Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we are answering your listener questions. That's right, buddy,
Speaker 1: Happy Monday to you. We've got a great listener questions
Speaker 1: episode lined up for listeners today, and we're gonna hear
Speaker 1: from five different listeners. One is asking about how he
Speaker 1: can avoid busting up his budget. Another listener is wondering
Speaker 1: why she got declined for a new credit card that
Speaker 1: she was looking to get. And yet another listener he
Speaker 1: is wanting to know the best way to pay for
Speaker 1: some surgery that he's got coming up. He wants to
Speaker 1: make sure that he is optimizing his money moves. So
Speaker 1: looking forward to those three questions plus two others today,
Speaker 1: We've got a good lineup of listener questions here today, Matt.
Speaker 1: Look forward to get to them. But before we start
Speaker 1: diving in, I wanted to mention this is something I
Speaker 1: just found out. I'm looking for looking for a new
Speaker 1: bike shop up here by where where we live. I
Speaker 1: haven't been to a bike shop yet, Yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 1: I found a guy. I think I mentioned this on
Speaker 1: the show. I found a mobile bike mobile guy. You don't,
Speaker 1: so you don't want to go with him. Well, so
Speaker 1: it was just I just need a flat repair, and
Speaker 1: I had the bike already in my car, and it
Speaker 1: was I was like, man, I just is there someplace
Speaker 1: I can take this and have it done quickly? Just
Speaker 1: want to get back on the road. And I realized,
Speaker 1: wait a second, there's an ari I like five minutes away.
Speaker 1: And do they do bike repairs? Oh? Wait, I looked
Speaker 1: it up online. Yes they do. And so it turns
Speaker 1: out as I was looking on their website that ari
Speaker 1: I had does want they do a lot of bike
Speaker 1: maintenance and too. If you're an ari I co Op member,
Speaker 1: which I believe cost thirty bucks you used to cost
Speaker 1: twenty bucks back in the day, you get a lot
Speaker 1: of discounted bike services and and some bike services you
Speaker 1: get for free flat repair included. Oh no way. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what if you purchased your bike from ari I, Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know that that has any area. Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: you just have to be a co op member. You
Speaker 1: can bring any bike purchased at our Okay, because I
Speaker 1: purchased my gravel bike from ari I, and that would
Speaker 1: be a killer perk if it's like a you know,
Speaker 1: like the costco tire thing where you can just constantly
Speaker 1: bring back your car for maintenance. If I could bring
Speaker 1: back my bike, I think the bit of maintenance would
Speaker 1: be all about that. Like the perk for people who
Speaker 1: bought their bike from ari I is that that you
Speaker 1: get free tune ups for the first year. I think
Speaker 1: that's how it works. But after that, basically all co
Speaker 1: op members, no matter if you bought the bike at
Speaker 1: A or not, you get the same free or discounted
Speaker 1: Mike perks. So um, not an ad for ari I,
Speaker 1: just a mentioned we like them, though we do like ARII,
Speaker 1: just to mention that that's a that's a cool benefit.
Speaker 1: And so I popped in there and I bought the tube,
Speaker 1: the new tube from mari I, but they put it
Speaker 1: on for me and I was in and out the
Speaker 1: door in no time. And I was like, man, aria
Speaker 1: I might be my new bike shop locally when I
Speaker 1: don't need a lot of work done. And if that's
Speaker 1: the case, I'll call my mobile bike repair guy. Sure.
Speaker 1: Or you could learn how to do some of this yourself.
Speaker 1: I could a buddy of mine who's really into bike
Speaker 1: and he's just like dude. The markup that they put
Speaker 1: on bicycle tubes in particular. You can buy like three
Speaker 1: to five of them online for crazy cheap, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's like one of them like two bucks, right yeah, um,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, maybe we'll bike Lever's nice Joe blow
Speaker 1: bike pump. Those are I feel like, some items that
Speaker 1: everybody needs to have in their garage. But yeah, good
Speaker 1: to know though that that exists for folks out there
Speaker 1: who are just wanting to have that knocked out. Which
Speaker 1: what bike did you have? My road bike? Flat on
Speaker 1: the road bike also ended up getting a new tire
Speaker 1: while I was in there, one that hopefully we'll prevent
Speaker 1: more flats from happening in the near future, but one
Speaker 1: of those gator skin tires or whatever it was. It
Speaker 1: really yeah, okay, I was like like a little stickler
Speaker 1: puncture proof. It's nice, which because flats still ruins on
Speaker 1: road bikes in particular, because it's like you're always riding
Speaker 1: on a like a razor's hedge literally what it feels
Speaker 1: like true, there's there's a little tread on them and
Speaker 1: all this as compared to a beefier tie or that
Speaker 1: can maybe handle some of the some of the shocks
Speaker 1: that can handle crossing over from road tracks for real,
Speaker 1: perhaps exactly so, all right, let let's let's move on.
Speaker 1: Matt uh and le mention the beer that we're having
Speaker 1: on this episode. This one is called two Turtle Doves.
Speaker 1: It's by the brewery. Of course. We're having a Christmas
Speaker 1: team beer right here in the middle of December. Holiday's Baby.
Speaker 1: That's right. We'll give our thoughts on this one at
Speaker 1: the end of the episode, but for now, let's get
Speaker 1: to the listener questions. And if you have a question
Speaker 1: you want us to tackle on an upcoming ask HTM episode,
Speaker 1: we would love to hear it. Just go to how
Speaker 1: to money dot com slash ask. There are simple instructions
Speaker 1: there for you to record your yourself asking that question
Speaker 1: and how to get it over to us. It's pretty easy.
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you, and we'd like
Speaker 1: to take your question on the next ask HTM episode.
Speaker 1: And but Matt, let's get to our the first listener
Speaker 1: question of today. This one comes from a listener in Michigan.
Speaker 1: This is and he's about to retire and he wants
Speaker 1: to make sure that he's got his eyes dotted and
Speaker 1: his teeths crossed. Hi, Matt, Joel. This is from the
Speaker 1: Detroit area, and I just turned sixty this past August
Speaker 1: and need to figure out how to get a I guess,
Speaker 1: a fee based financial advisor fiduciary. I've got money all
Speaker 1: over the place, got a pension coming in that I
Speaker 1: didn't know about, and have some rath I ras in
Speaker 1: a couple of different places, a lot of savings accounts,
Speaker 1: Internet savings accounts, and just for I would really like
Speaker 1: to get this all in one place and have a
Speaker 1: nice plan going forward. Thank you very much. I've been
Speaker 1: enjoying your podcast now for the last year and a
Speaker 1: half and look forward to it every week. Thank you
Speaker 1: all right, Mike, thank you so much for that question.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you listening for the past year and a half.
Speaker 1: And by the way, he mentioned finding that pension that
Speaker 1: he didn't know about. That is an awesome, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a little early Christmas present for you here in the
Speaker 1: middle of December. I mean, not many people are gonna
Speaker 1: find better things than that under their treat Yeah, for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. You forgot about that. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: That's a nice shocked shock right there. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: let's let's talk I guess generally about financial advisors here
Speaker 1: for a Second, because we've done an entire episodes about
Speaker 1: how financial advisors, how they're they're not quite as necessary
Speaker 1: as most folks think. You know, we actually believe that
Speaker 1: a lot of folks would be better served by hiring
Speaker 1: a money coach. Uh. Not only would that individual be
Speaker 1: able to help you to think through some of the
Speaker 1: some of the more of the financial fundamentals, but then
Speaker 1: they would also be able to help hold you accountable
Speaker 1: when it comes to the execution of the plans that
Speaker 1: you formulated. But you know, when we say that advisors
Speaker 1: are often overrated, which is sometimes what you'll hear us say,
Speaker 1: we're typically trying to help folks who are in their
Speaker 1: early investing years to avoid paying just basically unnecessary fees
Speaker 1: and money to a professional uh. And by saving that money,
Speaker 1: that would allow individuals to sock more money away into
Speaker 1: the retire and accounts. UH. And that's because financial advisors
Speaker 1: can be crazy expensive, especially relative to the amount of
Speaker 1: money that early investors, folks who are earlier on in
Speaker 1: their journey that they have set aside the higher percentage
Speaker 1: of their income of their network exactly. Yeah, and when
Speaker 1: you are younger, oftentimes you should honestly be more intentionally
Speaker 1: focused on just simply living on less money than you
Speaker 1: make and then just investing the rest. But Mike Key
Speaker 1: is in a different position. The wealth accumulation is actually
Speaker 1: easier in some respects, in many respects than the wealth
Speaker 1: draw down, And so I would say it's likely more
Speaker 1: important to have a financial advisor when you are getting
Speaker 1: to that point where, like Mike, you've got accounts all
Speaker 1: over the place and you're trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: and when access those things. Are a lot of tax
Speaker 1: consequences that could cost you big, big money, and that's
Speaker 1: when an advisor can actually come in. Uh. It can
Speaker 1: be a lot more helpful, way more helpful than when
Speaker 1: you're like should I put more in my four own k?
