Episode 219. “He’s so cheap it’s killing our joy”

Angela (52) and Brian (52) have been together since they were teenagers and have raised four kids.

Now as empty nesters, they’re stuck in a sitcom-style standoff: Angela loves bargain shopping and dreams of traveling the world, but Brian clings to a decades-old belief that they need $1 million to retire and panics over every pantry purchase. Their net worth proves that they’re actually financially stable—but Brian can’t shake the fear of not having enough.

Can Ramit help them rewrite their roles, align on what retirement really looks like, and find connection beyond coupons and control?

In this episode we uncover:

• Why Angela believes they’re ready to retire—and why Brian is convinced they’re still broke.
• The decades-old advice Brian can’t shake—and how it’s been quietly dictating their entire financial life.
• The performance dynamic they’ve fallen into—and how it’s masking deeper emotional needs.
• The stark difference in how they define a “Rich Life”—and what’s missing from both visions.
• How Angela uses frugality to feel responsible—and the cost of that invisible labor.
• The moment Brian saw their actual net worth, and why it didn’t change how he feels.
• What happens when couples keep score with their sacrifices—and how it erodes connection.
• How fear of losing control is stopping Brian from building the life he actually wants.

Chapters:

(00:00:00) “I’ve been chasing that number since I was 18”

(00:04:11) The emotional cost of saying no to everything

(00:19:08) Ramit breaks down their numbers

(00:29:21) “Why do we need eight jars of peanut butter?”

(00:40:57) Trapped in the “justifier” and “decider” roles

(00:50:34) Frugal lives, empty spaces

(00:58:01) “I think we’ve just kind of… drifted”

(01:06:04) How much is enough to retire—and what would make us feel safe?

(01:18:42) Where are they now? Angela and Brian’s follow-ups

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Links mentioned in this episode 

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Transcript 

Download the full transcript PDF 

[00:00:05] Angela: We're living too little of a life, is the problem. He just says no all the time.

[00:00:09] Brian: I just cringe. It's not about her, it's about the spending the money, going out. I don't want the experience. I don't need it.

[00:00:15] Angela: One of my hobbies is also bargain shopping, and it drives him crazy. So he'll say, "Why do we need eight jars of peanut butter?" And I'll say, "Because they were a $1.99. So I'm actually saving us money."

[00:00:30] Ramit: How often do you talk about this?

[00:00:32] Brian: Almost every day.

[00:00:34] Angela: Every day almost. Every day.

[00:00:35] Brian: Why are we wasting money on ridiculous food that no one eats?

[00:00:40] Angela: So finally we went, and we had a really good time. And then when we left, he said, "Okay, that's off your bucket list now, right? Check. Mark that off."

[00:00:49] Ramit: What was with that comment?

[00:00:52] Brian: Stop adding things to your list of things to go out and spend money on. I need to control, and that's what it comes down to.

[Narration]

[00:00:59] Ramit: Listen to this line from their application. "I just worry that life is passing us by, and we can be doing and spending more on life. We never eat out. Vacations are once a year. He always thinks we are poor. I need someone to tell him that we are okay money-wise, so he can live life before it's too late."

[00:01:22] Today I am speaking with Angela and Brian. They're both 52 years old. They've been together since they were in high school, and they've been married for 28 years. They've raised four children together, and soon they will be empty nesters. Right now money is pulling them apart. Angela is saying, "Is this all life is going to be?"

[00:01:43] Now let's look at the numbers on their conscious spending plan or CSP. You can download your own copy of the CSP for free at iwt.com/csp. It's the exact tool I use in every episode. Income, $188,000. Assets, 961,000. Investments, 890,000. Debt, 294,000. Total net worth, 1.57 million. Fixed costs, 72%. Investments, 35%. Okay. At 52, we have some good progress here.

[00:02:21] They're investing aggressively. They've built real wealth, but 72% on fixed costs is a red flag, especially at their ages. I imagine they are feeling very tight with money, and it also sounds like Angela's ready to enjoy life, but Brian thinks they are broke, which looking at their numbers, that is clearly not the case. I have a lot of questions. Let's get into it.

[Interview]

[00:02:43] Ramit: Angela, in your application you wrote, "I think we are totally fine and can retire in five years. He thinks if we don't have 50 grand in the bank, we can never retire."

[00:02:55] Angela: True.

[00:02:56] Ramit: Tell me about that.

[00:02:58] Angela: I know our money. I know what we spend. We're very frugal. And I just want to start living life a little bit more now, where Brian on the other hand worries about every single penny and I think feels like we need to have a billion dollars before we can retire. So my fear is that he'll be working till he is 80, and I'm ready to retire when I'm 55.

[00:03:21] Ramit: Is it a billion or $50,000 exactly?

[00:03:24] Brian: Probably both combined $1,000,050,000.

[00:03:28] Ramit: How do you feel hearing the application that Angela wrote?

[00:03:32] Brian: I don't know what the magic number is. So in my mind, I have no concept of what I need to live whatever life it's going to be. And I don't even know what that looks like. You talk about the Rich Life. I've been going through it all week in my mind. What's my Rich Life? I have no idea. And I'm trying to get grips on that to figure out what I need to say, "Okay, I'm done, or I'm going to work part-time or whatever." I have no concept of this.

[00:03:59] Ramit: Is it a number?

[00:04:00] Brian: Years ago my father-in-law said, "We need a million dollars to retire." I don't even know where that number came from. I'm still trying to figure that out.

[00:04:07] Ramit: Have you believed that number?

[00:04:09] Brian: I have believed that number since he told me probably when I was 18. I've been dating her since I've been 17, 18.

[00:04:16] Ramit: So many, many years ago when you first met, you heard your father-in-law say, "We need a million dollars to retire." And so you took that to heart as an 18-year-old?

[00:04:26] Brian: I did.

[00:04:27] Ramit: Let's talk about where you are today.

[00:04:29] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:30] Ramit: What is your current retirement plan?

[00:04:35] Angela: We have a lot. We both fully fund our Roth IRA. I have 403(b) because I'm a teacher. I also have a pension. And then Brian has a 401(k).

[00:04:46] Ramit: Okay. Do you know your numbers?

[00:04:48] Angela: Yes.

[00:04:49] Brian: I do.

[00:04:49] Ramit: Wow. Okay. I love that confidence. Amazing.

[00:04:52] Brian: I just cried the other day.

[00:04:53] Ramit: Is that true?

[00:04:54] Angela: Yes.

[00:04:55] Brian: I teared inside because it had lost 50,000. I didn't even want to look at it because I knew with the market, it was just crashing. I'm like, "I can't do it." I only looked at it because we had to prepare for this.

[00:05:06] Ramit: Why do you think you both see retirement differently?

[00:05:11] Brian: I think she feels that we're at a comfortable place financially right now or our plan going forward. I don't see that. I think we just need more. I wish I would've started much earlier. Obviously, you can't get that time back, so we're just trying to max out what we can now. But I just think I need to keep working until I feel we're ready, I guess, in my mind. And she's ready sooner than--

[00:05:37] Angela: We're living too little of a life, is the problem. We really are not spending any money. We just don't spend money. We tried to talk about when the last time we went out to eat, and I think it was two years ago.

[00:05:53] Ramit: Is that right?

[00:05:53] Angela: Yes.

[00:05:54] Ramit: Where'd you go?

[00:05:56] Angela: 3rd & Ferry, just a little restaurant that had fun seafood specials. We had a day off of work, and we went a Wednesday afternoon for lunch.

[00:06:05] Ramit: No occasion. Just you both had the day off?

[00:06:07] Angela: I probably begged him to go.

[00:06:09] Ramit: What was that like?

[00:06:10] Angela: It was really fun. We enjoyed ourself. We enjoyed the lunch. We walked around the little town afterwards. We said, "We're going to do this more often." And it was probably two years ago.

[00:06:19] Ramit: What happened from that day till now? Why have you not gone out to eat?

[00:06:24] Angela: He just says no all the time. We have food here at home.

[00:06:28] Ramit: Paint the picture. I have to hear this conversation. So do you bring up going out to eat?

[00:06:32] Angela: All the time.

[00:06:33] Ramit: Walk me through. Let's recreate the last conversation you had.

[00:06:35] Angela: I said the other day, the melting pot has this special where we can do half price fondue. That would be really fun. Do you want to do that one night?

[00:06:44] Brian: Definitely not. I have no interest in going out all--

[00:06:50] Angela: But it will be fun, and it's half price.

[00:06:52] Brian: Like I said, she has a short bucket list, or a long bucket list of things she likes to accomplish, whatever it may be. Restaurants being one of them. I have been out recently. I'll take my kids out to Chinese buffet for their birthday.

[00:07:05] Ramit: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:06] Brian: That's one-on-one time.

[00:07:07] Ramit: How come you take your kids out but not your wife out?

[00:07:10] Brian: I don't--

[00:07:13] Angela: He feels like it's a requirement probably, for their birthday.

[00:07:15] Brian: I feel like I owe them something. Okay, this is part of your birthday gift, so to speak. And they enjoy going out.

[00:07:20] Angela: Pick a meal. Where are we going to go?

[00:07:22] Brian: That kind of thing.

[00:07:23] Ramit: Just wait. You feel like you owe your kids something for their birthday.

[00:07:29] Brian: Right, right.

[00:07:30] Ramit: Okay. What about your wife?

[00:07:33] Brian: I guess I'm screwed on that one because I owe you the same level of respect.

[00:07:40] Ramit: What if it's not her birthday?

[00:07:43] Brian: Probably we're not going out.

[00:07:46] Ramit: Because?

[00:07:47] Brian: I don't want to spend the money. Because we have food here. I just don't want to go out, and it's taken away from our relationship. If that means so much to her, yeah, I'll make it a priority going forward. Maybe just quarterly, we'll go out.

[00:07:59] Ramit: Well, come on. I don't believe that. You all have been married 28 years. You know it's a priority. She's been asking you every week for the last 20 years.

[00:08:07] Brian: 20. I know. It's just, I don't see a point. Can we do something else? That's my thought.

