Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and Matt, and
Speaker 1: today we're discussing why streaming sucks and how you can
Speaker 1: eliminate expenses as cost creep up. That's right, man, we
Speaker 1: are talking about the streaming services out there. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of times when we talk about
Speaker 1: nerdier topics, we talk about subjects that are a little
Speaker 1: more theoretical. Not today. Today we are getting super practical,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about some of the different ways. First
Speaker 1: of all, that some of the different reasons why we
Speaker 1: think streaming should be less a part of your life.
Speaker 1: But also we're all gonna do some streaming, so we
Speaker 1: need to find ways to reduce that cost as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the practical world we live in means we all gotta
Speaker 1: stream at least a little bit, and so we've gotta
Speaker 1: talk about the whole gamut ideologue. We're not purists, know.
Speaker 1: We talk about some of these shows we watch on occasion,
Speaker 1: for sure. And and there's what you've been watching there,
Speaker 1: if you watched anything recently, trying to finish up Stranger
Speaker 1: Things season four. Okay, so I'm not I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything. I guess I've not watched a
Speaker 1: single episode, still trying to get settled into the new place,
Speaker 1: and I haven't. I haven't watched much tving. So you
Speaker 1: should just leave at least a few of those boxes
Speaker 1: unpacked and get that's exactly what we're gonna tell folks
Speaker 1: to not do during this episode. But hey, did you
Speaker 1: see that article about beer being good for gut health? Oh?
Speaker 1: I did, yes, yes, yes, I thought of it. It
Speaker 1: said something like one beer a day. Beer day keeps
Speaker 1: the doctor. I know. It's like, instead of apples, who
Speaker 1: needs those? Just drink a beer every single day, and
Speaker 1: and it, yeah, increases the microbiomes in your gut. It
Speaker 1: also only had like twenty something participants in that study.
Speaker 1: This is something like meta study, Matt, I'd rather pudget
Speaker 1: Pidgeon hole these, you know, this small study but suit
Speaker 1: my narrative. But but also obviously this is something we
Speaker 1: already knew, right, I mean, was it athena that creature
Speaker 1: comforts beer. It even features lack of basillas on the label.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the gut bacteria that's supposed to
Speaker 1: be good for you, Like, that's the bacteria that's also
Speaker 1: in yogurt that is a probiotic and so man, we've
Speaker 1: known this for a while. Drinking kombucca also supposed to
Speaker 1: be good for that. All the fermented vegetables evidently are
Speaker 1: supposed to be really good for the kim Oh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so actually I think kimchi and sara krat are like
Speaker 1: the number one and number two when it comes to
Speaker 1: those different fermented vegetables that you can enjoy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know this is something we knew and aside from
Speaker 1: just like the scientific chemistry reason why it's good for you,
Speaker 1: let me come on, everybody knows that happen a beer.
Speaker 1: It's gonna make you less dressed, It allows you to
Speaker 1: unwind a little bit, and when you're happier in extreme
Speaker 1: moderation folks, well yeah, I mean if you're crushing crushing
Speaker 1: a pat like a case of beer every night and
Speaker 1: you have a disease that doesn't apply to you, you
Speaker 1: should be drinking much much less but a beer day, absolutely, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Part that's what's why we drink it on the Show's
Speaker 1: we do it for the gut. We do it for
Speaker 1: the gut health really in here, it's just to make
Speaker 1: our bodies are stay as Finally, two machines as they are, right,
Speaker 1: that's speaking of That meant the beer we're having on
Speaker 1: this episode is called Benevolence. It's by Flying Machine, It's
Speaker 1: a Vienna lager. And we'll give our thoughts on the
Speaker 1: spear at the end of the episode. Yes, I guess
Speaker 1: you know what I'm gonna give like a gut review
Speaker 1: at the end of this episode too. Let's you know
Speaker 1: kind of how things are going on my tummy. My
Speaker 1: gut reaction is that this is a good one. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about streaming today, Matt, because we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to be nuanced here because people like to stream.
Speaker 1: Like this is one of those things where we can't
Speaker 1: come down hard and be like nobody should stream anything ever,
Speaker 1: because one that would not necessarily a good advice. There's
Speaker 1: good stuff out there to watch on occasion, but it's
Speaker 1: worth talking about. And and and made me think as
Speaker 1: we were preparing for this episode about curb alerts, because
Speaker 1: you you like finding cool crop on the side of
Speaker 1: the ro like a nice curb alert. Yeah, you mentioned
Speaker 1: the slide recently on the show that you found and
Speaker 1: you you ended up putting that up in your new backyard.
Speaker 1: It looks great. Kids are playing on it. That was
Speaker 1: a curb alert win, right, um, And then there are
Speaker 1: other things that let's say, let's say you took herb
Speaker 1: alerts to the extreme right, you found yourself driving around
Speaker 1: town for a few hours every Saturday, and your wife's like,
Speaker 1: where are you going? You're like, I'm a hunt for
Speaker 1: curb alerts. I would have a problem, not only a
Speaker 1: personal problem, but a personal relational problem, a problem with
Speaker 1: her too. She wouldn't be down with it. You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's possible to be dedicating too much of your
Speaker 1: free time to the pursuit of free stuff. I see
Speaker 1: where you're going. Yeah, so you know curb alerts their
Speaker 1: best really when somebody nearby where you live is getting
Speaker 1: rid of an item and you're going to be able
Speaker 1: to use it in the near future, not just like
Speaker 1: hoard it and put it in the attic somewhere. And
Speaker 1: so just because you can throw it in the back
Speaker 1: of your car doesn't mean you should, right. But Matt,
Speaker 1: if you continue done that path, and you're doing it
Speaker 1: for a few hours on the weekend, like you could
Speaker 1: you go on that show holders or something like that,
Speaker 1: you might turn into a person I barely recognize if
Speaker 1: that was the case someone I used to do right exactly.
Speaker 1: So similarly, we would say streaming subscriptions can be great, right,
Speaker 1: but doing business with too many of these streaming companies
Speaker 1: right that have the word plus at the end of it.
Speaker 1: Why do they always like that? Why is there no
Speaker 1: good naming convention besides plus originality? Yeah, honestly, like it
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of So this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a tangent, but Nibisco, you know, the company that makes
Speaker 1: cookies and stuff. Did you know that it stands for
Speaker 1: you used to stand for National Biscuit Company, Okay, And
Speaker 1: so like all of these companies back in the day,
Speaker 1: they always put co at the end of their name.
Speaker 1: In a similar way, I feel like all these streaming
Speaker 1: services are just putting the plus plus. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of the go to. There's got to be a better,
Speaker 1: better naming convention that someone can come with, come up with.
Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, it just makes me the plus co. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you should be in marketing, and and it's partly because
Speaker 1: we don't want you giving Netflix, Disney or HBO too
Speaker 1: much of your money, but really there are other reasons
Speaker 1: too that we're gonna touch on in this topic. We
Speaker 1: don't necessarily want you dedicating a hundred dollars a month
Speaker 1: ord screaming streaming services, which it feels like that's totally
Speaker 1: possible to do right now, if if not even more,
Speaker 1: some people are spending more money than on streaming then
Speaker 1: they used to on their cable bil Yeah. Yeah. Subscriptions
Speaker 1: in general are proliferating like rabbits, and streaming services are
Speaker 1: one of the biggest culprits within the subscription space. Actually,
Speaker 1: someone recently posted a Captain Planet gift in the Facebook
Speaker 1: group that kind of it sums up exactly how we
Speaker 1: feel about streaming at this point. Had their kids holding
Speaker 1: up their rings and saying Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, Netflix,
Speaker 1: and then Captain Planets saying when your prices combined on
Speaker 1: the same price as cable. It is starting to feel
Speaker 1: this way that this is true because it's actually the
Speaker 1: reality today. Uh, you know, streaming it was supposed to
Speaker 1: save us money while simultaneously giving us more choices back
Speaker 1: in the day, and you know, like when the streaming
Speaker 1: air began, that was kind of the case. Netflix was
Speaker 1: way cheaper than cable at that point, paying you know,
Speaker 1: like five nine for one DVD at a time. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it was really the only game in town. But
Speaker 1: now that they're making multimillion dollar movies and TV shows
Speaker 1: that they released like seemingly on a on a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: Netflix is not as cheap as it was a few
Speaker 1: years back, and a bunch of competitors have also entered
Speaker 1: the space as well. But this means that we're living
Speaker 1: in sort of this golden age of streaming content. Uh.
