Speaker 1: I mean, I'm probably with us even to start starting
Speaker 1: to talk. Now, let's do it. Then, I didn't even
Speaker 1: change out of my names, mean neither. We're both.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say sopping wet because the walk back from
Speaker 2: the beach definitely dried us off a little bit.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna start like this, Yeah, all right, welcome
Speaker 1: to how to Money? I get to say it this time, buddy.
Speaker 3: And we're back, we're back from sabbatical.
Speaker 1: What's what's funny is I don't I don't even know
Speaker 1: how to do it because you're the one who always says,
Speaker 1: welcome to how the money? You know, and I only say,
Speaker 1: and I am.
Speaker 2: That it's easier than you might imagine. It's actually not
Speaker 2: the toughest part of my job. You're incredibly talented, my friend.
Speaker 1: Uh No, this is an episode where we wanted to
Speaker 1: just ease listeners back into It's.
Speaker 3: Not like worries and back into it. It's honestly us. Yes,
Speaker 3: it's it's weirder for you.
Speaker 1: And me to sit down because we haven't hoarded in
Speaker 1: six seven weeks or something like that.
Speaker 3: I was like, Matt, remind me how to talk into
Speaker 3: a microphone again.
Speaker 1: It is a little bit different though, because we are
Speaker 1: at a beach house that our families so have rented.
Speaker 3: We do this every summer. And what's crazy is that
Speaker 3: in the I mean.
Speaker 1: The kids are older, they're out at the beach, and
Speaker 1: I mean Kate's out there with them, but they're.
Speaker 3: Kind of autonomous more and more. Granted, the little.
Speaker 1: Dudes are still young.
Speaker 3: They need less help than they.
Speaker 1: We are entering a new phase of game playing and
Speaker 1: we're like way past the phase of digging typools for
Speaker 1: the baby's kind of thing as opposed to like hitting
Speaker 1: the volleyball, playing some spike ball, swimming across the what's
Speaker 1: it the inlet, Yes, that's your favorite thing that you
Speaker 1: like to do.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I think our kids are staying
Speaker 2: up later than we are now, which is like for
Speaker 2: this is the first year ever where we've crossed that
Speaker 2: threshold and so like adult gameplay, that's gonna say.
Speaker 1: It's been most noticeable in the fact that we have
Speaker 1: not played one game of a choir. Yeah, which it's
Speaker 1: funny because we're sitting at the quote unquote game table
Speaker 1: and there's a game of Clue here that the kids
Speaker 1: left out because that's what they're playing, they're getting into
Speaker 1: the board games on their own. But how you been?
Speaker 3: I've been great.
Speaker 1: I mean, does it feel weird for you to get
Speaker 1: back on the mic a little bit?
Speaker 2: A little bit because it does feel like it's been
Speaker 2: a while. And I'm sure to our own answer, like
Speaker 2: we've heard you talking, but not fresh stuff, and so
Speaker 2: what have you been up to? And I feel like
Speaker 2: there is probably a lot for us to relay and
Speaker 2: as we've come back from our sabbaticals, our trips, and
Speaker 2: we'll share I think a lot here, but we'll also
Speaker 2: share more in the months to come about where we will.
Speaker 3: We'll have a lot of stories to regale. We're still probably.
Speaker 1: Know I'm still processing having taken a break more of
Speaker 1: a break, a summer break, honestly, like more in line
Speaker 1: with the kids.
Speaker 2: But how you there's actually a Facebook argument about sabbatical
Speaker 2: many retirement, the words that you use, Oh yeah, what
Speaker 2: can you call it? And so I totally would have
Speaker 2: been interested in in that argument because and I mentioned
Speaker 2: this at some point on one of the episodes, because
Speaker 2: Katie North and whoever else they're talking about sabbaticals typically
Speaker 2: being at least, you know, three months or plus like
Speaker 2: three to nine is at least at least a many retirement, right,
Speaker 2: So people were saying, if you're going to call it
Speaker 2: a many retirement, needs to be kind of longer like that.
Speaker 2: Sabbatical Sure, six eight weeks. Fine, So I guess that's
Speaker 2: probably what you and I really par took in. Was
Speaker 2: a sabbatical, not I call it a summer break.
Speaker 3: Was a summer break.
Speaker 1: Man. You want to share a little bit about your trip,
Speaker 1: because y'all took some of your time, and so that's
Speaker 1: the most recent thing, the most recent thing. Right before this,
Speaker 1: y'all came back from your trip. We came back for
Speaker 1: our trip. Maybe we'll share a little bit. Let's do
Speaker 1: that or adventures.
Speaker 2: And then maybe we'll get into kind of some bigger,
Speaker 2: deeper stuff that we've we've kind of been thinking about.
Speaker 2: But yeah, what's the most fun thing you did in
Speaker 2: the past two weeks? So I just want to say this.
Speaker 2: At the outset, we the first part of our sabbatical,
Speaker 2: we stayed home. It was staycation, yeah, and the second
Speaker 2: part was travels. And I was shocked at how much
Speaker 2: I enjoyed the staycation.
Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, the travel is.
Speaker 2: Gonna be the best part, and the travel is awesome.
Speaker 2: Thoroughly enjoyed it. But I really really enjoyed just kind
Speaker 2: of rhythms.
Speaker 1: At home, living in your own house, in your own town,
Speaker 1: doing the cool like stuff that you get to now
Speaker 1: participate in because you're not yeah, completely slammed booked.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was just like, oh, three pm, let's
Speaker 2: go to the pools of family whatever it is. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. So I really enjoyed that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: in regards to the trip, it was awesome. We were
Speaker 2: in Seattle for my cousin's wife, and I was reminded
Speaker 2: of how Seattle is one of the great cities, not
Speaker 2: just in the US but.
Speaker 1: In the world. It is.
Speaker 3: That's a beautiful one.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful town and chock full of craft beer
Speaker 2: of course too, which which makes me love it even more.
Speaker 1: Okay, so do you have what was the best brewery
Speaker 1: that you went to when you were out in Seattle?
