Speaker 1: Welcome to Hat of Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt.
Speaker 2: Today we're talking about brainless borrowing, Doge dividends and abroad
Speaker 2: on a budget.
Speaker 1: Doge dividends. Jiel, that's a headline that's like specifically written
Speaker 1: for the Friday flight. Yes, because of the alliterations. Of course,
Speaker 1: your favorite thing, that's what I do? Best man? What's
Speaker 1: this thing about? Newly So? And you U l y right?
Speaker 2: So I thought this and this is a particular website company,
Speaker 2: but there are other ones that do similar things apparently
Speaker 2: like rent the runway or whatever. But you and I
Speaker 2: a closed website. We haven't yeah, we haven't talked about
Speaker 2: this actually on the show. But we got nominated for
Speaker 2: an iHeart Podcast Award, the best in the Best Business
Speaker 2: category best Business and Finance Podcasts, and we're probably gonna lose. Like,
Speaker 2: let's be honest, there's.
Speaker 1: A chance we win. I mean, well, we're a one
Speaker 1: out of five nominated, but there's I think a less
Speaker 1: than twenty percent chance that we win, twenty chance of
Speaker 1: us making it. I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 2: We're probably not, but so Emily, my wife and I
Speaker 2: were like, let's go down for it. The awards are here,
Speaker 2: in a little over a week. You sadly can't make it.
Speaker 2: So if we do win, I'll be hoisting the trophy
Speaker 2: alone without you, which will be sad. But again, we're
Speaker 2: not winning, okay. So Emily's like, I need a fancy
Speaker 2: dress for this occasion. We're going to like a podcast
Speaker 2: award show, right, like, don't don't you walk down the
Speaker 2: red carpet and you wear something nice?
Speaker 1: What am I gonna wear?
Speaker 2: And those kinds of dresses are I guess are typically
Speaker 2: pretty expensive, and she's like, what why not just rent something?
Speaker 2: And so we've never tried one of these websites before.
Speaker 2: I don't know if guys do it or not. Like
Speaker 2: I think my buddy Josh has done something called stitch
Speaker 2: fix before, so I think some guys do rent close.
Speaker 1: Stitch Fix was like they send you a of clothes.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. Maybe you keep it stitch fixed. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know how that works.
Speaker 2: But we looked into this into Newly and so she's
Speaker 2: gonna get like like a six hundred dollars dress for
Speaker 2: this occasion. You get like six pieces for like one
Speaker 2: hundred bucks, and then you can.
Speaker 1: Cancel at any time.
Speaker 2: So it's one of those things where you're not obligated
Speaker 2: to rent clothes from them for six months or a
Speaker 2: year or anything like that. So especially for like a
Speaker 2: special occasion, if you don't want to go fork over
Speaker 2: big bucks for the nice dress for that when you
Speaker 2: are you know, how often are these events actually occur?
Speaker 1: Right? It's kind of rare. So I mean you said
Speaker 1: one hundred bucks and that still sounds pretty dang expensive.
Speaker 1: It's just like, is it worth it though to spend
Speaker 1: you know, I guess six times that in order to
Speaker 1: get the six hundred dollars dress, and I think it might.
Speaker 1: This is probably why it makes more sense for ladies
Speaker 1: than it does for men, because with men's clothing and
Speaker 1: fashion generally speaking, there's not a whole lot that changes, right,
Speaker 1: Like you get yourself a good fitting tucks or suit
Speaker 1: and you're gonna wear that thing for like twenty years.
Speaker 1: Where it's just it is a little bit different when
Speaker 1: it comes to the ladies. Well, I think is that
Speaker 1: a part of the pink tax that I think get.
Speaker 1: I think there's just different standards as to what's expected
Speaker 1: of the ladies up and which is a bummer, Like
Speaker 1: you might love the dress and hey, it's fun for this,
Speaker 1: but do you want to wear it again? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: There's like a different thing about wearing the same dress
Speaker 2: to fancy.
Speaker 1: If I was a if I was a lady, I
Speaker 1: would get an awesome dress and I would wear it
Speaker 1: to everything, Like to all these events. It's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's Matt.
Speaker 2: Well, well you are who literally wears the same shirt
Speaker 2: or the same outfit like six or seven days in
Speaker 2: a row, that's.
Speaker 1: In the winter. I can because I maybe like you
Speaker 1: wear the undershirt and like I'm like my outer button
Speaker 1: up shirt. It doesn't get dirty. And so I literally
Speaker 1: have the ability. I will literally wear a new fresh
Speaker 1: shirt on Sunday, wear it all throughout the week, and
Speaker 1: then by the time Friday rolls around and I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, it's trust. I have noticed it's starting to
Speaker 1: get a little bit stale. It doesn't get stinky because again,
Speaker 1: the shirts that touched the skin, you gotta those are
Speaker 1: going straight to the hamp after one used socks, underwear,
Speaker 1: T shirt. It's one use. This is what we're teaching
Speaker 1: our kids. But everything I was like pants, you know,
Speaker 1: pay she can get several days out of it. Shorts,
Speaker 1: I know, it depends on the shorts, but maybe you
Speaker 1: can get a couple of days out of that jacket.
