Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, my name is Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about the necessity of community. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: So what's up with that weird intro? Okay, So I
Speaker 1: realized that my name obviously starts with M and you
Speaker 1: say I'm Joel and that sounds normal. But then I
Speaker 1: say I'm Matt. Just too many M and I always
Speaker 1: feel like, like, yeah, that sounds so stupid when I
Speaker 1: say that, And I'm like, all right, what else can
Speaker 1: I say when I messed off? So my new thing
Speaker 1: might be my name is Matt. We could say, uh,
Speaker 1: may yea, I'm all Matt. Is that Spanish? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: never took Spanish? Well, so miyama is Matt speaking of Spanish.
Speaker 1: We were at streets Alive today, which is this awesome
Speaker 1: bicycling thing through Atlanta. They shut down the street and
Speaker 1: no cars allowed, only people walking and riding bikes, and
Speaker 1: the library had a table set up with books a
Speaker 1: lot about cycling. Got these awesome books. I grab a
Speaker 1: few books. Yeah, so if this awesome one that has
Speaker 1: no words about this girl who wants this bike and
Speaker 1: like works really hard to save up the money for
Speaker 1: the bike and just it's just like super cute. But
Speaker 1: I also got this book The Lower Acts by Dr
Speaker 1: SEUs Polly. My youngest has been really into that lately
Speaker 1: because they're learning about it at her school. But I
Speaker 1: got it in Spanish, so I tried to read it
Speaker 1: to the girls tonight because I took a lot of
Speaker 1: Spanish growing up. Oh nice, man, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I'm still not very good but like seventh grade through
Speaker 1: a few classes in college too, so you think i'd
Speaker 1: be professhing. I feel like, you know, but not to
Speaker 1: hear way more Spanish coming at ease. I know, but no,
Speaker 1: I'm not. Then I've lost most of it now at
Speaker 1: this point. But it was really fun to kind of
Speaker 1: pick up that book and try to read it through.
Speaker 1: And they weren't really having any of it. Dad, We
Speaker 1: don't understand. They're just like staring at you with awkward face.
Speaker 1: Can we move on to pee the cat or something else?
Speaker 1: So we did, But that was really that was really fun.
Speaker 1: Streets Alive was a blast today. Yeah we did that today.
Speaker 1: So that's like, yeah, like you said, a huge It's
Speaker 1: not just a bicycling festival, but it's just sort of
Speaker 1: a way toes show like bicycling, walking, basically any transportation
Speaker 1: other than cars is allowed. And obviously we love biking.
Speaker 1: That was our first episode. That's a huge part of
Speaker 1: our life and uh in a big part of our community,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna that's what we're gonna be talking about today. Actually. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it was fun, like, you know, riding our bikes around.
Speaker 1: We brought our girls, put them on the back and
Speaker 1: we'll post pictures of what that looks like. Our bikes
Speaker 1: are are really fun and um got those cargo bikes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there are a lot of fun and and we
Speaker 1: you know, ran into just a bunch of people, some
Speaker 1: of some who I see all the time and some
Speaker 1: who I see almost never. And so I saw some
Speaker 1: clients of mine. Just fun biking around, and especially it
Speaker 1: was really neat. I don't know if you felt this
Speaker 1: when I turned onto the street initially on my bike.
Speaker 1: That's such a busy intersection usually oh yeah, and I
Speaker 1: like for the first minute and a half, it just
Speaker 1: was almost like surreal biking on that road. Were like
Speaker 1: no cars, we're here, yeah, no cars And I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: the car's gonna come out of somewhere right, uh, And
Speaker 1: it was really really fun though, And so I don't
Speaker 1: know if your community where you live has something like that,
Speaker 1: but Atlanta has the Atlanta Bike Coalition, and they're awesome
Speaker 1: and they support great things like this, and so it's
Speaker 1: really really fun to go out there. Kind of vendors
Speaker 1: set up giving away free things and yeah, I get
Speaker 1: other free bees. Yeah, and then you know, pick up
Speaker 1: some library books while I'm at it. So that was
Speaker 1: a good time. Yeah, Cliff bar was out there. Man,
Speaker 1: They're like the best. They're always giving out just all
Speaker 1: their different flavors and and trying stuff out. We kind
Speaker 1: of camped out there for a second, got the girls
Speaker 1: all the snacks that chocolate chocolate, peanut butter banana. I'm
Speaker 1: always done with free bees. I'm always done with biking,
Speaker 1: especially when there's no cars in the way. So beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't wait for the next Streets Alive. That was
Speaker 1: a blast. Yeah. Next one will probably be a lot hotter,
Speaker 1: though it's gonna be a little brutal. Yeah, today it
Speaker 1: was a little cool, surprisingly cool, but yeah, next one
Speaker 1: will be hot for sure. They don't call it hot
Speaker 1: LANDA for nothing. Yeah, they don't call it hot LANDAU.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you're wondering anybody out there that
Speaker 1: doesn't live in Atlanta. It is not called Hotlanta. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't come don't come down here saying things like that.
Speaker 1: Just don't do it, all right, Matt. So today on
Speaker 1: the show, we're going to talk about how community can
Speaker 1: save you money, our community can help you in a pinch,
Speaker 1: and how it also contributes to a healthy and balanced life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's get into that beer first. Today's beer is called
Speaker 1: Hello Beautiful, and that is by Monday Night Brewing, and
Speaker 1: this beer is actually donated to the show. So we
Speaker 1: want to thank the guys over there that Monday Night
Speaker 1: for sending us this gorgeous beer. Joel's pouring it now
Speaker 1: and it's like ruby red. It's like a reddish purple.
Speaker 1: And it's a barrel fermented wild ale with blueberries, which
Speaker 1: is man one of my favorite styles, like get that
Speaker 1: wild ale, which basically means like that's where it has
Speaker 1: the natural yeasts and bacteria. But then I found that blueberry.
Speaker 1: The blueberry wilds are some of my favorite wild ales.
Speaker 1: So I'm super stoked about given this one to try. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: this first time for both of us, which is fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: having a new beer that neither of us has had before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: extra fun. It smells awesome. That smells wonderful, nice and acidic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm salivating. That's always a good sign. It's not as
Speaker 1: sour as you think it's gonna be when you stick
Speaker 1: your nose in there. I think, like the white wine barrels,
Speaker 1: maybe meld this one out a good bit. So it's
Speaker 1: not terribly acidic. And uh, the blueberries really come through nicely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: nice fruit to me. It almost drinks like a lambic.
Speaker 1: It's kind of got that Belgian kind of funkiness going
Speaker 1: on with it. And it's not overly sweet as well.
