Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and
Speaker 1: today we're talking prime prescriptions, cheap dates, instellar customer service.
Speaker 1: That's right, this is our Friday flight, and you know
Speaker 1: who in the Friday flight is for Joel. It's for
Speaker 1: all the folks who didn't have the time to read
Speaker 1: every single news story that happened to be published this
Speaker 1: past week. We do, that's what we do. Yeah, We
Speaker 1: we cover all of the relevant stories, in particular the
Speaker 1: ones that have to do with your personal finance, and
Speaker 1: we filter a whole money, a whole lot of crap
Speaker 1: out so that you only have to hear the stuff
Speaker 1: that matters and stuff. Yeah exactly, So, uh, that's what
Speaker 1: we're doing today. We don't read everything, by the way,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that probably slips through our cracks.
Speaker 1: And so if you ever find a cool story and
Speaker 1: you think it's interesting, send it our way. Sending our
Speaker 1: way How the Money pod at gmail dot com. We
Speaker 1: help us out, yea, and to our research for us. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that we've got a lot of stories to get today.
Speaker 1: But real quick, I wanted to mention that give give
Speaker 1: a little round of applause. Well for my dad, for
Speaker 1: my dad. He uh so he is like he and
Speaker 1: my mom are about to retire to the spring, they're
Speaker 1: getting close. My dad already kind of retired, but he's
Speaker 1: working part time. But they're kind of like easing into
Speaker 1: those retirement years. Yeah, but they're like, all right, where's
Speaker 1: the low hanging fruit the weekend where we can cut
Speaker 1: back as we get closer retirement. You had this fixed income, right, uh,
Speaker 1: and it's unlikely you're going to re enter the workforce,
Speaker 1: although that's they could if they needed to write. But
Speaker 1: about this awesome website, how the money don't I was like,
Speaker 1: listen to some of these things are I've been knocking
Speaker 1: about it for a long time. But he took some
Speaker 1: meaningful steps, I will say, over the past couple of
Speaker 1: weeks to really reduce some of the bills in his life.
Speaker 1: And and one of the things I was shocked to
Speaker 1: see how much he saved on this. Well, we've talked
Speaker 1: about how much prices have gone up, how much rates
Speaker 1: have gone up on insurance like home homeowners and car insurance.
Speaker 1: My dad's car insurance in particular, our insurance in particular.
Speaker 1: He so he is going to save two hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a month a month, Holy cow. So like a year
Speaker 1: with with car insurance, with with car insurance and home
Speaker 1: insurance together, I think, but it was mostly car insurance.
Speaker 1: I think that was the biggest by far, the biggest savings.
Speaker 1: Dude that uh yeah, yeah, right, Well you're saying to
Speaker 1: applaud earlier, and I'm like, I don't know, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to clap for until I know what i'm clapping for. No,
Speaker 1: So that's a lot of money, right that I will
Speaker 1: clap for. Yeah, I just and it just bears repeating
Speaker 1: for our listeners out there who that that's always one
Speaker 1: of those low hanging places where you can save, and
Speaker 1: especially right now when we're talking about just kind of
Speaker 1: an environment where rates are going up in a big way.
Speaker 1: Some of our listeners in the Facebook group have said
Speaker 1: that their rates have gone up like thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: in a year, Like, just I believe it insane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so but to see that, well, you know what,
Speaker 1: insurers have all sorts of different ways that they that
Speaker 1: they come up with their rates, and not everybody has
Speaker 1: the same algorithm. In fact, they all have kind of
Speaker 1: like different algorithms. Right, So people got their own secret songs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you might not be giving a ton of coverage,
Speaker 1: you might be getting the same exact coverage, but just
Speaker 1: saving a lot of money. And so it's worth it's
Speaker 1: worth noting. And it's one of those things where, man,
Speaker 1: if you can save that much money, and even if
Speaker 1: it takes you a few hours of your time to
Speaker 1: do the shopping, to make the phone calls and to
Speaker 1: make the switch, it's like, who doesn't have a few
Speaker 1: hours if it's worth a couple of grand in the year,
Speaker 1: And in particular, those are savings that you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to realize year after year instead of getting penalized
Speaker 1: for being loyal to the company that you've been with
Speaker 1: shopping around and you'll get to see that premium decrease.
Speaker 1: Mad props to my pops, by the way. And also
Speaker 1: one other thing, well, we'll link to an article in
Speaker 1: the show notes about additional ways that you can save
Speaker 1: on insurance. Like, yeah, shopping around is one thing, but
Speaker 1: then asking for there's a lot of discounts that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know about. Will link to that
Speaker 1: article too, yes, right man, Yeah, So let's get to
Speaker 1: our Friday flight. This is the quick sampling of the
Speaker 1: different stories that we found the most interesting this week
Speaker 1: and on Wednesday actually, so we talked about negotiating your
Speaker 1: salary and that was one of the ways that you
Speaker 1: can maximize your income. Listen back if you hadn't already
Speaker 1: listened to that one. But what about negotiating for how
Speaker 1: much you pay for products? Consumer Reports they had an
Speaker 1: excellent article this week about which a big box appliance
Speaker 1: stores out there offer you the greatest ability to get
Speaker 1: a lower price just by asking for a better price. Uh.
