Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and
Speaker 1: today we're discussing dumpster diving, the housing hellscape, and tech
Speaker 1: company transgressions. That's right, buddy, this is our Friday flight,
Speaker 1: and we are going to talk about the best stories
Speaker 1: that we came across this week before we get to that.
Speaker 1: Today is a big day, dude. This is our episode.
Speaker 1: As you will know, that's a lot of welcome to
Speaker 1: How Do a lot of a lot of I'm mats
Speaker 1: as well, but really perfective the art. I am Matt.
Speaker 1: We've got those intros down. Actually, folks would be surprised
Speaker 1: at how sometimes we do re record the entry us
Speaker 1: hit record and sometimes we'll start recording an episode before
Speaker 1: we're like completely settled. Still get my drink, clear my throat,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But seriously, we we really do
Speaker 1: appreciate all of you wonderful listeners out there. You know,
Speaker 1: we've actually been at this now for nearly five years,
Speaker 1: but they were two weeks shy of our fifth years,
Speaker 1: so we wanted to celebrate this milestone episode though, this
Speaker 1: six episode, and to do that, we're going to give
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Speaker 1: listeners right out of Maths pocket and I'm keeping my
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Speaker 1: We will announce the winners on next Friday's episode and
Speaker 1: we'll be reaching on the folks getting your Venmo, your
Speaker 1: cash app handle. But literally, it's it's gonna be that simple.
Speaker 1: We're gonna center Bucks in your in your hands, Bucks
Speaker 1: over to you. Yeah, absolutely so, well, we can't we
Speaker 1: look forward to giving money away. I think last year
Speaker 1: we did a giveaway man of our own money, and
Speaker 1: we were asked listeners to give that money away in
Speaker 1: their communities and they reported back. You called it the giveaway, giveaway, giveaway,
Speaker 1: give away, which is super fun. This year, We're like, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna put money in your hand because I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've got some debt to pay off. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: got a credit card bill you haven't been able to
Speaker 1: get under control. Maybe you just need a little cash
Speaker 1: in your hand to to not go into debt in
Speaker 1: order to pay for some of those holiday gifts that
Speaker 1: you want to buy. And we want to help you
Speaker 1: out with that. So I gotta do is be subscribe
Speaker 1: to the newsletter and like you said, Monday at midnight
Speaker 1: is the deadline. Yeah. And by the way, this is uh.
Speaker 1: This is a giveaway that's available to old and new subscribers.
Speaker 1: So obviously, if you have not subscribed yet, make sure
Speaker 1: to do that. But if you have been a faithful
Speaker 1: subscriber for six months, if you've been with us for
Speaker 1: a minute, here already entered. You are automatically entered to.
Speaker 1: But tell your mom, tell your grandma so they they
Speaker 1: can get entered into. But I want to mention one
Speaker 1: more thing. Mat before you get the Friday flight. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure how you feel about Christmas decorations. We got ourselves.
Speaker 1: We started going early, like November fift inside, at least
Speaker 1: we did. We did too actually, just like I was
Speaker 1: like ready for some some of that Christmas joy. I
Speaker 1: wonder why that is my wife in particular, was ready
Speaker 1: for him. But one of so one of the things
Speaker 1: that we couldn't do until recently though, because the live
Speaker 1: Christmas trees had not started hitting like the home depots
Speaker 1: and the lows yet, was we couldn't go get the
Speaker 1: free trimmings like they have to get to cut off
Speaker 1: the bottoms of the trees, and there's all these sorts
Speaker 1: of little cut off the bottom three branches, threw saplings
Speaker 1: hanging around half inch off the bottom that fresh cut.
Speaker 1: But we did, like Emily was just like, okay, this Saturday, No,
Speaker 1: there's there's gonna be something this Saturday, right, And so
Speaker 1: we've gotten Now this past weekend we went. We got
Speaker 1: a bunch of free trimmings to put up across our mantle.
