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Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.

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Speaker 1: Today we're discussing four oh one k millionaires money as

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Speaker 1: a hobby and the Equifax settlement fail. It makes me

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Speaker 1: think of like failed videos. You aren't a huge fan

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Speaker 1: of watching people fall and bust their faces, and you

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Speaker 1: and my wife y'all love those videos we send like

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Speaker 1: on Instagram. We will totally send videos back and forth

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Speaker 1: to each other, different ones that we've come across that

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Speaker 1: just make us really laugh out loud, people busting it.

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Speaker 1: The Equifax settlement was a bust. It was a bust.

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Speaker 1: It was a fail. First of though, we wanted to

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Speaker 1: share a quick tip with folks listener Julia. She actually

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Speaker 1: right into us. She let us know of some medical

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Speaker 1: arbitrage that she participated in. This was a success story

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Speaker 1: that she wanted to share. And so her and her

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Speaker 1: husband they were looking into in vitro fertilization and they

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Speaker 1: found that it was going to cost them like twenty

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Speaker 1: four thousand dollars and this was just to get started

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Speaker 1: down where they live. Which anybody who has attempted to

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Speaker 1: have a baby, they haven't been able to have it naturally,

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Speaker 1: and they look towards in vitro fertilization. They have been

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Speaker 1: shocked by the sticker price. It's it is dramatically expensive.

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Speaker 1: It's it's one of those expensive things, and we have

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Speaker 1: always seen it as something that is expensive, something that

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Speaker 1: you are willing to put down the money for, but

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Speaker 1: that is actually slowly changing. Julia, her and her husband,

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Speaker 1: they came across this affordable clinic called C n Y

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Speaker 1: Fertility and they flew up to the location that's up

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Speaker 1: there in New York. But there are locations all across

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Speaker 1: the country actually, including one that's pretty close to us

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Speaker 1: here in Atlanta. But these C and Y clinics, they

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Speaker 1: are getting prices down to a fraction of what the

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Speaker 1: national averages. Uh and Julia said that they got lucky

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Speaker 1: on their first round, so they only ended up spending

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Speaker 1: a total of around twelve thollars for every ing that

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Speaker 1: actually included travel as well, travel and hotel getting up

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Speaker 1: there to the clinic. The they're they're in the southern

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Speaker 1: United States, and they were able to do all of

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Speaker 1: that for around twelve That's awesome. Well, super congrats and

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Speaker 1: on their growing family. But I think that's really good advice,

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Speaker 1: and so I think anybody who is in this position

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Speaker 1: where they saying we want to grow our family, we're

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Speaker 1: having a tough time in betro. Fertilization is prohibitively expensive.

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Speaker 1: This is a form. We've talked about medical tourism before

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Speaker 1: on the show. We've mostly talked about it in regards

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Speaker 1: to like traveling internationally to have a surgery done or

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Speaker 1: something like that, or to get dental work. Muehler City, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Muller City, Mexico, head down to Columbia or whatever. And

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Speaker 1: and some people wrote to us and they're like, that's crazy,

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Speaker 1: but but no, there are legitimate, great medical facilities in

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Speaker 1: other parts of the country. The United States does not

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Speaker 1: have a corner on great healthcare, although we have a

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Speaker 1: healthcare system that provides great outcomes. Just expensive, it's just

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Speaker 1: expensive to participate. And so, yeah, the great thing is

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Speaker 1: you can do medical tourism here in the States. You

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Speaker 1: can shop domestically. You don't even have to necessarily go abroad.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes just shopping in in other regions of the country

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Speaker 1: can save you money. So exactly, it's definitely a good

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Speaker 1: success story totally. And like I mentioned, they are expanding

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Speaker 1: and so this this group or whatever they've got locations

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Speaker 1: all across the country. It's just awesome when there are

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Speaker 1: just additional options for folks. It's like, instead of just

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Speaker 1: being stuck with the whole foods option, now you've got

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Speaker 1: like a public so or a Kroger, maybe even an

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Speaker 1: Audi options. That's probably a terrible analogy to link healthcare

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Speaker 1: with the different affordable grocery store options, but that's kind

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Speaker 1: of how I see it, and I would totally be

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Speaker 1: at least looking into some of these more lower cost

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Speaker 1: options before you just plunk down the amount of money

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Speaker 1: that's basically enough to put down for like a mortgage,

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Speaker 1: right like a down payment on a house. Instead, it's like, hey,

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Speaker 1: let's let's see if there's more affordable options. So we

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Speaker 1: are glad that we got to share that with folks today. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so thanks Julia for sending your money win our way.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully it helps other people. And by the way, if

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Speaker 1: you ever have just like a killer money win and

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Speaker 1: you're like, man, you've never talked about this before, but

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Speaker 1: other how the money listeners even know? Seriously, fel free

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Speaker 1: to drop us a line. We'd love to hear it.

