Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about why we love biking. I
Speaker 1: love it so Matt, we're best friends, were doing a podcast.
Speaker 1: Let's tell everybody what we're up to. Yeah, so we
Speaker 1: want to be able to live a rich life unless money.
Speaker 1: So it's not all about being frugal and ways to
Speaker 1: save money. That that's what we're gonna talk about. But
Speaker 1: it's just about ways that we think you can live
Speaker 1: a richer, more robust life. Yeah, we're not coupon clippers,
Speaker 1: but we're all about saving money and living a better life.
Speaker 1: And we don't think it takes money to live the
Speaker 1: life necessarily live in the life we want to live
Speaker 1: to just yeah, absolutely, we want to live a life
Speaker 1: where if we won the lottery, it wouldn't change our
Speaker 1: lives all that much, right, I don't know about you.
Speaker 1: That's like, that's the way I think that if I
Speaker 1: won ten million dollars tomorrow, it changes It would change
Speaker 1: the little bit, but a little bit, but like my
Speaker 1: I wouldn't overall all my life, it wouldn't be all
Speaker 1: that different. Like money is not what makes the difference.
Speaker 1: That's totally true. Travel more, that's for sure, Yes, no
Speaker 1: doubt anyway, Stop, we gotta we gotta drink in that vein.
Speaker 1: We like to drink in beer's. Yeah. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: craft beer may not be your thing, but we really
Speaker 1: like it. And so we thought, you know, what, might
Speaker 1: not be a bad idea to have a beer while
Speaker 1: we're talking about life life stuff. All right, Matt, So
Speaker 1: what's the beer that we're drinking today? Every episode we're
Speaker 1: gonna drink a different beer and it's gonna be freaking
Speaker 1: super tasty, and we'll drink it while we're talking about
Speaker 1: the subject at hand, which today, like we said, is biking.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talking about biking and how biking changes their life,
Speaker 1: saves you money. It's pretty much all around awesome. But
Speaker 1: tell them abut the beer we're drinking, Matt, Yeah, thanks
Speaker 1: for bringing this over. Uh yeah, we're drinking beer by Founders.
Speaker 1: It's called backwards Bastard. It is dirty bastard aged in
Speaker 1: oak bourbon barrels. Remember the first time I had this
Speaker 1: a few years ago. It's more than a few years ago,
Speaker 1: it's probably been like five years or something like that now.
Speaker 1: But just tasting that woody oakness, it's such a good
Speaker 1: winter beer. It's like welcoming the win, like the colder months,
Speaker 1: like it is now. It's perfect. Yeah, and I'm really excited.
Speaker 1: At the end of the podcast will kind of give
Speaker 1: you guys our tasting notes, like what we think about
Speaker 1: Backwoods Bastard in this particular year of it. But this, truly,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, is one of my all time
Speaker 1: paper beers, and especially it's not too hard to get
Speaker 1: and it's a little expensive. I think it was fourteen
Speaker 1: bucks for a four pack, but for four super freaking
Speaker 1: tasty in an age as well. So we're drinking one now.
Speaker 1: Lay one of these down for next year too. Cheers, man, cheers,
Speaker 1: thanks for bringing this over alright, So onto the subject
Speaker 1: hand biking and Matt, I'll confess that my life has changed.
Speaker 1: I feel like you actually got me into biking, and
Speaker 1: it's something I've kind of forgotten for a while, and
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I'm back into it. Wait, so
Speaker 1: you used to bike, but now but you said you
Speaker 1: forgot about it. Yeah, man, I think like it just
Speaker 1: seemed normal to get into my car to go everywhere,
Speaker 1: and for a while he didn't have a good bike,
Speaker 1: and then one of my wife's best friends. Her dad
Speaker 1: gave me his old bike, his old road bike, and
Speaker 1: I started like doing that a little bit, but it
Speaker 1: needed some work done to it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, do I know how to work on bikes? Um?
Speaker 1: That's when we started bik into the Braves games, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that, and you're like, oh, I got a
Speaker 1: bike somewhere. Yeah, I'd get a little work done to it,
Speaker 1: but it was um. But then I started riding. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is really fun. But I was like too nervous
Speaker 1: to take the plunge to like do it more. I
Speaker 1: don't know why it's not. Yeah, I hear you, man,
Speaker 1: I keep kicking the pants, you know. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel that way, right. There's just a
Speaker 1: lot of different kind of bikes out there. It's like my,
Speaker 1: am I doing it right? Or am I get the
Speaker 1: right one? Or how do I where do I park it?
Speaker 1: Or do I lock it up or something. There's just
Speaker 1: a lot of sort of things that folks aren't used
Speaker 1: to doing. Like when you're a kid, you just get
Speaker 1: on your bike, you ride around, have a good time,
Speaker 1: right over to your friend's house. There's none of the
Speaker 1: other stuff associated with it. Yeah, it's it, but when
Speaker 1: you live in the city like we do, you gotta
Speaker 1: take other things into account and uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It can be intimidating for folks, but it doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be. Well we can talk more about that later on,
Speaker 1: but it's still fun, all right. So speaking fun, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite bike memory? Kate and I my wife Kate,
Speaker 1: we went with some friends to visit some other friends
Speaker 1: that were living in d C. And they've got this
Speaker 1: share program and it's the first time we've ever done that.
