Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing ginormous jackpots, expensive algorithms, and geriatric roommates.
Speaker 1: That's right, Joel. This is our Friday Flights where we
Speaker 1: are talking through some of the different stories we came
Speaker 1: across this week. We're gonna specifically talk about how they
Speaker 1: are going to impact our finances and your finances. If
Speaker 1: you're listening, and before we get to the stories, though
Speaker 1: the time has come, you likely have heard about the
Speaker 1: How the Money socks rumors are flying. These are the
Speaker 1: meticulously designed socks that we created with the nice folks
Speaker 1: over at Sock Fancy. I am holding a pair in
Speaker 1: my hands right now, Matt. They look so good. They
Speaker 1: are not only are they gorgeous, they are so ridiculously company.
Speaker 1: And again, the reason these took so long is because
Speaker 1: we really did want to make sure we had some
Speaker 1: merch that we were proud of, not some of these
Speaker 1: soft companies where they just printed the pictures. And we
Speaker 1: joked about sharing the pictures of the some of the
Speaker 1: crappy ones. I we will totally do that, will throw
Speaker 1: it up at least on Instagram. I just held them
Speaker 1: by the way, they smell like Hinton can either to listen,
Speaker 1: you can eat them, but they smell so yeah. We
Speaker 1: gave a few of several pairs of these away to
Speaker 1: some folks who submitted listener money tips back for ourisode,
Speaker 1: but we are now giving away five pairs to listeners
Speaker 1: out there who leave a review over on Apple podcast
Speaker 1: or if you give us a rating on Spotify or
Speaker 1: some of the other platforms as well, like podcast Addict.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of folks who listened over there
Speaker 1: on that app as well, So all you gotta do
Speaker 1: leave a review, even those old reviews that you may
Speaker 1: have left previously, those count as well. But then send
Speaker 1: us a screenshot or an email to resubmit your review
Speaker 1: for the giveaway. Send those two how the money pot
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. Just make sure to do that
Speaker 1: before end of day this coming Wednesday, and we will
Speaker 1: announce those five winners on our next Friday flight, that's right,
Speaker 1: And then we'll ship these gorgeous, lovely things out to
Speaker 1: you and you'll be like, this is the best clothing
Speaker 1: eye on my own. You might even throw away all
Speaker 1: your other clothes and only where the hat of money
Speaker 1: socks um. Although we don't suggest. If that's the case,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with it. Uh that before we get to
Speaker 1: kind of all the meatia stories we have to get
Speaker 1: to this week. One thing I want to mention I
Speaker 1: just talked about. We just talked about how crusty my
Speaker 1: phone was getting. And it was one of those things
Speaker 1: where I, as a frugalalite, was hoping to keep my
Speaker 1: phone for a minimum of three years, and I threw
Speaker 1: in the towel man I bought a new phone. Um,
Speaker 1: it crossed my mind. But here's what pushed me over
Speaker 1: the edge. I got the new I pre ordered the
Speaker 1: new Google Pixel six A. Right now, I'm rolling with
Speaker 1: the four A. The six A is at the newest.
Speaker 1: The six A is the newest. I like literally just
Speaker 1: came out, Like it's sitting at my house now and
Speaker 1: I haven't even opened yet. But so, because of all
Speaker 1: the issues I mentioned, the crack screen, the battery life,
Speaker 1: messing up the charging board is is actually the biggest annoyance.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to actually get my phone to charge
Speaker 1: these days. But because of all those things, I was like,
Speaker 1: I was at least interested. I was gonna look and
Speaker 1: I was gonna see, you know how much can I
Speaker 1: get from my phone? And some from folks in the
Speaker 1: Facebook group, We're like, hey, check out Swap, check out Gazelle.
Speaker 1: We've talked about the most websites on the show in
Speaker 1: the past, but I was like, you're right, I should
Speaker 1: go check those out. And uh, guess how much Gazelle
Speaker 1: offered me for my two year old phone? Two year
Speaker 1: old phone? How much was that phone? Brand new fifty
Speaker 1: and it's kind of busted up, So I'm gonna guess
Speaker 1: like sixty bucks? Okay, So they offered me twenty one
Speaker 1: very much even worse. And then I went to cell Cell,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like an aggregator, and the best
Speaker 1: the most I could get paid for that phone was
Speaker 1: eighty five from there, but decently, Yeah, that's still fair
Speaker 1: for for what you got going on. It's okay, but
Speaker 1: guess what. I went through the Google steps to see
Speaker 1: how much Google would give me from my phone if
Speaker 1: I were to pre order the source the Pixel six
Speaker 1: A and two sixty two dollars what they offer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it was like almost like a free phone for
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. Did you realize I'll bust
Speaker 1: it up? It is? Yeah, So they asked that once
Speaker 1: you receive it, are they're gonna be like, oh, sorry, buddy,
Speaker 1: we're gonna if I had money, I hope that they
Speaker 1: asked if it had a bus to screen. I'm like yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, And if it hadn't, I think I would
Speaker 1: have gotten three hulls, which is still shocking that you
Speaker 1: could only lose fifty bucks on the phone after two years.
Speaker 1: So it's one of those things where, um, it made
Speaker 1: sense because of that. That's a great deal. It changed
Speaker 1: the economics of of getting into a lot of folks
Speaker 1: out there who might have an older pixel like you.