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Speaker 1: How the money pot at gmail dot com totally And

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Speaker 1: you know, if it's awesome, we'll share it with everybody

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Speaker 1: else because especially if it's helpful and awesome, because I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's still great to hear from folks when they're, you know,

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Speaker 1: calling digging their way out of debt, but especially for

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Speaker 1: these these just different ways of saving money or making money.

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Speaker 1: We love hearing the stories, plus the ability to share

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Speaker 1: them with you, our listeners, no doubt. All right, let's

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Speaker 1: let's keep moving on, mat Let's get to the Friday

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Speaker 1: flight sampling stories that we found interesting this week and

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Speaker 1: how they retained to your money. And it's official. We

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Speaker 1: are in correction territory in the stock market. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: I thought we had already answered question territory, but that

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Speaker 1: was only like an intra day period, Like it was

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Speaker 1: that one Monday where it dipped like big time but

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Speaker 1: then came back up. But we officially closed beyond that

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Speaker 1: ten percent down exactly. So So, yeah, we had an

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Speaker 1: episode a couple of weeks ago about stock market volatility.

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Speaker 1: We define some terms, and we figured, yeah, well it's

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Speaker 1: smart to bring it up again because you're gonna start

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Speaker 1: seeing these headlines they say they use the term correction

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Speaker 1: and and yeah, you're right, they are officially they're accurate now, yes,

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Speaker 1: exactly now they are if they might have been hinting

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Speaker 1: or using this word. Some people are even starting to

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Speaker 1: use the term bear market, which is different. As we

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Speaker 1: talked about that episode. We're not there yet as of

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Speaker 1: this recording. With all that's going on, who knows, by

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Speaker 1: the end of Friday it might be up down. It's

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Speaker 1: a good point, depends on when you listen to this.

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Speaker 1: But remember that that this correction reflects a ten percent

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Speaker 1: drop from the high water mark. And again, this is

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Speaker 1: something that happens pretty regularly, on average, close to once

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Speaker 1: a year. And so yeah, long term investors should not

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Speaker 1: batton eye when they hear this. It should you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: be freaking out. That being said, I do want to

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Speaker 1: say volatility, it could be a mainstay for a little while,

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Speaker 1: especially given the Russia Ukraine situation, the potential for an

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Speaker 1: extended conflict overseas. We don't know what the US involvement

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Speaker 1: is going to be. And obviously that situation goes beyond

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Speaker 1: just mere stock market what it's doing to our net worth.

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Speaker 1: It's concerning on other levels. But yeah, I just want

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Speaker 1: to mention you're gonna see more headlines. You're gonna see

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Speaker 1: more volatility in all likelihood. But yeah, if you are

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Speaker 1: a hat a money listener who is invested for decades

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Speaker 1: to come, it really shouldn't be worrisome to you at all.

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Speaker 1: That's right. Let's switch it up. Let's talk about commuting

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Speaker 1: to work. How much time do you spend in traffic? Well,

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Speaker 1: that's gonna depend on well, what you do, I guess,

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Speaker 1: and then where you live, of course, because with the

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Speaker 1: rise and working from home, some folks are spending a

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Speaker 1: lot less time sitting in the car. Obviously, if you're

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Speaker 1: a plumber, you're an electrician, driving two different you know,

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Speaker 1: job sites, you spend a lot more time on the road.

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Speaker 1: But Tom Tom, they released traffic congestion ratings. Uh and

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Speaker 1: they broken down per city at New York City, l A,

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Speaker 1: in Miami. They actually are the three worst cities for traffic.

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Speaker 1: New York City residents who drive they actually lost eighty

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Speaker 1: hours on average sitting in their car last year. Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: surprisingly was it was number eleven. I thought I was

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Speaker 1: expecting to see it a little bit higher. Top five,

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Speaker 1: But this is probably a good thing that we're not

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Speaker 1: top five. Top five. Yes, yeah, this is one thing

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Speaker 1: you want to bragg and banking that we don't want

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Speaker 1: to be in the top ten. On Atlanta was number eleven,

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Speaker 1: but the folks in our city lost more than a

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Speaker 1: full work week sitting in traffic forty eight hours one

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Speaker 1: surprisingly too, I kind of I was looking at the

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Speaker 1: entire globe, not just here in the US. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: speaking of Russia and Ukraine, they both had cities in

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Speaker 1: the top ten. They had five of the top ten spots.

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Speaker 1: Really as far as the amount of time spent in traffic,

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Speaker 1: which I sound really intriguing, is as if they didn't

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Speaker 1: have enough going on over there, they also have to

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Speaker 1: sit in terrible traffic. Have you ever seen the traffic

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Speaker 1: can videos? Have we talked about that before? The y

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Speaker 1: of like which is specifically in Russia. It's still which

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Speaker 1: is brilliant, I mean from a like an insurance perspective

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Speaker 1: to know exactly what happened. But some of those videos

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Speaker 1: are not. But that means they have all sorts of

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Speaker 1: crazy stuff, including like meteor wors like shooting across the sky.