Speaker 1: It's kind of dry. I think, like you said, like
Speaker 1: the white wine barrels kind of mellow mellowed out a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah. I think if you like fruity beers
Speaker 1: but you don't love sours, this is probably a good
Speaker 1: one for you to check out because it doesn't have
Speaker 1: that that sour bite, like like that kick. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: And and when I stop my nose in it, that's
Speaker 1: what I was expecting and here and it really didn't
Speaker 1: have that. And so I think if you if you
Speaker 1: don't love sowers, but you like you know, fruit fruit
Speaker 1: forward beers, then this is probably gonna be a really
Speaker 1: good beer for you to try. Yeah, this is excellent,
Speaker 1: all right, Matt, onto the topic of the day, the
Speaker 1: necessity of community and the first thing we want to
Speaker 1: talk about. I mean, I think community gets to so
Speaker 1: many things before we get into kind of what we
Speaker 1: think about community and the importance of it and kind
Speaker 1: of how it can be helpful. What's your take on
Speaker 1: what community actually means? Yeah, man, I guess before we
Speaker 1: spend an entire podcast talking about what community does that
Speaker 1: help you, we need need to talk about like what
Speaker 1: it is. We need to define it. So the way
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about community today is essentially the
Speaker 1: shortest definition. I think are your friends, Right, So you're
Speaker 1: talking about the people in your life who you call
Speaker 1: your friends and your neighbors, those that are around you
Speaker 1: that you share similar values with. As we talk through
Speaker 1: some of these different ways that community has an impact
Speaker 1: on our lives, it'll kind of quickly become clear that
Speaker 1: this is at least the definition that we're kind of
Speaker 1: going to be going with. As far as what a
Speaker 1: community is, yeah, I think usually a community means that
Speaker 1: you have some sort of characteristic or something some bond
Speaker 1: in common. Um. And so you can have a religious community,
Speaker 1: you can have like a school community, you can have
Speaker 1: a neighborhood community. There are all these possibilities, and you
Speaker 1: likely as a listener. And and Matt and I were
Speaker 1: in a few different communities, and Matt were in some
Speaker 1: of the same ones, and we're also in different communities
Speaker 1: from each other too. Yeah, And so when I looked
Speaker 1: up the episodes that had the term community in them
Speaker 1: um on my podcast app, I was just kind of
Speaker 1: checking to see, you know, what another people said when
Speaker 1: it came to community, what what sorts of episodes were
Speaker 1: being put out on this topic. And essentially all the
Speaker 1: podcast episodes I saw about community were religious based. They
Speaker 1: were sermons or something from you know, churches all over
Speaker 1: the country talking about this term. Uh. And I think
Speaker 1: that's great. I think a religious community is a great
Speaker 1: community for you to have, you know, whether you are
Speaker 1: currently in one or want to be in one. That's
Speaker 1: just for a lot of folks, that's a strong sort
Speaker 1: of tie that that kind of anchors people to their
Speaker 1: faith and the different things that they value. And based
Speaker 1: on our definition, that would make sense that that would
Speaker 1: be a viable in uh, an important community because you
Speaker 1: have something deep in common, right, something that you hold
Speaker 1: hold deer and it's in common, and so that would
Speaker 1: be hopefully a community of people that are tightly knit
Speaker 1: together based around that fact. But so we want to
Speaker 1: talk about community from a different angle. And although I
Speaker 1: do think religious community is really important and for us
Speaker 1: in particular, actually it is that plays a big role
Speaker 1: in our life for sure. Yeah, it's enormously important. I
Speaker 1: would say it's, you know, one of my most important
Speaker 1: communities that I am in. But Matt, the importance that
Speaker 1: you and I place on community, whether it is our
Speaker 1: religious community or a neighborhood community, or so the financial community,
Speaker 1: the personal finance community that we're a part of, overall,
Speaker 1: the beer community, the beer community. Uh, we put a
Speaker 1: lot of importance on that. And we've put a lot
Speaker 1: of thought into this episode about how we can convey
Speaker 1: the way that we think about community to you listeners
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah. I mean, essentially, that's why we're dedicating
Speaker 1: an entire episode to community. Right, It's not like this
Speaker 1: sort of concrete thing where we're talking about credit school
Speaker 1: or or travel tips, which are very easy to wrap
Speaker 1: your head around but we think that this will be
Speaker 1: a great episode for us to talk about the importance
Speaker 1: of community and the role plays in our lives. Hopefully
Speaker 1: we don't get bogged down on, you know, the definition
Speaker 1: of a of a community. And I think at any
Speaker 1: point more we're talking through this, we can substitute the
Speaker 1: word community for friends essentially, right, whether it's your beer friends,
Speaker 1: or your neighborhood friends, or your work friends. Essentially anybody
Speaker 1: in your life that you can call on or that
Speaker 1: can call on you. I mean, essentially, that's what a
Speaker 1: community is, our friends, and that's what we're gonna talk about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and since we're a beer and money podcast, like, we
Speaker 1: have to include the important fact that having a good,
Speaker 1: solid community can actually help save you money. So that's
Speaker 1: the first point you want to talk about, Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: nice segue. So one of the first things we want
Speaker 1: to talk about is sharing things, not in like a
Speaker 1: hippie commune sort of way where we're all like have
Speaker 1: the same stuff, but sort of if you know, we're
Speaker 1: like we're kind of going down that path, and we're
Speaker 1: specifically talking about sort of sharing rarely used items instead
Speaker 1: of buying them. Everybody in our neighborhood doesn't need a tiller,
Speaker 1: Like that's not something that everybody uses all the time
Speaker 1: or that everybody even needs. But if you've got one
Speaker 1: and in your neighbors canna use it or vice versa,
Speaker 1: how much better is that than to go to the
Speaker 1: store and drop a ton of money on something that
Speaker 1: you're hardly ever gonna use. That's just gonna kind of
Speaker 1: sit there in your basement until the next time you
Speaker 1: might need to use it. Yeah, I've lent out my
Speaker 1: paint sprayer more than I've actually used it. I think
Speaker 1: I don't know you have paint sprayer, daughter. Nice. There's
Speaker 1: so much I don't know about you, Joel Espaniel paint sprayer.
Speaker 1: I know, Matt, we've been convinced by advertising and kind
Speaker 1: of by the way our modern world works that we
Speaker 1: need every item that is available, we need one of
Speaker 1: our own. And I think there's so many ways in
Speaker 1: which we don't need every item for ourselves in our shed,
Speaker 1: taking a room in our house, and every item that
Speaker 1: you have, I feel like takes up a little bit
Speaker 1: of mental space for you. And it goes back to
Speaker 1: our spring cleaning episode, and it's just like it just
Speaker 1: weighs on you. Yeah, and so having fewer items, but
Speaker 1: then being able to share those items, and particularly the
Speaker 1: big things. Right, let's say it's just a paint sprayer
Speaker 1: or a lawnmower which you need once every two weeks,
Speaker 1: or I think back to when we helped each other
Speaker 1: put up Christmas lights. Four hands are better than two. Write.
Speaker 1: Two people working together and to make something happen makes
Speaker 1: the work easier, and it makes it more fun, and
Speaker 1: it makes everything go along more quickly. And so having community,
Speaker 1: you know, you didn't need to hire someone to study
Speaker 1: the ladder, you didn't need to, you know, hire someone
Speaker 1: to help me string the lights. But we tackled it
Speaker 1: together on on each of our homes and it was
Speaker 1: much quicker and easier, and ultimately it saves money. So,
Speaker 1: and there might be some tools that you need to own.
Speaker 1: Maybe you use your lawnmower once a week. For me,
Speaker 1: I have my lawn that I need to mow and
Speaker 1: then runtal home laws that I need to mow, and
Speaker 1: so I get a lot of use out of my
Speaker 1: lawn more. But yeah, like a tool that you might
Speaker 1: only need to use once a year, it's not something
Speaker 1: you need to have around all the time immediately, So
Speaker 1: that you can go ahead and use it. It's something
Speaker 1: that you you can kind of plan on or look think about,
Speaker 1: look towards, and with a little bit of thought, it's
Speaker 1: easy to just borrow. One another example I was gonna
Speaker 1: give to was we had a birthday party for one
Speaker 1: of my daughters and there's a lot of stuff we
Speaker 1: didn't have for it. And we could have gone that
Speaker 1: route right where you buy just get everything that you
Speaker 1: possibly need, just order it on Amazon because it's so easy,
Speaker 1: but instead we kind of asked around to some of
Speaker 1: our neighbors. Literally two blocks this way and three blocks
Speaker 1: that way. We've got a lot of our stuff from,
Speaker 1: you know, from our friends and neighbors, including like a
Speaker 1: fire pit and a huge table that that we didn't have,
Speaker 1: a big old folding table. And man, that was like
Speaker 1: a perfect example of sort of like our community, our
Speaker 1: friends kind of coming together and instead of us being like, oh,
Speaker 1: we just have to do this, this is something that
Speaker 1: we have to buy, and this is something we need.
Speaker 1: We don't need it all the time, we just needed
Speaker 1: for the party. And so you just borrow it real quick,
Speaker 1: take care of it, use it, return it in better
Speaker 1: condition that it showed up. You know, and you're good
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, And and mathic cool thing is like
Speaker 1: when we had kids, we had people giving us clothes
Speaker 1: from their kids before and and essentially my daughters came
Speaker 1: into this world fully clothed for the next like three
Speaker 1: years because of all the generosity from friends in our community.