Speaker 1: In jackets, jeans like these are things that you rarely
Speaker 1: need to wash, which is of course going to lengthen
Speaker 1: the life of your clothing as well. But I think
Speaker 1: that's fun though. That Emily is, she's getting all dolled up,
Speaker 1: getting dressed up. And I didn't think. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: it's gonna be like the Oscars, But I don't know
Speaker 1: it is. We'll see. I have no idea what to expect,
Speaker 1: but I think, you know, y'll show up and everyone
Speaker 1: else is wearing like jeans and T shirts. That might
Speaker 1: be the case. Hey, no young being overdressed. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just like, sorry, we've got a gala after this.
Speaker 1: We didn't dress up for this, We dress up for
Speaker 1: the other thing. Okay, Yeah, I love it. I'll let
Speaker 1: you know if we if we win, But if we win,
Speaker 1: you need to FaceTime me live and I'll be like,
Speaker 1: you know, like the little microphone. Well yeah, all right, buddy,
Speaker 1: that'll be me, yeah, yelling through the phone.
Speaker 2: I look forward to it. All right, all right, let's
Speaker 2: move on, mat, Let's get to Friday. Flight as sampling
Speaker 2: stories we found interesting this week. Let's kick it off.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about travel. If you want to fly for
Speaker 2: less money, it's not all about finding the right discount
Speaker 2: airline or snagging a sweet sale price. Like wait, I
Speaker 2: think Southwest had a thirty percent off sale on certain
Speaker 2: flights this week. I saw that, which is awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you might be able to fly for less right if
Speaker 2: you find one of those sales. But it would also
Speaker 2: be smart to fly or to attempt to fly from
Speaker 2: the airports that offer the least expensive fares most regularly.
Speaker 2: So to help us out here, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
Speaker 2: they listed the lowest cost airports to embark from, and Matt,
Speaker 2: I think we should name them right, because if you know,
Speaker 2: let's do the airports that traditionally offer the lowest prices. Hey,
Speaker 2: you might want to like start looking to see whether
Speaker 2: you can find a flight from there, as opposed to
Speaker 2: maybe the airport that's closest to your house. So Fort Lauderdale, Orlando.
Speaker 2: So we got two Florida airports first off, but then Vegas,
Speaker 2: Chicago and LaGuardia. Those are going to nab you the
Speaker 2: lowest domestic fares on average dolls.
Speaker 1: In Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: That's the most expensive airport to fly from, and the
Speaker 2: average price difference MATT between flights from Fort Lauderdale and
Speaker 2: from the Washington Dollas Airport it's more than two hundred
Speaker 2: dollars a ticket.
Speaker 1: That's pretty steep.
Speaker 2: So if you live in Washington, DC, it's not like
Speaker 2: you're driving down to Fort Lauderdale right to save money
Speaker 2: on your ticket. But I think this just goes to
Speaker 2: show that if you only shop at the airport that's
Speaker 2: nearest to you, you might be leaving out other potential
Speaker 2: options to reduce the cost of your travel. So shop around,
Speaker 2: set fair alerts, but also look to cheaper airports that
Speaker 2: you might be able to reasonably fly from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I noticed you said LaGuardia. Does everyone say La
Speaker 1: Guardia or LaGuardia Guardia? Is it? Why is it Guardia
Speaker 1: because it's spelled just the last name? Oh is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't know who that is? Based after a former
Speaker 1: New York City mayor, Charles Well because like the like
Speaker 1: the way you spell guard like, you don't pronounce it
Speaker 1: like Gouard to the base you say guard Okay, multation over.
Speaker 1: So regarding the different regarding the different airports. What's so
Speaker 1: fascinating too, is the fact that one of the biggest differences,
Speaker 1: or one of the biggest reasons for the price discrepancy,
Speaker 1: is because of competition. Yeah, and so specifically Dalls, Like
Speaker 1: I was really fascinating. I'm like, why is it so
Speaker 1: much more expensive? Is it because that's where all the
Speaker 1: politicians fly into and they are priced in sensitive? Perhaps,
Speaker 1: but it also has a lot to do with the
Speaker 1: different airlines that service that airport, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of competition there. But specifically United Airlines has over seventy
Speaker 1: percent market share. They basically have a stranglehold, which means
Speaker 1: they can set the prices high and you don't have
Speaker 1: many other options to get around that as opposed.
Speaker 2: To do you think Atlanta wasn't on that list? Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's we got tons of different options. So no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: it wasn't on the list. Because Delta probably runs sixty
Speaker 2: plus percent of the flights out of.
Speaker 1: UMAN compared to the most expensive list, we do have
Speaker 1: a lot of options. But I was going to say,
Speaker 1: guess the market share of United at Fort Lauderdale. So
Speaker 1: at Dallas it's seven twenty percent. At Fort Lauderdale. Any guesses,
Speaker 1: I'm I guess fifteen eight okay, eight percent, so and
Speaker 1: that's much lower compared to I think the top three
Speaker 1: where Spirit Jet Blue in Southwest, which sense like the
Speaker 1: low cost affordable airlines provides that competition, and that's a
Speaker 1: huge driving factor behind why there's such a price discrepancy
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: And so when there is a major airline based out
Speaker 2: of that city who runs, they kind of run the show.