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Speaker 1: Have you seen those videos? Big? I mean, because yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's it's amazing. Just search like Russia carcam meteorite

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Speaker 1: or meteor and you'll see some crazy stuff, but the

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Speaker 1: study it just reinforces how smart it is to push

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Speaker 1: for more flexible work hours so that you can avoid

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Speaker 1: the predominant traffic patterns wherever you live, or just you know,

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Speaker 1: you can live closer to where you work whenever that

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Speaker 1: is possible. We often think of time spent in traffic

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Speaker 1: as sort of like this necessary evil, but that is

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Speaker 1: not always the case. There are choices that many of

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Speaker 1: us make that can lessen the amount of time that

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Speaker 1: we spend in that that bumper to bumper. Hell yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: I was talking to a friend yesterday. He's head brewer.

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Speaker 1: He has his own brewery and and he has a

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Speaker 1: long commute. What he does, he wakes up really early.

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Speaker 1: He's like, I wake it before him. I'm in the

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Speaker 1: car about four thirty to get there, sucking brewed delicious beer.

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Speaker 1: And I appreciate the dedication, but like, do you need

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Speaker 1: to move closer to the brewery at some point, because

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Speaker 1: you know, if he got stuck in traffic, it's over

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Speaker 1: an hour each way. But yeah, if he can avoid it,

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Speaker 1: he can get there in like thirty five minutes. That

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Speaker 1: that that's one of those jobs that he can't work

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Speaker 1: from home and performed. Like. One of the interesting things

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Speaker 1: they hand on that chart as well is they showed

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Speaker 1: the differences from previous years, and so obviously this is data,

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Speaker 1: right Compared to we saw a massive increase in the

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Speaker 1: amount there was a lull. Yeah, yeah, the cities were

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Speaker 1: shut down, people were not driving anywhere. Of folks were

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Speaker 1: driving a lot more last year than they were, But

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Speaker 1: compared to twenty nineteen, there's actually almost all of the

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Speaker 1: top cities that, like the top eighty cities, for the

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Speaker 1: most part, almost all of them saw a decrease in

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Speaker 1: the amount of time in traffic compared to twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: which again just points to the natural progression of more

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Speaker 1: folks having more flexibility and the ability to work from home. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of folks are going back to the

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Speaker 1: workplace and they are commuting, and even if they're not,

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Speaker 1: they're maybe taking their kids to school or something like that.

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Speaker 1: And so I saw this interesting article Matt on the

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Speaker 1: Note of Commuting about bike commuting and how that's kind

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Speaker 1: of becoming more normal, but not just biking by yourself,

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Speaker 1: biking in a group, group biking like that so hot

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Speaker 1: right now? And uh yeah, so I think that's really good,

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Speaker 1: because biking on your own give me a bit daunting

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Speaker 1: if you're just starting out, if you're like hitting the roads,

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Speaker 1: you're commuting to work, you're trying to take your kid

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Speaker 1: on a on a on your bike. If you're riding

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Speaker 1: by yourself, um, and you're riding close to cars, it

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Speaker 1: can be a little scary, um at least in the beginning.

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Speaker 1: And largely that's because bike ability is just a huge

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Speaker 1: problem in so many cities. They aren't good bike lanes

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Speaker 1: and a lot of good infrastructure in most cities, so

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Speaker 1: you're kind of like doing your best, but it's a

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Speaker 1: bit frightening. And at the same time, more people have

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Speaker 1: turned to biking during the pandemic, and we've given the stats,

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Speaker 1: but there are so many people who started biking over

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Speaker 1: the past couple of years and it's become a more

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Speaker 1: more of a mainstay in their lives, not just as

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Speaker 1: a way to get exercise, but also is a form

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Speaker 1: of transportation. And we think that's great. But this article

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Speaker 1: in Bloomberg highlighted that that more folks are partaking in

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Speaker 1: these group rides and they're being referred to as bike busses,

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Speaker 1: which is awesome, Like some of these bike busses are

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Speaker 1: getting like a hundred people deep. There's just like this

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Speaker 1: massive swarm of people, like a school of fish basically

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Speaker 1: swimming together. Um, but a group on a bike. And

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Speaker 1: I think, yeah, it's great because there's a higher level

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Speaker 1: of safety. There's more fun to be had when you're

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Speaker 1: riding with your friends and neighbors. And I think the

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Speaker 1: more people that we're taking this, the more likely we

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Speaker 1: are to see our elected officials take notice and start

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Speaker 1: to create the infrastructure that's necessary to make proper bike

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Speaker 1: lanes more accessible to everyday folks. And so, yeah, if

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Speaker 1: you're tired of the traffic congestion and where you live,

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Speaker 1: but you've been hesitant to do more bike commuting, maybe

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Speaker 1: that idea has frightened you just a little bit. Maybe

