Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about miserable millionaires, more shrinkflation, and
Speaker 1: dumb dorm insurance.
Speaker 2: You know, it's Friday, which means it's time to go
Speaker 2: over the news from this past week and how it
Speaker 2: pertains to your personal finances. But before we get to
Speaker 2: the actual headlines, Joel, let's kick it off with a
Speaker 2: quick tip in the pursuit of excellence and the ability
Speaker 2: for How to Money listeners to save more money. You
Speaker 2: and I have we're doing a little bit of self
Speaker 2: experimentation and we're trying out some new cell phone service. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a new cell phone carrier called US Mobile. So they've been.
Speaker 1: Around for a minute, we just haven't really talked about them,
Speaker 1: but it seems like their product, their service, and their
Speaker 1: price points gotten better. So you and I we're like,
Speaker 1: let's be guinea pigs.
Speaker 2: Have they revamped what they what they were offering because
Speaker 2: they weren't really on my radar up until I think
Speaker 2: they have, So I think they've They look like that
Speaker 2: they're kind of like an old school and VN O
Speaker 2: really is that weird to say like an old school
Speaker 2: because mvnas are relatively new, but like compared to Mints
Speaker 2: like Mint. You see their site, which by the way,
Speaker 2: we're still fans of, like Mint mobile, US mobile sites
Speaker 2: better what yeah, oh funny. It just feels way more
Speaker 2: like two point zero and kind of fun got the
Speaker 2: little fox and the rocketed maneuverability.
Speaker 1: The maneuverability isn't as good actually as the US Mobile
Speaker 1: side ux user Yeah, user experience. But the thing people
Speaker 1: want to know about, I guess is how much money
Speaker 1: you can save? Why we're doing this the price, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so the the reason we thought about switching is
Speaker 1: because they released a couple of times. We were Emily
Speaker 1: and I were on the five gig plan with Mint.
Speaker 1: We were on Mint Mobile for years and Mint Mobile
Speaker 1: still is an awesome service that you should consider still great,
Speaker 1: but we were like, ah, man unlimited. It seems like
Speaker 1: it's actually not much more expensive on some of the
Speaker 1: other carriers. So we're going from potentially fifteen dollars a
Speaker 1: month with Mint, and when we went over, we had
Speaker 1: to pay Mint a little extra like enter twenty bucks
Speaker 1: to reload a couple extra gigs, which got frustrating and
Speaker 1: expensive over time.
Speaker 2: It's more of an inconvenience honestly, like compared to the cost. Right, Like,
Speaker 2: it's also not fun to have to pay per gig
Speaker 2: when you go over, but it's like the hassle of
Speaker 2: being like, oh sorry, you right out right, you got
Speaker 2: to do something about that. Yeah, well, and that's what
Speaker 2: you're trying to avoid is the heartache from Emily.
Speaker 1: And then the price per gig is ridiculous at that point,
Speaker 1: so you'd be better off to have a slightly more
Speaker 1: expensive plan every single month and never have to worry
Speaker 1: about that. So US Mobile seventeen dollars and fifty cents
Speaker 1: a month for unlimited everything. Yes, they're read the details
Speaker 1: about when you get throttled after using a certain amount
Speaker 1: of data, stuff like that, but I was like, it's
Speaker 1: worth a shot. And the cool thing is, I think
Speaker 1: Mint has a free seven day trial. US Mobile has
Speaker 1: a free thirty day trial.
Speaker 2: It's really stinking cool. So I've been doing that.
Speaker 1: Emily and I have been doing that, and we've basically
Speaker 1: noticed and I think this is actually the most ringing
Speaker 1: endorsement you can give, no discernible change.
Speaker 2: It works just the same. Okay. So one of the
Speaker 2: benefits of US Mobile is the fact that you can
Speaker 2: choose from two different networks. What network did you choose?
Speaker 2: Are y'all doing?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: I forget what it was called.
Speaker 1: There's two different not the Warp one, not the dark
Speaker 1: Oh really? Yeah, so because I heard is different than
Speaker 1: the dark Star. Oh dark okay, So I did Warp,
Speaker 1: not Dark Stars. So dark Star okay. Dark Star apparently
Speaker 1: runs on AT and t's network, so US Mobile has
Speaker 1: multiple networks they do this, which is how Star Wars
Speaker 1: rylokin does that sound dark Star, which also makes sense
Speaker 1: because the AT and T logo, I guess it kind
Speaker 1: of looks like the dust Star.
Speaker 2: Is that why they called it that? So I actually
Speaker 2: started out because I looked at the maps, because they
Speaker 2: got the coverage maps of both of those, and so
Speaker 2: I knew that dark Star was AT and T. I know,
Speaker 2: I knew that Warp was Verizon, and I looked at
Speaker 2: the coverage map for where we live and it looked
Speaker 2: like the AT and T map coverage map was slightly better.
Speaker 2: And so for the past couple of weeks, I've been
Speaker 2: doing Dark Star, which I also kind of like the
Speaker 2: fact that says dark Star up in the top corner,
Speaker 2: which is kind of fun. But I think I've noticed
Speaker 2: that it has not been quite as good as Mint.
Speaker 2: So I actually switched. And this is one of the
Speaker 2: things that makes it so great is you can literally
Speaker 2: switch networks in the middle of a period of a
Speaker 2: pay period because it's all through the eSIM. Your phone's
Speaker 2: offline for like five or ten minutes or something like
Speaker 2: that while the new eSIM gets activated, but literally, So
Speaker 2: I switched from dark Star, which is AIGHTE and T
Speaker 2: two WARP which is Verizon, and I have seen much
Speaker 2: better coverage with WARP. Yeah, it's good, and that's one
Speaker 2: of the selling points that US Mobile has is not
Speaker 2: just the cheap service, but that, hey, we're on multiple networks,
Speaker 2: so you can flip flop back and forth if you
Speaker 2: need to. So just let you guys know where. Doing
Speaker 2: this as a trial period, it's still like the early
Speaker 2: stages of it because I have not yet hit the
Speaker 2: ten gig limit yet to where it's they're going to
Speaker 2: start slowing it down. That area. The only downside and
Speaker 2: the only thing to kind of watch out for.
Speaker 1: Still better than the five gigs for fifteen I was getting.