Speaker 1: They make for some great decorations. So just a little
Speaker 1: tipped everybody. It also makes your house smell nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for for all those folks out there who you get
Speaker 1: the Christmas tree smell without having to pay that fresh
Speaker 1: Chris Christmas tree price. Right, Yeah, you don't have to
Speaker 1: buy the pine saw. I'll get the real stuff. Yeah, exactly. Which, So,
Speaker 1: by the way, did I tell you what we did
Speaker 1: with our Christmas tree. I know we've talked about buying
Speaker 1: artificial trees in the past, and there's like a break
Speaker 1: break even point for us. It was like literally the
Speaker 1: second by the second year, because we got it on
Speaker 1: sane um. But we'd gotten I guess it was maybe
Speaker 1: a nine ft tree at our old house because we
Speaker 1: had ten foot ceilings over there and our new place,
Speaker 1: our ceilings are only eight feet tall, and so we're
Speaker 1: just like, oh, dang it, like what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: And well, you know what all we had to do
Speaker 1: was not use the bottom section of the Christmas tree there,
Speaker 1: so it comes in four sections in your brain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we we took that nine foot tree down from
Speaker 1: nine ft to seven ft. It fits perfectly in the
Speaker 1: new place. So keep that in mind. If folks out
Speaker 1: there happened to be in the weird circumstance like we were,
Speaker 1: and your ceilings are getting lower you don't have to
Speaker 1: necessarily buy a brain new tree. Yeah all right, I
Speaker 1: like that. Good Another good money saving tips Christmas tree tips? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: why not? I mean this is the season, Like I
Speaker 1: have a feeling a lot of decorating is going to
Speaker 1: take places coming weekend. I read that December one is
Speaker 1: the day that most uh neighbors say, Okay, it's fine
Speaker 1: to put up your Christmas lights. Now we would have
Speaker 1: done it sooner. We've been out of town for Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But we're definitely putting up our
Speaker 1: outdoor lights this weekend. So we're excited about that. But
Speaker 1: let's move on, Mat, Let's get to the stories we
Speaker 1: found interesting this week. It is our Friday flight flight
Speaker 1: and speaking of curbing consumption, well begin of capitalism. Jeff Bezos,
Speaker 1: the former CEO and and the guy who started Amazon.
Speaker 1: He recently told CNN that Americans should consider postponing the
Speaker 1: purchase of bigger ticket items in their lives. It's kind
Speaker 1: of surprised to hear him say that, because his company
Speaker 1: thrives on people not postponing purchases, just going ahead and
Speaker 1: pulling the trigger. Anyway, Maybe now that he's uh no
Speaker 1: longer holds the title of CEO, he feels a little
Speaker 1: bit of freedom to more honest, be truthful, be honest
Speaker 1: for folks. When being interviewed from his one of his
Speaker 1: massive yachts, this is what he said, But it turns
Speaker 1: out the folks didn't really listen to him. At least
Speaker 1: this past Black Friday. A record nine billion dollars was
Speaker 1: spent over that Thanksgiving holiday. But while there are certainly
Speaker 1: deals to be had, as retailers have had too much inventory,
Speaker 1: they've had to discount more. This is an instance where
Speaker 1: this advice from the former CEO of Amazon actually makes
Speaker 1: some sense, right, terrible advice. Yeah, with with an uncertain
Speaker 1: economy ahead of us, we should all keep an eye
Speaker 1: on our spending this holiday season. I'd rather see folks take, like,
Speaker 1: you know, a year end bonus to the bank, then
Speaker 1: to the store, and to just be be prepared. Like
Speaker 1: we talked about on Wednesday, financial flexibility is important. The
Speaker 1: more of it that you can retain, the more solid
Speaker 1: financial footing you're going to be in. Absolutely, and oftentimes
Speaker 1: that does mean having cash in the bank, right Like,
Speaker 1: So what's interesting is that one of the reasons all
Speaker 1: these companies are putting on all these sales is because
Speaker 1: they've got well, they've got a lot of inventory, right,
Speaker 1: and so they've got too much surplus on hand. But
Speaker 1: companies are also looking to share up their cash positions,
Speaker 1: and so companies are looking ahead, they're forecasting, they're realizing that,
Speaker 1: you know what, things may not be looking so great.
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is that what companies are doing and
Speaker 1: what we need to do as individuals, like that's basically
Speaker 1: at odds with each other direct So they're trying to
Speaker 1: unload all these goods and we're as consumers standing there
Speaker 1: looking at all these things go on sale, and it
Speaker 1: can be tempting to want to pounce on all of
Speaker 1: these deals, which is totally fine if there's something that
Speaker 1: you were already going to purchase, But we definitely don't
Speaker 1: want folks dipping into their their cash reserves, into their
Speaker 1: emergency fund just to take advantage of a sale, because
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my gosh, these are killer sales, and
Speaker 1: ever seen sales like this before in my life. But
Speaker 1: you don't want to end up in a position where
Speaker 1: three six months from now, it's like, Okay, I've got
Speaker 1: all these goodies, but I don't have any cash and
Speaker 1: it looks like I'm about to get fired from right.
Speaker 1: That's not the position. Yeah, that we want to see
Speaker 1: folks highly uncomfortable. Okay. So one of the ways though,
Speaker 1: that you can spend less this holiday season is by
Speaker 1: getting your stuff out of the dumpster. Does sound like
Speaker 1: something you would recommend? Uh? Not only is this something
Speaker 1: that I'm interested in, Joe, A lot of folks are
Speaker 1: interested in this. Uh. It's a kind of the latest
Speaker 1: TikTok trend. The Times documented the rise and popularity of
Speaker 1: trash enthusiasts out there, and interestingly enough, some of these
Speaker 1: folks are finding some some cool stuff out there, man.
