Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we're discussing reverse cord cutting, living paycheck to paycheck
Speaker 1: on a hundred thousand dollar salary, and putting rent on
Speaker 1: a credit card. That's right, Joel. This is our Friday
Speaker 1: Flight episode, wherever week we look at some different headlines
Speaker 1: that we've come across and how they pertain to our money,
Speaker 1: our personal finances. But before we get to those stories, dude,
Speaker 1: I have a massive confession to make. Um, I have
Speaker 1: resistant nervous Now you know what's coming up or you
Speaker 1: know the story here, you don't know what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: I have resisted you. I've resisted the call of Costco
Speaker 1: long enough, and I have finally become a member of Costco.
Speaker 1: I am a gold Star member. Baby. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how happy this makes a heart. Yep, I've finally
Speaker 1: lost the war, you know, like I feel like we
Speaker 1: we've we constantly go back and forth. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: We both love Aldi. It's not like we've just constantly
Speaker 1: been pitting Audi against Costco. They're both good in their
Speaker 1: own right. But guess what Aldi doesn't offer Mortgage refinancing
Speaker 1: and That's what did it for me. So before folks
Speaker 1: think that, um, I was wanting to jump on the
Speaker 1: hot dog combos like so much. I was interested in
Speaker 1: refinancing one of my rental properties. And you happen to
Speaker 1: see that they hit teen with a lender and they
Speaker 1: were offering investment mortgages refinances an incredibly low rates. And
Speaker 1: then on top of that better than I've seen anywhere else,
Speaker 1: anywhere else. Yeah, and then on top of that, they
Speaker 1: were offering a lender credits if you were to join Costco. Right,
Speaker 1: and it's worth pointing out too that you didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to be a Costco member in order to take
Speaker 1: advantage of that refinancing. It's just that you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gotten the absolute best product, right Yeah. Yeah, by spending
Speaker 1: sixty bucks, you saved, Yes, exactly. I mean it was
Speaker 1: a no brainer from a mathematical standpoint. And so now
Speaker 1: we've got that goldst membership as part of our arsenal,
Speaker 1: and uh, we haven't honestly utilized it. We haven't used
Speaker 1: it yet. But when I told Kay, she was excited
Speaker 1: about the giant packs of Kirkland sig seaweed that we
Speaker 1: often get you guys to pick up for us, so
Speaker 1: I'm sure we will use it. Well. I'm glad to
Speaker 1: have you on the good side, you know, here no
Speaker 1: longer the Darth Vader of the heat Amony podcast, your
Speaker 1: Jedi now Matthews. Congratulations, And that's interesting that we're both
Speaker 1: kind of refinancing, you know, an investment mortgage through costco,
Speaker 1: because I saw this stat that people are going other places, um,
Speaker 1: places other than the big banks for refinancing now in
Speaker 1: big numbers. I think there are just so many places
Speaker 1: to check rates on the internet now. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like the cats out of the bag. And so if
Speaker 1: you're just going to the big bank you've been using
Speaker 1: to refinance, expect to pay a whole lot more than
Speaker 1: if you're shopping around, you know, on a site like
Speaker 1: costcos where you can shop multiple lenders and see what
Speaker 1: they're offering. Or you know, there are other sites too
Speaker 1: that we like, we like better, we like Credible, we
Speaker 1: like going to your credit union. There are all sorts
Speaker 1: of places you go check the rates at all those places,
Speaker 1: finds offering the best deal, and then do you rEFInd there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there have been a lot more of those non bank options.
Speaker 1: I saw that seven out of the ten largest lenders
Speaker 1: at the end of last year, they were all non
Speaker 1: bank lenders like Rocket Mortgage. You know, all these different
Speaker 1: companies who specialized specifically in mortgages, and they often don't
Speaker 1: offer any of the traditional banking services. But yeah, if
Speaker 1: you've never known that, Costco offers mortgage refinance, and will
Speaker 1: make sure to link to that in our show notes
Speaker 1: for this episode, no doubts. Check that and a bunch
Speaker 1: of other places. Rates are still super low and if
Speaker 1: you can save, then go ahead and do it. You should, Matt.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the Friday flight um and get
Speaker 1: to a bunch of stories we found interesting real quick.
Speaker 1: One other thing we wanted to mention is that we're
Speaker 1: going to give away some books today, so it's time
Speaker 1: to rate How the Money bookshelf. We're giving away a
Speaker 1: bunch of books. Just head over to Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts, leave the How the Money
Speaker 1: Podcast a solid rating and review, then shoot us an
Speaker 1: email How the Money pod at gmail dot com. Do
Speaker 1: that before Wednesday, June at noon this coming Wednesday, and
Speaker 1: you'll be entered into this book giveaway. We're giving away
Speaker 1: a bunch of books to three lucky listeners from people
Speaker 1: we've just had on the podcast, including some of Michelle
Speaker 1: Singletary's books. She was just on the show on Monday,
Speaker 1: right what to Do with your money when crisis hits.
