Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're asking the question will inflation wreck your finances?
Speaker 1: Do you know that we have kids? Anytime I hear
Speaker 1: the word wreck that makes me think of wreck It Ralph,
Speaker 1: because that's a movie that I've seen, and that's when
Speaker 1: I think of when I hear wreck it. But still
Speaker 1: I would say wreck it Ralph. Or Ralph Breaks the
Speaker 1: Internet is probably one of the greatest Disney movies ever made. Dude,
Speaker 1: Sarah Silverman, She's the little Girl. Yeah, I'm a big
Speaker 1: fan of those movies. I feel like there's some of
Speaker 1: the better ones out there today. But yes, inflation, that
Speaker 1: is what we're talking about today. We you know, we've
Speaker 1: touched on inflation before, we've specifically when we've talked about investing.
Speaker 1: Inflation is a big reason why it is that we
Speaker 1: we do invest. But we're gonna talk about the ways
Speaker 1: that inflation impacts our money today. Different things that the
Speaker 1: government can do and things that we can do as
Speaker 1: individuals as well to make sure that inflation doesn't wreck
Speaker 1: our finances. That's right, Yeah, there are steps you can
Speaker 1: take to make sure inflation, Uh, isn't you know taking
Speaker 1: a chunk essentially out of your savings. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: that today on the show. But before we get to that, Matt,
Speaker 1: before we talk about inflation, I want to talk about pizza.
Speaker 1: Everyone likes pizza. I do. I like pizza more than
Speaker 1: that like inflation. I'll tell you that, uh, because inflation
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, we're gonna talk about the good side
Speaker 1: of inflation too, So yeah that there are some positives.
Speaker 1: But but pizzas is even better. Even though inflation has,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's positive benefits, pizza has, you know,
Speaker 1: a bigger upside, I would say. But the question I
Speaker 1: had recently, you know, my wife and I were like
Speaker 1: talking about whether we should get like two medium pizzas
Speaker 1: or two large pizzas. You know, obviously if we get
Speaker 1: two large pizzas, we're probably gonna have leftovers. And then
Speaker 1: there's this one place that that I like to get
Speaker 1: pizza in town. I know you like it too. It
Speaker 1: has twenty inch pies and so like these are like
Speaker 1: extra large pizzas essentially so good. And I was like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: now I'm curious what is the the price per per
Speaker 1: like square inch difference or whatever on pizza and I
Speaker 1: know that's kind of maybe a nerdy thing to think,
Speaker 1: but like I want to get I want to give
Speaker 1: my moneys where these are the kind of things we've
Speaker 1: we've thought about, dude, and we've had these discussions as well. Specifically,
Speaker 1: I remember talking to you about the sitting outside of Midway,
Speaker 1: which is a local restaurant. And remember we talked about
Speaker 1: the beer per dollar kind of like the value where
Speaker 1: like there needs to be an app where you can
Speaker 1: punch in the quantity of beer, the price of the beer,
Speaker 1: maybe the A B V as well. That way you
Speaker 1: can compare apples to apples when it comes to these beers.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're talking about doing that now with pizza. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm still waiting on you to develop that app. But
Speaker 1: but somebody has developed a calculator when it comes to pizza,
Speaker 1: and so you can plug in like how many pizzas
Speaker 1: you're getting, you know, the inch size, the diameter essentially
Speaker 1: of the pizza, and then you you figure out the
Speaker 1: price per square inch and so you can figure out,
Speaker 1: all right, if I'm getting should I get to sixteen
Speaker 1: or should I get a twenty inch pizza? Or should
Speaker 1: I get like you know or Yeah, but it's interesting
Speaker 1: because it's almost always better from what I can tell,
Speaker 1: to go with the bigger pizza and then eat the
Speaker 1: leftovers because you're gonna be paying less money per square inch.
Speaker 1: But we'll link to that calculator in the show notes.
Speaker 1: If you're wondering, you know what, what's the better deals
Speaker 1: trying to get the medium or the large, and you
Speaker 1: want to actually run the numbers as opposed to just
Speaker 1: kind of buy blind faith order to order the medium
Speaker 1: or large, then yeah, check this calculator. And I know
Speaker 1: we've got listeners out there who do want to run
Speaker 1: the numbers. You're nerds just like we are. But it
Speaker 1: makes me think of all the pizza lately we've been
Speaker 1: getting the they've got a sixteen inch. Um, it's like
Speaker 1: the taking bake. It's like not frozen, it's in the
Speaker 1: refrigerated section. You take it home, pop in love and
Speaker 1: it's like the five bucks or the rising Crust. You
Speaker 1: have five or six bucks. It's really good, dude, we
Speaker 1: uh we hit that up last Friday. Really really good.
Speaker 1: Might being over sell dude, No, for the money, you
Speaker 1: can't beat it for the money. It's not good. It's
Speaker 1: not great. That plus some greens from from from our
Speaker 1: garden some you know some Salgreen's. Uh, that's that's a
Speaker 1: really cheap Friday night if if you're looking to save
Speaker 1: some money. We did that last Friday, so sticking good.
Speaker 1: I was just I don't know, I was just so happy.
Speaker 1: So they're eating everything. I was like, this was basically free.
Speaker 1: This pizza costs virtually nothing. I'm the happy man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. Sometimes I'm willing to sacrifice quality for price,
Speaker 1: you know, like it doesn't always have to be the
Speaker 1: best value. Sometimes you just want the five dollar all
Speaker 1: the pizza because want pizza and you don't want to
Speaker 1: spend much money. Yes, it's not. And again it's not
Speaker 1: like it's they're like the pizza bagel bites or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's not like tostinos or what is it called, like
Speaker 1: the ones that used to get like you used to
Speaker 1: leave or whatever, Like those things are terrible. But when
Speaker 1: you get it fresh like that and they you know,
Speaker 1: they haven't been frozen, they're sitting there in the refrigerator section,
Speaker 1: I think those are really good. I ate so many
Speaker 1: of those totinos pizzas in college, and uh, I've grown
Speaker 1: up since then. I'm matured a little b I'm glad
Speaker 1: I don't eat those anymore. Matt. Let's move on to
Speaker 1: the beer. Yes, this one's called be Easy. It's by
Speaker 1: Monday Night Brewing right down the street. This is a
Speaker 1: Citra I p A. Looking forward to having this hop
Speaker 1: heavy beer on on the show today. Man, Yeah, We've
Speaker 1: had a lot of different beers from different breweries on
Speaker 1: the show, but with these last two that we've had
Speaker 1: on the shows. On Monday's episode, we had that sour
Speaker 1: and now we're having this I p A. I think
Speaker 1: with these two beers they easily take the lead on
Speaker 1: the most number of beers from a specific brewery. But
Speaker 1: there's a good reason for that, and we'll share our
Speaker 1: thoughts on this one at the end of the episode.
