14. Rings, Things, and Holiday Mood Swings

In this week’s episode, Justin and Katy dive headfirst into holiday chaos—from competitive Thanksgiving gratitude circles and the eternal “why am I always assigned the rolls?” dilemma to HOA nudity disputes featuring a topless sunbather and one very dramatic neighbor. They also tackle engagement-season etiquette, including whether wearing a fake ring to a job interview is genius or deranged, and who actually deserves to keep the ring when an engagement ends. It’s petty, it’s hilarious, and it’s exactly the kind of bad advice that Wrong Way Forward was made to roast.

Email us your holiday disasters: wrongwayforwardpodcast@gmail.com

New episodes every Thursday—because bad advice never sleeps.

Transcript

Welcome, Text Line, And Viewer Emails

Speaker 1 0:00

She's Katy Montgomery. He's Justin Joseph. These best friends are serving subpoenas to bad advice weekly with Wrong Way Forward. Now, here's Katy and Justin.

Justin Joseph 0:11

duction, but we're gonna go ahead and go live here because we were just talking about our viewer emails that I got a really mean one, talking about how I have no hair or something to that effect. But anyway, welcome to this week's episode of Wrong Way Forward. Um I'm Justin Joseph here along with my best friend Katy Montgomery. Um we are so excited to introduce this week we have a new uh text line. Um so we'll repeat this throughout the show. If you have thoughts as we're talking about something, or if you if we want you to weigh in on whether Katy's right or I'm right, you can immediately text this line and say Katy's got this one. You can give them instant feedback, et cetera. And we'll cover all of that on our next show. But the text line is 720-251-4450. So memorize that if you're driving, so you can text us later. 720-251-4450. So um last week or the last couple of weeks, we've had a lot of your emails

Thanksgiving Gratitude One-Upmanship

Justin Joseph 1:02

over some of our things. We've talked about um Katy gardening the nude has been a big one as long, as well as um Thanksgiving do's and don't do's. What have your been your big takeaways?

Katy Montgomery 1:13

Um, big takeaways is that I think people had a good Thanksgiving, but there are still little things that get under their skin and drive them crazy. And I think they're wondering, should they just keep their mouth shut, or is there a formal way to address that kind of, you know, nipping at them?

Justin Joseph 1:32

Exactly. And so a couple of your emails on that. Um, one of them said, My family goes around the table and lists what we're grateful for, but it's turned into a competition. You know, someone says, I'm grateful for this, and then someone tries to outplay them. I'm grateful for my new job, I'm grateful for my salary increase, whatever. Um, what do you think about that?

Katy Montgomery 1:49

Well, it's interesting because it reminded me um when I used to work in headhunting and we had a weekly meeting, and everybody went around the table and talked about who they were representing and where the transaction was and whether or not it was likely to close. And we always had one colleague who would just list everything. He just thought it looked like he had the volume and that he was amazing. And I was like, let's keep this short and sweet, let's get to the point. What's the objective of this? And I think that if I heard from that person, I would be like, look, you know, there's no need to kind of, you know, play into this competition. UB. Um, if you can bring a sense of humor to it, um, you know, and be authentic to yourself. And, you know, and here's the thing all of this is in the eye of the beholder, right? You know, some things that I think are major accomplishments, other people, it barely is a blip on their radar.

Justin Joseph 2:45

Right. And half the time it's people who want to hear themselves talk or hear want validation from people around them. I remember when I was a television reporter and we would do what's called a scrum where, you know, a police official would come out or something, and we would all the reporters would be there to ask questions about whatever. And I made it an intentional that I would never ask questions like, can you tell us what happened here? Can you tell us the name of the suspect? I would never ask a question unless the intention was to get an answer that nobody else would have, if that makes sense. So a lot of I felt like a lot of reporters, this reminded me of a lot of people who just wanted to talk for the sake of talking for validation. And I just never did that.

Katy Montgomery 3:21

Yeah. And let's be honest, if if you're taking something and you're thinking it's a competition and people are being braggy or being, you know, over the top, my guess is you're not the only one around the table thinking that. So bring some levity to the situation.