Speaker 1: It may never get better than it is right now,
Speaker 1: but that golden age comes with trade offs, uh, namely
Speaker 1: for your money and for your time as well as
Speaker 1: for your attention as well. Yeah, exactly. So it feels
Speaker 1: like we're spending more and more time in front of
Speaker 1: our TV's streaming content. And I get it. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of good content to watch. There's too much, right,
Speaker 1: none of us could watch all the good stuff that
Speaker 1: we want to because there's just a deluge basically of
Speaker 1: stuff on every single service. There's there's plenty to watch
Speaker 1: for multiple lifetimes. And a recent article in Bloomberg was
Speaker 1: it was making the point that we've hit peak streaming.
Speaker 1: Matt right, And I think you know, we've talked about
Speaker 1: living in the golden age of streaming, but we might
Speaker 1: be on the tail end of that at this point, right, So,
Speaker 1: I think so, and and and the point in that
Speaker 1: article was that we're going to see more austerity from
Speaker 1: the big companies when it comes to purchasing content, Like
Speaker 1: they're not going to be spending as much because some
Speaker 1: of them had spent two million dollars in an effort
Speaker 1: to lure the big name act ors and make some
Speaker 1: you know, a movie that's that that's a blockbuster, and
Speaker 1: they've realized that, well, it doesn't necessarily turn into the
Speaker 1: eyeballs they want, doesn't always with the revenue they I
Speaker 1: do agree with that. I mean, so when I say
Speaker 1: golden age, I mean I think we will continue to
Speaker 1: have amazing options at our disposal. But I do think
Speaker 1: that the in general, that the different companies will be
Speaker 1: spending less money because they're seeing that they can't count
Speaker 1: on their revenues continuing to increase. Subscriber growth was bound
Speaker 1: too slow, right, and they can't keep retaining eyeballs forever.
Speaker 1: And because there are more and more services now, people
Speaker 1: are bouncing around from service to service, they're not necessarily
Speaker 1: just paying the Netflix bill every single month. Without thinking
Speaker 1: about it, and it's it's just short lived too, because
Speaker 1: of the how bingeable things are these days, Like people
Speaker 1: will watch a show and then they're like, great, got
Speaker 1: what I wanted, I'm out. And so it looks like
Speaker 1: some of these streaming services are going back to an
Speaker 1: old school release schedule for some of their more popular shows,
Speaker 1: like the two at the beginning and then one every
Speaker 1: single week. I think it makes a lot of sense
Speaker 1: from an economic perspective for these companies, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's probably better for everyone's health as well, yes, for
Speaker 1: everybody watching instead of sitting down. Man, it makes me
Speaker 1: think of another meme literally started like nine nine on
Speaker 1: Friday and end at like five ams, where someone's just like,
Speaker 1: sit down for a three and a half hour movie,
Speaker 1: No way, But get me to watch nine hours of
Speaker 1: a TV show where you put little breaks in between
Speaker 1: each episode. Oh, sign me up. Yeah, even though it
Speaker 1: starts instantly, you know, streaming the next episode, and unless
Speaker 1: you tell it not to exactly, you're sitting there watching
Speaker 1: two hours back to back, always right, right. But the
Speaker 1: products we've been paying like twelve dollars or more a
Speaker 1: month for I think they're likely to get worse in
Speaker 1: the coming years. We'll see what happens. But your bill
Speaker 1: is going to go up, the quality is going to
Speaker 1: go down. I feel like it's already happening, the writings
Speaker 1: on the wall. So this is just another reason to
Speaker 1: to reconsider which streaming services you're subscribed to and how
Speaker 1: much you're paying for me. Yeah, yeah, So I I
Speaker 1: could foresee the quality staying the same or potentially even
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe getting better, like a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I do see the prices going up for sure,
Speaker 1: because honestly, like the way I see this is similar
Speaker 1: to like the ride sharing apps, right, Like we're basically
Speaker 1: your your rides are getting subsidized because these companies are
Speaker 1: wanting market share, and so like with the ride sharing apps,
Speaker 1: they're wanting to get as much market share as possible,
Speaker 1: and they're counting on that continuing growth. They're counting on
Speaker 1: the continually increasing number of subscribers. And what we saw
Speaker 1: first quarter earlier this year was Netflix experiencing their first
Speaker 1: ever decline in the number of subscribers that they have,
Speaker 1: and so I'm sure that was a wake up call.
Speaker 1: Whether they're like, oh shoot, uh, we we weren't expecting
Speaker 1: all that to happen, and so because of that, yeah,
Speaker 1: they can't keep spending like crazy. Uh. And so I
Speaker 1: do think that we're gonna see the prices take up
Speaker 1: as these different companies are trying to make a profit
Speaker 1: keep their shareholders happy. But at least you don't have
Speaker 1: to deal with commercials though, right, Like that's one of
Speaker 1: the that's probably one of the biggest perks of streaming,
Speaker 1: although even that might be coming to an end because
Speaker 1: commercials and streaming services are becoming more in vogue these days.
Speaker 1: It sounds like Netflix that they're going to adopt an
Speaker 1: ad supported model pretty soon. Hulu they've been doing this
Speaker 1: for a while. Uh. And some of the different free
Speaker 1: services that we're going to mention later on, they are
Speaker 1: all built on the AD model. Uh. And that I mean.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that because it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 1: But you can't skip them like you can when you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. And so some folks hate commercials, other
Speaker 1: folks don't mind them. Personally, I am not a fan.
Speaker 1: If I'm being held hostage, right, if I have the
Speaker 1: ability to quickly put up my phone, you know, hit
Speaker 1: forward four or six times depending on the show, I
Speaker 1: know I know how many times they hit it. I
Speaker 1: don't mind that. I don't mind using the ad supported
Speaker 1: version of Spotify. I'm not gonna pay the premium. I
Speaker 1: don't mind if the little ad pops up and I
Speaker 1: have to click off of the thing where they're trying
Speaker 1: to get me to upgrade to save you ten bucks
Speaker 1: a month. It's like, all right, yeah, that's a minor
Speaker 1: inconvenience exactly. But when it comes to it, like the
Speaker 1: medium matters, I guess, is what I'm saying here. And
Speaker 1: recently we did use one of the free platforms to
Speaker 1: watch a movie and it was the worst because these ads.
Speaker 1: First of all, I wasn't used to it, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to step back from that once you've realized how
Speaker 1: good it can be. It just like ruined the whole
Speaker 1: flow of the movie because they weren't strategically placed or anything.
Speaker 1: You're watching the scene and all of a sudden, just
Speaker 1: in the middle of it, right in the middle of it,
Speaker 1: and by the second one, I was wanting to pull
Speaker 1: my hair out. Uh. That is not something that I'm
Speaker 1: willing to give up. Is having commercials within Definitely not
Speaker 1: in movies with TV shows, that's that's fine, that's one thing,
Speaker 1: because I mean the old TV shows were created with
Speaker 1: commercials in mind, Like they had specific breaks. A thirty
Speaker 1: minute TV show was like twenty two minutes minutes exactly,
Speaker 1: and they would end at certain scenes and you knew
Speaker 1: to expect that. You know, when you just slice up
Speaker 1: a movie when your jarred out of like this really
Speaker 1: emotional or hilarious. I don't know any scene like that.