Speaker 1: Sounds good, but for now, let's let's move on to
Speaker 1: the subject at hand. We're asking the question will inflation
Speaker 1: wreck your finances? And Matt, as we're like preparing for
Speaker 1: this episode, I'm trying to think, like, what's a good
Speaker 1: analogy for inflation, like a pizza analogy. When it comes
Speaker 1: to no pizza analogy, it made me think of electricity
Speaker 1: because I personally don't think about electricity much. I just
Speaker 1: flipped switch, the lights come on, and I'm happy, right,
Speaker 1: But what's going on behind the scenes, it would seem
Speaker 1: is quite complex to get the electricity. You know, all
Speaker 1: the things I don't understand. It makes me fearful of it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to mess with electricity exactly. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the one thing I hear a lot of people who
Speaker 1: are d I y folks. They're like, I'll do anything
Speaker 1: except for electricity, right, and but like, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go into all the details of how electricity is generated. Uh. Plus,
Speaker 1: you probably don't know. I don't really know. That's the
Speaker 1: main reason. Why not because you know, I'm I don't
Speaker 1: want to go into bore you with all the aplicated details.
Speaker 1: It's mostly because I don't know them. But yeah, your
Speaker 1: lights go on percent of the time without fail. But
Speaker 1: electricity and inflation have something in common. Neither is something
Speaker 1: that we talk about all that much, but both are
Speaker 1: constantly humming in the background, and they affect our everyday lives.
Speaker 1: And we only really think about either of them when
Speaker 1: some sort of massive tectonic shift occurs, right like a
Speaker 1: tree falling down on your power line outside the house.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it was Halloween this past year,
Speaker 1: that our power was out for like a day and
Speaker 1: a half in our neighborhood. Three different instances where when
Speaker 1: the power went out and for a bunch of city boys,
Speaker 1: like that's unheard of, you know, we didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do with That's true. And then I think the
Speaker 1: only time you actually think about inflation is when there's
Speaker 1: like headlines all over the place suggesting that inflation is
Speaker 1: going to become a major problem. But that begs the question,
Speaker 1: like is it going to become a major problem and
Speaker 1: if so, how can we prepare for that possibility in
Speaker 1: our own personal financial lives. This episode is going to
Speaker 1: be like that generator full to the brim of gas,
Speaker 1: like to help you overcome that power shortage, right, like
Speaker 1: you actually had a generator. I borrowed your generator when
Speaker 1: when the lights were off in our neighborhood, uh, for
Speaker 1: for a timing, because I think my power is out
Speaker 1: longer than yours. That's right, and it really comes in
Speaker 1: handy to have something like that. So, yeah, this episode,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about your money and inflation and how
Speaker 1: you should be responding. Except okay, so here's the thing.
Speaker 1: A generator kind of fixes the electricity, and so we're
Speaker 1: not going to fix inflation. Though it's maybe like maybe
Speaker 1: I feel like a better way to maybe think about
Speaker 1: it is like we're kind of like electricians, like we
Speaker 1: are your electrician friends, but we're in a different state,
Speaker 1: and so we can't fix your electricity, but we can
Speaker 1: help you to know what to do maybe what not
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah, exactly, at least to help you tonight
Speaker 1: get electric, cutd right and do this. True, though, inflation
Speaker 1: worries are seriously making the headlines these days. We've seen
Speaker 1: commodities shortages, UH, they're causing prices to climb higher. And
Speaker 1: Warren Buffett he even talked about it at the annual
Speaker 1: Berkshire Hathaway Meeting. This sheep called me ahead of time.
Speaker 1: He's like, should I talk about inflation? Joel? I was like, Warren,
Speaker 1: go for it, dude. Warren and Charles Munger have kind
Speaker 1: of fallen out of favor with how they're treating bitcoin
Speaker 1: these days. True, we won't get into that, um, but
Speaker 1: he said warm Buffet. He said that inflation is substantial
Speaker 1: right now and that companies that he owns UH and
Speaker 1: others that those companies do business with, that they are
Speaker 1: all raising prices, and this is something we haven't had
Speaker 1: to even think about in uh in recent years, you know,
Speaker 1: like this is something that you heard about, like back
Speaker 1: during the Cold War era, like back in the seventies
Speaker 1: and like the eighties inflation top ten percent. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, wait, inflation, it's still a real thing, dude, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, uh, And right now it's it's been sitting
Speaker 1: at roughly like one and a half percent over the
Speaker 1: last ten years. It's been fairly predictable, pretty low as well.
Speaker 1: And so because of that, we haven't had to give
Speaker 1: it much thoughts. But that's clearly changing. Uh, And so
Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna talk about today, like what's happening
Speaker 1: with inflation and how will it impact you? Yeah, but
Speaker 1: first let's give a definition. Let's talk about what inflation means.
Speaker 1: And so, Yeah, simply put, inflation is essentially when prices
Speaker 1: go up, when things cost more, or an even better
Speaker 1: definition might be when the purchasing power of your currency
Speaker 1: goes down. So examples of basic inflation could be something
Speaker 1: like the cost of a postage stamp or a gallon
Speaker 1: of milk, right, just basic things that we use. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know not we use postage stamps anymore. Let's
Speaker 1: let's just say you're mailing letters. I have the same
Speaker 1: booklet of stamps that that I bought like a year ago,
Speaker 1: and I think I've used like two of them. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, the only reason I use them now pretty
Speaker 1: much is to send Like there's one I R S
Speaker 1: form that we have to have to mail in like
Speaker 1: every every quarter for our business. And they require you
Speaker 1: to mail this form in of course they do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the I R S. Right. Then there they go.
Speaker 1: Not not in the business of customer service, but but yeah,
Speaker 1: both of those things, uh, postage stamps and gallons of
Speaker 1: milk cost about more now than they did. And have
Speaker 1: you ever heard maybe your grandma talked about how she
Speaker 1: could get a candy bar for nickel or how you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, can of coke cost ten cents at
Speaker 1: bottle of coke I guess back then. Yeah, like you
Speaker 1: would even see like if you go to like antique stores,
Speaker 1: it's printed on the bottle. Yeah, like like and you're like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, it used to cost that much. It
Speaker 1: makes you think about too, like the chips, what's that
Speaker 1: one brand of tortilla chips in the store, and they
Speaker 1: literally put the price like printed on the bag of chips,
Speaker 1: and so they can't actually change the price, Like the
Speaker 1: stores can't mark it up because it's just printed on there.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about, Like that white bag
Speaker 1: of white white corn. It's like it's even more noticeable.