Speaker 1: And first of all, if you are in the market
Speaker 1: for a major appliance, where it is that you shot
Speaker 1: matters when it comes to getting the best price as
Speaker 1: well as the best perks. A BT which I've never
Speaker 1: even heard of before. Evidently that they're up in the
Speaker 1: Upper Midwest. They are beloved by their customers. Costco they
Speaker 1: ranked best for price overall and for some of those
Speaker 1: additional perks that I just mentioned. For some of those
Speaker 1: extras like delivery, they'll halloway your old appliance as well,
Speaker 1: which used to kind of be standard, but it's not anymore.
Speaker 1: So it does feel like approach. Yeah, who maintained that
Speaker 1: because this often does it costs extra, So make sure
Speaker 1: to factor that in. We want to make sure that
Speaker 1: we are all paying the lowest amount overall. And man,
Speaker 1: that holloway service that they provide as well, that is clutch. Uh.
Speaker 1: And particularly if it's broke as a joke, and like
Speaker 1: you have to pay to recycle it. It's one thing.
Speaker 1: If it's one thing, if it kind of works, and
Speaker 1: you can maybe unload it for like you know, barely
Speaker 1: working fridge sixty bucks. All the shelves are broken, broken
Speaker 1: ins out of it. But I'm specifically they speak from
Speaker 1: personal experience, Matt. Yes, well, I'm thinking of being a landlord.
Speaker 1: The ability to have a company show up haul off
Speaker 1: an old or completely broken appliance, install the new one.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, the ability just to be the middleman
Speaker 1: and coordinate the Okay, sounds like the guys are gonna
Speaker 1: be there between two and four this afternoon, so your
Speaker 1: your tenant knows when to be there. They show up,
Speaker 1: haul off the old one, hook up the new one.
Speaker 1: Your tenants happy. I'm happy. It's a win win situation.
Speaker 1: Makes it easier for you for sure. And yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: a lot of these a lot of these guys now
Speaker 1: charge money for that additional halloway and and interestingly enough, Matt,
Speaker 1: you know you mentioned the negotiating for those products, well
Speaker 1: Um Home Depot Lows and Best Buy. The Consumer Ports
Speaker 1: said that sixty percent of folks who asked for a
Speaker 1: discount at those stores were able to get one, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. I was like, wow, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: lot of people. Impressive, especially considering that these are national brands. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that where you would not think that they would have
Speaker 1: a whole lot of flexibility exactly. But here's the rub.
Speaker 1: In that same survey survey, only folks were willing to
Speaker 1: ask for the discount, so most people paid full freight,
Speaker 1: They paid the full uh sticker price of that item
Speaker 1: because they were too nervous to ask the question. But
Speaker 1: the folks who did, who put themselves in that slightly
Speaker 1: awkward situation, they ended up getting it. And what was
Speaker 1: the average savings according to Consumer reports A hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty three dollars, which is not chump change, right, that's
Speaker 1: I mean when you think about what's your hourly wage
Speaker 1: and you're like, how many hours would have to work?
Speaker 1: When you just have to ask this simple question and
Speaker 1: there's a decent chance that they're going to say yes,
Speaker 1: Like how long would it take you to make a
Speaker 1: hunter and thirty three tax free dollars? Right? And and
Speaker 1: how awesome is it that you can keep that sum
Speaker 1: of money in your pocket just by asking a simple question.
Speaker 1: We should all be asking for discounts more regularly, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, and yeah, there was an even higher
Speaker 1: percentage of success with more like some of those regional
Speaker 1: companies or more independent stores as well, because they obviously
Speaker 1: do how the most flexibility when it comes to the
Speaker 1: prices that they can unload certain items for and also
Speaker 1: something else that you can negotiate on the So the
Speaker 1: average internet bill it's cresting seventy five bucks, you should
Speaker 1: also consider negotiating that bill down as well. Oftentimes you
Speaker 1: start service with a company, you get that new customer
Speaker 1: period of time or it's like the honeymoon phase bab right,
Speaker 1: Like they they wanna wine and dine you, sort of
Speaker 1: like going back to the insurance example, right, they want
Speaker 1: you to be happy. They want you to be warm
Speaker 1: and cozy with their with their company. That way, when
Speaker 1: they raise rates, you don't go anywhere, right. And so
Speaker 1: when it comes time to negotiating this bill, first of all,
Speaker 1: you need to make sure that you are armed with
Speaker 1: information that's always gonna give you a little more confidence,
Speaker 1: and knowing that when you go and talk to your
Speaker 1: current internet service provider that you've got hard facts. You
Speaker 1: can say that, hey, this is what so and so
Speaker 1: is charging, this is their rate, and this is the
Speaker 1: speed that they're offering, and be willing to walk right
Speaker 1: because if they're not willing to match that, hopefully they
Speaker 1: do match it, because that's the easiest thing to not
Speaker 1: have to change your service. But also, I think it's
Speaker 1: important for us to all be willing to walk away, uh,
Speaker 1: knowing that, all right, well, if you're not gonna offer
Speaker 1: me that, I can take my business elsewhere for sure.