Speaker 2: They're going to have a lot more pricing power and
Speaker 2: they can kind of keep some people out. I mean,
Speaker 2: Southwest came to Atlanta a few years back, but they're
Speaker 2: even talking about reducing flights. So I'm guessing the situation,
Speaker 2: the pricing situation in coming to and from the Atlanta airport,
Speaker 2: it's only going to get worse, like get a little
Speaker 2: stiffer in the coming years. Okay, let's keep talking about travel, Matt.
Speaker 2: As more airline frequent flyer programs have put the emphasis
Speaker 2: on how much you spend versus how often you travel.
Speaker 2: It's all about, you know, spending more money on tickets
Speaker 2: instead of just flying regularly. Folks are opting to play
Speaker 2: the field in attempts to save money, saying, ah, I
Speaker 2: don't think I'm gonna book with the airline, and normally
Speaker 2: I go with a particular airline because I'm used to
Speaker 2: flying them. But people are saying I'm gonna be a
Speaker 2: little less loyal moving forward. And we've always said that
Speaker 2: being loyal to one brand or one airline it's a
Speaker 2: bad idea because it's gonna cost you money. Right, But
Speaker 2: even for normal people who only travel a few times
Speaker 2: a year, some of those loyalty perks, like when combined
Speaker 2: with let's say a proprietary credit card, they could result
Speaker 2: in some pretty sweet benefits for travelers, potentially enough to
Speaker 2: justify a higher ticket price. But I think those days
Speaker 2: are coming to an end, and we are all for
Speaker 2: loyalty in some areas of life, right, like friendship and love.
Speaker 2: Like Matt, you and I were loyal to each other.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be best friends, yeah, boy forever.
Speaker 1: But move over, Zach Braff and Donald Fason. We're better
Speaker 1: than that. We're real friends. We're real, real friends. They're
Speaker 1: real friends too, right, Evidently. Yeah, we haven't gotten that
Speaker 1: T mobile commercial yet though, you know, Kate, I I've
Speaker 1: debated watching Scrubs with the kids because it was one
Speaker 1: of our favorite shows back in college. And every time
Speaker 1: those T mobile commercials come on, they just totally crack up.
Speaker 1: They think that they are so funny, and they are.
Speaker 1: And Kate and I looked at each other, We're just like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, they would so enjoy scrubs. I'm not
Speaker 1: totally sure how appropriate that would be for a six
Speaker 1: year old. That's a seven year old. That's a good question. Okay.
Speaker 2: So loyalty it's great in some areas, not great in others,
Speaker 2: specifically when we're talking about airlines for most people. Right, So, yeah,
Speaker 2: if you're in the position if you find that your
Speaker 2: perks have diminished from the airline that you typically fly with,
Speaker 2: but the price of your ticket hasn't and airfares are
Speaker 2: going up, folks, look elsewhere. Google Flights is like the
Speaker 2: proper place to start searching. Oh yeah, be more interested
Speaker 2: in paying the least amount of money for the fair
Speaker 2: as opposed to going with.
Speaker 1: The airline you're used to flying. Yeah, shopping around is
Speaker 1: going to pay off, man. But on top of that,
Speaker 1: every trip is on sale because of the current strength
Speaker 1: of the dollar. Friend of the show Elaying Glusac, she
Speaker 1: wrote about this over in The Times and she found
Speaker 1: that a hotel room in Europe that costs two hundred
Speaker 1: twenty four dollars last summer cost only two hundred and
Speaker 1: eight dollars today. So it's not just that the dollar
Speaker 1: is more competitive against the euro, but the Japanese yend
Speaker 1: the Canadian dollar, they have also become weaker compared to
Speaker 1: the to the US dollar. Basically because of favorable exchange rates.
Speaker 1: Your money goes further in many overseas countries and destinations
Speaker 1: right now, and so don't only think about the cost
Speaker 1: of the flight in and of itself, granted that is
Speaker 1: a huge part of the cost of afacation, but also
Speaker 1: think about how much everything else is gonna cost during
Speaker 1: your stay as well. Gives you the chance to go
Speaker 1: abroad and maybe live a little bit beyond your not
Speaker 1: beyond your means, but maybe just a slightly fancier trip
Speaker 1: than maybe what you're used to. It feels like you're
Speaker 1: living above your means because when you go over there,
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a second, my money goes further. And
Speaker 1: so it feels like with every purchase you make, or
Speaker 1: or going out to eat or something like that, or
Speaker 1: the hotel that you're paying for, it shall cost a
Speaker 1: little bit less because it's a dollar strong. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: feels like this is everything ten percent of what's feel
Speaker 1: like exactly exactly exactly, which is pretty sweet feeling. Matt.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about credit cards. I see that article discussed
Speaker 2: the secondary benefits of credit cards, and that's something that
Speaker 2: we sing the praises of that. It's not just the
Speaker 2: two percent cash back or the travel rewards, although those
Speaker 2: are great. There are other benefits of credit cards as well,
Speaker 2: you know, and some of them don't get touted all
Speaker 2: that much, really, but they can be incredibly rewarding. And
Speaker 2: so this author has seen that they got a new
Speaker 2: battery for their iPhone without having and paying for Apple Care,
Speaker 2: and that was thanks to the Chase Freedom Flex card
Speaker 2: saved them ninety bucks because that's what it would have
Speaker 2: cost otherwise. I think this is I just wanted to
Speaker 2: use this as a reminder to tell people not to
Speaker 2: sleep on the secondary benefits of that credit cards have
Speaker 2: to offer. Like you can snag cell phone insurance or
Speaker 2: no foreign transaction fees, or trip cancelation coverage or baggage
Speaker 2: delay insurance or purchase production or a longer extended warranty.
