Speaker 1: Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about getting scrappy to save on
Speaker 1: streaming with Michael Timmerman.
Speaker 2: So, by my account, I think there are three ways
Speaker 2: to boost your net worth right, so you can invest
Speaker 2: more money, But then remember we are long term investors.
Speaker 2: It takes a while for that compounding to really kick in,
Speaker 2: so you can earn more money, which is a ton
Speaker 2: of fun. Who doesn't like getting promoted, who doesn't like
Speaker 2: earning a fat bonus at work? But again, this can
Speaker 2: take years of grinding it out at the very least
Speaker 2: months of hard work in order to stand up among
Speaker 2: your peers. Or there are changes that you can literally
Speaker 2: make immediately by cutting your expenses in order to save
Speaker 2: more money. That is what we're discussing with our guest today,
Speaker 2: Michael Timmerman and Michael he writes over at his site
Speaker 2: Michael saves dot com. He's got a YouTube channel, he's
Speaker 2: got over twenty five million views, and I think that's
Speaker 2: because he's kind of like a human guinea pig where
Speaker 2: he's working on our behalf. He's tested out products and
Speaker 2: services to make sure that we're all getting the best
Speaker 2: deal possible. Michael's kind of like the Tim Ferriss of
Speaker 2: personal finance nerds. But Michael, we appreciate you coming on
Speaker 2: the podcast with us.
Speaker 3: Today, human guinea pig. I like that. Thanks for having me, Matt,
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. Joel.
Speaker 1: I think you should add that to your bio now, Michael,
Speaker 1: just considering.
Speaker 3: Absolutely it goes straight the top.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Michael and I have worked used
Speaker 1: to work together for a lot of years, and now
Speaker 1: Michael's gone off to do his own thing, so so
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun to reunite here.
Speaker 2: Michael.
Speaker 1: The first question, as you know that we ask everybody
Speaker 1: who comes on the show, is what's your craft beer equivalent?
Speaker 1: Meaning what is it that you're spourging on while you're
Speaker 1: also doing the smart thing with your money, you're saving
Speaker 1: and investing. So what's your craft beer equivalent?
Speaker 2: My friend?
Speaker 4: You know, I knew this question was coming, but it's
Speaker 4: a little hard for me because I think I have
Speaker 4: a few craft beer equivalents. They might not be quite
Speaker 4: as frugal as hugual. It's not the one thing, no,
Speaker 4: I know, the one thing I'd say as my craft
Speaker 4: beer equivalent is has to do with plane tickets, and
Speaker 4: I've been researching a couple upcoming trips. When I'm searching
Speaker 4: on Google flights, I can never get that cheapest fare
Speaker 4: as much as I really want to. And I think
Speaker 4: probably a lot of people can relate to this. So
Speaker 4: I've got three things I'm not going to like compromise with.
Speaker 4: I want to make sure I'm either in a window
Speaker 4: or the aisle. I don't want to board last. And
Speaker 4: then there's a couple just airlines that I'll try to avoid.
Speaker 4: So those are the things. So when I'm doing this search,
Speaker 4: I just figure I'm going to have to pay an
Speaker 4: extra maybe like thirty dollars.
Speaker 3: Based home what the prices.
Speaker 1: And you live in a market where Spirit is heavy.
Speaker 1: But I'm guessing this means.
Speaker 2: You don't fly no Spirit, no Frontier, and I getting
Speaker 2: those sweet deals.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 4: The nearest airport to me is all about the budget airlines.
Speaker 4: Their Spirit, Frontier, Southwest, a lot of Jet Blue. I
Speaker 4: will fly Spirit, but then that's kind of where this
Speaker 4: kicks in. It's like length of the flight matters. If
Speaker 4: it's five hours, I'm probably not gonna be sitting in
Speaker 4: one of those tight Spirits.
Speaker 2: But no Southwest our favorite.
Speaker 4: Oh no, I mean I'll it just depends. It depends
Speaker 4: on the flight jet Blue, I will fly a lot.
Speaker 1: How fancy are we getting here, Michael? Are you ever
Speaker 1: doing like live flat beds across the Atlantic kind of thing?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 4: Not so for jet Blue is a good example. I
Speaker 4: think it's like basic. Those are the ones that I
Speaker 4: can't do. But then when it's that, I think it's blue.
