Speaker 1: Welcome to how All right, here we go, ready, ready, ready, ready,
Speaker 1: Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're answering your listener questions. Joel, are you
Speaker 1: you're feeling a little rough? I feel like your voice
Speaker 1: sounds a little textured, a little more, a little gravelly exactly.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. My daughter has been sick, so
Speaker 1: maybe it's rubbing off. I was gonna say so, you
Speaker 1: and I we our lives are quite intertwined in our
Speaker 1: girls played together all the time, and yeah, you've got
Speaker 1: a sick daughter. Two of my girls have had fevers
Speaker 1: as well. And I woke up this morning with my
Speaker 1: throat feeling a little sore. I got my fingers a
Speaker 1: cross that we're gonna be okay. But uh yeah, Kate
Speaker 1: and I aren't excited for that other shoe to drop,
Speaker 1: if you know what I'm saying. I know, man, get
Speaker 1: the sickness. It just kind of runs around the school
Speaker 1: and then runs around our families and like the families
Speaker 1: of our neighbors and each other and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, it gets better to get it over with,
Speaker 1: give it a couple of weeks while get healthy we'll survive.
Speaker 1: But listener questions. Man, we've got some good ones. Today.
Speaker 1: We have a listener asking uh for the best way
Speaker 1: to accept rent. He's gonna be a new landlord. It
Speaker 1: sounds like we've got a follow up question for roth
Speaker 1: Iras and we're gonna start things off at the beginning
Speaker 1: of this episode talking about some different apps that you
Speaker 1: can use to sort of help create maybe kickstart a
Speaker 1: side hustle and uh, even if that makes sense to
Speaker 1: do at all. So excited to get to those and
Speaker 1: a couple others with you today. Man, Yeah, it should
Speaker 1: be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Speaking of apps,
Speaker 1: you told me that your buddy Ben downloaded Acorns and
Speaker 1: he's been like kicking butt with it right now, you know, Ben, Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course. Okay, So let me tell you the full story,
Speaker 1: which was I I invited him to Atlanta to hang
Speaker 1: for an Atlanta nine match actually a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and he said he couldn't because the next week he
Speaker 1: was gonna be flying out to Ireland with a bunch
Speaker 1: of his buddies to play golf, which caught me way
Speaker 1: off guard because that's like the fanciest thing I've ever
Speaker 1: heard him say, it's very uppercross, you know, guys only.
Speaker 1: And so my follow up question was, you know, when
Speaker 1: did you start taking trips like this man? And he
Speaker 1: said it was a funny story, and how a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago he proposed this idea of this trip
Speaker 1: to his wife and it was just so far in
Speaker 1: advance that I think she just sort of kneed jerked
Speaker 1: agree to it. Right, She's like, sure, that's never gonna happen,
Speaker 1: but let's let's do it. That's the Unicorn trip that, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen. Is it gonna materialize? But what
Speaker 1: they did was he set up an Acorns account and
Speaker 1: basically started saving for that trip without them even realizing it, right,
Speaker 1: without them even feeling that they're sending that money aside,
Speaker 1: and which which is the cool thing about acorns, because
Speaker 1: it just rounds up every purchase that you make and
Speaker 1: saves that money. And and so yeah, a lot of
Speaker 1: people like acorns because it's easy to use, and it's
Speaker 1: like this fourth method of savings that you might not
Speaker 1: otherwise save if it wasn't for Acorns. Right, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: easy to use, but it's like almost pain free as well,
Speaker 1: because you just slowly absorb it. You know, you have
Speaker 1: of all the different purchases that you have through the
Speaker 1: month that rounds it up. You don't really realize that
Speaker 1: that money is getting set aside. And sure enough to
Speaker 1: two years later, all the guys had saved up their money,
Speaker 1: and uh Ben's wife was pretty piste because she couldn't
Speaker 1: believe I guess that they actually, you know, went through
Speaker 1: with it and got the tickets and everything, but they
Speaker 1: saved around thirty four dollars for this trip to cover airfare.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard golf is not cheap.
Speaker 1: I think in Ireland in particular, it's it's also maybe
Speaker 1: a little more expensive that they've they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of nice courses. Yeah, isn't that where golf started or
Speaker 1: is that Scotland? Yeah, Scotland and Scotland. Yeah, but Ireland,
Speaker 1: I mean it's close enough, right. But anyway, this is
Speaker 1: a little success story for Acorns, because typically you think,
Speaker 1: at least I think, okay, acorns a little bit here
Speaker 1: and there, like how much are you actually gonna be
Speaker 1: able to set aside? But man, I'm totally impressed with
Speaker 1: the amount that he was able to set aside. He
Speaker 1: had set a clear goal and and he achieved it.
Speaker 1: He totally rocked it. So Ben, kudos to you. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I would recommend to folks out there if
Speaker 1: you're looking for an easy way to say like the
Speaker 1: specifically for a very clear, identifiable goal, and check out Acorns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Acorns is cool, man, And congrats to Ben on on
Speaker 1: making that happen and on saving that much money in
Speaker 1: order to be able to take a really cool trip
Speaker 1: like this. All right, by the way, we have a
Speaker 1: really cool beer that we're trinking on the show today, Matt.
Speaker 1: This is called form to table by form fermentory and blendery,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, that's a fancy way of saying that
Speaker 1: these guys brew beer and then they let it ferment
Speaker 1: and they blend beers together, which honestly is kind of
Speaker 1: like an art to mix different barrels of beer together
Speaker 1: to create a really good finished product in the bottle.