Speaker 1: Like when you're thirty two or eight? Uh, an advisors
Speaker 1: just less helpful and it's pretty simple and straightforward, or
Speaker 1: when you're just investing those dollars as opposed to the
Speaker 1: nuances that go with a draw down. Yes, exactly, And
Speaker 1: and I love that that Mikey's on the right path.
Speaker 1: He's looking for a fee only fiduciary advisor, which is
Speaker 1: which is what we recommend. Fee only means that you're
Speaker 1: paying a flat rate hopefully an hourly rate. That's our
Speaker 1: favorite method. It's it's just a straightforward will hate to
Speaker 1: pay someone for their time, and that's you're you're basically
Speaker 1: paying them three bucks an hour or something like that
Speaker 1: for their advice per hour you meet with them. And
Speaker 1: it may not initially seem like the most affordable advice
Speaker 1: because hundreds of dollars an hour, that that sounds prohibitive.
Speaker 1: Most people are like, wait a second, what am I
Speaker 1: paying you for? And and why do you get paid
Speaker 1: so much? Have I just hired the most expensive attorney
Speaker 1: of all? Right? But it's just there are so many
Speaker 1: worst pays, worst ways actually to to pay a financial
Speaker 1: advisor that when you break it down, this is the
Speaker 1: best method. This is the best way to pay someone
Speaker 1: for their advice because the alternative models you're going to
Speaker 1: see out there are commission only or at least commission based,
Speaker 1: right where the advisor received a kick back from a
Speaker 1: company when they're able to get their clients to sign
Speaker 1: up for a particular financial product. So they might be
Speaker 1: selling you something that comes with higher fees that's not
Speaker 1: in your best interest, and so this model it might
Speaker 1: seem like a bargain up front they're like, no, I
Speaker 1: do it for free, right, you don't have to pay
Speaker 1: me anything up front. But you're often getting saddled with
Speaker 1: the expensive annual fees or subpart investments that are gonna
Speaker 1: slowly harm your future earning potential. So having a fee
Speaker 1: only fiduciary planner is the best way to go. It's
Speaker 1: it's just the model that comes with the fewest conflicts
Speaker 1: of interest, that's right. And so how is it that
Speaker 1: might should find a fee only fiduciary advisor. There are
Speaker 1: actually networks that advisors can join for for younger folks
Speaker 1: out there, actually um x Y Planning Network. That's one
Speaker 1: of our favorites. The folks who participate in this network,
Speaker 1: they serve mostly, of course Gen X and millennial or
Speaker 1: gen Y clientele. That's why it's the x Y Planning Network.
Speaker 1: But I like that they allow you to find an
Speaker 1: advisor by specialty as well, not just by location, because
Speaker 1: you know, you don't necessarily need to find someone near
Speaker 1: where it is that you live, unless that's you know,
Speaker 1: something that you want to prioritize that's really important to
Speaker 1: you for some reason. Yeah, I remember when we interviewed
Speaker 1: Philip and Julia Olsen from the two cents PBS videos
Speaker 1: on YouTube that they make ago. Yeah, well they they're Philipsop.
Speaker 1: They run a financial advisory firm and they cater specifically
Speaker 1: to artists to create a creative Yeah. And so if
Speaker 1: you're in that field like those of you should be
Speaker 1: seeking them out right to help you with money management.
Speaker 1: And I think it's more helpful to work with somebody
Speaker 1: who serves your niche than to find somebody who has
Speaker 1: an office close to you. But what's important to point
Speaker 1: out here, though, is that all of the advisors that
Speaker 1: are on the x Y Planning Network they signed a
Speaker 1: fiduciary oath. Makes it sound way more official when something
Speaker 1: is an oath, like a blood oath. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: you know this isn't just a title that gets used.
Speaker 1: This is a literal promise. The other planners are are
Speaker 1: committed to always working in the best interests of their clients.
Speaker 1: But Mike, you are not gen X or why though
Speaker 1: you can certainly go to the x Y Planning Network
Speaker 1: so for you, you can also check out NAVA, which
Speaker 1: is the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. That's another
Speaker 1: great place for for you to turn. NAVA dot Org
Speaker 1: is the website for that, and yeah, either one of those,
Speaker 1: um you can find. I don't think people at x
Speaker 1: Y are gonna turn you away because you're a few
Speaker 1: years outside of their demographic, but either one mean gen
Speaker 1: xers are getting older as well. When we whether you
Speaker 1: can be like fifty seven years old and still technically
Speaker 1: be considered a gen xers just crazy thing. So you
Speaker 1: and I'm are millennials and you're but we're turning ford
Speaker 1: here a couple of weeks barely millennials. So like we're
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm barely a millennial. I'm I'm almost almost
Speaker 1: a gen xer. I'm much younger than you. Like that
Speaker 1: should be pointed years, right, I wish not quite? Uh well,
Speaker 1: And so I'll say this to Mike, like put this
Speaker 1: on your to do list. You gotta get organized because
Speaker 1: either way, whether you're hiring a financial advisor or not,
Speaker 1: wrangling all those different account logins, making sure you've tracked
Speaker 1: down all all of the money that you have across
Speaker 1: those dispart accounts, and making sure you've taken into account
Speaker 1: all the pensions that you might have. Maybe there's another
Speaker 1: one hanging out there. He's got like two others hanging
Speaker 1: out in the wings, lift up every rock that you
Speaker 1: can and find all those accounts and find out where
Speaker 1: that money is coming from. Yeah. Also, okay, on that
Speaker 1: note missing money that well, that's another resource too that
Speaker 1: will link to. Because Mike, if you are somebody who
Speaker 1: may not be completely organized, and I'm going to just
Speaker 1: point this out, this is something that you admitted to
Speaker 1: the fact that you didn't know that you had a
Speaker 1: pension that existed. There's a chance that there are some
Speaker 1: states that have money that belongs to you, and so
Speaker 1: what will link to the missing money site where you
Speaker 1: can enter in your personal information and really every hind
Speaker 1: of money listener should go there once a year can
Speaker 1: and type in their their info. It will take you
Speaker 1: literally thirty seconds and you can see if if there
Speaker 1: is money hanging out. We've had tons of listeners when
Speaker 1: we mentioned that. Every time we mentioned that's like a
Speaker 1: dozen people reach out to us. And I've ever heard
Speaker 1: of this. I found thousands of dollars or hundreds of
Speaker 1: dollars that was that was owed to me that I
Speaker 1: didn't know. Especially this time of year, this is like
Speaker 1: a great time to up turn a rock. Then you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, there's money there. That's right, that's right,
Speaker 1: love it. So, yeah, go over those old statements, I
Speaker 1: would say, might get and dig up those accounts that
Speaker 1: might have slipped your mind. And yeah, you might even
Speaker 1: realize that you don't need to hire a professional. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It sounds like you have a complex enough
Speaker 1: situation that when it comes to the draw down and
Speaker 1: when it comes to the tax implications, it's gonna make
Speaker 1: sense to talk to a professional, pay for a couple
Speaker 1: to three or four hours of their time, and to
Speaker 1: get their input so that you are making the most
Speaker 1: tax efficient choices for you moving forward. This is um
Speaker 1: you know, these are important years to kind of come
Speaker 1: up with that draw down plan. Uh So, yeah, get
Speaker 1: your financial ducks in a row and then start reaching out.
Speaker 1: Interview a few I don't know, three or four for
Speaker 1: the only advisors to see maybe who's gonna be the
Speaker 1: best trip for you personality wise and specialty wise. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we we hope that they're able to to help you
Speaker 1: make the best decisions for you and for your financial future.
Speaker 1: But Matt, we've got more questions to get to, including
Speaker 1: you got a question from a listener who's like, man,
Speaker 1: there's always a budget buster every single month, i'n't feel
Speaker 1: like I'm encountering something, and I feel like that's not
Speaker 1: an uncommon thought we've heard from other How Money listeners.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that question and more right after this break.
