Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about underwater autos, freelancing for the win,
Speaker 1: and E fund idiocy.
Speaker 2: E fund idiocy.
Speaker 3: That will most likely be our ludicrous headline of the
Speaker 3: week that we'll get to today.
Speaker 1: Joel, We're gonna take some other financial influencer to task
Speaker 1: on that one.
Speaker 3: Indeed, Oh, we don't have anything here about the government shutdown.
Speaker 3: Maybe we should say something about that. How at least
Speaker 3: at the time of this recording, we are, I guess
Speaker 3: on day three of the government shut down. Toilets are
Speaker 3: perhaps overflowing in national parks a terrible site to or
Speaker 3: the toilets are closed completely. I went by our National
Speaker 3: Battlefield Park the other day to go for a run.
Speaker 3: Do they mark the doors were closed? Nobody at home.
Speaker 3: I had to pee, so said to go on, I
Speaker 3: should have go on the trail like I mean, don't
Speaker 3: don't wrap me up. You should be doing that anyway, right,
Speaker 3: you come on, you're out like out there in the
Speaker 3: middle of the woods. It's not like you're at some
Speaker 3: highly congested You've got to do it very popular. You
Speaker 3: got to do it in an unpopulated spot.
Speaker 1: Do what you gotta do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I can't imagine this is going to stretch
Speaker 3: on for for.
Speaker 1: All that I hope not. Yeah, we have listeners and
Speaker 1: friends who are are impacted by this, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about emergency funds later on, and I don't just
Speaker 1: makes you take it. Two things you can do about this.
Speaker 2: One is the case for an emergency fund.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, the more money you have in savings,
Speaker 1: the there's still the psychological impact and the the maybe
Speaker 1: frustration right with the fact that it comes to this,
Speaker 1: and that that the looming government shutdown threat is seems
Speaker 1: like it's perpetually upon us. It's not often we get
Speaker 1: to this point in the process, but sure my heart
Speaker 1: goes out to all you folks out there who are having.
Speaker 3: Folks who are impacted, who are not getting paid, who
Speaker 3: are furloughed and still expected to come to work.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, I said, I don't think it's going to
Speaker 3: stretch on, but it might because of the fact that
Speaker 3: folks are taking they're using this, you know, they're trying
Speaker 3: to use this as like a political bludgeon.
Speaker 2: It makes me think.
Speaker 3: Of so have you have you heard of the economic problem?
Speaker 3: The chess piece fallacy.
Speaker 1: It basically.
Speaker 3: Adam Smith I think originally, but then Thomas sol popularized it.
Speaker 3: But it talks about how if you're a policymaker, you
Speaker 3: think that like, oh well, we can just try this out,
Speaker 3: we can experiment, maybe we'll end up breaking things and
Speaker 3: we'll learn from that, which I understand when you are
Speaker 3: talking about like, well, in this case, so a chess piece,
Speaker 3: you're essentially the mastermind and you're moving the pieces around
Speaker 3: and you're playing this very elaborate game. But in this case,
Speaker 3: we're not talking about a game with no stakes, like
Speaker 3: we are talking about individuals' lives, like people's livelihoods, and
Speaker 3: that's when people start to revolt. That's when people get
Speaker 3: upset if they have.
Speaker 1: The misrent payment or afford to go on the trip,
Speaker 1: that they even just like putting food on the table.
Speaker 3: It has so it has all these unintended consequences that
Speaker 3: when you discount how it impacts individuals lives, there's a
Speaker 3: problem there essentially. So it also makes me think about
Speaker 3: like when when Elon came in and bought bought Twitter
Speaker 3: slash the workforce broke code and like that is a
Speaker 3: very maybe it shouldn't be a chess piece fallacy. It
Speaker 3: should be like a programmer fallacy, because that's how programmers think.
Speaker 3: That's what I've been told. I'm not a program myself.
Speaker 3: But you go in, you break things, you try things out,
Speaker 3: and then you just put it back to get it
Speaker 3: back to working. But you can't necessarily. It's a lot
Speaker 3: hard to do that with individuals lives again, when people
Speaker 3: are being impacted in a significant way for some individuals
Speaker 3: out there.
Speaker 1: Agreed, All right, Vosh, we'll get to the Friday flight.
Speaker 1: Let's let's do it. Sampling of stories we found interesting
Speaker 1: this week. Let's start off talking about streaming. Streaming price
Speaker 1: hikes are of course coming down the pike with regularity.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I think Apple TV Plus is that what they call theirs, Matt.
Speaker 1: I think they've had a price hike every year for
Speaker 1: the last three years, which is interesting because I don't
Speaker 1: feel like they've got a lot of stuff for you
Speaker 1: to watch on it, like they've got the best stuff?
Speaker 2: Do they? Severance?
Speaker 1: Okay, Severance was one. I still haven't seen that one.
Speaker 1: You've told me it's so good, it's so good. It
Speaker 1: just feels like they have so little uh for you
Speaker 1: to interest me.
Speaker 3: But if it really counts the stuff that they do
Speaker 3: put out there and does is that enough to win
Speaker 3: you over?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what That's why I feel like HBO has
Speaker 1: been so good at is Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: I think that's the model that Apple's trying to trying
Speaker 3: to go with, although I will say at the end
Speaker 3: of the last season it does lead some questions where
Speaker 3: you're just like, oh, come on, I don't want to
Speaker 3: put any spoilers. One.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing where they go, and I'm guessing you've canceled
Speaker 1: Apple TV Plus at this point because you're done with
Speaker 1: severance and you'll sign up again later. Of course, So
Speaker 1: the the cheap prices of early streaming days, they're just
Speaker 1: in the rear view mirror completely at this point right
Speaker 1: where you.
