WEBVTT - Friday Flight - Dumpster Diving, Insurance Dodging, & Pudgy Penguins #996 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.519 Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel, and yes again, 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.280 Matt is not here, promised he'll be back soon. Today 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:29.120 we're talking about dumpster diving, insurance dodging, and pudgy penguins. Yeah, 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:32.480 that's right. Matt has spent multiple weeks behind bars and 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:35.560 I can't tell you the full story. And I'm just kidding. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:37.960 He's Matt spends some time with his family. He'll be 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.720 back soon. This is kind of a summer summer thing 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.040 where I'm hosting this Friday flight by myself. But I 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:49.360 hope this is the last Friday flight I host solo 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.280 because it's not really as fun doing it boy myself, 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.840 even though I still love getting to talk about personal finances. 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.760 And I'm glad you're along for today's Friday flight. Before 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.720 I get to all the stories we've interesting, including pudgy penguins, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.400 it's a really interesting one. NFTs are back with a vengeance. 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.240 I wanted to quickly highlight an email that listener Donnie sent. 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.240 He lives in Maryland, and there are all sorts of 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.120 things in the personal finance world that even as someone 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.679 who hosts a personal finance podcast, I'm unaware of, and 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:21.480 a lot of that is because there are state specific 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.480 programs or just small fin nuances that I have not 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.280 begun to appreciate or research in depth yet. And so 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.080 Donnie sent this email and at least for listeners in 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:32.760 Maryland and then maybe check and see if this is 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.880 something like this is available in your state as well. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.000 There are cool perks for people who stick money aside 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.640 in five twenty nine plans for their kids. And so 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.520 Donnie basically wrote and told me and gave a lot 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.920 of detail on this. So look it up for yourself 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.680 on the Maryland five twenty nine dot com web page 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.960 for details. But if you meet certain income requirements basically 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.280 if you don't make a ton of money and actually 0:01:58.280 --> 0:01:59.720 a ton of money, well that's in the eye of 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.680 the older. But you can get a state match to 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.720 your five to twenty nine plan for in order to 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.200 save for your kids college. So not only have five 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.000 twenty nine plans gotten more flexible lately, And I looked 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:14.920 up the Maryland five to twenty nine plan to see, 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.600 you know what the cost and expenses look like, and 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.959 on some of those investments they're quite low. So the 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:21.720 Maryland five to twenty nine plan is I would say 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.600 at least a really good solid one. Well, if you 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.960 meet certain income requirements and you're prone to interested in 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.040 saving for your kid's future, you might be able to 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.120 get matching funds from the state for making those contributions. 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.600 Interesting thing, you have to you can't claim a state 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.040 tax deduction and get this state contribution. So it's important, 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:44.960 Donnie said, to do the math to see which one 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:46.639 is going to work out better for you. But you 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:48.200 may might be able to get five hundred bucks and 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.080 maybe you would have only saved one hundred bucks in 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.840 taxes or something like that for making this contribution, and 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:55.880 in that case, you'd want to take the state five 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.519 hundred dollars contribution and you're getting out it's like a 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.440 net four hundred dollars win. So again, all of those 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.560 details are available on Maryland five twenty nine dot com. 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.840 But it just reminded me like, oh man, there's so 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.320 much to learn about personal finance. It never gets boring 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.520 to me. And there are so many ways that the 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.400 system is set up for people who are at least 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.720 curious and paying attention to benefit. And if you live 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:22.480 in Maryland, and again if someone else, by the way, 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:23.920 if you live in another state, and you're like, my 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.440 state does something similar. Shoot me an email, like, we 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:28.799 want to highlight these things on the show. We want 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.359 to make people aware of incredible benefits or free money. Right, 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.360 this is almost like four to one k match at 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.040 work on steroids. Though for your five twenty nine plans, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.760 it's really cool. All right, congrats to all the graduates. 