Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we're discussing a t l en money lessons. Joel,
Speaker 1: So the four oh four, I feel like that might
Speaker 1: just be a Georgia thing, but everybody in Georgia, definitely,
Speaker 1: everybody in Atlanta knows at the four or four that's Atlanta.
Speaker 1: It's our area code, but it's I mean it's specific
Speaker 1: to like in town Atlanta, Like that's that's an area
Speaker 1: code that you can't get outside of the perimeter. And
Speaker 1: I feel like it's kind of like this badge of honor. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you have a four or four phone number, you've
Speaker 1: kind of got the bragging rights that you live in town.
Speaker 1: Sadly mine that what I was gonna ask, because I
Speaker 1: actually don't know your phone number because it's just saved
Speaker 1: on my phone, but I liked out scored a four
Speaker 1: or four number. I don't know, maybe like fourteen years
Speaker 1: ago something like that. But because this is episode four
Speaker 1: or four, we decided to have a little fun with
Speaker 1: us one have an Atlanta themed episode, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: kind of take a tour throughout Atlanta's history and our present,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna glean some different money lessons that we
Speaker 1: think we can take from those historical events things we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about and apply them to our lives, apply
Speaker 1: them to your lives. You're gonna learn some cool stuff
Speaker 1: about Atlanta in this episode hopefully that you're into, but
Speaker 1: also with that, you're gonna learn some cool stuff about
Speaker 1: money based on some of those Atlanta trivia, the nuggets
Speaker 1: that we're gonna throw out there. So absolutely, before we
Speaker 1: get to that, man, I wanted to clearly mention that,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked not too long ago, we had
Speaker 1: an episode about credit cards and just like some of
Speaker 1: the perks that you might be missing, and one of
Speaker 1: the things that we mentioned in that episode is that
Speaker 1: sometimes the way people spend on a credit card, it's
Speaker 1: a little there's a little bit less friction and um
Speaker 1: spending with cash, you you feel like you're parting with
Speaker 1: something valuable and so you put a little more meaning
Speaker 1: behind it. Well, we had a listener that reached out
Speaker 1: listener Josh, and he said, it's actually interesting that might
Speaker 1: be a generational divide that younger folks actually think of
Speaker 1: spending dollar bills as being free money, Like they think
Speaker 1: of that in a different way than to think of
Speaker 1: putting money on their credit card or paying with like
Speaker 1: Google pay or something like well, specifically because they've grown
Speaker 1: up not really interacting with physical cash. And I totally
Speaker 1: get that. He shared, like some TikTok videos that we're
Speaker 1: lightening of, just like some of the younger folks being like,
Speaker 1: all right, this doesn't cost me any money because I'm
Speaker 1: paying with green bags. Well, it also depends on how
Speaker 1: nerdy you are with it, right, because, like I totally
Speaker 1: I understand the sentiment. I understand that feeling of if
Speaker 1: you have, like I don't know, a five dollar bill
Speaker 1: or a twenty something laying around in a in a drawer, Uh,
Speaker 1: if you haven't accounted for that money, well I canna
Speaker 1: stick that my pocket, go out later on and buy
Speaker 1: some drinks. In that way, it kind of feels like
Speaker 1: a gift card. It's it was just sitting there. I
Speaker 1: wasn't using it for anything else. However, I think it
Speaker 1: does come down to how well you track your money,
Speaker 1: because in my household, there is no money just laying
Speaker 1: around because every dollar that has entered our house has
Speaker 1: come from somewhere and we've accounted for that. And so
Speaker 1: if we had taken some cash out for some odd reason,
Speaker 1: which we never do, but if we had, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a record of that. And so like in the moment,
Speaker 1: I totally understand that sentiment that it feels like it's free.
Speaker 1: And I guess if you're not keeping up with your
Speaker 1: money very closely, maybe yeah, it feels even more free
Speaker 1: because you haven't accounted for that. Well, I can say
Speaker 1: in my mind, it's like, no, that's just money that
Speaker 1: I've withdrawn at some prior point in time, or that's
Speaker 1: money that we've received as a gift that you know,
Speaker 1: I've accounted for with you know, on our spreadsheets. It's
Speaker 1: all been tracked, and so in my mind it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel free at all. Yeah. I mean I can see
Speaker 1: where he's coming from, though, because, like, you know, the
Speaker 1: other day, we sold something on Facebook yard sale and
Speaker 1: it was for a few hundred dollars, and we're like, well,
Speaker 1: what do we do with this money? Um, because that
Speaker 1: is kind of found money to a certain degree. You know. Granted,
Speaker 1: we're saving up to buy some new things to put
Speaker 1: in our house, and so we're kind of allocating it
Speaker 1: towards that, but once it's cash in a drawer, it's right, Like,
Speaker 1: I totally understand that mentality that cashion a drawer can
Speaker 1: take on a different psychological meaning, And I just kind
Speaker 1: of found that inter saying like that was a point
Speaker 1: counterpoint there where like it's not necessarily And one of
Speaker 1: the things that that actually Josh mentioned too was there's
Speaker 1: actually a lot of friction when it comes to him
Speaker 1: paying with the card because he has like three different
Speaker 1: types of alert set up. And so I thought that
Speaker 1: was a good recommendation too for folks who do find
Speaker 1: that they're spending on a credit card feels too easy
Speaker 1: and that they're overspending by doing so, Yeah, maybe set
Speaker 1: up multiple different alerts on your phone or like an
Speaker 1: email alert so that you kind of go in your
Speaker 1: inbox and you're like, dang it, yeah, that's right, I
Speaker 1: gotta log that, um, and so that it feels a
Speaker 1: little more tangible, a little more real. It's another way
Speaker 1: that it registers that you actually made that purchase, as
Speaker 1: opposed to because it's not more friction when you get
Speaker 1: a text, it's just another notification. It's just another voice saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you just spend some money. You feel it a little more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But what I would suggest to you though, regarding you said,
Speaker 1: you're selling some stuff and you're saving up to buy
Speaker 1: some some things once you'll get done with the home renovation.
Speaker 1: I assume maybe some furniture, some things like that. Maybe
Speaker 1: it like some rugs, rugs, definitely that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But I mean, if that was me, what I would do,
Speaker 1: I would take that money. And obviously cash is fungible.
Speaker 1: So let's say I got twohundred bucks sitting there, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that two hundred bucks, and I'm gonna say,
Speaker 1: withdrawal twounter bucks from our grocery budget for that month,
Speaker 1: and then use that cash to go to our our
Speaker 1: grocery budget. And that two deduction from our grocery budget
Speaker 1: then goes to a two addition to the furniture category
Speaker 1: or the furniture bucket, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: depending on how you do your finances. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I want to encourage folks the
Speaker 1: nickel and diming of money in that way. I feel
Speaker 1: it can be a way that you could see more
Speaker 1: money leave your possession without you realizing it. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so if you assign names to it, it's like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that money he has an assignments. You know, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: those dollars over there, those ladies, they're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: purchase us a new couch here pretty soon. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to know where that money is supposed to go,
Speaker 1: because if not, it'll leak like a sieve out of
Speaker 1: your life. I like that. All right, let's keep moving
Speaker 1: on that. Let's mention the beer that we're having on
Speaker 1: this episode. This one is called Siberius Maximus. It's the
Speaker 1: tenth anniversary brew by Wrecking Bar brew pub right down
Speaker 1: the street from us. Of course, this is an Atlanta
Speaker 1: themed episode. You had to have. Course, we had to
Speaker 1: have a delicious Atlanta beer in Atlanta brew absolutely, and
Speaker 1: this one in particular is a very special beer. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to sharing this one with you and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about it at the end of the show. Sounds good, man,
Speaker 1: looking forward to it. But let's get into this, Mat.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about a t L in money lessons um.
