Wait i thought this was annual and was like “pffft we go through 80k easily”
WHAT. PER. MONTH.
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WHAT. i clearly need to listen
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I don’t know…I feel dissatisfied. He hardly challenged their spending. He focused more on their investments and career choices…which were spectacularly questionable to say the least. But I didn’t think it was a great episode. I think Ramit knew he had to tread lightly and even though he tried to be really direct while challenging them, it never really seemed to get through even though they nodded their heads and said yes.
Spoiler
The husband refused to send in a follow-up saying he felt disrespected on the podcast. Husband seemed like a real asshat, but I couldn’t really relate to the wife either. It was a trainwreck to watch but I didn’t feel much attachment to them.
Who knows and understands index funds and invests in oil fracking???
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It didn’t make me sad–they’re kind of equally mean to each other?–but I definitely want the couple to go to therapy!!
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Agreed, I sense they have spending issues as well if they have such major issues with investing and employment. I wonder how much they actually did talk about those things and just didn’t have time to fit in the ep? Or maybe it was boring overspending lol
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Spoiler
I was annoyed that he spent so much time chastising the woman for calling her husband underemployed. I don’t think that’s a huge diss if it’s also like…true lol. And he compared it to “underparenting” which is not a word with a definition haha
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Summary
I actually got really frustrated with Ramit on this one. The husband took their ENTIRE SAVINGS - over one million dollars - and gave ALL of it to this oil company. The oil company is gradually paying it back, and Ramit told them that they need to include those payments as “income” and thus their fixed expenses went from 99% of their income to 40%. I’m sorry but NO - THAT IS NOT INCOME. Unless you want to count initially handing the money to the oil company as “spending”. It just seemed like he was arbitrarily adjusting their income to make it look like they don’t have a spending problem. I don’t care if you used to make $80k per month, when your income drops you have to decrease your spending too, to match your current income. Also, how the hell do you make so much money, for so many years, and ONLY have $1M in savings!? They have spent through so. much. money. 
I want to find out which college that man works at, and send them this episode. Because seriously, there is no way he is qualified to teach personal finance and he should be fired on the spot.
I also don’t think the husband will follow through on anything and I think he will reinvest 100% in that oil company. He will not back down on how he thinks it is the best investment ever. I feel bad for his wife since he seems to completely disregard her feelings about how their savings should be invested. (I haven’t listened to the final 10 minutes yet)
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Someone on the comments page of the You Tube video said there was a line item among the 82 line items for time share fees, haha.
There are voices on that comments page, more than I would think, castigating the wife.
Me, my stomach clenched for her every time there was some new revelation.None of the revelations were good.
I hope this lady keeps in good shape because she is going to have to be doing massages into her 70’s and that is a physical workout for the masseuse.
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Noooo thank you I will not be looking at those! 
Can’t say I’m surprised 
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I know! The wife viewed all of that money coming from the oil field as paying back their investment. Which it IS.
Why did Ramit not at least acknowledge that? Such a fail.
But boy these two episodes were stellar for entertainment…
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I don’t know if anything will change with this week’s couple. I listened while actively working on a spreadsheet so my brain wasn’t fully focused on it. Let me know if I got details wrong. They spent years living with the wife’s parents and not paying for rent or groceries and they spent all of their earnings. Now they are on their own and still spend everything. They are in their mid 30s with 2 kids and only have $2k in savings. The wife goes shopping for clothes at the mall every week with her mom. They spend $1800 per month in groceries. The wife just kept saying they can save money if she “commits” to doing it.
The big red flag for me was that they were only willing to talk about decreasing spending in one area if it meant living their “rich life” and spending that money somewhere else, like on a vacation. No actual talk of legitimate savings, just talking about how every dollar saved is one dollar they can put toward vacations. Ramit just ran with it and told her she can make a chart where she can see the vacation pot get bigger each month. If they talked about any kind of retirement savings or investments I missed it. My interpretation is that they have none. They have debt - at least a car loan, and I don’t remember them mentioning a net worth number. I probably missed that part.
During their follow-up they said they decided not to meal plan because it is boring 
During the episode they said part of why their groceries were so high is because they have a standard order at Walmart and they just buy that order each week, regardless of whether they actually need any of it, and they routinely throw away lots of meat that sat in the fridge and went bad without cooking it. SO MUCH WASTE! It made me so angry! They are so irresponsible! I feel bad for their children.
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wow. Wow!
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Yep, agreed. She will have a pension as a teacher, so I can get not putting too much into retirement, but their emergency fund situation is dire. Ramit didn’t seem to have any hope for them based on the followups.
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I’m confused about this week. At the beginning Ramit says they are only making minimum wage, but then when they start the CSP he said their combined income is $132,480. That isn’t minimum wage?
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Ramit: it’s minimum wage, what could it be? $32/hr?
Ref: Arrested Development “it’s a banana, how much could it cost? $10?”
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Sooo true!
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Maybe he means with the amount of hours they put in it’s like they’re making minimum wage?
(Have not listened to the podcast)
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A quartet of Canadians comes out to about that. Did it sound like 4 people
I think this couple has weird stuff going on with their businesses and paying themselves. The guy says he takes about $2500 a month income, which is pretty close to minimum wage in the VHCOL areas Ramit lives in, but probably not in small town Texas.
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Literally what do all these self-employed people do for work. In my head they’re the WE BUY UGLY HOUSES people.
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