Speaker 1: I'm not cool with that, Okay, I got you. I
Speaker 1: feel that. I think maybe one of the best things
Speaker 1: about streaming commercialists is when it's kids stuff, because I
Speaker 1: feel like my kids one time we stayed at a
Speaker 1: hotel room and they were watching something on live TV
Speaker 1: on Nickelodeon or something like that, and I remember them
Speaker 1: just being ecstatic over all the commercials more than even
Speaker 1: than the content. Where have all these toys been my
Speaker 1: entire life? And then they start begging for things. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh no, we're gonna have to go back to streaming
Speaker 1: kid content and and we'll never get cable because that reason.
Speaker 1: So that that's probably the biggest reason doabley commercials. Like
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, my kid wants a slipping slide
Speaker 1: exactly exactly all these things that didn't they didn't even
Speaker 1: know existed. But yea, yea, it'll it'll mess your kid's
Speaker 1: brains and they're gonna start begging for stuff. But the
Speaker 1: reality is, you know, we might be spending ten to
Speaker 1: twelve dollars a month for something that we're barely using.
Speaker 1: Right there, there's some people are still subscribed matt to
Speaker 1: streaming services or to you know, other subscriptions for that matter,
Speaker 1: that they're not even really taking advantage of. That's one
Speaker 1: thing that has to we have to point out, like
Speaker 1: maybe canceling it isn't even going to make a big dent.
Speaker 1: It'll help your monthly budget, but it's not gonna make
Speaker 1: a big dent in your viewing habits or in what
Speaker 1: your life looks like. And so yeah, multiply that by
Speaker 1: the number of different platforms. Right tend to twelve bucks
Speaker 1: a month, but some of them are even more expensive
Speaker 1: than that, and you can find yourself in that Captain
Speaker 1: planet territory, that cable bill territory that is like terror
Speaker 1: zing your monthly budget. And so uh, it's actually it's
Speaker 1: it's interesting at the beginning what you're talking. There's so
Speaker 1: much to talk about cutting the cord, and now it
Speaker 1: seems like, at least for some people's doing habits, cable
Speaker 1: might actually save the money over uh there there, especially
Speaker 1: if they're subscribed to one of the live TV style
Speaker 1: services that are five dollars a month. But I think
Speaker 1: now is as good of a time as any to
Speaker 1: kind of reassess your your streaming needs in in the summer,
Speaker 1: because maybe you're, yeah, taking more trips, You're going to
Speaker 1: local pool more often, You're going on more hikes, and
Speaker 1: you're like, I have found myself not sitting in front
Speaker 1: of the TV as much. I don't know, but yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to offer some solutions in this episode for
Speaker 1: how to think about the which streaming options you you
Speaker 1: choose to pay for and and how to lower your
Speaker 1: overall bill a little bit. Um. But but first we're
Speaker 1: actually gonna get a little philosophical about streaming and we'll
Speaker 1: do our best impression of Plato for you guys right
Speaker 1: after this break All right, we're back from the break Angel.
Speaker 1: We're talking about why streaming sucks. But first we're gonna
Speaker 1: change directions and ask the question why do we stream?
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and wax poetic. Let's get philosophical here
Speaker 1: for a second, because I think it's also important for
Speaker 1: us to ask ourselves why it is we even watched
Speaker 1: TV in the first place, instead of just picking the
Speaker 1: two or three streaming services you like the best in
Speaker 1: calling it a day. I think it's a good exercise
Speaker 1: to think about why we're so excited to pay for
Speaker 1: streaming entertainment in the first place. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like one of the I think top reasons I think
Speaker 1: that's worth mentioning is because of fomo fear of missing out. Man.
Speaker 1: I think this is one reason that it seems many
Speaker 1: are addicted to streaming content because, for example, like if
Speaker 1: everyone at work was talking about Game of Thrones, is
Speaker 1: you know, like back in twenty nineteen, when it was
Speaker 1: just NonStop everywhere, you may have felt left out of
Speaker 1: the conversation. You know, I didn't. I never watched it,
Speaker 1: and you didn't. You didn't have that sense of fomo
Speaker 1: back then. I mean I heard a lot of people
Speaker 1: talking about it. I knew it was popular, but it
Speaker 1: just well, there are a lot of people listening who
Speaker 1: who did feel that Because of that, they're like, maybe
Speaker 1: I should you know the Banisters? Who are they? Or
Speaker 1: what banisters or the lanisters banisters like a stair railing.
Speaker 1: The only thing I know from Game of Thrones is
Speaker 1: winter is coming. And I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 1: I just see them, but you know it because it
Speaker 1: was such a part of our culture, right, And if
Speaker 1: that was you, there's a chance that you felt culturally irrelevant,
Speaker 1: maybe even at that point in time. But like we
Speaker 1: we share this because it takes this element of not
Speaker 1: caring to push past this. Like, dude, just this morning,
Speaker 1: you know, we had a lovely conversation about the hike
Speaker 1: uh that we went on. You you talked about the
Speaker 1: pool that you all visited recently, Like we were then
Speaker 1: talking about what we're looking for most in our our
Speaker 1: new community here. We were talking about the things that
Speaker 1: matter in life, right, And obviously there can be times
Speaker 1: for those types of conversations and catching up on the show.
Speaker 1: But the more you're talking about these real things that
Speaker 1: matter in life, you know, I think you're gonna find
Speaker 1: less of a need for your life to be consumed
Speaker 1: with the latest series or the latest O or the
Speaker 1: you know, the latest movie that might be out. Also
Speaker 1: to just with a volume of content, uh and diverging
Speaker 1: tastes out there with everybody. You can't be caught up
Speaker 1: on everything anyway. And so what we're saying here is,
Speaker 1: don't worry about feeling, like I said, culturally irrelevant, and
Speaker 1: instead focus on the things that matter, focus on the
Speaker 1: just the deeper and truer conversations that spans all of
Speaker 1: the different streaming genres. Yeah. Yeah, And and we're not
Speaker 1: saying that you need to live some sort of like
Speaker 1: walden Pond existence where you build your own log cabin
Speaker 1: and you live on a lake. And I'm not even
Speaker 1: sure if that's what happened in walden Pond. I'm just
Speaker 1: making a guess here. Uh, yeah, that's what he did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So so I'm just like, it's not that you need
Speaker 1: to cut yourself off from anything modern. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't need to go live amongst the amish too to
Speaker 1: get away from this sort of nasty and nefarious disease
Speaker 1: that is streaming. Like, that's not that's not what we're
Speaker 1: trying to say. But what we're saying is, like some
Speaker 1: of the reasons that people stream is it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: because it's in their best interest or because they want
Speaker 1: to watch TV for four hours a day. It is
Speaker 1: because they want to be caught up in the cultural
Speaker 1: zeygeist match. They want to know what's going on, and
Speaker 1: streaming television and movies are one of the top things
Speaker 1: people talk about and they don't want to be left
Speaker 1: out of the conduct exactly. And I think another another
Speaker 1: reason that people tend to stream a lot watch a
Speaker 1: lot of TV is for escape. And I think the
Speaker 1: sad reality is, yeah, we we use TV as a
Speaker 1: way to kind of forget about the cares of our
Speaker 1: everyday life. We kind of hit the pause button on
Speaker 1: the negative things that are happening all around us, whether
Speaker 1: it's just kind of in the country as a whole,
Speaker 1: or in the world, or even just in our own
Speaker 1: personal lives. And you know, interestingly enough, TV is America's
Speaker 1: most popular leisure activity. When I read that, just to
Speaker 1: see a phrase that way was shocking and saddening. Um,
Speaker 1: it's like, again, like you know, you and I we
Speaker 1: like to watch a good TV show every now and again.
