Speaker 1: Brought to you by the all New Toyota Corolla. Welcome
Speaker 1: to you Stuff you Should Know Front House Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Jock
Speaker 1: Clark and Charles W. Chuck Bryan is with me, and
Speaker 1: Jerry's over there. So this is Stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 1: the legendary podcast live version. Well, it's recorded recorded live
Speaker 1: to tape tape. We've done live persons. Yeah, like in
Speaker 1: a with an audience. Yeah, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember that. Sure, we've done it. Yeah. Should we set
Speaker 1: up this a little bit? I'd like to oh, yes,
Speaker 1: go ahead. Well, people, when you listen to Stuff you
Speaker 1: Should Know, a lot of times you're regaled with stories
Speaker 1: of history, or stories of science, or cool animals or
Speaker 1: you know, you name it. We like to cover lots
Speaker 1: of stuff, but occasionally we like to do a little advice. Yes,
Speaker 1: but the fact that we're doing out advice does not
Speaker 1: mean that we are professional advisers. No, no, no. But
Speaker 1: occasionally we like to talk about things like green living,
Speaker 1: or health and fitness, or in this case, finance, just
Speaker 1: because you know, we know the millennials out there think
Speaker 1: they're never gonna have to worry about anything but eventually
Speaker 1: you're going to be off the teeth of your parents
Speaker 1: and you might have to think about this stuff. Either
Speaker 1: that or the millennials are already more worried than anybody
Speaker 1: else right now. Uh, and not just millennials. I think
Speaker 1: anybody could use this advice and put it to pretty
Speaker 1: good use. Well. Yeah, one thing I've realized is that
Speaker 1: you're never too young or you're never too old to
Speaker 1: start being smart and thinking about like, you know, money,
Speaker 1: inter future and stuff like that. I don't know, I mean,
Speaker 1: like if you're in the last weeks of your life,
Speaker 1: like it's too late that maybe, so never say never.
Speaker 1: But yes, the younger you are, the better off you are.
Speaker 1: The later you start, you know, the further you have
Speaker 1: to catch up. But the point is there's no reason
Speaker 1: to not try. And what we're talking about is is
Speaker 1: saving money. But it's not just saving money, it's part
Speaker 1: of like a saving money is the basis of basically
Speaker 1: a conscientious lifestyle. Yeah. Um, you don't have to be rich,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to even want to be rich. Basically,
Speaker 1: all you have to have is the desire to be
Speaker 1: financially independent or close to financially independent and financially free,
Speaker 1: and that doesn't mean you have to have gobs of
Speaker 1: money or endless amount of cash. Actually, it's pretty easy
Speaker 1: to sit there and figure out how much money you
Speaker 1: need and set that as your goal and get to it.
Speaker 1: And the cool thing is if you if you do
Speaker 1: kind of take this advice, you do kind of start
Speaker 1: following this path. I guess you could say, um, it's
Speaker 1: it's It becomes a bit addictive and you realize that
Speaker 1: you've just altered your mindset and you're living basically the
Speaker 1: antithesis of a wasteful consumer culture life and sticking it
Speaker 1: to the man. That's right, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: be a freaking to do it. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: middle ground that's just being smart and uh frugal where
Speaker 1: you need to be. And it's like, I get into it.
Speaker 1: It's not like I'm loaded or anything, but I don't
Speaker 1: think about the money so much as I think about
Speaker 1: efficiency and like waste that really occupies a lot of
Speaker 1: my mind. Once you start thinking about everything in those terms,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it becomes very clear and every
Speaker 1: little bit it counts because you're you're you know, take energy,
Speaker 1: which we'll get into if you unplug your toaster every
Speaker 1: day after you use it. I mean, what's that going
Speaker 1: to add up to? Like virtually nothing? Actually have a
Speaker 1: bit on vampire power. We'll talk about good. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you do. And it's not much though, right, well, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about it all right. But let's say a toaster
Speaker 1: is not much, just a single toaster, it's not much,
Speaker 1: thank you bye. If you take that toaster and pile
Speaker 1: it in with um, you know, savings on not buying
Speaker 1: coffee every day while you're out and um, you know,
Speaker 1: thinking about your auto insurance and just all the stuff
Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about and think of all
Speaker 1: of it is what you're throwing into a pot, your savings.
Speaker 1: Then it does count. It does matter. Yeah, um, so good,
Speaker 1: thanks man. So the recommended amount that I've seen, I
Speaker 1: don't remember what investment advisor wrote the article or whatever,
Speaker 1: but I've seen before that you want to save what
Speaker 1: amounts to about eight times your ending salary, no matter
Speaker 1: what you're ending salary, that's the salary you're gonna have
Speaker 1: when you retire. Is that is a mind bogglingly daunting
Speaker 1: number if you think about it, to say to have
Speaker 1: that much in the bank by the time you retire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: eight times. Yeah, I better get busy. Supposedly you're supposed
Speaker 1: to have like one time what you you estimate your
Speaker 1: ending salary would be by the time you're thirty, three
Speaker 1: times by the time you're forty, and then so on
Speaker 1: until by about the time you're sixty five. Shoot at
Speaker 1: eight times, you're any Sorry, that's a lot of money,
Speaker 1: That's a lot of savings. Okay, I think pretty much
Speaker 1: everybody is a bit behind. I think that's a that's
Speaker 1: a very important point. I don't feel like anybody, especially
Speaker 1: somebody who feels daunted by that number, should feel like
Speaker 1: that they're on the outs and that everybody else is
Speaker 1: doing well. But at the same time, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that just because everybody else is a saving that you
Speaker 1: shouldn't start. Don't compare yourself to others. Just take care
Speaker 1: of your business, and that's what this whole thing is about.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about the joneses so um. One of the
Speaker 1: first one of the first things you want to do
Speaker 1: is figure out what the eight time amount is and
Speaker 1: set that as your goal by the time you're sixty five,
Speaker 1: and then start looking around and figuring out ways to
Speaker 1: get there, and one of the best ways is to
Speaker 1: stop wasting. Yeah, wasting is the opposite of saving, right,
Speaker 1: So if you save, you're not wasting, and if you waste,
Speaker 1: you're doing the wrong thing. Uh So here's some ways
Speaker 1: you can say, Yeah, you don't get into this. Let's
Speaker 1: entertainment is a lot of times one of the first
Speaker 1: things on the list, because a lot of things in
Speaker 1: the entertainment category are luxuries, meaning they make your life better,
Speaker 1: which is super valid. You just can't do it all
Speaker 1: all the time. Unless you're super rich, then go nuts
Speaker 1: for you you're super rich already, then for instance, Um,
Speaker 1: maybe you can get the same content online as you're
Speaker 1: paying for either with a cable bill or like a
Speaker 1: magazine subscription or a newspaper or something. You might be
Speaker 1: able to get all that stuff free online. Save yourself
Speaker 1: some bucks. Sure, that's one way to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: You make a good point that you know, entertainment is
Speaker 1: a luxury, but it's also in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: of necessity to you just have to look around and say,
Speaker 1: where can I trim some fat? Where am I being wasteful?
