Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing two week test drives, micro giving,
Speaker 1: and scoring cheaper pizza. That's right, Joel. This is our
Speaker 1: Friday Flight episode where every week we are going to
Speaker 1: cover some of the different stories that we came across.
Speaker 1: This weekend, we're gonna talk about how that news is
Speaker 1: going to impact your money. That's right. Yeah. But before
Speaker 1: we get to that, we have to announce the winners
Speaker 1: from our book giveaway for Comico Love's new book, My Money,
Speaker 1: My Way. It came this past week, so a few
Speaker 1: days ago. Congrats to our friend of the show, Comico
Speaker 1: Love for her book release and L hoyt T, Perry
Speaker 1: Raoul in Georgia, J F. Hadson, and Scotty d. Y'all
Speaker 1: all one a copy of Comico's new book. Will make
Speaker 1: sure we get the is out to you, um really soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we will reach out to you. Get your mailing address.
Speaker 1: And we had a lot of folks who rated us
Speaker 1: on Spotify, which I will say is the easiest way
Speaker 1: right now to enter a giveaway like this. I mean
Speaker 1: literally all you have to do is click because they
Speaker 1: don't let you leave a review yet, um, but who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe someday they will. That's also why we didn't have
Speaker 1: a bunch of weird names to read because with the
Speaker 1: Spotify like, there isn't an actual screen name or anything
Speaker 1: like that. It's literally their name as folks are emailing us.
Speaker 1: So we shorten those names to protect your privacy a
Speaker 1: little bit. There we go, Well, Matt, let's not mentioned
Speaker 1: it is? It is that the Chinese New Year just
Speaker 1: having February one? Right, did you celebrate? No? But I
Speaker 1: actually was in China ten years ago when Chinese New
Speaker 1: Year was happening, and it was so much fun. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say that's probably probably the coolest thing you've
Speaker 1: ever experienced abroad. It was a party and a half.
Speaker 1: And people also, when you're six ft six in China,
Speaker 1: they look at you like you're some sort of like
Speaker 1: did you have to pay for any drink? Any meal?
Speaker 1: I did, But they want to take pictures, which I
Speaker 1: was playing your cards right. It's more than happy to
Speaker 1: have blage like a bunch of random pictures with tall,
Speaker 1: skinny Norwegian dude. A lot of folks over there now
Speaker 1: have you know, pictures on their mantle with me on them,
Speaker 1: which I appreciate, but like one sign, this basketball player
Speaker 1: came and came to our town except for not but
Speaker 1: I just thought it was interesting. The the phrase it
Speaker 1: gets used with Chinese New Year is I hope you
Speaker 1: get rich and specifically hope you get rich, you get rich? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I I hope you get rich. Okay, I just hope
Speaker 1: you get rich and um, yeah, I don't know. Do
Speaker 1: you know Ronnie Chang the comedian, Yes, okay, was he
Speaker 1: on The Daily Show back in the day, back in
Speaker 1: the day, But but have you seen his He's got
Speaker 1: a stand up special from a few years ago on Netflix. Okay,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. It's got some language, so warning
Speaker 1: out there for everyone. He doesn't keep it as clean
Speaker 1: as we do here on the show, But dude, it
Speaker 1: is so funny. He talks about how Asians in general,
Speaker 1: how they love money and it's the stereotype and it's
Speaker 1: hilarious because it's true. And I can say that being
Speaker 1: half Asian myself. I shared my my money origin stories.
Speaker 1: But just even like I think about when Kate and
Speaker 1: I got Arid, all of our American family and friends,
Speaker 1: they bring you a gift like you do, like you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do here in the States. But all of
Speaker 1: Mom's friends who were invited to the wedding, cold hard cash.
