109. Where Are They Now? Netflix Reunion with Donnell and Monique

If you've recently discovered this podcast and you've wondered, how can I get Ramit to answer my specific money question, There are two ways to do it. Number one, you can apply to be on this podcast, although we are already full for the rest of the year. Number two, you can join my Money Coaching membership in this program. We do a ton of cool stuff I want to make sure you know about it. We do a monthly live call with me where I cover some of my favorite money topics that I can't go into publicly in as much detail as and I break down our members conscious spending plans. Plus I answer your questions live. We also have tons of virtual events coming up that cover every aspect of living a rich life. For example, our new event Money for Aging Parents is coming up at the end of October that is included for all Money Coaching members. You get access to our library of all past calls like how to find an extra thousand dollars a month and how to do a Rich Life annual review. Plus, we have a Money Coaching community group where you can see inspiration how other people are spending their money and get your own questions answered if you want to get help. If you want to meet amazing other people in money Coaching and you want to build your rich life faster and bigger, you should check out Money Coaching today. Go to iwt.commoneycoaching to join right now. That's iwt.com moneycoaching what surprised you about.

The experience that y' all actually was all in our business telling you guys.

Out there in America who's listening to this man's podcast? It was to the point where like me and Monique wanted to throw hands like it was crazy, you know, like crazy.

What do you mean they need all of my account information? Well, they gonna get what I give them because that's not none of their business.

Oh gosh.

I was so difficult behind scene. I ignored everybody. I didn't like you. I didn't like production. I told them if I didn't have. No, I think I blocked production at one point.

I wasn't ready to give up on you. I don't care if you're trying to ignore me. I know these are uncomfortable conversations. I know you two specialize in ignoring this. That's how you got into all this debt. But I wasn't going to let you walk away.

You. Are you pushing me to talk about this microwave? Is that. Is that. Is that what this is?

The fans want to know. Welcome back to a special episode where I get to catch up with the guests from my Netflix show how to get rich. Spoiler alert. If you haven't already watched all eight episodes, go do that now because we're going to share everything today, including behind the scenes items that never came out during the show. Today we get to catch up with Monique and Donnell. You might remember them because he was spending $600 a month on video games. They had $200,000 of student loan debt that they were ignoring and they wanted to buy a house. You get to get to hear what has changed a year later after filming. So let's get into it right now with Monique and Donnell. I just want to know, just starting from the beginning, what has changed since we last saw each other? Let's go. Donnell first and then Monique.

We still had some struggles, you know, because we, we, we went right in real heavy to pay off some, some debt and close some accounts. We were just kind of hurt because we, we put a lot of money into closing stuff down and, and, and getting out of debt where we didn't have anything to kind of back us up. So I started a side hustle, and luckily, with the tools that you gave us and the additional money that came in from that, we paid off all of our credit card debt. Whoa.

So you paid off $20,000 of credit card debt?

Yeah.

Damn. I'll take the win on that. That's amazing.

Like, basically all our debt is good except for student loans. So combined, we have about close to 85,000 left in student loan debt. Combined with the two of us, his.

Side hustle has really been helping us out a lot. What is big chunks of money.

How much are you making on the side hustle, Donnell?

Last year I made 200k alone.

What the, what, what is the side hustle?

Yeah, I'm a finder. Like, basically, I knew you was going to ask that.

Isn't that a show?

Everybody asks that.

What is finder?

No, no, no. Only show we've been on is yours. Oh, wait. First off, congratulations. One, you know, much success. It's, you've been helping a lot of people. Thank you very much. But basically all I do is for pa, Jersey and Delaware. Whatever money is in the treasury, hold the people. I find the people, connect them with the money, and I charge a fee.

What fee?

And I wrote it.

What, what's the fee? 10%, and it's called a finder.

Yeah, either finder, an asset locator, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, I took a, I took a note from your book and I, I wrote an ebook to help people do it because it was so successful with it. So, you know, again, everything that came from your show, it took us to really, like, branch out and figure out how to make this work. So. Wow.

Okay, so you made. Did you say 200,000 last. In the last year?

Yeah, yeah. And I have, literally from January to now, I have about 260 something thousand coming to me. So I already made what I made last year less in about six months.