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to try this beer out today. Yeah, Joel,
Speaker 1: this beer was sent to us from Adam. He is
Speaker 1: there in Philly and that's where these guys are and
Speaker 1: he's a big craft beer fan and reached out to
Speaker 1: us via Instagram and uh so yeah, big things to Adam,
Speaker 1: thanks for sending this our way. I just want to
Speaker 1: quickly say we have the best listeners and how many
Speaker 1: good beers have we had because listeners have been so
Speaker 1: kind to send us beers and so we always give
Speaker 1: a shout out and we're just incredibly thankful try these
Speaker 1: beers that we wouldn't otherwise get to try. So thank
Speaker 1: you Adam for sending this beer over and real quick,
Speaker 1: I'll say I looked up on their website. This was
Speaker 1: the first beer that they released, this brewer, this specific bottle. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that impressive. That's really cool. Yeah, these guys are
Speaker 1: super small and are relatively new, so yeah, looking forward
Speaker 1: to chat more later on. Alright, Matt, So let's get
Speaker 1: to some listener questions today. And for folks out there
Speaker 1: wondering how they can submit a question to be considered
Speaker 1: to go on the show, they can go to how
Speaker 1: to Money dot com slash ask and there are directions
Speaker 1: there for how to submit a voicemail question. And let's
Speaker 1: take our first one right now. Hey, guys, this is
Speaker 1: Andrew from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. My wife and I
Speaker 1: love your show. We've learned a lot from you about
Speaker 1: not just how the money the why the money. My
Speaker 1: question today deals with side hustles. My time is pretty limited,
Speaker 1: and so I've been exploring opportunities to make money off
Speaker 1: of things I already do or could do with a
Speaker 1: small time commitment. For example, you both clearly love biking,
Speaker 1: and Matt sounds like you run a good bit I
Speaker 1: do too. Have y'all tried any of the apps that
Speaker 1: claim they'll pay you to exercise? It seems like a
Speaker 1: nice way to earn a little extra cash or saying fit,
Speaker 1: But I also wonder if they're small payouts worth at
Speaker 1: the time. I'd love to know your experiences with those apps,
Speaker 1: grocery reward apps or anything else like that. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: and keep up the great work. Andrew, thanks so much
Speaker 1: man for sending that question in. I'm gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and just jump to it and say that I think
Speaker 1: most folks are not going to be making serious money
Speaker 1: using some of those different apps. You know, if you
Speaker 1: consider your hourly rates, I think you might quickly realize
Speaker 1: that it's just not worth it, unless, like you said,
Speaker 1: you are already doing that activity. If there's something that
Speaker 1: you can pare with what you are already doing and
Speaker 1: it really doesn't take any time. Uh. Some of those apps,
Speaker 1: like those fitness apps you know you mentioned when you're running,
Speaker 1: you know, that can be a great way to maybe
Speaker 1: make some extra money. Um you mentioned, you know how
Speaker 1: we talk about the why, not just how the money,
Speaker 1: but why. And I think that's a great consideration here
Speaker 1: is because just because you can make some extra money
Speaker 1: with some of these apps doesn't necessarily mean that you
Speaker 1: should so, taking again, taking into account how much time
Speaker 1: you would actually spend doing these different activities, you know,
Speaker 1: to make a few bucks, that's a serious consideration before
Speaker 1: I would consider going in on any of these apps. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: I haven't really experimented with many of these apps, and
Speaker 1: it's purely for that reason. I don't feel like the
Speaker 1: payback I'm going to get is equal to the required
Speaker 1: bandwidth and time that I have to put forth in
Speaker 1: order to make money from these apps. But we should
Speaker 1: mention a couple that might be helpful, and in particular,
Speaker 1: the ones that can give you the greatest payback I
Speaker 1: think are the grocery apps. And so there are two
Speaker 1: in particular that I would say are worth trying. There's
Speaker 1: Ibota and there's Fetch. Well, I've never said I bought
Speaker 1: a out loud. In my mind. I've always read it
Speaker 1: as like Iboda or something like that. It's ib O
Speaker 1: T T A right, But it makes sense he said
Speaker 1: I boughta. I immediately got it because I've never said
Speaker 1: the stupid app out loud. Just read it. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: makes so much sense now. But my my friend Michael,
Speaker 1: he is a single dude and he makes over five
Speaker 1: a year using Ibota. And so it's this app where
Speaker 1: you take a picture of your receipts from the grocery
Speaker 1: store and you get money back just for taking those
Speaker 1: receipts and submitting them. And fetches very similar. And those
Speaker 1: are the two that, from everything I've heard and read
Speaker 1: and experienced, that give you the highest payback for the
Speaker 1: littlest effort. And I think that's kind of what you're
Speaker 1: looking for when it comes to some of these apps.
Speaker 1: So yeah, make sure to check those two out. And
Speaker 1: then Angel, you mentioned that you're a runner in regards
Speaker 1: to some of those different fitness apps. Achievement is the
Speaker 1: most popular and legitimate one out there that I could
Speaker 1: find doing my research, and I actually downloaded that myself,
Speaker 1: gave it a shots. You get points for tracking your activity. Uh,
Speaker 1: you get extra points if you take surveys and different
Speaker 1: things like that. I didn't participate in any of those
Speaker 1: surveys because I wanted to see how many points I
Speaker 1: would get just by having this app essentially running in
Speaker 1: the background. And once you earned those points, though, you
Speaker 1: can redeem those for cash. Once you get ten thousand points,
Speaker 1: you get ten buck. And I'll go ahead and say
Speaker 1: that it's hard to earn that many points. The cool
Speaker 1: thing about achievement is that it imported my activity from
Speaker 1: run keeper for the past month, and this past month
Speaker 1: has actually been pretty light when it comes to running.