Speaker 1: Is there anything that I'm just not really using that
Speaker 1: I'm paying or in the entertainment category, and if so,
Speaker 1: then that means I probably don't really need it and
Speaker 1: I should stop just paying for it out of habit. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: the Netflix is one thing I dropped finally, the DVD
Speaker 1: delivery in favor of just the online streaming. And would
Speaker 1: it say, Man, I think it's like eight bucks a
Speaker 1: month or something that adds up when you throw it
Speaker 1: into a pot, it adds up. It's like over the
Speaker 1: course of the year. That's like, you know, that's a
Speaker 1: nice meal out or money you could ad mess in
Speaker 1: something else, right, Yeah, Um, saying like you said, with
Speaker 1: magazine subscriptions, if you're getting the magazine and it's just
Speaker 1: sitting there and you're not really reading it or getting
Speaker 1: anything from it, cancel your subscription and say, by the way,
Speaker 1: I already paid for this, so send me what you
Speaker 1: owe me. Still. Um, if you love your magazines, then
Speaker 1: that one wouldn't count. Again. What we're talking about here
Speaker 1: is trimming the fat, not living this horribly. Um, mind's
Speaker 1: really lifestyle. Yeah that that is no fun whatsoever. But
Speaker 1: like we said, once you start getting into this, you're
Speaker 1: probably going to find that it's actually find to look
Speaker 1: for ways to trim the fat. Yeah, and speaking of
Speaker 1: trimming the fat, um, take a look at your gym
Speaker 1: membership people. How often do you go and what do
Speaker 1: you do while you're there. If it's something you get
Speaker 1: a lot of benefit out of, then by all means,
Speaker 1: keep going because at your health. But do you know
Speaker 1: who pays a month to come run on a treadmill?
Speaker 1: Jerry a sucker. Because there's streets, their sidewalks, there's running trails.
Speaker 1: If you're not utilizing most of the stuff at the
Speaker 1: gym or going to classes and things, you might want
Speaker 1: to think about trim and the fat. Or if you
Speaker 1: really need that ritual for that treadmill and you don't
Speaker 1: mind paying that money for the treadmill, that's fine too,
Speaker 1: But just think about it. Yeah, if you if you
Speaker 1: are shameless or you have no self consciousness whatsoever, you
Speaker 1: can go use the exercise equipment at the park. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know those little uh little things they have going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't do that. Yeah, Or you work out
Speaker 1: at the park, you know, Or you could buy a
Speaker 1: treadmill and have it tease you and acu and haunt
Speaker 1: you for the rest of your life. In the spare room,
Speaker 1: which is what happens sometimes. I think that's the opposite
Speaker 1: of good advice as far as that's true. Uh, what
Speaker 1: about automotive costs. That's a really satisfying way to save money,
Speaker 1: because nobody likes paying for car up maintenance and gas,
Speaker 1: two things people hate spending money on. I got some
Speaker 1: numbers for you. Let's say let's say you drive eighty
Speaker 1: thousand miles over five years. Uh, if you bought a
Speaker 1: car that gets twenty five miles to the gallon compared
Speaker 1: to one that gets fifteen miles to the gallon, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be buying two thousand fewer gallons of gas over
Speaker 1: that time average of three fifty gallon over five years,
Speaker 1: You've saved seven thousand dollars in gasoline costs, which is like,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's super substantial. Man. You could put that
Speaker 1: into your four own care or whatever and make that
Speaker 1: into a lot more money by the time you retire,
Speaker 1: just by ten miles a gallon difference by not getting
Speaker 1: that ginormous UV you can't even park, Maybe get something
Speaker 1: more fuel efficient instead. You know, well, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a seven grand in your pocket that you just
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had before. Um, what else? Your car insurance
Speaker 1: is another good place to go, Like anything you're currently
Speaker 1: paying for, um, that's a good place to to start
Speaker 1: and say, how can I pay less for the same
Speaker 1: amount or do I need the same amount that I
Speaker 1: have right now? So usually if you have a decent
Speaker 1: insurance person, you will find that they will be happy
Speaker 1: to talk to you and say you don't really need this,
Speaker 1: or if you raise your deductible a little bit, you'll
Speaker 1: probably be okay, um, and you'll be paying less per
Speaker 1: month without losing out on anything. Really, another place you
Speaker 1: can say gas is and a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: realize this, but your tires in your car are supposed
Speaker 1: to be inflated to a certain amount, and if they're
Speaker 1: lower than that, you're gonna be wasting gas. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: In fact, for every two pounds per square inch that
Speaker 1: you're off that they're low, your maledge goes down by
Speaker 1: one percent. And in this article they judge most cards
Speaker 1: are about five to ten pounds per square inch low,
Speaker 1: and that's about five percent less fuel efficient just by
Speaker 1: putting air in your tires. Yeah, that's crazy. Plus even more,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of gas stations that have free air. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not as much anymore, but your trip does they Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: go to kut um. Let's see what else, chuck. All right,
Speaker 1: you want to talk grocery stores always? All right? Uh,
