Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing e V breakthroughs, early retirement downsides,
Speaker 1: and pricey dumbbells. How's it going? Many do it? I'm great.
Speaker 1: We've got a beautiful morning. I mentioned that because of
Speaker 1: the past few days have actually been pretty rainy, and
Speaker 1: you've been sticking it out. I noticed you continued to
Speaker 1: bike over here to the uh our little basement studio
Speaker 1: you got you know, you had your bike, but then
Speaker 1: you had your wet weather gear on as well. You're
Speaker 1: committed to the bike hustle, dude. Yeah, it's I mean
Speaker 1: that that gear is so clutch for being able to
Speaker 1: ride through the rain, and especially when it's sprinkling, It's
Speaker 1: it's like no brainer. It's not a big deal. Sometimes
Speaker 1: if it's raining super hard, it's hard to see or
Speaker 1: you get soaked any way. But yeah, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what kind of gear you have on if it's pouring
Speaker 1: and you're still gonna get completely drenched. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: with a drizzle, having a nice jacket somebot light weather
Speaker 1: gear is easily enough to to keep you dry, especially
Speaker 1: as the weather is cooling down a little bit. Now, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the cooler temperatures plus a little bit of
Speaker 1: water can really chill you to the bone if you
Speaker 1: don't have the proper gear. So that's true. Well all right,
Speaker 1: so speaking of biking, I broke down and bought my wife.
Speaker 1: We we ended up person a spin bike a stationary
Speaker 1: bike for Tide, which is funny because we joked about
Speaker 1: this on Wednesday's episode about about you splurging on you know,
Speaker 1: his and hers peloton. Yeah, but you know Emily wants
Speaker 1: you to ride next to her on a two thousand
Speaker 1: dollar bids It's not gonna happen. So yeah, we definitely
Speaker 1: went non peloton because those things are crazy expensive and
Speaker 1: almost have like this cult like following, and I understand
Speaker 1: like they make a great product, people are into it. Um.
Speaker 1: But but we ended up going to play it against sports,
Speaker 1: which is did not know that those still exist. Maybe
Speaker 1: they still exist, and actually I think they're actually doing
Speaker 1: well through the pandemic because people are into outdoor gear
Speaker 1: and workout equipment and stuff like that. So I went
Speaker 1: to our nearest played against sports. Um got an awesome
Speaker 1: spin bike for Emily and she's super into it, super excited,
Speaker 1: and the great thing I think we talked about um
Speaker 1: on on Wednesday's episode was maybe cutting back on a
Speaker 1: gym membership, and that's something we've done. So we were
Speaker 1: members of the y m c A. My wife really
Speaker 1: loves going there, and so that was that was something
Speaker 1: that we were like, all right, well, how many months
Speaker 1: of the y membership will you know this this spin
Speaker 1: bike cost? And so all right, we got to cancel
Speaker 1: the membership for at least at least that many months.
Speaker 1: Who knows when or if we'll be going back to
Speaker 1: the y m c A. UM, but yeah, like she's
Speaker 1: loving the spin bike and working out at home, and
Speaker 1: I gotta say too, there are so many free ways
Speaker 1: that you can get workouts for your bike. You don't
Speaker 1: have to pay for a monthly subscription to something like peloton. Um,
Speaker 1: there's free workout videos on YouTube, YouTube on Facebook. Like
Speaker 1: her her favorite spin instructor at the y m c
Speaker 1: A is like releasing free workout videos on Facebook. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's aw well. On the note of spin Bike's team,
Speaker 1: did you see that it was on actually didn't release
Speaker 1: a prime bike. I did see that it's a company
Speaker 1: had created this bike, and they claimed that it was
Speaker 1: this is maybe a couple of weeks ago, maybe he
Speaker 1: made in conjunction with Amazon, but yeah, exactly, it was
Speaker 1: like this partnership thing, and they called it the Prime Bike,
Speaker 1: and when they released that, people went crazy, and actually
Speaker 1: I think I saw that the Peloton stock like drops
Speaker 1: because of the fear of the competition. But it turns
Speaker 1: out that was a lie. That actually wasn't the case,
Speaker 1: and Amazon quickly put out a statement saying that like, no,