Speaker 1: I've only run like once a week, so like four times,
Speaker 1: which is not much. But that being said, I got
Speaker 1: a thousand points, which is a dollar equivent to a dollar.
Speaker 1: So if I was running like I normally do, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, three times a week, that can easily translate
Speaker 1: to three thousand points, which is about three bucks. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's real money. It's not going to make
Speaker 1: you rich, but again, you know, I was looking for
Speaker 1: a way to have an app running in the background
Speaker 1: that requires zero effort for me, because you'll, like you
Speaker 1: I'm not willing to take on an additional sort of
Speaker 1: side gig via an app like this to to make
Speaker 1: a few bucks, although I am totally cool with it though,
Speaker 1: if it's super easy like that and I don't have
Speaker 1: to give it any time at all. Yeah. So another
Speaker 1: one that that Andrew might want to consider is it's
Speaker 1: called sweat coin, and you're not earning cash. You're earning
Speaker 1: actually sweat coins like digital currency, but you can redeem
Speaker 1: those sweat coins inside the sweat coin app to buy
Speaker 1: physical products, and so that's kind of an interesting one.
Speaker 1: It's doing kind of Matt what you said. It is
Speaker 1: running in the background and it's documenting your exercise and
Speaker 1: giving you sweatcoins based on how much exercise you're performing.
Speaker 1: Although one caveat to the app is that it doesn't
Speaker 1: work indoors, So if you're running on a treadmill or
Speaker 1: doing push ups, you know, inside your house, it's not
Speaker 1: going to count. It's only going to count those miles
Speaker 1: that you walk or run outside of the house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that one was a little more confusing as far as
Speaker 1: how you can redeem those for actual currency. It was
Speaker 1: kind of cool, like it was a slick app. It
Speaker 1: kind of felt like a game, like little virtual reality
Speaker 1: thing going on there. I don't know, it's hard to describe,
Speaker 1: but you'll see if you check it out. But I
Speaker 1: could not figure out, like what the exchange rate was,
Speaker 1: So that's one thing I didn't like about sweatcoins specifically.
Speaker 1: I feel like overall these things are just kind of
Speaker 1: a little bit gimmicky, and there are there are ways
Speaker 1: that you could maybe make some extra money. But Andrew
Speaker 1: used the phrase side hustle, and you know, we talked
Speaker 1: about that in the previous episode. I think this is
Speaker 1: not something you want to consider a side hustle. If
Speaker 1: you want to take the way you work out or
Speaker 1: the way you exercise and turn that into some sort
Speaker 1: of side hustle. In my mind, that means starting something,
Speaker 1: you know, at five am Monday through Friday, helping other
Speaker 1: people figure out how to exercise. Well, that is a
Speaker 1: way to get exercise yourself and then actually be able
Speaker 1: to make real money from it, to turn it into
Speaker 1: a legitimate side hustle, like some run coaching or something
Speaker 1: like that. He runs all the time, Like, how can
Speaker 1: I tie this into a business that is something that
Speaker 1: he can scale and bring on clients, And yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm with you, Joel. Yeah, so that's something like meaningful,
Speaker 1: whereas a lot of the things we're mentioning here are
Speaker 1: are going to be just smaller rewards. So Andrew in
Speaker 1: the end, right, if you are okay trading some of
Speaker 1: your information, your privacy, you know, some of your battery
Speaker 1: life on your phone because it's going to use a
Speaker 1: little more battery juice in the you know, as it's
Speaker 1: running in the background. If you're okay trading some of
Speaker 1: that for a few bucks, then I think it's worth it, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, every few months, I might be able to
Speaker 1: make a few bucks here and there, Uh, nice little surprise,
Speaker 1: a little bit of extra beer money. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: unless I'm making actual big money, um, I'm not willing
Speaker 1: to devote additional time towards it, right, Like I talk
Speaker 1: often about the credit card sign up bonuses, like you're
Speaker 1: making between three and eight hundred bucks, uh, just for
Speaker 1: using a credit card, Like that's is something I do anyways,
Speaker 1: I just put it on a different card. To me,
Speaker 1: that feels like a little more substantial And it's sort
Speaker 1: of this little side hobby thing I can do. I like,
Speaker 1: I get all nerdy with it, but really it's bonus money.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's not what we would consider a
Speaker 1: side hustle. To make sure that you're considering how much
Speaker 1: time that you would be dedicating towards these side hustles
Speaker 1: and that you're not getting distracted from creating something even
Speaker 1: bigger and scalable. All right, Matt, We've got lots more
Speaker 1: good listener questions coming up. In just a second, we're
Speaker 1: going to take a question from a teacher who's trying
Speaker 1: to help his students learn how to handle their money
Speaker 1: well before they graduate. Those young UN's al Rjeel. Like
Speaker 1: you said, we're gonna have our question here from our
Speaker 1: teacher friend, But first we're going to hear from a
Speaker 1: listener who had a question about rath Iras. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: this is Shannan from Texas. I just had a quick
Speaker 1: question for you all about rath Iras after finishing the podcast.
Speaker 1: So I've heard mixed reviews about getting multiple rath I
Speaker 1: raise I've heard from some people can maybe be a
Speaker 1: good idea to have two different rath ires just to
Speaker 1: kind of diversify your investments. But I didn't really know
Speaker 1: if that was the best decision or if it came
Speaker 1: with extra fees, or if it was just kind of
Speaker 1: too complex. So I just wanted to get y'all's opinion
Speaker 1: on that. Thanks Shannon, great question, and actually the last
Speaker 1: thing you said is the reason not to have multiple erase.