Speaker 1: And what's cool too, is that they are raising awareness
Speaker 1: about the fact that many companies they throw out this
Speaker 1: old merchandise that is still perfectly good, that's perfectly useful, tired,
Speaker 1: but they are like slashing it to make it unusable
Speaker 1: with the coach. Like when one of like, yeah, so
Speaker 1: somebody had called out one of the premier handbag companies
Speaker 1: out there because they came across a bunch of beautiful
Speaker 1: bags and they were yeah, they were sliced up with
Speaker 1: the razor blade. And I think actually because of folks
Speaker 1: who took to social media. Companies like Coach are no
Speaker 1: longer doing that. They're they're basically have committed themselves to
Speaker 1: a more responsible disposal of goods maybe that are either
Speaker 1: out of season or maybe they were returned, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Uh, And so that's definitely a good outcome
Speaker 1: from some of this awareness. But how do you get
Speaker 1: the best stuff if you are interested in, uh doing
Speaker 1: your own dumpster diving? Well, mass retailers like t J
Speaker 1: Max and Home Goods they are apparently some of the
Speaker 1: best places to find items that are still useful. And
Speaker 1: so the question is like, should you actually start doing this?
Speaker 1: Should you start dumpster diving to save money and all
Speaker 1: of this? First of all, I don't. It kind of
Speaker 1: depends on like your ick factor, like what you're willing
Speaker 1: to put up with. But a lot of this depends
Speaker 1: to you and how much you value your time and
Speaker 1: just what kind of stuff you're likely going to be
Speaker 1: able to snag. Obviously, don't go dumpster diving thinking that
Speaker 1: you're gonna find a Apple laptop or something like that
Speaker 1: that's brand new in the box. That's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: But there are certainly some some goodies out there to
Speaker 1: be found. Yeah, alright, My only dumpster diving experience comes
Speaker 1: from back in the day, my buddy Travis. There was
Speaker 1: a former airline called air Tran and they ran this
Speaker 1: promotion at Wendy's where if you collected I think it
Speaker 1: was thirty two cups you got a free one way
Speaker 1: trip and sixty four you got a free round trip.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if there was a limit or not,
Speaker 1: but I distinctly remember Travis jumping into a dumpster behind
Speaker 1: the Wendy's in order to get these cups, and I
Speaker 1: can't blame him, man. I think that's one of those
Speaker 1: things where that yeah, to be able to get a free,
Speaker 1: great deal, free flight just by getting some cups and
Speaker 1: guarantee there's like stacks of them in the trash. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's why air Trend didn't stick around. They were based
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, where there were I remember flying with
Speaker 1: them back in the day, back like oh five in
Speaker 1: that period of time, their free flights to fast food lovers.
Speaker 1: So maybe yeah, maybe so So Okay, one of the
Speaker 1: few times I remember doing some serious dumpster diving in college,
Speaker 1: we would we would go to the dorms and students
Speaker 1: who were moving out of the dorms. They had to
Speaker 1: be moved out by a certain date, right, they had
Speaker 1: to be completely moved out. And so these I mean,
Speaker 1: these kids would just take their lofts. These are built
Speaker 1: loss made a two by fours and whatnot, but they
Speaker 1: would just take them all. I mean, there's so much timber,
Speaker 1: so much lumber. Uh, not just in the dumpster, but
Speaker 1: just completely surrounding it. And did we would just go
Speaker 1: over there, load those things up in the back of
Speaker 1: a friend's pickup shut and then take them back to
Speaker 1: a friend's apartment and we would resell some of those
Speaker 1: loss back to students the follow The following billion also
Speaker 1: set one aside for myself because me and some friends
Speaker 1: were moving into an apartment where we were sharing bedrooms.
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, I slept in the loft that I
Speaker 1: found next to a dumpster after my freshman year in college.
Speaker 1: Like like, and you're worth the time and effort for
Speaker 1: being trash and then you're making money on the stuff
Speaker 1: that you found. I think that's that's smart. Well, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it just goes to show that dumpster diving sounds pretty icky,
Speaker 1: and most of the time it is, but there are
Speaker 1: ways at times to make it worth your while. I
Speaker 1: just like how it's we're they're destigmatizing it a little
Speaker 1: bit for sure. Like I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: folks who might feel that, oh, I would never do that,
Speaker 1: or even just seeing a curb alert. But even by
Speaker 1: folks doing something like this, now somebody else who read
Speaker 1: the story might think, well, there's some folks out there
Speaker 1: who are dumpster diving. I should be willing to at
Speaker 1: least take a look at some of these items on
Speaker 1: the side of the curb, get over at least a
Speaker 1: little bit of your tramaphobus exactly, and to save money.
Speaker 1: But all right, let's talk about something else. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about ad results. We just talked about Jeff Bezo a
Speaker 1: second ago. Let's talk about some issues that the company
Speaker 1: he started is having. And uh, Amazon, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: has an ad problem that is seemingly out of control.
