Speaker 1: Welcome to Had of Money.
Speaker 2: I'm Joel, I'm Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about taco trading pointless points and millionaire renters.
Speaker 2: Taco Cat Go Cheese Pizza, Joel, Is that a game
Speaker 2: that you'll play?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: For all the folks with kids out there, If you
Speaker 3: have not yet tried the card game Taco Cat Goat
Speaker 3: Cheese Pizza, I.
Speaker 2: Would highly recommend. It's a ton of fun.
Speaker 1: They have like a holiday themed one that's like, dude,
Speaker 1: I forget what it's like, Santa Elf something. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: those are fun to play with the kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But in fact, this is our Friday flight where we're
Speaker 3: going to talk about the best headlines from this past
Speaker 3: week how they pertain to your personal finances. Joel real
Speaker 3: quick man. I was talking to a family member about
Speaker 3: getting a c PAP. This is something that was put
Speaker 3: on his radar by his doctors talking about how much
Speaker 3: of a hassle it is, which by.
Speaker 1: His wife probably Yeah, he snore. Man, why don't you
Speaker 1: fix that?
Speaker 2: But what's the latest with you?
Speaker 3: Because I know that's something that you looked into, you know,
Speaker 3: getting some of that oxygen flowing at night, So you.
Speaker 2: Seem to want to have your breathing interrupted.
Speaker 1: Actually all about listener Seth just sent us an email
Speaker 1: this week and he was asking like, Hey, whatever happened
Speaker 1: with that and how did you Because he's I'm facing
Speaker 1: down a many thousand dollars bill to get the sleep
Speaker 1: test and get the equipment. I think you said you
Speaker 1: did it for cheaper and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let me let me mention that on the podcast. I'll
Speaker 1: give the details. So basically, my friend Garrett had done
Speaker 1: this and he tipped me off. He said, hey, you
Speaker 1: can actually do an at home sleep test. Now, by
Speaker 1: the way, this is not medical advice. I'm not a
Speaker 1: medical practitioner here, but I there's a site called Lafta,
Speaker 1: and you I think there's like two points of contact,
Speaker 1: ones on the finger and then ones around your chest.
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, it's been a minute. But so
Speaker 1: then they record you the way you sleep during the
Speaker 1: night and they say, hey, you either have sleep apnea
Speaker 1: or or you don't. I did. I pretty much knew that.
Speaker 2: You were like, yeah, yeah, I figured figured that was
Speaker 2: a kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so but uh, and then Lafta will also sell
Speaker 1: you the equipment. But I'm at home sleep test is
Speaker 1: super cheaps less less than two hundred bucks. And when
Speaker 1: you're talking about going into a hospital facility overnight to
Speaker 1: do that's.
Speaker 3: That seems like the big advantage. I remember when you
Speaker 3: mentioned that because this was something that you'd done previously, right,
Speaker 3: I guess like when you were a kid, when I
Speaker 3: were like a young adult basically yeah, not a kid, yea,
Speaker 3: but when you had benefits provided by the man. And
Speaker 3: that's not something that we don't have that are being
Speaker 3: self employed. But that sounded like a nightmare scenario. It's like,
Speaker 3: it sounds like some of these like university studies where
Speaker 3: you're in this cold laboratory and you're like, okay, sleep
Speaker 3: on the steel table.
Speaker 1: You feel like a guinea pig.
Speaker 2: For sure, it's terribly that's not gonna I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: be able to sleep.
Speaker 1: It was much nicer to have it done in your
Speaker 1: bed at home and then literally just you know, you upload,
Speaker 1: upload the results of your sleep and then they tell you, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do you need this or whatever and uh, and
Speaker 1: you can pay them more for kind of more guided
Speaker 1: help along the way in choosing your SEATPAP machine. And
Speaker 1: I think there are other companies out there that do this.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is just the company I use
Speaker 1: that my friend used.
Speaker 3: By the way, it's worth mentioning. We don't have any affiliation,
Speaker 3: No Lafta.
Speaker 2: Not at all. Which do they?
Speaker 3: Is there a company called Lafta that also makes mattresses
Speaker 3: or something probably something very less sound like a mattress
Speaker 3: company like Lafta.
Speaker 1: Well, and then you can buy your seatpap equipment from
Speaker 1: Lafta because they're essentially writing you a prescription. But you
Speaker 1: can also take that prescription and shop elsewhere, which is
Speaker 1: what I did. I chopped around on the open market
Speaker 1: for that seatpap machine, and I was able to save
Speaker 1: a lot of money buying it from an internet company.
Speaker 1: There were like some great sales going on, so I
Speaker 1: would just say, yeah, get that home sleep sleep study
Speaker 1: and then look around for the machine that is going
Speaker 1: to work for you. And you should be able to
Speaker 1: do this instead of for many, many thousands of dollars,
Speaker 1: for less than a thousand dollars total.
Speaker 3: You didn't get your equipment from Timu or anything. No,
Speaker 3: Jill lags up in the middle of the night and
Speaker 3: his equipment of strangling him. I can't breathe just breathing
Speaker 3: in straight lead. No, I do think I love that
Speaker 3: this is an option, that there are other options out
Speaker 3: there for folks where you don't necessarily have to spend
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2: Hopefully, have you been wearing it like consistently?