Speaker 1: All right, we are back for the break take and
Speaker 1: listener questions, and Joe, we will get to that budgeting
Speaker 1: question here in a second, but first let's take a
Speaker 1: question about a credit card. Hi, Joela Matt, this is
Speaker 1: Lindsay from Sonoma County, California. I have a question today
Speaker 1: about credit cards. I was using your credit card matching
Speaker 1: tool a couple of days ago to find a new
Speaker 1: credit card offer. I use currently a couple of cards.
Speaker 1: One's a hotel one's a airline card. But I was
Speaker 1: really looking for a cash back card as I don't
Speaker 1: have that in my current wallet. So I found the
Speaker 1: City Premier card through your tool than you and it
Speaker 1: has a great bonus right now. I applied for the
Speaker 1: card and was really surprised to be declined for this
Speaker 1: credit card. Um with a credit score of over eight
Speaker 1: hundred and by the fact that I pay off my
Speaker 1: cards in full every month and have a long credit history. Um. Again,
Speaker 1: I was just really surprised. I got a letter from
Speaker 1: City Bank stating that the reasons for this was that
Speaker 1: my credit report shows a high amount of unused credit
Speaker 1: compared with available lines, and that my credit report shows
Speaker 1: too many open revolving accounts. So those two things I've
Speaker 1: always viewed as positive, having the low credit utilization and
Speaker 1: having the accounts stay open to show that long history. Um,
Speaker 1: Am I doing something wrong? Should I close some of
Speaker 1: these open accounts? Just looking for some advice? Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: All right, so real quick. So she mentioned Sonoma County.
Speaker 1: Is that where Lagunita? Is it depically? Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 1: Too bad. We didn't coordinate our beer with Lindsay's question,
Speaker 1: but I'm guessing yeah, maybe Lindsay knows a little bit
Speaker 1: more about wine than she does craft beer. But there's
Speaker 1: some good stuff out there. Yeah, no, there's I feel
Speaker 1: like there's good beer and and good wine out there,
Speaker 1: like can enjoy both. California, it's like an embarrassment of
Speaker 1: riches when it comes to you know, alcoholic beverages and taxes.
Speaker 1: Well maybe the oppisode of that front. Well, but Lindsay
Speaker 1: has got a great question here, and Matt, when when
Speaker 1: I first heard Lindsay's question. When it first came in,
Speaker 1: I was like a little shocked to hear that she
Speaker 1: was declined for those reasons. It does not these facts
Speaker 1: do not compute, like based on what she's what she experienced,
Speaker 1: that yeah, definitely doesn't make sense. Having too much credit
Speaker 1: is rarely a reason for a credit card issuer to
Speaker 1: deny your application, especially when somebody like Lindsay has shown
Speaker 1: that she handles it so well. Right, she's got that
Speaker 1: impeccable credit score. It seems like, based on everything we've
Speaker 1: ever talked about when it comes to the credit scoring models,
Speaker 1: that she, of all people, should be accepted for any
Speaker 1: credit card that she applied applies for. Well, one possibility
Speaker 1: will mention Lyncy, and there's a there's a couple thoughts
Speaker 1: that we have here on why this could have happened.
Speaker 1: But one possibility is if the bank that you apply
Speaker 1: for that card with thinks that you are what's known
Speaker 1: as a credit card churner, and that is kind of
Speaker 1: a derogatory label they might apply to you if you're
Speaker 1: the kind of person who opens up a lot of
Speaker 1: credit cards in order to score bonuses and so uh,
Speaker 1: it's a great idea to open credit cards on occasion
Speaker 1: and to get those bonuses, because they can be just
Speaker 1: incredibly beneficial for the layperson credit card user. But if
Speaker 1: if this credit card company sees that you've opened maybe
Speaker 1: four or five cards within the past twenty four months,
Speaker 1: they might want to avoid extending credit to you, thinking
Speaker 1: that you're just in it for the bonus and you're
Speaker 1: gonna ditch them at the first moment possible. And so
Speaker 1: Chase actually has the most well known version of this,
Speaker 1: which folks on the internet called the five rule, whereas
Speaker 1: if they they will not allow you to sign up
Speaker 1: for one of their credit cards if you've opened up
Speaker 1: five cards in the past twenty four months. And I'm
Speaker 1: not or if that's your scenario, but it could be
Speaker 1: an explanation if you have opened up a few other
Speaker 1: credit cards in the past year or the past two years,
Speaker 1: they might say, you know what, we don't think you
Speaker 1: actually want this card for for the long term, which
Speaker 1: what they want that we should be a long term customer.
Speaker 1: We think you're in it just for that bonus, and
Speaker 1: so because of that, that's why we're not going to
Speaker 1: accept your application. Yeah, and the different banks they've got
Speaker 1: different sort of like rules of thumb as well, Like
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the City has got like this six
Speaker 1: of six rules. So basically, if you had six hard
Speaker 1: inquiries to your credit within the past six months, you'll
Speaker 1: also get denied. So it's not even specific to credit
Speaker 1: cards if that's not what you were doing, Lindsay. And
Speaker 1: by the way, those rules are not hard like that
Speaker 1: you don't find you won't find them on City or
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you won't find them on their website, like
Speaker 1: they don't spell that out, but it's something that people have.
Speaker 1: It's become become kind of like a common understanding, um,
Speaker 1: like like you'll find it on the Reddit forums when
Speaker 1: you're reading about credit cards there. And the fact is too,
Speaker 1: I mean they're constantly changing, like these are different rules
Speaker 1: and guidelines that the different banks are are following, but
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that they can't change their mind on dime.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Lindsay, we actually reached out to City. Joel,
Speaker 1: you kind of spearheaded this. This is kind of like
Speaker 1: a throwback to your your radio days where you're like
Speaker 1: reaching out to companies and be like, hey, I got
Speaker 1: a question for you. I was like I want the truth,
Speaker 1: and they were like you can't handle the truth. And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, give me something. Uh. And so,
Speaker 1: of course, with with City being a gargangean bank that
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily care a lot about responding to its customer needs. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is the response that we got, and this is
Speaker 1: from an actual individual. But they said, quote, we cannot
Speaker 1: speak to any one customer situation. City strives to build
Speaker 1: long term relationships with our customers and provide value and
Speaker 1: benefits that encouraged sustained engagement. As such, we carefully review
Speaker 1: each application and consider a range of eligibility factors, including
Speaker 1: the number of open accounts. And so while our specific
Speaker 1: eligibility process is proprietary, we believe you like think you know,
Speaker 1: we believe this approach is similar to that of other
Speaker 1: issuers within the industry. And so that's just all long
Speaker 1: winded way of saying that we're not going to tell
Speaker 1: you why it is that she got declined. I was
Speaker 1: something for more than that. I honestly I was hoping
Speaker 1: for something better than just pr spin that's literally what
Speaker 1: this is. And so I was hoping that they would
Speaker 1: give me some some sort of insight into why somebody
Speaker 1: like Lindsay, who is a great customer great credit score
Speaker 1: who has handled credit very well would be denied for
Speaker 1: something like it. But but they don't want to. They
Speaker 1: kind of want to keep that tight lipped. Seems so
Speaker 1: what's so crazy here is is I mean, based on
Speaker 1: this response that she got, it sounds like city like
Speaker 1: they are saying the quiet part out loud. So based
Speaker 1: on the traditional rules, like I'm used to seeing, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've applied for too many accounts or cards in the past,
Speaker 1: you know, in recent in the recent months. But the
Speaker 1: fact that they are literally stating why it is that
Speaker 1: internally that they would be deciding why to turn her
Speaker 1: down right, Like that doesn't make sense. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: almost as if they're like they're changing the rules essentially,
Speaker 1: um And so that's in my mind, in my estimation,
Speaker 1: Like that's the weirdest part here is that, Okay, based
Speaker 1: on what you're saying, it's it's almost as if the
Speaker 1: old traditional rules of credit do not apply, Like they're
Speaker 1: changing the rules. Does that make sense? It's it's almost
Speaker 1: as if they're like they're looking for more like less
Speaker 1: credit worthy card users as opposed to credit card users
Speaker 1: who truly would use their cards responsibly. Like that's the
Speaker 1: part that makes it's it's interestly because the people, makes sense,
Speaker 1: don't use their credit cards as responsibly are the ones
Speaker 1: who make the bank's money. So exactly, not like that's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's almost as if they're revealing their marketing plan.