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Speaker 1: forming a local bike bus is the answer. Riding in

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Speaker 1: a group with a pool of folks. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Here in Atlanta. That makes me think of this thing

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Speaker 1: that's called critical mass. And this isn't like a daily

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Speaker 1: thing by any means. I think they do it like

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Speaker 1: it's once a week. It's I think it's it's one Friday,

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Speaker 1: it's like the last Friday of the month or the

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Speaker 1: or something like that. But like hundreds of I mean

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Speaker 1: literally hundreds of folks gathered together at this one part

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Speaker 1: downtown Atlanta and they you know, they do a ride

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Speaker 1: around the city. Uh, and you know you get noticed

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Speaker 1: when when there are that many of you. I agree

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Speaker 1: it is a way to be safer as long as

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Speaker 1: everyone is biking in a controlled manner, because I can

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Speaker 1: also imagine like some crazies maybe like getting out of

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Speaker 1: hand and you don't want to take down some of

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Speaker 1: the bikes around you as well. Actually think a Tour

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Speaker 1: de France start where that gosh lady was holding the

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Speaker 1: sign in the street, and it's just this massive pileop,

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Speaker 1: Like what a terrible thing. Yeah, question, Joel, should money

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Speaker 1: be a hobby? What do you think? Um depends in

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Speaker 1: what way I think, I think for most of our listeners,

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Speaker 1: for you and me, it is a hobby. It's certainly

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Speaker 1: an interest of ours, this wealthy hobby. It's a necessary hobby.

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Speaker 1: So what we do now a lot of how the

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Speaker 1: money listeners I think are fascinated enough by just all

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Speaker 1: the different intricacies of money. And you know, like honestly,

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Speaker 1: even if we stopped posting this podcast, which isn't gonna

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Speaker 1: happen reading about money will. It'll always be something that

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Speaker 1: I do. I'm pretty intrigued by the concept of money,

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Speaker 1: all the things that we can learn and apply. Uh vox.

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Speaker 1: They actually published an article asserting that for lots of

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Speaker 1: folks who are kind of like in their twenties and

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Speaker 1: their thirties, money is becoming a hobby, but in a

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Speaker 1: different way, not the way that that it's a hobby

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Speaker 1: for us. Instead of reading you know, articles and blogs

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Speaker 1: about behavioral money, psychology, the nuances of investing, Joel Like,

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Speaker 1: literally you're reading in economics textbook. These hobbyists, they are

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Speaker 1: turning to crypto, to n f t s, to sports

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Speaker 1: gambling for their money hobby. Fix It's sort of like

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Speaker 1: turning a hobby, though, into a nightmare in my book, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: some people might call my economic textbook reading a nightmare,

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Speaker 1: but I find joining it just an easy way to

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Speaker 1: go to sleep. But I agree, I think, yeah, if

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Speaker 1: if we're turning our money hobby into the speculative endeavors,

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Speaker 1: it does become more nightmarish. And and yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: what could go wrong really investing in the f t

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Speaker 1: s and gambling on your phone? Uh plenty, as I'm

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Speaker 1: sure a lot of folks have seen, especially when it

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Speaker 1: comes to where bitcoin is currently sitting on all the

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Speaker 1: different cryptocurrencies. Exactly, you can lose money. And so yeah,

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Speaker 1: one of the best lines in that article said, uh,

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Speaker 1: and I quote, if Instagram turned us all into photographers,

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Speaker 1: then what the internet has done to traditional banking has

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Speaker 1: turned us all into finance pros. It's like the best line,

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Speaker 1: and it's so it's so true as well, because it's

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Speaker 1: something that is incredibly accessible. It's too accessible in the

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Speaker 1: same way that cameras on our phones are exactly. And

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Speaker 1: it's interesting that the writer listed sports gambling as one

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Speaker 1: of these finance hobbies among her list. I think we

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Speaker 1: we talked in depth for a little while about sports

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Speaker 1: gambling a few months back. Matt. There's a lot of

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Speaker 1: potential downsides, but all of these money obsessions look a

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Speaker 1: lot more like speculation than traditional investing. And you have

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Speaker 1: this article chron called the severe downsides that so many

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Speaker 1: folks are experiencing when they turned to online gambling, and yes,

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Speaker 1: that includes buying n f T s and cryptocurrency. We

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Speaker 1: kind of lump those things together in a lot of ways.

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Speaker 1: And one of the lines, it's definitely not proven yet.

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Speaker 1: R right, Like, it's it's one thing if we had

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Speaker 1: decades worth of charts in history to point to to

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Speaker 1: alleviate some of the concerns. You're like, Okay, I I

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Speaker 1: see where we are in this sort of cycle. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of folks who just study charts, but we

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Speaker 1: do not have that kind of information. We don't have

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Speaker 1: that history when it comes to these new forms of

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Speaker 1: investor and even with crypto, where it could be a

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Speaker 1: valid place to put a small amount of your investment money,

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Speaker 1: the problem is the way people are buying, selling, trading cryptocurrency.

