Speaker 1: Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about how frugality gives you options. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1: and Joel, we need you to update us on RAPI five.
Speaker 1: You know how you're making money by having your car
Speaker 1: wrap I want to hear all right, I'll give you
Speaker 1: the update. So I think Rapifi is cool and I
Speaker 1: think it would probably work well for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I currently, right now, I have made ninety dollars and
Speaker 1: sixty seven cents driving my car a total of three
Speaker 1: dred and forty three miles that you would have driven
Speaker 1: anyway that I would have driven anyway. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I've been on vacation and I've been biking a lot,
Speaker 1: so I haven't been driving my car nearly as much
Speaker 1: as Yeah, you don't take your electric car when you
Speaker 1: go to the beach, right, Yeah, of course I couldn't
Speaker 1: make it there. So, uh, it's been it's been good.
Speaker 1: It's been a fun experiment. A lot of people ask
Speaker 1: me if I work for Salesforce, because so, let let's
Speaker 1: set it up for everybody. I got my car wrapped
Speaker 1: and there's a company called rapid Fi. You can download
Speaker 1: the app they will test your driving and kind of
Speaker 1: decide whether or not you will work for one of
Speaker 1: their campaigns. And so I got signed up for their
Speaker 1: Salesforce dot Com campaign and so I've got this this
Speaker 1: advertising wrapped around my niecean leaf um. And so for
Speaker 1: a lot of people that commute to drive a long
Speaker 1: distance in major cities, this could work out really well.
Speaker 1: But for me, I just I bike too much and
Speaker 1: I don't drive enough when I do drive. And so
Speaker 1: you know, I've I've made ninety bucks, like I said,
Speaker 1: but uh, I just I don't see it for me
Speaker 1: being worth it ultimately. Wait, so when did like the
Speaker 1: campaign start for you? Then? Has it been like a month? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a little over a month at this point.
Speaker 1: I think I think a month and a half at
Speaker 1: this point. Okay, so you're not quite making, I guess
Speaker 1: as much as you thought. But a lot of that
Speaker 1: has to do the fact that, yeah, that you haven't
Speaker 1: been driving. Yeah, exactly how that was gonna work out,
Speaker 1: because you know that campaign and the incentive to drive,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like it's the opposite of what we
Speaker 1: like to do totally, which is biking and not driving places.
Speaker 1: And I knew that I just I wanted to give
Speaker 1: it a shot. He's worth trying to see how pan out.
Speaker 1: I love kitchy, weird things, and this was exactly that.
Speaker 1: And uh, the cool thing is about Rapifi two they
Speaker 1: have these things called swarms, and so they'll still shoot
Speaker 1: you a message and say, hey, if you can drive
Speaker 1: in this one part of town for an hour on
Speaker 1: Saturday from one to two, we'll pay you an extra
Speaker 1: thirty bucks or something like that. So it's kind of cool,
Speaker 1: like there's these additional ways to make money. I will
Speaker 1: say all about that, Yeah, right, I will say. The
Speaker 1: downside of rapifi is the communication is terrible, uh, within
Speaker 1: the app. And so I was having an issue with
Speaker 1: the recording, you know, my driving for a minute, and
Speaker 1: so I wrote them and they said, well, you haven't
Speaker 1: updated the pictures from your car. Apparently supposed to do
Speaker 1: that every two weeks. I didn't know that, Like the
Speaker 1: app didn't prompt me to do that or anything. And
Speaker 1: so just to like make sure you still have it
Speaker 1: on your car, Yeah, exactly like that, it's not messed
Speaker 1: up or I didn't rip it off with my own
Speaker 1: bare hands or something like that. So you had griff
Speaker 1: feded on your own car on the on the picture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think you know, ultimately I'm I'm essentially beta
Speaker 1: testing Rapidfi at the same time while they're kind of
Speaker 1: trying to see if they're business model flies. But hopefully
Speaker 1: they'll get better at some some stuff like that communication
Speaker 1: and notifications through the app. But definitely a worthwhile shot
Speaker 1: for me to test this out. Ninety bucks for doing
Speaker 1: nothing essentially and how long? So how long does this
Speaker 1: campaign end? And I guess my big question is, aren't like,
Speaker 1: will you do the next campaign that you qualify for?
Speaker 1: So they say it last for two months, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's a couple of weeks then for you
Speaker 1: coming coming to a close pretty soon. And no, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine I'll sign up for the next one. Like
Speaker 1: we said, just getting down there, putting the wrap on,
Speaker 1: going back down to take taken off all that stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just kind of an inconvenience and then
Speaker 1: finding out that maybe the miles aren't getting tracked and
Speaker 1: having to follow that. It's just it's just kind of
Speaker 1: a pain and I just don't need that in my
Speaker 1: life for the little amount of money it's making. But
Speaker 1: like I said, if you are driving a lot, if
Speaker 1: you're commuting to and from work, you know, miles every
Speaker 1: day each way. You know, rapified could be a great
Speaker 1: kind of side piece of income for you. And I
Speaker 1: think for a lot of people it would be worth it.
Speaker 1: Just not worth it for me in the way I
Speaker 1: live life. Nice enough about my car, though, I saw you.
Speaker 1: You've got some beastings on your hand. What happened working
Speaker 1: over at the rental house? You said, So, I've got
Speaker 1: a couple two or three yellow jacket stings. Not bees, man,
Speaker 1: So yellow jackets, I think are I know, are way
Speaker 1: more painful because I've got I get you get stung
Speaker 1: by a bee like you're cutting the grass or whatever.
Speaker 1: You get stung on the on the leg or something,
Speaker 1: no big deal. Yellow jackets, on the other hand, hurt
Speaker 1: way more, dude. And my hand has been so itchy
Speaker 1: and swollen. It's actually the best it's been right now.
Speaker 1: But it was look pretty puffy. Man, a few days ago,
Speaker 1: I was over there. Oh okay, yeah, So the reason
Speaker 1: I was over there is my h VAC went out
Speaker 1: over there, like it crept out completely. You know. It's
Speaker 1: really fun and July to have your HVACT go out
Speaker 1: of your rental property. Oh man, I felt so bad
Speaker 1: for the girls that are over there. But so this
Speaker 1: is the newest rental and I knew when we got
Speaker 1: the house that had an older system may not last
Speaker 1: very long. So it was no surprise that that happened.
Speaker 1: Had the cash set aside and my special little fun
Speaker 1: that I have set up for that that property, and
Speaker 1: we went we went ahead and just replaced the whole system,
Speaker 1: not just the condenser. Is that was the condenser, the compressor,
Speaker 1: not just that, but were like, you know what furnace
Speaker 1: to what it was. The furnace is about twenty years
Speaker 1: old and they would have had to retrofit it and
Speaker 1: kind of do all this fancy duck work just to
Speaker 1: get to hook up and say, you know, you may
Speaker 1: as well just go ahead and do it. Have a
Speaker 1: fresh system in there. You know, it's good, everything works together,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. But my fat girl, she's good,
Speaker 1: by the way, which I don't think you hear that
Speaker 1: very often. H H, fat girl. I know I love
Speaker 1: that normally here like H fact H. Fat guy. She's
Speaker 1: a legit man. She's got a crew, she's got her
Speaker 1: like company. Hat I love it. It's her own company
Speaker 1: and I've used her for projects in the past and
Speaker 1: she's you know, she's awesome. But that being said, I
Speaker 1: still don't like partying with uh bucks uh in the
Speaker 1: middle of the summer. Man, isn't it no fun? That's
Speaker 1: no fun? So wait, how did the beast things come up?
Speaker 1: Them billy yellow jacket stings? Oh so I was over
Speaker 1: there showing her where I wanted the new unit because
Speaker 1: the current compressor was actually installed under the deck, which
Speaker 1: is not something that you want been there and done
Speaker 1: that I had to move it before. Yes, I was
Speaker 1: over there showing her where I wanted the new one
Speaker 1: to go, and dude, there was like a nest of
Speaker 1: twenty of them underneath the old pad, you know, like
Speaker 1: the plastic path that they set the thing on to
Speaker 1: keep it level. Yeah, yeah, we we all got got
Speaker 1: lit up. Did she get stuck? I felt bad, but
Speaker 1: she kind of rolled with it. She's tough. She's probably
Speaker 1: used to running into all sorts of crazy things in
Speaker 1: that line of work. So yeah, I think I had
Speaker 1: more tears than she did, and I was like, no
Speaker 1: alt So, speaking of beastings years or worse, I think
Speaker 1: probably than what I got, but I was clearlow jacket
Speaker 1: stings yellow. Yeah, sorry, my bad way worse. So I
Speaker 1: was cleaning out the gutters one time at my rental property.
Speaker 1: I was, you know, two floors up on the edge
Speaker 1: of you know, certain death if I fall if I
Speaker 1: fall down these two stories, or at least, you know,
Speaker 1: not being able to use my for reas of my life. Right.
