Speaker 1: Welcome to had a money. I'm Joel and I am that.
Speaker 1: And today we're talking about instant e bikes, sputtering savings
Speaker 1: and all these assent.
Speaker 2: That's right, Aldi's going to the top. If I invested
Speaker 2: in the single stock stroll and if Aldi was traded publicly,
Speaker 2: I would own some Aldi's stock because they're qushing it right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and just when you believe in the mission
Speaker 1: of a retail it's kind of like Costco. It's like
Speaker 1: owning some Costco stock or what do you own a
Speaker 1: little bit of Cosco? I do own a little bit
Speaker 1: of Costco. I feel like I should own a little bit,
Speaker 1: just because I'm so passionate about the company.
Speaker 2: There was this I literally want to be invested with
Speaker 2: this company that I think treats people so well and
Speaker 2: provides a fantastic product for families out there.
Speaker 1: There was a long form article in the New York
Speaker 1: Times just last week. I think about Costco and what
Speaker 1: makes them so different? What's the some apart? And it's
Speaker 1: it's a fascinating read. I mean, just as someone who's
Speaker 1: somewhat obsessed with Costco. But they kind of talked about
Speaker 1: the secret to Costco's success and even just kind of
Speaker 1: part of the secrecy culture of Costco. Had there are
Speaker 1: a lot of things that they just don't say out loud.
Speaker 1: You have the kind of intimate about what's going on
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. But it's definitely one of the best
Speaker 1: run companies in the world.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but uh yeah, this is our Friday flight.
Speaker 2: We hope everyone has had a fantastic week. Have you
Speaker 2: had a fantastic week.
Speaker 1: Joel, It's been good. Yeah, been great.
Speaker 2: So we will be talking about all the maybe Costco,
Speaker 2: but we will be getting to the other money stories
Speaker 2: that we think are going to be most pertinent to
Speaker 2: your personal finances.
Speaker 1: So, Matt on Monday, we had a listener question about, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'd done this money challenge and had a bunch of
Speaker 1: money socked away after that, the envelope challenge, that.
Speaker 2: One hundred envelope challenge, Yeah, specifically.
Speaker 1: And so we were trying to help him figure out
Speaker 1: what should he and his family do with this massive
Speaker 1: chunk of change. And then I noticed in the how
Speaker 1: to Money Facebook group, which is a wonderful place, listener
Speaker 1: Jeff said, apparently he's not a fan of the envelope challenge.
Speaker 1: He's not a fan of some of these money saving
Speaker 1: challenges out there was a deal, all right, so he said,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna quote here, he said, it's great if
Speaker 1: the money you quote unquote save comes from reducing your
Speaker 1: expenses or increasing your income. But if you're just filling
Speaker 1: envelopes with cash taken from an account or that you
Speaker 1: have at home, you're not really saving anything. And so
Speaker 1: I totally get where he's coming from, because we were
Speaker 1: talking about how these savings challenges can be really great,
Speaker 1: they can help jump start something. But I get what
Speaker 1: he's saying. If you have the money in a savings account,
Speaker 1: you just stuff it into an envelope instead, and you're
Speaker 1: not making any practical changes to your day to day spending,
Speaker 1: it can feel like a mirage of savings. So I
Speaker 1: don't know what's your take.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think what he said was was spot
Speaker 2: on right, Like it has to be a result of
Speaker 2: you not spending that money, which is I feel like
Speaker 2: that's that's kind of how we talked about it. But
Speaker 2: I also understand the criticism that it's not like you're
Speaker 2: magically appearing some money out of nowhere, like it's your money,
Speaker 2: You're just it's mental accounting and you're moving it, perhaps
Speaker 2: from one area of your life to another, and maybe a.
Speaker 1: Place in your life where it would have been easier
Speaker 1: to spay. And now you're kind of siphoning it away
Speaker 1: and you're saying.
Speaker 2: No designated, it's got a name, and that's what And
Speaker 2: we talked about this on Monday. But but that couple,
Speaker 2: I mean, they were saving that money without necessarily having
Speaker 2: a goal attached to it, and that can just make
Speaker 2: it so much more powerful, the ability to I don't know,
Speaker 2: I assigned those dollars to a specific task. I also
Speaker 2: understand too, that not everyone is going to get behind
Speaker 2: the like just money challenges, like if you are super disciplined,
Speaker 2: if you don't like having fun with your personal finance,
Speaker 2: which is honestly, like, I don't really do money challenges
Speaker 2: because I've created this this wonka like budget, you know,
Speaker 2: machine in a.
Speaker 1: Like makes it sound fun, well, but it's not fun.
Speaker 2: It's just this contraption. It's just overly complex.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm getting.
Speaker 2: But like, all my income goes into there, and like
Speaker 2: I just crank it and at the end of the month,
Speaker 2: it tells me where it should go based on decisions
Speaker 2: that I have already made, but not everybody is like that.
Speaker 2: Sometimes folks need to they want to spice it up
Speaker 2: a little bit. For those folks, I think the money
Speaker 2: challenges can be fantastic. Agreed.
Speaker 1: I think that's what money challenges can be for lots
Speaker 1: of people. It's like it started. It's a pattern, right
Speaker 1: to basically base some of your decisions on, and whether
Speaker 1: it's a sell your stuff challenge or a fund your
Speaker 1: roth Ira challenge, like, typically that money is coming from
Speaker 1: somewhere and people are having to make changes to their
Speaker 1: budget and to their spending patterns in order to accrue
Speaker 1: those savings, because otherwise they would have been, you know,
Speaker 1: saving like in a pretty solid way month after month,
Speaker 1: and they would have had some of those savings built up.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people have found, hey, this challenge
Speaker 1: at least helps me get that habit started doing the
Speaker 1: thing I want to do. But yeah, I again, I
Speaker 1: completely get jeffs beef with some of the money challenges.