Justin Joseph 3:34

And and a pair of rolling eyes. You can just shoot them across the table, the person um sitting

Assigned Rolls And Control Freak Hosts

Justin Joseph 3:39

across from you. Another interesting Thanksgiving uh email we got was this one, and this one kind of resonated with me. Thanksgiving, my family assigns dishes to avoid duplicates. Reasonable, right? Absolutely. Except I've been assigned the rolls for six years, not mac and cheese, not potatoes, just rolls. So, I mean, I think that's kind of funny. It says uh this year I tried to upgrade and bring a sweet potato castor. My sister-in-law said, uh, no, you could just bring bread. So, how do I respectfully tell her that I have a master's degree and capable of more than opening a bag of key of key potato chips or whatever this was? Which I think is kind of funny because I think that's happened to me a million times too. Like, I think you can bring bread.

Katy Montgomery 4:14

My first thing is I'm like, you're lucky. That's easy. You don't have to plan that, you don't have to cook it, you don't have to worry about the dish. You don't have to, I mean, I would love it if I felt comfortable enough to just bring the easy thing off the shelf. That would make my life one less thing on the list of things to do.

Justin Joseph 4:31

Um but you love to entertain. So I would think you you would love. I mean, do you remember when you used to make cream cheese and pick a pepper sauce? And I need to.

Katy Montgomery 4:39

You ate every bite of it. I do love to entertain, but if I had to go to someone's house and I mean, I have to tell you, I'm I know a lot of people like me that are kind of stressed right before the holidays because they're trying to wind down work and they really want to enjoy the time. And it would be nice to not have to think about, you know, planting an entire dish. My other thing is this is when somebody just needs to be curious. I think this sister-in-law was a control freak. And you do not take this personally that they, you know, this person has told themselves a story that the sister-in-law thinks they're incapable of doing anything. Right. You know, have a master's degree. Good on you. And you also have a sister-in-law that's a control freak. Let her control, let her have it, don't let it bother you, and don't make up a story and make it personal. It's this is this is 95% about her, not you.

Justin Joseph 5:32

What I'm loving is I can't get my mind off of the picka pepper sauce and how you'd serve it with triskets. And I'm thinking you would not be caught dead bringing triskets to a dinner party now.

Katy Montgomery 5:41

Um, Justin, I'm a Southerner and Triskets are a staple. In addition to putting picka pepper on cream cheese, you can also put a pepper jelly on top of cream cheese. And Triskets is the suggested um, you know, vessel to eat that. So no, I would have not been embarrassed carrying a Trisket box.

Justin Joseph 5:59

I would tell you to our viewers, if there's one takeaway you've had in 14 episodes, try cream cheese with picka pepper sauce, it comes in a little bottle. You'll spend an hour at the supermarket looking

HOA Modesty Versus Personal Rights

Justin Joseph 6:08

for it, but it probably will be there, and it's pretty amazing.

Katy Montgomery 6:11

It is, it is, it's amazing. And with Christmas coming up and Christmas parties, um, you'll be the hit. And it's only about $5 dish.

Justin Joseph 6:19

Okay, well, I don't know about all of that. But anyway, moving on. And then our last um question we got was from um someone who had the HOA nudity dispute. They say, Dear Justin Katy, I live in a uh townhouse community. My neighbor sunbates topless on her back patio. So not quite nudity, but still, you know, can be aggressive. Honestly, good for her. But our HO president, a man who looks like he hasn't seen the sense since 1998, told her she is in violation of community modesty expectations. She responded, then stopped staring. Good response. Um, now the whole community speaking sides. Where does modesty stop and personal rights begin? And is this the HOA's business or Harold's problem? That's kind of interesting because it's not quite full nudity. Um, you know, and I I think I've been I've been in situations where I've seen someone bathing topless and I didn't know what to do in my when I lived in apartments.

Katy Montgomery 7:09

Well, I think what's interesting is I've I've never lived somewhere where there's, you know, kind of HOA rules, but my sister lives in a condominium. And their HOA rules are so specific that if you have a pot for your plants on your front doorstep and it's not in the neutral palette, you will be fined. So my thing would be, you know what, nobody reads the HOA rules before they, you know, put down the mortgage and sign the contract and move in. But if it's clearly there that there are modesty rules and that you can't be in the nude, you know, you signed on and you have to follow the community rules. Now, the way to kind of handle that is to go back to the HOA, flash your titties, and say, look at these, you know, two beautiful melons. Wouldn't you want to see them? Can we change the HOA rules and see what happens? Um, but you know, otherwise I don't think she has uh uh any kind of recourse.