Speaker 1: first of all, right, now would be a terrible time
Speaker 1: for me to go grocery shopping because I'm very hungry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they say to eat first time. Yeah, I mean, it
Speaker 1: really does work because it makes an enormous difference on
Speaker 1: like buying stuff that you normally wouldn't buy. If you
Speaker 1: are hungry at the grocery store, like, you're just gonna
Speaker 1: buy more. It's a proven fact, that's right, Josh. And
Speaker 1: then going out to lunch at work is a big,
Speaker 1: big deal, a big expense potentially, they say in here
Speaker 1: six dollars a day is eight hundred a year, but
Speaker 1: six dollars a day that's super cheap. It is you know,
Speaker 1: it probably won't live a year if you're eating six
Speaker 1: dollar lunches every day. Yeah, I mean, let's say that's
Speaker 1: twelve bucks. Or if you go out for business lunches,
Speaker 1: like you're really racking up money. Right, And if it's
Speaker 1: not just few, but also your spouse or significantity, life
Speaker 1: partner whatever also doing the same thing. You can double
Speaker 1: that amount right there. So I just get around the
Speaker 1: whole thing by not eating lunch. But you could also
Speaker 1: pack your own lunch save a substantial amount. Plus you know,
Speaker 1: it's like you're being your own mom packing your lunch
Speaker 1: in the morning. You write yourself a note even right, um,
Speaker 1: and then chuck at the grocery store to um. If
Speaker 1: you take a little time and go online or get
Speaker 1: your favorite grocery stores app they have those these days. Um,
Speaker 1: you can find all sorts of specials coupons, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and say what can I do with salery
Speaker 1: and chickpeas? Right, And then you put them together and
Speaker 1: base your weekly plan on that you could make hummas
Speaker 1: and dip the celery in it exactly. And you take
Speaker 1: that list that features chickpea and salaries and whatever else
Speaker 1: it takes to make hummus um and take it to
Speaker 1: the store and you stick to that list some garlic exactly.
Speaker 1: But the point is you've thought about all this before
Speaker 1: you went to the store, wrote it down on the list,
Speaker 1: and then stuck to the list, and then use the
Speaker 1: coupons that originally got you to think of hummus in
Speaker 1: the first place. You just saved yourself some money an
Speaker 1: incalculable amount, mainly because I don't want to calculate it
Speaker 1: right now, that's right. Yeah, keep your eyes peeled at
Speaker 1: the store for specials. Um. I know you don't want
Speaker 1: to grab the little fire when you walk in because
Speaker 1: it makes you look like you're, you know, eighty years old.
Speaker 1: But that's where you find out the deals. You know,
Speaker 1: they're buy one, get one free on a tub of butter.
Speaker 1: Go get the tub of butter and get your second
Speaker 1: one for free. That's right. As I want to apologize
Speaker 1: to our eighty year old listeners who like circulars at
Speaker 1: the grocery store. Yeah, my man, my mom was way
Speaker 1: into coupons. Yeah, well a lot of people are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've read that apparently coupons have gone down in quality
Speaker 1: because of this coupon craze that's going on right now.
Speaker 1: So many people are using it that companies are like,
Speaker 1: we can't afford to put out decent coupons. Did you
Speaker 1: say there's a coupon craze going on? Really? Did you
Speaker 1: not know? Not? Oh man, there's whole TV shows dedicated
Speaker 1: to it. Coupon craze. Yes, really, it's the name of
Speaker 1: the Joe coupon Grace. No, there's like extreme coupon NG Really,
Speaker 1: I think on TLC you've never heard of that. What now?
Speaker 1: Is it just people like it's people who are so
Speaker 1: good at couponing. I saw a man on a TV show.
Speaker 1: He had like a four hundred dollar grocery bill, and
Speaker 1: from his coupons, he brought it down to like the
Speaker 1: fourteen dollars. I thought, you're gonna say they paid him
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars. It was close to it. It was
Speaker 1: very close to it. Yeah, use your you know, most
Speaker 1: grocery stores have a little club card used those that's
Speaker 1: really satisfying to see all that money go away at
Speaker 1: the end. Not only that, some of those cards will
Speaker 1: get you like extra bucks or points or whatever that
Speaker 1: will actually deduct money from your additional money on top
Speaker 1: of coupons from your bill after a while. Like it's
Speaker 1: it's not a bad idea, um to take advantage of
Speaker 1: loyalty programs if it makes sense to you, Like there
Speaker 1: are there are plenty of people out there that own
Speaker 1: companies that have come up with loyalty programs that are
Speaker 1: frankly scams, and you have to be wary of those
Speaker 1: because you don't want to buy stuff you wouldn't normally
Speaker 1: buy just because you're gonna say fifty cents on it
Speaker 1: because it costs you three fifty that you weren't going
Speaker 1: to spend anyway, you know. But if you're going to
Speaker 1: the same store again and again and again, it's just
Speaker 1: down the street, they have pretty good prices. You like
Speaker 1: their coupons, sign up for their loyalty program and it
Speaker 1: will pay off in the end. I'll buzz market here.
Speaker 1: I got to Kroger, Yeah, when I can, and they
Speaker 1: keep track of your thing through your little card. And
Speaker 1: then I get gas or two because a it's cheaper already,
Speaker 1: but every like four or five fill ups, they'll give
Speaker 1: you credit from your grocery buys on your gas. Right,
Speaker 1: I'll say, like, would you like to say tinsensic allen
Speaker 1: because you bought groceries? Is there like an actual no button?