Speaker 1: We actually just wrote an article up on the site
Speaker 1: about how to go about asking for a discount, and
Speaker 1: we talked about specific places where you're liable to get
Speaker 1: a discount. So we'll link to that one in the
Speaker 1: show notes as well. But Matt, let's talk about drugs
Speaker 1: for a second. You're not supposed to do drugs unless
Speaker 1: you're prescription drugs, and even then the doctor says you should. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta be careful. If if the doctor says you should,
Speaker 1: then you should consider it. But at Prime. Prime membership
Speaker 1: continues to become more expensive, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty nine dollars for a year now. It's
Speaker 1: not cheap, but Amazon it feels like they have to
Speaker 1: justify that fee to their customers because of course they do,
Speaker 1: or else you would walk away if you're not getting
Speaker 1: enough value for that Prime membership. But uh, then they
Speaker 1: already offer a number of perks, right, You've got the
Speaker 1: music that you can listen to, there's you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of streaming television and movie options on Amazon. But
Speaker 1: they're always looking to add more to make Prime membership
Speaker 1: like this stickier proposition. And what's the latest on that front, Well,
Speaker 1: they're expanding generic drug offerings. They They're new offering is
Speaker 1: called r X Past and it's going to offer access
Speaker 1: to commonly prescribe medications for just five dollars a month,
Speaker 1: and the average cost savings for the typical Prime member
Speaker 1: could be in the hundred dollar range a year, according
Speaker 1: to the VP of Amazon Pharmacy. Is the average consumer're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to say that much? It depends, right,
Speaker 1: It depends on whether or not one of the fifty
Speaker 1: prescriptions they offer is something you take on a recurring
Speaker 1: basis and how much you normally pay for it now.
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you do take a couple of those drugs,
Speaker 1: then the value of paying for Prime just went up
Speaker 1: for you. In all likelihood, you're gonna want to comparison
Speaker 1: shop and you're not gonna want to just assume that
Speaker 1: this is best. But prescription drugs are typically kind of
Speaker 1: a thorn in our side price wise, And it's also
Speaker 1: just nice to have it shipped to you for five
Speaker 1: bucks a month. That sounds pretty nice. And if it's
Speaker 1: if you have, it's gonna save you money Prime. And
Speaker 1: even for folks who aren't currently Prime members, if they're like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, five of the drugs I take, if
Speaker 1: you take a lot, you know, on a monthly basis,
Speaker 1: are on this list, Boy, that might have just made
Speaker 1: Prime membership worth it, right there, could be worth it.
Speaker 1: But also keep in mind this is coming from the
Speaker 1: person the chart. Their their livelihood is depending on the
Speaker 1: success of the r X pass, which by the way,
Speaker 1: reminds me of like is it the fast pass or
Speaker 1: whatever it makes it. It almost makes it sound like
Speaker 1: you can get as many drugs as you can handle. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's not the case. But that's what I think of
Speaker 1: when I hear r X pass. It's just like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like their hanunds fun. They're handing out generic
Speaker 1: drugs like candy. By the way, a new study that
Speaker 1: appeared in JAMA that's the Journal of American Medical Association.
Speaker 1: They found that the drug ads that we see on
Speaker 1: TV that they're often not any better than the drugs
Speaker 1: that are already on the market. Seventy percent of the
Speaker 1: drugs that you see pitched they have what's known as
Speaker 1: low therapeutic value. There's not much to be gained by
Speaker 1: going with those, uh those name brand drugs as opposed
Speaker 1: to the generics. Interestingly enough, most other countries other than
Speaker 1: New Zealand, I think, have banned the sorts of direct
Speaker 1: ads that we see from pharmaceutical company and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: worth mentioning because I think we'd all be happier. We'd
Speaker 1: probably be healthier too if we took a similar approach.
Speaker 1: But don't buy into the marketing hype. And you know
Speaker 1: what we'd recommend is to get those generics. You know,
Speaker 1: whether it be through Amazon or wherever it is that
Speaker 1: you can find those, they're gonna save you a boatload,
Speaker 1: And honestly, it's just dumb the way that drugs are
Speaker 1: marketed here in the US. It's actually so it's not
Speaker 1: dumb on the part of the pharmaceutical companies though, because
Speaker 1: they're making money. They wouldn't be doing that if it
Speaker 1: wasn't them making a profit, right, And so really it's
Speaker 1: it's dumb on us as as individuals to respond to
Speaker 1: that kind of advertising as opposed to tuning it out
Speaker 1: and maybe going down the path that's going to be
Speaker 1: a little bit harder, like you know, you know, we've
Speaker 1: talked about the obesity drugs that have recently have they
Speaker 1: been like officially approved think so, but for for young teens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's ridiculous that we are always looking for, like
Speaker 1: quite literally the easy pill to take as opposed to
Speaker 1: doing like the things that are going to lead to
Speaker 1: more long term overall health, right, exercise, healthy diets, um,
Speaker 1: taking what's gonna be maybe the harder path that's gonna
Speaker 1: take a little little bit more disciplined, rather than thinking
Speaker 1: that we can take a drug to make us healthier.