Speaker 1: They showed up with envelopes full of cash or you know,
Speaker 1: checks that they had cut. It is just a part
Speaker 1: of the culture. And so he was just pointing out, how,
Speaker 1: you know, over there in China, they don't say Happy
Speaker 1: New Year. It's literally hope you get rich. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's funny because what I would change it to
Speaker 1: is hope you build wealth. Is how, because you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of the how the money way. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: view rich and wealth as kind of ten diferent things,
Speaker 1: and rich is usually this like I hope you stumble
Speaker 1: upon money really quickly, or make some sort of speculative
Speaker 1: bit that pays off in a hurry. Hope you win
Speaker 1: the lottery exactly build wealth. It's like I hope you,
Speaker 1: like I started to, you know, continue to make progress
Speaker 1: on those goals and continue to uh, you know, grow
Speaker 1: your net worth for for years to come. It's the
Speaker 1: more wholesome, like well rounded approach to getting rich. Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't want to hate on the slogan, but okay,
Speaker 1: I hope you get rich. Happy Chinese New Year to everyone,
Speaker 1: and um Matt, let's let's move on. Let's to the
Speaker 1: Friday flight, the quick sample of stories we found interesting
Speaker 1: this week and how they pertain to your personal finances.
Speaker 1: And the FCC, Uh, the Federal Communication Commission just voted
Speaker 1: to proceed with a proposal of Internet nutrition labels. It's
Speaker 1: what they're being called and makes me want to eat
Speaker 1: my modem. But so, if you're not sure maybe why
Speaker 1: you're paying so much for internet service, or you maybe
Speaker 1: find comparing different planes to be a near impossible task,
Speaker 1: because yeah, each each uh internet service provider kind of
Speaker 1: has a different way of explaining what they offer. Well,
Speaker 1: standardized labels might be coming along to help soon, and
Speaker 1: these labels would include the price, data speeds, whether there
Speaker 1: are data caps or not. And you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like most of us have this abundance of choices when
Speaker 1: it comes to home internet service. But hopefully this proposal
Speaker 1: gets adopted and we start seeing those labels, because it's
Speaker 1: gonna help make it easier for us to compare kind
Speaker 1: of uh, side by side apples to apples what we're
Speaker 1: being offered. That's right, Yeah, And this is just a reminder,
Speaker 1: you know, while we're talking about internet labels, to revisit
Speaker 1: it how much it is that you're paying for service.
Speaker 1: You know, as Joel said, like, there really is a
Speaker 1: lack of competition in the space. But even still, that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you can't save money. And so we
Speaker 1: would recommend that you pick up your phone call your
Speaker 1: existing company to see if they're offering any specials for
Speaker 1: any current customers. UH. If you do have some competition
Speaker 1: in the area, look out for mailers where they are
Speaker 1: offering a special rate because oftentimes some of the big
Speaker 1: companies out there will match that. Uh. And specifically the
Speaker 1: social media teams for these different cable and internet companies,
Speaker 1: they often have even more leeway to offer you a
Speaker 1: better rate. You know, if if you were to do that,
Speaker 1: you might be able to save bucks every single month,
Speaker 1: which doesn't sound all that much, but over the course
Speaker 1: of a year, that adds up to real savings. You know,
Speaker 1: just think about how much craft beer, Joel, you could
Speaker 1: buy with an extra three sixty bucks. That's exactly how
Speaker 1: I think that's a pretty big hall because yeah, when
Speaker 1: I'm like it's just ten bucks, I'm like, wait a second,
Speaker 1: how much? How much? Yeah, when it comes to beer
Speaker 1: or whatever your craft beer equivalent, and then it motivates me.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I actually just did that anything and now
Speaker 1: I've got three hundred meg service fiber service for forty
Speaker 1: bucks a month. Forty bucks forty bucks a month. Not
Speaker 1: too time for me to make that call, then yes,
Speaker 1: it is after they take my momenticine. Um, So all right,
Speaker 1: speaking of getting a discount, when ego shopping is a
Speaker 1: huge part of how much you're going to pay, right
Speaker 1: there are seasonal sales that happen, and so of course,
Speaker 1: in certain times of year you're gonna save money on
Speaker 1: a grill, and then other times of year when grilling
Speaker 1: is not so popular, you're you're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to score as big of a discount. For instance,
Speaker 1: TVs are often the cheapest on Black Friday, and right
Speaker 1: now as we're approaching the Super Bowl, there's like the
Speaker 1: two times of year when it's best to be shopping
Speaker 1: for television if you're in the market. And Consumer Reports
Speaker 1: actually had an article about the items that get discounted
Speaker 1: the most in February, so just a heads up, but smartphones, mattresses, tablets,
Speaker 1: space heaters, printers, and cameras are all more heavily discounted
Speaker 1: right now than at other times of year. You're also
Speaker 1: a bound to see some great deals on winter clothing.