Speaker 1: I mean, can you trade in some of your some
Speaker 1: of the older pixel pixels as well? I think so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Well I think actually no, I think the four A
Speaker 1: is the oldest down So if you're rolling with a
Speaker 1: three or three A, it's probably not valuable enough. Um,
Speaker 1: but if you got a four A or newer, it's
Speaker 1: a great deal. Yeah, the upgrade might make sense. And
Speaker 1: I think right now, yes, right now they're doing for
Speaker 1: like a limited period of time. I think yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so. I think it's literally just for a few
Speaker 1: more days. So get out of folks, and and there's
Speaker 1: a you get a free Google pixel buds that your
Speaker 1: buds to with the pre order, and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I want them. I might sell them,
Speaker 1: but uh and make some of that money back. But
Speaker 1: it felt like a no brainer when your kids will
Speaker 1: use them for for something I'm sure they're trying to
Speaker 1: steal on my cave. Okay, so the real question, will
Speaker 1: you get a case for this phone discussion? We'll see,
Speaker 1: we'll see probably, or are you're just gonna ride this
Speaker 1: wave of cheap phones straight to the landfill Over the course,
Speaker 1: You're gonna just have to deal with this on your conscience,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're laying there on your deathbed and
Speaker 1: I ruined the planet. That being said, I still don't
Speaker 1: have a case or a screen cover, and if I
Speaker 1: crack my stupid screen, I have no place to complain,
Speaker 1: Like I will not come on the show and complain
Speaker 1: about it. But that being said, I definitely want to.
Speaker 1: I just keep forgetting, but at least your screen get.
Speaker 1: The protective equipment is more it's more solid than than well,
Speaker 1: it's heavier too, which mean you know, the heavier, the
Speaker 1: bigger they are, the harder they fall. That's true. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on let's get to the Friday flight, the
Speaker 1: sampling of stories we found interesting this week. Let's quickly
Speaker 1: touch on kind of the big headline from yesterday, which
Speaker 1: is the fact that we are we are now technically
Speaker 1: kind of sort of in a recession, right, So we're
Speaker 1: technically not in a recession, right, So like according to
Speaker 1: the National Bureau of Economic Research, they're the folks who
Speaker 1: gets us say that, yes, this is, as they're pushing
Speaker 1: up their glasses, we are now officially in a recession. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have not come down from on high and spoken
Speaker 1: and and said that that this is the case. But
Speaker 1: the typical definition of recession has been met, right, which
Speaker 1: is two quarters of declining growth um in a row.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know, it feels like the definition
Speaker 1: of recession is kind of up in the air right now.
Speaker 1: But for most folks, we're kind of in one. But
Speaker 1: we are. But that doesn't this is really that we're
Speaker 1: going to be here as well. Yeah, we we we
Speaker 1: figured this is gonna be the case, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that this is. Recessions can look different, right, they
Speaker 1: don't have to all look the same. And right now,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about on the show, there's still a
Speaker 1: lot of positive economic data to point to a lot
Speaker 1: of people are still if they didn't read the headlines,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't realize that we were in a recession. It
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to have impacted really a whole lot of folks.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, everyone notices the higher prices, everyone notices inflation,
Speaker 1: but the recession part of the story maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit less. So a quick p s A for everyone
Speaker 1: out there, don't play the lottery. I'm sure this is
Speaker 1: a conversation you and your friends have already had. Maybe
Speaker 1: you're thinking about going in on a like within a
Speaker 1: pool together where it's like, okay, let's all get together,
Speaker 1: we'll promise to split it, because really, who needs a
Speaker 1: billion dollars? I mean, really, beyond like a few million,
Speaker 1: does life really look all that different for for most folks.
Speaker 1: It's more attempting now than ever before. Though, when you're
Speaker 1: talking about a billion dollars jackpot, that is well, that's
Speaker 1: the thing you can go into in a pretty huge
Speaker 1: pool of folks and everyone could still end up benefiting
Speaker 1: pretty handsomely. But just bottom line, this is a bad
Speaker 1: wealth building strategy because of the odds of winning are
Speaker 1: one in three two million. Again, that jackpot is for
Speaker 1: more than a billion dollars. Now that drawing happens tonight,
Speaker 1: which is exciting for a lot of folks, But there
Speaker 1: are countless other things that you likely should be thinking
Speaker 1: about rather than the infantasmally small chance that you're gonna
Speaker 1: win big. But plus, you know we've talked before how
Speaker 1: winning the lottery, how it's usually bad for your life.
Speaker 1: People die, people o d on drugs, it's bad for
Speaker 1: your relationships. It's something like seventy present a lot of
Speaker 1: winners to clared bankruptcy at the point, and exactly just
Speaker 1: imagine how many how people start to look at you
Speaker 1: if they know you're a billionaire. They they're looking at
Speaker 1: you for money. Now they want to loane and it's
Speaker 1: going to drastically change. It's gonna alter the course of
Speaker 1: your life. And you might think that it's all good,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of downsides too. Yes, you need
Speaker 1: to think about the negatives. Although I'm not against people
Speaker 1: playing it, Like if you want to do it because
Speaker 1: it's fun, just know that you're doing it. You're paying
Speaker 1: two dollars thinking that, Okay, this is gonna provide me
Speaker 1: a little bit of fun. Like if that means that
Speaker 1: you can be a part of all of the excitement,
Speaker 1: I am okay with that, but don't count like, don't
Speaker 1: think of it as like an investment strategy by by
Speaker 1: any means. And I also like how it can cause
Speaker 1: people to think about and how it could get them
Speaker 1: to ask some bigger questions in their lives. Because if
Speaker 1: you're thinking through, okay, oh, I would do this, and
Speaker 1: I would do this, and I would do this if
Speaker 1: you would change your life in a significant way, I
Speaker 1: think it's worth thinking through, okay, what steps could I
Speaker 1: take now that could allow me to start to replicate
Speaker 1: some of those changes now, right without having won the lottery.
