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That I answered in my last episode that I cut out because I ended up deciding that I wanted to make an entire episode about this. And. The question that someone asked me was. Along the lines of this. Hi, Emma. I'm struggling because I'm a middle class person, but I go to school with a lot of rich people and it makes me feel really bad about myself. And I need help, like how do I not look at things like that and how do I stop the jealousy right? And I got that question and I related to it beyond belief. And I got super passionate. Like, I was like, screaming when I was answering this question and I realized, you know what, Emma? Let's make this into an episode because there's a lot here and I really, really want to dig into this topic. Just. The overall jealousy of wealth and the truth of it because. I grew up in a very normal. Family where like meaning my parents and I where you know. They were by no means rich and, you know, they my parents got divorced when I was five, so I kind of only knew them. Being apart, which financially can be tough because each of them had to support themselves and me individually rather than together. I mean, they were of course splitting everything that had to do with me, but like when it came to living. Food and housing and everything, like everything was they had to do it on their own, which definitely was. Tougher than it would have been if they weren't divorced, right? And you know. They also work normal jobs, like they didn't have some sort of Google tech jobs, so they were like normal parents but also living in. Northern California, where there's a lot of money and a lot of wealth and. So I just grew up. With this weird, complex feeling like I was well, do you know what? **** it. Let's just get into it. Let's just get into it. Let's start out with my childhood. Childhood like elementary school childhood. I grew up in a very normal town. Not a super wealthy town. In Northern California. It was very normal. It it was middle and lower class I would say, in the area that I grew up in initially. With my mom and dad, that's where I lived. And I went to elementary school there. And to be honest, I never had a thought of money. Money never crossed my mind. I mean, I was a kid. And. My childhood seemed super normal, and it was my childhood was very normal. I never thought about clothes or What Car. My parents had like, it's just none of that mattered to me. So that's kind of how my life started. But things all changed when my parents got divorced and my mom moved to a different town that was about 20-30 minutes away where everything was very different, OK? There was a lot more wealth in this town. And the overall? Culture and environment of this Newtown was very different, even though it's only 30 minutes away. There was a lot more. Families that had parents that worked in tech. Which is obviously a very high paying job to have. There's a lot of big houses that were super nice, a lot of people that had a lot of nice clothes, you know, a lot of the rich moms driving the rich cars kind of vibe. There's a lot more of that. And don't get me wrong, there's of course. You know, still people like my mom and I that were normal and like had normal cars and like her income was normal middle class, but there was a lot more wealth there. So I went to middle school there. And. I remember. When I went to orientation. Everybody was wearing. Abercrombie and Hollister and like Juicy Couture and ugh. Boots and **** all being things that like I had never had unless it was hand me downs from my cousins. And I was like, oh ****. I'm gonna need to keep up, huh? Like this is different. And everybody's parents had these beautiful luxury cars and I was like, **** not everybody, but everybody had a new car. Like it was very much that, right? Or at least all of the people that I wanted to be friends with and so. That immediately clicked in my brain and I immediately knew, like, OK, I was going to need to figure out how to make this work. And so, you know, very quickly my mom and I started going to. Their Hollister outlet. I remember there was an Abercrombie outlet that was like. I don't know. An hour away we go to TJ Maxx, and sometimes they'd have juicy jackets. This is not a joke. I used to get all of my juicy jackets at Marshalls and TJ Maxx, and they would have them there, and I'd be like, wait, and they would be like, $25.00. And I was like, this is amazing. And so I was kind of like. Faking it, right? So that I could fit in, and when Christmas would roll around, the only things on my Christmas list would be like a pair of Ugg boots and a special North face jacket that everybody else had so that I could fit in. And I think that that's when things started to get weird for me. And then I started making friends and I started going to my friend's houses, and they all had these big, beautiful houses. When at the time I was living in. In apartment with my mom. That was. Kind of dated, you know, in a sense. And I remember my biggest insecurity being that there was no front lawn on this. Apartment there was just a dirt patch. And you know. Arguably, it was the least attractive apartment on the street. And that bugged me, because on the other hand, all my friends. Had the nicest houses on their St A lot of the times, or at least one of them one of the nicest and so that was like. Weird for me. And. I was embarrassed to invite people over. To. My home. Because I was like. Embarrassed to be completely honest. And I was mortified and I especially knew that I was playing the game right? Right, like. I had all the Abercrombie jeans. I had all the juicy jackets. I had the Ugg boots. But it was because I was. Playing the game, you know what I mean? It was like I had to wait until Christmas to get out of boots, which is still getting Ugg boots. They're expensive as shoes. My mom was working her *** off and my dad was working there and they were working their ***** off so that I could have those little things that completed the story for me. Yet I was embarrassed in almost angry at my parents. Because. I was putting on a show and had this whole facade going on like I was one of them when in reality, no. Like, you know, I was going to the outlet. I was like, you know, having to wait until it was like a birthday or Christmas to get the things that they would just get on a day-to-day, you know what I mean? And so that made me angry because I'm like, **** what I'm faking. I feel like I have this fake identity of like, this wealth. I want to look like I'm wealthy so that I fit in with these kids when in reality. My family is doing absolutely just fine, but like, I don't have that amount of money, I don't have that amount of freedom, you know? My family can't go out to dinner every night of the week because that's ******* expensive. And this was when I kind of started to realize like. My family