Speaker 1: There's still a decent chunk of winter left, and so
Speaker 1: if you're gonna wear those items for the rest of
Speaker 1: this season and then for years to come, it might
Speaker 1: make sense to pounce while the getting is good. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the shopping seasonally based on when things are are cheaper
Speaker 1: is just a smart strategy. That's right. If you're like
Speaker 1: us and we're the same shirt for like ten plus years,
Speaker 1: get that thing on sale, especially, dude, I mean, shirts
Speaker 1: are gonna end up costing more money. I mean we're
Speaker 1: talking about inflation. Go ahead and score those clothes now,
Speaker 1: locking the low prices. Seriously. Another way to save money
Speaker 1: is to not get food delivered to your house. This
Speaker 1: is something that we've that we've talked about a good
Speaker 1: deal how it can cost you more. Right, if you
Speaker 1: use Uber eats, scrub Hub or Postmates to pick up
Speaker 1: your food bring it to your you know, straight to
Speaker 1: your door, it can make your favorite restaurant and food
Speaker 1: cost thirty more. And with the current labor shortage, that
Speaker 1: increase actually might even start getting even steeper. So here's
Speaker 1: an interesting solution, Domino. As everybody knows Domino's Pizza, they're
Speaker 1: trying something new. They are paying their customers to pick
Speaker 1: up their own food. If you order online and you
Speaker 1: choose carry out, you'll get a three dollar credit to
Speaker 1: spend on your next pizza. Dude, so cool. I love
Speaker 1: the strategy. I love this insensive that they're dangling in
Speaker 1: front of people. They are attempting to encourage folks to
Speaker 1: take the actions that they want to see. Uh and
Speaker 1: so yeah, if you want cheaper pizza, pick it up
Speaker 1: yourself instead. Yeah, And I think just that's just a
Speaker 1: generally a good principle. I have even ordered things on
Speaker 1: Grubhub before, but because like a discount code or something
Speaker 1: like that, and then I go pick it up myself. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't get the delivery just because it does add
Speaker 1: so much money to the overall price. And I guess
Speaker 1: because of where we live, like I'm usually a mile
Speaker 1: or two away from the place I'm ordering from that far,
Speaker 1: I don't mind jumping out picking it up myself. And
Speaker 1: I think, um, yeah, that is one of those things
Speaker 1: where if you've maybe just gotten too used to paying
Speaker 1: for someone to bring your food to your door. Um
Speaker 1: rethink that given a try picking up your own food again,
Speaker 1: see how it goes, because you could save a lot
Speaker 1: of money. That's right. So our our local favorite pizza place, Glide,
Speaker 1: do they even offer, like, can grub hub pick up
Speaker 1: the pizza from there for you? I don't, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. We like, we always get it ourselves because
Speaker 1: you know, we do pizza. Movie. But my guest is,
Speaker 1: you know, a pizza there costs twenty eight dollars, but
Speaker 1: it's this big giant Yeah, probably it's like the size
Speaker 1: of to human bodies. Um. Well, and and it is,
Speaker 1: it's just super delicious pizza. But yeah, my guess is
Speaker 1: to deliver that to our house is twenty something bucks.