Speaker 1: And then we've been able to kind of pass along
Speaker 1: and do the same thing and give to other friends
Speaker 1: and paying it forward. Yeah. Yeah, And so it's really
Speaker 1: fun to be able to buy less and to be
Speaker 1: more thoughtful about our purchases when it comes to clothing
Speaker 1: because you know, we've got this free system of distribution
Speaker 1: amongst our community. Yeah. Man, that's another great way to
Speaker 1: save money. There's just certain things that you only need
Speaker 1: in a small season of life, like kids clothes, or
Speaker 1: I was thinking about Kate maternity closed, like I don't
Speaker 1: know how many different There's this one dress actually that
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of that both of our wives and another
Speaker 1: friend of ours wife wore, and man, I also sick
Speaker 1: of seeing that dang dress because they all loved it,
Speaker 1: and so they all kept wearing it. Obviously not at
Speaker 1: the same time, but they all got kind of pregnant
Speaker 1: after each other and cascading pregnancy seriously, but that one dress, man,
Speaker 1: it made their ounds. It was a hot item, and
Speaker 1: you know, I was joking about it, but in the end,
Speaker 1: I was totally happy that Kate wasn't dropping all this
Speaker 1: money on way overpriced maternity clothes to where just for
Speaker 1: a couple of months. Yeah, and really, you know, you
Speaker 1: need those clothes for you know, four or five months essentially. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so it feels like a big waste if you
Speaker 1: actually have to go stock your wardrobe with new clothes
Speaker 1: that small period of time. And if you can borrow,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of pairs of jeans and if
Speaker 1: you dresses, you can get through that time. And community
Speaker 1: is so good about that because you can even go
Speaker 1: buy used which is great. You're still buying though, but
Speaker 1: you're still buying and used asn't free, so unless it's
Speaker 1: from your community. Yeah, yeah, I love I love that
Speaker 1: sort of aspect of being pregnant and sort of going
Speaker 1: through that process together and even with the kids not too. Man,
Speaker 1: I can't even think of all the different kids clothes
Speaker 1: and the different toys that we sort of passed on
Speaker 1: and even diapers to are you know, cloth diapers not
Speaker 1: like obviously disposals. Here's a used poopy diaper for you,
Speaker 1: because we tried out the whole cloth diaper thing and
Speaker 1: that can be expensive. But some friends of ours actually
Speaker 1: they hooked us up with a huge bag of cloth
Speaker 1: diapers for us to try out, and there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different styles and we got to see what worked
Speaker 1: for us, and man, you know what, we were so
Speaker 1: glad because not all of them worked for us, and
Speaker 1: we were able to find the one that worked best
Speaker 1: for us, and that was awesome. And to think of
Speaker 1: how much money we would have spent, even buying from
Speaker 1: a consignment store would have cost us a ton. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you would have dropped a big chunk of change on that.
Speaker 1: And so what a great thing to be able to
Speaker 1: try something else before you buy. And you know it's
Speaker 1: totally cool is that we just passed that huge bag
Speaker 1: onto some other friends of ours because they cloth diaper
Speaker 1: and man, I was so stoked to be able to
Speaker 1: pass this awesome resource of cloth diapers along. Hopefully all
Speaker 1: of this doesn't completely revolve around children, but because kids
Speaker 1: grow so quickly and that's just something that's so temporary,
Speaker 1: I think there's a huge opportunity there for saving money. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and so I'll give an example here, the one that
Speaker 1: doesn't revolve around kids. My co worker Kim and I
Speaker 1: have carpooled to work together at times, and it's because
Speaker 1: we're not just co workers, we're friends and we're part
Speaker 1: of the same community. We live close to each other
Speaker 1: in a neighborhood community or part of the same work community. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that car pooling has been really great at times.
Speaker 1: You know, most of the time, I'm biking now, so
Speaker 1: we don't car pool nearly as much together, but it's
Speaker 1: really fun when we do, and it saves on gas
Speaker 1: and it makes the ride just a little bit more
Speaker 1: fun through awful traffic. And you guys just I mean,
Speaker 1: I assume you guys alternate, right, Like, you don't make
Speaker 1: her do all the driving, No, I make her do
Speaker 1: all ri No. Yeah, we all, yeah, we alternate. So
Speaker 1: I'll drive on, she'll drive another driving home in in
Speaker 1: crazy downtown traffic is pretty rough, and so it gives us,
Speaker 1: you know, we listen to a podcast together, we talk
Speaker 1: about it. Whatever. It gives us a chance to not
Speaker 1: be white knuckle gripped to the steering wheel on the
Speaker 1: ride home. And so yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And another example as date night, so you and I
Speaker 1: with our wives, we swap date nights. So one week
Speaker 1: you'll put your girls down and I'll come over and
Speaker 1: you know, essentially babysit, which means either like reading or
Speaker 1: getting some work done something like that while your girls
Speaker 1: are asleep while you guys are out on a date.
Speaker 1: And then the next week you come over to our
Speaker 1: house while we do exact same thing. The girls are down,
Speaker 1: you're able to come over. Honestly, that's one of the
Speaker 1: best things that we've got and and got going, and
Speaker 1: it's a great system. Most people pay for a babysitter
Speaker 1: or they don't, right, and so because don't go out, yeah,
Speaker 1: and because that they their their relationship kind of suffers
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, babysitters are so expensive, and they
Speaker 1: just kind of don't want to go through the hassle
Speaker 1: of setting it up. But the way we have is
Speaker 1: set up is that it's a recurring weekly thing. So
Speaker 1: we you know, we flipped back and forth every week
Speaker 1: and it a keeps our relationship with our wives in
Speaker 1: great shape. You know that we have that sort of
Speaker 1: automatic time built into res schedules. But b Man, we
Speaker 1: save tons of money and it's not like we're doing
Speaker 1: any work with the children. We're kind of getting stuff done,
Speaker 1: but we get to do our own thing and just
Speaker 1: kind of hang out at the other person's house. Man,
Speaker 1: that's like one of our ye like you said, a
Speaker 1: great system that we've got going, and we totally recommend
Speaker 1: other folks to do that as well. Yeah, in similar fashion, Matt,
Speaker 1: we switch off on taking our girls to school, and
Speaker 1: so I take the girls in the morning. You pick
Speaker 1: up the girls in the afternoon. And that's been awesome
Speaker 1: because if we had to do both every day, that's
Speaker 1: so much more draining. Uh. And the fact that we
Speaker 1: can essentially split those tasks up saves us a lot
Speaker 1: of time allows us to you know, I think the
Speaker 1: girls have fun. It's enjoyable for me to take them
Speaker 1: in the morning. I know they have a bunch of
Speaker 1: fun with you in the afternoon, and so there's something
Speaker 1: really cool about that and just better. It's better that way.
Speaker 1: It saves us time and money and effort. And that's
Speaker 1: another one of the best things that has come from
Speaker 1: our friendship and from the community. Because let's say you're
Speaker 1: not available or something like that, We have other friends
Speaker 1: too that are part of our community that could pick
Speaker 1: up Selma and who also go to the same school. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that, actually, because you don't deal
Speaker 1: with this as much, because you do mornings. I do
Speaker 1: the afternoon since I have a little more flexible schedule,
Speaker 1: and you have to be there by a certain time
Speaker 1: to pick up the kids, like almost to the minute,
Speaker 1: and if you're not, they're supposed to start getting charged,
Speaker 1: Like you're supposed to start getting charged for every minute
Speaker 1: that you're past the pickup window time. Even though you
Speaker 1: and I account on each other for the general carpool,
Speaker 1: there's still other friends that we have at the school.
Speaker 1: And often times me and if you the other moms
Speaker 1: who do the pick up in the afternoons, we text
Speaker 1: each other if someone's running late and we'll sign the
Speaker 1: other kids out. That way they don't get docked the feet.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And so sometimes someone might be running late
Speaker 1: and it's just like, hey, I'll be there in a
Speaker 1: few minutes, and you just kind of hang out there
Speaker 1: with the kids for a little bit and it saves
Speaker 1: them money and you know, and they'll gladly return the
Speaker 1: favor when I'm late which is oftentimes the case, hopefully
Speaker 1: not too often, but it does happen. So that's like
Speaker 1: another tangible way that that saves money. Yeah, so those
Speaker 1: are the financial benefits of community. I think there are lots. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other examples, certainly that we haven't discussed,
Speaker 1: but those are very clear in our lives at least,
Speaker 1: and those are very tangible ways to right like, and
Speaker 1: that's what's so easy about that is is it's easy
Speaker 1: to say that, like, oh, this costs this much money
Speaker 1: if I can borrow this or allow a friend to
Speaker 1: borrow this, and we kind of get a system going.
