Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and this is a Friday Flight Leftover Turkey edition.
Speaker 2: Joel's Favorite Leftovers. Was it last week that you were
Speaker 2: just singing the praises of how we all need to
Speaker 2: be eating more turkey? Turkey's underrated? Was it as good
Speaker 2: Joel as you imagined it? I don't know, because we're
Speaker 2: pre recording this, Mack, because of course we didn't record
Speaker 2: on actual Thanksgiving Day. We'll tell you what with our
Speaker 2: respective families doing all the things that you do and
Speaker 2: I didn't need, I'll tell you that that's a crime
Speaker 2: against humanity. You know Fenra, the one of the regulatory bodies.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, have you seen the ad for the girl
Speaker 2: who is thinking about investing in meat based tofu company?
Speaker 2: Look it up. It's basically calling attention to some of
Speaker 2: the things that we get distracted by and we think, oh,
Speaker 2: maybe well we should invest in this company. And it's
Speaker 2: sort of like her conscience. It's sort of like what's
Speaker 2: the movie with the girlth of feelings and picks are
Speaker 2: oh oh inside out? Yeah yeah, it's sort of like
Speaker 2: inside out and she's got all these different versions of herself.
Speaker 2: She's trying to convince herself to invest in this meat
Speaker 2: based tofu company, or maybe it's a Tofu meat base.
Speaker 2: I don't know. But one of the questions was like
Speaker 2: does this even check out? And they say that, it's like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, maybe not. That's exactly what I thought of,
Speaker 2: because yeah, that's when it comes investing. That's one of
Speaker 2: the things you need to consider is how logical is
Speaker 2: it to begin with? But no, okay, so we are
Speaker 2: doing this is a special episode. This is a special
Speaker 2: Friday flight, and we wanted to call special attention basically
Speaker 2: to thankfulness and some of the different things that listeners
Speaker 2: in particular that they have been able to achieve with
Speaker 2: their money, right, and not everyone that was at least
Speaker 2: what I was really to hear. A lot of folks
Speaker 2: shared just some of the listener money wins, some of
Speaker 2: the things they were able to accomplish over the year,
Speaker 2: which we love to hear. But specifically, I think this
Speaker 2: is a great episode after Thanksgiving as we are all
Speaker 2: expressing some things to basically really focus in on the
Speaker 2: different things that we're able to do in our lives
Speaker 2: with the money that we've been able to set aside
Speaker 2: with the fact that we no longer have this debt
Speaker 2: that's hanging over our head. Right, what you're doing for
Speaker 2: my life? What is it doing for you? And how
Speaker 2: can I express gratitude? Because yeah, yeah, what are the larger,
Speaker 2: more important things in life? Because money is just a tool,
Speaker 2: it's not And we don't want people to think about
Speaker 2: how much money they have set aside in their nest
Speaker 2: egg as like a score, like a high like a scoreboard. Basically,
Speaker 2: it's less about that external keeping of score and more
Speaker 2: for you what you're able to achieve with that money,
Speaker 2: connecting it to real life.
Speaker 1: It's less of like I'm thankful for twenty two percent
Speaker 1: returns in my you know, in my four oh one
Speaker 1: k or something like that. It is more where the
Speaker 1: rubber meets the road, which is like, man, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of great ones that we're looking forward to
Speaker 1: sharing with you. We requested them on Facebook and on
Speaker 1: Instagram and we just had a ton of great responses
Speaker 1: from listeners. So who are grateful for the ways that
Speaker 1: money has and smart money management has impacted their lives
Speaker 1: and allowed them to live really the life they want
Speaker 1: to live, not just like hey, I didn't a million
Speaker 1: dollars to my net worth which feels seven digits.
Speaker 2: Baby, Yeah, that's part of it.
Speaker 1: Like, I don't want to say that that's dumb, because
Speaker 1: tracking your net worth matters, and it is okay to
Speaker 1: be grateful. Hey, my net worth grew this year. That's
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. But there are other, I think ways
Speaker 1: where where money hits the things that matter, and a
Speaker 1: lot of listeners share stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Makes me think. I think.
Speaker 1: I think I'm most grateful for from this past year
Speaker 1: in terms of money, is Matt that we were able
Speaker 1: to take a big trunk of time off this summer.
Speaker 1: I don't know if listeners remember that. Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: some replays there for like four weeks.
Speaker 2: Or something like that.
Speaker 1: We were gone and it was nice. Not because it's
Speaker 1: so good. I don't like recording the podcast with you,
Speaker 1: or I don't like what we do. I love what
Speaker 1: we do, but it was nice to get that break.
Speaker 1: It was nice to travel with the fam, and that's
Speaker 1: one of those things that money really touches. Our ability
Speaker 1: to do that and not have flop sweat the whole
Speaker 1: time be like, oh, okay.
Speaker 2: Had you ever done that in your entire life, your
Speaker 2: entire working career up until this past time.
Speaker 1: I had taken one long trip. It was it was
Speaker 1: very very early in my career. It's funny, after I
Speaker 1: left and I quit my job, they laid off a
Speaker 1: bunch of people, like pretty quickly after anyway. But I
Speaker 1: took like three months of three throw trip. You were
Speaker 1: like twenties, like twenty two two, Okay, Yeah, Like that's.
Speaker 2: The kind of thing you do very early on before
Speaker 2: you have early responsibilities, before your prefrontal cortex. It's fully
Speaker 2: that's right, Yeah, that's right. Pretty sure yours didn't fully
Speaker 2: close up until you were twenty five. It was at
Speaker 2: least twenty five. That was definitely the case with me.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but within your actual working career, when you
Speaker 2: had responsibilities and goals and financial goals and things that
Speaker 2: you were trying to achieve in your life. Right, Similarly,
Speaker 2: I'd never done something like that. And on a similar note,
Speaker 2: I'll say I'm thankful for our ability, not yes, that
Speaker 2: was awesome over the summer, for sure, but even something
Speaker 2: as simple as the week this episode comes out. We
Speaker 2: recorded this last week, and the ability to take this
Speaker 2: entire Thanksgiving week off man, So thankful for that, to
Speaker 2: be able to spend time again with families. Kids aren't
Speaker 2: in school, so to be able to spend some of
Speaker 2: that quality time with even with them, not even doing
Speaker 2: the Thanksgiving stuff, but even just some of the some
Speaker 2: of the stuff sometimes you forget, right, like with daylight
Speaker 2: savings having changed, Like I was just talking to my
Speaker 2: little dude yesterday, It's like, man, it stinks because now
Speaker 2: if there's something going on at school, by the time
Speaker 2: you get home, it's already dark outside. We can't go
Speaker 2: outside through the frisbee. That's something that we can do
Speaker 2: on a Monday, on a Tuesday before traveling off to
Speaker 2: see family. You know, we got a lot to be
Speaker 2: thankful for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, all right, So shall we get into the
Speaker 1: listener list you and to kick it off with Sarah?
Speaker 2: Sure? All right.
Speaker 1: So Sarah wrote in she said, I'm grateful for the
Speaker 1: savings that I have while I'm furloughed by the government.
Speaker 1: And so she wrote this, of course, while the government
Speaker 1: was shut down like a week.
Speaker 2: And a half ago or something like that.
Speaker 1: And Sarah, I'm so glad you were prepared for the
Speaker 1: longest government shut down in history. There was so much
Speaker 1: anxiety map for so many folks over the course of
Speaker 1: the shutdown.
Speaker 2: It was like six weeks.
Speaker 1: Think about being an inner traffic controller called into work
Speaker 1: and not getting paid. That's gonna be frustrating, like I
Speaker 1: would be. I'd have a tough time with that, And
Speaker 1: especially at this point, given how our politicians tend to
Speaker 1: act in these situations, there's just no other reasonable way forward.
Speaker 1: I don't think for government workers, or really for anyone.