Speaker 1: I guess I just also think that they almost always
Speaker 1: come with some sort of lifestyle change. People are realizing, Hey,
Speaker 1: if I want to save this kind of money, I
Speaker 1: have to do something different in the spending area of
Speaker 1: my finances or it's not going to happen, like they're
Speaker 1: not just pulling it from one account and putting it
Speaker 1: into an envelope. Typically it means there's some sort of
Speaker 1: underlying change in order to amass that kind of savings
Speaker 1: and that sort of you know short or like that.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as you said some of the different challenges,
Speaker 2: I remember that I did participate money challenge, which was
Speaker 2: the cellar stuff challenge.
Speaker 1: Will is a great one. It is a good one,
Speaker 1: and that's one where you literally are making money appear.
Speaker 2: It didn't work for me, Like I tried because I thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: here's a cool way that I can unload a bunch
Speaker 2: of stuff that we have make some money on the side.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I had a difficult time sticking with it.
Speaker 1: It also has the double impact of decluttering, which is like, well, that's.
Speaker 2: Why I wanted to I mean that specifically is why
Speaker 2: I was looking to take that challenge on, but then
Speaker 2: I found it. It also had like part time job
Speaker 2: like qualities, which is part of why I fell off
Speaker 2: the wagon. But Joel, let's talk about one of the
Speaker 2: ways folks are spending less on their transportation. Car free
Speaker 2: communities they are becoming more of a thing. More people
Speaker 2: outside of just New York City are looking to be
Speaker 2: less dependent on their vehicles in order to get around.
Speaker 2: There's this fairly new community. It's called Cul de Sac.
Speaker 2: It launched a bit outside of downtown Phoenix a few
Speaker 2: years ago, and the design of this planned community is
Speaker 2: all about being car free from the get go, as
Speaker 2: they attempt to be close to public transportation and one
Speaker 2: of the ways they're able to decrease the number of
Speaker 2: cars that folks who live their own. They've also got
Speaker 2: a fleet of e bikes, which is pretty awesome, yeah,
Speaker 2: and pretty much everything else that you want one on
Speaker 2: hand just to live a happy personal life. They've got
Speaker 2: a lot of things built into the infrastructure of the
Speaker 2: little community, like gyms, grocery stores. I think I saw
Speaker 2: a cream convenience store, which was a big win in
Speaker 2: my book. They're planning to build a couple more of
Speaker 2: these Cold de Sac communities in the near future, including
Speaker 2: one in the Atlanta area, and bottom line, we think
Speaker 2: this is pretty cool. Folks out there who are into
Speaker 2: personal finance might recognize the name of the community from
Speaker 2: Pete Adney, also known as mister money Mustache as this
Speaker 2: is something that he has written about. But we're huge fans,
Speaker 2: especially of relying on bikes in order to get around.
Speaker 2: There's a reason why our first episode that we ever
Speaker 2: created it was a terrible episode because it was literally
Speaker 2: the first one you want to go back, and it
Speaker 2: was all about why it is that you should be
Speaker 2: biking more. We are huge fans silver bowlt in personal finance,
Speaker 2: but if there was one, I think bikes are pretty
Speaker 2: darn close to as as it gets.
Speaker 1: It's the lifestyle factor, it hits the fitness factor, it
Speaker 1: hits the money saving factor. Riding your bike more just
Speaker 1: makes sense. I ran into a dad on also riding
Speaker 1: taking his kid to school this morning on the cargo
Speaker 1: e bike. There's a sense of solidarity. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like we're best friends already and I just met him.
Speaker 2: We should grab beers me right from the same cloth,
Speaker 2: exactly right, Kindred spirits new body friend come on and
Speaker 2: then he pedals off assist level five to get away
Speaker 2: from you. That's right.
Speaker 1: I keep it on level one so I couldn't catch up.
Speaker 1: I saw this too. Matt Los Angeles is apparently trying
Speaker 1: to go car free for the Olympics. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you'd seen this as well. It's kind of fascinating
Speaker 1: because you think of that as a city that is
Speaker 1: purely dependent on the freeways, right, Yeah, So it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see if they're able to pull that off.
Speaker 1: I know they're they're trying to put the venues as
Speaker 1: close to their current metro as possible, which I love
Speaker 1: the and they're also installing more bike lanes, so go LA.
Speaker 1: I hope it. I hope it works out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And by the way, while Culdesex is kind of an
Speaker 1: expensive place to live, Matt, it's it's not one of
Speaker 1: the cheaper apartment complexes around. Because they put this forethought
Speaker 1: into it, it's going to be a more expensive community.
Speaker 1: But if you are able to ditch a car or
Speaker 1: cars completely, it can actually allow you to come out
Speaker 1: ahead from a financial perspective, especially you know, we know
Speaker 1: what cars cost these days, and what they cost to ensure,
Speaker 1: what they cost to maintain. Not having cars in your
Speaker 1: life I means you can spend a little more on
Speaker 1: housing and still rocket with your finances, you know, all
Speaker 1: while being able to live in an incredibly delightful community.
Speaker 1: And there's been this growing recognition I think that making
Speaker 1: the automobile the center of our existence, it just doesn't
Speaker 1: deliver the healthiest results for humans. I'm not an advocate
Speaker 1: for going back to the horse and buggy days because
Speaker 1: apparently there was a lot of poop in the streets, Matt,
Speaker 1: and that wasn't really very fun to live in either.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine living in you.
Speaker 2: Know, plumbing. I'm also a fan of that, right.
Speaker 1: Right exactly. But yeah, you don't necessarily need to move
Speaker 1: to this planned community in order to live a life
Speaker 1: that's less dependent on a car. I think it's important
Speaker 1: to point that out as well. There's this new e
Speaker 1: bike attachment Matt that attaches to your regular non electric bike.