Speaker 1: We get to say that much money. There's other ways though,
Speaker 1: that community helps that are less tangible, that are harder
Speaker 1: to quantify and real quick before we get into that, Matt,
Speaker 1: After talking about you know, the way you can save
Speaker 1: you money, it makes me, well, what if act would
Speaker 1: you give to someone who feels like they're lacking in
Speaker 1: community now and trying to build a community they feel like,
Speaker 1: you know what, that sounds awesome? I want some of that.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to share the burden and
Speaker 1: share costs and have a close relationship with people like
Speaker 1: that in my life. That I can depend on and
Speaker 1: that can depend on me. But how do you develop that? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: that's an awesome question. I just take I just take take,
Speaker 1: take take. Oh, I know, here's some coupons. Taker, Literally,
Speaker 1: you just threw some coupons onto the table. What did
Speaker 1: you pull this out of like your pocket? Yep? No,
Speaker 1: I mean you have to be a valuable part of
Speaker 1: that community. If you want to be a part of it,
Speaker 1: you need to contribute, right And so if first of all,
Speaker 1: if it doesn't exist yet, you're going to be the
Speaker 1: one that creates it. And if you want it to exist,
Speaker 1: it's up to you. Yeah, And that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you have to have the paint sprayer in your closet
Speaker 1: to give. You can build community through time, through intentionality,
Speaker 1: through relationship and so you know, so many the best
Speaker 1: members of my community I haven't even borrowed anything from.
Speaker 1: They haven't saved me any money, they haven't lent me
Speaker 1: something in a pinch or giving me clothes for my kids.
Speaker 1: But they've been there with time, with an ear, with
Speaker 1: some concern for what's going on in my life, whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. I think valuable members of the community
Speaker 1: are people that have time for one another. And so
Speaker 1: if you truly desire to have community like this, to
Speaker 1: have well, we think is this major contributing factor to
Speaker 1: living a rich life. You first have to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're the change in the world that you want
Speaker 1: to see. You know, you have to be that member
Speaker 1: of the community that you want to have you're talking
Speaker 1: about Michael Jackson. If you build it, they will come.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man in the mirror. Fair though it
Speaker 1: sounds cheesy to say, but literally that's I mean. You
Speaker 1: need to be able to have time for each other.
Speaker 1: You need to contribute. And so I was thinking more
Speaker 1: of like being able to be there for folks from
Speaker 1: a lending standpoint, but like you know, I think what
Speaker 1: you said is even more important, like being able to
Speaker 1: be there from a time standpoint and be there for
Speaker 1: each other. And you have to know it takes time
Speaker 1: to build, like it took us a while to develop
Speaker 1: the date night swap, right, because when you met me
Speaker 1: day one, you didn't know. I totally want to let
Speaker 1: that dude watch my kids. I don't trust him, right,
Speaker 1: So it takes time to get to know someone. Community
Speaker 1: is very time oriented. It's hard to build Apart from
Speaker 1: that and so if you're spending all your time working,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna miss out on some of these free things,
Speaker 1: these free benefits, and these really important benefits the community
Speaker 1: has to offer you. And I think wealth takes on
Speaker 1: many forms, and most of us think about it as
Speaker 1: purely financial, but a wealth of community is so much
Speaker 1: more than just a financial benefit it can bring you.
Speaker 1: And that's why we want to kind of get into
Speaker 1: those other aspects. Now, yeah, Juel, that's but yeah, that's awesome,
Speaker 1: man Like. So, like the first thing, so the first
Speaker 1: main point we talked about was how it saves you money,
Speaker 1: like again, which was a very tangible and kind of
Speaker 1: measurable thing. These other two things that we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about, it's not as tangible. It's it's kind of
Speaker 1: harder to wrap your head around, but that doesn't make
Speaker 1: it any less important, and in fact, it probably makes
Speaker 1: it more important because those things are way more important
Speaker 1: than just saving a buck. Yeah, So the second sort
Speaker 1: of main point that we're going to discuss is how
Speaker 1: I mean community can kind of help you out in
Speaker 1: the pinch. And so there's just things that community can
Speaker 1: provide to you that you can't necessarily buy with money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so for instance, I'll be completely honest about something
Speaker 1: that's been happening in our family's life lately. And we've
Speaker 1: had some health issues going on with my wife and
Speaker 1: we kind of weren't sure what was happening. It's been
Speaker 1: kind of scary. I mean, you're still not totally sure,
Speaker 1: but yeah, so we're still not totally sure, but we
Speaker 1: we think we've kind of gotten a closer idea of
Speaker 1: what it is and about to get real guys. And uh,
Speaker 1: it's actually been really hard physically for her during this time,
Speaker 1: and so there were days that were really hard and
Speaker 1: still are hard. And there were specific times where you know,
Speaker 1: we really needed someone to take our kids because we
Speaker 1: had to go to a doctor's appointment, and the community
Speaker 1: that we had built up over over these past years
Speaker 1: in this neighborhood, in this place rose up to help
Speaker 1: us in all these ways that some of which we
Speaker 1: asked for and some of which we didn't. You know,
Speaker 1: sometimes it was specifically watching our kids because we asked.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it was what can I do for you because
Speaker 1: I know you need help even though you're not going
Speaker 1: to ask for it, And sometimes it was that time,
Speaker 1: and other times it was flowers left on the porch
Speaker 1: or someone coming over to talk and to care, and
Speaker 1: all of those things meant like so much more than
Speaker 1: just being able to like save a buck. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: that bart of community means so much more than the
Speaker 1: fact that I can borrow a lot more from a friend, right,
Speaker 1: And that's awesome. I like, I love that. That's the thing.
Speaker 1: But those intangible aspects of community, that closeness that you
Speaker 1: can have with people over time, and I think community
Speaker 1: usually does take, like I said, a lot of time
Speaker 1: to develop. We have been in this place building relationships
Speaker 1: with the people that we care about for you know,
Speaker 1: almost a decade, and so we knew how valuable it was,
Speaker 1: I think in our minds, but we felt it tangibly
Speaker 1: in this time where we really needed something and we
Speaker 1: needed the people around us to to help us, and
Speaker 1: they did. They were there for us, and it was beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is beautiful, man, that's awesome. Some of the unintangibles too,
Speaker 1: are just being able to take the stress out of
Speaker 1: daily living. So like we were talking about like that
Speaker 1: pre k where I pick up their girls in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: like just knowing that someone's kind of there and then
Speaker 1: they had your back, like there's someone we can kind
Speaker 1: of count on. Even though that's on a scale of
Speaker 1: magnitude of seriousness compared to you know, with the example
Speaker 1: that you gave, but it's still one of those little
Speaker 1: things that you kind of worry about and and it
Speaker 1: does add stress to your daily life thinking what if
Speaker 1: I don't get there in time? And then obviously it's
Speaker 1: gonna cost money as well. But it's kind of an
Speaker 1: issue with the teachers as well because you're not there
Speaker 1: when you're supposed to, and just knowing that someone's there
Speaker 1: and they've got your back, it's kind of priceless. You
Speaker 1: can't sort of buy that piece. You can't buy that
Speaker 1: peace of mind. Yeah, And so Matt, sometimes that community
Speaker 1: the right it means like where you're at, like other
Speaker 1: parents at school, and sometimes it's geographic specific. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: needs to be a neighbor and knowing your neighbors is
Speaker 1: really important. And so for instance, like if a package
Speaker 1: gets left under doorstep and it's really important and you
Speaker 1: need to make sure that it doesn't get get snagged
Speaker 1: by the kid walk down the street or whatever. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it sees the Amazon package sitting there, Yeah, which
Speaker 1: has happened so much in our neighborhood. Yeah, have I
Speaker 1: told you the story about the about the our neighbors
Speaker 1: across the street. So yeah, it was actually not too
Speaker 1: long after we moved into our house. Kate had ordered
Speaker 1: something as like a gift for a friend and it
Speaker 1: had gotten delivered and evidently, right after like the ups
Speaker 1: guy drove off or whatever, some dude that was just
Speaker 1: walking down the streets, some kid walked up onto the
Speaker 1: porch and snagged it. Well, here's the thing. Our neighbor
Speaker 1: across the street was hanging out there, kind of hanging
Speaker 1: out on their porch, and he saw it go down,
Speaker 1: and so the dude took off after him, like literally
Speaker 1: chased him down. And the guy was really fast, so
Speaker 1: he ran back and got in his car and just
Speaker 1: and tore after him. Unfortunately, they never got the thing back,
Speaker 1: but still, like that's something that a is totally badass
Speaker 1: and awesome and now they're like our favorite neighbors ever.