Speaker 1: That's right, that was a great interview. That was so fun.
Speaker 1: She's awesome And um, yeah, so it can even be
Speaker 1: an old review. You don't have to be leave a
Speaker 1: new review if if you haven't left one, then you
Speaker 1: have to leave review review to get in entered. But
Speaker 1: if you've left a previous one, well you can send
Speaker 1: us an email to just mentioning that review. Screenshots helpful.
Speaker 1: But we'll announce winners on next Friday's episode. And Matt,
Speaker 1: the last time we gave away books, we we got
Speaker 1: an email from a listener and she said that she
Speaker 1: used the book. It was Mindy Jensen's book. It was
Speaker 1: a former guest. We're giving away another one of hers
Speaker 1: this time. She used the information in that book to
Speaker 1: sell her house for top dollar, more than she would
Speaker 1: have been able to, more than her realtor recommended. Exactly.
Speaker 1: She had read the book, she had studied the market,
Speaker 1: she was confident. She pushed back, and she pushed back
Speaker 1: and she's like, we're going in this direction and got
Speaker 1: way more months of thousands of dollars over what the
Speaker 1: realtor was recommending. Yeah, so these books are great books
Speaker 1: and they can really help you on your personal finance
Speaker 1: journey when it comes to giving you information that's necessary
Speaker 1: and some of the motivation that's really helpful too. That's right,
Speaker 1: And they're not all real estate books. We've got Grit
Speaker 1: by Angela Duckworth. We did an episode on that as
Speaker 1: well as Soundtracks, which was John Acos book as well.
Speaker 1: So again, leave that review and send us an email
Speaker 1: over at how to Money Pod at gmail dot com. So, Joel, next,
Speaker 1: let's get to a quick update on the Advanced Child
Speaker 1: Tax Credit. A lot of families know that the Advanced
Speaker 1: Child Tax Credit payments are on their way that they're
Speaker 1: set to go out the middle of July. So yeah,
Speaker 1: only a couple more weeks away from that. But now
Speaker 1: the I r S is actually set up a couple
Speaker 1: new tools online. One is the Advanced Child Tax Credit
Speaker 1: Eligibility Assistant, which will walk you through some questions, uh,
Speaker 1: and they will confirm your eligibility and so if you're
Speaker 1: curious or you're not sure, if you're eligible. You can
Speaker 1: check that out. It's like, do I have a kid
Speaker 1: or don't not? Digress will let me know well, and
Speaker 1: they'll let you know as far as the income limits
Speaker 1: and kind of as that phases out, they'll definitely be
Speaker 1: able to clear things up for you. But the other
Speaker 1: and possibly confusing tool is the Child Tax Credit up
Speaker 1: ate portal. Uh So you might be thinking, great, this
Speaker 1: is what I've been waiting for, right I can update
Speaker 1: the I R S and let them know that we
Speaker 1: had our baby earlier this year so we can get
Speaker 1: additional money. But you actually can't do that, at least
Speaker 1: not yet. You can't do that on the update portal.
Speaker 1: So I feel like it's a little bit of a
Speaker 1: misnumber right now. And hopefully they said they weren't going
Speaker 1: to launch until July one, they launched a little bit earlier,
Speaker 1: so hopefully they're still tweaking it and that will be
Speaker 1: something that listeners who had a baby can do sometime
Speaker 1: in the next week. We'll let you know next week
Speaker 1: if it has been update, but right now I'm not.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't hold your bread out that's gonna happen even
Speaker 1: next week, but we definitely will let folks know what
Speaker 1: it does happen because I mean, right now, all you
Speaker 1: can do on the update portal is just un enrolled
Speaker 1: from those advanced payments. And you might be thinking, well,
Speaker 1: why would I wanna unenroll from money that I would
Speaker 1: be getting from the government. Well, you're just delaying that essentially.