[00:08:13] Angela: If we do something on my bucket list, then it's like a check mark. So, like, I wanted to go to a happy hour recently, and it was on a Tuesday night, and he was like, "Why does it have to be a Tuesday? Why does it have to be a Tuesday?" So finally we went, and we had a really good time, and we enjoyed it. And then when we left, he said, "Okay, that's off your bucket list now. Right? Check. Mark that off."

[00:08:37] Ramit: Okay. Let's zoom in on that. What was with that comment?

[00:08:42] Brian: Stop adding things to your list of things to go out and spend money on. I know this was only six bucks. It was a flight of beer. It was a crap brewery type thing. It was ambiance. It was us talking, connecting one on one type of thing. I just cringe. It's not about her. It's about the spending the money, going out. I don't want the experience. I don't need it. Maybe I don't need the alcohol. Maybe I don't need the extra food. I need to control, and that's what it comes down to.

[00:09:06] Ramit: Can we do this exact same conversation, but can we just flip roles? So in this scenario, Angela, you don't want to go out. You don't want the calories. You don't want the drinks. You just don't want it.

[00:09:24] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:25] Ramit: And Brian, you have been wanting to go out for years. You want to connect. You don't care how much it costs. It's not the point. It's not even an expensive place. You just want to go out and spend time with your partner. So everybody get into their role.

[00:09:43] Angela: I'm going to be Brian.

[00:09:44] Brian: Yeah.

[00:09:45] Angela: Okay.

[00:09:45] Ramit: Yeah. And I would like for you to have that same conversation as each other. Go ahead.

[00:09:50] Brian: Yeah. I can't wait. Tonight we're going out to the Proper Brewing.

[00:09:55] Angela: I'm not going.

[00:09:57] Brian: What? We planned on this.

[00:09:58] Angela: No, no. I decided I don't want to spend the money.

[00:10:01] Brian: You know they have happy hour, 5:00 to 7:00, free munchies. They have a band that's coming in.

[00:10:06] Angela: Too crowded. I don't need the calories. We have food at home. We can eat at home.

[00:10:10] Brian: We've been planning this for months.

[00:10:11] Angela: I know, but money. We don't need the food. We can just stay home. Maybe next week.

[00:10:19] Brian: Cut.

[00:10:21] Ramit: Okay. That seemed to come very easy to both of you. What did it feel like?

[00:10:28] Brian: Sounds great.

[00:10:31] Angela: Just excuses, making excuses. There's always excuses.

[00:10:34] Ramit: To me it felt like a bit of a performance.

[00:10:39] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:40] Ramit: And to me also, when I see you acting as yourselves, it also feels like a performance. How does that strike you?

[00:10:54] Brian: I feel as though, like, okay, when we retire officially, whenever that is, we have time for that stuff. Right now it's about you relax when you come home from work. I'll do my thing. And it's like, I don't know.

[00:11:09] Ramit: What about the performance aspect?

[00:11:11] Angela: Yeah, I don't know what you mean by that exactly.

[00:11:14] Brian: Like too dramatic? Like excuses?

[00:11:18] Ramit: Like each of you is a caricature. Like Brian, you are the grumpy, older guy who is like, food? We don't need that. And like, ah, we'll do it someday. Just kind of a reflexive no to anything that's asked. And even when you are begrudgingly dragged there by your wife, then you have a comment at the end like, God, check it off the list.

[00:11:45] Angela: That's 100% who he is.

[00:11:47] Ramit: Okay, maybe. That's, in my opinion, playing a character. And then we have the wife who desperately wants to connect with her husband, wants to spend time. It doesn't matter how much it is. In fact, when I ask to do something, I'm going to emphasize how little it costs. It's only a happy hour. It's only 5:00 to 7:00. And to have a live band. Let me please convince you to do this with me. Please, just this one thing.

[00:12:09] Angela: Exactly.

[00:12:10] Ramit: Yeah, a performance. What if you just didn't do it? What if you just chose to play different roles? What if? I'm not saying you have to, but what if you did? What would happen? 

[00:12:27] Brian: You mean if I flip the script and I started wanting to go out? Just what we role played, that kind of thing?

[00:12:39] Ramit: Maybe. That could be one, or maybe it could be a different role, whatever. But what if you just played different roles? Is that possible?

[00:12:49] Brian: Yeah. I'm not going to say impossible. Likely improbable.

[00:12:53] Ramit: Okay. What about for you?

[00:12:55] Angela: For me to change my role?

[00:12:56] Ramit: Yeah.

[00:12:56] Angela: I feel like I already have because I don't ask as much anymore. Or I will do the things that are on my to-do list with a friend or one of the kids. We spend a lot of time together. It's just not those going out--

[00:13:13] Brian: Experiences.

[00:13:14] Angela: Yeah.

[00:13:15] Ramit: We can't change that, right? Can't change your roles.

[00:13:20] Brian: Anything's possible, to be honest with you.

[00:13:23] Ramit: Okay. What's the vision for your retirement, Angela?

[00:13:28] Angela: I would like to travel. We've talked about getting an RV and traveling across the country, but I also want to travel internationally. I just really want to travel.

[00:13:37] Ramit: Okay. All right. And Brian?

[00:13:39] Brian: I would say capital T Travel is as well as the top of my list. But it's going to be on the cheap, I think.

[00:13:45] Ramit: Okay. What was it like to do the conscious spending plan together? 

[00:13:51] Angela: I think the pre-work was a lot. That overwhelms me. We need to pull these numbers. We need to look for this, go find this number, go find our last car insurance, things like that. But putting the numbers on paper, I felt good about it, and I think we worked good as a team.

[00:14:08] Brian: Yeah, she had it all set up Grand Central Station on the table there and just gave me tasks.

[00:14:12] Ramit: How long did it take you?

[00:14:15] Brian: A couple days at least, because there was just numbers she was asking for that I couldn't find right away.

[00:14:21] Angela: Yeah. We just wanted to make sure our numbers were super accurate.

[00:14:22] Ramit: By the way, Brian, when I asked, how was it filling it out, I noticed you let out a big sigh.

[00:14:28] Brian: I was relieved at the end.

[00:14:30] Ramit: Yeah. But what about the part before the end?

[00:14:31] Brian: Yeah. I was just on edge. 

[00:14:34] Ramit: Why? 

[00:14:35] Brian: I'm getting better.

[00:14:36] Ramit: No. Why?

[00:14:36] Brian: Why was it irritable? I don't want to see them as much, the numbers. 

[00:14:44] Ramit: Because?

[00:14:46] Brian: Anxiety, fear, back to that whole situation that, oh, is this all we have? We don't have enough? How the hell are we going to do this? My father-in-law said a million.

[00:14:56] Ramit: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:57] Brian: Are we on the right track? Are we going to get there? There's no way we can retire. These are the things that got me on edge.

[00:15:05] Ramit: This is interesting, this reference to your father-in-law. So you're 52 years old. You heard that like roughly 30 years ago.

[00:15:13] Brian: Oh, yeah. High school.

[00:15:16] Ramit: How interesting, these phrases that we hear when we're younger, and they stick with us. They can alter the trajectory of our life, of our relationship. That your dad making this comment can echo in time 30 years later when you're talking about going to happy hour.

[00:15:34] Angela: Yeah. And I don't even remember him saying that.

[00:15:37] Ramit: Is he still with us?

[00:15:38] Angela: Yes.

[00:15:39] Ramit: What does he say now?

[00:15:41] Brian: I just dropped him off at the airport today. They're heading to Florida.

[00:15:44] Ramit: But what did he say about a million dollars?

[00:15:48] Brian: I did not ask him.

[00:15:48] Ramit: He brought it up once. You've never brought it up again, but you let it guide your life? Hello? What is happening right now?

[00:15:54] Brian: Never again.

[00:15:55] Ramit: Should we get him on the phone?

[00:15:57] Brian: We could.

[00:15:58] Angela: What I said to Brian this morning was, why are you even thinking about his financial advice when he keeps his money under his mattress?

[00:16:07] Ramit: Oh. Dear, God.

[00:16:10] Angela: Yeah.

[Narration]

[00:16:10] Ramit: Isn't this fascinating? Brian has been holding onto a single number for his entire adult life, $1 million. That's the number Brian heard when he was 18 from his father-in-law, and he just absorbed it. He didn't question it. He adopted it as gospel. And that single number, that single offhanded comment has shaped how he sees money and retirement and even his marriage. 

[00:16:39] This is the power of one offhand comment. It's not a spreadsheet, it's not a budget. It's just a sentence that he heard that calcified into a deeply held belief that decades later is now affecting every relationship about money with his wife.

[00:16:58] The sad truth is if Brian still believes that number is the goal, but he can't define what retirement looks like or how much it costs, then no amount of money will ever feel like enough. That's why he can't enjoy a 6-dollar happy hour. You know the most ironic part of this whole story? His father-in-law isn't even someone he admires when it comes to money. 

[00:17:20] It's like taking dating advice from your uncle who's been divorced three times and lives in his grandma's basement. Just because someone says something with confidence when you're 18 years old does not mean you should let that shape your entire worldview. And yet Brian's been living by that million dollar myth for over 30 years. After this, I'm going to dig into their numbers.

[Interview]

[00:17:44] Ramit: Does he enjoy his money?

[00:17:46] Brian: No.

[00:17:47] Angela: No.

[00:17:48] Ramit: Does he live the kind of life that you want to live?

[00:17:50] Brian: No.

[00:17:51] Angela: No.

[00:17:52] Brian: I don't even know what that is but it's not that.

[00:17:54] Ramit: We should definitely follow his advice. Let's look at the numbers. Let's see here. Angela, can you read the word in bold and the number in full next to it?

[00:18:13] Angela: Assets. No, I actually can't.

[00:18:16] Ramit: Is it too small?

[00:18:17] Brian: Yeah, I see it.

[00:18:18] Ramit: No problem. Okay, go ahead.

[00:18:19] Brian: 961,000.

[00:18:20] Ramit: Great. Investments?