Speaker 1: And if you're lucky enough that you're thinking, I don't
Speaker 1: think there would be a ton of changes I would
Speaker 1: I would make. Well, then I would say that that's
Speaker 1: a great sign that you are you know, you're doing well,
Speaker 1: you're working hard, that that you are on the right
Speaker 1: track with how it is you want to live your life.
Speaker 1: So I do like that it can cause you to
Speaker 1: maybe have some bigger questions about life. It makes me think.
Speaker 1: We did an episode, episode four ten, was entitled what
Speaker 1: if You want the lottery, and I think it's it.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is a good time to go breeth visit
Speaker 1: that one if you didn't get a chance to listen
Speaker 1: because some food or thought right about what what you
Speaker 1: would actually do and how that impacts Well, you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna win a lottery, so how how should you
Speaker 1: live life? In life of that? Um? But let's move on.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about personal loans here for a second, because
Speaker 1: there was an article in CNBC basically stating that that
Speaker 1: some some people are taking out personal loans in an
Speaker 1: effort to build wealth. Uh. That struck me as ridiculous,
Speaker 1: sounds a little backward surprising. I'm like, who takes out
Speaker 1: like debt that's in the upper single digits or low
Speaker 1: double digits in order to build wealth like that? That's
Speaker 1: not smart. So yeah, inside of that CNBC article, math
Speaker 1: they they talked about a survey by lending Tree which
Speaker 1: said that people are using personal loans in order to
Speaker 1: make improvements to their home. And I guess I guess
Speaker 1: those people are hoping that that's going to increase the
Speaker 1: value of their home, there by increasing their net worth. UM.
Speaker 1: But that seems like some pretty flawed logic to me
Speaker 1: because when you look at the numbers, very few home
Speaker 1: improvements actually pay off. You typically lose money by making
Speaker 1: upgrades to your residents. And we'll actually link to some
Speaker 1: recent research on this. In the show notes. You can
Speaker 1: actually see kind of what the payoff looks like for
Speaker 1: a bunch of different things that you could do to
Speaker 1: your home. The truth is, on top of that, there
Speaker 1: are better products if you're wanting to do work to
Speaker 1: your house. So why would you take out a personal
Speaker 1: loan when you could take out a home equity line
Speaker 1: of credit instead, which is going to carry better terms,
Speaker 1: a better interest rates. Personal loans mostly suck. We want
Speaker 1: people to avoid them. And I was just shocked to
Speaker 1: think that some people think taking out personal loans is
Speaker 1: actually going to lead to more wealth for them in
Speaker 1: the future. It's the exact opposite. Every dollar you decide
Speaker 1: to take from a bank or credit union that is
Speaker 1: class time as a personal loan is going to hamstring
Speaker 1: your ability to build wealth to the future. That's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And what's interesting too, they were talking about how borrowers
Speaker 1: who have lower credit score scores, how they don't have
Speaker 1: the ability to take out these personal loans, thereby denying
Speaker 1: their potential ability to build wealth. And I was thinking, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: like like they that's that's great, Like that's how the
Speaker 1: game works. You don't want the lenders do not want
Speaker 1: to lend credit, lend money to folks who have proven
Speaker 1: to not be able to maintain a high credit score,
Speaker 1: whether that's because they are using too much of their credit,
Speaker 1: whether that's because they don't make their payments on time.
Speaker 1: But I feel that this is uh an example of
Speaker 1: the system working well. We do not want folks who
Speaker 1: have not handled money well to then take on more debt,
Speaker 1: specifically personal loans and just because you have a great
Speaker 1: credit score and banks are willing to lend you money
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you should take it. Right, there are certain
Speaker 1: instances where it does make sense for you based on
Speaker 1: your personal financial situation, how carefully you've been with money,
Speaker 1: the fact that you prioritize saving and investing to take
Speaker 1: on debt to help you accomplish other goals such as
Speaker 1: buying a house or maybe doing some renovations to that house.
Speaker 1: I mean, uh, not everybody can save up cash and
Speaker 1: and and buy a house. You know mortgage tree, right,
Speaker 1: But just because it's there doesn't mean you should be
Speaker 1: jumping all over that exactly. And and and for folks who
Speaker 1: have lower credit scores, the goal shouldn't be to get
Speaker 1: your credit score high enough to warry. Now, oh you
Speaker 1: qualify for personal loans, you know, like, there are other
Speaker 1: reasons you want to get your credit score up so
Speaker 1: that when you do have enough, and you have saved
Speaker 1: up enough for a down payment, you can get the
Speaker 1: best mortgage that's available to you, But not to get
Speaker 1: a personal loan. Uh do, Let's let's keep moving. Jason's y.
Speaker 1: He had this this great article in the Journal recently
Speaker 1: about some companies who are offering super high savings rates,
Speaker 1: and he sounds promising. It does u but even as
Speaker 1: rates are going up, they're still pretty crummy from a
Speaker 1: historical perspective, especially given the reality of what's happening with inflation.