Speaker 1: You can see you can think of these child tax credits,
Speaker 1: I mean their advances right like they are just paid
Speaker 1: ahead of time where you receive half of those payments
Speaker 1: and the rest of it you would receive when you
Speaker 1: fire taxes next year. Some of some of those new
Speaker 1: banks that are like trying to pay you days in
Speaker 1: advance of you getting your check, you know, and you're
Speaker 1: like okay, cool, Like you're like, great, it's still my money.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just getting it a little bit ahead
Speaker 1: of unhelpful, but if you need it. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: if you know that your your income is going to
Speaker 1: be higher this year and that's gonna disqualify you from
Speaker 1: being able to take advantage of those additional child tax credits,
Speaker 1: that might be an instance where you unenrolled. That way
Speaker 1: you don't end up on wing back that money to
Speaker 1: the I R S. Yeah, Well, let's hope that portal
Speaker 1: gets updated to provide more features for other people who
Speaker 1: need to be able to go in there and update
Speaker 1: their information. Um but Matt, let's let's keep moving. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about rental car prices, because then we talked about
Speaker 1: that a while back, where people in Hawaii were paying
Speaker 1: just insane prices for rental cars, and people all over
Speaker 1: the country are like, rental car prices have spiked in
Speaker 1: a big way, and a lot of that is due
Speaker 1: to car shortages in general, and some of the rental
Speaker 1: car companies that sold off some of their fleets entirely
Speaker 1: or entirely, but literally their entire fleet because they're like, well,
Speaker 1: we're going bankrupts exactly exactly. And yeah, I my parents
Speaker 1: actually just went to Jackson Hole and anecdotally they told
Speaker 1: me that it was five thousand dollars to run a
Speaker 1: Toyota cameray for a week. That is so crazy. I mean, Okay,
Speaker 1: in a normal world, you would see that and then
Speaker 1: you would say, Okay, I'm just gonna buy a car
Speaker 1: exactly once. We land gonna drive it all week and
Speaker 1: then before we leave, uh, we'll we'll sell it. At
Speaker 1: least from a financial standpoint, right, like that would make
Speaker 1: sense in a normal world. But yeah, exactly, it's not
Speaker 1: really practical, but you know, if you're just looking at
Speaker 1: the numbers, that kind of makes sense. But again in
Speaker 1: a normal world, because these elevated used car prices have
Speaker 1: made it not only difficult to rent a car, but yeah,
Speaker 1: buy a used car even on the private market. That's right,
Speaker 1: So just your word of the lies out there for
Speaker 1: anybody who is trying to rent a car, be careful,
Speaker 1: look around and think about other options because it might
Speaker 1: be prohibably expensive to rent that car. And also who
Speaker 1: is taking advantage of the stratospheric prices Criminals? Of course,
Speaker 1: where there's money, there's gonna be scammers, that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the FTC just issued a warning about rental car scams
Speaker 1: proliferating right now. So these scam artists are setting up
Speaker 1: fake websites with fake customer service numbers to entice you
Speaker 1: to rent a car from them, And sometimes they'll actually
Speaker 1: try to impersonate an actual car rental company that you've
Speaker 1: heard of too, um of sense, Yeah right. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm Jim from Budget and you're like, I'm Almo. I've
Speaker 1: heard a Budget but it's supposedly this cheaper way to
Speaker 1: rent a car than what you're seeing elsewhere online, and
Speaker 1: so you're just like thankful. You're like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I didn't think I was gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: anything because the prices are in the stratosphere. But yeah,
Speaker 1: what these people are doing, they're praying on your need
Speaker 1: to get around during vacation, and they're promising to not
Speaker 1: charge you an arm in a leg to do so.
Speaker 1: But yeah, here's how the scam begins, usually with just
Speaker 1: us a Google search and then clicking on an ad
Speaker 1: that's featured at the top. So you've got to be
Speaker 1: careful to search at reputable websites and be skeptical if
Speaker 1: the price is way less than you've seen anywhere else online,
Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah, So the takeaway from folks, if it's
Speaker 1: too good to be true, it probably is. We want
Speaker 1: folks to, yeah, be very skeptical and also make sure
Speaker 1: that you pay with a credit card whenever you book
Speaker 1: a rental car. That's for for ultiple reasons, but the
Speaker 1: biggest reason in this case is so that you have
Speaker 1: chargeback abilities with your credit card company. You want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you're using those credit card benefits to
Speaker 1: protect your money. And if a company wants to rent
Speaker 1: you a car, but they will only do so if
Speaker 1: you pay with a gift card or a prepaid debit card,
Speaker 1: you hang up the phone. That is not normal business behavior,
Speaker 1: and that is actually that's one of the biggest ways
Speaker 1: that they're actually able to scam folks, because you know,
Speaker 1: you're probably thinking, well, how would they actually do it
Speaker 1: if they're using a credit card, Well, they're not using
Speaker 1: credit cards instead, they're using prepaid debit cards. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: just sending you down to your local grocery shore or
Speaker 1: Walmart and saying, yeah, grab one of those prepaid debit
Speaker 1: cards off off the shelf and pay us with that,
Speaker 1: and that way you'll be good to go. And that's
Speaker 1: definitely how you get the deal, buddy, exactly. But then
Speaker 1: that's actually your money zero way that you can get
Speaker 1: the money back, right, that's right. Yeah. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you're looking to get a rental car, and of
Speaker 1: course you're looking to pay as little as possible, check
Speaker 1: out auto Slash. That's one of the best sites to
Speaker 1: do that because they continually shop as the prices changed,
Speaker 1: So if the prices go down, on a car which
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna again. Wouldn't hold my breath that's what
Speaker 1: happened anytime soon. But if the prices were to come down,
Speaker 1: you would automatically get that booking at the new lower rate. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always like to book a fully refundable car rental
Speaker 1: uh directly through you know, one of the big players,
Speaker 1: and then also put my info into Auto Slash so
Speaker 1: they can continually shop. I definitely have this you know,
Speaker 1: reservation uh with a car company, even if it's more
Speaker 1: than I want to pay. But then Onto Slashes continually
Speaker 1: shopping for me and hopefully I'm getting a way better
Speaker 1: deal at the end of the day. But let's get
Speaker 1: to the next story, Matt. This one we saw on
Speaker 1: Business Inside or sixtent of millennials who make over a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars are living paycheck to paycheck. And yeah,
Speaker 1: that was feel bad for those facts, not all that bad.