[00:18:23] Brian: 891,873.

[00:18:25] Ramit: 891,000, yes. Savings?

[00:18:28] Brian: 15,718.

[00:18:29] Ramit: And debt?

[00:18:30] Brian: $294,342.

[00:18:34] Ramit: Perfect. Total net worth.

[00:18:35] Brian: 1,574,000.

[00:18:39] Ramit: $1.5 million. Okay. How do you feel about those numbers?

[00:18:44] Angela: I think they look great. He never saw that 1.5 before. I didn't want him to see that net worth before he saw it here to get his true reaction.

[00:18:54] Ramit: Wow. Are you from the TV industry or what? That's a classic producer move. Get it on camera. Well done. And Brian, what do you think? $1.5 million.

[00:19:06] Brian: It looks good on paper. Is it real?

[00:19:09] Ramit: Wow. A depressing answer to an otherwise seven-figure number. Let's not even take a second to celebrate it because we don't celebrate it. We just worry about what's coming next.

[00:19:20] Brian: Oh, doom and gloom.

[00:19:21] Ramit: Sound familiar?

[00:19:22] Brian: Yes, it does.

[00:19:23] Angela: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:19:24] Ramit: The thing is, you're in your 50s. You can keep living this way. You can. Or you can change the entire way that you individually relate to money and you collectively-- to realize that for your entire adult life you've been working towards having $1 million and you actually have 50% more than that, You were worried 20 minutes ago. We just discovered that your financial life is way different, probably better than you thought, and it did not change a single feeling, not even for a second.

[00:19:57] Brian: It did. It was split second. I internalized it. You didn't see a--

[00:20:04] Angela: The goalpost always moves.

[00:20:05] Ramit: I don't even mind goals moving. I don't. I don't mind goals moving. I mind if they're moving without a reason.

[00:20:13] Brian: Right.

[00:20:14] Ramit: If it's somebody who is just picking a number, holding their finger in the air, and then I go, "Why?" They go, "I don't know. My father-in-law said it 30 years ago." I go, "That's how you're making decisions? And literally, we're not talking about just a couple of small decisions like happy hour. We're talking about what retirement looks like.

[00:20:32] So today, actually, really excited to get a chance to add a little bit of intellectual rigor to the way you're thinking about money. Let's look at the rest of these numbers. Income. Angela, gross monthly combined income?

[00:20:49] Angela: 15,674.

[00:20:52] Ramit: Cool. So you have a household income of $188,000. What do you think about that income?

[00:20:59] Angela: I actually think it's great.

[00:21:01] Brian: Yeah, I'm thrilled.

[00:21:02] Ramit: Who's the person who makes double the other? Brian makes double what Angela-- okay, got it. Okay, cool. That's a very good income. Great job. Fixed costs. All right, 72%.

[00:21:16] Angela: Yeah.

[00:21:17] Ramit: It's a bit high.

[00:21:18] Angela: Very high.

[00:21:19] Ramit: Shall we take a look?

[00:21:20] Brian: Yeah.

[00:21:21] Ramit: Your mortgage is 3,500 bucks. Okay. We have a car payment of 641. No debt. Groceries of 500 bucks a month for two kids at home and two adults.

[00:21:33] Angela: Truly.

[00:21:34] Ramit: Wow. Okay. Nice. Nice work. Phone at 107, and subscriptions at $6 a month. That can't be right.

[00:21:42] Angela: It is.

[00:21:42] Ramit: What's six? What are you getting for six?

[00:21:44] Angela: $2 I pay extra for Apple storage, and $4 he does the MLB app

[00:21:53] Ramit: Okay. That's it?

[00:21:54] Angela: Only in baseball season.

[00:21:56] Ramit: I'm like, "Did y'all leave a couple of zeros off this?" No, it's literally $6. Do you have Netflix or something like that? 

[00:22:01] Angela: No.

[00:22:02] Ramit: None of that?

[00:22:02] Angela: I do Discovery, and we have Hulu, but we put that up with our--

[00:22:07] Ramit: TV or something else.

[00:22:08] Angela: Yeah, exactly. Cable. We did that with cable.

[00:22:11] Ramit: Okay. Honestly, this is the lowest subscription number I've ever seen that is correct. I have to give you a round of applause.

[00:22:15] Brian: Thank you.

[00:22:16] Angela: Yes, thank you.

[00:22:17] Ramit: I've never seen it. Look at the numbers. They look fake on the page. 2, 4, 6. I'm like, what is this?

[00:22:22] Angela: They do look fake.

[00:22:22] Ramit: No, it's accurate. I can't believe it. You mentioned in your application, like, we are extremely frugal. We don't spend money on anything. And I think $6 for a family of four and two kids out of the house, that is very frugal. Okay. And yet your fixed are 72%.

[00:22:42] Angela: Yeah. Why that? It seems crazy.

[00:22:45] Ramit: Why do you think that is?

[00:22:46] Angela: I often think is our mortgage too high, but there's nothing we can do about that. We actually pay extra in that mortgage. So we pay 400 extra into that.

[00:22:56] Ramit: What's your interest rate?

[00:22:57] Brian: 3.37 or something.

[00:23:00] Ramit: Your housing cost is okay. It's 27% when we factor it all in. Usually we like to see it below 28. It's very difficult to get that. You have a very low interest rate, and you're paying extra, so it's probably more like 22 or something. You do have 750 bucks in utilities, and you have insurance for 600 bucks. You have car expenses for 641. 

[00:23:23] All that stuff adds up even with a high income. It's not horrible. And actually, we could drop this number right now. I'll just drop it right now. Instead of 3,501, I'll drop it to 3101. Yeah, you're at 67%, which is okay. It's not bad.

[00:23:44] Investments at 35%? Okay, so we have your post-tax and pre-tax. So you're investing 3,000 bucks a month. That's good. And your investments are $891,000. Okay, very good. As you get older, particularly if people started late in life, that number needs to be high, a lot higher than most people are comfortable with. So this is nice. Are you saving money for anything at all? Any savings?

[00:24:08] Angela: Both of our checks just automatically get deposited into our savings, and that's--

[00:24:14] Ramit: Then you use it from there?

[00:24:15] Angela: Yeah, we just use it from there. Sometimes if our account gets high, high, we'll take some out and throw it into a CD.

[00:24:21] Ramit: Huh?

[00:24:22] Angela: It's because I don't want that money locked up for a long time. So I'm like, I could throw it in for six months and make 4%.

[00:24:29] Ramit: Yeah, don't do that.

[00:24:31] Angela: Okay.

[00:24:32] Ramit: Who taught you that?

[00:24:33] Angela: My dad, my dad.

[00:24:35] Ramit: Get your dad-- you know what? We have your dad here all on the fun. Why is your dad the ghost in this relationship. And your dad who doesn't really use money effectively. What is happening right now?

[00:24:45] Angela: No, no, no, no. I don't know.

[00:24:46] Ramit: Dad is telling you in 1968, you got to buy a CD. It's so good. It's illiquid, but it's good. What the [Bleep]? CD make no sense anymore. Do you spend any money guilt-free? You don't really go out to a restaurant. Maybe you go out to the happy hour place every month or whatever, couple of months.

[00:25:05] Angela: Not much.

[00:25:06] Ramit: Anything else?

[00:25:08] Brian: Needs. If I need light bulbs, if the mower breaks and I have to fix it, if the--

[00:25:12] Ramit: That's a Rich Life.

[00:25:12] Brian: Yeah, I know. Totally.

[00:25:14] Ramit: I love my light bulbs.

[00:25:15] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:15] Brian: If something breaks, I need it to fix it. No blow, lawn mower.

[00:25:18] Angela: He's going to go to a concert Friday night?

[00:25:21] Brian: Yeah. That's one of the few things that I would do.

[00:25:24] Ramit: Hold on, hold on. You're going to a concert. I love that. I noticed that when she said he's going to a concert, your immediate reaction was to defend it. Can you try it again and this time accept it. Yeah. I'm going to a concert.

[00:25:36] Brian: I'm going to concert.

[00:25:38] Ramit: And?

[00:25:38] Brian: Oh, that's definitely guilt-free spending for me. I usually go by myself because I enjoy it. And so a band from the '80s is going to be playing in the Poconos

[00:25:48] Ramit: Which band? 

[00:25:49] Brian: Winger.

[00:25:50] Angela: Winger.

[00:25:52] Ramit: Where are they singing? Would I know it?

[00:25:53] Brian: Seventeen, Madalaine. This is from the late '80s.

[00:25:57] Ramit: Okay. So you are having some guilt-free spending, just not properly classified as such. It just comes from this slush fund.

[00:26:05] Angela: Exactly. And that's what we don't necessarily put anything to savings, but all of our money goes in savings.

[00:26:11] Ramit: Yeah. But I do want to point out that if one or both of you got laid off, you have two months’ worth of savings. That's risky.

[00:26:20] Angela: Yeah. It's typically not that low, but we bought cars and then our financial advisor told us, because--

[00:26:27] Ramit: What?

[00:26:28] Brian: We were trying to time the market.

[00:26:29] Ramit: What the [Bleep]? I didn't know about this. Tell me.

[00:26:31] Brian: Well, this has just happened recently.

[00:26:32] Angela: So typically we would pull $600 out of our checking account each month for both of us--

[00:26:38] Brian: The Roth.

[00:26:39] Angela: --to fund the Roth.

[00:26:40] Ramit: Okay.

[00:26:41] Angela: So he just said, because the numbers dipped, why don't we--

[00:26:45] Brian: Max it out.

[00:26:46] Angela: --just max it out? So we took--

[00:26:48] Ramit: What does this guy work for? Hold on. Does this guy work for Northwestern Mutual or was he your high school buddy? Which one is it?

[00:26:53] Angela: No, he's from my school district.

[00:26:56] Ramit: I [Bleep] knew it. So he's preying on you and other school teachers?

[00:27:01] Angela: Is that preying?

[00:27:03] Ramit: Okay. So this is your financial advisor. Colleague?

[00:27:07] Angela: Not a colleague. That's his job. 