Speaker 1: I guess if they raise their prices, new price tag
Speaker 1: stamped on the bag. But yeah, like even something as
Speaker 1: big as like a house. Maybe you heard your grandma say, man,
Speaker 1: but when when I bought my house, I specifically remember
Speaker 1: talking to my grandma Matt. I swear she in Montana.
Speaker 1: She bought her house for something right around twenty dollars,
Speaker 1: and I was kind of like, uh, don't, grandma. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm happy for you, grandma, that you paid that that
Speaker 1: that little amount of money for that home, but also
Speaker 1: let's not talk about it anymorecause bumming me out. But yet,
Speaker 1: the one thing that your grandma doesn't mention in that
Speaker 1: conversation though, or mind didn't at least, is what the
Speaker 1: average salary was back then, right, I mean, seventy seven
Speaker 1: percent of households in nineteen fifty, we're earning less than
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars a year, and that's a market difference
Speaker 1: from what people are today. That's back when a million
Speaker 1: dollars was like a ton of money, you know, like
Speaker 1: today millionaires or it's just kind of like, oh, it
Speaker 1: sounds like everyone's kind of like a millionaire, but but
Speaker 1: back then that was a rare thing. I mean, not
Speaker 1: everyone's a million well no, but like there's more millionaires
Speaker 1: today then, oh yeah, for sure, for sure. And that's
Speaker 1: partly because of inflation, right, And and the reason that
Speaker 1: wages were so low back then and there's so much
Speaker 1: higher now, well, that's because inflation has been doing this
Speaker 1: thing behind the scenes, and it's had an impact not
Speaker 1: just on prices, not just on what you pay for
Speaker 1: milk or a house or postage stamps, but it's also
Speaker 1: had an impact on what you're able to earn at
Speaker 1: your job. Yeah, that's right, But but how long does
Speaker 1: it take for inflation to impact the purchasing power of
Speaker 1: your money? You know? And and that depends on the
Speaker 1: rate of inflation. And so if inflation is at two
Speaker 1: percent that's roughly what we've seen in recent years, that
Speaker 1: will cut the value of your money in half over
Speaker 1: the course of thirty five years. If we see inflation
Speaker 1: rates to to let's say three percent, that means your
Speaker 1: money gets cut in half after just twenty three years.
Speaker 1: You bump that up to four percent, that means that
Speaker 1: you would see the value of your money had in
Speaker 1: just seventeen years. And and so that's why sticking your money,
Speaker 1: you know, say, under your mattress or burying it in
Speaker 1: your backyard is such a bad idea. Uh right, If
Speaker 1: if you do, inflation is gonna just cause way more
Speaker 1: harm than the earthworms, maybe even more harm than you
Speaker 1: not being able to find that money. That the moisture
Speaker 1: would be a problem. I know that, like double bagg
Speaker 1: of double bagget yes, exactly, if you're gonna do that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we would suggest you avoid that because inflation
Speaker 1: is going to be worse for you. But like, yeah,
Speaker 1: short term or temporary inflation is a legit thing too.
Speaker 1: That's kind of one of the things that that people
Speaker 1: are talking about right now. Lumber, for example, has seen
Speaker 1: traumatic price increases because of the pandemic as supply chain
Speaker 1: problems coincided with higher demand. People putting more money into
Speaker 1: their home because they have been in their home a
Speaker 1: whole lot more and will lumber prices go back down
Speaker 1: to pre pandemic prices. We don't really know. That's yet
Speaker 1: to be seen. But there is a distinction, I would say,
Speaker 1: between short term inflation, which is small term disruptions in
Speaker 1: price over for a particular good or service, and long
Speaker 1: term inflation, And it can be hard to tell in
Speaker 1: the moment, like in the here and now, as people
Speaker 1: are predicting different things, how much of an impact that
Speaker 1: these short term price bikes are going to have on
Speaker 1: like the long term rate of inflation? Yeah, you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: due this makes me think about like catching a common cold,
Speaker 1: or or like having allergies, which which I do luckily,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm completely out of the woods at
Speaker 1: this point, not dealing with my sinus issues. But a
Speaker 1: lot of folks who reacted to the pollen like I
Speaker 1: did back in the spring might have been concerned that
Speaker 1: they had COVID right like they maybe even gone to
Speaker 1: get tested, because when the symptoms kick in, it's hard
Speaker 1: to decipher you know, what you are actually dealing with,
Speaker 1: And so similarly noticeable rising prices might cause us to
Speaker 1: think that inflation is out of control, right and that
Speaker 1: it's about to wreck everything, But when it comes to
Speaker 1: these shortages, the Federal Reserve cited COVID related disruptions in
Speaker 1: production and supply chain logistics as the reasons for these
Speaker 1: shortages in these price spikes, and so this has had
Speaker 1: a pretty massive impact on everything from you know, building
Speaker 1: materials to cleaning products and microchips. A bump and prices
Speaker 1: now or you know, even for the rest of the
Speaker 1: year doesn't necessarily mean that inflation is spiraling out of control.
Speaker 1: That's true, but it also doesn't mean that it isn't.
Speaker 1: Although that's true, I would tend to believe that it's not,
Speaker 1: and and maybe some of these issues are more short
Speaker 1: term that remains to be seen. And luckily there are
Speaker 1: a lot of really smart economists out there who are
Speaker 1: who are watching inflation in our country closely. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you and I as individuals are completely
Speaker 1: off the hook. There are steps that our government can
Speaker 1: and does take to ensure that inflation doesn't get out
Speaker 1: of whack, doesn't get out of control, and there are
Speaker 1: things that we can do as individuals to lessen the
Speaker 1: negative impacts of inflation on our lives and on our
Speaker 1: personal finances. Will get to all of that right after
Speaker 1: this break. All all right, man, we are back to
Speaker 1: the right. We're talking about inflation, and specifically we're trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to make inflation sexy or tough
Speaker 1: task right there, buddy, it is, but I have faith
Speaker 1: and you and me we're gonna do it. Uh. So
Speaker 1: before we talk about what to do about runaway inflation,
Speaker 1: you know, on a personal level, let's let's let's make
Speaker 1: it clear that inflation isn't necessarily a bad thing. So
Speaker 1: to you know, you mentioned the kind of electricity metaphor
Speaker 1: there earlier, to continue that thought from before the break,
Speaker 1: Proper inflation, just like the proper flow of electricity to
Speaker 1: your home, that is a good thing. The Federal Reserve
Speaker 1: wants inflation to happen, at at least within reason, and
Speaker 1: that's partly because following prices actually incentivized consumers to hold
Speaker 1: off on purchases, waiting for prices to fall even further,
Speaker 1: which harms the economy even more. Yeah. If I know
Speaker 1: that the price uh that tesla is going to in
Speaker 1: all likelihood fall by a few thousand dollars, like I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna keep keep waiting keep the bank. Why would
Speaker 1: you spend that money now when you know you can
Speaker 1: spend less a little bit later down the road. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's the theory from British economist John Maynard Keynes anyway.