Speaker 1: Uh so that's just prohibitive, like picking up yourself. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and and since we're talking about fast food, Matt, we've
Speaker 1: got to mention that inflation is hitting the beloved value
Speaker 1: many of these days. You know, even though you and
Speaker 1: I were not big consumers of fast food ourselves, I
Speaker 1: will I will admit this weekend our family did eat
Speaker 1: at Wendy's because we had some coupons. Well, that's where
Speaker 1: you go if you want to get that beef patty
Speaker 1: that's never been frozen. It's right, So that's not a
Speaker 1: normal occurrence for us. But it was a fun little
Speaker 1: treat the kids liked. But um yeah, prices of the
Speaker 1: cheapest and least nutritious foods amongst us are on the rise.
Speaker 1: And Little Caesar's, speaking of pizza, just announced recently that
Speaker 1: they're charging five dollars and fifty cents instead of just
Speaker 1: the flat five dollars for the hot ready A right,
Speaker 1: was that what it's called hot and ready pepperoni pizza?
Speaker 1: And then burger hing McDonald's and Denny's and and other
Speaker 1: restaurants are all raising prices on some of the items
Speaker 1: on their on their cheapest value menu because if the
Speaker 1: told that, inflation is taking on their bottom line. So
Speaker 1: if you're one of those people and you frequent fast
Speaker 1: food chains a lot, just now that the value menu
Speaker 1: is not going to provide as much value in the
Speaker 1: near future, and you're gonna be paying more for those
Speaker 1: hamburgers or chicken nuggets, like whatever does you get that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the theme for the year? Man, how much
Speaker 1: more is this costing me? I will say, if McDonald's
Speaker 1: chicken nuggets were healthy for you. I would eat them
Speaker 1: on the reg gross. Dude, so good, How are you serious?
Speaker 1: I can't handle that. I will say Checkers Checkers French
Speaker 1: fries like the Super Season fries. They're also incredibly expensive,
Speaker 1: but they're worth it. Those are something I will go
Speaker 1: out of my way for, But not the chicken nuggets McDonald's.
Speaker 1: All right, So we we've talked about how banks, how
Speaker 1: they're starting to slash and even innate overdraft fees. We
Speaker 1: mentioned ally they were the first major bank to scrap
Speaker 1: them all together last year, Capital One. They followed suit
Speaker 1: Bank of America. They actually recently trimmed there's even though
Speaker 1: they didn't do away with it completely. Now, I was
Speaker 1: so surprised, like everybody else is like starting to do
Speaker 1: away with them, and you're like, we're gonna turn them
Speaker 1: back there they suck. But but ally they are now
Speaker 1: going even further and they're introducing something called cover draft,
Speaker 1: which is it's basically overdraft protection with zero fees. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty sweet feature because I've always hated the idea
Speaker 1: of overdraft even being a thing. Right. It's it's crazy
Speaker 1: that the banks would say, Okay, so you don't have
Speaker 1: enough money to the bank to actually make this purchase.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna make it happen anyway. It's just gonna
Speaker 1: cost you like an extra fifty bucks total and fees.
Speaker 1: Did you like profit line, Oh my gosh, don't do that, Like,
Speaker 1: just deny the charge, don't let it go through, don't
Speaker 1: charge me. It's pernicious. It's just a way for them
Speaker 1: to extract more money out of us. I was trying
Speaker 1: to like think through some different examples, and it kind
Speaker 1: of makes me think of like at a hotel, Right,
Speaker 1: you've got the little mini fridge, and you know everything
Speaker 1: in their costs costs extra time. But imagine this scenario.
Speaker 1: Imagine you're sitting there, you're eating some spicy chicken wings
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh my gosh, like my mouth was
Speaker 1: on fire. I need I need some water. And you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna grab the
Speaker 1: water out of the mini fridge. Except that instead of
Speaker 1: them charging you money, it's as if the way that
Speaker 1: you receive that that nice, fancy water is like somehow
Speaker 1: your spicy chicken got spicier, Like it just adds fuel
Speaker 1: to the fire. And so in this way, if you
Speaker 1: don't have money to spend and then they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna allow you to make that purchase, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna charge you even more. I hate that. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of like this, you know, this evil cycle. It's
Speaker 1: like whatever, the opposite of a virtuous cyclist. But again,
Speaker 1: because allies offering this cover draft uh and it's totally free,
Speaker 1: I am all for that. Yeah. Well, we like their services.