Speaker 1: We want all how the money listeners to be prepared
Speaker 1: with liquid cash and a bare bones budget. Those two
Speaker 1: things simultaneously could be a big help if tough times
Speaker 1: come along. So Sarah, I'm so glad you didn't have
Speaker 1: to worry and fret. And then that's what a great
Speaker 1: thing to be thankful for.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And so I think what I'm going to do
Speaker 2: here too, is that some listeners didn't say necessarily why
Speaker 2: they are thankful for the things that they mentioned. But
Speaker 2: like in her case, I'm sure it was stressed, right.
Speaker 2: It wasn't frustration of not getting paid, but stress and
Speaker 2: being afraid that, oh my gosh, we might have to
Speaker 2: go into debt. Like we don't normally spend on our
Speaker 2: credit cards, We normally don't carry a balance from month
Speaker 2: to month. And this was an instance, with a shutdown
Speaker 2: that literally would have actually rolled into that statement, and
Speaker 2: so the ability to avoid that kind of stress, Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh it maybe she would have been even tempted
Speaker 2: to take on another job, and that's not something that
Speaker 2: she had to do because of the fact she was
Speaker 2: able to tap her emergency fund. Greg wrote getting to
Speaker 2: do a monthly budget with my spouse number two hundred
Speaker 2: and five tonight. We started back in September of two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight and we haven't missed one yet. I specifically,
Speaker 2: I really love this and I want to highlight the
Speaker 2: fact a man after your own heart. Yes, well, and
Speaker 2: he said that he gets to do this like getting
Speaker 2: to do a monthly budget. What that tells me is
Speaker 2: that he like, why is he pumped that he's able
Speaker 2: to do that well? Because he gets to work as
Speaker 2: a team with his wife. The fact that they have
Speaker 2: a shared vision, the fact that they probably have shared goals,
Speaker 2: and to be able to have such great communication like
Speaker 2: that with your partner, that is amazing. Like, I'm thankful
Speaker 2: for my wife that I'm able to do something really
Speaker 2: similar where we are. It's a more collaborative sort of
Speaker 2: approach to our finances as opposed to one feeling like
Speaker 2: all they want to do is spend and the other
Speaker 2: one feeling like all they want to do is save, right, Like,
Speaker 2: which I know that's the dynamic with some folks, but
Speaker 2: being able to talk about that by planning out with
Speaker 2: a budget, that's huge, I think.
Speaker 1: I think it also just shows that consistency is clutch, right,
Speaker 1: and doing something with regularity over a long period of time,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna get where you're trying to go. And
Speaker 1: if you're like you're doing it halfway here and there
Speaker 1: and you're like, eh, maybe we'll meet this month, maybe
Speaker 1: we won't, you're just not going to have that focus
Speaker 1: really matters. And so I'm sure that Greg, having done
Speaker 1: this for seventeen years, that's gonna Yeah, that's gonna.
Speaker 2: Make a big difference in his ability to achieve those
Speaker 2: goals with his spouse. Compounding budgeting returns, Yeah that's not
Speaker 2: really a thing, but I'm sure that's what he's experienced.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, exactly, all right. Carly said, we needed a
Speaker 1: bigger house, but we lived in a high cost of
Speaker 1: living area. So we sold our house, paid off what
Speaker 1: little debt we had, and moved to another state where
Speaker 1: the cost of living is cheaper, and we got our
Speaker 1: dream fixer upper. We're debt free, and we cut our
Speaker 1: insurance premiums by fifty percent by my husband taking a
Speaker 1: different job.
Speaker 2: Dude, this is such a baller move, right, like doing
Speaker 2: something that extreme. I mean, generally speaking, Americans are moving
Speaker 2: for opportunity at a lower rate than the historical average.
Speaker 2: But it can just be such a great way to
Speaker 2: massively shift your personal finances. And in large part because
Speaker 2: oftentimes we think of just moving the money around the
Speaker 2: margins as how it is we can save money and
Speaker 2: get ahead. But I think it's worth considering something like this,
Speaker 2: something more drastic, because it can be just so substantive
Speaker 2: in allowing you to eradicate debt and just live the
Speaker 2: life you want. So Carly way to be debt free
Speaker 2: while still finding a way to own your own home too. Right,
Speaker 2: the fact that they were able to find a fixer upper,
Speaker 2: there's something about creating the the kind of home that
Speaker 2: you want to live in as well, which reading between
Speaker 2: the lines here a little bit, but it sounds like
Speaker 2: she was able to do that.
Speaker 1: I think it's just so easy to assume that you
Speaker 1: have to keep doing things the way you've been doing them.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, well, this is the city we live
Speaker 1: in and this is the hand we've been dealt. And
Speaker 1: Carly and her family are like, now we can make
Speaker 1: a really big different decision. And guess what, They've got
Speaker 1: a lot less debt now they have they could probably
Speaker 1: have a lot more optionality, I would assume in the
Speaker 1: coming years for the work they want to do, if
Speaker 1: they want to work at all, which is which is
Speaker 1: really cool.
Speaker 2: So yeah, well I wanted to mention this as well.
Speaker 2: Her stated thankfulness she was thankful for was the bigger house, right,
Speaker 2: But why is she thankful for that bigger house? And again,
Speaker 2: I'm want to continue to maybe read into this more
Speaker 2: than maybe I should. But I'm assuming maybe they've got
Speaker 2: a growing family. Maybe they've got a bunch of kids
Speaker 2: and the kids were shared bedrooms and or meet or
Speaker 2: just even the ability to have a bigger place, to
Speaker 2: be able to host your family, to host friends, the
Speaker 2: ability to expand your social network. Some these are all
Speaker 2: reasons to be able to move somewhere where you can
Speaker 2: have a bigger house a little bit more. Maybe, or
Speaker 2: maybe they're not into having friends and family over. But
Speaker 2: maybe they're really they're hardcore entrepreneurs and they want to
Speaker 2: both have offices in their own home and the ability
Speaker 2: to I don't know, launch things like that out of there.
Speaker 2: There are so many different reasons why having a bigger
Speaker 2: place could lead to a higher standard of living for someone. Specifically,
Speaker 2: if the.
Speaker 1: Choice was well, let's add onto the home where we
Speaker 1: currently are, that could be incredibly expensive right in, especially
Speaker 1: in a high cost of living area, you might be
Speaker 1: in debt for that renovation for many, many, many years
Speaker 1: to come, and that puts you in a precarious spot
Speaker 1: where you have to keep working maybe more hours than
Speaker 1: you want, to keep communing in a way that you
Speaker 1: weren't down with, and so making a complete lifestyle change
Speaker 1: like this. It's not for everyone, but I'm glad that
Speaker 1: Carly and her family did it. Sounds like it was
Speaker 1: for them.
Speaker 2: I think it's Yeah, it's great for folks to hear
Speaker 2: that something like that is possible. Actually, Brian over on
Speaker 2: Instagram he said something similar. He basically described how they
Speaker 2: or he cut to the bone. He invested super aggressively
Speaker 2: years of hard work and preparation in order to achieve
Speaker 2: his dream of being a first time homeowner and I'm
Speaker 2: not going to read into this one. Maybe sometimes you
Speaker 2: just want to, oh need the tea leaves, Matt. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you just want to own your own place. Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 2: you want to be able to control your destiny a
Speaker 2: little bit more than you otherwise would be able to
Speaker 2: if you were just renting. So and the props to you, Brian.
Speaker 1: So we've talked about how renting is cheaper and almost
Speaker 1: everywhere in the country right now than buying. But I
Speaker 1: will say too, I had some friends recently who are
Speaker 1: renters and their landlord was selling the house and they
Speaker 1: had to leave, And so that is the downside of renting.