Speaker 1: I mean, in the money realm, isn't that exactly kind
Speaker 1: of what cryptocurrency did? Uh? During COVID. Basically, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are like, hey, how can I
Speaker 1: like supercharge my path but in this easy Yeah, but
Speaker 1: in the end it's it's more like a stumbling block,
Speaker 1: and it actually screws you, screws up your progress totally
Speaker 1: more than if you were to take the slower but
Speaker 1: more proven route to success totally. Well, let's talk about
Speaker 1: financial planning for a second match. The Times had an
Speaker 1: article this week about how financial planning is becoming more accessible,
Speaker 1: but they also said that this might not be a
Speaker 1: good thing. Why is that, Well, largely because there aren't
Speaker 1: robust legal standards for calling yourself a financial planner. And
Speaker 1: the biggest is that there's still no legal requirement to
Speaker 1: be a fiduciary if you're calling yourself one, right, so,
Speaker 1: which that basically means that your financial advisor doesn't have
Speaker 1: to do what's in your best interest, which sounds kind
Speaker 1: of scary. Right, Hey, let me and trust you with
Speaker 1: all my money. Oh, you don't have to do it's
Speaker 1: in my best interest? Give it back, right, That's that's
Speaker 1: how I would feel about it. There was a proposal
Speaker 1: to set that requirement in stone to make sure that
Speaker 1: everyone who calls himself a financial advisor has to be
Speaker 1: a fiduciary, But it didn't happen. This is a few
Speaker 1: years back, and so yeah, there are a fair amount
Speaker 1: of financial advisors out there who have conflicts of interest.
Speaker 1: Should they invest your money in a way that that's
Speaker 1: them the largest return or should they make sure that
Speaker 1: you're invested in what's best for you. Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: a shame that this is even up for debate and
Speaker 1: that we don't have a more consumer friendly standard still,
Speaker 1: but I think the Times reinforces a great point something
Speaker 1: we've always said on the show here Matt that if
Speaker 1: you are looking to hire a financial advisor, don't do
Speaker 1: it unless they're willing to sign a fiduciary oath to you,
Speaker 1: and if they're not, walk away that's right. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: really is a big problem. It kind of gives the
Speaker 1: financial advisor, the financial planning community a black eye because
Speaker 1: you get a few bad actors and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden and they've got to ruin the party for everyone.
Speaker 1: But there are ways to find a financial advisor who
Speaker 1: is a fiduciary, and that's largely by going through some
Speaker 1: of the different networks out there who met them we
Speaker 1: in particularly like x Y Planning Network a whole lot.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for an advisor, that's definitely a great
Speaker 1: place to look, but it's also a good idea to
Speaker 1: question whether or not you need an advisor before forking
Speaker 1: over your dollars for advice, even if it is to
Speaker 1: a lovely fee only financial advisor who does happen to
Speaker 1: be a fiduciary. Because while you know many financial advisors
Speaker 1: out there, they seem to be offering more and more services,
Speaker 1: they're obviously not free and oftentimes you're not going to
Speaker 1: be cheap either, and so we think that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of sort of more d I Y steps that
Speaker 1: you can take before you get to that stage. So
Speaker 1: whether that's reading a book or even hiring a money
Speaker 1: coach just for a couple of hours of their time,
Speaker 1: that can oftentimes offer a better payback in many circumstances
Speaker 1: as opposed to saying, all right, financial advisor, you're a fiduciary,
Speaker 1: sign me up, you're you are now my person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's amazing how just like a financial coach or a
Speaker 1: budgeting coach, there's so much cheaper, but oftentimes that's the
Speaker 1: kind of handholding that people need, not the full fledged
Speaker 1: financial advisor who comes with all the bells and whistles, right,
Speaker 1: many of which you don't even need, YEA. Oftentimes you
Speaker 1: just need someone to walk alongside you. And this's awtent
Speaker 1: times what those different financial coaches out there are able
Speaker 1: to provide for sure. All Right, now, we've got more
Speaker 1: to get to, including man scams apparently on one of
Speaker 1: your favorite social media sites are through the Roof, and
Speaker 1: those scams could part you from your money. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that and more right after this. All right, man,
Speaker 1: let's get the Friday flight roll, and this is our
Speaker 1: sampling of the different stories that we came across this week.
Speaker 1: And you just alluded to the the rise and scams.