Speaker 3: Can just keep it around even when the season's over.
Speaker 3: You can, but like you way more than you need to.
Speaker 1: And so Disney just notified subscribers that they're going to
Speaker 1: be ramping up the prices of Disney Plus Hulu plans,
Speaker 1: and uh, the price acts are just going to keep coming.
Speaker 1: Why are they going to keep coming? Well, it's because
Speaker 1: consumers aren't really changing their habits. They're not canceling in
Speaker 1: the numbers that are impacting the streaming services to a
Speaker 1: meaningful degree. There's this new credit Karma survey and it
Speaker 1: found that streaming is at the very top of non
Speaker 1: essential priorities in people's budgets in their lives. So it's
Speaker 1: this really sticky service that people aren't willing to do without.
Speaker 1: The streaming companies know this, and they're taking full advantage.
Speaker 1: So I know that price hex can be frustrating. People
Speaker 1: get that email and they're like, again, really, you're going
Speaker 1: to up the price and you haven't really added much
Speaker 1: more good stuff for me to check out, So but
Speaker 1: I don't know, they just stay with it anyway. People
Speaker 1: take this lying down it seems. I think there are
Speaker 1: some pros and cons of being out of the cable
Speaker 1: TV era. The early streaming days, though Matt, seemed to
Speaker 1: be the best of times, and now we're entering this
Speaker 1: period of time where streaming is more competitive, just as
Speaker 1: bad as cable in so many ways. The only way
Speaker 1: we as individuals can get the best get the most
Speaker 1: bang for our buck is to I think, sign up
Speaker 1: for services when we're going to use them, cancel when
Speaker 1: we're not, and just be more thoughtful in general about
Speaker 1: what we're subscribing to and when.
Speaker 3: Totally yes, And actually I just said that it's more competitive,
Speaker 3: it's actually less competitive because when it was more competitive,
Speaker 3: when Netflix was the big player on the scene when
Speaker 3: they do you remember back when they won their first
Speaker 3: Emmy or Golden Globe or I don't know, it was
Speaker 3: just a massive deal, like they swept the awards that year.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, wow, they are a legitimate studio.
Speaker 1: They're on the scene.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, And so back in those days when there
Speaker 3: was more competition, I think all of these streamers, well
Speaker 3: they were willing to offer their services for a lot
Speaker 3: less as they're trying to gobble up market share. But
Speaker 3: it's less competitive now and they're all kind of sitting back,
Speaker 3: they're getting comfortable. They're trying to increase that profit share,
Speaker 3: increase those margins.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think.
Speaker 3: So we just canceled Disney Disney Plus, which is was
Speaker 3: kind of a mainstay for us because we wanted to
Speaker 3: watch something on Netflix, and so I was what I said,
Speaker 3: was like, Hey, what we're going to do here, We're
Speaker 3: going to implement the classic one in, one out, Like though,
Speaker 3: if you're trying to manage your closet, like manage your
Speaker 3: wardrobe instead of just letting them proliferate. Yeah, well, so
Speaker 3: you kind of have to do that with your closet,
Speaker 3: right because you are literally going to run out of space.
Speaker 3: I think that's one of the one of the benefits
Speaker 3: of doing that, not just letting it get get so overcrowded.
Speaker 3: But when it comes to these digital streaming services, these
Speaker 3: digital products, what is it cluttering up?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Nothing, you just continue to yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so you were just you were out the
Speaker 3: money and you don't realize how many of these that
Speaker 3: you've accumulated. There's no physical, tangible response mechanism that's telling you, oh,
Speaker 3: you have too many of these. Typically, when it comes
Speaker 3: to digital stuff like the more options we have, the better.
Speaker 3: But in this case, uh yeah, I guess you could
Speaker 3: have them all, but it's going to cost you a ton.
Speaker 3: You truly are back into the cable bundling days when
Speaker 3: you were paying for everything. But that's what's so beautiful
Speaker 3: about streaming is that you have the ability to very
Speaker 3: easily drop one of the streamers after a couple that
Speaker 3: once that show's over.
Speaker 1: Well, Peloton just announced in the middle of the week
Speaker 1: as well that they're increasing their prices for folks who
Speaker 1: have a bike and they like to work out on
Speaker 1: it or whatever. And I think I talked recently on
Speaker 1: the show not too long ago about buying a used
Speaker 1: peloton for my wife who likes to jump on it
Speaker 1: and do her thing. You get her spin on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they're going from forty five bucks a month to
Speaker 1: fifty bucks a month and five bucks not a biggie,
Speaker 1: that's what Yeah, that's what you say. But like, I'm
Speaker 1: not a frog in the boiling water. At some point,
Speaker 1: we're jumping out, and she was like, she came to
Speaker 1: me before I even said anything, because I'm trying not
Speaker 1: to cause marital strife. And she was like, man, I'm
Speaker 1: so mad that they raised the price. I think I'm
Speaker 1: going to cancel for a while. And I was like,
Speaker 1: because she's like, I'm never using it. She's a member
Speaker 1: of another gym as well, and it's like the price
Speaker 1: per use just went up. I'm not using it as
Speaker 1: much as i'd like to. So they all hop on
Speaker 1: still use it but not pay for the service. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, fine with me. So what's the benefit of
Speaker 1: the service. The fact that you've got like the screen
Speaker 1: and you got somebody encouraging you. That's music playing the
Speaker 1: actual class and the metrics and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: There's got to be some online free YouTube channels that
Speaker 3: you can pull up where you're listening to this very
Speaker 3: similar kind of deal having to pay for.