Speaker 1: If you really really want to stay somewhere and put
Speaker 1: down roots in the community, that is a good reason
Speaker 1: to buy, even if it's not like the smartest money
Speaker 1: move at this exact moment in time and people find
Speaker 1: themselves there's that kind of clock the stick and like,
Speaker 1: I want to own my own home and that makes
Speaker 1: sense too. So Brian, glad you were able to pull
Speaker 1: that off.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Let's get to another one from Cassie in who said
Speaker 1: my fiance needed a vehicle after his died. A looked
Speaker 1: at used anew but the costs were used was minim
Speaker 1: in savings, and I've been saving up for a bit.
Speaker 1: Now I was able to purchase a new twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five vehicle and pay it off in less than three months,
Speaker 1: and I'm back to being debt free.
Speaker 2: I like it, Dang, I like it so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like this is the exact opposite of like the
Speaker 1: seven year loans that you and I've been talking about
Speaker 1: three months.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well, what this points to is the fact
Speaker 2: that this is something that Cassian saved up for, yes,
Speaker 2: and they had a goal of like they knew it
Speaker 2: sounded like they knew that this is something that was
Speaker 2: on the horizon, right, And so there's such a difference
Speaker 2: in getting this massive car loan that feels like it's
Speaker 2: completely out of control, that's just dragging you behind it
Speaker 2: and you're just constantly trying to catch up to it,
Speaker 2: as opposed to you being at the helm, like you
Speaker 2: being at the wheel of the ship and deciding where
Speaker 2: it is your dollars are going to go. Like, that's
Speaker 2: the difference here, and that's that's just what looking ahead
Speaker 2: and having a proper plan allows you to do. Agree.
Speaker 2: I love that so much.
Speaker 1: I think that's totally a win. Something to be grateful for.
Speaker 1: Nicole said, we saved three hundred bucks a month for
Speaker 1: three years for a trip to Finland.
Speaker 2: We went on.
Speaker 1: We flew business class, and we didn't worry about money
Speaker 1: the entire trip, and that's fancy. Still never flown business
Speaker 1: class someday, maybe before finding this podcast, we would have
Speaker 1: just charged it and worried about it when we got home.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the life changing advice.
Speaker 2: This is this is so similar to Cassie and right,
Speaker 2: like this is kind of a although yeah, I mean yeah,
Speaker 2: I would say this is very similar. It's knowing that
Speaker 2: this is something that's on the horizon, preparing for it.
Speaker 2: In one case, one might feel a little bit more
Speaker 2: necessary your transportation, but I'm also going to say that
Speaker 2: a brand new way to get yourself around isn't you know,
Speaker 2: quote unquote necessary thing. In the same way that someone
Speaker 2: would say that, well, travel's not necessary, but I don't know,
Speaker 2: to Nicole, she might say, yeah, well now this is important.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing, like, whatever it is, if something's
Speaker 2: important to you, make sure that you are socking the
Speaker 2: dollars away to in order to achieve that goal.
Speaker 1: And I feel like it contributes to the enjoyment of
Speaker 1: the trip.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: There's something about planning ahead for a long period of time,
Speaker 1: like looking forward to a trip for is one of
Speaker 1: the We've talked to Scott Kay's about this is one
Speaker 1: of the best parts of the trip. You get to
Speaker 1: plan and think about it and like be like, oh man,
Speaker 1: that's coming up. That's how I feel about concerts, Matt.
Speaker 1: I've got a few concerts on the book for next
Speaker 1: year and I'm like, can't wait for that thing. I'm
Speaker 1: so stoked. And the same thing is true of trips
Speaker 1: and for planning, and then on the back end there
Speaker 1: is just none of that angst or anxiety being like.
Speaker 2: Oh man, how much do we owe? How much do
Speaker 2: we spend? Do we overdo it?
Speaker 1: Knowing that you have the money set aside is clutch
Speaker 1: as opposed to yeah, putting that on credit cards, getting
Speaker 1: stuck with a twenty two percent interest rate on nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the trip costs me even more than financially. It's just
Speaker 1: even it's gonna cost you even more.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Traveling with Scandinavia ain't cheap because I think even like
Speaker 1: a happy meal, there's like twenty two dollars or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you think you think food prices are bad here in
Speaker 1: the US, guys, you just hold on, Okay, Sarah wrote
Speaker 1: cash following my daughter's first three semesters of college and
Speaker 1: having more available in savings.
Speaker 2: For upcoming semesters. I think this is awesome the fact
Speaker 2: that this is a goal of your Sarah, this was
Speaker 2: something that you wanted to achieve, and I'm so glad
Speaker 2: that you were able to achieve that. I think there's
Speaker 2: a beautiful thing. And I think also simultaneously making sure
Speaker 2: that you are encouraging your daughter to maybe find ways
Speaker 2: to lower the cost of school, right like applying for scholarships,
Speaker 2: an on campus job, becoming an ra, different things like that.
Speaker 2: These are already conversations I've already started with my seventh grader.
Speaker 2: She's like, Okay, how much does college cost? How do
Speaker 2: scholarships work? They just give you that money. I'm like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is how this works. You have to earn it,
Speaker 2: like you know, just give it to you for free.
Speaker 2: So I mean, I was like, sometimes there are scholarships
Speaker 2: out there and you got to write an essay, but
Speaker 2: if very few people know about it, there's not a
Speaker 2: whole lot of competition. So you could get that one
Speaker 2: year after year. Just helping our kids to understand how
Speaker 2: scholarships work. I think that's a good conversation to have.
Speaker 2: I did work study when I was at school. I
Speaker 2: was also an RA.
Speaker 1: I don't think I was a good ra MAP, but
Speaker 1: I was an RA and I still got like the
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars credit towards housing, So it was nice.
Speaker 1: It was worth the effort. Although I don't know if
Speaker 1: they liked having me or not, but I did it
Speaker 1: all right. So Isabella on Instagram said, I'm thankful for
Speaker 1: the good relationship we have with our landlord because they're
Speaker 1: now allowing us to lease month to month without any
Speaker 1: rent increase. This is going to allow us to have
Speaker 1: patience when we begin searching to buy a home next year.
Speaker 1: We're not going to feel rushed and we can wait
Speaker 1: for the right home when it comes. I'm very glad
Speaker 1: we switched from a large apartment complex to a nice
Speaker 1: little lady who owns a few properties.
Speaker 2: Love it.
Speaker 1: We talk about mom and pop landlords regularly and not
Speaker 1: they are not all created equal. I want to stress
Speaker 1: that just because it's a small local landlord does not
Speaker 1: mean they are going to be awesome or easy to
Speaker 1: work with or repair things in a timely manner. But
Speaker 1: if you can find a good one, like think of
Speaker 1: if you're a tenant, think of like, I'm interviewing this
Speaker 1: person as much as they're interviewing me. Do I want
Speaker 1: to live in their house? Do I think they're trustworthy?
Speaker 1: Do I think they're going to take care of things
Speaker 1: that If not, I'm consider opting dude move somewhere else
Speaker 1: or thinking about a different place to live. But that's
Speaker 1: that's really cool that Isabella was able to have that
Speaker 1: a personal enough relationship where she could ask for these
Speaker 1: things and make it of a beneficial win win. She's
Speaker 1: going to stay in the home longer, but it allows
Speaker 1: her the opportunity to shop over a longer period of time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. That flexibility, man Like, that is hard. It's
Speaker 2: hard to quantify that flexibility and the options that is
Speaker 2: going to give Isabella, right, like the ability to be
Speaker 2: patient while looking for a home that she wants to buy,
Speaker 2: as opposed to feeling a bit rush and feeling like, Okay,
Speaker 2: well we're going to do this thing that it might
Speaker 2: end up. You know, if you're a bit rush, maybe
Speaker 2: you don't make the best decision from a numbers and
Speaker 2: not even not only numbers, but even from a lifestyle standpoint.
Speaker 2: But I think that just buys her more time to
Speaker 2: keep an eye on rates because they might be dropping.