Speaker 1: we didn't yeh. By late that morning, it was like
Speaker 1: pulled off the website. Yeah, which is so funny. But
Speaker 1: I find it really interesting though, how the generic brand
Speaker 1: of of Prime right via Amazon, how it carries so
Speaker 1: much weight with it. You know how when we see
Speaker 1: that something's, oh, a Prime Bike, it makes it sound
Speaker 1: like something that's a little more premium, which is at
Speaker 1: least that's how I view it, you know, um, like
Speaker 1: it's something that you can kind of count on. It's
Speaker 1: it's solid, it's not going to be the fanciest, but
Speaker 1: it's going to be really good when it's only available
Speaker 1: for if you are a Prime member, and we are
Speaker 1: of course, yeah yeah, And so I think, I don't know,
Speaker 1: that just speaks to how well they've positioned their own
Speaker 1: products and how much you know that name prime, how
Speaker 1: much that can sway consumers and and and just attitudes
Speaker 1: towards their products. But but yeah, all that's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a farce. It's true reality. But it is interesting to
Speaker 1: note that if Amazon does you know, now, maybe they're thinking,
Speaker 1: maybe we will great one and uh, Pelaton better beware
Speaker 1: if that happens, because it's going to eat into their sales.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into our Friday flight sampling of
Speaker 1: stories that we found interesting this week, stories that impact
Speaker 1: our personal finances. And speaking of exercise, um, it's been
Speaker 1: really interesting to see how expensive or out of stock
Speaker 1: and basic workout equipment has become. I think that's another
Speaker 1: reason why I played against sports has been just kind
Speaker 1: of overrun with with people coming to buy stuff used
Speaker 1: and and and and they sell new stuff too. But
Speaker 1: dumbbells in particular cost so much. It's been interesting to
Speaker 1: see some of the stories that one can you even
Speaker 1: find them and exactly yeah, and then too if you
Speaker 1: can often there on resale sites like eBay and Facebook marketplace,
Speaker 1: and the listings are for five, six, seven times the
Speaker 1: price of what they typically normally cost because the supply
Speaker 1: is almost non existent. Um so, uh, we got one
Speaker 1: thing that we've been doing because Emily has like one
Speaker 1: set of dumbells that she's had for for quite a
Speaker 1: while and says, we only have one set, and when
Speaker 1: we're working out together, I'm just using our one year
Speaker 1: old as like, yeah, so lifting him up and down,
Speaker 1: doing some curls with him, and so I'm sure he
Speaker 1: enjoys that as well. Yeah, it's kind of fun. It's
Speaker 1: kind of fun, So use what you got and don't
Speaker 1: necessarily pay five times as much for dumbbells then what
Speaker 1: you know what they're worth. Yeah, And like, there are
Speaker 1: so many exercises as well that you can do with
Speaker 1: your own body weight master, like just like burpies in particular,
Speaker 1: like the high jumping burpee I think is what you
Speaker 1: call it, But that's where you do a burpie, but
Speaker 1: you you jump up as high as you can and
Speaker 1: when you drop down you do a push up. But man,
Speaker 1: you do like ten twenty of those. Do a few
Speaker 1: sets of those like that will seriously get your heart
Speaker 1: rate up. But I mean, I'm with you regarding the dumbells.
Speaker 1: We uh, I think maybe back in January I purchased
Speaker 1: like a forty five pound kettle bell just to be
Speaker 1: able to do some swings, you know, to keep a
Speaker 1: strong back. And Kate realized several months ago, She's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's something I want to do as well, and so
Speaker 1: I went looking for a kettle bell that was more
Speaker 1: appropriate for her strength. Dude, they don't even sell them anymore.
Speaker 1: It was an Amazon product. It was like Amazon Prime,
Speaker 1: vinyl coded Amazon Basics. Yeah, yeah, basics maybe, but it
Speaker 1: was just a vinyl coded kettle bell. And they're not
Speaker 1: even making them anymore because I think just because of
Speaker 1: you know, supply chain issues, but so it's difficult to
Speaker 1: kind of get your hands on them, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and no to that, you know. I think this
Speaker 1: is the case where shopping secondhand maybe could even cost
Speaker 1: you more because of the topsy turvy market we're in.
