Speaker 1: Welcome to had the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Speaker 2: Today we're talking jump at the pump, lestening leverage, and
Speaker 2: tapping too soon.
Speaker 3: That's if we're laughing, because we watched the intro a
Speaker 3: couple of times there and then we just kept rolling
Speaker 3: and found a way to make it happen. We're we're
Speaker 3: pros here, Matt. You know, we're just here to have
Speaker 3: some fun. That's what we're gonna do here on this
Speaker 3: Friday flight, especially considerably. Pros have been doing this for
Speaker 3: as long as we have. But do we even still
Speaker 3: we make idiotic mistakes? Yeah, I'll say your little catchy
Speaker 3: headlines are super vague.
Speaker 1: That was kind.
Speaker 3: That's a little intense, So listener's got to stick around
Speaker 3: and find out what we're talking about on all of none,
Speaker 3: none of these are giving it away.
Speaker 1: Some of the pump felt a little pannic at the disco. Oh,
Speaker 1: I like that? Did you ever like those guys?
Speaker 3: I never really listened to anither a little too screamy,
Speaker 3: not like scream o rock, but like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: too high pitched. Okay, you had a really high voice.
Speaker 3: Was it like was back in the emo era? Is
Speaker 3: that what they were it's like post emo. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: moving a little bit more to the mainstream. But yeah,
Speaker 3: this is our Friday flight. We're gonna talk about the
Speaker 3: personal finance headlines, specifically how they are going to impact
Speaker 3: your wallet.
Speaker 1: While we're talking.
Speaker 3: About your wallet, I think one of the prices that
Speaker 3: people pay the most attention to is the price of
Speaker 3: gasoline because they drive passed it multiple times a day
Speaker 3: and we've gotten used to, you know, fairly low gas prices,
Speaker 3: especially over the past year.
Speaker 1: We've seen those prices dip, but the price of gases
Speaker 1: soared this week.
Speaker 3: Our local gas station here, like a month ago, I
Speaker 3: want to say, we were in like the two to
Speaker 3: fifty range, but prices have quickly shot up to three
Speaker 3: dollars thirty cents even more because of US military operations
Speaker 3: in Iran. Twenty percent of the world's oil passes through
Speaker 3: the stream of Hormah, which has been cut off by
Speaker 3: the Iranians. The tankers essentially are like, no, don't want
Speaker 3: to go over there. Sure, And with the President saying
Speaker 3: that the attacks are set to persist potentially for weeks
Speaker 3: to come, the uncertainty of what retaliation could look like.
Speaker 3: I think folks should be prepared to expand their their
Speaker 3: budgets in this area for months to come. When it
Speaker 3: when it comes to transportation costs, the cost of filling
Speaker 3: up your car, I think there have been talks perhaps
Speaker 3: of let's say, a cease fire. If that happens, well,
Speaker 3: obviously that's going to change the I think the potential
Speaker 3: for price you know what, what you're paying out the
Speaker 3: prompt dramatically, but.
Speaker 1: It could be a very short lived spike. We'll see. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean literally, as of this recording, there haven't been
Speaker 3: any talks of negotiations or talks, but that literally could
Speaker 3: happen in like an hour or.
Speaker 1: Apparently, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I saw someone reporting that there was a request for
Speaker 2: talks from the Iranian side, But like when will that happen?
Speaker 2: Will will that happen?
Speaker 1: It's tough, Yeah, And I was going to say too,
Speaker 1: and by the way.
Speaker 2: Like that, there's a lot we could say just about
Speaker 2: the fact that our country is now at war. This
Speaker 2: is not a political podcast, so we won't and we'll
Speaker 2: let you do.
Speaker 1: Even using the term that we're at war.
Speaker 3: Have you noticed that they've tried to avoid saying that
Speaker 3: we're at war because it's like, oh, no, this is
Speaker 3: a military what they keep referring to it as a
Speaker 3: kinetic and military.
Speaker 1: Operation is the word, Then that's not Then it's not
Speaker 1: really happening. Is that? Now? This is this is totally war.
Speaker 3: Sure it may not be war in the traditional sense
Speaker 3: of what we're used to, but this is absolutely what's
Speaker 3: going on. And it's always terrible to see loss of life.
Speaker 2: I want to say, Triple A does one of the
Speaker 2: best jobs of tracking gas prices, and what they've shown
Speaker 2: is that over the last couple of days, prices on
Speaker 2: average across the nation have jumped something like twenty five cents.
Speaker 2: But anecdotally here the few gas stations I go by,
Speaker 2: and man, I'm either sometimes i'm driving by them, usually
Speaker 2: I'm running by them. But I was I was shocked.
Speaker 2: I was like, eighty I've seen an eighty cent spike
Speaker 2: at the gas stations that I'm used to going by.
Speaker 1: Price gouging station owners. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Maybe or maybe the data from Triple A is just
Speaker 2: slow to catch up to reality. I don't know, but
Speaker 2: I'm curious to see if over the next couple of
Speaker 2: days maybe it does catch up and we've seen more
Speaker 2: like a forty to fifty to sixty sent per gallon
Speaker 2: spike across the nation on avare be curious to hear
Speaker 2: from how to money listeners, like what's going on at
Speaker 2: your local gas stations? How is this impacting you? And
Speaker 2: people might be wondering too, Matt, Well, how can gas
Speaker 2: prices shoot up so much when our country is producing
Speaker 2: so much oil? You look at the amount that we
Speaker 2: produce in a given day and the amount that we consume,
Speaker 2: and it's pretty close to being on par. And it
Speaker 2: does help that we're not as reliant on Middle Eastern
Speaker 2: countries as we used to be, like let's say in
Speaker 2: the nineties, right, But oil is a global market. So
Speaker 2: that is why, like even though we produce quite a
Speaker 2: bit of oil in this country now, far more than
Speaker 2: we ever used to, even just like what happened under
Speaker 2: Trump administration number one Biden administration and continues to happen
Speaker 2: under the Trump administration is just like we drill the drill, baby,
Speaker 2: drill thing is.
Speaker 1: A reality in our country, it is, yea.
Speaker 3: But even still because of the nature of the global market, Yes,
Speaker 3: we're more insulated from price pikes, we're still and not
Speaker 3: immune to them. Yeah, well yeah, when you're talking about
Speaker 3: just such a large because it's not again, it's because
Speaker 3: of the amount of oil that goes through that region.