Speaker 1: Anyway they're offering is like that. That is just one
Speaker 1: of the best online banks you could be business. I've
Speaker 1: been with them now for like seven eight years. There
Speaker 1: are other great ones, but ally is definitely one of
Speaker 1: the best. Yip. Alright, Matt, We've got more stories to
Speaker 1: get to, including one about something that's almost as ridiculous
Speaker 1: as over draft fees. We're gonna get to that in
Speaker 1: the ludicrous headline of the week right after this. All right, man,
Speaker 1: we are back to the break. This is our Friday
Speaker 1: flight and we are covering some of the different stories
Speaker 1: we came across this week. And it's time now for
Speaker 1: the ludicrous headline of the week. Uh. And this one
Speaker 1: comes from the Wall Street Journal and it reads, congrats
Speaker 1: you've won a higher electric bill. Uh. That headline caught
Speaker 1: my attention on Gotta Read this one. This one was
Speaker 1: by James Handley. He wrote about just something that's happening
Speaker 1: to folks in the city of Yonkers, New York. Residents.
Speaker 1: They're getting mailers telling them that the city is migrating
Speaker 1: to renewable energy. Yeah, it sounds great. I like electric vehicles.
Speaker 1: I like solar power. There's actually a solar farm by
Speaker 1: Georgia Power south of town that we often drive by,
Speaker 1: you know, on the way to the beach sometimes and
Speaker 1: we're like, I, it's marvel at it's super cool. It's cool.
Speaker 1: Almost makes it feel like you're kind of like back
Speaker 1: in your skate Scandinavian home or you're like, look at
Speaker 1: how this renewable energy. But here's the thing. There's a catch.
Speaker 1: You know, the mailers that folk were receiving and it
Speaker 1: wasn't all that easy to find, And it turns out
Speaker 1: that if residents don't opt out of this transition to
Speaker 1: renewable energy, their monthly bills we're going to increase by
Speaker 1: nine I would be totally piste if that was me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that is rough. That like, literally, hey, next month,
Speaker 1: we're gonna jack up your electricity bill by almost twenty
Speaker 1: if you don't opt out. I hate that you have
Speaker 1: to actually take an action. It's not that you can
Speaker 1: opt in and pay more if you so choose because
Speaker 1: you care that much about renewals. It's the opposite, and
Speaker 1: they hit it, which is crazy, and this could potentially
Speaker 1: cost folks hundreds of dollars or more in electricity bills
Speaker 1: every single year. And so yeah, the lesson here, I
Speaker 1: think is to read the fine print. While you and
Speaker 1: I'm at were all about the proliferation of alternative sources
Speaker 1: of energy and exploring wind energy and solar energy, sol
Speaker 1: solar energy continues to get better and better, and the
Speaker 1: cost continue to go down further and further, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna become more a part of how we get energy
Speaker 1: in this country, which we think is good. But pulling
Speaker 1: the wool over people's eyes in a mailer that most
Speaker 1: people are going to quickly throw in the waste basket,
Speaker 1: assuming that it is trash like, that's just an awful
Speaker 1: way to go about it. And so yeah, just to
Speaker 1: the city of Yonkers, New York, do better. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: always important for folks to know and to have the
Speaker 1: option to decide what they want to pay for do.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about media, because the democratization of media, it
Speaker 1: has become an interesting phenomenon to watch. It wasn't that
Speaker 1: long ago Americans, they used to get all of their news,
Speaker 1: all of their information from, you know, like the three
Speaker 1: main channels, like Walt Walter Cronkite. He was the voice
Speaker 1: that everyone trusted. Uh. Then after that cable came along,
Speaker 1: they gave us a bunch more options, not only for news,
Speaker 1: but for entertainment as well. But the information environment now
Speaker 1: makes cable like looks like a joke. Basically, it's it's
Speaker 1: been crazy to watch. But many podcasters, YouTube creators, TikTok influencers,
Speaker 1: they all have more viewers and they hold a lot
Speaker 1: more sway than even the legacy media companies. But the
Speaker 1: thing is that also comes with some trade offs. In
Speaker 1: one of those is figuring out who you can trust
Speaker 1: to give you that information that's not gonna lead you astray. Uh.