Speaker 1: It's called Capital Bike Share. I don't know. You join
Speaker 1: and then you get to right out around for like
Speaker 1: the week, weekend sort of thing. But anyway, when you're
Speaker 1: in d C, it's an awesome way to get around
Speaker 1: to all the different museums and sites. And I've never
Speaker 1: been to d C, so we had an awesome time.
Speaker 1: And if you parked it back into another station within
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes, it was free. So you pay for
Speaker 1: the membership and then if you get it from zero
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes is free. Beyond that it's super cheap.
Speaker 1: But you're like Hallin asked so that you can get
Speaker 1: for free. Yeah. So there's six of us and we're like,
Speaker 1: all right, is everybody ready to go and go? And
Speaker 1: we you know, jump on, hop on jeff on our
Speaker 1: bikes and peddle stopping for happy hour and going out
Speaker 1: to eat and going to see stuff and stopping at
Speaker 1: food trucks during the day. And it was during the
Speaker 1: spring too, so we're like riding around the what is
Speaker 1: it the lake and by the Jefferson Memorial. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the blossoms. All that was happening at Cherry Blossoms. It
Speaker 1: was beautiful. So I think because that, I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: bike share is the bomb. Yeah. We recently got a
Speaker 1: lot of bike share stuff going on in Atlanta where
Speaker 1: we live too, and it's kind of cool to see
Speaker 1: those around town. And ye, they're expanding like crazy. You
Speaker 1: see him like lock two random trees because someone's inside.
Speaker 1: Like although, I will say, when you see someone on
Speaker 1: one of those bike share bikes, usually they're like a
Speaker 1: PI poor biker and so you're a little bit like, Okay,
Speaker 1: avoid those people like to play because they don't how
Speaker 1: to bike. I remember people saying that with the city
Speaker 1: bikes in DC are New York. Remember when this first
Speaker 1: came out like people. There's a lot of jokes going
Speaker 1: around about the bikers on like Times Square. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a sing. So my favorite biking memory was when Emily
Speaker 1: and I were in Amsterdam and as you know that
Speaker 1: that in Copenhagen, right are probably the top two biking
Speaker 1: towns and hags up there. Yeah, and biking around there
Speaker 1: was so cool because bikes are way more important than
Speaker 1: cars there and at every intersection, cars are the ones
Speaker 1: that are like sweating and fear, like the furrowed brow
Speaker 1: that are like I don't know, can I go yet?
Speaker 1: Because all these bikes are here and it's the total
Speaker 1: opposite everywhere else in this world, but yeah, especially the US. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but biking in Amsterdam and then also like to come
Speaker 1: out of the train station and see literally like a
Speaker 1: sea of bikes, thousands of bikes, and its insane to
Speaker 1: cross over the ferry on bikes. I don't know, just
Speaker 1: to see the whole town that way was a blast.
Speaker 1: And also just think about childhood and it made me
Speaker 1: think about Stranger Things, the show Stranger Things, and I
Speaker 1: was trying to I really liked the show, but I
Speaker 1: was trying to think why I like the show, so much,
Speaker 1: And I think my favorite season one episode one. They
Speaker 1: start off, I mean they're on their bikes, right, It's
Speaker 1: like yeah, and I'm like, it's a it's a great show.
Speaker 1: It's got a lot of good things going for it.
Speaker 1: The acting is great, the storytelling is great. But I
Speaker 1: think more than anything, I resonate with like the kids
Speaker 1: on their bikes doing their thing. It brings you back
Speaker 1: to childhood in that way and getting places doing what
Speaker 1: they want to do. So those are my favorite bike memories.
Speaker 1: And it's different to being at home and biking. Right,
Speaker 1: It's not like we're on vick because both the things
Speaker 1: we just mentioned were us traveling, um, But in daily
Speaker 1: life it's still fun, right, Like I think about a
Speaker 1: bunch of us got together and rode up to see
Speaker 1: a Line United play. Yeah, it's about what four and
Speaker 1: a half mile trek each way. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: like minutes or something like that from where we live.
Speaker 1: But then they've got the bike valet there and so
Speaker 1: he gets to ride up, like he gets literally pulled
Speaker 1: straight up to the stadium like a like a stud
Speaker 1: right across from the thirty five dollar part. Yes, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, that how good? Does that? Make you feel
Speaker 1: when you see like the escalades or whatever, like pull
Speaker 1: pulling down into the garage and it makes you feel
Speaker 1: so good. I think it's twenty five. It's not like, no,
Speaker 1: it's thirty five. I swear to you it's thirty five.