Speaker 2: There are just so many things that are under the
Speaker 2: surface oftentimes that most people don't realize. You're like, oh,
Speaker 2: I get the two percent cash back, or I'm getting
Speaker 2: the five percent back when I when I pay for
Speaker 2: gas and those things. That's awesome, Like I'm all for
Speaker 2: those rewards. But then there are these other ones that
Speaker 2: most people I think they just forget or they neglect
Speaker 2: to think about, and they can be pretty rewarding too.
Speaker 1: I'll forget about the CDW man, the colision damage waiver.
Speaker 1: Get that primary benefit that's stuff when you travel, and
Speaker 1: that's so that's a massive if you travel at least
Speaker 1: a week a year, you want that benefit that you
Speaker 1: would use regularly as well as opposed to just when
Speaker 1: things go poorly. Yeah, but I guess if you get
Speaker 1: in direct things have gone poorly, but it's it's paying
Speaker 1: for the insurance to make sure that you are covered
Speaker 1: in case something like that were to happen. One of
Speaker 1: the other benefits, too, is that those credit card credit
Speaker 1: card rewards, they don't get taxed, which of course we're
Speaker 1: thankful for. It's one of the only ways that we
Speaker 1: can avoid the tax man. The thrift y traveler, they
Speaker 1: had an article about this particular subject. And it's worth
Speaker 1: mentioning that some kinds of credit card rewards actually will
Speaker 1: result in taxation. You don't have to worry about your
Speaker 1: sign up bonus that doesn't get taxed. It's treated as
Speaker 1: a like a rebate essentially for your spending your two
Speaker 1: percent cash back, your travel points. They're not gonna get
Speaker 1: taxed either. But and this is news to me man
Speaker 1: referral bonuses, they do get taxed. I didn't know this.
Speaker 1: And so if you send your friend a link to
Speaker 1: sign up for one of your favorite cards, if you
Speaker 1: are one of those credit card optimizers out there and
Speaker 1: you're trying to get everyone on board, just credit card
Speaker 1: pusher slashy, you're also trying to like earner your own rewards,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get it ten ninety nine for the bonus
Speaker 1: that you receive if they sign up. And even if
Speaker 1: the bonus came in the form of miles, you are
Speaker 1: supposed to pay tax. So you know, I'm not totally
Speaker 1: sure what the follow through rate is when it comes
Speaker 1: to some of the different banks, but don't be surprised
Speaker 1: if you receive a ten ninety nine in the mail
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, heads up, all right, Matt, let's talk about getting
Speaker 2: paid from your employer and I getting paid. Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 2: pay comes in the form of non monetary compensation, right.
Speaker 2: We always talk about looking at your your total compensation
Speaker 2: package when you're looking for a job, or you're trying
Speaker 2: to assess the benefits of a job offer you have,
Speaker 2: or even just like kind of thinking, well, how competitive
Speaker 2: is the pay that I'm earning currently where I'm at
Speaker 2: versus what maybe a friend or what other people in
Speaker 2: the industry are earning somewhere else, somewhere down the street. Well,
Speaker 2: the Wall Street Journal just wrote about why one perk
Speaker 2: that looks great it really isn't, And that's unlimited vacation time.
Speaker 2: This is something like that I feel like I've seen
Speaker 2: popping up more and more as companies offering Hey, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's not just two weeks of PTO. You can take
Speaker 2: as much time off as you want. And that's kind
Speaker 2: of the pitch. That's the cell from the company that
Speaker 2: you can travel as frequently as you desire. But everyone
Speaker 2: I've talked to, I don't know about you, Matt, who
Speaker 2: has this benefit, they don't feel okay using it. So
Speaker 2: this sounds like a great perk but in reality maybe
Speaker 2: doesn't play out so well. That kind of the unspoken
Speaker 2: rules dictate that you're not supposed to abuse your newfound freedom,
Speaker 2: like the ability to travel as much as you want,
Speaker 2: which I think actually causes people from what I can
Speaker 2: from what I can tell, to take even less time
Speaker 2: off than they're allowed. It's a sad reality. But I
Speaker 2: would say, make sure to look this gift horse in
Speaker 2: the mouth and ask about how this benefit functions in reality.
Speaker 2: If you're applying for a job and the employer says, hey,
Speaker 2: this is one of the perks we offer, I would
Speaker 2: want to know more about how that actually works and
Speaker 2: whether people actually take a significant amount of time off,
Speaker 2: because we're always talking about how Americans don't taken off
Speaker 2: their vacation time. If they have like a specific amount allotted,
Speaker 2: they never take the full amount. We should all be
Speaker 2: taken our vacation man, Like it's one of those perks
Speaker 2: that we've earned that we deserve and all work and
Speaker 2: no play makes us pretty dull too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree. It feels like one of those
Speaker 1: things where it's a benefit that like I don't even
Speaker 1: know if this exists, but like it makes me think
Speaker 1: if you go to like an arcade and it's just
Speaker 1: like if you get this wrisk band, it's unlimited coke refills,
Speaker 1: or like if you buy the special cup at a
Speaker 1: gas station, it's like anytime you come in with your cup,
Speaker 1: you just drink whatever you want. But the reality is
Speaker 1: is how much are you actually how much soda are
Speaker 1: you actually going to drink? And do you want to
Speaker 1: drink an unlimited amount of coke? Like every time I'm
Speaker 1: gonna drink till kidney failures. Kenny feels like something where
Speaker 1: it's just like on paper, it seems appealing until you
Speaker 1: actually start thinking through it and it's just like, well,
Speaker 1: what's the actual reality of me taking full advantage of this?