Speaker 1: But the problem is when inflation ramps up and speeds
Speaker 1: out of control. Uh, just like a surge of electricity
Speaker 1: to your household electronics, that's when things get fried, and
Speaker 1: that's when things don't work like they're supposed to. The
Speaker 1: proper flow is good. Spikes and swings in electricity, that's
Speaker 1: bad news, that's true. So I think it is too
Speaker 1: really important to mention that this is one of those
Speaker 1: areas where a lot of really smart people disagree. Some people,
Speaker 1: you know, think that inflation is bound to become a
Speaker 1: major issue in the years to come. They're almost convinced
Speaker 1: of it. And others believe that it's not in all
Speaker 1: likelihood going to be much of concern, and that there
Speaker 1: are ways to fight inflation if it gets too out
Speaker 1: of control. You know. And Matt and I are not economists,
Speaker 1: Like we're not making any predictions here, Just I just
Speaker 1: want to like say that too, we're not gonna like
Speaker 1: inflation is all and not likelihood gonna happen at a
Speaker 1: rate of three point two percent this year. Like, we're
Speaker 1: not making any predictions like that, but let's talk about,
Speaker 1: Matt some of the tools in the tool belt of
Speaker 1: the federal government to combat inflation when they need to.
Speaker 1: Another reason I think that that some are concerned that
Speaker 1: inflation will ramp up is is because of government spending.
Speaker 1: Actually due to the trillions of dollars that the government
Speaker 1: has spent to combat the effects of COVID, especially putting
Speaker 1: more money into the pockets of individuals. You know, more
Speaker 1: money to spend means people are spending more, and prices
Speaker 1: often go up in tandem. The more money that's in circulation,
Speaker 1: that decreases the value of the money that's already there. Man,
Speaker 1: it's right. Yeah, So this is one of the reasons
Speaker 1: that people are worried that the economy is overheating. Like
Speaker 1: we've never actually seen government spending like this before, especially
Speaker 1: direct payments to individuals. Mp Are actually said it well,
Speaker 1: I think, and they helped put that massive amount of
Speaker 1: money in context. They said, if the amount of money
Speaker 1: that the federal government spent fighting COVID, if that amount
Speaker 1: alone were the GDP of any nation, that nation would
Speaker 1: have the fourth or fifth fifth largest economy in the world.
Speaker 1: This past year's insane. Yeah, so obviously, Yeah, putting that
Speaker 1: in context, that's a ton of money that was spent
Speaker 1: in those few bills alone. So we are seeing things
Speaker 1: heat up, and different economists and Federal Reserve officials are
Speaker 1: expecting the surge in prices. But if the search continues
Speaker 1: for more than a few months, then that might be
Speaker 1: a reason for concern and for yes, some fiscal policy
Speaker 1: and some intervention. Yeah, it's okay to see things heating
Speaker 1: up a little bit, right, I mean, think about where
Speaker 1: things have been since last March. Right, not not March
Speaker 1: this year, but March last year, when things completely came
Speaker 1: to a grinding halt. And so to see things pick up, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's okay to see the consumer price index, to
Speaker 1: see inflation rise slightly. We just want to make sure
Speaker 1: it doesn't last for too long. But you know, once
Speaker 1: inflation is at a level that's too high, of course,
Speaker 1: if and whenever that might occur, that's when the government
Speaker 1: will step in. If inflation spikes, then a step that
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve could could take would be to raise
Speaker 1: interest rates in order to slow down the economy. So,
Speaker 1: for example, the higher the interest rates are. If someone
Speaker 1: was thinking that they might buy a new car and
Speaker 1: finance it, and well, you know they might be less
Speaker 1: likely to do so because of the higher cost of financing.
Speaker 1: And simultaneously, if if rates are higher, uh, and banks
Speaker 1: are paying a higher interest rate to their customers and
Speaker 1: their savings accounts, well, folks are going to be incentivized
Speaker 1: to save their money, like why would I spend it? Right,
Speaker 1: just like you were saying, if you're expecting prices to
Speaker 1: go down, well, why would you spend it down? Because
Speaker 1: I can pay less for that thing later. The same
Speaker 1: thing is true here. If rates are high and I
Speaker 1: can hang on to the money, well, I'm incentivized to
Speaker 1: save that money. And so this slows things down. That's
Speaker 1: when there's less money flowing around the economy, and that
Speaker 1: cool things down. Yeah, And and generally speaking, there's basically
Speaker 1: an inverse relationship between interest rates and the rate of inflation,
Speaker 1: just like you're talking about, Matt. So Like a counter
Speaker 1: example or scenario is like when the economy is slowing
Speaker 1: down or when it's kind of stalled out because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, the Federal Reserve will lower their benchmark interest rate,
Speaker 1: or like they did last March. They'll drop it all
Speaker 1: the way to zero and not just lower it, but
Speaker 1: just like slam it, just like completely down exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: And so this has an impact on interest rates the
Speaker 1: banks are offering. That's why we've seen such pitiful interest
Speaker 1: rates when it comes to your savings accounts. Those have
Speaker 1: plunged over the past year, much to the chagrin of
Speaker 1: many of our listeners who enjoy saving their money. It's
Speaker 1: also a part of why we've seen historically low mortgage
Speaker 1: rates over the past year. You know, banks aren't paying
Speaker 1: much in savings accounts, but they're also not charging a
Speaker 1: ton for mortgage loans. So yeah, these are These are
Speaker 1: kind of some of the inner workings some of the
Speaker 1: ways that the rate of inflation kind of affects, you know,
Speaker 1: our savings rate, borrowing rates, and just kind of how
Speaker 1: we approach our personal finances in general. Yeah. Yeah, low
Speaker 1: inflation is good if you're looking to take out a
Speaker 1: mortgage on the new home, but it's bad if you're
Speaker 1: looking to build up that nest egg in order to
Speaker 1: secure that mortgage, right, uh, and so this is just
Speaker 1: all a part of how the central banks manipulate the
Speaker 1: supply and demand of money in order to keep the
Speaker 1: economy moving along at a reasonable expected rate of inflation. Right,
Speaker 1: But you know, don't expect higher interest rates anytime soon
Speaker 1: because we're actually below the targeted two percent inflation rate
Speaker 1: that the Fed is set. That the Federal Reserve has
Speaker 1: made it clear that they're not going to raise rates
Speaker 1: interest rates their benchmark rate until the inflation rate is
Speaker 1: ats or above its target rate for a while, which
Speaker 1: is why they've said it might be sometimes three maybe
Speaker 1: early before they make any moves there. And so the
Speaker 1: rates of inflation is definitely increasing compared to where it's
Speaker 1: been because things are warming up, like you know, like
Speaker 1: it almost feels like we're kind of back to the
Speaker 1: before times, Joel, or spending money like we used to.