Speaker 1: Now get a minimum ten gigs for seventeen fifty and
Speaker 1: technically unlimited, but I don't know how slow it is.
Speaker 2: You want to hear my last little tip then, because
Speaker 2: it's so easy. I was getting ready to switch Kate over,
Speaker 2: and they were really not happy with the fact that
Speaker 2: I was getting ready to drop her off too, and
Speaker 2: so they started throwing numbers out as to like, hey, well,
Speaker 2: what if we gave you this special and it was
Speaker 2: better and we've been on the Phax mobile was Mint
Speaker 2: was yeah, I'm on the phone with customer support with Mint,
Speaker 2: and we see we don't deal with the five gig
Speaker 2: because Kate got on me too many times of her
Speaker 2: running out of data, and so we bumped us. We
Speaker 2: bumped ourselves up to the fifteen gig, which means we're
Speaker 2: paying two hundred and forty bucks for the year, which
Speaker 2: comes out to twenty dollars a month. And the lady
Speaker 2: I was talking to you was saying, well, looks like
Speaker 2: there's a special deal and we can offer you the
Speaker 2: fifteen gig for one hundred and eighty dollars, and I
Speaker 2: was like, oh really. I was like, oh, that's that's great.
Speaker 2: I'll keep that in mind for next time. Let's go
Speaker 2: ahead and switch. And she's like, Okay, hang on and
Speaker 2: she like, you hear the keyboard typing, she dropped it
Speaker 2: down to one sixty Oh wow, one hundred and sixty bucks,
Speaker 2: which comes out to like thirteen dollars and change. That's great,
Speaker 2: four fifteen gig. So I actually I left her on
Speaker 2: Mint okay, yeah, because I was like, all right, babe,
Speaker 2: have you been happy with the coverage? She's like, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: And so I saw that as a way for us
Speaker 2: to compare one of the new networks with US Mobile
Speaker 2: to the old T Mobile network, which is what Mint uses.
Speaker 2: And so sometimes you gotta play hard to get to
Speaker 2: get the deal. What's so great about this, though, is
Speaker 2: the fact that competition. You've got another player entering into
Speaker 2: the scene. And now Ryan Reynolds has to find a
Speaker 2: way to keep his customers and keep all the Mint
Speaker 2: mobile users happy.
Speaker 1: And I've even seen visible offering T Mobile customers and Mint.
Speaker 1: Mint users count as T Mobile customers fifteen dollars a
Speaker 1: month unlimited service for the next five years. So whoa, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a commitment. That's a commitment. No, but no,
Speaker 1: but you don't have it's not a they're guaranteeing it
Speaker 1: for five years. You don't have to sign up. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not a contract.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: But so that's the cool thing is there's so much
Speaker 1: It's amazing how in an era of inflation, what's deflationary
Speaker 1: is self fun playing prices.
Speaker 2: So love it.
Speaker 1: Us Mobile going to give it a shot, and I
Speaker 1: might even try some of these other ones, Matt, because
Speaker 1: the price point might keep dropping. At some point, self
Speaker 1: service is going to be like free. That's what it
Speaker 1: feels like.
Speaker 2: Honestly, we might get to that point because they're going
Speaker 2: to pay you in order to get their hands on
Speaker 2: your data. Yeah, I guess. So.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on, Matt. Let's get to the
Speaker 1: Friday Flight, the sampling of stories we found interesting this week.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about toys for a second. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've noticed this, Matt, I don't know. I haven't
Speaker 1: seen any catalogs come in the mail yet. My kids,
Speaker 1: you just wait for those.
Speaker 2: You just wait. It'll be in the mailbox before you
Speaker 2: know it. Come Monday, it'll be there.
Speaker 1: They found they found the old catalog from last year
Speaker 1: under the couch recently, and they were obsessed with it again.
Speaker 1: I had to throw it in the trash and I did
Speaker 1: not want them to see it. But we're starting to
Speaker 1: see lists come out of the hot toys for this
Speaker 1: Christmas season. Barbie is apparently back. Legos never went away,
Speaker 1: They've always been hot. Bluey, that's another hot toy. Everybody
Speaker 1: loves Blue. I think there were more streaming hours of
Speaker 1: Blue than any other show. Yeah, in the US. In
Speaker 1: addition to that, Christmas aisles are popping up everywhere at
Speaker 1: Costco selling the Christmas trees. All the Christmas stuff is
Speaker 1: up already. The Halloween stuff has been put away. It
Speaker 1: feels too soon. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2: It's just rushing us along through life. I know, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not a fan.
Speaker 1: Let's uh, let's wait for the Christmas season. But I
Speaker 1: think what this brings up a couple of things. Businesses, Yes,
Speaker 1: are clamoring for your holiday, but I think this is
Speaker 1: just a friendly reminder from us as I'm starting to
Speaker 1: see this stuff pop up, start budgeting, start saving for
Speaker 1: those purchases.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, what we're fans of is people saving throughout the
Speaker 1: year so you're not overwhelmed. Come this season and you're like, ah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna spend more than I have on hand. But Hey,
Speaker 1: maybe you can't go back to January. You can't time
Speaker 1: travel back to January and start saving for Christmas ahead
Speaker 1: of time, but you can start saving now. You still
Speaker 1: have time to kind of ramp up your savings and
Speaker 1: so that you're not going into debt. You don't want
Speaker 1: to find yourself, of course in January with a ridiculous
Speaker 1: credit card bill on hand.
Speaker 2: I know this sounds crazy, but you can start looking
Speaker 2: ahead a little bit, so Christmas twenty twenty five. And yes,
Speaker 2: you can't go back in time, but this is literally
Speaker 2: why at the end of the year, Kate and we
Speaker 2: sit down and we review our finances and we look
Speaker 2: at the money that we spent when it comes to
Speaker 2: Christmas presents, when it comes to birthday presents, and what
Speaker 2: is it anniversaries as well, Like we've got a special
Speaker 2: category that we that we spend oh in gifts like
Speaker 2: teacher gifts, teacher appreciation, end of the year kind of
Speaker 2: stuff that you know, when you have more kids, and
Speaker 2: when we start having a lot more teachers as they
Speaker 2: get into these higher grades, it really adds up. And
Speaker 2: so the ability to start saving for that. Literally we
Speaker 2: add all those up, we get a total amount and
Speaker 2: then we divide that by twelve for the next year.