Speaker 1: It's too complex having multiple roth ira accounts. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like having multiple checking accounts. I actually do have
Speaker 1: multiple checking You can do that, but do you need
Speaker 1: to or multiple savings account I guess not multiple checking accounts, right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, it can complicate life a little more than
Speaker 1: than it needs to, and there is a chance that
Speaker 1: you're paying higher fees depending on where your rath i
Speaker 1: raise are located. You can technically have a roth ira
Speaker 1: with multiple different companies, but really consolidating your roth iraise
Speaker 1: and having them with only one institution is just gonna
Speaker 1: make life easier on you when it comes to putting
Speaker 1: more money into those roth iras every year with a
Speaker 1: cap of six thousand dollars, and it's also going to
Speaker 1: potentially make it easier for your beneficiaries. There's just all
Speaker 1: these other hassles that come along with having multiple roth
Speaker 1: areas at different institutions. Juel, you mentioned that six thousand
Speaker 1: dollar cap and that is the combined total of all
Speaker 1: your raths. So, right, you can have six different roth
Speaker 1: IRA accounts opened, and you could put one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in each of them. But Shannon, you know you mentioned diversification.
Speaker 1: There's no diversification happening there just because you have them
Speaker 1: in separate accounts. Uh. That actual diversification is happening with
Speaker 1: the money that you placed within your WRATH I raise
Speaker 1: you want to use that money to buy those index funds,
Speaker 1: which are made up of hundreds and thousands of different companies.
Speaker 1: And so if you're referring to diversification from the standpoint of, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have my WRATH account with this company, like let's
Speaker 1: just say Vanguard, doesn't it make sense to diversify and
Speaker 1: also have a roth IRA with a different company, say Fidelity.
Speaker 1: Well there's really no risk in having all of your
Speaker 1: money with a single account there, right, Vanguard in this case,
Speaker 1: in this example, they're just a custodian of that account,
Speaker 1: and there's virtually zero risk of having all of your
Speaker 1: roth IRA money with that single company. All right, So, Matt,
Speaker 1: you mentioned Vanguard Infidelity. A couple other great options are
Speaker 1: Charles Schwab and in one finance. So Shannon, if you're
Speaker 1: roth Ira is open with one of those companies, we
Speaker 1: would suggest just staying put there and and not opening
Speaker 1: up an account at another institution. Really, that's just gonna
Speaker 1: overcomplicate things, and it's and it's unnecessary. All right, Joel,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead now and take that next question. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Greg and I'm a high school math
Speaker 1: teacher in Northwest Ohio. I teach a financial algebra class
Speaker 1: and since I created it, I've kind of turned it
Speaker 1: into a personal finance class with the goal of getting
Speaker 1: my students as prepared as Paul usible for post high
Speaker 1: school life. I've tried to cover a variety of topics
Speaker 1: um such as credit cards, mortgages, saving for retirement, and
Speaker 1: currently we're starting to read The Total Money Makeover by
Speaker 1: Dave Ramsey, which I feel like does a pretty good
Speaker 1: job of covering some of the issues that can come
Speaker 1: up throughout their lives. But my question is, if you
Speaker 1: had to put together a checklist of what a high
Speaker 1: school student should know by the time they graduate about
Speaker 1: personal finance, what would it be. And I just want
Speaker 1: to kind of have this so that I have a
Speaker 1: better tool to use just to make sure I'm covering
Speaker 1: everything that I can in order to prepare these students
Speaker 1: for life after high school. I appreciate all your help
Speaker 1: with this and I really enjoy the podcast. Thank you, Greg,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your question, and and thank
Speaker 1: you for teaching your students about personal finances. And we've
Speaker 1: talked about this before. Only five states in our great
Speaker 1: United States actually require financial education for high school students,
Speaker 1: and that a shame because most kids walk away knowing
Speaker 1: a lot about a lot of important subjects, knowing a
Speaker 1: little about some really unimportant ones, but knowing nothing about
Speaker 1: personal finances. And that's something that affects them every single
Speaker 1: day of the rest of their lives. Yeah, Joe, and
Speaker 1: that reminds me of this article that you actually sent
Speaker 1: me about this teacher up in Philly, and he started
Speaker 1: this entire program, not just a class, but a program
Speaker 1: where his students were able to earn money, uh, learn
Speaker 1: how to handle their money, invest it right, all the
Speaker 1: different things that essentially we do in the real world
Speaker 1: within the sort of program that they have there at
Speaker 1: the school. It's a fantastic article documenting that, and will
Speaker 1: link to that in the show notes. So Greg to
Speaker 1: answer your question. You know, we could give you basically
Speaker 1: a laundry list of all the different topics that we
Speaker 1: feel are are crazy important. However, and you could just
Speaker 1: read all of our episode list what that would be.
Speaker 1: That's not very fun, And honestly, like, the more we
Speaker 1: think about it, the more that we feel that there
Speaker 1: are a few major concepts that I think if I
Speaker 1: was a teacher teaching students that there are a few
Speaker 1: things that would stand out we think are crazy important,
Speaker 1: those key principles, and so that's what we're gonna talk about, right,
Speaker 1: the first of those being to track your spending. Right,
Speaker 1: if you are trying to do something with your money,
Speaker 1: hopefully that's spend less of it, invest more of it,
Speaker 1: you have to know where your money is currently going.
Speaker 1: You need to have eyes on it. Uh, And so
Speaker 1: the first thing you have to do is track you're spending.