Speaker 1: But how cool is that? Right? You can pay for
Speaker 1: a security system and cameras and sort of all the
Speaker 1: other sort of stuff that goes into trying to make
Speaker 1: your house secure, and you can even pay for a
Speaker 1: lot security service that drives around and looks at your
Speaker 1: house or something. You can't pay a neighbor to be
Speaker 1: there for you and like looking out for you and
Speaker 1: they've got your back and to know that we've got that,
Speaker 1: like I've got this bond now with that neighbor and like, man,
Speaker 1: I've got their back now too, Like it's just natural
Speaker 1: and now I want to be there for them. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a perfect example of something that
Speaker 1: kind of happens a lot of times that people are
Speaker 1: dealing with these days, especially with all the online ordering
Speaker 1: that we're doing and the way we purchase things. And
Speaker 1: then awesome, it's crazy, man, Yeah, that's crazy. I love
Speaker 1: that your neighbor did that. Literally he took off running
Speaker 1: after him and I was like, wait, dude, you did what,
Speaker 1: Like that's awesome. I don't sure if I would have
Speaker 1: done that initially, but I am now because you did it,
Speaker 1: So I'm like empowered because of him. Sure. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: something really cool about that that that sense of community
Speaker 1: can foster that you know what, You're not gonna do
Speaker 1: that to my neighbor for my friend. You know that's
Speaker 1: not gonna happen mask my buddy. Yeah, and along the
Speaker 1: lines of sort of like neighbors sort of looking out
Speaker 1: for each other too. Is that's another thing you can
Speaker 1: do with like your community, and and that's kind of
Speaker 1: neighborhood specific. Is that when you get to other and
Speaker 1: sort of put your mind behind something as like a
Speaker 1: group of people specifically geographic, you can do so much.
Speaker 1: And recently our neighborhoods started putting on like this festival
Speaker 1: and it's freaking awesome. This past year was the second
Speaker 1: year now that they've done it, and it's totally cool.
Speaker 1: It's a ton of fun, and it's like a legitimate,
Speaker 1: huge event and they're you know, a lot of people
Speaker 1: come in from all over the city to check it out.
Speaker 1: And that's not something you can just pay for. Like
Speaker 1: you can't just pay for a neighborhood festival. You can't
Speaker 1: just say, oh, I want us to have like this
Speaker 1: cool festival, let's just pay for it. Bringing all the
Speaker 1: finest artism you know. Yeah, Like you can't just literally
Speaker 1: neighborhood people that make stuff that is awesome. It's not
Speaker 1: the Renaissance and you're not a king, Like you can't
Speaker 1: just will this to happen like it. It involves work,
Speaker 1: in time and a lot of community and neighbor involvement,
Speaker 1: and that's just something that's totally cool that we're really
Speaker 1: seeing the results of and being able to support that.
Speaker 1: It's hard to explain, but like, I just want to
Speaker 1: support that because that's just part of who I am
Speaker 1: and I'm part of this community. Yeah. Well, you know
Speaker 1: what makes me think about kind of the central part
Speaker 1: of where we live. There's this church and this parking
Speaker 1: lot and it's also a school and so our girls,
Speaker 1: Matt have gone to school at this little neighborhood school
Speaker 1: right there and like a parents morning out thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that specific spot is like the dead center of
Speaker 1: our neighborhood. And this church that have been there for
Speaker 1: a long time was kind of struggling, just not many
Speaker 1: people going there and it was pretty much set to disband,
Speaker 1: and so we had a neighborhood meeting about you know,
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do with this space? And it
Speaker 1: was so interesting. All of our neighbors turned up. I
Speaker 1: was there, you were there. It was so like uplifting
Speaker 1: to hear what all of our neighbors thought about this neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And it's something that I had felt, but to hear
Speaker 1: everyone say it out loud too, was really neat just
Speaker 1: the way our neighbors feel about each other and the
Speaker 1: way that they feel about this place. And essentially what
Speaker 1: a lot of people said was that where we live
Speaker 1: feels a little bit like Mayberry. It has this small
Speaker 1: town feel in this big city where everyone does look
Speaker 1: out for one another, where everyone cares about what happens
Speaker 1: in their neighbors lives and they care about what happens neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And I think that there's something kind of rare in
Speaker 1: in our culture about that right now, that it's kind
Speaker 1: of every man for himself, and this idea of neighbors
Speaker 1: and neighborhood and belonging to each other in this way
Speaker 1: is really cool. And it's also just not something that
Speaker 1: exists in very many places, and it's something to be
Speaker 1: strived for certainly, and I'm just thankful that we have
Speaker 1: it here. Yeah, man, it's just rare. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it's not something that we always see. And initially when
Speaker 1: we first went to the neighborhood, we didn't know its
Speaker 1: ton about living in a neighborhood, living in an in
Speaker 1: town group, or geographic location. But over time, like we've learned, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like literally I've been taught community by the
Speaker 1: people around me, by like the people that have gone
Speaker 1: before and have been here for decades even. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so they kind of taught me how to care and
Speaker 1: how to be a part of this place because the
Speaker 1: sense of community was so deep when we came here.
Speaker 1: We didn't know what we were getting into to a
Speaker 1: certain extent, and I had other communities. But to realize,
Speaker 1: you know, this has become such an essential part of
Speaker 1: who I am and what matters to me. To get
Speaker 1: to be a part of that, and to see the
Speaker 1: way it's mattered to people that have lived here longer
Speaker 1: than I have, then the way it transfers down to me, Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Now I need to take ownership of this. I need
Speaker 1: to be a part of this in a positive way
Speaker 1: because I don't want to let my community down, Like
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of this for good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's cool about that is it's a community that we
Speaker 1: have been trained up in because it already existed, like
Speaker 1: it's something that we've sort of joined. And that's not
Speaker 1: always the case though, for for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: Like on the last point you talked about like ways
Speaker 1: to sort of foster that and I feel like that's
Speaker 1: applicable to this as well. It's something to consider that.
Speaker 1: You know, we're lucky enough that we live in a
Speaker 1: great community, but that's something that most people can have
Speaker 1: with time and energy and effort. If that's not something
Speaker 1: you see, that's something that you can do and sort
Speaker 1: of be the leader on. Yeah. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: if you sit down and brainstorm, what what are we missing?
Speaker 1: How come we're not connected as a neighborhood, as neighbors.
Speaker 1: Why is it that we don't get together for social gatherings.
Speaker 1: Why is it that you know, something that we really
Speaker 1: need doesn't exist. If you can put pin into paper,
Speaker 1: you can think it through. You can start the ball rolling,
Speaker 1: start organizing a community where you live, be about the
Speaker 1: process of actually creating relationships with the people around you.
Speaker 1: I think it's really easy to like grab the mail
Speaker 1: out of the mailbox or pick up the paper. I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone gets papers anymore. Whatever it is, and
Speaker 1: you see your neighbor in your wave. But what we're
Speaker 1: missing is connectivity, relationship, and you can really be about
Speaker 1: starting that on your block, you know, on your street
Speaker 1: where you live. And uh so, if it doesn't exist
Speaker 1: in the way that you wanted to. You're really the
Speaker 1: best person to start that. And the reason that we
Speaker 1: are even striving towards this is that like somehow, like
Speaker 1: deep down, we know that that's valuable, but there's something else,
Speaker 1: way bigger to be said, to know that your community
Speaker 1: sort of has your back and the sort of richness
Speaker 1: that that provides, right, and even sort of moving deeper
Speaker 1: than that, is that we know, like I said, sort
Speaker 1: of deep down, like we know that kind of living
Speaker 1: in that community leads to like a healthier life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think of it as a core human
Speaker 1: need and I think we've placed so much importance on
Speaker 1: a career or status that we've neglected the importance of community.
