Speaker 1: Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and
Speaker 1: today we're discussing popular money advice that just ain't right, Joel.
Speaker 2: Even the crappiest financial advice that's out there, it still
Speaker 2: has a little negative truth, right, Like, oftentimes, the reason
Speaker 2: I think it resonates with folks is because they're like, oh, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: that's true. I've heard that before. I've heard my parents
Speaker 2: talk about that, I've heard friends talk about that. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily mean that it's like this super bulletproof
Speaker 2: piece of financial advice that you should be following to
Speaker 2: the letter with every dollar that you made.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the pieces of advice we're going to
Speaker 1: cover in this episode are things that you've heard people
Speaker 1: say and they are smart people, and so you automatically
Speaker 1: assume that based on their other advice, or based on
Speaker 1: the back that you've heard this from sources of information,
Speaker 1: that it's good and it's.
Speaker 2: Reliable advice that your grandparents gave you. And you're like,
Speaker 2: they would never steer me wrong. It's like, well it's
Speaker 2: not quite right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we want you to question everything your grandparents taught
Speaker 1: you in this episode. Now that's okay, that's too far,
Speaker 1: not really. But there are a lot of things, yeah,
Speaker 1: that we're going to cover today, and some of it has,
Speaker 1: like you said, Matt, a ring of truth, but we're
Speaker 1: going to say, Okay, here's the nugget that is actually true,
Speaker 1: but here's where you should throw out the rest of it.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, we've got a lot to get to
Speaker 1: on this episode. But before we get to that, Matt,
Speaker 1: I wanted to mention that you and I we've talked
Speaker 1: about on the show, how we have meta share covering
Speaker 1: our families. When it comes to our health insurance, it's actual.
Speaker 2: Insurance, not technically health insurance. It's a health sharing plan exactly,
Speaker 2: but it is a lot cheaper than insurance. And I
Speaker 2: was even talking to a neighbor the other day and
Speaker 2: he was saying what he gets through his work, that
Speaker 2: his premiums every month are really expensive, Like even though
Speaker 2: his employer subsidizes a decent chunk of those premiums, like
Speaker 2: it's there's still a lot on the plate for him
Speaker 2: to have to pay every single month. And so for us,
Speaker 2: it seems it's the cheapest, most effective way for us
Speaker 2: to cover our families. And we've got a review on it.
Speaker 2: If you want to read it, we'll link to it
Speaker 2: in the show notes that Matt wrote about how it's
Speaker 2: worked for his family. But I found on one of
Speaker 2: my new favorite features of metashare is that they have
Speaker 2: partnered with basically this tele dot company called md Live
Speaker 2: and you can virtually visit a doctor on the computer
Speaker 2: or via phone for free, which is just another massive
Speaker 2: win for us. Is included in the price. There is
Speaker 2: no yeah, baseline fee, there's no copay that comes with that.
Speaker 2: It is included, so like a week and a half
Speaker 2: what we've seen before, but like I've never we've never
Speaker 2: taken advantage of it. So we used it for the
Speaker 2: first time a couple of weeks ago, Like all of
Speaker 2: our kids were sick. I think everybody that we knew
Speaker 2: had sick kids. Like it was going around.
Speaker 1: It's like flu, it's COVID, it's colds, everything hitting simultaneously.
Speaker 1: Everyone I know who had a kid like had to
Speaker 1: pulled out of school for a couple of days. And
Speaker 1: so we were like, Okay, we're gonna try to go
Speaker 1: see the pediatrician. They were full up, man, they didn't
Speaker 1: have room to take us because everybody was sick, and
Speaker 1: so We're like, Okay, we're gonna give this Teledoc MD live.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give it a shot. And it was great,
Speaker 1: Like it was so simple. We waited forty five minutes
Speaker 1: and you don't even like you're not like sitting in
Speaker 1: a waiting room though, you're literally at home kicking it.
Speaker 1: And then you get a text and it's like the
Speaker 1: doctor will see you now, so you hop into the
Speaker 1: to the chat, to the to, you click the link.
Speaker 2: Waiting forty five minutes at home while you're cooking dinner
Speaker 2: or cleaning the dishes or something like that. It's much
Speaker 2: much better than sitting in a waiting room full of
Speaker 2: other sick kids, yeah, sneezing on you and being all nasty.
Speaker 1: Right, and then there's no sick visit that we had
Speaker 1: to pay. There's it's literally free to get the diagnostics in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I will say I'm super happy with it.
Speaker 2: Sounds like Joel's pretty bullish on teledoc teledox stocks.
Speaker 1: I know, well, you know teledox stock in particular has
Speaker 1: not been doing well as a plate. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things that adds a lot
Speaker 1: of value to our ministure membership.
Speaker 2: Nice. Looking forward to checking that out. That's not something
Speaker 2: that we've taken advantage of yet, but I could totally
Speaker 2: see where that would come in handy. In particular, if
Speaker 2: you know that you just need we probably need this prescription.
Speaker 2: You know this prescribed. We just need some meds. My
Speaker 2: kids are particularly susceptible to SHREP for some reason. It's
Speaker 2: a favorite. So yeah, we had to answer a couple
Speaker 2: questions at the doc, and typically they like to do
Speaker 2: a swab.
Speaker 1: But he even prescribed an antibiotic you know in that
Speaker 1: in that chat, which is cool. Did he did they
Speaker 1: make make your daughter? Make her open up her mouth?
Speaker 1: We took a picture. Oh yeah, yeah, we took a picture.
Speaker 1: We sent it in even before the appointment, So because.
Speaker 2: If you're on a video call, he could just be like,
Speaker 2: all right, make sure the video light's on and just
Speaker 2: just jam it in there real close. You hear him talking,
Speaker 2: it's like echoing in her her mouth. Water. Uh, that's cool,
Speaker 2: that's cool though. I'm glad you were able to take
Speaker 2: advantage of that. Hopefully we won't need to take advantae
Speaker 2: of that soon, but I'm glad to know that it exists.
Speaker 2: Let's introduce the beer you and I. We are enjoying
Speaker 2: another Talisman beer and this one is called Uplifted. It
Speaker 2: is a Scottish style. Ale Hady, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for donating this. This is our last of the Talisman beers.
Speaker 2: They're out of Utah, but looking forward to enjoying this one,
Speaker 2: and we will share our thoughts at the end of
Speaker 2: the episode.
Speaker 1: No doubt, all right, but let's get onto it, Matt.
Speaker 1: The subject of hands is do it popular money advice
Speaker 1: that just ain't right. And it made me think of
Speaker 1: maybe some other pieces of advice that we just assume
Speaker 1: are correct because you've heard it so much, so many times.
Speaker 1: And I personally like to get out there and grill
Speaker 1: on occasion. And you've heard everybody say it that searing
Speaker 1: your meat is the best way to lock in the flavor, right,
Speaker 1: you want to get that grill, piping hot.
Speaker 2: Lock in the moisture, slap that.
Speaker 1: Steak down or whatever it is, and that is going
Speaker 1: to yeah, lock in the moisture. It's something I've heard
Speaker 1: folks say for years. And then you get to right
Speaker 1: after they click their tongs and they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: it's ready, that's right, and then it's like, oh, you're
Speaker 1: going to get to get to eat that juicy, medium
Speaker 1: rare steak that you have always dreamed of, But you
Speaker 1: got to get the seer right. But as it turns out,
Speaker 1: that's actually the farthest thing from the truth. Culinary scientists
Speaker 1: tell us that although this sounds like good advice, it's
Speaker 1: not actually the best method if you want to get
Speaker 1: the proper outcome. And it's true that searing your steak
Speaker 1: is going to brown it, which does increase some caramelization.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, flavor and texture. So that is seared at
Speaker 1: some point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good for other reasons, but not necessarily what
Speaker 2: you're saying from a moisture standpoint, Yeah, like that's the
Speaker 2: Millard reaction whatever, where basically you're reducing some of those
Speaker 2: sugars and that's what creates that delicious smell. Like when
Speaker 2: you smell delicious food, it's because of the browning. It's
Speaker 2: because of the searing that often is taking place. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with like you're saying,
Speaker 2: the moisture of the meat that you're ceiling in like
Speaker 2: a I picture like a raincoat or you know, or
Speaker 2: like somebody who's like trying to make weight for like
Speaker 2: wrestling or something like that, and they're like wearing trash bags.
