I Will Teach You To Be Rich - 93. Where Are They Now? Netflix Reunion with Amani and Matt

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

In this special limited series, we’re following up with couples from my Netflix show, How To Get Rich. Tune in to hear what’s new, what isn’t, and where their money conversations have gone since our taping. Today, we check in with Amani and Matt, from their new dream home in San Diego. This episode is brought to you by: Nomorobo | To protect yourself and your family from phone scams, go to nomorobo.com/ramit for a 14-day free trial. Long Angle | If you've made a lot of money and you're looking for a community of peers to turn to for advice, go to longangle.com to learn more. DeleteMe | If you want to get your personal information removed from the web, go to joindeleteme.com/ramit for 20% off. Connect with Ramit • Get Money Coaching with Ramit  • Download the Conscious Spending Plan • Get my New York Times best-selling book • Get my no-numbers journal • Other episodes • Instagram • Twitter • YouTube If you and your partner have a money issue and you want my help, I occasionally select a couple to work with, free of charge. Apply for my help here. Produced by Crate Media.

Do you have separate accounts? We do, yes. Mm-hmm. Did you ever have a joint account? Yes. When I supported us, we had a joint account. I'm going to check out this conversation because I've heard this like 10,000 times already just today.

Let's the end of the conversation. I'm just trying. It's like emotionally draining. You fight about money, you spin about money, and then what ends up happening? I get the fences. And happening? I get defensive. And then? I get mad.

Let me just talk to her. Trust me, you're not doing yourself any favors by cutting it. Trust me. So I just don't understand what I'm saying. And I don't understand why you're like, oh, you know, when I work, I felt this and this and this, well then go work, then if it's such a big deal for you, like, uh... this and this, well then go work, then if it's such a big deal for you like that. Today I have a special episode for you with two guests.

You may recognize they are guests on my new Netflix show called How to Get Rich. That's right, if you go to Netflix right now and you search for my name, Ramit Saiti or How to Get Rich, you are gonna see my new Netflix show. And I decided it would be fun to bring them on almost a year later to talk about where they are, what has changed and you're going to see how honest they get today. So first make sure you've watched them because

you're going to have spoilers so go to Netflix first if you haven't already watched it, search for my name or how to get rich, add to list. Make sure Netflix knows that you want to see this. Then, if you've watched the show come back and listen, because here now, are Matt and Amani to share what's been going on since we last talked on the show. Hey, Amani. Hey, I'm Annie. How are you?

This is like such a like a deja vu, but also like kind of PTSD, but like no offense to you. I hope it's not PTSD, but it is surreal to see you through the screen right now. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's just so great to see you actually. Same. I've been, uh, I've been so eager to talk to you and, uh, it's just so great to see you actually. Same. Same.

I've been so eager to talk to you and catch up. It's such a... I can't... Is this allowed? Like, for many times, I'm like, I hope we can meet, say right now. Yeah. So, will Matt be joining us? Yeah.

Okay. You sure? He's not like, I'm hoping you saw the zoom link. Okay. Let's give it a minute I want him to definitely be on a definitely gonna catch up with you Yeah, he was yesterday. I was like hey, you know, it's tomorrow. I don't want this to be one-sided Where I feel out everything like what happened before you know? Or so he was like no, I I'm here to have enough of this. I'm like, no, I want your side of story too. So.

And how did he react to that? Oh, there we go. Hey, Matt. Hello. How's it going? Yeah, it's going. Okay. Let's get a mini back and I'm excited to catch up. It's nice to see you. It's been. OK. Let's get a mini back. And I'm excited to catch up.

It's nice to see you. It's been a while. First off, the last time I saw you was, I remember vividly because it was that beautiful sunset. And we had spent a lot of time together. So it feels very surreal to see you after this much time. I wanted to tell you the reason that I was really excited to work with you when I first met.