Speaker 1: By the way, a t aliens. If folks don't know outcast,
Speaker 1: you can look that up later. But that's why we
Speaker 1: named this one ten even if you should know that. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: and I think the interesting thing is Matt like we
Speaker 1: can all learn lessons in unintended places, right. I feel
Speaker 1: like there are always things around us, so we can
Speaker 1: learn if we just kind of open our eyes a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, for instance, like going through the depths
Speaker 1: of COVID insanity last year. You know, fall was even
Speaker 1: currently currently like our writing, you know, our third graders
Speaker 1: are home doing virtual learning because of positive delta variant
Speaker 1: cases at school. And I'm just like, we aren't out
Speaker 1: of the woods. I mean, we're still dealing with us
Speaker 1: even though we're fully vaccinated and we're ready to move
Speaker 1: on with life exactly. It's frustrating. But I remember distinctly
Speaker 1: last fall, when things were tough and pretty much everything
Speaker 1: had fallen off of my calendar. I was like, I
Speaker 1: got a lot more free time. And I remember those days,
Speaker 1: and uh, we didn't necessarily realize, or we wouldn't have
Speaker 1: said that we thought we needed more family time together.
Speaker 1: But as our normal rhythms kind of eroded away because
Speaker 1: of coronavirus, I think we quickly learned the lesson that
Speaker 1: actually we didn't need more time together, that it was
Speaker 1: a positive thing for our family. Um, But it was
Speaker 1: a lesson that we didn't know that we needed to learn.
Speaker 1: And I would say similarly, since we're on episode four
Speaker 1: or four, and since, like you said, that's the area
Speaker 1: code of our home city, today is the perfect time
Speaker 1: for us to talk about some money lessons that we
Speaker 1: associate with our hometown, kind of pull out some of
Speaker 1: those historical and cultural nuggets from you know, the coolest
Speaker 1: city in the South, let's be honest, Sorry, Birmingham take
Speaker 1: a back seat, or even Miami. Well, Miami is not
Speaker 1: the South, it's Florida. Yeah, that's a completely different beast.
Speaker 1: So Atlanta definitely the coolest city in the South. Different country.
Speaker 1: And there's some helpful stuff we're gonna talk about today
Speaker 1: that are all about the four or four Yeah. Actually,
Speaker 1: I don't even know if you can get four or
Speaker 1: four numbers anymore. I think they ran actually ran out,
Speaker 1: I think so. I think that's why I had to
Speaker 1: settle for six, seven, eight years and years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Uh, you know, this kind of actually makes
Speaker 1: me think back to when I first went off to
Speaker 1: be a summer camp counselor during my summers off in college.
Speaker 1: You kind of mentioned learning lessons and unintended places, and
Speaker 1: so one of the main reasons I went off to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, work as a camp counselor at a boys adventure,
Speaker 1: you know, summer camp. First of all, my buddy Jeff
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, you need to go work there because
Speaker 1: it'll be a lot of fun. And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, that sounds like I'm down with that. And
Speaker 1: also to to make a little bit of money, a
Speaker 1: very small small amount of money. Camp counselors aren't rolling
Speaker 1: in the down absolutely not. But one of the other
Speaker 1: lessons I absolutely learned, and it just stood out to
Speaker 1: me how much of this I was doing was the
Speaker 1: ability to learn how to teach and connect with kids.
Speaker 1: Up until that point, I hadn't really worked much with youth.
Speaker 1: I mean, I grant I was in college at that point,
Speaker 1: barely even in college as well, so I wasn't all
Speaker 1: that old myself. But even still working with you know,
Speaker 1: six to sixteen year old boys specifically and being outside
Speaker 1: and hiking and teaching them how to survive, if you know,
Speaker 1: when you go camping and different things like that, not
Speaker 1: only was I learning a ton about the outdoors, but
Speaker 1: I was learning how to communicate, how to teach children,
Speaker 1: how to work with kids, And that wasn't something that
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to learn. I remember at
Speaker 1: the time writing at one point saying, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I'm ready to have kids. I'm like twenty two
Speaker 1: years old or something like that, and I think I
Speaker 1: remember my dad's less daunting to you after after that, man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And obviously that was a very juvenile statement. It's a state. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot more that goes into raising kids than
Speaker 1: just being able to entertain them, you know, for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks over the summer. But this is again
Speaker 1: what we're gonna be doing today, and we're gonna discuss
Speaker 1: some of these different personal finance lessons. Uh. And they're
Speaker 1: gonna come to us in these historical events. They're gonna
Speaker 1: come packaged in history, but they're certainly applicable to our
Speaker 1: personal finances. We definitely do love our city and you'll
Speaker 1: hear why during this episode, but you also learn some
Speaker 1: important financial lessons. Yeah. So all right, let's get to
Speaker 1: one of the most famous historic things it's ever happened
Speaker 1: to our city, and that was in eighteen sixty four
Speaker 1: when General Sherman. Let's start Atlanta to the ground. Let's
Speaker 1: start at the beginning. It's it's started like one of
Speaker 1: the most saddest moments in Atlanta history. Right, more than
Speaker 1: like three thousand buildings were destroyed when that happened. And
Speaker 1: this was only General Sherman's first destructive stop as he
Speaker 1: began his famous March to the sea, right, and that
Speaker 1: led him and his troops all the way to Savannah,
Speaker 1: which is like three and a half hour drive from here.
Speaker 1: So that's a long march, right. But this awful event
Speaker 1: for anyone living near the destruction really actually kind of
Speaker 1: led to a renaissance of sorts in Atlanta is actually
Speaker 1: like forever kind of tied to the bird, the Phoenix.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like uficial mascot. Yeah, it's like on
Speaker 1: all of the government buildings, like it's on the letter
Speaker 1: head all that kind of Yeah. And and and that's really
Speaker 1: because like our city rose from the ashes after this
Speaker 1: burning to rebuild um and to retain relevance in our country.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, the first a T L Financial leson
Speaker 1: that we're gonna cover today is that no matter how
Speaker 1: bad the devastation is, you can always recover, just like
Speaker 1: it landed did in the d That's true. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: never so bad that you can't find a way to rebuild.
Speaker 1: Another takeaway from this defining historic moment is that being
Speaker 1: properly insured it's crucial. We talked in depth about insurance
Speaker 1: products that folks should really consider getting back an episode
Speaker 1: two thirty three will link to that in our show notes.
Speaker 1: But not having the right kind of insurance when terrible
Speaker 1: things happen, when the disastrous strikes, can turn a hardship
Speaker 1: into tragedy. And so whether that's having just the proper
Speaker 1: health coverage and getting life insurance or making sure that
Speaker 1: you've got renters insurance if you don't own the place
Speaker 1: where you're living. So again, we want to encourage folks
Speaker 1: that you can always rebuild. And sometimes, man, I think
Speaker 1: when you find yourself in a massive hole of debt
Speaker 1: and it only seems like you're digging yourself deeper and
Speaker 1: deeper sometimes, and we don't talk about this often, but
Speaker 1: sometimes bankruptcy could be the best path moving forward. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it takes essentially burning your financial world down to the
Speaker 1: ground in order to to kind of start fresh and
Speaker 1: move forward. And so again that's that's something we often
Speaker 1: talk about. But given your circumstances, that might be the
Speaker 1: right option for you. Again, before you just pull the
Speaker 1: trigger on that you're gonna want to talk to a
Speaker 1: not for profit debt counselor you know, we we've talked
Speaker 1: to people that work for like the National Foundation for
Speaker 1: Credit Counseling or Money Management International on on the show before.
