Rich Girl Roundup: The Best Tips (& Gotchas) to Know About When Moving

Katie: Welcome back, Rich Girls and Boys, to the Rich Girl Roundup weekly discussion of The Money with Katie Show. I'm your host, Katie Gatti Tassin, and every Monday we are gonna dig into an interesting money discussion. But first, here's a quick message from our sponsors.

Sponsored content: In the complex world of finance, misinformation is all too common. So while you might have heard that certificates of deposit, better known as CDs, are inflexible, inconvenient, and low-return earners, it turns out there's more to the story. CDs have the potential to be a pretty solid long-term financial strategy, and it's all thanks to the high interest rates that are going around these days. Intrigued yet? CD Valet wants to help you tap into this potentially winning strategy by showing you the best and clearest picture of CD rates across the country. They'll even help you understand your earnings upon maturity and help you pick the best options for your desired term, amount, and return. Get the straight up rates at cdvalet.com. That's cdvalet.com. 

We talk a lot about making smart financial decisions, and for 25 years, Oracle NetSuite has been the number one cloud financial system that high-earning companies rely on. But here's some very new, very exciting news: For the first time ever, you can defer payments of a full NetSuite implementation for six months. That means no payment and no interest for six months. NetSuite provides all the financial information you need in real time, all in one place. All that convenience and visibility reduces tedious manual processes, boosts efficiency, and much more. Visit netsuite.com/richgirl. That's netsuite.com/richgirl. 

Katie: Before we get into it, this week's upcoming main episode is about the gender pay gap, with special guest Sallie Krawcheck. It was important to me that we covered the wage gap in a way that addressed common pieces of pushback to its existence, because it is true that the data is not as straightforward as it's often presented to be. But the true story is in some ways a lot more interesting. All right, onto the Roundup. Henah, how are we doing today? 

Henah: I'm good. I'm really stoked about the episode. The interview is fantastic and the background data you dug into is amazing. So I'm really excited. 

Katie: She's not being paid to say that, just in case you were wondering.

Henah: I'm being paid. I'm not being paid to say that. 

Katie: Good distinction. 

Henah: I also texted you something over the weekend that really made our day. So I dunno if you wanna shout out some folks? 

Katie: Yeah, we've just been getting some really lovely five star reviews recently, and every single time I'm like, okay, Henah's making burner accounts to write these 'cause they're so kind. We've just been really, really fortunate recently. So I think, Henah, do you wanna read that specific review that you sent? 

Henah: Oh my gosh, yeah. Let me find it. It started with “Katie and Henah are the best,” which was so sweet because my name is spelled correctly and I was so excited. And then it said, “I love this show so much. It has really helped me get my financial life in order, and covers some very insightful and fascinating topics. Katie and Henah have great chemistry and clearly work their tails off to make the show as wonderful as it is. Thank you both.” And the only info we have about them is that it was from Australia. So if you are an Australian listener who submitted that, thank you. I definitely feel like Katie and I work our tails off, but it was really nice to have that kind of recognition.

Katie: Totally. And I think we've had a lot recently that have just been like over-the-top nice. So if, yeah, if you do love the show and you wanna add to that collection… 

Henah: So it's not me and my burner account. 

Katie: Yeah, so Henah's husband can take a break from creating all these fake reviews, that would be really appreciated. 'Cause I know that the reviews actually do go quite a long way. The podcast platform is a little bit interesting in the sense that there's, to my knowledge, no real algorithm powering what it's showing to people. But positive reviews and many of them is definitely a big factor in a show's growth. So thank you. Okay, why don't you read the question? 

Henah: This week's question came from Taryn. It's “How do you financially prepare for an out-of-state move? What are some gotchas or pitfalls to avoid, and anything to know about relo packages?” So Katie, I'm gonna hand it to you 'cause even though we both moved recently, I think yours is feeling more fresh in your brain. 

Katie: So we moved like two weeks apart, which is crazy. Okay, so I actually would like to kick us off today with kind of a before and after story just to show my own hashtag #personalgrowth over the last two years. Because when I moved from Dallas to Colorado, the day before the movers were supposed to come, so my husband was in officer training school for the JAG Corps. So I'd been alone for months in Dallas and we were preparing for this move…”preparing” I'm using loosely…and the day before the movers came was my last cycle class. So I taught the class and then one of my best friends in Dallas surprised me with this surprise party after the fact. And we ended up drinking in the park for many hours. So I ended up going home, falling asleep on my… 

Henah: I see where this is going. 