Speaker 1: You know, it all comes down to supply and demand.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of supply. There is a ton
Speaker 1: of demand for folks wanting to work out at home.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking for some weights, typically would recommend
Speaker 1: for folks go to like the Facebook marketplace, but you
Speaker 1: actually might find the prices there to be sky high.
Speaker 1: And so I think this might be a case we're
Speaker 1: waiting for more stock to arrive at retailers or you know,
Speaker 1: shopping out a place like like you did, man like
Speaker 1: played against sports. We'll we'll help folks to avoid the
Speaker 1: crazy costs that into jewels are charging these days. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and look for Matt's new YouTube channel workout video.
Speaker 1: Richard Simmons like workout videos. That's gonna be it's gonna
Speaker 1: be great. If you get me a leotard like that,
Speaker 1: I will wear it. People will love it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna gain a massive following. Let's get onto
Speaker 1: the to the next story we found interesting this week, Matt,
Speaker 1: California has banned new gas powered cars by the year.
Speaker 1: That means fifteen years from now, you won't be able
Speaker 1: to buy a new gas powered car in the entire state. Now,
Speaker 1: this won't prevent people from owning, selling, or buying used
Speaker 1: gas powered vehicles in California. Um. And it's a move
Speaker 1: that I think will accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles
Speaker 1: in our entire country. And I say country because California
Speaker 1: has so much power based on their sheer population size,
Speaker 1: They're they're like like twelve of the overall population of
Speaker 1: the US. Um So, any decision that's made in the
Speaker 1: state of California has this domino like effect of what
Speaker 1: happens to like the automotive industry in this case as
Speaker 1: a whole. And I just see this decision in particular
Speaker 1: leading a lot of Mania actors to start rethinking their
Speaker 1: plans for the next couple of decades of what cars
Speaker 1: they're planning to manufacture and moving hard in the e
Speaker 1: V direction. Yeah, something else too that I think we'll
Speaker 1: propel it along is in addition to this California state law,
Speaker 1: Tesla battery breakthroughs are gonna also help to push down
Speaker 1: the prices of electric vehicles. Man prices have already plummeted significantly.
Speaker 1: A story in Ours Technica showed that over the past
Speaker 1: ten years, the cost of batteries has dropped nearly So
Speaker 1: when a large portion of an electric vehicles cost is
Speaker 1: the battery is the technology that goes into its power,
Speaker 1: big improvements on that technology can really bring down the cost,
Speaker 1: and more innovation is is on the way to According
Speaker 1: to Elon Musk, you know, we're we're set to see
Speaker 1: twenty five dollar tesla's just three years from now, which
Speaker 1: is an incredible sign that evs will will quickly become
Speaker 1: the new vehicle of choice for for many Americans the
Speaker 1: near future. Yeah, I feel like I read so many
Speaker 1: stories this week about electric vehicles, about batteries, and just
Speaker 1: to see kind of what's happening in that space. Ten
Speaker 1: ars from now, fifteen years from now, for sure, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine many of us will be considering buying a
Speaker 1: new gas powered vehicle. And on top of that, Consumer
Speaker 1: Reports just published their own research that they did that
Speaker 1: shows that the maintenance cost for an electric vehicle are
Speaker 1: less than half of that for a gas powered vehicle,
Speaker 1: and specifically, consumers who purchase an electric car can expect
Speaker 1: to save an average of four thousand, six d dollars
Speaker 1: in repair and maintenance costs over the life of that
Speaker 1: vehicle compared to a gasoline powered car. So I feel
Speaker 1: like everything I'm reading this week makes e vs come
Speaker 1: out smelling like roses. I've got my Niecean Leaf which
Speaker 1: has a range of like twenty miles. Now it's it's
Speaker 1: degraded over time. It's not that great. But the new
Speaker 1: evs that are coming out and the new battery capabilities
Speaker 1: are just changing the game. They're making people less anxious
Speaker 1: about the range of that vehicle. Um and as the
Speaker 1: costs come down to I mean, evs are quickly becoming
Speaker 1: and quickly will continue to become more of a no
Speaker 1: brainer decision for for a lot of people. I think. Yeah. Know,
Speaker 1: for us though, like the b this issue is range,