has to budget things and it felt like my friends families didn't have to budget. They just got to do whatever they wanted with their money. They were going on these, you know, vacations all the time. They had like their lake house. They had this, they had that. And for me, I'm like, my family can't just do that. Like we have to budget things out and then to me budgeting money. So, like, you know, being smart about when we go shopping or being smart about when we go to the movies or being smart about when we go out to eat all of those things, all of those things became associated with. Me feeling like a victim, like I don't have this financial freedom. I didn't realize that 90% of the world doesn't have financial freedom and 90% of the world has to be budgeting **** out. But I didn't know that because I was in this wealthy environment and, you know, in middle school is pretty bad, but. High school was gonna got really bad. My throat's dry is I'm like scream talking. I'll slow down. High school is worse because I decided to go to private school. And with private school, there's a tuition. And the tuition for my school was? You know, a pretty decent amount. Obviously my family couldn't afford that, so we applied for financial aid and we got it. Woo. And at that time. I actually had gotten a lot more comfortable with my financial standing because I had really good friends going into high school. I had two best friends at the time. That. I felt accepted me for who I was and. Never judged me and like had grew up going over to my place and like a lot of my friends actually really liked my mom and I's apartment because it was really cozy and warm and homey and you know, ****** because we had downstairs neighbors. So, like, we had to be quiet constantly and tiptoe around our apartment. But like, you know, Despite that, it was really fun to have friends over and stuff and. I I felt good about it. I wasn't weirded out. Also, I felt like. At that time, my mom had gotten a new job and like, you know, things were just going really well. So, like. I didn't feel as insecure about money. And about my family's maybe lack of money in comparison to everyone else. Umm. I feel like I'd found more of my identity and it had nothing to do with money. But I went to high school and immediately when I got there. Like the whole friend group thing switched up. I kind of drifted away from my 2 best friends that I had. Went to school with we started high school together. We all kind of went our separate ways. And I started making new friends and. These friends were even more wealthy than. Who I was friends with in, say, middle school, right? I mean, these friends were like, their families were rich, rich. And it's because I was going to a private Catholic school like, yes, you're going to have some really rich kids. And it was because the school that I went to was kind of close to this really wealthy town that's all mansions. All mansions like these massive estates everywhere and a lot of those kids. Ended up trickling to my school. So I had a lot of wealth at this school. And mind you, I'm still at a very similar financial standing to when I to when I was in middle school and whatever. So, like, it was even crazier for me to see. So I'm like going to these kids houses, they have like designer bags, they're shopping at like expensive stores. They're like going to expensive dinners all the time with their family. They're going to these on these crazy European vacations their families have, like planes, private planes. And ******* some of them, but not all of them. But there was like a few that ******* had private jets. OK? That's like what we were dealing with here. Mind you, I had financial aid, so I'm dealing with kids that, like, are paying full tuition for the school, whereas I'm paying like, I don't know, like a very small portion of what they were paying. I need water. I'm screaming BRB. OK, I'm back. I actually stopped the recording, which scared the **** out of me cause I thought I deleted it, but I didn't. Anyway, we're talking about some wealthy *** kids, all right? And you can only imagine I immediately was like, ohh no, like. This is bad and all the kids when we all started getting cars. I got my mom's Subaru, which was a great car. Relatively new at the time. Only like 3 or 4 years old. Fully paid off so that I didn't have to pay for it because she like got it paid off from her work or something. So I got this car completely for free as my first car. Amazing, amazing thing. So grateful for that. Yet I still was like angry that I didn't get an Audi for my birthday and. Luckily at school we all wore uniforms, so when it came to like clothes and stuff. It didn't really matter as much like. I fit in just fine when it came to all that. But. It was really tough being surrounded by that level of wealth on a day-to-day basis because kids were always talking about what purse they were going to get for Christmas or what this or that they're going to get for Christmas. Mind you, I've never been into a ******* designer store in my Life OK? So I'm just like. So out of my element here and listen. It's not those kids, those girls faults. That they were born into money, their parents had extremely high paying jobs and they were born into it. Is that their fault? No. But not only did I resent them. But I also resented my own parents for not choosing a higher paying job, as if it was ******* up to them. Or I resented them because they both had to support themselves individually, which made it harder to have, you know, say, a big house. Like my mom lived in an apartment because that was what she could afford, because it's not easy to just go and buy a house in the Bay Area when it. Is way overpriced, and in general it's hard. To just go buy a house straight out of a divorce, like, what the **** did I expect? Not to mention, I had a roof over my heads and I had two extremely loving, patient parents that worked their ***** off. To give me everything that I had and I had more than enough, but because I was sitting next to somebody who was a private jet in English class. Or sitting next to somebody that had a ******* Louis Vuitton. Pencil bag. In math. I felt like I was a victim. I felt like I was so unfortunate. When in reality I had everything that I needed and more right at home and I had everything that I needed, I had a computer for school. I had a backpack, I had the uniforms. I was, you know, going to an amazing school, and even though I was on financial aid, my parents still had to pay for that school to a certain extent. It wasn't like it was completely free, like they saw debate. I had more than enough. But because I was spending all of my time comparing myself to these wealthy girls, I didn't appreciate what I had, and I resented all of them. And. It was so beyond toxic and luckily by sophomore junior year I feel like it got a lot better just because I found myself in a way and I just kind of. Started to see through all of it. So it's not like it lasted the whole high school experience, but definitely freshman year was a tough one for me. Then let's get to when I started making my own money. 