I thought it was so cool how honest you were with me. There was this fascinating dynamic. Amani, you were earning tons of money. Matt, you had no financial access. You don't see that that often and you were willing to talk about it. You know, very few couples will openly argue in front of me. And what I love about it is it's real.

Well, when you're first came, we were pretty much at each other's throats. I wouldn't say I was at her throat too much as she was at mine. She'd get pretty feisty. But I mean, yeah, you know, like it was hard not to argue on camera. I never thought that we would be,

you know, we'd be in a situation still big or anything after, you know, like it was hard not to argue on camera. I never thought that we would be, you know, we'd be in a situation still big or anything after, you know, like people were in front of us. I mean, I definitely understood like where my wife was coming from. You know, I mean, she goes through a lot of stress and, I don't know, I guess the way that the cards fail, you know, she felt some type of way and, I don't disagree with her necessarily, but, you know, I'm just glad that

at the end you know we're able to communicate and talk things through. I mean we were stressed, we were stressed. We were already fighting like so much together before the show game the show was like kind of like what we already owe the last. Everything to the surface. Oh, the last one. Everything to the surface. Oh, I mean, it's crazy, right? People say that you'll forget that the cameras are there. They say that, and I never believed them. But it's true.

You become in your own world, and it just shows what's actually happening. So, you know, I appreciated that you were honest. You were fighting. It was very obvious, like from the first five minutes in the room, and then you showed that to me, which actually the trust that you put in me by showing me that allowed me to better understand what was really going on. And I'm very thankful that you both allowed me to see that. Even though it was tough to do it at the time. Gosh, it seems like sometimes the most important conversations we need to have are the ones that we are least likely to want to. Yeah, for sure. But you did it. You did it. You really

opened up with a lot and it's quite amazing to see the results of that. When I first met Matt and Amani, they started fighting within minutes. They almost dropped out of the show. And every time I talk to them, they seemed to actually relish fighting with each other. It's kind of like one of those old couples we know who are always sniping at each other. But Matt and Amani are young. And I have to say, I'm very glad that they did not drop out. They stuck with it. They have a lot of differences in the way they communicate

about money and the way they see money. You can learn more about those on the Netflix show. There are a couple things that drive me insane. One, when I post a picture eating Mexican food in the L.A. and 7,500 people helpfully tell me that their favorite hot sauce is topatillo. And second, is getting spam calls or spam texts on my phone. I mean, how many times a day do you get a call from some unknown number, or better yet a text from XF354Z telling you that there's a problem with your electric bill? I'm busy. I want to focus on my day, I do not want to deal with spam phone calls. That's why I want to let you know about this episode sponsor, NOMO Robo Max. Every single unwanted call is stopped dead in its tracks.

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had nothing good to offer me. It was all generic answers, and that's because all the best advice is hidden behind lawyer's offices. Or I remember a couple they DM me from Boston. She and her husband were both senior executives, they made a lot of money, and they were frustrated that their vacations were always boring. They were seeing the same things they used to see 20 years ago. They told me they're willing to spend money to find cooler experiences, but they just didn't know how. So who are you supposed to turn to when you have money, but you need help with questions around your finances and your lifestyle.

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investible assets, liquid or illiquid, to qualify and a community organizer will hold a brief Zoom call with every potential member to make sure it's a fit. Go to longangle.com to learn more. That's longangleanGLE.com. Look like you're in a different location. I don't recognize that house. Is that you in a different place? It is. Pretty crazy because when we were talking to you, it was like a five-year plan for us to

try to get to our dream house in San Diego. It was just a combination of things. I had my highest revenue. It was last year. Well, amazing. This house was just like amazing. It was on a hill and a mountain. And you can see like literally like, 365 years of San Diego and like, you know, far you can see the ocean and the water. So, and he had a guest house. So, I ran a bio and I was like, let's go check it out. And he was like, you're crazy. Did you see the price?