Speaker 3: It's not even just Iran specifically, but just how much
Speaker 3: is getting essentially choked off from the world. And so
Speaker 3: you're referring to the global market. Yeah, when there is
Speaker 3: a reduction in supply elsewhere in the world that impacts
Speaker 3: prices here locally.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: And gas stations also are reacting to increased demand. That's
Speaker 2: happening because people are like gas prices are going up,
Speaker 2: let me fill up before I actually need to. They're
Speaker 2: also reacting to the likelihood of higher prices. They're kind
Speaker 2: of looking with the crystal ball into the future and
Speaker 2: they're saying, well, the next supply that I have to purchase,
Speaker 2: it's going to cost more. So I'm just going to
Speaker 2: go ahead and preemptively raise the price for people who
Speaker 2: are coming to fill up. So fear of higher prices
Speaker 2: and an increase in consumer demand, those are just bringing
Speaker 2: about higher prices more quickly on consumer and so we
Speaker 2: feel it maybe more quickly, even though in some ways
Speaker 2: like it feels like prices shouldn't rise so quickly.
Speaker 3: Sure, Okay, So here is a Timely USA Today article.
Speaker 3: They put together a list of the most fuel efficient
Speaker 3: cars Joel and it was they're just like published now.
Speaker 3: But Tesla, of course was number one. EV's they're just
Speaker 3: cheap to run, even if they're not as cheap to
Speaker 3: purchase now because of the federal tax credits because they
Speaker 3: have gone away. But as far as brands that make
Speaker 3: mostly gas cars, Kia, Nissan, and Subaru were up there.
Speaker 3: But here's the interesting thing. Consumers don't seem to care
Speaker 3: all that much, relatively speaking, because the the data tends
Speaker 3: to show that as gas prices decline, well, individuals react
Speaker 3: and then they go ahead and just purchase the larger,
Speaker 3: these bigger, larger gas guzzling SUVs, these giant suburbans and expeditions.
Speaker 1: Do you even think with a fourth or a fifth row? Actually,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm into right now.
Speaker 3: Hey, some people I know more more folks. Man, they
Speaker 3: got seven plus kids, They got like the transit.
Speaker 1: Well, you have that many kids, you need it, I guess.
Speaker 1: But you do mean there's a lot.
Speaker 2: Of people who are just like, we're the big, big run,
Speaker 2: the biggest suv, And I'm really only putting two people
Speaker 2: in that run.
Speaker 3: But the opposite is true as well, when when gas
Speaker 3: prices go up, that's when folks tend to reach for
Speaker 3: the more fuel efficient vehicles. And so yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 3: though to even just look at Tesla so and again
Speaker 3: it's not it shouldn't be any surprise, but it gets
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty miles per gallon, and that's like
Speaker 3: obviously the equivalent, right because Teslas don't run a gasoline.
Speaker 3: But it just puts into perspective. This is a conversation
Speaker 3: I was having with Kate recently where there's part of
Speaker 3: me that sees our Honda and we drive around the
Speaker 3: city right taking the kids to school, running errands, things
Speaker 3: like that, we're getting like twenty miles per gallon. Right
Speaker 3: on the highway we can get twenty five, twenty six,
Speaker 3: we're getting twenty around town. And then I see the
Speaker 3: two to Siena and he gets thirty six in the
Speaker 3: city because it's got the hybrid, so it's operating off
Speaker 3: of the battery for a lot of that, and I
Speaker 3: think better, Oh my gosh, it's so much better. Oh
Speaker 3: maybe I should drop forty thousand dollars in order to
Speaker 3: achieve And like I did the math, and I would
Speaker 3: only be saving like one thousand dollars to twelve hundred
Speaker 3: dollars annually on gas prices in forty years, which it
Speaker 3: would pay for itself, which like that is too long
Speaker 3: of a time with bad math, as episode like that
Speaker 3: should not be a reason for me to consider. It's
Speaker 3: just so again, it's so attractive going back to the
Speaker 3: fact that you drive past these prices every day and
Speaker 3: you're constantly reminded of how much more you're having to
Speaker 3: pay because of how often you're having to fill up.
Speaker 3: That compared to something like a Tesla, where it's like,
Speaker 3: wait a minute, if you're talking about truly six x,
Speaker 3: it gets six times better gas mileage equivalent.
Speaker 1: Of course, I mean that does make a bit more.
Speaker 3: Sense and seems more of a potentially justifiable reason to
Speaker 3: get something like an old used Tesla versus plinking on
Speaker 3: the change for a new Toyota just because truly, maybe
Speaker 3: I just want a new Toyota.
Speaker 2: Well in all, really this comes down to I think
Speaker 2: us thinking holistically about the total cost of ownership of
Speaker 2: whatever car we might buy. Like you say, today had
Speaker 2: another list about just the cheapest overall new car brands right,
Speaker 2: and they were like, Mitsubishi is super inexpensive, right, they
Speaker 2: make some of the cheaper cars out there. And I
Speaker 2: was like, wait a second, mitsub she makes car still
Speaker 2: they do apparently, Nissan, Mazda, Kiya, subrew they're up there
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: The Mitsubishi Eclipse back in the day in high school,
Speaker 3: that was the car. Oh yeah, my friend had a
Speaker 3: day wu. Those don't even exist anymore.
Speaker 2: So when you look at the js and Saturns, there's
Speaker 2: some there's some overlap on these lists. Matt, you said Kiya, Nissan, Suberu,
Speaker 2: I said the same three? So those are those are
Speaker 2: in Mazda Maybe, I don't know. Masda is up there
Speaker 2: as far as being fuel efficient and brands all of those,
Speaker 2: so maybe look at the overlap there. It's always nice
Speaker 2: to pay less for a car, but truly, when it
Speaker 2: comes down to it, what's the total cost of ownership?
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's nice to have a car that's
Speaker 2: fuel efficient. A lower upfront sales price is great, but
Speaker 2: what about reliability? What about lower insurance costs? Think about
Speaker 2: the Tesla there, it's like how much am I going
Speaker 2: to save on gas costs versus how much more might
Speaker 2: I pay on insurance, you're gonna want to check with
Speaker 2: your insurance company.
Speaker 3: Or how much less are you gonna pay it on insurance?
Speaker 3: Because of full self driving insurans are starting to take
Speaker 3: that into acount.
Speaker 1: That's right, like we.