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Buying from a brand that really, really cares and pair provides glasses to a child in need for every pair that you buy. Get glasses as ever, changing as you are with pear. Go to pair eyewear com Emma for 15% off your first purchase. That's 15% off at PAIR eyewear.com/emmaso. I had this whole I was under this whole impression. That I was. And listen the sound as I'm when I'm describing this. I'm not proud of this. I thought of myself as a massive victim and listen, there were money struggles in my family, as there are in most families, even the really, really wealthy ones like, you know. There were times when, like, money was tighter than other times. There were times when. You know, money was really low. And. There were times when money was comfortable and. That's normal. OK. At one point you know. It I don't want to get into that, but there there's there was some struggles, there was definitely some struggles and there were definitely some really low points. But overall, I always had food on the table. I always had a roof over my head. I always had a car to drive me to school and my parents made that **** happen and they worked their ***** off and my mom got a new job and my dad. You know, worked as hard as he could. While still having a job that allowed him to spend time with me. And like, I had everything I could have ever wanted, yet I was still a little brat and I still wanted more. OK? As they say in the Coraline movie. You know, it's funny this actually does relate to Coraline. How Coraline? If you've ever watched this movie, basically, I don't want to spoil it, but basically, she lives a normal life in her parents. You know, there's like normal family struggles that go on with her parents and money and things like that. And she finds a secret portal that takes her to another dimension where there's an identical family to the one that she has at home, except it's perfect. It's exactly what she wishes that her family was, you know, infinite money, yummy food that her parents cook, her parents have cool jobs, and there's a beautiful garden and everything's beautiful. But. At the end of the movie, it turns out all of that was fake, and her parents were. They were evil and they were just trying to kidnap her, those parents that seemed so perfect in the other dimension and I remember. It says something and has a line in it about, like, how Coraline always wanted more, you know, and be careful what you wish for. And that's exactly what I ended up realizing is that it looks so great, right? This, like wealth seems like it can fix everything. It's like if I had more money, I could buy this type of food. If I had more money, I could buy this type of clothes, and I could do this to my hair and I'd look like this. And I could buy better makeup and I could buy better this or better that, and I could go travel and do this and that. It it makes it seem like, OK, well, obviously I'd buy you happiness. Duh. The ****? Like, it seems so obvious that. Money would. Make you happy. And I was so convinced of this, nobody could ******* shake my view. I hated the wealthy. I hated anybody who had more money than me and would, like, rub it in my face whether they meant to or not. I hated it, OK? And I hated people that had money. And I thought that they were evil, and I thought that their life was too easy and that they should all shut up. That's truly I was so jaded about it, OK? But then I made my own money. And you know, I had a very weird the way that I, you know, I made my YouTube channel. I never expected to make money from it. I didn't even realize that people were really making money from it. I like didn't. I mean, I knew that you could monetize your channel, but I was like, OK, maybe a few extra like. Bucks here and there are like, whatever. I didn't realize that it was like a full career, OK? I mean, I kind of knew that, but I like, didn't expect it to be that for me. I was just doing it for fun, but you know? Six months in. I was making. Enough money to support myself. Outside of my parents, where I didn't need to ask my parents to pay for anything anymore. And it was amazing because I was like. I can give myself everything that I've been begging my parents for in the bratty best way possible. And this is great. And so that actually really helped with my relationship with my parents. And so I started to make money, and this was great. And then, you know, things blew up and whatever, and I was able to move out and then, you know? At a certain point. I was making the money. That I had. Been envying my entire life. And. Tuesday. I can't comprehend it. Because my brain just will never. Be able to understand how that happened. Like I listen, I'm in disbelief. I don't understand how this happened. I am beyond grateful for it. I am so. Beyond grateful for it, but. What's so interesting is. What I've learned about. Money and envying wealth and all of that and I feel like. You know, some people might be like, well, it's easy for you to ******* say that. You know, money doesn't bring you happiness cause. Because now you know you support yourself and you have the money that you are ******* envying. Which I hate to say, because that's so annoying and I want to punch myself in the face like it's annoying. Because money is touchy, and that's why I avoided making this episode. But I feel like it's so important because what I've learned from being on both sides of this, right I I didn't grow up with this. So I'm new to this. This is new for me. I've never been able to like, I've never like, you know, I got my first car and it was a Mercedes. And I was like, this is insane. Like this is so weird. I mean, I kept my ******* sober as long as I could, and then that thing turned into a ***** ** ****. But like. I think the second I started to make money and it was in my bank account, I realized all of these materialistic things. They mean nothing. And. The money itself is necessary. It's necessary, and it's. Incredible to have and it's you know, whatever but. I struggle now just as much, if not more than I did when I was living with my family and we just had a normal amount of money. Nothing happened. There was no like hitting a Nirvana with this. I expected that, like me, making this amount of money would change my life in a way that was. Made me feel ethereal. I thought that having money would make you feel ethereal and like, you know, nothing whatever. No, because. It can enhance your life. Money can enhance your life. You know it, it it gives you freedom to travel and. You know to. Do whatever, but at the end of the day, there's. There's a bigger picture. Money doesn't