Speaker 1: you know, and when we have only one vehicle, we
Speaker 1: want to be able to hop in that vehicle and
Speaker 1: road trip with it essentially. And so for me at least,
Speaker 1: that that's our biggest barrier, is the ability to to
Speaker 1: travel longer distances, you know. But with these battery improvements,
Speaker 1: I see that coming. I see five years from now,
Speaker 1: like the range is going to be greatly improved and
Speaker 1: so like, not only are the costs coming down, the
Speaker 1: batteries are just going to have more capacity and you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to go further in the car that
Speaker 1: you're buying. Well, if that's the case, then I'm all
Speaker 1: for it. You know, Like if I can drive twelve
Speaker 1: hours in one day basically with very few stops you
Speaker 1: know where you know, kind of just like top off
Speaker 1: the battery a little bit, maybe at a charging station,
Speaker 1: I am for that. But until that's the case, man,
Speaker 1: until that's the reality. I think it's gonna be. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna stick with our old gasoline powered vehicle for maybe,
Speaker 1: I don't know, the next decade or so. I want
Speaker 1: to drive that thing into the ground. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be I wanted to look like my iPhone just battered
Speaker 1: and bruised. Yeah, just crack glass everywhere. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you want that. Yeah, I don't actually want that
Speaker 1: to case, but no, but yeah, I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: And Matt. On the note of gasoline driving a gas
Speaker 1: power car, there was an interesting article that I read
Speaker 1: in USA today about states raising gasoline taxes right now
Speaker 1: as gas prices have fallen and demand has fallen. Uh,
Speaker 1: states need to make up revenue in order to pay
Speaker 1: uh to to maintain road systems. In New Jersey just
Speaker 1: made apparently the biggest hike in gas tax of like,
Speaker 1: I think, close to ten cents a gallon. Other states
Speaker 1: recently have implemented increases in the gas tax, like California, Virginia, Nebraska,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and Alabama. UM. So yeah, just note that
Speaker 1: while gas prices are down, a lot of states are
Speaker 1: increasing their gas tax um. And it's something that you
Speaker 1: might barely even notice. Um, but and I think it's
Speaker 1: like nobody like loves gas prices going up, but it
Speaker 1: is one of these things that is necessary in order
Speaker 1: to continue to maintain the roads for us all to
Speaker 1: drive on. Right. Yeah, man, that's rights. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: let let's talk now about paying for student loans. Google
Speaker 1: announced recently that they will be helping their employees pay
Speaker 1: off their student loans. Man, starting in one Google will
Speaker 1: match in payments towards the student loans of the folks
Speaker 1: who work there. We're seeing more and more companies attempting
Speaker 1: to step up their game helping workers with the burden
Speaker 1: of student loans. I love that this benefit is becoming
Speaker 1: more mainstream. In the past, we've seen different companies step
Speaker 1: up and say pay for some additional education, right, whether
Speaker 1: that be just specific courses or even you know, companies
Speaker 1: paying for an m b A for somebody who works there.
Speaker 1: But to see companies like Google now pay student loans
Speaker 1: that you've already incurred, I think that's a fantastic benefit
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Like like when Anthony was on
Speaker 1: the show on Monday, Matt he talked about not taking
Speaker 1: on debt for school, and you and I we agree.
Speaker 1: We'd love to see high school students not take on
Speaker 1: debt for their education, or at least keep it to
Speaker 1: a minimum. But it's also good to see that companies
Speaker 1: are realizing the benefits of partnering in that loan payoff
Speaker 1: with their employees because it has become such a massive burden.
Speaker 1: So if you do have student loan debt and you're
Speaker 1: interviewing for a new job, look at additional non salary
Speaker 1: benefits that are being offered by your company and advocate
Speaker 1: for yourself and negotiate your higher compensation package. It's not
Speaker 1: always about that bottom line number of what this about
Speaker 1: the salary, because those intangibles, those extra benefits that a
Speaker 1: company offers can add up to thousands and thousands of
Speaker 1: dollars in additional benefits that can be really, really meaningful.