Speaker 1: It's just like we need to target the folks who
Speaker 1: are going to handle their credit poorly as opposed to
Speaker 1: the folks who are handling their accounts responsibly. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: how the money listeners would be considered exactly because exactly
Speaker 1: going to the banks because they do keep pristine credit scores,
Speaker 1: they don't ever owe any interest or late fees or
Speaker 1: penalties to the credit card companies, and so yeah, that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the ideal credit card customer for some of
Speaker 1: these for some of these credit card companies. But still,
Speaker 1: I am shocked this he was rejected for this. I'm
Speaker 1: also I just made me think, like, how glad am
Speaker 1: I that I don't work in pr By the way,
Speaker 1: having to write those emails and say something just incredibly
Speaker 1: opaque and silly sounding to us so that we can
Speaker 1: read it on the air and make that company sound ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's just I would hate having to respond to those
Speaker 1: emails in that way, I prefer a form of a
Speaker 1: little bit of authenticity, at least from I don't know everyone,
Speaker 1: but from a big bank. You don't expect that, but
Speaker 1: I would hope for more. But despite this annoyance and inconvenience, Lindsey,
Speaker 1: we would say, it's actually possible for you to still
Speaker 1: get this credit card. And that's assuming that you still
Speaker 1: want it. Because most credit card companies City included, have
Speaker 1: what's known as a reconsideration line. I would call them
Speaker 1: up and I would ask them to reconsider your application
Speaker 1: and be sure to mention the reasons why you think
Speaker 1: you're a good candidate for the card, why you want
Speaker 1: this card. You know they obviously they know your credit score,
Speaker 1: but point to that and then sprinkle in words like
Speaker 1: loyal and responsible, right, little words that make it sound
Speaker 1: like you're going to be a long term customer, not
Speaker 1: someone who's like a fly by night customer just snagging
Speaker 1: the sign up bonus and then mosing down the road.
Speaker 1: You want to make it sound like you're going to
Speaker 1: use this card for years to come. And make sure
Speaker 1: to be nice too, because most folks they call uphen
Speaker 1: they're annoyed and they're like, hey, why don't you give
Speaker 1: me this card? And you put the representative on the
Speaker 1: back foot. What we'd say, you're not gonna get nearly
Speaker 1: as far with a bad attitude with with anger, So
Speaker 1: be kind to the person you're talking to. And yeah,
Speaker 1: but try to sell yourself to on on why they
Speaker 1: should reconsider and let you be their customer. That's right.
Speaker 1: It feels like you shouldn't have to do that, but
Speaker 1: I mean it's probably the best thing for Lindsay to do. Movie.
Speaker 1: It's all a part of the game, you know, And
Speaker 1: it's a dance. Yeah, it's a dance. And she mentioned
Speaker 1: our credit card tool by the way, which is I mean,
Speaker 1: we're we're glad that you are liking it, when we
Speaker 1: certainly hope that other how the money listeners will you
Speaker 1: know that that they're finding it to be the easiest
Speaker 1: way to find the right card that's going to offer
Speaker 1: them the best perks for how they approach spending. Will
Speaker 1: make sure to to link to that tool in our
Speaker 1: show notes. But it's how the Money dot Com forward
Speaker 1: slash credit cards. And she mentioned the City Premier cards specifically,
Speaker 1: which is pretty sweet. You know, eight tho points that
Speaker 1: is quite attractive, but you also need to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are handling the credit that you have available
Speaker 1: to you well, that you are not participating in spending
Speaker 1: that you would not otherwise incur. But lindsay, we wish
Speaker 1: you the best of luck and we hope that gets
Speaker 1: you pointed in the right direction, and if that reconsideration
Speaker 1: line works out for you, let us know, because yes,
Speaker 1: actually I would love to know that as well. I've
Speaker 1: never I know it exists. I don't know anybody personally
Speaker 1: who has said, like I got rejected, but then I
Speaker 1: called and they were like, hey, it's all good, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll send it your way. So I'm I want to
Speaker 1: know how this pans out. Yeah, and anybody else out
Speaker 1: there who's also called one of the reconsideration lens as well.
Speaker 1: It's not something that we have personally done, but we
Speaker 1: would love this. How about your boy? So Joel, let's
Speaker 1: get to our next question. This is from listener Phil
Speaker 1: who is asking about budgeting. Hi, Joelan Matt, this is
Speaker 1: Phil from Annapolis. I'm a long time listener and this
Speaker 1: is my first time sending a question. I'm working on
Speaker 1: improving my monthly budgeting. However, I find it frustrating that
Speaker 1: no month is a normal month. In other words, something
Speaker 1: always comes up the bus busts my monthly budget. Any
Speaker 1: tips or tricks to avoid this issue. Thanks for your guidance.
Speaker 1: Keep up the good work, all right, Phil. First off,
Speaker 1: I gotta say I love that you're trying to improve
Speaker 1: improve your budgeting. This is is one of those things
Speaker 1: where I don't know, we can all stand to get
Speaker 1: a little bit better, tighten things up, except for Matt,
Speaker 1: who's I don't know, probably the budget king, the self annointed.
Speaker 1: You're kind of like the Tiger King in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, but you're the budget king, dude. This isn't
Speaker 1: Hopefully they can make it. Nobody's watching the Tiger Racing
Speaker 1: Netflix show about your budgeting endeavors. Well, but Phil, we
Speaker 1: totally get what you're where you're coming from. Inflation, obviously,
Speaker 1: is is pinching the budgets of tens of millions of
Speaker 1: It feels like budgeting is harder in two than it
Speaker 1: was a year or two ago, especially with the absence
Speaker 1: of Stimmy payments sit in that bank account. It's uh,
Speaker 1: you're basically you're not alone when it comes to having
Speaker 1: a busted budget. But we will give our best advice
Speaker 1: to you here so you can hopefully stay the course
Speaker 1: and budget effectively moving forward, even with kind of all
Speaker 1: the moving parts, all the things conspiring against you to
Speaker 1: make budgeting a little more difficult. That's right, Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so our first bit of advice fill would be for
Speaker 1: you to change how it is that you are mentally
Speaker 1: approaching budgeting. Can I call you Matt exotic? By the way, No,
Speaker 1: you may not. I mean just between you and me,
Speaker 1: like yes, but not publicly all right, but phil Like,
Speaker 1: basically I want you to change how it is you're
Speaker 1: thinking about it. So from a mental standpoint, I want
Speaker 1: you to be less optimistic, because like, when it comes
Speaker 1: to budgeting, it's I think it's important to be a
Speaker 1: little bit like more realistic, like slightly maybe even pessimistic.
Speaker 1: It makes me think about taking on home projects and
Speaker 1: how much time I allow for their completion because like,
Speaker 1: at this point, I've learned that whatever I actually tell Kate,
Speaker 1: like whatever I think it's gonna take, just multiply that
Speaker 1: by three. Have you told her that? Now? Do you?
Speaker 1: Do you starry? She knows it absolutely, She's like Matt
Speaker 1: is lying through his teeth right now, I'm just way
Speaker 1: too optimistic when it comes to the amount of time,
Speaker 1: because in my mind, I think, well, that's how long
Speaker 1: it should take. But it's times two for the unforeseens,
Speaker 1: and in times three when it comes to actual clean up,
Speaker 1: just like the whole deal for for me, times four
Speaker 1: when it when becomes to lack of skills for like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the medical doctor's visit, just smashing your thumb and just
Speaker 1: for being born Norwegian, that's what happens. Like you're bad
Speaker 1: at fix it stuff. You don't give yourself enough credit. Um.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to your budget, if you're if
Speaker 1: you're too optimistic, phil I think real life is going
Speaker 1: to give you a cold dose of reality and then
Speaker 1: you're gonna be dipping into your savings to make up
Speaker 1: for the spots where you spent too much, or even worse,
Speaker 1: putting it on a credit card that you can't pay
Speaker 1: off in full at the end of the month. And
Speaker 1: so while optimism it's kind of like a good life philosophy,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to budgeting, I feel like optimism
Speaker 1: doesn't lend itself to an accurate, helpful budget. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: My favorite quote and personal finances probably when Morgan Housell says,
Speaker 1: to save like a pessimist, but to an best like
Speaker 1: an optimist. There you go. I don't know that you
Speaker 1: could boil down the essence of how to think about
Speaker 1: money better than that. It's it's just sage advice, and
Speaker 1: so what that looks like in reality. We would say
Speaker 1: to to kind of be that pessimist when it comes
Speaker 1: to saving and budgeting is to is to base your
Speaker 1: current budget on your actual recent spending. So we would say,
Speaker 1: take an average of the last three or six months
Speaker 1: of spending that you've engaged in phil to gauge what
Speaker 1: spending is going to look like for you moving forward.