Speaker 3: So did you do well?
Speaker 2: You were only there for a couple of days, only
Speaker 2: there for a couple of days, pick them up at
Speaker 2: the grocery store. But it didn't even make it even
Speaker 2: though I was in Ballard, which like you can't even
Speaker 2: turn around and not see a brewery your smack dab
Speaker 2: in the midst It's insane.
Speaker 1: Is that what the kids used to call the hipster
Speaker 1: part of town pretty much twenty years ago?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so like I think, Ballard had all these
Speaker 2: old warehouses, and so breweries just moved in and so
Speaker 2: I ran. I ran past at least like six of them,
Speaker 2: but didn't actually step foot in any of them. But
Speaker 2: I had a couple of good beers while I was there.
Speaker 2: But actually the best beers I had well when we
Speaker 2: went to Hawaii, which was our next stop on it.
Speaker 2: And one travel tip to save money, go travel someplace
Speaker 2: where one of your friends lives so you can stay
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 1: Ooh yeah, so hey, you don't mind if we crashed.
Speaker 1: So this is this is the it's not horseshoe theory.
Speaker 1: This is full circle for you. You went from crawd
Speaker 1: uh pad crashing to hostels to airbnb's, and now you
Speaker 1: took your family back to pad crash. Right.
Speaker 2: So, Emily's best friend lives just outside of Honolulu, and
Speaker 2: we stayed with them for four nights and we hit
Speaker 2: up a brewery. I'm blanking on the name. It's right
Speaker 2: there in downtown Honolulu. We had that beer just last night,
Speaker 2: the oh Han Mari or something like that. Yeah, gosh,
Speaker 2: they made some excellent beers that those were definitely the
Speaker 2: best beers.
Speaker 1: I had on the whole train.
Speaker 3: Nice and just Hawaii so wonderful. Of course.
Speaker 1: So I was up in the northeast, which is home
Speaker 1: to all the hazy New England I pas, of course,
Speaker 1: so I got some PARTI I mean, oh my gosh, dude.
Speaker 3: I had your sending me picks.
Speaker 1: I was all the greats of course, Trillium, of course,
Speaker 1: Bistol Brothers two. Okay, so two standouts that I was
Speaker 1: not expecting that we literally stumbled upon were Hudson Valley Brewing,
Speaker 1: which was in Beacon, New York. That's in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 1: Of course, phenomenal, so good them, as well as Bellflower,
Speaker 1: which was I think it's a newer brewery in Portland, Maine. Okay,
Speaker 1: both of the of course, we had some Maine Beer
Speaker 1: Company beers while we're up in Maine up in Acadia.
Speaker 1: But those other two breweries though, were total standouts.
Speaker 2: Portland's one of those hip towns too, where they've got
Speaker 2: a plethora of good beer up there.
Speaker 1: In the same part of town. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, so.
Speaker 3: That was huge for us for sure.
Speaker 2: I'm curious for you and we can get into a
Speaker 2: bunch of different stuff here, But what was maybe your
Speaker 2: did you have like a favorite part of your trip,
Speaker 2: like the best favorite.
Speaker 3: Leg is your best day?
Speaker 1: Oh see, you're putting all this pressure on one singular day.
Speaker 1: I don't think I can narrow it down to a
Speaker 1: specific day because I feel like we took our I
Speaker 1: don't know, we did a whole lot in two weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a road trip, which let me just share
Speaker 1: with folks too that man, and we knew this going
Speaker 1: into it. But a road trip is not a vacation.
Speaker 1: A road trip is an adventure and every waking moment
Speaker 1: and I feel like, was Kate and I talking about
Speaker 1: our next steps. We had plans, we had itineries, we
Speaker 1: had tickets booked, but then it's us saying, oh man,
Speaker 1: we really went hard yesterday though, like are we actually
Speaker 1: going to do everything we had planned? And kind of
Speaker 1: making decisions on the fly, trying to figure out where
Speaker 1: are the bathrooms, where.
Speaker 3: Can we refill their water bottles.
Speaker 1: It's just constant, You're just constantly on edge, which means
Speaker 1: don't come back. No.
Speaker 3: No, it was a ton of fun, but just a
Speaker 3: lot of on the go.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to pinpoint it to a specific day,
Speaker 1: but I feel like a theme, I'll say a theme
Speaker 1: something that we just consistently did with the kids was
Speaker 1: that they were regularly trying new foods and being exposed
Speaker 1: to different things.
Speaker 3: So, whether it's like.
Speaker 1: Lobster what do you call the lobster rolls, whether it's
Speaker 1: that that we stumbled upon that we learned about this
Speaker 1: beach a few let's see, maybe at the beginning of
Speaker 1: summer York Maine, so we just were like, oh, maybe
Speaker 1: we'll swing swing by up there, and we ended up
Speaker 1: spending way more time up there, stumbled upon the awesome
Speaker 1: crab shack. I think it was Foxes actually, okay, beautiful
Speaker 1: lighthouse right there.
Speaker 3: It was just I don't know this.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. Kids all tried lobster for the first time, Yes, oysters.
Speaker 1: That was in Boston where we're like, all right, all
Speaker 1: y'all are gonna try raw oysters, and just doing some
Speaker 1: of those experiences with the kids. Aside from I think
Speaker 1: a lot of folks would think, oh was it seen
Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence. Yes, that was awesome. So was
Speaker 1: seeing George Washington's copy in the what was that I
Speaker 1: guess that was the Library of Congress.
Speaker 2: So you were singing the praises about Abraham Lincoln's pocket knife.
Speaker 1: We oh, we got to see well, yeah, the contents
Speaker 1: in his pocket. That's also there in the in the library,
Speaker 1: the Congressional lib what's it called, the Congresstional libraries, especially
Speaker 1: attached to.
Speaker 3: The Capitol building. That was super cool.