Speaker 2: Huh huh uh. They're just like locking in all that
Speaker 2: make all that nasty moisture and they're just wating like crazy.
Speaker 2: That seer does not act like a rain jacket for
Speaker 2: your steak.
Speaker 1: No, no, it doesn't. And the truth is starting to
Speaker 1: cook your steak slower and then doing a reverse sere
Speaker 1: to add that flavor in the end is the best method.
Speaker 2: And getting really fancy, aren't you.
Speaker 1: So even let's say you put that steak in a suv,
Speaker 1: you cook it until it reaches a certain temperature, and
Speaker 1: then you slap it on the grill for like a
Speaker 1: minute a half on each side or something like that.
Speaker 1: Typically a lot of folks say that's the way you're
Speaker 1: going to get the best tasting steak in the end.
Speaker 1: But it's just not what you normally hear as typical
Speaker 1: grilling advice from most folks. And just like that BS
Speaker 1: grilling advice, right, that just isn't right. We're going to
Speaker 1: spend some time talking smack about personal finance advice today
Speaker 1: on the show that we just dislike or maybe that
Speaker 1: has taken on this element of gospel truth, but we
Speaker 1: would say, in reality, there's a lot of mistruth in
Speaker 1: that statement, and so we're going to kind of like
Speaker 1: break them down and talk about them today's show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, there's just a lot of crappy things out
Speaker 2: there being said, and oftentimes I think the problem is
Speaker 2: that we like we hear something and because it intuitively makes,
Speaker 2: you know, some sort of sense, like we just stick
Speaker 2: with it, just like you were talking about with the
Speaker 2: searing meat, or maybe it's just packaged in such a
Speaker 2: way that it makes it easy to remember, right Because
Speaker 2: like we're all living, busy live, so anytime we're able
Speaker 2: to hear something that allows us to simplify and make
Speaker 2: life a little bit easier, we're going to cling to
Speaker 2: that basic rule of thumb. I think it's one of
Speaker 2: the ways that we're that we're able to be super productive, right, Like,
Speaker 2: most folks are looking for shortcuts, but it doesn't always
Speaker 2: mean that those shortcuts are accurate in that day and
Speaker 2: that they're the best method of action for you and
Speaker 2: your money. And the fact is there have always been
Speaker 2: folks out there who are just spouting bad information, right Like,
Speaker 2: I think most folks are well intentioned, but you're likely
Speaker 2: going to encounter some bad advice as you are working
Speaker 2: to get your personal finances in order. Yeah, as you're
Speaker 2: trying to make that progress. And so we're going to
Speaker 2: call out some of the biggest culprits today on the show,
Speaker 2: and we're going to share how it is that you
Speaker 2: should be thinking about your money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I like how you said most people are
Speaker 1: well intentioned. I think there's a couple of things. One,
Speaker 1: people are out there are trying to simplify advice for
Speaker 1: the masses, trying to give them good information in a
Speaker 1: bite sized way, but oftentimes then you're missing a lot
Speaker 1: of kind of the important truth that surrounds it. But also,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people who just don't know
Speaker 1: enough about personal finance, and so they might be newbie
Speaker 1: influencers on social media hoping to talk about their experience
Speaker 1: and how they've been able to change their lives, but
Speaker 1: oftentimes they're missing some of the most important ingredients to
Speaker 1: be able to help people do it in their own lives.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah. Yeah, they might have a good story, just
Speaker 2: good heart, yeah exactly, and kind of where they are personally,
Speaker 2: maybe there's some wisdom that you can clean from their experiences,
Speaker 2: but they may not be fully informed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you may not be able to directly apply
Speaker 1: it to your own situation because their situation could be
Speaker 1: quite a bit different. Actly, And so yeah, we would
Speaker 1: say some of the basic advice still holds. Like we're
Speaker 1: not trying to throw out the baby with the bathwater
Speaker 1: in this episode. Some of the most basic advice out there,
Speaker 1: for instance, like the number one rule of personal finance,
Speaker 1: which is spending lesson you make That holds water, right,
Speaker 1: that makes sense to us. But even in something like that,
Speaker 1: even in such a basic piece of advice that's like
Speaker 1: the number one rule of personal finance, that can even
Speaker 1: get warps into folks, leading you to think that you
Speaker 1: shouldn't spend money, a push towards maximum frugality, which we
Speaker 1: would say can become unhealthy. Plus, even that little basic
Speaker 1: piece advice, which is helpful, it just doesn't tell you
Speaker 1: how much less you should be spending, like how you
Speaker 1: should be changing your habits and you know, should that
Speaker 1: be a constant amount over the decades. Well, that pithy
Speaker 1: a little bit of advice doesn't really tell you. So
Speaker 1: we would say even the most basic advice that has
Speaker 1: truth to it needs some context needs some fleshing out,
Speaker 1: in particular depending on your personal situation, and naturally that
Speaker 1: context that fleshing out requires time and attention, which is
Speaker 1: unfortunately in short supply. Right, So, most folks in our
Speaker 1: modern age, they're content with these five second sound bites
Speaker 1: and they're just not willing to read past the headlines.
Speaker 1: But that additional time is what it often takes in
Speaker 1: order to understand the nuance of any conversation or debate.
Speaker 1: And it's it's it's true everywhere, but it's definitely true
Speaker 1: of these personal finance conversations as.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, all right, yeah, So let's talk about some
Speaker 2: of the some of the crappy advice in the realm
Speaker 2: of spending first, and one of the popular lines of
Speaker 2: advice is skip the latte, skip the avocado toast. This is,
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, it's barn on one of the pieces
Speaker 2: of advice I hate the most. And it's not that
Speaker 2: spending too much money at your local coffee shop like that,
Speaker 2: it's not possible. It definitely is. And it's not that
Speaker 2: the small expenses that you make that they don't add
Speaker 2: up to a meaningful amount of money, because they do.
Speaker 2: And you know, you might be wasting money without even
Speaker 2: thinking enough about it. Now, this happens to a lot
Speaker 2: of folks. It's just I don't understand why coffee shops
Speaker 2: specifically bear the brunt.
Speaker 1: Of this right coffee shop owner. There's so many other
Speaker 1: places you could.
Speaker 2: Attack exactly, so many other places where where folks were
Speaker 2: wasting money, like a ridiculous car payment for a fancy
Speaker 2: car that you don't really need when you could have
Speaker 2: just paid cash for something more affordable, or like having
Speaker 2: your meals delivered. Or speaking of food, think about the
Speaker 2: countless containers of leftovers that you've tossed or jol the
Speaker 2: accountless that's your favorite thing to attacked by the people
Speaker 2: that don't eat their leftovers. What is wrong with you? You
Speaker 2: don't like those people. It's a terrible habit. It's just
Speaker 2: an inefficient way of going about making your meals at home.
Speaker 2: And yet we're kind of digressing herealking about the latte factor.