Speaker 1: We'll link to those in the show notes. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like get some counseling. And in fact, Matt, like, my
Speaker 1: parents declared bankruptcy when I was a kid, and their
Speaker 1: financial situation is great now, and like that was an
Speaker 1: almost traumatizing experience, Like that was a really difficult time
Speaker 1: in our family's life. But it just goes to show
Speaker 1: that no matter you know, how bad things are, you
Speaker 1: can rebuild. Um. So I think that is an important lesson.
Speaker 1: Let's get to another just exactly and now we're kicking butt,
Speaker 1: uh and so let's get to you. Yeah, just another
Speaker 1: another money lesson from the A t. L is And
Speaker 1: this one is time is valuable. Right. The commute times
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta are notoriously terrible. There some of the
Speaker 1: worst in the country. We actually rank sixth in the
Speaker 1: worst commutes around the country, and the average commute time
Speaker 1: is about thirty two minutes. You know, most people don't
Speaker 1: factor that god awful commute into their decision making, or
Speaker 1: at least not nearly as much as they should. Right,
Speaker 1: And we're not just talking about the cost of commuting.
Speaker 1: The car, the gas, the insurance, like, those are all
Speaker 1: factors that you need to take into account, especially if
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, I'll take that higher paying job that
Speaker 1: is going to involve an extra thirty minute commute. It's
Speaker 1: gonna involve you know, more aware and tear on my car,
Speaker 1: more gas. Uh. Well, we'd obviously love for you to
Speaker 1: find cheaper ways to commute, but the biggest thing actually
Speaker 1: worth considering is how much time that commuting rips out
Speaker 1: of your life. So yeah, that's the one lesson we
Speaker 1: can learn from looking around at our city. So many
Speaker 1: people stuck in their cars, and it turns out that
Speaker 1: many of them are wasting the most precious resource. It's
Speaker 1: not money, it's their their time that they're spending stuck
Speaker 1: in the car more than they should be. Let's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oftentimes folks will say time is money, and in some
Speaker 1: cases that's true, but actually time is more valuable than
Speaker 1: money because you can always earn more money down the road,
Speaker 1: but time in once those minutes, once those hours are gone,
Speaker 1: you cannot get those back, And so we want folks
Speaker 1: to consider more than just how much house they can afford, right,
Speaker 1: and so like we're talking about like picturing somebody who's
Speaker 1: thinking about purchasing a home out in the burbs, because
Speaker 1: you know, the further you move out of the major city,
Speaker 1: oftentimes the more prices will drop per square foot on average.
Speaker 1: So you can get a really big house in the
Speaker 1: excerpts of Atlanta, for you know, the price of a
Speaker 1: much smaller home that would keep you closer to your job.
Speaker 1: But do this first, consider the amount of time that
Speaker 1: you spend in a vehicle getting to and front work
Speaker 1: and jump man not just work too, but to and
Speaker 1: from friends, uh, like the store, you'd go to other
Speaker 1: places that you like to visit. You might find that
Speaker 1: there is a serious amount of time that's gonna come
Speaker 1: out of your life that you're gonna spend in the car.
Speaker 1: So we would encourage folks to strive to live in
Speaker 1: a place where you're not going to be stuck in
Speaker 1: heaps of traffic every day. Give meets a really stressful
Speaker 1: and they can take a toll on your mental health,
Speaker 1: you know. Or here's another alternative. At least consider car pooling.
Speaker 1: That might be a way that you can reclaim some time.
Speaker 1: If you're wapping with somebody taking over the duties of
Speaker 1: driving to work every day, oh they're driving, you can
Speaker 1: be working or at least, you know, reading a book
Speaker 1: being somewhat productive, popping the headphones, close your eyes and
Speaker 1: listen to a podcast. Uh. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: folks do. They might have no commune at the moment,
Speaker 1: because if you are working from home, uh. And if so,
Speaker 1: then that's great. But to anyone who is starting to
Speaker 1: commute back to their job, look for a way to
Speaker 1: pursue full time working from home or to get closer
Speaker 1: to your job. So I think another takeaway when it
Speaker 1: comes to thinking about traffic here in Atlanta too, is
Speaker 1: just the hidden costs of everything. This is sort of
Speaker 1: a topic we've touched on before, but everything every action
Speaker 1: we take, whether it be an expense or something we
Speaker 1: choose to do, oftentimes they're hidden costs associated with them.
Speaker 1: And not only are there hard monetary costs, but it
Speaker 1: can be a drain on your time as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt. And yeah, I think one other thing when
Speaker 1: we're talking about traffic. The solution that we've always looked
Speaker 1: to in Atlanta and sadly so is you just pour
Speaker 1: more asphalt right to create more lanes of traffic. And
Speaker 1: it's interesting, like when you look at studies, adding more
Speaker 1: lanes doesn't actually really ever fix the problem. Um and
Speaker 1: at best it's an incredibly short term solution. Well, what
Speaker 1: it does it encourages more people to I mean the
Speaker 1: study showing that more. Like you put another lane down
Speaker 1: and uh, people like, yeah, all right, I'm gonna drive
Speaker 1: some more. The amount of cars that take that route increases. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, quickly we're back to the same problem
Speaker 1: that we had before, which is just clogged roadways. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the belt line is actually the hottest word associated with
Speaker 1: Atlanta right now. It's changing the face of our city
Speaker 1: and it's it's really doing so really quickly. It's this
Speaker 1: glorified giant sidewalk that's making basically connecting all of in
Speaker 1: town Atlanta, and it's making it just so much easier
Speaker 1: to commute in an alternative way if if you live
Speaker 1: and work in town. So that's one of those things
Speaker 1: where it sometimes it takes a creative solution instead of
Speaker 1: the obvious one. It takes thinking outside of the box.
Speaker 1: And not just doing what we've always done. And I
Speaker 1: think when it comes to our finances, sometimes we just
Speaker 1: keep repeating, we keep making the same mistakes over and
Speaker 1: over again, we keep doing things the way we've always
Speaker 1: done them, and instead maybe it's time to try something different. Um.
Speaker 1: And Yeah, for instance, when it comes to Atlanta at
Speaker 1: the belt Line, I've seen so many more bite commuters
Speaker 1: in our town because of it. Like, it really is
Speaker 1: making a big difference in how people feel about living
Speaker 1: in the city and how people are able to navigate it.
Speaker 1: So I think it's important to note that sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes thinking just a little bit differently in order to
Speaker 1: get the most beneficial results. Yeah, and so like it
Speaker 1: makes me think of expenses, right, and so if you're thinking,
Speaker 1: all right, I gotta cut my expenses, you can. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can tighten the belt and try to reduce the
Speaker 1: amount that you're spending out at the grocery store every month.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've set that budget amount to an unrealistic number,
Speaker 1: because in the end, you still have to go and
Speaker 1: buy groceries because you have to eat in order to survive. Right,
Speaker 1: But maybe a more effective creative solution would be to
Speaker 1: get a roommate, Like, that's not something that I think.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes people think, Okay, this is a way I can
Speaker 1: cut my expenses, but that is a way to effectively
Speaker 1: reduce the amount of money that you're spending every single month,
Speaker 1: or even like, when it comes to earning more money,
Speaker 1: it makes me think about somebody who's like, Okay, maybe
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work a little bit overtime, I'm on clock
Speaker 1: some more hours, when instead, I think the more creative
Speaker 1: solution that could lead to better results would be entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: Think through what it is that really gets you excited
Speaker 1: if you are in a job that you don't necessarily love.