Speaker 1: It, right, Well, yeah, there's ads. Yeah. And then like
Speaker 1: there was a we were doing some of the stretching
Speaker 1: classes the peloton, but I was like, I've got some
Speaker 1: great YouTube videos that are one hundred percent free. You
Speaker 1: don't need I mean, they're not live classes even they're
Speaker 1: like pre recorded. We were just doing the same one
Speaker 1: over and over. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well that's the thing.
Speaker 3: Like, now you've learned how to do it and you've
Speaker 3: internalized it, you don't need someone to guide you through
Speaker 3: that anymore. Like you are your own stretching Shirpa. Let's
Speaker 3: talk about owning a vehicle, because trading in a car
Speaker 3: it's fraught with so much financial peril. First of all,
Speaker 3: when you trade in instead of selling that car outright
Speaker 3: to an individual, you risk getting a lot less than
Speaker 3: it's worth listing it yourself. Putting in a bit more,
Speaker 3: a little bit more effort, taking the pictures, scheduling the meetups,
Speaker 3: it could net you thousands of additional dollars.
Speaker 1: Doing the hassle thing. It's worth it. It takes a
Speaker 1: little more work.
Speaker 3: But one of the worst financial moves though, that you
Speaker 3: can make is to upgrade your ride and then trade
Speaker 3: in a car that you are underwater on. But Americans
Speaker 3: are doing it like it's their job. More than a
Speaker 3: quarter of trade ins today are being done by folks
Speaker 3: with negative equity who owe more on that car than
Speaker 3: it's actually worth, often by like many thousands of dollars,
Speaker 3: which is man, that's very frightening.
Speaker 1: I think the average underwater amount is over six thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I was talking to somebody this week and they had
Speaker 1: a friend who traded in a car that was like
Speaker 1: thirty grand underwater, which that's insane. Punch me in the face.
Speaker 1: It's all your stuff like that. It makes me so sad.
Speaker 3: It also isn't all that surprising given the price of vehicles, right, Like,
Speaker 3: you buy a brand new eighty thousand dollars nice you know,
Speaker 3: luxury suv, it's probably not going to take that long
Speaker 3: for you. If you have these payments that are stretched
Speaker 3: out in two three years. Like there's a very good
Speaker 3: chance that you're going to owe more on that.
Speaker 1: Thing, yeah, than what it's actually worth. You're exactly right,
Speaker 1: it's the cost of the car. But it's also, like
Speaker 1: you just the length of the car loan itself, and
Speaker 1: so you are making such a small dent in those
Speaker 1: first couple of years on the actual I mean, you're
Speaker 1: paying down the principle, but because you've stretched it out
Speaker 1: from like let's say forty eight months four years to
Speaker 1: something like eighty four months, it's just taking so much longer.
Speaker 1: And if in three years time you get tired of
Speaker 1: that car and you're like, oh, it's not for me
Speaker 1: to upgrade, well, you've paid so much less of that car,
Speaker 1: and so you are of course going to have negative equity,
Speaker 1: and then you roll it into the next loan and
Speaker 1: you've got a giant loan. You're way upside down on
Speaker 1: the next car, only compounding the problem making it worse.
Speaker 3: So yeah, personally, I'm going to say no car loan,
Speaker 3: but I know some folks are. They're not in the
Speaker 3: situation to where they've got the money on you, right,
Speaker 3: I should be able to cover that.
Speaker 1: You and I were typically fans of that right only
Speaker 1: buy a car if you have the cash or save
Speaker 1: up longer. And if you don't agree with us or yeah,
Speaker 1: you are in that position, just make sure you don't
Speaker 1: take out a loan that's longer than forty eight months
Speaker 1: ideally forty two or less. Cause yeah, like driving a
Speaker 1: car with negative equity, it's not ideal, but it's not
Speaker 1: the worst thing in the world as long as you
Speaker 1: can hold on to it. If you really want to
Speaker 1: upgrade your ride, but you just aren't in the financial
Speaker 1: position to do that, truly, wait longer. That is the
Speaker 1: solution here. And by the way, matt I See Cars
Speaker 1: released its list of the vehicles that are most likely
Speaker 1: to last two hundred and fifty thousand miles. That's not
Speaker 1: sure that most people want to go there, I do.
Speaker 1: I'm probably not doing that with both the cars that
Speaker 1: we currently own. I'm getting so close to two hundred
Speaker 1: k with the with the Honda, Yeah, I work, you're
Speaker 1: beyond us. I think we're at like one eighty and
Speaker 1: my other cars like one seventy one, but we're like
Speaker 1: one ninety two. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hey, like I don't want to put the miles on,
Speaker 3: but every time it gets closer, it just it makes
Speaker 3: me so happy, it's inevitable, it's gonna happen. Okay, But
Speaker 3: you know, you know the brand that was number one
Speaker 3: on that list, it's oh yeah, yea. You don't even
Speaker 3: have to like read it like a long shot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. This is like they said that Toyotas are
Speaker 1: what three point seven times more likely to last two
Speaker 1: hundred fifty thousand miles than any other car manufacturer. Lexis
Speaker 1: and Honda were right up there too, but it's like
Speaker 1: Toyota's were like by a long shot, crushing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Basically, Toyota, Toyota, and Lexis are like one and two
Speaker 3: then Handa and makes yeah, and Hannah makes accurate, So
Speaker 3: they're basically first, Toyota's first, Hanna's second. You know what
Speaker 3: I thought was so fascinating that was basically next on
Speaker 3: the list Tesla, which got me thinking, like, it makes
Speaker 3: so much sense given the fact that there are so
Speaker 3: many fewer moving parts. It would not surprise me if
Speaker 3: over the years we see the share of Tesla's that
Speaker 3: are on the road, that you are able to keep
Speaker 3: those around for much longer periods of time because of
Speaker 3: the fact that it's just an electric An electric motor
Speaker 3: is a very efficient durable like mechanical device, and yeah,
Speaker 3: it makes all the makes all the sense in the world.