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.240 I'm seeing more and more pictures posted, and then there's 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.920 all these those yard signs, the signs in front of 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.640 neighborhoods at least where I live, saying congrats to these 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.560 grads and hate where are they going to college? Well, 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.440 and for college graduates in particular, you've been putting in 0:03:57.800 --> 0:03:59.400 tons of work for a lot of years. It's paid 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.680 off with the degree. And we talked about the job 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.160 market last week and how it's not as good as 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:10.119 it has been for new college grads. But here's one 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.720 thing that I wasn't on my radar until I saw 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.680 an article in Indie Week, and it was that college 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.000 graduates tend to leave a lot of their possessions behind 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.240 when they fly the coop, When they leave the dorm 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.280 or whatever campus housing or off campus housing they live in, 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.839 they tend to leave a lot of their stuff they 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.240 just maybe it's they don't have a U haul or 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.640 a trailer to stick all their stuff in, and so 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.039 a lot of it ends up at the dumpster. Could 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.520 be some really nice stuff, right, It could be some 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:44.159 trash that nobody really wants, but it could be a 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.120 nice couch, or it could be In the case of 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.160 this article who wrote for Indie Week, she talked about 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.520 salvaging some really nice stuff that graduates were leaving behind 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.200 at the school closest to her. High end tables, luxury sneakers, 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.960 Lululemon workout stuff like shoved in a bag, fancy appliance 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.440 like nice toasters and microwaves and stuff like that. And 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.520 one person's trash is another person's treasure. And so the 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.240 author she basically highlighted how she was able to salvage 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.000 almost seven thousand dollars worth of stuff to prevent it 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:17.800 from being thrown in the trash and to put it 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.960 to use herself. And she created a spreadsheet and she said, hey, 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.039 this is something I'm going to keep, this is something 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:24.920 i'm going to sell, this is something I'm going to 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.800 give away. And I thought that was so cool. I mean, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.839 it really is. The one person's trash is another person's treasure. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:37.559 It's the most apt phrase here because as the college person, 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.880 you're saying, this is a burden to me. I don't 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:41.800 have anywhere to put it. Maybe I'm moving back home 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:43.320 with mom and dad for a few months. They don't 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.479 have room for this stuff. Or I don't know where 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.479 I'm going to end up. Maybe I'm sleeping on a 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:49.320 friend's couch for a couple weeks and then I'll figure 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.440 it out. And so in the interim, you just don't 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.200 have anywhere to put it, so it ends up on 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:55.720 the curb, or it ends up in the trash. Can 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.360 I think this happens. I've heard from people in New 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.880 York City right around the first of the month, because 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.320 there are fewer places to store stuff. You just find 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.200 stuff on the curb that you otherwise are like, why 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.200 are they getting rid of this? And it's because they 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:10.680 just can't take it with them, and it's more of 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:12.479 a pain, more of a hassle to take it. And 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.120 if you can deal with the hassle of moving it, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.720 you just are the proud owner of something fairly nice 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.400 that someone else tossed out. And I think it also 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.240 says something about our culture that we live in an 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.920 era of disposable stuff, right, And it makes me think 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.080 that even if an item is initially more expensive, it 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.719 can cost you less over time to buy the nicer 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.640 thing upfront and to hold on to it. But then, 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.240 also because of extreme wealth in this country, when you 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.640 think about the fact that we have so on average 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.320 as a country, we're the wealthiest country in the history 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.160 of the world, there's room here for entrepreneurs to make 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.680 money based on the fact that based on some arbitrage, right, 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.920 the fact that somebody has said, oh I used this, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.840 I no longer need it, I'm tossing it as and 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.919 you can step in and be the middleman or woman 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.880 to enjoy the profit of that. Basically, I have friends 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.920 who have done this before, whether it's with used clothing. 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.360 They've started businesses where they go to thrift stores and 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.360 buy stuff and list it on eBay. And I'm not 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.800 saying that it's not a job. It is. It takes time, 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.920 but if you have an eye for that stuff, you 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:28.200 can make a living literally just reselling things. Another friend 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.400 who said, who did that with mid century furniture and 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.160 he just knows where to go, what to look for 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:35.840 and once you get an eye for that, he's like, 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.360 you're able to find some things for one hundred bucks 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.800 that sell for thousands of dollars. And this reminded me 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.880 of that where people tossing stuff out you can benefit 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.560 from at least just the way people don't take care 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.200 of their stuff or get rid of it prematurely. At 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:56.960 the very least by the way, I wish folks would 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.280 donate that stuff so people can benefit instead of it 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.280 next to the dumpster, tossing it in the trash and 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.160 then you know, I don't know, maybe you don't have 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.360 time for a side house, so you're not interested. But 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:10.880 I think it's an underrated way to get cool stuff 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:12.560 or to make a buck, and you have to roll 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:13.920 up your sleeves and get a little bit dirty. I 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:15.320 think that's one of the things too, is this is 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.760 going to take maybe a little time, little effort, but 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.520 even I think that can be It's kind of like 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.960 my dishwasher story recently, buying extra dishwashers and flipping them, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:25.880 and it's a way to turn something that would have 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.160 been a cost center into a profit center and still 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:29.960 get something new at the same time. I just love 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:34.000 that that's possible if you're paying attention. That makes you think. 