Speaker 2: Talked about with Lemonade, dropping prices on your insurance for
Speaker 2: your Tesla. So but I guess just even with gas
Speaker 2: prices going up, don't get hung up on just one factor.
Speaker 2: And it makes me think, Matt, that for at least
Speaker 2: some people one car, if let's say gas is a
Speaker 2: meaningful expense in your life, but you have your life,
Speaker 2: maybe is you're not driving huge long distances in one
Speaker 2: fell swoop man. Those old Nissan leafs are dirt cheap,
Speaker 2: and think about how much money you're gonna save. I
Speaker 2: kind of wish I still had mine around. It was
Speaker 2: just this econo box that is no.
Speaker 3: Frills, and yet if you're thinking about it like a
Speaker 3: golf cart, then it's a great golf cart exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: But you can get you can get one of those
Speaker 3: Nissan Leaves that still has seventy five miles of range like.
Speaker 1: Per charge for like four grand.
Speaker 2: And really, yes, they're so cheap because they're so on love.
Speaker 2: Nobody wants them super super affordable. So just putting that
Speaker 2: out there for folks.
Speaker 3: I mean, if the range anxiety, if you can get
Speaker 3: past it, yeah, that's that might be the golden ticket
Speaker 3: right there, that's right.
Speaker 1: I like what Yeah.
Speaker 3: Where you're pointing at here though, is like again going
Speaker 3: back to the total cost of ownership. And I noticed
Speaker 3: that Toyota, for instance, wasn't on the list of the
Speaker 3: affordable brands. And that's because in part one, they've got
Speaker 3: some really nice Toyota's out there. So that was they
Speaker 3: were addressing just the brands as a whole.
Speaker 1: You've seen those new Land Cruisers. We've talked about them.
Speaker 1: That's too nice. They're so nice seconds but in.
Speaker 3: Part because they've got quality parts too, And so you're
Speaker 3: and you're referencing just how long is this thing going
Speaker 3: to actually last? And when you look at all the research,
Speaker 3: when it comes to the number of or the percentage
Speaker 3: of vehicle or the likelihood of a certain car being
Speaker 3: on the road past two hundred thousand miles past two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty thousand miles, Toyota takes like the top
Speaker 3: four spots or something like that. It's like matter so Coya, Tundra,
Speaker 3: the Siena. They're just built like tanks, and so you're
Speaker 3: paying more on the front end. But it depends on
Speaker 3: how you keep up with that thing and if you
Speaker 3: take care of it. Have we shared that our van
Speaker 3: rolled over towhure thousand miles?
Speaker 1: No? Have we not?
Speaker 3: Okay, it was getting close. We're getting close. Since yeah,
Speaker 3: we're well over two hundred thousand, and we rechristened it.
Speaker 1: I did tell you this. Yeah, yeah, we rechristened it Vincent.
Speaker 1: And the kids were like why, and I said, van
Speaker 1: go because we want the vein just to keep on trucking. Man.
Speaker 1: We love it. We have humor and it's finest.
Speaker 3: It was a great crossover between dad humor and like
Speaker 3: classical education. The kids kind of gave me a tip
Speaker 3: of the cap and a snarl roll of the eyes. Yes,
Speaker 3: all right, let's talk about jobs. The good old days, Matt,
Speaker 3: of the job market were in you know, some of
Speaker 3: the worst days for humanity twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: The job market was great. Well, that was the silver lining.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the COVID was rough, and so work from home
Speaker 2: too was available to most folks at that point in time.
Speaker 2: Obviously not and people doing a lot of really arduous
Speaker 2: work in hospitals, grocery stores, a lot of people in
Speaker 2: service jobs that were not working from home. But we
Speaker 2: did see that was like a big dividing line where
Speaker 2: a lot of people who had previously been unable were
Speaker 2: then able to work from home. But that's not true
Speaker 2: anymore in the way that it was. There was a
Speaker 2: recent analysis of six hundred thousand jobs and it just
Speaker 2: found that remote work is basically a dream that's slipping away,
Speaker 2: and if you're keen on working from home, you might
Speaker 2: be looking for work even longer these days in the
Speaker 2: job market. Right as we know your people are looking
Speaker 2: for work, it's take longer to find the job they want.
Speaker 2: But if you're like I'm prioritizing a work from home role,
Speaker 2: then you're going to be looking even longer than the
Speaker 2: average person. Says a quote from the study that said
Speaker 2: remote roles are roughly four times harder to get than
Speaker 2: in office or hybrid positions. So if work from home
Speaker 2: is a priority for you, look too. Smaller and mid
Speaker 2: sized companies that's likely going to be your best bet,
Speaker 2: But especially the big guys, Matt, we have definitely seen
Speaker 2: this that call back to the office and strict office
Speaker 2: hour rules. Those are more likely at some of the
Speaker 2: bigger corporations. So the key question I think for job
Speaker 2: hunters right now is how much is work from home
Speaker 2: worth to me? Because it's increasingly coming with real trade
Speaker 2: offs like waiting longer to find the job that suits you.
Speaker 2: And I get that it's a high priority, but for
Speaker 2: some people they might find that giving up on that
Speaker 2: ideal and being able to being willing to grab a
Speaker 2: hybrid role might make more sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I saw they're talking about trying to sell
Speaker 3: it as well, in the sense of, hey, I just
Speaker 3: get the job done, I.
Speaker 1: Do the work.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be there in the office cause
Speaker 3: it a whole lot of workplace drama. Which there's a
Speaker 3: part of me that's like, oh yeah, I bet there
Speaker 3: are a whole lot of employers that want more of
Speaker 3: that transactional sort of utility out of their employees. But
Speaker 3: then I got to thinking that, oh that cuts both ways. Though,
Speaker 3: that's a double edged sword because in that same sense,
Speaker 3: like when it comes to whoever they need to cut.
Speaker 1: It's just like, oh, sorry, you gotta go.
Speaker 3: It's just business, right, because like they're just looking for
Speaker 3: somebody to fill fill this position.
Speaker 1: And out of sight, out of mind to a certain exactly.
Speaker 3: So it's like, I don't know, Yeah, your personality and
Speaker 3: the ability for you to be front and center goes
Speaker 3: a long way, I think.
Speaker 2: And it's hard to your role. It's harder to fire
Speaker 2: or let go the person you see every day, yes, right,
Speaker 2: like I have a relationship with them.