Speaker 3: I thought it was very humorous to see that the
Speaker 3: cars that had a zero percent chance two hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty k. It's not surprising. It was like Jaguar Mini Cooper,
Speaker 3: which that one actually kind of surprised me. I thought
Speaker 3: menis were a little more. They just seem to have
Speaker 3: such a fan base.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, but I don't think it's because they're reliable.
Speaker 1: I guess not. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And when I say Jaguar Mini and like Maserati or
Speaker 3: something like that, okay, yeah, which you've got a couple
Speaker 3: of those.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, a few of those.
Speaker 3: I know, Hey, I'm only going to hit fifty thousand
Speaker 3: on those bad right exactly.
Speaker 1: So I guess when it comes down to it, that's
Speaker 1: one of the key ingredients too, in being able to
Speaker 1: hold onto your car longer is to get something that's reliable.
Speaker 1: And you can go in to consumer reports and you
Speaker 1: can dig in and see what makes and models in
Speaker 1: years have like the highest reliability ratings, or you can
Speaker 1: even just take this generic ICEE car survey and be like,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm getting a Toyota Rohanda.
Speaker 3: Yeah, car reliability matters, dude. Let's talk about car insurance.
Speaker 3: So we obviously talk a lot about saving money, but
Speaker 3: getting the lowest possible price, it's not always the goal.
Speaker 3: We talk about frugal versus cheap moves when it comes
Speaker 3: to car insurance. We want to get value for the
Speaker 3: money that we're paying, and that is particularly true here.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter how much you save on premiums if
Speaker 3: your insurance company actually won't pay your claim, or if
Speaker 3: they're impossible to deal with, if you can't get them
Speaker 3: to respond to any calls consumer reports. They released a
Speaker 3: list of insurance companies who have the best record of
Speaker 3: paying claims and two the were ones that we've talked
Speaker 3: about on the show before. Amika USAA. There's a new
Speaker 3: one that I never heard before. Erie er I E yeah,
Speaker 3: and evidently they are pretty tops as well. Only downside,
Speaker 3: they're only in like ten states in the country. But
Speaker 3: if you have access to Erie, check them out, but
Speaker 3: otherwise shop around get quotes, but specifically from these insurance
Speaker 3: companies that tend to rate more highly.
Speaker 1: This is like an interesting one because you and I
Speaker 1: we talked about shopping on insurance to save money, and
Speaker 1: we think there's a lot of wisdom to that, but
Speaker 1: you just have to be careful because there are kind
Speaker 1: of like fly by night insurance companies, and then there
Speaker 1: are also It's kind of like we answered a question
Speaker 1: recently about renting from one of those super cheap car
Speaker 1: rental companies, you po car and you have to be
Speaker 1: careful in that, and the same thing is true with
Speaker 1: getting that insurance. It's like, it's best to get that
Speaker 1: policy from a company who's reliably pays out claims. That's
Speaker 1: kind of what Consumer Reports was getting out here. They
Speaker 1: rank them in order, and it's worth taking a look
Speaker 1: and seeing where your insurance company falls because you might
Speaker 1: you might be like, yeah, they're saving me a little
Speaker 1: bit of money, but if I do get into a
Speaker 1: situation where I have to file a claim, they're going
Speaker 1: to like put me through the ringer and that'll be
Speaker 1: super frustrating.
Speaker 3: Yep, car insurance seems like an industry a market that
Speaker 3: needs disrupting. Let's talk about jobs, because the market's been
Speaker 3: getting worse and worse sadly. But we've got one piece
Speaker 3: of advice that might help folks out there who might
Speaker 3: be looking for another job or you know, like whether
Speaker 3: you are out of work or maybe you're you're still
Speaker 3: employed and you're looking for a new job. And that
Speaker 3: is that freelance and contract positions might make more sense
Speaker 3: than a traditional W two full time employ like employment
Speaker 3: job that you might be used to. And this is
Speaker 3: for a number of reasons. First of all, it might
Speaker 3: be easier to get in the door hiring someone on
Speaker 3: a contract basis. It can be easier for employers. I
Speaker 3: think this is especially true given the uncertainty that businesses
Speaker 3: have seen with Terris right, Like, that's one of the
Speaker 3: downsides is when you don't if you can't look ahead
Speaker 3: to the future and forecast what the industry is going
Speaker 3: to look like, you're less prone to make investments in
Speaker 3: your business, which one of the biggest investments you can
Speaker 3: make is human capital.
Speaker 1: Of those employers are saying, hey, we need to hire somebody.
Speaker 1: We're not off from the full time furlough on new
Speaker 1: hires a contract position because it's just it's a less
Speaker 1: embedded relationship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I totally get it from the employer's standpoint,
Speaker 3: but as an employee, for you out there looking to
Speaker 3: get a new job, it can often lead to that
Speaker 3: full time job, that full time work there in the future,
Speaker 3: you're getting your foot in the door, you're making these relationships.
Speaker 1: This is all clutch, and you.
Speaker 3: Can also potentially start at a higher hourly rate. A
Speaker 3: lot of times that's because you're not getting the other benefits,
Speaker 3: so they are trying to offset, they're trying to compensate
Speaker 3: a little bit for the fact that you're not getting
Speaker 3: some of these additional benefits. Yeah, we're talking health insurance
Speaker 3: as well. That's probably one of the biggest ones. It's
Speaker 3: not cheap. That being said, your increased pay, that higher
Speaker 3: hourly rate might be worth it. So it makes me
Speaker 3: think something to consider one.