Speaker 1: Instead of continuing just to work a little bit longer
Speaker 1: or working harder at your current nine to five, look
Speaker 1: at some of these other ways that you can generate
Speaker 1: some income. Yeah, it's amazing how sometimes just a simple
Speaker 1: shift in mindset can really change our outlook on the problem,
Speaker 1: and a little bit of creativity thrown into your personal
Speaker 1: finances can go a long way. That's right. Well, We've
Speaker 1: got yeah, some more tips to get to based on
Speaker 1: our favorite city, our hometown. They we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter. We're gonna talk about the braves. All of
Speaker 1: our I feel like all of our favorite tips are
Speaker 1: later in the episode. Yeah, alright, so we get to
Speaker 1: all those right after this. Alright, we're back and we're
Speaker 1: talking about different A t Alien money lessons that we
Speaker 1: can learn from our city and Joe. You know, compared
Speaker 1: to a lot of other large metropolitan cities across the country,
Speaker 1: Atlanta is surprisingly affordable for what it has to offer.
Speaker 1: We've got sixteen fortunate five foundry companies based here. I
Speaker 1: didn't know if you knew that, a little little braggadocious
Speaker 1: big business. Which which one is the top earning? My
Speaker 1: guest is home DEEPO, But I'm not sure it's got
Speaker 1: to be. It's probably not Coke. I mean, Coke's huge,
Speaker 1: but I don't think they're making as much money as
Speaker 1: from deepots been crushing. It's probably not doubts either, because
Speaker 1: they're I feel like they've been hurting. I feel like
Speaker 1: airlines have slim margins regardless. The cost of living in
Speaker 1: Atlanta is roughly lower than it is in New York City,
Speaker 1: in fifteen percent less than it is in Chicago. But
Speaker 1: even still, opportunity abounds here in the A t L.
Speaker 1: The best opportunities aren't always in the biggest cities like
Speaker 1: San Francisco and New York City. And plus there are
Speaker 1: the added difficulties of moving to a high cost of
Speaker 1: living area. Even by earning more, you might still be
Speaker 1: getting like the short end of the stick, basically compared
Speaker 1: to the lifestyle that you could afford in other parts
Speaker 1: of the country in a in a lower cost of
Speaker 1: living area with the more reasonable salary. Yeah. Man, I
Speaker 1: remember talking to somebody recently and they moved to l
Speaker 1: a um for they got a substantial race to move
Speaker 1: out there. But I was like, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was just thinking to myself, when it comes to the
Speaker 1: cost of living out there, my guess is he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to up his lifestyle very much at all.
Speaker 1: Like he's really, uh, he's making more of a lateral
Speaker 1: move in terms of like income to expense ratio um.
Speaker 1: And so it is important to think about that. Atlanta
Speaker 1: is one of those places where there's a ton of opportunity,
Speaker 1: but the costs are lower. Like you said, so you
Speaker 1: get a lot of bang for your back here and
Speaker 1: then yeah, you do, you do? And so yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I feel like, uh, part of the reason for
Speaker 1: this episode is to convince our listeners to move to
Speaker 1: Atlanta because it's that wonderful and it's going to save
Speaker 1: you money. But anually close to us exactly, Yeah, we
Speaker 1: can hang out whatever you want to go get beers
Speaker 1: and yeah, I think the other lesson from this too
Speaker 1: is to not just go with the name brand. Right.
Speaker 1: I think people just assume that the highest paying jobs,
Speaker 1: the best quality of life is going to be found
Speaker 1: in some of the you know, top five cities in
Speaker 1: the US. But yeah, when we're talking about something on
Speaker 1: a smaller scale, take a little deeper, right, Is it
Speaker 1: the name brand always the right move? I mean, sometimes
Speaker 1: it is clearly better, or there's a better warranty associated
Speaker 1: with it, um or it's just more long lasting, like
Speaker 1: when if you buy that product, you're gonna use it
Speaker 1: for ten years as opposed to but yeah, will the
Speaker 1: store brain equivalent suffice instead? Will you know a cheaper
Speaker 1: alternative be better for you? Um? I think yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. That's how I think about that. It's not
Speaker 1: always the most expensive thing. That is, you know, the
Speaker 1: right move, and so doing your research, doing your due
Speaker 1: diligence can help you potentially save money by buying a
Speaker 1: product that that's actually better for you the cost less. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it comes to diapers, Atlanta as Aldi in New
Speaker 1: York City is Huggies. We talked easily about just the
Speaker 1: rising price of diapers, and I mean Aldi is one
Speaker 1: of those low cost stores. I mean, anybody listening to
Speaker 1: the show for any length of time know that you
Speaker 1: and I we love Aldi, we love Legle, we love Costco,
Speaker 1: and we have the opportunity to buy diapers that are
Speaker 1: sometimes half the cost of what some the name brand
Speaker 1: competitors are are going for. And so when you're able
Speaker 1: to get the job done, but you're able to spend
Speaker 1: a lot less money, we would definitely recommend for folks
Speaker 1: to do that instead. And what an important job those
Speaker 1: diapers are doing. Matt, let's talk about how Atlanta, how
Speaker 1: it's this giant melting pot. Man diversity is almost like
Speaker 1: Atlanta's calling card, I feel like, and it provides a
Speaker 1: lot of incredibly beautiful things to enjoy around the city.
Speaker 1: Uh Like, I'm thinking about the art, the food. Both
Speaker 1: of those scenes are incredible here. The music scene runs
Speaker 1: the gamut to whatever kind of music you're into. There's
Speaker 1: like a club or a place for you to go
Speaker 1: check that stuff out. There's like my favorite blues joint
Speaker 1: is like just off Northside Dry But then there's like
Speaker 1: all sorts of other kinds of interesting tunes that have
Speaker 1: come out of Atlanta, specifically Northside Tavern. Is it still running?
Speaker 1: I hope so I been there a while. Uh so
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of food there too. Like one of the
Speaker 1: best diverse spots in Atlanta when it comes to food
Speaker 1: is Buford Highway. It's been called like one of the
Speaker 1: most diverse stretches of road in the US. Tons like
Speaker 1: I want to say, like thousands of immigrant owned businesses there. Uh,
Speaker 1: and whatever type of food that you're into, you are
Speaker 1: bound to find just a great representation of that style,
Speaker 1: uh somewhere kind of on that six mile stretch of
Speaker 1: Bufford Highway. Yeah, that is one of my favorite parts
Speaker 1: of the city to go to. And I think it
Speaker 1: just really what it goes to show is that diversity rocks.
Speaker 1: And it's really really nice to be in a city
Speaker 1: where you can experience a whole bunch of different like
Speaker 1: cultures in particular a whole bunch of different styles of cuisine.
Speaker 1: But how does this have to do with our money? Joel, Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the question, right, So what we'll find a way
Speaker 1: to tien when it comes to your money, this slammeddug
Speaker 1: diversity find you're holdings is crucial for long term success, right.