Speaker 1: As long as you're not, I guess super annoying. Or
Speaker 1: maybe it's.
Speaker 3: Easy then, but uh so, job hoppers and the leverage
Speaker 3: that you would gain in going with a new company,
Speaker 3: it's not what it used to be. ADP data they
Speaker 3: continue to show that job switchers are at least on average,
Speaker 3: unable to get much of a pay bump right now,
Speaker 3: although recent FED data is a bit contradictory that they're
Speaker 3: showing a slightly bigger bump in pay for job switchers.
Speaker 3: But the data as a whole is just a reflection
Speaker 3: of a reversion to the mean after the insanity of
Speaker 3: the pandemic labor market. And I will say the numbers
Speaker 3: also very significantly by sector, and so if you're in
Speaker 3: very physical jobs, if you're in construction, if you're in mining,
Speaker 3: even finance, actually al SI presidency, but the average pay
Speaker 3: bump is significantly higher, So just don't assume that you
Speaker 3: should stay put because of these data trends. The job
Speaker 3: market is not as worker friendly as it was, but
Speaker 3: I think there's still a whole lot of opportunity out
Speaker 3: there for folks who are looking for something maybe a
Speaker 3: little bit better, something where the grass might be a
Speaker 3: big greener.
Speaker 1: What I think when.
Speaker 2: You read the headlines or see the trends, it's really
Speaker 2: easy to think, I guess now's not a good time
Speaker 2: for me to look for a job and just assume
Speaker 2: that the trends are just concrete reality for everyone. But
Speaker 2: that's not true, right, And it's still okay despite the
Speaker 2: trends to seek a job that pays more. Like I
Speaker 2: have a friend this week who just started a new job.
Speaker 2: He's getting paid a lot more, and he's not alone.
Speaker 2: There are other people out there who were doing the same.
Speaker 2: It's just kind of the average. It's the norm. It's
Speaker 2: not as easy, but it's not possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It makes me think of the housing market, right, It's like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is a terrible time to buy. Nobody's selling their home.
Speaker 3: It's like, okay, therefore, I should never look right. But
Speaker 3: that being said, what about the you know, your old
Speaker 3: neighbor that's been there for twenty years, and you know what,
Speaker 3: she's actually going to move in with her sister across town. Like,
Speaker 3: there are always little smallunity opportunity. Oh so and so
Speaker 3: got a promotion, but he's got to move to the
Speaker 3: company headquarters out of state. And normally you wouldn't expect
Speaker 3: that house to go on the market, but it is now.
Speaker 3: There are always these unique, one off, more individualized data
Speaker 3: points as opposed to kind of what's happening overall. Yeah,
Speaker 3: even if the trend an't your friend, there's still real
Speaker 3: possibility out there. Interestingly, enough, Americans are working less than
Speaker 3: ever before. According to that same ADP report, Matt, the
Speaker 3: average weekly worktime is down to thirty three hours. So
Speaker 3: butch part timer's out there trying to live like Matt
Speaker 3: and Joel or something like that. But Americans still broadly
Speaker 3: report not having enough time. And I'm curious, do you
Speaker 3: do you have any informed thoughts on why that might
Speaker 3: be the case, Why people are working less but they
Speaker 3: still feel like they I think enough time.
Speaker 1: I think it's just perpetual. You know, first of all,
Speaker 1: I will address the thirty three hours.
Speaker 3: It's not too far off, like it is the lowest
Speaker 3: it's been, but it's kind of been around thirty four
Speaker 3: since like the eighties, right, Like if you look back
Speaker 3: at data back like hundred years of the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 3: it's been like increased dramatically. Fifty hours was the typical
Speaker 3: because the six day work week was super stinking normal,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't until Henry Ford before he was just like,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, increased production, it just declines, I forget what
Speaker 3: the term is whatever, But beyond a certain point, there's
Speaker 3: no point in folks working. So that's when the five
Speaker 3: day work week and then the laws were passed all that,
Speaker 3: and twelve year olds work a whole lot less than
Speaker 3: they did two hundred years again exactly. But that being said,
Speaker 3: I mean, aside from that, like in our modern era,
Speaker 3: I think the notion of feeling like you don't have
Speaker 3: enough time, it's just a part of being human. There's
Speaker 3: a I think there's a certain aspect of there's just
Speaker 3: all especially as we have access to and see more
Speaker 3: things that are things that are out there in the world,
Speaker 3: and there's just more that you want to be able
Speaker 3: to do, and you start wondering, like, well, how the
Speaker 3: heck am I going to be able to do all these?
Speaker 3: It makes me think of we always talk about the
Speaker 3: tail end. Uh wait, wait, but why that's the tim
Speaker 3: urban side And you start realizing, you know, he looks
Speaker 3: at Oh my gosh, I only have there's only like
Speaker 3: a there's a very limited finite number of visits I'll
Speaker 3: have with my parents again before.
Speaker 1: Like I've got eleven Boston Red Sox games.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, or there's only so many I forget what's
Speaker 3: the food example that he gave. I don't know, but like,
Speaker 3: there's so many different things like that, and you can
Speaker 3: truly kind of quantify. It just starts putting into perspective
Speaker 3: some of the things that you want to accomplish with
Speaker 3: your time. So I think when you are faced with
Speaker 3: the reality of yes, we work less than we ever
Speaker 3: have worked before, but also I don't feel like I
Speaker 3: have a whole lot of time, there's just a I
Speaker 3: don't know, there's a dissonance there, and I think it's
Speaker 3: worth addressing and asking you why do I feel like
Speaker 3: I have less time than ever?
Speaker 1: So why?
Speaker 3: I think a part of it is just we live
Speaker 3: complex lives. I think life is much more complicated than
Speaker 3: it used to be as far as just.
Speaker 1: I don't know that.
Speaker 3: There seem to be a thousand different little outlets and
Speaker 3: things that are drawing our attention and our time.
Speaker 2: And some of it's good, but some of it's not good.