Speaker 1: It's called clip, and so you don't even have to
Speaker 1: buy an e bike. You can literally just turn your
Speaker 1: current bike into an electric bicycle with this device. It's
Speaker 1: like five hundred bucks. And the cool thing is, you know,
Speaker 1: e bikes are allowing people to commute longer distances more
Speaker 1: comfortably than ever before. Think about actually, listener Gary who's talked,
Speaker 1: He's reached out and told me about his commutes on
Speaker 1: his e bike and how he ditched a car, and man,
Speaker 1: it's been so great for his you know, physical life
Speaker 1: and just he's just enjoyed that commute every day on
Speaker 1: the e bike, which I feel the same way. I'm like,
Speaker 1: there's a smile on my face every time I'm on mine,
Speaker 1: And I think I still prefer Matt after looking into
Speaker 1: this clip device, I still prefer the ground up e bikes.
Speaker 1: I'd rather spend a little more for something like that,
Speaker 1: especially if it allows you to ditch your car. But
Speaker 1: I think the clip device might work for a bunch
Speaker 1: of people too.
Speaker 2: Maybe you are a fan of actual e bikes because
Speaker 2: the clip is ugly. It is ugly because of what
Speaker 2: I I was reading up on it. I was like, okay, uh,
Speaker 2: because like there are a lot of electric bike manufacturers
Speaker 2: and they're making them more affordable. Now, Like you've got
Speaker 2: like literally your e bike is by rad Power Bikes,
Speaker 2: and like they make some of the most affordable e
Speaker 2: bikes out there. Electric is like it's like electric without
Speaker 2: the E on the front or whatever. But like they're
Speaker 2: they're making some really afference sort of what Bucks bikes
Speaker 2: as well as seven eight hundred bucks something. So when
Speaker 2: you think about that, it's like not that much more
Speaker 2: for something right new, and you're able to add another
Speaker 2: your bike, add another bike to your stable, I think
Speaker 2: is huge and also if you've got the room. We've
Speaker 2: talked about bikesdirect dot com, which is a fantastic place
Speaker 2: to go for traditional bikes. I checked it out. Guess
Speaker 2: what they're selling now, e bikes? Bikes really Yes, so
Speaker 2: I haven't actually so I've purchased other bikes from them before.
Speaker 2: I can't vouch for their e bikes, but if anybody
Speaker 2: has hit us up, let us know. I would love
Speaker 2: to think that they are just able to be another
Speaker 2: competitor providing just a great means of transportation for a
Speaker 2: lot of folks. But that being said, if you really
Speaker 2: want to drive, we'll get a Toyota, and not just
Speaker 2: because we told you to see cars. They had a
Speaker 2: recent longevity survey and they found, unsurprisingly that Toyota they
Speaker 2: had six of the top ten most durable models that
Speaker 2: were were out there. I think it was like they
Speaker 2: had seven of the top ten spots if you count Lexus,
Speaker 2: which is basically a Toyota with leather, and they took
Speaker 2: all five of the top spots. And so that raises
Speaker 2: the question, well, what is durable actually mean? Fellas basically
Speaker 2: the cars or trucks that rank highly have a dramatically
Speaker 2: higher likelihood of hitting the two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 2: mile mark. It's like the holy grail. I think that's
Speaker 2: that's what they're gunning for. You'll also be paying less
Speaker 2: for repairs, and you'll be at your mechanic shop less often,
Speaker 2: and that car is likely going to depreciate at a
Speaker 2: slower rate. But you know, consumer reports they've been seeing
Speaker 2: this for a while. I see cars, they're agreeing with
Speaker 2: them on this. Toyota. They are gonna save you time,
Speaker 2: They're gonna save you money. Hassle. I've got a little
Speaker 2: bit of foam, to be honest, the fact that I
Speaker 2: own a Honda and not a Toyota in large part
Speaker 2: because all the Toyotas are high as well, and I
Speaker 2: wish I had some of the additional savings associated with
Speaker 2: paying less at the gas pump.
Speaker 1: It's also interesting Toyota is seeing so much success right
Speaker 1: now because there's kind of a consumers are giving the
Speaker 1: heisman to electric cars right now, where it felt like
Speaker 1: every company was pivoting so hard into the EV direction,
Speaker 1: and a lot of folks out there saying, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I think I'm down for the hybrid right now, maybe
Speaker 1: I'll hold itself on an Evyteps and Toyota they're kind
Speaker 1: of the hybrid kings, So that's another reason why Toyota's
Speaker 1: are so popular. But then to add on top of
Speaker 1: that that your Toyota is just based on the numbers,
Speaker 1: based on the stats, it's just going to last a
Speaker 1: whole lot longer and give you far less trouble. It
Speaker 1: makes sense that you would opt for one of the
Speaker 1: most reliable cars in the game, because reliability means money savings,
Speaker 1: especially when we're talking about a company that makes fairly
Speaker 1: accessible cars. From a financial standpoint, Matt, let's talk about
Speaker 1: ATM fees. I don't know the last time I went
Speaker 1: to get cash from an ATM, but I know this
Speaker 1: is something that people do. And so a new bank
Speaker 1: rate survey finds that fees continue to climb at ATMs
Speaker 1: around the country. The average fee to gain access to
Speaker 1: your cash is now just below five bucks. I think
Speaker 1: it's four dollars and seventy seven cents every time when
Speaker 1: you want to use an ATM. That's at least like
Speaker 1: the average fee you're going to encounter, which is a
Speaker 1: lot of money, Matt. Let's say you're pulling out forty bucks,
Speaker 1: that's like an eleven percent fee or something like that.
Speaker 1: That's incredibly expensive to take money out. And yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're going to an out of network ATM that isn't
Speaker 1: the bank you do business with, you might be paying
Speaker 1: two fees. You might be paying one to your bank
Speaker 1: and one to the ATM owner. So that could be
Speaker 1: really frustrating. And again, I don't really use an ATM.
Speaker 1: They're kind of like checks for me, Matt. We talked
Speaker 1: about this recently, how people a writing fewer and fewer
Speaker 1: checks and more businesses are saying we're not even going
Speaker 1: to take them at all. But I do business with
Speaker 1: multiple banks that have ATM networks that don't charge any
Speaker 1: money at all for withdrawal. So I can't go to
Speaker 1: any ATM necessarily that I want.