Speaker 3: That's the thing, Matt, It's you got the kind that's
Speaker 3: like the pigtail out the top of your s right
Speaker 3: so that you could roll around.
Speaker 1: There's all sorts of different kinds of masks that you
Speaker 1: can choose from.
Speaker 2: Not that I watch you while you sleep, but you
Speaker 2: told me, you told me about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some that are more invasive than others, and that
Speaker 1: is has been the best kind that I've that I've tried.
Speaker 2: As they go, that has been the most successful.
Speaker 1: But unit, it's really hard not to get used to it.
Speaker 1: And so do I find myself ripping it off?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Have I found myself not putting it on at all
Speaker 1: many nights?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Also I get it. So is the cpath that you
Speaker 1: bought that you got to let a much better price
Speaker 1: on still a good deal if you don't use it.
Speaker 1: That's that might be a philosophical I would never know
Speaker 1: the answer to.
Speaker 3: Even Still, I'd rather spend a few hundred dollars and
Speaker 3: a few thousand dollars when the potential outcome might be
Speaker 3: the same, which is you not necessarily wearing it. All right, man,
Speaker 3: let's keep moving. But let's talk about travel and vacationing
Speaker 3: because Southwest has officially made their change. Paying for check
Speaker 3: bags started on Wednesday, much to our shigrin that being said,
Speaker 3: if you bought a ticket before that deadline, you will
Speaker 3: get to enjoy free check bags one more time. That
Speaker 3: was me, That was me, yeah, so, but moving forward,
Speaker 3: it is going to cost you thirty five dollars for
Speaker 3: that first bag, forty five dollars for the next. Sounds
Speaker 3: like typical airline. It's like fee structure right here, man,
Speaker 3: everybody else it's certainly gonna make uh. That was like
Speaker 3: our favorite reason, one of the reasons to go with Southwest,
Speaker 3: specifically the free check bag. That's that's how you get
Speaker 3: the nice beer haul. That's right when you are flying
Speaker 3: from other cities, which was something that you got to
Speaker 3: do one last time.
Speaker 1: Yes, from Texas. And I'm not usually a huge checked
Speaker 1: bag guy. I don't like the check bags unless I'm
Speaker 1: checking for beer or I'm going on my annual backpacking
Speaker 1: trip in which case, I'm bringing a lot more than
Speaker 1: I normally do my giant backpacking bag, and so in this.
Speaker 3: Case seem to fit all everything you need in tiny
Speaker 3: little CoA wis. It's like a real man living off
Speaker 3: of the off the land. At that point, there's more
Speaker 3: you need for that. In addition to that, though, basic
Speaker 3: economy fairs are going to be implemented, which will replace
Speaker 3: the want to get away option that you've gotten used
Speaker 3: to see, it's really hard for me to hear the
Speaker 3: one to get away. Every time I would see I
Speaker 3: would think of that Lene Kravitz song.
Speaker 2: The I Want to get Away.
Speaker 3: I get that I get by from the nineties. But
Speaker 3: then to twist the knife even further, flight credits are
Speaker 3: going to expire within six months before they actually never expired.
Speaker 2: You could just hang on to that.
Speaker 3: So but that means if you cancel a trip this
Speaker 3: is something you got, you got to basically add it
Speaker 3: to the calendar that, hey, we need to make sure
Speaker 3: that we use utilize those credits.
Speaker 2: In order to not lose those credits.
Speaker 1: That was one of the greatest perks of being a
Speaker 1: Southwest customer was, Hey, you know what, I cancel that
Speaker 1: that trip and I can use those points anytime into
Speaker 1: the future. The six month thing is real drag. All
Speaker 1: these things are big drag, and it should, I think,
Speaker 1: reduce the loyalty you feel. If you've been someone who's
Speaker 1: like I fly Southwest because they're great, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: they'll still be great in some ways. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons to be less loyal and just shop for
Speaker 1: the lowest fare, and Southwest was pretty competitive unfairs, although
Speaker 1: not always the lowest, of course. But I think this
Speaker 1: just should push all of us more in the direction
Speaker 1: of shopping and being less loyal to any airline in particular.
Speaker 1: And I think that's just been more and more of
Speaker 1: the case in general too, especially as airlines are saying
Speaker 1: it's less about how frequently you travel on us, it's
Speaker 1: more about how much money you're spending. So if you're
Speaker 1: the kind of normal person who flies a few times
Speaker 1: a year, then shopping around makes even more sense than
Speaker 1: being loyal, because you're not going to get rewarded for
Speaker 1: your loyalty at airlines nearly as much these days. And
Speaker 1: then pack light two because I think I would love
Speaker 1: to see more folks avoid checking bags all together. I
Speaker 1: know it's not always possible, especially like on my backpacking trip, right,
Speaker 1: but I think it is more possible than most folks
Speaker 1: to avoid checking a bag. So whatever airline you're on,
Speaker 1: Southwest included, now think about the added costs that checking
Speaker 1: a bag is going to add to your life, and
Speaker 1: hopefully you can travel lighter.
Speaker 3: That's right, buddy, And as is usual on our Friday flight,
Speaker 3: we have our standing tariff updates. Heavy terrifts against the
Speaker 3: EU were threatened and then pulled back.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about before tariff's by the way.