[00:27:09] Ramit: He just serves teachers. 

[00:27:09] Angela: Yeah, he just serves teachers. And I did just find out, because I hear you say it all the time about paying a flat fee versus the percentage. So he charges me 0.8%, and he charges 0.9% to Brian because he doesn't have as much money in that I do.

[00:27:29] Ramit: Do you think that's good or bad?

[00:27:30] Angela: I don't know.

[00:27:31] Ramit: It's bad. 

[00:27:32] Angela: Is it?

[00:27:32] Ramit: Yes, it's bad. You're paying to get horrible advice.

[00:27:36] Angela: I guess you're right because we pulled 6,600 plus 6,600 out of our checking account last week and fully funded our Roth through the end of the year.

[00:27:45] Ramit: That's fine.

[00:27:47] Angela: Okay. So that wasn't bad advice.

[00:27:49] Ramit: No, it's not necessarily bad. It's the principle of trying to time the market. No credible advisor would tell you that. Whether it's up, whether it's down, we want to do it consistently.

[00:28:02] Angela: Right.

[00:28:02] Ramit: So I don't like that. I don't like a 0.8 and 0.9% fee, which over time, would you a lot of money. I don't like that you got this guy through your school district. I don't like a lot of this. How long have you been paying this guy? Please don't tell me decades.

[00:28:21] Angela: 10 years. But the positive about that is it started me investing from the day I started working. I was a stay-at-home mom for 13 and a half years, so I had no retirement. I carry the health insurance, and I fund my retirement. And then what comes in the mail or comes into my checking account every week is literally $1,059. 

[00:28:46] That's what I make every two weeks because they were my goals, to fund my retirement, which, it looks pretty good after just 10 years. But yeah, that is where I met him.

[00:28:55] Ramit: Okay. Now I think I understand a little bit more about the numbers. Let me ask about you. Can you think of a time recently where you were not on the same page with money?

[00:29:13] Angela: Oh my gosh. If you want us to talk about the whole food issue, we argue about this all the time, and I'm always justifying. I justify money all the time.

[00:29:26] Ramit: You're justifying this answer to me right now.

[00:29:28] Angela: I am justifying this to you. So I am the shopper in the house, so I do all the grocery shopping. One of my hobbies is also bargain shopping. So in our area, we have lots of bargain grocery store type places. So I just hit him once a week, and if something that I buy regular is on special, I will stock up on it.

[00:29:52] And it drives him crazy. So he'll say, "Why do we need eight jars of peanut butter?" And I'll say, "Because they were a $1.99." And he'll say, "But we don't need eight." And I'm like, "But then next week I would go to the store and they'd be 3 99. So I'm actually saving us money." He doesn't like that.

[00:30:12] Ramit: How often do you talk about this?

[00:30:14] Brian: Almost every day.

[00:30:16] Angela: Every day almost. Every day. It's not always peanut butter. It's mozzarella cheese. It's fruit snacks, Pop-Tarts, granola bars, protein bars.

[00:30:25] Ramit: How many granola bars?

[00:30:27] Brian: How many can you count? How high can you count?

[00:30:29] Angela: 10 different types.

[00:30:30] Ramit: 10 different boxes?

[00:30:31] Angela: 10 different boxes.

[00:30:31] Ramit: 10 boxes of six?

[00:30:33] Angela: Yeah.

[00:30:34] Ramit: Okay. 60 granola bars. All right. What else?

[00:30:36] Brian: Let's move on to nuts.

[00:30:37] Ramit: Okay.

[00:30:38] Brian: Okay. I don't know. Planters nuts, cashews, some other nut covered in something. Another nut covered in something.

[00:30:43] Angela: So I just bought them, and they were 99 cents. So I bought six bags of the savory type and six bags of the cappuccino flavor. And they will be gone.

[00:30:56] Brian: There's 30 bags of chips. You name any chip in the world, and it's in our pantry. Get two bags of chips, not 30 bags of chips. That's just the pantry.

[00:31:04] Ramit: When you see these large volumes of snacks, what does it say to you?

[00:31:12] Brian: I just want to throw up.

[00:31:13] Ramit: Okay. Why?

[00:31:15] Brian: Because it's just wasteful. It's going to go stale. The kids don't eat it. She thinks she's feeding the kids or feeding someone. It's terrible. Why are we wasting money on ridiculous food that no one eats? So I went in there and I just went ballistic. So I got a trash bag, 30-gallon trash bag full of anything fruit snacks: gummies, fruit roll-ups. Pulled that whole thing out like Santa, and I threw it in the bedroom

[00:31:43] And it sat in the bedroom for about six weeks. It's just one aspect. If I go to my fridge in the garage, that's our alternate fridge, there's 30 packages of mozzarella in there. I don't eat mozzarella. [Bleep] doesn't eat it. [Bleep] doesn't eat it, and she doesn't eat it. I don't know who's eating this stuff. Our two kids that come and visit for two days. I don't care if they were a dollar per package. That's a dollar out of my gas tank. That's a dollar that I'm not funding something. It is a waste.

[00:32:11] Ramit: What's the line?

[00:32:11] Angela: That's his line. It could have been a dollar in the gas tank.

[00:32:15] Ramit: And what does that make you feel when you hear that?

[00:32:18] Angela: It's frustrating because I have very much changed my ways. So now when I am shopping, it's almost like I have handcuffs on. I'll look at something and--

[00:32:29] Ramit: Well, how many handcuffs can you have if you're buying 600 protein bars? It doesn't sound like they're that strong. She goes, "I got handcuffs on. I just take them off when--"

[00:32:36] Angela: No, you don't understand what I mentally go through in the grocery store. 

[00:32:38] Ramit: Tell me. 

[00:32:40] Angela: So I literally will pick something up. I'll be like, "Wow, that's a great price." But then I'll have to look at the calories because my one daughter's gluten-free and dairy-free. The other one's worried about this. He's worried about calories. So it's a struggle with every single product. This is a great product. I wish I could buy it, but I don't know who's going to eat it. I better not. And then I put it back.

[00:33:00] Ramit: Can I tell you? It sounds very dramatic. It almost sounds like we're on Broadway and it's a play. Each person's playing their part. We have Brian going, "Oh my God. What?" Right?

[00:33:15] Brian: Every time.

[00:33:15] Ramit: Every time. Pulling in a Santa Claus type bag over his shoulder. And then we have Angela going like, "You don't understand. I used to buy more. And also, I'm saving money. Because otherwise I would be paying three times more for that peanut butter." It's pretty funny. But is this the way you want to spend the rest of your life?

[00:33:36] Brian: No.

[00:33:37] Angela: No.

[00:33:37] Ramit: Why do you do it? You must be getting something out of it.

[00:33:41] Angela: Because I'm set in my ways now with the way I shop.

[00:33:46] Ramit: Oh, like I have to buy bargain shopping. 

[00:33:50] Angela: I do.

[00:33:51] Ramit: That's who I am.

[00:33:51] Angela: Yeah. It's true. I consider it one of my hobbies.

[00:33:55] Ramit: Okay. How do you think that this hobby is serving you?

[00:33:59] Angela: I feel like I'm being responsible to our household because I feel like the four of us being able to eat for $500 is great. I also think, what would my other hobby be, and how much money would I be spending if I chose a different hobby? I physically cannot go to a regular grocery store and pay those prices.

[00:34:21] Ramit: Oh, you physically can.

[00:34:22] Angela: I physically can. I every other way cannot.

[Narration]

[00:34:24] Ramit: Wow. Brian just saw his net worth for the first time, and it was a $1.5 million. Did you see it? Angela had to stage the reveal just to get a live reaction. And his response tells me everything about his money mindset. Did you see it? Looks good on paper. 

This is what happens when you've trained yourself to worry for 30 years. Even when you've working towards a number and you discover you have 50% more than that number at age 52, even when you're financially okay, your default worldview is doom. 

This is what so many people in a hyper frugalista world don't realize. If your entire worldview is about how little you can spend, how risky money is, how there'll never be enough, then even when you have more than enough, your feelings will not change.

[00:34:26] Now, zoom out. Look at what's really going on here. Arguments about peanut butter, trash bags full of fruit snacks, spending time and energy discussing the fine points of mozzarella. It's not just quirky behavior. This is what I call the sitcom dynamic. I write about it in my book, Money for Couples. 

[00:34:44] Now we all know a couple like this, a couple that bickers like it's their love language. They jab each other. They finish each other's complaints. Everybody laughs at dinner parties, but they just keep doing it over and over again. It's like a rerun. And at first, it's funny. It might even be charming. But when you realize they've been doing this for decades, it's actually quite sad.

[00:35:08] Angela and Brian are playing characters. She's the coupon queen in the grocery aisle who still somehow buys 600 protein bars. He's the grumpy guy pulling granola bars out of the pantry and dumping them in the trash. Both of these are performances. They both think they are being productive. This bickering gives them a false sense of progress, but the truth is they are stuck in a dynamic that feels familiar and safe, but it is actually eroding their connection.

[00:35:40] Do you know anybody who has a sitcom dynamic like this where they both jab each other and they both joke, but it's not really a joke? When you ask people in a dynamic like this, do you like it? They go, "No." So why does it keep going? Well, it's what we know. 

[00:35:55] Even when something isn't serving us, doing what we've always done feels more comfortable than change. And deep down, I got to tell you, it's easy to argue about groceries. But asking questions like, what do I actually want from retirement is way harder than complaining about granola bars.

[00:36:17] These dynamics are really hard to change, but if you want to, you can change them. I talk about changing your money dynamic in my new book, Money for Couples. And if you want to learn how, you can download the first chapter for free at iwt.com/mfcpreview. Money for Couples. iwt.com/mfcpreview.

[Interview]

[00:36:41] Ramit: It's interesting that the hobby for you, the primary sense of joy seems to be how much value can I get? In other words, how little can I pay and get good stuff? But on your application, you wrote, "We never eat out or go out. We save money whenever we can. It's hard to know we are financially fine, yet he thinks we are poor."