Speaker 2: But I can go to almost any ATM though, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Any all point essentially right, that's what who Capital one
Speaker 1: partners with. I can go to any of those and
Speaker 1: night there's even a spot on the app where I
Speaker 1: can see, Okay, where's the nearest one to me? And
Speaker 1: so basically, if you're a frequent ATM user, you're not
Speaker 1: just being nickeled and dimed. You're being like bludgeoned over
Speaker 1: the head with fees, you're being five spotted, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: so they are just really easy ways to eliminate these
Speaker 1: fees from your life completely. Just make sure you're paying
Speaker 1: attention to what you're actually paying, and then you're doing
Speaker 1: business with the bank that's going to say, hey, we
Speaker 1: actually don't charge ridiculous fees for you to access your
Speaker 1: own money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's sort of like this barbell like effect
Speaker 2: that's happening within banking, right, And so yeah, some banks
Speaker 2: are raising fees, they're reducing perks for savers, but a
Speaker 2: lot of banks out there are completely eliminating fees and
Speaker 2: they are raising their savings rates. And the truth is,
Speaker 2: like all the different fees that the banks charge out there,
Speaker 2: so atm fees, overdraft fees, different account fees, they are
Speaker 2: going up, but only for those who are allowing it,
Speaker 2: who stick around for that party, right. Fees across the
Speaker 2: board are being demolished, and perks are becoming more generous
Speaker 2: for people who are savvy, for folks who are paying
Speaker 2: attention and not just kind of going along with the flow.
Speaker 2: But obviously for folks who aren't handling their money judiciously,
Speaker 2: they're gonna find themselves on the flip side of the equation.
Speaker 2: Instead of free cash withdraws, well, they're paying a pretty
Speaker 2: penny instead of rewards for credit card usage. They're going
Speaker 2: to be massively penalized for using plastic. And so we
Speaker 2: just want to remind folks to pay. It's not just
Speaker 2: the savings rate that the bank is paying you. There
Speaker 2: are all these sort of trickle down, knock on effects
Speaker 2: that end up costing you more money in the end.
Speaker 2: And I want you to be picky in who it
Speaker 2: is that you're banking with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think ally Matt, I think they refund
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month worth of atmfs that you might occur,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool, no questions ask. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: if you do encounter a five dollars fee twice, we're
Speaker 1: gonna cover it more than that. The rest is on you.
Speaker 1: I think Schwab is you know, investment firm, low cost
Speaker 1: investment house. They also have a bank attached, and pretty
Speaker 1: sure Schwab will cover any and all ATMPs might incurrent
Speaker 1: a given month. So if you are a high frequency
Speaker 1: atm user, look into those banks that prioritize, you know,
Speaker 1: taking care of their customers in that way. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about savings rates, Matt for a second while
Speaker 1: we're on this note. Are those super high savings rates
Speaker 1: going away? There's more and more stuff being written and
Speaker 1: more and more people talking about the fact that as
Speaker 1: the FED is looking to cut rates, well, savers are
Speaker 1: going to get penalized again. And the answer to that
Speaker 1: is maybe, like I do think there's a chance that
Speaker 1: savings rates are going to go down. And actually when
Speaker 1: you look at the numbers, rates have already climbed gone
Speaker 1: down just a little bit. When we're talking about rates
Speaker 1: on savings accounts, rates on CDs.
Speaker 2: Started getting baked in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, already that just reality that is likely coming
Speaker 1: down the pike. Has impacted what banks, credit unions, other
Speaker 1: financial institutions are offering. And Bloomberg had this jarring headline
Speaker 1: about why you should ditch your HYSA, dit your high YELD,
Speaker 1: save these account is what they were saying. Basically, what
Speaker 1: they suggested was to put your savings into CDs because
Speaker 1: rates are likely to continue going down. And guess what
Speaker 1: if you toss it into a CD? You're maintaining that
Speaker 1: rate for six months, twelve months, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: But should you put the money that's in your savings
Speaker 1: account in a CD maybe, I mean if you don't
Speaker 1: need liquidity, But most folks, Matt keep cash in savings
Speaker 1: specifically because they might need that money. And so the
Speaker 1: only way I think it makes sense for you to
Speaker 1: stick money that's in a high old savings account into
Speaker 1: a CD is if your savings is for more medium
Speaker 1: term goals, you might consider locking it up for a
Speaker 1: little bit in order to preserve that higher rate for
Speaker 1: a bit longer. But other than that, I think high
Speaker 1: old savings is the place to continue to keep money
Speaker 1: that you need access to, you know, it's an emergency
Speaker 1: order a rise or something like that. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I think it's also important to take these rate predictions
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt, because there were a lot
Speaker 1: of rate predictions, you know, six seven, eight months ago,
Speaker 1: Matt that turned out to be incredibly wrong, as inflation
Speaker 1: was a lot stickier than a lot of people assume.
Speaker 1: So our rate's going to decline precipitously in the months ahead,
Speaker 1: maybe who knows, And so yeah, you might want to
Speaker 1: take a bird in the hand and capture some of
Speaker 1: these you know, higher than average CD race right now.
Speaker 1: You also might not want to. It just depends on
Speaker 1: your personal situation. That's true.
Speaker 2: I think I saw that. It seems like the six
Speaker 2: month CD right now is sort of the sweet spot.
Speaker 2: But we've got more to get to. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about unlocked cell phones, maybe the return on investment
Speaker 2: of higher education. We'll get to those stories and more
Speaker 2: right after.
Speaker 1: This a we're back from the break map. Now it's
Speaker 1: time to get to the ludicrous headline of the week.
Speaker 1: This one comes from Sherwood News, which is Robin Hood's
Speaker 1: new news arm. They've kind of it's.