Speaker 2: We have seen them drop, but we'll see if they
Speaker 2: continue to. There's more opportunity out there for buyers to
Speaker 2: get a deal if you continue to wait. I mean,
Speaker 2: especially if you can take some of the emotion out
Speaker 2: of it. And I think having some flexibility, being able
Speaker 2: to rent months and months, that is one great way
Speaker 2: to remove some of that emotion out of this decision.
Speaker 1: There's no like ticking timeline where we got to make
Speaker 1: it up. We got to be out of here by
Speaker 1: you know, the end of January. So if we don't
Speaker 1: have a place that we have to sign another lease
Speaker 1: or something like that, that'd be so stressful. So the
Speaker 1: fact that you have kind of no fixed end timeline,
Speaker 1: you really can be picky about the place you want
Speaker 1: and wait for the right spot to open up. And
Speaker 1: it's getting you more time to save in the meantime
Speaker 1: as well. So Kesley done, Isabella, are we got more
Speaker 1: of your grateful money wins this year? We get to
Speaker 1: that and more right after this.
Speaker 2: All right, man, we are back for the break and
Speaker 2: normally on a Friday flight. Right after that, right after
Speaker 2: that break is when we get to the ludicrous headline
Speaker 2: of the week, which we're not going to do this
Speaker 2: week against the spirit of this episode. Yeah exactly. So, uh,
Speaker 2: we've only got good news for folks today, so we'll
Speaker 2: keep moving. Let's hear from Arden and this isn't a
Speaker 2: voice minimum, I'm just gonna read it, but she wrote,
Speaker 2: I'm thankful that I chose to pay off all my
Speaker 2: student loans. All my classmates are still six figures in debt.
Speaker 2: Holy cow. Okay, so maybe this is a ludicrous headline.
Speaker 2: All my classmates are still six figures in debt, and
Speaker 2: now I get to stay at home with my daughter.
Speaker 2: Best gift I ever gave myself. Dude, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: This like these are the bigger, more meaningful aspects of
Speaker 2: life that we're trying to connect some of these smart
Speaker 2: savvy money moves to right like this makes me because
Speaker 2: it again, it's not about the money. It's about what
Speaker 2: that money then allows you to do. How we are
Speaker 2: able to wield our finances to achieve whatever ends it
Speaker 2: is that we want to achieve, and it's hard to
Speaker 2: not think of For me at least, I'm thinking of
Speaker 2: the Harvard Longitudinal Happiness Study. I think it's been going
Speaker 2: on for eighty five years now, and the number one
Speaker 2: factor the researchers attribute to the people who are participating
Speaker 2: in that study that contributes to their health and their
Speaker 2: happiness is the quality of their close relationships. And when
Speaker 2: she says that she gets to stay at home with
Speaker 2: her daughter, I mean, that's the you're hitting the nail
Speaker 2: on the head when it comes to maybe if you
Speaker 2: find a better best friend, you'll be happier. Matt Well,
Speaker 2: I mean that's why our job is so it's so awesome, dude, Like,
Speaker 2: like we have a very close relationship. The ability for
Speaker 2: us to like somehow support our families and do something
Speaker 2: that we enjoy doing while also deepening our personal relationship
Speaker 2: means we're going to be happy and healthy. That's right,
Speaker 2: That's right guaranteed. Otherwise I want my money back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if you're looking at we often talk
Speaker 1: about like productive money goals and things you want to
Speaker 1: achieve when it comes to like saving and investing. But
Speaker 1: then that's what I love about this episode is you
Speaker 1: get to see people say, like I did grade at
Speaker 1: that and now I have optionality and I have used
Speaker 1: it to make a decision that is not productive.
Speaker 2: Actually it's stepping back from a financial standpoint. That's right.
Speaker 2: It's not productive, but it is.
Speaker 1: Productive for like my happiness and living the life I
Speaker 1: want to live. And that's like the balance we're always
Speaker 1: trying to strike you and I as individuals, and then
Speaker 1: we're talking about constantly on the show as well, because
Speaker 1: money touches all these areas of our life. Carl on
Speaker 1: Instagram he was similarly thankful, He said, because he made
Speaker 1: incredible progress at his work. Not only is he maxing
Speaker 1: out retirementcount so he's being very productive. He said, he
Speaker 1: did that for the first time. But he gets to
Speaker 1: manage his own hours and spend more time with his family,
Speaker 1: so he's getting kick the best in both worlds this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hard to beat that. Sarah wrote, I'm thankful for
Speaker 2: the brand new implementation of universal early childcare in my
Speaker 2: state of New Mexico. Not only does it relieve a
Speaker 2: lot of financial stress for our family and countless others,
Speaker 2: but it also prompted us to move our kiddo to
Speaker 2: a daycare closer to home, which is saving us an
Speaker 2: hour and a half of rush hour driving each day.
Speaker 2: When when and man, this is first of all policy matters.
Speaker 2: It certainly impacts individuals on a personal level. But I
Speaker 2: think it's just cool. I'm really enjoying focusing on the
Speaker 2: quality life aspect of our episode today. An hour and
Speaker 2: a half every single day that you're not spending in
Speaker 2: the car and stressful bumper to bumper trap. I'm just assuming. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can hear the horns honking in the background of uh,
Speaker 2: what is it of Sarah posting? And what does that do? Like?
Speaker 2: That gives you more time to be able to sit,
Speaker 2: not all of you in seats facing forward on the
Speaker 2: highway and traffic, but at home, facing each other, engaging,
Speaker 2: engaging with your kiddo, making meals together, eating healthier meals,
Speaker 2: saving money by cooking as opposed to picking up some
Speaker 2: fast casual to go.
Speaker 1: I see one downside here, though, what's that less time
Speaker 1: to listen to podcasts? Oh that's true, Sarah. I hope
Speaker 1: you're still able to listen to the podcast you love.
Speaker 1: But I'm just kidding, Like, I would much rather ditch
Speaker 1: your commute and listen to less stuff. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: that's been good for you. What a wonderful thing to
Speaker 1: be thankful for. Yeah, Carrie said, I'm thankful for having
Speaker 1: a roommate so that I can save and put away
Speaker 1: more money every month to bump up my emergency fund. Said,
Speaker 1: I'm also thankful for how to Money podcast. I listened
Speaker 1: to every one of them. Thank you, carriously appreciate that
Speaker 1: she might listen to you to the show's forced to
Speaker 1: listen to us. I don't know, but Carrie, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. And roommates can be clutch. One of my friends, Matt,
Speaker 1: he lives in a four bedroom house with four total
Speaker 1: people with one bathroom. He told me to save money.
Speaker 1: Four guys in one house, one bathroom, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's tough. But then I went back to la the
Speaker 1: twenty five. I think he's in his late twenties. Okay, oh,
Speaker 1: late twenties, late twenties. Yeah, yeah, but that was about
Speaker 1: the time I was getting tired of that sort of
Speaker 1: living situation. But at that sacrifice, it means more monthly margin,
Speaker 1: it means allowing you to be able to make more
Speaker 1: progress with your money goals. Carry I just want to say,
Speaker 1: keep beef enough that E fund and Yeah, live in
Speaker 1: the roommate life, especially if you have good ones, can
Speaker 1: be a wonderful thing and then maybe someday you can
Speaker 1: get out of it. But you're gonna have the savings
Speaker 1: to be able to do that when you're ready.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a win win, right, because not only are
Speaker 2: you attacking some of these that is allowing you to
Speaker 2: attack some of these other financial goals that you undoubtedly have,
Speaker 2: but it's putting you in social contact with other people.
Speaker 2: When our society today we are becoming more adamized and jolistic,
Speaker 2: and again pointing to the fact that hopefully these are,
Speaker 2: like Joel said, good roommates and you're not like fighting
Speaker 2: about I don't know who left the toilet seat up
Speaker 2: or I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've had someone both. Back in my day, I had
Speaker 1: had some good ones. I had some not some good ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know who you are. If you're listening.