Speaker 1: It makes that interviewing process maybe a little more complicated,
Speaker 1: but man, we live in a complicated world. That's true.
Speaker 1: All the note of paying for college, filling out the FAFSA,
Speaker 1: uh Man, that is even more important right now, specifically
Speaker 1: this year. If you're going to be a student, or
Speaker 1: if you have a student in college for two academic year,
Speaker 1: the information that you used to fill out the FASTA
Speaker 1: this year will be based on twenty nineteen taxes, which
Speaker 1: is obviously before many of us were impacted by the shutdowns, right,
Speaker 1: and so any financial aid should be based on your
Speaker 1: current situation, not last year's. So make sure that you
Speaker 1: file early because you'll need time to then request a
Speaker 1: professional judgment. Oh and then people might be wondering, what's
Speaker 1: a professional judgment? Professional judgment, I'm a professional judge or so,
Speaker 1: like you know, no, not but uh, what what that is?
Speaker 1: What that means is is when you contact a financial
Speaker 1: aid office at any of the schools you're applying to
Speaker 1: in order to submit up to date information that would
Speaker 1: give the school the clearest picture of your financial situation, right,
Speaker 1: information like if you if you've been laid off or furloughed,
Speaker 1: those notices, unemployment checks, or medical bills that you've incurred. Basically,
Speaker 1: any of these documents that are going to help clear
Speaker 1: up what your current financial situation is could help you
Speaker 1: qualify for more assistance than what your FASTEST shows. Because again,
Speaker 1: like Matt said, we're talking about last year's numbers on
Speaker 1: the fast STA, but things have changed quite a bit
Speaker 1: this year. And so yeah, you need to file early
Speaker 1: so you can request that professional judgment, and if your
Speaker 1: situation is drastically changed, you should be able to find
Speaker 1: a lot more financial aid resources. That's right, man. All Right,
Speaker 1: We've got a few more stories to get to after
Speaker 1: the break. We're gonna talk about what retail looks like
Speaker 1: this fall, as well as financial independence and retiring early.
Speaker 1: We'll get to those stories plus a couple more right
Speaker 1: after the break. All right, we're back in the break
Speaker 1: and Matt. Early on we talked about the Prime bike
Speaker 1: that wasn't to be, then that didn't actually exist, and
Speaker 1: now we're going to talk about Amazon just announced their
Speaker 1: Prime Day recently, I think last week. So if you
Speaker 1: are a Prime member, I think sometimes people get annoyed
Speaker 1: with us talking about Amazon. I love them, but I
Speaker 1: hate them. Yeah, it's kind of love hate relationship. But
Speaker 1: I think the interesting thing about Prime Day happening on
Speaker 1: October four is that a lot of people follow suit
Speaker 1: and also have sales on those same days. Obviously, it's
Speaker 1: a way for Amazon to try to increase the attachment
Speaker 1: that it's loyal customers have to the site. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, a lot of other retailers, including a
Speaker 1: lot of small businesses creates sales on similar days to
Speaker 1: kind of create this effect of like a second Black
Speaker 1: Friday essentially. Um And the important thing to note now
Speaker 1: is that you shouldn't be waiting until the last minute
Speaker 1: to do your Christmas shopping, and something like Prime Day
Speaker 1: could be the perfect time for you to start buying
Speaker 1: gifts for your loved ones, and not necessarily at Amazon. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: other retailers are jumping on board, specifically Target. I mean
Speaker 1: they are having what they're calling sales days on the
Speaker 1: exact same days that Prime Days are happening and the fourteenth.
Speaker 1: But it is an interesting effect, you know, because typically
Speaker 1: Prime Day happens in the summer, right. But because of COVID,
Speaker 1: that's something that they kind of kicked down the road
Speaker 1: a little bit. I think a lot of it had
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that they couldn't keep up
Speaker 1: with demand. There were so many purchases that were already
Speaker 1: happening due to COVID that it just wasn't feasible for
Speaker 1: them to then have additional sales on top of that.