Speaker 2: And maybe in some ways we're doing it to ourselves
Speaker 2: as well, don't you think. I mean, I think the
Speaker 2: one I think there's more pressure for that people feel
Speaker 2: at work, even inside of those work hours, to produce,
Speaker 2: and maybe AI is kicking that up a notch from
Speaker 2: some of the reports we've seen recently as well, where
Speaker 2: people are just expected to do more because hey, now
Speaker 2: you get this tool of AI, so your output should
Speaker 2: be more significant than it has been. I think that's
Speaker 2: pressure that people feel. And then I think in some
Speaker 2: ways it's it's self induced, well maybe not self induced,
Speaker 2: but to working parents like and which feels like in
Speaker 2: necessity now that's if you've got kids, that feels like
Speaker 2: more of a hardship. And then in other I just
Speaker 2: think about the rise of screen time and what that
Speaker 2: seems to do to our brains. And I think it's
Speaker 2: really easy when we think that that's going to give
Speaker 2: us maybe some respite from a hard day or something
Speaker 2: like that, and it doesn't calm us down or relax
Speaker 2: us in the way we'd hoped, whereas like a walk
Speaker 2: with our spouse or a friend would maybe actually provide
Speaker 2: some of that relief and make it feel like we
Speaker 2: had more time. So a little bit of touching grass
Speaker 2: getting out in nature could be at least a little
Speaker 2: helpful to those kind of feelings like there's no time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And you might be like, there's no time for me
Speaker 2: to get out in nature, Joel, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: But like, I think we find time for all these
Speaker 2: other things that maybe are just less restorative than taking
Speaker 2: a walk around the neighborhood would be.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that's what I think for some folks is just
Speaker 3: realizing and trying to figure out where their time is going,
Speaker 3: because I think a lot of times folks are like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I just don't have the time. And
Speaker 3: something as simple like you do financial audits where you
Speaker 3: are reviewing your expenses, figuring out where the money is going,
Speaker 3: and at the end of the year, a lot of
Speaker 3: times folks do that with their budgets, and I think
Speaker 3: doing something similar I've done this myself.
Speaker 1: I did this.
Speaker 3: This is like an experiment I did six years ago
Speaker 3: or something like that where I literally was trying to
Speaker 3: track every fifteen minute block essentially of my day and
Speaker 3: I just stuck it on the calendar and I still
Speaker 3: have I have looked at it and for it and forever.
Speaker 3: But I just wanted to prove to myself that I
Speaker 3: was actually able to do some of the things that
Speaker 3: I said I wasn't able to do if I was
Speaker 3: just willing to actually prioritize those things.
Speaker 2: That's what actually I was thinking of as you were
Speaker 2: I'm talking about this, I was like, I remember when
Speaker 2: you tracked your time, and like how beneficial that can be?
Speaker 1: Eye opening? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, wait exactly am I spending my time and I
Speaker 2: say I don't have the time.
Speaker 1: To do the things I want? But remove the excuses.
Speaker 3: And because I was giving myself excuses of like, well,
Speaker 3: how I can't do this, Like what am I supposed
Speaker 3: to do this? And therefore I wouldn't try because I
Speaker 3: just felt like I didn't have the time. But then
Speaker 3: once I was able to identify, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 3: there is actual time here for me to do this,
Speaker 3: to do that for me to work out, for me
Speaker 3: to grab a beer with a friend, to grab coffee,
Speaker 3: to be able to volunteer in this way, like, oh,
Speaker 3: there are slots for all of those things. I just
Speaker 3: need to be I have to stick those on the calendar,
Speaker 3: and I have to prioritize those. I have to get
Speaker 3: those big rocks in first, before the little pebbles and
Speaker 3: before the sand. Yeah, soaks up all the remaining space.
Speaker 2: There's always time for beer with a friend. Yeah, no
Speaker 2: excuses for that. We've got more we want to get
Speaker 2: to on this episode and clean. We'll talk about the
Speaker 2: new Apple laptop and inexpensive man, really inexpensive, and also
Speaker 2: just some bad news in terms of how people are
Speaker 2: treating their four one case.
Speaker 1: We get to that and more right after this.
Speaker 3: All right, Matt, we're back. It's time for the Ludacris
Speaker 3: headline of the week. Of course, I always got to
Speaker 3: hit that. This one comes from the Wall Street Journal
Speaker 3: and it said record numbers of workers are rating their
Speaker 3: four oh one K savings. Yes, Americans are grabbing four
Speaker 3: to one K dollars early in record numbers. This is
Speaker 3: according to the good people of Vanguard, our favorite low
Speaker 3: cost brokerage, they saw six percent fidelity up there. Schwab's
Speaker 3: great Vanguard you like Robin Hood, uh, and yeah, there's
Speaker 3: there's some great other place, but Vanguard is like the
Speaker 3: OG so yeah, special love.
Speaker 2: But they saw that six percent of four one K
Speaker 2: holders took a hardship withdraw last year. And Americans have
Speaker 2: seen their portfolio the headline four oh one K number
Speaker 2: right go up. So actually I just saw another headline.
Speaker 2: I think the average four one K balance went up
Speaker 2: eleven percent in twenty twenty five. So let's say you
Speaker 2: had a couple hundred grand. Well you look back after
Speaker 2: the end of one year and you're like, man, I
Speaker 2: got like I got two twenty something like this is awesome. Uh,
Speaker 2: and so it's just easier to tap your four one
Speaker 2: K When it's up, You're like, I got more money
Speaker 2: than I thought. It's it's the wealth effect, right, I
Speaker 2: think it takes place in your brain.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, and that's also on top of just the additional
Speaker 3: growth that we've seen since twenty twenty, which I think
Speaker 3: is one hundred and thirty three percent, which is really significant, man,
Speaker 3: Like that is and that's in the S and P. So,
Speaker 3: so it's hard, it's hard. To ignore that rising balance
Speaker 3: is people feeling wealth here. And then also simultaneously, we've
Speaker 3: made it easier for people to tap their four one
Speaker 3: ks than ever before, which is not something we love.
Speaker 3: But I think what people are rationalizing in their heads
Speaker 3: mat they're saying, like, so, why don't want to grab
Speaker 3: a little bit to use now? Well, it's the harm
Speaker 3: I think that's kind of the thought process. Well, there
Speaker 3: are a whole lot of reasons not to write. First,
Speaker 3: you pay income tax and a ten percent penalty when
Speaker 3: you take money out of your four oh one K
Speaker 3: unless you meet those stringent guide. I think the hardship
Speaker 3: withdrawal that was introduced one thousand dollars is what you're
Speaker 3: able to take every few years out of your four
Speaker 3: o one K without paying a penalty. But that's not
Speaker 3: much money, right, and so you're also interrupting. Another huge
Speaker 3: important point in favor of not rating your four one
Speaker 3: K early is the effect that compounding is going to
Speaker 3: have on your ability to build wealth. And we would
Speaker 3: just say it's probably better to not invest those dollars
Speaker 3: in the first place, and to pad your emergency fund
Speaker 3: before you start sticking more money in your four oh
Speaker 3: one K. Yeah, because if you're like.