Speaker 1: I'm not against stranger things or even paying for for streaming. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll get to like how to save money specifically on
Speaker 1: stream in a little bit. But that's just a sobering fact,
Speaker 1: right that the average American household is watching something like
Speaker 1: eight hours of TV day, and individual Americans eighteen and
Speaker 1: up or averaging more than four hours and twenty minutes
Speaker 1: of TV watching. That's according to Nielsen. Cash's shocking, like
Speaker 1: so much time watching watching TV and and I guess
Speaker 1: it just makes me wonder, like, are we are watching
Speaker 1: to avoid facing reality? And I think for some people,
Speaker 1: for some people that's the case. So it's it's really
Speaker 1: it is worth taking a hard look at how much
Speaker 1: TV we're watching and assessing whether or not it's good
Speaker 1: for us, Like what are the motivations behind as my
Speaker 1: mom always called it, vegging out and um and just
Speaker 1: just being on the couch too much in general. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so instead of escaping by watching TV, I think
Speaker 1: the true call here is to engage in those things, right.
Speaker 1: I think there's a way for us to see the
Speaker 1: news on TV or to you know, see the news
Speaker 1: that we're reading online and finding ways that we can
Speaker 1: engage at whatever capacity and at whatever level, whether it's local, community, state,
Speaker 1: nationally that you have the ability to whether it's you, uh,
Speaker 1: sticking your head in the sand and avoiding your financial situation.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the case for you and and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: you know what, instead of facing that, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to flip on the TV, you know, watch another episode.
Speaker 1: But I think there's a way for us to engage
Speaker 1: with these things and not to just escape or to
Speaker 1: even know why it is or what it is or
Speaker 1: trying to escape from, but then to sort of see
Speaker 1: it and to point it out and say, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to let my life look like that. Instead,
Speaker 1: I'm going to engage and wonder that. Other surveys reflect
Speaker 1: the fact that we have fewer close friends than we
Speaker 1: used to as well, We're spending less time with our
Speaker 1: neighbors and friends, leaving us feeling more disconnected. And while
Speaker 1: watching TV it's easy, it's not ultimately as alfilling as
Speaker 1: finding and building real community where you live. And so
Speaker 1: we would ask you to maybe even start documenting how
Speaker 1: much TV you're watching, uh and once you figure out
Speaker 1: that amounts basically we're trying to create a TV budget
Speaker 1: for you, and we're trying to get you to count
Speaker 1: your your viewing minutes. But once you identify that, maybe
Speaker 1: can cut back by May and opt to spend more
Speaker 1: time cultivating an actual hobby or going for a bike ride,
Speaker 1: or you know, calling a friend, and we see all
Speaker 1: this realizing that we're probably sounding like your mom, but
Speaker 1: we're only highlighting this because we're recognizing the fact that
Speaker 1: not only will you be able to save money, but
Speaker 1: there's a good chance that you're gonna be happier because
Speaker 1: of it as well. Yeah, and and even when you
Speaker 1: think about it, Matt, we're watching a lot of TV,
Speaker 1: and then we're having conversations with our friends about the
Speaker 1: TV we're watching, like it dominates so much of our
Speaker 1: lives in so many ways. And even just the conversation
Speaker 1: do you find yourself having with other people. If you
Speaker 1: watch less TV, they're more productive, they're more fulfilling because
Speaker 1: you're not just catching up literally on the thing you
Speaker 1: spent three hours doing the night before. And so we've
Speaker 1: said that the reasons people watch TV are fomo are
Speaker 1: for escape. But then a third reason I think people
Speaker 1: watch TV is it's just purely for entertainment, and and
Speaker 1: that is it's the innocent reason to watch TV. So
Speaker 1: I do it because I enjoy it, because it's freaking entertaining.
Speaker 1: And they are right, like we are in this golden
Speaker 1: age where there there's a lot of good stuff to watch,
Speaker 1: and and so we are trying to we don't want
Speaker 1: to get overly preachy. We don't want to say make
Speaker 1: it sound like, you know, we don't like watching awesome stuff,
Speaker 1: and and so yeah, I don't know. Some some TV
Speaker 1: shows are just truly artistic. For instance, J d Roth
Speaker 1: that we've found on the show before, he recently wrote
Speaker 1: about why he loves Stranger Things so much, and I
Speaker 1: just kind of found myself in total agreement. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I haven't really thought about it. I just thought of
Speaker 1: it as just kind of entered an entertaining show. But
Speaker 1: the reality is, uh, it's got this nostalgia factor, right,
Speaker 1: it's got deep concepts. It is it is, and it's
Speaker 1: got concepts like friendship and loyalty at the heart of
Speaker 1: the show, which he appreciated, which I do too. Makes
Speaker 1: me think about breaking bad, Like why was I so
Speaker 1: attached to that show when it was on and you
Speaker 1: valued all the things that they were doing The LAS
Speaker 1: show exactly. I think meth hampenamine is great for everyone. No,
Speaker 1: it's because like all of these like deeper aspects of humanity.
Speaker 1: Maybe the fact that that some of these people, these
Speaker 1: characters were flawed they were torn. They were they were good,
Speaker 1: they were but they were simultaneously good and bad. Like
Speaker 1: they had a lot of distinct features. I mean, I
Speaker 1: felt like the human element of that show was raw
Speaker 1: and powerful, not to mention just kind of the New
Speaker 1: Mexico scenery that was was pretty pretty solid in there too.
Speaker 1: So it's artistic from like a cinematography standpoint as well. Sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think so there's many reasons that you
Speaker 1: can enjoy something right, whether it's because of just the
Speaker 1: artful storytelling, the narrative that someone is able to wee
Speaker 1: you throughout a story. Maybe it's the drama involved within
Speaker 1: a story, or like it makes me think of Planet
Speaker 1: Earth that like the BBC series when it first came out,
Speaker 1: it was it was amazing, It was breathtaking. I remember
Speaker 1: why walking through the Best Buy and they had scenes
Speaker 1: from that playing on their ultra high def TVs and
Speaker 1: just having my mind blown watching these the first of
Speaker 1: Nature's phenomenal. It was phenomenal, and so you know, or
Speaker 1: maybe it's like maybe like a nice twist at the
Speaker 1: end of your like a m Night Shamalan style, Like
Speaker 1: there are so many different reasons that we are drawn
Speaker 1: to entertainment, and every one of those reasons are valid,
Speaker 1: but sort of like what I was saying at the beginning,
Speaker 1: like these are sort of the quote unquote innocent reasons
Speaker 1: that were you know that we say that we like
Speaker 1: something and that's totally fine, but keep in mind some
Speaker 1: of these less innocent reasons like FOMA or escape, where
Speaker 1: we're trying to ignore what's going on in our real life.
Speaker 1: That is the key thing that we're trying to to
Speaker 1: highlight into point out here that we want to make
Speaker 1: sure that we are all avoiding. But so that being said,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like we've philosophized enough here, so
Speaker 1: let's talk about how to actually cut that streaming build
Speaker 1: down h to size and in a practical way. Uh So,
Speaker 1: if you're a heavy streamer, if you're looking to cut
Speaker 1: your monthly costs, there are more good free options out
Speaker 1: there for you than ever before. So we figured we'd
Speaker 1: mentioned a few of those, and also don't worry because
Speaker 1: we will make sure to list all of the different
Speaker 1: resources up on our show notes for this episode just
Speaker 1: in case you're driving. But let's start with some of
Speaker 1: the free options out there that the that the library
Speaker 1: offers and that is Hoopla and Canopy. Both of these
Speaker 1: library apps are great when it comes to being able
Speaker 1: to watch stuff for free. Personally, I prefer the different
Speaker 1: audio books, even some of the e books that they
Speaker 1: have available, but generally speaking, those are resources that we
Speaker 1: oftentimes forget about. But there are other options as well. Pluto, Uh,
Speaker 1: they give you some great live streaming options for free.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to create an account with them.