Speaker 2: Do any of your previous roommates listen to the podcast.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but we'll find out. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know either. I stay in decent touch with them,
Speaker 2: but we don't often talk about the podcast. Listen to
Speaker 2: each other podcast. Yeah, but so I'm just pointing out
Speaker 2: that Carrie, this is from a social standpoint social health,
Speaker 2: this is a win as well. But you know, I
Speaker 2: want to encourage folks out there as well. The reason
Speaker 2: I asked about the age thing is because, Yeah, like
Speaker 2: you said, this typically like an early twenties, mid twenties
Speaker 2: sort of move. I had friends who were married couples
Speaker 2: who chose to or one couple said well, we're going
Speaker 2: to buy this house. It's gonna be a bit tight,
Speaker 2: and they had another couple friend of theirs, and this
Speaker 2: family or the couple who was buying the house knew
Speaker 2: that they were most definitely gonna have kids. They do
Speaker 2: have a lot of kids. They have six kids. But
Speaker 2: like they sort of got the house that they knew
Speaker 2: that they would be able to grow into, and which
Speaker 2: also meant that mortgage payment early on was maybe a
Speaker 2: little bit tighter. It constrained their budget a bit more
Speaker 2: than they would have liked to have seen. And so
Speaker 2: they brought on another couple and they were able to
Speaker 2: successfully coexist to live together in a way where they
Speaker 2: had their privacy. They're on sort of separate sides of
Speaker 2: the house. Perhaps they would take turns cooking. It's I
Speaker 2: don't know. It makes me think of friends a little bit,
Speaker 2: where it's just sort of like we're growing up, but
Speaker 2: we're still kind of kids. I like that. I like
Speaker 2: unique living situations. I think that's super cool man.
Speaker 1: And you can find a way to love it, at
Speaker 1: least for a certain period of time, even if it's
Speaker 1: not like that's what I want to do forever.
Speaker 2: Give it a shot. Yeah, yeah, it's worth giving a shot.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't count on that working out if that is
Speaker 2: the only way that you can afford a house like that.
Speaker 1: When I bought my first house, I had a roommate
Speaker 1: in it. I could afford the mortgage by myself. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to, like, I want to be able to
Speaker 1: save more money, and so the roommate was a clutch
Speaker 1: move to help me like build up you know, that
Speaker 1: beef up my savings that I had to plait on
Speaker 1: the down payment.
Speaker 2: That was Yeah, that was more of the whip cream,
Speaker 2: was more of the cherry on top as opposed to, no,
Speaker 2: this is necessary in order for this to work. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a super sort of frugal approach. And I think
Speaker 2: those frugal habits are going to give Carrie more options
Speaker 2: in the future as well. I think that's actually what
Speaker 2: so a user on Instagram Frugal Family Focus. I think
Speaker 2: that's what she was getting at when she listed all
Speaker 2: the sacrifices that she made in her younger years. So
Speaker 2: she she basically she was like, I'm thankful for twenty
Speaker 2: one year old me who cut Internet at home in
Speaker 2: order to say or in order to pay more on
Speaker 2: my student loans. I'm thankful for twenty eight year old
Speaker 2: me for being able to have a baby for free
Speaker 2: because I understood the ins and outs of my health insurance.
Speaker 2: I'm thankful for thirty five year old me who paid
Speaker 2: cash for a used car even though I had a
Speaker 2: great salary and the ability to buy brand new all
Speaker 2: for the ability to have more options and to call
Speaker 2: your own shots later in life.
Speaker 1: Those are all real sacrifices, yes, meaningful sacrifices that most
Speaker 1: people take. For cutting Internet, like who does that?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have internet? That is just a normal
Speaker 1: necessity of human life, And it's like is it and
Speaker 1: is that what your goal is? And especially with smartphones now,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't need home to pay for both the
Speaker 1: smartphone service and home internet service if you have a
Speaker 1: decent hotspot or something like that. Yeah, like those are
Speaker 1: questions that are worth considering. And what else is it
Speaker 1: allowing you to do with the money that you save
Speaker 1: if you choose to make a different decision.
Speaker 2: It's good to be weird in this way. And that's
Speaker 2: like maybe that's another Should weird be synonymous synonymous with frugal, right,
Speaker 2: because like if it's something that everyone does, then it's like,
Speaker 2: you don't call it frugal. Yeah, but frugality there's a
Speaker 2: connotation there of it being weird, the fact that someone
Speaker 2: does something in order to save money. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it's good to be weird.
Speaker 1: Why they made TV shows about coupon clipping moms and
Speaker 1: stuff like that because it was weird.
Speaker 2: I like that crowd. You know.
Speaker 1: It makes you think of my conversation with Hope from
Speaker 1: Under the Media not too long ago on the podcast
Speaker 1: that is Well Worth listening to never made more than
Speaker 1: forty thousand dollars on average over the course of decades,
Speaker 1: and people would be like, that's weird. But she's like
Speaker 1: so open to sharing the weirdness, and I love it.
Speaker 1: Jacqueline said, we are a two income home living off
Speaker 1: of one income. Amazing, also rare, and also kind of weird.
Speaker 1: I want to see more folks attempting this though, because like,
Speaker 1: if you start handling money like this when you get married,
Speaker 1: even though it's tough, it's so tough to live on
Speaker 1: just one income, it can allow you to make choices
Speaker 1: that other couples can't because they're totally dependent on both incomes,
Speaker 1: and at some point, through diligent investing of a whole salary,
Speaker 1: neither of.
Speaker 2: You will need to work. Jacqueline.
Speaker 1: So, I think this is so admirable, and I know
Speaker 1: not everyone can do it, but what a cool goal
Speaker 1: to strive for, and what a way to really set
Speaker 1: yourself up for success by being able to thrust big
Speaker 1: big bucks towards other money, say, and investing goals.
Speaker 2: That you have. Heck yeah, it reminds me of a
Speaker 2: white coat investor of living gosh, what is it basically
Speaker 2: living like a resident? Living like a resident, because oftentimes
Speaker 2: like they're no longer a resident, because when you're a resident,
Speaker 2: that's when you're doing all the weird frugal roommate stuff.
Speaker 2: That kind of sounds weird when I say that, Actually
Speaker 2: but like like you you're officially a doctor and you're
Speaker 2: starting to rake in the money and then like, no,
Speaker 2: I need to live like one like they feel like
Speaker 2: they've sacrificed for so long and then they immediately take out,
Speaker 2: you know, just a massive car note, spend way more
Speaker 2: than they ever have as opposed to holding if you
Speaker 2: can just hold off on that a little bit more
Speaker 2: and not get carried away essentially with all the different payments,
Speaker 2: where you're constantly behind the wave as opposed to just
Speaker 2: riding that wave right right, that's a good way to
Speaker 2: put it. You want that interest to be working for you,
Speaker 2: not to where it feels like you're constantly trying to
Speaker 2: trying to catch up to it. Gary, he wrote, I'm
Speaker 2: thankful to have a wife that has the same values
Speaker 2: and vision when it comes to experience, experiences and personal finance.
Speaker 2: We just paid off our mortgage while at the same
Speaker 2: time prioritizing experiences and family along the way. We have
Speaker 2: no regrets on spending on what's important to us, ignoring
Speaker 2: the Joneses and media. Did we already get to This
Speaker 2: is similar to is it Greg? Similar to Greg as
Speaker 2: far as like thankful for his wife man, but well,
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 1: To like ignoring everything else. This is kind of what
Speaker 1: we're getting at with living a weirder life, like being
Speaker 1: okay with being different, and it just feels like, well,
Speaker 1: everyone else is on social media, I guess I should be.