Speaker 1: So we love diversification just in our town and what
Speaker 1: that brings, the flavor that brings to our lives. But
Speaker 1: when you're talking about your investments, you know, putting all
Speaker 1: your eggs in one basket is ill advised, right, And
Speaker 1: and it could lead to a lot of success, like
Speaker 1: by starting the right business and and throwing everything behind it.
Speaker 1: But for most folks, there's just too great of a
Speaker 1: risk that you could crush the next you're trying to
Speaker 1: build for the future if you're not diversified enough. And
Speaker 1: so that's why Matt, you and I were fans of
Speaker 1: target date funds and index funds of course. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't have to have money in fifteen different funds
Speaker 1: to be quote unquote diversified. I think sometimes people think
Speaker 1: that they feel like they need to, you know, pick
Speaker 1: a bunch of different funds and pick a bunch of
Speaker 1: individual stocks in order to be widely diversified. But that's
Speaker 1: not the case. Sometimes one or two single funds can
Speaker 1: do the trick. Plus that complexity, like trying to invest
Speaker 1: in too many different ways, can have other negative effects.
Speaker 1: But diversifying in a simple manner really does ensure that
Speaker 1: you build wealth for the long haul, slowly and steadily,
Speaker 1: instead of hoping that like a big bet on just
Speaker 1: a few companies is going to pay off in a
Speaker 1: big way. Because if you do that, uh, there's too
Speaker 1: good of a chance that you know, you see negative
Speaker 1: returns or that you blow up your money that you're
Speaker 1: saving for you know, years from now. That's right, So
Speaker 1: let's keep the diversity diversification train rolling here. We've got
Speaker 1: to talk about Donald Glover's excellent an f X show
Speaker 1: Atlanta for a second. If you haven't went went when
Speaker 1: season three coming out ready, I've heard, I'm not totally sure,
Speaker 1: but like, if folks haven't seen it, we'd recommend for
Speaker 1: folks to go back and check it out. Super weird, quirky,
Speaker 1: but very entertaining. But what financial lesson can we learn
Speaker 1: from from that TV show? Well, Donald Glover, he's I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a comedian, he's a creator of Atlanta, He's got
Speaker 1: multiple streams of income. He's also a talented rapper. Uh
Speaker 1: he goes by a childish Gambino. Most of us will
Speaker 1: never produce a Grammy winning album or an Emmy winning
Speaker 1: TV show. Does he have a tony as well? But
Speaker 1: he's like pretty close to like getting an egot. That
Speaker 1: may not be in our future, but we can all
Speaker 1: work towards the future where we aren't wholly dependent on
Speaker 1: a single paycheck from from an employer. Investing slowly in
Speaker 1: a diversified portfolio is you know, the most basic way
Speaker 1: of doing that, but also starting a side hustle that
Speaker 1: can be another way to diversify your income as well.
Speaker 1: I just love how much diversification Donald Glover has when
Speaker 1: it comes to all the different things he's got going
Speaker 1: on in the Oven. He's getting those royalties from being
Speaker 1: on Community, I'm sure, and like he's getting royalties from
Speaker 1: Atlanta and he's producing another season in that and he's like,
Speaker 1: can royalties from the rap album? I mean, he's he's
Speaker 1: got that passive income on Lockdown and uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, plus the royal tis he receives from the
Speaker 1: show within the show, Troy and Abbitt in the Morning.
Speaker 1: I think that was a separate deal that he ainked.
Speaker 1: I bet he did. Man, if he's a smart dude,
Speaker 1: he probably did. But yeah, those are really everything he's
Speaker 1: created I'm a fan of. And and he's just like
Speaker 1: he's multifasted, right, He's been a director, producer, actor, singer,
Speaker 1: and he's done more than that too, right, And and
Speaker 1: all of those skills are connected, but he's been able
Speaker 1: to use them in different ways. And especially Matt, in
Speaker 1: our current economy, right, it's crucial to be able to
Speaker 1: find ways to translate your skills into effective work within
Speaker 1: another company or even a different industry, especially we're talking
Speaker 1: about people wanting to quit their jobs in huge numbers.
Speaker 1: You know, we actually talked about that some on Monday
Speaker 1: with Ashley Stalled. But don't pigeonhole yourself. Put less of
Speaker 1: an emphasis on the jobs you've done and more of
Speaker 1: an emphasis on the skills that you've acquired, and then
Speaker 1: make sure that you accentuate and highlight those. That is
Speaker 1: going to be your ticket to career success and to
Speaker 1: be able to continue to move up in your career
Speaker 1: and make more money and do work that you love.
Speaker 1: And I do think that. Yeah, the example of Donald
Speaker 1: Glover and how prolific he's been really just points to
Speaker 1: that fact. All right, Yeah, so we've talked about diversification,
Speaker 1: we talked about the affordability lessons that Atlantic can teach
Speaker 1: us bouncing back after some financial storms. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter. Now, uh, he is the only president ever
Speaker 1: to have come out of the state of Georgia. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Jimmy Carter, he he didn't even come
Speaker 1: from Atlanta, he didn't come from the capitol. He grew
Speaker 1: up in a rural part of the state Plains Georgia.
Speaker 1: His parents owned a peanut farm. That's why his nickname
Speaker 1: was peanut Farmer. But Jimmy Carter is an incredibly humble, generous,
Speaker 1: and philanthropic Georgian. He doesn't, you know, seek out the limelight. Instead,
Speaker 1: he he lets his actions do the talking. It's just
Speaker 1: so obvious to anyone who who watches his example what
Speaker 1: he's dands for so small example. He he still teaches
Speaker 1: Sunday school at the church there and plaines Georgia at
Speaker 1: the age of nineties six years old. That's insane, It's impressive.
Speaker 1: My grandma actually went like a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: You can do that. I had to go down there
Speaker 1: and like sit at Sunday School, like all Jimmy Carter
Speaker 1: was teaching and what an incredible thing. But he's also
Speaker 1: been actively involved with building houses with Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 1: And he doesn't just write a check, you know, like
Speaker 1: one of those big checks like public house, uh or
Speaker 1: just you know, just to show up for the photo
Speaker 1: op kind of thing. He's actually there. He's swinging a hammer.
Speaker 1: You've got the Carter Center that he helped found here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Like with Emery, He's just an incredibly generous person,
Speaker 1: not only with his time but also with his money.
Speaker 1: So to take away from the example that President Carter sets, like,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's one of George's claims to fame
Speaker 1: is is having had him as a president and just
Speaker 1: the kind of man he is, more than even what
Speaker 1: he did as a president. Because yeah, I mean that's
Speaker 1: really up for debate, you know, politically depending on where
Speaker 1: you sigh politically, um, whether he did a good job
Speaker 1: or not. But yeah, the thing that it made me think, Matt,
Speaker 1: is are we putting our money where our mouth is?
Speaker 1: Like do we spend money on the things that we
Speaker 1: value or are we consuming and spending without giving it
Speaker 1: much thought? And do we give to organizations that are
Speaker 1: doing effective work on causes that we care about. Two
Speaker 1: are we using our time and our energy to be
Speaker 1: a positive influence where we live? Like it brought up
Speaker 1: all these questions for me because I'm like, that's what
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter is doing. I want to be doing that too,
Speaker 1: and I think that's a good way to live. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked about giving money away in episode two eighty one.
Speaker 1: Check that out if you haven't, But yeah, we really
Speaker 1: do believe that being more charitable makes you richer in
Speaker 1: you know, and not in the financial sense because you're
Speaker 1: giving away money, but in the holistic life sense. Um.