Speaker 1: And so I'm cleaning out the gutters by hand, and
Speaker 1: I hit this nest of bees and they totally you know,
Speaker 1: I get stung like four or five times on my
Speaker 1: hand in my arm, and it's all I can do
Speaker 1: just to just to keep going, like just all right,
Speaker 1: I'm okay, I'm okay, back up, back away from the ledge,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's just not fun doing that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But I can see, like the old school comedy, just
Speaker 1: the ladder like tipping back like you freak out and
Speaker 1: just smashing. So I was like sitting on the roof
Speaker 1: doing it. I wasn't even I wasn't on the ladder.
Speaker 1: I was sitting on the roof. So, oh my god,
Speaker 1: maybe like not the safest way to do it either.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I probably wouldn't depends. I mean if
Speaker 1: you have a low pitched roof, sitting on the roof
Speaker 1: is isn't a bad way to go. But that does
Speaker 1: make me think of one more thing before we get
Speaker 1: to the beer we're drinking. I think we're really it's
Speaker 1: icing people to wanna get their own get their own
Speaker 1: rental property going. So in that same house, I just
Speaker 1: recently had new gutters put in. Yes, so they were
Speaker 1: ripping away from the house, and Uh, that's just not
Speaker 1: good for the waterflow, right for what you know, water
Speaker 1: can get in between you know, the walls and the
Speaker 1: facial board and the utter. Yeah, yeah, that's bad. You
Speaker 1: don't want that happening. So I got new gutters installed.
Speaker 1: And it's worth, by the way, the extra hundred dollars
Speaker 1: to get the gutter guards put on. When when you're
Speaker 1: negotiating that with your gutter installer. Uh. And then this
Speaker 1: was a small house, so on a bigger house it
Speaker 1: could be you know, more than that, a whole two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, right, But one while they're up there, put
Speaker 1: the gutter guards on. It's you going to save you
Speaker 1: from having to clean out leaves often. And if you
Speaker 1: hire someone to do it, you know, that's expensive. To
Speaker 1: get done every six months, so instead get out your
Speaker 1: flowers for itself and like in no time one year
Speaker 1: or something like that, completely and just not having to
Speaker 1: worry about it think about it. Yeah, it's so nice.
Speaker 1: So I've done that. Every time I get new gutters
Speaker 1: on at a property, I always, you know, put the
Speaker 1: extra the leaf guard, not the you know, they do
Speaker 1: advertisements for these specialty leaf guard systems which are really expensive,
Speaker 1: but just the regular old metal ones that cover it
Speaker 1: was a little a little great like little screen that exactly,
Speaker 1: but just put those on at the same time. Completely
Speaker 1: worth it. That's more and more. I'm at the stage
Speaker 1: in life and maybe this is because we're getting older,
Speaker 1: we're out of our out of our full years, but
Speaker 1: I'm willing to spend just a little bit more to
Speaker 1: kind of do something the right way, you know, just
Speaker 1: go ahead and do it properly. Again, this kind of
Speaker 1: goes back. I mean, if you listen to the last
Speaker 1: episode we talked about rental properties, we talked about how
Speaker 1: Joe and I both want to be landlords forever potentially,
Speaker 1: Like this is kind of like our long term a
Speaker 1: long term gig, and when you start thinking it, thinking
Speaker 1: about it, through that lens, and I started thinking, Man,
Speaker 1: do I want to have to come back in like
Speaker 1: five years and deal with this sort of problem again
Speaker 1: because I just kind of went went with the cheap
Speaker 1: route on it. Yea more and more, I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's just spend an extra a few bucks now and
Speaker 1: just to save the headache of a having to revisit it,
Speaker 1: but then also to to have that expense again. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm definitely getting the mindset of doing it right the
Speaker 1: first time. Yeah, I completely agree. Uh And that actually,
Speaker 1: you know, makes me think about the topic that we're
Speaker 1: about to address. Frugality like do do we doesn't mean
Speaker 1: spending the least amount possible or uh, like we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about doesn't mean getting value from what you purchased.
Speaker 1: So we'll get to that in one second, but first,
Speaker 1: let's pop this beer. Nice dude, I know you're so
Speaker 1: excited about this beer. You literally, I mean you basically
Speaker 1: skipped through the door when you when you come over,
Speaker 1: I was like being over to the house. I was
Speaker 1: like beaming from from ear to ear. So this, wait,
Speaker 1: before you say it, you're gonna be so proud of
Speaker 1: me and all of our listeners are gonna be so
Speaker 1: proud too, because I looked up how to say it.
Speaker 1: Look at you? Yeah, because okay, so since you know,
Speaker 1: can I try and then you tell me if I'm right?
Speaker 1: Dre Fontane? Would you say it one more time? Dre Fontane? Okay,
Speaker 1: So I saw that some people say that from what
Speaker 1: seemed like the most legitimate source. They say, so the
Speaker 1: emphasis is on, Hey, so it's Dre fontanees. That's all right? Sure,
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, we've gotten caught up with some names.
Speaker 1: We've through some recently, you know. I figured if we
Speaker 1: can at least maybe say the dang brewery. So again,
Speaker 1: that's Dre Fontane in and yeah most I think most
Speaker 1: people just say free Fontaine because I mean in the
Speaker 1: translation literally three fountains. Yeah, that's right, right, Okay, So
Speaker 1: that's it. That's all I'm gonna say. I want to
Speaker 1: let you give the rest of the scoop. Having been
Speaker 1: to Belgium, so I feel like I might be guilty
Speaker 1: of saying this. Every time I would say something like
Speaker 1: I'm so stoked for this beer or this is my
Speaker 1: favorite style. I feel like that happens a lot, which
Speaker 1: means I like a lot of beers and I have
Speaker 1: a lot of favorite styles. Uh, this is definitely right
Speaker 1: up there, though. This is from one of my favorite
Speaker 1: breweries of all time that I've ever had anything from
Speaker 1: in the whole world though, in the whole world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: right there, right outside of Brussels, Belgium. And again, I
Speaker 1: don't know how to pronounce it. Well, I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: Dreef Fontaine, but this was their ud Creek, and an
Speaker 1: ude creek is spontaneously fermented beer that is aged for
Speaker 1: multiple years with cherries. Then I've had just a couple
Speaker 1: of their beers before. They're hard to come by here
Speaker 1: in the States and they're kind of expensive. And this
Speaker 1: is one that I bought on my trip to Paris.
Speaker 1: I got it at that beer store when I did
Speaker 1: the beer trade with Chris, and so I'm I'm really
Speaker 1: really excited to have this beer again because I love
Speaker 1: everything these guys do, and a good creek cherry beer is, man,
Speaker 1: it just does it for me. Yeah, and it's got
Speaker 1: this beautiful red color, Matt beautiful, Yeah, nice kind of
Speaker 1: a ruby burgundy looks gorgeous, you know what, Like it
Speaker 1: just looks like a cherry. You feel like you can
Speaker 1: actually stick your hand in the beer and pull out
Speaker 1: a bunch of cherries. That's that's the way I feel
Speaker 1: looking at this. So cheers, Bunny, cheers. So delicious. Once
Speaker 1: I stop salivating after drinking this, I can actually talk.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of like an old banana peel. Oh no,
Speaker 1: I'm not selling it, but it's got that you know.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You taste it, so, you know,
Speaker 1: you know the way an old banana peal smells like
Speaker 1: when it's kind of been sitting there at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the lunch sack. I can see why you say that.
Speaker 1: You feel it. Yep, you know. The weirdest taste was
Speaker 1: so they but I like it. Yeah, I'm saying I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that like, oh, gross old banana. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that this is sort of what it what it evokes.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know, but I mean, if this
Speaker 1: is what old banana peles tastes like, dude, turn me
Speaker 1: up up for more, no doubt. So I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you're able to bring this back to you. This is
Speaker 1: delicious me too. So tree contane food creek. Man, if
Speaker 1: you do find it, it's it's just got this big
Speaker 1: number three on the bottle in a big green bottle.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's delicious, all right, Matt. Onto the topic
Speaker 1: at hand. Frugality gives you options. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: we really wanted to cover this topic, Matt, because we've
Speaker 1: talked you know in some ways you know how to
Speaker 1: cut your monthly bills or that you know there are
Speaker 1: articles on our site about how to shop your insurance
Speaker 1: arounds that you're paying the lowest amount possible, and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of ways that you can save money
Speaker 1: or think about money differently. We've covered a lot of
Speaker 1: topics at this point, but but ultimately, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: frugality kind of undergirds everything. And without a solid mentality
Speaker 1: and reason for frugality, uh, all those other things just
Speaker 1: out in the ether don't seem to really make a
Speaker 1: lot of sense or click with without that kind of
Speaker 1: core view of frugality and belief in frugality as a
Speaker 1: principle of life. Yeah, that's right, I think frugality. It's
Speaker 1: it's about time that we've sort of talked about and
Speaker 1: spending entire episode. I know you've been wanting to do
Speaker 1: this for a minute here, and so to actually spend
Speaker 1: some time talking about frugality. Uh, it should become very
Speaker 1: clear how that's like a core pillar of poor not
Speaker 1: poor and the life we we try to live in
Speaker 1: our attitude towards money and so a common view, uh,
Speaker 1: that a lot of people have that we hear often
Speaker 1: is that I make enough money to have the kind
Speaker 1: of lifestyle that I want to live, So why what
Speaker 1: I even want to be frugal and why should I
Speaker 1: skimp on things? I think that's a lot of people's view, right.