Speaker 1: And actually, when you give of yourself in a relational way,
Speaker 1: you get back more than you've you been given. Maybe
Speaker 1: not in a sort of financial way, but in again,
Speaker 1: this is like the super intangible thing, and like you
Speaker 1: can't really quantify it, right because like a pure economist
Speaker 1: would say, well, no, when you give of yourself, that
Speaker 1: takes time, and time is money. So there's an opportunity
Speaker 1: cost there, right by being neighborly and being involved in
Speaker 1: your community, and going to a civic association meeting or
Speaker 1: something like that. That's money that you could be working
Speaker 1: and further in your career. So it literally costs you money.
Speaker 1: And so from a financial standpoint, you're losing out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't affect the bottom line in a positive way exactly.
Speaker 1: But there's something way bigger to be said, and there's
Speaker 1: a there's just like this robustness and this richness that
Speaker 1: comes from living in a community where neighbors and where
Speaker 1: friends value each other and what each other is able
Speaker 1: to provide. Uh, in a way that it's hard to quantify,
Speaker 1: but deep down, I think we all know that that's
Speaker 1: necessary and that that's going to lead to just a richer,
Speaker 1: fuller life. Yeah. And when you know, my friends or
Speaker 1: neighbors or something like that are having a cocktail party
Speaker 1: at five pm on a work day, you know what
Speaker 1: I want to do leave work early and goes that
Speaker 1: and so there's something about that's what I want to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's something about that though that it's kind of anti
Speaker 1: the fifty hour work week. It's kind of anti the
Speaker 1: you know, build up your career, because that's the most
Speaker 1: important thing. And I want to say too that I
Speaker 1: think one of the beautiful things in community too is
Speaker 1: that it can help you embrace like a tapestry of people,
Speaker 1: not just people that are your age with the same
Speaker 1: mindset and the same goals, but people of different races
Speaker 1: and different histories and different ages. And I think that's
Speaker 1: something really cool about community too, and especially about a
Speaker 1: physical location community. Yeah, that's a huge thing with a
Speaker 1: specific geography or or you know, like a neighborhood, which
Speaker 1: is what we're kind of discussing, because you don't choose
Speaker 1: usually who your neighbors are, you know, and so they
Speaker 1: just exist when you move into your house, and you
Speaker 1: have to find a way to be neighborly, and there's
Speaker 1: something really cool about that. Sometimes they have a lot
Speaker 1: to offer you in different ways, and sometimes they have
Speaker 1: nothing to offer you, but whatever it may be, they
Speaker 1: are part of your community, and there's something really cool
Speaker 1: about knowing them and caring for them in that way.
Speaker 1: And I'll specifically say, like, we have an elderly neighbor
Speaker 1: behind us, and he has meant so much to me,
Speaker 1: just the conversations over the fence with this awesome guy
Speaker 1: who's experienced a lot of life. He hasn't ever given
Speaker 1: me anything monetarily. He's never you know, lent me his
Speaker 1: lawn mower, but just our conversations and the way he's
Speaker 1: cared for my children, talk to them and help them
Speaker 1: and wanted to know more about their lives, and just
Speaker 1: that relationship I've built with him. He's sort of like
Speaker 1: a neighborly grandfather figure for you guys, no doubt, no
Speaker 1: doubt he's He's wonderful and I wouldn't trade you know,
Speaker 1: somebody that can offer me a lot more. And when
Speaker 1: it comes to you know, trade, trading or bartering or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, you know time and you know, help
Speaker 1: lifting heavy things whatever. Maybe like I wouldn't trade that
Speaker 1: for you know, the relationship that I have with him
Speaker 1: and what he adds to our community. Certainly, what if
Speaker 1: he was a grandpa that brewed beer, well then I'd
Speaker 1: like him even I completely agree man, having that diverse,
Speaker 1: Like you said, tapestry is a good way of saying
Speaker 1: it of of neighbors. And I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the things we love too about our community and neighbors
Speaker 1: is the fact this is specific to the to our girls,
Speaker 1: to our kids, but also to us. It's just what
Speaker 1: we're able to learn from other people skills that are
Speaker 1: neighbors and friends have that they're able to sort of
Speaker 1: share with us and specifically to sort of teach our kids.
Speaker 1: Like I love that our girls are able to learn
Speaker 1: things that we know nothing about that Kate and I
Speaker 1: my wife and I know nothing about, but they're able
Speaker 1: to learn about from from other parents and just from
Speaker 1: other neighbors. Not not necessarily parents, but so specifically. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of when Heavy, our daughter started taking ballet. Kate
Speaker 1: and I know nothing about dance. It's just not something
Speaker 1: that we do. But Emily, your wife is totally into dancing.
Speaker 1: That's just like one of her things. She grew up
Speaker 1: doing ballet, so she she goes a little bit about
Speaker 1: it exactly. And so for Evy to be able to
Speaker 1: talk to her about that specifically and to kind of
Speaker 1: get her fired up and to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: ask her to do some certain news or something like that.
Speaker 1: When when you guys would come over and hang out
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, How awesome was that? Like, Man,
Speaker 1: that just makes my heart glad to see that, you know,
Speaker 1: and just to know that we're able to kind of
Speaker 1: contribute to our lives and these seemingly super casual ways,
Speaker 1: but there's just something about it that's beautiful and that
Speaker 1: that goes really deep and and just enriches everyone's life
Speaker 1: to be able to to to have that. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: our friend David, who knows a lot about soccer, and
Speaker 1: we're he bought a couple of goals. Yeah, We've been
Speaker 1: talking with some of our friends and neighbors about which
Speaker 1: different soccer programs are part of, you know, like the
Speaker 1: different clubs that you join and pay and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But what we realize is our kids are kind of
Speaker 1: too young to be paying all this money to join
Speaker 1: this league that has set times and just know it's
Speaker 1: a bit structured hundred fifty bucks to you know, hang
Speaker 1: out on a Saturday and watch your kid put their
Speaker 1: thumb in their mouth while they're playing soccer. While I
Speaker 1: say that, when when David, like he has a wealth
Speaker 1: of knowledge about soccer, he loves soccer, and he's told like,
Speaker 1: you know what, like I can do that, and so
Speaker 1: that's something that a skill that he has a passion
Speaker 1: that he has. And we're gonna just kind of get
Speaker 1: all the kids together and let them sort of kick
Speaker 1: the ball around on their own, like that, yeah, and
Speaker 1: maybe teach them a few things. But certainly that's really
Speaker 1: cool because I love that idea because standing around on
Speaker 1: a Saturday with you know, a bunch of other parents
Speaker 1: who have their Starbucks coffee in their hands or whatever
Speaker 1: while they're watching their kids, you know, staying around and
Speaker 1: a coach they've pulled up in their H two hummer
Speaker 1: or whatever. I don't even know if they make those anymore,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that sounds terrible. But hanging out with buddies
Speaker 1: in part of our community, friends and our kids getting
Speaker 1: together to play a game that we enjoy and essentially
Speaker 1: teaching our kids together at the same time, Like, that
Speaker 1: sounds really fun. That sounds like something completely different than
Speaker 1: an organized league, and that sounds like the kind of
Speaker 1: thing community is perfect to accomplish, all right, man, So
Speaker 1: what about when it comes to digital communities. There are
Speaker 1: lots of them. There are lots of places where you
Speaker 1: can find people of like mind online, different forums and
Speaker 1: even just Facebook and just all the different groups out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what's your take on digital communities and how they
Speaker 1: fit into kind of the way that we view community
Speaker 1: as a whole. Yeah, man, that's just something I'm like
Speaker 1: super concerned about that these digital communities are replacing sort
Speaker 1: of the real life communities that we have in person.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to knock online forums and just
Speaker 1: different groups that were part of because like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm part of tons of different groups online, specifically I
Speaker 1: like on Facebook, and there's amazing information that comes from
Speaker 1: those and even support, you know, Like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different groups that that help each other out and
Speaker 1: provide encouragement with whatever it is that people are going through.