matter if you don't have people in your life that you love. And things that you care about. And a life that is fulfilling money doesn't fulfill you. You can use your money. To make a fulfilling life, but without. People that you love and **** like that. It means nothing, and I never realized that. Because I had to rebuild relationships with my parents. You know, after being a brat for so many years, you know, there's it's been a working it's been a work in progress. You know, I still feel terrible for. Some of the ways that I, you know, treated that I didn't treat them terribly, but like. I didn't know any better, so I was asking them and begging them for things when they were working their *** off and giving me more than I needed as it was, and I still was asking for more. I have incredible guilt about that. My parents forgive me. They totally understand. They don't have any kind of resentment towards me for that. But I resent myself, myself for that, right? There's a lot of growing that I still need to do and a lot of with them, right, to prove to them like that I'm sorry for that and I don't even think that they expect that, but I feel this guilt. Because I didn't understand that none of this **** mattered. And it's funny, because my dad actually grew up in a family that had money. His dad had a very. Well paying job and they lived in a nice beautiful big house and then my dad. Decided when I was younger 2. Quit his kind of nine to five, if you will, and become an artist, even though that was a financial risk, right? Because when you do a creative job and you become self-employed, there's a lot more risk in it. There's no salary. There's no like guaranteed tomorrow. It's like all in the air. And he took that risk because he knew that it would make him happier and he knew it would make him a better dad. And yet there's a chance he might make less money. He might make more money. There's no nothing is guaranteed. OK, but. He decided to do that because he knew that it would make him happier him healthier. Because his job was very labor intensive and. It would make him a better dad and so he prioritized that over having money for not only me, but also for himself. He was taking that risk because he knew that his quality of life was going to be better. He was going to be able to spend more time with me. And that's a very selfless thing to do and a very smart thing to do. He knew because he grew up with money that it doesn't mean anything. So he made the decision to potentially make less money or to potentially take a huge financial risk. Because he knew that. That's not because life doesn't. Have a purpose. Just because there's money in it and I wish I would have taken it his advice sooner because. You know, he's one of the happiest, most fulfilled people that I know because his job allows him to have free time. His job allows him to. Do what he loves every single day and the uncertainty of it and the fluctuation within it. Yeah, it can be tough, but at the end of the day, like, he's doing what he loves and the money doesn't matter to him. He has enough money to live the life that he wants to live and that's that. And that he doesn't need more. He doesn't need excess you only you don't need a lot. You need a roof over your head, you need food and you need good people and you need you know. Money to put into your savings if possible. But even then, it's like you don't need an excess. People think that excess will bring them happiness. If I have that bag, if I have that outfit, if I get to go to this restaurant twice a week that's extremely expensive, I'm going to be happy. No, my dad, you know, when he wants to go out to eat, he'll go get a ******* $3 burrito and it's delicious. Or he'll go get like, he'll ******* make himself something at home that he enjoys. It's it. Doesn't matter. Going to the nicest restaurant in your town doesn't bring you anything. It's about making life enjoyable with your circumstance. And yes, money can give you opportunity, and I understand that, and I see that. But I wish that I would have seen back then that I had such a beautiful life right in front of me. My parents both had jobs that allowed them to spend a lot of time with me. There's a lot of kids that have really wealthy parents that have, like, nannies, and they never see their family because their parents are working and traveling constantly. But they, you know, and they're in this big, huge house alone with no family because they're parents. Are working every day, day and night to give the kids this, you know, lavish lifestyle. But they don't have their parents. They don't have that relationship with their parents. I got to have such a beautiful relationship and such an intimate relationship with my parents. That was so close because we lived in these small spaces together where, you know, one-on-one, and they were home a lot of the times. And. That's a beautiful thing. You know what I mean? I used to envy kids that had stay at home moms. But my mom? Got to be home like, you know what, after six, whatever. If I needed to go home by myself like it's like. It's all about your circumstance. There's pros and cons to everything. And I had a very I have a very amazing life. And I had a very amazing life back then and I did not appreciate it. And I wanna punch myself in the head for being as materialistic and dumb as I was. At the same time, I didn't know any better. How was I supposed to know that the wealthy life that I was envying was? Just as flawed as my own life, every single person's life is flawed. Would I wanna have one of their lives? No, they don't. Even they've talked to their dad once in that month because their dad had been in Tokyo all month on a business trip. I don't wish that for myself. I love the fact that my dad is an artist and I have a creative household. And yeah, we made me made less money, but we made enough money and we got to go to San Francisco and go and walk around and, like, go and get coffee together. That's such a beautiful thing and such a beautiful memory that those kids didn't get to have with their dads. Yeah, maybe they got to throw the craziest pool party of all. 2016 but like. There's a piece of their life that they might envy about mine, and I never realized that until I got older. OK, so I've told you guys about circle before, right? Spelled CIRKUL. Circle was created for people like me, OK, who don't drink enough water every day circles basically this water bottle with over 40 flavor cartridges that makes drinking water way more tasty. The flavors cover all the bases. They have fruit, punches, iced teas. 