Speaker 1: So some folks are making risky your bets in an
Speaker 1: attempt to get higher returns on their cash stable coins. Actually,
Speaker 1: like those are one avenue that some have taken that
Speaker 1: hasn't panned out very well. But some fintech companies that
Speaker 1: like kind of sort of look like banks. They are
Speaker 1: offering between like three and five percent returns right now,
Speaker 1: even higher on basic savings type vehicles, or at least
Speaker 1: they purport to be that. So, for instance, is why
Speaker 1: he highlighted a company called Save and they're promising returns
Speaker 1: in the four to ten percent range, which sounds pretty great.
Speaker 1: Just your liquid cash. That sounds nice, right, I mean
Speaker 1: it'd be great, true, but Save they are investing your money,
Speaker 1: they're not saving it, So of course there was going
Speaker 1: to be a catch. So it's it's sort of like
Speaker 1: it's it's more of a hopeful pinky promise than anything else,
Speaker 1: and we would not recommend for you to do this
Speaker 1: with the liquid cash that you're planning to keep on
Speaker 1: hands or something like an emergency fund. When you look
Speaker 1: at the fine print, it is more like a pinky promise,
Speaker 1: and it looks good displayed in big type on the
Speaker 1: screen based on historical returns over the past ten years.
Speaker 1: But we've only been around for ten months. So and
Speaker 1: when we're talking about savings, right, it's it's a different
Speaker 1: ballgame for for money you need liquid, you can't take
Speaker 1: those risks. And so yeah, a lot of these fintech companies, Matt,
Speaker 1: they are f d i C insured, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to make sure that that is definitely the case
Speaker 1: before you even attempt to put your money with one
Speaker 1: of these guys. But so the money you deposit isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily at risk, but there's a real chance that your
Speaker 1: returns on the money, uh it could be something like
Speaker 1: zero percent. And so instead of that, we would suggest
Speaker 1: going with the bank that's tried and true, right like
Speaker 1: ally Discover or see I T. The banks we've been
Speaker 1: talking about for years now. Marcus is another good one,
Speaker 1: and yesterday see I T. We've I feel like this
Speaker 1: is the case every week now, like every two weeks,
Speaker 1: rates are just going up. Bump these things up, which
Speaker 1: which is great because he just is awesome for all
Speaker 1: the savers out there, bump their savings connect account up
Speaker 1: to one nine so pretty close to two. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: as good as those theoretical promised returns right from some
Speaker 1: of those other guys, But it's starting to look like
Speaker 1: it used to look like ten years ago, which is
Speaker 1: it makes me feel good about being a savor and
Speaker 1: having that money in uh in savings. Yeah, it sucks
Speaker 1: just a little bit less to be a saver right now,
Speaker 1: which is good. And and and one other thing that
Speaker 1: we just have been mentioning and will continue to mention
Speaker 1: is I bonds as another place for guaranteed returns because
Speaker 1: here's the thing, though, you have to lock your money
Speaker 1: away for at least a year. But the rates on
Speaker 1: I bons right now, we're almost ten percent, and so
Speaker 1: it's one of those things and they're not going to
Speaker 1: come cratering back down to earth anytime soon. I don't
Speaker 1: think I bonds are still one of the best kind
Speaker 1: of short ish to medium term savings vehicles for lots
Speaker 1: of folks. That's right. Yeah. Another place you should avoid
Speaker 1: storing your money though, is with the biggest banks because
Speaker 1: they pay you almost nothing, which is super sucky. But
Speaker 1: that's not your only problem that you'll encounter with them,
Speaker 1: because overdraft fees are out of this world on many
Speaker 1: of those checking accounts. Back in twenty nineteen, banks, all
Speaker 1: those big banks, they made fifteen billion dollars from folks
Speaker 1: who overdrafted their accounts. And so now Congress is looking
Speaker 1: to do something about it. I mean, like they don't
Speaker 1: actually get things done most of the time. That's probably
Speaker 1: that's probably not likely that things will change. But it's
Speaker 1: like the life cards on my local pool when they're
Speaker 1: on their phone, and I'm like, oh man, what a
Speaker 1: what a coushout. But that's what Congress seems like because
Speaker 1: you don't really actually do much legislating through more glad
Speaker 1: handing and cable news appearances. It's true, uh that that
Speaker 1: being said, the Overdraft Protection Act could potentially step into
Speaker 1: lesson or eliminate the ability for banks to to charge
Speaker 1: ridiculous overdraft fees, which by the way, mostly hurts the
Speaker 1: most financially vulnerable of folks. But this is an instance
Speaker 1: of where I think we don't need to necessarily wait
Speaker 1: around and like sit on our hands and hoping that
Speaker 1: the banks are going to do something or hope that
Speaker 1: Congress is actually going to act, because that's what I meant.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Yeah, if you're not for that, like you,
Speaker 1: you know, you might be sitting around a long time exactly,
Speaker 1: might grow a nice gray beard before that comes to past. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: And the thing is, too, it's just not necessary because like,
Speaker 1: this is not something that's overly complicated. I think there
Speaker 1: are some industries in some sectors where maybe some government
Speaker 1: intervention is necessary because it's it's just a really complicated process. Right,
Speaker 1: But we're talking about savings and checking accounts like these
Speaker 1: are accounts that you can open and set up for
Speaker 1: your kids, and even they understand how they work. It's
Speaker 1: not overly complicated. It's not like this makes me think
Speaker 1: of the semiconductor bill that just passed. Cool, that's probably
Speaker 1: necessary because that's in the best interest of our entire country, right, like,
Speaker 1: like the future of our country is at stake here,
Speaker 1: and like of semiconductors are made in Taiwan, and we
Speaker 1: like Taiwan, but China they don't like Taiwan in China. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we're getting political here or whatever. But all this being said,
Speaker 1: this is something that you can easily do, and hopefully
Speaker 1: an act does pass. But in the meantime, make sure
Speaker 1: that you are banking with the banks who aren't trying
Speaker 1: to financially ruin you. That's exactly right, because it's it's
Speaker 1: other banks have actually already disallowed over draft fees. They
Speaker 1: don't charge their customers any over draft fees, and so
Speaker 1: the market is actually providing some solutions to this. Over
Speaker 1: draftees are obviously too high, they're crazy costly. They screw
Speaker 1: over a lot of people, especially the most financially vulnerable.