Speaker 3: We talked about shrinkflation and how much money the government
Speaker 3: was going to infuse into our bank accounts via the
Speaker 3: stemmy money egg prices.
Speaker 2: Egg prices that was a little.
Speaker 3: Bit more recent, which, by the way, I feel like
Speaker 3: we've seen those prices come back down.
Speaker 2: Actually, But this.
Speaker 3: Rebounding nature of Trump's terraffs has been true of essentially,
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, every trade policy threat that the Trump
Speaker 3: administration has made, where he says that tariffs are God's
Speaker 3: gifts of the world, but then in reality that they
Speaker 3: only seem to be used as like this blunt instrument
Speaker 3: in order to force other countries to negotiate whether or
Speaker 3: not it's working is debatable, but it's working for some
Speaker 3: investors who are per anticipating in taco trading. And so
Speaker 3: the acronym stands for Trump always chickens out, thus the
Speaker 3: taco and Joel. Some investors are making their investment decisions
Speaker 3: based on terror threats that don't actually materialize. They're making money.
Speaker 3: This is something that I feel like we were alluding
Speaker 3: to this when it came to Terras the first time around,
Speaker 3: when it's just like, you know what, there's a whole
Speaker 3: lot of talk, but let's actually see if this pans
Speaker 3: out as something that gets implemented. By the way, we
Speaker 3: would not recommend for folks to participate in taco trading.
Speaker 3: This is a pure speculative, casino gambling like mentality. It
Speaker 3: is not how you grow your wealth over the long run.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But that being said, I mean, do you remember I
Speaker 1: think when President Trump truthed out, hey, now's a good
Speaker 1: time to buy, and he was spot on because he
Speaker 1: controls the lever essentially of what's gonna happen with the
Speaker 1: economy with a lot of these tariffs. And so if
Speaker 1: you listened to the truth and you bought at that
Speaker 1: very moment in time, you would have done quite well
Speaker 1: for yourself. We've seen man like a twenty plus percent
Speaker 1: run up in the stock market since then. So I
Speaker 1: get why people are saying, I'm going to trade on
Speaker 1: this because it sure looks like I'm seeing a trend
Speaker 1: here which is threatened tariffs that don't actually come to pass,
Speaker 1: at least not in any significant manner. So when the
Speaker 1: stock market freaks because of the proposal, then and I'll
Speaker 1: buy in at the low side, and I am richer
Speaker 1: because of the comeback of that stock or specific industry experiences.
Speaker 1: But also on the tariff talk, Matt, tariffs might not
Speaker 1: just be rolled back by Trump himself, right, That has
Speaker 1: become a pattern. But the courts are now weighing in
Speaker 1: and they have said that the president lacks the legal
Speaker 1: authority to institute widespread tariffs as he's been doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a one man wrecking ball. And they said,
Speaker 1: stop it so familiar, You're not allowed to do that.
Speaker 1: And the stock market was pleased when they when they
Speaker 1: saw that ruling. But a federal trade court basically said
Speaker 1: that this big chunk of tariffs that have been levied
Speaker 1: by the executive branch is an overreach of that branch
Speaker 1: of government and that their I guess legal footing is substandard.
Speaker 1: But also like will this ruling stick around what happens
Speaker 1: with appeals? We don't know, But for the time being,
Speaker 1: that's kind of where things stand. And it makes me
Speaker 1: think back to when the Biden administration tried to eliminate
Speaker 1: and forgive student loan debt. The courts basically said, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys don't have the legal authority to do this,
Speaker 1: and so they attempted to find other legal means, like
Speaker 1: get different basically legal footing to get the to pass
Speaker 1: what they wanted to pass. Well, President Trump is likely
Speaker 1: to do the same here. He might say, actually, the
Speaker 1: statute I was using to try to institute tariffs on
Speaker 1: other countries, well, I'm going to use this other statute
Speaker 1: over here. Now it's okay, right as usual. It would
Speaker 1: be great if Congress would do their job. This is
Speaker 1: kind of one of a role that was especially built
Speaker 1: for them that they seem to be abandoning. But for
Speaker 1: the time being, tariff rates have been rolled back. Where
Speaker 1: things go from here is anybody's guests. We will continue
Speaker 1: in all likely next week on how to money tariff
Speaker 1: talk I'm sure.
Speaker 2: That's right man.
Speaker 3: All right, So we briefly mentioned the MAGA accounts element
Speaker 3: of the big beautiful bill that barely passed the House
Speaker 3: last week.
Speaker 2: The reason, or I would say, one of the reasons
Speaker 2: there's so.
Speaker 3: Much focus on this is because the tax cuts and
Speaker 3: jobs at will sunset at the end of this year. That,
Speaker 3: in addition to the fact that the GOP has rolled
Speaker 3: all of their they put all their eggs in one basket,
Speaker 3: all the hopes of streams. This one basket is the BBB.
Speaker 3: But let's discuss a few of the other potential changes
Speaker 3: that would impact your personal finances if it were to
Speaker 3: pass the Senate and get signed into law, one of
Speaker 3: which is that hsas could get even better doubling the
Speaker 3: allowed annual contribution. If that remains, that's going to mean
Speaker 3: you can funnel even more money into that triple tax
Speaker 3: advantage account, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1: And I think there was a change in the law
Speaker 1: that basically said, oh, you can use your HSA for
Speaker 1: more things in including a gym membership, which is kind
Speaker 1: of cool. So HSA could be getting a heck of
Speaker 1: a lot better soon.