Speaker 1: But the inflation rate currently is not too high, at
Speaker 1: least not yet. Yeah. I think one of the other
Speaker 1: interesting things about inflation is, you know, we just talked
Speaker 1: about how the government, uh, their their role in the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserves role when it comes to inflation and kind
Speaker 1: of attacking it if things get too crazy two out
Speaker 1: of hand when it comes to inflation, or you know,
Speaker 1: prodding the economy and trying to accelerate things and accelerate
Speaker 1: the rate of inflation if things stall out. But now
Speaker 1: let's talk about how we should think about inflation as individuals,
Speaker 1: because you know, this is how the money. We want
Speaker 1: to talk about your personal finances when it comes to
Speaker 1: this giant broad economic topics. Right, And so even as
Speaker 1: prices continue to rise, that doesn't mean that everything will
Speaker 1: cost more. For instance, Matt, I think one of the
Speaker 1: most fascinating things is we just assume rate of inflation,
Speaker 1: everything that we buy is going to cost more. And
Speaker 1: that might be frustrating. There might be like kind of
Speaker 1: annoying thing to hear, maybe a little depressing. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, everything is gonna cost more. But not quite true.
Speaker 1: Because let's take for example, computers. They cost a whole
Speaker 1: lot less than they did twenty years ago. Technological improvements
Speaker 1: are actually a way that our dollars go further, and
Speaker 1: inflation affects us less than we might think that it does.
Speaker 1: In fact, Matt, everybody out there listening is probably listening
Speaker 1: to this show on their super smart computer that's in
Speaker 1: their pocket, their smartphone, right, And like they said that,
Speaker 1: like the computing power that's in our smartphones right now,
Speaker 1: could you know, take a like the Apolomossian to the moon.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I wouldn't doubt it, yes, But instead, you know,
Speaker 1: we're using it to play Kenny Crush things like that.
Speaker 1: And well, and I think too about all the other
Speaker 1: things maybe that we that we used to buy. That
Speaker 1: just a bunch of items we used to have in
Speaker 1: our house and we don't have any need for any
Speaker 1: longer because we have a smartphone. Like, the smartphone replaces
Speaker 1: just a ton of gadgets. It's like the Swiss army
Speaker 1: knife tool at this point, Like you don't have to
Speaker 1: have a flashlight or a calculator on hand anymore, or
Speaker 1: an iPod or a video camera. I mean, there's so
Speaker 1: many different things that your smartphone does that you used
Speaker 1: to have all these other gadgets for. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to note how technological progress actually helps us
Speaker 1: when it comes to inflation, so that we're not seeing
Speaker 1: literally two percent of our dollars eroded every single year, basically,
Speaker 1: even as inflation marches continually higher. That kind of progress
Speaker 1: really does stem the tide in some ways at least. Yeah,
Speaker 1: having a healthy, steady rate of inflation is a good thing. Right,
Speaker 1: that's what we're kind of hoping for, but it's not everything.
Speaker 1: There are other factors that we need to kind of
Speaker 1: step back and you know, pull our noses out of
Speaker 1: the book about inflation and realize that there are other
Speaker 1: things that affect our lives and the price of things.
Speaker 1: And you know, like we mentioned inflation affects wages as well.
Speaker 1: That that mostly lame cost of living increase that you
Speaker 1: get from your employer always annoyed me. It kind of
Speaker 1: feels like a joke. But because inflation has been so
Speaker 1: low over the past and years like that, that twenty
Speaker 1: little raise is actually enough for your pay to slightly
Speaker 1: outpace the price increases of most goods and services each year.
Speaker 1: And so like, while your pay would ideally outpace inflation significantly,
Speaker 1: that cost of living an increase is actually important. Uh
Speaker 1: And since nineteen fifty, prices are up around one thousand percent,
Speaker 1: but the median household income is actually up closer to
Speaker 1: twenty uh So there's a massive difference between what folks
Speaker 1: are earning these days compared to the new cost of goods. Yeah, overall,
Speaker 1: the standard of living has increased dramatically in our country
Speaker 1: right in the past seventy years. Just the idea that
Speaker 1: you can have a decent smartphone for a hundred bucks
Speaker 1: and monthly service for fifteen dollars a month. Like, it's
Speaker 1: it's incredible compared to I think, you know, our our grandparents.
Speaker 1: If you actually like talk to them about what it
Speaker 1: was like to live in the nineteen fifties, they might
Speaker 1: not love all the new technology, they might not be
Speaker 1: on TikTok right, but they're at least going to be
Speaker 1: able to admit that it's pretty crazy, Like the amount
Speaker 1: of goods and serve this is that we have at
Speaker 1: our disposal, and how inexpensive some of the most important
Speaker 1: ones to us actually are. So Yeah, while the cost
Speaker 1: of living wage increases, uh that you just mentioned Matt there,
Speaker 1: you know, can sometimes be a bummer. It's nice to
Speaker 1: know that they're actually helping us, you know, keep up
Speaker 1: with the rate of inflation and technological progress. You know,
Speaker 1: that's another thing that affects us more directly than what
Speaker 1: the government does. But there are specific things that we
Speaker 1: have direct control over ways that we should be using
Speaker 1: our money now to combat the effects of inflation, especially
Speaker 1: if inflation begins to tick up. We'll get to our
Speaker 1: thoughts on that right after this. All right, dude, we
Speaker 1: are back here. You know, up until now we've we've
Speaker 1: been talking about inflation and the ways that it affects us,
Speaker 1: But we also don't have a whole lot of control
Speaker 1: over what Jerome Powell does with you know, over at
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve. Like we don't mean you don't I
Speaker 1: got a direct line to a cell phone. You always
Speaker 1: say that, like you've got everyone's cell phone number. I
Speaker 1: can always connections that you don't know about. Nobody believes
Speaker 1: you if you're going to constantly be crying Warren Buffett,
Speaker 1: or if you're constantly crying your own pal, I don't
Speaker 1: know any of them. But here's the thing. You know,
Speaker 1: we do have control over what we do with our
Speaker 1: own dollars. Uh, And so what can you do about inflation?
Speaker 1: That is an important question to ask, so that you know,
Speaker 1: no matter what we see happen with inflation in the
Speaker 1: coming months and in the coming years, that it doesn't
Speaker 1: hurt you in a significant way. And the first thing
Speaker 1: that we're just always gonna recommend for folks to do
Speaker 1: when it comes to their own personal finances and inflation
Speaker 1: is to make sure that they are investing their money.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that folks are investing more
Speaker 1: their money, and we want folks to understand too that
Speaker 1: investing is not the same thing as saving their money.