Who's paying for dinner next time we see each other? So can you remind me when we were talking, how much student loan debt did both of you have?

10,000.

No student loan debt. That was a joke. All right, Because I'm like, I wish.

Wasn't it like 200?

Yeah, yeah, I think.

Yeah, A little bit less because I think I had maybe 85, 90, something.

Like that on my own and I had 72. Okay, so.

So the two of those combined. All right, and now how much is it?

It's about $85,000 combined.

So you've paid off $70,000 or so in the last year, plus $20,000 from your credit card.

Yeah, yeah.

You could just be holding that money, but we did the right thing and then paid it off.

Is this for real?

Yeah.

No, this is amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

Am I the only one smiling on this? Wait, this is my smile, by the way. A lot of people, like, Ramit doesn't smile. I'm like, this is my smile. Why? This is crazy. This is amazing. I'm so proud of both of you.

Thank you.

I appreciate it. Appreciate it.

I'm speechless. This almost hard to believe, but it's quite amazing. They went from arguing over an old storage unit to paying off tens of thousands of dollars in debt and increasing their income. Amazing. Real question for you. Do you know how often you're supposed to see your primary care physician? How about the dentist? How about a dermatologist? A lot of us just wait to get a text from the dental hygienist to know it's time to make an appointment. But your health is important and we talk about going from defense to offense with your money. What about with your health? Why not make your life easier and book this year's appointments today with zocdoc. Zocdoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. They have over 100,000 doctors across every specialty from mental health, dental, primary care, and more. Just filter for the doctors based on your insurance, your location, even ratings, and find a doctor who's a good fit for your needs. Plus, Zocdoc appointments happen fast, usually within 24 to 72 hours instantly. Click through your options, book the appointment and you are good to go. If I needed to find a new doctor today, this is what I would use. Stop putting off these doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com ramit to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's Z O c d o c.com ramit zocdoc.com ramit what comes to mind when I share these specific moments? Renewing your passport. Scheduling a dentist appointment Replacing that light bulb that's been out for six months and you're not sure what's the right bulb. We all procrastinate on weird stuff and taxes are usually right at the top of that list. We wait until the last second, then we get overwhelmed. We got to pull all this paperwork and we're panicked because the deadline is approaching. That's why I recommend Gilt. Now that tax season's over, this is actually the best time to get ahead. If you run a business or you filed for a tax extension, one small move right now could save you thousands later. Gelt is not just another CPA firm. They helped one of my colleagues rethink his entire tax setup. Now he's saving more than he spends on tax prep. With Gelt, you get a proactive year round strategy, not just a one time filing, credits, deductions, business structure. It's handled and their tech platform makes it easy to stay organized. You'll also get access to G's full tax library with guides on retirement plans, QBI and more. So if you've got a business or you filed for an extension, this is the window to take control of your tax plan. Head to joingelt.com ramit to book a consultation and as a member of my community, you get to skip the waitlist. Again, that's joingelt.com ramit join G-E-L-T.com ramit taxes don't have to be a task with Gelt. They can be a tool to build wealth. Monique, I'm so curious, what has changed since we last saw each other?

Not much. She's still in the space. Look at that.

I see that. That's amazing.

Tell me honestly, being in this space, I think for me, I mean the money stuff was nice. It was just the whole point of the show. But it was nice. But honestly, being introduced to this space has opened up a lot of doors to help my business. While Being here, I was able to be in their artisan cohort program. That's, you know, I think it was like a six week program that helped with building your business. We got to do art shows. I've been able to be a part of vending events and now I get to throw my own vending event. So.

Wow, that's amazing. Do you remember that conversation we had? We were walking around there and I remember we. We took the full tour. It was pretty cool. We chatted with a couple people and then we were standing outside and. And I think you mentioned something like, I'm not sure I belong here. Do you remember that conversation? Yeah, yeah, I remember.

I.

What do you remember about it?