Katie: Yep. Fell asleep at 6pm on the couch, and woke up the next morning to the movers banging on the door. I hadn't done anything. I hadn't set any boxes aside. I hadn't made a “do not pack” pile. I mean it was to the point where they were putting things into boxes and I was just hung over, running around the apartment, pulling things back out and trying to set them aside. It was chaos.

Henah: Oh my gosh. At least you had the boxes. 

Katie: No, they brought those. They brought those. I didn't even provide them.  

Henah: Never mind. I tried. 

Katie: You can't gimme any credit here. So this is also probably a good moment to be like, I am, at the time of this recording, one year alcohol free. Thank you very much. 

Henah: Yay. 

Katie: Takes bow. 

Henah: Congratulations. 

Katie: I know. I was like, I can't do this to myself anymore. So anyway, this move, I was far more prepared. I knew what to expect and I was like yeah, I'm gonna have my checklist, my “do not pack” boxes. I'm gonna be so on top of it. And for the most part I was and things went well. But holy smokes, I think no matter how you spin it, moving across the country is just a chaotic and jarring event. But I know, Henah, you are like the queen of cross country moves, checklists, efficiencies. 

Henah: Reluctantly. Correct. 

Katie: Yeah. Talk us through the vibes. What are your moving tips? 

Henah: Yeah, so when my husband and I first started moving and we did our big cross-country move the first time in 2020, we created this spreadsheet, and we've had to move three times since then. So we basically just make the spreadsheet more comprehensive every time. We have different tabs. So each tab will be like the actual to-do list, the cleaning list of what you have to clean out, like deep clean, you know, before you leave so they don't charge you or take your deposit. We have the expenses tab, we have the itinerary of driving, and where you're gonna stay in terms of hotels if you do require an overnight stay. The cost of all of those things. So I also kind of get into the weeds of writing when I pay off the expenses and whose account it came out of and this and that, because in this recent scenario we do have a relo stipend that's supposed to come in, and we'll get to that later. But it does help to track all of that, so if you know you're gonna get reimbursed at any point, you can kind of replenish the accounts accordingly. 

Katie: Hmm, that's interesting. 

Henah: So I would say the biggest first thing we would do is try to figure out if you wanna do a U-Haul versus boxes like a Pod or a U-Box or whatever. Or if you're fancy enough to just do full service delivery door to door. 

Katie: So what did you do this time? 

Henah: The first time we moved we did Pods, and we did like everything we ever owned into a one eight-by-eight-foot Pod. I don't even know how we did it. And then our car. And this time I pretty much put my foot down and said, we've done this so many times, I'm not gonna try to reduce everything in my life to an eight-by-eight-foot thing. So we ended up doing two U-Boxes, which is another kind of version of Pods, but we did consider doing the U-Haul and driving. But the issue was that with gas prices the way they were, even though it looked net cheaper, it would actually be more expensive.

Katie: So How does the U Pod work? What is that process like? 

Henah: It's just like a big box that gets delivered to you. You put all your junk in it and then you can lock it up yourself with your own lock, and then they'll transport it across the country to you, but it's not really on your terms or timeline. Like they'll tell you, oh, it's gonna be three weeks and blah blah blah. So we kind of knew, okay, well, it's getting shipped off the 28th but we're not gonna see it till the 11th. So you're kind of on your own for those two and a half, three weeks. The big issue there was the first time we did that, we didn't know where we were gonna be living when we moved. It was like, oh, we know we're gonna be in this area. 

Katie: Oh, what a terrible wrench to throw into logistical planning.

Henah: I won't derail us too much, but I will say because of that, they accidentally delivered to Los Angeles instead of Santa Barbara, which is a hundred miles away. And then when we said “Oh no, we live in Santa Barbara, that's what we said.” They said, “Oh, if you want your staff, it's gonna be another $1,200.” And I said “No, no, no, I'm not doing that.” So we rented a 20-foot U-Haul because that was all that was available. Drove the hundred miles, unpacked the whole thing and then drove all the way back. 