Speaker 2: But folks, and in particular media, I think it's just
Speaker 2: picked one of the loveliest spots that's often the like
Speaker 2: a cornerstone of community hangs. It just seems like the
Speaker 2: coffee shop has kind of gotten a bad rap maybe
Speaker 2: this is on my mind, Joel, because this morning you
Speaker 2: and I w went and got a coffee before our
Speaker 2: morning meeting.
Speaker 1: We had a new neighbor who was awesome, We saw
Speaker 1: old neighbors who we love, and.
Speaker 2: It's something that I don't know, maybe we're biased a
Speaker 2: little bit because it's something that we are realizing it.
Speaker 2: It's important in our sort of It's not like something
Speaker 2: we do every day, but when we do partake in
Speaker 2: it typically, Yeah, it provides a lot of meeting and
Speaker 2: value to us.
Speaker 1: That's four dollar flat white provides a lot more than
Speaker 1: just like a delicious cup of coffee exactly. And that's,
Speaker 1: by the way, my beverage of choice. Typically if I'm
Speaker 1: going out to a coffee shop, flat.
Speaker 2: Whites, Grotado all the way. So Tortata's are great too,
Speaker 2: slightly less milk, Yeah, thats true.
Speaker 1: Well so yeah, so we would say that that is
Speaker 1: one of those things where that is up to the individual.
Speaker 2: And I think you're right, Matt.
Speaker 1: There are other places, in particular, larger line items in
Speaker 1: our budget that are much easier to cut back, especially
Speaker 1: if the coffee shop is a place where you do
Speaker 1: derive a lot of joy in community from or you
Speaker 1: enjoy even you know, when you're working from home, going
Speaker 1: to work there, and it really, when you think about it,
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things, it's a minimal cost.
Speaker 1: For some reason, we've singled out coffee shops. It's wrong,
Speaker 1: it needs to stop. But speaking of those just a right,
Speaker 1: that's right, those bigger ticket items, though, you have bigger
Speaker 1: fish to fry. So when you spend an inordinate amount
Speaker 1: of your time thinking about these tiny little ways that
Speaker 1: you could potentially eke out a few more bucks, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I don't think either of us would say, Matt,
Speaker 1: that that's time poorly spent, but we would say you
Speaker 1: might be hogging valuable mental bandwidth that could be spent
Speaker 1: on those bigger ticket items where you could be getting
Speaker 1: a bigger ROI by looking elsewhere. And so instead of
Speaker 1: constantly worrying about spending money on coffee, get a more
Speaker 1: affordable car insurance provider boom that just paid for your
Speaker 1: coffee for the entire year. I love doing those bigger things,
Speaker 1: a one time task that allows you then to use
Speaker 1: your money in a way that's more effectively going to
Speaker 1: move the needle value wise in your life. And this
Speaker 1: is of course a fine balanced strike because you and
Speaker 1: I we're all about frugal living. Like, we don't want
Speaker 1: people necessarily going out there and get that flat white
Speaker 1: every day. That's not what we're that's not what we're saying.
Speaker 1: But if you're counting pennies of every single purchase, not
Speaker 1: only are you like sucking the fund the joy out
Speaker 1: of some of those simple pleasures of life, but it's
Speaker 1: it could also just be a highly inefficient use of
Speaker 1: your time. You're majoring on the miners, and we would
Speaker 1: say that there's a whole lot more financial ground you
Speaker 1: can cover focusing more on those big ticket items.
Speaker 2: That's right. I gotta keep you in check in case
Speaker 2: I start hearing Joel saying, all right, this kind of
Speaker 2: feels like a two flat white kind of day.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I don't think I've ever done two coffees
Speaker 1: in one day a week. Maybe we could justify that
Speaker 1: on occasion.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, not only should you be thinking about
Speaker 2: like some of these big ways to save money, but
Speaker 2: also the big ways that you can make more money
Speaker 2: as well, right, Because I think you can easily adopt
Speaker 2: that same like latte factor mindset and then just apply
Speaker 2: it to how it is that you make money, and
Speaker 2: so it's like, specifically, what I'm thinking of here is like,
Speaker 2: we see a lot of folks who are spending a
Speaker 2: tremendous amount of time their side hustle use, in particular
Speaker 2: using different apps like swag Bucks, Uber, Instacart, or feel.
Speaker 2: They come to mind, and again we're you know, we're
Speaker 2: all about folks using the spare time that they've got
Speaker 2: to get after whatever financial goal that they've set for themselves.
Speaker 2: But this is an instance, man like where it would
Speaker 2: be really helpful to pause for a moment and imagine
Speaker 2: where this side hustle is going to take you. But
Speaker 2: the allure to immediately make some instant cash is attractive,
Speaker 2: not to mention, you know, like all the apps, they
Speaker 2: are designed to keep folks coming back, to keep you
Speaker 2: coming back for more due to how it is that
Speaker 2: they're designed, how they're they've essentially gamified the tasks or
Speaker 2: the jobs that literally pop up from within the app.
Speaker 2: They don't want you to slow down and think about
Speaker 2: the big picture. They just want you to keep working.
Speaker 2: So don't lose sight of the forest for the trees. Simultaneously,
Speaker 2: don't let the desire to hustle and to make a
Speaker 2: small amount of money today keep you from making a
Speaker 2: large amount of money tomorrow. This is when, like I
Speaker 2: even hate using this phrase, but oftentimes folks who kind
Speaker 2: of fall into this pattern fall into like the scarcity mindset.
Speaker 2: And I don't like saying that because it makes it
Speaker 2: seem like that you can just manifest stuff and think
Speaker 2: it and bring it into existence. You can't just do that.
Speaker 2: It takes a lot of hard work. But sometimes we
Speaker 2: do get locked into that scarcity mindset as opposed to
Speaker 2: thinking about like an abundance mindset. Right, Like if you
Speaker 2: are so focused in particular going back to the spending
Speaker 2: on just watching every single little penny and instead what
Speaker 2: if you took that same amount of energy and poured
Speaker 2: it into ways that you can not only make money
Speaker 2: via some of these different apps that feel immediate, but like,
Speaker 2: let's talk about some of the bigger pictures, some of
Speaker 2: the larger, big thinking kind of ways that will allow
Speaker 2: you to advance your career and make some serious positive
Speaker 2: impacts on your income.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it almost makes me think of when you go
Speaker 1: to a casino and how you have no idea what
Speaker 1: time of day it is and they're probably in oxygen,
Speaker 1: and so your blinders around. You don't know how long
Speaker 1: you've been there, you don't know how much money you've lost,
Speaker 1: like because you're getting free drinks and so it's but
Speaker 1: you got a free buffet, and so maybe that makes
Speaker 1: up for all the time.
Speaker 2: And that's how this tells me that I should not
Speaker 2: go to Vegas because I hear that and I have
Speaker 2: fallen into similar traps at other points in my life. Yes,
Speaker 2: in particular, I'm thinking about playing video games in college.
Speaker 1: I was just like, wait, what day is It's like
Speaker 1: everything is conspiring against you to get you to lose
Speaker 1: your money. And I think with some of these side hustles,
Speaker 1: it's not that they can't be effective in the short term.
Speaker 1: We've talked about kind of the nefarious elements that side
Speaker 1: hustles come with, and so people have to be really
Speaker 1: careful before they dedicate too much time to making money
Speaker 1: on the side. There are often more effective ways to
Speaker 1: grow your to grow your income over the long term.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean to you know, the great thing about
Speaker 1: side hustles is you can like literally hit a button
Speaker 1: and start making money today, and that's a great short
Speaker 1: term tactic. Yeah, but it's not going to be best
Speaker 1: when it comes to long term earnings, which is which
Speaker 1: we where we want your eyes a little more focused on.