Speaker 2: That way, every single month we're essentially like dollar cost average,
Speaker 2: not dollar cost. We're just sending aside a small installment
Speaker 2: so that we're not like you.
Speaker 1: Said, it's a seeking fund, right like that, that's what
Speaker 1: it's called. And you know what you're going to spend
Speaker 1: in all likelihood, and you're you slowly but surely ahead
Speaker 1: of time, and you know you want to spend that,
Speaker 1: So just be prepared and to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more proactive. Like Christmas happens every year we for some reason,
Speaker 1: so many people always get caught up off guard and
Speaker 1: didn't be.
Speaker 2: A surprise as much to their financial chagrin. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: good news is there's a bank rate survey and they
Speaker 2: find that a third of folks are planning on spending
Speaker 2: less this holiday season. Actually, so that's great, A solid
Speaker 2: chunk of shopper say that they plan on starting their shopping.
Speaker 2: Now I love both of these things, right, So again,
Speaker 2: spreading your shopping out where you're able to hunt for
Speaker 2: bargains on the front, then I think that can lead
Speaker 2: to increased savings. But then the bad news, the bad
Speaker 2: part of the survey is that nearly a third, so
Speaker 2: it was twenty seven percent of people are planning to
Speaker 2: go into debt for holiday spending.
Speaker 1: They're not much like, ah, maybe they're planning on it,
Speaker 1: They're like, literally, this is my plan.
Speaker 2: This is how they're going to be able to afford it,
Speaker 2: which we obviously hate. So again, I think the ability
Speaker 2: to proactively plan for that is the way to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the things that Amanda said on Wednesday's
Speaker 1: episode was it's just not worth it to go into
Speaker 1: debt to try and keep up appearances. Matt and I
Speaker 1: think sometimes, well, the things she's spot on, I think
Speaker 1: sometimes when it comes to Christmas, the appearance is yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm flush and I'm gonna buy everybody awesome Christmas presents,
Speaker 1: when if you're not and you can't financially handle that,
Speaker 1: now is the perfect time to have that conversation. It's
Speaker 1: to set expectations. So we actually have an article about
Speaker 1: creating a holiday budget that we'll link to in the
Speaker 1: show notes. But also make sure you are are upfront, honest,
Speaker 1: and having those talks with your friends and family before
Speaker 1: or you get to Christmas Eve, because that's a recipe
Speaker 1: for relational disaster. Having that conversation about maybe hey, let's
Speaker 1: just buy for only the kids this year, or if
Speaker 1: that's the financial position you find yourself in. I think
Speaker 1: people respect that, yeah, and so yeah, just don't feel ashamed.
Speaker 1: I guess to have that conversation to broach the topic.
Speaker 1: And it could be something like, doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: like all dour and sad and gray. Yeah, like there's
Speaker 1: a way that you can do that but still make
Speaker 1: it fun. Yeah, you just got to be a little
Speaker 1: bit more creative. And it might not be that you're
Speaker 1: strapped for cash. It might just be that you have
Speaker 1: other financial goals you want to achieve. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: you can say it like that, like, hey, listen, we're
Speaker 1: working on this, this, and this right now, We're gonna
Speaker 1: have to tame our Christmas spending down. Is that okay
Speaker 1: with you guys? That's a great way to.
Speaker 2: Start the con THO. We actually, I don't know how
Speaker 2: folks would feel about this, but Kate and I asked
Speaker 2: family and extended family instead of doing getting us kind
Speaker 2: of random gifts to supply or not to supply, but
Speaker 2: to help us to be able to purchase equipment for
Speaker 2: the business that we're starting. At that point, in time,
Speaker 2: and I would say most folks were on board with that,
Speaker 2: and that was a great way for us to not
Speaker 2: to go into debt in order to get that off
Speaker 2: the ground. Speaking of surveys, there is a new one
Speaker 2: from Loop that finds that more Americans are abusing return policies.
Speaker 2: We've talked about this. Folks are they're lying about products
Speaker 2: not showing up. They're wearing stuff and then returning it,
Speaker 2: which is gosh, I hate that, man, that's like so
Speaker 2: freaking tacky. Some folks are claiming that items are defective
Speaker 2: when they weren't, all in hopes for a refund when
Speaker 2: it actually isn't deserved. Retailers are finally starting to wise
Speaker 2: up and they are making their return policies less generous,
Speaker 2: which then harms honest customers who experience real issues. You're
Speaker 2: basically ruining the party for everybody. Yeah, and so we
Speaker 2: want folks to not be afraid to return items obviously
Speaker 2: that aren't up to snuff. But just don't be one
Speaker 2: of these people, please. But there is a slight silver lining,
Speaker 2: which is that some companies and some brands, they're not
Speaker 2: changing the overall return policy for everybody, but they are
Speaker 2: cracking down on customers who present consistent issues. They're starting
Speaker 2: to keep a little file on you, a little dossier.
Speaker 2: And so if you like a company or a brand
Speaker 2: and you want to keep shopping there, well, if you
Speaker 2: abuse the return policies exhibiting this type of behavior, it
Speaker 2: could lead to you not being able to do business
Speaker 2: with them anymore.
Speaker 1: When mister Smith, this is your eighth return this.
Speaker 2: Month, exactly. Yeah, I think this is a much better
Speaker 2: way to go, and it could be a way that
Speaker 2: companies are able to maintain just higher levels of customers
Speaker 2: serve because you don't want to burn everybody, right right.
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the reasons for some price
Speaker 1: inflation too, man. I think some of the companies that
Speaker 1: offer the most generous return policies have kind of higher
Speaker 1: prices on some of the items that they sell. So
Speaker 1: it's one of their marketing things. And because they're saying, listen,
Speaker 1: you can return it, no questions asked, even years down
Speaker 1: the road, Well, you're going to pay a little more
Speaker 1: for the item up front for that privilege, which I'm
Speaker 1: also okay with because and you just have to remember too,
Speaker 1: keep them oud. What is the return policy of that company?
Speaker 1: For instance, Like we've talked about Darn Tough socks, Bambas
Speaker 1: has something similar like one hundred percent satisfaction guarantee and
Speaker 1: if there's holes in your socks, they'll send you new ones.