Speaker 1: I was just thinking we should have called that segment
Speaker 1: Scamsters Paradise. I think we made way too many cool
Speaker 1: Leo punts though on the show already. I didn't know
Speaker 1: if you'd like maybe not this episode, but just on
Speaker 1: the show. Yeah, not this particular episode. But let's get
Speaker 1: to our ludicrous headline of the week. This is from
Speaker 1: the New York Post and the headline reads, I went
Speaker 1: on six dates so and didn't have to buy groceries
Speaker 1: for two years. This comes from a TikTok influencer out
Speaker 1: there who admits that she actually embellished her ability to
Speaker 1: save money on food by going out with a ton
Speaker 1: of guys over the course of a couple of years.
Speaker 1: The article and in some of her quotes actually were
Speaker 1: way less offensive than that actual headline. But that being said,
Speaker 1: this this segment, it's all about ludicrous headlines. So, Joe,
Speaker 1: what do you think was this person was was this influencer?
Speaker 1: Was she being frugal or cheap to try and go
Speaker 1: on as many dates as possible in order to lower
Speaker 1: her food budget? Okay, I'm gonna say cheap. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say it's yeah. So I think coming down hard. Alright,
Speaker 1: Sorry I am. And I was glad when I actually
Speaker 1: read the article and I was like, Okay, she's not
Speaker 1: completely taking manage of people to the tune of what
Speaker 1: this headline made it seem like. But I think if
Speaker 1: you are truly trying to find love and the other
Speaker 1: person offers to pay for your meal, if you're going
Speaker 1: on dates, that's totally fine, Like if that's generous, and
Speaker 1: you should take somebody up on their generosity. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like praying on some much generosity. If
Speaker 1: you are just going on date after date after date,
Speaker 1: you're not really trying to establish a meaningful relationship with someone.
Speaker 1: You're just in it for like the free food and
Speaker 1: for the free drinks. That feels to me, that feels cheap,
Speaker 1: and that feels it feels uncol Well, isn't that what it?
Speaker 1: What it's like when you sign up? Well, like when
Speaker 1: you writ your email down at like some sort of
Speaker 1: like festival and there's tents and they're like, hey, does
Speaker 1: give us your email and we'll we'll give you this
Speaker 1: free blah blah blah like whatever. It is like you've
Speaker 1: got no intention of actually signing up for their service.
Speaker 1: You know, you've got zero intention, but you're willing to
Speaker 1: go ahead and jump through this little hoop in order
Speaker 1: to receive the foot That's that's a willing exchange right there.
Speaker 1: And if the person know the person might know, well,
Speaker 1: I guess i'llgument that I'm making is that this chick
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily making guys go out with her claiming that
Speaker 1: she is interesting. I guess sort of what you said
Speaker 1: is true. It comes down to her intention, because if
Speaker 1: her intention is to only go out with guys because
Speaker 1: she wants to be able to get free meals, and
Speaker 1: she's like, where are we going to night? Oh? McDonald's. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sick, I'm gonna guy who's taking me to the seakhouse? Yeah.
Speaker 1: If she's just doing it for the food, then obviously
Speaker 1: she's being cheap. But as long as long as she's
Speaker 1: open to the idea of entering into a relation, like
Speaker 1: if she was already dating a dude and going out
Speaker 1: with other guys, obviously that would be super cheap. But
Speaker 1: as long as she's open to like finding the right one.
Speaker 1: That honestly, even if she wasn't open to it right
Speaker 1: because I could see someone being like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I am not looking for finding a life partner right now.
Speaker 1: You never know what happens though. You might sit down
Speaker 1: with a dude and you're like, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: guy's actually like we're really hitting it off. Boom, you're
Speaker 1: with him for a few years, maybe you get married,
Speaker 1: you found Mr Wright And so it does come down
Speaker 1: to intentions. But I think even if her intentions aren't
Speaker 1: in the right place, I think there's still the possibility
Speaker 1: because guys know that, right, like they know that there's
Speaker 1: a chance that this and maybe she's into me, maybe
Speaker 1: she's not. But that's the first dates of the game.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's gonna happen, right, and you never know.