Speaker 1: I think it can be easy for some individuals to think, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not buying that test ledgule, like you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: I'm taking that money. I'm being responsible. It's sitting there
Speaker 1: in my checking account, sitting there in my savings account.
Speaker 1: But we're here to make sure that folks understand that
Speaker 1: investing is uh such a better thing to do than
Speaker 1: just saving your money. Because right well, obviously, like you
Speaker 1: do need an emergency fund, you need liquid funds in
Speaker 1: the bank. But if you avoid investing, dude, inflation is
Speaker 1: going to eat you alive over the years, and it's
Speaker 1: going to hurt the value of your dollars in a
Speaker 1: big way. The main reason to start investing is to
Speaker 1: build wealth, right but even before that, the first goal
Speaker 1: of investing is to make sure that you're beating inflation
Speaker 1: and to avoid seeing your wealth get destroyed through inactivity,
Speaker 1: through it just sitting there in your savings or your
Speaker 1: checking account. And so if you're too scared to invest
Speaker 1: and you're only willing to put money in a savings account,
Speaker 1: You're gonna end up in a really difficult position, and
Speaker 1: that's not what we want for our listeners here at
Speaker 1: how the money, That's what I think. The same thing
Speaker 1: is true when it comes to like working out. Your
Speaker 1: first goal is just to kind of keep your body
Speaker 1: from deteriorating. You know what I'm saying, just to keep
Speaker 1: you alive. If I just do like twenty push ups
Speaker 1: a day, I can maybe keep myself. And yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna get like the rock buff, but at least
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get ridiculously weak. And I think
Speaker 1: you're not gonna injure yourself. Hopefully it means that your
Speaker 1: body won't go negative. And yeah, so I think it's
Speaker 1: the same thing with investing your right, Matt, that the
Speaker 1: first step is to beat inflation, and then wealth generation
Speaker 1: is the inevitable consequence of continuing to invest. And I
Speaker 1: think one thing that we need to talk about when
Speaker 1: it comes to investing a lot of people and you're
Speaker 1: gonna see more and more headlines touting this will say
Speaker 1: that gold is the best hedge against inflation, and you're
Speaker 1: just gonna see a lot of folks pointing to the
Speaker 1: fact that you should be putting more of your funds
Speaker 1: in gold as inflation starts to heat up. But yeah,
Speaker 1: gold can be risky and it's not as good of
Speaker 1: an inflation hedge as some people make it out to
Speaker 1: be if you're invested for the long haul. If you're
Speaker 1: investing for the next ten years, we still think and
Speaker 1: based on historic returns to that sticking mostly with stocks
Speaker 1: is your best bet. If you're looking for more short
Speaker 1: term protection, putting your money in I bonds is a
Speaker 1: worthwhile place to go. So are tips, which are treasury
Speaker 1: inflation protected securities. Both of these products are based on
Speaker 1: or linked to the inflation rates, and those are decent
Speaker 1: vehicles if you're really concerned with inflation. But still, the
Speaker 1: best way to outpace inflation with your dollars is to
Speaker 1: invest and invest heavily in the stock market. Yep. And
Speaker 1: you know, generally speaking, we're not fans of gold. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're not fans. I mean, if you want to give
Speaker 1: me some, I'll take it, Yes, I'll take it as well.
Speaker 1: But investing in gold now, yeah, and I mean especially
Speaker 1: physical gold as well, because then you have to get
Speaker 1: like a lock box at the bank or something like that.
Speaker 1: And that's just an inconvenience, Like I don't even want
Speaker 1: to go to the post office right, like dot com
Speaker 1: when we're talking about the stamps earlier, and so investing,
Speaker 1: that's one thing that you can do to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are fighting inflation. Housing, dude, Like, that's another
Speaker 1: good hedge against inflation as well. Uh, primary residences are
Speaker 1: the number one financial asset that most Americans have. We
Speaker 1: we kind of wish that this wasn't the case. We'd
Speaker 1: love for more Americans to be investing so much money
Speaker 1: that therefore, oh, one K was actually worth more than
Speaker 1: the equity of their home. But oh yeah, alas that
Speaker 1: is not the case. However, the rising values of homes
Speaker 1: have beat out inflation, and since the nineteen sixties, homes
Speaker 1: have risen on average four pc annually, And so that's
Speaker 1: a that is good news for homeowners. And another thing too,
Speaker 1: low interest rate debt, like having a thirty year mortgage
Speaker 1: in the low range that they're you know that it's
Speaker 1: currently at now like around three This can actually be
Speaker 1: beneficial when it comes to combating the effects of inflation
Speaker 1: on your finances. Yeah, man, that that's because like your
Speaker 1: monthly mortgage is locked in while inflation continues to march.
Speaker 1: So like, yeah, you get that thirty year mortgage and
Speaker 1: your monthly mortgage payment is a thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Ten years from now, a thousand dollars a month. It
Speaker 1: looks like a pretty cheap, you know, monthly amount to
Speaker 1: be paying right now. It might not seem as ideal
Speaker 1: as you would like, but later on down the road,
Speaker 1: as prices continue to rise, having locked that in is
Speaker 1: going to be really really nice, right And you shouldn't
Speaker 1: typically buy a home for just financial reasons, like homes
Speaker 1: are not a great investment. A better reason to buy
Speaker 1: a home is for the impact that it's going to
Speaker 1: have on your lifestyle. That you want to put down roots.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to you know, join that community
Speaker 1: and you want to stay there for a long time.
Speaker 1: You want to paint the walls the color that you
Speaker 1: want them. Yeah, an orange wall in one of our
Speaker 1: homes and get turquoise office. We kind of stopped using
Speaker 1: the crazy colors so recently, Um, yeah, bring it back, dude. Maybe,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'll think about it all the different colors.
Speaker 1: Haven't we seen that as a trend as folks are
Speaker 1: leaving lockdown, like folks are kind of embracing like vibrancy
Speaker 1: and life and just different colors. Well, no one wants
Speaker 1: the draft, you know, grays and whites and blacks anymore,
Speaker 1: even though that's like half my wardrobe personally. It actually
Speaker 1: all the all the house, all the walls in our
Speaker 1: house are all those colors as well. Well. I think
Speaker 1: the reason that we opted to stop going with the
Speaker 1: insane wall colors was so that our artwork could actually
Speaker 1: stand out because our artworks a little daney and a
Speaker 1: little colorful, and yeah, having a more reserved art color
Speaker 1: actually helps those popping that's on, Yeah, like a gallery wall,
Speaker 1: that's right. But yeah, in effect, because of inflation, it
Speaker 1: feels like your monthly mortgage payment is even shrinking even
Speaker 1: though it's staying the same when you own that home.