Speaker 1: There's a no no because you can say that like
Speaker 1: give your life or whatever, or I'm flushed this week
Speaker 1: if that's how you live. But um, I always say, heck, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: give me the tencent. I remember hearing a long time
Speaker 1: ago that like, um, that they were trying to outlaw
Speaker 1: gas discounts, Like some of those places sell gas at
Speaker 1: below what they pay for. It attract people into their stores,
Speaker 1: and it was like driving other gas stations out of business.
Speaker 1: T Yeah, when it comes to saving baby, it's survival
Speaker 1: of the fittest. All right. Let's talk about family expenses,
Speaker 1: things like your prescription drugs or maybe your baby formula.
Speaker 1: All these things you can get generic versions of that
Speaker 1: are FDA proved to be just as good as your
Speaker 1: brand name version. You know who buys brand name stuff,
Speaker 1: suckers brand named drugs. Yeah. Well, it says here in
Speaker 1: this article that drug companies spend all their money on
Speaker 1: like research and development and stuff like that. That's not true.
Speaker 1: Most drug companies get universities to do their r and
Speaker 1: D for free, but they just have the patent on
Speaker 1: it for the first few years and can charge whatever
Speaker 1: they want depending on the country. There. The point is,
Speaker 1: generics have the exact same thing in it by law. Um,
Speaker 1: it's just they don't own the patent and the patents expired,
Speaker 1: so now everybody can sell it for cheap. Buddy, I
Speaker 1: know one way you save a lot of money in
Speaker 1: the past few years. Smokies, Yes, not smoking yeah, cigarettes,
Speaker 1: or how much are they know? Last I saw they
Speaker 1: were like five bucks a pack. In Atlanta, they're like
Speaker 1: twelve dollars a pack or so in New York that's
Speaker 1: twelve dollars a pack. And I remember when they started
Speaker 1: to go up because I smoked at a time when
Speaker 1: you can get them for like a dollar fifty a pack,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden they were like three
Speaker 1: dollars four or five. And there were articles because you know,
Speaker 1: tobacco is going through the roof, and there are articles
Speaker 1: on what the price point would be where people stop smoking.
Speaker 1: You remember hearing a lot of people say five and
Speaker 1: it's that's just not some people, I'm sure quit because
Speaker 1: they hit five bucks, But no, people will still smoke
Speaker 1: and pay five dollars or twelve dollars a pack every
Speaker 1: day to shorten their life and incur more medical expenses
Speaker 1: later on. Right, And the point is is if you
Speaker 1: quit like that is it's just like having a higher
Speaker 1: fuel fuel efficiency car or um. It's just money in
Speaker 1: your pocket that you otherwise would have spent unnecessarily. And
Speaker 1: like you said, this is just harmful and you're spending
Speaker 1: money at So that's a great one, right, there Chris
Speaker 1: smoking thousands of dollars a year. Bam, right in your pocket. Boom.
Speaker 1: They say quit drinking in this are iCal too, that
Speaker 1: your addictions are costing you money pretty much. Anything that
Speaker 1: you could give up, yeah, that maybe you should give
Speaker 1: up that can save you money that falls into this category. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe you know, if you like your glass wine
Speaker 1: with dinner, maybe just get a little maybe just pick
Speaker 1: and choose and cut down and save a little money
Speaker 1: and improve your health a little bit right by the
Speaker 1: gigantic box of wine. Yeah, to get a better value.
Speaker 1: Moderation it's the key, except with smoking, you should there
Speaker 1: shouldn't even be moderation there. Household energy is the one
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with pretty much. Yeah. I grew up in
Speaker 1: a house you know, teachers as parents, uh three kids, like,
Speaker 1: we had to use coupons and turn off the lights
Speaker 1: when you left the room and not leave the TV going.
Speaker 1: And we had to do that to get by and
Speaker 1: to live just a normal, lower middle class life. But
Speaker 1: that's not something you should change because it's just wasteful.
Speaker 1: Well yeah you yeah, even if you have the dough like,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't waste energy. There's a yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: That's one of the that's a good point, Chuck. Like,
Speaker 1: one of the things about changing your mindset to like
Speaker 1: a saving mindset is you know, not only is it
Speaker 1: good for you financially, but it also tends to have
Speaker 1: like positive spillover effects, Like, for example, you're saving money,
Speaker 1: saving energy, but it's also a lot better for the
Speaker 1: environment anything. Anytime you're cutting out waste, there's pretty much
Speaker 1: no downside to that. So this is a good example
Speaker 1: of like a good positive spillover effect. Yeah. Do you
Speaker 1: know what I do is I think about the electronic uh,
Speaker 1: the meter on the side of your house spinning, and
Speaker 1: I'm literally every time I turn things off and follow
Speaker 1: Emily around the house turning things off after she turns
Speaker 1: them on, I literally think about the meter slowing down,
Speaker 1: and it makes me like breathe a sigh of relief
Speaker 1: as the meter breathes a sigh of relief. I know
Speaker 1: it sounds silly, but no, it doesn't really think about
Speaker 1: that things turning down. I mean just going, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's much more like it. There is an invention out
Speaker 1: there that is made for you. It's pretty new, but
Speaker 1: I believe it's on the market. You can plug it
Speaker 1: into an outlet, and what it does is eavesdrops on
Speaker 1: your electrical use and it can actually sort out what's
Speaker 1: doing what. But the read out shows you how much
Speaker 1: electricity you're using, and I think you can convert it
Speaker 1: to like a dollar amount too or something. And the
Speaker 1: whole point is if you see how much you're using,
Speaker 1: you'll want to decrease it. So you would love this
Speaker 1: thing because it would show a decreased amount every time
Speaker 1: you turned off a light or unplug something that would
Speaker 1: be stressed about that being plugged in though you know, um,
Speaker 1: we talked about vampire energy earlier. That's the things that
Speaker 1: you leave on standby power overnight or pretty much all
Speaker 1: the time. Um, the average house uses one dollars two
Speaker 1: power devices that are turned off each year, a hundred
Speaker 1: dollars to power things that aren't even on. That's that's
Speaker 1: money that you can and like your little smartphone plug,
Speaker 1: that's even if your phone is not plugged into it,
Speaker 1: it's sucking energy. Well. Plus it's a bad idea also
Speaker 1: to charge your phone overnight because it's bad for your
Speaker 1: battery typically to overcharge it. Oh yeah, it's a good idea. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then annually in the US. Vampire power costs ten
Speaker 1: billion dollars all over the US each year, So that's
Speaker 1: pretty substantial. If you pull everyone together, if you divide
Speaker 1: by three million, that's a lot of money in your pocket.