Speaker 2: Yet to be determined if they are biased towards high
Speaker 2: frequency trading, but I think there's a chance we could
Speaker 2: take a guest, so we'll see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so this headline reads why your parents
Speaker 1: should buy you a house, So they are at least
Speaker 1: biased towards your parents give being you money. I guess
Speaker 1: who wouldn't be right, Like, Okay, yeah, my parents wanted
Speaker 1: to buy me a house, and maybe they had the
Speaker 1: money to do it. I don't know if I'm gonna
Speaker 1: argue with them or try to change their mind. But
Speaker 1: this article, it was really all about how much money
Speaker 1: boomer parents have as a generation and how expensive it
Speaker 1: is to buy a home right now, and so shouldn't
Speaker 1: those rich adults by the younger, less affluent adults a
Speaker 1: home to live in. Wouldn't that be nice? And yeah,
Speaker 1: those things are both true. I think you know. New
Speaker 1: stats show that one in ten homes in the US
Speaker 1: now costs more than a million bucks. So if you're
Speaker 1: looking around on Zillow or Redvan, I guess depending on
Speaker 1: where you live, in some places it's like a million
Speaker 1: bucks that's not going to get you anywhere, and in
Speaker 1: other parts of the country a million bucks. Like we
Speaker 1: don't have homes for the Governor's mansion exactly, but we
Speaker 1: know that that housing affordability has been torched in recent years,
Speaker 1: and so young folks who want to buy their first home,
Speaker 1: they kind of feel like they're running into a brick wall,
Speaker 1: especially over these past few years, as prices continue to
Speaker 1: go up and up and up, interest rates went up
Speaker 1: to and at the same time there just wasn't much
Speaker 1: supply on the market in a lot of competition, it
Speaker 1: felt like it basically impossible to buy the home that
Speaker 1: you wanted to get and so apparently the hits are
Speaker 1: according to this article, was to ask mom and dad
Speaker 1: to help fund that purchase, and depending on your relationship
Speaker 1: with your folks, I don't know, might not work out
Speaker 1: too poorly. They might be into this. But it's also
Speaker 1: important to mention that money can complicate relationships. Expectations are
Speaker 1: often involved when money is changing hands amongst the loved ones,
Speaker 1: and so in this article, Matt, they highlighted, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was another article I read, but parents vetoing the
Speaker 1: home that somebody wanted to buy because it's like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna help profer the down payment money for
Speaker 1: this purchase, I want to be able to say yes
Speaker 1: to this one or no to that one, or maybe proximity.
Speaker 2: It starts getting so missed, it really does. Yeh, yeh.
Speaker 2: The problem. Yeah, you need to be incredibly if if
Speaker 2: this is something you're considering, you need to be incredibly
Speaker 2: cautious as to how it is that you approach some
Speaker 2: of these conversations. But the author of this article uses
Speaker 2: the but everyone else is doing it line, so they
Speaker 2: which I've heard from my kids some of the stats
Speaker 2: that they shared. One third of gen Zer's and a
Speaker 2: quarter of millennials have received some financial help for the
Speaker 2: first time purchase, which, again, if you are receiving that, hey,
Speaker 2: no shame there. But there's just a big difference between
Speaker 2: something that's being offered to you and something that is
Speaker 2: being expected by you. So one thing worth mentioning here
Speaker 2: is that some parents are willing to help you out
Speaker 2: but for an equity stake, which it depends on how
Speaker 2: it is. I guess you want an approach buying your home.
Speaker 2: It kind of feels like a more like a business deal.
Speaker 2: But I mean, I guess that could be a reasonable
Speaker 2: approach where it would allow you to buy when you
Speaker 2: otherwise wouldn't be able to. But hey, you're offering an
Speaker 2: incentive to your folks at the same time. Regardless how
Speaker 2: you arrive at this conclusion and how it is that
Speaker 2: you go about, this transaction is going to have a
Speaker 2: massive impact on not only your finances, but your relationship
Speaker 2: to some of the most important people in your lives,
Speaker 2: your parents, and so just be careful as you are
Speaker 2: entering into these murky waters. It's interesting because I don't
Speaker 2: see this as some sort of panacea to housing affordability,
Speaker 2: because it is this benefit, Well, it benefits the lucky
Speaker 2: folks that happen to have parents who are wealthy enough
Speaker 2: to like give them a ton of money. Is it
Speaker 2: actually positively impact affordability for everybody else? Nope, yep, And
Speaker 2: in fact it does the opposite. What does it do
Speaker 2: because all of a sudden, these high prices that are
Speaker 2: being demanded are being met because if you have a population,
Speaker 2: if you have a market that's willing to pay what
Speaker 2: it is that others are offering, that's that's going to
Speaker 2: continue to drive prices up.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, this was never an
Speaker 1: option for me tap in the bank of mom and
Speaker 1: dad to try to get some down payment help.
Speaker 2: It was, and I honestly think my parents would have
Speaker 2: laughed at me.
Speaker 1: And I realized it's a different environment right now buying
Speaker 1: a house than even when we were buying our first homes.
Speaker 1: But man, it was. I was so proud to be
Speaker 1: able to save that money myself and buy that first
Speaker 1: house and basically like make it my thing. And I
Speaker 1: will say this too, there's just so many examples that
Speaker 1: I've been very close to of family doing business with family,
Speaker 1: helping somebody out with the loan or something like that,
Speaker 1: and the sour grapes that come from a mishandling of
Speaker 1: that often like oh, being laid on payments or whatever.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of examples I could give that I
Speaker 1: won't give publicly, but they can be Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: your side or her side, let's not tell you. But
Speaker 1: these are the those are the kind of things that
Speaker 1: really can lead to her relationships. And it seems like
Speaker 1: a smart thing at the time. It's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: well it'll scratch both of her backs to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: and then you just kind of never know where things
Speaker 1: are going to go when you're joining finances.
Speaker 2: Like things can go south quickly, okay, Matt.
Speaker 1: Another article that was also vying I think for the
Speaker 1: ludicrous headline of the week this week came from the
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal and the title read rental creams for
Speaker 1: preteens sound safety alarm and I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: because they cost.
Speaker 2: Too much money.