Speaker 2: That's right, Joel. And we've got several other pieces of
Speaker 2: popular financial advice that we're going to get to that's
Speaker 2: just not right, including we're going to talk a little
Speaker 2: bit more about earning money as well as popular advice
Speaker 2: to avoid when it comes to how it is that
Speaker 2: we save and invest our money.
Speaker 3: We'll get to all of that right after this a
Speaker 3: hard Matt, let's keep going.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about personal finance advice, and you and I
Speaker 1: we're just not fans of and these are kind of
Speaker 1: things that people start to get accustomed to. I think
Speaker 1: we've gotten a lot more accustomed to side hustles like
Speaker 1: we just talked about before the break in recent years,
Speaker 1: and as in that being a way to maybe make
Speaker 1: ends meet or to grow your income when there are
Speaker 1: better ways over the long term to grow your income.
Speaker 1: But there's the flip side of that coin, so let's
Speaker 1: talk about that too. There's the reality that some people
Speaker 1: they have a relationship to their job where it's more
Speaker 1: like golden handcuffs, and so that's something we want people
Speaker 1: to change their thinking about as well, because on the
Speaker 1: other end of the spectrum, right, there are some people
Speaker 1: who have a great job that pays incredibly well, and
Speaker 1: in fact, it might pay a little a little too handsomely,
Speaker 1: and you feel stuck, right, even if you don't really
Speaker 1: like your job, even if you actually kind of hate
Speaker 1: it and you don't want to go to work anymore,
Speaker 1: you don't like your coworkers, you don't.
Speaker 2: Like what you're doing, you're working too much.
Speaker 1: We know folks who have made these confessions to us. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're like, my job sucks, but I'm making so much money.
Speaker 2: I can bank how I leave Exactly, I can't.
Speaker 1: And so it's this case of golden handcuffs where the
Speaker 1: salary the benefits have gotten so robust that you don't
Speaker 1: even let yourself consider an alternative. And of course, Matt,
Speaker 1: neither you or I when people are making this admission,
Speaker 1: have told us, you know what, my life doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: But kind of in some ways what they're saying, right.
Speaker 2: That's what they're saying through their actions, not necessarily because
Speaker 2: it's something that they've flat out stated that, like, I
Speaker 2: no longer care about how I spend my hours.
Speaker 1: Yes, but they are in essence saying that they're saying
Speaker 1: it's all about the benjamins. The dollars matter more than
Speaker 1: how my time is spent, than me actually finding joy,
Speaker 1: taking pride in what I do every day. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to grind it out another five or ten years,
Speaker 1: Like that's the kind of the mentality that a lot
Speaker 1: of people have. I keep reaping the rewards of this
Speaker 1: awesome paycheck. But this, of course is terrible financial advice
Speaker 1: that ultimately leads to terrible life advice. It you know,
Speaker 1: we don't know how long we are guaranteed, and every
Speaker 1: single year that you spend at a job that you
Speaker 1: just can't stop, that you hate, those are years you're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to get back.
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, I mean, so much of life satisfaction, specifically,
Speaker 2: it comes from the work you do and the ability
Speaker 2: that you have to help other people. Victor Frankel, We've
Speaker 2: mentioned him plenty of times here on the show. He's
Speaker 2: an Austrian psychiatrist. He wrote one of the most profound books,
Speaker 2: Man's Search for Meeting after surviving the Holocaust. But he
Speaker 2: found that personal relationships, specifically, they are the most important
Speaker 2: component of finding happiness. And then right after that it
Speaker 2: was engaging in productive work. That is the next thing
Speaker 2: that brings us meaning. So you want to know what
Speaker 2: he doesn't discuss making a ton of money. And so
Speaker 2: with that in mind, like, what better way to spend
Speaker 2: half our of our waking hours than by engaging in
Speaker 2: rewarding and productive work that connects us to our fellow man,
Speaker 2: to our fellow human beings. And this is one of
Speaker 2: those bits of advice that I say that I know
Speaker 2: right like, we all have a head knowledge of it,
Speaker 2: but do we grasp it as heart knowledge? You know,
Speaker 2: this is a good one to revisit because we're tempted to,
Speaker 2: you know, simply understand this concept without actually living it out.
Speaker 2: I think we're constantly tempted to live in a way
Speaker 2: that is at odds with this because that's what success
Speaker 2: looks like, that's what the world tells us to do.
Speaker 2: That's even you know, what our parents tell us to do.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, but that's going to put you on
Speaker 2: this trajectory. By all sort of outward measures of success,
Speaker 2: You're likely going to decide that what you should do is,
Speaker 2: like you said, like continuing to grind it out and
Speaker 2: not just for like ten years, but like twenty thirty years.
Speaker 2: Sometimes doing work that you don't love as opposed to
Speaker 2: thinking about how it is you're actually spending that time.
Speaker 2: That's really important. Man.
Speaker 1: I feel like we are the money show that is
Speaker 1: constantly telling people to think less.
Speaker 2: About money, to not focus on the money. That's totally true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so we try to cover the nuts and
Speaker 1: bolts and we want to help people get better with
Speaker 1: your money, invest more wisely, and save a bigger chunk
Speaker 1: of what they bring home. But we also want people
Speaker 1: to think about money as a tool and to not
Speaker 1: think about money as the ends. It is a means,
Speaker 1: you know, two better ends for your life.
Speaker 2: It's the tool that we focus on the most here
Speaker 2: on the show. But ultimately, like what we're all about
Speaker 2: is just folks living a life that they feel it
Speaker 2: leads to happiness essentially, just a fulfilling life for sure.
Speaker 1: And the reality is if money is the end goal,
Speaker 1: you're going to miss out on some of the things
Speaker 1: that matter the most. Like that is a byproduct of
Speaker 1: too much focus on money, is missing out on a
Speaker 1: lot of things that matter. Let's talk about some more
Speaker 1: something else in the vein of career and earnings oriented
Speaker 1: advice that people here on the rag Matt and that
Speaker 1: is just that college is a no brainer, right, And
Speaker 1: so not many of our listeners are college age, you know,
Speaker 1: a small handful, but some of our listeners are getting
Speaker 1: to the point where they've got kids who are considering
Speaker 1: going to college. They've got those those teenagers now at home.
Speaker 1: And so every time we talk about this, I feel
Speaker 1: like we get unhappy listener emails because they say, listen,
Speaker 1: why are you talking crap about college? And we especially
Speaker 1: got them after episode five forty eight where we kind
Speaker 1: of debunked the fact that college makes sense for.
Speaker 2: That was is college for dummies? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we definitely like, not everyone is happy that we
Speaker 1: don't think that college is a slam dug decision, But
Speaker 1: we just don't think that the vast majority of high
Speaker 1: school seniors should be mortgaging their futures by taking on
Speaker 1: astronomical amounts of debt, which which is in many cases
Speaker 1: leading to I don't know the most expensive piece of
Speaker 1: wal art till ever, hang right that a college degree
Speaker 1: that goes behind their desk that some couple hundred.
Speaker 2: K do you even know where your college degree, like
Speaker 2: your actual diploma is no, I have no idea.
Speaker 1: And I remember I would have had to walk to
Speaker 1: get my diploma, but my mom was out of town.
Speaker 2: So I didn't even have to walk. No, I didn't
Speaker 2: even walk. I didn't do it. So I just didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't care, just showed up in a tube a
Speaker 1: few weeks later. That's exactly right. Well, so I guess
Speaker 1: you know. You could ask the question does college pay
Speaker 1: off for lots of folks still? And we would say yes,
Speaker 1: of course, like it does for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: And the more you can curb the costs that you
Speaker 1: incur and the time it takes to get that degree.