Speaker 1: That's insane, it's I mean, it's outrageous right across from
Speaker 1: the free bike. But then yeah, then you go to
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Bike Collision bike valet when it's free, and
Speaker 1: the dudes are awesome, and you know the folks that
Speaker 1: are running that are great. It's just fun, right, and
Speaker 1: then you're just kind of hanging out there at the
Speaker 1: bike valet, uh before before going into the game. So
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of tailgating, I think, I think, uh,
Speaker 1: that's that's definitely one of my favorite memories, like the
Speaker 1: memories that we've made biking the games together. And then
Speaker 1: the other thing that we love to do. So Matt
Speaker 1: and I both have cargo bikes which have like this
Speaker 1: hard tail on the back and we can slap our
Speaker 1: kids on there. So Matt's got three girls, I've got
Speaker 1: two girls, and girls. Man, nothing with girls. Lots of
Speaker 1: chicks in our lives. One of the most fun things
Speaker 1: I think is is putting them on the bike and
Speaker 1: going for rides, and we just had such a blast
Speaker 1: both us, you know, taking rise together with the girls
Speaker 1: are separately Like when like my girls are just on
Speaker 1: a Saturday, they want to hop on the bike and
Speaker 1: they want to go to the playground. And that's for me,
Speaker 1: that's the most fun because I don't have to walk
Speaker 1: to the playground a half mile or half of my
Speaker 1: stupid car to go there. We get to like work
Speaker 1: through the streets, like get the wind blowing through our hair. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And what's great about that too, is just that they
Speaker 1: want to do something that we want to do. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like we've got kids that are one through four,
Speaker 1: and there's not many things that we do that we
Speaker 1: enjoy doing that they also like doing. And said it
Speaker 1: has something like that where to drink beer with us
Speaker 1: on occasion Yeah, just yeah, only on the weekend, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, something about that where you're just like connecting
Speaker 1: with them. I think that's that's a big Obviously, we
Speaker 1: love to do anything that they love to do, like
Speaker 1: if it, you know, makes them happy, but something that
Speaker 1: also aligns with our values. It's like there's some there's
Speaker 1: something beautiful about that. Where Yeah, it just makes me happy,
Speaker 1: i know, bringing them into your world. Yes, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really fun for me to go down into theirs and
Speaker 1: you know, drop pictures whatever, but for to bring them
Speaker 1: up into ours and for them to get to be
Speaker 1: a part of something that we enjoy so much, and
Speaker 1: start teaching them, like early on, to like the things
Speaker 1: that we enjoy, and start you know, explaining to them
Speaker 1: why we like biking so much, which is why you know,
Speaker 1: while we're talking today too, right, Yeah, so we think
Speaker 1: biking makes a huge difference in your life. It contributes
Speaker 1: to a richness of life, and that's why we love it.
Speaker 1: But also so we care a lot about Matt saving
Speaker 1: money and we think bikes really hit the nail on
Speaker 1: the head when it comes to saving money too. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it goes without saying, right, a bike is
Speaker 1: cheaper than than well, yeah, there's some bikes out there
Speaker 1: that are expensive, but in general, bikes are affordable. I
Speaker 1: think if folks are concerned about how much of bike costs, like,
Speaker 1: they can hop on Craigslist or ask around and you
Speaker 1: know there's gonna be somebody selling a bike. But there's
Speaker 1: websites and stuff other two that are there are selling
Speaker 1: bikes for for pretty cheap without huge markups and and
Speaker 1: things like that. Like I said, I got my first
Speaker 1: adult bike for free from your yeah excess dad, from
Speaker 1: my from my wife's best friend's dad. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: you said no. So we're still connected, we're still friends.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was I mean making sure he doesn't
Speaker 1: want his bike back. I mean super kind. He's a
Speaker 1: big biker, and he he bought another one and it's
Speaker 1: a nice bike, that trek. Yeah, it's really nice, and
Speaker 1: so I mean you might not get a free one,
Speaker 1: but there's all sorts of ways to get a free
Speaker 1: or cheap decent bike. You don't have to spend all
Speaker 1: that much. They're not that expensive. And on top of
Speaker 1: that is how freaking cheap they are to repair and
Speaker 1: to and to ride every mile as opposed to a car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: repair costs. There's no comparison going to like your local
Speaker 1: bike shop, and we were there today. Yeah, uh Lesnets
Speaker 1: over there in Grand Pire. Those guys are awesome. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean there's no comparison. And like taking
Speaker 1: your bike in to get completely overhaul it as opposed
Speaker 1: to even like an oil change. Yeah, like on a
Speaker 1: on a traditional vehicle, bikes are so much more affordable
Speaker 1: when it comes to maintenance, and plus you can look
Speaker 1: up on YouTube and how to videos and you can
Speaker 1: save say sixty bucks right there instead of having to
Speaker 1: go in. You just like have a screw driver and
Speaker 1: know what to turn. And it's not like the most
Speaker 1: complicated thing. It's just most folks have never done it. Sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the most money you can save is if you
Speaker 1: can possibly commute to work on your bike. Whatch you do.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing that for the most part now. Um,
Speaker 1: and that's been Man, it's been so enjoyable and it's
Speaker 1: been a money saver to you know, we're at the
Speaker 1: point where I'm considering getting down to being a one
Speaker 1: car family because you know, my wife has a car
Speaker 1: and I have a car, and so close, man, I'm close,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, can we hit that point? Can we
Speaker 1: hit that point? But we've already been able to kind
Speaker 1: of cut down our insurance costs because if you if
Speaker 1: you drive the cars under like usually miles of years,
Speaker 1: kind of this point for insurance companies, you have the
Speaker 1: tracker that does the mileage or yeah, we've got trackers
Speaker 1: track so you don't even have to do that. You
Speaker 1: can usually just tell them and every year they'll uh,
Speaker 1: they'll do They'll like ask you, well, how many miles
Speaker 1: around the vehicle now, and if you're under seventy miles
Speaker 1: a year, they'll give you a discount for that. But
Speaker 1: you can do the trackers too, and with a lot
Speaker 1: of these major insurance companies, and you can save even
Speaker 1: more by putting a tracker on your vehicle and letting
Speaker 1: them kind of see how much you drive and how
Speaker 1: you drive. You can save like on your insurance costs
Speaker 1: if you're driving it less and running your bike instead. Right, totally.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many times I said this to folks.