Speaker 1: I would like to see them done away with. But
Speaker 1: the great thing is some great banks have already done that.
Speaker 1: So there's City, Ally and Capital One. Are are three
Speaker 1: banks that have eliminated over draftees for their customers. And
Speaker 1: it's worth mentioning that. So if you're if you want
Speaker 1: to support a business that is that is doing the
Speaker 1: right thing by their customers without being told to by
Speaker 1: the federal government, then we'd say, do business with the
Speaker 1: bank that doesn't suck. And those are a few of
Speaker 1: them that don't suck. That's right, all right, Joel, we
Speaker 1: have several other stories we're gonna get to today. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about student loans. We're gonna talk about groceries,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about fake reviews and more. All right,
Speaker 1: after this, all right, Matt, we're back. Let's keep going
Speaker 1: with the Friday Flight. And of course we always gotta
Speaker 1: get to our ludicrous headline of the week. Indeed, and
Speaker 1: this one comes from the New York Mark on the
Speaker 1: Friday Flight. It's a mainstay, and our friend Ron Lieber
Speaker 1: over the New York Times wrote this article. It was
Speaker 1: called the case of the five thousand dollar Springsteen tickets.
Speaker 1: And so let's talk about algorithms for a second, because
Speaker 1: they're having this rapidly increasing the impact on what we
Speaker 1: pay for lots of different items that we purchase and
Speaker 1: events we choose to go to write prices are as
Speaker 1: a terminus kind of came up with their their squishier
Speaker 1: than ever before, right, and they they vary a whole
Speaker 1: lot more than they ever used to, and so much
Speaker 1: of that is due to the algorithms that determine what
Speaker 1: we pay and when we pay it. And so these
Speaker 1: Springsteen tickets, apparently some fans were trying to buy tickets
Speaker 1: for shows, and they were being shown prices of north
Speaker 1: of five thousand dollars right for tickets, and obviously they
Speaker 1: they didn't really like that. They weren't sure if it
Speaker 1: was worth that much to go see the Boston person.
Speaker 1: And and it's not that these tickets were being sold
Speaker 1: by scalpers, right, it was. It was truly an algorithmic
Speaker 1: decision saying that mid five figures was a fair price
Speaker 1: for this show. And I kind of have a few
Speaker 1: different thoughts about this. I think one, I'd rather see
Speaker 1: money go to the artist than to a scalper, right, right, Um,
Speaker 1: so I'd rather see fewer people in the middle taking
Speaker 1: a cut. It doesn't make sense right, right, So let's explain. Like,
Speaker 1: the way it works right now is if you set
Speaker 1: a static price and you happen to shoot too low
Speaker 1: and there's an overwhelming demand for it, all the scalpers
Speaker 1: they're gonna swoop in. They're gonna buy up all the tickets,
Speaker 1: they've got the software, they got the box. Then they're
Speaker 1: gonna jack up those prices and they're making all the profits, right,
Speaker 1: effectively screwing over the artist. So like everybody gets hurt
Speaker 1: except for these like few individuals who get loaded because
Speaker 1: they've got the superior technology. The the challenges though, if
Speaker 1: you set your prices too high, then the artist is
Speaker 1: you know, you run the risk potentially of having empty seats.