Speaker 1: What I mean is not taking six or seven years
Speaker 1: to get it, plus making sure that the one you
Speaker 1: get is more highly valued in the marketplace, then the
Speaker 1: more likely it is to be a smart choice. Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, that advanced history degree. It's going to pay
Speaker 1: off for a much smaller section of people, and a
Speaker 1: lot of folks who get that degree are going to
Speaker 1: find that the money was poorly spent, even if it
Speaker 1: was edifying. But the thing is, college truly was a
Speaker 1: no brainer thirty to forty years ago, but it's it's
Speaker 1: much more of a specific value proposition that young adults
Speaker 1: have to consider beforehand these days, before they start applying
Speaker 1: to schools. The reality of debt that can linger for decades,
Speaker 1: especially if that degree isn't landing you the lucrative career
Speaker 1: that you hoped is just too much of a downside
Speaker 1: to give some sort of blanket advice that college makes
Speaker 1: sense for most people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and on a related note too, just how you
Speaker 2: pay for that college makes me think of five twenty
Speaker 2: nine accounts, and I oftentimes that's also accepted as kind
Speaker 2: of like a slam dunk, you know, no brainer sort
Speaker 2: of decision. It's like, well, if you care about your kids,
Speaker 2: of course you're going to save and invest money within
Speaker 2: a five twenty nine account, But so much of it
Speaker 2: depends on your personal situation. Because yes, that can be
Speaker 2: a great tool to allow you to save for you're
Speaker 2: a kid's college, but if you're doing it to the
Speaker 2: detriment of your ability to save for retirement, well then
Speaker 2: we would say that your priorities are a little out
Speaker 2: of whack.
Speaker 1: If you're not in money year six or seven, like
Speaker 1: plans probably shouldn't be on your radar exactly. That's what
Speaker 1: we say, Like you need to have your finances button up,
Speaker 1: your personal finances button up. You need to be saving
Speaker 1: for retirement in a big, a major way before you
Speaker 1: start investing for your kids usuer.
Speaker 2: And again it comes down to your personal situation, like
Speaker 2: maybe you're not quite there, but this is a vital
Speaker 2: importance to you, and you've got all the reasons why
Speaker 2: then you know what, Like there are pieces of device
Speaker 2: and things that we're gonna say here in the show
Speaker 2: that may not apply to one hundred percent of the
Speaker 2: folks out there, but this is something that we think
Speaker 2: folks need to be thinking about more often than not.
Speaker 2: And similarly, let's talk about debt, Joel, because oftentimes folks
Speaker 2: will hear that they should be living life debt free.
Speaker 2: And again, this is one of those uber simple pieces
Speaker 2: of advice that sounds good on its face, but if
Speaker 2: you take this dogmatic pronouncement to its logical conclusion, you're
Speaker 2: going to have a much harder time reaching your educational,
Speaker 2: your financial goals. And we know that it's hard to
Speaker 2: convey a reasonable debt philosophy just in a two to
Speaker 2: five second SoundBite here, which is why we don't try
Speaker 2: to right like we create entire episodes on important topics
Speaker 2: like debt accumulation and debt payoff to try and convey
Speaker 2: just a nuanced approach towards debt that we think is
Speaker 2: healthy in our modern society. The truth is, is actually
Speaker 2: possible to use debt in a strategic way to catapult
Speaker 2: your finances forward. That's a recent episode that we'll link
Speaker 2: to in our show notes. But not all forms of
Speaker 2: debt we're created to screw you over, and it's important
Speaker 2: to keep that in mind. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: it's also possible to rely on debt too much, right,
Speaker 2: particularly consumer debt, in order to fund a lifestyle that
Speaker 2: you can actually afford, buying the things that you don't
Speaker 2: need and which should be completely avoided.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a massive difference between a payday loan and
Speaker 1: a fifteen year mortgage, right, I mean, and I think
Speaker 1: that's where the live life debt free sort of philosophy,
Speaker 1: the mantra gets lost, and so people automatally assume that
Speaker 1: every single potential form of debt is now just something
Speaker 1: they shouldn't even consider, they shouldn't bring into their lives,
Speaker 1: When the truth is, what we're revolting here against your
Speaker 1: matt is a lack of nuance, Right, it's that pithy
Speaker 1: phrase that starts to lead people down the road of
Speaker 1: thinking that only one way of handling debt makes sense,
Speaker 1: and that is to never ever use it. And it's
Speaker 1: a convenient way to convey a message, but it's not
Speaker 1: always the most helpful to the folks who are trying
Speaker 1: to make progress with their personal finances. For instance, like,
Speaker 1: let's say you do have that fifteen year mortgage at
Speaker 1: two and a half percent. At a two and a
Speaker 1: half percent rate, Well, it almost feels like a safe
Speaker 1: haven right now that we're experiencing a period of intense inflation.
Speaker 1: Let's say you used all your savings to pay off
Speaker 1: that mortgage, which in and of itself would be like
Speaker 1: mean you probably had too much money in savings. Well,
Speaker 1: you might find yourself in an uncomfortable position if let's
Speaker 1: say you lost your job next week. Yeah, sure, you
Speaker 1: don't have the mortgage payment, but you also don't have
Speaker 1: any cash in the bank to back you up to
Speaker 1: allow you to afford your other monthly bills if the
Speaker 1: worst case scenario happened. So how dumb is that to
Speaker 1: and a half percent mortgage rate? Debt in actuality, we
Speaker 1: would say it's not very dumb, it's really not that bad,
Speaker 1: and you probably shouldn't pay it off, even at the
Speaker 1: expense of prioritizing something like tax advantage retirement savings. So
Speaker 1: while the answer it's not always easy, it often requires context.
Speaker 1: The question is always an important one to ask, and
Speaker 1: then so much of the answer comes down to the
Speaker 1: terms of that debt and what you plan to do
Speaker 1: with the money you borrow. If you're exactly sinking that
Speaker 1: money that you're borrowing into speculative assets, let's say cryptocurrency
Speaker 1: or all sorts of new fangled digital coins that you
Speaker 1: could potentially lose it all overnight, still owing debt on
Speaker 1: top of it, that's really risky. That's a terrible way
Speaker 1: to use debt. But we would say there are smart
Speaker 1: ways to use debt to be able to actually accelerate
Speaker 1: your progress. Just like you said, Matt, and I think
Speaker 1: thinking that avoiding debt completely for the rest of your
Speaker 1: life is the best way forward. Not thinking about the
Speaker 1: ways that you can use it intelligently as like a
Speaker 1: stepping stone to kind of continue down the path is
Speaker 1: short sighted and is you all likely mean you're making
Speaker 1: less progress potentially in your career or in your personal
Speaker 1: finances and your wealth building journey than you'd otherwise like
Speaker 1: to see.