Speaker 4: That's when I'll go for Jet Blue. I won't be
Speaker 4: the last to board. I can bring on a bag,
Speaker 4: I put everything in the carry on, and then I
Speaker 4: can choose my seat.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: That makes sense. Okay, Michael, I know you and Joel,
Speaker 2: y'all go back. You can trade war stories after we
Speaker 2: hit hop on the recording. But I get the impression
Speaker 2: that you've been for a long time. You are savvy
Speaker 2: with how you handle your money. What brought that about?
Speaker 2: When did that begin in your life?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: I think it started for a lot of people who
Speaker 4: really get into this space with their childhood. My role
Speaker 4: model was my grandmother in particular, and she was always
Speaker 4: the one who really had it together with money. She
Speaker 4: was not wealthy, but she was comfortable, and it was
Speaker 4: because of the actions that she took, so I kind
Speaker 4: of looked up to her and like modeled myself after her.
Speaker 4: I even during college, I lived with my grandmother and
Speaker 4: it commuted to college to save money. But just those
Speaker 4: couple of years where we did that, I think that's
Speaker 4: where I learned a lot about personal finance. That's also
Speaker 4: where I got my introduction to Clark Coward, which is
Speaker 4: how I know Joel because I on the drive back
Speaker 4: and forth to school, I would listen to Clark's radio show.
Speaker 3: So it was like twenty some years ago.
Speaker 1: So is that one two punch Grandma and Clark Coward?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Grandma and Clark in my late scenes.
Speaker 1: Okay, So with your grandma, I'm curious was it more osmosis?
Speaker 1: Was it like the way she lived or was she
Speaker 1: like offering verbal instruction too. Were you guys having discussions
Speaker 1: about money or was it just like dang, I see,
Speaker 1: grandma seems to have beyond to something and kind of
Speaker 1: the way she handles money, the way she lives, the
Speaker 1: silent type.
Speaker 3: I guess yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't remember having too many discussions about it.
Speaker 4: I do remember one thing I had. One of my
Speaker 4: first jobs, I was a waiter, at a Denny's in
Speaker 4: a resort community, and I would come home from work
Speaker 4: every day with a stack of dollar bill So this
Speaker 4: is before people were leaving credit card tips, and she
Speaker 4: would ask me to hand over my money and she
Speaker 4: would count my tips and like if I had over
Speaker 4: one hundred dollars, we'd like celebrate. So like that was
Speaker 4: kind of, like, I guess, a positive reinforcement at an
Speaker 4: early age. I don't remember a whole lot of conversations,
Speaker 4: but I guess the way it was just the way
Speaker 4: that she lived and the way she led, and she
Speaker 4: was the just really solid, dependable adult in my life
Speaker 4: and at a time when there was like other stuff
Speaker 4: going on with some of the other other adults.
Speaker 3: So just just a really great mentor.
Speaker 2: Just a great role model. The ability for her to
Speaker 2: aside from being a human teller machine like counting up
Speaker 2: your bills. I love that that she celebrated that with you.
Speaker 2: What a great way to kind of reinforce not only
Speaker 2: the fact that you're making and hopefully saving, but that
Speaker 2: you're just I don't know, doing a good job. It's
Speaker 2: like some additional fruit of your labor that's being that
Speaker 2: you're able to celebrate there together. Yeah, I like that,
Speaker 2: but sorry for calling you that human guinea pig.
Speaker 3: By the way, actually pretty accurate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it seems like you have tried every financial
Speaker 2: tool out there, like you tried wineab for a while.
Speaker 2: It sounds like you liked it ultimately, though it seems
Speaker 2: like you went with your own Google sheets you like.
Speaker 2: I don't know it was it the customization of creating
Speaker 2: your own thing, but it seems like you based it
Speaker 2: on like the wine ap principles. Can you share about
Speaker 2: how it is that you budget and keep up with
Speaker 2: your spending?
Speaker 4: Well, I think this is kind of timely because I
Speaker 4: guess mint has just shut down and I use that
Speaker 4: for a whole lot of years, and then I started
Speaker 4: kind of looking at how I thought that wasn't working
Speaker 4: so well for me, and I guess the process with
Speaker 4: that In similar apps like it, I would just open
Speaker 4: up the app and see a reflection.