Speaker 1: This was a new study from Payments and Lending Club
Speaker 1: and uh, it's almost mind bottling that anyone living in
Speaker 1: this country that makes that much money, that makes a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars or more, is going to be living
Speaker 1: without any sort of savings. It's going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: essentially reliant on their next paycheck to be able to
Speaker 1: you know, not have to move out of their house
Speaker 1: and living in tents. Right, But yeah, some some of
Speaker 1: these millennials would rather spend every And I don't want
Speaker 1: to hate on millennials because I feel like that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's what the media does constantly think kind of like
Speaker 1: we're spending money, yeah yet again, And I think that's uh,
Speaker 1: definitely something that's been overblown. And I don't think it's
Speaker 1: true that millennials have by far worth spending habits. But
Speaker 1: then something like this, You see something like this, and
Speaker 1: then they're trying to like make fun or tear down
Speaker 1: some of the folks that are in the millennial generation. Really,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what age you are, but if you're
Speaker 1: making over a hundred thousand dollars a year and you're
Speaker 1: living the paycheck to paycheck, something's wrong, right. And at
Speaker 1: the same time too, I mean, we're not sharing this
Speaker 1: information to make you feel that it's okay if you're
Speaker 1: making a ton of money and living paycheck to paycheck, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we're not trying to normalize that behavior, but we do
Speaker 1: want to challenge you to try to live your life
Speaker 1: differently in a way that maybe can still align with
Speaker 1: your values, but at the same time making sure that
Speaker 1: you're not uh, you know, going into debt and living
Speaker 1: paycheck to page. They can offer you more financial security
Speaker 1: even while you are able to spend money on the
Speaker 1: things that you care about exactly. Yeah, And granted a
Speaker 1: salary of a hundred thousand let doesn't go as far
Speaker 1: in high costs of living areas, right live in expensive cities. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably just almost like a sort of average to
Speaker 1: to kind of base income in order to live there.
Speaker 1: I saw the something recently about a brand new quarterback
Speaker 1: drafted by the San Francisco forty Niners, and he was
Speaker 1: like talking about how difficult is to afford housings and
Speaker 1: like even when a professional athlete, that's crazy. He's calling
Speaker 1: that out and saying it's really tough to afford to
Speaker 1: live there. It's like, of course, people, even living on
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars salar, you're gonna have a tough
Speaker 1: time place like San France. He's like the Bay Area, man,
Speaker 1: that's pretty tough. But you know, lifestyle creep like this
Speaker 1: is a big part of the problem here. You know,
Speaker 1: we talked about this on our Wednesday episode. But there
Speaker 1: are ways to uh wisely inflate your lifestyle, to do
Speaker 1: that appropriately so that you're able to enjoy some of
Speaker 1: the fruits of your labor now while still investing and
Speaker 1: still saving, still increasing your financial security along the way.
Speaker 1: But it is going to have to take you saying no,
Speaker 1: uh from time to time in order to get there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: no is a good word, right, And especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to to spending, like we have to be able
Speaker 1: to say no so that we can get ourselves to
Speaker 1: a place of more financial security. If you have a
Speaker 1: really high income, that this just shouldn't be a problem
Speaker 1: you're dealing with. And I think, yeah, part of the
Speaker 1: problem is a lack of financial literacy. Is is that
Speaker 1: no one's being taught about how to handle their money
Speaker 1: and school, how to save their money, how to invest
Speaker 1: for the future. But then the other part is self control, right,
Speaker 1: and we have to be able to say no no
Speaker 1: to our friends, not to purchases that we want, no
Speaker 1: to things that are thrust in front of our face
Speaker 1: on social media. There's no easy button. I don't think
Speaker 1: we all have to deal with that. But Yeah, even
Speaker 1: folks who make a decent bit of money, who are
Speaker 1: higher earners, they have to learn the same things. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's because we don't know where we are on
Speaker 1: our own money journeys, right. Uh. And so actually this
Speaker 1: is a great time to refer folks to our website
Speaker 1: how to money dot com. Go to the start here link,
Speaker 1: and that's where we quickly break down our seven money gears.
Speaker 1: You can quickly look at that no exactly where you
Speaker 1: are on those steps, which will then allow you to
Speaker 1: quickly start working towards your next money geared to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're moving forward with your money. Uh, Joel.