[00:37:09] Angela: Yeah.

[00:37:10] Ramit: I agree that's a problem, but what role do you have in contributing to this?

[00:37:17] Angela: Gosh, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. I really don't. Other than maybe the quantity of what I bring things in. Like I said, I do feel like I have curved that. But if you told me, you can't bargain shop anymore, you need to just go to a regular grocery store and buy one jar of peanut butter, that would go against every grain in my body. I would rather not eat.

[00:37:43] Ramit: Do you mean that?

[00:37:44] Angela: I really do.

[00:37:45] Ramit: Playing so small that your hobby is shopping in bulk for kids that are grown and don't even really eat this stuff. Husband coming in with his ho, ho, ho, bag, [Bleep] saying, "Oh, this sucks."

[00:37:57] Angela: Yeah.

[00:37:57] Ramit: What I really want you to see is the characters you're playing. If they are the characters you want to play, amazing. I'll help you play them even better. But I actually don't think you like the characters you are playing. And what you may not realize is you don't have to play characters at all. What part were you playing?

[00:38:19] Angela: The justifier.

[00:38:20] Ramit: Yes. I need to gather all the information to convince my obstinate husband why to say yes. Because by default he's going to say?

[00:38:32] Angela: No.

[00:38:33] Ramit: And Brian, what role were you playing in that?

[00:38:35] Brian: Probably the victim, like, I have to do this again?

[00:38:39] Ramit: Wow. There's something quite chilling about hearing somebody talk about that with their--

[00:38:46] Brian: Again, that's tongue in cheek.

[00:38:49] Ramit: Is it, though? Because here I am talking about playing characters. You guys have been married 28 years, and the sitcom dynamic is not working for me. Tongue in cheek saying like, I'm the victim because I got to spend time with my wife, I don't find it funny. 

[00:39:03] And I think you guys have found a way to camouflage what is ultimately some serious disagreements and pain with laughter and jokes and jabs. Guys, I would never talk to my wife like that. The role you're playing besides the tongue in cheek role, of actually something I think is quite hurtful is the decider. Let her bring the data to me, and I will evaluate it and decree what we will do.

[00:39:31] Angela: True.

[00:39:32] Ramit: Why do you decide? Why don't you decide? Why have you agreed on this role where you have to plead and beg, "Oh, please let me provide you the data. Please decide in my way." Why? She could always go.

[00:39:43] Brian: I've never stopped her if she wanted to do something.

[00:39:47] Ramit: That's not my question. Anyone can always go. You two are married. She wants to go with you. Why are you the one who decides? I'm not saying what should be. I'm saying why is that role the one that has emerged?

[00:40:00] Brian: I don't know. Let's do something that doesn't requires money. That's how I feel. I don't want to spend the money.

[00:40:09] Angela: I really want my life to be full of experiences and doing things and going places, and he more is a home buddy. And like you said, when he comes home from work, he does want to eat dinner, hang with the kids for a little workout, and go to bed early.

[00:40:24] Ramit: Okay. Can you make it work with both of your visions?

[00:40:30] Brian: Yeah. As long as we book it in advance and it's not off the cuff and the financial piece is justified.

[00:40:38] Ramit: Oh. How do we tell that it's justified?

[00:40:39] Brian: That's probably my role book, again.

[00:40:41] Ramit: Oh, so you're the decider?

[00:40:43] Angela: He's the decider. 

[00:40:44] Ramit: I can see how you've created this tautology. Oh, sure. We can reconcile our mutually disagreed views if we plan in advance and this thing happens. And also, ultimately, I'm the decider of whether it's financially justified or not. Do I know about our numbers? No. I don't even know our net worth as recently as 10 minutes ago, but I'll decide. Does it sound absurd as I say it out loud?

[00:41:05] Brian: It does sound absurd.

[00:41:06] Angela: Yeah.

[00:41:07] Ramit: And yet you've been doing it for almost 30 years.

[00:41:08] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:41:09] Brian: Yeah.

[00:41:10] Ramit: You want to keep doing it? Wow, I didn't hear a no in that. That's interesting. You know what? Let me just tell you something. If you want to keep doing it, I don't mind.

[00:41:24] Brian: Yeah.

[00:41:25] Ramit: Trust me, I'm not here to change your mind. Please remember you came to me. So if you tell me, "Ramit, we actually like the way it works." I won't change you if you don't want to change. But I don't think you've actually ever thought deeply about the dynamics between the two of you and money.

[00:41:47] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:41:49] Brian: That food bill, that is the biggest overarching issue right now.

[00:41:58] Ramit: A 500-dollar--

[00:41:59] Brian: I'm just saying the excessive purchase of--

[00:42:04] Angela: Fruit snacks.

[00:42:05] Ramit: Why?

[00:42:05] Brian: Of just fruit snacks. There's 30 boxes of cereal in that pan. I'm just saying.

[00:42:11] Ramit: Why don't you take over the grocery purchases? Drop it to 250. It shouldn't be too hard, right?

[00:42:17] Brian: Yeah, it wouldn't fly. One, I don't have the patience for it, and I really-- I do appreciate that she does. She's awesome at it.

[00:42:25] Ramit: Uh-oh.

[00:42:26] Brian: She's awesome at it.

[00:42:26] Ramit: But if it could be 250, surely that's a lot of money, right? It's a lot of gas money. So why don't you just take it over? She'll let you, I bet I could convince her.

[00:42:35] Brian: It may work. There probably won't be too much-- it would just be the staples in the house. It would make me happy.

[00:42:41] Ramit: What's wrong with that? We don't need waste.

[00:42:42] Brian: We don't need waste.

[00:42:43] Ramit: So cut the waste. 250 a month. You'd have 250 extra per month. That's a lot of money.

[00:42:47] Brian: Yeah.

[00:42:48] Ramit: Sounds good. What do you think, Angela?

[00:42:50] Angela: No, because it's my hobby.

[00:42:52] Ramit: Ah. And I don't want him doing it. Sometimes I do send him to the store, and I know this is like those 3-dollar things we shouldn't be worrying about. But if I send him to the store for something, I worry about, how much is he going to spend? Is he going to price check? What brand is he going to buy? What's he going to get? So it's just easier for me to be like, "I'm really busy, but I'll stop at the store and get it." So I do want the control over purchases like that.

[00:43:18] Brian: The only time I go to the grocery store would be for, say, my staples. I'm getting chicken or oatmeal or something that's safe because I've gotten burned. The dumb buffoon husband that comes home? You spent $3 more on that, whatever it is. Well, you know I get it at this price. Those days are over. I'm not making that mistake.

[00:43:37] Angela: And I don't know when I've done that last.

[00:43:40] Brian: She's a great bargain shopper. Awesome, awesome. But just slow down on the excessive nature of it that we don't need. It ends up in the trash can. It's wasteful, and it's money that could go elsewhere.

[00:43:55] Ramit: Where would it go?

[00:43:56] Brian: Go in my gas tank. It would go in the Roth IRA. It would go somewhere. It would go in the savings.

[00:44:01] Ramit: You guys have a lot of good answers for every question. You're just still not getting anywhere. You notice that?

[00:44:06] Brian: I totally notice that. I've been fighting this fight for a long time.

[00:44:10] Ramit: It's not a fight. You both walked into a spider web of your own making, and you could easily get out at any time, easily, but you actually enjoy being in it. You like the cobweb. You like being stuck and trapped. You like the drama. There's actually no reason for you to change right now. 

[00:44:33] Look, I actually offered to have Brian take over the groceries, and even Angela said, "No, cover me in cobwebs. I like it." Even right there with an offer where it would've been quite amusing and interesting to see Brian do it. And would he have realized you can't cut a family of four down to 250 years? He would've realized it instantly. But you wouldn't allow it.

[00:44:55] Angela: I feel like that's a role that we just fill. It's just my job to do that. It's his job to take out the trash, do the dishes, and it's my job to do the laundry and do the groceries. That would be hard for me to give up.

[00:45:07] Ramit: Okay. Don't. Again, it's totally up to you.

[00:45:09] Angela: Yeah.

[00:45:11] Ramit: What do you want to do? Because right now we haven't changed a single thing.

[00:45:17] Brian: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:19] Ramit: You guys came out of your way. I want to help. What do you want to do?

[00:45:27] Angela: I really want to be more on the same page with our future. I never thought of us playing these caricatures like you're saying, and it freaks me out a little.

[00:45:39] Ramit: Why does it freak you out?

[00:45:42] Angela: Because I feel like I'm a really real person, and I don't feel like I'm playing a character. We've been together for a really long time, and we have a really good relationship, and we have fun together. Do we go out to eat? No. Do I wish we'd go more? Yes. But I think over time you just adapt. And I've just adapted to that's the type of personality he has. And like I say, it's not that I don't do things. I'm just not always doing them with him.

[Narration]

[00:46:08] Ramit: Did you catch that? Angela just told me she wants to get on the same page and then she immediately walked it back. Well, we have a good relationship. We have fun together. Ah, I've just adapted. When people are thinking about change, they usually experience a lot of resistance, and there's a voice in the back of their head that says, "You're actually fine. It's not that bad. We actually really love each other." Okay, you can love each other and still want to change.

[00:46:36] What's really happening here is that that voice in your head wants you to stay exactly as you are, not change, because change is scary and uncomfortable. Staying the same is comfortable. Now, I'm not here to change a dynamic, just to be provocative, but I am going to push when I hear someone say, I want to change, and then they immediately start convincing themselves that they don't actually want to change. Listen as I challenge Angela on the very reason she applied to speak with me.

[Interview]

[00:47:04] Ramit: So I agree that you don't have to do everything with your partner, and your partner's not going to like to do everything that you want to do. I understand that. That's normal. But you applied. Why?

[00:47:17] Angela: I think we're at opposite ends of the spectrum with our finances, and I really feel like we are okay. And like I said, I don't think we need to work until we're 65 to then be able to travel.

[00:47:30] Ramit: So if I told you right now you don't have to work until you're 65, would it change anything?

[00:47:39] Angela: I would believe you.