Speaker 1: The ecount of this, they actually had a great article
Speaker 1: about the proliferation of personal finance advice on TikTok uh
Speaker 1: and it turns out that nearly twenty percent of young
Speaker 1: folks turned there for financial advice. Is that an awesome thing. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we wouldn't say it's necessarily awesome, but maybe
Speaker 1: it's not the worst thing ever as well. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the democratization of media, like you said, has
Speaker 1: had trade offs where it's like, man, you can get
Speaker 1: some of the most interesting, curated content that kind of
Speaker 1: fits you like a glove, as opposed to having three
Speaker 1: choices and picking, you know, the one that you like
Speaker 1: kind of the best exactly. And so it shocked me
Speaker 1: though that this many people are turning to to TikTok
Speaker 1: for financial advice. I guess to a certain degree. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess. You know, we've got a lot of influencer
Speaker 1: friends in the space who are using that actually for good.
Speaker 1: They are doing good work on TikTok and they are
Speaker 1: putting helpful information out into that space. And but here's
Speaker 1: the thing. You know, some while some of these new
Speaker 1: media creators they're smart, they're earnest, um, they're reaching people
Speaker 1: where they're hanging out, which I think is a good thing.
Speaker 1: They're giving helpful advice. But at the same time, we
Speaker 1: would say that you need to be careful who you
Speaker 1: trust to give you information. Don't take every piece of
Speaker 1: money advice you here on social media to heart, because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of bad pieces of information out
Speaker 1: there too, and that's in part because of some folks.
Speaker 1: Well they might mean well, but they don't have necessarily
Speaker 1: the depth of knowledge to broadcast advice to the whole
Speaker 1: world and kind of give you a thorough understanding of
Speaker 1: a topic. And I don't know that TikTok is built
Speaker 1: for thorough understandings of a topic anyway. Right. Um, On
Speaker 1: top of that, there's been this proliferation of scams on
Speaker 1: social media. That's according to a new report from the
Speaker 1: FTC from the Federal Trade Commission, so reported losses from
Speaker 1: social media scams in the year they were eighteen times
Speaker 1: what they were in seventeen. That's a massive jump in
Speaker 1: just four years. So, yeah, we just wanted to put
Speaker 1: this warning out there. It's totally fine if you're on
Speaker 1: TikTok and you like the dance videos and if you
Speaker 1: find the right people to follow on there, you can
Speaker 1: get some helpful money advice for how you live. But
Speaker 1: there are also are people out there who aren't worth following,
Speaker 1: and you know what, they might even lead you astray,
Speaker 1: They might even scam you out of money. That's right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so kind of along those lines, let's talk about giving
Speaker 1: money away. Let's talk about philanthropy, not to scam artists,
Speaker 1: nonprofit organizations that you want to support. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 1: we're also seeing headlines too that aren't just detailing the
Speaker 1: millions that are being donated from like the world's richest folks.
Speaker 1: Although I saw that Melinda French Gates, she's slowing her
Speaker 1: role a little bit. She's not gonna be giving away
Speaker 1: like all of her money, you know, definitely billions and billions,
Speaker 1: but maybe not all of her billions. Gonna keep a
Speaker 1: couple of bill in the nest, the nest egg and
Speaker 1: you know, in her allies, heavy's accountably. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: gonna make a joke about another bill not paying in
Speaker 1: the nest anymore. Let's not go there. Uh. But there's
Speaker 1: an article from the Journal this week that was all
Speaker 1: about how fintech companies are starting to make it easier
Speaker 1: for everyday folks to give their money away. Some are
Speaker 1: specializing in microphilanthropy, and so think about it sort of
Speaker 1: like acorns, but for giving your money away. I thought
Speaker 1: that was really cool because you know, if you're looking
Speaker 1: to give more of your money away, this year, but
Speaker 1: you can't seem to find the room in your budget.