Speaker 1: They either think what's the point, like they have no
Speaker 1: reason to to be frugal, or they think that they
Speaker 1: already are being frugal, and in reality maybe they're really not.
Speaker 1: We'll spend a little bit of time talking about that.
Speaker 1: But I mean the biggest answer though to to the
Speaker 1: question is that things change. Right, So your income, jobs,
Speaker 1: the goals that you have in life, all that can change.
Speaker 1: And so if you think that my life is fine
Speaker 1: the way it is now, I can just spend every
Speaker 1: penny that I make towards you know, sustaining my lifestyle. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that's just a near sided sort of view to life
Speaker 1: and in particular your finances, and so spending less than
Speaker 1: having the ability to live on less. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the answer, right, and essentially that's what frugality is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: mat And I've never really heard complaints from people that
Speaker 1: you know, saved too much money, that thought about their future,
Speaker 1: that were lived on less than they made. But man,
Speaker 1: I've seen the plight of people that have done the opposite, right,
Speaker 1: that have that have racked up credit card debt, that
Speaker 1: owe everybody and anybody, and that have sacrificed, you know,
Speaker 1: frugality for the current lifestyle and wants as opposed to needs,
Speaker 1: and that puts you in a tough financial situation as
Speaker 1: well as like a mental situation right to have those
Speaker 1: things you know weighing over you, as opposed to having
Speaker 1: you know, money set aside in your bank account that's
Speaker 1: ready to cover any expense that comes down, like your
Speaker 1: h VACT expense. Right, Like a frugal person that has
Speaker 1: you know, the savings set aside to cover you know,
Speaker 1: more than five thousand dollar expense that just boom happens.
Speaker 1: You know that you know it's gonna happen at some point,
Speaker 1: but most people have no idea how to handle something
Speaker 1: like that. And that's why we think frugality is kind
Speaker 1: of this core. I mean, essentially, it's this framework to
Speaker 1: how you live life, Like frugality has to be a
Speaker 1: huge part of this framework for how you live life,
Speaker 1: or you're gonna live on on steady footing and that's
Speaker 1: just man, that's just a tough way to live. And
Speaker 1: so that's yeah, that's why frugality is so important to us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you said earlier honestly makes me think of the
Speaker 1: sort of end of life comments, you know, the discussion
Speaker 1: you hear people have when they're on their deathbed, and
Speaker 1: how what you said is like, no one is ever
Speaker 1: sort of at their at the end of their life
Speaker 1: saying oh, I've I've saved too much money. But what
Speaker 1: I think what you do here is you hear people say, oh,
Speaker 1: I work too much, And I think our answer to
Speaker 1: that would be that when you spend money and you're
Speaker 1: not frugal and you spend spend, spend, you are forced
Speaker 1: to work. And that is the biggest regret that people have.
Speaker 1: You hear people talk about how they spend way too
Speaker 1: much time working and how they did not spend enough
Speaker 1: time with their loved ones, with their family, or with
Speaker 1: their friends. And that's essentially what we're trying to avoid.
Speaker 1: We're trying to take the steps necessary now to not
Speaker 1: keep us locked into working long hours for the rest
Speaker 1: of our lives to where we aren't doing the things
Speaker 1: that matter most to us. Yeah, so we're gonna discuss,
Speaker 1: you know, white frugality is awesome, and how it builds resilience,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately we're gonna get to kind of some
Speaker 1: practical takeaways for you on how to kind of bring
Speaker 1: frugality back into focus in your life. But first let's
Speaker 1: kind of define it. Frugality in my mind, is a
Speaker 1: question of value, and so sometimes it does mean buying
Speaker 1: something more expensive but using it for a long long time. Right,
Speaker 1: that's actually a frugal move in my opinion. Whereas I
Speaker 1: know that you know, the common thought process towards frugality
Speaker 1: is you know people that that where you know, six
Speaker 1: dollar Walmart shoes or something like that, or don't have things.
Speaker 1: You know, there are things break, they wear out. It's
Speaker 1: almost like I think sometimes you think of like a hoarder,
Speaker 1: someone that has a lot of things, but they're all
Speaker 1: cheap possessions, And in my mind, that's not frugality at all.
Speaker 1: That's someone who you know, who buys too much crap
Speaker 1: um and who has a mental illness that too. It's
Speaker 1: like a legitimate thing, right. So, but in general, like,
Speaker 1: being frugal doesn't mean being cheap, right, but it does
Speaker 1: mean buying things that are of value to you, being
Speaker 1: you know, conscious about the things that you are purchasing
Speaker 1: and making sure that what you are buying is going
Speaker 1: to add value to your life. And I think you know, actually,
Speaker 1: in the time that we're in right now, it's much
Speaker 1: harder to do that, even because you can one click
Speaker 1: on Amazon. Amazon sells these little buttons man like one push,
Speaker 1: Like you can put it under your desk or something
Speaker 1: like that and just push the button and I guess
Speaker 1: it communicates via Wi Fi to Amazon that you need
Speaker 1: more toilet paper or whatever that is. So it's so
Speaker 1: much harder to be a mindful frugal shopper in today's
Speaker 1: day and age. But that makes it all the more
Speaker 1: important because we have all of these competing messages for
Speaker 1: our attention, these advertisements and these easy ways to buy,
Speaker 1: and so you know, frugality is uh take it takes
Speaker 1: much more like training of your mind and resiliency towards
Speaker 1: you know, some of those marketing efforts and those easy
Speaker 1: abilities to buy so that you can kind of create
Speaker 1: this discipline of frugality in your life. Joel Man, I
Speaker 1: completely agree with you. Right. Yeah, So, like the entire
Speaker 1: marketing and advertising industry with us out there, that is
Speaker 1: all that they're trying to do. They're trying to market you.
Speaker 1: They're trying to sell you the latest and greatest shiny thing,
Speaker 1: and frugality couldn't be any further from that. And they're
Speaker 1: spending tons of research trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get in your head to make you think that like
Speaker 1: that you need what it is that they're selling, and
Speaker 1: like who's on your side of the court, right, Like,
Speaker 1: like who is on your behalf fighting those companies and
Speaker 1: keeping you from from making those things? Like you are
Speaker 1: like that is the only thing and you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: us to like I'm gonna say, you and me talking
Speaker 1: to this here, but yeah, I mean it's a kind
Speaker 1: of a constant battle. It's because it's it's going to
Speaker 1: be a constant, uphill sort of struggle to essentially fight
Speaker 1: against that. But yeah, man, for me, a short definition
Speaker 1: for frugality is just thrifty and efficient, Like what's not
Speaker 1: to like about that. I hear those two words, I'm
Speaker 1: just like, ah, like that sounds so good, like simplicity,
Speaker 1: the efficiency, thriftiness. But unfortunately, the entire advertising industry is
Speaker 1: out there and there's just that negative connotation that's associated
Speaker 1: with just the very word frugality, and it makes you
Speaker 1: think cheap, denying yourself, and like nobody wants to say
Speaker 1: no to themselves, and discipline and all these sort of
Speaker 1: hard words that have these these connotations that we try
Speaker 1: to avoid. But it's like frugality equals buzz kill or
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like I'm going
Speaker 1: to be the lame down yeah, wet blanket, like not
Speaker 1: here at the party. Yeah. Um, you know that's up
Speaker 1: to us as consumers. It's up to people like us
Speaker 1: talking about this hopefully as well that are able to
Speaker 1: get others to talk about it and hopefully sort of
Speaker 1: change the attitude and the culture around the word frugality
Speaker 1: just in and of itself. Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to advertising and marketing, usually
Speaker 1: the trick is to make you feel bad about where
Speaker 1: you currently are or that you are lacking in some way,
Speaker 1: form or fashion, that you don't have enough or that
Speaker 1: you know, your life's a bummer until you get this
Speaker 1: new product. But you don't need an Ellie de bulb
Speaker 1: but with a speaker in it that plays music in
Speaker 1: every room. And you know what about one that changes colors? Okay,
Speaker 1: that you may need that. No, no, of course you
Speaker 1: don't need that. And you don't need because I would
Speaker 1: rather have the one with the speaker in it before
Speaker 1: I'd do the color totally. I mean that would be
Speaker 1: kind of cool. But and you don't need, no even
Speaker 1: necessary and like a speaker, and you don't need you know,
Speaker 1: the newest generation of iPad. And there are all these
Speaker 1: you know things that and there's these you know these yeah,
Speaker 1: these crafty commercials that cost millions of dollars that are
Speaker 1: produced to make you feel like you need that new thing. Dude,
Speaker 1: is it no wonder that the number one thing that
Speaker 1: Alexa does or like the Amazon little Echo dots and
Speaker 1: you know, all those things, Yeah, what are the best
Speaker 1: at doing that? You hear people complaining about that their
Speaker 1: kids accidentally did ordered crap completely, Like, is it is
Speaker 1: it any sort of surprise that the best thing that
Speaker 1: those things are good at doing is purchasing things. It's
Speaker 1: like it just feeds into their model, you know, like
Speaker 1: this is what they want, like wake up. Well in
Speaker 1: this In my mind, the scariest things about those speakers are,
Speaker 1: you know, what we're training our kids to think is
Speaker 1: normal and to think is right, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and to just order things blindly through this void activated speaker,
Speaker 1: not knowing what the price is even more frightening. So,
Speaker 1: now that we have a definition of frugality, Matt, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break. We'll be right back. Let's get
Speaker 1: back to it, man, Let's talk some more about frugality.