[00:47:40] Ramit: Okay. Brian?

[00:47:43] Brian: I would believe you.

[00:47:45] Angela: But?

[00:47:48] Brian: I think I need to work just for my sense of feeling I'm productive. I don't want to be sitting home watching TV. I feel like I need to, and I might as well be an earner along with working.

[00:48:10] Angela: I just worry that we've worked super, super, super hard, and our numbers are what our numbers are, and that we're living too little of a life. I also play the role with him where I want him to live a bigger life. And he's very happy being simple, but I want him to live that bigger life. 

[00:48:33] A perfect example is the other day, Wawa had free coffee day, and he loves blueberry coffee. And throughout the day he had three blueberry coffees, and he was so excited about this. And the next text to him literally was, "You know you can go get a Wawa blueberry coffee any day you want." But he won't spend the $2 on himself to get a blueberry Wawa coffee.

[00:48:54] Ramit: Wow.

[00:48:55] Angela: So he's just making his life too simple.

[00:48:58] Ramit: Wow.

[00:48:59] Angela: And that's sad for me.

[00:49:00] Brian: Yeah. And I don't think I deserve it. Just because I can make my own coffee at home, that's not the point. The point is if I need something, a light bulb part, a piece of weight equipment to better myself, that's all I really need. I don't need to be to live more than what I need.

[00:49:21] Ramit: What does your wife need?

[00:49:23] Brian: She needs more relationship connection, which I'm probably not providing. I think the older we get, the more apart we grow, to be honest with you. That's clearly what today shows is.

[00:49:35] Ramit: Tell me.

[00:49:37] Brian: That money aside, I think until the kids-- again, I'm using kids an excuse. That's a poor excuse. But until the kids leave, say they leave whenever in a few years, maybe that's where things come back. And it's a big maybe. But I think we've just grown apart over the years for whatever.

[00:49:57] Angela: I'm not even so much apart, more that we--

[00:49:59] Brian: More distant.

[00:50:00] Ramit: Can I?

[00:50:01] Angela: Yeah, for sure.

[00:50:03] Ramit: First of all, that's pretty honest, so I really appreciate that. It's not easy to say. It's very courageous to say, especially as a couple in your 50s, and I'm sure you have friends and others who have approached being empty nesters, and that's a scary time. And then as you think about that with retirement, that can be really scary.

[00:50:28] One, both changing or losing their identity. That's not easy. It's scary for women in ways. It's scary for men in other ways, and for couples. You said that it's clear you've grown apart. Maybe that will change when the kids leave, maybe. I hope it does. But you probably know couples who it's gotten worse when kids left.

[Narration]

[00:51:01] Ramit: I want to jump in quickly because this is pretty heartbreaking. Angela sees how small their life has become, and she's right. It didn't happen all at once. It happened $2 at a time. This is the hidden cost of decades of frugality. First, you do it for a reason. Then you do it out of habit, and sometimes you start to believe you don't deserve anything else. It goes beyond saving money on coffee. And sometimes in situations like this, you start to realize how narrow your life has become.

[00:51:34] And then Brian said something that really stopped me cold. He said, "I think the older we get, the more we grow apart." It's one of the most honest things that he says in this entire conversation, and I think it's one of the saddest. I see this all the time. Couples are sharing a home, sharing a bank account, but they haven't actually sat down and had a substantive conversation about money in decades. Sometimes they haven't asked each other a question in years. It's lonely.

[00:52:09] Money can keep us apart if we let it. When you don't have a Rich Life vision, every financial decision becomes reactive. You cut back. You track every dollar. You argue over pennies, each of you retreating to your own corner of the ring because there's no bigger picture guiding you.

[00:52:28] Sometimes you might even start to see your spouse as your financial enemy. I suspect sometimes money is a convenient distraction from deeper issues. If you're listening to this and thinking we don't actually have a Rich Life vision either, then I created a free guide to help you create yours. You can do it fast, and it is fun to do. Download the free guide at iwt.com/richlife. Now listen, as I challenge their perspective.

[Interview]

[00:52:59] Ramit: Is it money that's stopping you from connecting, or is that a convenient excuse?

[00:53:06] Brian: That's convenient excuse. The only glaring thing is that excessive, smaller purchase stuff.

[00:53:14] Ramit: Can I just tell you right now? $500 a month on groceries is not excessive. Your family spends half of what another equivalent family would spend. You're not even close to excess.

[00:53:25] Brian: Yeah. I never personally understood why people spend so much.

[00:53:29] Ramit: That's okay. You don't have to understand.

[00:53:29] Brian: I'm just saying, for me, and I appreciate what you do, getting all the weekly groceries. You're the best at it. So I just settle for you being excessive in your own nature with stuff we don't need and up throwing away.

[00:53:45] Ramit: Can I ask it a different way?

[00:53:46] Brian: Yeah.

[00:53:47] Ramit: Settling is one way to put it. It's a bit of a loaded term. What if it costs $100 a month for Angela to have a hobby. Doesn't hurt anybody. She's entertained. She's productive and feels productive, and once in a while you have some extra stuff you can donate or whatever, 100 bucks a month. What would you say to that?

[00:54:14] Angela: I never thought about it that way, and that's actually what ended up happening. I took the fruit snacks and donated them to the school, and the kids loved them. And within 10 minutes, boom, they were all gone.

[00:54:27] Brian: I wish you would've just bought the fruit snacks and took them right to the school. That would've made me happy because I'm donating.

[00:54:33] Ramit: She could've, but she didn't. But it doesn't change anything. $100 a month changes nothing out of $188,000 a year.

[00:54:45] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[00:54:46] Ramit: Literally nothing. But what I think is a more haunting truth is your admission that you've drifted apart. If you want to reverse that, I think you really could. I think there's a lot of things you could do. This is just one of them, but it would take totally reconceptualizing your relationship with money and with each other. What do you think?

[00:55:12] Brian: Yeah.

[00:55:13] Angela: Yeah, I think we can do it.

[00:55:15] Brian: Oh yeah, no doubt.

[00:55:17] Ramit: How would you start?

[00:55:20] Angela: Go to happy hour.

[00:55:21] Brian: I guess I'm going to happy hour next week.

[00:55:23] Ramit: Can you say that again as if you wanted to do it? Because it's about connecting with your wife, not losing. I think the jokes have to stop. Think of yourself not as characters, but as wearing masks. The mask that you each wear is what? Describe it in detail. What is the mask that you wear when it comes to money in your relationship?

[00:55:43] Brian: Probably just a frown, Debbie Downer. 

[00:55:49] Ramit: Yeah. I like that. Keep going.

[00:55:50] Brian: Maybe a blank face. Maybe just no reaction. You're talking to a wall almost.

[00:55:58] Ramit: Yeah. Never getting excited. What else is under the mask?

[00:56:05] Brian: Hmm. Temperature's very cold. If you had to put a temperature to it, neutral, cold, arms folded.

[00:56:19] Ramit: Yeah. Operating off an old script that some person said who doesn't even know what they're talking about. A million dollars. Then it turns out you have more than 50% more. Doesn't change a thing. Not particularly knowledgeable about money. It's very perplexing. The decider is actually the one who doesn't even know that much about money. It's weird. All of these things. Now, can you flip it? Take that mask off. What's under it?

[00:56:45] Brian: Under it, exuberant, but reserved at the same time. It's almost like I want to do more, but step on the brakes. 

[00:56:56] Brian: Why?

[00:57:00] Ramit: I don't know. I don't know if it's old ideology. It's not comfortable in my skin as far as finances go. That's why she handles it. I don't want to know where the money's going, but yet, I don't want to buy something unless it's needed.

[00:57:19] Ramit: It's like you're a backseat driver. You don't want to grocery shop, but you want her to cut it by half. You don't want to know where the money's going, not even to the point of knowing your net worth, but you know that she's spending too much.

[00:57:32] Brian: Yeah.

[00:57:33] Ramit: That's this.

[00:57:33] Brian: Yeah. You're right.

[00:57:35] Ramit: It's like if you want to have a strong point of view on the money, okay, fine, but you got to get involved.

[00:57:39] Brian: Yeah.

[00:57:40] Ramit: Angela, any of this sound familiar?

[00:57:42] Angela: Sure.

[00:57:43] Ramit: You ever tell him that, stop being a backseat driver.

[00:57:45] Angela: Not those words, but I usually say we have the money. We're fine. You don't have to worry about that. We can afford that.

[00:57:55] Ramit: And does that ever work?

[00:57:57] Angela: Sometimes.

[00:57:58] Ramit: Doesn't sound like it worked. He's even saying no.

[00:58:01] Angela: Wow.

[00:58:02] Ramit: Reassuring people who don't understand money-- reassuring them by pointing at numbers never works.

[00:58:09] Angela: Yeah. That I think is the main reason why I'm here. That is the reason why I'm here.

[00:58:15] Ramit: You wanted somebody else, maybe a man-- I don't know if it has to do with being a man or not-- to say, "Hey, she was right. You're actually okay." Hoping that me saying that reaches him, and then happily ever after, you can go out to dinner and take trips.

[00:58:33] Angela: Maybe. That sounds good.

[00:58:36] Ramit: Is that what you wanted?

[00:58:37] Angela: I sometimes play a mother role with him. And just going back to that coffee, he's a very hard worker, and we've saved a lot. And I think we've lived a really good life, even though we've saved a lot. So by me just saying, we have enough money, we can do that. And then him just always saying, knowing never wanted to do it. I just feel sad that we're not living a bigger life, and it comes down, I think, to money for you a lot of the times.

[00:59:06] Brian: It sure does.

[00:59:06] Angela: And you're also a home buddy though, so that--

[00:59:09] Brian: Yeah, that's--

[00:59:09] Angela: It's not always about money. It's not always--

[00:59:12] Ramit: Are you justifying for him?

[00:59:13] Brian: Yeah.

[00:59:13] Angela: Yeah. I'm always justifying.

[00:59:14] Ramit: Why don't you stop doing that?

[00:59:16] Angela: Okay. I should.