Speaker 1: Or everyone else is buying a new car, like a
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars new car. I guess that's normal and
Speaker 1: I should partake. And it's like, no question the normal
Speaker 1: things that people are doing, because those normal choices are
Speaker 1: the things that lead to copious amounts of debt, and
Speaker 1: that why people are leading incredibly stressed out lives. So
Speaker 1: if you can be abnormal, ignore what Gary said, the
Speaker 1: Joneses and the media's right, and love a different life,
Speaker 1: I think that's a beautiful way to go.
Speaker 2: Dude. That's the worst thing about social media, because literally
Speaker 2: the social media is the Joneses on media, right. And
Speaker 2: so like the fact that because before in this I
Speaker 2: don't want to turn into a giant like social media critique,
Speaker 2: but before like you were just surrounded by the people
Speaker 2: that you were surrounded by, like the people who you
Speaker 2: saw at work, which okay, yeah, these are folks that
Speaker 2: probably make similar amounts of money that you do, or
Speaker 2: you're surrounded by your neighbors, right, these are oh, these
Speaker 2: are all houses that are about built around the same
Speaker 2: part of the century. They all cost about the same amount.
Speaker 2: We tend to run in circles where we're surrounded by
Speaker 2: folks that have, you know, for the more or less
Speaker 2: the same amount of income is as us. That's not
Speaker 2: the case with social media, right, Like, you might be
Speaker 2: following somebody who lives like across the country, who like
Speaker 2: goes to Lake Tahoe every weekend or something. It's just
Speaker 2: like that's a totally different lifestyle and you have no
Speaker 2: idea what their actual finances look like if you were
Speaker 2: to peel you know, pull back the cover.
Speaker 1: We talked about a while back, the influencers who rent
Speaker 1: like a seat on a private plane that's sitting on
Speaker 1: a tarmac so they can take selfies stupid to make
Speaker 1: it look like they're living a lot of self that
Speaker 1: they're not actually living. They're not actually going anywhere on
Speaker 1: that plane. But you certainly feel left out when you
Speaker 1: see their instapic and it feels like they're on some
Speaker 1: epic vacation that they didn't actually take.
Speaker 2: And so you're right, man, I think it's like the
Speaker 2: saddest thing, right, Like you might be able to fool
Speaker 2: your followers, but like there's no way. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe you are fooling yourself into thinking that you've got
Speaker 2: it made, but like you're not actually on that flight,
Speaker 2: and that there's so much self delusion that's picked into that.
Speaker 1: Even just seeing the pictures of like Jeff Bezos on
Speaker 1: his yacht or something like that, like we just didn't
Speaker 1: We weren't as aware of what the wealthy elites were
Speaker 1: up to, and now we can be hyper aware because
Speaker 1: there's like people covering that beat on social media, and
Speaker 1: like I'm not saying that, like whatever your political beliefs is,
Speaker 1: just focusing less on those people is probably a better
Speaker 1: thing for your own sanity and personal health.
Speaker 2: Everyone likes to keep up with the Bezos and the
Speaker 2: elon angeel actually was it was a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: ago Blue Origin landed its first reusable rock. Was that true?
Speaker 2: It landed like on the barge in the middle of
Speaker 2: the ocean. I don't know. All I saw. Was it
Speaker 2: so happy that that happened, because I feel like finally
Speaker 2: caught up. It's just some competition for SpaceX, Like I
Speaker 2: don't know, Elon kind of got distracted by politics this
Speaker 2: year and kind of went off the deep end. So
Speaker 2: his ability to get back to doing what he does best,
Speaker 2: which is being innovative and a forward thinker. I think
Speaker 2: that's a good thing for the world.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, give counter or do you like Elon being
Speaker 1: involved in politics. I just think that the mission to
Speaker 1: Mars and the rich guys with rockets, it doesn't do
Speaker 1: it for me. I think it could lead to other
Speaker 1: advances that could benefit that's probably society. It's not that
Speaker 1: I want to live on Mars. I'm like, how bad
Speaker 1: would it have to get here, on this beautiful blue
Speaker 1: marble out in the middle of the galaxy for me
Speaker 1: to want to move to this cold oxygen lists I
Speaker 1: sare on waste land of the planet. I saw the
Speaker 1: Martian I know what it's like. There's terrible, That's right.
Speaker 1: It's like the scariest thing ever. Like I'm interested, one
Speaker 1: thing goes wrong and you're you're dead, you know, like
Speaker 1: as opposed to hear yeah, a lot of things have
Speaker 1: to go wrong.
Speaker 2: Before that's true, before you're dead. It makes me think
Speaker 2: about like a yeah, or just one thing. So people
Speaker 2: who swim this is such a weird tangent. But people
Speaker 2: who swim. I've always been like, you know, I'm not
Speaker 2: really into water sports because like you hit your head
Speaker 2: on something and then you're underwater and it's a bad thing.
Speaker 2: Whereas if you, let's say your mountain biking, you hit
Speaker 2: your head right, like you crash into a tree. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you get knocked out. Okay, you're just laying there on
Speaker 2: your on the trail. You're not like instantly drowning. That's
Speaker 2: the thing about water sports, your chance of survival. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: That's how I think. So there's no surprise I'm not
Speaker 2: super interested in moving to Mars.
Speaker 1: Literally, listen to an interview this week with someone and
Speaker 1: we'll get back to a problem who dove head first
Speaker 1: in the water and ended up paralyzed a quadriplegic for
Speaker 1: her entire life. An inspiring conversation. Maybe we'll think to
Speaker 1: in the show notes. But it's one of those things
Speaker 1: like you're right, yeah, water sports they can not be great.
Speaker 1: All right, while we're on a tangent, maybe we'll hit
Speaker 1: up a few ads. We'll be right back with more
Speaker 1: of your thankfulness right after this.
Speaker 2: All right, we are back. We'll make sure to not
Speaker 2: take any more tangents any We want to respect the
Speaker 2: listener's time, and they're here to hear about how folks
Speaker 2: are thankful and not about rich boys in their rockets. Yes,
Speaker 2: although you got satellites being launched, there's an actual tangible
Speaker 2: good that's happening. Also taking payloads to space man. That's yeah,
Speaker 2: that's important to that's true. Okay, let's get back to it.
Speaker 2: So space lasers and stuff.
Speaker 1: Rob says, thanks to the wisdom of the show, I
Speaker 1: broke up with Edward Jones and moved to Schwab because
Speaker 1: of my strict savings for the past few years. I
Speaker 1: retired in July at fifty five, and I learned from
Speaker 1: How to Money that I can invest my HSA money
Speaker 1: and I put it in boot. Finally, I'm going to
Speaker 1: hire a fiduciary who was wrecked amended by wealth Ramp
Speaker 1: after hearing Joel's interview with Pam. Oh my goodness, Rob
Speaker 1: did it all this year.
Speaker 2: So well done. Rob. You're saving money.
Speaker 1: You're don't have to work anymore because you've clawed back
Speaker 1: some of those insane fees that you were paying to
Speaker 1: the person who is managing your money. You've put a
Speaker 1: ton of hard work into making retirement at fifty five
Speaker 1: a reality.
Speaker 2: So well done. And by the way, for others out
Speaker 2: there who are thinking, gosh, it is time for us
Speaker 2: to look at chatting with an advisor. Go to howtmoney
Speaker 2: dot com forward slash advisor because we have partnered with
Speaker 2: wealth Ramp, which offers access to advisors who have been
Speaker 2: very well vetted. These are fee only fiduciaries. And yeah,
Speaker 2: it's worth checking out. On a related retirement note, Joel there,
Speaker 2: here's one from Peter who wrote learning to Spend Money
Speaker 2: as I move into retirement thirteenth month of three days
Speaker 2: a week, fully remote, and I've got eleven more to go. Man,
Speaker 2: I love that you are testing out retirement ahead of time.