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Just visitdrinkcircle.com/emma that's drinkcirkul.com/emma to get this limited time offer today. Again, that's drinkcircle.com/emma. If you don't work hard to keep up your mental health and your relationships with others. And you have all this money. None of the money matters. When I have toxic people in my life, the money doesn't matter. I hate my life. Just as much as the next guy. And even more than I did when I was younger and I was in high school and I had a great group of friends because there was a period of time in high school, I struggled in high school. There was peaks and there was low, low points with friendships. But like if I compare the time in high school where I had a very good group of friends to a time now me and LA with everything I could have ever dreamed of and more, but I have toxic friends in my life. Let's say, let's compare those two. I was way happier in high school. When I had those healthy friends and yeah, whatever, I I blah blah blah. There was flaws at that time too, but. I have everything I could have ever dreamed of now. And yet if I have a few bad apples in my friend group. My mental health will struggle just as much, or if not even more, because I'm like Emma. You have everything that you want. Everything you've ever wanted, you little ***** OK? And you still feel sad? What else could you ******* want? What else could you want, you idiot? But it's true. Money means. I can't say it means nothing, but money is not what it seems to be. It's an illusion and you know. I I still struggle with the illusion. I I hate people that are super flashy. I and like, listen, you know? I understand there's certain people that really enjoy expensive things, and they really love that. And don't get me wrong, I appreciate things that are expensive and stuff like that, but not as a status symbol. And I found that, you know? Living in LA, there's so many people that are so obsessed with the. The image that they put out, right, like, I want to seem super rich and wealthy and successful and like, you know, I want to seem like this. It's all so empty. And I think that that's why, you know. There's. There's a way to do it? That's respectable, and I think that some people are just so flashy about it, and I just want everybody to know from the inside, if you see a celebrity being all flashy and **** with their money and stuff, I can guarantee it's not as smooth sailing as you think. 90% of the time. It's all an illusion. Money is an illusion. People with their crazy sports cars and their expensive blinged out watches and their crazy big mansions. It's not as smooth sailing as you think. And also. It's not as fun as you think. The excitement of those things wear off and then you're left with your life. And what's there? Right. The excitement of these expensive. Crazy nice things. It wears off. And that's why people get addicted to buying these luxury things, because they're like, when they're in this position of having money that they never expected to have, they're like, OK, well, I'm just gonna go buy whatever the **** I want all the time. Well, once the excitement of your new Cartier bracelet wears off, what do you have left? You might as well go buy a ******* fake one because it's it's interchangeable. It doesn't bring you any happiness for me. If I buy something nice for myself, it's because I love it and it's because I genuinely really like it and will use it and I appreciate the craft of what it is. And that's when I spend my money on something nice. I'm not spending it to prove something or to get this weird dopamine rush that, you know, people get from that I it's all so surface level and. Empty. None of it means anything. The only time it means something is if it actually does mean something to you. I could buy. A $3 shirt from the thrift store that means just as much to me as like a really nice pair of sunglasses. That I've wanted for a really long time. It's just something that I like. It's not about the status symbol behind it. You know. And. It's all empty. Trust me. The moral of the story is. You can't control the life that you were born into. You can't control. What cards you were dealt? Always remember that somebody's looking at you and wishes they had something that you had. While you're wishing that you had their big mansion, they're wishing that they had the relationship with your parents that you have or. While you're wishing that you had the same car as them, their new Audi. They're wishing that they had your sense. In fashion. There's the grass is always greener. And. All of this doesn't matter. You make the most of the life that you have. You enjoy the small little things. And remember that your parents worked so hard for you. And yes, they brought you on to this earth, but they're doing their best, OK? Don't you think your parents would have a big mansion too, if they could? It's not their fault. And also. There's something so nice about a normal life. It it like this crazy? Wealthy image. Is great and all, but like having a cute house on a cute street or having a comfortable, cozy apartment. Can be like. Equally as amazing like. I live in a house now that. I could have only dreamed of living in because. I grew up primarily in in apartment with my mom because it was closer to my school and I also, my dad had a house as well. But my mom's apartment was, you know, as I mentioned earlier, it was not, it was. It was definitely a huge struggle, I think mainly because, you know, aesthetically it wasn't. So great from the outside. My mom did a great job decorating it, but you know, it was not the cutest thing, not the nicest looking thing. And me and her have talked about this and I got her permission to talk about this. And we both, you know it was it was not the ideal situation for either of us. Neither of us were super pumped about this apartment also because we had neighbors that. You know. We're really ****** **. I mean, they were like, not good, like they were constantly smoking weed and it was coming up into our apartment. Our apartment always smelled like weed. And you know, we always would fight with the neighbors and because they would yell at me because they would say that I was stomping too loud, but really I was just walking normally and there's just no building insulation. But they would scream up and hit our ******* hit their ceiling in our floor with a broom and scream at us and bang on our front door and harass us about being too loud. In reality, it was just like, yeah, I'm a ******* 12 year old and I'm walking around with a heavy foot, like that's not my fault, whatever. And you know, we would also like. There was mold in this apartment. It was not the ideal situation, but it was it was also, like, not terrible. It was like, you know, it was cute and it had big windows and the cats loved it and blah, blah, blah. And so, you know, and it was a great location. And so we stayed there for a really long time, but it was tough for my mom and I. And we both talked about this and, you know, I called her. I want you to know, like, my I talked to both of my parents about this. You know, I got their permission. I told them what I was going to