Speaker 1: That was really cool for me personally, going, oh, we
Speaker 1: got tickets you reach Oh hey, so here's a tip
Speaker 1: for folks. Reach out to your local representative, local senator
Speaker 1: in your state, and you get tickets to a lot
Speaker 1: of places in DC for free. You just have to
Speaker 1: get on the radar. So obviously the Sithsonian and all
Speaker 1: those different places they're free. But the ability to go
Speaker 1: tour the capital, you know, like not as a rioter,
Speaker 1: like where you're walking through, I mean, when.
Speaker 3: You're actually allowed to be there. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: It's it's all inspiring because it's I think it's like
Speaker 1: the closest thing I think we have in the US too,
Speaker 1: like a cathedral, like a Gothic can get mean it's massive,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Did your congress person asked if you voted for them before?
Speaker 1: They said yes, no, you know, it's just one of
Speaker 1: their one of their interns that they were just like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, we actually have a few passes that we
Speaker 1: can give you. That's cool. So that was a ton
Speaker 1: of fun that specific day there. DC also just a
Speaker 1: cheap place to visit. Oh yeah, a plethora of awesome
Speaker 1: stuff for very little money. Also in DC, we went
Speaker 1: to Kate's just amazing when it comes to food and
Speaker 1: planning trips out. We went to jose Gosh what's his
Speaker 1: last name?
Speaker 3: We talked and Andrece.
Speaker 1: Yes, he's got this taco place in DC that's like
Speaker 1: right between it's like right off the mall. Had an
Speaker 1: awesome time there with the kids. It was just it
Speaker 1: was fun because it was slightly more refined food that
Speaker 1: Kate and I could both enjoy, but the kids were
Speaker 1: digging it as well. They tried beef tongue there for
Speaker 1: their first time, so they're like, what's is that an
Speaker 1: actual tongue of a cow.
Speaker 3: We're like, yeah, and it's really good.
Speaker 1: They know what they're doing here. Uh. Some of those
Speaker 1: culinary experiences really stand out, but obviously just being able
Speaker 1: to learn a whole lot about our country because it
Speaker 1: was kind of a quasi US history sort of road trip, which.
Speaker 3: Is taking them up, taking them to World Schooling during the.
Speaker 1: Summer, and taking them up to Acadia, which is the
Speaker 1: place that Kate and I have been to before, having
Speaker 1: prosecco and popovers at Jordan Pond like that, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. It was a great trip for us.
Speaker 1: But like you, so I wanted to lude back to
Speaker 1: what you were saying as far as living kind of
Speaker 1: like quasi normal life at home and having just more
Speaker 1: time in your hands.
Speaker 3: I'm totally with you, man, It's great. It's so nice
Speaker 3: to be able to have downtime.
Speaker 1: And for us Kate and I, I mean, we love
Speaker 1: working on projects at home, and so I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of that time, like doing stuff around the house
Speaker 1: that I normally don't.
Speaker 3: Have time to do. Or you were in the yard
Speaker 3: a ton too.
Speaker 1: I was in the yard a ton. Well you know,
Speaker 1: you know the problem is that Kate ordered a chip drop,
Speaker 1: which is free, and you know this because you were
Speaker 1: actually you you pitched in a little bit. You're like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll shovel af you not more than a few shoveled
Speaker 1: several wheelbarrows full of moulsh and hauled them to far
Speaker 1: corners of our of our Backyardeah. Yeah, just doing stuff
Speaker 1: like that, being able to hang with the kids at home,
Speaker 1: that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: The one thing I didn't get checked off my to
Speaker 2: do list was to clean out our garage.
Speaker 3: Well, I was on your list. It's still on my list.
Speaker 3: I'll get to it at some point.
Speaker 1: Your garage isn't really messy, it's.
Speaker 2: Not too bad, but like, I really want to organize
Speaker 2: my tools and stuff, and I just look at you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: getting tired of not being able to find stuff when
Speaker 2: I need it. So I say the cool I think
Speaker 2: maybe if I was to pick one of the coolest things.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, what it was.
Speaker 1: We went to.
Speaker 2: Volcanoes National Park and there are episodic eruptions right now,
Speaker 2: you got to talk about that volcano there, and so
Speaker 2: it's uh, we actually got to see a live lava flow.
Speaker 2: It's literally lava erupting into the sky and it was crazy.
Speaker 2: It was one of those things where we kind of
Speaker 2: got in earlier than we thought. The airbnb we're going
Speaker 2: to stay out wasn't ready and see, let's just National
Speaker 2: Parks two miles up the road.
Speaker 1: Let's go blessing in disguise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was totally was because we got to see it
Speaker 2: and it cut off before dark that night, so we
Speaker 2: got to see it for a couple hours from different angles.
Speaker 1: Literally not even interrupt the rest of the time you're there.
Speaker 3: And the rest of the shutout.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it was serendipitous and it's one of those
Speaker 2: cool things that none of us will ever forget.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the thing. You can't necessarily plan on that.
Speaker 1: Like you can plan a trip to Hawaii, but you
Speaker 1: can't plan on there being a lava flow because that's
Speaker 1: up to mother nature. Man. Yeah, and okay, so the
Speaker 1: time that we're recording this, there was also like more
Speaker 1: action going down there in Hawaii or I.
Speaker 2: Guess it was the Warner tsunami warning. Yeah, like it
Speaker 2: seems like why I avoided the worst there for sure,
Speaker 2: and and everybody else to it sounds like minimal impact anywhere.
Speaker 1: But that still would have been crazy, like a tsunami siren.
Speaker 1: It's got the alliteration. So I know you love it,
Speaker 1: but you probably would have been a little frightening there
Speaker 1: with the kids. Yeah right, oh, my kids will have.
Speaker 3: Been freaking out.
Speaker 2: The biggest money saving tip on what you got the island,
Speaker 2: either the Big Island or Owahu, but especially the Big
Speaker 2: Island is have a costcome membership. Really yeah, so not
Speaker 2: only just to breeze and get a hot dog if
Speaker 2: you're hungry or whatever, which you can do for sure.
Speaker 1: You know. Still our family still has not had a Costco. H.