Speaker 1: You want to talk more about now why frugality is awesome? Yeah? So,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and the title of this episode is
Speaker 1: frugality gives you options, And I mean the reason for it,
Speaker 1: It all starts with that options are at your disposal
Speaker 1: if you lead a frugal lifestyle and and that just
Speaker 1: doesn't happen you know, overnight or you know, in a
Speaker 1: month or two of being frugal. Uh it, you know,
Speaker 1: it takes a kind of an ability to go in
Speaker 1: that direction over a long period of time and and
Speaker 1: save and be frugal. But ultimately, if you do that,
Speaker 1: if you can live a frugal lifestyle over an extended
Speaker 1: period of time. Options that weren't previously available to you
Speaker 1: manifest themselves, and so you can, as an example, decide
Speaker 1: that you know, one of the parents in a family
Speaker 1: and a nuclear family wants to stay at home with
Speaker 1: the kids, and that's just not an option that's open
Speaker 1: to many Americans these days, both parents feel compelled to work.
Speaker 1: Another option if you maintain a lifestyle of frugality is
Speaker 1: that it gives you extra time to find a new
Speaker 1: job if you get laid off, as opposed to taking,
Speaker 1: you know, the next job that comes along with a
Speaker 1: company that you don't like, or at a pay that
Speaker 1: you're not okay with but that you feel forced to
Speaker 1: take just because you need that job right. Another potential
Speaker 1: option open to you if you maintain a frugal lifestyle
Speaker 1: over a period of time is that you can take
Speaker 1: a job that pays less just because you're going to
Speaker 1: enjoy it more and you'll have more time at home,
Speaker 1: you know, with your family and in your neighborhood with
Speaker 1: your friends. But those are the kind of options that
Speaker 1: only manifest themselves to people that maintain a frugal lifestyle
Speaker 1: that save a good portion of what they make that
Speaker 1: refused to you know, spend up to the limits of
Speaker 1: their income. Yeah. Man, that's right. And honestly, to another
Speaker 1: way I like to look at like the options, right
Speaker 1: that frugality gives us is that I sort of like
Speaker 1: to replace the word options with goals. And so in
Speaker 1: my mind, it's hard for me to be frugal if
Speaker 1: I don't have a reason to be frugal, right, and
Speaker 1: so we like the way we're talking about it here
Speaker 1: is that frugality gives you options, and so in my mind,
Speaker 1: it all starts with the options because for me, like
Speaker 1: those options are my goals. Sometimes they do arise like
Speaker 1: that where you realize that there's something that you can do.
Speaker 1: But just the way my brain works, I like to
Speaker 1: sort of put those options out there as goals almost
Speaker 1: that I'm just you know, striving towards. And so when
Speaker 1: I have those options, when I have those goals set
Speaker 1: out before me, for me, that gives me purpose, right,
Speaker 1: and then in pursuit of that goal, that specific goal,
Speaker 1: then I can choose to be frugal, you know, to
Speaker 1: achieve that specific option. Let that you know that goal,
Speaker 1: what that looks like. I think from person to person varies,
Speaker 1: you know, for something, for one person that might look
Speaker 1: like one thing and for another person that might look
Speaker 1: like something else. Because everyone's goals and their options that
Speaker 1: they're considering are all different. I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: up to the individual as to where to cut back. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: for me, that helps so much to consider options interchangea
Speaker 1: with the word goals. Yeah, that's great, man, that's a
Speaker 1: great thought. And so sort of on that note, like
Speaker 1: you kind of gave some examples right of, like sort
Speaker 1: of the different options that might come up for folks,
Speaker 1: and even other things too, I think, like starting a business,
Speaker 1: Like if you know that there's something that you've always
Speaker 1: sort of wanted to try, well, if you're frugal now,
Speaker 1: that gives you the flexibility and the you know, even
Speaker 1: the potential the option to try starting that business down
Speaker 1: the road. Oftentimes there's a lot of debt that is
Speaker 1: associated with starting a new business, but that doesn't always
Speaker 1: have to be the case. And then another one I
Speaker 1: was thinking of too, is like maybe what some would
Speaker 1: consider a less noble goal, but even like a sweet
Speaker 1: vacation or traveling. You know, once you are financially independent
Speaker 1: or or once you retire. I think that's a noble
Speaker 1: goal and I think that's something that is worth driving towards. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think even if you don't have well formulated
Speaker 1: goals right now, there are reasons for frugality. I think
Speaker 1: for me and for a lot of people. I know,
Speaker 1: there are things that pop up in life that you
Speaker 1: want to be prepared for and that you might not
Speaker 1: even have an inkling are going to be something you're interested.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, when I was started being super
Speaker 1: frugal and saving you know, a large percentage of my
Speaker 1: income just in my early twenties, I hadn't met my
Speaker 1: wife yet, I didn't have kids. Some of the goals
Speaker 1: that I have in mind now weren't cemented at all,
Speaker 1: and actually, you know, weren't even really on my radar.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, the act of being frugal, these
Speaker 1: goals that you think of and and dream up are
Speaker 1: great things to keep in the forefront of your mind.
Speaker 1: But also realized that even if you don't have well
Speaker 1: formulated goals right now, maybe especially if you're you know,
Speaker 1: in your late teens early twenties, there's still a reason
Speaker 1: to be frugal because those goals will manifest themselves over time,
Speaker 1: you know, as you grow. And so I know, for me,
Speaker 1: you know, being frugal even when I didn't have those
Speaker 1: clear cut goals. And also because you don't really know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen to you in life. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: where I thought you were going to go initially, like
Speaker 1: the bad stuff, right, Yeah, there's that too. And and
Speaker 1: so I got new men sick or somebody else getting
Speaker 1: said completely. I got an email from a listener and
Speaker 1: it made me think a lot about my my own
Speaker 1: reasons for frugality because he told me that his wife,
Speaker 1: you know, had gotten sick, and um, he was really
Speaker 1: you know, obviously it's you know, it's a terrible thing,
Speaker 1: but he was really really glad that he had been
Speaker 1: frugal for so many years because he was able to
Speaker 1: take off work essentially just quit his job, um for
Speaker 1: at least a year. He he thought that he would
Speaker 1: be able to just be without a job because he
Speaker 1: had saved so well and he could just spend that
Speaker 1: time with his wife. And I think about how many
Speaker 1: people go through something difficult like that, having cared for
Speaker 1: a parent or a spouse or a child, whatever it
Speaker 1: may be. You had to be able to have that
Speaker 1: option to do that. He said, like, obviously that wouldn't
Speaker 1: be a goal, Like, I guess you couldn't really or
Speaker 1: you wouldn't want to use the interchangeably like as like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a goal, that's something I want to I want
Speaker 1: to have happened. But that is something you'd want to
Speaker 1: be able to do, right, completely, want to be able
Speaker 1: to have the option to care for those people, And
Speaker 1: it's not something you're necessarily working towards hoping that that
Speaker 1: takes place. But like you said, that's a great way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as far as it manifesting and having having that option
Speaker 1: to do that, it's great. Yeah. I think most people,
Speaker 1: you know, something like that happens, and I think the
Speaker 1: guilt of having to work and then also try to
Speaker 1: care for that loved one or you know, and this
Speaker 1: is just one scenario, but that's just a difficult place
Speaker 1: to be and not to mention just timing wise, you know,
Speaker 1: you feel drawn away to work and you feel like
Speaker 1: you can't spend time with them in the way that
Speaker 1: you wanted. So I think, you know, there are are
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons for frugality, but a good one
Speaker 1: is for those things that are going to pop up
Speaker 1: that you have no idea what they are yet you
Speaker 1: can't even cement it as a goal in your mind.