talk about. And they were all born on board. And, you know, whatever this, I'm not talking about this without their consent. Umm. But anyway, you know, it was always my dream to live in a house where I could make as much noise as I wanted and not be harassed by my neighbors where I could have friends over and wouldn't get the police called. On me and my friends, just hanging out, talking in our room at like 9:00 PM because that was always an issue for my neighbors. Umm. Like that was always my dream, to have a space where I felt safe. To like, do whatever I wanted and like, have friends over and have a sleepover on the weekends if I wanted. That was never an option. And. It's crazy because. Now I've moved to. A house where I have all of those things yet for some reason. I almost feel more comfortable in in apartment setting. Like my friends, all my friends live in apartments. And weirdly enough, like. I like going over and hanging out there almost better. Because I like the coziness of it. And. There's something comforting about it, so see what I'm saying? The grass is always ******* greener. Like, I'm not kidding. Every time someone asked me, like, hey. My place or yours? I'm like, I wanna go to yours because I genuinely prefer the the feeling of the closeness of being in. In apartment, it just feels more cozy and there's something I like about it. There's comforting about it. I don't know if it's because I grew up in a in apartment and so that's just kind of what I'm used to and now I'm living in a house that's like, I just it's weird for me. I don't know what the mentality, I don't know what my issue is with it, but that's is there it is. It's like the grass is always greener and the moral of all of this is, appreciate what you have. And. Embrace the struggle of day-to-day life and embrace. The stories and, you know, like, I have such good memories. From the most traumatizing moments. You know of my childhood. Because they're memories that, like, shaped me. I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't experience every single thing that I experienced. I have no regrets. I'm so glad that everything panned out the way that it did. And I'm so grateful that, you know, I have been so fortunate to support myself and like, you know? Have the life that I have now it. I am beyond grateful and I wouldn't have it without you guys supporting me and coming back every week, every month, whenever to support me and you know, always being on my team and I appreciate you guys more than you know because. Being able to have this financial freedom, in a sense, is giving me the ability to give opportunities to my parents. And take them on trips with me and, you know, give them gifts that I only could have dreamed of giving them when I was younger. And those are things that are so amazing to me. Those are the things about money that make me happy, that do enhance my life. And so I just want to thank you guys so much. And also, you know, hopefully this lifted the veil on the truth of it all and that it really isn't what it looks like and 99% of it is an illusion. On that note, I'm going to answer a few questions and then I'm going to wrap it up because my God, did I just rant. I blacked out. I have no idea what the **** I talked about, so hopefully that was a good episode. We're talking about Macy's again. My favorite one stop shop is such a beloved friend to anything goes. Macy's is the best because it really has something for everyone in every occasion. Whether it's clothes, HomeGoods, cooking Ware, whatever it may be, Macy's has something for you in the spirit of everybody having their own individual Macy's shopping experience. They're making us feel like true VIP's for the next couple of weeks because Macy's VIP sale has arrived just in time to get everything you need to cozy up this fall. From September 23rd to October 3rd, get 30% off regular sale and clearance items plus. 15% off beauty. And again, outside of beauty, that's 30% off. Pretty much everything from clothing, shoes and handbags to home decor and appliances. It's happening at Macy's. You want to know what I'm going to get? I'm going to get scarves because I really want to have a scarf. I live in California. It's only cold for like 3 months here, and it's not even that cold. Like it never snows, but I need to be leaning into the winter. Entire this year, because last year I wasn't going hard enough. So I will be picking up a few things from Macy's if you need to get some stuff for fallcheckoutmacys.com, that's macys.com. You'll find what you need. I can guarantee you that. Do you save money for the future if YouTube doesn't workout? Yes, this has always been a huge priority to me. I mean, there's a balance with, you know, spending money on things that you enjoy. Like, I enjoy buying thrifting. Like, I like, I enjoy buying clothes. Like, that's something that I really enjoy doing, right? Like, I like buying vintage clothing. I like that. Like, I like collecting. That's a passion of mine, right? So I'm OK with spending money on that, but like, I don't care about having a crazy nice car, so. Like, I'm just leasing my car for now and I only need one car and like, that's fine with me. I invested in real estate. Because I was like, OK, I'm gonna do this because this will hopefully benefit me in the future. And you know, I'm also investing my money in other things as well. Behind the scenes. I've hired someone to do that because I don't know how the **** to do that, but I've been trying my best to do that. My parents are great at helping me with all this. So I've been making it a huge priority that, you know, I saved my money and I'm smart with my money, but also, I still enjoy myself because you do have to enjoy yourself to a certain extent. It's like money is there. To be saved and spent, not just saved, you have to like, you have to enjoy life. And if you want to go out to a nice restaurant and you have the money to do it, or if you want to buy somebody a nice gift and you have the money to do it, sometimes that brings you more happiness. Then, you know, saving that money ever could have. And so I think that it's important to find what things bring you happiness. Like if going on a trip and saving up for that and, you know, using that money on that instead of on something else is like important to you, you do that as long as you're being smart about it and as long as you're, you know, putting a certain amount of money into savings every month, I think that's really important. If possible. Like, obviously those things are very important, but you also have to have, you know, you also. If you can, you know, you should use your money too. It's because I always was so afraid of spending money. I had like a phobia of it. And still to this day I kind of do because I'm worried of running out and. You know, my parents have explained to me like, this is how you can budget yourself out