Speaker 2: I'm trying not to judge you for that. So breeze
Speaker 2: in there and get that. But the biggest thing is
Speaker 2: everything on Hawaii is significantly more expensive. Sure, so you
Speaker 2: want to drop in and get a beer, a single
Speaker 2: beer X you think, maybe not two X, but it's
Speaker 2: definitely more expensive. And Costco keeps their prices the same
Speaker 2: on the island of Hawaii as they do on the mainland.
Speaker 3: I bet it's so popular there.
Speaker 2: So like my cold brew the two pac same prices
Speaker 2: when I get it, the Stoke Stoke cold Brew, same
Speaker 2: exact price, same with like loaves of bread or whatever.
Speaker 1: Impressive.
Speaker 2: They have certain other things that they sell only in Hawaii,
Speaker 2: which is cool, so you can get some local stuff.
Speaker 3: Local flavor. Yeah, but I really appreciate that, and so.
Speaker 1: I was like, thank god, I don't have to drink
Speaker 1: some local like Hawaiian coffee.
Speaker 3: I can get my stoke cold brew.
Speaker 2: We were trying to do, especially in on the Big Island,
Speaker 2: we were trying to do more of our eating at home,
Speaker 2: and so we're.
Speaker 3: Like, let's that's played some groceries.
Speaker 2: We landed, went straight to Costco and got a bunch
Speaker 2: of stuff so we could cook meals.
Speaker 1: All right, okay, so our I'll share a travel money
Speaker 1: saving tip. So this is so predictable people are gonna say.
Speaker 1: Of course, Joel talked about Costco and Matt talked about Aldie.
Speaker 2: Because look, get this, guess we're not sponsored by them,
Speaker 2: so sadly we.
Speaker 3: Just love it.
Speaker 1: We were just out on the beach, so literally, you
Speaker 1: don't have a shirt on. My trunks are soaking wet.
Speaker 1: We just jumped back in here to record a little bit.
Speaker 1: Just before we came in, we looked over and there's
Speaker 1: a couple and he had an Aldie bag. Looked like
Speaker 1: they had all the beach chairs and maybe it seemed
Speaker 1: like one of them had an Aldie bathing suit.
Speaker 3: Does that even exist? It was all like the Aldie Rainbow.
Speaker 2: I wonder if they worked for Aldi Corporate or something.
Speaker 2: We need to go ask them when they go back Aldie.
Speaker 1: Schwag, Yeah, what was Oh so mine is Aldi related?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, guess how many times we ate
Speaker 3: because we'd love eating at Chick fil A?
Speaker 1: Like, if we're going to drive to the beach, that's
Speaker 1: probably going to be our stop for lunch, right, like
Speaker 1: we're gonna put our order in.
Speaker 3: Guess so many times we ate Chick fil A on
Speaker 3: the road trip?
Speaker 1: Twice?
Speaker 3: Zero, baby, oh zero.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't even something that we were trying to do.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like this is going to be great fodder
Speaker 1: for the show. It literally didn't cross our minds because
Speaker 1: we had planned on and we did this earlier in
Speaker 1: the summer. We went up to Michigan Lake Michigan for
Speaker 1: some time with family, but we stopped at Aldi on
Speaker 1: the way back and not only bought groceries that we
Speaker 1: knew that we needed for back home, like eggs and milk, right,
Speaker 1: like just some basics, but we said, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: let's just stop in there and we'll get food for
Speaker 1: dinner as well, and put together kind of a meal
Speaker 1: on the road, and we're so much more food, better
Speaker 1: quality stuff than fast food, you know then stuff that's
Speaker 1: that's deep fried, and you're saving just a ton of money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean our typical Chick fil a order, there's six
Speaker 1: of us. Our typical order is like fifty bucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's just for fast food, and it's not well rounded.
Speaker 1: There's not whole, not granted, there's protein, right, And so
Speaker 1: we took that mindset, and so for the road trip,
Speaker 1: Kate brought a big baking tray to be able to
Speaker 1: load up these little lunch boxes, like these little they're plastic.
Speaker 1: They look like tupperware their subdivide lunchibles, yeah basically, but
Speaker 1: like homemade lunchables. Yeah, and I filled with all the
Speaker 1: worst things that So we would stop at ald and
Speaker 1: get a block of cheese.
Speaker 3: We would get gosh, what else would we do?
Speaker 1: Nuts, cured meats, like vegetables, chopped like clean uh. We
Speaker 1: got bottled water right, like kind of clean off like cucumbers,
Speaker 1: slice that up. And so we did that a ton
Speaker 1: on the road and say, I know, we saved a
Speaker 1: ton of money. We're we're eating so much better, so
Speaker 1: much less expensive, I know, than Chick fil a. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't even know, because Kate's the one that calls ahead,
Speaker 1: you know, she uses the app and places with the
Speaker 1: Chick fil A order. But it's at least I'm certain
Speaker 1: it's at least fifty bucks, if not more.
Speaker 3: I'm sure a pop. Yeah, that's not We did that
Speaker 3: a ton and for us.
Speaker 1: That was in addition to Oh, one of the AMA
Speaker 1: questions I think was about, hey, are you gonna rent
Speaker 1: a car or are you going to take the old man?
Speaker 2: Let's let's talk about your car rental. Yep, let's do
Speaker 2: it right after this. All right, we're back, Matt. We
Speaker 2: left off you were a car rental talk about your
Speaker 2: car rental. I dropped you off at the car rental place. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it turns out, Oh, it was a nightmare. You
Speaker 2: did not end up running your car there.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't even though you had one booked.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to throw the company
Speaker 1: under the bus, because maybe they're decent, but this particular location,
Speaker 1: they took my car rental reservation, but they couldn't hold it.
Speaker 1: As Jerry Seinfeld would would say, right, is that how
Speaker 1: it goes?