Speaker 2: Living on the edge and you feel like you might
Speaker 2: have to grab money from that, just don't put it
Speaker 2: into the first place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's I think this is an instance where that
Speaker 3: force savings is working because it's forcing people to save.
Speaker 3: But guess what, there's no fource savings when it comes
Speaker 3: to your efund, and all of a sudden you find
Speaker 3: yourself retirement rich but cash strapped, and maybe you've got
Speaker 3: a cash flow issue. It's not just the four one
Speaker 3: ks though, Americans are using their heelock dollars in bigger
Speaker 3: numbers as well. So similar to your four one K balance,
Speaker 3: the average homeowner has a lot of home equity, and
Speaker 3: the headline number is something like thirty five trillion dollars.
Speaker 3: I think we've seen even more equity growth when it
Speaker 3: comes to the average homeowner than even the market, so
Speaker 3: that SMP is it's something like one hundred and thirty
Speaker 3: three percent. It's something like one hundred and forty two percent.
Speaker 3: No way in equity growth on the average home since
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, which is insane, that's staggering, totally an aberration historically, Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, so don't get used to your home
Speaker 3: prize going up with that record clip.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ad nausea.
Speaker 3: And so with that, we're seeing an increase in folks
Speaker 3: taking out helocks every quarter since the end of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two. And it's this is a great another example
Speaker 3: of four savings, right, It's great to be able to
Speaker 3: build wealth in your home, and it might make sense
Speaker 3: to take out a helock to improve your home because
Speaker 3: in that sense, in that way, it's also tax deductible,
Speaker 3: and it can also you can also if you want
Speaker 3: to use that to consolidate some debt as well. I
Speaker 3: think that could make a whole lot of sense. But
Speaker 3: especially with interest rates closer to seven eight percent, certainly
Speaker 3: proceed with caution. It seems like much more. There's more
Speaker 3: of an argument I think to use the helock if
Speaker 3: you are in a tough cash flow situation than tapping
Speaker 3: your retirement. In part because of the ten percent haircut
Speaker 3: that you're taking off off of your four O one K,
Speaker 3: that's that part of it feels a bit more egregious
Speaker 3: in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And really, when you're talking about it, are
Speaker 2: the two biggest piles of wealth that people typically have
Speaker 2: access to, and so it feels like the easiest place
Speaker 2: to go for money. And typically it is the easiest
Speaker 2: place to go, especially if you need a fairly large sum,
Speaker 2: but rating them is rarely a good idea. And in
Speaker 2: terms of the he like you said to be really
Speaker 2: thoughtful on the front end about how long it's going
Speaker 2: to take you to pay it back, because you don't
Speaker 2: want to have that hanging over your head for eight
Speaker 2: ten years. Back to four one case for a second,
Speaker 2: mat I had someone really smart recently tell me. He
Speaker 2: basically said something like about how small business is. They
Speaker 2: don't really do the four to one K thing. And
Speaker 2: I politely disagreed, and I was like, no, no, no, but
Speaker 2: it's easier and cheaper than ever for small businesses to
Speaker 2: get a four to one K off the ground. This
Speaker 2: is like, this is happening. I didn't have any data
Speaker 2: to share at the time, but then I saw this
Speaker 2: new study from Gusto. They found that more than six
Speaker 2: million small business employees have gained access to four one
Speaker 2: K since twenty nineteen. That's six million Americans. What percentage
Speaker 2: of Americans is that it's over It's over one percent
Speaker 2: of the population, probably at least one, let's say two
Speaker 2: percent of the American population that's not nothing now has
Speaker 2: access to a four one K where they did not.
Speaker 2: That's a massive jump, right, and people who have access
Speaker 2: to a workplace retirement account. And it's great news for
Speaker 2: those individual but also for those businesses because it allows
Speaker 2: them to attract and to retain great workers. And a
Speaker 2: decent four one K feels like it's table stakes these days.
Speaker 2: If you're trying to hire someone that you want to
Speaker 2: keep around for a long time, having a solid four
Speaker 2: one K with a decent match is like it's kind
Speaker 2: of like a bare bones park.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: You don't have to go all Google or fancy tech
Speaker 2: company and have the chef making sushi and stuff at lunch,
Speaker 2: but you got to have a four to one K.
Speaker 2: And Guideline and Betterment are two of the best places
Speaker 2: to turn if you own a small business and you
Speaker 2: want to offer one, because they're pretty low cost, easy
Speaker 2: to get set up if you don't have many employees.
Speaker 2: And if you, by the way, work for a small
Speaker 2: business that doesn't have a four to one K, kindly
Speaker 2: let them know how easy it is to get it
Speaker 2: off the ground and be like, this is a perk.
Speaker 2: I see more and more small businesses offering. I want
Speaker 2: to stay here for a long time to come. What
Speaker 2: do you think is this a possibility?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do so.
Speaker 3: I don't know who your really smart friend is. But
Speaker 3: it is much easier to get a Solo four one K.
Speaker 2: I question this intelligence now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 3: Lot easier to get a Solo four win get. There
Speaker 3: are more hoops you have to jump through with a
Speaker 3: small business. But like you said, you've got these companies
Speaker 3: that exist to help get those.
Speaker 1: Planes off the ground.
Speaker 3: But what you've got a note here about something about
Speaker 3: a cashmere sweater's what's the solo bon?
Speaker 1: Dude? This?
Speaker 2: I thought this was crazy. You high end everything. I
Speaker 2: feel like there are markets now that didn't exist ten
Speaker 2: or twelve, fifteen years ago, high end products for whatever
Speaker 2: your interest.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah, fashion.
Speaker 2: Stuff, fashion stuff, like just whatever your hobby is. Now
Speaker 2: you can ramp it up to instead of like a
Speaker 2: nice little twenty dollars pickleball paddle. I know people are like,
Speaker 2: I want that three hundred dollars one.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the difference is.
Speaker 3: People are competitive. Yes, there's like national or even international
Speaker 3: rankings on pickleball. Yeah really okay, yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 3: it makes sense. It's a growing sports. Did we talk
Speaker 3: There was somebody we we spoke with last year and
Speaker 3: he talked about how much money that was his splurge.