Speaker 1: I romantic science like the nine to five because being
Speaker 1: self employed, like I am own of my own business,
Speaker 1: like it's just always on your mind, right, And so
Speaker 1: sometimes I think, like, oh man, like a nine to
Speaker 1: five where you just go in work, come home, you know,
Speaker 1: you check out, and you thought thinking about it, that's appealing.
Speaker 1: But I also amanticize the commute because I think that, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, that would be so nice. I could just
Speaker 1: hop on my bike if I work somewhere that I
Speaker 1: could get see like on the belt line or you know,
Speaker 1: just right into nice neighborhoods. How nice and how cool
Speaker 1: would that be to be able to get some fresh
Speaker 1: air and pop on your bike. And but then I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I can just sit at home and work in my office,
Speaker 1: which is nice to hop on your slippers, the scuffle
Speaker 1: right in, not changing out of my sweaties. What do
Speaker 1: you what would you say? The folks that live a
Speaker 1: good distance from where they work. So for instance, like
Speaker 1: my bike commutes about seven and a half miles each way,
Speaker 1: so fifteen miles round trip, and that's pretty far, man,
Speaker 1: it's far. But we've got some good rap say that
Speaker 1: because I think that's pretty I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of folks probably are within that. I don't know, look
Speaker 1: at up folks, and there's certainly like a good like
Speaker 1: a good percentage if you do it. The drive for
Speaker 1: their work or uh, you know, like sales folks where
Speaker 1: they're running around totally that's not gonna work for this
Speaker 1: wouldn't work for them. But so I would say this,
Speaker 1: there's a certain ways, like there's a couple of things
Speaker 1: you can do. One thing, you can move closer to
Speaker 1: where you work. If you don't have a job like
Speaker 1: that like a salesperson where you're all over the place.
Speaker 1: That's again obviously not something you can do easily or
Speaker 1: lightly if you have a mortgage. But we think personally,
Speaker 1: lifestyle wise, living close to your work is a good thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we would say that. Man, we could talk
Speaker 1: a whole another podcast about Yeah, I live live in
Speaker 1: local living close to the things that you want to do, right,
Speaker 1: we're all about that goes without saying, but absolutely commuting,
Speaker 1: taking my leg into account is definitely something to consider
Speaker 1: when if you're going to consider biking to work. And
Speaker 1: one of the other main things that you can tell
Speaker 1: people is that half of car trips are under three miles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've heard that. So, like when you run to the
Speaker 1: grocery store, it's what like a mile and a half
Speaker 1: to get to the grocery shore, Dude, is not even
Speaker 1: I don't even know if it's that far. We yeah,
Speaker 1: I ride to the grocery store. Folks will poopoo it,
Speaker 1: but we love aldi. It's so that man, man, it's
Speaker 1: it's so I don't even I don't even know why
Speaker 1: I said poop poo. That's like, that's not something I say,
Speaker 1: but it's weird. That's weird for people think like all
Speaker 1: these weird or lame or something like that. But dude,
Speaker 1: it is so stinking affordable. So people would hop in
Speaker 1: their car. Well, yeah, we did too, I mean, and
Speaker 1: here's the thing. It's not like we don't take those
Speaker 1: shorter trips like sometimes we do, you know, like if
Speaker 1: it's pouring, like if it's raining or something like that too,
Speaker 1: But a lot of times, like it's pretty awesome to
Speaker 1: be able to hop on I hop on the bike
Speaker 1: and you know, throw on a backpack or I've got
Speaker 1: I've got a pineer now on the side of my bike,
Speaker 1: and to be able to ride up to the grocery
Speaker 1: store and just grab that and throw groceries in there,
Speaker 1: and the girls like it. Actually know what the girls
Speaker 1: like is going to the bank, they get the suckers, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the dumb dumbs because I yeah, I've got a business
Speaker 1: accounting So I'm just gonna go on a tangent like
Speaker 1: banks need to get on it. Like there aren't very
Speaker 1: many business checking accounts out there that allow you to
Speaker 1: there's limits on stuff, and so because that we have
Speaker 1: to go into the physical branch, which is it's fine,
Speaker 1: it's right next to all day. So I love it.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's a nice one too. That's old school,
Speaker 1: though it is old school, have to wait in line,
Speaker 1: it's kind of lame anyway. Girls love it though, because
Speaker 1: their suckers. Man, I go to go to the grocery store,
Speaker 1: go to the bank, you know, all the time running errands.
Speaker 1: When you're thinking about how a bike fits into your life,
Speaker 1: think about those quick trips that you take, the one
Speaker 1: to maybe three mile trips somewhere. Usually you hop in
Speaker 1: your car, car, turn the ignition and waste a lot
Speaker 1: of gas and uh it just I think the change small,
Speaker 1: change your lifestyle. Start out like make your one mile trips,
Speaker 1: make your trip to the bank, make your trip to
Speaker 1: the grocery store. Try to do it on a bike,
Speaker 1: you know, and use bring their reusable bags or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I'm not a hippie, I don't care all that
Speaker 1: much about them, but like, bring your reusable bags and
Speaker 1: put them on the handlebars and uh and get your
Speaker 1: get your groceries that way. Just start small with the
Speaker 1: bike in your life and kind of see, you know,
Speaker 1: how it changes your lifestyle and if you find it enjoyable.