Speaker 1: You know, within an arena, you're not performing to a
Speaker 1: sold out show, and that's kind of a bummer as well. Um,
Speaker 1: and obviously your prices might be too high for a
Speaker 1: lot of folks. And so it's just difficult to know
Speaker 1: where does set the prices because how do you predict
Speaker 1: the popularity, how do you predict the demand for a
Speaker 1: specific show. There are so many factors. That's kind of
Speaker 1: where they go into it. Dynamic pricing comes in and
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, we see it
Speaker 1: with air fare, we see it with entertainment, other areas
Speaker 1: of entertainment, with with even like sporting event tickets and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And and so we're seeing more of
Speaker 1: a reliance on dynamic pricing, which I think does make
Speaker 1: sense in a lot of ways. Prices on Amazon right
Speaker 1: change dozens of times in a single day, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: these these swift changes, though, can make it harder to
Speaker 1: be to be a smart shopper. Um but it's something
Speaker 1: to be aware of. And we also just need to
Speaker 1: be more price sensitive. Right. If I'm looking to go
Speaker 1: see an artist and make a decision, and I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a couple hundred dollars to go see
Speaker 1: one of my favorite artists, but now now it turns
Speaker 1: out it's gonna be a couple of thousand dollars, I'm
Speaker 1: going to leave that website as quickly as possible. And um,
Speaker 1: so unless it's your absolute favorite band and this is
Speaker 1: the last show they might ever do, like you know,
Speaker 1: there are a number of factors. I mean, even Ron Lieber,
Speaker 1: he was just like, it's it's worth it. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: not five thousand dollars. But he's just like, I'm willing
Speaker 1: to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to go see
Speaker 1: the Boss because he's a legend. Yeah, exactly. And there
Speaker 1: are maybe a couple of people I would pay a
Speaker 1: couple hundred dollars to go see. I don't know that
Speaker 1: there's anybody I would pay thousands of dollars to see,
Speaker 1: but right now, Yeah, I think what this comes down to, though,
Speaker 1: is the fact that this is being run by Ticketmaster, right,
Speaker 1: and and they have like a basically a stranglehold, a monopoly,
Speaker 1: and they service something like over s all venues, and
Speaker 1: so in my mind, the algorithm is good or it's
Speaker 1: good enough, but maybe a lot of pricing algorithm that
Speaker 1: just yeah, generally speaking, that dynamic pricing. But how do
Speaker 1: you make these specific algorithm better? And you do that
Speaker 1: by providing more competition to Ticketmaster, right, and so like
Speaker 1: they don't have this more direct sales by artists out
Speaker 1: Ticketmaster that middleman too. Um. And I think there's there's
Speaker 1: more and more We're seeing more and more of that
Speaker 1: happening as well, and I hope we see a lot
Speaker 1: more of that because I would like to see Ticketmaster
Speaker 1: go down of flames. We're not gonna lie. But what
Speaker 1: that means though, are some other folks stepping and providing
Speaker 1: some sort of service to these artists that allow them
Speaker 1: to because even still, it's difficult for an artist to
Speaker 1: build that right, to kind of build that network, to
Speaker 1: build that kind of direct communication with their fans. That's
Speaker 1: why they are dependent on folks like Ticketmaster. But generally speaking,
Speaker 1: this is an industry that is overdue for some competitions
Speaker 1: should come in and unseat Ticketmaster who's been sitting on
Speaker 1: the throne for a long time. Actually, NPR they just
Speaker 1: published this piece about sort of like the like these
Speaker 1: funky algorithms this week as well, because depending on how
Speaker 1: long it takes you to finish a transaction when you're
Speaker 1: online shopping, after you put something in your cart, the
Speaker 1: price might get bumped up in the meantime. Uh. And
Speaker 1: we share this because we want you to be aware
Speaker 1: of this trend, you know, some of the different sneaky
Speaker 1: ways that it can cost you more sometimes without even
Speaker 1: knowing it. Uh. And So bottom line, I feel like
Speaker 1: this dynamic pricing model it's still kind of the best
Speaker 1: alternative for what's out there. But we just need to
Speaker 1: be aware that this is the direction that it seems
Speaker 1: like things are going. Uh. And while we're talking about shopping,
Speaker 1: let's talk about fake reviews. That's another mounting problem in
Speaker 1: the world of e commerce. A recent study found that
Speaker 1: folks are more likely to buy inferior products based on
Speaker 1: glowing but fake reviews about that product. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: A lot of us are just looking at the star
Speaker 1: ratings on a product and we're like, Okay, it seems
Speaker 1: pretty good, and let's click, you know, click to buy,
Speaker 1: and we might read maybe one or two of those
Speaker 1: actual reviews, but there are thousands, and so we certainly
Speaker 1: don't wait through all of them. But it turns out
Speaker 1: a lot of those are or at least on some products,
Speaker 1: are completely fake. They're ramping up the star level even
Speaker 1: though the product is not a great one. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: these are products that we have not even hardly laid
Speaker 1: eyes on. Obviously, we're not seeing them in person, so
Speaker 1: we're not quite sure what we're gonna be getting. May
Speaker 1: not even know anything about that specific brand. Because there
Speaker 1: are like so many of these new thingled companies selling
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff online, it can be difficult to
Speaker 1: manage and to interpret all the data that is out there.
Speaker 1: So bottom line, like it kind of comes down to
Speaker 1: you as an individual, like you said, reading the reviews
Speaker 1: looking for items that might only have only five stars,
Speaker 1: like that's a red flag basically, right. Um, there are
Speaker 1: ways that you can read through the reviews and tell
Speaker 1: was this created by a bot or is this a
Speaker 1: real person who uploaded a legitimate photo of their product? Um?
Speaker 1: And honestly, for me, when I see two three four
Speaker 1: stars on a product, for me, that gives me a
Speaker 1: little bit of reassurance that, oh, this is a legit product.
Speaker 1: There's always gonna be people people out there who are
Speaker 1: not happy that. A lot of times they put the
Speaker 1: thing together wrong and they're like, oh the thing broke
Speaker 1: after like three seconds, and it's like, well, I think
Speaker 1: you broke it yourself. You can tell that when you
Speaker 1: couldn read read some of the actual individual reviews, whereas
Speaker 1: if you're just leaking at the star level, sometimes you
Speaker 1: can be misled. And I think, what fake spot is
Speaker 1: one of those cool sites and Chrome browser plug ins,
Speaker 1: it's worth they've got it on Safari's are they okay? Great?
Speaker 1: So so yeah, then that way, every time you go
Speaker 1: to Amazon or some of these other websites. They'll give
Speaker 1: you a rating like, hey, guess what the reviews on
Speaker 1: this or a C or there a be, and you
Speaker 1: you can kind of know, like, all right, I have
Speaker 1: to try a little more more carefully before buying this
Speaker 1: product because it looks like there are more fake reviews
Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, and you know, fake spots good because
Speaker 1: they actually they got good star ratings app stores. I
Speaker 1: love It's so good. Who is policing the police, right exactly?