Speaker 3: He spent a lot of money on pickball, pickle ball stuff.
Speaker 3: And I think he's got like the really nice paddle.
Speaker 3: He's nationally ranked. He really he was really into it.
Speaker 2: He was a guy who wrote the book with doctor
Speaker 2: Brad Klantz, remember, and he and he had like a
Speaker 2: pickleball court like in house.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Different level, yes right there, which I still have yet
Speaker 2: to really partake. I want to, Okay, but there was.
Speaker 2: I just saw an article about like high end running
Speaker 2: gear and it just like not just fancy shirt, like
Speaker 2: a forty dollars shirt or shorts or something like that,
Speaker 2: but the people running in like Kashmir, like cashmere running
Speaker 2: sweaters are apparently a thing now. I looked up to
Speaker 2: see what the price was, two hundred and fifty five
Speaker 2: dollars matt for this Kashmir running sweater.
Speaker 1: It's pretty expensive.
Speaker 2: Just makes me think of that that's Seinfeld episode. It's
Speaker 2: kashme or Georgie Porgy. But I don't know, man, I
Speaker 2: think the am I glad they exist. I guess in
Speaker 2: some ways I'm glad some of these high end stores
Speaker 2: and that.
Speaker 1: They're free market man there to buy it.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I'm just here to say that
Speaker 2: I refuse to buy at the Kashmir running sweater.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, let's be honest, how much with two
Speaker 3: fifty like that's like list price.
Speaker 1: You would never buy to that.
Speaker 3: But if it went on significant sale, considering like how
Speaker 3: much do you spend on a pair of shoes.
Speaker 1: Like, oh about which sixty bucks? Seventy bucks? Like a
Speaker 1: lot of people are spending one hundred dollars easy?
Speaker 2: Right, Oh for sure, I mean especially with the that's
Speaker 2: another thing, right, the high end running shoes, Well you
Speaker 2: double that if you get something with like the carbon
Speaker 2: plate in it.
Speaker 1: And how long are your shoes going to last? You
Speaker 1: like a pair of shoes that you buy, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: I would I would argue that, I would dare to
Speaker 1: venture that you would say, well, shoes are necessary, man,
Speaker 1: like that's what you need to get out there.
Speaker 3: I would say that, but cashmere sweaters are not. But
Speaker 3: how long is that pair of shoes or the shoes
Speaker 3: gonna last? She probably like three four months depending on
Speaker 3: the mileage that you're throwing down right, like how often
Speaker 3: do you change out your shoes?
Speaker 1: Like I probably probably ever have a shooting for five miles.
Speaker 1: I kind of play it.
Speaker 3: I probably should, but yeah, you base it more on
Speaker 3: the tread, how much tread is looking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of what I do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you think about that, and it's just like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I might cycle through three or four pairs of shoes
Speaker 3: in a given year, whereas something like this, like something
Speaker 3: like this, you take care of it. You can potentially
Speaker 3: wear this for the rest of your life. And so
Speaker 3: you also have the argument in that direction because like
Speaker 3: I think about certain things that I bought as a
Speaker 3: broke college student, Like I've got cap like Patagonia Kapeline
Speaker 3: shirts that I bought over twenty years ago that I
Speaker 3: still wear, Like that I'll literally wear running.
Speaker 1: Kids will see me.
Speaker 3: As like as a young buck and they're like, wait,
Speaker 3: you still have that shirt. Sometimes I'm like literally wearing
Speaker 3: it as they're looking at pictures on the computer or
Speaker 3: something like that, And I'm just there's an argument to
Speaker 3: made for high quality stuff like that. Yes, you say cashmere,
Speaker 3: and it seems super exotic comes from the cashmir goat
Speaker 3: off in Mongolia. It's maybe harder to justify that you
Speaker 3: need that for running.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm not gonna.
Speaker 3: Hate if there's folks out there and you want to
Speaker 3: spend money on the nicest wool that is available to
Speaker 3: you because it's so soft against your skin, it's like
Speaker 3: much warmer than your traditional smart well. Shoot, what's how
Speaker 3: much is like a smart wol base layer.
Speaker 1: It's not cheap. It's not cheap like you're probably talking.
Speaker 3: I got I've got some smart wolves and they're worth
Speaker 3: the money. Yes, and so it's wonderful. So and that's
Speaker 3: Marino and so that this is the next level.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm a hypocrite. I'm just saying. Maybe. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's a part of it that that ruffled your feathers.
Speaker 2: Maybe the part it feels designer, I guess, and designer.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's just.
Speaker 1: Like getting out there and roughing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like smart wolf feels like a basic necessity for
Speaker 2: some endeavors. And and a cashmere running sweater it feels
Speaker 2: feels like a designer purchase. That's that's not necessarily U is.
Speaker 1: Gonna be wearing a cashmere by the end of the year.
Speaker 3: Folks saying it, so please know, all right, shall we
Speaker 3: keep let's let's keep talking about it, let's keep buying
Speaker 3: stuff up.
Speaker 2: Printers are typically really cheap to buy. But seeing at
Speaker 2: Harden had an article about how expensive it is to
Speaker 2: buy the ink for your printer, which is of course
Speaker 2: incredibly true, right that the printer itself is often reasonably priced.
Speaker 2: But then when you place the cartridges, you just want
Speaker 2: to punch yourself in the face. And the printer companies
Speaker 2: are essentially taking the razor approach get people in the door,
Speaker 2: so theyt's spend ridiculous sums on the replacement blades. The
Speaker 2: printer manufacturers is doing that exact same thing. They're even
Speaker 2: selling the printer itself at a loss so much of
Speaker 2: the time. Yeah, so they can get you in the door.
Speaker 2: You're like forty bucks for a printer.
Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, it's a subsidized printer that is being
Speaker 3: subsidized by folks who are heavy printers. Yes, heavy, heavy,
Speaker 3: heavy printer users. So the best case scenario, you are
Speaker 3: somebody who needs a printer at home, but you barely
Speaker 3: use it.
Speaker 2: And then because of the proprietary nature of the print cartridges,
Speaker 2: it can be hard to find a third party seller
Speaker 2: like that maybe it actually works where the printer carter
Speaker 2: is actually does a good job for you. So you're like,
Speaker 2: I got to get the name brand, I guess on
Speaker 2: this thing, which is tough, and it feels crappy to
Speaker 2: throw away a printer because the ink is so expensive.