Speaker 3: Then it begs a question, Okay, well, what if you
Speaker 3: decide to implement your own gym at your own house
Speaker 3: and therefore by equipment. Maybe maybe child tax credits will
Speaker 3: be bumped from two thousand to twenty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Per child, which makes you want to have more children.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a higher standard deduction for folks who are
Speaker 3: sixty five and older, and the ev tax credit would
Speaker 3: be repealed at the end of the year as well,
Speaker 3: And there's of course plenty more that's included. But we
Speaker 3: will continue to cover this as things move along or
Speaker 3: not move along. Maybe as it gets sent back after
Speaker 3: the Senate, perhaps makes makes some changes as way, but
Speaker 3: we'll keep folks posted well.
Speaker 1: Taxing different types of earnings differently is a big part
Speaker 1: of the proposal too. It's right specif we like no
Speaker 1: tax on tips and overtime pay. That's not something that
Speaker 1: we love though, And I think the domino effect of
Speaker 1: this getting baked into tax policy could have annoying, cascading consequences, right,
Speaker 1: including more requests for tips. Think about if you are
Speaker 1: an industry that thrives on tips, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: find a way to get customers to funnel even more
Speaker 1: money in tips your way because they're tax free dollars
Speaker 1: coming into your bank account. And so I think it's
Speaker 1: it's just interesting that we're prioritizing or saying that different
Speaker 1: ways you earn income will be taxed. Definitely, we already
Speaker 1: say that to a small extent, but we'd be making
Speaker 1: that an even wider gap. And I just I don't
Speaker 1: love the precedent that sets. And on the tip tipping thing,
Speaker 1: Americans already frustrated by the frequency of tip requests that
Speaker 1: we experience in modern day modern days, right, and so
Speaker 1: how people are going to react individually to being asked
Speaker 1: for more tips and then for bigger tips. That's going
Speaker 1: to be interesting to watch because I feel like we're
Speaker 1: already experiencing a bit of a tipping rebellion happening right now.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was buying a pizza the other night
Speaker 1: and the check I was going to go pick it up,
Speaker 1: they're not delivering it. And at check out they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to do like a fifteen, twenty or
Speaker 1: twenty five percent tip? And I was just shocked. That
Speaker 1: felt pretty uncouth to even ask that when I'm going
Speaker 1: to pick the PiZZ up. It's different if you're delivering
Speaker 1: it to me, and I think those are the kind
Speaker 1: of things that a lot of Americas are just kind
Speaker 1: of frustrated by with tipping culture right now, it's like
Speaker 1: everybody's asking for a tip. That might only get worse
Speaker 1: if the no tax on tips becomes a reality.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Big Beautiful Bill also is going to have
Speaker 3: an impact on student loans as well. The new plan
Speaker 3: would be to take the alphabet soup of repayment plans
Speaker 3: down to just two, which I will say would make
Speaker 3: it easier to understand, but also it's going to make
Speaker 3: it a bit less generous, and so essentially the more
Speaker 3: you borrow, the longer that you're going to have to
Speaker 3: pay it back, up to twenty five years for folks
Speaker 3: who are borrowing over one hundred thousand dollars, which we
Speaker 3: would not recommend. By the way, the income based plan
Speaker 3: ties your payment to a percentage of your income, so
Speaker 3: basically a sliding scale that requires you to pay a
Speaker 3: lot less if you make less. And the bill would
Speaker 3: also eliminate subsidized student loans as well as forbearans and defferments,
Speaker 3: which actually might not be necessary given the way the
Speaker 3: income based plot and is structured. So it's not necessarily perfect,
Speaker 3: but student loan plans will be easier to understand in
Speaker 3: the way that the structured it could help tamp down
Speaker 3: tuition inflation. Again, whether or not this remains as it
Speaker 3: is currently written, after the Senate takes a look at it,
Speaker 3: that's of course going to have an impact as to
Speaker 3: the implementation of the new student loan rules moving forward.
Speaker 1: Where the kind of state and local deduction thing will land.
Speaker 1: That's another thing that's like a really important piece of
Speaker 1: this legislation that's kind of being battled right now as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll keep our eyes on this, and it
Speaker 1: is just fascinating to see that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: changes that could really impact your finances and your taxes
Speaker 1: in particular moving forward. So I'm sure we'll have more
Speaker 1: discussions on this soon, Matt. We've got more to get
Speaker 1: to on today's show, though. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the devaluation of credit card points, and then we're also
Speaker 1: going to talk about house swapping how that could make
Speaker 1: your vacation a whole lot cheaper. We'll get to that
Speaker 1: and more right after this.
Speaker 3: All right, buddy, we are back from the break, and
Speaker 3: now it is time for the ludicrous headline of the week,
Speaker 3: and this one is from the site Miles to Memories.