Speaker 2: You're testing the waters the think going from just all
Speaker 2: to nothing on the on the workfront, it can be
Speaker 2: a really hard, sort of whiplashy like adjustment. And man,
Speaker 2: there are a lot of early retirees out there who
Speaker 2: you know, they can't wait to get another job. And
Speaker 2: I think it's because they haven't thought what it would
Speaker 2: be like to.
Speaker 1: Enter into retirement without having maybe a purpose. Three months in,
Speaker 1: they're like freaking out.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 1: I think I can get my old job back and
Speaker 1: I can't get as good of a job. Should I
Speaker 1: just like go drive for Uber on the side, just
Speaker 1: because they miss interpersonal contact and so that yeah, I
Speaker 1: lost their community.
Speaker 2: Who maybe they Yeah they formed that around yeah, around work.
Speaker 1: I like testing it out and I like winding it
Speaker 1: down slowly instead of going from all to nothing. So
Speaker 1: I think that's shows a lot of wisdom on Peter's part.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, okay, so we're specifically talking about easing into retirement,
Speaker 2: but let's not forget So the first thing he said
Speaker 2: was learning to spend money as I move into retirement.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to read between the lines there a
Speaker 2: little bit and address the fact that it can be
Speaker 2: really weird to go. Maybe we've used weird too much.
Speaker 2: It can be a jolt to go from save safe, save, invest, invest,
Speaker 2: invest your entire life to now, oh man, getting into retirement.
Speaker 2: I'm making less money now, or maybe I'm fully in retirement.
Speaker 2: What does it look like to draw down on those investments.
Speaker 2: There's like a total shift.
Speaker 1: If it's a total uh, this is with your brain
Speaker 1: reverse uh course of course changed.
Speaker 2: It's like it's like mirror mode in Mario kart right,
Speaker 2: all it's literally backwards. Oh my gosh, it feels completely
Speaker 2: like you are in bizarro bizarro world.
Speaker 1: It's foreign, and it's the opposite of what you've been
Speaker 1: told for many decades, and then the opposite of the
Speaker 1: accult behavior you've been exhibiting for any decade.
Speaker 2: But it's so important to do because if you well,
Speaker 2: first of all, hopefully you weren't neglecting the most important
Speaker 2: thing relationships along the way. But let's just say, if
Speaker 2: you don't spend this money while you are in retirement,
Speaker 2: you're going to be left with a whole lot of
Speaker 2: regret at the end of your life, right, because you're
Speaker 2: you're saying potentially, I mean, using it effectively, right, So yeah,
Speaker 2: you're you're I mean, And that's just do you get
Speaker 2: to a ripe old age where you're able to look
Speaker 2: back on I don't know, I don't want to. I
Speaker 2: don't want to go too negative here, but learning to
Speaker 2: spend your money as you enter into retirement you obviously
Speaker 2: don't want to get get to spending with it, but
Speaker 2: it's important to lay out a plan and how it
Speaker 2: is that you want to live those those later decades.
Speaker 1: At all I know is nobody gets a prize for
Speaker 1: having the most money in their four one k when
Speaker 1: they die, Like that is not that that is not
Speaker 1: a contest that I want to win. That's that's usually
Speaker 1: to me. Some of those are some of the saddest headlines.
Speaker 1: So I love that Peter is kind of working through that,
Speaker 1: figuring out how to spend as he moves into retirement.
Speaker 1: This is the perfect time to start really thinking about
Speaker 1: not just draw down strategy, but finding ways to actually
Speaker 1: be able to use the assets that you've built up
Speaker 1: to live the life that you're They would they would
Speaker 1: bring joy.
Speaker 2: Uh. Toy on that note says, I'm thankful for being
Speaker 2: able to balance saving aggressively for retirement while still living
Speaker 2: my life now, which is the goal.
Speaker 1: Like this is the the craft beerquivalent thing that we
Speaker 1: talk about all the time, right, It is yes, saving aggressively,
Speaker 1: It is yes thinking about your future, buying optionality with
Speaker 1: the savings and investments that you're making, but also being
Speaker 1: able to enjoy your life now and prioritizing the things
Speaker 1: that matter and so many of those things don't have
Speaker 1: to be terribly expensive. But ye, you want balance all
Speaker 1: the way through. That's the way I think about it, Matt.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it requires front loading the sacrifice a bit on
Speaker 1: the front end, but yeah, the goal is to be
Speaker 1: able to do both simultaneously. It's not always easy, but
Speaker 1: it is. I think it's like a pendulum, its swinging right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're a little bit further in one direction than
Speaker 1: the other, but always kind of trying to push back
Speaker 1: towards that center.
Speaker 2: Is a good way to think about it. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: typically over time you are able to kind of find
Speaker 2: more of that balance. Chelsea simply wrote buying a car
Speaker 2: with no loan, which I love because and she didn't
Speaker 2: say why or why she's thinking for that, but of
Speaker 2: course it means that she is going to be able
Speaker 2: to put more towards retirement. She's going to have more
Speaker 2: margin in her life, more savings, which are all very boring.
Speaker 2: So some fun things no car debt hanging over your head.
Speaker 2: Some fun things though, like the ability to go on
Speaker 2: a vacation, to be able to go out with your friends,
Speaker 2: to be able to invest in relationships to those who
Speaker 2: matter the most around you, Like these are all amazing
Speaker 2: reasons to not have a car payment. Yeah, so I'm
Speaker 2: super proud of you, Chelsea.
Speaker 1: All Right, let's move on to Nina, who says, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five was a big year for us. We sold
Speaker 1: our home for more than double what we paid, and
Speaker 1: we moved closer to family before having our first child
Speaker 1: together in September.
Speaker 2: I love it. What can you say about that besides congratulations?
Speaker 2: We want a blessing. How awesome, But it feels good
Speaker 2: to sell your home for a lot more than you paid,
Speaker 2: but then moving closer to family when you start having
Speaker 2: kids like that's uh, she's playing like three D chess
Speaker 2: right there, because that's crazy, like a fox. Well, and
Speaker 2: you are. I mean, it's not all about money, but
Speaker 2: you're going to be able to save some money some
Speaker 2: free babysitting out there. And this is a assuming you
Speaker 2: just have one kid like this, there's multiples here.
Speaker 1: We know what Now what high school kiddo's charge for babysitting?
Speaker 1: And it ain't cheap.
Speaker 2: It's not cheap.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think a lot of those kids are
Speaker 1: charging at least fifteen summer charging twenty bucks an hour.
Speaker 1: And so if you live close enough to folks, we're
Speaker 1: not paying that to write our eldest daughter.
Speaker 2: When she's babysitting her siblings. Well, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2: That's what's nice.
Speaker 1: You and I have finally gotten to the point where
Speaker 1: our oldest can watch for a whole lot less than that,
Speaker 1: but for a while. Then when they're young, like you
Speaker 1: don't have that luxury, so having your parents close by.
Speaker 1: Oh the other thing on babysitting too, which we've mentioned
Speaker 1: on the show before, maat, but it's been a while,
Speaker 1: swapping with somebodies of yours and so like that's what
Speaker 1: we did for how many years do we do the
Speaker 1: date night swap?
Speaker 2: Like almost a decade in eleven years? Yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: Swapping back and forth where you'd come over to my
Speaker 1: house after we put the kids down in it's a
Speaker 1: way to go out. Yeah, you're paying for the meal
Speaker 1: or the movie whatever you're doing, but you're at least
Speaker 1: not paying for babysitting on top of it.
Speaker 2: Heck, yeah, how much how much are you paying? Selling?
Speaker 1: By the way, per hour? We have a set rate,
Speaker 1: No we don't. It's usually depends and athough we should
Speaker 1: probably be a.
Speaker 2: Little more formal about that. Six bucks an hour. That's
Speaker 2: what we do. That sounds reasonable. Yeah, that's what I've get.
Speaker 2: So basically, like a solid date night she's basically earning
Speaker 2: like a twenty and so I also did the mouth
Speaker 2: on that. I'm like, okay, wait a minute, holy col
Speaker 2: how many how much money are we gonna end up paying?