Speaker 1: Like let's say, you know, we started a podcast and
Speaker 1: we're a part of a podcast group on Facebook, and
Speaker 1: if I have a technical question or we have questions
Speaker 1: about you know, all right, we're fifteen episodes in. What
Speaker 1: what do we do next? You know, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Let's say I had a question about gear or the
Speaker 1: direction that we should take our show. There's this awesome
Speaker 1: community that I know I'll get a response from because
Speaker 1: we have this thing in common. Even that just existing
Speaker 1: is really cool. I I love that it's there in
Speaker 1: case I need it. Yeah, man, it's incredibly helpful, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of information there and you're in it
Speaker 1: with people. There's a lot of people that are going
Speaker 1: through something very similar a lot of times that you are,
Speaker 1: and so it's very helpful you have like peers. Everybody's
Speaker 1: kind of like lifting each other up. Incredibly valuable. I
Speaker 1: do not want to discount that at all. What I'm
Speaker 1: afraid of happening, though, is when that becomes sort of
Speaker 1: like our primary sort of interaction and we lose this realness.
Speaker 1: We lose this real actually hanging out together, where you're
Speaker 1: where you're with other people, you're experiencing the nuances that
Speaker 1: come with awkward social situations sometimes, or understanding jokes or
Speaker 1: you know, like, there's just so much that's lost when
Speaker 1: it comes to digital communication. And even though there's all
Speaker 1: this technology to sort of break down those barriers of
Speaker 1: communication that allow us to maybe communicate more realistically when
Speaker 1: we're in these digital communities, it's still not the same. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's something to be said with being able to hang
Speaker 1: out with people, real life people together, hopefully sharing a beer.
Speaker 1: There's something that that comes with that that again is
Speaker 1: it's just hard to describe, you can't quantify it, but
Speaker 1: it just adds a robustness, it adds a richness, it
Speaker 1: adds a fullness to life that you can't replicate online,
Speaker 1: and I think there's something to be said to that
Speaker 1: any of these sort of online communities and forums, like
Speaker 1: their main purpose is to imitate real life, and so
Speaker 1: like at the core of the technology that like, the
Speaker 1: technology knows that what they're trying to do is basically
Speaker 1: imitate what we're doing right now, which is like hanging
Speaker 1: out and talking, right, And so when the imitation kind
Speaker 1: of becomes the focus versus than the real thing, I
Speaker 1: think that's when it starts getting kind of dangerous. And
Speaker 1: it's not dangerous, I guess, but it's just like a
Speaker 1: slippery slope and I feel like we can miss out
Speaker 1: on on something better. Yeah. No, I think that's a
Speaker 1: great point. I think specifically our Facebook group, it's been
Speaker 1: really fun. Yeah, it's awesome. It's been great getting to
Speaker 1: know some of the people in there and you know,
Speaker 1: hearing questions or what they want to hear in an episode,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, what beer they're drinking, yeah, or seeing
Speaker 1: people help each other out, like answered other questions to
Speaker 1: each other and and providing helpful tips and feedback. I
Speaker 1: love that. Man, that's just amazing to see that. And
Speaker 1: hopefully there's just more and more of that to come.
Speaker 1: I love that that is a medium that exists. But
Speaker 1: I think that's a great secondary community. I think you
Speaker 1: need your primary communities should be real and tangible and physical.
Speaker 1: And if your primary community is an online community, that's
Speaker 1: probably just not healthy. And so look at your physical
Speaker 1: location where you live, you know, your neighbor's neighborhood. That's
Speaker 1: a great place to find community. Look at your religious
Speaker 1: congregation if you're a member somewhere, that's a great place
Speaker 1: for a community. Look at if you have kids. You know,
Speaker 1: who are the other adults around you that have children
Speaker 1: similar age. That's a great place for a community. And
Speaker 1: I would say, I think to an exception, maybe it's
Speaker 1: to that is if those online communities, like these different groups,
Speaker 1: if they reinforce like your real life communities, right, and
Speaker 1: so like I'm thinking about our neighborhood, like we have
Speaker 1: obviously like our specific actual neighborhood. We hang out together
Speaker 1: and have like the festival and hang out you know,
Speaker 1: up on the corner while kids ride bikes in the
Speaker 1: parking lot, that sort of thing. But the online version
Speaker 1: of that supports that. And so in the same thing,
Speaker 1: if the online version of that kind of becomes the focus,
Speaker 1: well it starts to suck, because that's when people troll
Speaker 1: and are mean to each other and are lane. That's
Speaker 1: why comment sections on the internet although work exactly. But
Speaker 1: then if you're able to sort of compliment your real
Speaker 1: life interactions with the online version, well then it's just
Speaker 1: this awesome platform for sharing information, for coordination, for sharing events.
Speaker 1: It's awesome for like details and specific advice that you
Speaker 1: might not be able to get from a friend because
Speaker 1: you have this aggregate knowledge online that you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have in a smaller personal community, which is what's so
Speaker 1: cool about it, right, Hive Mine, Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, you want your you know, most of your
Speaker 1: interactions to be in a real and tangible community that
Speaker 1: exists where you are. Yeah, man, I think that's true.
Speaker 1: Now let's just talk about if you're in a cult,
Speaker 1: that's a bad community, stay away, get out right now.
Speaker 1: I also think, Matt, that your family can be a
Speaker 1: great place of community too. And you know, I've got
Speaker 1: an awesome family that I love, and we get to
Speaker 1: get together at least once a month and we hang
Speaker 1: out and uh and I see you know, other members
Speaker 1: of my family even more often. I think family is
Speaker 1: a great place for community. Yeah, it's it's sort of
Speaker 1: like the default, right, Like you know, I mean, hopefully
Speaker 1: folks have enough time that they have friends and wherever
Speaker 1: it is that they live. But I think a lot
Speaker 1: of times folks know that, like, well, at the very least,
Speaker 1: so I've got my family. Yeah, but you know what,
Speaker 1: some people don't feel that way about their families. They
Speaker 1: didn't have the kind of childhood that I had. They
Speaker 1: don't have the close relationship with their parents or their
Speaker 1: siblings or even the close geographic proximity that I have
Speaker 1: to them. And I think that's where you need your
Speaker 1: local community all the more. If you don't feel like
Speaker 1: you have your family as one of your primary communities,
Speaker 1: all the more reason for you to find close communities
Speaker 1: where you are that are important to you and meaningful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think that is happening more often man. Well, specifically,
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking of is friends giving. Like often do
Speaker 1: we see sort of friends posting pictures from their friends giving.
Speaker 1: You know, it may not be something that they do
Speaker 1: with their family as much, or maybe they're like you said,
Speaker 1: like their family is really far away, like out of
Speaker 1: town and kind of stuff like that. But to see
Speaker 1: folks getting together and still sort of having that meaningful
Speaker 1: relationship together is perfect. I mean that's like the perfect
Speaker 1: example of of what you're saying. Uh, And I love
Speaker 1: seeing that. Yeah, alright, Matt. So back to the beer
Speaker 1: Monday night. Hello, beautiful, beautiful? Uh you know what this way?
Speaker 1: Are you talking to me? There? The beer? You know,
Speaker 1: as this beer warmed up, I feel like I could
Speaker 1: taste more of that oak, like more of that would
Speaker 1: like that the white wine barrels that this was aged in,
Speaker 1: and it gave it like a nice sort of mellow,
Speaker 1: delicious tone. I agree. By the way, one note that
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell our listeners proper glassware. I think
Speaker 1: it's something that needs to be addressed about that we've
Speaker 1: never talked about that on the show. And if you
Speaker 1: look at our logo, the U in the four four
Speaker 1: p O U is a tulip glass. And I think
Speaker 1: tulip glasses are probably the best glass word to drink
Speaker 1: almost any beer out of. If you're drinking an I
Speaker 1: p A or something like that, feel free to drink
Speaker 1: it out of a pint glass, But most of these
Speaker 1: more sophisticated beers, a tulip glass is perfect for that,
Speaker 1: and part of the reason is because you can almost
Speaker 1: pretty much stick your whole nose in the glass. They
Speaker 1: I mean they funnel, they taper to like to the top,
Speaker 1: and you can get your nose in there and it
Speaker 1: kind of funnels all the smells and all the flavors
Speaker 1: right there to your nose and it just allows you
Speaker 1: to taste what you're drinking a little better. So there
Speaker 1: are even more advanced type of glass water that you
Speaker 1: can pick up that apparently does an even better job.
Speaker 1: But basically, get too tulip glasses in your home and
Speaker 1: you can probably find one for four bucks and those
Speaker 1: are gonna be just really nice for the drink experience.