Katie: So can you share with us how much the U-Boxes were for…you were moving what, a two bedroom or three bedroom home? 

Henah: Two bedroom… 

Katie: From Berkeley, California, to Atlanta, Georgia. 

Henah: From Berkeley. And man, you're putting all my info out there. My address is…no, I'm just kidding.

Katie: Henah’s Social Security number is in the show notes. 

Henah: And where I grew up and my date of birth. Have fun. Okay, so first we reached out to Pods 'cause that's who we'd used the first time. They said it would be like $10,000 for two boxes, and I said “Absolutely not.” 

Katie: And you have to do all of it yourself? 

Henah: Yeah. Like they deliver and then you have to fill it up. 

Katie: But you have to pack everything, load it and then unload and unpack, and they want 10 grand? Damn. 

Henah: And I said “Absolutely not.” When we first moved out here it was like $2,200 for one. So there was no way that two would be $10,000. 

Katie: And again, just so listeners are aware of the geography, it was Jersey City, right, to Santa Barbara? So I would assume that's even farther than, or comparable, at least. 

Henah: They're both around 3,000 miles. Okay. So I'm thinking, no. So then I called them and I was like, “Yeah, no, I'm not doing this.” And then they said “Well, we'll give you a discount; it'll be $7,000.” And I was like “No” again. And so I went to U-Haul which has a U-Box option and they were doing like $1,100 per box. So I said okay, I'll take two of those. 

Katie: So $2,200. 

Henah: Yeah. So we ordered three and if you don't use all of them, they only charge you for what you take. So we only ended up needing two. And one of the funny things when you are kind of down to the wire like that is you start to get very disconnected from the things that you thought you'd be sentimental about. We were just like a couple items into the third box and I was like, no, I'm not doing this. Take it out.

Katie: Yeah, you get so ruthless, 'cause you're calculating how much you're spending to transport it. You know what, that's always why I felt so ridiculous about our moves is that we have only ever moved for the Air Force. And so in the military you get a stipend based on your rank and how many dependents you have and per mile or per pound, I can't remember exactly how it's calculated. But when we moved from Dallas to Colorado, Thomas was a first lieutenant and he had no dependents 'cause we were not married, and now he's a captain with one dependent—me. Hey, Miss Dependent over here. And so I think our rate of reimbursement is higher this time. When we were going through this process, and we can get into our numbers as well, we used Mayflower both times 'cause we had a good experience with them. And I'm thinking about how much money we are paying and then how much the military is paying to move all of our stuff. I'm like, I don't even think all of our stuff is worth this much. We don't own any expensive furniture, it's all cheap or IKEA or we found it on the side of the road. I was like honestly, if I were starting over and I were the one paying for this, there is a part of me that's like sometimes I wonder if you just start over. Like you just sell everything and then rebuy new stuff when you get there and depending on how much stuff you're buying, it's actually pretty comparable. 

Henah: Every move before this one, we had funded ourselves, and I got pretty ruthless about being like, gotta go, I'm not moving all this. This time I felt like we knew we were getting a stipend. My main concern was, it'll tell you, this is you know, X amount that you're getting, but you have to remove taxes from that. It's not like a huge thing in your pocket. So then I was like, okay well, as long as we kind of break even or even a thousand or so off of this, I'll be very happy. So that let us bring most of our stuff. But generally I've been the same way where I'm like, nope. And I got to a point where I was just doing free curb alerts on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist and stuff.

Katie: Curb alerts!

Henah: On the last day where I was like, this is our address. Go if you want it. Otherwise it's going to the dumpster. So you said you used Mayflower. What was that pricing for you guys?

Katie: Yeah, so the first time…

Henah: I'm scared. 

Katie: It's actually probably based on the numbers you just threw out, less than you're thinking it's gonna be, but still definitely more than what you guys paid for the U-Boxes. So when we moved from Dallas to Colorado we paid for the pack, the loading, and the transport, and then the unloading where they take everything off the truck and put it in your house. But then from that point on we were unpacking everything and then getting rid of all the boxes, and we had moving boxes in our garage of our house in Colorado for literally six months. This time I was like, I don't wanna do that again. I am too busy, I don't have time to do that. So we did the full service, not the white glove, which is where they literally put things away for you in your cabinets. Not like that. But they come, they bring the boxes, they pack everything for you. They label everything. People come the next day to load it all into the truck. It arrived in like four days, which was amazing. 