Speaker 2: Totally don't use credit cards, Joel. That's another piece of
Speaker 2: advice that you'll often hear. I think the same guy
Speaker 2: who likes to say that debt is dumb and to
Speaker 2: live that debt free lifestyle also likes to talk smack
Speaker 2: about the credit cards. But the truth is, when used effectively,
Speaker 2: we love credit cards. When you use them effectively, you
Speaker 2: know they're not just alright. They're the best form of
Speaker 2: payment where they offer you greater consumer protections, plus superior
Speaker 2: rewards and benefits and other meaningful perks. And it's worth
Speaker 2: pointing out here debit cards and credit cards they definitely
Speaker 2: look the same, but they are not created equal. Maybe
Speaker 2: we should do an entire episode talking about the differences
Speaker 2: between debit and credit cards. But we are fans of
Speaker 2: using them responsibly, and if you have a reasonable level
Speaker 2: of discipline, then you're gonna be able to use your
Speaker 2: cards effectively and they're going to be a great tool
Speaker 2: for you. That's why we're fans of using them. But again,
Speaker 2: we just have to make sure that we couch it
Speaker 2: within the proper language. We don't want anybody and everybody
Speaker 2: out there to go looking for the best cash back
Speaker 2: sign up bonuses that you can find. But if that
Speaker 2: is you, if you are in a healthy position, if
Speaker 2: you do have that reasonable amount of discipline, then head
Speaker 2: over to our site, go to howdomoney dot com forward
Speaker 2: slash credit cards because that tool will help you to
Speaker 2: find the best credit card for you and based on
Speaker 2: the different benefits and the perks that you are looking for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't get talked about much. Most people
Speaker 1: don't know that there are different consumer protections when you
Speaker 1: use a credit card at purchase then when you use
Speaker 1: a debit card. So it's not just the two percent
Speaker 1: cash back or the Ma's Blue cash preferred six percent
Speaker 1: back at the grocery store, like those are awesome perks,
Speaker 1: but we're also talking about just more robust fraud protection
Speaker 1: when you're using a credit card. We're talking about sometimes
Speaker 1: an extended warranty that a credit card offers. In addition,
Speaker 1: that means you don't have to buy the crappy extended
Speaker 1: warranty that the electronics company or the big box warehouse
Speaker 1: is trying to get you to buy. The abredit card
Speaker 1: offers that for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the ability to drop the CDW, the collision damage
Speaker 2: waiver when you're renting a car because you've got a
Speaker 2: car that offers primary car insurance by declining that CDW.
Speaker 1: Or as we talked about in a recent as kont
Speaker 1: of money up. But so many different benefits. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: ability to not have to carry a bunch of cash
Speaker 1: on your person when you're traveling overseas and to get
Speaker 1: the best exchange rate and to not pay a fee
Speaker 1: or do.
Speaker 2: It as you get that zero percent transaction fee. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so really foreign transaction fee.
Speaker 1: When you dig into the details. I mean credit cards
Speaker 1: a lot. There are people out there who think that
Speaker 1: they can't be used effectively. Those people would be wrong.
Speaker 1: It is possible to use a credit card effectively. And
Speaker 1: it's not just about two percent cash back right to
Speaker 1: slightly juice your returns. There's a lot more to it
Speaker 1: than that. But we've got Matt some more pieces of
Speaker 1: financial advice that we think are pretty crummy. They just
Speaker 1: ain't right. We'll get to those, including some about investing.
Speaker 1: I think that are really important, especially right now with
Speaker 1: what's happening in the market. How there's more bad investing
Speaker 1: advice going around now than even there typically is. So
Speaker 1: we'll get to that and more right after this.
Speaker 2: All right, so we just spent some time talking about
Speaker 2: spending money. Now let's get serious and let's discuss saving
Speaker 2: and investing your money. And a piece of advice that
Speaker 2: you often hear Joel is save ten percent of your income.
Speaker 2: This is advice I even heard as a little wei
Speaker 2: one growing up, and you might be asking, like, why
Speaker 2: is this crappy advice? This sounds smart, and it kind
Speaker 2: of is. It's certainly better than what the average American
Speaker 2: is saving, which is it's somewhere in the three percent range. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And so if you're in that position, if you aren't
Speaker 2: currently even saving a tenth of your income, then yes,
Speaker 2: this is a good goal to strive for. But we
Speaker 2: don't want how the money listeners out there to be
Speaker 2: the average American. We don't want you to stay there.
Speaker 2: We don't want that ten percent basically to be a
Speaker 2: ceiling for you because sometimes mainstream financial advice that actually
Speaker 2: I think they set the bar too low. And if
Speaker 2: you stick with this incredibly basic framework of saving even
Speaker 2: as your your income increases over the years, you're gonna
Speaker 2: find it hard to make progress towards those bigger financial goals.
Speaker 2: If you get complacent just you know, saving ten percent
Speaker 2: of your income, it's going to be tough to save
Speaker 2: up to pay cash for a car or amassing a
Speaker 2: big old down payment for a home purchase while simultaneously
Speaker 2: socking away enough for retirement. And not only is it
Speaker 2: about the ability to achieve some of these financial goals
Speaker 2: that you've identified today, but we're also talking about being
Speaker 2: able to achieve financial goals tomorrow, right, Like, these are
Speaker 2: all things that today, that today Matt wants to do,
Speaker 2: but what about tomorrow, Matt. I don't know what tomorrow
Speaker 2: Matt wants. And so the ability to save a little
Speaker 2: bit more than that stand or ten percent gives me
Speaker 2: that additional flexibility, gives me options to pursue some of
Speaker 2: those goals in a way that feels like I'm making
Speaker 2: progress as opposed to just completely resetting the clock.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure tomorrow Matt is going to want a
Speaker 1: quartato at the local cofee shop, but he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to wait till next week. Okay, next week Matt is
Speaker 1: going to get that. Just one a week, one a week,
Speaker 1: that's always al right, And yeah, I think that. I
Speaker 1: think you're right, Matt. I think that is kind of
Speaker 1: this basic tenet of personal finance advice, and many people
Speaker 1: strive for and then you get to ten percent and
Speaker 1: you rest on your laurels, and because of that, it
Speaker 1: takes a really long time to make meaningful progress. And
Speaker 1: we think people should be seeking to save a lot
Speaker 1: more of their money, and other cultures do this.
Speaker 2: Well, what is it in Japan?
Speaker 1: The average person saves something like in the thirty percent
Speaker 1: range of their salary.
Speaker 2: Think it's so much higher.
Speaker 1: We are abysmal at saving and yeah, how to money listeners.
Speaker 2: Can do better than that.
Speaker 1: We know that well, and we're too soft, that's right.
Speaker 1: We're trying to harden you up. And let's talk about
Speaker 1: some crappy investing advice for a second, because really we
Speaker 1: could do a whole episode about crappy investing advice.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of that out there that's true.
Speaker 1: But one of them we would say is buy low
Speaker 1: and sell high. And I feel like you hear in
Speaker 1: a down market, you hear more people talking about that,
Speaker 1: buying the dip, that kind of stuff. And again, Matt,
Speaker 1: kind of like what you said with the ten percent things,
Speaker 1: like this is kind of sort of good advice, like
Speaker 1: there's a nugget of wisdom here, but there's also the
Speaker 1: fact that this piece of advice could completely mess you up,
Speaker 1: and it's just not possible really to buy low and
Speaker 1: sell high, is what we would say. Stats show year
Speaker 1: after year that even professional fund managers consistently underperform the
Speaker 1: simple strategy of buying straight up index funds. And these
Speaker 1: are people that are highly compensated, right that this is
Speaker 1: their job to attempt to outperform the market to get
Speaker 1: outside returns. But the reality is that trying to buy
Speaker 1: the dip means you're waiting on stock prices to go down,
Speaker 1: and the truth is stocks are mostly on an up
Speaker 1: into the right trajectory, right, that is the overwhelming direction
Speaker 1: that they're heading. And that means if you're holding onto
Speaker 1: money that you want to invest in hopes of a
Speaker 1: market downturn to score a better deal, you're more likely
Speaker 1: to miss out on gains than you are to get
Speaker 1: that deal that you're hoping for. And so that's why
Speaker 1: we prefer we advocate the dollar cost averaging approach, mostly
Speaker 1: ignoring current market conditions because your cash sitting on the
Speaker 1: sidelines while you're trying to buy, the dip is experiencing
Speaker 1: opportunity costs and it's just being smacked around by inflation
Speaker 1: and today. So we would say just keep buying. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about timing the market. The key is to get
Speaker 1: your money in the market with regularity. So if you
Speaker 1: hear buy low and sell high, it's advice. It sounds good,
Speaker 1: but pulling it off, it's like, hey, yeah, I just
Speaker 1: go out there and hit four home runs in a
Speaker 1: game and it'll be all be all good. I've never
Speaker 1: tried to hit a home run map, but I know
Speaker 1: it's really difficult and that even the best guys like
Speaker 1: hit you know, sixty a year, right, and that's really
Speaker 1: hard to come by. So hitting four home runs in
Speaker 1: a game, that's it's great advice if you can actually
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: Sounds impossible. Yes, technically that is correct. You do that
Speaker 2: and you'll be the MVP. You're gonna make millions or billions.