so that you know you don't have to worry and that, you know, whatever and just be smart and. And it's not, it's hard and it's like kind of a confusing process to figure out, like, OK, what do I spend my money on and what is not worth spending my money on and. What's a good investment and what isn't? And I think that that's all just talking to people that know more than you and blah blah blah, and just hiring a professional to run your money so that you can ensure that your money is being handled safely and whatever. So that's what I do. But. Someone said I'm 16 and I kind of feel the need to think about saving money to give my parents when they retire. I don't know if this is too young to start saving for them or even if I'm supposed to. Do you have some advice? PS I love you. Always make my day. Thank you. I love you and you also make my day. So. Most adults have a retirement. Account, and I'm assuming that your parents probably do too. That's a conversation that you need to have with them, you know, being like, do you guys ever retirement, what do you guys plan on doing, blah, blah, blah. But you are 16 years old and you know, I think right now you should be focusing on, you know, school and figuring out what you want to do with your life. And you know, you're a minor. Let your parents worry about themselves. They are adults. And when you get older you can worry about stuff like that. I really don't think 16 is. Unnecessary age to start worrying about your parents retiring because I I bet that they have a plan for that. And if they don't, that's not your burden to take on. You're your own human being and you know, obviously if you get to a point at some point as an adult where you can. You know. Help support your parents if they need it. That's amazing. But work on, you know, making money for you first, because. You are so young that this is not a burden that you need to take on. Somebody said when coming out of high school, how did you manage your money with bills and taxes? Because I honestly have no clue. I love you and your podcast and advice. Through them are such a great help and gives me so much confidence. You're literally my therapist lol. I love you. I love you so much. I'm so glad to hear that. For me, it it was definitely leaning on the adults in my life. I, you know, asked my parents for advice and they've been helping me to this day. I mean, I'm 19, right? I'm still new to all this ****. And so, you know, really leaning on them and having them help me, but also finding professionals to help me. You know, there's so many amazing companies that can help you with your taxes and can help you with, you know, filing things and blah, blah, blah. And like so much, so much information on the Internet, too. Just Google, you know the most random mundane things. But I think really leaning on your parents or you know any adult in your life because they already know. So it's almost like the best way to learn is from word of mouth, I feel like from an adult because you don't even know where to start when you're kid. I still am confused by 90% of this. Like I don't understand. I my taxes are handled by the guy that does my taxes. Like I don't understand any of it. And when the money goes out of my account, it hurted me and I and that's all I know and it sucks. But, you know, I hire a professional so that I can be, you know, I can have the most responsible. I I want to make sure that I'm doing my taxes right. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to **** it up because I don't know what I'm doing. And, you know, I don't want to accidentally commit tax fraud. So, yeah. Somebody said how can I make sure that I'm saving a good chunk of money each week for my paycheck? What I do personally? Is I. Agreed upon a certain amount. With like my parents and some professionals. About how much money I should be setting aside every month, every paycheck I get. How much? What percent of that should be going? Into an account somewhere far away from me that I cannot touch and. So I think it's about agreeing with yourself. Let's say your paycheck I'm gonna use. This is obviously not inaccurate paycheck, but I'm using it as an example. Let's say you got $10 every month. Obviously that's not accurate at all, but you get what I'm saying. Say you got $10 every month. And let's say you decided, OK, every month I'm gonna put three of those dollars. Into. A savings account, and then I'm gonna save that extra 7 for my day-to-day life where I can just spend it freely as I want. Boom. Agree on a on a like, on a solid amount for every single. Month so that you it it's routine and you know how much money you're going to have for spending that month, every month, and it's consistent and it clicks in your brain and it becomes a habit, right? It becomes a habit to put that $3 into the savings account. Every month and you know that. That is how that's going to be. That's the best way. Somebody said what's the best thing that you've ever spent money on? I think that my favorite thing to spend money on is gifts. For others in traveling, to be honest. And also I think buying my house because that was such a lifelong dream for me. To have like a space that I was proud of because I think that as a kid I was always so insecure about where I lived and. Always so. Embarrassed of it. And so my like goal as a kid was always would always tell myself like Emma. You're going to live in a beautiful house one day that you're proud to invite people over to. And you know, I've, I have that now and it's so cool because I love having people over here. Obviously right now it's kind of a bummer cause we can't really have. I can't have people over really. But you know, just even like my closest friends and like, you know? Whatever. And even if when my family comes to visit, if they come to visit, it's like, it's nice to have a place that I'm proud of, you know, to to host people out because it's something I always wanted as a kid. And so that has been such an amazing thing for me and so cool. And I'm just so grateful that I've been able to accomplish that goal and so that. But also I love getting gifts for people. I love surprising people with things. I love all of that **** and. I like to also like. On a day-to-day, like if I go get coffee with my friends or something. You know, when you really love somebody, you want to provide for them in a sense. And so for me, like buying things. For people that I love is like, like, you know, just buying, even if it's just as simple as like buying them lunch or something like, I just, I feel good when I do that, and it feels good to feel like I'm taking care of someone, and that's weird, but like, or even just a coffee. Or like, I don't know, just feels good. And obviously, you know, you need to leave it open for other people to do that for you too, because I think for other people it feels good for them too. But you know what I