And we went and like the moment like we were driving to like, it was just like, we had a goose pulse. We're like, this is like our dream. Like, like, and all that, as I need to put them so nice, we were a goose pulse or like this is like our dream like like in all the neighborhood so nice people like we can't afford this you know like um and yeah cost for would be actually pushes the house is um pretty crazy I had to put like a lot of money down because I already had another lawn so I'm trying to sell my house for that we filmed in it's in my color now. And we started Airbnb in our guest house.

So that's like another income that we started getting. And that's why we made that step to be honest, is probably like the risk is financial decision we made. Only two homes trying to sell the first one using all the cash obviously and the investment that I worked on all last year. But the air But everybody's doing well. So far, that paying half of the mortgage where it puts us back to our initial mortgage

of the house back into my killer. And that was the goal. We took the risk issues and knowing, we can get there. We're right, and that being in the same amount as our previous house. But now we are in San Diego. And yeah, it's our second month right now.

Who the hell is Matt? Would you say so? Yeah. Yeah, it is. Wow. So this is amazing because I remember a mani that one of your dreams was to live by the beach. And Matt, I remember you telling me that you wanted to be more outdoors.

Combination of both. Mountain House with some sort of water view. So... That's kind of amazing. And you did it in about a year. Two things I want to point out. Number one, it's possible to live your rich life a lot faster than you think. I don't like hearing someone say, someday I want to take a trip to Spain. I'm like, what? Let's get specific. How long do you want to go for? What season? What do you want to do there? What are you going to eat? That is important and you can achieve that much faster than you think if you put a plan down and become intentional. The other

question I ask him is, how much do you think it's going to cost? You know, most of us have never actually calculated what our dreams would cost us. A lot of times it's less than you think. Sometimes it's more than you think, which is also fine because it gives you a reason to make financial changes. Number two, I also want to make sure that they can afford it. Wanting a new house or extravagant trips or clothes or whatever is one thing, but you've got to make sure you can actually afford it. Now listen to a mainie talk about it. I had to take a risk like I said, it was the risk. This was not ever take because I almost, you know, basically empty that house, but it's not gone because now it's in

in the house. I would, you know, when I was doing your spreadsheet, I love by the way, the new version. So that first table when I was putting our asset like the value of our houses and the card, all that, I was like, what? I mean, really, it's 500K. What the hell? And it was like, what works?

It's like, I was like, you don't guess our network. Like that whole break. And again, it was like validation that's not about how much money in the bank that you have. If you go and put that money towards something else, it's there still, you know? So yeah, it's my first rescue. Citizens will see. I mean, right now, I would say as much as we have learned a lot and we're taking a lot

of new experiences, it is our actually, I was thinking, our most vulnerable financial situation right now because I own two houses now by choice. You know, it's a market that, that's why I was just scared of investing in real estate stocks. All that, like to me, it's like a gamble. Like, you know, it's like up and down kind of market. It's, anyway, you take the risk,

you know, that comes with consequences. So our house has been in the market like since January we haven't got like any offers and that's like stressing me out because I don't have that much left in my baby gown. I have to think, okay, how many months can I go by paying two mortgages and then I have to- And what's the answer? How long can you go?

I right now have budgeted for like three more months and then after that, I'll bleed out. Like, I don't want to start thinking out like what, what, what, what you say, if you start catching your talks, then you're for like, no, hold on, hold on, hold on, we got to fix this right now. Hold on. This is crazy.

So it's interesting what you say on one hand, you feel the most successful and in control you've ever felt. On the other hand, you feel the most vulnerable. Absolutely. Okay. It was very risky, like just even me talking about it with my friends, like their answer was, did you really have to get this house? You know, you could have waited until you sold your to my good home and you would have found another beautiful home. But like for me was it was hard for me to find in the market a house with a guest house. So I felt like

I had to make the moves and take the rest of the decision of having two mortgages. But now, here I am. I got really, for my incentive this, my new mortgage is going to hit. And I'm like, this is the worst case scenario I was scared of. So that's why I'm like, I can already tell you like one minute how worse you can get, which is like like oh my gosh I don't make enough money to support all this. I'm gonna start passionate my stocks