Speaker 1: And it sounds super boring, but it's not right because
Speaker 1: think of it's sort of like if you're training for something.
Speaker 1: We were talked about running earlier, but if you're training
Speaker 1: for a race, you need to know how to push
Speaker 1: yourself and you need to see where your weaknesses are
Speaker 1: so that you can make those changes. That's what a
Speaker 1: budget is. First, you track your your spending and then
Speaker 1: you start challenging yourself, right, you start setting those limits,
Speaker 1: and that's what a budget is. A lot of times
Speaker 1: budgets can seem pretty lame and boring, but there are
Speaker 1: a lot of apps out there that once these kids
Speaker 1: start making money, and some of them might be might
Speaker 1: have part time jobs now where they can start doing that.
Speaker 1: But a really tangible way to make that come alive
Speaker 1: for them is to to set goals like what do
Speaker 1: you want to be able to do with your money?
Speaker 1: What milestone do you want to achieve by a certain point.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes it real, that's makes it exciting
Speaker 1: is to know that cool, this is what I'm working towards.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to save up enough money. It's buy my
Speaker 1: own vehicle, right, my own car or hopefully more advanced.
Speaker 1: But they're thinking, oh, I can set aside this much
Speaker 1: money and that will grow because I've got it invested.
Speaker 1: And that kind of leads us to our next important point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: another major theme that I would want my students to
Speaker 1: learn if I was a high school teacher is to
Speaker 1: be able to grasp the concept of compounding interest. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure compounding interests has been called like the eighth
Speaker 1: wonder of the world. If it hasn't, we're calling it
Speaker 1: now boom trademarks. I don't know, something probably warm buff
Speaker 1: or somebody smart said that. But especially for high school
Speaker 1: students with how much time they have on their side,
Speaker 1: this concept is one that they need to grasp now
Speaker 1: because even just setting aside a few dollars a day
Speaker 1: from their minimum wage job or something that they might
Speaker 1: be working, that can turn into a million dollars by
Speaker 1: the time they're sixty five. And so that is just
Speaker 1: a concept that if you can drill that home by
Speaker 1: making it simple and making it tangible and easy to understand,
Speaker 1: it's gonna make a huge difference in the rest of
Speaker 1: their lives. And it's gonna help them actually prioritize investing
Speaker 1: over spending because they understand how big of a deal
Speaker 1: compounding interest is. So I would definitely make that and
Speaker 1: communicating that concept well a really high priority in the class. Yeah, Joel,
Speaker 1: and I think our third big point that we would
Speaker 1: want to see communicated to high school students has to
Speaker 1: do with credit cards. Greg you mentioned that y'all are
Speaker 1: starting to read the Total Money Makeover book, which is
Speaker 1: Dave Ramsey's and Dave Ramesy is a great start that
Speaker 1: he covers a lot of great concepts. He actually does
Speaker 1: a good job of covering compounding interests, so that's awesome,
Speaker 1: but we personally feel that he does a pretty poor
Speaker 1: job when it comes to talking about credit cards. We
Speaker 1: think that having credit cards and handling them responsibly is
Speaker 1: an important lesson to learn. You need to have a
Speaker 1: good credit score in order to get a mortgage. There
Speaker 1: are very few folks out there in the world who
Speaker 1: are going to save up enough money to buy a
Speaker 1: home in cash. Well, some people do it, it's admirable,
Speaker 1: but fact is, not many folks are going to be
Speaker 1: be able to do that. And so how to handle
Speaker 1: your credit cards and knowing the downside of that, right,
Speaker 1: this is the flip side of compounding interest. You can
Speaker 1: have compounding interests work for you if you're investing that money,
Speaker 1: but if you are in debt and you're making payments,
Speaker 1: what you've got interest working against you. And that's not
Speaker 1: the side of it that you want to be on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and one last thing in particular, because you're speaking to
Speaker 1: high school students, that we would recommend you discuss are
Speaker 1: the costs of college. I feel like that is something
Speaker 1: that a lot of these kids are in all likelihood
Speaker 1: gonna struggle with going to a school the costs more
Speaker 1: than they can afford, racking up student loans, maybe even
Speaker 1: their parents racking up student loans on their behalf, and
Speaker 1: in understanding the burden that can come by taking on
Speaker 1: more than you can bear. And so maybe that means
Speaker 1: looking up a bunch of different schools and what the
Speaker 1: average annual tuition is, and then what the average annual
Speaker 1: salary is for people that graduate from those schools. There
Speaker 1: are all sorts of different ways that you can help
Speaker 1: communicate this concept, maybe helping kids see that if they
Speaker 1: go to a local community college for the first two
Speaker 1: years of their college career, that they could potentially save
Speaker 1: ten of thousands of dollars and it just makes their
Speaker 1: lives so much easier post graduation if they're not saddled
Speaker 1: with massive amounts of student loans and so on episode
Speaker 1: seventy we talked about that, but that is just such
Speaker 1: an important issue right now in our society, and so
Speaker 1: making sure that your kids understand the perils of taking
Speaker 1: out too much student loan debt. It's it's just crucial.