Speaker 2: The same thing with buy low sell high. In theory.
Speaker 2: On paper, it's great advice, but actually executing it virtually impossible.
Speaker 2: Joel something else like, I feel like this isn't necessarily
Speaker 2: like advice that you hear, but just kind of maybe
Speaker 2: more sentiment when it comes to investors, which is the
Speaker 2: fact that they're afraid that the market is going to collapse.
Speaker 2: There's a number of fairly bright individuals out there who
Speaker 2: continue to predict that this stock market like that is
Speaker 2: just this house of cards and that were all bound
Speaker 2: to get wiped out in this historic catastrophe. Like it
Speaker 2: kind of makes me think of like the fundamental Christians
Speaker 2: who predicted the end of the world, like back in
Speaker 2: the eighties. Thure.
Speaker 1: It's kind of how Lindsey and he wrote like three
Speaker 1: books about it, and he was just wrong every time.
Speaker 2: He predicted that. And when their conviction ends up being
Speaker 2: dead wrong, like they instead they often just double down.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, I was just wrong on that date, and
Speaker 1: now I've gotten pushed that out seven new insights, and
Speaker 1: so they predict an even more catastrophic event on the horizon.
Speaker 2: And so when it comes to the different financial advice
Speaker 2: out there, like best selling author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad,
Speaker 2: Robert Kiwasaki, he's one of those folks, but there are
Speaker 2: definitely others as well. But the truth is the market
Speaker 2: it's got its ups and downs, as we've experienced this year,
Speaker 2: but there's still no easier way to build wealth despite
Speaker 2: the significant amounts of volatility than regularly investing in the
Speaker 2: American economy. Humans, we are incredibly creative, We're adaptable creatures.
Speaker 2: It's best to just ignore these predictions of doom and gloom.
Speaker 2: There is enough other normal, sad, normal stuff out there
Speaker 2: for us to worry about. And by the way, I
Speaker 2: was talking about the volatility, like that bumpy ride that
Speaker 2: you experienced in the market, that is a feature, not
Speaker 2: a bug. That is what allows us to be able
Speaker 2: to see growth over the long haul. And again, if
Speaker 2: there is some sort of catastrophe something like I don't
Speaker 2: like a nuclear attack or something like that. I think
Speaker 2: we've got bigger problems. And it doesn't matter if you're
Speaker 2: invested in whatever alternative investment. It's also not going to
Speaker 2: save you if we're approaching the end of the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And a lot of the folks that are the
Speaker 1: loudest voices, Matt saying that the stock market is a
Speaker 1: house of cards, or that we're going to see massive
Speaker 1: declines this year or depression twenty twenty three, it's inevitable.
Speaker 1: Those people often have a financial incentive to scare people
Speaker 1: in order to buy what they're selling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but by the way, have you checked out this
Speaker 2: company and they happen to sell goal?
Speaker 1: That's right, And here's how you save yourself from this
Speaker 1: from being impacted to the extent that other people are
Speaker 1: impacted when everything goes to hell. And another investing thing
Speaker 1: that you probably hear that people here investing advice is
Speaker 1: to invest in what you know you might hear folks
Speaker 1: say that it makes sense to invest in companies that
Speaker 1: you use regularly. So like, if you absolutely love Netflix,
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the content they create, you
Speaker 1: should invest in the stock. And if you can't wait
Speaker 1: to like spend time in the metaverse, let's say, which
Speaker 1: I've not heard anyone say that before.
Speaker 2: That was my Netflix tone. Nicely done, thanks.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean, like, have you heard anyone say
Speaker 1: they want to spend time in the metaverse? I feel
Speaker 1: like they know I definitely have the zuck. He's getting
Speaker 1: criticism for that these days because he's sticking a lot
Speaker 1: of Facebooks dollars or Metas dollars towards this future potential universe.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you if you are excited about that,
Speaker 1: if you're one of the rare people couldt toss some
Speaker 1: of your retirement dollars in a company that you think
Speaker 1: has some insight into what we're all going to be
Speaker 1: doing in the future. Or let's say you are a
Speaker 1: big fan of the Yeezy shoes, which I don't probably
Speaker 1: nobody is anymore. Kind of got canceled, but.
Speaker 2: After you went on as incredible anti Semitic.
Speaker 1: Tirades, and so we saw what happened with a DIDA stock.
Speaker 1: You never know, even just like the crazy bumplings of
Speaker 1: a celebrity, can lead to a precipitous fallout in a
Speaker 1: company stock. So I get kind of why this advice
Speaker 1: gets spread. But hopefully with each one of these examples
Speaker 1: you can see how it might play play out. Like first,
Speaker 1: we're not fans of investing in single stocks. The two
Speaker 1: of us, we talk about money and investing all the time,
Speaker 1: and we don't do it. But the reality is, you
Speaker 1: just never know what competition or other headwinds might be
Speaker 1: coming for that company you love. When it comes to Netflix,
Speaker 1: there's more streaming competition out there than ever before. And
Speaker 1: it's not to say that Netflix won't ultimately succeed, but
Speaker 1: for a while they had it easy. They didn't have
Speaker 1: much competition and the edge. And it's not to say
Speaker 1: that people won't want to spend time in the metaverse.
Speaker 1: If Zuckerberg can make it something fascinating, if he can
Speaker 1: make it like Ready Player one style, maybe we'll all
Speaker 1: be in there like doing cool stuff.
Speaker 2: Or we won't because people because we just don't know
Speaker 2: the future, right like that. That's the predicament here, is
Speaker 2: that we have no clue. And when you're putting all
Speaker 2: of your eggs in literally one basket with war stock
Speaker 2: like this, it's difficult to know because, yeah, metaverse folks
Speaker 2: might realize that, you know what those in real life relationships,
Speaker 2: going back to Victor Frankel. Frankel, those are the relationships
Speaker 2: that matter, not not this imitation stuff. Basically that we're
Speaker 2: funding on the metaverse.
Speaker 1: Just because you like company's shoes doesn't mean that they've
Speaker 1: partnered with the right people to help, you know, improve
Speaker 1: that business and to reach more customers. Over the long haul,
Speaker 1: those relationships can sour, costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're, like you said, like we're talking about
Speaker 2: individual stocks. But even beyond that, I think the same
Speaker 2: lessons can be applied to entire sectors, right, because during
Speaker 2: the pandemic, what did we see in the tech sector?
Speaker 2: We saw tech stocks taking off, they crushed. And now
Speaker 2: what we've seen so far this year is the man
Speaker 2: bloodbath with all the big, big tech names. And instead
Speaker 2: of what we've seen is energy stocks. The entire energy
Speaker 2: sector is like at all time highs.
Speaker 1: And so now you might be saying, oh, now is
Speaker 1: the time to invest in exon.
Speaker 2: But you don't know. You don't know, so instead invest
Speaker 2: in widely diversified index funds like VU or VTS, both
Speaker 2: of Vanguard's either total stock or s and P five
Speaker 2: hundred index funds. And so don't invest in what you know,
Speaker 2: because that essentially it's a shallow understanding. It's a shallow
Speaker 2: measure of what you think might be successful in the future.
Speaker 2: But it is a far cry from an actual analysis,
Speaker 2: let alone a prediction of what actually might happen in
Speaker 2: the future.