Henah: Oh, nice. 

Katie: Like we left on a Friday and we had our stuff on Monday, so it was way faster than what they said it was gonna be. And then people come and they unload everything off the truck and then other people come the next day and they take everything outta the boxes, put 'em on surfaces, rebuild your furniture, and remove all the debris. 

Henah: That's so nice. 

Katie: So it was incredible. So the first one without the unpack from Dallas to Fort Collins was $6,000, $6,500. 

Henah: How far is it? 

Katie: Like a thousand, I wanna say 800 miles? And then Fort Collins to Granite Bay was a little over a thousand miles, and the estimate, I think, was $8,500 for the full everything. And we ended up paying like $7,900, I think. 

Henah: At least you came in under. 

Katie: We came in under the estimate. Yep. And I think we're gonna get the full amount reimbursed, hopefully. But I'm on the fence, honestly, about whether or not I would pay for that out of pocket myself. I think it depends on how desperately I needed to move and whether or not it made sense for me to take the time to try to manage those things myself. But it makes the whole process just so, so much easier. 

Henah: Now she's just rubbing it in, you guys. 

Katie: Haha. Yeah, it made it a lot easier. So I do think it's worthwhile if you either have a stipend that will cover some or all of it or if you feel like you're at a place where you can afford it, I think it makes sense to do it. 

Henah: Someone actually commented this on your Instagram today, but I'm pretty sure there's a list of most life-disruptive events, and death and losing a spouse is basically one and two. But the third one is moving. It is so disruptive that whatever you can do to make it easier, and I think you talk about this too, is the emotional labor of having to plan everything and the emotional feeling of leaving where you're at and building a whole new life. All of those things are on top of just the physical act of moving.

Katie: Well, and I was trying to get as much of it outsourced as I could. I was like, well, I really am gonna try to minimize the impact of this on the rest of my life as much as possible. Which was probably a bit of a fool's errand because yes, it became, as soon as we got here, I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like I did not adequately emotionally prepare for how this was going to feel, 'cause I was so focused on just having the logistics sorted out. And on the financial side I did add up everything that we've had to spend between the movers and even things like accommodations, gas, food on the road. Things that we were not expecting to have to pay for once we got here. Which, that's another story, but we are at about $12,000. So I would say, anyone that's considering a move for a job and they're trying to tell you that you don't need a relo package or you don't need a stipend or you know, that's on you, pushing for something, signing bonus, I mean, anything that you can get unless you're getting a ginormous pay increase that you're like, oh it doesn't even matter 'cause I'm tripling my salary. Unless it's extreme, I don't know how people that live in single family homes move across the country for less than five figures. It is so much. 

Henah: I mean, it was super hard and the first time because we were leaving with pretty much nothing, it was easy to get settled, but it takes a long time when you have…like we have multiple pets, we have two people. It's a lot. I had a couple notes of purchases and gotchas and things to look out for that I think would be really helpful. Okay. So when we were moving, my husband and I got Air Tags for our stuff to track it 'cause it was gonna be in these Pods. I wrote in my notes that that was really helpful. Moving insurance, I think is really important, especially if your belongings are traveling during the winter season and you know you're gonna drive through blizzards. 

Katie: Okay, so I was gonna ask you about this. I think this might have been included with the Mayflower move, where you just have like a standard baseline level of insurance that you pay for as part of the move, where it's like a dollar a pound or something. But what are you referring to? This is a separate thing? 

Henah: So like Pods and U-Haul, I think both you can get policies through them so that if there was an act of God or weather or break-ins or whatever, your stuff would be insured for however much you set the policy to, which the first time we moved we were kind of like, our stuff isn't worth that much. Like, yeah, I'm not gonna pay extra for this. But this time I think we paid $50 extra bucks to do $10,000 of coverage or something.

Katie: So super negligible. 