Speaker 1: I mean, granted, it's been a long time since I've
Speaker 1: been on a first date, Matt, but you often offered
Speaker 1: to pay. There's a risk involved, and you know there's
Speaker 1: risk involved that that there's a chance you never see
Speaker 1: this first again, and that you're out bucks or whatever
Speaker 1: whatever you're spending on dinner, which, by the way, makes
Speaker 1: me think about this other article I saw in the
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal just I think towards the end of
Speaker 1: last year, about cheap dates and how they're kind of
Speaker 1: coming back into vogue, and I was like, this is
Speaker 1: good news. Uh. It seems like people are are less
Speaker 1: willing to spend big bucks on the first date, and
Speaker 1: it makes more sense to to spend a fair amount
Speaker 1: less on those dates because you never know what if
Speaker 1: you're not willing to get that risk, and you might
Speaker 1: be going on a date with a serial data who
Speaker 1: only wants the free food, and so you gotta protect
Speaker 1: your finances even when you're out there dating. And I
Speaker 1: think I like to see this trend because if you're
Speaker 1: just going out the coffee, are you going out for
Speaker 1: a beer or you go out for lunch, I think
Speaker 1: those are better options for saving or just just meeting
Speaker 1: up at the local park and taking a stroll. Like
Speaker 1: frugal dates don't have to be bad dates. And so
Speaker 1: I want this trend to continue. And how to money
Speaker 1: listeners if you're out there in the dating pool trying
Speaker 1: to avoid people who are only taking advantage of you
Speaker 1: for free food, and the one way to do that
Speaker 1: is to see who's genuine by going on less expensive
Speaker 1: but still intentional and wonderful dates where it makes it
Speaker 1: more about the relationship and less about what you're getting
Speaker 1: out of the relationship, which is not getting to know someone. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: It's about that dynamic between the two of you as
Speaker 1: opposed to the goods, right, which, so let's like I
Speaker 1: want to make another case for this girl, Like let's
Speaker 1: flip the table a little bit, because I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of dudes who did the exact same thing
Speaker 1: in a different kind of way, right, Like they're not
Speaker 1: necessarily out there looking for like, Okay, she's not really
Speaker 1: life material, but these tons of dudes out there who
Speaker 1: are just looking to hook up and in the same way,
Speaker 1: does that mean you opt to not be on the
Speaker 1: different apps and platforms altogether. Well, I think that's up
Speaker 1: to the individual to decide, but to know that that's
Speaker 1: the possibility. Uh. And not just dudes, I mean girls
Speaker 1: do the same thing as well when it comes to
Speaker 1: how long term. Yeah, and just the kind of relationships
Speaker 1: that they're looking for. But I don't know, we don't
Speaker 1: want to, We don't need to keep going down the
Speaker 1: relationship corner. I mean, we could start a new like
Speaker 1: spinoff show Man. We could like give a dating advice
Speaker 1: two old guys who don't know anything about it. But
Speaker 1: that's definitely something. Let's quickly discuss the story that's the
Speaker 1: opposite of a ludicrous headline. And let's talk about a company.
Speaker 1: Let's get them some props for doing business the right way.
Speaker 1: The journal they profiled a small olive oil company that
Speaker 1: apologized to its customers via email. Uh. And so you
Speaker 1: know your parents, they probably told you that honesty it's
Speaker 1: always the best policy, but most businesses tend to dodge
Speaker 1: that advice when they make a mistake. Uh. And this company,
Speaker 1: I think it's so grazza, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's a tiny olive oil startup. They shipped a bunch
Speaker 1: of badly packaged items, many of which arrived after Christmas,
Speaker 1: which was a problem for folks who were planning to
Speaker 1: give the olive oil as a gift. But the CEOs email,
Speaker 1: it was titled learning from Our Mistakes evidently was well
Speaker 1: received by customers because, you know, he apologized, he addressed
Speaker 1: the problem's head on, he took full responsibility. Uh, and
Speaker 1: guess what authenticity worked in this case. It actually deepened
Speaker 1: the connection that many of those let down customers had
Speaker 1: with the RAM. He even offered apparently like a coupon
Speaker 1: code for people who are impacted, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people said, listen, I'm gonna order from you again, but
Speaker 1: I'm not going to use the coupon code because I
Speaker 1: so appreciate your apology exactly, being upfront, honest, taking responsibility
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, we bash on companies a good bit,
Speaker 1: and so it's fun to kind of highlight a company
Speaker 1: who's doing the right thing, who's taking responsibility like that,
Speaker 1: And that's a drum that we beat all the time, right,
Speaker 1: like personal responsibility. But hopefully that you can take this
Speaker 1: on a personal level, you can be encouraged to know that,
Speaker 1: you know what, sometimes we don't need to kind of
Speaker 1: dodge and try to navigate our ways away from conflict
Speaker 1: as opposed to just you know, facing those things head on. Hey,
Speaker 1: my bad, my fault. Sometimes if you just admitute, it
Speaker 1: defuses things so much more quickly, And it's just nice
Speaker 1: to see a business do the right thing. It kind
Speaker 1: of it makes me want to go out there and
Speaker 1: buy some of this olivel I thought you're gonna say
Speaker 1: it makes you want to apologize. What are you gonna apologize?
Speaker 1: Forma sorry? Do you like olive oil? So? I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean I we cook with all of those times.
Speaker 1: I will say. I was looking at their branding and
Speaker 1: their squeeze. They're so cool. I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: might want to get some olive oil for the same
Speaker 1: bottle also because they're nice. It's the same bottle that
Speaker 1: my Japanese barbecue sauce comes. Okay, it's like the plastic too,
Speaker 1: with a little like mustard style top twist up or whatever. Um. Literally,
Speaker 1: last night I was cooking dinner and we had some
Speaker 1: oven roasted like those little white creamy potatas I'm talking
Speaker 1: about with a real thin skin. Had roasted some of those,
Speaker 1: and we busted out some truffle olive oil finishing oil.