Speaker 1: I was actually shocked at how many options that they
Speaker 1: had up there. I randomly checked in on that one
Speaker 1: map because we were kind of like preparing for this
Speaker 1: episode and uh, you know, caught five minutes of one
Speaker 1: of those old school Iron Chef episodes. Those things are classic, man,
Speaker 1: like what a good show. It's like, oh man, I
Speaker 1: remember when Richard Blade looked like that, and then I
Speaker 1: had to be Chef. I had to be like wait,
Speaker 1: no stop, Joel, like you know you got you got
Speaker 1: sucked in. You don't need old school Iron Chef in
Speaker 1: your life, but to be Roku. They both have some
Speaker 1: very popular free streaming channels as well. They are also
Speaker 1: worth checking out. I think Crackle is another one. So
Speaker 1: there are a bunch If you're like, hey, I Matt
Speaker 1: and Joel, I you're wrong. I don't care how much
Speaker 1: how many hours I'm spending in front of the TV.
Speaker 1: I just want to do it for less money. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what the services are offering, many of them AD supported,
Speaker 1: and it's one of those things where, Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: shocked at how much free content there is now, and
Speaker 1: I think that's again what's going to start eating away
Speaker 1: at the profitability of some of the ones that you
Speaker 1: pay a monthly fee for. And more and more people
Speaker 1: are are b are okay with watching ads, Matt, So
Speaker 1: I know you and I were. That's not our preference,
Speaker 1: but there's times if they're not too intrusive, I don't mind.
Speaker 1: I would be fine with it if it was on
Speaker 1: a TV show like Iron Chef or something like that.
Speaker 1: But it's not gonna work when it comes with with
Speaker 1: a movie, right exactly. So, like if you're watching a
Speaker 1: Harry Potter with your kids, you're like, you don't want
Speaker 1: to be stopped for commercial breaks of like two minutes
Speaker 1: every fifteen or twenty minutes, and so I totally get that.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, I think something like fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: of people UH surveys say they're now totally fine to
Speaker 1: watch uh, to stream content in exchange for watching ads.
Speaker 1: And so hopefully yeah, one of these one or two
Speaker 1: of these services are ones that you'll like as you
Speaker 1: kind of look into them. And of course, like Peacock
Speaker 1: has come around, they've got like a free tier that's
Speaker 1: AD supported as well, so you can watch that. And
Speaker 1: you know, while streaming is pretty great, I would say,
Speaker 1: don't forget about the antiquated technology that still works like
Speaker 1: a charm that allows you to watch television for free. Antennas, right,
Speaker 1: that's one of those things that people forget about. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm a single friend who has an
Speaker 1: antenna attached to their TV and if I could fix
Speaker 1: that on their behalf, I would, and maybe I should
Speaker 1: like and buy the antenna's for Christmas or whatever. But
Speaker 1: it just works great for getting a lot of your
Speaker 1: local channels and it's, um it's like streaming over the
Speaker 1: air before streaming actually existed. So and you can actually
Speaker 1: surprisingly get an amazing picture too when with your antenna.
Speaker 1: Well it's HD, right, I mean, so they're broadcasting in
Speaker 1: full HD compressed with anywhere exactly, so it's not digitized.
Speaker 1: And when you say I mean, I think most people
Speaker 1: know what we're talking about when we see antenna, but
Speaker 1: we're not talking about the old school bunny ears. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the black, uh little square like piece of plastic. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that you tacked to the wall. That's how we do it.
Speaker 1: We just as long as you don't hit the I guess.
Speaker 1: If you don't hit the wires, I think it's fine.
Speaker 1: But we just use the thumb tack and literally just
Speaker 1: tack it to the wall behind the TV and it
Speaker 1: does a great job and capturing those ABC and NBC signals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I forget which one of them we don't get too well,
Speaker 1: but that's fine. One then you can like tarn it,
Speaker 1: I guess, or you can even get a more high
Speaker 1: powered antenna, or you can there's YouTube videos where you
Speaker 1: can make your own antenna and stick it in your
Speaker 1: attic like seriously for likeucks or something like that, and
Speaker 1: they're they're gonna really be able to catch a signal
Speaker 1: and they're even better and they'll reach you for then
Speaker 1: you know part of what channels you're gonna get. It
Speaker 1: depends on where you live and the kind of antenna
Speaker 1: you have, but I think it's antenna web is a
Speaker 1: good website to kind of check and see what channels
Speaker 1: are available where you live, which ones you can get well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, antenna's are like fifteen bucks. They're cheap fixed
Speaker 1: and they allow you to get some of that TV,
Speaker 1: the local TV at least that you might want, without
Speaker 1: paying a dime. And it makes me think that just
Speaker 1: one more free service. YouTube, of course, is one of
Speaker 1: those things that it's kind of different than a lot
Speaker 1: of the other ones we're talking about because it's user
Speaker 1: generated content. But there's so much good stuff on there now,
Speaker 1: and there's even educational stuff on there. Now. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying YouTube is mostly educational content, but some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that I consume on YouTube is like long form
Speaker 1: interesting conversations or whatever. And so if you're into learning
Speaker 1: something while you're streaming, I think that's a much better
Speaker 1: use of it. And YouTube is actually one of the
Speaker 1: best places for that kind of content now. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, I think that's I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's right. Most content on YouTube is free. You just
Speaker 1: have to watch like that five seconds of ads before
Speaker 1: you hit skip ads in the lower right hand corner.
Speaker 1: But there is a way that you could pay a
Speaker 1: lot of money for the YouTube content that you consume.
Speaker 1: That's right, you guessed it. We're gonna talk about sports
Speaker 1: and the myriad ways that you can get your sports content.
Speaker 1: We will get to all of those different options right
Speaker 1: after this. Alright, we're back. We're talking about why streaming sucks,
Speaker 1: and it's mostly because it's parting you from your money
Speaker 1: and your time. Um, you know, more more than it
Speaker 1: should be, and so we want to help you come
Speaker 1: at that in your life. We want you to sign
Speaker 1: up for some of those free services to spend less
Speaker 1: when you're streaming. We want you to also just spend
Speaker 1: less time streaming in general, find more productive things to do,
Speaker 1: and create more connections in your community. We think that's
Speaker 1: a healthy approach. But man, let's talk about sports too,
Speaker 1: because when we're talking about streaming and cutting the streaming bill,
Speaker 1: one of the hardest sections of your streaming bill to
Speaker 1: lower is if you're a big sports fan, because the
Speaker 1: costs rack up quickly, and people who are die hard
Speaker 1: for their team, or their sport or all the sports
Speaker 1: have the most difficult time being able to reduce the
Speaker 1: costs of their monthly bill. And the it seems like
Speaker 1: live sports is kind of fracturing into a bunch of
Speaker 1: these different streaming services. So like for some NFL games,
Speaker 1: now you're gonna have to have Amazon Prime in order
Speaker 1: to watch them. You know, ESPN still hosts a lot
Speaker 1: of important games for basically every sport, so it feels
Speaker 1: like you need to have ESPN as well, And and
Speaker 1: some of them are on regular cable ESPN others are
Speaker 1: on their streaming cousin, which is ESPN Plus. You know Apple,
Speaker 1: Apple just bought the rights to stream MLS games, Hulu
Speaker 1: has Live Sports to the list just goes on and on.