Speaker 3: The headline reads City thank You points will soon be
Speaker 3: worth twenty five percent less Joel. The credit card companies
Speaker 3: that giveth and they taketh away City points are being
Speaker 3: devalued by twenty five percent beginning in August, which will
Speaker 3: likely come as a big shock to folks who have
Speaker 3: been accruing points via their city credit cards. So, first
Speaker 3: of all, it's okay to be frustrated. This isn't something
Speaker 3: that I like, I don't think like. For instance, like
Speaker 3: when you're at the grocery store and you experience some shrinkflation,
Speaker 3: it feels less egregious because you have a choice to
Speaker 3: buy something else, right, You've got options, But deflating the
Speaker 3: actual value of your points that you've accrued by a
Speaker 3: meaningful amount feels a bit more like robbery.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's not like you have some other option of being like, Okay,
Speaker 3: well you stay with us, and maybe we'll only devalue
Speaker 3: it by fifteen percent or ten No, no, no, just
Speaker 3: a twenty five percent cut cross the board. But just
Speaker 3: know that you have a small window to use those
Speaker 3: points at the current full value before that value gets slashed.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be August twenty fourth, yet another date to
Speaker 3: put on the calendar. It reminds me of subscriptions, right, like,
Speaker 3: put it on the calendar. Know that this is something
Speaker 3: you need to because right now you're listening. Maybe you're
Speaker 3: sitting at a stoplight, right Brittany Chris, I know you're listening,
Speaker 3: but you're not gonna dive into figuring all of this
Speaker 3: out right there now, you know. But add it to
Speaker 3: your calendar. Make sure this is something that you pay
Speaker 3: attention to, because I would hate for folks to miss
Speaker 3: out on some of the value that they are entitled
Speaker 3: to overnight just because they miss it by a couple
Speaker 3: of days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you might have been using that card in
Speaker 1: hopes of booking travel in the future, and you're like
Speaker 1: just stashing the point, stashing the points so you can
Speaker 1: plan an epic vacation and then for city to come
Speaker 1: out and pull the rug from under you and be like,
Speaker 1: h I mean, you're gonna have to have a lot
Speaker 1: more points now to get the vacation you'd hope for.
Speaker 1: That's just a frustrating thing to experience. So booking sooner
Speaker 1: than later is a good idea. And by the way,
Speaker 1: City is not the only company doing this, I mean Hyatt.
Speaker 1: Earlier this year they shifted hotel tiers to make it
Speaker 1: more expected to book with points at some of their properties,
Speaker 1: and these point devaluations are becoming normalized. The CFPB, the
Speaker 1: Consumer of Financial Production Bureau, I believe they're on life support.
Speaker 1: They were poised to do something about this at the
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty four. They were basically saying, hey,
Speaker 1: shot across the bow, credit card companies, you can't devalue
Speaker 1: points like this, or we're going to come after you. Well,
Speaker 1: that's unlikely to continue now because, like I said, the CFPB,
Speaker 1: they are barely breathing, they're barely holding on, so they're
Speaker 1: probably not going to actually see that through. I think
Speaker 1: it's important for folks to not overestimate the value of
Speaker 1: their points and to just get about using them. The
Speaker 1: more you hoard them, the less valuable they become over time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, plan your fun trip asap. Let this be
Speaker 1: an excuse to start using the points instead of just
Speaker 1: holding on to them. And I think too, Matt, this
Speaker 1: is actually maybe another change that people might want to
Speaker 1: consider making is if travel rewards points are becoming less valuable.
Speaker 1: It makes straight up two percent cash back cards more attractive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you don't really have to think about it. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, if you're like, oh, yeah the travel points
Speaker 1: game playing that has got me some sick deals, well
Speaker 1: the if the deals are less sick, then cash back
Speaker 1: credit cards just seem to make a little bit more
Speaker 1: sense these days.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think folks might be less interested in jumping
Speaker 3: through all the different hoops in order to like the
Speaker 3: five percent rotating category spend am u is it discover
Speaker 3: But it kind of comes down to, I guess what
Speaker 3: phase of life you're in, Because if you are in
Speaker 3: the phase of life where you're looking to simplify your
Speaker 3: finances in streamlines and things like, I'm all about finding
Speaker 3: ways to optimize and get the best bang for your buck.
Speaker 3: But beyond a certain point, it just feels like too much.
Speaker 3: You know, like if you were the kind of person
Speaker 3: who wants to squeeze every last bit of toothpaste out
Speaker 3: of the tube, I'm gonna squeeze it a little bit,
Speaker 3: you know, but like, you know what, I've never done.
Speaker 3: Have you ever cut the end of it off and
Speaker 3: then like scraped out the toothpaste. I have You've seen
Speaker 3: people do that hyperfergal friends. Yeah, And I'm just like, Okay,
Speaker 3: maybe you can get like what two more days of
Speaker 3: I don't know. I guess it depends on how often
Speaker 3: you I guess, but I'm like, I'm willing to give
Speaker 3: it a little bit of a squeeze, but I'm not
Speaker 3: willing to like go through the steps of cutting it.
Speaker 3: And that's what it feels like, some of these different
Speaker 3: requirements and hoops that we have to jump through in
Speaker 3: order to garner the mo ast benefit from these different
Speaker 3: banks that they're asking of us. Speaking of actually Discover,
Speaker 3: I saw that they're now part of Capital One. I
Speaker 3: didn't realize that, but someone in the how to Money
Speaker 3: Facebook group mentioned that the only credit card that they
Speaker 3: have are both Discover and Capital one cards.
Speaker 1: Which are now essentially going to become the same institution.