Speaker 2: Because Bambas don't. I'm not a huge fan. You've like
Speaker 2: Mamba's in the last, but like they're cozy when you
Speaker 2: take them on. They have not held up at all all,
Speaker 2: could not compared to the Darn tuffs a least send
Speaker 2: them an email. I just did with just a couple
Speaker 2: of mine because there's holes in them, and they send
Speaker 2: me new socks. Bomb is dead. Yeah, nice, so interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all you gotta do.
Speaker 1: And you don't even have to send them pictures. You
Speaker 1: just literally say this is the order, ye I got?
Speaker 1: I got holes of my socks.
Speaker 2: Guys. Yeah, but I do, I mean I do.
Speaker 1: I sent them pictures because I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: that's I mean, coercive individuals.
Speaker 2: I want to. I feel bad for kind of throwing
Speaker 2: them under the bus, but that's one of the reasons.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, they haven't really held up, Unlike like
Speaker 2: darn toff are amazing, dude, Like truly, I'm like, are
Speaker 2: these things ever gonna wear out.
Speaker 1: Well, if they do, like with either one of those companies,
Speaker 1: you can get another product return, but that is their policy.
Speaker 1: And they charge more for the socks up front because
Speaker 1: you can get a three dollars pair of socks or
Speaker 1: you can get a fifteen dollars pair of socks. But
Speaker 1: as long as there's a guarantee behind the fifteen dollars
Speaker 1: pair of socks, I don't mind spending more because if
Speaker 1: they do wear out, they're gonna send me another pair.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about retirement, Matt. There's good news on the
Speaker 1: retirement front. There are more four oh one K millionaires
Speaker 1: than ever before these days. It doesn't I guess take
Speaker 1: a rocket scientist to figure out that that would be
Speaker 1: the case considering how well the stock market has been
Speaker 1: performing recently, you know, with that we're still near all
Speaker 1: time highs. But Fidelity reports that they house almost half
Speaker 1: a million four to one k's that have accrued more
Speaker 1: than a million dollars in assets. And it's not only
Speaker 1: because the assets are growing, that's part of it, obviously,
Speaker 1: but investing habits are getting better too, So the average
Speaker 1: Fidelity four o one K savings rate. Matt, this is
Speaker 1: what I zeroed in I'm like, oh, yeah, cool, half
Speaker 1: a million millionaires with Fidelity four on ks.
Speaker 2: That's super cool.
Speaker 1: But the average savings rate in a Fidelity four O
Speaker 1: one K is fourteen point two percent, which is getting
Speaker 1: really close to our fifteen percent minimum investment amount suggestion.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: So that's good. That's we're celebrating. And I think this
Speaker 1: is just a reminder too. When I saw this, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's really cool. But slow and steady wins the race.
Speaker 1: And I would be willing to bet that the vast
Speaker 1: majority of those those four to one k millionaires yes,
Speaker 1: are in their fifties and sixties. They've been getting the
Speaker 1: match and increasing their personal contribution amount year over year,
Speaker 1: and it just took time, but they got there. They
Speaker 1: got to where they wanted to go. And I think
Speaker 1: this has encouragement, especially for our listener base who is
Speaker 1: mostly younger let's say, jen Z and millennials. If you
Speaker 1: do the same, you're going to get there too. And
Speaker 1: I saw this article from our friend Sam Over at
Speaker 1: Financial Samurai. He ran the numbers Ogan Sam Dogan, and
Speaker 1: he found that if you max your four oh one
Speaker 1: K contribution, I'm not saying that's easy. It can be
Speaker 1: really difficult to do that. It can take years for
Speaker 1: you to get there.
Speaker 2: Just to designe twenty three thousand dollars, right, that's all
Speaker 2: about every year. It's simple.
Speaker 1: But he basically found it's going to take you eighteen
Speaker 1: years to get there with contribution limits set where they
Speaker 1: are at twenty three grand. So think about that if
Speaker 1: you were and again, really hard to do. It is simple,
Speaker 1: it's not easy. But if you can max that four
Speaker 1: one k out every year over eighteen years, with the
Speaker 1: returns that you're going to get, I think about starting
Speaker 1: off as a twenty two year old, you could be
Speaker 1: a millionaire by the time you're forty Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think what that highlights is the fact that
Speaker 2: I think for a lot of folks it seems like
Speaker 2: something that is completely unattainable. But what he's pointing out
Speaker 2: here is that no, like there is a game plan,
Speaker 2: this is actually attainable, even though it is a tall ask.
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes people say, oh, low and slow,
Speaker 1: that's gonna take too long. Let me let me try
Speaker 1: to get there faster, and that's how people get burned exactly.
Speaker 2: They're going for that for those different get rich quick schemes.
Speaker 2: But you'll even though there are more millionaires than ever,
Speaker 2: only a third of folks who have a million bucks
Speaker 2: in the retirement account think of themselves as wealthy. And
Speaker 2: I get it right, because we've experienced inflation. Right overall
Speaker 2: prices are twenty five percent higher than pre PAM. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a million bucks in twenty nineteen eight the same as
Speaker 2: a million bucks. No, having a million dollars, Like even
Speaker 2: back in the nineties when we first heard about having
Speaker 2: a million dollars as kids. Uh, if you had million
Speaker 2: dollars back then, that was way more impressive than having
Speaker 2: a million dollars today. But that is still a massive
Speaker 2: number to hit in your wealth building journey, Like if
Speaker 2: your net worth is more than a million dollars, like
Speaker 2: you are legit wealthy and I'm incially on like a
Speaker 2: worldwide scale, Oh my gosh. Yes. And the problem though
Speaker 2: is that it's just it comes down to lifestyle, because
Speaker 2: what is a million dollars if you are living on
Speaker 2: if you're an elitist living on one of the coasts,
Speaker 2: you know, like if you are living in and around
Speaker 2: New York City, if you're living on the West Coast
Speaker 2: near San friand or la. Yes, that doesn't get you
Speaker 2: as far. But there's a difference between knowing that you
Speaker 2: want to continue to work towards saving and investing more
Speaker 2: versus accepting the fact that oh, well I'm not actually wealthy. No, no,
Speaker 2: truly you are wealthy. Doesn't mean that you can totally
Speaker 2: bag work altogether. Doesn't mean that you can go around
Speaker 2: travel around the world, or you're not working to stop
Speaker 2: investing exactly. Yeah, No, those are still things that you
Speaker 2: need to do.