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Speaker 1: It might be an asset class that's worth having some

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Speaker 1: exposure to, but people are using it improperly. And Yeah,

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Speaker 1: another line from that article was it isn't too late

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Speaker 1: to become an overnight crypto millionaire or to cash out

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Speaker 1: on an incredible lucky bet. It's just highly unlikely that

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Speaker 1: that person will be you. And I think that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what we're saying here. Um, we think that money as

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Speaker 1: a hobby can be a great thing, but make sure

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Speaker 1: that you're getting a well rounded education and that you're

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Speaker 1: taking a level headed approach to ensure that you don't

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Speaker 1: wreck your personal finances in the process. I think there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of people right now who are just

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Speaker 1: excited about these new ways to invest their money, these

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Speaker 1: future oriented mechanisms, and just the ease and the fund

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Speaker 1: that can be had by investing um in digital art

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Speaker 1: or by gambling on your phone, especially like some of

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Speaker 1: these some of these apps are giving you hundreds of

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Speaker 1: dollars just to try it out, but that can quickly

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Speaker 1: spiral into something terribly negative for your finances. You've got

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Speaker 1: to keep it in check. And it's okay for money

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Speaker 1: to be a hobby, but I think for a lot

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Speaker 1: of these people, it's more than the hobby, and it's

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Speaker 1: an addiction, and it's a it's a bad one exactly,

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Speaker 1: and it's bound to wreck their personal finances as well.

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Speaker 1: We actually we're gonna talk some more about some other

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Speaker 1: investing stories after the break, including some cryptocurrency fees, stable coins.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna get to that, uh and a few other

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Speaker 1: stories right after this break. All right, we're back. We're

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Speaker 1: continuing our Friday flight the different stories we've come across

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Speaker 1: this week and how they're gonna impact your money. Joel

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Speaker 1: is time now for our ludicrous headline of the week,

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Speaker 1: and this one comes from the Washington Post. The headline reads,

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Speaker 1: Equifax data breach settlement gives millions free credit monitoring. That's

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Speaker 1: hounds nice, that sounds promising. That doesn't that sound ludicrous? Right?

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Speaker 1: Who doesn't like free stuff? So everyone might remember, Well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, this was a while ago, actually, the

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Speaker 1: Equifax data breach. It was a few years ago at

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Speaker 1: this point. Um, I think it feels so long ago,

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Speaker 1: honestly at this point, well as it makes me think

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Speaker 1: of doctor Martin Luther King. He said that the arc

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Speaker 1: of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Well,

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Speaker 1: after years of lawyers doing lawyering stuff, a final settlement

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Speaker 1: has been achieved, um with Equifax. But the scoop is

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Speaker 1: that even though Equifax they gathered, they held, and then

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Speaker 1: they failed to secure our personal information as hackers breached

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Speaker 1: their databases, the penalty Equifax will endure is criminally minimal.

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Speaker 1: If if you were affected by the breach, and you

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Speaker 1: probably were, since uh, like I think it's over a

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Speaker 1: d fifty million folks were affected by that breach, you

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Speaker 1: get free credit monitoring for a few years. I think

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Speaker 1: four years to be exact, but we think this is

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Speaker 1: pretty pathetic because credit monitoring is nearly worthless, and if

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Speaker 1: you get an email about signing up, we think, honestly,

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Speaker 1: it's wise to just delete it. Yeah. I like free stuff,

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Speaker 1: but when the free thing you give me is completely worthless,

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Speaker 1: and then I'm going to be upset. Right, It's like,

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Speaker 1: here's my old pair of socks, my Christian pair of socks.

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Speaker 1: That that's a free gift that I would turn down.

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Speaker 1: And the consequences of this breach were that your information

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Speaker 1: was floating around the Internet and it's going to create

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Speaker 1: more sophisticated attempts to scam you out of your money.

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Speaker 1: I refuse to believe that I'm alone in the emails

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Speaker 1: that I get where people are trying to pull various scams,

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Speaker 1: pull the wool over my eyes. It's commonplace these days.

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Speaker 1: And part of that is because of equifaxes negligence. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: one scam email going around right now literally is trying

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Speaker 1: to get you sign up for fake credit monitoring in

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Speaker 1: order to steal more of your information. And they're kind

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Speaker 1: of using this Equifax settlement as bait for you. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you're a long time how the money listener, you've

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Speaker 1: probably heard us talk about freezing your credit. It's basically

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Speaker 1: not locking it, far better freezing it. Yeah, that's what

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Speaker 1: you want. It's like, way way better in every single

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Speaker 1: way than these credit monitoring services. So, yeah, we have

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Speaker 1: an article that I wrote up on the website letting

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Speaker 1: you know how to do it, and it's completely free

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Speaker 1: anyway always, and yeah, maybe one of these days the