Then what I'm gonna go cash your my last for then what okay? This is an interesting scenario They have three months of cash left which is way way too risky for me But they also have a very high income and now multiple income streams I kind of love these unusual financial situations. Let me give you my take. I think this is really risky and they need to get rid of their old house right away. The fact is they're going to sell it for a lot less than they thought. That's life. Second, their scenario isn't really that bad if they act fast. And this is uncomfortable to hear for a lot of people. But the truth is that a high

income solves a lot of financial problems. Not all of them, because you and I have heard many guests who have high incomes and spend every last cent they make, but having a high income solves a lot of financial problems. My dream for Matt and Manny would be that they sell the house fast even taking a loss. They set up a rule so they never get this close to running out of money again. And then they begin having more open conversations together where both of them have full access to the money and they share responsibility. That's what I would do. That's my dream for them.

That was like a big part of the show that was like, I didn't get an answer for it to actually now, which is Matt wanted. Like I wanted to push Matt to do a type of job that I do, which is corporate and things like that and find being blotter and he wanted to like run his own business and I was like, oh, I don't wanna fund that business for you and it's too risky and you don't wanna learn

first of all, you wanna be your own boss. but I think the problem was he didn't find that thing that was making you know that could be his passion and I've seen him so much managing the Airbnb and you know like people love him he's great with people on customer service he really goes above and beyond that little things like you know cookies for the guest things like that and He would go down and clean it like you know like no other like he was really like Working hard on this area be like his own baby and I see now what he was asking for before like running his own business Like I just had a different concept of it and I I think his thriving is good at it And I want to be able to support him more

towards that direction. Wow. Yeah, I feel like we've kind of found something that I'm comfortable with and he's thriving in for sure. It seemed before when we talked at least early on that there was this kind of like push and pull. A manie you were saying like I want you to do it this. I want you to do it my way. And Matt, like that says me. Yeah. Yeah.

Do it on my time table my way. And Matt was like, no, I'm not going to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Fair to say Matt. What do you think? Mary. Okay. And so now you you change the the structure That seems to have really changed a lot of the dynamic that's outstanding managing the Airbnb has been I don't know it's kind of delightful I can I kind of enjoy it. What do you like about it? My wife respects it, you know like She'll actually leave me be and let me do the things that I need to do for it because she sees Here her her her her focus is on you know like the end result she leaves me be and let me do the things that I need to do for it because she sees

her focus is on the end result. Just open the Airbnb and we booked all month except two days and it's like 3600 revenue. All the small losses just have that really pretty view and everyone says in the reviews that the host goes above and beyond, you know, places so clean and he's so thoughtful. Like I can see his personality like being put in the job as being a host. And I said it before, like I didn't feel like I could trust him to like, you know, like to have a big investment in that sort of business he does, but something like this, I could see already, you know, the result. I don't think I could have juggling my job and doing this. I tried to do it all, but this is one of the things where I had to trust something to do it, because I just couldn't fit everything in my schedule. And I want to

help him so I have more. That's my next goal financially. I'm trying to save for and invest more so we can my next goal financially. I'm trying to save for and invest more so we can have another Airbnb property. A manie hasn't trusted Matt for a long time. That sounds like she's made progress, but as I dig in, I can tell that it's still a very real issue. I want you to try something right now. Go to Google and search for your full name and the city that you live in. What do you see? I'll wait. Go ahead. What's that? You see your home address out there for anyone to find and probably even more information like your phone number, maybe even your family members? You do not want this happening. This is not okay. I used to find the same thing when I googled myself and it was horrifying, but not anymore thanks to this episode's sponsor, DeleteMe.

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Again, that's joindeleteme.com slash remete R-A-M-I-T. Today's episode is sponsored by Element, a very tasty electrolyte drink mix, and I want to read you a response that I got from one of our readers who started using Element recently. His name, D, he wrote, you convinced me to try Element, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy it. The magnesium is really helpful for managing headaches and getting quality sleep, but it takes so much better than I was expecting given the salt factor. This will be my new go-to for workout recovery and the blistering Florida summer heat. Well, first off, I love hearing about your experiences with our sponsors on the podcast.