Speaker 1: And so oftentimes when we do this, Matt too, we
Speaker 1: just get the timing wrong. So you might kind of
Speaker 1: be right, maybe the metaverse.
Speaker 2: Will exactly going back to timing of the market. Yes, sure,
Speaker 2: buy low, sell high, but how the heck do you
Speaker 2: figure that out? It might be fifteen years from now.
Speaker 2: In retrospect hindsight, it always looks so easy because you're
Speaker 2: framing the past by what you are experiencing today. And
Speaker 2: so yeah, looking back to the pandemic, you're thinking, of course,
Speaker 2: tell you know, we're talking about teledoc earlier. Of course
Speaker 2: they were going to crush. Everybody's going to be at home,
Speaker 2: everyone's going to be prize these technology companies. But at
Speaker 2: the time we didn't know that. Yeah, and so the
Speaker 2: same thing you know applies to the present moving forward,
Speaker 2: we have no clue what the future is gonna hold.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna have this ramna? In retrospect you might
Speaker 1: be able to figure it out the four to two
Speaker 1: to hold on to those to those stocks when they're plummeting,
Speaker 1: when they're not doing well, just because you have that
Speaker 1: ultimate faith and belief. Probably not like most people. At
Speaker 1: some point they cry uncle, they sell, and so like
Speaker 1: right now you a doubt yourself. Yeah, it's don't at
Speaker 1: the wrong time. I think there's just a lot to
Speaker 1: be said for not taking that approach, even though there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are going to say that
Speaker 1: that's what you should do and that that that's how
Speaker 1: stock market investing makes sense to the average individual, but
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the case, and I think investing
Speaker 1: in the market as a whole is something that's easy
Speaker 1: for the average American to understand. You don't have to
Speaker 1: start picking individual stocks of companies that you already kind
Speaker 1: of kind of like in order to be a good investor,
Speaker 1: and in fact, it's probably going to take you down
Speaker 1: the wrong path.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, Again, we could do an entire episode
Speaker 2: on the crappy investing advice that we often hear, but
Speaker 2: I mean, as we kind of round this episode out,
Speaker 2: bottom line, we just want you to be careful who
Speaker 2: it is that you listen to. There's probably a lot
Speaker 2: more crappy personal finance advice out there than you think,
Speaker 2: and we can't tackle all of the poor advice that
Speaker 2: you might come across just in one episode. So bottom line,
Speaker 2: we want you to be careful who it is that
Speaker 2: you're listening to. We think that there's probably a lot
Speaker 2: more crappy personal finance advice out there than you think,
Speaker 2: and you know, we can't tackle it all just in
Speaker 2: one episode. Oftentimes it's the folks who are screaming the loudest.
Speaker 2: It's the folks who have the most rigid rules out there,
Speaker 2: they can be the easiest to understand, for sure, but
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean that their advice is going to be
Speaker 2: best for you. You know that's going to be best
Speaker 2: for you to listen to them, or that it'll actually
Speaker 2: be the most helpful for you in the long run.
Speaker 2: At least personal finance advice, it can and should be nuanced.
Speaker 2: It takes time, like we talked about earlier too, and
Speaker 2: not all advice is created equal, and some of the
Speaker 2: different blanket rules of thumb that you come across for everyone,
Speaker 2: no matter what their their individual financial situation looks like,
Speaker 2: that is not a great tactic. Where it is that
Speaker 2: you are in your financial journey. It's crucial to the
Speaker 2: advice that you should be heeding and with that, make
Speaker 2: sure that you spend enough time thinking about this. I
Speaker 2: think oftentimes folks they go with the slogan advice, the
Speaker 2: thing that's easy, need to repeat, They go with the headlines,
Speaker 2: and instead we want you to think about it. We
Speaker 2: don't want you to spend too much time, but spend
Speaker 2: enough time that you are informed and that you're able
Speaker 2: to make the best decisions for yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it just makes me think, Matt that, like
Speaker 1: you mentioned Victor Frankel's book, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: great one, and it's actually it's pretty skinny. It's not
Speaker 1: really that hard for most books to read. But if
Speaker 1: I hand it to my seven year old who's in
Speaker 1: the second grade, when she's reading Pete the Cat kind
Speaker 1: of books, right, Like, that's kind of the vein she's in.
Speaker 1: She might be able to understand a good chunk of
Speaker 1: the words. She's not going to understand what she's reading though,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, when you do blanket advice or you
Speaker 1: say this is the best thing for everyone, oftentimes we're
Speaker 1: missing the reality that people are at different points in
Speaker 1: their financial journey. And so we try to bring that
Speaker 1: nuance to the forefront so that people can see, like
Speaker 1: how we're coming through our conclusion, so they can come
Speaker 1: to their own not just tossing a phrase out there
Speaker 1: and hoping that everyone adapts accordingly like that. That's not
Speaker 1: a plan, that's not our path, that's not how we.
Speaker 2: Roll, all right, man? Is that it for this episode? Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's get to the beer. This episode, you and I
Speaker 2: enjoyed Uplifted, which is a Scottish style Ale from Talisman
Speaker 2: Brewing Company. Thank you Andy for donating this one to
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: What were your thoughts, buddy, So I've never had this
Speaker 1: was like a light version of a scott chaliel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was reading on the side it said
Speaker 2: it's it's like a session sessionable Scottish aale. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: it was.
Speaker 1: I would say it was kind of like a light
Speaker 1: brown nail in a lot of ways, and I like
Speaker 1: a good Scotch jale. We actually got to have a
Speaker 1: good one on the show not too long ago, and
Speaker 1: that was fun because scott shales are actually kind of
Speaker 1: hard to come by, not many people may come. But
Speaker 1: this one left a little more to be desired than
Speaker 1: that one. It was just it was kind of lacking
Speaker 1: in some of the flavor profile and some of the
Speaker 1: punch I typically like to get it.
Speaker 2: Scott wasn't quite as toast. I mean a lot of
Speaker 2: times it's characterized by like a toastiness. Yeah, like some bigger,
Speaker 2: darker flavor caramel vibes. This one was like almost a
Speaker 2: little bit tart. So maybe that that lightness and body
Speaker 2: lent itself, So maybe it's just a yeah, like a
Speaker 2: slight tartness, but as always, I would rather be drinking
Speaker 2: a craft beer with you while we record an episode
Speaker 2: the Notts. So I'm glad that you and I were
Speaker 2: able to enjoy one of these today, budd. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I mean we talked about smart
Speaker 1: rules for spending earlier, just for a second, as we
Speaker 1: were talking about the latte factor, and that you and
Speaker 1: I kind of go what we do flies directly in
Speaker 1: the face of that. We drink a craft beer, often
Speaker 1: an expensive craft beer, every episode. This one fortunately was free,
Speaker 1: thanks Andy. But but we are spending our own money
Speaker 1: for ninety five percent of these beers because and not
Speaker 1: just because we love beer, that's a big part of it,
Speaker 1: but because there's another lesson to be had in there.
Speaker 1: That's spending money all the things that you love in
Speaker 1: the here and now while you're getting good with your
Speaker 1: money is an important part of the equation.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And going too hard, becoming hyper frugal over the top,
Speaker 1: is a recipe for disaster in the long run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, all frugal and no splurge mixed, jul and
Speaker 2: iied dull boys.
Speaker 1: That's right, we don't want to be that. So all right, Matt,
Speaker 1: that's going to do it for this episode. If you
Speaker 1: have another piece of financial advice that really sucks, that's
Speaker 1: really great to you, that you find around the interwebs
Speaker 1: at some point, send it our way. We love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. Reach out to us. You can email
Speaker 1: us at how to Moneypod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: That's right, buddy. So that's going to be it for
Speaker 2: this episode until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,