Speaker 1: They have to know that and they have to know
Speaker 1: it now. And it's also worth mentioning that college may
Speaker 1: not be for everyone out there. I mean, we know
Speaker 1: that it may not be for everyone, but is it
Speaker 1: talked about and the trades right that they're making a
Speaker 1: comeback skilled laborers. But then obviously entrepreneurship, right, if you
Speaker 1: have students who are driven enough to kind of create
Speaker 1: something that they want to do on their own terms,
Speaker 1: that can be an excellent path to pursue as well
Speaker 1: that doesn't even involve college. Enjil one last bonus one
Speaker 1: is the stock trading game. A lot of times that's
Speaker 1: part of the curriculum when it comes to financial education
Speaker 1: in schools. I totally did that in high school. Yeah
Speaker 1: I did. I did. And it's fun. It feels like
Speaker 1: gambling because that's basically what it is. But that's the
Speaker 1: downside of it is that it makes students think that
Speaker 1: investing is sort of this crap shoot that you're just gambling.
Speaker 1: Might go up and might go down, who knows, But
Speaker 1: really that's not what investing is all about. So I
Speaker 1: would stay away from that. Stock trading game altogether. I
Speaker 1: completely agree my friend. Okay, we've got two more listener
Speaker 1: questions in a particular Matt. You're gonna answer a question
Speaker 1: about the cost of makeup, right, Yeah, I will, or
Speaker 1: my wife will, so yeah, let's bring her on. All right,
Speaker 1: we'll do that right after the break. All right, Jill,
Speaker 1: we are back and we've got a quick landlording question.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, this Lee and New Hampshire. Just got done
Speaker 1: listening to your episode of Listener Questions and had a
Speaker 1: couple of my own. First, what is your preferred way
Speaker 1: to receive rent? My wife and I are getting our
Speaker 1: first tenants and we're wondering what is the best method. Second,
Speaker 1: my wife and I both work full time. She tried
Speaker 1: telling me that we shouldn't declare our income from our renters.
Speaker 1: What kind of problem are we setting ourselves up for
Speaker 1: with a decision like that. Thanks for your answers, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll have more in the future. Matt. We
Speaker 1: love talking real estate. Yeah, and I kind of want
Speaker 1: to jump to that second part of this question, but
Speaker 1: let's just go ahead and go in order and uh
Speaker 1: answer his question about rents. Okay, we'll go linearly. Uh.
Speaker 1: I still have one tenant, by the way, who refuses
Speaker 1: to pay me any other method except for a check
Speaker 1: personal check. Yes, that's fine, it's fine, it works, but
Speaker 1: it's just a little more annoying because I'm so used
Speaker 1: to digital payments now. I'm used to to using the
Speaker 1: cash app. I'm used to using Venmo. Yeah, both of
Speaker 1: those are awesome, Joel, you and I both use Vemo
Speaker 1: and cash app. They're super easy to use, really clean,
Speaker 1: really easy. I have attendant that sometimes uses PayPal and
Speaker 1: it can be great as well. It's it's it's easy,
Speaker 1: but it adds the additional layer of having to select
Speaker 1: pay friends and family or pay for goods and services,
Speaker 1: and originally PayPal had set that up. I think for
Speaker 1: online businesses like eBay specifically to add some buyer protection
Speaker 1: when it comes to paying a vendor, there's a an
Speaker 1: amount of protection built in. They charged for that. It's
Speaker 1: like two or three percent. And so if you're collecting
Speaker 1: your rent and your tenant doesn't pay your friends or family,
Speaker 1: you get hit with a two or three percent fee,
Speaker 1: depending on what you're in is that's that can be
Speaker 1: a lot of money, you know, bucks, and so that
Speaker 1: can be a pain personally, I try to avoid PayPal
Speaker 1: because of that. But I'm surprised to hear you knocking
Speaker 1: on personal checks. To be honest, Well, I just have
Speaker 1: to like wait for it to show up in my
Speaker 1: mailbox and then I got to take a picture of
Speaker 1: it with my phone. It's just extra steps. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess I don't mind the picture. I mean, back when
Speaker 1: I had to go into the bank, Oh, that's way worse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hated it, right, I was all about digital payments
Speaker 1: at that point. I was even really happy with with PayPal.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that the mobile deposits are so
Speaker 1: easy now. Pretty much all banks have them now. I
Speaker 1: personally don't mind. But one other service you should consider
Speaker 1: when it comes to accepting payments from your tenant is
Speaker 1: a service called Cozy, and the website is Cozy dot
Speaker 1: c o. And it's a really good, actually kind of
Speaker 1: suite of landlord tools that you can use. Cozy doesn't
Speaker 1: charge any fees to the landlord or the tenant in
Speaker 1: order to pay rent. They also have tenant screening tools
Speaker 1: that you can use, and those do cost money. I
Speaker 1: haven't switched over to Cozy, Matt, but I've been on
Speaker 1: my radar because now I've got enough rental properties that
Speaker 1: I feel like it makes sense for me to kind
Speaker 1: of button things up a little bit more. And I
Speaker 1: feel like Cozy has this awesome suite of tools that
Speaker 1: make it free and easy for for landlords. Yeah, this is,
Speaker 1: at least I think the second time that you've mentioned Cozy,
Speaker 1: So I think it might be time for some personal
Speaker 1: experimentation coming up here in the future. Joel, all right,
Speaker 1: I gotta make the change now. The pressure is on.
Speaker 1: But Lee onto the second part of your question about
Speaker 1: not declaring rental income. Uh, don't do that. Basically, that's
Speaker 1: tax fraud. At the very least, there could be fines
Speaker 1: and penalties. At worst, there could actually be jail time.
Speaker 1: It's just flat out illegal. So you want to make
Speaker 1: sure that you are in compliance with the I r S.
Speaker 1: You just want to make sure, yeah, that you're doing
Speaker 1: the right thing. Yeah, and there are actually some benefits
Speaker 1: to declaring the income that you make from your rental property.