Speaker 1: Sometimes folks talk about cutting cable and how they think
Speaker 1: that's one of the it's like a no brainer thing, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, were the easiest way to say, maybe even
Speaker 1: talked about it here on the show. But after the break,
Speaker 1: we're actually going to get to a story we're cutting
Speaker 1: the chord is actually going to end up costing this
Speaker 1: person more money. So we'll get to that story and
Speaker 1: plenty of others right after the break. All right, we're back,
Speaker 1: and of course what we do in the second half
Speaker 1: of every Friday segment is to tackle the ludicrous headline
Speaker 1: of the week. Week here we go. It's so bad
Speaker 1: every time we do it, but I like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just haven't found anything that's like really like rung true,
Speaker 1: all right, we need to work on this. That's why
Speaker 1: we change it every week. That's true. I will say.
Speaker 1: I like when you whispered into the microphone, the SMR sound. Yeah, okay, alright,
Speaker 1: So this week's Lucas headline is why I'm Never Cutting
Speaker 1: the Chord. That was the title of this one. It's
Speaker 1: from Ben Carlson's website, A Wealth of Common Sense, and
Speaker 1: Matt we've had been on the show before, back in
Speaker 1: episode thirty five. He's one of our favorite personal finance writers.
Speaker 1: We pretty much read everything he puts out. He's stud Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a smart dude. And uh yeah, a few years ago,
Speaker 1: this title I think would have been personal finance heresy,
Speaker 1: that cutting the chord? Why I'm never cutting the chord?
Speaker 1: It's like, who are you, Like, don't you get it?
Speaker 1: Streaming services are invoking and they're gonna save you lots
Speaker 1: of money? Uh, And I'm just trying to be antagonistic
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. Yeah, that's clickbait, Ben, But at this point.
Speaker 1: I actually like, I think he makes a point, and
Speaker 1: he does a really good job explaining why that's the
Speaker 1: case for him, and Ben talks about the trend we've
Speaker 1: been seeing a lot, like the proliferation of streaming services
Speaker 1: and how much more expensive they're getting, so not only
Speaker 1: are there more to choose from, but they cost more
Speaker 1: at the same time. And Matt, I think you and
Speaker 1: I were literally talking about this yesterday. It's like it
Speaker 1: doesn't cable. But even before Ben's post came out, it
Speaker 1: was like, doesn't cable seem to be like a better
Speaker 1: value than it seemed to be before, Like I never
Speaker 1: ever ever would have thought about it, and I still
Speaker 1: I am never going to think about it. But because
Speaker 1: I just don't watch as much TV as been that
Speaker 1: was one of the reasons he gave. He was like,
Speaker 1: I love TV. I watch a lot of TV. And
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I get it. Then yeah, we
Speaker 1: were talking about how much YouTube TV costs. It's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, like sick five dollars at this point, but
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean the reason that this works for
Speaker 1: Ben is because he just loves TV. I mean he
Speaker 1: and he confesses he's just like I love TV. I
Speaker 1: love all the shows, all the sports, all the movies.
Speaker 1: He's like, I want true TV, internal classic movies, and
Speaker 1: he's on all the chance, what's it all? And he's
Speaker 1: willing to pay for it, right, And so that's the difference.
Speaker 1: But I think it's worth pointing out that having traditional
Speaker 1: cable isn't as ridiculous as it used to be. Like
Speaker 1: you said, Joel, there are a lot more streaming services
Speaker 1: than there used to be just a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and for quite a while now people have seen their
Speaker 1: monthly spending on streaming increase consistently. But there's also some
Speaker 1: good news here. People are finally starting to cut some
Speaker 1: of their streaming services out of their lives. That's according
Speaker 1: to tech research from I think it's just Omdia. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say Omdia, this research firm, but apparently the average
Speaker 1: person now subscribed to a little over seven streaming services,
Speaker 1: which is a lot. I mean, for me, as long
Speaker 1: as I've got Disney Plus, i can watch my low Key,
Speaker 1: I'm happy. But that is the first time it had
Speaker 1: ever actually decreased instead of increased, which is a nice
Speaker 1: change of pace. Yeah, and so we encourage folks to
Speaker 1: take a look at which streaming services you're subscribed to,
Speaker 1: and you know, think long and hard about whether you
Speaker 1: can cut one, two, or maybe even like five of
Speaker 1: the amount of your life. Right, but if you are
Speaker 1: a huge TV buff, consider going back to cable or satellite.
Speaker 1: And man, I can't believe that's coming out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: It feels like something I never would have said. But
Speaker 1: it all comes around many pack on. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: think it really might make more financial sense for some
Speaker 1: folks who are just really really into TV. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it also offers I think a better experience than having
Speaker 1: to flip back and forth between all the different you know,
Speaker 1: streaming channels are subscribed to. But still the ideal thing,
Speaker 1: in our opinion is to watch less TV in general
Speaker 1: and then to relegate it to a much smaller section
Speaker 1: of your budget. But if that's your craft, beer, if
Speaker 1: you're like I just love TV. I love all the channels,
Speaker 1: like me and Ben could be best friends and just
Speaker 1: hanging out on the couch all day, then yeah, that
Speaker 1: then cable or or satellite might make sense for you.