Henah: Yeah. My fear was just because of how far we were moving. I was like, for 50 bucks, at least I have peace of mind for that. And then rentals for dollies, bungee cords, furniture blankets, all of those things. They don't always include those if you're self-packing, and then when the day comes that you have to pack and load everything, you're gonna be like, well, how am I gonna get 15 boxes from here to there? So you can rent a dolly for like $7. I think that's a huge time-saver. And then don't forget about paying for the movers and loaders unless you plan to do it all yourself, 'cause I think that's a cost. I think you were saying you forgot tips or something for yours, right?

Katie: Yeah, I went out basically in the last hour they were there scrambling to the ATM both times to take out money. This is a chronic theme in my life, is I never remember, and then I'll have the people there, I'm like, oh my god, I have to tip these people. I never remember to plan ahead for tips, but we tipped about, I think I had to take out $400 in cash so it wasn't insignificant. 

Henah: Yeah, it's not like 20 bucks here or there. 

Katie: It was last minute. Yeah. 

Henah: I would say too, a couple of things that felt like maybe not gotchas but things that we've just learned to look out for: reserving permits for spaces if you need to park your truck or Pod or whatever for your street. Fixing walls or wear and tear—if you know that you have to fix something, I think those kinds of Home Depot runs will really add up. When we canceled old services and started new ones, some had fees, so like to start our water service was $10. Stuff like that I think can add up. 

Katie: Yeah, can I comment on that as well? 'Cause I also found the utilities to be a relatively stressful part of this. Not because it's that difficult, but because you're basically dealing with eight to 10 different companies, because you've got four to five probably in your current place and then another four to five in the new place. Whether electric, gas, water, internet, trash. Right? It's pretty easy to log into all your current systems and figure out how to stop them and turn everything off. But it actually took me like an afternoon to get all of it set up in California, and it was something that kind of snuck up on me, where I felt super prepared and then it's like the week of and I'm like, oh god, we need to figure out how to turn on water and get our PG&E account set up. 

Henah: We were hotspotting from our car as we were driving cross-country…yeah, it's not always top of mind. 

Katie: So it felt really good to have those done, and I just make a spreadsheet where I have all the new logins and stuff so I can keep it all in one place, and hyperlinks to all the sites or bookmarking everything, and putting autopay on for everything right away too, because it's so many utility bills. But I do feel like had I planned a little bit more ahead for the utilities, it wouldn't have come as such a last-minute stressor amidst the physical stuff of trying to actually get across the country. So I'm glad you mentioned that, and I agree that you probably can expect, I don't know, $50 to a hundred dollars extra that first month in either stopping fees or startup fees across everything.

Henah: That sounds right. I think we had probably $50-ish. Another thing that I know you're gonna end up dealing with, I think we've dealt with it so many times, is changes in insurance rates and new car registration. 

Katie: Oh, it's been such a nightmare. 

Henah: New security deposits when you don't have your old one back. The new car registration is a really big one for when you're moving out of state, because every state has a different rule, and then they'll be like, well, you missed it, you didn't register in the first five days you were in the state. So now that's an extra hundred dollars. And you're like, what? 

Katie: And Colorado and California, I'm pretty sure, do it based on the MSRP of the car. So it can be like a thousand dollars to register. 

Henah: We had to register like $300 every time because it was like, oh, we didn't register within 10 days of moving into the state. So those things add up really quickly. But that was a big gotcha. And then if you listen to nothing else from this podcast from me, it is take photos and videos of everything in your house when you move out or when you move in, because the landlord might be like, this wasn't here before. If you can prove that it was, or you could prove that this is normal wear and tear or whatever, that is huge. Especially if you put a sizable deposit down. I mean, our current building, it's only like $500, but we had one deposit that was $7,500. So I was like, I'm not taking any risks. I want all of my money back. 

Katie: To echo that, I didn't think to do that. Leaving our house in Colorado. Now I wish I would have, but it's just good even if someone doesn't have malicious intent that they just literally might not remember that something was there. But moving into this house, I did go around, and I need to add a couple more things that I found. But I again made a spreadsheet that I shared with the homeowner that has, you know, the room, the item, a description, and then a photo. Metadata has the date, so everything is catalogued of, this was like this when we moved in, and I do feel some peace of mind about that. Because in this case our security deposit here was substantial. And so to your point, I don't wanna take any risks or have that even be a point of contention, “he said, she said” down the line. I want it to be like, no, there's just a picture that we can both look at.