Speaker 1: Plus I think it probably would have looked bad if
Speaker 1: they're like, hey, guess what, we're gonna have Prime Days
Speaker 1: and kind of capitalize on the fact that people are
Speaker 1: shopping more from home anyway. But but like you said,
Speaker 1: I think it will shift the even though we're shifting
Speaker 1: Prime Day back, it sort of shifts the holiday shopping
Speaker 1: season forward just slightly. But maybe that is a smart
Speaker 1: thing to do as well, because of you know, shipping delays.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've noticed, but like we've seen
Speaker 1: packages that say they're gonna show up on a Wednesday
Speaker 1: and then we're lucky if if they show up, you know,
Speaker 1: before the weekend. Yeah, I feel like I'm pulling my
Speaker 1: hair out looking at FedEx tracking numbers sometimes. Um, like
Speaker 1: in particular on on the newest version of the rad
Speaker 1: Wagon that I purchased, it's just like keeps getting delayed
Speaker 1: and delayed and supposed to show up at the end
Speaker 1: of September, but you're getting that delay. Um probably it
Speaker 1: might be mid October at this point. Who is Yeah? So,
Speaker 1: which is which is fine? Right, It's not a big deal.
Speaker 1: But that's just another reason for people to plan ahead
Speaker 1: and to and especially since we're doing more online shopping
Speaker 1: by by gifts for your loved ones earlier than you
Speaker 1: normally would because of those shipping delays and because sales
Speaker 1: are happening too. Yeah, so you can finally snag that
Speaker 1: instant pot if that's still the hot item that I
Speaker 1: don't know, five years behind the curve ofears pot Now
Speaker 1: all right, man. We we often talk about fire right,
Speaker 1: financial independence, retire early, but we mostly tend to focus
Speaker 1: on the first part, the financial independence part. We believe
Speaker 1: that financial independence gives individuals the flexibility and opportunity to
Speaker 1: do pretty much whatever they would like to with their time. Right.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're not beholden to a job in
Speaker 1: order to earn an in come, you're financially independent and
Speaker 1: you have freedom over your life. If that sounds amazing
Speaker 1: to you, we are with you. That's an amazing goal
Speaker 1: to have. But you know, how you spend your time
Speaker 1: can can have a big impact on your brain. Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's a recent study, mat and I think it actually
Speaker 1: lends credence to the fact that of of why you
Speaker 1: and I are not fans of the r E part
Speaker 1: of the retire early part. The new research is based
Speaker 1: on this retirement program in China, and it shows that
Speaker 1: within a couple of years of participants retiring, there's a
Speaker 1: noticeable amount of cognitive decline. Specifically, the largest negative effect
Speaker 1: was measured in something called delayed recall, which is an
Speaker 1: individual's ability to recall something that was mentioned just a
Speaker 1: few minutes earlier. This is like an on a short
Speaker 1: nigger movie when he gets older, like the lay recall
Speaker 1: exactly well. And and this it's not surprising either, right,
Speaker 1: because while we're at work, most of our minds are
Speaker 1: are challenged. And and if we stop working, that sharpening
Speaker 1: that's happening to our brains while we're working just isn't
Speaker 1: going on anymore, and so our brains can essentially get
Speaker 1: out of shape. Um. There's like a saying, if you rest,
Speaker 1: you rust, And I think that's an important thing to
Speaker 1: think about when we're thinking about what retirement looks like. Right.