Speaker 1: I think it's a really good point, and we actually
Speaker 1: have an article on our site about how to become
Speaker 1: an IRA millionaire. Obviously, the contributions are limits are smaller
Speaker 1: on those accounts, but you can still hit that just
Speaker 1: under four decades if you get after it. So this
Speaker 1: isn't the show where you're gonna learn about how to
Speaker 1: become a millionaire overnight. If you turn into those just
Speaker 1: be careful because you might lose your money. But it's
Speaker 1: amazing that these tax advantaged accounts, Matt, just slow and
Speaker 1: steady can win the race. And speaking of which, Matt
Speaker 1: think lofty promises are out there all over the place
Speaker 1: because they're buying into people's desire to want to build
Speaker 1: wealth more quickly and to kind of avoid the hard
Speaker 1: work and the time that it typically takes. Well. Investment
Speaker 1: writer jason's Wig of The Wall Street Journal, he wrote
Speaker 1: about some of these promises of lofty returns and how
Speaker 1: they hoodwink people essentially into giving their money over to
Speaker 1: companies that might not have your best interest at heart.
Speaker 1: And so there was this one company he profiled. They
Speaker 1: were promising lofty returns. It was this startup internet bank.
Speaker 1: The company was promising and I quote colossal yields that
Speaker 1: were and I quote risk free in the fifteen to
Speaker 1: seventeen percent range. Yeah, oh that sounds good likely, right,
Speaker 1: Not when someone promises that's like the Bernie made Off scam,
Speaker 1: right where it's like, let's promise a little bit above
Speaker 1: average and the money never goes down. You're always making money.
Speaker 1: Somehow I found this without fail to al smart everybody else.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This company even touted the FDIC insurance through up to
Speaker 1: two million bucks, which sounds nice if only it were true.
Speaker 1: The fine print was jar and sketchy. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to get into all the details, but the lesson from
Speaker 1: this one is if it sounds too good to be true,
Speaker 1: it probably is and risk free returns far in excess
Speaker 1: of what the best online banks are offering, far in
Speaker 1: excess of what the stock market is able to reliably
Speaker 1: generate year every year should set off alarm bells in
Speaker 1: your head. If you want to enjoy higher returns, be
Speaker 1: ready to experience more volatility. It's the inevitable rule of
Speaker 1: wealth building. And if you want to enjoy much higher
Speaker 1: returns and somebody is telling you they can offer it
Speaker 1: to you, you probably should run away.
Speaker 2: And if you're not sure, hit us up. We always
Speaker 2: like to field listener questions. You can even email us
Speaker 2: a It helps us to kind of like tap into
Speaker 2: the how to money hive mind to help other listeners
Speaker 2: out there, but also be personally. I want to know
Speaker 2: if there's a new account out there where I can
Speaker 2: earn let's say six and a half percent or seven percent.
Speaker 2: That kind of thing made me think.
Speaker 1: I saw another bank recently, Matt, and they were offering
Speaker 1: eight percent returns, And then you dig into the fine
Speaker 1: print and you get that extra three percent for three months.
Speaker 1: So yes, technically getting eight percent returns for a hot minute,
Speaker 1: but then it drops back down to normal levels, so
Speaker 1: that even that it's like, well, it's not completely untrue.
Speaker 1: It's just for a limited time only.
Speaker 2: Then you want to know what kind of hoops you
Speaker 2: have to jump through, and less and less am I
Speaker 2: willing to jump through different hoops as opposed to staying
Speaker 2: with a solid bank for the long haul. But Joe,
Speaker 2: we've got more to get to. We're gonna share our
Speaker 2: thoughts on the new iPhone. We're gonna talk about how
Speaker 2: Kamala and Trump, how they might make you spend more money.
Speaker 2: We'll get to that more right after this. All right,
Speaker 2: now we're back to the break.
Speaker 1: I'm a little disappointed you didn't mention the other candidate's
Speaker 1: running for president that nobody knows about. But Chase Oliver
Speaker 1: is also running, just nobody knows it. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the ludicrous headline of the week. This one
Speaker 1: comes from Bloomberg and to the headline reads, Americans have
Speaker 1: a new piggybank to raid their houses. We don't like
Speaker 1: seeing these sorts of headlines that Matt and I think.
Speaker 1: What is causing people to think about tapping into their
Speaker 1: home for some money is that, hey, stimulus money's gone.
Speaker 1: My bank account balance is dwindling. Interest rates for borrows
Speaker 1: are starting to tick down, so maybe my helock is
Speaker 1: starting to look a little more attractive. And then at
Speaker 1: the same time, I've got more money in home equity
Speaker 1: than ever before, So why shouldn't I get money from
Speaker 1: that location? Why shouldn't I tap it? And if you
Speaker 1: bought a house for like two hundred thousand bucks in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, it's probably worth double that at least in
Speaker 1: lots of the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I get the appeal. Yeah, I think the
Speaker 2: only saving grace, honestly, is the fact that home prizes
Speaker 2: half slowed down a little bit, Like could you imagine
Speaker 2: if they continued at the clip that we had experienced
Speaker 2: in twenty one twenty two, Oh my gosh, Like because
Speaker 2: people would whole lock, but they would only be seeing
Speaker 2: dollars signs.
Speaker 1: So I think the numbers bear out that there's what
Speaker 1: thirty four trillion dollars in home equity overall, which means
Speaker 1: the average American has something like three hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in equity. Obviously this is going to vary depending on
Speaker 1: how old you are when you bought your home, where
Speaker 1: you live, all that kind of stuff, But with an
Speaker 1: average of three hundred thousand bucks in equity and two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars of that being tappable. People are saying, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I should borrow some money,
Speaker 1: even if it just to take a vacation or to
Speaker 1: buy a car or something like that. And there are
Speaker 1: some instances where using home equity dollars can make sense,
Speaker 1: like doing home improvements when you have a reasonable payoff timeline.
Speaker 1: Still we'd rather see you save up for that, but
Speaker 1: it's at least worth mentioning that is a reasonable use
Speaker 1: of a home equity line of credit. But don't treat
Speaker 1: your home like a piggy bank. You're going to see
Speaker 1: more and more of these headlines and you're going to
Speaker 1: get more emails directly from lenders saying why not the
Speaker 1: rates are going down, this is the perfect time to
Speaker 1: start taking money out of your home. Well, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: bank on the fact that declining rates are going to
Speaker 1: lower your payment in the future, saving you more money.
