well, apparently, yeah. But she's earned the right to not have to do things anymore. Well, sure, yeah. But we just want it as the people. Man, what a jewel of a human, though. We need more dollies in the world. Add her to your celebrity prayer list, would you? I don't think I need to pray for her. I think she needs to pray for me. I mean, I feel like she's closer to God than I am. Higher the hair, closer to God. I mean, she is a jewel. She is a jewel of a human. Fun pop culture. Any bonus pop culture predictions that have been on your mind or just culture predictions? What's going to happen? Oh, I have a prediction. I think more young people are going to be seeking out some sort of religion and faith. It's up. I saw this stat. It's like 37% of Gen Zers now claim to be more spiritual than millennials did at their age. Wow. They are seeking something, which I think is wonderful. That's wonderful. I do too. Even if it's for the sole purpose of just being around people and having a community, you know, a positive community. Just that alone is so rare in today's culture and social media. So I'm here for it. That's fun. I love that, George. I hope to see more of that. There's my bonus for you. So good. All right. Well, you guys remember this year, stay the course. Focus on your life. Don't get stressed out about everyone else's because there's a lot going on. And like we said earlier, control what you can control. I think those are so key. And sometimes that feels like very little, but you can control your life, and that matters to me. So your money, the decisions you make, the mistakes you avoid, all of that has serious consequences for better and for worse. So make good decisions and avoid all of the trends that are out there. Don't try to jump on the flashy thing. If it looks boring, do that thing. That's usually the right next step. I love it. Yep, and we have an upcoming live stream called Take Back Your Money in 2026. That's coming up on January 8th. and we will put a link down below so you can reserve your tickets because it's always great to kind of kick off with some kind of milestone event just to say, okay, with my money specifically, here's what I'm going to do, and that live stream is for you guys. And it's free, so no reason not to sign up. Yeah, that's right. All right, George, before we spill the tea on our Guilty as Charged segment, what do we rate it? I'm going to give this particular champagne, I'm going to go 4 out of 10. I was going to say the same. I hate to say it. It's fine. It just has that bite at the end. At the end. It's the after that sits on the back and it gets a little bit, yeah. I also think champagne needs to be like frosty, you know? Super cold. This is cold. Don't get me wrong. It was cold. But I like it frosty. Yeah. I know. It's got a little like sour on the back end. Yes. And not in a good way because I like sour. This is sour. It hits you. But you know, I do like, I just feel like it looks festive and fun, you know? Yeah, it is. You're like talking with a glass of champagne. You're right. There's just something about it. I agree with you. I like the look. So we both rated four out of ten? Yeah. We both drank about the same amount? It looks pretty. Well, that's the good news. Champagne always looks the same. You couldn't tell. And the price ranges. You know, you can get a good $8 bottle. You can spend hundreds of dollars. This one is definitely closer to the $8 range. I can tell you that much. This is definitely your Kroger pick. You know what I mean? Kroger pick, you don't like the party you're going to, bring some of this. This costs, a general $25 bottle would be about $3.50 per serving of champagne. Yes. Per drink. Yeah, so ours was probably like a dollar. Closer to a dollar. Yeah, which is great. Is that fair? Well, the way Rachel poured it, that's probably about a $2 or $3. That is a glass of champagne, George. If you're at a restaurant, they fill your champagne glass. I've never got champagne at a restaurant, so way to be unrelatable. I just look at the price of a champagne on a restaurant. Oh, George, stop. You're so annoyed. Oh, my gosh. I could have bought a whole bottle of Corbel for the same price. This one glass. But if I'm with the Cruises, I would buy. I'll celebrate. Champagne. Get the recipe in the show notes. It's called buying a bottle of champagne and pouring it out. But the hardest part, which Rachel did effortlessly, was opening it. I have a deep-seated fear. Do you want me to tell you the trick of it? Yeah. everyone thinks you pop it you you twist it's a twist you twist it and then and then you hear it come up in it yep yeah so if you need to cork a bottle of champagne yes undo it all and then you twist you don't that that is crazy i just have a weird final destination fear that like what happened to george yeah he passed away got hit with a champagne cork just hit him what a way to go down though i know party party you know but it would like right in the eye or something you You know what I mean? Yeah. I can't risk it. That's why I wear glasses. Got to have protective eyewear. Protect it all. So good. All right. 