Speaker 1: We don't know how it's exactly going to shake you.
Speaker 3: I think it's necessarily going to impact anyone's credit per se,
Speaker 3: but I think more importantly it just raises the question
Speaker 3: of just, oh, what kind of cards have you been using?
Speaker 3: Have you been garnering the kind of benefit from those
Speaker 3: cards as opposed to just not questioning it. I think
Speaker 3: there are just some simple changes that you can make
Speaker 3: that will allow you to give the most bang for
Speaker 3: your buck, right.
Speaker 1: I think one of those things is do I are
Speaker 1: the only credit cards I have? Do they come from
Speaker 1: one issuer? Because let's say you only use City cards, right, Well,
Speaker 1: now you're like, well, man, City just did this thing
Speaker 1: to my points and they're worthless. Man, I should have
Speaker 1: been banking points with somebody else too, And the same
Speaker 1: thing is true. If you only have Discover a Capital
Speaker 1: one cards, you might want to say, oh, maybe I
Speaker 1: should get a NAMEX card or a Chase card in addition,
Speaker 1: so that I'm not wholly exposed to one credit card issue.
Speaker 1: I think that would be a wise move for the
Speaker 1: person that had money Facebook group that had that issue,
Speaker 1: and for anybody else out there listening who has a
Speaker 1: similar issue.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but no, I don't want folks to hear me
Speaker 3: say like throw some shade at Discover and say that
Speaker 3: like we don't like Discover, Like they're a great company,
Speaker 3: and specifically.
Speaker 1: Both of those banks. So I'm curious state to see
Speaker 1: what it looks like for them to merge, because they
Speaker 1: don't even really fully know yet.
Speaker 3: But right right, my longest standing credit card that I've
Speaker 3: ever had, and I'm talking like twenty or twenty five
Speaker 3: years is with Discover and recently Angel I was playing
Speaker 3: with some tools with I don't know if it was
Speaker 3: with one of the credit rors or with one of
Speaker 3: the scores that are provided by one of the credit
Speaker 3: card companies, but they've got like this estimator, and it's
Speaker 3: just like, hey, what happens if you were to get
Speaker 3: rid of this card, or were you to pay off
Speaker 3: some reduce to the amount of spending or add in.
Speaker 3: Of course they're wanting you to add a card next.
Speaker 3: That way you can increase your overall amount. But I
Speaker 3: was crazy shocked to see and this was just a simulator,
Speaker 3: but I was really surprised to see that my longest
Speaker 3: standing card where I had to nix, that they were
Speaker 3: estimating that my score was only going to drop by
Speaker 3: like two points, Wow, which I would have expected like
Speaker 3: at least.
Speaker 2: Ten times that at least like twenty points or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, it's probably because you have so many
Speaker 1: other credit cards you've had for a long time too,
Speaker 1: maybe I guess so.
Speaker 3: But even still in my mind that one Discover card
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the one I've had since
Speaker 3: discover Capital one, Discover since I've had that I've had
Speaker 3: since I was a teenager.
Speaker 2: But evidently you wouldn't be wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Be that big of a disruptor to the overall credit score.
Speaker 3: Just take that with a grain of salt, though.
Speaker 1: Very interesting. Yeah, all right, let's talk housing, Matt. There's
Speaker 1: a recent Redfin report and it highlighted just how much
Speaker 1: more expensive it it is to buy a home than
Speaker 1: it is to rent these days. And this is something
Speaker 1: that we've been documenting over the past few years, in
Speaker 1: particular as housing prices have just gone through the roof.
Speaker 1: But it's fascinating. I love seeing the data, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: how bad is it actually? Well, buying a home now
Speaker 1: requires fifty thousand dollars more in salary than renting. So essentially,
Speaker 1: you need an annual income of around one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixteen thousand dollars to afford a mid priced home. That's
Speaker 1: roughly eighty two percent more than the sixty four thousand
Speaker 1: dollars you'd need to be able to afford a mid
Speaker 1: price department. Quite the disparity, dramatic difference, right, and a
Speaker 1: bank Rade study also found that is cheaper to rent
Speaker 1: than buy in all fifty of the largest metro areas,
Speaker 1: So there's like not one metro area they found of
Speaker 1: the largest ones where it would be cheaper for you
Speaker 1: to buy than rent, and that was not the case
Speaker 1: ten years ago. That was not the case ten years ago,
Speaker 1: which makes renting look pretty good, makes it look a
Speaker 1: whole lot better than it did a decade ago, and
Speaker 1: more folks who would have bought a home in the past,
Speaker 1: they're just kind of getting zen with renting. Rich households
Speaker 1: in particular, they're choosing to rent more than ever. This
Speaker 1: was according to rent Cafe. You and I, we own
Speaker 1: our homes. We're happy with our choice. We're also real
Speaker 1: estate investors. But the case are renting, especially in today's economy,
Speaker 1: is a strong one. And the old adage that you're
Speaker 1: just throwing away money, it's just not true. That is
Speaker 1: like one of those ingrained beliefs for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: renting equals throwing away money. And if there's one thing
Speaker 1: that we can say, like we're not telling any individual
Speaker 1: renting is right for you or buying is right for you,
Speaker 1: it can be very circumstantial, but I just want to
Speaker 1: dispel the notion that people instinctively feel about renting being
Speaker 1: a really dumb financial move. That's just not true, and
Speaker 1: it's especially not true right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely not true.