Speaker 1: That's right. So that's our ludicrous headline, but it also
Speaker 1: happens to be true in this case for Ben Carlson,
Speaker 1: uh Jo, let's talk about investing teenagers. They are taking
Speaker 1: up investing at a rapid clip and barons. They read
Speaker 1: an article about the proliferation of teen investors. Many of
Speaker 1: those teenagers are investing their money that they get either
Speaker 1: as gifts or you know, whatever they have left over
Speaker 1: after going out to eat with friends. Mom, give me
Speaker 1: twenty bucks, I ONWALY spent eight years payd express. That
Speaker 1: extra twelve is going towards an individual stock slide that
Speaker 1: other twelve into a MC. Yeah. But obviously, yeah, there
Speaker 1: are good ways and bad ways for for teams to
Speaker 1: learn investing, and many are practicing the bad investing habits. So,
Speaker 1: for example, we often you can think about the stock
Speaker 1: market game that many of us played in high school,
Speaker 1: where we just kind of randomly picked companies that we'd
Speaker 1: heard of, see who made the most money over the
Speaker 1: course of like two months, I think, or maybe like
Speaker 1: over the course of one week. Most of us Atlantic
Speaker 1: kids definitely chose Coca Cola. But this is a pretty
Speaker 1: awful way to learn how to invest in. It teaches
Speaker 1: kids the exact wrong things about investing. You begin to
Speaker 1: think that you know, stock picking is the way to
Speaker 1: go and that you're supposed to invest on a short timeline.
Speaker 1: Let's go all in on this one stock. It's it's
Speaker 1: kind of it's gonna feel more like a game because
Speaker 1: there's there's winners and there's losers. But I'm glad that
Speaker 1: kids are starting to invest at younger ages, but it
Speaker 1: sucks if they're not going about it in the proper way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of these kids are opening up accounts with
Speaker 1: companies like robin Hood on some of the apps, and
Speaker 1: robin Hood in and of itself isn't inherently bad, right,
Speaker 1: We've talked about how many of these investing apps do
Speaker 1: though incentivize unhealthy investing actions. They just make it far
Speaker 1: too easy and glitzy and glamorous to become a day
Speaker 1: trader and as a team without a fully foreign prefuntal cortex. Like,
Speaker 1: that's just not a good idea. That's not that's not
Speaker 1: good for you at all. Yeah, they're willing to take
Speaker 1: too many risks that they shouldn't be taken exactly. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there have been brain studies that have shown that
Speaker 1: you know, day training and investing in individual stocks the
Speaker 1: way it lights up a kid's brain versus the way
Speaker 1: it lights up the brain of a forty year old.
Speaker 1: It's just vastly different reactions, and so I just, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not good for a fifteen year old to be
Speaker 1: investing in this way because they start to get almost
Speaker 1: like addicted to some of this behavior, and like frequent
Speaker 1: training obviously leads to all sorts of risky outcomes. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you gotta learned the hard way. But I would rather
Speaker 1: see these young investors start building wealth at a young
Speaker 1: age instead of being speculative with their money. And Matt. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: Fidelity has a new platform to help kids invest that's
Speaker 1: worth looking into. The service doesn't charge account fees or commissions,
Speaker 1: which is great, and then your team will also have
Speaker 1: access to some of our favorite low cost or zero
Speaker 1: cost funds. So yeah, encouraging your your kid or your
Speaker 1: team to start investing and helping them get into it
Speaker 1: is a great thing. We encourage that, we're all about it.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, helping them see past the hot meme
Speaker 1: stock of the moment is crucial, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: Fidelity Youth Account, like that's great, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: it still comes down to making sure that you're either
Speaker 1: your kid or maybe you've got like a niece or
Speaker 1: a nephew, or maybe you've got a younger cousin who's
Speaker 1: maybe getting into investing. But it really does mostly come
Speaker 1: down to making sure that these teenagers know what it
Speaker 1: is that they're getting into and how to invest for
Speaker 1: the long haul, not just taking gambles on the hot
Speaker 1: stocks of today. So Joe, let's go ahead and shift gears.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some real estate Zillo. Everyone knows about
Speaker 1: Zillo because everyone has also heard about the zestimates. Uh,
Speaker 1: they've drawn elation at the same time they've drawn ire
Speaker 1: from folks. It just kind of depends on what it
Speaker 1: says about your home. If you are a homeowner, home's
Speaker 1: worth way more than that Zillo. What's your problem? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean how many people have you heard talking about
Speaker 1: that and they're just like upset that this randomly generated
Speaker 1: computer algorithm doesn't have it right about their house? Exactly? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've even seen the rent's estimate be totally