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Speaker 1: credit bureaus will actually be held responsible for their actions

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Speaker 1: because they're causing real world harm two hundreds of millions

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Speaker 1: of folks. I'm not holding my breath, but yeah, when

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Speaker 1: you look at this settlement, it certainly feels like justice

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Speaker 1: was not done, that Equifax was not actually held accountable,

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Speaker 1: while at the same time there's a ton of collateral

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Speaker 1: damage that all of us are feeling. That's right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So speaking of settlements, actually let's talk about one in

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Speaker 1: the crypto space. For a second crypto company, Block five,

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Speaker 1: they have reached a one hundred million dollar settlement with

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Speaker 1: the sec UH and so let's kind of explain what

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Speaker 1: happened here. Basically, those stable coins savings accounts weren't actually

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Speaker 1: savings accounts. These are the different accounts that are tied

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Speaker 1: to cryptocurrencies that some of the different brokerages in online

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Speaker 1: UH investing platforms are offering. The sec they didn't have

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Speaker 1: any regulations in place for accounts like this, and they

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Speaker 1: seem to be retroactively penalizing Block five for moving too

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Speaker 1: quickly in the space. We're not big fans of these

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Speaker 1: stable coin accounts, mostly because they are riskier than you're

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Speaker 1: made to believe, and they're not f d I c

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Speaker 1: ensured UH and in a phrase that's always helpful to

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Speaker 1: remember in personal finances that if it's too good to

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Speaker 1: be true, probably is and earning eight percent or more

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Speaker 1: in this current low interest rate environment that we're in,

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Speaker 1: it comes with significant trade offs. We want you to

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Speaker 1: only stick money in those accounts. With that recognition. Your

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Speaker 1: emergency fund should definitely not be in an account like

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Speaker 1: this UM and you know, the wild West nature of

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Speaker 1: crypto and defy should definitely give you some pause before

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Speaker 1: investing at all. I like how you said before investing

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Speaker 1: at all, Matt, because that's the whole problem is that

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Speaker 1: these were build kind of as savings accounts and they

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Speaker 1: made infusion around it. Yeah, they it made it look like, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is exactly like what you get and one of

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Speaker 1: the big banks. But they're playing you point oh one,

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Speaker 1: we're paying eight percent. But the fact is they're not

429
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,600
Speaker 1: saving these accounts. They're not fd I C insured. There's

430
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:25,720
Speaker 1: a whole lot more risk that you're taking on and

431
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:28,280
Speaker 1: there's a potential for loss of the money that you

432
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:31,040
Speaker 1: stick into those accounts totally, and that was just, yeah,

433
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:35,479
Speaker 1: not not made clear enough for everyday consumers. Let's keep

434
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,840
Speaker 1: talking about crypto for for one more second, because speaking

435
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,119
Speaker 1: of the quickly changing landscape, speaking of the wild wild West,

436
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:46,880
Speaker 1: there's the cryptocurrency exchange fees are not set in stone either,

437
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:50,320
Speaker 1: and they're actually getting more expensive. Venmo just announced that

438
00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:54,240
Speaker 1: it's now charging a flat fee for crypto transactions starting

439
00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,480
Speaker 1: on March one and on first pass. You might think

440
00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,479
Speaker 1: that's terrible. I used to be able to trade crypto

441
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:01,520
Speaker 1: for free, and guess what, I can still do that

442
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,280
Speaker 1: on robin Hood, so I'm gonna I'm gonna keep doing

443
00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,480
Speaker 1: it there. But then you might start thinking, well, actually,

444
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 1: maybe this is a good thing, because maybe it's better

445
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,480
Speaker 1: to just know the flat fee that I'm paying and

446
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,760
Speaker 1: have that transparency rather than not knowing what you're paying

447
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:15,920
Speaker 1: to robin Hood. Because there's a by cell spread and

448
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 1: that's how robin hood is making money. Well, except for

449
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,520
Speaker 1: the fact that Venmo is still charging a spread fee

450
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:26,000
Speaker 1: on top of this transaction. Basically they're double dipping. And

451
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,520
Speaker 1: I think we've made it known that we hate fees.

452
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,400
Speaker 1: They're lame. We'd like to see them eliminated wherever possible.

453
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:33,480
Speaker 1: So just proceed with caution here. Make sure you read

454
00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,679
Speaker 1: the fine print, like how much is it actually costing

455
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,040
Speaker 1: you to make that cryptocurrency transaction? Because it's starting to

456
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:42,040
Speaker 1: get more expensive some places. And again, we'll never tire

457
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:45,399
Speaker 1: up saying this. Keep your cryptocurrency exposure in check. That's right,

458
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:47,280
Speaker 1: keep it to a minimum, Joe. Let's move on to

459
00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:49,920
Speaker 1: some better news. There's now a record number of four

460
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,840
Speaker 1: one k millionaires walking around. Yeah. Uh, if only there

461
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:55,479
Speaker 1: was an easy way to, you know, figure out who

462
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:57,320
Speaker 1: the are so you can hit them up for some money.