Speaker 3: It's one of the classic episodes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so they're like, well, we can offer you
Speaker 1: a nicer vehicle, this grand It was a Grand Highlander,
Speaker 1: I will say, and it looked nice. I was even
Speaker 1: tempted because I thought, I'm never going to have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to drive over long distance in a leather It
Speaker 1: was just really nice. But I was like, no, there's
Speaker 1: no luggage space, the ability to move around in the vehicle.
Speaker 1: So anyway, we ended up going with a van, a
Speaker 1: Chrysler pacifica rental with Avis. It was great, and specifically
Speaker 1: we got a hybrid, which was also very nice. To
Speaker 1: talk about some savings.
Speaker 3: Driving that many miles, yeah, I will.
Speaker 1: Say, though I did some quick math, we save some money,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't a tremendous amount. I don't think we
Speaker 1: saved much more than too much.
Speaker 3: Do you think you saved on that?
Speaker 1: I think we said around two hundred bucks tw hundred
Speaker 1: bucks and gas, which isn't nothing. Yeah, but you know
Speaker 1: you're you're dropping like around one thousand bucks on a rental,
Speaker 1: Like I wouldn't go out of my way to go
Speaker 1: to get extra, to pay extra in order to get
Speaker 1: a hybrid. When it's like, all right, if we were
Speaker 1: driving our vehicle, maybe I'm getting like twenty miles per
Speaker 1: gallon in an old traditional you know, mini van as
Speaker 1: opposed to something closer to thirty in a hybrid, because
Speaker 1: the hybrid doesn't work so well when you're driving higher
Speaker 1: speeds on the interestate, it's great for driving around town
Speaker 1: because when you're driving around town, that's when the that's true,
Speaker 1: that's when the little low power motor kind of thing
Speaker 1: kicks on and you're getting like thirty five miles thirty
Speaker 1: five to thirty seven miles per gallon.
Speaker 3: But it was nice.
Speaker 1: I loved watching that little power meter thing there on
Speaker 1: the I would I think I would get addicted to that.
Speaker 3: But if I had a hybrid, I would always be like, dude,
Speaker 3: I want to get the leave.
Speaker 1: I want to be in the green.
Speaker 3: I want to constantly be regenerative, breaking like you're hyper
Speaker 3: miling it.
Speaker 1: Yes, I will say, getting back into traditional vehicle like
Speaker 1: standard disc brakes seem so antiquated. Yeah, I'm like, why
Speaker 1: not use this stored energy that is in the mass
Speaker 1: of our vehicle trying to slow down to generate power.
Speaker 1: Sure doesn't that seem like a no brainer?
Speaker 3: It does.
Speaker 1: I feel like all cars should be equipped with regenitative braking.
Speaker 2: I rented one of those new Jeeps on hawaii'se Jeps
Speaker 2: are the way to get around.
Speaker 1: Come on, if you're in Hawaii, yeah, you should be
Speaker 1: driving a jeep around.
Speaker 2: And so it's got a little like a little battery
Speaker 2: in there that they I guess you can drive it
Speaker 2: in just electric mode or in hybrid mode, but it's
Speaker 2: like kind of pathetic, Like the battery is so tiny.
Speaker 2: It's it lasts like about two minutes.
Speaker 3: In electric road was literally in two minutes.
Speaker 2: It's it's not long at all. It's it's yeah, probably
Speaker 2: close to that, and then hybrid mode it maybe lasts
Speaker 2: like thirty five to forty minutes.
Speaker 3: So okay, it's kind of pathetic.
Speaker 1: But if you had it at home, though, do you
Speaker 1: think it would be enough for you to run an erran.
Speaker 3: Let's say you're going to the grocery store back. Maybe
Speaker 3: it's not that kind of like what it's geared for.
Speaker 2: I think so, But I don't think it's even as
Speaker 2: robust as like the the plug in hybrids that Toyota offers,
Speaker 2: for instance, like the rap those be more like forty
Speaker 2: miles worth.
Speaker 1: That's the difference between jeeps and toyotas man toyota like
Speaker 1: they've been perfecting the hybrid, yeah, for and now they
Speaker 1: prime right, like the plug in evs or whatever, the
Speaker 1: plug in hybrids. They've been perfecting that for twenty plus
Speaker 1: years now. As opposed to some of these newer guys
Speaker 1: that were like, oh, yeah, maybe we'll take advantage of
Speaker 1: the EV taxings, you know, all the incentives that are
Speaker 1: getting poured into green vehicles.
Speaker 2: My question for you, yeah, how much did you miss
Speaker 2: talking about personal finance? And did you find yourself maybe
Speaker 2: talking about roth iras as you were going.
Speaker 3: To sleep, just just.
Speaker 1: A nobody, just to yourself, just a random guy waiting
Speaker 1: in line on this methoda calling your.
Speaker 3: Random friends to give them finance tips or anything like that.
Speaker 1: No, I never feel myself tempted tempted to do that.
Speaker 1: I will say, though, I'm trying to unpack as to
Speaker 1: because we were trying to treat this as this abbatical,
Speaker 1: not just as a time to take some bigger trips,
Speaker 1: but within that and.
Speaker 3: You say that, what do you mean, what's the difference, Well.
Speaker 1: Well, having more time to take trips is fun, right,
Speaker 1: as opposed to like, all right, going on a three
Speaker 1: day silent retreat where you're just really getting a lot
Speaker 1: more introspective. I don't know. Maybe I was just too
Speaker 1: ambitious with the time to be able to do absolutely nothing,
Speaker 1: because even the time where I was supposed to do
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing at home, I'm like, oh, I could use
Speaker 1: the time to put a laundry room sync in our
Speaker 1: laundry room, which is something I did, and it was
Speaker 1: a ton of fun. It was a little frustrating at times,
Speaker 1: almost electricated to myself. Maybe I'll say that for say
Speaker 1: that start for some other time. But claud you're still here.