Speaker 1: off on one of my properties by about three d
Speaker 1: and was just off by a bunch too. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: Zillo is like, you know, not quite as accurate as
Speaker 1: some people would like to think it can be it
Speaker 1: can be a huge difference, but Zillo is actually attempting
Speaker 1: to fix that, burrowing out what they're calling their neural network,
Speaker 1: tapping artificial intelligence to make its predictions better. It's expected
Speaker 1: that this update will significantly increase the number of properties,
Speaker 1: specifically that are eligible for automatic cash offers, which this
Speaker 1: has the potential to significantly change the future of the
Speaker 1: real estate industry. Basically, where Zillo is saying, we'll give
Speaker 1: you an offer for your home right now, in real time,
Speaker 1: really quickly, and then you can avoid listing with an agent,
Speaker 1: getting it staged, having a bunch of random buyers come
Speaker 1: in and take a look yere house. They want to
Speaker 1: like simplify the process, Yeah, exactly, and right now, Zilla
Speaker 1: offers like they've only scratched the service of the number
Speaker 1: of houses that have sold on the market. Right it's
Speaker 1: it's a very small number, but as it grows, and
Speaker 1: as they attempt to continue to cut out the middleman,
Speaker 1: you know, like yeah, like real estate agents and lenders,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see if that translates into more
Speaker 1: savings for homebuyers. Right now, we're not really seeing that
Speaker 1: given the current market, but it is much less of
Speaker 1: a hassle, and I think that's going to go a
Speaker 1: long way when it comes to folks seriously considering going
Speaker 1: with Zillo offers rather than the traditional model, right, Like
Speaker 1: I mean, going back to Ben Carlson's article, it makes
Speaker 1: me think about cable. I mean, honestly for me, like
Speaker 1: one of the biggest hassles with signing up for cable
Speaker 1: is like scheduling a time when the guy's gonna come
Speaker 1: by and set up the box, and oh, you've never
Speaker 1: had cable here before. We're gonna have to drill a
Speaker 1: hole into your house, like all these things compared to
Speaker 1: the string video on demand right where you just sign
Speaker 1: up and all of a sudden you have access. Literally
Speaker 1: it's within a matter of minutes that you've got this
Speaker 1: entertainment at your fingertips. If Zillo can do that when
Speaker 1: it comes to the home buying, I think there's going
Speaker 1: to be an entire generation of folks who are going
Speaker 1: to be more interested in going that route versus the
Speaker 1: kind of antiquated, outdated real estate agent model. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: there are other people by the way, trying to do
Speaker 1: what Zillo is doing here open Door offer Pad or
Speaker 1: a couple of the other sites that you could check
Speaker 1: out if you're like I do want to go with
Speaker 1: kind of the more streamline model where people aren't coming
Speaker 1: in my home and it's just a little bit simpler
Speaker 1: of a process. Like Matt said, at this point in time,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna save you any money or make you
Speaker 1: more money on your home, but it might just be
Speaker 1: less of a hassle, and it's worth checking those out
Speaker 1: to see, like, all right, how much are these sites
Speaker 1: gonna give me versus how much do I think I
Speaker 1: could get by you know, listing it with an agent.
Speaker 1: It's worth considering, That's right, Matt. Let's keep talking about
Speaker 1: real estate, because, yeah, coming soon, there's going to be
Speaker 1: a new way to save for your down payment on
Speaker 1: a house she's looking to buy if you're still renting,
Speaker 1: and that way is through credit card rewards. Yeah. A
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal article this week mentioned that a new
Speaker 1: credit card which renters can use to pay pay the
Speaker 1: rent in order to build up cash rewards that can
Speaker 1: be used towards a future home purchase. So even if
Speaker 1: you don't have to use those rewards towards a down
Speaker 1: payment on a home, it's kind of building it that
Speaker 1: way to get you're excited right exactly, So, and like,
Speaker 1: even if your landlord isn't one who accepts credit cards
Speaker 1: for paying rent, this credit card company built will still
Speaker 1: mail your landlord of paper check and you still get
Speaker 1: the rewards without incurring any fees at the same time.
Speaker 1: So this is pretty cool because I don't know if
Speaker 1: any other credit card companies that are willing to do that.
Speaker 1: The amount of awards that you're going to receive, though,
Speaker 1: depends on how much you're using this card. This is
Speaker 1: kind of a high risk, high reward way to go, right,
Speaker 1: because if you're buttoned up with your money, then using
Speaker 1: this card to pay rent makes sense. Right. If you've
Speaker 1: got plenty of cash in the bank and you pay
Speaker 1: your credit card bill on time and in full every
Speaker 1: single month, then putting your run on your credit card
Speaker 1: to earn extra rewards is a great way to go.