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.480 One last story here on the dumpster diving front. I 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.600 had a buddy who there was back in the day 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.920 there was an airline called air Tran. Southwest bought air 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.680 Tran back in the day and that's how they actually 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.280 moved into flying out of Atlanta. But AirTran ran a 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.200 promotion on Wendy's Cups, and I think it was if you 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.760 collected like sixty four Wendy's cups, you were able to 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.920 take a free one way or around trip flight. And 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.319 I don't think there were any like limits to the 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.040 amount of cups you could collect in the number of 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.080 flights that you were able to rack up. And so 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.480 my buddy would literally jump into dumpsters to get these 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:13.640 Windy's cups because it meant free travel. And so, yeah, 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:15.400 these are the kind of things where if you see 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.000 something like that and you're like that. At one time 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.360 there was a lift promotion for new drivers and new 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.679 drivers all you had to do was jump through the 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.280 hoops to sign up for a lift, give one ride, 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.600 and you were able to get a thousand dollars bonus. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:30.800 And I was like, that's worth my time. That's worth 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.120 my time. So these things don't come along frequently, I 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.200 wouldn't say, but they come along often enough that if 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.640 you're paying attention, you might be able to score something. 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:46.400 Is your smartphone making your car insurance more expensive? The 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:50.240 finance journal Kiplinger they dove into that topic the other 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.960 day and they found that third party apps are feeding 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.120 information to insurance company insurance companies that could be used 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.760 against you in setting rates. So the I'm not talking 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.240 about the apps from your insurance company, right, which we've 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.440 talked about on the show before and I have used 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:11.160 before in order to save money on my insurance. Basically, 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.520 if you drive like a grainy for a month or 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.240 three months, or what however long they tell you to 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:17.480 you plug something into your car. They might say, hey, 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.240 you're actually pretty safe driver. We're going to knock twenty 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.960 eight percent off your insurance rate, which is pretty cool. 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:26.920 I know some people are aware of those, but I 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.480 think that, at least from what I've seen and experienced, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.520 they can be a good way to save money on insurance. 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.760 But what I'm talking about is actually a bunch of 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.240 different apps to collect other information on you. There was 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.560 another article just this week about how the Chinese apps 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.959 Timu and She and they might be spying on you 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.240 when you do your shopping and selling that information well, 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.760 could end up at insurance companies maybe maybe. And so 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:55.120 apps you would not think of as spying on you 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.280 or collecting information that could be used to create a 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.920 dossier and sell that information are doing so. So it's 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:06.880 weather apps, shopping apps, navigation apps are all those apps 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.920 are all collecting some data if you allow them, and 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.960 then they're selling that data to data brokers who sell 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.000 it to insurance companies. And one of the main apps 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:17.840 that was highlighted this and I swear we've talked about 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.680 this on the show before, but I guess it just 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.280 refreshed in my mind. It's called Life three sixty. And 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.480 this seems this app seems like a benign app. It 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.680 actually seems like it's an app that's poised to help 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.160 families share location and keep track of each other and 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.440 stay in touch with each other. Well, this app in 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.000 particular seems to be collecting information that is being sold 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.920 and it's leading to unexpected premium hikes for insurance Auto 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.480 insurance in particular because of the data it's able at 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.840 the robust data it's able to collect about where you 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.000 are and what you're doing, and the insurance companies like, yeah, 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.440 we'd like that because the more information we have, the 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.280 more we can dial in rates for specific people if 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.600 they're engaged in behaviors that we deem unsavory or unhealthy. 