Speaker 1: Maybe downloading an app like round up um not the
Speaker 1: Monsanto chemical. That's the first thing I thought of when
Speaker 1: I saw that round up. Yeah, well that app that
Speaker 1: might help you to be able to give some of
Speaker 1: that money away without feeling the pinch. And the thing
Speaker 1: is too, you know, those donations are still going to
Speaker 1: be tax deductible as well. However, if you are thinking
Speaker 1: about stepping up how much you're looking to give away
Speaker 1: this year, you're not just looking to give away that
Speaker 1: spare change. Daffy is still one of the coolest apps
Speaker 1: out there that that can help you to do that.
Speaker 1: We discussed Daffy in more detail towards the end of
Speaker 1: last year. But the fees are microscopic and it's an
Speaker 1: easy way to give investments like stocks and crypto as well.
Speaker 1: It's a way for you to set up a donor
Speaker 1: advised fund. That's why they call it Daffy, but they
Speaker 1: help to facilitate that in a way that makes it
Speaker 1: really easy to give away more of your money. That's right,
Speaker 1: and I believe the website is daffy dot org if
Speaker 1: you want to check it out. But we'll also link
Speaker 1: to it in the shout ups for this episode. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's a really good goal to have, Matt,
Speaker 1: you and I talk about how to give away money
Speaker 1: and why we should give away mo any and we
Speaker 1: just think it's good for our overall attachment level to money,
Speaker 1: how we think about it and view it, and if
Speaker 1: we can see the money that we make doing good
Speaker 1: in our community, you know, and and donate it to
Speaker 1: organizations that are doing great work where near where we live.
Speaker 1: I think that's just kind of a great use of
Speaker 1: money and something that we should we should strive to
Speaker 1: do more of. But let's talk about cars for a second.
Speaker 1: We um, we actually talked in depth about that on
Speaker 1: Wednesday's episodes. You listen back to that, that's right, So
Speaker 1: if you're like, Okay, how do I buy a car?
Speaker 1: That's what Wednesday's episode was all about. And uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we we mentioned our love for the extended return policy
Speaker 1: that some of the online car companies offer these days.
Speaker 1: Carbon and CarMax both make it really easy to take
Speaker 1: that car for a week or a month even and
Speaker 1: kind of decide whether you like it or not, and
Speaker 1: you can bring it back no questions. Asked if you don't, well,
Speaker 1: I guess forward. They ended up liking that business model too,
Speaker 1: because they just announced that they're going to offer a
Speaker 1: two week, one thousand mile return policy on use cars
Speaker 1: sold at for d of ships. And this trend is
Speaker 1: just so great because you can get that extended test
Speaker 1: drive to the side whether you like the car or not, because,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, like a three mile or two mile
Speaker 1: test drive close by the dealership, it's just not quite
Speaker 1: enough time to know whether this is a car that's
Speaker 1: gonna work for you long term. And yeah, it gives
Speaker 1: you extra time to get that car checked out by
Speaker 1: your mechanic as well. And so yeah, they even have
Speaker 1: a website where you can peruse their used car selection.
Speaker 1: It's called Ford Blue Advantage, and so yeah, there's just
Speaker 1: more options and more competition in the used car space.
Speaker 1: And on that site, they're not just selling Ford vehicles.
Speaker 1: I think the majority are Ford vehicles. We can find
Speaker 1: some Hondas and some Toyotas and some Chryslers and some
Speaker 1: other stuff in there too, And so yeah, we just
Speaker 1: wanted to highlight this trend. It's a good one. Make
Speaker 1: sure when you're buying a car it's good to prioritize
Speaker 1: that no questions asked return policy. It's a big helper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it can be helpful to see it in
Speaker 1: your driveway for a few days to be like, all right,
Speaker 1: does this feel like my car? Or is this somebody
Speaker 1: else's car? Maybe I should take it back. We talked
Speaker 1: about taxes a couple of weeks ago. I'm definitely curious
Speaker 1: to know if any how the money listeners if they
Speaker 1: end up using that free tax filing service from Square
Speaker 1: or cash app specifically, but they call it cash app taxes.