Speaker 1: That's a good question. All right, Let's talk about student
Speaker 1: loans for a second, because we're still in the middle
Speaker 1: of a student loan payment pause that's supposed to resume
Speaker 1: UM September one, and the question is that going to happen?
Speaker 1: And the answer is probably not. Will any amount of
Speaker 1: forgiveness come to fruition? That's another question on people's minds
Speaker 1: when it comes to student loans. UM. That's a political
Speaker 1: football that is is still kind of being batted around,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do our best to not get political
Speaker 1: here and talk about how forgiving a bunch of student
Speaker 1: loans might even lead to more inflation. But that's not
Speaker 1: something we're gonna get into. We mentioned that before then.
Speaker 1: It's it's not our favorite policy idea, but the political
Speaker 1: writing was kind of on the wall that there might
Speaker 1: be another forbearance extension. That's something we were kind of
Speaker 1: thinking might come to pass. It's it's looking like it, right,
Speaker 1: and and so now there's more and more rum link
Speaker 1: pointing in that direction. That comes Uptember one, people who
Speaker 1: have student loans who have not been paying on them
Speaker 1: for the past couple of years will be able to
Speaker 1: continue to not pay on their student loans. And yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we'll certainly revisit this topic when the details firm up.
Speaker 1: We still want you to be financially prepaired for those
Speaker 1: payments to resume come September, even if it's unlikely to happen,
Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah, And honestly, kind of going back to
Speaker 1: what we're saying about that Overdraft Protection Act, this is
Speaker 1: another instance, I feel where there's been some congressional ineptitude.
Speaker 1: Let's just say like this, because it shouldn't come down
Speaker 1: to the President deciding whether or not there's going to
Speaker 1: be a forbearance extension, whether or not there's going to
Speaker 1: be student loans that are gonna be forgiven. This is
Speaker 1: Congress's job, and so regardless of what side of the
Speaker 1: aisle you're on, I feel that this is it's just
Speaker 1: a little discouraging. It's kind of annoying that this is
Speaker 1: something that it feels like somebody who's just continues to
Speaker 1: get the snooze button and it's just like, dude, either
Speaker 1: just turn the a long o'clock off or get up
Speaker 1: like like just but just aside and the fact that
Speaker 1: there are borrowers out there who sure they've benefited from
Speaker 1: not having to make payments over the past two year,
Speaker 1: you know, two and a half years now, but still
Speaker 1: the fact that we don't know what is going to
Speaker 1: happen is kind of mind boggling, and it's something that
Speaker 1: I wish our leaders could figure out. The congressional gridlock,
Speaker 1: the inability to really kind of work together on anything,
Speaker 1: is bad for the country as a whole, right, And
Speaker 1: doesn't it still confidence in us as us as people? Um, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's let's move on. Let's talk about ways you can
Speaker 1: save on rent, and you could do that by potentially
Speaker 1: getting an older roommate. This is your geriatric roommates. Uh.
Speaker 1: Part of the headline that you mentioned at the beginning
Speaker 1: Joel Uh. And what we're talking about here is a
Speaker 1: much older roommate. Because Business Insider they just wrote about
Speaker 1: how multigenerational living is on the rise, uh, and how
Speaker 1: could save you money. Because some colleges have been doing this,
Speaker 1: They've they've got these programs in place in order to
Speaker 1: help some of their students live rent free given the
Speaker 1: changing demographics in our society as are as well the world,
Speaker 1: but America as well, like as we have an older
Speaker 1: and older population. I love this idea. And it's like,
Speaker 1: it's a good thing for the students to live in
Speaker 1: a place where they can pay less rent or live
Speaker 1: for free. And it's also a good thing for these
Speaker 1: older people to have those younger folks um in their
Speaker 1: live style exactly. Yeah, And it seems like the younger
Speaker 1: generation uh, seems to be more willing to consider this
Speaker 1: as a way to cut costs. Specifically, there's a website
Speaker 1: nest eily they're trying to make this easier to accomplish,
Speaker 1: although it's only working in a few cities right now,
Speaker 1: mainly Boston seems to be the largest area where they
Speaker 1: are doing, you know, making a lot of in roads.
Speaker 1: But check it out if you're interested. We're all about
Speaker 1: outside of the box ways to cut back and save
Speaker 1: and and like you said, there's like a richness to
Speaker 1: life that you gain by being in contact with folks
Speaker 1: who are who are older. Like we've got some neighbors
Speaker 1: who are in their seventies and eighties, and you can't
Speaker 1: there's there's not like a dollar amount, you can't quantify
Speaker 1: the benefit that you receive from having a connection like
Speaker 1: that to an older generation. And like you said, it's
Speaker 1: I think it's great for for older folks as well.
Speaker 1: There's a girl in the story and she's living with
Speaker 1: a lady who's closer to the age of her grandma,
Speaker 1: and she's able to stay in her house like this
Speaker 1: old family home because now she's got somebody to help
Speaker 1: her pay the taxes, she helps out with chores. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just a win win situation. And seems like
Speaker 1: figuring out how to use emails, yeah you know, I
Speaker 1: mean that's like a legit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: a great solution for for everyone involved. I love seeing that.