Speaker 1: As you say, starting small, but like, at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's still just as hard to hop in your bike
Speaker 1: and do a one mile trip for folks as it
Speaker 1: is to hop on your bike and maybe do like
Speaker 1: a five mile trip or something like that if you're
Speaker 1: commuting to work. And I mean it's honestly, something I
Speaker 1: like about biking is that the mental toughness you're challenging
Speaker 1: yourself mentally to have to get on the bike as
Speaker 1: opposed to getting in the car. Like it's not easy, right,
Speaker 1: because it's really easy to get in the car. I
Speaker 1: hit the button as I'm walking out to it, so
Speaker 1: I don't even have to like unlock the dang door,
Speaker 1: and then I get in and get to drive off
Speaker 1: where I want to go. It's already like a favorite
Speaker 1: favorite tunes coming out. Dude. Yeah, with bluetooth, it just
Speaker 1: starts playing playing my jams. If you're like really comfy,
Speaker 1: obviously a one mile trip is going to be easier
Speaker 1: than a four or five mile trip, but like, yeah,
Speaker 1: start there, but just know that, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: as hard to kind of go on a one mile
Speaker 1: trip mentally as it is, uh, say, maybe a five
Speaker 1: five mile ride. I think the biggest thing for me
Speaker 1: was the first ride or two and just just doing it,
Speaker 1: just doing it, man, because like I talked about it
Speaker 1: for so long, don't know if you remember. I was like, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: I was trying to get you to I'm gonna b
Speaker 1: to work. I'm gonna do it. And then I didn't
Speaker 1: do it. Let's see it and I didn't do it,
Speaker 1: and finally I did it. And not that big of
Speaker 1: a deal, is it. It's not a big deal. So
Speaker 1: practically speaking, like we kind of already talked about commuting
Speaker 1: a little bit. But did you do like a dry run.
Speaker 1: Did you go during the day or something like that.
Speaker 1: I feel like I was like, just go during like
Speaker 1: on a Saturday, you'll know exactly where to go when
Speaker 1: it comes Monday morning. That way, I think what we
Speaker 1: did was we took remember talking about that, to the
Speaker 1: park in Midtown and yeah, and so it was like,
Speaker 1: which is like real close to my work, and uh,
Speaker 1: and I think we did that and that was I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is five percent of the way.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can do it, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: like if I can on the way here on a Saturday,
Speaker 1: that wasn't that bad. Yeah, But that's I mean, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a great way just for folks to try
Speaker 1: it out there, right, I'm like, figure out your route,
Speaker 1: like if you know, specifically, if you're looking to to
Speaker 1: do this on a to commute to work, do it
Speaker 1: when there's not when you don't have to be in
Speaker 1: it at exact an exact time. Yeah, it goes sometimes
Speaker 1: when you've got plenty time to to try it out.
Speaker 1: Do it on a Friday when some of your coworkers
Speaker 1: are working working from home or something like that, like
Speaker 1: Friday or Saturday. Just take it easy to go for
Speaker 1: a ride and yeah, like Joel, you'll probably find that yeah,
Speaker 1: you mean the right, Like you found that it wasn't
Speaker 1: even that big of a deal. You're like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm like already here. Well, the interesting thing for me, honestly,
Speaker 1: the biggest change was I wanted to like beat my
Speaker 1: head against some windshield in traffic. And now when you
Speaker 1: went back to driving, yeah, oh man. Every time after
Speaker 1: when I would when I would drive after starting to
Speaker 1: bike on a regular basis, it was, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was mind numbing. Um and I just get tired of
Speaker 1: the traffic really quickly. I I it just frustrated me
Speaker 1: more than it ever had before, even you're used to
Speaker 1: just cruising along and living the good life. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: the interesting thing, I think people will think a couple
Speaker 1: of things. People will think that it's dangerous in traffic,
Speaker 1: which depending on your route and where you're going on
Speaker 1: your bike, it can be a little nerve wracking. You
Speaker 1: gotta watch out, you gotta be careful, you gotta watch out,
Speaker 1: have all your safety basis covered. Wear a helmet, Always
Speaker 1: wear a helmet. People like, that's yeah, wear helmet. I
Speaker 1: think even if you're going on like a one mile
Speaker 1: bike ride in a neighborhood where your helmet, like there's
Speaker 1: dummies out there, so you can hit a big rock
Speaker 1: or something on the street and you know, not be
Speaker 1: paying attention and flip over where a helmet. But I
Speaker 1: think people, yeah, we'll we'll think it's unsafe and they'll
Speaker 1: also one of the other big reasons that they won't
Speaker 1: bike is over using their cars. They think their car
Speaker 1: gets in there a lot faster, even if they're stuck
Speaker 1: in traffic, they think their car gets there them there faster.
Speaker 1: And some of the statistics bear out that really, especially
Speaker 1: in urban areas where where you're getting there in the
Speaker 1: same amount of time, And I think they say that
Speaker 1: the average speed of a car in like downtown traffic
Speaker 1: is like eighteen miles an hour and the average beat
Speaker 1: of a bikes like thirteen miles an hour or something. Again,
Speaker 1: so really it's like it's a small it's a small
Speaker 1: difference in the amount of time. And I've found, truly
Speaker 1: after logging it, that my bike commutes have been faster
Speaker 1: than my car commutes. Nice. How long does it take
Speaker 1: you to get to work? Yeah, it's about twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes minutes, that's pretty awesome. Yeah, and so in my car,
Speaker 1: my car commute sometimes on the way end, uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's always less. On the way end would be close
Speaker 1: to that, maybe about twenty two to twenty five minutes,
Speaker 1: but on the way home it would be anywhere from
Speaker 1: thirty minutes to forty minutes that afternoon traffic. And just
Speaker 1: to know that when I leave that I'll be home
Speaker 1: in twenty five minutes no matter what, is so nice.