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Let me give it to you again drink LMNT dot com slash R-A-M-I-T. That's drinklmnt.com slash remit. So since that time, you know, if you recall, we pulled out all those bills and we were looking through all that stuff. I still remember on the table, we're looking through all this stuff and all that paperwork. What habits have stuck since we first met and worked together? I'm far from like being, you know, perfect as managing my money, but I would say that I mean, now is all things more like long term versus in the moment.

In the past, I was always thinking like, I just want to live my life, you know, you only live ones like I was always thinking like, I just wanna live my life, you know, you only live ones, like I was focused on like, spending that might to create joy versus now it's more like kind of in the middle, you know, where, yeah, is that 23% that we discuss, we can go spend do whatever you want, but also I'm thinking about like,

our future as a family, my kids, things like that on like I'm working hard for providing them a nice life, but I want to make sure it's sustainable long-term. So I'm always thinking about like what can I do to invest my money better, what are other people doing to get additional income, things like that. So like now I'm more like hospital or mentality, which I never thought I would be, because I'm afraid of taking risks, you know? You know, there are questions that you always ask, like, what do you think Matt feels about this? Because, you know, being empathetic, I feel like

that something Matt is really good at. So I always try to think like, even when I'm on my own, you know, how would he feel about this? As big as example, when he was talking right now in the call how, you know, how would he feel about this? As big as he was talking right now in the call, how, you know, he's like different from me, like as a listener, when I was going to do some stress, like, it made me think, okay, well, if he's my rock, then who's his rock, you know, so I try to do more of that for him, even though like, it's hard for me to even like have it together for myself, you know, because if he has nobody, then he can't beat my rock. It's kind of like a vicious circle, right? So I'm

not I'm not perfect. I'm better at it. I'm definitely not where I want to be, but, you know, I'm working on it. Okay. I like it. All right. And Matt, what about you? What habits have stuck with you since we met? What was it quick sin? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You remember that? I don't know. I guess, I guess when your first came, I felt like I was at the point where you know, like walking away just wasn't, you know, wasn't what I was supposed to do anymore. I guess I just forgot it. But yeah, you know, like sometimes, sometimes just, you know, get bring it to your attention. You're like, hey, you know, like you're being

a little rough on me and, you know, calm down. Let's go do something else. You know, like, at least, at least it's good communication. Yeah, that's cool. I'm glad to hear that word quick saying. It's been a while. I'm really glad. You know what? You need tools sometimes to be able to say, hey, I'm overwhelmed right now or, or I need a while. I'm really glad. You know what, you need tools sometimes to be able to say, hey, I'm overwhelmed right now, or I need a second, or I know we want to talk about this, but I'm not in the place to do it. Right, right.

And whether it's quicksand or whatever term works for you, that's fantastic. On the Netflix show, you'll remember that they were fighting so much, I finally gave them a tool to be able to cool down and step away from a fight. By the way, this happened on the first conversation where I met them. I asked them to come up with a word that would instantly signal that one of them needed

time to think. And they chose quicksand. As in, we're sinking in quicksand and I want to take a break. This is a great lesson you can adapt for your own life, whether you are solo or in a relationship. If you find yourself spinning or catastrophizing or fighting, you can literally call it out with a word. Some guests on my show have done this. They've identified with an angel and a devil on their shoulder, and they say, I'm not going to listen to you right now, Mr. Devil. Others use words like quicksand, you choose. And if you want more techniques like this, this is where a skilled cognitive behavioral therapist

can help you ongoing. Okay, now the opposite question, where are you still stuck? So it might be, I'm sure there's some detailed questions, and I definitely wanna talk about those, but bigger picture, where do you feel stuck still? Well, I'm better now. I mentioned that it was before the show, but I'm not where I want to be.