Speaker 2: It's a thousand bucks. It's about one thousand bucks a
Speaker 2: year just in babysitting from us. Good for her, which
Speaker 2: I feel like that's big enough to make a serious
Speaker 2: impact on her ability to be able to steward that
Speaker 2: money well and figure out what it is that she
Speaker 2: wants to buy. But it's not so much that it
Speaker 2: feels like a ridiculous amount of money out of our piet.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a lot of money, but that's assuming
Speaker 2: we go on a date night at least once a week,
Speaker 2: you know, for the for the entire year. But we'll
Speaker 2: see an anonymous user posted grateful for my wife and
Speaker 2: new house that I just bought and our little bundle
Speaker 2: of joy due in May able to afford due to
Speaker 2: my new rays at work. Dude, again, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of thanks thankfulness here, coming back to family and some
Speaker 2: of these things that her a bit more in life.
Speaker 2: So I love that. Actually. On the note of babies
Speaker 2: and growing your family, John Over on Instagram, he said
Speaker 2: that they are expecting their baby girl in the spring
Speaker 2: as well. They didn't go into debt, they didn't once
Speaker 2: touch their six month emergency fund. They even saved a
Speaker 2: little bit for a retirement, not nearly, not quickly as
Speaker 2: they not as much as they were prior to going
Speaker 2: all in on in Vitro. So they were doing this
Speaker 2: is not cheap. Ivf man so expensive. But they were
Speaker 2: able to do that and grow their family without negatively
Speaker 2: impacting their finances in a serious way.
Speaker 1: Isn't that so cool? Yeah, that's yeah, I'm super pumped
Speaker 1: for you, John. I'll share al win from my older
Speaker 1: sister who just moved. They bought a house kind of
Speaker 1: further out in the country. They wanted some acres and
Speaker 1: she got a raise like simultaneous with this move, and
Speaker 1: so it's just like there's that Oh man, it's just
Speaker 1: freed up. We're making a big decision. And it's nice
Speaker 1: to be like have extra income when you're taking on,
Speaker 1: when you're biting off a new financial responsibilities.
Speaker 2: So sounds like yeah and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a raise of work is just such allows people
Speaker 1: to then more income coming in make smart moves.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Jasmine wrote, I'm grateful that I was able to pick
Speaker 1: up four classes at two universities as an adjunct next semester.
Speaker 1: That would give my income a big bump to help
Speaker 1: afford college tuition for my oldest kid who's heading off
Speaker 1: to college in August.
Speaker 2: Big steps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nicely done, Professor Jasmine.
Speaker 2: I'm just imagining.
Speaker 1: Jasmine over here, Matt wearing like a tweed coat with
Speaker 1: the elbow patches and maybe even a pipe hanging out
Speaker 1: of her mouth.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Yeah, professor, still do that or is
Speaker 2: that just an antiquated Nope, Nope, they do in the
Speaker 2: classical education world. Okay, that's awesome. I love that you're
Speaker 2: wanting to make college more affordable for your sounds like
Speaker 2: your first kid who's going off to college, And man,
Speaker 2: that's such a tough nut to crack. As I think about, like,
Speaker 2: we're not that far from that, Like as we were
Speaker 2: just talking about babysitting money. When I did the math,
Speaker 2: I like I did it often to the teenage yeers,
Speaker 2: and that's like five years yeah, of doing that, and
Speaker 2: we're gonna have to figure out like the balance to
Speaker 2: strike between wanting to set them up financially, because on one hand,
Speaker 2: you want to remove like as many of the financial
Speaker 2: obstacles from their path as possible. But is that more
Speaker 2: important or is it more important to prepare them to
Speaker 2: be able to handle not only the financial obstacles in
Speaker 2: their life, but all the obstacles that are gonna come
Speaker 2: their way as they venture off into adulthood. And that's
Speaker 2: something that Yeah, stay tuned, folks, because we don't have
Speaker 2: that one figured out, to be honest, Like I tend
Speaker 2: to waffle. I tend to go back and forth where
Speaker 2: we're with us as what we're learning. Yeah, because I
Speaker 2: tend to want to say set more aside at points
Speaker 2: in the year, but then at other points in the year,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, well, I don't it's not even necessary. And
Speaker 2: are they even gonna go off to higher education? Maybe
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't know, Like it's tough to know
Speaker 2: what the future holds. So yeah, you kind of have
Speaker 2: to balance all those priorities. It is.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad that Jasmine was able to pick up
Speaker 1: those additional classes so that she can help.
Speaker 2: At two universities. Yeah, it's a little tougher to bounce
Speaker 2: back and forth like that.
Speaker 1: That's right, it is, Yeah, probably, But it sounds like
Speaker 1: Jasmine is the kind of person who can do it all.
Speaker 1: So which is what's really neat Matt. I just I
Speaker 1: love celebrating money wins with listeners. I think it is yeah,
Speaker 1: like and just to be like, hey, not even just
Speaker 1: be like I crushed it this year, but be like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm so fortunate, so blessed, and there's just a lot
Speaker 1: to really be thankful for. These are all great things.
Speaker 1: Like people, there's a lot of intentionality and hard work
Speaker 1: behind a lot behind a lot of things that we're
Speaker 1: shared on today's episode. But also I think just this
Speaker 1: recognition that, like, there are all sorts of things that
Speaker 1: could have happened to us and that could have prevented
Speaker 1: us from reaching some of these goals, so we should
Speaker 1: be thankful at the same time while also kind of
Speaker 1: working hard to achieve those things.
Speaker 2: Heck. Yeah, Well, normally after a long hour longer episode
Speaker 2: like this, we are talking about our beer, but I
Speaker 2: don't think we were actually even planning planning we're going
Speaker 2: that long like we have on this episode. But we
Speaker 2: hope everyone who's listening has enjoyed maybe a quick little
Speaker 2: break away from your family, and I'll get back in there,
Speaker 2: get back in the throng.
Speaker 1: I think turkey is almost better the next day because
Speaker 1: you got to put it on like a role right,
Speaker 1: So I'm really looking forward.
Speaker 2: To leftovers as you can smear some of that cranberry
Speaker 2: sauce on there to to juice it up a little
Speaker 2: bit thing, right, like dip it in some gravy.
Speaker 1: Even actual favorite a little bit of aju is what's
Speaker 1: your absolute favorite.
Speaker 2: Thing that you don't Thanksgiving? I mean, honestly, is like
Speaker 2: a smoke turkey dipped in some nice gravy. Like it's
Speaker 2: tough to beat that little little best of both worlds.
Speaker 2: One of my daughters has gotten into baking recently, though,
Speaker 2: and we were planning on her baking her famous lemon pie.
Speaker 2: She made it over the summer fourth of July and
Speaker 2: we couldn't believe how stinking good it was, so there
Speaker 2: have been multiple votes to get her to even though
Speaker 2: a lemon pie isn't like a really it does sound
Speaker 2: more like a summer it does a pie right like
Speaker 2: the fall pies. And we're like, you got your pumpkins,
Speaker 2: you got your pecan or the peacans like they say
Speaker 2: down in the South. But so I don't know, we'll
Speaker 2: see how the lemon feels in the fall, but I'm
Speaker 2: certainly looking forward to that too. Yeah, what about you? Sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you love mashed potatoes, that's your favorite side. Yeah? Probably
Speaker 2: you smush it down with the supers sprout, create the
Speaker 2: pool with the Gravyes and Gravey in there. Classic. I mean,
Speaker 2: I can, We'll flat down at no time. I love
Speaker 2: creating a little volcano as a kid.
Speaker 1: We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and we'll see
Speaker 1: you back here with a fresh ask count of money episode.
Speaker 2: Yep, on Monday, you know it. So until next time,
Speaker 2: best Friends Out and best Friends Out.