Justin Joseph 8:03

Yeah, I agree. I think it's I think it's not as big of a deal as gardening in the nude. So um, neighbor, you probably need to tell Harold to calm down. Um, okay, so if you have thoughts, text us at 720-251-4450. Or if you have other things that have happened at Thanksgiving or thoughts on um gardening in the nude or sunbathing toppers, shoot us a text again, 720-251-4450.

Engagement Season And Etiquette Setup

Justin Joseph 8:25

So, Katy, what are we talking about this week?

Katy Montgomery 8:27

So, Justin, I don't know if you know this, but you know, right after Thanksgiving, I always saw that my Instagram blew up with these engagement photos of these girls just flashing their rings right into the camera. And so I got curious and um did a little Google search, and I'm like, when are most engagements happening? And what's crazy is the period between Thanksgiving and um Valentine's Day is known as engagement season. And 40% of all engagements happen during that window. So we thought that we would kind of have an episode today that's kind of around the etiquette and maybe some potential wrong way forward with things having to do with engagement rings and engagements. And so we did get a viewer right in. Um, and maybe I can share that and then we can come back after the break and say whether or not that's the wrong way forward. That's perfect. Um, so give me one second. So this is one of our most loyal listeners. She has listened to um every episode, so we adore her, but says when she was in her late 20s,

The “Wear A Fake Ring” Interview Debate

Katy Montgomery 9:35

she just completed her doctoral degree and was searching for a faculty position. Her resume and publications were exceptional. She was the talk of the town, and she was starting to get a lot of interviews. And then one of her mentors gave her this advice, um, which she considered completely wrong. She recommended I wear a wedding ring on all my job interviews, even though I was single and not interested in marriage. Her rationale was absolutely wild. She said for jobs at small liberal arts colleges and small towns or southern states, that without a ring, they will assume that you're not likely to stay, that single women have a reputation for leaving, that a ring shows more maturity, that she was young, and that a ring would have her taken more seriously. And then this is the kicker. Another reason that she should wear a ring is that it proves you have a life. And so, despite her packed resume and all of her interest, it would show that she had something outside of her work. And so the question is, is this the wrong way forward? And so when we come back after the break, um you're gonna hear both of our takes on this. You've been listening to Wrong Way Forward, where bad advice goes to die, and then gets resurrected just so we can roast it again.

Justin Joseph 10:51

If you're enjoying the chaos, hit like and subscribe and come back every Thursday for new episodes.

Katy Montgomery 10:56

Have a new topic or some disastrously bad advice you want to dissect, email wrongwayforwardpodcast at gmail.com. Include your contact info.

Speaker 1 11:05

Now back to Wrong Way Forward. Roasting the worst advice ever. Welcome back to the Katy and Justin Podcast. And we're back.

Katy Montgomery 11:13

And before Justin and I give our take on this advice about whether or not someone should wear an engagement ring who's not actually engaged, um, you know, for a number of reasons for a job interview, we'd love to hear from y'all. So again, the text number is 720-251-4450. If you agree, just text back, agree. If you disagree, text back, disagree. And we'll try to give those results um, you know, next week.

Justin Joseph 11:40

Yeah, we'll keep those that text line open for 24 hours so that way we have kind of can do a condensed uh poll on it. So again, 24 hours from when we air this episode, text us whether you agree or disagree.

Katy Montgomery 11:51

So, Justin, do you agree or disagree with this advice?