Speaker 3: Like, it's not true that you have to be oh,
Speaker 3: if you are renting an apartment you're broke, because there's
Speaker 3: actually been a rise in millionaire renters and there's a
Speaker 3: reason for that, right Yeah. So this is another article
Speaker 3: we came across this week. We're seeing more luxury rentals
Speaker 3: that offer these fancy amenities, drawing in folks who have
Speaker 3: high net worths who are renting. That coupled with the
Speaker 3: flexibility and the convenience that renting offers, as well as
Speaker 3: the fact that you don't have to save up a
Speaker 3: massive down payment, dude, this means you can invest more
Speaker 3: in the overall sod market instead of funneling it towards
Speaker 3: higher housing costs as well as maintenance and repairs that
Speaker 3: are oftentimes vastly underrated, underestimated, undersaved for. But a lot
Speaker 3: of intentional renters and that's the key part, man, You
Speaker 3: got to be intentional about this. You can achieve greater
Speaker 3: levels of financial success than your home owning peers by
Speaker 3: pouring money into the market as opposed to pouring money
Speaker 3: into your housing.
Speaker 2: Owning a home.
Speaker 3: It can certainly be a great goal, but it's just
Speaker 3: not for everyone out there, and honestly, on the flip side,
Speaker 3: it's not a guaranteed thing to continue. We're actually seeing
Speaker 3: signs of softening in the.
Speaker 2: Real estate market.
Speaker 3: The big real estate sites, they've been predicting a housing
Speaker 3: market swoon, which actually seems to be materializing.
Speaker 2: So if you're a hopeful buyer, this is actually good
Speaker 2: news out there.
Speaker 3: A small little anecdote, Jal just received my property tax
Speaker 3: bill assessment and I opened it expecting the worst, which
Speaker 3: I mean, let's be honest, over the past few years,
Speaker 3: we've only seen increased housing prices increase, which means paying
Speaker 3: more to when it comes to property taxes.
Speaker 4: And I did a little whoo because I saw our
Speaker 4: home value actually decrease. So nice, which I'm sure there's
Speaker 4: a lot of folks might who are listening and they're
Speaker 4: just like, wait, Matt's taking crazy pills, Like what is
Speaker 4: going on? But when you see an increase in the
Speaker 4: what the city estimates your property to be, like, these
Speaker 4: are just paper gains right like this, that is not
Speaker 4: an increase that you get to realize until it comes
Speaker 4: time for you to sell your house or unless you're
Speaker 4: trying to pull some equity out of your home. But
Speaker 4: guess what you realize on a on a month by
Speaker 4: month basis the amount going towards ESCO in order to
Speaker 4: save up for your tax bill.
Speaker 1: So this is again is a silver lining for It's a.
Speaker 3: Small silver lining, and this is anecdotal, but we are
Speaker 3: seeing this in more metros across the country.
Speaker 1: I was just talking to my sister who is moving
Speaker 1: to another city, and she was there looking at place
Speaker 1: is to rent. They've been renters, they're happy being renters,
Speaker 1: and there was a condo that they actually ended up
Speaker 1: settling on, and the price that they're paying for the
Speaker 1: condo was like a lot less than what they would
Speaker 1: pay to buy a similar sized unit in that complex.
Speaker 1: So it's just fascinating to see the person who's renting
Speaker 1: it out they bought it not that long ago, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, they're going to be losing money every single
Speaker 1: month by renting this apartment to them. They must have
Speaker 1: no other choice. It's just interesting that renters can make
Speaker 1: out like bandits here so I don't even know what
Speaker 1: the hoafee would be, but like that's included in the
Speaker 1: rent that they pay, So there's like substantial savings to
Speaker 1: be a renter, and then they can do a lot
Speaker 1: with that excess cash, right, do smart stuff with that money,
Speaker 1: investing for their future instead of putting more and more money.
Speaker 1: Because what buying is the only way you build, you know,
Speaker 1: you build a high net worth. Well that's just not true,
Speaker 1: and it's less true than it was ten years ago too.
Speaker 1: Like buying a house can make sense based on your
Speaker 1: specific circumstances, your specific goals, but you just have to
Speaker 1: run the numbers and you have to know the trade
Speaker 1: offs because for most people right now, continuing to rent
Speaker 1: can make a lot of financial sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think though the trick is being intentional
Speaker 3: about it. And folks who by defaults have kept their
Speaker 3: savings rate pretty minimal, whether it's just you know, a
Speaker 3: four one k at work or investing in addition to
Speaker 3: what it is that their workplace is offering, realizing that
Speaker 3: they don't have a default amount going towards the building
Speaker 3: up of home quite right, Like there's almost there's like
Speaker 3: a mental switch that maybe has been taking place right
Speaker 3: just with the given the democratization of investing, the ability
Speaker 3: for folks to do that more on their own, on
Speaker 3: their own terms, where it feels a little more accessible
Speaker 3: as opposed to it feeling like something that was kind
Speaker 3: of out of their reach. When it's like the things
Speaker 3: have switched essentially right, Like like back in the day,
Speaker 3: it felt like home ownership was a bit more attainable,
Speaker 3: and investing aggressively in the market felt like something that
Speaker 3: that really only the one percent did. But now it's
Speaker 3: almost like the opposite where where it's like, oh no, no,
Speaker 3: everybody can invest, even just with like the spare change
Speaker 3: in your in your pocket, but you bought.