Speaker 2: So we just kind of succumb to the perpetual cycle.
Speaker 2: And the recipe for success, according to c net is
Speaker 2: to use a few different things. They suggested use high
Speaker 2: yield cartridges or buy a printer with refillable ink, which
Speaker 2: is my favorite suggestion. There's like a couple of different brands.
Speaker 2: There's the epsom Eco tank, and there's the Brother Ink Vestment,
Speaker 2: and then just like print less in color, and consider
Speaker 2: laser printers that's what we have here at the office,
Speaker 2: which are great too. But yeah, it just might even
Speaker 2: be cheaper, by the way, in the long run to
Speaker 2: get a new printer as opposed to just buying overly
Speaker 2: expensive ink on the rag.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just to plan for it.
Speaker 3: Like, you know what this makes me think of is
Speaker 3: credit score, Like this credit scoring system like this, it's
Speaker 3: just how it is. It's how they have created this
Speaker 3: sort of this market and there aren't real great alternative
Speaker 3: solutions to it as opposed to It's funny because you
Speaker 3: mentioned the like the razor model, like the Gellette, right,
Speaker 3: they get you with a free handle you turn sixteen
Speaker 3: or you turn eighteen. I literally literally remember getting.
Speaker 1: This in the mail. Yeah, the razor in the mail,
Speaker 1: and all of.
Speaker 3: A sudden they've got a customer for life, or so
Speaker 3: they thought, because guess what I'm not using now is
Speaker 3: a Gillette. I'm not I'm not even using a Harry's razor.
Speaker 3: Did we talk about my foray into the safety razors? Okay,
Speaker 3: so yes, I've been dude, that is the solution. And
Speaker 3: I've got the safety raiser, the luminum handle so well designed,
Speaker 3: I freaking love it. And the blades well, well, first
Speaker 3: of all, I'm still using like the starter kit that
Speaker 3: came with a razor. I've only changed the blades like
Speaker 3: three times since last summer. But you can get like
Speaker 3: a tenpact for seven bucks, so it's less than a
Speaker 3: dollar a blade. And I don't shave a ton. I'm not,
Speaker 3: you know, not working in some sort of corporate setting,
Speaker 3: but I shave a decent amount. But literally, I've only
Speaker 3: changed the blades three times since last summer. I think
Speaker 3: that is a great solution for folks, and I don't know, worth,
Speaker 3: maybe the opposite of the print of model right, where
Speaker 3: you're paying a little bit more upfront for a nice,
Speaker 3: high quality handle, and then you're paying absolutely nothing for
Speaker 3: these blades and getting a wonderful shave.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So all right, Last, but not least, let's talk about
Speaker 2: the Apple new Apple products that they launched.
Speaker 1: I love it. What do you think? They're affordable? That's
Speaker 1: what's so great. So the Apple needs that.
Speaker 2: The first time Apple and affordability can be put in
Speaker 2: the same sentence, I feel.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, yeah, so obviously I like it. You know,
Speaker 3: we can talk about from a financial angle. But what
Speaker 3: I think, what I like most about it is the
Speaker 3: fact that they there seems to be a focus on
Speaker 3: creation as opposed to consumption. And I'm sure there's right
Speaker 3: and so like typically on a desktop computer or a
Speaker 3: laptop with with a full keyboard, like that is the
Speaker 3: kind of device that you create on, as opposed to
Speaker 3: an iPhone or an iPad, which are there are a
Speaker 3: lot I mean, I know there's gonna be folks who
Speaker 3: are gonna push back and say, guys, I make my
Speaker 3: living using my phone, and that's great. The vast majority
Speaker 3: of people who are working are much more productive on
Speaker 3: a laptop on a desktop. Students who are learning and creating,
Speaker 3: they're on laptops.
Speaker 1: And I just like what.
Speaker 3: It's almost like Apple drew a line in the sand
Speaker 3: and they're like, you know what, We're going to start
Speaker 3: focusing more on creating a productive culture here as opposed
Speaker 3: to a culture that's just hooked on their devices mindlessly consuming.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm reading into it much more, but I just
Speaker 3: like that sort of pivot that there is now an
Speaker 3: affordable option that is also powered by So it's powered
Speaker 3: by like the iPhone chip, which is one of the
Speaker 3: potential criticisms that are like is it going to be
Speaker 3: strong enough to be able to operate this laptop? But
Speaker 3: I mean that's essentially what the chromebooks are, right Like
Speaker 3: they're being powered by these well my power that'ship.
Speaker 2: This is this is like set up to attack, is
Speaker 2: to totally get chromebooks Dell and say lay down. And
Speaker 2: this is this is where Apple has not done well
Speaker 2: over the years. Is they've done really nice, solid product.
Speaker 2: They're fairly expensive and that lasts for a long time,
Speaker 2: and so maybe they're they're high value products, but this
Speaker 2: could be a high value product at a much lower
Speaker 2: price point that really eats into the market share of
Speaker 2: a lot of other competitors. And I think, like I
Speaker 2: was just looking at the specs and some of the
Speaker 2: reviews of this this laptop they just announced the Neo
Speaker 2: six hundred dollars is the starting price, and then you
Speaker 2: get seven hundred dollars, you get like some real meaningful
Speaker 2: additional perks.
Speaker 1: I was telling you too.
Speaker 3: If you get it on the via the Education Store,
Speaker 3: if you're a student, it starts at.
Speaker 2: Five hundred dollars five hundred bucks man. That's an incredible
Speaker 2: price point. That's really cool for a really good laptop.
Speaker 2: And even the new seventeen eiphone they made some serious
Speaker 2: updates to make that I think a lot more appealing
Speaker 2: as an entry level six hundred dollars phone as well.
Speaker 2: So I wasn't really expecting this from Apple to get
Speaker 2: the price point down so low on something that seems
Speaker 2: still like a really, really good offering. I could see
Speaker 2: this laptop becoming their best selling laptop in a couple
Speaker 2: of years. Sure, yeah, And I do absolutely like the
Speaker 2: direction that they're going with this so all right, well done,
Speaker 2: tim Apple.
Speaker 1: Old tim Apple. All right, that's gonna be it for
Speaker 1: this Friday flight. We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.
Speaker 1: We'll see you back here on Monday. So until next time,
Speaker 1: best friends out, Best friends Out,