Speaker 1: You can deduct expensive is and you can take that
Speaker 1: depreciation as well on your taxes. Major repairs and remodels
Speaker 1: that you do to the property can have big impacts
Speaker 1: on the taxes that you'll pay. Joel, and other big
Speaker 1: expenses as well, like I mean, insurance, But even the
Speaker 1: small stuff, right, you know, you can track your mileage
Speaker 1: to your rental property to check up on it for showings,
Speaker 1: just different things, just even keeping an eye on it.
Speaker 1: That's not a ton, But all that little stuff adds up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And depending on the spread between the costs associated with
Speaker 1: your rental property and the income that is generating, you
Speaker 1: might even be able to take a loss on your
Speaker 1: taxes on your rental property, therefore benefiting you on this
Speaker 1: year's taxes. So yeah, for many reasons, you're going to
Speaker 1: want to to clear your rental income. You're in for
Speaker 1: a big headache if you don't. All right, Joe, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead. Now get to our last question. This one
Speaker 1: is about makeup. This one's a little bit out of
Speaker 1: our wheelhouse. Hi, mangel, this is Kimberly from DUBO Jacksonville, Florida,
Speaker 1: and I have a question about your wive's makeup situation.
Speaker 1: When I go to purchase makeup, just mascara alone is
Speaker 1: around ten dollars. So I'm wondering what your wives do
Speaker 1: to cut the costs when it comes to buying makeup.
Speaker 1: You don't want to buy the cheapest thing because you
Speaker 1: don't want to break out and stuff. So thanks for everything.
Speaker 1: By it's real quick, let's talk about dove all that
Speaker 1: is that? How you do it? I've never heard of
Speaker 1: it before, but I like, I like the energy, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest. I did not know what the
Speaker 1: heck that was all about, and so I looked it
Speaker 1: up and evidently that's what Jacksonville Jaguar fans do, either
Speaker 1: during a football game or just when they are calling
Speaker 1: into podcasts and ask me questions. So well done, Kimberly.
Speaker 1: I like it, and like I mentioned, it's understandable Joel
Speaker 1: that you and I don't have much experience with saving
Speaker 1: on makeup, so it's convenient that my wife Kate is
Speaker 1: here at the house and she can share what she does.
Speaker 1: So okay, thanks for dropping in. Sure. Happy to you, hi, Kimberly.
Speaker 1: I am happy to answer your question from my perspective. UM,
Speaker 1: it absolutely resonates me what you're asking about. Always been
Speaker 1: shocked by how expensive makeup can be, and it's hard
Speaker 1: to know where to spend and where to save, and
Speaker 1: it's really different and personal decision for everyone. So UM,
Speaker 1: I can talk a little bit about what I personally
Speaker 1: do to save money on makeup that works for me.
Speaker 1: First of all, I don't wear makeup often, so I'm
Speaker 1: willing to spend a little bit more on a higher
Speaker 1: quality product. It lasts forever, and really I spend very
Speaker 1: little on makeup overall. Even still, usually, and I've found
Speaker 1: a product that I want to purchase, I will Google it,
Speaker 1: but leads me either to website that's currently offering a
Speaker 1: sale on that product, or sometimes it will lead me
Speaker 1: to one of the many instagrammers who are out there
Speaker 1: testing one products a day and offering um suggestions or
Speaker 1: recommended duplicates or knockoff products for more expensive products. So, um,
Speaker 1: if you purchase makeup rarely, spending a few minutes on
Speaker 1: Google can save you a lot. So you found okay
Speaker 1: that there's not necessarily a website that has all the
Speaker 1: cheap stuff, that's like amazing, No, there are there are
Speaker 1: thousands of makeup websites where you can purchase. UM. I
Speaker 1: do think maybe googling the name of the website and
Speaker 1: reviews after that it's helpful because some of these are
Speaker 1: just going to take your money or send you a
Speaker 1: product that isn't actually what you ordered, so they're constantly changing,
Speaker 1: constantly offering different kinds of sales and deals, anything from
Speaker 1: Alta to Macy's two Nordstrom. I would stick to something
Speaker 1: you've heard of before so that you don't end up
Speaker 1: um with a fake product. But you should be able
Speaker 1: to find a sale on whatever makeup you're looking for
Speaker 1: almost all the time, especially around the holidays, when they're
Speaker 1: offering gifts with purchase or they're offering buy one, get
Speaker 1: one deals on some of the bigger websites out there.
Speaker 1: That's a really easy quick way to save a lot
Speaker 1: of money on makeup. So another thing I do to
Speaker 1: save money on makeup is stick to more of four
Speaker 1: table brands when the product that I'm looking to buy
Speaker 1: is more trendy product and it's less something that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wear often for an entire year. So lip color,
Speaker 1: eye color, nail color, those are usually a really good
Speaker 1: place for me to save a lot of money. I
Speaker 1: know I may not finish the whole product, and so
Speaker 1: I'm not willing to spend very much on those things, um,
Speaker 1: But more foundational products like baby creams and powders and
Speaker 1: lotions and stuff like that that I know I'm going
Speaker 1: to finish. Wait, what's did you say baby cream or
Speaker 1: baby cream? What's that b So it's like a foundation
Speaker 1: mixed with usually an SPF and a lotion altogether. Cool.