Speaker 1: A home, like exactly must be independently will do that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly so. But I do think think that those tides
Speaker 1: are going to turn. This isn't this disparity will not
Speaker 1: last forever.
Speaker 2: I totally agree. Yeah, I don't think this is a
Speaker 2: permanent change, Joe.
Speaker 3: While we're talking about housing, we are certainly fans of
Speaker 3: using Airbnb while you're traveling, but there are other ways
Speaker 3: to get a cool place when you are taking a
Speaker 3: big trip, and that is by partaking in a house
Speaker 3: swap I'll the holiday with Jack Black and oh yeah.
Speaker 1: This is for some reason making me think of I
Speaker 1: think it was a Fox TV show wife swap, which
Speaker 1: one mom would go to another house and vice versa,
Speaker 1: and then you would see how the family acted, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's reality TV at its finest.
Speaker 2: Sounds like it was one of your favorites that you're
Speaker 2: t voing.
Speaker 1: I can't describe it accurately, but just go look up
Speaker 1: King Curtis on YouTube. I think that it's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite clips from television history. Is that an actual
Speaker 1: I think it was from white Swap and this young
Speaker 1: kid did not like the new mom was in the
Speaker 1: South that week, and the way you reacted was television gold.
Speaker 2: I might have to look it up.
Speaker 3: But we're talking about house swapping. Yeah, not why swapping.
Speaker 3: These platforms are growing as a way to allow folks
Speaker 3: to travel for less. So obviously instead of buying nights,
Speaker 3: you are essentially bartering your exchanging nights at your own
Speaker 3: place and the different sites out there. Of course you
Speaker 3: got them kind of hip sounding ones like Kindred, which
Speaker 3: sounds super bouge what I was reading about that one.
Speaker 3: But swap house is one home exchange that's another one
Speaker 3: these platforms. These sites, they allow you to offer your
Speaker 3: place up when you are out of town to earn
Speaker 3: nights that you can use on the platform in the future.
Speaker 3: On one hand, I don't like it, Joel, because it
Speaker 3: is an inefficient exchange of value, right, like it's an
Speaker 3: inefficient market. It kind of makes me think of gift cards,
Speaker 3: like why would you do this intermediary sort of step.
Speaker 3: It makes me think of timeshares almost right, like like
Speaker 3: you are handcuffed to this thing. But I do think
Speaker 3: it makes more sense in different markets where they're starting
Speaker 3: to crack down more on airbnbs, where they're imposing more
Speaker 3: strict regulations like up in New York City.
Speaker 1: Spain even banned them all together, didn't they.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they band them all completely outright,
Speaker 3: but they are really cracking down because they're winning because
Speaker 3: and I get it, like these towns they're starting to
Speaker 3: lose the charm that made them what they wear when
Speaker 3: they're just inundated by tours. And so from that standpoint,
Speaker 3: it makes sense as a creative workaround.
Speaker 2: But I don't know, Man, the.
Speaker 3: Dollar cash, the universal exchange store of value, the ability to.
Speaker 1: Use that I'm still more of a fan of I
Speaker 1: don't know. Still I like bartering renting. I like barnering,
Speaker 1: so I like the way these sites, what these sites
Speaker 1: are trying to do. And one of the other things
Speaker 1: that they note on there is that they're not reducing
Speaker 1: housing supply in local places because you're just swapping, right,
Speaker 1: and so there isn't like this unit that's being taken
Speaker 1: offline to be fully dedicated to full time short rental use,
Speaker 1: which is interesting. But there are other sites too. Met
Speaker 1: maybe think of this one called Trusted House Sitters, which
Speaker 1: has been around for a long time too. Yeh, go
Speaker 1: walk a dog, right, Yeah, Like, if you're a pet
Speaker 1: lover and you don't necessarily want to give up your home,
Speaker 1: you can just go stay at somebody's home for free
Speaker 1: if you agree to take care of their pets. I
Speaker 1: have done this before, not on not via this website,
Speaker 1: but I remember doing this, like when I was a
Speaker 1: pretty young fella for a family when they were out
Speaker 1: of town their rabbit died. I felt really bad about it.
Speaker 1: I didn't get paid afterwards, but so yeah, yeah, make
Speaker 1: sure check your home insurance to make sure you're covered
Speaker 1: before you do a home swap like this, but those
Speaker 1: sites can be a cool way to maybe like help
Speaker 1: you find an interesting location you weren't planning on visiting,
Speaker 1: or to find a free or cheap way to go
Speaker 1: abroad while keeping your budget like within reason. Right when
Speaker 1: at this point it feels like airfare is one of
Speaker 1: the is less obtrusive, less of a cost, then where
Speaker 1: are you going to stay? Like that's a more that's
Speaker 1: the biggest cost now of most trips.
Speaker 2: I think, Yeah, man, I like it.
Speaker 1: All right, Maddie, that's gonna do it. For this episode,
Speaker 1: we will link to some of the resources we mentioned
Speaker 1: in the show notes up on our website at how
Speaker 1: toomoney dot com. But until next time, best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out,