Speaker 1: And also, if you say that something is important to you,
Speaker 1: make sure that you aren't waiting until some distant future
Speaker 1: date to participate. You know, you're not promised tomorrow. Life
Speaker 1: isn't guaranteed, and so even if you're only able to
Speaker 1: engage in a small way, make sure that you're at
Speaker 1: least engaging. Because Yeah, there is such a power when
Speaker 1: it comes to aligning our beliefs in our actions, because
Speaker 1: sometimes we say we believe something, but we don't act
Speaker 1: it out, and we feel that misalignment inside, like you know,
Speaker 1: and we want to find a way more and more
Speaker 1: in our lives where what we say and what we
Speaker 1: do lines up. And I feel like Jimmy Carter, I
Speaker 1: could not come up with a better example of a
Speaker 1: person that does that well. One of the things you
Speaker 1: mentioned too, is that, like, you're not going to financially
Speaker 1: get richer by giving money away. However, if you do
Speaker 1: give money to charity, you do get a tax break.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily gonna make you richer, but it is
Speaker 1: something to keep in mind. We're actually gonna talk more
Speaker 1: about tax breaks. We're gonna talk about entrepreneurship, We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about sports. We'll get to all of those topics
Speaker 1: and how they have to do with Atlanta. Right after
Speaker 1: this break, we're gonna keep going. On today's episode, we're
Speaker 1: talking about a t L in Money Lessons a t
Speaker 1: L and obviously that old school outcast reference. But Matt,
Speaker 1: we just talked about Jimmy Carter, one of the most
Speaker 1: famous Georgians, the opposite of outcasts. Maybe I don't know,
Speaker 1: they've got some similarities on them. Yeah, I'm sure they do.
Speaker 1: But um yeah, probably the the other most famous person
Speaker 1: and arguably the more famous person from I mean, and yeah,
Speaker 1: just really probably is more famous person is Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King Jr. Right, Um, And anybody who's from Atlanta takes
Speaker 1: a lot of pride in the fact that Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King Jr. Was born here in Atlanta. Right that his uh,
Speaker 1: that his legacy really is is so tied to the city. Um.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure that you can boil MLK down
Speaker 1: to like a single word, like, but if I was
Speaker 1: going to, I think the word I would ascribe to
Speaker 1: him is leader. And his oratory skills were certainly a
Speaker 1: part of that, right, Like some of his speeches and
Speaker 1: his writing were profound on many levels, and they remain
Speaker 1: relevant for informing how we think about racial justice to
Speaker 1: this day. I mean, documents that were written sixty years
Speaker 1: ago are are still ones that we look to and
Speaker 1: are informed by, Like the Letter from Birmingham Jail. If
Speaker 1: you haven't read it, it's like one of the most
Speaker 1: powerful documents. And the fact that he partially wrote it
Speaker 1: on toilet paper is just like inspiring, Like someone snuck
Speaker 1: him a pencil and he wrote it on whatever he
Speaker 1: had available to him. And really he also just had
Speaker 1: this ability to inform and drive a movement, his organization
Speaker 1: of peaceful protests, giving power to seemingly powerless folks, and
Speaker 1: then his unwillingness to settle for you know, lesser measures,
Speaker 1: lesser solutions from people in power. It really was this
Speaker 1: catalyst for change that needed to happen in the civil
Speaker 1: rights movement. It just wouldn't have been the same without
Speaker 1: ultimately without his leadership kind of at the heart of it, right.
Speaker 1: And so when it comes to your money, there aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily clear cut like we're not going to say that
Speaker 1: there's a parallel, like a direct parallel here from the
Speaker 1: amazing things that Martin Luther King Jr. Did uh and
Speaker 1: what I can do with like my monthly budget. Basically
Speaker 1: we're drawing faint parallels here Today's that was the direct correlations.
Speaker 1: There was much more that he was able to do
Speaker 1: with his life. But even still, when it comes to
Speaker 1: your money, we want to encourage folks to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're not following everyone else and what it is
Speaker 1: that they're doing with their money. I think being a
Speaker 1: leader means that, you know, it means not following the Joneses, uh,
Speaker 1: and it means to intentionally choose to live life on
Speaker 1: your own terms rather than what society, culture, advertising, what
Speaker 1: all of that has prescribed for us. And so for
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. And men believing in pursuing something
Speaker 1: that seemed almost impossible. Uh. And if we spend money
Speaker 1: like everyone else, we're likely bound to a future that
Speaker 1: doesn't include any sort of financial independence or any financial
Speaker 1: freedom at any date. So taking the other path that
Speaker 1: includes intentional spending, you know, on on what matters to you,
Speaker 1: despite what others are doing. Uh, and saving more than
Speaker 1: you spend because of the future freedom that that it
Speaker 1: will provide. Like, that is the route to take. It's countercultural, butts,
Speaker 1: if you have that leader mindset, you're gonna be willing
Speaker 1: to go against the grain in this case, Yeah, believing
Speaker 1: in a cause and hopefully you know, obviously the cause
Speaker 1: of civil rights far more important than the cause of
Speaker 1: your individual financial independence. But if you believe in that cause,
Speaker 1: that financial independence for you is important. It will help
Speaker 1: inform your actions, it will provide the why behind what
Speaker 1: you're doing, behind some of those cuts that you're going
Speaker 1: to feel in your budget. And yeah, it's it might
Speaker 1: also take more than just intentional spending too, right there
Speaker 1: there might be times when you're gonna have to make
Speaker 1: sacrifice and make trade offs in order to achieve some
Speaker 1: of those personal finance goals that you have. As we
Speaker 1: look at historical events in the rear view mirror, it
Speaker 1: can be easy to remove a lot of the pain
Speaker 1: and the emotion from some of the moments that happened.
Speaker 1: Um And it can make it look easy or inevitable,
Speaker 1: but like it's it's kind of like, I mean, especially
Speaker 1: when things are everything is in black and white, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like like when you look back on history,
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, that doesn't seem really like all that real.
Speaker 1: It's been documented, but like you don't feel it personally
Speaker 1: unless you have some sort of personal tie to some
Speaker 1: of these different historical events. We can like sterilize history
Speaker 1: in a way, um, by by not remembering the depths
Speaker 1: of difficulty that it took to achieve what's been achieved.
Speaker 1: And yeah, marching and protesting for for civil rights sixty
Speaker 1: years ago involved a whole lot of real actual sacrifice,
Speaker 1: like people's homes were bombed, people were hurt and killed,
Speaker 1: and you know, Martin Luther King Jr. Was ultimately assassinated.
Speaker 1: And so again we're not trying to say that staying
Speaker 1: under your budget in your eating out category is equivalent
Speaker 1: to like the selmal March or anything like that. But
Speaker 1: we are trying to point out that it takes action
Speaker 1: on our part to see change actually take place. Wishing
Speaker 1: or hoping isn't enough. That is one of those things.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people they're like, man, it
Speaker 1: would be great if I was able to make just
Speaker 1: a couple of small tweaks and get where I wanted
Speaker 1: to go, But to get some more meaningful oftentimes it
Speaker 1: takes more than that. Yeah, you know, you definitely have
Speaker 1: to put into action the things that you want to
Speaker 1: see done. Uh, And it's definitely helpful when you have
Speaker 1: UH when you're taking a leadership meant reality And Joe
Speaker 1: I I teased that some of the different tax breaks
Speaker 1: and the lessons that we can learn from Georgia when
Speaker 1: it comes to taxes, and Yeah, one of the other
Speaker 1: things that Georgia has in spades is film industry credits.