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:06.960 And it is part of the brave new world that 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.240 we live in. But it scares me and it makes 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.160 me think that you should be really careful what apps 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.440 you download, and also you should be careful what you 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.400 let those apps share their permissions right that you give apps, 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.120 And the tough thing about something like Life thirty sixty 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.160 is the permissions that you need to grant it are 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.520 pretty crucial to the functioning of the app. So that's 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:25.880 one of those apps, Well, hey, you might want to 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.960 find a different way to stay in touch with your family, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.120 because if they're collecting that data and using it in 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.000 a way that's not just to allow you to use 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:39.440 the app for pro family purposes, they're using it to 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.600 actually spy on you and sell your data, then to 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:46.640 meet that app would not be worth downloading. Opt out 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.560 of sharing your data with apps whenever possible, And because 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.880 of the quickly rising insurance rates we've seen around the 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.520 nation the number of uninsured is rising, especially on the 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:02.760 homeowners insurance front, and having insurance is crucial for most folks. 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:07.400 And by the way, if more motorists are going around uninsured, 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.480 it means you having insurance is even more necessary. Think 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.480 about that uninsured motorists protection that protects you in case 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.360 you get into an accident with somebody who doesn't have insurance. 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:22.000 That could be you're saving grace in case of an accident, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.880 a car accident. But on the homeowners insurance front, statistics 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.600 recently revealed that seven percent of all homeowners report not 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:33.920 having any insurance coverage on their house. And this might 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.880 not be horrific given that, and this is a surprising 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.839 this statistic has always surprised me. Something like forty percent 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.480 of all homeowners own their homes mortgage free. And it's 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:45.959 funny because I know very few of those people. Actually, 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.960 this local woman who babysits our kids, wonderful. She we 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.360 were just talking this morning and she doesn't have a 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:55.199 mortgage on her home. I was like, that's incredible. How 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.360 incredible is that. I look forward to joining you in 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.480 the ranks of that someday. But there are many people 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:01.959 out there that I know of who own their home's 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.040 mortgage free. But apparently the statistics show that four out 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.560 of ten people do own their home and they don't 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.720 have a mortgage attached to it. And in that case, 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.040 you can opt to go without insurance. But do you 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:16.200 want to, well, if you own your home outright, could 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.040 you still afford to rebuild that home in the event 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.760 of an emergency. That's a really important question. Those are 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.520 the only folks who should be willing to take that gamble. 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.440 And if you have a mortgage right, your mortgage holder 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.760 will find out if you act your insurance. So you cannot, 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.800 as someone with a mortgage on your home, say I'm 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.960 gonna keep paying this mortgage, but I'm not gonna have insurance. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.320 I'm going to take that risk because that puts the 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.480 risk also on the bank or the credit union where 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.040 you got your loan, and they're going to make sure 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:45.560 you have insurance. They're going to get it for you, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:46.880 but it's going to cost a heck of a lot 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:48.880 more if they buy it. So you want to be 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.040 the one shopping around for insurance in order to find 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.480 the best value for yourself, because yeah, and if you're 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:58.880 looking to save money. If you're looking to save money 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.680 on insurance, raising your deductible, if you have the savings 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.440 on hand, can be a way to kind of split 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.480 that baby right where you're saying, the insurance is getting 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.320 really expensive, and that is certainly true. We've documented the 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.520 rise in homeowner's insurance costs over the past few years. 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.880 They've been significant, as costs of rerisen, the home prices 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:23.680 of risen, insurance cost ofverism too, and so raising the 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.800 deductible is a way to save on premiums and you 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:28.720 have more skin in the game if you were to 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:30.960 file a claim, but you got to have the cash 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.200 on hand right in order to you got to have 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.720 the money to back up that increased deductible that you're 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.440 taking on. And it makes One of my neighbors has 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.920 a second property and he did not have insurance on 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.760 this property and a hurricane came through and wiped it out, 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.120 and it was one of those things where obviously just 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.840 super sad and definitely felt awful for him. He knew 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:58.800 what he was getting into though, and he knew, Hey, 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.960 insurance costs down here are so expensive, I just have 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.840 to chance it. And the homeowners in certain parts of Florida, 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:10.400 certain wildfire prone parts of California, who are who have 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:15.000 enough money to back up the you know, to not 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.120 go bust in case of their home burning down or 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.280 you know, succumbing to a hurricane. They can, I think, 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.800 go without insurance. But again, you have to do it 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.160 in a really calculated way. And the vast majority of 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.240 people could not stomach that loss. And so you have 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:36.239 to stomach higher insurance costs to avoid the potential disastrous 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.680 