Speaker 1: But that frugality and having a savings mindset can provide
Speaker 1: these amazing benefits at completely unexpected times in your life
Speaker 1: that you can't even plan for and don't know whether
Speaker 1: they're going to happen or not yet. Yeah, man, that
Speaker 1: makes me honestly think of what you're saying in a
Speaker 1: second ago, right, like how it's okay to start and
Speaker 1: it's encouraged to start being frugal now, even if you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have goals. And I think that even if
Speaker 1: you do have goals, even if you have like say
Speaker 1: you're like, well, I don't want to have kids. That's
Speaker 1: just a goal of mine. It's a kill of mine
Speaker 1: to not have any kids, to have children. And if
Speaker 1: you have kids and that's your goal, that's terrible, Like
Speaker 1: you can't do a coming from the dad's of daughters
Speaker 1: over here, or you might say that like, oh, I
Speaker 1: love my job. My goal is just to keep working.
Speaker 1: I you know, I love what I do. I find
Speaker 1: great satisfaction in that. And the fact is things change,
Speaker 1: goals change, people change, the people that you work with
Speaker 1: at work, like they change, and I just know myself
Speaker 1: as well, and I know that I changed my mind,
Speaker 1: and so I might tell myself that, like, this is
Speaker 1: what I want to do forever, but who dude, who knows,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know what, like what I'm really going
Speaker 1: to be thinking in ten years or and so some
Speaker 1: of that is sort of like taking care of your
Speaker 1: future self a little bit, because you know that, like
Speaker 1: even though right now you say, oh, this is what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be a landlord for the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: which is what we said at the beginning of the episode,
Speaker 1: or a podcaster. We'll be doing this till the day
Speaker 1: we die. We know that for sure exactly. That's not
Speaker 1: going to change, mark my words. But you know, like
Speaker 1: we love it now. But it's just wise to be smart,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's just wintse to to look ahead,
Speaker 1: to not be so nearsighted into plan Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of wisdom to raining even if you don't know
Speaker 1: what you're planning for. Yeah, man, that's that's so true.
Speaker 1: And something else as well is to not be so
Speaker 1: tempted to just tell yourself that, oh well, I'll just
Speaker 1: work more or you know, I'll just earn more money.
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of folks, especially for younger,
Speaker 1: younger folks that sort of had their whole career ahead
Speaker 1: of them, that is a huge temptation, right, And so
Speaker 1: there's a there's sort of two sides of saving money, right.
Speaker 1: You can either spend less or you can earn more.
Speaker 1: And I think there is just so much more emphasis
Speaker 1: placed on earning more, Like that's the exciting thing. That's
Speaker 1: what you hear people talking about. Like those are the
Speaker 1: raises and the advancements and the promotions, all the exciting,
Speaker 1: like the big windfalls. That's what people focus on. Nobody
Speaker 1: focuses on trying to be more efficient, right, Like like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, thrifty and efficient and simple, Like what's
Speaker 1: not to like about that? Like the more complicated this
Speaker 1: world gets, I feel like, the more that to me
Speaker 1: that sounds appealing being frugal. And that's what being frugal
Speaker 1: is because as soon as you stop working, your income
Speaker 1: stops coming in. And if you're used to spending every
Speaker 1: penny that you have and you are not frugal, then
Speaker 1: gonna find yourself in a world of her with zero
Speaker 1: margin in your life. Yeah, man, I think we've mentioned
Speaker 1: that word on the show before, but margin, dude, that's huge.
Speaker 1: And there's so many people living lives right now because
Speaker 1: of a lack of frugality with no margin for error,
Speaker 1: right like no HVAC that can go out, no transmission
Speaker 1: that can fail, or man, even a lot smaller things
Speaker 1: than that, you know, an electricity bill that's a little
Speaker 1: bit higher that month that they can barely afford. And
Speaker 1: frugality is the key to placing yourself in a situation
Speaker 1: where that's not going to happen to you. And I think, uh,
Speaker 1: frugality too. Sometimes it gets positioned as clipping coupons or
Speaker 1: you know, cutting Latte's out of your life, right, And
Speaker 1: sometimes it is the small things that add up, the
Speaker 1: tiny things that are you know, dragging your budget down
Speaker 1: or are killing you every month, And you know that
Speaker 1: is definitely a part of frugality. It's looking at every
Speaker 1: purchase and seeing where it adds value. And maybe you
Speaker 1: do need to cut out eating your lunch out at
Speaker 1: work with your coworkers and brown bagging it, or you know,
Speaker 1: not getting coffee a couple of times a week out
Speaker 1: at your favorite coffee shop and brewing it at home.
Speaker 1: So there are definitely things like that, But then so
Speaker 1: much of the time, you know, frugality is about the
Speaker 1: bigger expenses, and it's potentially leasing a car or buying
Speaker 1: a new car versus an older one, um not shopping
Speaker 1: around for things that you are buying that are necessary,
Speaker 1: and paying too much for the things that you you
Speaker 1: know are buying that are necessary, and then also just
Speaker 1: buying things needlessly that don't bring real value into your life.
Speaker 1: And I think we get fixated sometimes on these just
Speaker 1: these smaller purchases that really have very little to do
Speaker 1: with our bottom line. Right. It's like we're kind of
Speaker 1: like stressing and over like a few bucks here and there,
Speaker 1: say on like your grocery budget or something like that,
Speaker 1: when in reality, I think like some of these bigger purchases,
Speaker 1: like some of the monthly expenses that that are just
Speaker 1: sort of on automatic, like auto pay that happened to
Speaker 1: you every month without you even realizing it, without you
Speaker 1: even considering it, or even bigger expenses to like you said,
Speaker 1: like like car payments and even like your house, like
Speaker 1: your mortgage, those expenses if you look at it as
Speaker 1: a percentage of your total expenses, has such a larger
Speaker 1: impact on the amount of money that you have leaving
Speaker 1: your bank accounts every month, whereas I think we spend
Speaker 1: the majority of our time just fiddling with like that
Speaker 1: tiny little bit, say with groceries, because that's something that
Speaker 1: you like come in contact with, right like on a
Speaker 1: day to day basis, or not day to day. But
Speaker 1: when you're going to the grocery store, you think, oh, no,
Speaker 1: eggs are more expensive this summer. What's going on, which
Speaker 1: is true, by the way, I don't know what's going on,
Speaker 1: but let's bring on a skilled economist to find out.
Speaker 1: And so you know, you might think, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get it eggs anymore because that's gonna that's gonna
Speaker 1: mess up my my grocery budget, when in reality, that's
Speaker 1: only making like five five dollar difference, you know, like
Speaker 1: saying you're in your monthly grocery budget. When they then
Speaker 1: just go home and they've got the cable bill sitting
Speaker 1: there and they're paying you know, eighty bucks or something
Speaker 1: like that, and they're not even considering how that's impacting
Speaker 1: their their monthly bills. I think some of the smaller
Speaker 1: things just get overblown sometimes when in reality it might
Speaker 1: be worth looking at like the big picture and look
Speaker 1: at the actual percentages of what you have, you know,
Speaker 1: going out of your bank accounts and starting with the
Speaker 1: biggest ones and working your way down and then seeing
Speaker 1: if that would have a better impact. You know, I
Speaker 1: think actually for me being frugal on some of the
Speaker 1: bigger things, being super frugal, you know, renting out part
Speaker 1: of our house, driving older cars that are are paid off.
Speaker 1: Those sorts of choices over the long haul that we've
Speaker 1: done for for so many years have created such breathing
Speaker 1: room that you know, when we do want to splurge
Speaker 1: just a little bit, especially like in the area of groceries,
Speaker 1: you like, you know what, we're beer, get that, get
Speaker 1: this fancy beer that we're drinking. That's right, they're good beer.