Speaker 1: I got to be because my next fur neighbor, she's
Speaker 1: oh snap, and she she lives alone because as her
Speaker 1: son lives across the street from me, So it is
Speaker 1: that multigenerational street living at least um, at least where
Speaker 1: I'm at. Somebody shouldn't move in with her. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: sure she's got extra rooms she's not using. I'm sure
Speaker 1: she does. But it's Yeah, it's cool to see, and
Speaker 1: it's it's nice to kind of live in a place
Speaker 1: where you are. My neighbors are at different ages and
Speaker 1: stages of their lives. I think that is a good thing. Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about groceries here for a second, Matt, And
Speaker 1: because brand loyalty has it seems to be waning. As
Speaker 1: prices are rising right as inflation at the grocery store
Speaker 1: is somewhere in the twelve plus percent range, people are
Speaker 1: starting to trade down for for store brands. There's another
Speaker 1: article that said that people are downgrading two cheaper booze
Speaker 1: beer and cigarettes right now to amount of No, you're
Speaker 1: only drinking Jim Beam right for the time being, not
Speaker 1: even water, like, not against Jim Beam. If I wasn't
Speaker 1: drinking water, then that would increase my budget significantly. Yeah. Well, um,
Speaker 1: some some Americans still remain incredibly loyal to some specific brands,
Speaker 1: of course, but that's really to their financial detriment because
Speaker 1: see that just published a story about how much store
Speaker 1: brands can save you, and they claim, based on the
Speaker 1: data that they pulled from multiple grocery stores, that the
Speaker 1: average savings by switching from name brands to store brands
Speaker 1: is something in the range of believe that. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: backed up from that's so true what we've seen with
Speaker 1: our own very eyes and wint to the grocery store ourselves,
Speaker 1: but also from just kind of other data we've seen
Speaker 1: in the past. Store brands are one of the quickest
Speaker 1: ways to help you save money on your grocery bill,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a trade off that more people should
Speaker 1: be making. Definitely. Yeah, if you've only ever gone to
Speaker 1: Public's I challenge, you go to Aldi and by all
Speaker 1: the same types of items, you're not going to get
Speaker 1: the same name brands for the most part, and I
Speaker 1: guarantee you will see a forty reduction on that receipt
Speaker 1: even if right, like they talked about shopping at Whole
Speaker 1: Foods and how if you just opt for the store
Speaker 1: brand items at Whole Foods. But I want them to
Speaker 1: have that ALDI experienced it too. I mean, but if
Speaker 1: you went from shopping name brand at Whole Foods to all,
Speaker 1: you're going to cut your grocery bill at least in half, probably,
Speaker 1: but at least at wherever you shop at least opening
Speaker 1: for store brands is going to save you. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: the opposite of saving money on store brands is paying
Speaker 1: for something like or twenty dollar socks because the Journal
Speaker 1: they just wrote a story about that phenomena. And honestly, like,
Speaker 1: I don't I do not know who these people are,
Speaker 1: not met them. If I have four hundreds of dollars
Speaker 1: on socks, like I get it for like a pair
Speaker 1: of like Darn Tough socks. Those are my favorite nicer socks.
Speaker 1: But like we're still talking about socks that cost like
Speaker 1: around twenty bucks a pair. Uh, And you can get
Speaker 1: socks that are way cheaper at Costco or buying them
Speaker 1: in bulk online where you're buying like eight twelve pairs
Speaker 1: at once. But like, like for instance, Darn Tough, they
Speaker 1: makes them seriously comfortable socks, and their warranty is unmatched,
Speaker 1: like literally they will take any pair back if they
Speaker 1: have holes in them. I'll just read them about that.
Speaker 1: And they actually expanded their warranty page and they're showing
Speaker 1: pairs of socks and yeah, they look like old socks
Speaker 1: and they have holes in them, and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: send them back. We will send you a new pair
Speaker 1: that's phenomenal and the kind of brand I like to
Speaker 1: get behind. But it just doesn't seem like you're getting
Speaker 1: much in return if you're gonna spend like many times
Speaker 1: that on some super fancy socks here, you know, spending
Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars just to signal that you've got that money.
Speaker 1: This is conspicuous consumption, is all it is. It's it's
Speaker 1: luxury consumption. It's not like you're paying for something that's superior.
Speaker 1: You're really paying your paying for a feeling to show
Speaker 1: people you've got money. You're trying to show it off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then this is a sure fireway to to lose all
Speaker 1: of your money. Uh. And as we're talking about socks,
Speaker 1: this is a reminder for you to leave us a review.
Speaker 1: That is how you get entered to win one of
Speaker 1: the five pairs of How the Money socks. And these
Speaker 1: are performance crew socks. Joel, Like, these go like midway
Speaker 1: up the calf, would you say midway like almost up
Speaker 1: to the knee. They're beautiful up to the knee. You're
Speaker 1: not like soccer socks. You've got long legs, dude. For me,
Speaker 1: they almost go to my knee. I've got really short legs.
Speaker 1: Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for socks, get some
Speaker 1: for free by leaving a review UM and your favorite
Speaker 1: podcatcher for our show. We really appreciate it. It It helps
Speaker 1: us reach more people with money saving advice. And remember
Speaker 1: you just have to do that by this coming Wednesday
Speaker 1: at the the day and send us an email to
Speaker 1: how to Money pod at gmail dot com. We'll get
Speaker 1: you entered. And if you've left her view in the past,
Speaker 1: you can still enter. Just send us an email with
Speaker 1: that screenshot and we'll get you entered in. That's right,
Speaker 1: all right, Joel, that's gonna be it. We hope everyone
Speaker 1: has a great weekend and until next time, best friends Out,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out.