Speaker 1: Of our friends who got laid off and then he
Speaker 1: ended up getting contract work with the company that just
Speaker 1: let him go, and because of that, his hourly rate
Speaker 1: went up meaningfully because he doesn't have access to those benefits.
Speaker 1: And so for a lot of folks, let's say, especially
Speaker 1: if you have health insurance, you can get coverage through
Speaker 1: a partner or something like that, maybe it's the best
Speaker 1: of both worlds. But I think you're right, Matt, just
Speaker 1: for some people maybe considering more some of those freelance
Speaker 1: and contract positions instead of just looking for that full
Speaker 1: time benefits included. A job might make sense, especially right now,
Speaker 1: but contract work is different than signing up for a
Speaker 1: side hustle. You and I we have discussed our feelings
Speaker 1: about side hustle. Don't remember the episode number, but we
Speaker 1: talked about kind of the nefarious what do we call it?
Speaker 2: Some of them with that episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the side hustles can be nefarious, and part
Speaker 1: of the reason is because, yeah, they can be a
Speaker 1: great way to make cash quickly, but they're not typically
Speaker 1: a great long term solution for people's finances. Another problem, though,
Speaker 1: that we're seeing is a rise in side hustle scams,
Speaker 1: and we'll link to a great Yahoo Finance post about
Speaker 1: the red flags to watch out for. But if you
Speaker 1: are in a pinch job wise, which more and more
Speaker 1: people are finding themselves in right now, be careful before
Speaker 1: taking a gig based on a text that you receive
Speaker 1: or a social media post that you saw, and don't
Speaker 1: ever sign up for a side hustle that comes with
Speaker 1: upfront costs. That is a massive red flag right to
Speaker 1: get scams. Oh yeah, hey, we'd love to give you
Speaker 1: this job, but you have to pay some money for
Speaker 1: training or for equipment that you need in order to
Speaker 1: be able to do this job from your home. Even
Speaker 1: if they offer to send a check to cover those costs,
Speaker 1: because the check, of course turns out to be frau vigil,
Speaker 1: you're out the money. And it just seems like we're
Speaker 1: seeing a rise inside hustle scams right now. So and
Speaker 1: especially with people looking for employment and some folks getting desperate,
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Even I saw another story, I think it was last
Speaker 3: week where a lady was scammed via a job that
Speaker 3: she was hired for, like over on LinkedIn. So like
Speaker 3: it's not just the air and email that shows up
Speaker 3: out of nowhere, but also somewhere that you feel like.
Speaker 2: It feels like one of the brighter.
Speaker 3: Sunnier corners of the Internet, like a trusted site, and
Speaker 3: you can still find scammy postings there. Yeah, but we've
Speaker 3: got more to get to. We're going to talk about
Speaker 3: the cost of drugs and plenty more on today's Friday flight.
Speaker 3: But first some ads, thanks.
Speaker 1: For sticking with us on this Friday flight. We've got
Speaker 1: more to get to. We are going to talk about drugs, specifically,
Speaker 1: not good our ex Matt, but Trump, our ex we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that. It's a real thing. It's happening. Well,
Speaker 1: the first, let's to the ludacrous headline of the week.
Speaker 1: This one comes from Yahoo Finance and it reads Grant
Speaker 1: Cardon calls the concept of emergency savings a bank myth.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure if everyone listening is familiar with
Speaker 1: this real estate influencer, Grant Cardon. He's kind of a
Speaker 1: brash fella. I don't know much.
Speaker 3: About I know the name, but was he on TV?
Speaker 3: Did he have like a TV show?
Speaker 1: I don't even know. Okay, I think maybe, but I
Speaker 1: just know that, like so he's just there on lander webs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's one of the biggest influencers in the real estate space,
Speaker 1: and a lot of what he says doesn't really jibe
Speaker 1: with me, probably because we have different goals but also
Speaker 1: different philosophies. And sometimes this is just the case. Also
Speaker 1: in people who are super duper into real estate, they
Speaker 1: can just be tough to listen to because they think
Speaker 1: that real estate is the answer to every single problem.
Speaker 1: And this guy in particular, it's kind of hard for
Speaker 1: me the stomach, But they often real estate people. You
Speaker 1: and I are real estate investors. Map but that's only
Speaker 1: a part of what we do. Or real estate light, Yeah,
Speaker 1: real estate light and so. But a lot of people
Speaker 1: who go heavy into that space they basically think that,
Speaker 1: you know, basic personal finance knowledge and hygiene aren't really
Speaker 1: that important. Real estate's going to solve all the problems.
Speaker 1: And Grant Cardon's premise is that saving money is a
Speaker 1: trick the banks are playing on us, and that going
Speaker 1: to work, he says, is the key to getting by
Speaker 1: if stuff hits the fan. That's clearly what about if
Speaker 1: you can't work, I know, right, yeah, what if you
Speaker 1: get injured or what?
Speaker 3: Sometimes that's why you need an emergency fund, Why you
Speaker 3: need some cash in the bank.
Speaker 1: No, that's good.
Speaker 3: I mean you can always just like turn like turn
Speaker 3: on the you know, like the works bigot.
Speaker 1: And receive cash. It seems kind of ludicrous that he
Speaker 1: would say this, especially given all the studies that have
Speaker 1: been done about the mental benefit and the real personal
Speaker 1: finance benefit that people gain by having an emergency fund
Speaker 1: at at their disposal, And just by looking at my
Speaker 1: own life and history and other people that I know,
Speaker 1: it's like the momssif fund comes in clutch sometimes for people, right, Ye,
Speaker 1: you probably don't need a whole year cash on hand.