Speaker 1: And when it comes to time off, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: are we talking about how great it would be to
Speaker 1: take unlimited time off or maybe we just need to
Speaker 1: actually take the time off based on a normal amount
Speaker 1: of vacation days. And certainly it probably should be higher
Speaker 1: in the US because we're such a work performance, productivity
Speaker 1: driven culture. But I think that's something else to keep
Speaker 1: in mind as well. Another typical perk that we not
Speaker 1: we joel, but that most folks often get from their employer.
Speaker 1: Our employers stage is health insurance. But as we're seeing
Speaker 1: a rise in small business formation entrepreneurs, they got to
Speaker 1: figure out how to get coverage without bankrupting themselves, which
Speaker 1: is like the whole point of starting a business is
Speaker 1: maybe for this to succeed. Vox they detailed the rise
Speaker 1: of health sharing companies, not health care companies, but they
Speaker 1: are growing quickly. These health sharing companies. Almost two million
Speaker 1: Americans find themselves on one of these plans that look
Speaker 1: like health insurance, but they have meaningful differences, and it's
Speaker 1: basically the number of folks that are on these plants
Speaker 1: have doubled in the past several in the past few years.
Speaker 1: So look into them because they like there's significant savings
Speaker 1: to be had, but do be careful, know the fine print,
Speaker 1: know the exclusions. Juel and I we are both on
Speaker 1: metas Share specifically they've worked well for us, but we
Speaker 1: also haven't tested the limits, although some friends of ours have.
Speaker 1: I think about some some good friends, and I think
Speaker 1: it was literally the year after they joined on, she
Speaker 1: ruptured or tore her achilles, and they were also like, well,
Speaker 1: we were thinking about getting tonsils removed and adenoids as
Speaker 1: well from like one of their whatever that is. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think it's in your mouth.
Speaker 2: Somewhere, your throat.
Speaker 1: But they did all of that within a year because
Speaker 1: they were gonna they knew that they're going to hit
Speaker 1: their what's called the annual household portion, and it worked
Speaker 1: incredibly well for them, which was really encouraging because I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm pretty sure this is going to work out.
Speaker 1: And I think we'd even kind of steered them in
Speaker 1: like that direction because they were paying an inordinate amount
Speaker 1: of it was a little nervous. I'm just like, oh man,
Speaker 1: how this works out. It worked out great for them.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that more people are getting on this.
Speaker 1: I was talking to a nurse friend a few days ago.
Speaker 1: So she's a nurse, she works within the health care industry,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how. We got to talking about
Speaker 1: healthcare and I was I kind of sheepishly was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I rarely go to the doctor. And
Speaker 1: got to talking about health sharing. And you would expect
Speaker 1: with her that she'd be on some sort of Cadillac
Speaker 1: Premium Primo healthcare plus health Care Prime health account job,
Speaker 1: but all the healthcare you can eat. She is on
Speaker 1: a health sharing plan. Wow, because she's like, yeah, so
Speaker 1: s thinking expensive, Like we don't even pay for the
Speaker 1: kind of coverage that we often take at the hospital.
Speaker 1: Blew my mind. But it's just evidence of the fact
Speaker 1: that that's an area an industry that needs a little
Speaker 1: bit of a reform, and I'm glad that there's competition.
Speaker 2: And not everyone can choose to go this routelet right,
Speaker 2: We were like literally talking to a friend last night
Speaker 2: who has a young daughter who has had cancer for many,
Speaker 2: many years. They have a lot of employments they have
Speaker 2: to go to. It gets really expensive, and so their
Speaker 2: employment decisions are largely based around healthcare, which makes total
Speaker 2: sense for them. But for other families like we have
Speaker 2: been pretty fortunate on the healthcare front, and so we're
Speaker 2: able to go opt for something like this in order
Speaker 2: to reduce our out of pocket on a monthly basis,
Speaker 2: and figures crossed that it saves us money over time
Speaker 2: because we're just not shelling out as much for healthcare overall.
Speaker 2: But again, this is a personal decision, and more Americans
Speaker 2: are choosing some of these health sharing options because they
Speaker 2: are saving the money. But the trade offs are a
Speaker 2: crucial thing to take into account. All right, Map, We've
Speaker 2: got more to get to on this episode, including where
Speaker 2: you talk about some of the worst places to borrow money.
Speaker 2: Borrowing money has gotten more expensive over the past couple
Speaker 2: of years. We'll talk about that and whether or not
Speaker 2: you're gonna get a five thousand dollars check in the
Speaker 2: mail from the government right after this.
Speaker 1: All right, Joel, we are back from the break and
Speaker 1: of course it is now time for the ludicrous headline
Speaker 1: of the week. It's from c NETS. The headline reads,
Speaker 1: is a tax prep service promising you a huge tax refund?