Speaker 1: They also cited that with retirement there's a decrease in
Speaker 1: social activities too. Um, I guess right now, we're all
Speaker 1: having a massive decrease in social activities. We're not seeing
Speaker 1: our coworkers, there's no water cooler talk. But this intuitively
Speaker 1: makes sense because a lot of our friendships and relationships
Speaker 1: are associated with the work that we do. And so
Speaker 1: if we opt to retire early or even when we
Speaker 1: retire at normal age. Um, it is important to keep
Speaker 1: some of those things going because it's good for our brains. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: so yeah, for this reason, that's why we're pretty big
Speaker 1: on the financial independence aspect of fire right unless the
Speaker 1: R E side of the acronym, and especially here in
Speaker 1: the US, you know, retiring it often carries a negative
Speaker 1: connotation of of not doing anything, and and that's not
Speaker 1: what we're all about here and so but here's the thing, man,
Speaker 1: I am less concerned about the mind of like younger
Speaker 1: professionals you know, who are excelling at work, taking on
Speaker 1: new roles, or maybe like a couple with kids who
Speaker 1: are creatively finding ways to cut back their expenses. If
Speaker 1: they retire early, then I might think that their brains
Speaker 1: will continue to be engaged. I would assume that there
Speaker 1: might be additional, like, you know, new opportunities that would
Speaker 1: present themselves as they're likely working towards something, or that
Speaker 1: you know, they're retiring towards something. But I do have
Speaker 1: a concern for individuals who have maybe worked their entire
Speaker 1: lives in a standard nine to five where they have
Speaker 1: retirement taken care of. Maybe they even have a company
Speaker 1: pension and they're not necessarily working towards anything specific. When
Speaker 1: you retire early, you know, I've seen that it's typically
Speaker 1: because you're working towards something else. But when you retire
Speaker 1: on time at sixty five, you don't necessarily have to
Speaker 1: have that next big thing lined up. And so that's
Speaker 1: where I see how retirement could have some some pretty
Speaker 1: negative effects. So yeah, man, you know, I'm not totally
Speaker 1: showing this, but like I feel that this is where
Speaker 1: I could see how retirement could have, you know, some
Speaker 1: pretty negative effects. Yeah. Yeah, I think, just anecdotally, I've
Speaker 1: seen in some of the people that I love when
Speaker 1: they were tired, if they didn't have multiple hobbies that
Speaker 1: that they were really into, or areas of service where
Speaker 1: they were plugged in working alongside other people, caring for others,
Speaker 1: I felt like there was a noticeable drop off in
Speaker 1: their social and cognitive abilities. And so yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's important to be plugged into something meaningful, to hopefully
Speaker 1: multiple meaningful things as you get older and when you retire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like you mentioned to, the pandemic has only I
Speaker 1: think amplified this. Like we have seen how social isolation,
Speaker 1: how that can have a negative effect on us and
Speaker 1: so I think it's important to look ahead and see
Speaker 1: how how this actually might affect you down the road
Speaker 1: when it does come time to retire. Yeah, you're almost
Speaker 1: getting like, obviously we're still with so many of us
Speaker 1: are still working and working from home. It just looks different.
Speaker 1: But but you are getting somewhat of a preview of
Speaker 1: what retirement and that kind of isolation could look like.
Speaker 1: Are you going to be able to be motivated to
Speaker 1: work on something on your own from home or or
Speaker 1: is that going to be difficult? And so, Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 1: I think people get too excited about quitting work. And
Speaker 1: it's okay to quit work and engage in other activities.
Speaker 1: Just make sure there are other meaningful activities to engage in.
Speaker 1: Um So, does that mean that we're against retirement, No way, right.
Speaker 1: But but regardless, if you're looking to retire early at
Speaker 1: age like thirty five or forty or on time closer
Speaker 1: to age sixty five, it's important to to work towards
Speaker 1: having that healthy social life, keeping your mind engaged in sharp,
Speaker 1: making sure you have relationships outside of your job, or
Speaker 1: if you really are good friends with your coworkers, that
Speaker 1: those relationships also exist outside of just the work context,
Speaker 1: and then hang out on the weekends living life, like
Speaker 1: going for a hike, doing doing the stuff, life stuff,
Speaker 1: getting out in nature exactly. And then when it comes
Speaker 1: to keeping your mind sharp, it's good to have outlets
Speaker 1: that you're working towards, volunteering a personal entrepreneurial endeavor, or
Speaker 1: maybe even another job, a part time job, doing something
Speaker 1: you've always wanted to do. Um, now that you have
Speaker 1: the financial means you can do that lower paying job.
Speaker 1: That seems exciting, because when you're financially independent, you can
Speaker 1: take a job or a position that's less demaining or
Speaker 1: more creatively fulfilling. It's not all about the salary um.
Speaker 1: So it's just one of those interesting things to consider.