Speaker 1: So it feels like if a person wants to watch
Speaker 1: live sports but it doesn't want to go bankrupt, um,
Speaker 1: at least for some of them, cable might be the
Speaker 1: best option. Uh, the antenna comes in handy, like we
Speaker 1: were just talking about for for lots of NFL games
Speaker 1: and ESPN Plus, it's it's not expensive, but it also
Speaker 1: doesn't stream everything that ESPN itself is broadcasting. So when
Speaker 1: when we're talking about the best streaming options for for sports,
Speaker 1: two of the best channels out there are food Boat
Speaker 1: TV and YouTube TV. And so yeah, you're you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna pay a lot of money though in order to
Speaker 1: sign up for those, guys, YouTube tv is sixty a month,
Speaker 1: So you gotta really expensive, you gotta really like sports,
Speaker 1: you gotta that's gotta be a big part of your
Speaker 1: life in order to justify that. Uh, the great thing
Speaker 1: is if you're a Premier League soccer fan, all you
Speaker 1: gotta have is Peacock Premium and you can watch those
Speaker 1: matches for five bucks a month. That's not bad. But really,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to it, because there are regional
Speaker 1: sports packages Matt that some of the baseball games are
Speaker 1: on your your local hometown team, and there aren't many
Speaker 1: places that offer those. You can't sign up for those
Speaker 1: directly at think direct tv is the only place where
Speaker 1: you can get those regional sports packages, so you need
Speaker 1: to look into their streaming option, which I think is
Speaker 1: eighty five dollars a month. Um. Sling tv is another
Speaker 1: one worth looking at if you're a big sports fan.
Speaker 1: But really, those all of those live sports streaming services,
Speaker 1: you need to kind of compare and decide well, which
Speaker 1: which teams, which sports are most important to me, or
Speaker 1: which ones can I give up and kind of do
Speaker 1: a cost benefit analysis to make sure that you're not
Speaker 1: overpaying for sports that you're not able to watch as
Speaker 1: much as you'd like. That's right. Yeah. One thing that's
Speaker 1: important to note is that there are a lot of
Speaker 1: different scammy sites out there purporting to offer free sports streaming,
Speaker 1: but they might be attempting to take your money or
Speaker 1: you know, or give your computer virus. Uh. It is
Speaker 1: best to stay away from those sites. Oftentimes, I feel
Speaker 1: like they're just praying on people who are desperate to
Speaker 1: get the game on. They're like, dage, I wasn't counting
Speaker 1: on the desire that I have right now to watch
Speaker 1: this game, and you end up at the dark Web
Speaker 1: and you're like, I mean to go here. Watching live
Speaker 1: sports can be a tough thing for for price conscious streamers,
Speaker 1: and I do hope that there's going to be more
Speaker 1: innovation on this front in the near future. But one
Speaker 1: way to bring down those costs is to share your
Speaker 1: plan with someone else. And we're talking about family plans.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to be in the same family necessarily, uh,
Speaker 1: in order to do it. That being said, Hulu and
Speaker 1: Netflix they appear to be cracking down on folks who
Speaker 1: are on the same plan who don't live in the
Speaker 1: same house. But Amazon Prime they're totally cool of sharing. Uh,
Speaker 1: they've got Amazon Household actually, Joel, you and I we
Speaker 1: actually use that to share the cost of Prime and
Speaker 1: we've been doing it for years now. The terms of
Speaker 1: service oftentimes can be ambiguous with some of these different
Speaker 1: streaming companies. But looking to some of these different ways
Speaker 1: where you do have the ability to share the bill,
Speaker 1: if you can do that with another individual or with
Speaker 1: another family, that can dramatically lower the costs as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna want to make sure that the streaming
Speaker 1: service you're signed up for is cool with that. Um,
Speaker 1: But if it is, that's a great thing. Like I
Speaker 1: think YouTube TV, for instance, it's sixty five a month,
Speaker 1: but I think it supports up to six simultaneous streams,
Speaker 1: and so you might be able to share that with
Speaker 1: a friend down the street. That's a lot of people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Or even if you just share it with one other
Speaker 1: family that's thirty two bucks a month, then it cuts
Speaker 1: it in half and it makes it a lot more
Speaker 1: reasonable to consider signing up for that service and then
Speaker 1: to be able to keep your pressure sports and uh.
Speaker 1: One one other way to save money on streaming that
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some some other ways too. Because family
Speaker 1: plans are a good way, but but canceling some of
Speaker 1: your services is obviously another way to save money on
Speaker 1: those recurring streaming costs. And and in particular, if a
Speaker 1: show that you like, if you just got done watching
Speaker 1: it and there's nothing else that strikes your fancy, well
Speaker 1: guess what If you log into the every day, you're
Speaker 1: going to find something to watch. But if you cancel
Speaker 1: it and you move on, then you're saving money and
Speaker 1: you're wasting less time, and and there's just no reason
Speaker 1: to be perpetually subscribed to the same service. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, sign up for HBO Max in order
Speaker 1: to catch up on the new season of Barry, which
Speaker 1: here's a great show, but uh, you know, then then
Speaker 1: drop it like it's hot once you've finished that season.
Speaker 1: Don't stick around hoping that something else comes in the
Speaker 1: near future. And don't get to set a calendar reminder
Speaker 1: too in order to cancel, because that, um it helps
Speaker 1: you actually follow through instead of spending in perpetuity. But
Speaker 1: doing a little planning when it comes to your binging,
Speaker 1: it's gonna save your real money. And it's the same
Speaker 1: with those free or dis kind of trials. Use those
Speaker 1: to your advantage. If you're like, all right, can I
Speaker 1: race against the clock and watch all of this one
Speaker 1: mini series in my free seven day window? Um, and
Speaker 1: then maybe you know what, I'll take the next week
Speaker 1: off and I won't watch any I won't watch any TV.
Speaker 1: But man, I made a nice money savvy move and um,
Speaker 1: spending zero dollars to watch that show that I wanted
Speaker 1: to see. Totally. Basically, we're asking you to be more
Speaker 1: selective in what it is that you're watching and when
Speaker 1: you watch. But I will say it's I think it's
Speaker 1: been a little bit harder because we're talking about Stranger
Speaker 1: Things earlier, and Netflix is doing that little experiment with
Speaker 1: Stranger Things where they broke up the season uh into
Speaker 1: two halves where they had to span multiple months, so
Speaker 1: you can't get in there for that single month do
Speaker 1: all the benjing. Instead, they got you paying for it twice.
Speaker 1: And I guess what they're banking on is the fact
Speaker 1: that people would be a little more used to the
Speaker 1: fact that they're paying it. Right, Like, one month, you
Speaker 1: pay for it, and it's it's kind of stands out
Speaker 1: like a sore thumb. But when there's two of them,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe there's the two charges that they
Speaker 1: look kind of comfortable, uh so you don't feel bad
Speaker 1: if there's a third charge. And then before you know it,
Speaker 1: it's been in an entire year, you've been paying for
Speaker 1: Netflix and you haven't watched a single thing. And then
Speaker 1: you're like, on there, the new spinoff of Stranger Things
Speaker 1: isn't as good as I thought. It's a original series,
Speaker 1: and then you're like, that's when you finally cancel. That's
Speaker 1: when you get fed up. But another small thing that
Speaker 1: you can do is pay for your streaming services with
Speaker 1: the right credit card. That's the benefit that more the
Speaker 1: credit card issuers are offering. Specifically, I'm thinking of the
Speaker 1: American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card, which is my favorite
Speaker 1: card to use at the grocery store because they give
Speaker 1: you six percent, but they also give you six percent
Speaker 1: back on streaming expenses. But that is one of our favorites,
Speaker 1: so we would recommend that you check that one out
Speaker 1: for sure. And also, like, there's some different cell phone
Speaker 1: companies out there and they'll offer like a free Netflix, uh,
Speaker 1: offer pust some other stuff, but often your best bet
Speaker 1: is to go with a cheaper phone service provider and
Speaker 1: then pay for your own super streaming. That's not always
Speaker 1: going to be the case. We definitely recommend for you
Speaker 1: to do the math. But I guarantee that the Verizon
Speaker 1: plan that comes with free Disney's plus, that that is
Speaker 1: not going to save you money over the course of
Speaker 1: a year. It's like, Yeah, I sign up for this
Speaker 1: hundred dollar a month cell phone plan, but guess what
Speaker 1: We'll throw in a free twelve dollar a month streaming service.