Speaker 3: It was like looking in the mirror, just like how
Speaker 3: are you doing?
Speaker 4: Whereas whine app, I think that system and the four
Speaker 4: rules it helps you really kind of train yourself to
Speaker 4: be more proactive I think with your money. So the
Speaker 4: way I adapted it is I really I mean my
Speaker 4: issue is I'm not crazy about a subscription service for
Speaker 4: a budgeting app, and I know a lot of them
Speaker 4: work that way for various reasons. But with the Google Sheets,
Speaker 4: I can do the same thing. And the key for
Speaker 4: me is really just before I buy anything, I open
Speaker 4: up the Google Sheets app, I check my categories, see
Speaker 4: what I've.
Speaker 3: Got left to spend for the month, and then make
Speaker 3: the or just log it right away.
Speaker 4: I always have that opportunity to kind of be like, Okay,
Speaker 4: do I really need to buy this?
Speaker 3: Do I want to buy this? Like it's a.
Speaker 4: Check on yourself that I don't think you necessarily get
Speaker 4: with the tools where you're just like I guess, putting
Speaker 4: everything on your credit card and then logging in to see,
Speaker 4: all right, what was the damage for the month?
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, there's you're spending on a delay like that
Speaker 2: is the downside of maximizing the different benefits that you
Speaker 2: get through using credit cards, which were huge fans of.
Speaker 2: But the ability for you to see sort of like
Speaker 2: that timely in the moment feedback that's huge. And this
Speaker 2: is something that you've been able to kind of work
Speaker 2: into your general workflow, like you've got a weekly financial checklist.
Speaker 4: I guess one of the things, having been in writing
Speaker 4: about money since I guess it's now been twenty ten
Speaker 4: is one of the things people say to you is like, oh,
Speaker 4: you must be obsessed with money, and I'm not, And
Speaker 4: I really don't spend a whole lot of money on
Speaker 4: the budgeting, even though I'm logging those transactions with every purchase.
Speaker 4: So all I do is I set aside a few
Speaker 4: minutes on Fridays in the morning, I check to see
Speaker 4: how all my account balances are. I pay my credit
Speaker 4: cards off every week, and then I just look back
Speaker 4: on that budget to see if there's anything that I missed.
Speaker 4: But since I'm logging everything in real time as I spend,
Speaker 4: I don't really usually find any difference between what I
Speaker 4: put on the credit cards and then what's in the budget.
Speaker 1: I like that when you have a system, you don't
Speaker 1: have to obsess over it, right, And so that's like,
Speaker 1: I think it's a really important takeaway there. On the
Speaker 1: guinea pig note, you're being kind of a guinea pig
Speaker 1: right now in a way. We talked about this right
Speaker 1: before we started recording, that you're seeking to earn extra money,
Speaker 1: but it also still allows you flexibility. I think gigwork
Speaker 1: is something Matt and I have talked about that lots
Speaker 1: of times. Especially if gigwork, if that's your main source
Speaker 1: of income, it's probably you're just training time for money
Speaker 1: and it's probably not the best move you're ever the
Speaker 1: long haul. But I really actually kind of like approach
Speaker 1: to some of the gigwork that you're doing right now. Michael,
Speaker 1: can you talk about that well?
Speaker 3: I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of the gigwork is trading time
Speaker 4: for money. And there's a couple of things that I've
Speaker 4: done just because I've got some things I'm saving up for.
Speaker 4: Just like everyone listening to this, in my case, it's
Speaker 4: something I'm not really excited about. I have to get
Speaker 4: a new fence, So I've found all these ways to
Speaker 4: kind of like motivate myself to save up for that,
Speaker 4: and one of them has been with gig apps and
Speaker 4: side apps. Rover's been the most successful for me. It's
Speaker 4: probably going to depend on where you live. Where I live,
Speaker 4: there's just a ton of demand for people who can
Speaker 4: take care of pets, particularly if you have a single
Speaker 4: family home and you can care for the pets at
Speaker 4: your house.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of what's worked out and based on.
Speaker 1: Is this why you need a defence by the way,
Speaker 1: so you can watch these animals.
Speaker 2: It's actually an investment.