Speaker 1: That's I think another selling point that people are going
Speaker 1: to say. Helocks are a financial tool that are incredibly
Speaker 1: easy to mishandle It's really easy to take money out
Speaker 1: of your home to open up one of those helocks. Matt,
Speaker 1: the banks and the credit unions, they make it super
Speaker 1: easy and there might not even be closing costs involved.
Speaker 1: So it's simple to set up and it's not going
Speaker 1: to cost you any money on the front end. But
Speaker 1: if you do draw down on that significantly, you could
Speaker 1: find yourself in financial pain that you didn't have to
Speaker 1: get in.
Speaker 2: So there's an interesting article in the Journal from Julia
Speaker 2: Carpenter and she alleges that what she caused election fatigue
Speaker 2: is causing overspending, at least it is for her. There
Speaker 2: aren't any stats about whether or not this is a
Speaker 2: prevalent phenomena, and so maybe this is a bit anecdotal. Though.
Speaker 2: We did just have a presidential debate on Tuesday, But
Speaker 2: we are coming down to the wire and political ads
Speaker 2: are basically everywhere everywhere we turn. I'm getting all the
Speaker 2: texts too, mad. I don't know about you. I just
Speaker 2: heard you get I hear report junk on all day.
Speaker 2: Did you get that one Tuesday night, like late at
Speaker 2: night where it's just like hey you join yeah, yes,
Speaker 2: don't text me late at night. No. But it sure
Speaker 2: seems like just generally speaking, as a culture, we're just
Speaker 2: putting more of our hope in campaigns and in politicians
Speaker 2: and the president, which honestly is kind of sad the
Speaker 2: fact that we're starting to see our political figures as
Speaker 2: heroes as opposed to others in our lives, maybe who
Speaker 2: should be seen as heroes who are taking a more
Speaker 2: self sacrificial route. But we don't want political anxiety to
Speaker 2: turn your finances upside down. Bottom line, the national and
Speaker 2: world events they're not always pretty. And so the more
Speaker 2: that we can tune out the twenty four to seven
Speaker 2: news cycle, the more that we can ignore the day
Speaker 2: to day political barrage, I think, the happier we're going
Speaker 2: to be, and the less likely we're going to feel
Speaker 2: compelled to spend in order to combat these bad feelings.
Speaker 2: I think when we realize that the daily news cycle
Speaker 2: that it truly does not have an impact on the
Speaker 2: bottom line of our lives. Like it makes me think
Speaker 2: of the stock market, right, and we tell folks to
Speaker 2: ignore the day to day gyrations because what do we
Speaker 2: want you to do. We want you to zoom out,
Speaker 2: We want you to see that oh over the long haul, Yeah,
Speaker 2: stock market goes historically speaking up into the right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and the day to day movements don't matter. And so
Speaker 2: in a similar way, people can get so stressed out
Speaker 2: about the political environment and what's going on in media,
Speaker 2: but just zoom out, and what happens when you zoom
Speaker 2: out you see that our country, the United States, it's
Speaker 2: still an amazing place to be. I'm so fortunate to
Speaker 2: have been born here. It makes me think of Warren
Speaker 2: Buffett talks about that we have all won the Ovarian lottery,
Speaker 2: the fact that we were fortunate enough to be born
Speaker 2: in this country, as opposed to I would say the
Speaker 2: vast majority of people in the rest of the world
Speaker 2: who can't say the same for where it is that
Speaker 2: they live.
Speaker 1: It's like, the more you watch the news and the
Speaker 1: political sphere, the worse you think our country is. And
Speaker 1: the more you talk to your neighbors and hang out
Speaker 1: with friends and visit local businesses, the more you're like, man,
Speaker 1: our country's actually in pretty good shape. And so if
Speaker 1: we get out of our own heads and get out
Speaker 1: of that space and just get out in the real world,
Speaker 1: the likelihood is we're gonna have a more optimistic view
Speaker 1: and we're going to be less stressed out. And I
Speaker 1: do agree that stress spending is a real thing. And
Speaker 1: so at least for this author, she's saying, what stresses
Speaker 1: me out is politics, and I'm spending more because of it. Well,
Speaker 1: whatever it is that's stressing you out too, I guess
Speaker 1: from a broader perspective, i'd have to just be politics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it can be a bunch of other things, like put
Speaker 1: your finger on it so that you can see the
Speaker 1: correlation between stress and spending, so that you can hopefully
Speaker 1: nip it in the bud and kind of create some
Speaker 1: barriers to spending willy nilly when you do get stressed out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is something that we do have control over
Speaker 2: what it is that we're spending.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think especially in this season, when we
Speaker 1: don't have control over I mean, what is it seven states, Matt,
Speaker 1: that really matter in this election anyway? So if you
Speaker 1: live in like most of the country, your vote has
Speaker 1: very little impact and you don't have control even in
Speaker 1: the seven states that matter, Like, you don't have much
Speaker 1: control at all over the outcome anyway, And so we
Speaker 1: have to be focused more on what we can control
Speaker 1: than the things that are out of our hands. And
Speaker 1: sorry to point this out, but there's something else that's
Speaker 1: out of our control, and that is a phenomenon. Note
Speaker 1: as shrink flation and shrink plation tends to get a
Speaker 1: bad rap, especially from politicians, Matt, we're just talking about politics.
Speaker 1: We've always said that shrinklation is not a bad thing,
Speaker 1: although it is important for us as consumers to pay
Speaker 1: attention to it and to recognize it because as things
Speaker 1: get more expensive, we have two choice to pay more
Speaker 1: or to get less for our dollars, and so shrink
Speaker 1: flation essentially opts for the ladder of those two options.
Speaker 1: And we saw there were a couple of stories on
Speaker 1: that this week. One was about how toilet paper rolls
Speaker 1: are shrinking, which is totally true, and there was like
Speaker 1: a nobody wants to read this, it's a long form
Speaker 1: piece about the shrinking.