Speaker 1: Well that's part of it. Can be expensive, but you
Speaker 1: can like mess their faces up, right, Like because these
Speaker 1: these more of a social issue, Yeah, but there there
Speaker 1: are financial ramifications attached, right. I think that I've noticed
Speaker 1: it with my eleven year old daughter. She's not really
Speaker 1: into this, but some of her friends are super into
Speaker 1: skincare right now, and it's kind of sad to see
Speaker 1: like they're spending money on this. That's what they're asking
Speaker 1: for for their birthdays or something like that, is creams
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 2: So she's like, sunscreen, yeah, not sun screen, like like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're doing like wrinkle cream, botox or
Speaker 2: anything like that.
Speaker 1: That well that'd be malpractice too. Yeah, but she kind
Speaker 1: of thinks it's silly, which I appreciate. But yeah, this
Speaker 1: this story I thought was sad for multiple angles. I
Speaker 1: think the fact that young people think they need to
Speaker 1: use these anti aging products at such an early age
Speaker 1: it reflects poorly on us as a society. And social media,
Speaker 1: of course is part of the problem. But then a
Speaker 1: lot of these products are made specifically for adults, not
Speaker 1: for children, and so young girls are in particular, are
Speaker 1: putting these these creams on their faces and it's not
Speaker 1: formulated for their faces, and so maybe they're having actually
Speaker 1: worse skin issues. Well they think they're actually doing something
Speaker 1: to help themselves. So and at the very least it's
Speaker 1: a financial waste.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it is a finish waste of money at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, dude, I was having a
Speaker 2: conversation with their friends.
Speaker 1: And not for that. Adults can't use certain skin creams
Speaker 1: or whatever to I'm fine with that, but just I
Speaker 1: hate it for the young kids feeling like they have to.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the problem. And you mentioned social media partly
Speaker 2: to blame.
Speaker 1: I think it, dude.
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe this is another opportunity to plug the
Speaker 2: anxious generation. Jonathan Height read it, folks, if you've got
Speaker 2: a preteen, a kid, anybody that's got a kid. It's
Speaker 2: an incredibly eye opening book. But it's not just social
Speaker 2: media though, it's also parents. Like I was talking to
Speaker 2: a buddy and we're talking about how it just seems
Speaker 2: like parents the days are just kind of like rushing
Speaker 2: their kids into adulthood as opposed to just letting them
Speaker 2: be kids. They're getting hit from both sides of it, right, Like,
Speaker 2: not only is it it seems like sometimes it's happening
Speaker 2: at home, but also when they're not at home, when
Speaker 2: they're on social media.
Speaker 1: I know, I let my eleven year old still into
Speaker 1: like baby dolls and Woods's or whatever and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and it just makes it wazy. It's like a little
Speaker 1: woodland creature at all. Yeah, they love that stuff so
Speaker 1: and I just I love watching them. They'll play for
Speaker 1: hours still, and that's just such a superior way to
Speaker 1: be as an eleven year old than trying to keep
Speaker 1: up with all the latest face stream trends.
Speaker 2: That's that unsupervised, undirected play that Jonathan height Wes's right
Speaker 2: would recommend. Well, hey, let's talk about cell phones because
Speaker 2: the FC I see as proposing some new rules out
Speaker 2: there for unlocking cell phones. We've already seen the decline
Speaker 2: of business friendly contracts or network friendly contracts that keep
Speaker 2: customers and consumers stuck with a particular carrier.
Speaker 1: Gen z ers probably don't even know about those, like
Speaker 1: multi year contract days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's the combination of mbnos so mobile virtual
Speaker 2: network operators that combined with eSIMs have just made it
Speaker 2: easier than ever to switch to a lower cost carrier
Speaker 2: in minutes. And this is something that you and I
Speaker 2: we've literally have been experimenting with. We'll probably talk more
Speaker 2: about it in the future. But some sell service companies
Speaker 2: who want to sell you a discounted phone, well they
Speaker 2: want to keep you tethered to them. Like well beyond
Speaker 2: the end of that actual transaction, keeping your phone locked
Speaker 2: for an extended period of time, which just means you
Speaker 2: can't take it to another provider if you wanted to.
Speaker 2: And if the FCC gets its way, what that means
Speaker 2: is that providers they won't be able to keep devices
Speaker 2: locked for more than sixty days. You get two months
Speaker 2: before you can switch over.
Speaker 1: Basically if you have no handcuffs. That means you can
Speaker 1: jump ship basically whenever you want. But that'll also mean
Speaker 1: fewer deals on handset, so it's important to mention that too.
Speaker 1: But we've always suggested for many many years on the show,
Speaker 1: pay full price for your phone. I mean, yeah, wait
Speaker 1: for a sale if you want or something like that,
Speaker 1: But like find the cheapest service you can. People always
Speaker 1: they want to they want to get a good deal
Speaker 1: on the latest model iPhone or something like that, Matt,
Speaker 1: But the best thing to do buy a cheaper model
Speaker 1: that you can afford, and prioritize cheaper ongoing service. And
Speaker 1: so even some of the discounters offer phones for less
Speaker 1: than full price via this method. I think we're actually
Speaker 1: likely to see a lot less of that if this
Speaker 1: rule is finalized. So, like I think even right now,
Speaker 1: Mint Mobile has you can get the newest pixel phone
Speaker 1: for a few hundred bucks off or something like that.
Speaker 2: So nine is that the new one?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's supposed to have an awesome camera.
Speaker 1: What's got all the AI? Yeah, I could care less
Speaker 1: about it, but yeah, you might have to look at
Speaker 1: the fine print. You might have to keep that phone
Speaker 1: on that network for a specified period of time. But
Speaker 1: either way, you know, we are in the golden age
Speaker 1: of service competition and cheap cell phone service. I feel
Speaker 1: like Matt every time I look, I'm seeing cheaper and
Speaker 1: cheaper prices for unlimited, unlimited everything down to you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen to eighteen bucks a month now, which is insane,
Speaker 1: Like think about what it used to cost five, six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight years ago, and prices are just so much more
Speaker 1: consumer friendly these days.