Speaker 1: So what do you do? Set up a charging station,
Speaker 1: which is what I have at my house, put that
Speaker 1: all in a power strip, and turn that power strip
Speaker 1: off and unplug it even even better, and then just
Speaker 1: shoot it with a gun. Shot with a gun, like
Speaker 1: the TV on And I I hate all those lights anyway,
Speaker 1: Like I like to sleep in darkness. And if you
Speaker 1: look in your room, you probably have like three or
Speaker 1: four lights that are just on, like your cable box.
Speaker 1: They're probably affecting your brain in some way. At the
Speaker 1: very least they're affecting my wallet. So household energy that
Speaker 1: was pretty good stuff. Yeah, by energy Star. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a lot of rebates out there right now. Um.
Speaker 1: The government has put like a huge push behind getting
Speaker 1: people that have more energy efficient um stuff. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just got one fifty bucks. Yeah so did you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can definitely just say, um if you just look
Speaker 1: for the energy Star thing when you're buying an appliance
Speaker 1: or something and then go online before you buy it
Speaker 1: and see if there's a rebate, because basically, it's just
Speaker 1: like you got it if you got it on sale.
Speaker 1: This is an extra fifty bucks, a hundred bucks whatever
Speaker 1: that you'll get back in six eight weeks just for
Speaker 1: mailing in a copy of your receipt. Why would you
Speaker 1: not do that? That's right now, I think it's a
Speaker 1: good time for a break because after this it's the
Speaker 1: home stretch, which includes health insurance, money saving tips, and
Speaker 1: then a few tips from your older buddies. Here about
Speaker 1: what you can do with that money saving for your future?
Speaker 1: All right, really quickly, before we get into tips, I
Speaker 1: looked up insurance a little bit because, like a dummy
Speaker 1: in my mid twenties, when I didn't have like anything
Speaker 1: other than waiting tables jobs, I skipped on insurance because
Speaker 1: I didn't want to pay a couple hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: So I got to think. In today, here's an older dude,
Speaker 1: how much it costs to stay in a hospital. The
Speaker 1: average cost of a hospital stay in the US is
Speaker 1: about six bucks. The average hospital the media and hospital
Speaker 1: stay in the U s A. It's three times more
Speaker 1: than other industrialized countries. Which is a whole different thing.
Speaker 1: But eighteen thousand dollars is the average median stay in
Speaker 1: a hospital. The Obamacare is coming out next month and
Speaker 1: I think the average mid tier insurance policy will be
Speaker 1: about three five bucks. So you would have to pay
Speaker 1: on that insurance policy fifty five months, four and a
Speaker 1: half years to equal out one hospital, a one bout
Speaker 1: of something, one bad car wreck. Like, the point is,
Speaker 1: you're not doing yourself any favors if you think you're
Speaker 1: saving by not paying insurance. And I know when you're
Speaker 1: twenty three and twenty five you don't think being is
Speaker 1: gonna happen to you, but you are screwed if it does.
Speaker 1: So just be smart, get insurance and you're covered unless
Speaker 1: you're ned Flanders and then you consider a form of gambling. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: so insurance, that's a good one. Yeah. And like I said, um,
Speaker 1: if you don't have insurance, I agree with you, Chuck.
Speaker 1: Health insurance is a good way to go if you
Speaker 1: already have insurance, car insurance, any kind of insurance. Um
Speaker 1: check out if you have a svelt coverage right, and
Speaker 1: then you know, try to save some money without shooting
Speaker 1: yourself in the foot over time. But Yes, going without
Speaker 1: insurance is not a good way to save money. A
Speaker 1: good way to save money is to possibly look at
Speaker 1: your cell phone bill and say, do I need the
Speaker 1: plan that I have? Yeah? Do I need all those
Speaker 1: unlimited text or see how many texts do you send
Speaker 1: a month on average? Right? You might be able to
Speaker 1: cut it back a little bit. Yeah, that that's a
Speaker 1: that's another good point you keep raising, like all these
Speaker 1: awesome points that deserve elaborating. But um, the first step
Speaker 1: to all of this is to write down your monthly expenses,
Speaker 1: track them for a little while, and you'll see where
Speaker 1: your money is going. Just right out of the gate,
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff will become obvious that you can
Speaker 1: where you can try totally will right. Um. But the
Speaker 1: second step to that is to look at all of
Speaker 1: the things you're currently paying for that you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I need all this and figure out ways to trim
Speaker 1: them individually. So, whether it's car insurance, whether it's um,
Speaker 1: your cell phone bill, there's there's always a way to
Speaker 1: cut it down a little bit. That's right. Uh. Living
Speaker 1: debt free it's something we believe in now after incurring
Speaker 1: credit card debt for a number of years, we got
Speaker 1: rid of it all and haven't used credit cards in
Speaker 1: like eight years. Oh yeah, yep. We if we can't
Speaker 1: afford it that month, we don't get it. And do
Speaker 1: you use the credit card to get it and then
Speaker 1: pay it off though, just to keep your credit score up? Uh,
Speaker 1: we run everything through our American Express, which would we
Speaker 1: pay off each month? And um, well, this this article
Speaker 1: makes a really good point, like if you are having
Speaker 1: to pay interest on your credit card, that means you're
Speaker 1: buying things that you can't afford. And you pay interest
Speaker 1: on your credit card when you buy something and you
Speaker 1: can't pay it off at the end of the month,
Speaker 1: then that's that It sounds like you have a very
Speaker 1: good policy going there. It's a good policy because when
Speaker 1: we looked at what we were spending on finance chargers,
Speaker 1: it was ridiculously wasteful. Yeah, and it makes you angry
Speaker 1: when you really stopped and look at it. And uh,
Speaker 1: because you know your hard for your money, you get
Speaker 1: taxed a lot anyway. The last thing you want to
Speaker 1: do is start throwing the man more money just because
Speaker 1: he said I've got a little piece of plastic and
Speaker 1: go hog wild for a little while. Right, You don't
Speaker 1: have to wait for this, just get it now. And
Speaker 1: that's a that's another good point that this article made. UM.