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 made a decision after banking on something, but then it didn't happen? Oh, boy. I put my eggs in this very specific basket. You did? Tell me. It was a job after college. Okay. And it was with the college. oh yeah so the college sponsored an event called winter jam which is like a big christian rock concert and arenas oh yeah and so they had like a host that would get on stage and pitch the the scholarship were you gonna be and i was gonna be the host which i thought was a perfect job for me that's a pretty big deal yeah and i banked on it all summer long so i went back home for the summer but i was like well i'm going back to mobile alabama because i'm gonna be the host of winter jam on behalf of university of mobile shout out go rams and i got an email the end of august and they're like hello we have uh we're seeking other candidates for this opportunity thank you for applying i think i cried in my childhood bedroom in massachusetts just going like well i guess i need to like find a job after spending all summer not searching oh no because i thought it was a shoe you didn't even have like a formal like like so i thought yeah the previous conversation i had it was like oh yeah you'd be great you know and i had i had some stage skills like they've seen that so uh in hindsight bullet man that's a great story yeah would you have traveled around with them yes you would travel with winter jam and you get up on stage each night and you do the big pitch for why the school's so great and how we have a scholarship and dang it would have been perfect now knowing what i do now that was before i was so good at ramsey so man but now here i am so i feel like it worked out. Yeah. All roads lead to where they should. Do you ever wonder like the alternative universe if you had just done one thing different in life? Yes. You think about the school you go to and whatever it is. Yeah, you wouldn't have met Winston. You wouldn't have had your family. All of it. Yeah. Your kids. What do they call it? Is that like the butterfly effect? Like one decision like the ripples out? You tell me. Is that a movie? I think that's a movie. The butterfly effect. You know, you've heard the butterfly effect, right? Yeah. It's beautiful, actually. The flap of a butterfly's wings creates a little stirring, you know, and then it moves some pollen and then that pollen grows that flower and that bee that happens to pollinate there and that bee stings that person that has to then go here and then they meet this person and then all of a sudden all the world is different because of a butterfly's wings. You believe that. You don't believe that we landed on the moon, but you believe a butterfly change the trajectory of your life all right it's just the idea to your point that small decisions can change everything okay no you had me with that part it was the whole butterfly wings flapping that's the idea is that like it all like you know all right do you know what song always comes in my head this is a throw this is a throwback is it a samantha moma song no close to it though demi lovato and joe jonas had a song together and i wish i could sing and i would but i can't just say the lyrics um did you know that the that the flap of a butterfly's wings uh oh man hold on i got it y'all know what i'm talking about it was like a random oh was this a hit song no apparently not nobody knows it but i but me but demi lovato y'all know it hold on she uh Gun to my head, couldn't name a Demi Lovato song. So you're really overestimating my knowledge of Demi. Give me some songs. I know. We got to go. We got to go. Sorry, not sorry. Don't know it. Here. Oh, make a wave. Hold on. From Disney Channel. Oh, man. I didn't have Disney Channel. I know. And this is when I was old. I think they were on American Idol at one point. I had to go to grandma's house to watch the Disney Channel. Throw a pebble in the water. So it's like the idea. What a Disney song. Why does it sound like a 2025 worship song? Are you kidding me? Switch it to Make a Way. Make a Way would be a hit in every church in America. Hillsong, if you're listening, you got a writer. I'm here. Call me up. Oh my gosh. Bethel, hit me up. Brandon Lake, where you at, bro? Jelly Roll, call me. We gotta bring it back. Do you have a story? I don't think I do. I'm not coming up with one in my head. I'm sorry, you took the cake on that. You've never banked on anything, I feel like. It's all just happened. It didn't have to really bank. Just sort of, you know. You were a butterfly, just floating through life. Changing the course of the universe. If anything, it would be like if I had a speaking gig and it was like, oh, you're gonna get paid this much on this date and then when you complete it and I'm like oh my gosh okay I'm probably going to get that you know I make something up in my head of what I'm going to do with that and then it never goes to contract and you're like crap yeah I thought I was going to make that money that is frustrating it's kind of like I would say that you're going to get a bonus and it just didn't come yeah yeah yeah it would be along those lines but all right well if you have a guilty of charge question make sure to dm us at rachelcruzan at george camel we love getting them And if you enjoyed this episode, you will love our episode where we debunk your top excuses for not budgeting. So we'll put a link for you. And make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an all-new episode of Smart Money Happy Hour.