Speaker 1: So if you own a home, it's a solid hedge
Speaker 1: against potential inflation increases. If you're particularly worried about inflation,
Speaker 1: owning a home is one way to kind of weather
Speaker 1: any potential inflation storm that comes up. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: a benefit. Like and again, we wouldn't recommend folks to
Speaker 1: purchase a home, and specifically as an inflation hedge. Like
Speaker 1: there are so many other factors to consider, specifically, if
Speaker 1: if fits your lifestyle. You know, if you want to
Speaker 1: be in a home, and how long you're going to
Speaker 1: be in the home, you need to make sure that
Speaker 1: you're going there at least five years, if not more,
Speaker 1: to make sure that it's worth it for you. But
Speaker 1: that is a benefit for sure in a way that
Speaker 1: you can beat inflation. Another thing you can do too
Speaker 1: is to prioritize eliminating high and straight debts, especially debt
Speaker 1: that comes with variable interest rates. If we do begin
Speaker 1: to see inflation become a more meaningful issue, it will
Speaker 1: likely affect the interest rate that you pay on debts
Speaker 1: like credit cards and he locks. Uh. Those rates might
Speaker 1: be low now, but if inflation kicks into a higher gear,
Speaker 1: they won't stay low for long. And so if you've
Speaker 1: let that debt, linger work to get rid of it now.
Speaker 1: So generally speaking, uh, yeah, inflation kind of it's bad
Speaker 1: for your variable rate debt that you might have, but
Speaker 1: it's good for your savings. Uh. And it's good too
Speaker 1: if you have that that really low fixed rate debt
Speaker 1: like a mortgage. Yeah. And one other reaction you should
Speaker 1: have in all likelihood to inflation. One way to protect
Speaker 1: your personal finances is to get on a budget and
Speaker 1: then adapted accordingly. Basically, if you're trying to live on
Speaker 1: the same budget numbers that you were from two thousand
Speaker 1: and eleven, from ten years ago, I bet you're having
Speaker 1: a tough time because prices have gone up. Like, even
Speaker 1: though inflation has been low, we have seen price increases
Speaker 1: over the last ten years on everything from you know,
Speaker 1: what you pay for cars, car insurance, milk stamps of course,
Speaker 1: right like all those things. Be craft beer definitely has
Speaker 1: gone up. It's definitely. I'm actually really curious to look
Speaker 1: back at the craft beer prices from yeah, ten years ago.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, it's not apples to apples because
Speaker 1: the quality of the craft beer has definitely gone up
Speaker 1: in the past ten years. You know what, I know it,
Speaker 1: The whole world knows it, the American people know it.
Speaker 1: We all know it. Right Yeah, So so yeah, like,
Speaker 1: obviously you're not gonna be able to to live well
Speaker 1: on the budget that you created ten twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: You need to update your budget, and you need to
Speaker 1: update it as prices shift. And we're not talking like
Speaker 1: incremental small changes on a monthly basis, but double checking
Speaker 1: your budget once a year to make sure that you
Speaker 1: can still get by on that gas or grocery budget
Speaker 1: is crucial. Like, you know, if you've noticed your grocery
Speaker 1: bills start to creep up, or if obviously gas prices
Speaker 1: have definitely gone up. If you're like I drive the
Speaker 1: same amount of miles, I can't cut how much I'm driving.
Speaker 1: My budget needs to increase accordingly, and I might need
Speaker 1: to cut back in another place so that my budget
Speaker 1: still works. Will do that. But having a budget that
Speaker 1: works for the reality of the prices that exist is
Speaker 1: is really important. Yeah, dude, you know, And as prices
Speaker 1: have gone up, there are ways though that we can
Speaker 1: kind of make these changes to our budgets to make
Speaker 1: sure that we are still on a budget and making
Speaker 1: sure that our dollars are going the distance that we
Speaker 1: wanted to. You know, one of the things you can
Speaker 1: do is you can substitute to purchase that you might
Speaker 1: normally make with something similar that hasn't, say, gone up
Speaker 1: in price to the same degree. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: you like rib By, uh, maybe the prices everybody have
Speaker 1: gone up. Uh. What you can do instead is instead
Speaker 1: eat like a cheaper cut of meat. Uh. Instead, maybe
Speaker 1: you can be looking at that that skirt steak, although
Speaker 1: I think skirt staate is pretty expensive too because it's
Speaker 1: kind of a lot of people like it. Now maybe
Speaker 1: you go, yeah, but but then is it even worth getting?
Speaker 1: That's true. So that's one of the things you can do.
Speaker 1: Or obviously too, you can just cut it all together.
Speaker 1: You can just do without and so for instance, just
Speaker 1: skip it all together, like just eliminate that meat from
Speaker 1: your diet. I'm just eating Spanish now exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, like we said, inflation will hit some
Speaker 1: categories harder than others, but just be aware and be
Speaker 1: willing to shift your your your buying accordingly. Uh. And
Speaker 1: I just want to point out in highlight too that
Speaker 1: like we're not talking about just every year increasing all
Speaker 1: of the different categories in your budget by two percent
Speaker 1: or whatever the inflation rate is that you know for
Speaker 1: that year. Instead, we want you to reflect on your
Speaker 1: budget and and just look at maybe areas that went
Speaker 1: slightly over and if those are areas that means something
Speaker 1: to you, did you gain a lot of value from
Speaker 1: those categories of spending, then that's when you want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you increase that a little bit. You
Speaker 1: don't want to be constantly in the state of feeling
Speaker 1: like you are failing your budget, right, because that would
Speaker 1: feel maybe a little defeatist. But dude, honestly, I I
Speaker 1: really do like the fact that every year, assuming let's
Speaker 1: just say that, you know, the inflation rates at two percent,
Speaker 1: that our money buys us a little bit less, assuming
Speaker 1: that your wages are moving up in accordance with inflation,
Speaker 1: but you're spending, if you're kind of locked into like
Speaker 1: maybe the previous year spending. I like how there's this
Speaker 1: this natural tightening of the belt that takes place, and
Speaker 1: it takes you being intentionally proactive to say, Okay, now
Speaker 1: I am I'm going to choose to spend a little
Speaker 1: bit more. It's one of the rare instances I feel
Speaker 1: like in life where if you stick with a certain
Speaker 1: dollar amount, that's actually gonna mean more money in your
Speaker 1: account at the end of the day. Does that make sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's almost like a behavioral thing that you're not thinking about.