Speaker 1: Or you know what, I'm gonna get some fancy steaks
Speaker 1: for this weekend, something like that, you know, a nice
Speaker 1: steak to to toss on the grill. You know, those
Speaker 1: sorts of splurges are so meaningful. Yeah, when you you know,
Speaker 1: when you live a life of frugality, and literally just
Speaker 1: this past weekend, I was at the pool, and I
Speaker 1: was talking to this random dude that I just met
Speaker 1: completely unprovoked. You know, we weren't talking about frugality or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but he you weren't showing off, You're
Speaker 1: like porto port tattoo. But he mentioned how, you know,
Speaker 1: in his condo complex, he had gone from the fourteenth
Speaker 1: floor to the seventeen floor and the seventeen four with
Speaker 1: the top floor. I was like, oh, man, how's the
Speaker 1: view from there? Is it that much better? And he said,
Speaker 1: you know what, dude, you just kind of get used
Speaker 1: to it pretty quickly, and it's pretty meaningless, you know,
Speaker 1: he said, he said, it's exactly one of the saddest
Speaker 1: statements I think I've ever heard, I know, And then
Speaker 1: he said, it's exactly like getting a new car, a
Speaker 1: really nice new car. And he said it the way
Speaker 1: he said it made it sound like that had happened
Speaker 1: to him, that he had also made that misspeake. He's like,
Speaker 1: it wears off super quick. And man, that like what
Speaker 1: he said was just completely true. And I'm sure you know,
Speaker 1: for three days that view from the seventeenth floor was
Speaker 1: a little bit cooler than the view from the fourteenth
Speaker 1: floor or just the same in the same way that
Speaker 1: you know, having that new car. Man, it's really cool
Speaker 1: for you know, a week, week and a half until
Speaker 1: a bird poops on the windshield or you know, you
Speaker 1: get that first bill in the mail or the first
Speaker 1: thing in like the grocery store. Yeah, car bumps into
Speaker 1: the doors exactly right. So there are all these things
Speaker 1: that you know that seemed really cool in the moment
Speaker 1: or for a couple of days, but ultimately they're they're
Speaker 1: not really lasting and they're not fulfilling. But that sort
Speaker 1: of margin that you're able to bring in your life
Speaker 1: and the power that you're able to put back in
Speaker 1: your life by you know, living a lifestyle that is
Speaker 1: centered around frugality, it's super meaningful. And you know, the
Speaker 1: other way of living where you you know, throw caution
Speaker 1: to the wind and throw frugality out the window, that's
Speaker 1: such a more tenuous way to live. And man, it
Speaker 1: scares it scares me, And you know, I don't wish
Speaker 1: that for for anybody, to to live a life where
Speaker 1: frugality is not important. And something else that frugality does
Speaker 1: for you is that it builds resilience. Joe, you want
Speaker 1: to talk some more about this one Yeah, frug gality
Speaker 1: can really kind of provide you a buffer from financial
Speaker 1: harm and just like lifting weights. You know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this metaphor a couple of times on the podcast
Speaker 1: so far. We're all we're all about building that muscle, right,
Speaker 1: is that you're gonna say, yeah, and and but we
Speaker 1: we are all about building a muscle right of resiliency,
Speaker 1: and frugality is kind of this ultimate resilience against whatever
Speaker 1: storm can come. And you might love your job, but
Speaker 1: you might get a new boss and then your job
Speaker 1: isn't as cool, or your company's downsizing. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of things that you can't prevent, but frugality gives
Speaker 1: you that ability to you know, be lean and be
Speaker 1: able to you know, shift on a dime. And I
Speaker 1: think too on top of that, you know, besides just
Speaker 1: being prepared to weather a storm, there's something about, you know,
Speaker 1: living a frugal lifestyle that teaches you, over time to
Speaker 1: kind of respect the things that you have and to
Speaker 1: go without some of the things that you don't need.
Speaker 1: And I think especially right right now in this day
Speaker 1: and time in the United States of America, where everyone
Speaker 1: gets whatever they want whenever they want it, that that
Speaker 1: that that's the kind of mentality that we have as
Speaker 1: a culture, like immediacy, I want it now, drone it
Speaker 1: to me, bro like completely exactly and building that, you know,
Speaker 1: frugal resistance. It is like this powerful muscle that you
Speaker 1: can uh that you can work that that it kind
Speaker 1: of again is countercultural and you can you can develop
Speaker 1: this for yourself. It provides not just a strength in
Speaker 1: your bank account, but like the strength of character over time,
Speaker 1: like mental strength. You're like resisting force of the advertising
Speaker 1: and marketing giants. It's a constant struggle, you know, we're
Speaker 1: we're constantly swimming up stream. It's something like a salmon.
Speaker 1: We're having to to fight against this, and it takes
Speaker 1: mental strength to resist that, right, It takes mental strength
Speaker 1: to tell yourself to tell yourself no, not not just
Speaker 1: like the marketing, but to tell yourself that no, I
Speaker 1: don't need this new fingled comfort device, you know, like
Speaker 1: this new thing that's gonna make my life easier, that's
Speaker 1: gonna make me happier. Just whatever reason, whatever excuse that
Speaker 1: that you either give yourself or that you're fed, that
Speaker 1: you're marketed to and sold. You're resisting that as well.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, and I think ultimately too, there's something
Speaker 1: really visceral right about how frugality impacts you. I can
Speaker 1: see it in myself right when I do challenge myself
Speaker 1: to do something, the kind of reward, the intrinsic reward
Speaker 1: that comes when when that happens, you know, when I
Speaker 1: challenge myself to start biking to work and I actually
Speaker 1: follow through and do it, and then I know that
Speaker 1: the days, you know, when I failed to, I kind
Speaker 1: of feel like a crummy human being. I let yourself
Speaker 1: down a little bit, exactly. And you know, nobody else knows.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't it doesn't matter to anyone else.
Speaker 1: And I distinctly remember reading this Mr money Mustache post along,
Speaker 1: you know, like four years ago, and by the way,
Speaker 1: amazing that the first time Mr money Mustache. I don't
Speaker 1: think we've talked about it before. We'll link to this
Speaker 1: to this post in the show notes. But he got
Speaker 1: a letter from a wealthy New Yorker who made over
Speaker 1: a million dollars a year and kind of talked about
Speaker 1: how he had given in to you know, thirty or
Speaker 1: forty dollar taxi trips and buying you know, the finest
Speaker 1: organic meats and just kind of how he like let
Speaker 1: his spending slip, and he talked about how it didn't
Speaker 1: matter to him because it didn't make any dent, right,
Speaker 1: Like he he made so much money that he didn't care,
Speaker 1: it didn't matter, but how like, ultimately it wasn't very
Speaker 1: fulfilling that he was missing out on this. And he
Speaker 1: saw Mr money Mustache and and his readers having this
Speaker 1: kind of sense of purpose and this fulfillment in their lives,
Speaker 1: you know, living a life of frugality and intentionality, and
Speaker 1: how he was just kind of, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, pissing his money away and and doing things
Speaker 1: that you know, weren't fulfilling. And and it was just
Speaker 1: kind of interesting to see that perspective because I know
Speaker 1: that's true because I see it in my own life
Speaker 1: when I, you know, failed to rise to meet a
Speaker 1: challenge or failed to take on a challenge that I
Speaker 1: know is a good one for me to take on.
Speaker 1: Um And I think, you know, fru gality kind of
Speaker 1: provides you a lot of challenges right in in daily life,
Speaker 1: you know, and and in your monthly budget. It provides
Speaker 1: that challenge for this chance for you to rise to
Speaker 1: the occasion and meet something that's like it's necessary for
Speaker 1: you for your financial health, but it's so good for
Speaker 1: you as a human, you know, to build that sort
Speaker 1: of resiliency and and to meet it head on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to kind of like take control of your life, you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of going back to like the muscle metaphor.
Speaker 1: It's like you can see the New Yorker guy kind
Speaker 1: of just getting soft. You know, he's just likely getting flabby,
Speaker 1: and he's just like not really working, and he's just like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm just gonna spend money here. I want
Speaker 1: to spend money here. It doesn't matter the cost. I
Speaker 1: make a ton of money. But then yeah, he starts
Speaker 1: seeing other folks being tough, working the muscle, not getting
Speaker 1: brainwashed to spend all of his money and wasted away.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you kind of wake up to it and
Speaker 1: realized how inefficient and unthrifty that he's like the complete
Speaker 1: opposite of frugality obviously. Well, and and we see that
Speaker 1: in our culture, right, like the video game culture. And
Speaker 1: you know, there's nothing wrong with playing video games on occasion,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't play video games, but there that
Speaker 1: culture of you know, hours and hours of video games
Speaker 1: and you know, hours and hours of Netflix and chill
Speaker 1: those sorts of things of not challenging yourself by you know,
Speaker 1: reading a book or listening to a podcast or you know,
Speaker 1: figuring out a way to fix something that's broken and
Speaker 1: instead you know just calling the professional, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: it is that there's all these ways that we just
Speaker 1: kind of give in um as opposed to you know,
Speaker 1: standing up and and meeting it a challenge head on
Speaker 1: and kind of embracing frugality. You know, at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think we're talking about you know, this kind of
Speaker 1: more widespread societal epidemic at the same time as we're
Speaker 1: talking about individual frugality and all kind of goes together. Man, Like,
Speaker 1: it's all related. That's the thing. That's what's what's so
Speaker 1: weird about frugality is like, yeah, we're talking about money,
Speaker 1: but you can kind of see the way that like
Speaker 1: bleeds into other aspects of our life, not just financial,
Speaker 1: but like cultural and social and just like all the aspects.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, no doubt awesome. So we just talked
Speaker 1: about some of the things that frugality you know, does
Speaker 1: for you and some of the things that frugality is,
Speaker 1: but something that it isn't is that frugality isn't restricting,
Speaker 1: you know, I think again, frugality kind of gets a
Speaker 1: bad rap when it gets brought up. But frugality isn't
Speaker 1: keeping you from spending money on something that you love
Speaker 1: to do. Instead, it's consciously deciding to not spend money
Speaker 1: on the things that you don't love. Right, there's a
Speaker 1: difference there, and then that gives you the options to
Speaker 1: spend money on the things that you do love. Again,
Speaker 1: whether that's now, if it's a goal, is something that
Speaker 1: you want to do now that you that you're aware of,
Speaker 1: or if it's something in the future that you really
Speaker 1: just have no clue. It's not the sort of restricting
Speaker 1: thing where you know, you're constantly telling yourself no, it's
Speaker 1: just sort of reorganizing and re prioritizing or spending. Is
Speaker 1: this thing that I spend my money on, you know,
Speaker 1: going back to the New york Er, like do I
Speaker 1: really care about like the the taxi ride or maybe
Speaker 1: I can just hop on the subway like the rest
Speaker 1: of Manhattan? What is it that I'm spending money on?