Henah: There was one apartment where we had told the landlord, hey, these outlets have been, the fuses have been blown for months. And they then tried to charge us when we moved out, to be like, this is your fault that they were…I was like, no, no, no, here's the receipt of when I sent it to you, the date. 

Katie: Do you do it all over email?

Henah: I've done it over text most of the time with the landlord, mostly because they've been individuals recently. But with a building, at least in California and Georgia and New Jersey, you get a move-in checklist and a move out checklist. So you are supposed to do it with a representative on site, but I just think it's like due diligence, even if you have the best relationship, to just cover your bases.

Katie: We totally should have in Colorado. It was a miss. Although I did know, Georgia hates the mailman, so anytime anyone dropping anything off would come up to the porch, she would just body-slam the door. She ended up ripping the blinds down, and so we knew we were gonna have to pay for that. I told our landlord immediately, like, “I'm so sorry this just happened; when we move out, obviously please feel free to take this out of our deposit, but I just want you to know that this happened.” And she emailed me the receipt the week before we moved out and she's like, “From when Killer tried to eat the mailman.” I was like, yeah, sorry about that. So we're also trying to plan ahead with those sorts of things too, of like, okay, we need to find a way to make sure that delivery people are not coming up to the front door and that they're leaving things somewhere else.

Henah: Pets or kids or you're just a naturally clumsy person like me, keeping an eye on what you know you're gonna have to fix is key. And then I have just a couple more, but then we can wrap this baby up, which is, if you have a lot of books. I just learned this from someone whose mom is a librarian, so shout out Sophie if you're listening. But you can actually ship them via USPS at a flat rate per weight, which is much cheaper than trying to pack 17 boxes into a U-Haul, which is what we had to do. I ended up kind of doing a cost/benefit analysis where we weighed every single box and figured out how much it would be through USPS, but it was just not worth it for us at the time. But the costs are so much cheaper. So, if you're a book person like me where you have hundreds and hundreds of books, that will save you a lot of money and space.

I think Emily from the Zillow episode talked about moving in off-peak seasons, which has been really nice for better rates or like the free one-month concession. And then I cannot stress to you enough how much packing material lives on Facebook Marketplace or in the dumpster areas of grocery stores and local shops and restaurants. Not that I go into the dumpster, but you know, if you're going to a restaurant or somewhere… 

Katie: We're gonna name this Rich Girl Roundup “Henah’s dumpster diving advice.” 

Henah: You can. People will be like, “I expect nothing less. She's a cheapo.” We've ended up just repurposing or giving away all of our moving boxes through there, which is really nice. 'Cause a TV box is $30 at Home Depot, so if you have multiple TVs, that is gonna save you a lot of money. So it's little things like that. But I do think when you're moving and everything is a little thing, it's just kind of good to keep an eye out for any kind of gotchas. 

Katie: This is making me wonder, too, what the real premium is that you pay for a more quote unquote “formal” moving service, 'cause if they're bringing all the boxes, all the packing material, the cost of raw materials and transportation, what is the actual premium that you're paying for the labor? I don't know, but as I'm hearing you describe, I'm like, oh my gosh, I wouldn't even think to go buy a TV box. That just kind of happened as part of that process. 

Henah: It's because we have receipts of every move we've done before that we were like, okay, now we know we're gonna need to…so the spreadsheet on ours is like last time, this time I think we spent $250 on just moving boxes and tape and stuff and it's only a two bedroom. It's not a huge house. So if anybody's interested, I can share a little bit more spreadsheet-wise. I literally, I was working on it and I was so proud of it and I said, “Katie, do you think this could be the next Wealth Planner? And she said, “Mm, no, but you could try…” 

Katie: That's not true!

Henah: No, I'm just kidding. She was like, “You could try…I don't know how many people are gonna use this one and done.” And I said, “Well, if you're a sucker like me, you'll use it time and time again.” 