Speaker 1: For the first time there is that from Costco. I
Speaker 1: think it was from all ads that I really like truffles.
Speaker 1: If I like truffles, I don't know if I'm fancy
Speaker 1: enough to have had them. You've had truffle, like truffle,
Speaker 1: I guess I've had like a little bit. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: that stinky. It's not my stinky garlic key kind of Oh, man,
Speaker 1: I love it. Sometimes folks were like, it's described sometimes
Speaker 1: as stinky feet. Yeah, I'm into that. You a creep
Speaker 1: like that. So well, let's move on, man, Let's talk
Speaker 1: about scams here, because in case people were worried that
Speaker 1: the world is just too nice a place and there's
Speaker 1: too many business is doing the right thing by by everyone, No,
Speaker 1: that's not quite the case. In Facebook marketplace, they actually
Speaker 1: saw a hundred and eight increase in the number of
Speaker 1: folks who got taken advantage of on their site. So
Speaker 1: it's worth taking a minute to quickly outline maybe how
Speaker 1: a bunch of these scams work. When you're in marketplace,
Speaker 1: because we've talked about how it's one of the best
Speaker 1: ways to buy and sell used items. It's especially for
Speaker 1: bigger items that are that are more difficult and that
Speaker 1: you can't ship and that you you don't want to
Speaker 1: sell an eBay. But most of these scams involve either
Speaker 1: a seller receiving fake payments for an item they've listed,
Speaker 1: or a buyer who made a legitimate payment for an
Speaker 1: item that they're looking to score, but then the seller
Speaker 1: never delivers the goods or they go silent like it ghosted. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but part of the problem is that you made that
Speaker 1: payment from afar, you didn't go see the item in person.
Speaker 1: Evidently this happens a decent bit with fake home or
Speaker 1: apartment rentals, which used to happen on Craigslist, but now
Speaker 1: that scams move to Facebook marketplace. But the landlord accepts
Speaker 1: a deposit and landlord I put that in quotation marks
Speaker 1: they're not the real landlord, but they accepted a positive
Speaker 1: ahead of time. Do they never show up at your
Speaker 1: new place because it's not actually their place? They stole
Speaker 1: the pictures And the same thing is true with pets,
Speaker 1: right we're an excited uh potential pet parents they're willing
Speaker 1: to pay chunk of change for a new puppy, but
Speaker 1: then they never hear back from the seller and super sad.
Speaker 1: We don't want you to fall prey to these scammers.
Speaker 1: And it seems like there's just more and more scams
Speaker 1: happening and Facebook's having a tough time tamping down on them.
Speaker 1: That's true, Yeah, and unfortunately this seems to be an
Speaker 1: instance I think where where technology it's only exacerbating the situation. Again, responsibility,
Speaker 1: I think it ultimately rests with us as individuals. But
Speaker 1: some of the different payment apps out there, like Zel,
Speaker 1: they should make it easy to send payments before victim
Speaker 1: has fully thought through what it is they're doing, right,
Speaker 1: Like like they're not thinking of scams. They just want
Speaker 1: to adopt that that frenchy, that French bulldog. Um. And
Speaker 1: especially on Facebook, it can just be so easy for
Speaker 1: a scammer to set up a profile with pictures and information.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, oh, I see their smiling face.
Speaker 1: Oh is that a picture of the kid? Uh? They're
Speaker 1: their family. It's like, oh, I trust this person. They
Speaker 1: look like a really upstanding person that they're willing to
Speaker 1: trust rather than someone they should be slightly skeptical of
Speaker 1: right like that where there should maybe be some slight
Speaker 1: suspicion or the very least they should maybe perform some
Speaker 1: due diligence. So the easiest way to avoid all of
Speaker 1: this headache is just to always make sure to see
Speaker 1: or to hold that item that you're looking to buy
Speaker 1: in real life before you pay. Meet up in person,
Speaker 1: do it somewhere public, and if you were the seller,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to unload some stuff you're trying to
Speaker 1: maybe you're thinking about doing some spring cleaning, make sure
Speaker 1: that you've actually received payment in whatever app that you're using.
Speaker 1: I'm certainly not opposed to using some of the different apps.
Speaker 1: It makes life a lot easier. But just don't trust
Speaker 1: uh an email notification because oftentimes that's how some of
Speaker 1: these games work. That person will send an email that
Speaker 1: is impersonating Zel or cash app or Venmo, and it says, oh,
Speaker 1: so this much money has been deposited into your account
Speaker 1: from this person, and it happens to be the exact
Speaker 1: amount that you just sold that item for, but they
Speaker 1: just had that sent over, but that money hasn't actually
Speaker 1: shown up in your account. Make sure that that money
Speaker 1: shows up or better yet, you can just use cash.