Justin Joseph 11:56

Well, I you know, look, I am a big fan of manipulation, as you know. So I mean, if I can um go in and and I think everybody who goes into an interview, you know, assuming that they want this job, they should use every tool in their disposal to get it. And that means researching the person who's interviewing you, looking at their social media. Um, I remember when I uh interviewed for my first job as a prosecutor in Denver and um it's a long story, but I had I had Denver does not hire new prosecutors. I had moved down to Colorado Springs because they hire new prosecutors. Um the day bar they will hire you before bar results came out, but the day bar results came out down there, my name was not on the list, and so I was fired immediately. That weekend I moved all the way back up to Denver. The next week the bar people called and said, We made a mistake, you did pass the bar. Colorado Springs heard about this, said, Can you come back? I said, I'm not going back there. Um long story short is that a bar examiner who um was on the board heard this and they were prosecuted in Denver and went to the lead prosecutor and said, Interview Justin, this happened to him. So long story short, I'm in the interview with this person, and um and at one point I say, I feel like all of this happened, not happened for a reason, but I feel like there was some element of God involved. This man, I knew he was a huge Catholic, and so I used that to my advantage, and he hired me on the spot. Anyway, so I'm a big that's a long way of saying I'm a big fan of using whatever advantage you can. So if you think that maybe having a ring on your finger may give you some commonality, I think that's fair. What I don't think is fair in the advice is that it shows you have a life, because I know plenty of people who wear engagement rings who do not have lives. What are your thoughts?

Katy Montgomery 13:33

Um, I think this is probably the dumbest and worst advice I've probably ever heard. And that says a lot. I think number one, what if you get the job and then you move to town? And I can tell you, having worked in education, they usually try to take care of your significant other. You know, you're really kind of folded into the community. What do you do? Do you start to kind of perpetuate this long-term lie? Do you say, oh, you know, now that, you know, I've actually started the job, we've broken off and we've divorced. What if people start to ask details? How do you keep all of those stories straight? What happens when you start drinking? What do you tell Mary versus what do you tell Bobby? I think it's unethical and I think it's pure out lying. And I think it's it's a story that you can't keep up. I don't think it's using something to your advantage. I think it is um it's it's putting forth a falsehood. And I also think it really, really bothers me as a feminist that a mentor is kind of promoting this. Well, you're a female and a woman. And if you are not married and you don't have a husband, and so I think it is very old-fashioned. I think it puts women back. Um, and I think actually having a mentor in the space that thinks that makes me very nervous for future graduates in this program to see if they're giving a fair shot and a professional setting.

Justin Joseph 14:57

Well, spoken like an executive coach and a feminist, um, and leave it to me to not think through the potential issues here. I was like, yeah, just do it. It just sounds like a great idea. Having said that, I'm not sure that the advice was go in there

Ethics, HR Lines, And Social Assumptions

Justin Joseph 15:10

and lie. I think it was put a ring on. And, you know, I think there's HR rules or I think there's legal reasons that prevent someone from asking, are you married? in an interview. I think that I remember that from law school. So I think it's more just about sh the what it looks like than carrying through on a lie. What do you think? Am I wrong there?

Katy Montgomery 15:30

Well, I think just because something is illegal, you know, I use this example all the time, and you know, I don't practice law at all. But even if your case has no merit, that doesn't stop somebody from suing you, right? Like somebody can sue you and you still have to go through and have the case dismissed and spend money on legal representation. So just because something is illegal doesn't mean that people don't do it. Um, and even if there's an HR rule, that doesn't mean people follow. And, you know, and this is something that I think, you know, even if they weren't to directly ask you the assumption that would be made, and then as you became kind of friendly in the workplace, even if somebody didn't do it with kind of malicious intent or working outside of some kind of HR or legal protections, I think it would be normal to kind of talk about someone's, you know, kind of private life. Like how was the transition? You know, did your partner find work? You know, um, you know, have you found, you know, you know, a local community? You know, are you getting adjusted? You know, how's it going? So um I yeah, I think that the likelihood of it not coming up, even if that person in a very kind of innocent way, I think it's impossible to maintain that.

Justin Joseph 16:41

Let me ask you a question from the other side, other way. Even though we agree that it's not the right way forward to do this, do you think that the the advice giver was correct that it may give you a leg up that there the world is so so jaded that there may be a connection there or you may be looked at more favorably, right or wrong, because you have an engagement ring on?