Speaker 1: I'm still here. I didn't. Yeah, it's all good. It
Speaker 1: was a two twenty line too. It was too the dryer,
Speaker 1: so it was like higher voltage. I think it could
Speaker 1: have been bad. But I can safely say that I
Speaker 1: definitely miss recording. I missed doing what it is that
Speaker 1: you and I get to do here. It's and obviously
Speaker 1: it's a blessing to be able to a be our
Speaker 1: own bosses, but then be within that framework to have
Speaker 1: the ability to step away from our work for the
Speaker 1: summer and say, all right, let's spend some time, you know,
Speaker 1: for you like training a little bit more, maybe going
Speaker 1: for more runs, spending more time with friends, spending time
Speaker 1: with family, just chilling out, reading more. Yeah, the ability
Speaker 1: to take some of these bigger trips that you otherwise wouldn't, right,
Speaker 1: like as opposed to going out to Seattle and just
Speaker 1: kind of flying back real quick.
Speaker 3: You're like, hey, we're already out.
Speaker 1: Here on the West coast, baby, let's let's fly it
Speaker 1: down to Hawaii. The ability and the blessing, it is
Speaker 1: a blessing for I think our ability to do something
Speaker 1: like that same thing with taking a two week long
Speaker 1: road trip and to not feel confbited up right to
Speaker 1: the very start of it and the very end of it, right,
Speaker 1: to be able to say, all right, we can kind
Speaker 1: of think about this well, prepare for it, and then
Speaker 1: when you come home, it's like you can also, all right,
Speaker 1: let's take some time to kind of reacclimate to home life,
Speaker 1: and like, all right, let's just sleep in tomorrow, just
Speaker 1: all the kind of you'll come back on a Sunday
Speaker 1: and get back to real life on a Monday, exactly.
Speaker 1: And that's hard and so man that I certainly most
Speaker 1: definitely appreciate and within that sort of within thinking about that,
Speaker 1: certainly missed being able to talk into the microphone with
Speaker 1: you about the things that we love care about and
Speaker 1: the ability to bring money saving information and money investing
Speaker 1: information and all the things that we love to talk
Speaker 1: about here on the podcast to our listeners.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, what about you. Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 2: I was like, I thought I was going to have
Speaker 2: like withdrawal symptoms or something like that, shake something away,
Speaker 2: like three weeks not talking me into a microphone about
Speaker 2: personal finance with my buddy.
Speaker 3: The going's going to happen.
Speaker 1: The good news is that, babe, we're on vacation. The
Speaker 1: bad news is I started smoking.
Speaker 2: I had had to find a habit to take over
Speaker 2: my other habit, which is my day job. But no, like,
Speaker 2: I'm actually super stoked about getting back into a rhythm
Speaker 2: of kids in school, going into work and recording and
Speaker 2: talking about personal I do love it.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I will say I was still reading a similar amount
Speaker 2: to maybe what I read on a daily basis, just
Speaker 2: because I'm it's a passive subject. I'm not just passionate,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't just get paid to do. I'm
Speaker 2: also passionate about it. Yeah, but I just I feel
Speaker 2: like I was able to get away to such an
Speaker 2: extent that I wasn't missing it. I was like I
Speaker 2: was glad to be away, but also the looking forward
Speaker 2: to being back when the time came.
Speaker 3: I get that, which I shit, that felt great.
Speaker 1: I definitely wasn't reading as Oh, I'll be honest, I
Speaker 1: wasn't not reading as much. I was reading as much
Speaker 1: total perhaps or maybe more. I'm still in the I'm
Speaker 1: in the middle of The Brother's Cameras Off, which is
Speaker 1: a really long It's a freaking yeah it is. It's
Speaker 1: like over a thousand pages, and so I'm like, I
Speaker 1: feel like I've been reading this for a month. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm maybe halfway through. Wasn't it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't it Laura Vandercamp that told us she read war
Speaker 2: in Peace or in Piece daily Emails?
Speaker 1: I think that's even longer. Actually, that's crazy, which.
Speaker 3: Which, by the way, what are you reading? Are you
Speaker 3: in the middle of anything?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 2: I'm reading Rick Rubin's book on creativity Nice, which is
Speaker 2: super super interesting and it makes me Last year you yeah,
Speaker 2: and you and I have actually been talking about do
Speaker 2: we love what we do? But like, hey, can we
Speaker 2: come back to this podcast with fresh eyes with it
Speaker 2: with a different approach? And I think we will, like
Speaker 2: I think we will continue. I think in a fresh passion.
Speaker 2: Even I'm like, yeah, actually super stoked to get away
Speaker 2: from it, and I'll come back to it and be like,
Speaker 2: all right, what can we do to improve this thing
Speaker 2: that we love that it's been around for seven plus years.
Speaker 1: It's fun to take breaks, yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that's part of it too. It's I mean, it's fun
Speaker 1: from the sense of like you get to do fun
Speaker 1: things while you're taking time off. But it's also fun
Speaker 1: to kind of look at it with fresh eyes, being
Speaker 1: able to take a break from it and being like, oh,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, no this And I think that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I guess where I'm at right now as
Speaker 1: I think about it, I'm just like, this is awesome,
Speaker 1: like what we get to do on.
Speaker 2: A on a you know, day in and day out,
Speaker 2: and even if you're thankful and you know you love it,
Speaker 2: sometimes when you're in the weeds of day to day
Speaker 2: stuff and then it's harder to see totally.
Speaker 1: Can it can be tougher to be appreciative, I will say,
Speaker 1: taking more time to appreciate other things in life. Does
Speaker 1: I still obviously, I still want to be able to
Speaker 1: do what we do. It does also make me want
Speaker 1: to make sure I'm setting aside enough time to do
Speaker 1: other things that I have been able to expose myself to,
Speaker 1: like art, for instance. Like I was like talking with
Speaker 1: Kate about this, I'm like, you.
Speaker 3: Know, entering into your George Bush era.