Speaker 1: It could be a scam, Joel. We're sharing this one
Speaker 1: because we want folks to know that if you have
Speaker 1: a burning desire to get a massive, huge tax refund, well,
Speaker 1: it can interfere with your decision making skills. It can
Speaker 1: cause you to fall prey to what's being called a
Speaker 1: ghost tax preparer. Yeah spooky, yeah Bay? Is it a
Speaker 1: friendly ghost like Casper or friendly? So essentially, if a
Speaker 1: so called tax preparer is highlighting how big of the
Speaker 1: refund they can help you to get before knowing your specifics,
Speaker 1: the alarm bells should be going off. The way it
Speaker 1: works is that individual is going to then file your
Speaker 1: return with fake deductions with credits that you don't actually
Speaker 1: qualify for, and of course they're gonna then charge you
Speaker 1: based on a percentage of your overall tax refund, so
Speaker 1: they are incentivized to get as many deductions in their
Speaker 1: ass possible. It raises how much you are going to
Speaker 1: then pay them, but then your prepare disappears, you're left
Speaker 1: cleaning up the mess. This is not the kind of
Speaker 1: situation you want to find yourself in, and so if
Speaker 1: you want tax help, we would recommend for you to
Speaker 1: ask around to friends, ask for recommendations. Don't go rogue
Speaker 1: on such an important hire like this as you're doing
Speaker 1: your own homework. Make sure that the tax preparer has
Speaker 1: a Prepare tax identification number. If they're trying to file
Speaker 1: your taxes, prepare your taxes without having that, they're breaking
Speaker 1: the law. That's also another red flag. Make sure that
Speaker 1: they've got a physical address as opposed to just this. Oh,
Speaker 1: they've got a website. They seem totally legit, but it's
Speaker 1: pretty easy to up and vanish in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night with a website versus having a physical off
Speaker 1: as a physical location, and this is so nefarious.
Speaker 2: Matt because so many people they bank on that massive
Speaker 2: refund every year. And if someone's kind of selling them
Speaker 2: a bill of goods, like, hey, we'll get you the
Speaker 2: bigger refund, like we have special tactics to score you
Speaker 2: more money back.
Speaker 1: From the federal You want to leave money on the table.
Speaker 2: No, And that's so it sounds so promising, and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: normally get like two grand, but this guy's saying I'm
Speaker 2: gonna get like five or six. That is, you typically
Speaker 2: want to walk down that road, except for in this
Speaker 2: case it's totally false. You're gonna be in hot water
Speaker 2: with the irs, which brings up the perpetual point of
Speaker 2: contention come tax season, should you go tax software or
Speaker 2: should you hire a tax pro and Kiplinger they did
Speaker 2: a great job covering this. They basically suggested that software
Speaker 2: is great for folks who take the standard deduction, who
Speaker 2: only earn income as a W two employee, and who
Speaker 2: only invest in traditional assets like stocks, and also for
Speaker 2: folks who have lived in one state for the entire year.
Speaker 2: So if you moved, you might want to hire somebody.
Speaker 2: So if that's you, though, and you fall into all
Speaker 2: those categories, use software like go with the free or
Speaker 2: cheap options. Cash app in particular is still our favorite
Speaker 2: because they're one hundred percent free for federal infrastate filing.
Speaker 1: What it used to be called before cash app bought it.
Speaker 2: It was credit credit car mattaxt credit. Yeah, and then
Speaker 2: cash at bought it from them, and.
Speaker 1: It's continued to do an excellent job.
Speaker 2: Excellent job, and it's more robust than a lot of
Speaker 2: the other free services, even the IRS Direct file service.
Speaker 2: But let's say you don't meet all those requirements or
Speaker 2: are you you know, you've got to come from another
Speaker 2: source or you itemize your deductions, right, If you have
Speaker 2: more complexity, it's often worth the cost to hire a
Speaker 2: pro as long as they're not one of those ghost
Speaker 2: prepares that I just talked about. Make sure they're a
Speaker 2: legit tax prepare. They know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: So it's hard for me to hear you say ghosts
Speaker 1: prepare it and not think of ghost peppers. Remember back
Speaker 1: when ghost peppers were all the rage? No, when were
Speaker 1: they all the rage? Like fifteen years ago, oh something
Speaker 1: like that. That's like when all these like super hot
Speaker 1: peppers started king. I hear ghosts prepare, I think ghost pets.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, that's when that's the first time ever heard
Speaker 1: of like the Skulville heat like that, which I know
Speaker 1: about from Hot Ones, right, which I've never watched, actually
Speaker 1: never seen an episode of Hot Ones. No. I mean, okay,
Speaker 1: you got to watch the Conan O'Brien episode. It's insane.
Speaker 1: That's funny. It's so funny, I guess, Okay, sounds entertaining.