Speaker 1: It's certainly an argument to keep some of that cash
Speaker 1: around because folks oftentimes or unsure of how am I
Speaker 1: going to deposit cash that I receive with my online bank, Well,
Speaker 1: don't just kind of hang on to some petty cash
Speaker 1: that that allows you to give a couple of bucks
Speaker 1: to the neighborhood and lemonade stand or the hot chocolate
Speaker 1: stand and that the kids are doing. But also it
Speaker 1: allows you to buy some of these smaller items that
Speaker 1: you can buy used via somewhere like Facebook market We
Speaker 1: still like Facebook Marketplace because there's really nothing equivalent to it,
Speaker 1: especially when you're looking for things locally that are larger. Right,
Speaker 1: Like Craigslist still is around, but the worst Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not what it used to be. Not that it
Speaker 1: was great to begin with, but yeah, I think Facebook
Speaker 1: is still worth using. You just have to use those
Speaker 1: precautions to make sure you don't get taken advantage of,
Speaker 1: you don't lose money, so that you're not a victim
Speaker 1: of one of these scams that are proliferating. But now
Speaker 1: I was talking about work from home for a second.
Speaker 1: Like last week we talked about Disney how they're old
Speaker 1: slash new CEO. He's you know, back back into action. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's calling for workers to return the office four days
Speaker 1: a week. And that trend I we said, we think
Speaker 1: it's going to accelerate, and it turns out just a
Speaker 1: lot more information came out this week showing that that's
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. Right, Um, A lot of workers are
Speaker 1: going to be happy about this because another stat just
Speaker 1: came out this week showing that work working from home
Speaker 1: saves the average person seventy two minutes of commute time
Speaker 1: every single day. That's a whole lot of your life
Speaker 1: back in your life, and it's it's but again, the
Speaker 1: ability to listen to podcasts. Yeah, I kind of treasure
Speaker 1: the time that I have commuting in I mean yes, honestly,
Speaker 1: Like luckily we're like we're able to bike, you and
Speaker 1: I both, but the ability to kind of have some
Speaker 1: of that personal time to either listen to an audiobook,
Speaker 1: listen to a podcast. I don't mind driving as long
Speaker 1: as I'm not sitting in traffic, and so I think,
Speaker 1: but the problem is progress a lot of that commuting
Speaker 1: is sitting in traffic, Like we talked about with congestion
Speaker 1: about last week. Yeah, so um, Yeah. The truth is
Speaker 1: remote jobs are dwindling, so that these a lot of
Speaker 1: CEOs are saying come on back four days a week minimum.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, there are fewer remote jobs
Speaker 1: being posted on basically all the job sites linked in
Speaker 1: Indeed and zip recruiter. They're dropping like a rock. There's
Speaker 1: just fewer, fewer of them, more of the jobs being posted.
Speaker 1: They're being pickier about wanting you to come in on
Speaker 1: the reg and so remote work it's certainly not extinct.
Speaker 1: We don't want to give that impression. But if you're
Speaker 1: dead set against having a commute, but you're also looking
Speaker 1: for a new job, just know you're gonna have fewer
Speaker 1: options to choose from. Yeah, and new stats have also
Speaker 1: come out about how engaged workers are in their job,
Speaker 1: And so if you're one of the growing number of
Speaker 1: actively disengaged folks at your workplace, it may be time
Speaker 1: to when you look at me when you said that man,
Speaker 1: to find find another job, to find something else. If
Speaker 1: you haven't had a chance to listen to Wednesday's episode,
Speaker 1: you can likely use not liking your job to find
Speaker 1: something that's going to be more fulfilling that also pays more.
Speaker 1: Don't sit around doing something that you don't enjoy doing.
Speaker 1: Find something that is going to give your life some
Speaker 1: more meaning. And you might have to go into the office,
Speaker 1: but hey, if it's an employer that's got a solid
Speaker 1: culture where you're able to meet some new folks, it
Speaker 1: could be a lot of fun. Yeah, and those are
Speaker 1: that's always an important question, ask like what kind of
Speaker 1: what kind of employer is this, and what do they expect,
Speaker 1: what's the work life balance like? And and that's we're
Speaker 1: reading reviews about that employer on a site like glass
Speaker 1: door can be helpful, can give you some information so
Speaker 1: you don't end up. Oh yeah, the salary is great
Speaker 1: and they want me to come in, but man, everybody
Speaker 1: hates it. These aren't my people. Yeah, exactly, you don't
Speaker 1: want to sign up for that, So alright, Matt, that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode, though, we will put
Speaker 1: links to all the stuff we mentioned in our show
Speaker 1: notes up on our site at how to money dot com.
Speaker 1: That's right, and we're talking about work. But on Monday
Speaker 1: we are talking with a guest and we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the opposite of work. We're gonna be talking all
Speaker 1: about travel. Specifically, we're talking about frugal travel, how you
Speaker 1: can do it on the cheap. Looking forward to that one.
Speaker 1: But we hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and Joel.
Speaker 1: Until next time. Best friends out and best friends Out