Speaker 1: Different movie companies they've taken advantage of some sweet tax
Speaker 1: incent of the State of Georgia is offering. Most production
Speaker 1: companies that do work in the State of Georgia receive
Speaker 1: a twenty percent tax break, and then there's this additional
Speaker 1: ten percent tax credit if they include a promotional Georgia
Speaker 1: logo at the end of the film as well. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine does anybody say, I'll take but I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna put that logo at the end of the film.
Speaker 1: It's a no writer man or even just like the
Speaker 1: different TV shows. I mean, that's why all the different
Speaker 1: you know, Marvel series, like the credit real at the
Speaker 1: end is so long, uh, and so if you're kind
Speaker 1: of looking for the little post credit scene, you you
Speaker 1: have to kind of scroll through all of that and
Speaker 1: you always look for the Georgia peach because it's always
Speaker 1: near the end. It's no wonder that you know, like
Speaker 1: Atlanta specifically is becoming the Hollywood of the South. They're
Speaker 1: calling it Yllywood because of the amount of film production
Speaker 1: that's taking place in our city. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: a decent chunk of all of our money goes towards
Speaker 1: taxes each right, So it's really important for all of
Speaker 1: us to work to minimize that as much as we can.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we think of that as a fixed
Speaker 1: cost or something that we don't really have much control over.
Speaker 1: But that's not really true right in our tax breaks
Speaker 1: that we can take advantage of as individuals. It's not
Speaker 1: just for like fancy movie studios to be able to
Speaker 1: get the biggest tax credits. Um there are things available
Speaker 1: to us as individuals. So by investing more of your
Speaker 1: money in tax advantage accounts like a traditional IRA or
Speaker 1: a four own K, you'll not only be saving more
Speaker 1: for your future, but you'll also be lowering your current
Speaker 1: year's tax bill. It's the same with putting more money
Speaker 1: in your h s A. If you have access to
Speaker 1: want a health savings account. We've done a deep dive
Speaker 1: on those in the past. They are possibly our favorite
Speaker 1: retirement account of all time. But it's important to note
Speaker 1: that getting the tax break now is not always the
Speaker 1: smartest move. We love roth iras, we think they're the
Speaker 1: best option for a lot of folks, but whether you're
Speaker 1: getting a tax break now or later, finding ways to
Speaker 1: minimize the impact of taxes in your life is really important. Joel,
Speaker 1: let's talk about sports here for a minute. Your your
Speaker 1: favorite subject. I'm not huge into sports. I do like
Speaker 1: the Atlanta United soccer team, but you are a big
Speaker 1: fan of the Atlanta Braves, and I feel like they
Speaker 1: have found their niche, not just as like a sports
Speaker 1: team for our city, right, Atlanta, but for the entire southeast.
Speaker 1: I mean as a kid growing up in Augusta, I
Speaker 1: mean the Atlanta Braves were it's I mean definitely, especially
Speaker 1: in the nineties, like those are the good old days,
Speaker 1: the massive you know run in the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 1: They're being broadcasted on on TVs, like because of the
Speaker 1: the surrounding states, we're getting a taste of The Atlanta
Speaker 1: Braves kind of had that fourteen year run of division
Speaker 1: championship winning teams throughout those years. That definitely didn't hurt
Speaker 1: in the popularity of the Braves, uh. And in addition,
Speaker 1: I think Atlanta they were able to take advantage of
Speaker 1: the geography, right because there were no other professional teams
Speaker 1: in the surrounding southern states, and so because of that,
Speaker 1: it was smart to be able to reach out, uh
Speaker 1: to the different baseball lovers in like states like Alabama,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, Tennessee, even Mississippi. And so instead of settling
Speaker 1: for just Atlanta baseball fans, it seems like the Braves
Speaker 1: reached beyond those borders and they created this just regional
Speaker 1: powerhouse and you had people all across the Southeast rooting
Speaker 1: for the Atlanta Braves. Yeah, so I agree, And those
Speaker 1: fourteen years were some of the best of my life. Man,
Speaker 1: I watched way too much baseball as a kid. I
Speaker 1: I did as well. Back then it was like it
Speaker 1: was what you did because it was broadcast on TBS
Speaker 1: and everybody was watching, and all my everything I wore
Speaker 1: was basically Braves related at that point in time too.
Speaker 1: Uh not not so anymore, especially when they broke my
Speaker 1: heart and essentially left in town Atlanta for the just outside.
Speaker 1: We'll say that topic for another. There's gotta be another lesson.
Speaker 1: They're actually kind of going back to the time is
Speaker 1: more valuable than money, Like, come on, Braves, what are
Speaker 1: you thinking? I know, Yeah, now I've got a plan
Speaker 1: ahead to go to a Brads game, where before I
Speaker 1: just like hop home on bikes minute and literally we
Speaker 1: would bike to the Braves game. And when those the
Speaker 1: good old days, they were Well what money lesson can
Speaker 1: we take from this example of But like the regional
Speaker 1: aspect of the Braves and and their massive fan base,
Speaker 1: when it comes to something like entrepreneurship, addressing and solving
Speaker 1: existing problems is the key to really building something great.
Speaker 1: That's where the best ideas come from when you say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: not just like what do I want to accomplish, but
Speaker 1: what is the need that I'm trying to meet? What
Speaker 1: who am I trying to serve? And the Braves realized
Speaker 1: there's a need greater than what they initially anticipated, and
Speaker 1: that you know, reaching out to multiple states in the
Speaker 1: surrounding area was going to increase our viewership, increase their
Speaker 1: fan base and then drive merchandise sales right, and drive
Speaker 1: ticket sales too at the ballpark, as people really do
Speaker 1: travel from hours and hours away to come see a game.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's one of those things where I think,
Speaker 1: when we're thinking about what it looks like as an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur to do something great, um it really we need
Speaker 1: to think a little bit bigger, kind of like the
Speaker 1: Braves did, turning it from just like the Atlanta Braves
Speaker 1: into kind of Braves country. Oh that's right, that's the
Speaker 1: old Bras country. And here's the thing, I'm not totally
Speaker 1: sure if the Braves did that super strategically and intentionally.