Speaker 1: Putting everything on a credit card to you earn rewards
Speaker 1: is the best way to go exactly. You're handling it well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you're not so great with credit cards
Speaker 1: and you have a hard time paying them off in
Speaker 1: a timely manner, then you want to stick with a
Speaker 1: c H payments to avoid getting into a stickier financial situation,
Speaker 1: because can you imagine putting, you know, three months worth
Speaker 1: of rent on the credit card and then be like,
Speaker 1: I don't have the money to find that money, and then, yeah,
Speaker 1: your rent automatically just cost a whole lot more money
Speaker 1: by putting on a credit card and not being able
Speaker 1: to pay it because those interest charges more is what
Speaker 1: you're spending now on rent? Perhaps, Yeah, I mean this
Speaker 1: is a slam duck, I think when it comes to
Speaker 1: paying rent. I mean when most Americans spend around thirty
Speaker 1: percent of their monthly budget on housing. Specifically, for all
Speaker 1: the folks out there who are renting, it's a total
Speaker 1: no brainer if you're paying rent. But of course for
Speaker 1: everyone else who doesn't have a rent payment, or for
Speaker 1: those who don't handle their credit cards, well we would
Speaker 1: advise you to stay away from that credit card. And
Speaker 1: once this credit card actually officially gets released, we'll try
Speaker 1: to mention it again on the show. Right now, it's
Speaker 1: like invite only. Yeah, but yeah, some more credit card news.
Speaker 1: Some banks and credit card companies are actually continuing to
Speaker 1: cut spending limits and to close some accounts involuntarily. And
Speaker 1: this is according to a new study from lending Tree.
Speaker 1: It turns out that sixty two million Americans have had
Speaker 1: that happened to them in the first few months of
Speaker 1: this year. Uh, which is continuing that this perverse trend
Speaker 1: that we saw come on the scene last year when
Speaker 1: the pandemic hit. Having an account closed abruptly or having
Speaker 1: your limit reduced just on a whim cannot only hurt
Speaker 1: your credit score, creating other hardships, but it can also
Speaker 1: have a major impact on your finances if you're having
Speaker 1: a tough time financially by not having access to that credit.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't make sure that this won't happen
Speaker 1: to you. It's kind of up to the credit card companies,
Speaker 1: but there are some things that you can do to
Speaker 1: make this less likely. Yeah, I hate seeing this. This
Speaker 1: be the case. Matter really thought that this was and
Speaker 1: wasn't one thing, but then seeing those numbers from lending
Speaker 1: Tree just kind of got me bumped because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe the credit card companies are still doing this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, one of the things that our listeners
Speaker 1: can do to make sure that this doesn't happen to them, um,
Speaker 1: at least, you know, do The best they can is
Speaker 1: to use all of the credit cards that you have
Speaker 1: regularly credit card companies they cited in activity as the
Speaker 1: main reason that they're cutting limits. So if you have
Speaker 1: a credit card in your possession that you don't want clothes,
Speaker 1: you just have to make sure you're using it consistently.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't put any purchases on that credit
Speaker 1: card and at least a few months or six months,
Speaker 1: well go buy something with it that you would already buy,
Speaker 1: even if it's as insignificant as like a bag of peanuts, right,
Speaker 1: or some sunflower seats like really, whatever, sex do you
Speaker 1: want to buy the ball game? Exactly? Or a Costco
Speaker 1: hot doc? Really? But um, yeah, the longer that card
Speaker 1: is inactive, the more likely it is that the credit
Speaker 1: card company is is going to close it. And you
Speaker 1: can also fight back if this has happened to you
Speaker 1: and you want that credit card limit back that they
Speaker 1: stole from you. So yeah, if your credit card was
Speaker 1: closed or your limit was reduced, make a call to
Speaker 1: the credit card company and ask for them to reverse
Speaker 1: that decision. They might say no, but they might say yes,
Speaker 1: and you never get if you don't ask. So it's
Speaker 1: really important to at least like reach back out and
Speaker 1: be like, Hey, what's going on here? Ask the question
Speaker 1: and say, can you restore my limit? Can you at
Speaker 1: least give me part of that limit back? Because I've
Speaker 1: been a good customer for this many years. I've always
Speaker 1: paid on time and in full. Whatever it is, like,
Speaker 1: make your case and don't just take a line down.
Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, give him a call ask him. The
Speaker 1: worst they can say is no. And we want to
Speaker 1: remind listeners again, don't forget about the book giveaway. And
Speaker 1: so if you've left us a solid review over at
Speaker 1: Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast, shoot
Speaker 1: us an email at how to Money pod at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com and make sure that you do that before
Speaker 1: noon this next Wednesday, because that is when we're going
Speaker 1: to draw those names in preparation for next Friday's episode
Speaker 1: where we'll announce the winners. Yeah, and who knows how
Speaker 1: much these books could save you. I mean they're honestly,
Speaker 1: we've had great guests, these are great books. We want
Speaker 1: to give them away to you because our bookshelf is skinful.
Speaker 1: I hope you have a great weekend and until next time,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, best Friends Out,