Speaker 1: Not to mention they look cool. Yeah, they make you
Speaker 1: look like you know what you're talking about. That's what
Speaker 1: we did. So thanks again to Monday Night. Hello, beautiful,
Speaker 1: really fun beer barrel fermented wild ale with blueberries. Delicious.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt recap time first community can save you
Speaker 1: literal money, like actual money. Specifically, you can pass along
Speaker 1: and share sort of season of life items like either
Speaker 1: kids toys or clothes and even maternity clothes. It's less
Speaker 1: the case for dudes, uh, but it's definitely something to
Speaker 1: to consider. And also too, I don't know, I like
Speaker 1: those stretchy jeans, Matt. They would have to be stretchy
Speaker 1: because I've got like short, half Korean Asian legs, which
Speaker 1: means you've got like another foot on me. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: leave the clothes, uh. Swapping to our wives that the ladies.
Speaker 1: And yeah, another thing too is sharing sort of time
Speaker 1: and like resources. Right, and so we got like this
Speaker 1: the date night setup that we have going on, and
Speaker 1: that's just an awesome way for us to a make
Speaker 1: sure that, like we said earlier, go on date nights,
Speaker 1: but be it just saves us so much money to
Speaker 1: not have to pay a babysitter. And that's something that
Speaker 1: we know that we can kind of depend on every
Speaker 1: other week. Yeah, and I know that you're there with
Speaker 1: my kids. You're my friend, You're part of my community.
Speaker 1: Or if I have to ask you know, another friend
Speaker 1: to pick up my girls or something like that, that's
Speaker 1: better than hiring a service to do it because it's
Speaker 1: someone that I know and trust. Also, community helps you
Speaker 1: in a pinch. And so, like I mentioned earlier, you
Speaker 1: know what's been going on in our lives with you know,
Speaker 1: my wife's sickness, and trying to figure that out and
Speaker 1: just kind of last minute doctor's appointments and just needing
Speaker 1: some support and encouragement. You know, our community has come
Speaker 1: through in the clutch and been there for us. It's
Speaker 1: been vital for some of the details to come up
Speaker 1: in our lives, but it's been vital for our hearts
Speaker 1: and minds to be supported in that way. And it's
Speaker 1: just been beautiful to watch our community kind of come
Speaker 1: around us and support us. And that sort of support
Speaker 1: is kind of intangible. I can't put it on a
Speaker 1: line item of a budget. Uh, this, my community made
Speaker 1: me this much money this month, but it means way
Speaker 1: more than anything money could even buy me. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: it's not just about yeah, because it's not just about money, right,
Speaker 1: Like there's all these apps out there I'm thinking of,
Speaker 1: like the food delivery like door dash or something like that,
Speaker 1: and like, sure, you could just order take out and
Speaker 1: and have it delivered to you and effectively you have
Speaker 1: a meal, just like you would if like a neighbor
Speaker 1: or somebody brought you some food. But how much more
Speaker 1: doesn't mean to know that you've got neighbors and friends
Speaker 1: that are who are willing to do that for you
Speaker 1: and sort of like the heart I guess behind that
Speaker 1: versus than just ordering cheap take out. Well, and we
Speaker 1: even had a friend who was busy and she said,
Speaker 1: I can cook you a meal tomorrow night, or I
Speaker 1: can order you something on tor Dash tonight. And the
Speaker 1: fact that she was just willing to do that, uh,
Speaker 1: just that she said that, Hey, I'm really busy and
Speaker 1: I would love to cook you a meal some mon,
Speaker 1: but I will do this, I will order it for you.
Speaker 1: Now that meant so much. Yes, it's not that it's
Speaker 1: not that DoorDash sucks, it's it's like the meaning behind it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a thought. It's like, Oh, someone cares enough for
Speaker 1: me too, and they're invested with me in this. They're
Speaker 1: essentially walking through life with me. And that's what a
Speaker 1: community does. They're walking through life with you. Yes, and
Speaker 1: old lastly, community helps us to maintain a healthy and
Speaker 1: balanced life. Again, this is something that you can't really
Speaker 1: put your finger on, but deep down we all know
Speaker 1: that when you are known and when you have somebody
Speaker 1: who knows you and and understands you, that's just a
Speaker 1: better life to live. Right, And we're not just talking
Speaker 1: about like a significant other or a spouse. We're talking
Speaker 1: about friends as well, and to have people surrounding you
Speaker 1: who do that, that's just better. Yeah. An example I
Speaker 1: came up with for that, Matt was how awesome is
Speaker 1: it when someone gives you a gift that you didn't
Speaker 1: even ask for that's perfect for you? Or when you
Speaker 1: find a gift for someone, for your friend, for someone
Speaker 1: that you know and care for that's perfect for them
Speaker 1: that they didn't ask for. I love that, And that's
Speaker 1: like the example of community. Like that gift giving scenario
Speaker 1: only happens when two people know each other. Well, Like
Speaker 1: you can buy that thing for yourself whenever you want,
Speaker 1: but that's not that's not the same thing. And also,
Speaker 1: digital communities are awesome. I think they can provide something
Speaker 1: that in person communities can't. There's this hive mind that
Speaker 1: you can tap into with resources that might not be
Speaker 1: available right where you live. But it shouldn't replace physical
Speaker 1: and neighborhood specific community in your life. We want you, guys,
Speaker 1: to obviously have community and to have friends, and to
Speaker 1: have people who know you, not just friends on Facebook
Speaker 1: in this group, who know your financial situation or or
Speaker 1: how you happen to get a deal on your last
Speaker 1: cable bill. Like those things are great, and we want
Speaker 1: that group to continue to be a resource for people
Speaker 1: who have questions and sort of some of the day
Speaker 1: to day practical kind of stuff. And that's what it's
Speaker 1: there for. It's it's there to for us to support
Speaker 1: each other, to encourage each other. Yea, so to tap
Speaker 1: into resources online like our Facebook group that I think
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun to be a part of.
Speaker 1: Just remember that the communities that you have online, that
Speaker 1: you're involved in online should be complementary to what your
Speaker 1: community in real life with the people around you looks like. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what actually makes me think of to man,
Speaker 1: is when you meet somebody who you've met online, like
Speaker 1: through a group, in real life. How cool is that?
Speaker 1: Because like you have this sort of knowledge base of
Speaker 1: each other and sort of what you value and your
Speaker 1: beliefs and different whatever it is that you're talking about
Speaker 1: right in the group. But then when you get to
Speaker 1: meet in person, how cool is it? It's just so
Speaker 1: much better. It's it's so much richer, and you get
Speaker 1: excited because you think, man, we know all these other
Speaker 1: details about each other. Now we get to like connect
Speaker 1: for real and hang out and have a beer or
Speaker 1: go ride bikes or do something real life that we're
Speaker 1: just sort of talking about. When it comes to, you know,
Speaker 1: doing that online, I think that there's something to be
Speaker 1: said for when we do actually meet, you know, different
Speaker 1: people like that in real life. There's a reason why
Speaker 1: you get excited because it's kind of like, oh cool,
Speaker 1: finally we get to do this in real life now,
Speaker 1: this thing that we've been doing digitally. It's like, deep
Speaker 1: down we know that it's sort of imitation. It's digital
Speaker 1: when when when you do that online, but being able
Speaker 1: to do that in person is just awesome, especially when
Speaker 1: you've connected about something that's deep and meaningful to your life.
Speaker 1: So like, for instance, in our group, you know that
Speaker 1: the other people in there like craft beer and like
Speaker 1: talking about you know, money issues that matter to you,
Speaker 1: and so for you and I and for the people
Speaker 1: in the group like that. Those are really two huge
Speaker 1: parts of what make up who you are. And the
Speaker 1: fact that you're connecting with other people that that's the
Speaker 1: case as well. If and when you do get to
Speaker 1: meet in the flesh, it's really really cool because you
Speaker 1: already have two amazing things in common and you're part
Speaker 1: of the same, the same group essentially that was formed digitally. So, folks,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening. We really appreciate you listening
Speaker 1: all the way to the end. Our home on the
Speaker 1: web is how to money dot com. Check it out.
Speaker 1: We'll have some show notes up there for you, and
Speaker 1: if you like what you here, let us know, Review
Speaker 1: and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Cheers Buddy, Cheers Man,
Speaker 1: best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,