Speaker 1: The Washington Post had a thorough article showing just how
Speaker 1: many ads you're getting when you do a typical Amazon search.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post,
Speaker 1: but he has no editorial control over this stuff. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad to see that Washington Post writers are still
Speaker 1: holding Amazon's feet to the fire. And what this author
Speaker 1: found was that on the first five screens of a
Speaker 1: search result, you'll see more than fifty of the space
Speaker 1: dedicated to paid results. The sponsored content you have to
Speaker 1: comb through basically at the top of the Amazon search
Speaker 1: results is astounding, and it's not always easy to decipher
Speaker 1: and add from an organic search result. Like they're they're
Speaker 1: getting trickier and trickier, for sure, Like everybody knows the
Speaker 1: ones where it's like written in smaller type and it's
Speaker 1: like italics, it's like sponsored content or whatever, and it's
Speaker 1: got the little information dought or whatever. But I did
Speaker 1: not realize how how they're just embedding some of the
Speaker 1: some of the more of the the paid or recommended
Speaker 1: results further down as well, like it's in a different format.
Speaker 1: And sometimes Amazon is like promoting a specific brand that
Speaker 1: pays them a lot of money, right, so they're saying,
Speaker 1: cool tide, you get the top spot when somebody googles
Speaker 1: huntry detergent because you pay us a certain amount of
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Other times they're
Speaker 1: promoting their own brands, like the Amazon Basics or Amazon
Speaker 1: specific brands that they own, but it's getting more and
Speaker 1: more difficult to find the top results based on search relevancy,
Speaker 1: which is what Amazon kind of built their business around.
Speaker 1: So who just say this. You know, Amazon is not
Speaker 1: the devil or anything like that, but keep keep that
Speaker 1: in mind next time you're searching for things on the
Speaker 1: Amazon site. It might be best to do your research elsewhere,
Speaker 1: even if you do end up buying on Amazon in
Speaker 1: the end. I just like I think sometimes we think
Speaker 1: of Amazon is a good search engine for finding the
Speaker 1: thing that we want. But when you realize that more
Speaker 1: than fifty of the searches for a lot of searches
Speaker 1: are turning up a bunch of ads, Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: you might want to look elsewhere. It seems like Amazon
Speaker 1: is a little less reliable when it comes to like
Speaker 1: finding a new product or find the brand of a
Speaker 1: product that you should be purchasing, just because of like
Speaker 1: how spammy it's gotten. Yeah. I like the recommendation to
Speaker 1: to do your research elsewhere. Yeah, search whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you're looking to buy and search like wirecutter, or
Speaker 1: head over to consumer reports, but look Reddit, even like
Speaker 1: there's some reviews on Reddit. Those are better places to
Speaker 1: look as opposed to wait, that's going straight to the
Speaker 1: Amazon app on your phone. Four and a half stars,
Speaker 1: but it's got three reviews, and but it's sponsored and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Exactly. Yeah, Okay, so while we're talking
Speaker 1: about shopping, let's talk again about why buy Now, Pay
Speaker 1: Later is still awful. It turns out that buyers paid
Speaker 1: via by Now Pay Later quite a bit over a
Speaker 1: Black Friday. It actually jumped by sixty eight percent, according
Speaker 1: to market Watch, which is a significant increase. And you know,
Speaker 1: we often talk about mindful spending, and so this is
Speaker 1: just another reminder to continue being careful this holiday season
Speaker 1: when it comes to racking up debts, which is what
Speaker 1: we don't want you to do. Uh, As you are
Speaker 1: looking to give gifts to those who you love and
Speaker 1: care about, don't buy stuff that you can't afford on
Speaker 1: on on a credit card or or via buy now,
Speaker 1: Pay Later. When you're doing that, you're just kicking the
Speaker 1: can down the road. You're creating this debt obligation that's
Speaker 1: going to be tough to to stomach come January or
Speaker 1: you know, June July of next year. That yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know it's only the beginning of December as well.
Speaker 1: And so keep in mind you still have time to
Speaker 1: have a conversation with friends and relatives about gift giving expectations.
Speaker 1: This doesn't necessarily have to be a trend that continues
Speaker 1: where every year everybody always is like slowly over time
Speaker 1: increasing that maximum spend amount. But having that conversation is
Speaker 1: just a great way to keep that gift giving from
Speaker 1: getting out of control. And I think you can be
Speaker 1: honest Matt that, hey, guess what it's things are type
Speaker 1: financially for me right now, I don't think I can
Speaker 1: participate in at least this in this part of the
Speaker 1: gift giving that our family traditionally does. And because I
Speaker 1: think people will understand, they would rather so you be
Speaker 1: financially healthy than uh than have you racking up debt
Speaker 1: to buy gifts for them like that. That's not your
Speaker 1: loving family does not want that for you, I guarantee it.
Speaker 1: And let's talk about the job market for just a second.