Speaker 1: There's been more people saying that lately. But and I
Speaker 1: do think maybe if I'm going to be the most
Speaker 1: generous interpretation of what Grant Cardone is saying, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: what he's trying to say is that, well, people tend
Speaker 1: to over index into savings and they don't invest when
Speaker 1: they should be. They're too much, they're shoveling too much
Speaker 1: money into their savings accountant, not enough into their four
Speaker 1: one k's iras or into real estate investments. That's just
Speaker 1: being generous. But I don't think that's what he's saying.
Speaker 1: But and that can be true. There are some people
Speaker 1: who do over index to savings, and yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: need a year of savings built up before you start investing,
Speaker 1: but still having some liquid cash on hand, it's a necessity.
Speaker 1: It always has been, always will be.
Speaker 3: I just think he's out of touch with like the
Speaker 3: common person out there who like runs into cashlow issues,
Speaker 3: and like when you've got tons of real estate, yes,
Speaker 3: like you have the ability to tap these other investments,
Speaker 3: and you've got private equity and just ways of acquiring
Speaker 3: just getting your hands on money, that's not that's not
Speaker 3: where most Americans are man So because of that, the
Speaker 3: basic emergency fund, which we've updated because originally it was
Speaker 3: two thousand and four or sixty seven dollars back in
Speaker 3: the day, and withflation, that dollar amount is now three
Speaker 3: forty five dollars. So remember that thirty forty five.
Speaker 1: And I do think probably he is out of touch
Speaker 1: because I remember seeing an article in the Wall Street
Speaker 1: Journal or New York Times about his like super super
Speaker 1: fancy house on the beach in Malibu.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah, I'm like, okay, all that fits with you,
Speaker 3: that guy. Okay, exactly, congrats exactly. But so I just
Speaker 3: said the specific dollar amounts that you need to set
Speaker 3: aside for an emergency fund, and it turns out that
Speaker 3: is key when it comes to growing your emergency fund quickly.
Speaker 3: You need to set a specific goal. So that's the
Speaker 3: first step, and then the second step is to put
Speaker 3: that goal, that specific amount, like constantly in front of you,
Speaker 3: like we're talking like a sticky note on your bathroom mirror,
Speaker 3: putting a note up on.
Speaker 1: The fridge, the dash of your car.
Speaker 3: And certainly try to find the most painless ways to
Speaker 3: cut back first, but then start making some harder moves
Speaker 3: like finding ways to just like eating out lest maybe
Speaker 3: maybe you haven't bounced around your insurance a little bit
Speaker 3: and you're way over paying. There are more difficult steps
Speaker 3: that take a little bit more time to ensure that
Speaker 3: you're spending less money to where you're allowing yourself to
Speaker 3: build up that emergency fund more quickly. But those two
Speaker 3: steps specifically identifying your the dollar amount three forty five
Speaker 3: dollars and then reminding yourself of it, that comes from
Speaker 3: friend of the show Katie Milkman, who is brilliant. Those
Speaker 3: are great tips. But I will say I think in
Speaker 3: addition to that, I think what's going to cement it
Speaker 3: for a lot of people is once they actually have
Speaker 3: that emerency fund on hand and then they use it,
Speaker 3: they find themselves in a situation to where they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: I knew that the roof was going out, and I
Speaker 3: had some money set aside there, but I thought it
Speaker 3: was only gonna be nine thousand dollars. Turns out as
Speaker 3: twelve thousand dollars. Oh, I got some extra money here.
Speaker 3: Like experiencing the like the sigh of relief that you
Speaker 3: get to like that you get to exhale knowing that
Speaker 3: you're not having to put it on credit cards still
Speaker 3: where you're paying over twenty percent because you aren't financially
Speaker 3: prepared for the emergency room visit, right, Like, no one
Speaker 3: expects that, but if you find yourself in a pinch, like,
Speaker 3: that's what people have to rely on, and that's what
Speaker 3: we're trying to get folks to avoid. It's not that
Speaker 3: I don't even care that people. I don't want you
Speaker 3: to have tons of money in your savings account, not
Speaker 3: because you could be doing smarterer things without money. It's
Speaker 3: because it's not about the money. It's about the relief.
Speaker 3: It's about the PM worry. Yeah, yeah, the piece that
Speaker 3: that's going to allow you to then be able to
Speaker 3: focus on the things that are more important than life.
Speaker 3: We don't want you obsessing over your dollars. It's about life.
Speaker 3: It's about what you can then turn your attention to
Speaker 3: what you can then focus on that's so much more important.
Speaker 1: I've had a couple of conversations recently with some real
Speaker 1: estate investors and just who are friends, and I've been like,
Speaker 1: there's some tough times happening right now in the multifamily
Speaker 1: and commercial realty spaces right now. For people who have
Speaker 1: investments that they've made, they are finding that the numbers
Speaker 1: aren't nearly as good as they had projected. And when
Speaker 1: you're thinking about that, like you need what do you
Speaker 1: need to be able to hang on to investment? You
Speaker 1: need liquidity, right, And so it's even as a real
Speaker 1: estate investor who you can project the best numbers, but
Speaker 1: if they don't come to pass the way you hoped
Speaker 1: they would, you need to have cash in the bank
Speaker 1: to be able to allow you to make it through,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to fire sale and completely mess
Speaker 1: your finances up in the process. So, especially as a
Speaker 1: real estate investor, that doesn't eliminate you, I don't think
Speaker 1: from the need for having an emergency fund. I think,
Speaker 1: in fact, it makes it potentially even more.
Speaker 3: Important, not for the individuals out there, but for the
Speaker 3: quote unquote savvy folks out.