Katy Montgomery 17:03

I I mean this might be very naive on my part, but I am really hoping that that is no longer the case. Um and I think particularly as we are seeing marriage rates go down, we're seeing women and men getting married later in life, that it is more the norm now to be out of a PhD program in your late 20s and not be married because the average age of marriage is moving up. Um so I I would hope that that's not the case. Now, if you were looking to make a connection to a particular region of the country and it was factually correct, you know, my you know, my fiance is completing his medical residency in Boston, and that's why it's of great interest for me to work for you know Boston College, BU, Harvard, Emerson, you know, name the university. I think that that's fine, but that's also honest and also shows a commitment to the area and the region. But I think um I don't I'm really hopeful enough, and particularly in education, which I think tends to be um maybe less uh conservative in that space. I mean, they tend to be places where you know it's it's open thinking and you know an open discussion. I hope so. So I would hope that that's not the case.

Justin Joseph 18:21

I asked a question because, and maybe this is a topic for a future episode, but as you know, I have a very good single girlfriend who's single, she's now 43 or whatever, and she really, especially as she ages, is of the opinion that single women are treated differently than married women. And she could cite 10 examples. Um you know, and and so I I you know, I don't know whether that's true or not. That's her experience. Have you felt that?

Katy Montgomery 18:45

I mean, I'm sure that I could probably name places or you know, or times, but I I mean I also live in a fairly I mean DC tends to be a fairly liberal city. Um, women that you know, I can't think of a single female friend where that we're not in a um, you know, both people are gamefully employed. It's a highly professional city. Um, and so I haven't seen that personally, but I wouldn't be surprised if it exists in some places. You know, it's gonna be interesting. I'm sure some people might see kind of the backlash, right? The other way, where it's like, you know, if you don't have children or you're not married, people might see you as a greater commodity because you might have more flexibility and willing to work more hours and you don't have the constraints, you know, that people might assume, which I think I think that is an assumption. I don't think that's correct, of people, you know, that are married and have children.

Justin Joseph 19:38

It reminds me of I was at um, this was right before I met Josh so it would have been what, I don't know, 2006 or something. And I was sitting at my desk in the newsroom and this really annoying anger on the other side, she just had an annoying face. You know those people.

Katy Montgomery 19:51

Yes.

Justin Joseph 19:52

And she, you know, and anyway, it was Valentine's Day or whatever, and she got, you know, of course, she gets a big huge bouquet of three thousand dollar roses and they're just delivered to her desk, and she just turns around to me and she goes, Did you get flowers? And I said, No. And she goes, Oh, you don't have a Valentine's. And I literally it just I wanted to punch her in the face, and I did not have a Valentine. But so that's I think

Single Women Bias And Workplace Culture

Justin Joseph 20:15

my point is it's there are some people that are just like that, and it's like, ugh.

Katy Montgomery 20:19

Well, but again, what makes someone do that? Like, why is it that that hurts us so bad when it's trauma?

Justin Joseph 20:28

I mean, I remember it specifically.

Katy Montgomery 20:30

Yeah, and this person's an a-hole. Like, who says that? But why is it that we as people take that so internally, you know, and it hits us so hard when it's like something must have crawled up this woman's ass to act like that.

Justin Joseph 20:45

Right? Oh, totally. And it obviously really bothered me because I literally remember it to this day. But I think that's what Kelly, my friend, was saying. So anyway, what are your thoughts? We want to know. Text us on our text line 720-251-4450. Let us know what your thoughts are. Have you been in these situations before? Um, we have more engagement questions and bad advice coming up on the other side. We'll be right back. Thanks for streaming Wrong Way Forward, the weekly reminder that advice is usually free for a reason. We call out bad advice wherever it hides boardrooms, break rooms, and even book clubs.

Katy Montgomery 21:18

Enjoying this dumpster fire, like, subscribe, and check back every Thursday for new episodes. Want us to roast your favorite piece of nonsense? Email us at wrongwayforwardpodcast at gmail.com. Be sure to include your contact info. We're not psychic, just judgmental. And now back to Wrong Way Forward.

Speaker 1 21:37

Roasting the worst advice ever. Welcome back to the Katy and Justin.