Speaker 1: One of the things you can institute is a one
Speaker 1: month waiting period for all purchases, all major purchases, any
Speaker 1: purchase you're excited it about, you write it down instead
Speaker 1: of buying it. You just write down what you want,
Speaker 1: and then at after a month, you go back to
Speaker 1: it and say, do I still want this? Probably more
Speaker 1: often than not you're gonna be like, I don't even
Speaker 1: remember why I wanted that, yeah, or wait for good.
Speaker 1: We do a lot of the financing deals, like I
Speaker 1: wanted a sound bar for the TV, and I waited
Speaker 1: like a year to get it right, I waited till
Speaker 1: the right deal came along in a certain store had
Speaker 1: a twenty four month no interest deal, and now I'm
Speaker 1: paying like, you know, twenty bucks a month ward or something.
Speaker 1: And uh, but you've gotta be really careful. If you're
Speaker 1: bad about paying your bills, you can get jacked around
Speaker 1: on the finance because at the end of twenty four
Speaker 1: months it's interest, or if you miss a month or something,
Speaker 1: it's pretty ridiculous. I recommend financing deals, but you just
Speaker 1: have to be really vigilant with your bills on time.
Speaker 1: Another good reason to stop and wait a month, a week, whatever.
Speaker 1: If you just basically put a moratorium in any immediate sending, um,
Speaker 1: it'll cause you to go poke around the internet and,
Speaker 1: like you said, to see if you can find like
Speaker 1: a better like financing deal. Maybe somebody else has it
Speaker 1: for less um. If you do use your credit cards,
Speaker 1: some credit cards have deals with certain merchants to where
Speaker 1: you'll actually get some cash back um, which is basically
Speaker 1: just like money off and just money off. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons to stop and then figure out how
Speaker 1: you can get that thing you want for the least
Speaker 1: amount of money, which makes it even sweeter when you
Speaker 1: do get it. All Right, dude, so we've given a
Speaker 1: lot of good little tips on how to save money.
Speaker 1: You're saving some dough even if you're a millennial. Pride
Speaker 1: yourself on saving a little money and not being wasteful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like it's just save what you can. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: So what you want to think about next is, all right,
Speaker 1: I have a little extra change here, and now what
Speaker 1: do I do? Do you want to put in a
Speaker 1: piggy bank or under the mattress? Or start investing in
Speaker 1: stocks or gambling on football. What should I do? Well?
Speaker 1: The first thing you want to do is to create
Speaker 1: a fund, basically an emergency fund. The rule of thumb
Speaker 1: is you have three to six months worth of expenses
Speaker 1: tucked away in a savings account that you can get to,
Speaker 1: but you don't touch. Um, just in case if you're
Speaker 1: laid off something terrible happens. You have a significant amount
Speaker 1: of money that you can live on no matter what.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get kicked out of your home. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna go hungry. That's right, right. That's pretty much
Speaker 1: the first thing you want to do when you're saving money. Like,
Speaker 1: as you're saving all this money and you're putting it away, UM,
Speaker 1: that's the pot that you wanted to go into. UM.
Speaker 1: After that, you have a little more leeway to do
Speaker 1: things with, like you want to maybe pay off debt
Speaker 1: is a good second step, yeah, because if you're in debt,
Speaker 1: then you're wasting money and it's no fun to pay
Speaker 1: debt down, but it's super satisfying once you have it is,
Speaker 1: and it can be fun to pay debt down, especially
Speaker 1: if you're watching it climb down and get closer and
Speaker 1: closer to zero, and when you write that last check,
Speaker 1: you're just like, I'll see you in hell. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: you're done. And from that point on you've got an
Speaker 1: emergency fund, your debt free, and then now you can
Speaker 1: do some fun stuff with your money. Yeah, you're on
Speaker 1: the right track at this point. Hopefully by now you've
Speaker 1: got a budget that will work for you. The key
Speaker 1: with your budget is to do something that's reasonable for
Speaker 1: you that you can stick to. It's sort of like
Speaker 1: when I was reading about this, it's sort of like dieting, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, if you set yourself up for some stupid
Speaker 1: diet that you're not gonna follow, I'm only gonna have
Speaker 1: an apple and a canatuna like Kristen Bale and the Machinist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: chances are you're not gonna be successful. So it's really
Speaker 1: like dieting. It's more like a lifestyle change and finding
Speaker 1: whatever financial lifestyle works for you where you're able to
Speaker 1: save some and still give yourself some things and have
Speaker 1: a little fun. Right. But the key here is to
Speaker 1: pay yourself first, like you cannot if you're saving. The
Speaker 1: first thing you do is save when you get paid.