The imposter syndrome part. And honestly, let's. I think I. I don't remember what month I joined in. I think it was like March. I didn't come in until maybe May. And I. I didn't even come in doing my own work. Somebody here was offering part time work. So I was like, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to make myself comfortable being here. So it's just a way of me getting out of my way and saying, you know, just watch the people. And now, I mean, everybody's awesome. Like there is. Everybody's asking everybody, how can you do this? And everybody's open to be helpful. I love it. It's my favorite place to come.

I still remember that vividly. It's one of my favorite parts of the entire experience doing this show. I remember we walked together and then you walk in a little bit on your own and I was just watching. And I remember that imposter syndrome conversation and I remember vividly saying, you belong here. And so to see you a year later with that background, being there, watching you on Instagram, I'm so happy for you and for you as an artist and an entrepreneur. I think it's amazing.

I truly appreciate you for it because this was a step that I probably would have kept looking at and thinking about it. And then a year later looking at it again and then thinking about it again, I think it forced me to jump and just, you know, not worry about the what ifs.

All right, beautiful. Monique, I want to know about your finances. What's going on? We heard from Donnell.

What about for you here and there, like, it's still good. I have my good months. Like now I'm starting to ramp up. During the summer, it's busier because of all the events that are happening, like wedd and graduations.

What's a What's a range that you.

Make per month regularly? I make maybe between like 35 to 4amonth.

4,000?

Yeah.

Okay.

And then like on good months is where it's like the 8,000.

Whoa.

So that's pretty cool. You've had more $8,000 months since we talked.

Yes.

Amazing. Together as a household, you start making this money. How did you decide what to do with it?

Honestly, we. We really just looked at the initial conscious spending plan that you gave us that we did. You know, talking about homework. Because you definitely gave us a lot of homework. That's right. We, we really just really took a stab at it and like, went over our credit report and. And looked at what we can pay down, like first initially, like when we had the conversation in the restaurant. So we started with the small bills and then worked our way up. It's a huge relief, you know, off of our shoulders to, to be able to walk into a store or go online to Amazon and, you know, purchase what I want without fear of Monique Donnell White.

Why are you opening up the door on Amazon? You know, I got to ask.

I'll just say, how much did you.

Spend on video games in the last 30 days? Tell me. Tell the truth.

Oh, no, truthfully, I've only been getting free games, so. No, no. In app purchases. Yeah.

Seriously, you used to spend 600 bucks a month. I remember. I saw that scene.

It's hard.

You saw it too. I know you saw that. Wait, so you spend nothing on video games?

Nothing on video games.

Nothing on video games. Let's. In the past months.

Yeah. Tell me, Monique, you spent nothing, but.

No, I'm really good. Like, he's been, honestly, he's been so caught up in working and doing a whole bunch of stuff that he doesn't really have time to sit around and do as much. So there's purchases.

It's been really important to try and stay on track. It is hard. It's really, really hard.

What's the hardest part of it?

Knowing that I can do it now, you know, but going like scaling back and making sure that things are in order because now Billy is in college and we got to pay for that. Wow.

Congrats. Okay.

All right.

How much is that costing per year?

What? 19,000? Yeah.

Are you paying in full?

Yeah.

Yeah. We don't want her to be stuck with the loans like they were.