cost of full replacement of that home that most people 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.680 cannot actually afford. R One tweet, one tweet can cause 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:46.920 a firestorm, and it can drive a new cycle, right 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.240 or one truth social post and I don't even know 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.160 if they're called tweets anymore, and I don't know if 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.760 truth social is actually social media network as much as 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.600 the personal, you know, microphone of the president. But what 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.840 in similar way, company can drive a narrative And we 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.240 saw that this past week actually as Campbell's Soup announced 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.719 that consumers are cooking at home again and in much 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.080 higher numbers. Basically they're saying we're cooking at home, kind 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.240 of like we were early in the pandemic days. Campbell's, yes, 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.840 they sell soup. But they sell other items too, so 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:18.840 they're not just saying, oh, we sold more Kansas soup. 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:20.160 So this is how we know this. They sell stuff 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.880 like pasta and crackers, and so they're saying, we sell 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.080 enough stuff in the grocery store aisle, and we saw 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.680 an uptick in sales. This makes us think that people 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.040 are cooking at home more, and I think there's probably 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.520 some truth to that, right, But I don't even know 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.199 if we can call this a meaningful trend, but I 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.080 will say this that it's a good reminder that cooking 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.760 at home saves you a ton of money. And the 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:47.119 Americans have historically spent more on food at home than 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.639 eating out, but that has shifted dramatically over the past decade. 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.200 We've all gotten so used to restaurant culture, to eating 0:17:54.240 --> 0:18:00.000 out culture, that we're spending less time around our kitchen 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.199 and our stoves and around our tables at home, and 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.040 we're spending a good bit more now of our money 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.880 eating out than we are on groceries. And we've talked 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:14.080 about grocery inflation, but guess what, grocery The increased prices 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:16.360 of food has actually hit restaurants harder than it's hit 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.760 grocery stores. So every time you eat out, you're shelling 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:21.359 out a heck of a lot more money than you 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:22.960 are when you're eating at home. And everyone kind of 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:24.399 knows this, but when you put numbers to it, I 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.000 think it helps. A meal at home costs the average, 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.240 it's like four dollars a person on average, and a 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.119 meal out at a restaurant is like seventeen dollars a 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.720 person on average. Obviously, it varies wildly. You're going to 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.240 McDonald's versus a Michelin star restaurant, that depends right, but 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.680 somewhere in the middle, seventeen dollars on average per person. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.360 That's just simply that means that the more you eat 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:49.280 at home, the more you're gonna save. And it makes 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.680 me think that I think the biggest cause of eating 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.600 out versus eating at home is that people haven't planned ahead. 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.440 And if you were to plan ahead a little bit 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:03.800 more like meal planning, batch cooking, thinking ahead on the weekends, 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.240 what are we going to cook and having everything on hand, 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.439 that can help you avoid those in a pinch a 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:11.480 let's just go get a pizza, let's just go get 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.600 fast food. And the other thing is is frozen foods. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.679 So I think for us, like Costco, frozen foods can 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.639 be helpful in a pinch where we're like, what we 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.280 would have done because we didn't plan very well was 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.200 go out, But now we can throw in something that's frozen, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.760 whether it's even like salmon and rice, right that, We'll 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.000 get the frozen salmon at Costco, and that's like a 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:37.359 decently healthy meal that we didn't necessarily have to plan 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:41.040 incredibly well for because life happens, right, So having those 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.280 frozen foods on hand, it has at least been helpful 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.320 to us. Trader Joe's is obviously another place where you 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.160 can get great frozen meals, So think about think about that, 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.240 because I love what Campbell's is saying, Hey, more people 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.240 are starting to eat at home again, but the trend 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.560 has gone so far in the other direction that even 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.600 this small correction it's just not enough. And if you 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.360 you know, with groceries being one of those top line 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.520 items in our budget, you could easily save. I think 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:10.639 something like if you were just to cut your eating 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.800 out in half from what it is currently the average person, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.040 you would save something like seven thousand dollars a year, 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.080 and that is not chump change. That is that is 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.040 insane that you could save that much by that one 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:22.600 simple thing. Say I'm still gonna eat out, I'm just 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.199 gonna make it more rare. I'm just gonna do it 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:25.960 half as much as I'm doing now, and then that 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.879 would make that big of a dent. I just mentioned Costco. 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.119 If it weren't enough of a reason to be a 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.199 Costco member, there's so many reasons I not to. You know, 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.480