463
00:21:57,359 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 1: Can I get twenty bucks? No? Uh, the guy became

464
00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:02,919
Speaker 1: a millionaire? Bucks, everybody, this is this is news. That

465
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,880
Speaker 1: was according to Fidelity Investments, they report that the number

466
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,199
Speaker 1: of four one k and ira a millionaires is at

467
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 1: an all time high. Maybe we've actually seen that number

468
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,439
Speaker 1: decrease a little bit over the past couple of weeks.

469
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:15,480
Speaker 1: Uh in the for the end of Q four results. Yeah, yeah,

470
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 1: basically at the end of one where before we entered January.

471
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: So some of those millionaires aren't. But the same was

472
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,640
Speaker 1: true though folks who have more than a million dollar

473
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:28,800
Speaker 1: balance in their TSP, which is an awesome retirement account

474
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,960
Speaker 1: for many federal employees and for military personnel as well.

475
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:34,920
Speaker 1: But what does this tell us? I think that largely

476
00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 1: the stock market it's been on a terror over the

477
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:41,120
Speaker 1: past decade, and that rising tide is lifting all boats.

478
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:43,359
Speaker 1: But this also tells us the thing that becoming a

479
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 1: millionaire is something that a lot of everyday folks like

480
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,639
Speaker 1: us can realistically achieve over our lifetimes. Yeah. Man, it's

481
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 1: always nice to hear a story that of somebody who

482
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:55,680
Speaker 1: ended up succeeding in a big way, but who encountered

483
00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:58,360
Speaker 1: a bunch of failures along ago. I'm thinking about Mike

484
00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's who didn't make his high school basketball team originally, right,

485
00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 1: but then he goes on too University of North Carolina

486
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 1: becomes probably the greatest basketball player of all time. Well,

487
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:10,400
Speaker 1: seeing that there's these hundreds of thousands of people who

488
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 1: are I ra A and four O one K millionaires.

489
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:13,880
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of like that Michael Jordan's story. It's

490
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 1: inspirational in the fact that like, wait a second, normal

491
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:18,880
Speaker 1: everyday folks can do this, They can pull it off,

492
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: and just for those boring old retirement accounts exactly. Yeah.

493
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 1: I think that's the big takeaway is that you don't

494
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,640
Speaker 1: have to take risky bets in order to become a millionaire.

495
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:30,639
Speaker 1: Just that regularly stocking away money in the tax advantaged

496
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,320
Speaker 1: account a week after week, month after month, year after year.

497
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,640
Speaker 1: It sounds so lame when it sounds you're like, okay, cool,

498
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 1: I actually going to get there, super sexy, But a

499
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: lot of people that take this strategy actually get there.

500
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: So on top of that record millionaire data, Fidelity reports

501
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,719
Speaker 1: that almost four in ten folks increased their four one

502
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,399
Speaker 1: K contribution last year. So yeah, more than half of

503
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 1: Jen's ears took that route. So yeah, those people in

504
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,879
Speaker 1: their early twenties in the workforce, they've been bumping up

505
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 1: the rate that they're putting towards investment. It's too and

506
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 1: that's just another thing that needs to hit home here,

507
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: is bumping up your contribution by just one percent. It

508
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,159
Speaker 1: sounds like it's not a big deal, like it's not

509
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:11,400
Speaker 1: going to have an impact, Like one percent of anything

510
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,280
Speaker 1: feels like almost non existent. But these small acts of

511
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:19,719
Speaker 1: prioritizing your future they eventually pay off in helping you

512
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,880
Speaker 1: reach that millionaire retirement accounts status. So, yeah, just realize

513
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 1: there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people that

514
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:28,879
Speaker 1: are that are doing this, they're achieving it, and not

515
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,320
Speaker 1: everybody needs that much money in retirement wants to even

516
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:33,400
Speaker 1: hit that status. But to see those numbers to stack

517
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:35,280
Speaker 1: up and to see that more and more people are

518
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:37,760
Speaker 1: able to get there and just kind of through those

519
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: regular paycheck contributions, it's informative and and it's inspiring. That's right,

520
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: all right, So let's get to our last story that

521
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,400
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about today. I feel like we've

522
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 1: talked smack about subscriptions lately. We've seen Netflix they raised

523
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 1: the fee for their monthly subs. Amazon they raised the

524
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 1: prime membership feed by twenty bucks. Subscriptions in general are

525
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 1: so easy to forget about, right, Like, there's a pretty

526
00:24:57,960 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 1: strong chance that a lot of folks were listening right

527
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,439
Speaker 1: now that they have a recurring subscription that they've even

528
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 1: forgotten about, which is costing them money every single month.

529
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: That's why tracking you're spending every single month, why it's

530
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 1: important look at those credit cards statements to make sure

531
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:13,400
Speaker 1: that you're like not paying for something you don't use.