Speaker 4: YEA. Yeah, I've got a fence, but it's falling down,
Speaker 4: so I know that I've got to like replace replace
Speaker 4: the fence. But I guess it kind of is an investment.
Speaker 4: I don't really see the gig app as a forever thing,
Speaker 4: but it's meeting a demand that is needed in the community,
Speaker 4: and I think that's probably the best way to go
Speaker 4: when you're looking at the gig apps is to think, well,
Speaker 4: do I want the easiest thing for the quickest buck,
Speaker 4: or do I want to look at something that might
Speaker 4: have a higher return because there's more people in your
Speaker 4: local area who need those services.
Speaker 3: There's a ton of apps out there.
Speaker 4: Like thumbtack and if you're able to do to provide
Speaker 4: like you know, powerwashing or there's lots.
Speaker 3: Of ways to make money through these apps.
Speaker 4: And the beauty of the pet sitting apps with Rover
Speaker 4: is that you can take in animals, take care of them,
Speaker 4: but also be doing other stuff from your house. Like
Speaker 4: so for me with what I do with the YouTube channel,
Speaker 4: I can be editing a video and also caring for
Speaker 4: a pet.
Speaker 2: Okay, I thought you're talking about like you're one of
Speaker 2: those guys and you've got like fifteen dogs on a leash,
Speaker 2: but you're also like filling out on your phone like
Speaker 2: as you're walking those that the ultimate multitask.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna and I did try all those those
Speaker 4: survey apps at one point. I think when I'm down
Speaker 4: to in terms of the kind of make money, save
Speaker 4: money apps, at this point, I still use iboughta that's
Speaker 4: a grocery one. I use Fetch that's also a grocery one.
Speaker 4: And this is more of a savings not an earning one.
Speaker 4: But have you guys ever talked in the show about
Speaker 4: too Good to Go?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh, is that that's the meal leftover meal apps?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: Go pick yourself up some crossanltics that they're getting ready to.
Speaker 4: Talk about that app is like my favorite, and I've
Speaker 4: I've found so many great places on there. I know
Speaker 4: it's going to depend on where you live, but it's
Speaker 4: like five dollars and you could have like a ton
Speaker 4: of food.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean so basically, like you're talking about the
Speaker 2: difference here between active versus passive ways of earning money.
Speaker 2: And so obviously these are all more active, active ways,
Speaker 2: and it's important to kind of prioritize, and granted we
Speaker 2: will talk. I kind of led into this whole thing
Speaker 2: talking about ways that you can save money, because cutting
Speaker 2: your expenses that's like the most immediate thing. But you
Speaker 2: have highlighted some of the different ways that you can
Speaker 2: immediately make money. But like I said, these are all
Speaker 2: more active ways of generating income. But a passive way
Speaker 2: that you've shown some remarkable success is via your YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: You've done well there and like you call yourself an
Speaker 2: unlikely success story, share with us how that channel came
Speaker 2: about and how you're doing over there.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, so here's the truth of how the
Speaker 4: channel came about. This actually ties into my full time
Speaker 4: job that I was working. I saw an opportunity for
Speaker 4: us to get into video when I was working for
Speaker 4: Clark Howard. They had a channel with a ton of videos,
Speaker 4: but I saw a different way to do it. But
Speaker 4: I kind of wanted to test it out because I
Speaker 4: wasn't really sure that my managers were all that into
Speaker 4: the idea. So I just started putting up random videos.
Speaker 4: Some of my oldest videos were just about weight, just
Speaker 4: what we've talked about, like some of these apps and
Speaker 4: ways to save money.
Speaker 3: I talked about how I paid off my mortgage.
Speaker 4: On one of the earlier properties that I lived in,
Speaker 4: and things just kind of took off. And I also
Speaker 4: had some of that content that I do now, which
Speaker 4: is the testing of the streaming phone plans internet services.
Speaker 4: So it was really I've just an experiment for work.
Speaker 4: I never expected some of those videos to take off.