This is frustrating. Monique and Donnell have decided to pay $19,000 a year, a huge amount, which follows the invisible script in America that you should pay for your kids college. Maybe maybe not. But what really interests me is how much discussion did they have about all the issues around this $80,000 decision. Did they talk about the cost of college? Did they talk about their options including scholarships, financial aid, work study, internships? This single decision is one of the biggest financial decisions they will ever make. But as with many of us, we spend more time looking for the newest restaurant or watching random TV shows than to really dialing in on these six figure life decisions. I know that some of us think better when we write our thoughts out, but for a lot of us, including me, I'm better when I can think out loud. If that's you, I recommend you check out Whisper Flow to save you tons of time to bring your ideas to the page. Whisper Flow turns your voice into clean final draft writing inside whatever app you're already using, Email, Slack, Docs, even text messages. And it works on Mac, Windows and iPhone. So instead of spending all of your time responding to messages and especially while sitting at a computer, you can hit a hotkey, speak and the text appears. It's accurate, it's fast, it's all formatted so you can get back to work. Here's what my friend said about it. Whisper is amazing because it learns the way you speak. So you can send this rambling note as a text message and it kills all the filler words and it perfectly formats it for you. They said it's much better than using the Apple Voice to text feature. The spelling is way better. If you want to buy your time back and get back to what matters, check out Whisper Flow. Try it for free at whisperflow AI/ramit. That's whisperflow AI/ramit w I s p r flow AI ramit or click the link in the description below. There's this myth that if you rent, it means you haven't made it. I don't really believe that I rent and I want you to know that you are not a failure if you choose to rent. In fact, I want more freedom right now than buying a 30 year mortgage. But if I'm spending thousands of dollars a month, I want to get some of the perks that homeowners get. And that is where BILT comes in. BILT is a loyalty program for renters. You pay your rent through BILT and you can earn points for it. Think about it. You're earning points for your biggest expense every single month and you can redeem those built points towards flights, hotels, Lyft rides, or even future rent payments. BILT has evolved into a complete rewards ecosystem where you get rewarded for the first time as a renter. And it's easy. Almost any payment method is compatible so you can start earning right now. I wish I had had this when I first started living in New York. Plus, Bilt recently announced that homeowners will be able to get rewarded the same way on their mortgage in 2026. So stay tuned. Join the loyalty program for renters at joinbuilt.com ramit that's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T.com ramit and make sure you use our URL so they know that we sent you. My theme for you was decisive. I wanted both of you to become more decisive. You remember me getting a little frustrated sometimes hearing the, the spinning and the disc. What do you remember about your indecision? Can you think of any examples?

It was the whole show, the whole entire thing. But the. Again, we'll go to the storage unit. It was definitely that.

That. Okay, tell me about the storage unit. What's up with it?

Can I clarify for folks? So I wasn't holding on to use baby clothes like people better tell the.

World right now because there's a lot of people on TikTok on Instagram. Tell us your message. Donell.

So it was, it was. I was a reseller. I was, I was trying to make a couple of dollars and it was all brand new stuff. It looked like it was trashy in there how I took the, the, the, the camera view or whatever, but it was all brand new stuff. But anyway, you took that camera, by.

The way, you took that footage yourself. I just want to emphasize it wasn't some producer. You took your own footage and then people like, is that guy. Are those used diapers in there? What's going on in there?

Yeah, that's why I look so bad, because I did it myself. Way, way. I'm a camera person. But you, you did the calculations on how much I was spending per year based off of what I was making, which was zero. You know, I was just holding that stuff and you know, the decisiveness in wanting to get rid of it because, you know, we, we went back and forth. A lot of people don't know, you know, when the cameras weren't there, like, Ramit was rough and we gave him a hard time, folks. Like, a really, really hard time.

Everybody's like, you guys were. So you made the decisions right away. I was like, they made us look good.

Right?

Okay, so tell everybody because I think they should know. Let's tell them.

Oh, no, we fought back on the bag. I fought back. The, from the day one, I fought back.

Like, what did you say? Tell, tell everyone I'm not returning it.

This is my bag. I bought something nice for myself. You're not going to make me return it.

You did, you did push back a little bit. Fair enough. And I actually didn't know if you took the bag back or not because I wasn't there.

I took it back and I paid a bill with it.

Okay, nice. How'd that feel, it off a credit card?

Awful. No, it felt because I knew that at the moment, you know, it was a nice bag and I do like bags. But eventually it would have just been collecting dust because I honestly had just gotten a couple new bags as gifts, so it wasn't production.

Do we know this?

No, this was.

Secrets come out.

But I know that once everything is situated and life is where it needs to be, buying a bag should just be, oh, I'm going to get this bag.

That's right. That's exactly right. You know, there's always a. Your tomorrow is going to be bigger than your today. Donnell, share some examples of how you pushed back when it came to my advice.

Oh, man. Shoot. What again? Are you pushing me to talk about this microwave? Is that, is that, is that what this is?

The fans want to know.

That was, that was a big conversation with the fans. It was a big conversation outside of the cameras. It was a big conversation.

Tell us about the microwave, Donnell.