Speaker 1: And does that again, does that align with my goals?
Speaker 1: Is that align with the options that that I want
Speaker 1: to pursue, And I think to kind of put it
Speaker 1: in that framework, and to put it in that light
Speaker 1: is incredibly helpful to see frugality as something to be
Speaker 1: sought after, not this thing that you're just trying to avoid.
Speaker 1: So what's next for people? You know, Matt, that are
Speaker 1: they understand you know what? Okay, maybe I do need
Speaker 1: to flexus must Well maybe you know frugality isn't as
Speaker 1: core but a tenant as I wanted to be. You know,
Speaker 1: how do people move forward in adopt like a more
Speaker 1: frugal lifestyle, a more frugal mindset in their own lives. Man,
Speaker 1: When I think it's so awesome about frugality is that
Speaker 1: it's something you can do right away. It's something that
Speaker 1: almost overnight you can change your life and start making
Speaker 1: decisions to not spend money. We touched on this a
Speaker 1: second ago. But how your income. You don't have a
Speaker 1: whole lot of control over your income. Right you're employed,
Speaker 1: you've got a job, Maybe you'll get laid off, or
Speaker 1: maybe the company will get sold and your position will
Speaker 1: get absorbed or something. I don't know. There's only so
Speaker 1: much control that we have over the money that we make. However,
Speaker 1: we almost have full control over the money that we spend,
Speaker 1: and so on that note, you can decide to sorrow
Speaker 1: that you're not going to spend the money that you
Speaker 1: spent the day before, right that you spent yesterday, even
Speaker 1: if it's not something that you have been doing, is
Speaker 1: something that you can right now take steps and start
Speaker 1: living a frugal lifestyle. And now let's talk about how
Speaker 1: you can switch to a frugal lifestyle. But first a
Speaker 1: quick break. Knowing exactly where to start might be kind
Speaker 1: of tough, and for that, I think the best thing
Speaker 1: that to do is to dream. We kind of talked
Speaker 1: about this in the Why Behind Money episode, But to
Speaker 1: think about what are your goals? You know we we
Speaker 1: said that frugality gives you options, like what are those
Speaker 1: options that you want to have? What are those goals,
Speaker 1: and then work towards those That's the first step. Look
Speaker 1: at what it is that you want to do, and
Speaker 1: then you can start making changes and start taking the
Speaker 1: steps necessary to achieve those goals. I think that's totally
Speaker 1: the first step. Then the next step is to kind
Speaker 1: of figure out, you know how and or you can
Speaker 1: cut back and there are a lot of great resources
Speaker 1: out there for you. There are a lot of great
Speaker 1: blogs and podcasts and you know people that that that
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time writing and thinking about these things.
Speaker 1: And uh, you go back and listen to episode number thirteen,
Speaker 1: Ways to cut your monthly bills. That's a great one
Speaker 1: for you to think about. Just small incremental changes, you know,
Speaker 1: raising the temperature of your thermostat during the summer, you know,
Speaker 1: being a little uncomfortable during the day. Maybe consider taking
Speaker 1: your lunch to work like I mentioned earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: eat at home at night, go out to eat less.
Speaker 1: The numbers on how much more it costs to go
Speaker 1: out to eat versus you know, what it costs to
Speaker 1: cook a dinner at your home. Their astounding um. Shop
Speaker 1: at thrift stores, you know, cut those regular monthly bills,
Speaker 1: you know, cutting your own hair even maybe you know,
Speaker 1: Matt cut my hair recently. It doesn't look too bad, Hey,
Speaker 1: pretty good. So there's like a million ways that you
Speaker 1: can save right And I personally I thrive on these
Speaker 1: kind of tips and tricks. I I love them. I'm
Speaker 1: all about them. You know, in future episodes will give
Speaker 1: you even more. There's an article right now on poorn
Speaker 1: up poor dot com about how to save on your
Speaker 1: insurance costs, and I give you a lot of tips
Speaker 1: and tricks to figure out how you can cut down
Speaker 1: your home and car insurance bills, you know, and that
Speaker 1: right there, that's a that's a bigger expense, you know,
Speaker 1: that could save you over a grand a year just
Speaker 1: by shopping your insurance around or or thinking about, you know,
Speaker 1: how you approach getting insurance. And so there there are
Speaker 1: a lot of things like that that once you have
Speaker 1: kind of identified some of those goals and kind of
Speaker 1: made that mindset shift to switch to a you know,
Speaker 1: frugal lifestyle, a more frugal lifestyle, you know, learning some
Speaker 1: of those some of those ways to cut down the
Speaker 1: costs and figure out how to save more of your
Speaker 1: hard earned money. You just know that there are a
Speaker 1: ton of great resources around the web that will help
Speaker 1: you kind of with those specifics. You don't have to
Speaker 1: be left to your own devices and just kind of
Speaker 1: with those vague goals with no idea how to actually
Speaker 1: achieve them. Man, another point I wanted to bring up
Speaker 1: to is that a lot of people think that they
Speaker 1: are being frugal when in reality they're not being frugal.
Speaker 1: And they think that well, you know, I don't do this,
Speaker 1: and I don't do this, but there's just so much
Speaker 1: in their life that they're not really paying attention to
Speaker 1: that is a huge expense. The question is, then, how
Speaker 1: do you even know if you're being frugal or not.
Speaker 1: What you need to do for that is to look
Speaker 1: at your savings rate. But essentially, your savings rate is
Speaker 1: the amount that you're saving, So your your savings over
Speaker 1: your income creates a percentage, and the average American today
Speaker 1: has a savings rate of less than five percent. So
Speaker 1: the question is do you want to be like an
Speaker 1: average American where you're working, you know, well into your
Speaker 1: sixties at a job that you can't leave because you
Speaker 1: don't have the option to because you make a lot
Speaker 1: of money there and you need to make a lot
Speaker 1: of money in order to keep paying your bills. So yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's hard to know, you know, how frugal you're being,
Speaker 1: like on the scale of like frugality if you don't
Speaker 1: have something to kind of measure that again, So so yeah,
Speaker 1: we would encourage you to, yeah, try to actually calculate
Speaker 1: your savings rate. Take what your take home pay is,
Speaker 1: figure out how much you're setting aside every year your
Speaker 1: savings there, and that's your percentage. If you are sort
Speaker 1: of the average American and you're sitting aside five percent,
Speaker 1: consider trying to double that, try to get that up
Speaker 1: to ten percent. That would be huge if and if
Speaker 1: you are, say you're can, you're already setting aside, man,
Speaker 1: imagine if you could double that. And so if you're
Speaker 1: sitting aside thirty percent of your income every year, that
Speaker 1: would be insane. Some listeners out there might be like
Speaker 1: me where you're self employed, and I mean personally my
Speaker 1: savings rate because my income flexu rates. I mean some
Speaker 1: years my savings rates like two percent, but then there's
Speaker 1: some years, like we've had years where our savings rates close.