Speaker 4: I think the mortgage video has four hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: thousand views, So that's an example of a I sat
Speaker 4: down on the couch and I talked for ten minutes,
Speaker 4: and five years later people still watch that.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's super cool. Yeah it's amazing. So it is
Speaker 1: active in one sense because you kind of still need
Speaker 1: to continue to create content in order to keep new
Speaker 1: viewers coming in. But then some of the videos you
Speaker 1: made a long time ago still have a lot of juice,
Speaker 1: which is really cool. Do you have any tips for
Speaker 1: someone out there who maybe has like a burning desire
Speaker 1: to share their knowledge and they think they've seen what
Speaker 1: mister Beast is able to accomplish, and maybe also you've
Speaker 1: been able to accomplish. Michael and they're like, I could
Speaker 1: see myself doing something like that. Do you have any
Speaker 1: kind of tips of the trade or kind of hey,
Speaker 1: here's how you start to begin a YouTube channel and
Speaker 1: you're not just yelling into the void.
Speaker 4: Sure, I mean I think what you said is where
Speaker 4: I would start share your knowledge. It's much easier to
Speaker 4: share your knowledge than it is to share your life.
Speaker 4: So that would kind of be the difference between a
Speaker 4: channel that has more of an informational and educational view
Speaker 4: as opposed to one that is a look at me
Speaker 4: type of channel. So if you think about problems that
Speaker 4: people are going through, and you have the solutions.
Speaker 3: So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 4: I had someone came over a few months ago and
Speaker 4: helped me install a couple ceiling fans, and he had
Speaker 4: never dealt with this brand before. So then I went
Speaker 4: on YouTube and I searched and I was like, wow,
Speaker 4: there's like no video about this. But if you look
Speaker 4: up some of the other brands like Hunter, let's say,
Speaker 4: there's like millions of views of people just filming themselves
Speaker 4: swapping out a ceiling fan. So this guy, like a
Speaker 4: big part of his business is installing ceiling fans. He
Speaker 4: could just record himself at a client's house doing it,
Speaker 4: go home and voice over all the steps and then
Speaker 4: that's a way to like help someone out. But also
Speaker 4: that would be like a turn into a semi passive
Speaker 4: additional income for them. Yeah, it's not super exciting, but
Speaker 4: it could. Really it would help people, and it would
Speaker 4: it's in that person's wheelhouse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean you say it's not super exciting,
Speaker 2: but like I think for a lot of people, I
Speaker 2: think what you said about knowledge versus life, right, the
Speaker 2: ability to share either a passion or some information that
Speaker 2: you have as opposed to feeling like you have to
Speaker 2: bear all tell all fabricate drama. I think there's a
Speaker 2: lot of folks who might actually find that incredibly interesting
Speaker 2: because it seems like it's doable. There's something about I
Speaker 2: don't know, it feels more honest, perhaps even to me,
Speaker 2: than like trying to figure out whatever like the next
Speaker 2: YouTube algorithm is going to be. Because there's actual value
Speaker 2: that you are you are able to portray, and so
Speaker 2: the ability to say cool, this is a this is
Speaker 2: a clear way that I can provide value out into
Speaker 2: the world, out into YouTube, to be able to help
Speaker 2: people while at the same time hopefully generating some additional income.
Speaker 1: But I also like kind of how you said you
Speaker 1: look to see, oh wait, there's a nobody's covering this yet,
Speaker 1: and we can be the first. We can be the
Speaker 1: pioneer here. And if you're the pioneer on that video,
Speaker 1: that you have more of a chance to stand out right,
Speaker 1: Whereas if you're kind of saying the stuff that everyone
Speaker 1: else is saying, like you got to kind of find
Speaker 1: that niche too. What is it that I know about
Speaker 1: that very few people are publishing on And I think
Speaker 1: that's a good place to start creating content, and I
Speaker 1: think you can broaden from there.
Speaker 4: The way that I've heard a lot of YouTube gurus
Speaker 4: boil it down is it's the audience, and I do
Speaker 4: agree with that. I think usually when I put the
Speaker 4: most effort into the videos and they're based on things
Speaker 4: that I know people have either reached out to me
Speaker 4: or I've done the research and I find they're interested
Speaker 4: in those are the ones that do the best short
Speaker 4: term and over the long haul. So there is a
Speaker 4: research component to figuring out what people care about, because
Speaker 4: maybe what you care about is not something that a
Speaker 4: ton of people care about.
Speaker 3: But I do think that's a place to.