So, yeah, I purchased the microwave for like 17. Brand new microwave. It's an expensive microwave and I wasn't just gonna give it up. Like, I wasn't, you know, and, you know, it was, we went back and forth a lot of, again, folks just don't know. Like at the restaurant that day, like, we were going to walk out on Robbie, like we were going to leave him there. We were not going to finish the show. We were pissed. But I mean, sometimes the truth stings, you know, and you got to kind of accept it and look at it from someone else's perspective, even though you may, you may be in your own little bubble, but in order to really, really progress, you got to be able to take advice from someone that has been able to do it or that can at least show you how to do it. So that was hard. But we gave the microwave to our daughter at her dorm, so it went to use. So her roommate and we got dropped down the storage unit. So now we're at, we're using Instead of a 10 by 30, we're in a 5 by 15 and it's only to hold Monique's wood. So when she does projects and things like that.

How much does it cost per month?

$98.

And who pays? Where does the money come from? Oh, Monique pays. I love this. What a great. That's a great answer. It's. It's a business expense. You that which tells me you've got your accounts better structured. Monique is stepping up saying, yes. That is awesome. What a great answer. Round of applause. That's amazing. Okay, lots of insights and clues here, and most of them are positive. First, that last answer really made me happy when Monique said that she pays for the storage unit out of her business. That simple answer actually tells me that they have done a ton of work into restructuring their finances. I also love that they're open about how difficult of a time they gave me. And the production team on the show, they say that they almost quit. Personally, I was never going to give up on them. And I don't mind if people push back on some of the things that I suggest because it means they're engaged and it shows that change is hard. The opposite of pushing back is to simply disengage, to just give up, to say, I'm not into this and to vanish. That's the worst of all. It means people are not willing to change. So I have to say this is why I love being able to do these behind the scenes episodes from the Netflix show. Because we film a ton, we have to cut a lot. But I want you to know some of the things that happened behind the scenes that you never saw. Now, I will say one thing that I've noticed on this call, which is that Donnell is what I call a believer. That's a person who believes that success is just around the corner. And, you know, they'll often talk about the next big deal or the lottery ticket that they bought. You can tell this because he admits he used to be a reseller and now he has this finder job. And believers find it really difficult to follow long term plans because they're not as exciting as the dream of a huge cash infusion. Okay. Those are the lessons. Overall, very positive. When I talk to new business owners, I hear a lot of the same motivations. I want to make extra money. I want more freedom. I want flexibility. But I will tell you something that I've never heard. I want to start a business so I can fill out a bunch of tax forms. That sounds like my hell. The good news is you don't need to be a tax expert to start your own business. Instead, you can use Gusto, this episode's sponsor. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one. It's remote, friendly and it's incredibly easy to use. So you can pay, hire onboard and support your team from anywhere. They offer automatic payroll tax filing, simple direct deposits, health benefits, workers, comp 401k matches, you name it, they can help. Plus, it's quick and easy to switch to Gusto. Just transfer your existing data and get up and running fast with no hidden fees and no surprises. Try gusto today@gusto.com ramit and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll@gusto.com ramIt Once more gusto.com ramit I think one of the best characteristics for people who actually end up living a rich life is being curious. Like lots of people will say their rich life is traveling more, but I think that's just a word. Where do you want to go? What specifically do you want to see? And if I were to ask you, what could you do to make your trip 25% more amazing? If you want to explore your curiosity, I recommend checking out Masterclass. I love Masterclass. I've gifted memberships to family before and very soon my own masterclass called Financial Wellness will be added to their library. With Masterclass you can learn from the best to become your best. Plans start at just $10 a month and you get unlimited access to over 200 classes taught by the world's best business leaders, writers, chefs and more. Plus, there's no risk. Every new membership comes with a 30 day money back guarantee so you can try it out before you commit. One class that I recently watched was Prepare to be Unprepared with Amy Poehler. What I learned in that Masterclass was how to adjust to situations on the fly. Very similar to what people in improv do. Masterclass always has great offers during the holidays, sometimes up to as much as 50% off. Head over to masterclass.com ramit for their current offer. That's up to 50% off@masterclass.com ramit masterclass.com ramit what surprised you about the experience.