[00:59:17] Ramit: What needs to happen is exactly that. You making the case for me. The minute either of you starts trying to advocate for yourself, you start justifying for the other, especially you Angela. This happened 20 times in this conversation. So you end up spinning, spinning and then you're back, and you just run out of breath.

[00:59:38] Brian: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:39] Ramit: It's not money. You have enough money. You have 50% more than he even thought. It's not money. Come on. We have to be honest with ourselves. And I think you were making some very bold points about taking off the mask.

[00:59:53] You're exuberant, but I think the word you're looking for is scared or nervous. I'm nervous that if I go out to this dinner, I might like it then I might want to do it all the time. Or I enjoyed this coffee for free, but if I do it once a week, then I might do it once a day, and that's wasteful.

[01:00:07] Brian: Yeah, yeah. For sure.

[01:00:09] Ramit: But you didn't let him get there, and you didn't take the initiative to talk about it. We're talking around it, all of us. We've been talking around it for 30 years. The reason that I'm getting a little agitated is that you have a long life ahead of you, many decades together. But also that time goes very quickly.

[01:00:28] Brian: Yeah.

[01:00:30] Ramit: That's why I keep repeating to you, you can go on the way you've gone. You'll take one vacation a year. You'll play this drama in the pantry. Your kids will leave, and that's it. But Angela, you wrote to me saying, I think we're living too small of a life. What would it look like if you changed your spending to better align with a new Rich Life?

[01:01:02] Angela: What would I do?

[01:01:03] Ramit: Yeah.

[01:01:05] Angela: I know it's going to sound simple, but go out to eat I would even say just once a month.

[01:01:15] Ramit: Okay. Sounds good. Where would you go?

[01:01:19] Angela: Somewhere on my list.

[01:01:21] Ramit: Would you go solo? Would you go together?

[01:01:23] Angela: Oh, no, I would go together

[01:01:24] Ramit: Okay. I like that. And the RV, if and when you get an RV, would that be your primary home?

[01:01:32] Angela: I don't know that we could have it as our primary home.

[01:01:35] Ramit: You'd keep this house?

[01:01:37] Brian: No. 

[01:01:37] Ramit: No, definitely not.

[01:01:38] Brian: We've talked about once the kids move out.

[01:01:40] Ramit: Oh, you'd sell it?

[01:01:41] Angela: Absolutely.

[01:01:42] Brian: Too big of a house for us.

[01:01:43] Ramit: How much will you make from it?

[01:01:46] Angela: About 500,000.

[01:01:47] Brian: Yeah. 

[01:01:47] Angela: Move into a smaller rancher or something.

[01:01:49] Brian: And then find a small rancher.

[01:01:51] Ramit: You'll make 500,000. Wow. You're going to be multimillionaires. You're sure you're going to be able to afford to eat out once a month having $2 million.

[01:02:02] Angela: Yes, we can afford to eat out.

[01:02:03] Brian: Sure.

[01:02:03] Ramit: Shall we run your retirement numbers?

[01:02:06] Angela: Yes.

[01:02:06] Ramit: Let's assume that you retire in five years. Would that be a fair place to start?

[01:02:13] Angela: Yeah.

[01:02:14] Ramit: If you retire in five years, you'll have $1.48 million. We assume a 3% withdrawal rate, not a typical four. Three because you would be younger. I want to make sure you don't run out of money. This number is a little flexible, but just assume it. Social security plus a 10k pension, you'd have about $84,500 in safe withdrawal income.

[01:02:38] If you retire in 10 years, you'll have $2.3 million as it currently stands. If we assume a 4% withdrawal rate, plus social security, plus a 10k pension, you'll have $130,000 in safe withdrawal income. What do you think about that?

[01:02:58] Angela: That sounds better.

[01:02:59] Brian: Yeah, I agree.

[01:03:00] Angela: That sounds very doable.

[01:03:03] Ramit: What is your natural inclination? Right now, hearing these two things, what do you naturally feel? Brian?

[01:03:11] Brian: Work two more years than that, get to 65.

[01:03:14] Ramit: Get to 65, okay.

[01:03:15] Brian: Because that puts us about 63 or so, give or take.

[01:03:18] Ramit: So work to 65. You'd have even more. Maybe it'd be 135 or something like that. Okay, cool. That's your natural inclination. I hear that loud and clear. Angela, how about you?

[01:03:28] Angela: Same thing. Five years wouldn't be doable. I'll do 10, not 12.

[01:03:34] Ramit: Okay, so there's a little bit of disagreement here and there. Maybe one of you retires a couple of years early. Okay.

[01:03:39] Angela: Yeah, that's fine.

[01:03:40] Ramit: So I like this. What we're doing now is we're going from the clouds to the street. We're grounding it. It's not just about feelings, these abstract feelings and 28-year-old arguments. It's like, no, let's look at some numbers. Let's start to get real. Time is ticking.

[01:03:56] I'll tell you that my natural inclination would be, first off, I need to run the numbers carefully because if we sell the house and we don't have a car payment and we're not paying for kids to eat, but we're also eating out more and traveling more, how much do we actually need? 

[01:04:15] Because I'm not trying to make my biggest life decision based on vibes. I need actual numbers. So that's the first thing I would do. The second thing, my natural inclination is, is how do we get there faster?

[01:04:30] Angela: Yeah.

[01:04:30] Ramit: The thing is, you actually could get there faster. It might mean incomes. You could take some of your expenses, which are, I don't think, properly categorized. An extra 500 bucks a month could be found and put it towards investments, and that could substantially change the outcome.

[01:04:52] Angela: Mm-hmm. Yes.

[01:04:54] Ramit: Do you see that when we're talking at this level, suddenly fruit roll-ups is not the issue. That's actually so small and insignificant. Maybe you need to buy less fruit roll ups. Maybe. But telling Angela, "Stop buying fruit roll ups. So wasteful." Won't do it. But actually saying like, "Hey, if we're able to cut our X, Y, Z costs by $600 a month and direct it to investments, we can retire one year earlier."

[01:05:20] Angela: Yes.

[01:05:20] Ramit: That's powerful. Does that reach you?

[01:05:22] Angela: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.

[01:05:24] Ramit: When you play small for too long, that's all you know.

[01:05:28] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:28] Brian: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:30] Ramit: And part of the reason I want to talk to you is to zoom out. Be like, no, these are the big, big life decisions.

[01:05:35] Brian: Yeah, I hear you. So I agree.

[01:05:39] Ramit: The question I would be asking is, how do we make the next 10 years magical? Not wait. I'll never wait 10 years. I won't even wait two years. How do we make the next 10 years magical? What's the answer to that?

[01:05:58] Angela: Travel now. Go out to dinner more. Make moments count. And it doesn't always have to include money.

[01:06:06] Brian: Yeah, I think money aside, it's got to be us first. Money second. Because this is the foundation. This is why we're together for 28 years plus.

[01:06:20] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[01:06:21] Brian: This has got to work first before the money. That's becomes insignificant. It's just numbers.

[01:06:28] Ramit: How do you do it specifically?

[01:06:31] Brian: I think I need to-- what's the word?

[01:06:37] Angela: Say yes.

[01:06:39] Brian: Yeah. Not give in, but compromise. And that's what I need to do. I think I need to be a better husband and compromise and rebuild the foundation of this relationship.

[01:06:56] Ramit: Yeah. How would you do that?

[01:07:00] Brian: Be together more often. Spend more quality time.

[01:07:06] Ramit: Well, I think you spend a lot of time together, right? You go on hikes. You're at home. You see each other.

[01:07:10] Brian: Probably not enough. Because now we're singular. We're our own separate islands after work for the most part. Unless we have a function or a date or something to do together. So we have to build more time or reserve more time to do more together things.

[01:07:28] Ramit: Should we just do it right now? Because I feel like there's a lot of talk.

[01:07:31] Brian: Yeah.

[01:07:32] Ramit: We're here. Break it down for me. Sunday through Saturday, when do you want to spend more time together, and what is the time? Let's go one by one. Go ahead. Pick a day.

[01:07:45] Brian: Pick a day. Wednesday.

[01:07:49] Ramit: What do you want to do on Wednesday?

[01:07:51] Brian: Wednesday's going to be our designated take the dogs to local park that doesn't have any ticks.

[01:07:59] Ramit: What's your reaction?

[01:08:02] Angela: I think that sounds great. I love walking, and the dogs would enjoy going for a walk.

[01:08:09] Ramit: Awesome. Okay. Angela, your turn.

[01:08:12] Angela: How about if we go back to the brewery on Tuesday night or try the Melting Pot? Let's just try it. We never did fondue.

[01:08:25] Brian: Yes, dear.

[01:08:26] Angela: Would you like to do that?

[01:08:27] Brian: Is that once a week?

[01:08:29] Angela: Well try it this week and see how we feel about it.

[01:08:34] Ramit: Cool.

[01:08:35] Brian: All right.

[01:08:35] Ramit: How do you feel about that?

[01:08:37] Brian: Feel great.

[01:08:39] Ramit: Cool. You know what? I really like that answer. I think sometimes we just have to say yes and our feelings change later. It's like, yes. In fact, I'll tell you my philosophy. I think it is so rare for your partner to be genuinely excited by something, especially the later on you are in life. There's a lot of just dreariness, life and kids and work.

[01:09:08] It's difficult. Honestly, what a gift that your partner comes to you and they're excited. Could be the blueberry coffee. Could be going to the Melting Pot. My general reaction is yes. Unless I'm philosophically opposed to it or some crazy thing, I'm just like, oh my God, it is so rare to see your partner get excited and lit up. I want to reward that. I want to do it.

[01:09:34] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[01:09:34] Ramit: And I want to see that energy in my relationship. And then she instinctively does the same for me.

[01:09:41] Brian: Yeah.

[01:09:42] Ramit: That's connective. So awesome. I love that. Okay. Brian, what would it take for you to feel safe enough to retire?