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, just go with the fifteen dollar
Speaker 1: uh cell phone plan and the twelve pay the twelve
Speaker 1: dollar streaming service for yourself if you want it, and
Speaker 1: you're still coming out incredibly ahead instead of going with
Speaker 1: those packaged deals that usually aren't a deal. And Matt,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some streaming alternatives for a second, because
Speaker 1: let's say you find yourself saying, you know what, Matt
Speaker 1: and Joel, right, I am spending something like four hours
Speaker 1: a day watching TV. I'm doing it. I'm doing it
Speaker 1: too much. I have let it maybe overtake some of
Speaker 1: the areas of my life where I had bigger goals
Speaker 1: that I wanted to meet, whether it's financially or personally.
Speaker 1: And you found yourself maybe becoming more Laxa daisical about
Speaker 1: those goals. Are are not even attempting some of them
Speaker 1: because there's just too much good stuff to watch? Well, um,
Speaker 1: we we would say that if you do find yourself
Speaker 1: paring back in order to save money and watch less
Speaker 1: in general, you want you're gonna want to have some
Speaker 1: go to activities to fill that time with, to incorporate
Speaker 1: into your life. And I think reading more books is
Speaker 1: one of those things that you ideally should be doing
Speaker 1: more of. Like that would be a great thing. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a timeless, beautiful thing to
Speaker 1: be reading a book, right. Yeah, Before we go any further,
Speaker 1: like I would venture to even say that, like, we
Speaker 1: don't have to give you a bunch of things that
Speaker 1: you could do if you were to eliminate TV from you,
Speaker 1: you know, more TV from your life. I would venture
Speaker 1: to say that these are the things that you will
Speaker 1: get to do when you are watching less TV. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like oftentimes we know the different things that
Speaker 1: we could be doing. It's just a matter of being
Speaker 1: reminded of the things that we're giving up because we're
Speaker 1: sitting there on the couch watching T Yes, yes exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think one of those like books. We we
Speaker 1: were like, I haven't had the time to read the
Speaker 1: books I want to do this year. Or I had
Speaker 1: to go to read twelve books this year and one
Speaker 1: a month and I read two or three. And you
Speaker 1: know what, if if we just curve back some of
Speaker 1: our our streaming, we'll be able to meet those girals,
Speaker 1: We'll be able to read more of those books. And
Speaker 1: it's just true, like if you, if if anybody out
Speaker 1: there has ever read the book by Neil Postman, Amusing
Speaker 1: Ourselves to Death. His line of thought is that the
Speaker 1: medium is the message, and what he says is is
Speaker 1: basically that the quality of the information that you can
Speaker 1: get from watching TV has a lower ceiling. It's just
Speaker 1: it can't, by by definition, be as good because the
Speaker 1: medium sucks. And so yeah, TV news is something that
Speaker 1: he takes issue within the book, and I think he's
Speaker 1: spot on on that. But you know, books, as a medium,
Speaker 1: they just offer a richness and a depth that is
Speaker 1: it's basically impossible to find when you're scrolling through TV
Speaker 1: channels or streaming options. And Matta makes me think about
Speaker 1: my kids experience watching Harry Potter after reading it and
Speaker 1: the girls were so disappointed that some of those most
Speaker 1: important features in the book, some of the best parts,
Speaker 1: were left out of the movies. And just by definition,
Speaker 1: they can't include it all, right, there's just no possible way.
Speaker 1: The books are clearly richer, deeper, more fun and vibrant
Speaker 1: than the movies. There's a gap there between what you
Speaker 1: see and what you've got to read, the imagination you've
Speaker 1: got out to bring to the table when you were
Speaker 1: when you were reading that book, and so books is
Speaker 1: a medium, are just superior in so many ways. And
Speaker 1: my kids found that out, and I hope that they
Speaker 1: remember that because they still do love to watch TV,
Speaker 1: but I'd love I want to see them reading more
Speaker 1: and more books and uh and and watching less TV. Totally, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, aside from books being a better
Speaker 1: version of what you could watch on the screen, Like,
Speaker 1: think about the different opportunities that you're missing out on
Speaker 1: when it comes to just bettering bettering yourself in general,
Speaker 1: Like how often have you said that you're just too
Speaker 1: busy for a leisurely walk in the afternoon, a walk
Speaker 1: that you know would be good for your your stress
Speaker 1: levels for you're like how too busy the works too much,
Speaker 1: Like I can't I can't afford to get away for
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes exactly. But you are definitely caught up on
Speaker 1: on all of the latest shows on each of the
Speaker 1: streaming services. Uh. And so your time might be filled up,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean that you spent it well or
Speaker 1: that you spent it in a way that truly feeds
Speaker 1: your soul. So, whether that's just walking in nature, are
Speaker 1: going for a bike ride, uh, talking with a friend, right,
Speaker 1: catching up, these are all far more humanizing active VIDs.
Speaker 1: But you could even attempt something even grander, maybe even
Speaker 1: actually writing a book of your own or like, maybe
Speaker 1: that's too lofty, right, maybe that's just you going to
Speaker 1: the climbing gym, whatever it is. The options are endless. Uh.
Speaker 1: You just need the time to do the thing, and
Speaker 1: for most folks, the place to most easily grab that
Speaker 1: time is going to be from the time that you
Speaker 1: spend watching TV. Yeah, agreed, just because there's such a
Speaker 1: huge chunk of time there. And Matt, with the way
Speaker 1: people have been able to kind of so many people
Speaker 1: in kind of the new work environment, working from home,
Speaker 1: more more hybrid, more flexible, flexible work options, you can
Speaker 1: even go for a two hour chunk in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Lots of people could away from their work and do
Speaker 1: something awesome during the best parts of the day and
Speaker 1: save some of your work for that evening if you
Speaker 1: if you wanted to, instead of then turning on the TV.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where a lot of us
Speaker 1: have more flexibility than we like to assume, and because
Speaker 1: of that, we end up kind of falling into ruts.