Speaker 1: I guess. I just think of folks who are like
Speaker 1: going after the hottest pepper and it's like, oh, this
Speaker 1: one because the ghost pepper used to be the hottest
Speaker 1: and now there's other hybrids that they've come out with,
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, this one's got two million Skulville
Speaker 1: units or whatever. It's just not something I'm interested in
Speaker 1: at some point. Humans, Uh, why would you want to
Speaker 1: do that? To you? Just do it? And plus like
Speaker 1: it makes me think about I want to eat like
Speaker 1: a mildly hot peppers. Well, Joe, let's talk about debt,
Speaker 1: because we are not debt and enthusiasts, but we're also
Speaker 1: not debt haters to the core. Some types of debt,
Speaker 1: when used wisely in moderation, we think can help you
Speaker 1: to accelerate your different financial goals. We're talking about things
Speaker 1: like a mortgage, maybe a small amount of student loans
Speaker 1: to help you to get a degree, but specifically what
Speaker 1: you are borrowing for and the interest rate attached to
Speaker 1: that loan are going to be crucial factors when you're
Speaker 1: trying to decide whether that debt product is bad, whether
Speaker 1: it's neutral, or whether it's you know, a potentially decent investment.
Speaker 1: And a new report from Solo, it's like a community
Speaker 1: finance platform, first name Han, but they highlighted some of
Speaker 1: the worst places to borrow and they're highlighting the negative
Speaker 1: impact of short term loans that come with incredibly high
Speaker 1: fees with high interest rates, subprime credit cards, payday loans,
Speaker 1: and earned wage access that's like the different platforms and
Speaker 1: apps that allow you to get paid early. They were
Speaker 1: some of the worst culprits out there, and we totally
Speaker 1: one hundred percent agree those are crappy products that should
Speaker 1: be avoided at all costs. Man.
Speaker 2: We've talked smack about every single one of those at
Speaker 2: some point, we hade them in the past, and yeah,
Speaker 2: I think that earned wage access one matter, is particularly
Speaker 2: nefarious because it looks so benevolent and those apps are
Speaker 2: so good at marketing, they're so slick and then made
Speaker 2: people think, oh, it.
Speaker 1: Looks like it's free.
Speaker 2: All I gotta do is is leave them a little
Speaker 2: tip for the app creators. And when you factor in
Speaker 2: how bad, how rotten that tip is from an interest
Speaker 2: rate standpoint, it's awful and it's obliterating a reasonable chunk
Speaker 2: of your pay that you shouldn't be forking over to somebody.
Speaker 2: There's no you don't want to access your paycheck early
Speaker 2: because it's going to cost you too much.
Speaker 1: It feels like a two point like a wolf payday
Speaker 1: loan two point zero and cheap loathing.
Speaker 2: Essentially, it's just a modern slicker version of it that
Speaker 2: looks less nefarious, but underneath the surface is rotten to
Speaker 2: the core. They also mentioned in that report peer to
Speaker 2: peer lending and by Now Pay Later as some of
Speaker 2: the places people turn when they're in a financial pinch, right,
Speaker 2: and those forms of debt can charge you sky high
Speaker 2: interest if you don't make your payments on time. So
Speaker 2: for by Now Pay Later, for instance, right, you might
Speaker 2: find that the interest in fees are equivalent to a
Speaker 2: forty five percent combined rate according to SOLO. If you're
Speaker 2: not making your payments on time. So the macroeconomical is
Speaker 2: that borrowing costs are up on every debt vehicle these days, right,
Speaker 2: making every single form of debt more precarious, and the
Speaker 2: worst kinds of debt have become even even worse right
Speaker 2: over the past couple of years. A whole lot of
Speaker 2: Americans are attracted to these forms of debt because they
Speaker 2: have no savings to pay for an emergency man. I
Speaker 2: think that's that's why people fall for these traps. They
Speaker 2: feel like they have no other recourse. That's why we
Speaker 2: talk about the emergency fund twenty four hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: seven dollars, the bare minimum. Oh, you got to hit
Speaker 2: that amounts. That's crucial to help you avoid needing to
Speaker 2: turn to one of these really crummy debt vehicles that
Speaker 2: could essentially bend you over a barrel for months or
Speaker 2: years to come.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so you know I love numbers, Joel. I
Speaker 1: love counching the numbers. And we've been saying the two
Speaker 1: four hundred and sixty seven dollars amount for a while.
Speaker 1: Are you obtaining it for inflation? We have to agree
Speaker 1: on this together. But doing a drum roll and a
Speaker 1: big reveal. I just let me just talk to the numbers,
Speaker 1: because the number numbers are fun. Raise your hand if
Speaker 1: you love math. Everybody numbers like Shakira's hips don't lie.
Speaker 1: So that Rep. Shakira, right, I don't know, I think so,
Speaker 1: But that was based on research based back in twenty nineteen. Okay,
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen is when we identified, oh, we need to
Speaker 1: start recommending to everyone to have four hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: seven dollars set aside. Guess what the the total inflation has,
Speaker 1: what it's been since twenty nineteen. It's a total of
Speaker 1: and he guesses, uh, I'm gonna go thirty two percent. Well,
Speaker 1: not quite that that high twenty three point four to
Speaker 1: five cent. So if you were to adjust two four
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty seven dollars, if you were to update
Speaker 1: that to take into account inflation since twenty nineteen, that
Speaker 1: means today the new money gear number one initial emergency
Speaker 1: fund should be three thousand and forty five dollars. Okay,
Speaker 1: three thousand forty five. What do you think? Does that
Speaker 1: have a good ring to it? It's is it as
Speaker 1: good as two thousand and four and sixty seven?