Speaker 1: Or they do want that for you, maybe they don't
Speaker 1: love you. You need a new family. It's time to
Speaker 1: find a new family this Christmas. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: the job market, because whether you're looking to find another
Speaker 1: job or you just want some part time holiday work.
Speaker 1: Some employers are offering bonuses still for for joining their
Speaker 1: team right now, like the labor market, matt still remains
Speaker 1: fairly hot. Like we haven't seen it cool off as
Speaker 1: much as it looked like it would at this point.
Speaker 1: And Amazon it might not be as good for users
Speaker 1: because of the abundance of ads, but they are offering
Speaker 1: a minimum starting salary of eighteen dollars an hour and
Speaker 1: up to a three thousand dollars sign on bonus for
Speaker 1: folks who are applying for their their holiday work. We say,
Speaker 1: read the fine print and make sure you know how
Speaker 1: long you've got to stick around, and make sure that
Speaker 1: working in an Amazon warehouse is something you can stomach. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if people still left it was the
Speaker 1: truck driver's right that to pee in bottles, But like,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, I've not heard great things about the
Speaker 1: working conditions there, But I don't know. A hefty bonus
Speaker 1: might just push you in that direct action, and you know,
Speaker 1: you might find other employers out there willing to offer
Speaker 1: better benefits or meaningful sign up bonuses because there's just
Speaker 1: more competition out there. There aren't enough workers to fill
Speaker 1: the jobs. That's right, and Of course, most of those
Speaker 1: jobs don't require a degree, and the journal had an
Speaker 1: interesting article about the importance, or actually the lack thereof,
Speaker 1: of a college education. This past week, a bunch of
Speaker 1: major companies out there are lowering the bar when it
Speaker 1: comes to degree requirements for certain positions for certain jobs.
Speaker 1: Companies like Delta, Google, and IBM, they are requiring a
Speaker 1: college degree for more positions that they need filled. Uh
Speaker 1: and beyond private companies as well. Some states like Maryland,
Speaker 1: actually they have stopped requiring degrees for more jobs that
Speaker 1: they have available as well. There's a good quote this.
Speaker 1: A VP over at Walmart was quoted as saying, the
Speaker 1: company's goal is to shift the focus from the way
Speaker 1: someone got their skills, which is the degree, to what
Speaker 1: skills they do have. Is awesome, man. I love this
Speaker 1: because we talked about this a decent bit here on
Speaker 1: the show College. It still makes sense for a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of young folks out there, but it is not
Speaker 1: necessarily a slam dunk decision because the cost and the
Speaker 1: value proposition are key to determining your choice. Are They're
Speaker 1: so important when it comes to deciding if college is
Speaker 1: going to be right for an individual we've actually were
Speaker 1: we've been hiring a few folks lately to to do
Speaker 1: some work for us on the back end here on
Speaker 1: the podcast. And honestly, I don't even know if they
Speaker 1: have a college degree or not. We didn't ask, but
Speaker 1: we didn't even ask. We we don't care. We've cared
Speaker 1: about the skills they've got. This just like yeah, and
Speaker 1: and hopefully this is a trend that continues because we
Speaker 1: like the direction this is going. We want folks. There's
Speaker 1: certainly something to be said when it comes to being
Speaker 1: well educated right for the sake of one's own growth.
Speaker 1: But the requirement, the mandatory nature of having to go
Speaker 1: to a higher education uh and potentially pay just out
Speaker 1: the nose for a degree that they're not excited about
Speaker 1: getting just to be able to get some sort of
Speaker 1: entry level job is not something that that we're excited
Speaker 1: about a lot of the jobs that we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: That these companies and that these states are now saying,
Speaker 1: you don't need a college degree for our our positions
Speaker 1: that shouldn't have required a degree in the first place,
Speaker 1: and so it's good to see them walking that back
Speaker 1: and saying, listen, part of it is the hot labor
Speaker 1: market that we're talking about, Matt, that they're still they
Speaker 1: want to open up to a broader spectrum of potential
Speaker 1: employees because it's just hard to find the right people.
Speaker 1: And so if you can listen to the requirements and
Speaker 1: still find the person that you need, but just to
Speaker 1: open it up to a broader range of applicants, I
Speaker 1: think it makes a lot of sense. But you we've
Speaker 1: got several other stories that we're gonna get to during
Speaker 1: our Friday flight today, including we're gonna we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the housing health scape. We've got a few stories
Speaker 1: to talk about there and more right after this. All right,
Speaker 1: we are back. Let's keep this Friday flight going, Matt.
Speaker 1: Let get to the ludicrous headline of the week. And
Speaker 1: it just seems like today's episode there's a theme for me,
Speaker 1: which is bashing all the major tech platforms. And sorry
Speaker 1: in advance all you billionaire owners of these companies, but
Speaker 1: let's take a couple more to task. We've already kind
Speaker 1: of given Amazon some flak. We're gonna give Google some
Speaker 1: here in a second. We could even throw Apple into
Speaker 1: the mix as way. Maybe we will. Do they care
Speaker 1: about free speech or not? I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I do. Elon must does make a point though on
Speaker 1: the thirty percent vig they take from it's it's a problem.