Speaker 1: And one of those ruts for a lot of folks
Speaker 1: is watching too much TV and putting on the back
Speaker 1: burner or just putting off all together more fun, more
Speaker 1: invigorating activities that are good from like that personal development
Speaker 1: standpoint totally and and really when it comes down to
Speaker 1: what we're choosing to watch. Also, Matt, I think I
Speaker 1: think it's so easy to get a recommendation from someone
Speaker 1: at the water cooler, or to see a review, let's say,
Speaker 1: in the New York Times, or see somebody tweet about
Speaker 1: a show that they're catching up on. But I think
Speaker 1: sometimes part of the reason we watch too much television
Speaker 1: is because everybody's telling us to watch something, and we
Speaker 1: decided to take all the recommendations uh that maybe we
Speaker 1: haven't curated our selection enough and it just there's this
Speaker 1: actual there's this app called just Watch, and I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. You can go to the website or
Speaker 1: download the app. And I think for our listeners out
Speaker 1: there who are like man, I just find myself constantly
Speaker 1: moving on to the next thing that the streaming service recommends,
Speaker 1: or a friend, uh, going with some sort of app
Speaker 1: that has a better algorithm that curates more effectively what
Speaker 1: you're into, might actually prevent you from watching garbage TV
Speaker 1: shows or watching something that isn't actually up your alley,
Speaker 1: and and so that you're spending the time that you
Speaker 1: are watching TV on things that are actually awesome and enjoyable,
Speaker 1: because because we really are living in an age where
Speaker 1: there are a lot of great TV shows and so
Speaker 1: you don't want to waste your time on some of
Speaker 1: that mad content because there's a lot of that stuff
Speaker 1: out there too. Yeah. I mean again, basically, we I mean,
Speaker 1: if you are going to go with streaming services, like
Speaker 1: we just want you to make sure that you're directing
Speaker 1: your dollars towards the services that are going to bring
Speaker 1: you the most bang for your buck. Um. But I
Speaker 1: mean we've kind of been making an argument though for
Speaker 1: you to spend less time watching streaming watching TV. And
Speaker 1: you know, like I say this because I hope that
Speaker 1: this resonates with you a little bit more deeply today
Speaker 1: maybe than it did like a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: I think if if we were releasing this episode spring
Speaker 1: of it's sort of like a headwind, right because we
Speaker 1: a lot of folks were afraid to go out, Like
Speaker 1: what am I going to do with my time? Exactly?
Speaker 1: I can't go to the bar, I can't go see
Speaker 1: my parents exactly. Yeah, And so because of that, we
Speaker 1: we did spend a lot of time watching TV. But
Speaker 1: now that I think that the pandemic is over and
Speaker 1: a lot of folks are trying to move on with
Speaker 1: what they feel like is their normal life, they're kind
Speaker 1: of hopefully they're looking back and saying, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm done with that, Like like I think back to
Speaker 1: the pandemic and how like I swear like maybe every
Speaker 1: other night KIT never watching like a Marvel movie. And
Speaker 1: that's what we did at that point in time because
Speaker 1: we had a lot of time on our hands and
Speaker 1: like we weren't going out. And maybe that was fine
Speaker 1: for them, but it's not fine for today. Like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm done with that, not just because I don't want
Speaker 1: to watch any more Marvel movies. Uh. They also come
Speaker 1: out with one a week well, and they released schedule
Speaker 1: on Marvel. It's ridiculous. They have gone downhill. I feel
Speaker 1: like as well, the quality has to have gone town
Speaker 1: with with just the sheer number of TV shows and
Speaker 1: movies are releasing from the Marvel universe exactly. But aside
Speaker 1: from that, I just don't want my life to to
Speaker 1: be that consumed with television because I am wanting my
Speaker 1: life to look more quote unquote normal, or at least
Speaker 1: what I'm calling normal today. Uh. And so hopefully this
Speaker 1: resonates with you and you feel that this is true,
Speaker 1: like at a deeper level, and that this isn't something
Speaker 1: that we're having to convince you of that you're thinking,
Speaker 1: you know what, like this is the exact kind of
Speaker 1: kick in the pants that I needed to go ahead
Speaker 1: and ancel some of those subscriptions, to maybe sit down
Speaker 1: and like lisp out, to write out some priorities of
Speaker 1: the things that you would rather spend your time doing, uh,
Speaker 1: and to proactively head yourself off at the past. That way,
Speaker 1: you don't come home after a long, hard day at work, uh,
Speaker 1: and where your will is weak and you just want
Speaker 1: to park it and watch another episode of Stranger Things.
Speaker 1: Although maybe maybe Stranger Things for us is like the
Speaker 1: Crafty your equivalent. Maybe like for us, that's the one
Speaker 1: show that I will definitely watch at some point soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and so I think, yeah, we want you to
Speaker 1: limit your your TV intakes so that you can do
Speaker 1: more of what matters, like, do more of the things
Speaker 1: that are good for your mind, your body, and your soul.
Speaker 1: And also it is good for your wallet, right because
Speaker 1: you're gonna be spending less money on some of those
Speaker 1: streaming services too. So hopefully that's your takeaway from this episode. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, as I was doing it, Matt, like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't watch anywhere near what the average American watches.
Speaker 1: But it's still made me like, then the Nilsen stats
Speaker 1: are still mind blowing, still blowing. Yeah, that number of
Speaker 1: hours is being watched in the American household. Yes, but
Speaker 1: still and it makes me realize that I just want
Speaker 1: to find ways to you know, curb my consumption even
Speaker 1: more so that I can, especially now that as we're
Speaker 1: like you want to like, I'll set the curve a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, And just as like we're kind of
Speaker 1: moving into a new neighborhood, I'm like, I want to
Speaker 1: spend even more time out there with people developed making friendships,
Speaker 1: exploring my neighborhood, like exploring the mountain that's close by
Speaker 1: where we live, and and and working out with a
Speaker 1: friend like stuff like that. Like those are the kind
Speaker 1: of things I want to be doing more of. And
Speaker 1: I feel like the more and more time I dedicate
Speaker 1: towards streaming, the less options I have for that other stuff. So, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a It's a direct trade off when it comes
Speaker 1: to your time and how you're spending it. I want
Speaker 1: to read more books too, Like, I just want to
Speaker 1: get better about that. So I think cutting more streaming
Speaker 1: from my life is really the only way to make
Speaker 1: that happen. Totally agree, man, All right, let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and quickly mentioned the beer that you and I enjoyed
Speaker 1: during this episode. This was a Benevolence, which is a
Speaker 1: vienna style logger by Flying Machine. Uh. These guys are
Speaker 1: out of North Carolina. Have we had one of their
Speaker 1: beers before? Flying Shame? I think so? I think we
Speaker 1: had one. Yeah, as well, I feel it kind of
Speaker 1: had like the mosaic colorful looking label, didn't it. Maybe, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this one looks like it's through a kaleidoscope right laid
Speaker 1: or it's like a yeah part roar shock test. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like what do you see, Joel, but benevolence. This was
Speaker 1: when we poured it. Like it's called a Vienna style lagger,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if that means that it's kind
Speaker 1: of a darker or like reddish color lagger, but in
Speaker 1: my mind it's totally poured like really dark and more amber. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: more amber and kind of had some sweeter notes, yes,
Speaker 1: say sweeter logger. Yeah. I thought it was interesting. It
Speaker 1: almost had like some notes of like a brown ale. Right. Um,
Speaker 1: it's because it had a little bit more sweetness and
Speaker 1: it was a little darker, but it was also kind
Speaker 1: of that classic logger profile at the same time, it
Speaker 1: was like somewhere in between. So I thought this was
Speaker 1: really interesting one. And I don't know that I've had
Speaker 1: something that tastes like this any any time in recent memory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely had a lot more flavor, like more I
Speaker 1: don't know, like barley or rice or whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you you know that you're supposed to pull out
Speaker 1: of a beer like this, but it was very enjoyable
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that you and I got to share
Speaker 1: one of these today, But that is going to be
Speaker 1: it's We will make sure to link to some of
Speaker 1: the different resources that we mentioned during today's episode up
Speaker 1: on the website at how to money dot com. We'll
Speaker 1: link to some of the all the different free options
Speaker 1: will link to us, like the c nets. You mentioned
Speaker 1: a c net story where they compare some of those
Speaker 1: different HD antennas. We'll link to all of that up
Speaker 1: at how the money dot com. And we'll link to
Speaker 1: Matt's top twenty list of shows to watch on Netflix
Speaker 1: right now. I'm just kidding. That would defeat the purpose
Speaker 1: exactly everything we've talked about. But we hope you have
Speaker 1: a great rest of your evening, reading a book tonight
Speaker 1: and sent streaming and Matt, that's gonna do it for
Speaker 1: this episode. Until next time, best Friends Out and best
Speaker 1: Friends Out.