Speaker 1: That study just kind of prompted some thoughts from Matt
Speaker 1: and I about retirement and staying sharp. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: think retirement sounds great. And then for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: they get there, they quit their job, and then they're
Speaker 1: a little aimless and it's not as fulfilling as they
Speaker 1: hoped it would be. Yeah, and so on the note
Speaker 1: of retiring actually a fidelity, they released some guidelines on
Speaker 1: how much you should have saved by specific ages in
Speaker 1: order to traditionally retire right, uh. And the rule of
Speaker 1: thumb said that we should shoot for having one times
Speaker 1: your salary by the age of thirty, three times your
Speaker 1: age by forty, and then six times your salary your
Speaker 1: annual salary by the age of fifty, and then so
Speaker 1: on as well. But you know, this might sound impossible
Speaker 1: to a lot of folks, but you know what I I mean,
Speaker 1: this whole saving and investing thing, it's a long game.
Speaker 1: And when we often underestimate the power of compound interest.
Speaker 1: I saw something recently that was illustrating the power of
Speaker 1: compound interest, and they were saying, how like if you
Speaker 1: do a plus eight and then you do that seven
Speaker 1: more times, right, so, like a plus eight a total
Speaker 1: of eight times, you can easily calculate in your mind
Speaker 1: what that's going to be sixty four are right, Like,
Speaker 1: it makes sense, It's it's not that difficult. But if
Speaker 1: you do eight times eight and you do that seven
Speaker 1: more times, I don't even know. Well, and it's well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, it's over sixteen million. Uh. It is
Speaker 1: just so hard for us to wrap our brains around compounding.
Speaker 1: And that's essentially what you know, our money invested in
Speaker 1: the market does like it sits there. You earn money
Speaker 1: on that money, and then the money that you have total,
Speaker 1: you earn more interests on that money, and then and
Speaker 1: so on and so forth, right, Like that is compound interest.
Speaker 1: So I use that illustration just to encourage folks because
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily about having that you know, you setting
Speaker 1: aside every single one of those dollars. It's about getting
Speaker 1: investing and if you can, getting invested early, because the
Speaker 1: more time you have on your side for the money
Speaker 1: that you set aside to earn interest, the better off
Speaker 1: you're going to be in the long term. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: more you're able to set aside today means the that
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to set aside less in your older
Speaker 1: working years, right because that that dollar has a much
Speaker 1: greater impact right now than it will further on down
Speaker 1: the road. And sometimes I had day to give those
Speaker 1: numbers from studies like this, like fidelities, but I think
Speaker 1: it is it's helpful for people to see those numbers.
Speaker 1: Just don't let those numbers get you down, um and
Speaker 1: and know that if you see that and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm nowhere close to that number, well you're not alone.
Speaker 1: Most people aren't anywhere close to that number, but those
Speaker 1: are hard numbers to achieve. And so yeah, getting started,
Speaker 1: um increasing that contribution by one or two percent every
Speaker 1: time that you get a raise or twice a year, like,
Speaker 1: whatever you can do to to slightly increase it over time,
Speaker 1: it's going to have a massive impact. If you're not there, like,
Speaker 1: don't kick yourself, you can do it, and and just
Speaker 1: it's it's these small changes that we can continue to
Speaker 1: implement over time that are going to actually help us
Speaker 1: get there over the long haul. But we're just not
Speaker 1: gonna do it in like a short period of time,
Speaker 1: like in the next couple of weeks or months. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, man, exactly. All right, Well that's gonna be
Speaker 1: uh it for this episode. Leteners can find our shown
Speaker 1: It's up on our website at how to money dot com. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you've been listening for a while but you
Speaker 1: haven't read any of the articles on our site, well
Speaker 1: we just published one about saving money on yourself phone
Speaker 1: built right, go check that one out. It's on the
Speaker 1: front page of how to money dot com. And if
Speaker 1: you're paying more than thirty bucks a month for your
Speaker 1: cell phone bill, you can likely save a good bit
Speaker 1: to go. Check that article out. All right, everybody have
Speaker 1: a great weekend and Matt. That's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode until next time. Best Friends Out, Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out,