Sure. You know, I could talk about that. I was telling you, like, you know, how I'm stressed out right now about some things financially and me learning, like, you know, how to better invest, I felt there isn't more potential for Matt to have more incomes than just Airbnb. I believe that he could do like, well, I don't do work and have a full-time job where we can add even more income, you know, 100K plus, that allows me to invest in more properties already.

Well, he could still be a property manager. I want him to be there to get out of his comfort zone and be able to juggle both, like, you know, a career and I guess being a, you know, a zone boss, you know, I'm saying a thing there too. And as far as like our relationship, like, we're not there 100% as far as managing my together. Like we still don't share accounts. I've heard that something like that we need to like still work on and like that's the parts.

We're still like not there yet. I appreciate the honesty on all of those. Some of those are about you. Some of those are feelings or attitudes towards Matt and then some of them are together. Why don't you have joint accounts? I mean, as she said, you know know like she still has a tint on turning any financial responsibility over so I don't even manage the finances of the

Airbnb that I manage. So that was a recurring thing right because when you wrote me you said that you had no access to the family financials. And would you say you have access now. I've been told I have to have zero access. You've been told by whom. By my wife. You're not quite sure if you should trust him yet and we're talking about Matt who is the father of two children. who is the father of two children? Not like trusting him.

It's more like, you know how the Airbnb thing happened like where he showed his value, and not like I fully trust him, right? Then I always do like a testing, right? So I was like, okay, obviously, what you would do with a credit card that we... You want to test him? It's not enough to like obviously cover like a lot of the bills.

It's just for now, I was just thinking the mortgage and whatever, you know, left over for himself. So that's why I'm saying we're not there. There's so much more room to grow. I want to offer you another tool. Like I offered you quicksand when I was with you. So when you're at work, you've got these different co-workers. I'm guessing that you don't test them.

I'm guessing that you don't test them. I'm guessing that you assume positive intent and you give them anything they ask for. And then if maybe if they mess up, you're like, okay, I'm not going to deal with that person. I had to learn that when I started working like out of college or corporate America, that was a huge slap in the face. Because delegating was one of my weaknesses, right?

And I was like, I can't do it all. I was working until midnight. I was like, I'm burning out. I have to trust my team and my people. And honestly, it's great. I thrive more that I trust them. I still kind of like, you know, be it for a back and make sure that everything is on track. And I just can't seem to copy the things that in my personal life yet, which is weird. Well, let's try it. Let's try it. Okay. That's good. Do you see that? I appreciate that. This is what I mean when I say trust is still an issue. Look, personally, I completely disagree with Amani. But me telling her she's wrong will not do anything.

I notice she's made some steps, which is a great sign. What I'm trying to do here is to create analogies so she can make the connection herself. That's because she has to get it. She has to realize the cost of what she's doing. And also see that when she trusts Matt, he can deliver. Of course, Matt plays a role in this too. The communication could be improved in a big way. Now, with all of that said, considering

they now own two houses with Airbnb income and they have two kids, I think it's crazy that he has no access to the family financials. You cannot have a partner if you treat them like a child. The good news is they're making steps and all of this could change step by step if they make the decision to do it. Seriously looking at these numbers and with your income and the Airbnb income and the potential housing income,

you could be in a stellar position. Yeah, that's what I'm sorry. The weakest we've been. I see the potential. It's just first like I get rid of the other house. That's like my biggest drag going on from me right now. So everything else falls from that. Get rid of that house.

Do not let the tail wag the dog. Just get rid of it. Even if you have to take way less than you thought, it's okay. You know, there's this phrase that we use, which is that your future is bigger than your get rid of it, even if you have to take way less than you thought. It's okay. You know, there's this phrase that we use, which is that your future is bigger than your past. And when I was going to make some tough decisions in my business, I kept saying, well, oh, I already worked so hard and I don't want to have to start again and this and what I realized is I've got 40 years plus ahead of me. So why am I letting this three years behind me dictate the rest of my life? Your future together is bigger than your

past. You can't have a successful marriage if you're constantly playing with one hand behind your back. Maybe a successful marriage is about going all in. We made this decision together. We had children together. We live together. Maybe it's about assuming that things are going to go right and also having the confidence to know that we can handle it if things go wrong. That's how I would look at it. Once you have that, you're going to know exactly what to do.