Katie: Hey, it might be worth it. It makes sense. I also, I think my last tip is a safety one, which is just, I drove separately from my husband 'cause one of us had the dog and one of us had the cat. So two-part safety tip of, I had pepper spray with me 'cause I'm stopping in all these random rest stops across the country while listening to true crime, which if you wanna be jumpy at a rest stop, that’s the way to do it. So I did have some self-protection with me traveling alone, and I would recommend getting your cars checked out, just a once-over at a mechanic if you're about to drive it across the country. Obviously still a good idea to do alone, but if you have a dog or a cat or a pet or a baby or something with you in the car where it would make it breaking down a hundred times more stressful, you definitely wanna pay a mechanic to look things over. And I had this semi-experience when we moved to Colorado where the car I was driving was a family member’s and it made the trip to Colorado, but within the week broke down on the side of the highway, a spark plug blew up or something. All my car knowledge, I'm like, “I don't know, something exploded.” But I was basically on the side of the road with a car that didn't work and I just was thinking, oh my god, I am so happy that this happened right now, and not halfway between Texas and Colorado with a cat and all of my belongings in the car. So I think it's worth it. 

Henah: Jovanni, my husband, does the same thing, where he will actually go to two different mechanics just to be super safe of, we're about to drive 3,000 miles. 

Katie: Love it. You were like, let me one up this. You're like, don’t go to one mechanic, go to two mechanics. 

Henah: As soon as you said it, I was like, oh shoot, that's a really good idea. Yeah, we ended up shipping my car back to my parents' home in New Jersey because it needed a lot of work and it wasn't worth trying to fix it just to drive back. But my husband's car is kind of old. It has like 180,000 miles on it. And so we were like, is this gonna make it there? So we did the extra due diligence of making sure it's all good to go, and that can also add up really quickly. It's, you know, thousands of dollars. 

Katie: Yeah, maybe do it like a month, more than a month ahead of time, 'cause if you are, the week out, finding out, oh, actually this belt or this whatever, it needs to be replaced. And not only is it expensive but it's gonna take a week, it could really throw a wrench in the timing. So I think that that's also figuring out if the car needs work and then letting that guide whether or not you ship it or drive it. Even if you have to get a rental then. We considered that, renting like big SUVs or minivans, but ultimately we're like, whatever, we're just gonna drive our own cars 

Henah: And we had to split up our pets as well. It just adds up so quickly where you think you have an all-in cost and then you're like 140% over that cost. 

Katie: Do you know what your all-in cost was? 

Henah: I can pull it up. 

Katie: She's like, “Let me get to that tab.” 

Henah: It is on a tab. It's called West No East Coast Best Coast Move. So my husband labeled it. The running total currently, which it's not comprehensive, is $14,132. 

Katie: Wow. 

Henah: Which, when my husband's relo comes in, it will offset almost all of that. But then you have to also pay for your first month, or first and last month, however your lease works. 

Katie: Yeah, I didn't even include that in ours. Oh my god. Ours would be double if we had all of our security deposits…

Henah: It's all in here. So yeah, this is the world's longest Rich Girl Roundup. 

Katie: It is. But I think a lot of it is really useful. I wish I had had this to listen to before our move. Even though you were like, you know, “Do you want the spreadsheet?” I was like, “Nah, I got this. I'm good. I've done this before.” 

Henah: I did offer. 

Katie: And then I show up to my house and I go, oh. This is my final anecdote. And then we'll close out this very long Rich Girl Roundup. But before we left, Thomas was like, our house has a washer dryer, right? And I was like, yeah, Thomas, obviously it has a washer dryer. And then I get there and I walk into the laundry room and there's no washer dryer and I go, oh, okay. I was wrong. 

Henah: If Katie's landlords are listening, don't worry. 

Katie: But it was my, I mean, I have no one to blame but myself. 'Cause then I frantically pull up the lease on my phone and I see that in the included appliances, washer dryer is not on there. So there was a miscommunication about what was being left behind. But I had no leg to stand on 'cause I assigned a legal document that said I was agreeing to which appliances were being left. 

Henah: You posted about it on Instagram and you were like, “Any Kenmore, LG, anybody wanna sponsor a washer dryer?” 

Katie: It's like people would be like, why is the whole year of Money with Katie sponsored by Maytag? 

Henah: Well, you're not a sponsor yet, but you could be. 

Katie: But you could be. All right. That's all for this week's Rich Girl Roundup. We will see you on Wednesday to talk about the wage gap. Bye. 

Henah: Bye.