Speaker 1: The first thing, the first check. You right, the first
Speaker 1: trancefer you make, the first payment you make is to yourself,
Speaker 1: and you take whatever you budgeted for savings and take
Speaker 1: it from your checking account and put it in your
Speaker 1: savings account at exactly that's that's that's the other aspect
Speaker 1: to it. Once you do that, that money does not exist.
Speaker 1: It's in your savings. It's not for you to play
Speaker 1: around with. It's not for you to be like, well,
Speaker 1: I went a little over on my credit cards. I mean,
Speaker 1: use my savings. You went a little over on your
Speaker 1: credit card. That means you're gonna have to pay interest
Speaker 1: on it that month because that money and savings does
Speaker 1: not exist. And Josh will wrap your knuckles. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: getting very excited right now that the idea of going
Speaker 1: into your savings to pay off a credit card you
Speaker 1: screwed up. That is true. UM. So if you do
Speaker 1: have your budget working, you've got your emergency fund going one, um,
Speaker 1: you're paying yourself every month, you're saving money. Um, then
Speaker 1: you can start thinking about investments, things like maybe a
Speaker 1: c D certificate of deposit. It's a nice, low risk
Speaker 1: way to start if you're young. It is. It's so
Speaker 1: it's such a paltry amount right now, but it's still
Speaker 1: I mean, you do get money back. Gep your toe
Speaker 1: in the water. If you're reticent, in a CD is
Speaker 1: a good way to do it. So a CD is
Speaker 1: basically like you give some you loan money to a
Speaker 1: bank and it's for that amount of time three months, um,
Speaker 1: a year, ten years, whatever, um. And basically the bank
Speaker 1: says thanks for the money. At the end of the term,
Speaker 1: they give you back that money and then some interest
Speaker 1: for borrowing. So, like they put it in this article,
Speaker 1: your money goes away and then when it comes back,
Speaker 1: it brings more money with it. It's pretty simple. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: what if you're out there all right, Josh, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: a millennial. I just got through watching Girls. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: drinking uh pims cup on my sofa. Okay, And I say,
Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck, this is great. But I've done these things.
Speaker 1: I don't make much money. I'm an artist and crafter
Speaker 1: of fine goods. I've only got twenty dollars a week extra. Um.
Speaker 1: There's actually a lot you can do with twenty bucks
Speaker 1: a week. No, there's not. There is, especially if you
Speaker 1: look at that twenty bucks is part of a stream
Speaker 1: of twenty bucks that you'll eventually have, UM that you say,
Speaker 1: want to invest, All right, what can you do with
Speaker 1: twenty Well, there's this cool thing called a drip. It's
Speaker 1: a dividend reinvestment plan. UM. You can also look into
Speaker 1: direct stock purchase plans. But basically, you are going to
Speaker 1: a company that you believe in. You say, I have
Speaker 1: twenty dollars and I want one share of your twenty
Speaker 1: dollar stock, and they say, okay, here you go. It's
Speaker 1: basically like a counter where you go and buy a
Speaker 1: stock from the company directly, which saves you on brokerage fees.
Speaker 1: So what you're saying is you can just invest a
Speaker 1: little bit at a time and directly into these companies,
Speaker 1: which all adds up and before you know it, you've
Speaker 1: got like a couple of grand invested in this company.
Speaker 1: Right or you know, there's there's supposedly about a thousand
Speaker 1: companies in the United States that sell stock directly. You
Speaker 1: don't have to go to an online brokerage, you don't
Speaker 1: have to go to like your brick and mortar brokerage.
Speaker 1: Like the companies like, we're not going to charge any
Speaker 1: fees because you're giving us money for our stock, We're
Speaker 1: happy to sell it to you. UM. And you are
Speaker 1: just kind of building up a portfolio on your own.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a good investment. If you're just going
Speaker 1: to sit on something, if you're day trading, that's the
Speaker 1: worst idea ever. I don't think you could do it
Speaker 1: like that. But if you just wanted to build up stock,
Speaker 1: if you say, I really believe in this company's future
Speaker 1: and I want to have this stock fifty years from now,
Speaker 1: why why just say it's only twenty bucks. Instead take
Speaker 1: that twenty bucks and buy one Sheriff stock. That's one
Speaker 1: thing you could do. If you've got a few hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: maybe you could consider something called an index fund. Traditionally,
Speaker 1: an index that tracks the SMP five is gonna return
Speaker 1: about ten percent a year. That's pretty good, not bad money, no,
Speaker 1: And you don't have to invest, like you know, ten
Speaker 1: grand to do so. The other thing about an index
Speaker 1: fund is um if you're buying compared to a mutual fund,
Speaker 1: it's an unmanaged fund. There are five hundred stocks that
Speaker 1: you own a percentage of in shares UM, and that's
Speaker 1: the SMP five companies. And basically what you're doing is
Speaker 1: investing in the market itself. Right, So it's unmanaged, which
Speaker 1: means that the fees associated with it are next to nothing. Um.