Speaker 2: That's true. So in the hunt for an affordable phone,
Speaker 2: and we've shared Kate's issues that she had with her iPhone,
Speaker 2: but when we took the phone in and they were
Speaker 2: looking at it, they noticed that the simcard tray, like
Speaker 2: the little slat that pops out, that it was after market,
Speaker 2: which is so fascinating because we purchased that phone on
Speaker 2: eBay quote unquote new in box, like it was wrapped
Speaker 2: in plastic. Interesting, guess what, There's no way it was
Speaker 2: because it would not have come from Apple with an
Speaker 2: aftermarket tray. And so we think that that has a
Speaker 2: lot to do with why it took on water to
Speaker 2: begin with, because of the fact that it was maybe
Speaker 2: it had been repaired or something like that afterwards. So
Speaker 2: all that being said, I won't be buying any new
Speaker 2: iPhones in the future from eBay literally only from Apple referbed,
Speaker 2: refurbished because of what we learned, I guess the hard way.
Speaker 2: So keep that in mind. Phos.
Speaker 1: Yeah, where you get that phone matters, and there are
Speaker 1: certain places where they're referbed and they're gonna be there's
Speaker 1: they're held to a different standard if you're buying from
Speaker 1: the manufacturer of the phone, Apple.
Speaker 2: But it was new that again, it was the whole
Speaker 2: new in box aspect of it. It was like sealed in plastic,
Speaker 2: and so the assumption was that, oh, this is this
Speaker 2: is just an old phone that they had, Maybe it
Speaker 2: was laying around in a warehouse or something like that,
Speaker 2: and we're a couple models moved on, so I thought
Speaker 2: nothing of it. I didn't think twice about the fact that, well,
Speaker 2: this is being sold by some third party seller. I
Speaker 2: guess they got the shrink wrap machines and they're making
Speaker 2: those things like brand new. In reality, these are phones
Speaker 2: that had been repaired and we're not held to the
Speaker 2: same standard, which totally sucks.
Speaker 1: Shrink wrapping isn't that heart of a process.
Speaker 2: I guess, But like it's just one of those small
Speaker 2: things that you see as like a sign of oh,
Speaker 2: this must be legit. Yeah, it's never been opened. It
Speaker 2: had been a quick college story here for folks. NPR
Speaker 2: they just had an interesting article about the potential downside
Speaker 2: of community college. The main one is that most folks
Speaker 2: who opt to take that route, they don't end up
Speaker 2: getting a degree. A big part of that problem is
Speaker 2: that most of the students who enrolled at a local
Speaker 2: community college, they find that some of the credits that
Speaker 2: they've worked really hard for that they don't end up
Speaker 2: getting transferred to the next school, which just prolongs their
Speaker 2: ability to graduate. And so one of the results of
Speaker 2: that is only thirteen percent of community college students will
Speaker 2: get a four year degree within an eight year timeline,
Speaker 2: which is paltry numbers. Let's to be honest, you know,
Speaker 2: like that's the worst time. I suspect it's pretty low.
Speaker 2: So we like the idea of community colleges reducing the
Speaker 2: overall cost of getting a college degree, but you know,
Speaker 2: the stats show that that might not be the case.
Speaker 2: And if you're planning on going back to school at
Speaker 2: a community college, I think it's just really important to
Speaker 2: know what the credit transfer rules are.
Speaker 1: That's like the most disheartening thing. Think about going through
Speaker 1: all those classes, paying the money, taking the time, and
Speaker 1: then saying, oh, now I'm ready to move on to
Speaker 1: a state school. And if many many of those classes
Speaker 1: don't transfer to the state school, you just wasted a
Speaker 1: lot of that time and money. How infuriating is that?
Speaker 1: No wonder people are left in the lurch not actually
Speaker 1: getting these degrees at the end.
Speaker 2: Of the day. Simultaneously, like I don't want folks to
Speaker 2: take the wrong lesson from this as well, because like
Speaker 2: if this is like a community college hit piece, then
Speaker 2: I don't like it because think of like what is
Speaker 2: a community college. It's a more affordable way, it's local,
Speaker 2: so it's not like you have to even leave town,
Speaker 2: like wherever you're living. The barriers to entry to get
Speaker 2: into a community college are much lower than a state
Speaker 2: school or like an ivy, right, and so what that
Speaker 2: just means that there are gonna be fewer folks who
Speaker 2: actually graduate from that school at all. But that being said,
Speaker 2: you still want to make sure, especially if you've got
Speaker 2: bigger aspirations, if you are ambitious and you plan on
Speaker 2: going to transferring those credits to another school. You just
Speaker 2: want to make sure that you're going about it the
Speaker 2: right way.
Speaker 1: That's all. And if you watch the show Community, you're
Speaker 1: gonna find some really cool friends there too, because and
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a lot of antics that are gonna
Speaker 1: be I don't know, made for TV moments, I'm guessing.
Speaker 1: But that just also proves the point too, met that
Speaker 1: people who go to college but don't get a degree,
Speaker 1: they find themselves in a really tough position because they're
Speaker 1: out the money they paid for all those classes, and
Speaker 1: then they also don't have the degree that allows them
Speaker 1: to accelerate, pay or endeavor in a new career. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, just make sure if you're going to go
Speaker 1: to school, finish the drill, even if it's a degree
Speaker 1: from what you consider to be an inferior college. That
Speaker 1: degree matters a whole lot in your ability to make
Speaker 1: progress with your finances and to increase your income. And
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, colleges that are attracting the most interest right
Speaker 1: now are the ones that allow students to essentially graduate
Speaker 1: with a job in hand. Because as the value of
Speaker 1: a college degree continues to be more widely questioned, understandably
Speaker 1: so amongst Americans, the schools that have like co op
Speaker 1: progress programs, really solid internship programs, they're drawing more attention.