Speaker 1: There as well. By the way, some employers are being
Speaker 1: more helpful in the area of helping people garner a
Speaker 1: bigger emergency fund, which is kind of cool. And this
Speaker 1: is kind of a self interested play as well, right
Speaker 1: that these employers realize that their employees are potentially like
Speaker 1: living on the financial precipice and they're stressed about it,
Speaker 1: and because of that, they're less productive in their job.
Speaker 1: That not having savings it takes a mental toll. So
Speaker 1: there are new fintech companies springing up. There's one called
Speaker 1: secure Save. There was an article just written about them,
Speaker 1: and they're making it easier for employers to offer a
Speaker 1: match towards emergency savings, which is just this benefit for
Speaker 1: people to incentivize something that is going to help the
Speaker 1: employee and the employer. Makes sense, man, Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think it's the employer's job. I think it's
Speaker 1: our job. But it's also cool to see that employer.
Speaker 1: Some employers are responding and they're being like, actually, why
Speaker 1: not We realize that this is like a goal you
Speaker 1: should be tackling, but why don't we help you out
Speaker 1: with it because it's a win win it's in our
Speaker 1: best interest too. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, on a similar note, worker satisfaction is being tied
Speaker 3: to being offered financial advice from their employers. So not
Speaker 3: only do they want the good benefits like health coverage,
Speaker 3: a nice four win K match, and maybe now an
Speaker 3: emergency fund match, but they want money advice money help
Speaker 3: as well, whether it's access to budgeting software out there
Speaker 3: or just even engaging content. Man, this makes me think
Speaker 3: about we've done seminars companies out there to help teach
Speaker 3: their employees about money, which is a ton of fun
Speaker 3: and it is very very cool to see folks engage
Speaker 3: and asking great questions. You as an individual, you can't
Speaker 3: rely on your employer to, I think, play this role
Speaker 3: in your life. But man, I think given the poor
Speaker 3: state of personal finance education in the country, I'm for
Speaker 3: helpful instruction, like from wherever it comes from. It makes
Speaker 3: me wonder if more folks were talking about personal finance
Speaker 3: like back in the day, because there is certainly a
Speaker 3: demand for it, So like where was the supply, like,
Speaker 3: and we're providing the supply now, yeah, and companies are
Speaker 3: doing that. We're definitely we're trying to but like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it makes me wonder, like we're folks more willing to
Speaker 3: talk about their personal finances back in the day and
Speaker 3: has it become more private over the past twenty years
Speaker 3: show I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it comes down to at
Speaker 1: a complexity and personal finances have just become there's just
Speaker 1: a lot more to wade through, to think through, and
Speaker 1: I think it's just used to be less complex back
Speaker 1: in the day, which made maybe maybe made some of
Speaker 1: this content a little bit less necessary.
Speaker 3: But we live in a more complex, optimized world, and
Speaker 3: so as companies are looking to grow their margins, grow
Speaker 3: their profits, a lot of times what that means is
Speaker 3: folks potentially overpaying for products for services, not investing as
Speaker 3: well as it could be.
Speaker 1: And we've had a proliferation of options for people, right,
Speaker 1: so it's this we're entering into this like Walmart sized
Speaker 1: grocery store instead of like an all they sized grocery
Speaker 1: store with like minimal choices, and it's just, man, I
Speaker 1: think there's overload for people trying to figure out their finances,
Speaker 1: and so we want to at least here, we want
Speaker 1: to simplify things and help help folks make those most
Speaker 1: important decisions. That's what we're doing with us.
Speaker 2: We're trying to do at least all.
Speaker 1: Right, let's talk about prescription drugs. We've talked about using
Speaker 1: good RX for saving money on websites. I used good
Speaker 1: RX the other day at a pharmacy. I told you
Speaker 1: should get that rash look at antibiotic for my daughter.
Speaker 1: And I went in there and I pulled up good
Speaker 1: rx and it saved me I don't know, like three
Speaker 1: dollars and fifty cents. It wasn't a ton of money,
Speaker 1: but it took me all the fifty three seconds, you know.
Speaker 1: But no joke. Trump Ourx is joining the ranks of
Speaker 1: discount medicine websites. The Wall Street Journal they love to
Speaker 1: jab him right now and they called him the pharmacist
Speaker 1: in Chief in one of their recent headlines. And we're
Speaker 1: just seeing a unique blend of capitalism and socialism coming
Speaker 1: down from the White House these days. The President himself,
Speaker 1: i guess, has negotiated deals directly with some drug companies,
Speaker 1: specifically Pfizer, to be able to offer discounted medicines to
Speaker 1: consumers through trump rx dot com. The details are vague,
Speaker 1: so we don't know exactly what this is going to
Speaker 1: look like or how much savings people are going to
Speaker 1: be able to realize. Truly, the threat of tariffs is
Speaker 1: ultimately what made this deal happen. Pfizer got like a
Speaker 1: three year exemption from the tariffs that are being threatened,
Speaker 1: and so this site is set to launch early next year.
Speaker 1: We'll be on the lookout for it. I'm curious, Matt,
Speaker 1: I am very curious to see what this entails and
Speaker 1: how much it can or will help people. How robust
Speaker 1: it's going to be. We'll see. I hope it says
Speaker 1: people money on expensive drugs, but there's also a lot
Speaker 1: of other websites out there that are already making hay
Speaker 1: in that space. Cost Plus Drugs, which Mark Cuban launched
Speaker 1: a few years back, is a big one in that space.
Speaker 1: Doesn't cover everything, that's for sure, but it's a great
Speaker 1: place to turn because they have a very costco esque
Speaker 1: approach where it's like a fifteen percent markup, which means
Speaker 1: that the drugs cost a fraction of what they're going
Speaker 1: to cost in a lot of other places that you
Speaker 1: that you might turn.