Speaker 1: I don't have to like, Okay, what's what are things
Speaker 1: gonna be? Like? I don't have to deal with the
Speaker 1: interstate in this stoplights, Well, you still have stop flights
Speaker 1: when you're riding home, but yeah, but in like this
Speaker 1: god forsaken mess of a city, what are things gonna
Speaker 1: look like traffic wise? Son, I wanted to worry about that.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna assume that folks were thinking, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't do that because I'm not in shape. You're gonna
Speaker 1: share the folks like you don't have a normal bike, right,
Speaker 1: No I don't, So yeah, let's talk about that. So
Speaker 1: the reason my my bike commune is so short too,
Speaker 1: and I have two bikes, so I've ridden my road bike. Well,
Speaker 1: so the free bike that you got from your ex's
Speaker 1: dad or something, my wife's that's fairing of that. That
Speaker 1: one takes about thirty eight minutes to get in. But
Speaker 1: I have an electric bike too, So the electric bike
Speaker 1: is what I ride in on most days. And that's
Speaker 1: for a couple of reasons. The main reason is to
Speaker 1: avoid being sweaty and nasty when I get into work,
Speaker 1: and the second reason is to cut my commute time down.
Speaker 1: So it's literally saving me. I think of it as
Speaker 1: saving me time, and but I still get a workout in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not like you're riding like like a car.
Speaker 1: You're just cruising up hills when normally you'd probably be
Speaker 1: kind of sweating it out a little bit, right, totally.
Speaker 1: We're going super slow because like some of these hills.
Speaker 1: We live in Atlanta, some of the hills here ridiculous, right,
Speaker 1: and to go up some of those hills takes quite
Speaker 1: a while. You're going to super slow pace. So it's
Speaker 1: really nice to have an electric bike going up those hills.
Speaker 1: But you still, I mean, you're still peddling toy. So yeah,
Speaker 1: here's a common misconception about electric bikes is that they're
Speaker 1: all They're doing the whole work for you. It's like
Speaker 1: a scooter or something like that that you just turn
Speaker 1: the throttle and go, which some electric bikes come with
Speaker 1: a throttle, like the turbo boost. Yeah. So like the
Speaker 1: only time Oliver you use the throttle is usually if
Speaker 1: I'm at like a stoplight and I've got the girls
Speaker 1: on the back or something like that, and I'm like
Speaker 1: I quick start just yeah, like kind of helps me
Speaker 1: get going. But for the most part, it's runs on
Speaker 1: the pedal assist and so like the motor is sensing
Speaker 1: your your revolutions of your foot and it's kind of
Speaker 1: keeping track with that, and so it it kind of
Speaker 1: gives you a boost it powers when you work yeah, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like we're doing this all right, let's go. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so the great thing is like, literally I can
Speaker 1: I can feel like on that twenty five minute ride
Speaker 1: like I got in average amount of workout, or I
Speaker 1: can feel like I beasted it and it went really hard.
Speaker 1: And usually on the way in, I kind of go
Speaker 1: for average. On the way home, I go for beast
Speaker 1: mode because you want to get home. Well, I get
Speaker 1: home when I can be sweaty when I get home.
Speaker 1: It's not so. But I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: think electric bike, Oh, what a loser, You don't do
Speaker 1: anything Joel breaking a sweat. I'd like to see that,
Speaker 1: But you still get you still get a workout. And
Speaker 1: then for me, that's that's one of the biggest reasons
Speaker 1: why I like it is that, I mean, I just
Speaker 1: don't like paying for things that I don't have to
Speaker 1: pay for. So if I can ride my bike and
Speaker 1: still get a workout in, that's gonna make me happy.
Speaker 1: Right Like I don't have to drive into a gym
Speaker 1: and god forbid sit on a stationary bike like, there's
Speaker 1: no way I want to do that. When I can
Speaker 1: be outside like zipping around the city. Um, so I
Speaker 1: don't have an e bike, an electric bike, but I
Speaker 1: just got a regular, regular bike and I've got our
Speaker 1: cargo bike as well that I can put the girls on,
Speaker 1: and U joel, we put the girls on there. So
Speaker 1: for school, yeah, we take Usually I take the girls
Speaker 1: into school in the morning, I take my daughter and
Speaker 1: you're both of our oldest daughters. And then you pick
Speaker 1: them up from k downtown. Um yeah, and then I
Speaker 1: pick them up you know at like you know, in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day when when school's over. But
Speaker 1: for me, three miles each way. Ah yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: So I don't even know. Man's I don't even care.