mean? So. Yeah. And traveling. I think traveling is very important. Spending money on traveling, I think it's something that, you know, it's. It's a memory, it's an experience, it's something. Helps you grow as a person in a way, because you're experiencing new things and blah, blah, blah. And I I like that. I mean, you don't need that to grow as a person, but I think for me, sometimes I need it because I'm so stuck in LA and the headspace here that like going and traveling to like a little remote beach town. For me sometimes exactly what I need. And it's not even necessarily that expensive, but it's like, I need that to reset my brain. And so that's something that is very important to me. Umm. I also like spending money on clothes because clothes is something that I'm passionate about collecting. You know, I'm I'm passionate about finding cool pieces and cool vintage pieces and, you know, blah, blah and like, that's something that also, you know, means a lot to me. So. I just remembered one thing that I forgot to talk about and I want to bring it up before. I end this because I just want to set the record straight. Because this also really upset me and I feel like I never got a chance to talk about it. One time there was an article that was written about me. And the words. In it. Were kind of twisted. And there was also an interview that I did where I kind of twisted my own words too. And I and I want to clear the air on it. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it had to do with me not being able to go to the movies. It was this like whole like headline, like from not being able to go to the movies to this blah blah and. In the interview they I think they the. The outlet that. Release this article stole a snippet from an interview that I did where I was talking about how, you know, I struggled with money when I was growing up, which I did here and there. But the way that I portrayed it was so victim mentality. And so, like acting, like not being able to go to the movies a lot because my family was budgeting was like a really abnormal thing, OK? And in retrospect. The situation, you know, I I think I was remembering a memory where my mom and I were going to the movies a lot. The movie theater, which is crazy because now I hate movie theaters. They have like a phobia of them, but whatever. There was this period of time where, like, money was a little bit tighter. And so I think my mom was like, OK, we're gonna need to cut back on, like, a few of these things for a little while. Like, we need to stop doing a few of these things just because, you know, we need to be saving money right now, which is so normal. Like, there was no reason for, you know, whatever. And but to me, I was like, Oh my God. At the time, and even up until recently, that memory, my memory was like, Oh my God, we were struggling. We couldn't go to the ******* movies. But then I was thinking about it and I was like, OK, $30.00 for two people to go to the movies, like multiple times a week, that is ******* expensive. So yeah, my mom's like, yeah, we need to take a break from the movies. This is that we can't go to the movies anymore because this is too much money, like. OK, hello. I was totally playing the victim and I didn't even know it. I didn't know it. I didn't want sympathy. I didn't like, I just genuinely felt like that was something that was I at the time. I was like, Oh my God, that's so sad for me that I can't do that when in reality it's like, OK, yeah, but I had a roof over my head. We had to ******* budget some **** out and cut some, you know, like, like some kind of mundane. Fun activities out of our day-to-day for a little while because there was like, you know, a money struggle at the time. But it was like, OK, yeah, but the ****. Like, I just didn't portray that correctly. And then it got twisted in the article. And then, you know, my mom, even we talked about it. And I was like, I really didn't mean it like that. And the way that it came off, like, yes, it's in a sense true, but they made it look so different from what it truly was. And it was just that. And it was such a normal thing that I had. I had subconsciously taken out of proportion because of the way that I worded it in the interview. And then by the way, that the article twisted it even further and. So I just wanted to clear the air on that. It really, yes, there were money struggles, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we were absolutely just fine and I always had a roof over my head and I always had food on the table. And that's all that mattered. So me ******* bringing up that **** where we had to budget out going to the movies because we were like, you know, it was during a rough time. That is so dumb. I should have never brought that up, but I was immature at the time, and I also still had this weird money mentality that I hadn't shaken yet. So that was like 2 1/2 years ago. Two years ago maybe. So, like, whatever, irrelevant. But like, I just wanted to clear the air about that because I think that I made it look a lot different than it was on accident, and that was an accident on my part. So yeah. Anyway, that's enough of this. Thank you guys so much for listening. I really appreciate you guys. Constant support and. I really love talking about this and if you guys have any more podcast topics that are similar to this that you want me to dig into the twitters at AG podcast, you can DM me, you can tweet me and I'll hopefully see it. And if you want to leave anything goes a little rating on Apple Podcasts, give us a little five stars, you can do that and I'd really appreciate it really helps us out and I love you guys so much. Thank you for listening. Day after day, you guys are the best and peace out, *************. We're here with Phil talking about what's new with heart Nissan Phil, what are some good reasons somebody should buy now? That's a great question. We all know that car shopping could be an overwhelming process. Plus people are uncertain about a lot these days. Partisan recognize that? So we rolled up a heart rewards program. All new and pre-owned vehicle purchases. Get one year identity theft protection 3, Virginia State inspections and multipoint inspections. One year tire Rd hazard. With roadside assistance, a three day vehicle exchange, and every purchase or service earns heart rewards points. That's a ton of stuff. It's amazing. Offering all those benefits. It can really save people a lot of headaches and of course, money. Exactly. And we have even more savings right now. Get 0% financing on all new and certified pre-owned Nissan in our inventory. Phil, thanks so much for coming in. Hartnissan.com right, you got it. Hartnissan.com or check us out in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Use your head and trust your heart. That's about finance $20,000 for 60 months with tier one credit approval with MC dealer full details.