Speaker 2: Sharmon roll or whatever. I actually don't mind that, because
Speaker 2: you know what I hate is when there's like the
Speaker 2: jumbo roll and you put a fresh roll in there
Speaker 2: and it's too tight to pull, yeah, and then it
Speaker 2: ends up breaking. Yeah. I hate that.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, Like, you just have to realize
Speaker 1: that the solution isn't to crack down on companies for
Speaker 1: shrinking their product, because what they're trying to do is
Speaker 1: keep the price the same For consumers. The solution is
Speaker 1: to pay attention to unit pricing and to change our
Speaker 1: buying habits accordingly.
Speaker 2: And so if the.
Speaker 1: Sharman role is shrinking, but the costco role isn't, I'm
Speaker 1: going with the costco role. And guess what, I'm going
Speaker 1: with the costco roll of toilet paper, no matter what.
Speaker 1: But if you pay attention to unit pricing, that is,
Speaker 1: and it's on there. It's when you're at the grocery store.
Speaker 1: When you're at costco, you can see price per item
Speaker 1: or price per foot or whatever it is. Look at
Speaker 1: that and let that help you decide which product is
Speaker 1: going to make the most sense for you. You might say, oh,
Speaker 1: if you look at the branding on the package, you
Speaker 1: might think one thing. But if you look at the
Speaker 1: unit price, it'll help put things in the right perspective
Speaker 1: to help you make the right choice.
Speaker 2: So another article discussed shrinkflation in the hotel rewards sector.
Speaker 2: They're following the lead of airlines, who are they're essentially
Speaker 2: the kings of dolling out points only to inflate them
Speaker 2: away over time. It's honestly, it's kind of like one
Speaker 2: of the few downsides that I've never really thought of
Speaker 2: of the fact that airline points don't expire, is the
Speaker 2: fact that like, oh yeah, they kind of maybe they
Speaker 2: want you to hang on to those and definitely because
Speaker 2: eventually they're worth nothing.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, you let them linger and then they linger
Speaker 1: into worthlessness.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, they're eighty percent water. They just drivel up.
Speaker 2: It's nothing so hotels. A hotel room that might have
Speaker 2: cost forty thousand points a few years ago, it might
Speaker 2: cost you something like one hundred thousand points now even
Speaker 2: more than that. But this is a type of shrinkflation
Speaker 2: that feels a bit more insidious because of the fact
Speaker 2: that they think it seems like they have a bit
Speaker 2: more control over the value of those points. And the
Speaker 2: only real way to combat this version of shrinkflation is
Speaker 2: to use your points in a reasonable amount of time,
Speaker 2: because the longer they sit there, the less valuable they
Speaker 2: become as they shrivel up. So if you've got airline
Speaker 2: points but a flight with them, saying, and the same
Speaker 2: is true if you have hotel rewards points.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about a random kind of thing, Matt. Here,
Speaker 1: our kids went to back to school a month ago,
Speaker 1: but a whole lot of school systems have only recently
Speaker 1: started back up, and colleges typically started even later. I'm
Speaker 1: seeing all the photos of friends sending their kids off
Speaker 1: to college for the first time. It's adorable, And I'm
Speaker 1: also like, did we look that young when we went
Speaker 1: to college?
Speaker 2: We probably did. Was I a young little idiot? Yes?
Speaker 2: I was? Yes.
Speaker 1: Well, something else that happens when kids go off to
Speaker 1: college is like, well, you have to think about different
Speaker 1: kinds of insurance. And there's one insurance product that we've
Speaker 1: been seeing more written about lately. It's dorm insurance. And
Speaker 1: it's like, what really is this? Do we have to
Speaker 1: ensure our dorm room possessions too? And the question is
Speaker 1: should you have it? Well, the answer might not be
Speaker 1: the most satisfying. It depends because, first, before just buying
Speaker 1: dorm insurance in knee jerk reaction to cover your child's possessions,
Speaker 1: check your homeowner's insurance policy to see if your child's
Speaker 1: positions are covered while they're away at school. They likely
Speaker 1: are electronics, clothing, all that stuff. You might already have
Speaker 1: coverage for it, and you might not need a separate
Speaker 1: policy despite the fact that it's actually not that expensive. Basically,
Speaker 1: it could be repetitive and unnecessary. And even though it's cheap,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's not that expensive, it's kind of
Speaker 1: akin to Renter's insurance. The question is also do they
Speaker 1: have enough stuff worth insuring. Maybe they're going to school
Speaker 1: with twelve hundred bucks worth of stuff, and even if
Speaker 1: you're paying twenty bucks a month, well, it'd be better
Speaker 1: off to self insurance to not have that dorm insurance anyway,
Speaker 1: So you might see more pitches for dorm insurance, and
Speaker 1: there might be some cases where it makes sense, but
Speaker 1: I think for most folks matter, it's either redundant or
Speaker 1: not necessary, and self.
Speaker 2: Insurance better redundant insurance exactly. And the fact too, I
Speaker 2: think a lot of parents in particular might be thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: that's a that's an expensive laptop or your phone. We'll
Speaker 2: get to that here in a second. Your phone, that's
Speaker 2: an expensive, brand new iPhone. But like, I think that's
Speaker 2: less of an issue today because of the fact that
Speaker 2: security is built into these devices so well, Like think
Speaker 2: about some of like the US government, they're trying to
Speaker 2: like they're talking to Apple when they're trying to break
Speaker 2: into somebody's phone to get like important information and they
Speaker 2: can't because of the fact that the security on these
Speaker 2: devices is essentially so buttoned up, and so I think
Speaker 2: that's less of the less of a concern. And so's
Speaker 2: the what's the other thing that you're ensuring against, Well,
Speaker 2: like it's if you damage it yourself, to which there
Speaker 2: I would say, there are a lot of more affordable options,
Speaker 2: like having your phone in a case, or just like
Speaker 2: taking care of your laptop, or paying.
Speaker 1: Yourself on bill with the right credit cards because you
Speaker 1: get insurance and.
Speaker 2: It's built in. But just not maintaining our device, Like
Speaker 2: we've got an eleven year old laptop. Yes, it's getting
Speaker 2: long in the tooth, but dude, that thing still works
Speaker 2: really well. And it's because we just take care of it.