Speaker 1: I think it's a problem. But even though in court
Speaker 1: it's it was found out that that's an okay practice
Speaker 1: for Apple to participate in. But I digress. But let's
Speaker 1: not go there. Let's let's move on and let's let's
Speaker 1: smack Facebook around for a second. Because listener Becca, she
Speaker 1: shared an article from pro Publica in the Facebook group.
Speaker 1: The title reads, tax filing websites have been sending users
Speaker 1: financial information to Facebook and that struck me as something
Speaker 1: that was potentially egregious or wrong. And it turns out
Speaker 1: that the big players in the tax ailing business H
Speaker 1: and R, Block, tax Act, and tax Layer have been
Speaker 1: sending sensitive personal data to Facebook about their customers, and
Speaker 1: that's messed up. That info often included the income of
Speaker 1: that customer, their refund amount, their filing status, sometimes phone numbers,
Speaker 1: and more. And so that information was being sent over
Speaker 1: even if you don't have an account with Facebook, which
Speaker 1: is amazing They're giving Facebook this information even though you
Speaker 1: don't have a relationship with Facebook. But Facebook like, well'
Speaker 1: take that data sure, and so this info then, of
Speaker 1: course allows Facebook to better target AD two users. And
Speaker 1: it looks like a lot of these companies they're stopping
Speaker 1: this practice based on this reporting. Not all of them,
Speaker 1: though I don't think have have said that they are.
Speaker 1: But this is a violation of consumer privacy and it
Speaker 1: never should have happened in the first place. Matt reading that,
Speaker 1: I was like, how how does this stuff happen? How
Speaker 1: did he messed up? How do people think this is okay?
Speaker 1: It's not It's not okay? Uh? And meta they were
Speaker 1: Actually they were fined tune or seventy five million dollars
Speaker 1: by the EU for violating some privacy laws thanks to
Speaker 1: a data that made a lot of personal user data public.
Speaker 1: So this is just another reason to freeze your credit, folks.
Speaker 1: We've got an article up on the site that we
Speaker 1: can link to that shows you how easy it is.
Speaker 1: It does not take very long at all. And we
Speaker 1: we also want you to consider carefully which companies you
Speaker 1: choose to do business with. And so to round things out,
Speaker 1: to throw one more tech company under the bus, Google
Speaker 1: they agreed to a settlement with forty states over the
Speaker 1: collection of user location data that they agreed to stop collecting,
Speaker 1: and so this has kept collecting it even though users
Speaker 1: had collicked no, we don't want you to collect this
Speaker 1: date on us, and they were like, well, we'll sneakily
Speaker 1: just do it behind the scenes. Yeah, And honestly, like I,
Speaker 1: I don't think it'd be a bad thing to see
Speaker 1: these fines get even more severe to help keep the
Speaker 1: tech companies accountable, to keep them in check. Because you
Speaker 1: know these these numbers, they sound pretty high, right, we
Speaker 1: just mentioned that two seventy five million dollar fine against Facebook.
Speaker 1: Well here's the thing, that's actually less money than they
Speaker 1: make in a single day. So like, these truly aren't large,
Speaker 1: massive fines. It kind of makes me get back to
Speaker 1: like a flick on the wrist and like Kim Kardashian
Speaker 1: when she got fined for not disclosing her crypto holdings
Speaker 1: or whatever, like these amounts. Like, yes, to us normal people,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a ton of money, But to the
Speaker 1: uber elites, celebrities out there, and definitely to these massive
Speaker 1: tech companies, it is nothing. Yes, that is true, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, the fines s need to go up in
Speaker 1: order to incentivize good behavior and punish bad behavior. So
Speaker 1: that we consumers that we are stuff is another're floating
Speaker 1: around our phone numbers and our refund amounts, and that
Speaker 1: we're not being sold every which way right and left
Speaker 1: to whatever to the highest bidder. Um. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about another company, Matt doing something that you know borders
Speaker 1: on ludicrous. This isn't a tech company, but Mercedes announced
Speaker 1: this week that if you if you drive a new
Speaker 1: Mercedes e V electric vehicle, you're gonna have to pay
Speaker 1: an extra a year for a subscription if you want
Speaker 1: to be able to drive it fast. And this is
Speaker 1: completely insane, honestly. Yeah, this also could have been a
Speaker 1: ludicrous headline Evil week for sure. Yea. The Drive reports
Speaker 1: that in order to enjoy the quicker acceleration that these
Speaker 1: cars are capable of, you're gonna have to fork over
Speaker 1: big bucks luxury car companies they've been dipping their toes
Speaker 1: into the subscription space already right, hoping to make recurring
Speaker 1: revenue off their customers. Like BMW Matt, We've talked about
Speaker 1: them charging a monthly fee for heated seats, for access
Speaker 1: to the hardware that's already installed in your car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to pay, You don't have to pay
Speaker 1: on a monthly basis for that. One of the same
Speaker 1: thing is true of Mercedes. If you want to be
Speaker 1: able to, if you want your car to accelerate more quickly,
Speaker 1: paying them twelve bucks a year to do so sounds ridiculous.