Speaker 2: It doesn't roll off the tongue as much, but we
Speaker 2: want to be accurate. Thirty forty five Yeah, okay, that
Speaker 2: sounds better. Yeah that okay, all right, so maybe we
Speaker 2: will update the site and start recommending for folks it's
Speaker 2: thirty forty five that because that's a significantly larger amount
Speaker 2: of money than I mean, this is solid more than
Speaker 2: five hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: So just something to keep in mind. Okay, we mentioned
Speaker 1: doge last week and the implications of DOGE on the
Speaker 1: federal workforce. President Trump he has floated the idea of
Speaker 1: sending a portion of the savings that Doge claws back
Speaker 1: to Americans in the form of a direct payment. And
Speaker 1: if you've read any articles on this, if you've seen
Speaker 1: this talked about, you've seen like a five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: number pretty early on. That kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: the early days of the stimu dollars. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: eyes get bigger, mouth starts watering a little bit. You
Speaker 1: start thinking you're gonna see a direct deposit in your account.
Speaker 2: Wait a second, how much am I getting? And you
Speaker 2: kind of start pre spending it before it even drops.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, because the precedent has been set. But the way
Speaker 1: it works is some of the savings from DOGE would
Speaker 1: help to pay down the federal debt, while twenty percent
Speaker 1: could evidently flow to individuals. Sounds nice, but we don't
Speaker 1: want folks to hold their breath. I think we are
Speaker 1: unlikely to get a check for five thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: the mailbox anytime soon. Oh yeah, I can't imagine what
Speaker 1: that would do to inflation. And it just does not
Speaker 1: seem very likely personally, right.
Speaker 2: No, it's it's one of those things where people are
Speaker 2: gonna see headlines, they're gonna be like, cool, where's my
Speaker 2: DOGE dividend, where's the check? When's it coming? And it's not.
Speaker 2: It's not coming. Like, it's highly unlikely.
Speaker 1: I just don't see to be the bearer of bad news, right, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: I just can't believe that they floated this idea, that
Speaker 1: they stuck it out there without I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: how the current administration works. They're just constantly throwing ideas
Speaker 1: out there. But when you know substance to back it up,
Speaker 1: when you put something out there like this that folks
Speaker 1: are like, that's something that they can wrap their heads around,
Speaker 1: that's incredibly tangible. They've seen what that felt like in
Speaker 1: the past, and if you don't deliver on that, folks
Speaker 1: are going to be pissed.
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's kind of like the student loan forgiveness thing,
Speaker 2: but I think this of this is actually being a
Speaker 2: little bit worse because the student loan forgiveness thing was
Speaker 2: they were attempting to do this and there might be
Speaker 2: a legal way to pull this off, but ultimately there
Speaker 2: were a lot of disappointed student loan borrowers at the
Speaker 2: end of the day because that promise didn't come to fulfillment.
Speaker 2: This is another one of those things where it's a
Speaker 2: promise that's not going to happen, and that's because five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars per household. Well that's the estimate based on
Speaker 2: DOGE cutting two trillion dollars in federal spending. There's zero
Speaker 2: sign that DOGE is going to find a way to
Speaker 2: slash government spending anywhere near that level. Not that there
Speaker 2: won't be some spending cuts around the margins that could
Speaker 2: shrink the size of government a bit, but as we
Speaker 2: said last week, entitlement programs would have to be significantly
Speaker 2: altered in order to realize savings of that magnitude. Those
Speaker 2: make up two thirds of the roughly seven trillion dollar budget,
Speaker 2: and there's just no political will to touch those programs
Speaker 2: in the slightest Like the President has basically said we
Speaker 2: aren't going to cut back in any way, form or
Speaker 2: fashion on those entitlement.
Speaker 1: Programs the campaign on that.
Speaker 2: So I think a five hundred dollars check, much less
Speaker 2: a five thousand dollars check, is a pipe dream. Just
Speaker 2: don't read that headline and assume that government money is
Speaker 2: heading your way soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally agree. Kind of it reminds me of like
Speaker 1: so they also mentioned possibly floating the idea of a
Speaker 1: gold card for folks who want to rich people from
Speaker 1: over the US citizens, which sounds ridiculous, Like that's how
Speaker 1: this the Doge dividends sound. It just kind of sounds ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Catches all the headlines the gold cards. It sounds like
Speaker 1: it's totally something Trump would do because it's gold, you know.
Speaker 1: But I will say, once you start realizing that other
Speaker 1: countries have incentives like this, it seems less ridiculous, Like
Speaker 1: it just seems like some sort of pipe dream, like, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's throw this up the wall and see what sticks.
Speaker 1: You just assume that everything that the current administration is
Speaker 1: doing is like completely ridiculous until you start seeing that, Oh,
Speaker 1: other countries also incentivize investment and high net worth individuals
Speaker 1: to move to their country for the good of the
Speaker 1: overall country.
Speaker 2: Gold card thing seems less ridiculous, less ridiculous, Yeah, totally,
Speaker 2: And it's you're incentivizing people to come to your country
Speaker 2: who are hopefully going to be productive citizens. Yeah, invest
Speaker 2: in the economy. But we'll see if it pants, will
Speaker 2: see if that pants out here. All right, that's gonna
Speaker 2: do it for this episode. We will post links to
Speaker 2: some of the stories that we mentioned in today's Friday
Speaker 2: Flight up on our website at Howtomoney dot com. Matt,
Speaker 2: it's gonna do it for this one. Until next time.
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,