[01:09:58] Brian: I don't know. I want her to work or stop working whenever she feels as though she's ready. I can continue to work forever if that's what it came down to. But based on the numbers, I'm very encouraged that maybe I don't have to work till I'm 70. So today I feel a bit relieved, I think, and a little bit more comforted that I have a little bit of protection.

[01:10:35] Ramit: The two of you have so many different options. You two could retire at different times. That's common. But I don't think any of it happens if you're not actually connected, starting right now.

[01:10:51] Brian: Yeah.

[01:10:53] Ramit: You already mentioned, Brian, you've drifted apart, and you continue to drift apart as kids leave.

[01:10:56] Brian: Mm-hmm.

[01:10:57] Ramit: So unless that comes first and that involves spending time together, which we just mapped out. And that's first drop. It also means spending money meaningfully.

[01:11:08] Brian: I agree.

[01:11:09] Ramit: And I think actually getting to where Brian is suggesting something, literally it could be we're going to Wawa and we're going to get two blueberry coffees.

[01:11:17] Brian: Mm-hmm.

[01:11:18] Angela: Yeah.

[01:11:18] Ramit: Literally, it could be that. It actually does not matter what it is.

[01:11:22] Angela: Yeah.

[01:11:22] Brian: You're right.

[01:11:23] Ramit: You would be excited, right?

[01:11:24] Angela: I would be, yes.

[01:11:25] Ramit: I'm in. 

[01:11:26] Angela: Yes, absolutely.

[01:11:27] Ramit: So getting those adventurous feelings back, and whether it's joining a group together or trying some new stuff, that brings you way closer. And if it costs 10 bucks or 50 bucks, you will have millions.

[01:11:42] Angela: Right. Yeah, that feels good.

[01:11:46] Brian: All right.

[01:11:47] Ramit: What surprised you most during our conversation? Angela?

[01:11:52] Angela: I have a little anxiety about, like you saying, us wearing mask and being characters because I feel like we're very real with each other. So that does concern me. I have anxiety about that.

[01:12:05] Ramit: Okay. Concern, anxiety. These are all things that I think are good to explore, not hide away from. Run towards those. Don't run away. Brian, what surprised you about our conversation?

[01:12:21] Brian: Just peeling the layers away and getting down to what's significant and what is insignificant. And we've determined that my concerns, they're there. Just in the grand scheme of things, when we zoom globally, we see its insignificance. That all my angst, anger, rage is all for nothing when it comes down to it. 

[01:12:55] Because 25, 50 years from now, whatever, it'll be just like, why did you waste that time in the mental anguish on that? Just giving her more pain doesn't get us anywhere. I think you need to peel back some of these layers and get things a little closer or in touch with how you really feel and not just put the wall back up and just lash out, which is the easiest thing to go to.

[01:13:29] Ramit: Yeah. How do you feel now versus when we first sat down to talk?

[01:13:33] Brian: I feel a sense of relief. All right, we got this. We're on the right path. Let's shore things up. Let's get them tighter, and then things will just fall into place.

[01:13:44] Ramit: How about you, Angela?

[01:13:45] Angela: What I'm happiest about is I think when I approach Brian with ideas that all have more yeses now.

[01:13:52] Ramit: Nice.

[01:13:53] Angela: Yeah. So I think that's a really big thing. And it's part of us living too little of a life. But yeah, I see things going definitely in a positive way.

[01:14:01] Ramit: I'd like to give a little bit of homework if I could.

[01:14:04] Angela: Yeah.

[01:14:04] Ramit: So you suggested, Angela, the Melting Pot for, I think, next week.

[01:14:14] Angela: Yeah.

[01:14:15] Ramit: Brian, I'd like for you to plan a date night within two weeks.

[01:14:19] Brian: Okay.

[01:14:19] Ramit: So it's you two decide within two weeks, but Brian, it's up to you. It's got to involve a little bit of money, and that's it. Keep it as simple as that and as broad as that. You do whatever you want, whatever is meaningful for the two of you. But bring it up. Same way that Angela does. She comes to you. She's got a plan. Same thing. 

[01:14:41] But what I want to do is balance a little bit more of these conversations about money, about life. I know, Angela, you've been doing a lot of tracking, and my hope is that you can zoom out and focus on the numbers that are meaningful.

[01:15:00] Angela: Yeah.

[01:15:00] Ramit: I talk a lot about getting in the 3-dollar questions versus the 30,000-dollar ones. These 30,000-dollar actually matter a lot to you, especially because you want to retire earlier and have the option to. So I would like for you to get tighter with your numbers. That means going through the book together. I Will Teach You to Be Rich book and the Money for Couples book. Talking about that. You can have a book club. One of you can run one book, the other can run the other.

[01:15:29] I'd like for you to really absorb what happened today. There's a lot of things, conversations about roles and masks and going together and going apart. It's pretty deep. I want that North star. What is our Rich Life?

[01:15:42] Brian: Mm-hmm.

[01:15:43] Ramit: Do we have the ability to retire? Is one of us retiring? Are we going part-time? Are we doing the RV? Okay, let's start there. Then we can figure out how to make the money work. In order to do that, you got to start with what you felt today.

[01:15:55] Angela: Mm-hmm.

[01:15:55] Brian: Mm-hmm. Okay.

[01:15:55] Ramit: Okay?

[01:15:55] Angela: Yeah.

[01:15:55] Ramit: All right. Thank you so much for coming. I appreciate you.

[01:15:59] Brian: Thank you, Ramit.

[01:15:59] Angela: Thank you.

[Narration]

[01:16:00] Ramit: Angela and Brian didn't come here for tips on grocery budgeting. They came here because their life feels too small. Ironically, they have the money. If they wanted to retire in 5, 6, 7 years, they probably could. They could pay less on their mortgage. They could redirect that money to investments. They could find an extra 500 bucks and accelerate their timeline.

[01:16:17] That's just math. But our conversation has not been about math. A lot of us hide behind complicated math because it's easier to say, "I don't understand how a solo 401(k) works." Than admitting you and your partner might not actually share the same Rich Life vision, or worse, you are afraid to even ask what theirs is.

[01:16:41] Yet until you create a shared vision, a shared goal, a shared why, you're going to keep repeating the same old arguments, and you're going to keep up the same performance of the sitcom dynamic, which honestly is very difficult to change after 30 years of marriage. 

[01:16:5] And if you don't change year by year by year, you drift a little bit further apart. That's the real cost here. I don't care about granola bars, I care about time and intimacy. If they both decide to take a totally fresh look at their relationship with money and with each other, I actually think they could make dramatic changes in just a few months. It'll be hard, really hard, but I think it's worth it.

[01:17:21] Angela and Brian, I want to thank you for being so open, for coming on, having this vulnerable conversation, and being willing to stick with it for the entire time that we spoke. You've already proven that you can have these difficult conversations. Now my encouragement to you is that it is time to build something better for the next chapter of your life together. Now let's check out their follow-ups.

[01:17:44] Brian: My biggest surprise, that our retirement projection is estimated close to 1.5 million. This number provides some comfort and relief as we prepare for retirement years from now. The lesson I learned was that ultimately our relationship stability is far more important than our financial stability.

[01:18:01] Another takeaway is the importance of open communication and shared financial goals. In addition to investing our money, we need to invest into time spent with each other. Don't sweat over the small stuff like fruit snacks. Although this conversation was difficult for me, it taught me to emphasize personal responsibility, mindset shifts, and the pursuit of a Rich Life beyond wealth.

[01:18:21] Specific changes I made thus far, I'm in the process of moving both Roth IRAs over to Vanguard. I'm striving to be more respectful and kind to my wife, to be a better husband by reducing negativity and open to sharing more life experiences and creating lasting memories. Much gratitude, Ramit. Thank you.

[01:15:59] Angela: Our biggest surprise by far was at 72% of our expenses, fixed expenses. That's crazy to me. I thought we were really doing good with fixed, but that's just a crazy number. The other surprise was the way our relationship was portrayed. 

I know it was just a snapshot of two hours, but I did have a lot of anxiety about it. But then I realized that that was not really us. We spend a lot of meaningful time together, maybe it's just not going out to eat, and maybe that is actually not important. 

My takeaway is I can retire in five years. Maybe I don't have to wait 10 years. My other takeaway was maybe it's not about the money. We spend money on things that are meaningful to us, but maybe we're just simple people that just don't spend a lot of money. I think we're very conscious on the money that we spend and deliberate about it. So it's not that we're cheap. It's just if I don't want to spend money on something, I'm not going to spend money on it. 

I am setting up a meeting with my school to see if my pension, if I'm being charged for that. If I am, I am going to change that, so I'm no longer charged. And I decided to pump my $700 up to $1,000 per paid period. 

So where am I getting my extra $600? I'm picking up extra shifts at the amusement park, which is my bonus job because I actually enjoy that. And if I can work and I enjoy it, and make a little bit of money, why not? The only other thing that we're considering is not paying extra on mortgage and instead just putting that on into our emergency fund so we can build that.

[01:18:39] Ramit: I received this email from Angela and Brian. "We're feeling stuck. We've been intentional, but it's hard to tell if we've done enough or what comes next. At one point, we thought we wanted to retire in five years. Now we realize we enjoy our work. We can take more vacations without giving it all up, but we still don't know what the next step should be. We feel like we've done our homework. Now we're just waiting for our next assignment."

[01:19:08] First of all, I really appreciate the follow-up. I want to gently push back. I loved our conversation, and I am here to be your guide, but nobody can design your Rich Life but you. Nobody can overcome your financial challenges but you, and nobody can live your Rich Life but you. 

[01:19:31] I think that right now you are looking at this as an assignment, as if you are waiting for somebody to tell you what the next step is. But the entire point of the podcast, in fact, the entire point of 21 years of my work is that your Rich Life is yours. I don't think you need help with the difference between a traditional and a Roth IRA. If so, you can get it in my book. 

[01:19:57] I think you need to make decisions about what comes next, you, both of you together. And when you do that, you're going to suddenly discover the difference in going passive, which is so common for so many of us to actively designing the kind of life you want. Thank you, again. Please keep me updated, and I wish you both the best.