Katy Montgomery 21:41

And we're back with our last kind of question advice um regarding engagements. And this is the age-old question. I think this probably was something that we actually talked about in law school. But if there's a broken engagement, who needs to return the ring? And is that required? And so just to give you a little bit of background, here's the question. My ex-fiance wants the engagement ring back that he purchased for me a couple of months ago. I ended the relationship because I could no longer tolerate his obsessive behavior and constant blame for everything wrong in our relationship. He gave me the ring and I signed papers for checkups and everything, yet he still claims he will take me to court. So the question here is if she broke off the engagement, is she required to return the ring? What are your thoughts, Justin?

Justin Joseph 22:31

Well, I can tell you, you know, I practice divorce law at a business where I do people's divorces and sell their homes to pay for that. So I work with this situation a lot. And I can tell you, I those are low conflict divorces, but I have a very good friend who just went through a very high conflict divorce. There was a lot of money involved, and she had a very expensive ring. And I can tell you, legally, the ring is an asset and it gets it divided. It goes on the worksheet and you divide it in half. That either means someone keeps it or that gets sold. But um legally it is it gets cut down the middle, so to speak. So um, in terms of how I feel about it, if I were the man and I gave, you know, I think we were one of the other topics we weren't talking about, whether it's two months' salary, that used to be the old rule. Um, and I spent on it, yeah, I'd want it back. But that shouldn't surprise anybody who's listened to this podcast. I'd want every I don't don't just get the ring, get everything.

Katy Montgomery 23:20

Yes, exactly. I mean, I would think if I broke off the engagement, and this could have been for whatever reason, legitimate reason, the purse of the horrible person,

Who Keeps The Ring After A Breakup

Katy Montgomery 23:30

I think I would return the ring. I think for me personally, that would be a gesture of, you know, this ring was symbolizing us to get married. I have broken off the engagement, I would return it. Um, I think though, at the end of the day, if I was someone, you know, if I had proposed to someone with a ring, I would say, that is a gift and I want you to keep it. However, I think that's all saying, you know, before things, you know, it's War of the Roses and things are horrible. Um, but I think that if I were ending the engagement, I would have the symbolic gesture. I also would say, yes, you can repurpose a ring, but I would think, you know, yes, please take the ring back. Um, you know, this is no longer representative of what we thought it was. And I don't think that I would want to keep it. I just I wouldn't want to have ownership of it if I was the one who broke it off.

Justin Joseph 24:22

It is just so funny because you and I are best friends, but we just uh some topics we I can say how you're gonna see the world, and I'm sure you can say how I'm gonna see the world. I I knew you were gonna say that, and I just again I go, I I'm like, go to war.

Katy Montgomery 24:36

Of course you did.

Justin Joseph 24:37

And would it make no difference to you if you dated someone and he was, you know, he was Elon Musk and the ring was worth five million dollars. You wouldn't say, well, maybe I'll keep two and a half of it.

Katy Montgomery 24:47

I you know, I just well, first of all, why did you say Elon Musk? Because I can't get past that. I'm like gross. I mean, you know, I don't want to be part of the you know compound and the harem and be one of the you know 11 people who's you know producing children and gross. It would take much more than a five million dollar ring.

Justin Joseph 25:04

Well, let me ask you the question this does the does it change your calculus if it's a $3 ring versus a $5 million ring?

Katy Montgomery 25:12

I don't think so. But also I think probably, and people are gonna think I'm crazy. I think a $5 million ring is probably really tacky.

Justin Joseph 25:20

Yeah.

Katy Montgomery 25:21

I mean, like nobody needs to have, even if you have perfect clarity cut, nobody needs a ring that big on their finger. And I also, people who are actually watching, I have itty bitty hands. It would be extra tacky on my hand. So, no, I just don't think that I would want that. I wouldn't want to um be affiliated with it. And I think it would have a lot of negative connotations. And this is again if I broke it off. I think that I would feel responsible and I would feel guilty to keep it.

Justin Joseph 25:48

Okay, well, what if he broke it off and he said, I want the ring back? And let's not use five million. That's that's hyperbole. What if it was a $400,000 ring?

Katy Montgomery 25:57

If he if he broke it off and wanted to take it back, I'd be like, Well, that's really tacky. Like, you know, but I probably would be like, This is not worth it, and I would give it back, and I'd be like, God bless the next girl who gets my cast-off ring.