Speaker 1: We don't want you pulling numbers out of thin air,
Speaker 1: or budgeting for groceries based on hopes and dreams. Like
Speaker 1: we we want you to use recent data to inform
Speaker 1: what you're spending can and should look like moving forward.
Speaker 1: We definitely want you to take into account one off
Speaker 1: items or expenses to that you incurred over the past
Speaker 1: six months or so. It's it's important to have money
Speaker 1: set aside in sinking funds for stuff like car and
Speaker 1: home repairs that are hard to predict but that they're
Speaker 1: certain to occur. Like you don't know, uh, necessarily when
Speaker 1: you need like a new serpent teinae belt or something
Speaker 1: like that. But gosh darn it, it's gonna happen one
Speaker 1: of these days, and so you gotta be prepared. You
Speaker 1: don't want that thing squealing on you. You know you don't.
Speaker 1: And so like, yeah, you know when an oil change
Speaker 1: is gonna happen, You're gonna have probably two of those
Speaker 1: a year, three of those years. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: drive less than the average person, so I have your
Speaker 1: oil changes in the average person. But yeah, you know
Speaker 1: that those are gonna happen. You can budget for those tires.
Speaker 1: You know that's going to happen every two and a
Speaker 1: half to three years, and so you can kind of
Speaker 1: start budgeting ahead for those things. But it's crucial to
Speaker 1: to base your budget, your your budget moving forward based
Speaker 1: on what your recent expenses have hand sure, and and
Speaker 1: the thing is too Phil didn't say how long he
Speaker 1: has been budgeting and keeping up with his with his expenses,
Speaker 1: but over I mean, I would say to like, the
Speaker 1: longer you are budgeting, the tighter it's gonna get, the
Speaker 1: more accurate it's going to be, and the more you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to build in some of those sinking
Speaker 1: funds because you're gonna have a just a better grasp
Speaker 1: all on when some of those different expenses are are
Speaker 1: gonna sort of crop up. But then, phil after you
Speaker 1: have that information, you're not just gonna sit on it, right,
Speaker 1: You're gonna take that information and you're gonna use that
Speaker 1: information to then update your budget. And that's something you're
Speaker 1: gonna wanna do continually, basically, Like you don't want to
Speaker 1: create a budget at the beginning of the year and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what my monthly budget is going to be.
Speaker 1: Fore it's something that you're gonna want to revisit, especially
Speaker 1: considering how the amount of money that we're spending on
Speaker 1: things has dramatically shifted over the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: In the past years that was less dramatically awful. It's
Speaker 1: still probably probably could set it and almost forget it
Speaker 1: because prices were fairly stable. But that is not what
Speaker 1: we have seen recently, especially when it comes to the
Speaker 1: things like groceries and even just something as basic as
Speaker 1: the cost of eggs. Yeah, if you kept your grocery
Speaker 1: line out and the same, you were just you're eating
Speaker 1: more poorly by the end of the end and you're
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the Yeah, and you can't assume
Speaker 1: that your grocery bill or even what you're gonna pay
Speaker 1: for car or home insurance like that, that is going
Speaker 1: to stay the same, which has become abundantly clear over
Speaker 1: the past eighteen months. Um, those line items will not
Speaker 1: remain static. Uh. These dynamic price says that we're experiencing
Speaker 1: should lead to you having a more dynamic budget. And
Speaker 1: so phil as costs go up, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: make some of these small tweaks in order to keep
Speaker 1: your budget relevant. Uh. And keep in mind too, I mean,
Speaker 1: most folks aren't going to have an unlimited amount of
Speaker 1: funds that where they can continue to kind of crank
Speaker 1: out the numbers when you know on some of the
Speaker 1: different line items that they have. And everyone can be
Speaker 1: mad exotic, but once she was the TLC was Tiger
Speaker 1: King was was I don't know Netflix, I think of
Speaker 1: his Don't go Chasing Waterfalls? Well, no, I'm talking did
Speaker 1: you know the Learning Channel or whatever I think of
Speaker 1: the band whichever television network that you strike a deal with.
Speaker 1: Even those folks aren't going to have an unlimited amount
Speaker 1: of money that they're going to be able to work with.
Speaker 1: And so you're gonna have to find different areas in
Speaker 1: within your budget where you're gonna cut back in order
Speaker 1: to make everything balance out as well. And so it's
Speaker 1: just important to find that balance between holding yourself to
Speaker 1: a specific number that you've identified that you you know
Speaker 1: where you do want to keep your spending in check,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, don't be afraid to make
Speaker 1: some small weeks along the way as you are seeing
Speaker 1: reality not necessarily match up to what it is that
Speaker 1: you have written down the paper. Yeah, for sure, and
Speaker 1: it's true. It's just a reminder to the budgets are
Speaker 1: not a device for making your life miserable, even if
Speaker 1: that's how they often get discussed. I feel like that
Speaker 1: is something we want to reclaim the word budget, Matt.
Speaker 1: Don't we to a certain extent, we wanted to be
Speaker 1: about people like ensuring that their money actually gets spent
Speaker 1: on the things that matter. It's not about cutting back
Speaker 1: in every single area to ensure that you live the
Speaker 1: blandest life possible. But I think that's often how budgets
Speaker 1: get conveyed. But when you have a budget, it actually
Speaker 1: gives you the ability the freedom to spend on the
Speaker 1: things that you say matter to you. That it allows
Speaker 1: you to cut back on the things that matter less
Speaker 1: and spend more on the fun stuff that you have.
Speaker 1: And everybody's idea or conception of fun stuff is going
Speaker 1: to be different. Mind is going to be more craft beer,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be a two two turtle dove. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be like this beer that we'd drinking right here.
Speaker 1: But on top of that, I would say, for Phil
Speaker 1: and for other people out there, you might want to
Speaker 1: use a better system that Matt. You like the old
Speaker 1: school Excel spreadsheet, which is totally fine, But we like
Speaker 1: Whineap a lot. We think that that's a great software
Speaker 1: that works well for a lot of people. It's worth
Speaker 1: the money for a lot of folks to pay because
Speaker 1: they do more than just track your spending. Their goal
Speaker 1: is basically help you build a better relationship with your money.
Speaker 1: And so while it might seem counterintuitive to spend money
Speaker 1: on budgeting software, it's it's also a software that's proven
Speaker 1: to help a lot of folks. And luckily you can
Speaker 1: try it out free for thirty four days, so I
Speaker 1: don't We'll link to that and show up. But it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where if your current methodology, the
Speaker 1: way in which you're interacting with your budget isn't working
Speaker 1: so well for you and phil and maybe that's causing
Speaker 1: some of the overspending because you feel like you're not
Speaker 1: able to check in on it, or you feel like
Speaker 1: it's not as intuitive as you'd like it to be.
Speaker 1: Interacting with a better user interface can be and with
Speaker 1: some software that's actually trying to propel you in the
Speaker 1: right direction, that can be the solution for some folks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in a small plug for or free Microsoft Excel or
Speaker 1: Google sheets. Maybe in Film's case, he isn't paying as
Speaker 1: much attention to his budget as he needs to write.
Speaker 1: And so I think maybe for some folks out there,
Speaker 1: when they said it, they truly do forget it. And
Speaker 1: so that's one of the reasons why I like to
Speaker 1: go in there and manually entering my expenses because it
Speaker 1: helps me to keep a pulse on our family spending,
Speaker 1: which then allows us in real time to make small
Speaker 1: tweaks and adjustments to our spending. And you actually have
Speaker 1: a budget template that you use that you have made
Speaker 1: available to our listeners relak to that in the show notes. Uh,
Speaker 1: because yeah, for a lot of folks who would say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to spend the money every single month
Speaker 1: to pay for wine app and I am down with
Speaker 1: manually tracking and that's the best way for me. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you just need a template to go off of. It's
Speaker 1: going to help you get started, that's right. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: we'll make sure to link to that's and Phil, we
Speaker 1: wish you the best of luck. Joel. We've got a
Speaker 1: couple additional questions we're gonna get to, including a question
Speaker 1: about what might be the worst investment option out there
Speaker 1: for a lot of folks. Will get to that one
Speaker 1: plus another right after this. All right, Matt, we're back
Speaker 1: from the break. We're we're going to keep taking a
Speaker 1: couple more listener questions, and we are. In just a second.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a question about potentially the worst investment
Speaker 1: option that is available to most people, and the listener
Speaker 1: and wonders whether his wife should participate or not. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing you might have an inkling of what our answer
Speaker 1: might be, but there's a lot of nuances involved too.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that, Matt, let's take this
Speaker 1: next one about medical bills. How to pay for them.