Speaker 1: I see, but I mean maybe, but like literally like
Speaker 1: we spent way more time in galleries and appreciating art
Speaker 1: and learning about artists like gosh, the Farnsworth Art Museum
Speaker 1: has this incredible Andrew Wyath collection and somewhat familiar with
Speaker 1: him before, but really like diving into I'm like, I
Speaker 1: recently started a book that was this six day interview
Speaker 1: of him. This was actually a book that's that was
Speaker 1: in Kate's family that an uncle gave her Kate's grandmother,
Speaker 1: and she was just like, well, don't take this one
Speaker 1: out to the beach. She's like, make sure this one
Speaker 1: kind of was like a family not a family heirloom,
Speaker 1: but it means something more but art, right, So the
Speaker 1: ability to I don't know, carve more and I don't
Speaker 1: know what exactly that looks like, but does it look
Speaker 1: like more of an appreciation for I certainly have that.
Speaker 1: So how can I continue that does it look like
Speaker 1: thinking through Oh, I kind of started out my career
Speaker 1: basically as a visual artist, as a graphic designer, then
Speaker 1: moving into photography. Well, what does it look like another
Speaker 1: stage of that, even where I am incorporating more of
Speaker 1: that into my life. These are questions I'm like asking
Speaker 1: myself now where I'm like, man, I don't know, there's
Speaker 1: something that there's Maybe life is too short to not
Speaker 1: appreciate some of the beauty, like the most beautiful things
Speaker 1: that that's out there, that are out there in the world,
Speaker 1: and certainly going to the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art,
Speaker 1: going to different sponsor along the East Coast has allowed
Speaker 1: me to realize how much is out there. Gosh, the
Speaker 1: Isabella Stewart Gardner, Like Kate and I were talking to
Speaker 1: you and sounds amazing you and Emily about that an
Speaker 1: amazing place. The if you've never been there and you're
Speaker 1: in Boston, I would highly recommend it if you want
Speaker 1: an incredible story with this private collection of art that
Speaker 1: you get to tour. But it does make me want to.
Speaker 1: I think the break has allowed me to see that
Speaker 1: as well, that like what you do like from nine
Speaker 1: to five, like that's good, but also this there's a
Speaker 1: lot of other stuff in life that is also good.
Speaker 1: And as we are, we've been talking a little bit
Speaker 1: about the kids with ramping back up for school and
Speaker 1: they're taking on additional pursuits, whether it's sports or different
Speaker 1: clubs and things that they want to do, and it's like, heck, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want you to do all these things, like this
Speaker 1: is awesome. How can I support you? Like I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about them from a development standpoint, because like, you know,
Speaker 1: that's what you do as parents, right, Like we've had
Speaker 1: our parents who have poured into us and that has
Speaker 1: led to our own development. And obviously we do that
Speaker 1: by like taking care of our kids and feeding them,
Speaker 1: taking them to school and stuff like that, but finding
Speaker 1: a way to kind of partner with them broad their
Speaker 1: horizon their own development. Yeah, Like I think I've got
Speaker 1: a renewed passion for that as well, especially as I
Speaker 1: think about them launching. You know, they're all starting new
Speaker 1: grades now, so it's like, oh, man, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: to start learning about this.
Speaker 3: Oh you're playing this sport.
Speaker 1: Oh you are entering school for the first time, buddy,
Speaker 1: Like that's something that's totally new, Like yeah, both for
Speaker 1: our little dudes are entering into kindergarten, which is a
Speaker 1: ton of fun.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things traveled does for you too,
Speaker 2: and this is something we kept talking about with our kids,
Speaker 2: is it helps you to realize that there are so
Speaker 2: many different ways to live this life, right, And like
Speaker 2: we took surfing lessons one day when we were in
Speaker 2: a hot that was like our big explurage item. It
Speaker 2: was Sama's birthday and we're like, all right, go surfing
Speaker 2: and it was super cool. And of course the guy
Speaker 2: John who does our surfing lessons, the stereotypical Hawaiian surfer dude,
Speaker 2: and he was so fun to hang out with and
Speaker 2: he used all the lino not because I think he
Speaker 2: was trying to imitate one, but because he legit is
Speaker 2: a surfer dude. And you just realize, like that he's
Speaker 2: got this small business taking people out surfing. That's what
Speaker 2: he does, and he does decently well for himself, but
Speaker 2: he gets to do the thing he enjoins every single
Speaker 2: day and that is pretty magical too. He's living the
Speaker 2: dream and there are just so many ways to live
Speaker 2: this life. And I love when I travel seeing the
Speaker 2: different kinds of ways people have chosen to live life,
Speaker 2: and it makes me want to reconsider too, not like
Speaker 2: shake things up completely, because I'm pretty happy with the
Speaker 2: way my life looks, but it's also one of those
Speaker 2: things where it's a good reminder that it's not the
Speaker 2: only way, or it's not the way that it has
Speaker 2: to look forever. Yeah, shaking things up, iterating are all
Speaker 2: a part of what it looks like to think to
Speaker 2: live a meaningful life, and experiencing that through other people
Speaker 2: is one of the great benefits of travel.
Speaker 3: Well you speak.
Speaker 1: You talking about surfing has got me thinking about a
Speaker 1: recurring theme with this beach trip, which I would call
Speaker 1: the beach trip where we learned about tides, because like,
Speaker 1: ties are like this mystery, right, and now every day
Speaker 1: you and I are like, oh.
Speaker 3: Well, how long before high tide before low tide?
Speaker 1: Because we found out we started playing with our garment
Speaker 1: watches that there's a tide feature that.
Speaker 2: You can turn on and put on the watch phase
Speaker 2: or whatever. So I'm like a tide pro now. Oh
Speaker 2: and one other thing that I think we should remark
Speaker 2: about this trip. We talk a lot about on the
Speaker 2: show about livestock creep and how kind of once you
Speaker 2: incorporate a new method of spending intr like, it's truly
Speaker 2: hard to dial it back down. Hey, you start hiring
Speaker 2: someone to your lawn service, really hard to fire them
Speaker 2: and start mowing your lawn again. Well, we actually on
Speaker 2: the house and we downgraded significantly this year, maybe not significantly,
Speaker 2: but price wise significantly almost half price, almost half the price.