Hey, send me an email when you sell your house. I'm like waiting. That's so happy. I cannot wait. I mean, you asked about my texting me if you have questions. Let me give you my number right now. You can text anytime. Matt, feel free to text anytime as well with any questions.

So let me give you this number. You know, if you have questions that come up, we spent so much time together. Of course, I'll be happy to answer them. So just text me anytime. All right. Honestly, that was awesome to catch up with Matt and Amani. I haven't seen them since the last scene, the last time we filmed. And just to see the two of them smiling and talking is completely different than the first time I met them.

And I remember they were actually the first couple, the first day I shot with. And I remember sitting on their couch and they were arguing in front and I was like, this is really happening. It's really different than seeing in my office and doing my podcast. So I just want to reflect on a few lessons that I took away from Matt and Amani. First off, I see lots of better communication. You know, they're actually talking to each other. They're asking questions. Now of course they have work to do.

I think Amani can delegate a little bit more effectively. She can assume positive intent. I think Matt can be more specific with what he wants and why. And I think both of them can create a vision together. That's really what's lacking in Manian and many couples. In fact, almost no couples have a joint rich life vision. But that can be fixed, right? They have a vision, what do we want to do, date night,

and they've started to get little elements of that. I want more for them. The second lesson is that having a high income actually does solve most financial problems, but not all. I want to emphasize this. A lot of times, you know, when you look at people with financial problems, one of the most obvious things is that there's a limit to how much you can cut, but no limit to how much you can earn. And if you're making $35,000 a year, it's going

to be very, very difficult to get ahead. And that's why I'm such a fan of more affordable housing and affordable health care and all those things. But at a certain point, like I said, there's just a limit to how much you can cut. In this case, a mani has a very high income, hundreds of thousands of dollars and she's young. So incredible in her career. That helps a lot. And the fact that Matt is now generating income through that Airbnb and managing it, also fantastic. The problem is they have not adjusted their spending. Okay. And as Amani admitted, she goes, well, I never thought I'd be making this much and having these kinds of problems. They need to tighten this up. And that brings me to my third point, which is they have to become intentional with their

money. A lot of the things that I see happening are something in front of Matt and Amani, and then they jump on it. Like, oh, we saw this house, we should buy it. Uh-oh, we've got to sell this house, we should sell it, credit card debt, 401k, et cetera. It's like jumping from one thing to another. It's financial whack-a-mo. And what I would like for them to do is to become much more intention. Here's the percentage we're going to be putting towards X towards Y. Here's how many vacations we're

going to take. If I make more than I projected in the conscious spending plan, I'm going to take 75% and put it towards investments and 25% and use it for fun. That's the level of intentionality I want. Now, whether or not you're making $350,000 a year, or whether you're making $100,000 a year, or 40K, you can use those same principles, better communication, increasing your income by negotiating your salary, you're starting a side business,

or getting more intentional with your money. I really enjoyed talking to them. And as I mentioned to them, they were so honest. I mean, they were arguing. They were telling me how they felt. A manie was telling me about her childhood, so was Matt. And to be able to reconnect with them, just, it feels awesome to see their progress.

So Matt and Amanda, I want to thank you progress. So, Matt and Emae, I wanna thank you for coming on the show and sharing your follow-up story with all of us. And I wanna encourage you to watch Matt and Emae's full story. It's actually unbelievable when you see it on my Netflix show How to Get Rich. Thanks for listening to I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

I'm Remete Saiti. 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 the specific tactics for how to build the I Will teach you to be rich system into your personal finances.