Speaker 1: Northeastern matt is one of the schools that constantly gets
Speaker 1: held up as one of the having one of the
Speaker 1: best co op programs where essentially almost everyone that graduates
Speaker 1: gets a high paying job in the career of their choice.
Speaker 1: Because and now it's becoming as competitive to get into
Speaker 1: that school as it is to get into one of
Speaker 1: the Ivy League institutions. Because hey, guess what, what's more
Speaker 1: important than having Harvard on a piece of paper, It's
Speaker 1: having the job that's waiting there for you when you graduate.
Speaker 1: And so a diploma used to be enough for a
Speaker 1: lot of years, it's not necessarily in our culture these days.
Speaker 1: We're living in a different world now, and so opting
Speaker 1: for a college that prioritizes seeing its students get into
Speaker 1: the career they studied for for years is smart in
Speaker 1: our book. And so yeah, check out. We'll link to
Speaker 1: this in the show notes. But the college scorecard, it's
Speaker 1: a Department of Education website and you can see you
Speaker 1: can look up specific schools and how are they doing
Speaker 1: on this front? Are they actually graduating people who end
Speaker 1: up making getting lucrative jobs in the career that they chose,
Speaker 1: or are they not? And I think that's a legitimate
Speaker 1: standard to hold your institution to. If they're graduating people
Speaker 1: with degrees that aren't paying off in the real world,
Speaker 1: you might want to quite should have value that degree.
Speaker 2: And to go back to bat a little bit. For
Speaker 2: community colleges, I actually I didn't know this until I
Speaker 2: was exploring around and clicking some on the college scorecard.
Speaker 2: But the guess, do you know what the median graduation
Speaker 2: rate is for four year colleges? So community colleges was
Speaker 2: thirteen percent. So what do you think the typical four
Speaker 2: year graduation rate is. I'm gonna say twenty eight percent.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I feel like you're such an optimist, like
Speaker 2: in this case, like I would have. I feel like
Speaker 2: I would have guessed like ninety percent or something like that,
Speaker 2: where folks are like, oh, yeah, you go to college
Speaker 2: and you graduate. It's somewhere in between us. I guess
Speaker 2: it's less than sixty percent. I think it was fifty
Speaker 2: eight percent, which kind of puts into perspective. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: a lot more than community college. But at least the
Speaker 2: way I was thinking about it, it was a whole
Speaker 2: lot less than I would have expected for kids that
Speaker 2: are going off to school. But uh, okay, last, but
Speaker 2: not least, we got some Aldie news for folks. Aldi.
Speaker 2: They are currently in transition mode after buying up when Nixy.
Speaker 2: This is a sale that went through I think is
Speaker 2: the end of last year, or it was maybe approved
Speaker 2: at the end of last year, and it was finalized
Speaker 2: this past spring. Aldi has already opened forty new stores
Speaker 2: and they plan to open eight hundred more, and all
Speaker 2: these spokespersons said that growth has doubled in just the
Speaker 2: past six years, and now more than twenty five percent
Speaker 2: of Americans shop at an Aldi, which is just music
Speaker 2: to my ears. I'm just so happy that there are
Speaker 2: more folks out there who are learning about the glories
Speaker 2: of low cost shopping, grocery shopping at ALDI and what
Speaker 2: this means is competition in the grocery space. It continues
Speaker 2: to be fierce.
Speaker 1: Their growth.
Speaker 2: All these growth is great for consumers. It adds another
Speaker 2: low cost option out there. It keeps other grocery store
Speaker 2: chains on their toes. And this is just speculation as well,
Speaker 2: but I think it has the potential for folks to
Speaker 2: realize higher quality products as well. Like we're talking about
Speaker 2: costco and how they're able to negotiate because of just
Speaker 2: how much I mean, not only do costco buyers buy
Speaker 2: in bulk, but costco buyers in bulk. Well, I guess
Speaker 2: that's what corporate buyers do. They go and they say, hey,
Speaker 2: we're gonna you know, we're looking at buying this much
Speaker 2: from you. But when you are opening that many more stores,
Speaker 2: you're able to move more product, and I think you
Speaker 2: have the ability to negotiate better deals. And I just
Speaker 2: I think maybe better deals, but higher quality products. And
Speaker 2: this is the speculation part. Over the past few months,
Speaker 2: we've always gotten all these big old fresh salmon filet
Speaker 2: or whatever I swear and over the like, over the summer,
Speaker 2: it has been better than ever it's like so fresh,
Speaker 2: and sometimes with fish it's a little fishy kind of smelling,
Speaker 2: which is not duh, of course it is good smells,
Speaker 2: but you know what I'm talking about, Like old fish
Speaker 2: smells different than fresh fish, Like fresh fish almost doesn't
Speaker 2: smell like fish. And that's what i've as of late,
Speaker 2: the as we've been getting those these salmons. Before I
Speaker 2: grill up there, you always got to check it for
Speaker 2: the pin bones, make sure, you know, make sure there's
Speaker 2: nothing in there. It smells so good, and I'm only
Speaker 2: encouraged by the fact that maybe they're able to negotiate
Speaker 2: some better product. That's well.
Speaker 1: I think you see, when Kroger launched an organic private label,
Speaker 1: we started to see the price of organics come down
Speaker 1: across the board. Last time I was at Costco, I
Speaker 1: noticed that the organic olive oil was cheaper than the
Speaker 1: non organic, and I think we're seeing organics become cheaper,
Speaker 1: more readily accessible. Aldie is playing a big part in
Speaker 1: that too, So I love seeing that. I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think you're getting higher quality, you're getting lower prices,
Speaker 1: and all these expansion is only a good thing, even
Speaker 1: if you don't shop at Aldie.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: All right, that's going to do it for this episode.
Speaker 1: We will link to some of the resources we mentioned
Speaker 1: off on the show notes on our website at howtomoney
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 2: That's right. We hope you have a great weekend. We'll
Speaker 2: see you back here on Monday. And until next time,
Speaker 2: best friends Out, Best Friends Out,