Speaker 1: You're like, well, I guess I'll just keep the saying
Speaker 1: budget from last year. Yeah, without realizing that it's behind
Speaker 1: you a little bit less and therefore you're actually kind
Speaker 1: of saving a little bit more. Yeah. I like that.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of like, yeah, a little psychological trick
Speaker 1: probably having to be just a little more intentional and
Speaker 1: thin grow story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And Matt, I
Speaker 1: think it does remain to be seen whether inflation is
Speaker 1: going to have a major impact on our economy and
Speaker 1: on our personal finances in the coming years. There's definitely
Speaker 1: no solid information right now where we can be like, Yep,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna mess you up in a big way,
Speaker 1: and you definitely need to be taking this, this and
Speaker 1: this step. But hopefully we outlined enough steps so you
Speaker 1: can be prepared for inflation. And you know what, even
Speaker 1: if inflation doesn't get out of control, inflation is a constant, right,
Speaker 1: and so there are steps we need to take anyway,
Speaker 1: no matter the rate of inflation and what the future holds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and hopefully to again even if runaway inflation isn't
Speaker 1: a massive problem like later this year or next year,
Speaker 1: in the future, it's just important to understand how inflation works.
Speaker 1: Kind of like when we were talking about electricity as
Speaker 1: as a metaphor, when you understand something it becomes a
Speaker 1: whole lot less scary, right, And so that's the whole
Speaker 1: point of this episode is that kind of shine a
Speaker 1: light on how it works, to realize it's there, uh,
Speaker 1: to realize that it can provide a lot of good
Speaker 1: for our economy, and then it likely shouldn't be something
Speaker 1: that you're scared of. It's something that you need to
Speaker 1: treat with respect. Uh. In that like what parents always
Speaker 1: say about certain tools that are like dangerous, Like we
Speaker 1: need t shirts to say respect the inflation. That would
Speaker 1: be amazing. But yeah, it's it's something you don't need
Speaker 1: to be scared of though, And oftentimes the headlines that
Speaker 1: we see in the news are are often just overhyped. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think exactly. I think it's one of the things
Speaker 1: that we want people to take away from this episode
Speaker 1: two is to not freak out too much about all
Speaker 1: the inflation prognostications that are flying around these days, all
Speaker 1: the headlines that are like, inflation is gonna mess you up. Like,
Speaker 1: it is true that inflation might have more of an
Speaker 1: impact on our dollars in the coming years, but there's
Speaker 1: a lot that you can do to be prepared and
Speaker 1: in all likelihood that inflation of prices is going to
Speaker 1: mean inflation in wages, and so inflation is something we
Speaker 1: do need to know about, but it's not something we
Speaker 1: need to be scared of, all right, Matt, Let's move
Speaker 1: back to the beer. Today on the show, we drank
Speaker 1: a beer called be Easy. It's a double I p
Speaker 1: A a Citra I p A by the good folks
Speaker 1: at Money Night. What were your thoughts on this beer? Man? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Not surprisingly, this is a double New England I p A.
Speaker 1: So as we poured it nice and hazy, basically looked
Speaker 1: like orange juice, and dude, it was a total juice bomb,
Speaker 1: so delicious in my opinion. It had the right amount
Speaker 1: of hot bitterness. It kind of had that herbal nature
Speaker 1: going on, with the right amount of sweetness as well.
Speaker 1: There's no surprise that I really like this one. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, what are your thoughts? I'm just going to
Speaker 1: guess that you also liked it? Also like this beer? Yes,
Speaker 1: somehow a lot. It's start having beers on that we
Speaker 1: don't like, just just you know, I think folks want
Speaker 1: to hear us complain about something because we don't. We
Speaker 1: don't often complain about the beers, but we have on
Speaker 1: the show because I mean we were like craft beer. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We literally got an email from somebody one time and
Speaker 1: they're like, there's no way you like all the beers
Speaker 1: you have, and like, well, no, we hand picked most
Speaker 1: of them, and so sometimes we do. I look at
Speaker 1: the on tap ratings and like when people send us bears, Yeah,
Speaker 1: usually we like them too because we like craft beer
Speaker 1: and people know, you know, the kind of stuff we like.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, this was another really good one. I
Speaker 1: think what's fun about this beer? I love to get
Speaker 1: the try every once in a while a single hop
Speaker 1: p A. Yeah, like most I p A s are
Speaker 1: this medley of like four or five six different varieties
Speaker 1: kind of used together to make that beer. But with
Speaker 1: this beer, you get like an in depth treatment to
Speaker 1: like the Citra hop and yeah, I really enjoy I
Speaker 1: think Citra hop is one of my favorites. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: can be a little juicy and it can be a
Speaker 1: little one note, but whatever they did with this beer,
Speaker 1: it had a bunch going on. It was still delicious.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is probably one of the best single
Speaker 1: hop I p A s I've ever had. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: specifically to this one was Brooding Partnership with Bottle Share,
Speaker 1: which is a kind of it's a nonprofit that folks
Speaker 1: who are in the craft beer industry that if they remember, uh,
Speaker 1: those I guess those funds or you know, money that
Speaker 1: they pay into it goes towards folks who have faced
Speaker 1: something really difficult in their life. And so I assume
Speaker 1: that a part of this specific beer actually went into
Speaker 1: that nonprofit, which is a really good thing as well.
Speaker 1: And so I'm glad that that's something that you and
Speaker 1: I could be a part of in a very small
Speaker 1: way by sharing this one here on the show. Joel,
Speaker 1: that's the best thing when you buy beer and it
Speaker 1: helps somebody, of course, I mean, uh, but yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be it for the episode. Listeners can find
Speaker 1: our show notes up on our website at how to
Speaker 1: money dot com. Yeah, and if you're still confused about
Speaker 1: inflation or maybe you've got some additional questions, we'd love
Speaker 1: to to hear them. And actually you can send in
Speaker 1: a voice memo and we can take that question on
Speaker 1: an upcoming ask htm episode. Just go to how the
Speaker 1: Money dot com slash ask simple instructions there for you
Speaker 1: to submit your voice question and we can take it
Speaker 1: on an upcoming episode. We did our best, but we
Speaker 1: might not have knocked at the park well, and we
Speaker 1: didn't dive another things too that maybe we wanted to,
Speaker 1: like like m M T right, modern monetary theory, Like
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of things when it comes to inflation
Speaker 1: that we didn't really touch on because we didn't want
Speaker 1: to get too nerdy with it. But it's political too,
Speaker 1: because sometimes that's that's true, yeah, but but it's things
Speaker 1: that we find interesting and so I feel like listener
Speaker 1: questions are a way to kind of do a deep dive.
Speaker 1: It does something that we wouldn't normally spend in an
Speaker 1: entire episode talking about. But inflation, dude, it's so essential,
Speaker 1: and it's good to make sure that we're all on
Speaker 1: the same page moving forward and that folks understand it
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah for sure. All right, So thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and until next time, best friends, best friends out,
Speaker 1: M M.