Speaker 1: Hello boys, this is cyber dude. I'm having surgery and
Speaker 1: after insurance, I estimate I'll have around four thousand dollars
Speaker 1: that I may have to pay over time. My doctor's
Speaker 1: office at care Credit would give me eighteen months to
Speaker 1: pay with no interest, which I could handle, but some
Speaker 1: of the reviews are pretty negative and talk about hidden fees.
Speaker 1: My credit score is around seven fifty. Should I go
Speaker 1: with care Credit, put it on my on credit card
Speaker 1: or dip into my savings? Thank you man. I love
Speaker 1: hearing from cyber dude. He's our. He's like a v
Speaker 1: I P. When it comes to listener questions like have
Speaker 1: we taken one other question before? Of course he's got
Speaker 1: the voices, unforgettable, the tone and canber cyber cyber dudes
Speaker 1: work on his larynx? So I'll do. Don't make comut
Speaker 1: of him. What if we know? Yeah, he's protecting his
Speaker 1: identity and so punches it into the computer helps them
Speaker 1: to maintain that anonymity. But let's go ahead and get
Speaker 1: to the heart of cyber dudes question, which is paying
Speaker 1: for medical expenses. I mean we actually we so we
Speaker 1: talked about budgeting right before the break and healthcare expenses.
Speaker 1: Those should totally be a meaningful part of your budget.
Speaker 1: You should have enough set aside to handle the max
Speaker 1: out of pocket that you might be responsible for paying
Speaker 1: based on the medical coverage that you've chosen. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean, cyber dude, that you can't op for a
Speaker 1: nifty payment plan if it allows you to perhaps spread
Speaker 1: out payments over time, although, like you said, those often
Speaker 1: come with some massive potential pitfalls. And so this isn't
Speaker 1: We're not giving you free permission. This isn't a slam dunk.
Speaker 1: Say we know what we're saying. Oh yeah, absolutely, take
Speaker 1: take advantage of the surgery now, pay later by now.
Speaker 1: But you know, like like we're seeing that in multiple
Speaker 1: realms of life, not only when it comes to consumer spending,
Speaker 1: but also within the medical industry as well, And so
Speaker 1: you do want to make sure that you're being careful
Speaker 1: with that, for sure. Yeah, it's it's something like it
Speaker 1: makes me think of if someone could get a zero
Speaker 1: percent car loan on a vehicle they want to buy,
Speaker 1: but they already have the cash on hand to pay
Speaker 1: full freight, right, They've got the twenty to buy the
Speaker 1: car they want, But then at the dealership, they said,
Speaker 1: with no additional if hands or butts now, but we
Speaker 1: cat we got a zero percent right for you. So
Speaker 1: keep that money and invested instead while you're paying monthly
Speaker 1: payments for this car loan. That's okay to do, right,
Speaker 1: That's like kind of like optimizing its arbitration. There's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with taking that approach. And that's kind of what
Speaker 1: cyber He's talking about here, is, well, what if I
Speaker 1: do the same thing with a payment plan that a
Speaker 1: hospital offers. They're gonna give me zero percent on this
Speaker 1: junk for eighteen months, and so it might make the
Speaker 1: most sense for me to take advantage of this payment
Speaker 1: plan and keep my money, keep my cash on hand
Speaker 1: for you know, who knows what else could come along
Speaker 1: if if only these plans didn't completely suck, if only
Speaker 1: they didn't have a lot of other pitfalls and minds
Speaker 1: potentually that you could step on. That's the problem in
Speaker 1: the process. And NPR just ran a piece about some
Speaker 1: of the payment plans that hospitals offer their patients, and
Speaker 1: they sound pretty good on the web page, right. It
Speaker 1: sounds nice that you can get help and get the care,
Speaker 1: to be able to get the care that you need
Speaker 1: and financially speaking, you can pay for it over time,
Speaker 1: no problems, right, how nice? It sounds nice at least,
Speaker 1: but millions of folks around the country have signed up
Speaker 1: for one of these plans and they have found that
Speaker 1: they're paying not single digit but double digit interest rates
Speaker 1: for the medical or dental care that they need, often
Speaker 1: thanks to the fine print in those financing contracts, and
Speaker 1: and the numbers are are shockingly awful. Something like fifty
Speaker 1: Americans currently have outstanding medical debt, which is insane, and
Speaker 1: then a quarter of them are paying interest on that debt,
Speaker 1: which makes it even worse. And these payment plans are
Speaker 1: a huge culprit. They're a huge part of that reason
Speaker 1: because a lot of people think they're signing up for
Speaker 1: something where the fine print actually turns on them, and
Speaker 1: something that looked good, looked appealing at first clients now
Speaker 1: is eating away their personal finances. Right, Yeah, So what
Speaker 1: should he do though? Uh? And first of all, I'm
Speaker 1: glad to hear that you've got money in savings in
Speaker 1: order to pay for this procedure if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: We're not talking about needing a line of credit because
Speaker 1: of an inability to pay here like we're talking about
Speaker 1: making the just the most financially optimized decision and care credit. Again,
Speaker 1: it sounds decent, but at zero percent interest rate, isn't
Speaker 1: all that great if it comes with annoying or hard
Speaker 1: hard to find, pesky you know, monthly fees. These are
Speaker 1: little bits of information that you're gonna want to verify
Speaker 1: in advance, and then you're gonna want to make sure
Speaker 1: to pay that loan off way before they start charge
Speaker 1: arging you interest if you opt to go that route. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so I think he's did you mentioned eighteen months? Uh,
Speaker 1: like an eighteen month period that you have to pay
Speaker 1: that pay that off. Don't even skirt with eighteen months.
Speaker 1: Maybe pay that off like an extra three months early.
Speaker 1: It's like canceling a free trial the day that it expires.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no no, no, it's like when exactly does
Speaker 1: the clock strike? You know? I do it like a
Speaker 1: week and half in advance, always on the Google calendar.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, yeah, so if if it's like a
Speaker 1: one week trial, I'll do like one day in advance,
Speaker 1: but I never skirt with the actual day. If they're
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, it'll be the sixteenth, I'm like you
Speaker 1: better believe it's gonna be during business hours on the fifteen. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: even after you canceled, typically they let you have the
Speaker 1: rest of that window that you paid for. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, I just want to make sure I'm
Speaker 1: ahead of it and I don't forget. It doesn't escape
Speaker 1: my mind. And you're right, like you for like, Man,
Speaker 1: you've got the best of intentions to pay off this
Speaker 1: care Credit loan within eighteen months, but man, it just
Speaker 1: slipped your mind and dang it, you got into month
Speaker 1: month nineteen. Well you could be in a world of
Speaker 1: hurt with interest rate. That's interest, it's rack up over
Speaker 1: time that now is on you. And one felt exactly
Speaker 1: And that's what the review show as well, because i mean,
Speaker 1: based on all the reviews that care Credit gets from
Speaker 1: folks who have used them, there's actually I mean, in
Speaker 1: the end, there's no way that we would go this route.