Justin Joseph 26:10

Okay, to all of Katy's good girlfriends who listen to the show, we need you to write in and tell us why Katy's the wrong way forward on this. And if she ever gets married and then divorced, we're gonna need all hands on deck.

Katy Montgomery 26:23

Yeah, but here's the thing this is goes back to the two-month salary, right? So for those of you who are not familiar with this, there De Beers, which was a famous diamond company, basically started it as a marketing campaign to say, isn't your love worth two months' salary? It's a made-up rule. There is not this kind of set rule. And basically, all of the data has shown that most people don't follow the two-months rule. People on the kind of lower income bracket do, but the average of kind of a ring based on kind of salary is usually about two weeks. Um I have my mother's ring that my father had made for her on their 10-year anniversary, and there's 10 diamonds around it that represent the 10

Two-Months’ Salary Myth And Meaning

Katy Montgomery 27:05

years, but the way he laid out the diamonds is four kids, and then there's six in the family. And so it's got a lot of thought to it. I think I would probably wear that on my wedding ring finger, and I would be like, get me a lovely piece of art.

Justin Joseph 27:23

I love that too. You know, my mom's first that my mom got her um engaged ring in a garage sale. Isn't that funny?

Katy Montgomery 27:29

Well, and my dad proposed to my mom. They had just gone to a wedding, they left early, they went to a pizza restaurant and were drinking Paps Blue Ribbon. And my mom said, Chaz, everyone's getting married. Are you ever gonna propose? And he took the flip top can and proposed with my mom with the Paps Blue Ribbon metal tab.

Justin Joseph 27:49

That is the sweetest story, and I can hear your mother in my I can see your mom and hear your mom saying that.

Katy Montgomery 27:55

Oh, she totally would have said it. But she she got him and it worked out, and they were really happy.

Justin Joseph 27:59

So yeah, that's a good story. Engagement stories, uh it's funny because it's it's such a sweet thing to do during the holidays, but it's also so oof, there's so much that comes with it. And the divorce divorces are the highest during the holidays, too. Isn't that funny? The highest marriage, highest divorce is holidays. That's how much emotion goes into this time of year.

Katy Montgomery 28:18

It's true. But Justin, let's before we kind of close out, um, and I also want to give a plug for our email because some people, you know, do not like to text long things, and I do like to hear if you have any kind of advice, um, snafuos, is to um email us at RonwayFordpodcast at gmail.com. But Justin, let's end on a high note for engagement.

Justin Joseph 28:43

Okay.

Katy Montgomery 28:44

So tell me. Tell you some a good story about engagement, or just end on a high note rather than divorce and stress and value of rings.

Justin Joseph 28:55

Um, okay. Well, I think that the the truth is there's a reason why everybody does this during this time of year. I mean, it really does bring all of this time of year as you see all of the colors come out and the Christmas lights, it really does bring out that sort of touchy feeling part of, you know, friends and family. And so um, you know, I the holidays have stressed me out more than usual this year. I I really just like I said, I'm declining holiday parties. Having said that, that's the one part of it that I do like is is um those kind of all those feels that come with it as you get into the season. And so that's the best I can say on a high note. What would you like to say?

Katy Montgomery 29:30

I would say for all of those newly engaged couples, um just I think be excited about the hope and the future and the combining of families and everything that's wonderful. It is a very joyous occasion. And um the right way forward would be to celebrate and and um and and look forward um onward and upward.

Justin Joseph 29:53

Sounds good. And if it doesn't work out, don't just get the ring, get everything. All right. Thanks for listening to this week's episode. Of Wrong Way Forward. We'll see you back here next week. All right, that's a wrap on this week's episode of Wrong Way Forward. Remember, the only thing worse than taking bad advice is giving it.

Katy Montgomery 30:09

If

Holiday Highs, Divorces, And Hopeful Closers

Katy Montgomery 30:10

you've liked what you've heard, like, subscribe, or follow us wherever you stream podcasts. And if you've got a topic or need some advice, we'll probably regret giving, email us at WrongwayForwardPodcast at gmail.com.

Justin Joseph 30:23

T