Speaker 1: We think it sucks because you're forking out a ton
Speaker 1: of money already for a nice car, for a luxury
Speaker 1: car in this case, And to me, this would be
Speaker 1: a deal killer for sure, Like there's just on the
Speaker 1: principle of the thing, and so I don't know. Fortunately
Speaker 1: for us, I guess our ancient minivans don't have a
Speaker 1: paywall in order to achieve max feed of eight. So
Speaker 1: on a on a related note, did we talk about
Speaker 1: me renting a Ford Explore a couple weeks ago? So
Speaker 1: that was took a trip um out of town. I
Speaker 1: was actually up in Michigan and it was freezing up there,
Speaker 1: and the car or it was the Ford Explore that
Speaker 1: we rented. It was a newer Ford Explorer and it
Speaker 1: came with heated steering wheels. And it's just one of
Speaker 1: those things where you see these nice, nicer features being
Speaker 1: offered by cars that aren't even necessarily luxury, and you think,
Speaker 1: who the heck needs that? But I will say if
Speaker 1: we lived in a cold, colder climate, I would totally
Speaker 1: be splurging for the heated steering wheel. I've never experienced
Speaker 1: something like that before, but I was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is this is real nice. When I had the Nissan
Speaker 1: Leaf running, the actual heater would deteriorate the battery so quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it had heated season hearing, heated steering wheels, so
Speaker 1: that you had that, I would just put on those
Speaker 1: two and it would help so much. We don't need
Speaker 1: to warm the rest of the family, just just he
Speaker 1: has the driver. All the seats were actually heated, even
Speaker 1: the rear seats, so oh no way, Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: It was a nice little park. That's fancy because I
Speaker 1: just think they know. Yeah, that's another that is one
Speaker 1: of the problems with evs. When you turn on the
Speaker 1: air conditioning or the heater to control zapps the battery,
Speaker 1: it does in a big way. But yeah, hopefully Mercedes
Speaker 1: will rethink their devious ways and not chargiculous to access
Speaker 1: the full abilities of the car. I kind of get it.
Speaker 1: With the Tesla autonomous driving feature, I feel like that's
Speaker 1: something a little bit different but this is actual hardware
Speaker 1: that we're oftentimes talking about here. That's super ridiculous. Yeah
Speaker 1: for sure. All right, let's talk about housing for a second,
Speaker 1: the housing hellscape, and maybe just some of the latest
Speaker 1: on when it comes to home prizes and the housing
Speaker 1: market in general, because there have been actually a few
Speaker 1: headlines and I thought were super intense this week. Axios
Speaker 1: reported that a collapse they use that word in home
Speaker 1: prices is coming down the pike. The Atlantic had a
Speaker 1: piece telling folks that they should wait to buy a home.
Speaker 1: They're basically, nah, you shouldn't buy home right now. It's
Speaker 1: not a good idea. And to me, those are like
Speaker 1: decently provocative assertions that it collapses coming, that people should
Speaker 1: completely avoid buying housing. So what's the truth when it
Speaker 1: comes to the near term future of the housing market.
Speaker 1: It's tough to say, right, But one of the items
Speaker 1: that was touted as a reason to hold off on
Speaker 1: buying a home in that Atlantic piece that I mentioned
Speaker 1: is a lack of inventory that's on the market. There
Speaker 1: aren't many homes available for sale, and so that's keeping
Speaker 1: prices up. But it's interesting to me that that was
Speaker 1: mentioned as one of the reasons because a lack of
Speaker 1: home supply in general is one of the reasons that
Speaker 1: you and I think that there's unlikely to be a
Speaker 1: home price collapse, right, that's being predicted, And how low
Speaker 1: is this supply, Well, there are different estimates on that
Speaker 1: front from different organizations, but we we could truly stand
Speaker 1: to see millions more homes and apartments being built across
Speaker 1: the country. The truth is building has not kept up
Speaker 1: with growth, and this supply shortage it can't be fixed overnight.