532
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 1: Cancel that subscription if you find it and you're not

533
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 1: getting any value from it. But I wanted to mention

534
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,639
Speaker 1: this new subscription that might actually make sense for some

535
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 1: maybe some some of our besties out there who live

536
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:25,880
Speaker 1: on the West Coast. And that's a subscription to fly

537
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,960
Speaker 1: around California, specifically maybe a little bit of Nevada for

538
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 1: a monthly fee. Uh. And this is from Alaska Air

539
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 1: for forty nine dollars a month. You can have up

540
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,040
Speaker 1: to twenty four round trips over the course of a year. Uh.

541
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 1: I almost feel like this should almost be like a

542
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:43,880
Speaker 1: This is like a PHO ludicrous headline of the week.

543
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:46,159
Speaker 1: What would you do, Joel? Is this something that you

544
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 1: think you would take advantage of? Probably not just okay,

545
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: just because I don't fly that as much. But if I,

546
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,120
Speaker 1: let's say I lived in one of these cities where

547
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 1: Alaska Air flies in California, you're the only airline based

548
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 1: out west because if so, I would be like, I

549
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,399
Speaker 1: would totally be taking advantage of this. I think for

550
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 1: some folks it makes sense because you can if you're

551
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: a heavy user of if you're at the airport at

552
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: least once a month, then trying you know, getting around

553
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: parts of those West coast where a last air flies.

554
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 1: This is an awesome deal. This is one of those

555
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:19,439
Speaker 1: really cool subscriptions, but you have to be one of

556
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:21,719
Speaker 1: those people that's actually going to use it. Well. One

557
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: of the reasons is because that your credits don't roll

558
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 1: over and so you're locked in for a year, and

559
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 1: once it's gone, it's gone. You could use on to

560
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:29,680
Speaker 1: a month I think or something like that. So, um, yeah,

561
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:31,959
Speaker 1: I think you can pay attention to details make sure

562
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: you're actually gonna use it. But if you are, then

563
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: you could potentially save a lot of money using the

564
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,119
Speaker 1: subscription service to fly. So not all subscription services are

565
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 1: created equal. Summer better than others, and and if you're

566
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,879
Speaker 1: a frequent flyer, then this could be perfect for you.

567
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: It would not be perfect for me because, like you,

568
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 1: we have very young kids and the thought of like

569
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,639
Speaker 1: traveling twice a month to like maximize the value that

570
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 1: you would get out of this sounds ludicrous, but but

571
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,360
Speaker 1: if like Southwest did something like this, right, they fly

572
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,520
Speaker 1: nationwide and even to you sign up for like you

573
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 1: sign up for like the one flight a year subscription,

574
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 1: because like maybe I would be able to do that

575
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: just on the nest and you know, we're empty nesters.

576
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 1: I could totally see doing that if it's like a

577
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: hundred fifty bucks a month, two hundred bucks a month,

578
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:15,159
Speaker 1: but you get like flights, you can go wherever you

579
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,439
Speaker 1: want to go, and you have that kind of flexibility.

580
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:19,680
Speaker 1: There are some people who are either really young who

581
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,120
Speaker 1: have very few things to tie them down, or people

582
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: who are a little bit older than us, Like we're

583
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:25,959
Speaker 1: just kind of in the think of it here with

584
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 1: a bunch of gados running around. Yeah. I sort of

585
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 1: like the aspirational aspect of this membership, right, because if

586
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: you know, if you've decided that, like you know what,

587
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: we're going to travel more this year, and there is

588
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 1: an airline and they're flying to a bunch of cities

589
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,439
Speaker 1: that you want to fly in, it's sort of like

590
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: signing up to go to a gym, like almost where

591
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: it's like, well, dang it, I'm paying the money, Like

592
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: we we should do this, but at the same time,

593
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,199
Speaker 1: we don't want you to fall prey to the you know,

594
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,639
Speaker 1: the some cost fallacy. We don't want you to be

595
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: doing stuff even if you've already spent that money. In

596
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: this case, you can I don't think you can get

597
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: your money back. You can't cancel early. So again, like

598
00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: Joel said, make sure you read all the fine details. Yeah,

599
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: we'll link to the press release from Alaska Air in

600
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 1: our show notes up. They'll be up on our website

601
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: at how to money dot com, along with links to

602
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: some of the other stories that we talked about on

603
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 1: the show today. That's right, So that's gonna be it

604
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 1: for today. We hope everyone has a great weekend. We'll

605
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 1: see you back here on Monday, where we are going

606
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: to be speaking with We've got a great interview lined

607
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 1: up for you with Paco Dai Leon. We're gonna talk

608
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 1: about being a creative freelancer, getting paid what you're worth,

609
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 1: the mental shift that needs to take place in how

610
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: we view our money. It's a really great conversation. Looking

611
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: forward to sharing that one with y'all. But Joel, until

612
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 1: next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,