Speaker 2: We literally I clean that thing and make sure that
Speaker 2: we set it up on the shelf to where the
Speaker 2: kids aren't going to talk nice to it and we're
Speaker 2: going to damage the thing. I think that is a
Speaker 2: certainly much more affordable way to prolong our devices, to
Speaker 2: make sure that we are able to use them off
Speaker 2: into the future. And I mentioned iPhone. Don't get the
Speaker 2: new iPhone? What is it this world? The sixteen at
Speaker 2: this point, but.
Speaker 1: Matt the cameras are in alignment now and it's gonna Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: Know it's got two is it one button or two buttons?
Speaker 2: I thought there's like multiple buttons now that like the
Speaker 2: action buttons. Yeah, it doesn't matter who cares. Get you
Speaker 2: a referbed directly from Apple, don't get it from Amazon, folks, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because you had an issue with some of those. Indeed, indeed,
Speaker 2: but do consider getting a new pair of AirPods, that is,
Speaker 2: if your hearing's not great. And I say that because well,
Speaker 2: specifically AirPod pros, so AirPod pros. Regular AirPods are pretty affordable,
Speaker 2: but the pros are incredibly expensive.
Speaker 1: I regular AirPods are kind of expensive compared to their
Speaker 1: non name brand equivalents too.
Speaker 2: Though that's true in the fact that they just they
Speaker 2: just sit there in your ear and they just I
Speaker 2: don't know, they're they're able to easily fall out.
Speaker 1: But I've got a twenty dollar pair of in ear
Speaker 1: buds and they work great.
Speaker 2: I've got a slightly more expensive pair that I really like.
Speaker 2: But but the AirPod pros are crazy expensive. If you're
Speaker 2: just listening to a podcast like this or if you're
Speaker 2: listening to music, But they are a very affordable hearing aid,
Speaker 2: which is what Apple is now purporting to offer via
Speaker 2: their AirPod Pros prescription hearing aids. They typically cost thousands
Speaker 2: of dollars for some of the nicer ones. And I
Speaker 2: don't know if AirPods function as well as the ridiculously
Speaker 2: expensive hearing aids that you have to go to a
Speaker 2: doc in order to get tested for. We'll see. But
Speaker 2: technology has come a long way, and it's pretty incredible
Speaker 2: to think that not that long ago it was illegal
Speaker 2: to sell hearing aids over the counter. That is really crazy.
Speaker 1: Just literally two years ago it was illegal, it was
Speaker 1: paying you didn't sell some of these hearing aids over
Speaker 1: the counter. And now a company like Apple is saying,
Speaker 1: we've made it cheap and we've revolutionized people's ability with like.
Speaker 2: Hearing tests and the ability like. So what I'm saying, though,
Speaker 2: is don't go out and buy a pair of AirPod
Speaker 2: pros if you think that you are losing your hearing,
Speaker 2: because if that's the case, you're just in denial, Like
Speaker 2: you're a gen xer, maybe even an older millennial, and
Speaker 2: maybe you do need to get your ears checked. Because
Speaker 2: the other thing is I just think it's cool that
Speaker 2: they're offering this as an option if you already have it.
Speaker 2: Like if I had a pair of AirPod pros, I
Speaker 2: can't say AirPod pros today it's like a three times
Speaker 2: Tungu twister. Oh would totally pop those into my ear.
Speaker 2: See how my hearing's going? Yes, I think there's a
Speaker 2: chance I might be losing my hearing. I don't know.
Speaker 1: And hearing aids have historically been incredibly expensive, and so.
Speaker 2: For they're getting more affordable.
Speaker 1: That's the thing, because of the rule change and the
Speaker 1: fact that you can buy over the counter heearing aids
Speaker 1: now and Costco has been one of the go to
Speaker 1: places for hearing aids because they have some of the
Speaker 1: cheapest solid hearing aids. Because there's there's like there are
Speaker 1: differences in type and in performance from hearing aids, and
Speaker 1: Costco's really good ones for a reasonable price, and so
Speaker 1: that's I'm curious about these, Like at the two fifty
Speaker 1: price point, that's really good for hearing aids. How good
Speaker 1: are they?
Speaker 2: Though? Is? What what are you gonna do? Though? Are you? Like?
Speaker 2: I like that it exists. I don't want people to
Speaker 2: turn to them for hearing aids. You know. So it's
Speaker 2: sort of like it's added value folks, because are you
Speaker 2: also then going to walk around with it, like because
Speaker 2: you hate the way air pods elect, Like you're always like, oh,
Speaker 2: they got the stems hanging down and they're white. I think, goofy,
Speaker 2: that's the thing. You're gonna end up looking like the
Speaker 2: dude and Baby Driver. We got the air pods in
Speaker 2: constantly and it's like, oh, yeah, these my hearing age.
Speaker 1: But if they if they took me from not hearing
Speaker 1: well to hearing it to being better in conversation, I
Speaker 1: would totally wear them when I would get over it.
Speaker 2: The National Council on Aging, they've they've always got great
Speaker 2: write ups on some of the more affordable ones out there,
Speaker 2: and like you can get a decent pair for less
Speaker 2: than a thousand dollars, Like there's some decent ones that
Speaker 2: are in the hundreds. Maybe we'll link to that in
Speaker 2: the show notes as well, and you might probably can
Speaker 2: hide them a lot better. Yeah, and exactly, they go
Speaker 2: into your ear. They're a little more discreet. They're flesh
Speaker 2: colored as a pair, you know, compared to like bright white. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it's cool that they're offering this not unlike
Speaker 2: some of the other health apps that are built into
Speaker 2: Apple watches and phones. But at the same time, it
Speaker 2: doesn't that doesn't replace your doctor.
Speaker 1: You know, it's look at you being solidly on the
Speaker 1: side of doctors.
Speaker 2: That's rare.
Speaker 1: That is, actually never goes to see the doctor. I
Speaker 1: don't know the last time you wait, not too long ago.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, yeah, avoid them.
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe I'm wise enough, Joel. It's maybe
Speaker 2: it's cheap, not frugal to completely avoid the dentist or
Speaker 2: the dermatology.
Speaker 1: It also becomes more necessary as we get older. We've
Speaker 1: crossed the forty year old threshold, so indeed doctor has
Speaker 1: become more part of our lives. All right, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. As always, we'll put links to
Speaker 1: some of the stuff we mentioned up in the show
Speaker 1: notes on our website at howtomoney dot com. But Matt,
Speaker 1: that's going to do it for this one. Until next time,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.