Speaker 1: Just gets get the ride, you know, hop on the
Speaker 1: bike and ride. And for me, that's like when I
Speaker 1: can be fit. I mean, you know, I sit at
Speaker 1: the computer all day at home working and like I
Speaker 1: just have this thing where I feel like I'm dying
Speaker 1: if I'm not like moving, literally my temperature drops and
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm dying. And so hopping on the bike,
Speaker 1: I just feel alive, gets a gets a blood blood
Speaker 1: pumping again. And for it's not like I worked out
Speaker 1: much harder than you do on on a bike, like
Speaker 1: you still get a workout too, but it's just a
Speaker 1: way for me to get the blood flow and get
Speaker 1: some fresh air. And if I were to take the
Speaker 1: car and to go get the girls and come, you know,
Speaker 1: come back and drop her off and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: it's literally a difference of ten minutes, like ten maybe
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. But I mean I can get there within
Speaker 1: five minutes as if I were to take a vehicle,
Speaker 1: but so much more satisfying. And yeah, yeah, and most
Speaker 1: people awesome to go get their work out, they drive
Speaker 1: ten or fifteen minutes somewhere maybe you know, maybe just
Speaker 1: maybe just four or five minutes, maybe it's really close by.
Speaker 1: Still you're in a vehicle, like yeah, but you're driving
Speaker 1: somewhere to go get your work out. And I know
Speaker 1: you're silly to me, you're super against that, right man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hate that, Like when I do something so like
Speaker 1: if bike just does everything. Bikes are just like this
Speaker 1: like miracle machine, like it save his money, you stay
Speaker 1: in shape, um, and it's just better for like the world.
Speaker 1: It means better for me to be in my bike
Speaker 1: than you know, my Honda four thousand pound vehicle. Uh,
Speaker 1: driving around Like there's things that you can do when
Speaker 1: you're on a bike as it compared to your vehicle. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so one of my favorite things too about buying that's
Speaker 1: really I feel like kind of honestly, I I don't
Speaker 1: say life changing about like almost anything, but that's kind
Speaker 1: of changed my life. It's uh, it's really put me
Speaker 1: in touch with my city. I feel like I know
Speaker 1: my town better. I see more people than I know,
Speaker 1: like walking or biking on the on on the paths
Speaker 1: or on the streets. I just feel like Atlanta means
Speaker 1: more to me riding through run through it like that,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I love it so much more just
Speaker 1: biking on it through it every day. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: just like the landscape that you have to get through
Speaker 1: to get to where you're going. It's yeah, part of
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Yeah. Well, normally I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: focused on the guy in front of me who's texting
Speaker 1: and you know, not moving when we're at a red
Speaker 1: light or no, yeah, when it turns green and then
Speaker 1: it's not moving, that's the worst. Or I'm just like
Speaker 1: wondering why am I going three miles an hour on
Speaker 1: the Downtown connector like it's and I'm not thinking any
Speaker 1: of that stuff. On my bike, my eyes are up.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all the great things around me, like
Speaker 1: the weather. I noticed the I don't know, I noticed
Speaker 1: weather patterns differently and they have to. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's good. Yeah, you know, it doesn't it make
Speaker 1: it. It It makes you tough, and it makes you It
Speaker 1: puts you in touch with the world. And for me,
Speaker 1: it puts us in touch with like our neighbors too.
Speaker 1: Like when I'm in my van. In our van, I'm
Speaker 1: not stopping and slowing down to like say hey to
Speaker 1: folks as I see them, like in the yard working
Speaker 1: or something. But you know what, if I'm on the bike,
Speaker 1: get a little bell a ring, you know, and like
Speaker 1: wave to him, and if they stop working, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll kind of go in there and talk to him
Speaker 1: a little bit. Like you can't, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: do that in your car. Like in your car, you're
Speaker 1: in this protected cocoon and point A to point B.
Speaker 1: The bike just changes the mentality of travel, like it's
Speaker 1: just all about the stuff around you, Like you said,
Speaker 1: the weather, the city that you're driving, like they're riding
Speaker 1: through and it's just better until you experience it, like regularly.
Speaker 1: I feel like most folks hop on a bike and
Speaker 1: they pedal really hard and they sweat, and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this sucks. But once you kind of get into the
Speaker 1: routine and the rhythms of it, man, it's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's good. I'd tell people too. If you're gonna start biking,
Speaker 1: which you should, you start keeping track with like an
Speaker 1: odometer or something like that. You I can download one
Speaker 1: on your phone. Keep track of the miles that it
Speaker 1: takes you to get places over time. So let's say
Speaker 1: in one month, you know, you you just started, and
Speaker 1: you bike forty miles that month, you know, because you
Speaker 1: did a bunch of one to two mile rides to
Speaker 1: the grocery store. That's cool. Give yourself the i r
Speaker 1: S Standard rate of mileage of fifty two cents a
Speaker 1: mile or whatever it is. Now maybe it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more. And what is that? That's like what the
Speaker 1: the I r S says that you it cost per
Speaker 1: mile to drive a car, a normal car for most people,
Speaker 1: your car, to operate your car, including gas, wear and tear,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. That's what they reimburse so or what's
Speaker 1: tax right offable? If you can keep track of that
Speaker 1: and kind of put that money aside into like a
Speaker 1: side bank account, save up for something really fun or
Speaker 1: different or interesting that you're you know, traveling somewhere or
Speaker 1: a weekend get away, or some new gear for your bike.
Speaker 1: Start putting that money aside. That's a cool way to
Speaker 1: kind of think about it and start to kind of
Speaker 1: get into it and give yourself a little challenge, like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is gonna be my force method to savings.
Speaker 1: Every time I ride my bike, I make a little
Speaker 1: money for the next thing I'm I'm gearing up for.
Speaker 1: It's like a little bonus. Yeah, totally, It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Did I tell you about um? I met with like
Speaker 1: recently some clients of mine and we're we got talking
Speaker 1: and somehow bikes came up, obviously because bikes are awesome.