That actually was all in our business? Like again, push back. What do you mean they need all of my account information? Well they gonna get what I give them because that's not none of their business. Oh gosh, I was so difficult behind scene. But yeah, just, I mean I didn't think that you were Actually going to come in and, like, really look over things and, you know, go through it, nitpick and all of that. And you did. Every account was looked at and highlighted and talked about. So, yeah, that surprised me. I think it was hard. I think that a lot of. I got a lot of things out of it because I have, like, social anxiety and regular. Just generalized anxiety. And I think just like the pressure of the show, I ignored everybody. I didn't like you. I didn't like production. I told them if I didn't have. I think I blocked production at one point, but I think that putting myself in this position made me stronger because I survived it, you know, I wasn't.

Ready to give up on you. I don't care if you're trying to ignore me. I know these are uncomfortable conversations. I know you two specialize in ignoring this. That's how you got into all this debt. But I wasn't going to let you walk away. Never. And so one of the comments I saw a lot on Social was people were surprised how invested I got. But I said, how could I not be? We sat down, we ate together. I was in your house, we walked next fab together. We got to know each other over a long period of time. How could I not be invested? And when we spent so much time talking about a microwave and then I kind of got mad at that Philly cheesesteak place and I was like, how are we still talking about this when we have $200,000 of debt? How can we be focused on this tiny thing when your rich life is so much bigger?

All of the anxiety and the fighting and everything, you know, we hugged it out and it was just like, I really. We had the time to sit and appreciate what you did for us. And I think that it was a big moment for me.

At that moment, I stopped looking at you as a figure, as a businessman, as someone who's just, you know, doing a job to an actual human being who actually cared about our well being, how we looked at our finances, you know, and. And you coming through and allowing us to be a part of this journey that you took. And it was, it was. It was a huge moment for us. Like, even when you. When you left and we were still there, we were still talking about it, and it was just big because of, you know, everything that we went through from day one, from when you came to the house to that last day of shooting, which, you know, telling you guys out there in America, who's listening to this man? It was. It was to the point where, like, me and Monique wanted to throw hands like, it was crazy, you know, like crazy. But again, like, the truth stings. It really does. And one things we can appreciate is that you didn't falter. Like, you didn't change what you said. You know, you didn't change what was behind what you said. It was. You were like, listen, you guys really want to do something and actually come out of this whole listen. You know, it's hard. It's hard to tell adults to listen.

You know, like, our dream is still a house, but we want to make sure that we're setting ourselves up for success in buying a house. So, you know, renting is probably more expensive right now than buying a house, but we don't have to pay for repairs. We don't have to pay for, you know, taxes and all that other stuff. So we want to make sure that when we go into our house, we can stay in our house.

So that's phenomenal. That's. That's phenomenal. You know, our conversation about renting and owning really got America talking. Did you see that? It's crazy.

Some are upset. Some are like, I get what he's saying. It's a lot.

I love that. I love that we're talking about this. We should. It's the biggest purchase we'll ever make. And this idea that we should just kind of blindly spend all of our money on a house because somebody tells us to. To me, it's absolutely crazy. I'm glad that we were able to have that conversation. Funny enough, I actually think that was one of the easier conversations that we had, because I think when it came to you, you wanted to get a house. You still want to get a house. I totally respect it. I want you to do the same. But it was so far off that we had other things we had to deal with first. It's like there was a fire with the bags and the storage unit and the debt. We needed to tackle that first and make a plan, even all the accounts, or we could even talk about the house. So I appreciate you coming on that journey with me just methodically, step by step by step. Speaking of that, how many accounts do you now have?

Three.

Are you serious? You went from, like, 20 to three?

Yeah.

What did that feel like?

That's still strange to me.

You know what's strange to me? 20 accounts. That's strange. Hashtag bathroom fries.

No. Is because one. It works. Having a joint account and having just the funds that need to go into that account that's paying off Something. Yeah, that, that works.

Okay.

Love it, though.

Monique, how about you? There was a moment, I think we're at that restaurant and I had asked if you would consider combining accounts. And if I recall, you just point blank said no.