Speaker 1: I'm learning so much on this episode. Another thing you
Speaker 1: mentioned in your question then I will talk about for
Speaker 1: just a minute, is that more affordable makeup is not
Speaker 1: always worse for skin. I have really sensitive skin and
Speaker 1: have experienced irritation from products that do not always line
Speaker 1: up with what I spent on that product. So trial
Speaker 1: and air is super important for me when it comes
Speaker 1: to makeup, which leads me to remind everybody that you
Speaker 1: can return makeup. I like to try a product a
Speaker 1: couple of times to make sure that I love it
Speaker 1: before I decided to keep it, and since it's not cheap,
Speaker 1: I do not hesitate to return it if I do
Speaker 1: not totally love it, so I'm not just packing out
Speaker 1: a drawer with a bunch of products. I don't use
Speaker 1: um everywhere I've ever purchased makeup except returns. I just
Speaker 1: hold onto original packaging and receipts for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks and never had a problem. The final thing I
Speaker 1: do probably to save money on makeup is to remind
Speaker 1: myself to use what I already have. So anytime I
Speaker 1: am going to purchase a new product, I remind myself
Speaker 1: to go back through the makeup I already have make
Speaker 1: sure I don't have something similar to what I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about purchasing. I have been guilty of not using makeup
Speaker 1: down to the last drop in the past and going
Speaker 1: ahead and purchasing a new product before has really been needed.
Speaker 1: So now I challenge myself to always use it all
Speaker 1: up and look back over what I have before buying
Speaker 1: something new. So those are all the tips I have
Speaker 1: off the top of my head, Kimberly, I hope that's
Speaker 1: been helpful. I would also recommend checking out the how
Speaker 1: to Money Facebook page and continuing this conversation over there,
Speaker 1: as I feel like there are some super savvy ladies
Speaker 1: over there, right, very helpful. Yeah, I've learned so much
Speaker 1: from that group, so more detailed answers probably over there
Speaker 1: if you'd like to continue the conversation. One last question
Speaker 1: for you, k can you buy makeup on eBay? Like?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not saying necessarily that it's going
Speaker 1: to be used, but I mean you can get anything
Speaker 1: on eBay, right sure, new unopened makeup on eBay from
Speaker 1: people who sell it privately or from makeup artists. There
Speaker 1: are tons of products on eBay that are legit that
Speaker 1: you can purchase at great discount. So yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: really good place to look too. Cool awesome babe, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for coming on and sharing your makeup wisdom
Speaker 1: with us. Sure anytime, all right, so I must get fests.
Speaker 1: I personally don't want makeup. Uh. I did when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, when my sisters will put it on me,
Speaker 1: But since those days, just zero makeup for me. But
Speaker 1: I did find this site. I think it might be
Speaker 1: helpful for Kimberly and for other ladies who are looking
Speaker 1: to save on makeup. It's called brand if I b
Speaker 1: r A in D E F Y dot info, and
Speaker 1: they have an app. It's iPhone only, but they compare
Speaker 1: store products to the name brand products, and they have
Speaker 1: specific Brandify reviews. And so, for instance, there's one on
Speaker 1: foundation and and they compare a forty foundation to a
Speaker 1: twelve dollar foundation, and the reviewer says, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: if you don't care for the sweatproof, then there's no
Speaker 1: need for the name brand, go drug store and get
Speaker 1: a great foundation that lasts all day for cheap. So
Speaker 1: this could be a good site for ladies to check out.
Speaker 1: It might be helpful when they're comparing like inexpensive verse
Speaker 1: really expensive makeup options. It's kind of fun to take something, Matt,
Speaker 1: that we don't know to answer on our own. Had
Speaker 1: to bring your life on but so hopefully Kimberly in
Speaker 1: Duval get a nice little answer there. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's how you do it either, dude, keep I keep trying.
Speaker 1: Not working all right, we lost all the time we've
Speaker 1: got for listening questions on this episode, Matt. It was
Speaker 1: super fun. And any other listeners who want to get
Speaker 1: in on the action in future episodes, well they can
Speaker 1: go to our website how to money dot com slash ask.
Speaker 1: But real quick, let's get back to the beer. We
Speaker 1: had a beer called form to Table on the show
Speaker 1: today and it was real nice. Yeah, man, I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed this one. I'm not sure if you said what
Speaker 1: kind of beer this was at the beginning, but it
Speaker 1: is a rustic table beer. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is the proper definition of a table beer, but
Speaker 1: in my book, it's just a beer that you can
Speaker 1: have pretty much any time with any food pairing. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have an overpowering flavor. Uh, It's something that you
Speaker 1: can enjoy pretty much whenever with whatever. And what that
Speaker 1: also means, man, is that this is a really refreshing beer.
Speaker 1: The a b V on this is only three and
Speaker 1: a half percent, so it's really easy to drink, but
Speaker 1: it's still got some of those sort of funky farmhouse
Speaker 1: flavors going on. And I dig it. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a style that I'm getting more and more into that
Speaker 1: I just had more of an appreciation for because it
Speaker 1: is one of the those beers that's accessible but still
Speaker 1: tastes good. And so yeah, I really enjoyed this one.
Speaker 1: And big thanks to Adam and Philly for sending this
Speaker 1: one over to us. So again, props to Form and
Speaker 1: we're excited to have had this beer on the show.
Speaker 1: But Joel, I think that's gonna be it for this episode. Man,
Speaker 1: Yes it is. But we will have links to some
Speaker 1: of those apps so we mentioned and more on the
Speaker 1: show notes for this episode at how to money dot com.
Speaker 1: And if you found this episode helpful, we would love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Our listeners just search for how
Speaker 1: to Money over at an Apple Podcasts as if you
Speaker 1: didn't know that's what this podcast was called. But leave
Speaker 1: us a review over there, that would be awesome. We'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you, our buddy, until next time.
Speaker 1: Until next time, best friends out, Best Friends out Man