Speaker 3: And the best part is that that was launched by
Speaker 3: an individual, you know, capitalism baby, not by the federal government.
Speaker 3: And that's the problem. That's what rubs me the wrong
Speaker 3: way about going like do I want to see lower
Speaker 3: drug prices? Do I want to see lower healthcare prices
Speaker 3: for American citizens? Absolutely? But how we get there matters
Speaker 3: so much and so on.
Speaker 1: It also feels less like the government, by the way,
Speaker 1: and like an individual yeah, you know, which, like it'd
Speaker 1: be different if Congress was like, we're going to create
Speaker 1: this website and we're going to create some legulation around this.
Speaker 1: But it's one individual trying to launch, sure a website
Speaker 1: with their name with his name on it. Sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's the Obamacare equivalent where with his name plastered
Speaker 3: on this potential offering for folks. But either way, I
Speaker 3: mean in both cases, I still don't like it if
Speaker 3: it's coming from the top down, and so on a
Speaker 3: similar note, here's a potentially positive note, but we might
Speaker 3: be seeing fewer pharma ads on TV. The FDA director
Speaker 3: wrote an op ed in The New York Times about
Speaker 3: pharmaceutical ads, basically how they run a muck and how
Speaker 3: he's planning to rain them in. And the US is
Speaker 3: one of the two developed countries in the world that
Speaker 3: continues to allow direct advertising from pharmaceutical companies, which is fascinating.
Speaker 1: But New Zealand the other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Like what is it with us in New Zealand?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: And I certainly am totally on board with the fact
Speaker 3: that these commercials are annoying.
Speaker 1: They're stupid, they're so silly.
Speaker 3: It's just people like living their best lives and you know,
Speaker 3: you spend thirty seconds talking about all the side effect.
Speaker 1: Because of this farmer drug. Yeah yeah, and it's like
Speaker 1: it makes me happier. I might I kill over instantly
Speaker 1: by taking this drug? It was worth it wasn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that the last line in the article was
Speaker 3: that the billions of dollars drug companies spent on advertising
Speaker 3: it would be better spent a lowering drug prices for
Speaker 3: American consumers, which certainly sounds nice.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I think.
Speaker 3: What you have to ask yourself is where do you
Speaker 3: draw the line when it comes to what you're going
Speaker 3: to allow your government to decide for you? Right because
Speaker 3: and like this is this kind of mirror is the
Speaker 3: free speech conversations that we're having these days. It's really
Speaker 3: easy when you see something you don't like to say, yeah,
Speaker 3: they should shut that down. But what we need to
Speaker 3: do is imagine the shoe being on the other foot.
Speaker 3: And what we need to be thinking through is imagine
Speaker 3: a policy, Imagine a product, something that the government does
Speaker 3: or not does, but that's out there that you really like,
Speaker 3: and now think, oh, yeah, the folks on the other
Speaker 3: side of the aisle are going to say, yeah, let's
Speaker 3: shut that down because now we're in power. Is that
Speaker 3: the kind of power that we want our federal government
Speaker 3: to have. That's why I have such a hard time
Speaker 3: with Trump, rx with anything the federal government does. And
Speaker 3: I am all for Mark Cuban and all the different
Speaker 3: entrepreneurs out there doing awesome things on their own dime.
Speaker 3: They're the ones taking the risk as opposed to the government,
Speaker 3: the federal government taking the risk. And then and then
Speaker 3: us as US citizens as taxpayers, being saddled with the bill.
Speaker 1: I will say, the FDA director, he didn't say I'm
Speaker 1: going to outlaw them, but what he said was, there's
Speaker 1: actually we used to send letters to the pharmaceutical companies
Speaker 1: about truth and advertising claims. We don't really send those
Speaker 1: letters anymore. We've kind of like the cop isn't on
Speaker 1: the beat anymore, and some of the claims being made
Speaker 1: are pretty ostentatious, not not aligned with reality. And so
Speaker 1: he's saying, we're just gonna be on We're gonna be
Speaker 1: on it a little bit more. And I think that's
Speaker 1: that's probably.
Speaker 3: That just sounds like, don't make me count to three.
Speaker 3: But you know, because then what like, what does it
Speaker 3: come down to? It comes down to enforcement, and then
Speaker 3: what that costs money. And then at some point you
Speaker 3: have to decide what you're gonna allow what you're not
Speaker 3: gonna allow, Like I don't again, I'm totally on board
Speaker 3: with the fact that these commercials are so stupid. But
Speaker 3: let's just make one of them, right, Like, let's make
Speaker 3: it similar sway.
Speaker 1: By them, Let's make it so ridiculous in their doctor's
Speaker 1: office and they're like, hey, I know, and I think well,
Speaker 1: and that the hippocratic gath right, like that falls then
Speaker 1: upon the doctors to say, hey, let me tell you.
Speaker 3: What's actually best for you in this in this scenario.
Speaker 3: I understand why that's attractive, but as healthcare professionals, I
Speaker 3: think there should be I mean, then there is a
Speaker 3: high standard as to what it is that you're gonna
Speaker 3: do for your patients.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, good time. So we'll see what happens there.
Speaker 1: We'll be following this indeed, all right, that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for this episode. Map we'll put links to some
Speaker 1: of the stories that we mentioned in today's episode up
Speaker 1: on our website at health to money dot com. And
Speaker 1: we'll see you back here on Monday with a fresh
Speaker 1: ask how to Money episode. And if you have a
Speaker 1: question for us, a money question. Send it our way.
Speaker 1: We'd love to take it. Just record it on the
Speaker 1: voicemail map of your phone. Email it over to us
Speaker 1: at how to moneypot at gmail dot com. Until next time,
Speaker 1: best friends
Speaker 3: Out, Best friends Out,