Yeah, I will say that he has behaved and I might be the problem child with the joint account. This go around, tell me I will, like, not have my debit card with me and I'll have the joint account and I'll spend something and forget to tell him that I spent it. And then he's like, oh, well, the money was supposed to be in there. And I was like, oh, I forgot. But I mean, then I fix it, I transfer it out because our accounts are all with the same credit union.

Nice.

Easier to just move everything around.

I'm extremely proud of our growth. That was huge. Like I said, you came in and you did something nobody was ever able to do, and that was to get her to do a joint account. Like, I was like, all right, that's your superpower right there. But definitely our growth, to be able to sit down and talk about money and not have any reservations. So that, that's, that's huge. And it has played a huge part in where we are now.

It sounds like you two have become much more of a financial team.

We look at it now like, do I really need to pay $220 for a pair of sneakers or can I actually put that up? Had that money make money for me, you know, to. Whereas, though I can still get a pair of sneakers, but Now I got 220 making me, you know, X amount of money per month.

Nice.

Yeah. So, you know, it's just nice.

Okay.

Yeah. It's just really, really. You, you had us, you had us to the point we really had to look at how we were spending our money, how we were managing our money and how we treated our money.

Donnell, were you raised with the belief that making money has to be hard?

I wouldn't say I was. I was raised on a belief that making money has to be hard, but I was. I was raised on the visual where if you made money, it wasn't an easy thing.

Okay. So guess what? I'm teaching you a new way, which is that it actually can be easier than you think. In fact, it can be as easy as setting up automation once and then checking on it once a year. And you can make more money doing that than you would doing all kinds of crazy things that other people try to do.

Yeah. When we hit our first million, then. Then I'll Be happy?

No, you're not going to be happy when you hit a million. I'll tell you that right now.

If you're not happy now, then you won't be happy later. You don't listen to the man.

Thank you, Monique.

You got to be happy with what you have now.

Monique, are you happy?

Am I happy? Yeah. I mean, because I know that it'll get better if it's where you just keep doing the same thing. Not doing the same thing, but keep doing the work and nor reach your goals.

As you said just a minute ago, Monique, if you're not happy now, you're not going to be happy later. And the fact of the matter is, when you have a million dollars, if you, if you continue this way of thinking, you're going to get there, and you will get there. I can show you exactly the month and year you're going to reach that, and you'll say, well, we could have had 5 million. Well, what about 10 million?

And.

And do you want to go the rest of your life feeling like that?

No. Like, oh, my God, we got a million dollars. Or, oh, my goodness, we have $200,000.

Hell yeah.

Or, oh, my God, we paid off $20,000 in credit card debt.

Okay, we'll start there.

I mean, honestly, the number, Big deal. The number of things I can count that you two should be celebrating is like, I can't even fit them on two hands. The video games storage unit, the number of accounts, the bag, the business nextfab. I mean, I could go on and on. I'm over here. Like, this is incredible.

A lot of what you were able to install and just break down to us throughout the process, we've taken it and we've been able to get this.

Far, and it's probably what millions of people like the place that they are. So if we could help somebody, I.

Have a lot of respect for that. It takes a lot of courage to show up, to open up your financials, which in America is one of the most taboo things you can do, and then to ask for help. Because in most of our life, especially as adults, we want to show up as competent, as winning, like we know what's going on. And when you have to ask for help, especially with a camera crew around, that's not easy. But I really appreciate you did this. You did it for yourself. But you also have, incidentally, helped millions of people who can see themselves in the two of you. After our call, Donell sent me an email. Here's what it said. Monique said she didn't think you believed us. So I enclosed the front page of our bank account. I'm going to put that on screen here for our YouTube viewers. It shows their bank account with $176,052 in it. Quite amazing. I'm very proud of all the changes that Monique and Donnell made. And best of all, they did it together. Thanks for listening and thanks for watching the show on Netflix. And one last thing. Each week I share a new insight on money psychology on my private newsletter that I never share publicly. If you would like to get that, it's free free. You can sign up@iwt.com podcast newsletter. Thanks for listening to I WILL Teach you to be Rich. I'm Ramit Sethi. Please follow the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you haven't read I WILL teach you to be Rich my book. Pick up a copy. You can get it at any bookstore or any library and it will show you this specific specific tactics for how to build the I will teach you to be rich system into your personal finances.