Speaker 1: There's no way that we would even play with fire
Speaker 1: in this case, because it sounds like the hidden fees
Speaker 1: that like that they are basically the rule, they're not
Speaker 1: the exception, based on just a preponderance of user complaints,
Speaker 1: based on the actual experiences of folks who have given
Speaker 1: care Credit a shot. Yeah, so I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you play with fire, you're gonna get burned. And
Speaker 1: signing up for one of these payment plans that sounds
Speaker 1: so nice on the front end, for so many people
Speaker 1: get taken on the back end, And it's not something
Speaker 1: I would even I would even give a shot unless
Speaker 1: I was literally behind the eight ball had no other choice,
Speaker 1: which is not the case for cyber dude. He has
Speaker 1: other choices, and and he even mentioned potentially paying with
Speaker 1: a credit card, which is probably the best option here, right,
Speaker 1: This could be a great route. You mentioned having a
Speaker 1: singular credit card, though, so we wouldn't necessarily recommend you
Speaker 1: use that card for once that's your only revolving line
Speaker 1: of credit. There's a decent chance that you you end
Speaker 1: up maxing that puppy out, which isn't great for your
Speaker 1: credit score. But in addition to that, especially since we're
Speaker 1: talking about a four thousand dollar expense here, you could
Speaker 1: literally snag a significant sign up bonus in one fell
Speaker 1: swoop right with this one purchase. So, assuming you don't
Speaker 1: have ongoing spending problems, we'd say suggest like, maybe you
Speaker 1: find a new card that has a great welcome offer
Speaker 1: add that card to your arsenal first, and then use
Speaker 1: that new card to help you keep your utilization low
Speaker 1: moving forward, and get the sweet bonus on top of it.
Speaker 1: So it's win win scenario. Yeah. Yeah, it's because you
Speaker 1: are going to spend down your savings and we want
Speaker 1: you to build that up rather quickly after the fact.
Speaker 1: But this gives you at least a little bit of
Speaker 1: extra time and a little bit of a monetary bonus
Speaker 1: for just based on the method of payment you choose
Speaker 1: to use to pay for this medical procedure. That's right.
Speaker 1: And again, cyber dudees got the cash to pay that
Speaker 1: balance off in full once the bill arise, And so
Speaker 1: he's just in the best possible scenario, he's just funneling
Speaker 1: that spending catbird cy to Some might say that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's just you know, shuttling that money through that credit
Speaker 1: card and then just reaping the rewards. Uh. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: if the the hospital or the medical office, if they're
Speaker 1: not going to charge you any for you used to
Speaker 1: pay with plastic, I would say that that's totally the
Speaker 1: way to go. And cyber do we wish you the
Speaker 1: best of luck with this. We hope it's that's right.
Speaker 1: We hope it goes well and that you were able
Speaker 1: to recover quickly and that you, yeah, don't get financially
Speaker 1: screwed over in the process of getting this done. That's right. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get to our last listener question
Speaker 1: of the day. Joel, this is the one about perhaps
Speaker 1: the worst investment that's ever existed, and I'm not even
Speaker 1: talking about beanie babies. Let's hear it, Hey, how the money?
Speaker 1: This is calling from San Antonio, Texas with a question
Speaker 1: on variable annuities. My wife works in the nonprofit field
Speaker 1: and her new company had a presentation on their four
Speaker 1: oh three B retirement plan. The only option for the
Speaker 1: plan is a variable annuity through an insurance company. Though
Speaker 1: the money can be in invested in an index fund
Speaker 1: within the annuity, they have high fee structures and it's
Speaker 1: hard to roll the money out of the plan. My
Speaker 1: wife is twenty six and it's likely she'll have other
Speaker 1: jobs before retirement. But our current company will match up
Speaker 1: to four percent of contributions to this plan. I have
Speaker 1: a ROTH four O n K, which I contribute ten
Speaker 1: percent of my salary to and get a five point
Speaker 1: five percent match. We max out a roth IRA for
Speaker 1: my wife. Um I also have an IRA, but we
Speaker 1: won't make contributions to that until there's a little bit
Speaker 1: more income in the picture. In a normal month, we
Speaker 1: have about one thousand dollars extra income above our budget
Speaker 1: and needs for bills and savings. So I think variable
Speaker 1: annuities are bad products and most circumstances. And I think
Speaker 1: good financial products don't need sales people to pitch them.
Speaker 1: But my question is, even if a variable annuity may
Speaker 1: be a relatively poor financial product, does it make financial
Speaker 1: sense to consider it at the four percent contribution match
Speaker 1: level in this case? Let me know your thoughts and thanks.
Speaker 1: Love the show, all right, Matt, let's get to it.
Speaker 1: By the way, I cannot believe you just harangued the
Speaker 1: investing prowess of beanie baby investors. I think they. I
Speaker 1: think I could have called out crypto or tulips. It's
Speaker 1: way better than crypto. Let's be honest. My little sister,
Speaker 1: I think still has a been of old school Beanie
Speaker 1: Babies and she needs to wait until they come back
Speaker 1: and sell them. It's gonna happen at some point, and
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a renewed focus I think on Beanie
Speaker 1: Baby's days. But they're not gonna make you rich. But
Speaker 1: let's talk about something else that won't make you rich,
Speaker 1: and that's variable annuities. Yeah, so we don't talk about
Speaker 1: them much on the show. And and they're inside of
Speaker 1: Colin's wife's four or three B plan. And four or
Speaker 1: three B plans can be all right, but there are
Speaker 1: also a lot of crappy fees as well in many
Speaker 1: of these four or three B plans, which is the
Speaker 1: problem that we have with many four or three B
Speaker 1: plans in existence. But so much comes down to the
Speaker 1: investment options that are available to you. And the reality
Speaker 1: of that is that, especially for public school teachers K
Speaker 1: through twelve public school teachers, the options are subpar, and
Speaker 1: they often like they stink so badly because the fees
Speaker 1: and the fine print are so ridiculous, Like our K
Speaker 1: through twelve teachers are largely being taken advantage of by
Speaker 1: having much fewer options and much worse options in these accounts.
Speaker 1: And you've had a tough nut to crack here, Colin,
Speaker 1: because specifically the fact that your wife's employer is offering
Speaker 1: a match that's what makes to some more difficult questions
Speaker 1: to answer, because let's say there was no match, Matt,
Speaker 1: we would say skip it all together. Sock more money
Speaker 1: in the IRA that you're not able to contribute to
Speaker 1: right now because you don't have enough enough dollars hanging around.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, money is fungible, and just allocate some of
Speaker 1: those dollars instead of in her retirement account there over
Speaker 1: in your roth IRA or whichever accounts that you're not
Speaker 1: fully funding yet exactly because the options are so bad
Speaker 1: in this account. If if in fact the variable nudity
Speaker 1: is really the only place that she can invest inside
Speaker 1: of this account, that's a problem. But the availability of
Speaker 1: the match of compounds the problem makes it a little
Speaker 1: more nuanced and and ultimately this is gonna be come
Speaker 1: down to math, right, It's gonna be a math problem.
Speaker 1: But let's make sure that you know what it is
Speaker 1: that you need to pay attention to as you're trying
Speaker 1: to decide if this four oh three B is going
Speaker 1: to be worth it, if it makes sense for your
Speaker 1: wife to contribute at least up into the match. I
Speaker 1: will say, before we even get to that map, there
Speaker 1: is no need and there is there is no sense
Speaker 1: in contributing beyond that match. Level four. So that's that's
Speaker 1: definitely the most that you should be contributing exactly. I mean,
Speaker 1: the only reason we're having this conversation is because there
Speaker 1: is the match, just like you said, like, if that
Speaker 1: match didn't exist, we would not be having this conversation.
Speaker 1: And the reason for that is because there are so
Speaker 1: many downsides to investing in this variable annuity, uh, and
Speaker 1: the biggest downside is likely the insanely high fees that
Speaker 1: come with these investments. This high fees will eat into
Speaker 1: the investment returns that your wife would hope to garner
Speaker 1: by talking money away into that four or three B
Speaker 1: according to four H three B wise, which is a
Speaker 1: fantastic resource like a nonprofit helping teachers in particular nonprofit
Speaker 1: for the nonprofits on there. But according to them, according
Speaker 1: to the research, the typical annual fee on a variable
Speaker 1: annuity is three That is insane. You compare that to
Speaker 1: a Vanguard SMPF that's got an expense expense ratio of
Speaker 1: point zero. There is such a disparity between those two
Speaker 1: figures that I just mentioned, or even just think about
Speaker 1: Fidelity and they've got some e t F so obviously
Speaker 1: that have that are completely free that don't don't have
Speaker 1: any expense ratio would be like me are wrestling Sylvester
Speaker 1: salone in the movie Over the Top, how quickly would
Speaker 1: I lose? Like that? It's it's not even a match, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's or like our or him like anold Schwartzenegger
Speaker 1: or somebody like Sylvester slone like almost like a baby, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, probably what's that? Like I'm almost this week?