Speaker 1: So I guess when I see headlines and predictions of collapse,
Speaker 1: it seems to fly in the face of other information
Speaker 1: that we have, which might suggest actually the opposite, right
Speaker 1: that home prices aren't going to collapse, but might actually
Speaker 1: remain steadier than a lot of folks think. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that supply shortage. That is a major reason that we
Speaker 1: find it difficult to foresee home prices cratering in a
Speaker 1: major way, especially if interest rate hikes calmed down. In
Speaker 1: mortgage rad's chill out just a little bit. That's a
Speaker 1: huge part of the reason. By the way, we're seeing
Speaker 1: like a freeze basically for buyers and sellers. Is morge
Speaker 1: he wants to buy a new home or move out
Speaker 1: of a home where they have a low rate locked in,
Speaker 1: although a correction is still definitely possible, and like, honestly, man,
Speaker 1: it's just a weird time to be a home buyer
Speaker 1: right um. The future is really uncertain right now again,
Speaker 1: I mean the rapid rise in interest rates basically doubling
Speaker 1: in the past eight months, that has just shocked the
Speaker 1: system as the overall cost of buying a home have skyrocketed,
Speaker 1: and so we can't predict the future. But the keys
Speaker 1: to successfully buying a home in this market are are
Speaker 1: having your own personal finances in solid shape and that's
Speaker 1: something that you have control over, and having a longer
Speaker 1: timeline when it comes to owning that home in order
Speaker 1: to make up for a potential housing market slump. Typically,
Speaker 1: I think like we would always say that you want
Speaker 1: to hang onto your home for probably about five years
Speaker 1: in order to make sure that you are able to
Speaker 1: write out any fluctuations in the market to be able
Speaker 1: to recoup the costs associated with purchasing and selling a home.
Speaker 1: But given where things are now like, we're looking at
Speaker 1: even closer to seven years in order to play it
Speaker 1: on the safe side, basically in order to write out
Speaker 1: any potential dips in the market as well as those
Speaker 1: transaction costs. A decade would be even better, right, But
Speaker 1: for a lot of folks, Yeah, that five years just
Speaker 1: isn't good enough anymore. Not when not when we could
Speaker 1: see a correction, right even though the collapse, I think
Speaker 1: it's oversold. I don't see that coming. Um, But you
Speaker 1: never know. You also never know because there are so
Speaker 1: many factors that combine to make up the housing market.
Speaker 1: It's really it's just really hard to predict. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: speaking of homes now, we talked about he locks for
Speaker 1: just a second on Wednesday's episode Home Equity Lines of
Speaker 1: Credit when we talked about the benefits of being financially flexible.
Speaker 1: And this might sound weird, but we would say that
Speaker 1: having a helock is great, but using it isn't, which
Speaker 1: I know is just kind of a goofy thing to say.
Speaker 1: But the stats show that more folks are opening up
Speaker 1: lines of credit against their home right now, and more
Speaker 1: folks are also tapping those helocks that they have, according
Speaker 1: to recent stats from Adam Data Solutions. And you know,
Speaker 1: with the average helock rate being almost eight percent at
Speaker 1: this point, is rates have picked up quite a bit,
Speaker 1: borrowing against your home's equity becomes even more precarious, so
Speaker 1: we would say be careful before you open a helock
Speaker 1: and start borrowing from it. The biggest downside of having
Speaker 1: helock and pulling money out is that if you aren't
Speaker 1: able to pay back that money, you're putting your home
Speaker 1: at risk. Right Unlike a credit card, which is unsecured debt,
Speaker 1: this helock is secured debt, and it could cost you
Speaker 1: your house. You could cost you your home if you
Speaker 1: have trouble making payments over an extended period of time.
Speaker 1: But having access to a helock, we would say provides
Speaker 1: additional financial backstop in addition to your emergency fund, which
Speaker 1: is again something we talked about recently, But be prudent
Speaker 1: in how you use it. I know it's weird to
Speaker 1: tell people, yeah, you should get one of these, but
Speaker 1: don't want ever use it. And it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: like having credit available to you, right, Like like you
Speaker 1: want to have large lines of money, like like with
Speaker 1: a credit card available to you, but it doesn't it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you want to tick up more than that
Speaker 1: thirty percent utilization rest right, Like you want to have
Speaker 1: that available to you, but don't necessarily want to use it,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to use it if you can't
Speaker 1: pay it off on time and in full every month either.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, And it makes sense that more folks are
Speaker 1: doing this, right as we've seen home equity shoot through
Speaker 1: the roof over the past to three years. There's folks
Speaker 1: and they're realizing that they're sitting on a lot of
Speaker 1: cash that's tied up into their home. And so I
Speaker 1: get the temptation, I get the desire to do this,
Speaker 1: and it can provide a nice backstop, but we just
Speaker 1: don't want folks treating their homes like a t m
Speaker 1: S where they're just drawing down that cash, whether they're
Speaker 1: pulling that money out. We want you, like Joel said,
Speaker 1: be prudent, but we wanted to do remind folks as well,
Speaker 1: don't forget to enter into when that six hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is be a subscriber to
Speaker 1: the How the Money newsletter, and again you can subscribe
Speaker 1: over at how the Money dot com. There's always money
Speaker 1: in the newsletter. Mat Nice arrested development. Speaking of housing
Speaker 1: and development, it pays to be It pays to be
Speaker 1: a hout of money Newsletters subscriber. It does, but that
Speaker 1: is gonna be it for this episode, Joel, until next time.
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,