Speaker 1: And so it's tough because it's not something that people
Speaker 1: normally keep up with. But if you're trying to figure
Speaker 1: out where you are on this sort of scale of frugality,
Speaker 1: check check out your savings rate, because it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to pin down. I will say, if you're like
Speaker 1: fresh on the frugal bandwagon and you're deciding to, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of take this path, sometimes the first couple of years,
Speaker 1: you don't feel like you're making all that much progress
Speaker 1: you're figuring out ways to save more, You're finding these
Speaker 1: tips to spend less, and you know your bank account
Speaker 1: is growing, your investible assets maybe are increasing a little bit,
Speaker 1: but the true results of frugality, you know, bear out
Speaker 1: over the long term. After a decade of being frugal,
Speaker 1: you'll look at your bank account, you will look at
Speaker 1: your four oh one k or roth Ira statement and
Speaker 1: kind of be amazed at how you got there through
Speaker 1: these small, simple steps and that mindset change, through creating
Speaker 1: some goals and then finding some ways to to achieve them,
Speaker 1: through increasing your savings, right, finding more ways to incorporate
Speaker 1: a lifestyle of frugality. And so not only will you see,
Speaker 1: you know, your bank account numbers increase and your investable
Speaker 1: assets you know, increase in number over that decade or
Speaker 1: two decades. I mean, it'll be amazing. You will also
Speaker 1: kind of see, you know, that resiliency level in your
Speaker 1: life just kick up a notch, two notches, four notches,
Speaker 1: you know, And that also has a kind of compounding
Speaker 1: interest like effect in your life. Right, The more you
Speaker 1: feel like you can stomach uh, the more hardship you
Speaker 1: can endure and get through it, the more things that
Speaker 1: you can cut out of your life and still be
Speaker 1: happy and actually find out that you're happier for having
Speaker 1: foregone some of those things. Well, dude, that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, is that, like I feel like some of
Speaker 1: those things that you feel that you're suffering. Maybe early
Speaker 1: on it is like working out, you get used to
Speaker 1: it and you're like, go, well, I'm not suffering anymore,
Speaker 1: Like what else can I then do? It's just like
Speaker 1: getting in shape. Like the first run or first few runs,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be sucking wind and it's gonna be terrible
Speaker 1: trying to run one mile. But then when you're running
Speaker 1: ten miles, the first five miles are nothing, you know,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, it's all sort of relative to kind
Speaker 1: of your fitness, but also to sort of where you
Speaker 1: are financially and sort of how fit you are frugally.
Speaker 1: So test your frugal fitness level. That's what we encourage
Speaker 1: you to do. And you know, hopefully this this episode
Speaker 1: has not only kind of given you some some big
Speaker 1: picture thoughts, but then also kind of some you know,
Speaker 1: finer tune little takeaways. Ultimately, you just have to know
Speaker 1: that you can do it. You can build that resiliency
Speaker 1: it just takes time and intentionality. But the whole reason
Speaker 1: behind it is that choosing to live a life of
Speaker 1: frugality gives you options, and man, those options are so
Speaker 1: sweet and so few people actually have them. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: on that note, we would love to hear from our listeners.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you guys, specifically about being
Speaker 1: frugal and the steps you've taken to to live on
Speaker 1: less and spending less. And what has being frugal allows
Speaker 1: you to do now you know currently, or what is
Speaker 1: being frugal now allowing you to hopefully do in the future,
Speaker 1: you know, like, what are your dreams, Like, what are
Speaker 1: your goals that you are sort of working towards? Whatever
Speaker 1: those things are. From that you have said, we would
Speaker 1: love to hear from you guys and leave a comments
Speaker 1: on this episode, post on our website Poor Not Poor
Speaker 1: dot com, or even head over to our Poor Not
Speaker 1: Poor Facebook group. Hopefully we'll get a sort of a
Speaker 1: thread going there where folks are sharing what it is
Speaker 1: that they're doing and ultimately encourage each other to be
Speaker 1: more frugal. Right, yeah, and like, like I said, the
Speaker 1: those goals, they're amazing, But then you you've got to
Speaker 1: know some of those tips and tricks and and a
Speaker 1: man of face. Our Facebook group and and Facebook groups
Speaker 1: like that are kind of the perfect place to be
Speaker 1: to learn how other people are doing things. And probably
Speaker 1: the greatest thing about the Internet is the easy access
Speaker 1: to knowledge that we didn't have access to beforehand. That's
Speaker 1: my favorite thing about the Internet. I can, you know,
Speaker 1: listen to two hour lectures or two hour discussions or
Speaker 1: join Facebook group with people that have different or more
Speaker 1: specialized now that I have, and I can learn from
Speaker 1: those people. And so, you know, that's what our Facebook
Speaker 1: group is all about. Hopefully it's a you know, a
Speaker 1: fun place for people to talk about, you know, what
Speaker 1: beers they're drinking, but then on top of that to
Speaker 1: kind of share their frugal winds and the ways that
Speaker 1: you know, they are changing not only their mindset but
Speaker 1: their habits. And hopefully as we get you know, more
Speaker 1: post about how people are approaching frugality and making changes.
Speaker 1: It's it's an inspiration to all of us. All right, man,
Speaker 1: what do you think about this? Uh? This beer dre
Speaker 1: Fontane in the Oud Creek. Man, it's delicious. I love
Speaker 1: a good cherry beer, and you know this is man,
Speaker 1: pretty much the finest cherry beer money can buy. It is.
Speaker 1: It's really good. Man. I'm so glad you're able to
Speaker 1: bring this back. You brought this back with a suitcase
Speaker 1: full of other beers during your trip to Paris, and
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'm glad I get to enjoy the fruits
Speaker 1: of your labor a little bit here. The best thing
Speaker 1: about that too, man, I love cracking a beer, and
Speaker 1: a beer like this, you know, stays good for years,
Speaker 1: for decades. Actually, this beer, it doesn't expire, it says
Speaker 1: until so you have plenty of We would have had
Speaker 1: plenty of time to drink that, but I just under
Speaker 1: the wire, you know, right. But I love drinking a beer,
Speaker 1: you know, months or years down the road from a
Speaker 1: trip I've taken. It just kind of, you know, brings
Speaker 1: me back to that place where when I met Chris
Speaker 1: and I got the beer, and visiting that beer store
Speaker 1: and then just visiting Paris, just the whole trip kind
Speaker 1: of you know, floods back into my mind. That's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite thing about souvenir beers. It's the best,
Speaker 1: all right, Matt, Let's wrap things up. Frugality gives you
Speaker 1: options and you know, the key thing for me is
Speaker 1: that things change. Man. You don't know whether that job
Speaker 1: you love is going to be here tomorrow, and circumstances
Speaker 1: in your life can change on a dime, and so
Speaker 1: adopting a frugal mindset gives you kind of options to
Speaker 1: combat those potential changes that might be on the horizon
Speaker 1: they haven't even crossed your mind yet. Also, don't be
Speaker 1: sented to just earn more money. Obviously we're spending this
Speaker 1: entire episode talking about frugality, and so the focus has
Speaker 1: been on spending less. I think one of the biggest
Speaker 1: obstacles to frugality is people thinking, oh, I can just
Speaker 1: earn more money. That is just not a great way
Speaker 1: to think about saving money. As soon as you quit working,
Speaker 1: your income will also stop. Frugality is much more powerful
Speaker 1: than a high income because frugality compounds upon itself and Matt,
Speaker 1: the thing about that mindset too, is that if you
Speaker 1: focus on earnings, oftentimes you're spending goes up in tangent
Speaker 1: with that increased income, which actually doesn't increase savings or
Speaker 1: a frugality mindset at all. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: frugality builds resilience. It's like working a muscle. The more
Speaker 1: you practice frugality, the better you'll get at it, and
Speaker 1: ultimately the bigger buffer you'll have from potential financial harm.
Speaker 1: And then the good news, man, is that even if
Speaker 1: you are not living a frugal lifestyle right now, you
Speaker 1: could switch right away, like tomorrow, you could start living
Speaker 1: a frugal lifestyle. You could sell stuff, you can just
Speaker 1: stop making the expenses that you currently are. First, though,
Speaker 1: you've got to identify those goals, figure it out what
Speaker 1: it is that drives you. And once you have those
Speaker 1: goals set, then look and see does you're spending a
Speaker 1: line with that? Are you putting your money and are
Speaker 1: you spending in a way that will get you to
Speaker 1: that goal? And if not, make those changes. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: there are a lot of resources out there to help
Speaker 1: you make those changes, just like on our how to
Speaker 1: Money Facebook group, So tap that collective wisdom for kind
Speaker 1: of some of the more specific down in dirty ways
Speaker 1: to bring a mindset of frugality more into your life. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's right. And a few episodes ago, we had our
Speaker 1: first episode that we dedicated purely to you know, a
Speaker 1: listener's question. But I love that. It just felt like
Speaker 1: a much more practical way for us to kind of
Speaker 1: cover a topic. So, if you are out there and
Speaker 1: you're listening, and you have a specific question in regards
Speaker 1: to personal finance, whether it be real estate or tips
Speaker 1: on how to save money, just whatever it is it
Speaker 1: might be, email us at how to Money pod at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. We read all the messages that come
Speaker 1: through and we try to respond to all of them
Speaker 1: and hopefully we'll be able to feature some of those
Speaker 1: as full podcast episodes. That's right, and if you like
Speaker 1: this show, if it's bringing value to your life, please
Speaker 1: let us know. Consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: and hit the subscribe button wherever you're listening to the show. Cool,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Best Friends Out, best Friends Out Man