Speaker 2: But we found a great place. It's like, literally three
Speaker 2: house is down from the one we stayed at. And
Speaker 2: so I think that's one of those things too. It
Speaker 2: doesn't have the amenities, it doesn't it's not as fancified,
Speaker 2: but it's one of those things where it's like we kind.
Speaker 3: Of it's great, we're so good. We're sitting here and
Speaker 3: it did what do we want from a beach house?
Speaker 3: And we're like, yeah, that place was over the top,
Speaker 3: let's get this one instead.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a reconsidering and just kind of talking
Speaker 1: it through, just be like do we want to keep
Speaker 1: doing that? Like can we sure we could afford it?
Speaker 1: We could plunk down the change, we could splurge, but yeah,
Speaker 1: this I honestly, there are certain aspects about this house,
Speaker 1: even though it is literally half the price.
Speaker 2: Of the one that we've gotten in the past. There
Speaker 2: are certain aspects of it that are better, yeah than
Speaker 2: the functional.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it's more functional.
Speaker 1: It's it's more suited for two families like ours to
Speaker 1: get together and hang out at the beach. But the
Speaker 1: other crazy thing, too, is that it's like, like you said,
Speaker 1: three houses down and I guess I'll share this part.
Speaker 1: And I told you that when we that. I guess
Speaker 1: it was the night that we arrived here that I
Speaker 1: didn't want to walk the same way to pass the
Speaker 1: big fancy house because we're probably going to be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: to feel like a.
Speaker 3: Stab in our heart.
Speaker 1: Except that the first day we did walk past it,
Speaker 1: and it's Nina, how would you say it? It's under
Speaker 1: reconni It is not habitable at the moment because I
Speaker 1: guess when it was built they didn't seal it property.
Speaker 1: So there's like scaffolding all around this house and it
Speaker 1: looks like a total dump. And this total dump doesn't
Speaker 1: bother me. But what bothers me is the fact that
Speaker 1: had we booked it, we would have likely gotten kicked
Speaker 1: out of there. Sure we would have gotten our money back,
Speaker 1: but we likely wouldn't have found I mean this place
Speaker 1: probably would have been snatched up by that point.
Speaker 2: I felt bad too, just because there's a lot of
Speaker 2: good memories in that house and you're like, oh man,
Speaker 2: it'll sucks to that house.
Speaker 3: Well, it's clear that.
Speaker 1: They're going to return it to its former glory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's like this, Yeah, it's a fancy house.
Speaker 2: We'll just leave it at that. All that to be said,
Speaker 2: we are back. We are looking forward to resuming regular content.
Speaker 2: We got many emails people like, what did the Friday
Speaker 2: Flights return? So I think I don't know if that's
Speaker 2: like the most desire.
Speaker 3: What happened to the Friday Flights?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Well, well that'll come out two days from now, is
Speaker 3: coming out on Wednesday, and we'll be back here on Friday.
Speaker 1: The problem with the Friday Flights is just the fact that,
Speaker 1: I mean, when we are running Besties, you can run
Speaker 1: an old interview episode, you can run a topic that
Speaker 1: we you know, where we dove deep. No one, I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody wants to hear yesterday's news from a
Speaker 1: year ago from us.
Speaker 3: That doesn't fly as much.
Speaker 1: So even though all the episodes say Bestie after them,
Speaker 1: there at the end, I think maybe I wonder if
Speaker 1: a lot of folks missed that and they're thinking, oh sweet,
Speaker 1: this is a great episode, which makes me feel good
Speaker 1: about some of the older content that we put out there,
Speaker 1: very evergreen for folks.
Speaker 2: I started to listen to the most recent one that
Speaker 2: we re released with Chad Carson, and I was shocked
Speaker 2: at how relevant it still was great because interest rates
Speaker 2: had spiked, you know, and interest rates remained incredibly high.
Speaker 2: Although we're still there and we'll talk about this, i'm
Speaker 2: sure in the coming weeks, but the pressure of the
Speaker 2: FED might be feeling well, the housing market boom seems
Speaker 2: to be officially over, and so what happens with housing
Speaker 2: prices moving forward? That's something I'm I'm fascinated by the
Speaker 2: housing market, and I'm sure we'll continue to talk about it.
Speaker 1: We'll see, but that's I think that could change pretty
Speaker 1: quickly though, because like, if the FED does feel a
Speaker 1: little pressure, and once races do start ticking down, it's
Speaker 1: saying okay, and market trade starts start ticking down as well,
Speaker 1: and then home prices what do they do in response
Speaker 1: as that demand increases, Well, you tend to see prices
Speaker 1: go up. That is not guaranteed, and this is also
Speaker 1: going to get played out.
Speaker 3: I'm sure over like eighteen months, you know, months and years. Well,
Speaker 3: you've still got money, your chops.
Speaker 2: I can tell as you start talking about I can
Speaker 2: see the fire in your eyes light up while talking
Speaker 2: about the housing market.
Speaker 1: If you first time I have talked about the housing
Speaker 1: market in two months, Which is fun because okay, doesn't
Speaker 1: I mean we chat about actually we do talk about
Speaker 1: I bet we do talk more about personal finance stuff,
Speaker 1: just on a personal level, right just between between her
Speaker 1: and I for our family as we are navigating the waters.
Speaker 3: Sure, but yeah, and we want to help you navigate
Speaker 3: your personal finance waters.
Speaker 2: We'll continue that. We'll be back on Friday. Thank you
Speaker 2: guys so much for listening.
Speaker 1: And hopefully maybe some folks took a break as well,
Speaker 1: right Like, maybe some folks are thinking, yeah, I tuned
Speaker 1: out because hey, Joe and Matt took a break. I'm
Speaker 1: going to take a break too. And hopefully you saw
Speaker 1: from the title of this episode that we back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's time to get back on the horse, as uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the famous fashion designer said and Zoo Lander
Speaker 1: so
Speaker 2: Most step all right, appreciate you guys, Matt until next time,
Speaker 2: best friends out, best friends out