Speaker 1: And this past summer he and somebody's road across the country,
Speaker 1: like but straight up the whole country. Yeah, and which
Speaker 1: sounds crazy, but in reality coast to west coast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they started in Savannah, I think you said, I mean
Speaker 1: they're from Atlanta too, but Savannah to San Diego. And he'said,
Speaker 1: this surprised me, but it took him. It only took
Speaker 1: him sixty days, like two months. That crazy. How in
Speaker 1: the world is that possible. It's yeah, it's it's very possible.
Speaker 1: Because I asked him, I was like, what is that,
Speaker 1: Like how what were you guys averaging and he said
Speaker 1: he said they were averaging like thirty something miles a day,
Speaker 1: when like, I, I, yeah, because I've thought about hike
Speaker 1: in the a T. I've had friends that hike to
Speaker 1: a T and it's something like, you know, that's just
Speaker 1: goes from Georgia up to Maine. I don't know how
Speaker 1: many months, but it's most like five months or something
Speaker 1: like that. And that's if you don't have any hiccups
Speaker 1: or any problems to ride your bike across the country.
Speaker 1: I think a super I don't know, two months in
Speaker 1: the summer. It's like, oh, that's like summer break for
Speaker 1: if your kids are in school. Obviously I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: go with like, we're not gonna go with our kids.
Speaker 1: They had pioneers and they did camped, you know, on
Speaker 1: the side of the road. Man. Yeah, I was super Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've never met any way that's done that. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I was super impressed. But that was blake.
Speaker 1: He was just like yeah, we did, like bike across
Speaker 1: the country. He took us, took a sixty days and
Speaker 1: they like raise some money and stuff too. But maybe
Speaker 1: somebody will make that happen. Man, I've always said Winnebago,
Speaker 1: but maybe we'll do the bikes, which, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know if the girls will be We'll be down with that.
Speaker 1: Our wives might be like, yeah, that's good. Point might
Speaker 1: be a boys trip only boys trip come down. But
Speaker 1: I don't know. Man, it sounds sounds good at me.
Speaker 1: So back to the beer man, what do you think
Speaker 1: about this? Ah, this is a great beer. Back was
Speaker 1: bastard by founders again is what we're drinking. Um, it's
Speaker 1: a scotchail aged in oak bourbon barrels. And I think
Speaker 1: on this beer you get uh, a lot of oak,
Speaker 1: a lot of vanilla. Yeah, I feel like dark multi
Speaker 1: what's the A b D on this one? A leven
Speaker 1: point two. I think that's bigger, you know, not quite
Speaker 1: wine territory, but maybe twice as big as your standard
Speaker 1: PBR dark beer. If you want to try something different,
Speaker 1: you know you like stouts or darker beers. If you
Speaker 1: know you don't like I p A s, then this
Speaker 1: is your beer. Yeah. Yeah, and it's got I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: it's got a really sweet logo on the front. I
Speaker 1: love the the old man. Yeah, I love the art
Speaker 1: with holding the freaking acts with a dope beard and
Speaker 1: hat on it. That's pretty like a Rip van Winkle
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, that's pretty. That's pretty sweet. Beer can
Speaker 1: art or beer bottle art. Um. Yeah, this beer is
Speaker 1: one of my I mean, it's been one of my
Speaker 1: favorites for a lot of years and didn't disappoint this year.
Speaker 1: In um, pick yourself up some backwits, bastard, and enjoy
Speaker 1: it slowly and deliberately on a weekend night, preferably because yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's high a B B Saturday, That's that's when we're recording. Yep,
Speaker 1: it's nice. I don't really work on Saturday nights or
Speaker 1: you know, Saturdays in general. We'll talk about that maybe
Speaker 1: in the future. But yeah, I'm thout you're not working,
Speaker 1: but we could drink this beer and talk about bikes. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: absolutely so, I guess to wrap things up, the reason
Speaker 1: biking is awesome is it's fun, creates awesome memories and
Speaker 1: that lasts forever, and when it comes your it comes
Speaker 1: your wallet. It's it's affordable though too right, you know,
Speaker 1: like compared to driving around, and it's a little different
Speaker 1: than the one are and we can maybe we we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that in the future too, when once Stiel
Speaker 1: goes like full on one car family and he's riding
Speaker 1: to work in the in the middle of winter. I'll
Speaker 1: keep you updated, dude, are you gonna do it like soon?
Speaker 1: You think in the next So I figure, I told myself,
Speaker 1: I get my off six months, like six months of
Speaker 1: steady community on, okay, so to get through the actual
Speaker 1: winter to kind of get it for you get a
Speaker 1: feel for the seasons and get a feel for you know,
Speaker 1: doing it over that long period of time and how
Speaker 1: sustainable is it for me? And so after six months,
Speaker 1: I'll I think I'm gonna make a call and make
Speaker 1: the call and win in the spring when it's nice
Speaker 1: and warm and yeah, I love it every day. It's oh,
Speaker 1: it's so great. Yeah. I guess we'll see how brutal
Speaker 1: the winter is, but I know that, you know, January
Speaker 1: is gonna be the worst. We'll see how that works.
Speaker 1: But we'll get there and I'll keep you guys up
Speaker 1: to speed on that. Thanks so much, everyone, for listening.
Speaker 1: Our home on the web is how to money dot com.
Speaker 1: Check it out. We'll have our show notes up there
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Speaker 1: Our buddy. Until next time, best friends Out, Best Friends Out,