Speaker 1: They're like, I don't know, lucked into it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's just one of those it's a
Speaker 1: broadcast deal and everyone's watching it, and so therefore they
Speaker 1: become Braves fames because they don't have a local team
Speaker 1: that they're looking to root for. But regardless of whether
Speaker 1: or not the Braves did it intentionally or not, that's
Speaker 1: what That's the kind of intentionality though, that we do
Speaker 1: want you to bring when it comes to entrepreneurship. I mean,
Speaker 1: it makes me think back to starting the photography company
Speaker 1: that Kate and I started back in the day. The
Speaker 1: wedding industry had a serious void of good photojournalists and
Speaker 1: essentially that's what we're looking for when we got married,
Speaker 1: and there weren't that many creative photojournalists out there, and
Speaker 1: the ones who were providing that kind of work we're
Speaker 1: either really really expensive or they were completely booked up
Speaker 1: because the demand was so incredibly high. We were able
Speaker 1: to witness that firsthand, and we thought this is something
Speaker 1: that we could do. I mean, both of us have
Speaker 1: some photography background, and so we started our company and
Speaker 1: we had a nice, you know, twelve year run with photography,
Speaker 1: but we were smashing grain slams mix our analogies here
Speaker 1: right out of the gate because we had identified that
Speaker 1: need before we hadn't even pulled the trigger on starting
Speaker 1: the company, and so oftentimes folks will say, yeah, follow
Speaker 1: your passion, but what we would say instead is to
Speaker 1: follow the problems, because anytime you can solve problems, anytime
Speaker 1: you can make people's lives better, you're going to be
Speaker 1: well compensated for it, no doubt. Matt. Let's uh, let's
Speaker 1: just take one more example from Atlanta sports history. And
Speaker 1: this one is just a sadder one, but another legacy
Speaker 1: that we really have in the city of Atlanta is
Speaker 1: we choke pretty consistently when the moment gets big, like
Speaker 1: on on the big stage. There are many times where
Speaker 1: Atlanta has come through in the clutch and like pulled
Speaker 1: one out, you know, And so I feel like that's
Speaker 1: like a legacy that we all have to deal with
Speaker 1: as individual sports fans of Atlanta teams. Like I moved
Speaker 1: here when I was two, so basically all my sports
Speaker 1: memories are of Atlanta sports teams, me rooting for Atlanta
Speaker 1: sports teams, and mostly being let down. Like you had
Speaker 1: one World Series winning there, right, right, Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: obviously that was the best year in Atlanta sports history.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, it's really like there were fourteen division championships,
Speaker 1: Matt and just one World Series win. Or you think about,
Speaker 1: you know, what happened to the Falcons in the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl against the Patriots. I think the ESPN in the
Speaker 1: three lead that they completely blew. Yeah, let's not talk
Speaker 1: about it. Okay, it's still hurts. And I'm just a
Speaker 1: huge Falcons fan and so for me, like, I don't
Speaker 1: I'm not either at all when I hear that, really,
Speaker 1: but I remember watching that and just it was devastating
Speaker 1: still as someone who's like, I don't really go to
Speaker 1: Falcons games, but it was unbelievable. Yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was it was, and it just felt so Atlanta when
Speaker 1: it happened. It was like, Okay, this is is what
Speaker 1: happens like when you're here in Atlanta sports fan, UM,
Speaker 1: and I feel like you still see the grimace on
Speaker 1: people's faces when the topic comes up, like you probably
Speaker 1: just saw on mine. But yeah, like I think the
Speaker 1: lesson that we can derive from this is finishing strong
Speaker 1: is important. Right in our Atlanta sports teams UM haven't
Speaker 1: seemed to really get that or do well with that.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to our money, that's a really
Speaker 1: really important thing for us to figure out. I think
Speaker 1: like we all have the ability and the possibility of
Speaker 1: self sabotage when it comes to when it comes to
Speaker 1: our money or you know, in lots of areas of
Speaker 1: our lives. But even if you've been able to make
Speaker 1: sustained progress on your money over quite a period of time,
Speaker 1: it's possible to throw a lot of that effort away
Speaker 1: in a moment of weakness, right, or to let our
Speaker 1: habits atrophy over time. I think having regular check ins
Speaker 1: to make sure that you aren't losing steam and that
Speaker 1: you're still working towards those bigger goals is crucial because
Speaker 1: it's easy to get away from something good that you've
Speaker 1: started and then to to lose that progress. Um And
Speaker 1: you don't want to be like the falcons in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of that game, giving it all away in
Speaker 1: just like a short period of time, something that you
Speaker 1: worked over a really long period of time to accumulate.
Speaker 1: That's right. We want you to finish strong with your
Speaker 1: personal finances. We don't want you to choke in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter and get and give up like ning ton
Speaker 1: of points or the nitherinning or stoppage time. Uh. We
Speaker 1: love our city. We're huge fans of Atlanta and hopefully
Speaker 1: you gotta just like a little taste of Atlanta history here,
Speaker 1: so many Atlanta history lessons in addition to some money help.
Speaker 1: On today's episode, we feel that the four or four
Speaker 1: it's an excellent place to live. We'd encourage you to
Speaker 1: check it out for many of the beneficial reasons that
Speaker 1: we mentioned on today's episode. Yeah, I feel like we're
Speaker 1: really experiencing Atlanta during its heyday right now too. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, Sherman tried to have his way back in
Speaker 1: the eighteen sixties and demolish it, but it's like, no way, man.
Speaker 1: We we really are like the Phoenix. Our city represents
Speaker 1: that well. And I feel like right now is the
Speaker 1: time when Atlanta is that it's most vibrant. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: kind of exciting to see it. So it's really fun
Speaker 1: to be a part of it. And so yeah, most
Speaker 1: of our listeners should probably think about moving here. But
Speaker 1: let's get back to the beer that we had, Matt.
Speaker 1: This is a local beer from one of our favorite
Speaker 1: local group pubs. It's called Siberius Maximus by Wrecking Bar
Speaker 1: Group UB. It is a Russian Imperial stouts. What were
Speaker 1: your thoughts on this one. Yeah, this one was very
Speaker 1: very delicious. That poured super black. You can catch a
Speaker 1: whiff of it, and obviously there was like roasty, like
Speaker 1: dark roasty notes, but almost like a boozy chocolate vibe
Speaker 1: going on. That was I felt immediately followed by like
Speaker 1: some vanilla and some coconuts. Uh. And as soon as
Speaker 1: you took that sip, like all of those flavors. Because
Speaker 1: sometimes the notes that you pick up by smelling it
Speaker 1: doesn't always translate to flavor. But every single one of
Speaker 1: those notes, I feel like that that I was smelling
Speaker 1: directly translated to on my on my tongue. This was
Speaker 1: like a masterpiece, I would say, uh. And I like
Speaker 1: a good Russian Imperial stout, although it's a style I
Speaker 1: don't drink very often because it is so big and
Speaker 1: so bitter most of the time, and this one was
Speaker 1: This might be the best Russian Imperial stout I've ever had.
Speaker 1: A fantastic example of this style, yeah, for sure, And
Speaker 1: I think sometimes they are overly bitter. This one had
Speaker 1: a lot of bitter dark chocolate notes, and I love
Speaker 1: dark chocolate, Like, give me dark chocolate over milk chocolate
Speaker 1: any day of the week. And this one was like
Speaker 1: exactly the flavors I wanted to experience and was hoping
Speaker 1: to experience and I got to. So, Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: bitter dark chocolate without being just like over the top bidder.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they put extra special care and attention
Speaker 1: into this one because it's their tenth anniversary beer. But yeah, really,
Speaker 1: everything that we've had from Wrecking Bar, it's pretty much
Speaker 1: a great beer. So but this one was maybe one
Speaker 1: of the best we've ever had. Yeah, we're lucky to
Speaker 1: have that group pub just right up the street from us,
Speaker 1: and this is a very special one. It doesn't doesn't
Speaker 1: say it on the bottle, but this is a how
Speaker 1: do you say it? Like a couve a. So this
Speaker 1: is a blend of multiple batches that they had in
Speaker 1: order to craft the perfect anniversary, using the best versions
Speaker 1: to create the epic version. Absolutely. So, if you are
Speaker 1: in Atlanta and you are looking to check out a
Speaker 1: great group pub that's got fantastic food and really good beer,
Speaker 1: check out Wrecking Bar. But Joel, that's gonna be it
Speaker 1: for Money Talk for Today listeners. You can find our
Speaker 1: show notes up on our website at how the Money
Speaker 1: dot com. We'll make sure to link to any of
Speaker 1: the previous episodes or any of the different resources we
Speaker 1: may have mentioned during this episode, and you can find
Speaker 1: that up at how to money dot com. That's right,
Speaker 1: but until next time, Buddy, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,