Speaker 1: If you have like a mutual fund that's managed, they
Speaker 1: don't typically pay off as well and you're paying a
Speaker 1: lot more in management fees. Um. There's a really good,
Speaker 1: I think Frontline episode on index funds that came out
Speaker 1: this year that's definitely worth watching, and I'll bet you
Speaker 1: can get it for free online. Uh. If you have
Speaker 1: a little bit more, let's say you've got five dollars um,
Speaker 1: what that's gonna do is just open up your options
Speaker 1: a little bit. Uh. You're gonna have a pick from
Speaker 1: different companies, some of which might require a minimum of
Speaker 1: let's say five, So it just opens your investment options
Speaker 1: a little bit. You can shop around some. Um, you
Speaker 1: might want to open what's called a discount brokerage account. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's just basically like an online stock trading platform, and
Speaker 1: they're very cheap because they don't trade in micro seconds
Speaker 1: or anything like that. It's just like this is where
Speaker 1: you buy stock for as cheap as it comes pretty easy. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you've got a grand land around, then buddy, you
Speaker 1: are in the catbird seat. Uh. If you start with
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars and invest an additional thousand each year,
Speaker 1: you earn about ten percent annually and when you retire,
Speaker 1: that money is going to turn into over half a
Speaker 1: million dollars. And that's just a pretty standard like IRA right, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: it's speaking of I ras. If you have a if
Speaker 1: you work for a company and they match, if they
Speaker 1: do four oh one K matching, you want to do that, um,
Speaker 1: because what that is is your company giving you. There's
Speaker 1: no other way to put it. It's free money. Like you,
Speaker 1: whatever you contribute, they'll match, like say, up to a
Speaker 1: certain amount that you contribute. UM. That is literally your
Speaker 1: company saying here's some extra money for your retirement. It's
Speaker 1: what companies came up with to replace the old retirement
Speaker 1: plans that they used to have in the heydays of
Speaker 1: the unions. This is what we have today. So if
Speaker 1: you're not taking advantage of that, you should. And there's
Speaker 1: another reason to take advantage of a four oh one
Speaker 1: K and to max it out. Frankly, because it's UM
Speaker 1: deducted pre tax, it actually lowers your adjusted gross income,
Speaker 1: which means you'll pay less taxes the more you contribute
Speaker 1: to your four oh one K over the year. Boom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you should be a financial planner. I am for yourself. No,
Speaker 1: I've been doing it on the side. Yeah, there's this
Speaker 1: alley that I I set up on a couple of
Speaker 1: garbage cans and people. I am fascinated by the stuff, Like,
Speaker 1: it's very it. Once you start to really like get
Speaker 1: into it and think about it and look around it
Speaker 1: ways to like save, it's addictive. Well, I can say this.
Speaker 1: Warren Buffett didn't become Warren Buffett by being disinterested in finance.
Speaker 1: You know. He probably thought it was pretty neat early
Speaker 1: on and look at him now. Maybe that's where you're headed.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. That's not like my primary interest,
Speaker 1: you know, I just find it fascinating. Um what else, Chuck,
Speaker 1: you got anything else? I have something else? Actually, Um,
Speaker 1: this is just a total overview, just some starter ideas
Speaker 1: like that was definitely not like a full rundown of
Speaker 1: four one case and tax savings and that kind of stuff. Like, um,
Speaker 1: whatever perched your ears up, Um, go look into it,
Speaker 1: go do a little research. There's so much information online
Speaker 1: about this stuff that it's just basically a never ending
Speaker 1: supply this like free financial information, probably rivals, cute kitten videos,
Speaker 1: and just the sheer volume of stuff on the internet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds good to me. Yeah, get into it, people,
Speaker 1: You'll you'll thank us later. So uh, okay, that's it
Speaker 1: for this one. Yeah, all right. If you want to
Speaker 1: learn more ways to save money, you can type in
Speaker 1: ten easy ways to save money in the search bar
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Uh. And we wish
Speaker 1: you the best of luck in becoming financially free and
Speaker 1: sticking it to the man. Yeah. Uh And since I
Speaker 1: said search bar, it's time for listener mail. That's right.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this um one of our better emails
Speaker 1: about our death podcast, Dying Podcast. We heard from a
Speaker 1: lot of people that really got a lot out of
Speaker 1: this one, and it was very rewarding for us. So
Speaker 1: this is from one of them. Hey, guys, my mom
Speaker 1: passed away two years ago. When I was moved to
Speaker 1: hospice for the last two weeks. It was a very
Speaker 1: painful time for me, and I was nervous about listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast. In fact, I was in two minds
Speaker 1: about skipping it. However, I'm glad I did not skip it.
Speaker 1: My mom went through each stage as you described. This
Speaker 1: was the first time I had experienced anything like like this,
Speaker 1: and it was horrible to watch. I thought she had
Speaker 1: died in a lot of pain, struggling to breathe and
Speaker 1: having to fight every step of the way. I now
Speaker 1: realized she was going through the normal steps, and I
Speaker 1: really wish I would have known this at the time.
Speaker 1: I can confirm that sound is the last thing that goes.
Speaker 1: About half an hour before she died, me and my
Speaker 1: sisters asked the nurse if there was anything we could
Speaker 1: do to help her, and she looked like she was
Speaker 1: struggling to breathe. The nurse suggested putting on some of
Speaker 1: her favorite music. Not only did this seem to calm
Speaker 1: her down, but after a while we noticed that her
Speaker 1: breathing noises started to match the rhythm of the music.
Speaker 1: Was she trying to sing along? We think? So this
Speaker 1: is one of the good memories I have over last week,
Speaker 1: So I'm glad we did it. I just thought I
Speaker 1: would email to say thank you for doing the show.
Speaker 1: Even after two years, is still distressed me how my
Speaker 1: mom died, And now I feel like I finally understand it,
Speaker 1: and it's a big weight off my mind that she
Speaker 1: didn't feel as much pain as she looked like she
Speaker 1: was in Wow. So that is from uh Philippa Griggs
Speaker 1: in Norwich, England, thank you very much for sending it.
Speaker 1: And then it's very that's something else. Yeah, or maybe
Speaker 1: it's pronounced norch ner ner nor Norwick. Sometimes h is
Speaker 1: a sound. It's Norich nurch Norch, England. Thanks Philippa. That's
Speaker 1: a cool name, jith. Yeah, thank you very much for
Speaker 1: us sending it in. Thanks to all of you who
Speaker 1: wrote in um about our Dying podcast, we really appreciate it. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you want to let us know something we taught
Speaker 1: you that meant a lot to you, we always like
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