Speaker 1: But if so, drop us a line and let us
Speaker 1: know what you think of it, if you give it
Speaker 1: a shot. One other thing though, that we've got to
Speaker 1: mention on the tax front. According to the numbers, typically
Speaker 1: three and four folks get a tax refund. That's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a great thing. However, it can be a great
Speaker 1: thing for your ability to be able to quickly pay
Speaker 1: off some credit card debt, maybe too rapidly, fund your
Speaker 1: emergency fund that you've ignored, maybe it's on the back burner,
Speaker 1: maybe it's been languishing. But it is also great for
Speaker 1: your ability to put more money into I bonds. There
Speaker 1: is a ten thousand dollar annual cap, but it has
Speaker 1: this one exception. You can use your tax refund to
Speaker 1: buy up to five thousand dollars more and I bonds.
Speaker 1: And so if I bonds or your jam right now
Speaker 1: and they are pretty great, that's a good thing to
Speaker 1: know that you can slide an additional five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for a total of fifteen thousand dollars into I bonds
Speaker 1: this year. Yeah, And the reason we've been talking about
Speaker 1: I bonds so much more than we have in years
Speaker 1: past these last year and a half, as inflation has
Speaker 1: just you know, sort through the roof. You can get
Speaker 1: right now the going rate on an I bond because
Speaker 1: it mirrors the rate of inflation. And so seven point
Speaker 1: one two is what you're going to get on that night.
Speaker 1: And you know we've talked about the specifics before. And
Speaker 1: make sure that you don't need that money for at
Speaker 1: least a year, because you have to lock it away
Speaker 1: for a year if you do decide to purchase I
Speaker 1: bonds um. But if you've got some, you know, a
Speaker 1: big fat refund coming your way, it can be a
Speaker 1: good place to put that that that refund for your future.
Speaker 1: And there's also a good chance that your tax refund
Speaker 1: is going to be smaller this year, specifically if you
Speaker 1: already received half of your child tax credit as an
Speaker 1: advanced last year, and so yeah, it made like the
Speaker 1: end of last year on the fifteenth, just always a
Speaker 1: sweet day to look forward to when you saw that
Speaker 1: money show up your account if you have kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars for many families every single month where
Speaker 1: was getting placed into that into their accounts. But don't
Speaker 1: forget that that happened, because that's not that's money that
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be receiving, you know, with your fund exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so if you happen to receive any unemployment conversation
Speaker 1: in um, the same thing is going to be true
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic. You've got a tax break for
Speaker 1: unemployment received back in but not so don't let it
Speaker 1: come as a shock if you're refunded small or smaller,
Speaker 1: or if you even oh a little bit more this year.
Speaker 1: Those are things to kind of put on your radar
Speaker 1: as you're getting ready to file your taxes, which I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously you still got time, but people are
Speaker 1: starting at you know, people that are on the ball,
Speaker 1: they're starting to getting going with it. Time to ramp
Speaker 1: it up. I'm not on the ball. I'm not going
Speaker 1: with you. I've slowly gathered my documents, but i haven't
Speaker 1: sent them in yet. I've got like a folder and
Speaker 1: I'm just like putting everything. That's that's all. You gotta do.
Speaker 1: That way, as stuff kind of shows up in your
Speaker 1: in box, you canel all right, let me go download
Speaker 1: that PDF for whatever it is that they're sending your way.
Speaker 1: But dude, that's gonna be it for this episode. We
Speaker 1: hope everyone has a great weekend. We will see you
Speaker 1: back here on Monday. We've got a great ask how
Speaker 1: the Money Listener Questions episode lined up for you and
Speaker 1: so Joel. Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: M M