Speaker 1: Is it? Maybe not? Like yeah, yeah, you've got you've
Speaker 1: got some muscle mass. But it is also important to
Speaker 1: watch out for surrender charges as well. That's something that
Speaker 1: you also see associated with these variable annuities. Those can
Speaker 1: be pretty significant. Uh. And some of the some of
Speaker 1: these different annuity contracts, they can have surrender periods as
Speaker 1: long as ten years. And so what that means is
Speaker 1: that if your wife we're we're looking to move on
Speaker 1: to a different company, she could be forfeiting a large
Speaker 1: percentage of her total assets. Oftentimes you're looking at something
Speaker 1: between five to seven percent of that little nest egg
Speaker 1: that's going to get eaten up right away. Uh. This
Speaker 1: probably should be illegal, but sadly it is not. It
Speaker 1: is costing. Again, like you said, Joll not just nonprofits,
Speaker 1: but especially a lot of teachers out there. It's costing
Speaker 1: them a lot of money. And a lot of school
Speaker 1: teachers do have options outside of just annuities, let's say,
Speaker 1: inside of their retirement plan, and they could stick money
Speaker 1: in something like an SMP five fund. But even those
Speaker 1: funds inside of these teacher retirement plans are often ten
Speaker 1: times the expenses as a Vanguard fidelity fund. Uh. Still,
Speaker 1: it may not be, may not be one hundred times
Speaker 1: is bad? Right? Right? Maybe it's just ten times this
Speaker 1: week exactly. Yeah, this would be a much better solutions.
Speaker 1: Still crazy, but it sounds like Colin's wife doesn't even
Speaker 1: have that choice, which is just a travesty. It's a
Speaker 1: crying shame. And I would be upset to the point
Speaker 1: of like writing people trying to get this fixed. I would.
Speaker 1: I would, because this is it's not right, it's not okay.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, with without knowing how long your wife
Speaker 1: plans to stay at the company, it's going to be
Speaker 1: difficult to know whether or not it makes sense because
Speaker 1: you mentioned that she would likely move on from this
Speaker 1: position at some point. One option would be to try
Speaker 1: and get the best of both worlds, to get the match,
Speaker 1: but then look to see if there are You mentioned
Speaker 1: there aren't, but what if there are other places she
Speaker 1: can investor even save some of that money instead of
Speaker 1: sticking it into a variable annuity within that four or
Speaker 1: three B is there a money market account for instance,
Speaker 1: that could be better snagging the match, getting the money
Speaker 1: in there, but not investing it yet because the investing
Speaker 1: options are so terrible. And then you can always roll
Speaker 1: that four or three B over into a traditional I
Speaker 1: ra A once she leaves that job, and then you
Speaker 1: can start investing those funds. Right, It's it's a good
Speaker 1: idea for your wife to push for better options to
Speaker 1: like I was just saying, like, it's not just her
Speaker 1: who's getting the short end of the stick here by
Speaker 1: not having access to low cost investing options. You know,
Speaker 1: if or her I'd reach out to HR and started
Speaker 1: asking some questions, I'd start pushing the envelope to see
Speaker 1: if if there is a way in which they can
Speaker 1: have better investing options at their disposal, because right now
Speaker 1: it sounds like everybody at this organization is getting ripped off,
Speaker 1: and the if the organization, maybe the organization, maybe the
Speaker 1: folks in charge don't realize just how poorly they're serving
Speaker 1: their employees. Uh, and somebody has to bring that to
Speaker 1: their attentions. And I would say, since you know what's
Speaker 1: going on, you have the ability and the duty even
Speaker 1: to reach out and to make some suggestions and to
Speaker 1: reach out and talk about mentioned four or three B wise.
Speaker 1: Those folks will will help walk this organization through picking
Speaker 1: a better plan that's going to be more suitable and
Speaker 1: lower costs for all the folks involved. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: mentioned the four three B wise website, but not just
Speaker 1: the actual website, but they've got a great Facebook group
Speaker 1: as well. That would be a great resource, a great
Speaker 1: place calling for your wife to soak in some of
Speaker 1: that four or three B wisdom, start asking questions like
Speaker 1: a people in there have been dealt with crappy four
Speaker 1: or three B products who may have been in very
Speaker 1: similar situations that she finds herself, or maybe the exact same.
Speaker 1: They might say, oh, oh, I know this provider, well,
Speaker 1: and it's really bad and here he actually they have
Speaker 1: this one option or actually here's how you go about
Speaker 1: trying to get things changed where you work. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know it's worth pointing out to one one final
Speaker 1: note here, Perhaps not all annuities are bad. Like some
Speaker 1: of them are going to make more sense for individuals
Speaker 1: in particular as you get closer to retirement age, but
Speaker 1: annuities are almost never a smart deal for the folks
Speaker 1: out there who are in the wealth building phase of
Speaker 1: their lives. In that case, you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are you know that you have some investing
Speaker 1: options available to you, especially where they're not charging you
Speaker 1: in arm and a leg just for the privilege of
Speaker 1: being able to invest with what is most likely an
Speaker 1: insurance company that is not who you want to be
Speaker 1: with for sure. Yeah, and it just sucks that that's
Speaker 1: the option that she has, and the tax advantaged option
Speaker 1: with a match that she has, because typically, you know,
Speaker 1: you want to take advantage of a company match, and
Speaker 1: there aren't many reasons why you would avoid that unless
Speaker 1: potentially you're not going to be at that in layer
Speaker 1: very long and the surrender charges and the fees that
Speaker 1: come along with that variable annuity make it just prohibitively
Speaker 1: costly for you to do business there. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not the easiest answer unless we're looking at your
Speaker 1: paperwork with you, But hopefully that points you in the
Speaker 1: right direction, all right, let's get back to the beer
Speaker 1: that we had on this episode, two Turtle Doves by
Speaker 1: the Brewery. Yeah, what were your thoughts on this Belgian
Speaker 1: style ale brewed with orange peel and spices. So what's
Speaker 1: crazy is I scoured the label looking for any descriptive
Speaker 1: of this flavor that I not only smelled but tasted,
Speaker 1: but I am picking up major banana notes. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but like when I cracked this thing
Speaker 1: open and gave it a sniff, I couldn't get past thinking,
Speaker 1: this smells just like a strawberry banana smoothie, like like
Speaker 1: like an odd wala or some of like the naked
Speaker 1: juices or whatever, like a lot of those have banana
Speaker 1: in them, and I one hundred percent and tasting and
Speaker 1: picking up on some of those banana ethers. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but for for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: just the combination of flavors, uh, definitely make me think that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it's good, it's it's definitely delicious,
Speaker 1: makes you kind of gets you nice and warm inside,
Speaker 1: makes you think of the upcoming holidays. But I what
Speaker 1: do you think My thought was? It's beginning to taste
Speaker 1: a lot like Christmas when I drank this, because it's
Speaker 1: got that gingerbread, a little bit orange peel action going on,
Speaker 1: maybe nutmeg, like, it's got some of those Christmas spices
Speaker 1: thrown in, so it feels like, uh, you know, mid December,
Speaker 1: this is kind of the perfect beer to be drinking. Um.
Speaker 1: I thought it was tasty. It's the brewery makes so
Speaker 1: many good beers. I mean, I can't say it's one
Speaker 1: of my favorites that I've had from them, but that's
Speaker 1: also because I've had so many because the others. But
Speaker 1: if you're into and you're wanting some Christmas vibes from
Speaker 1: a beer right now, those are a great way to
Speaker 1: pick up for sure, to split with a friend or two,
Speaker 1: and super easy to drink too, especially if you are
Speaker 1: not like he is talking about different I p a
Speaker 1: s and you're thinking, yeah, thanks, boys, I p A
Speaker 1: s aren't for me. This is basically the opposite of that.
Speaker 1: A lot of darker like brown pastry notes. Uh, plus
Speaker 1: a little bit of banana actually makes me think of
Speaker 1: banana bread. Oh man, that's that's totally like a brand,
Speaker 1: like a rum soaked raisin banana bread mash up. Throwing
Speaker 1: a touch a fruitcake. Perhaps there's a lot of that
Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, definitely. So if that is what you're
Speaker 1: looking for in a beer, check out two Turtle Doves
Speaker 1: by the brewery. All Right, that's gonna do it for
Speaker 1: this episode. For folks who want the show notes, including
Speaker 1: the links to some of the stuff we mentioned, Matt's
Speaker 1: budget template included, we'll have that up on our site
Speaker 1: at how to money dot com. That's right, but Joel,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be buddy for this episode until next time.
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,