Speaker 4: Start, is your your own interests. And back to what
Speaker 4: you said about being original, maybe you're doing okay content,
Speaker 4: but it's been done by too many people in too
Speaker 4: many different ways.
Speaker 2: That makes sense. Okay, So, Michael, I don't know if
Speaker 2: how you feel about sharing this, but like, how much
Speaker 2: of the revenue that you're able to generate from YouTube?
Speaker 2: What percentage of your expenses would you say that that covers?
Speaker 2: And the reason that I'm asking this specifically is because
Speaker 2: I think this is so interesting, because I think it
Speaker 2: can provide an insight to folks who might be considering
Speaker 2: something like this to see, oh cool, this actually does
Speaker 2: have the ability to cover a percentage of my expenses
Speaker 2: of my day to day living. Do you mind sharing that?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 4: Well. YouTubers can make money through various income sources. The
Speaker 4: one people talk the most about is probably ad sense,
Speaker 4: which is just the ads that.
Speaker 3: Run on your video.
Speaker 4: You turn them on and then you don't do anything
Speaker 4: else except collect the check. That can vary. It can
Speaker 4: go up and can go down depending on the months.
Speaker 4: For a channel my size, that can be pretty healthy.
Speaker 4: I'll use my second I have a second channel as
Speaker 4: an example. It's much smaller that has about three thousand
Speaker 4: subscribers and I want to say sixty thousand views a month.
Speaker 4: So it just really is where I put a bunch
Speaker 4: of secondary content that doesn't really fit on the main
Speaker 4: Michael Saves channel that regularly gets about five hundred dollars
Speaker 4: a month in just that ad sense income. So for
Speaker 4: just throwing a few videos up on a channel of
Speaker 4: things that interest people that can that's the return, but
Speaker 4: the the main channel is significantly more than that.
Speaker 1: And YouTube, of course is the second largest search engine
Speaker 1: in the world, next to Google. So it's one of
Speaker 1: those places where if you are on there creating helpful
Speaker 1: content consistently over time, you can't and you know, don't
Speaker 1: quit your day job yet, but maybe at some point
Speaker 1: you can quit your day job if you've done it
Speaker 1: consistently over long enough period of time, been able to
Speaker 1: build an audience, and you're providing helpful information on the
Speaker 1: rig like you are, Michael with both of your channels,
Speaker 1: but okay, speaking of both of your channels, like you
Speaker 1: do so much. You create so much content specifically about
Speaker 1: streaming and how to cut costs in that area, and
Speaker 1: especially as subscription that you know, the monthly subscription amounts
Speaker 1: continue to increase for people, and there's just a proliferation
Speaker 1: of subscription options in general. We've got a lot of
Speaker 1: questions to get to with you on that, so we'll
Speaker 1: be right back with Michael Saves right after this.
Speaker 2: Right we are back from the break talking with Michael
Speaker 2: from Michael Saves. And I guess it's zooming out a
Speaker 2: little bit the savings that we used to experience, Michael, Like,
Speaker 2: when it came to cutting the cord, it used to
Speaker 2: be significant, Like it used to be, like it was
Speaker 2: a no brainer. Like I've never paid for cable TV
Speaker 2: in my entire life, except for when I was in
Speaker 2: college because my roommates insisted. But like, ever since I
Speaker 2: was in charge of my TV options, I've never paid
Speaker 2: because it made so much sense to eliminate cable. But
Speaker 2: it seems like that the tides have turned, given the
Speaker 2: increasing prices.
Speaker 1: Because what Netflix is, what twenty two bucks a month?
Speaker 1: Now if you want the top tier.
Speaker 2: It's so stinking extensive now. But I guess I'm curious
Speaker 2: to hear if you think it's a slam dunk decision anymore.
Speaker 2: How are you approaching that question with folks?
Speaker 4: Well, I think you're right, it's definitely not the type
Speaker 4: of savings that it was five years ago. But I
Speaker 4: do think that cutting the cord is still the way
Speaker 4: to go. I don't hear from people who are going
Speaker 4: back to a cable or a satellite TV subscription. It's
Speaker 4: just changed, and that's a lot due to the way
Speaker 4: that there's just so many services and people are having
Speaker 4: to pick and choose, and the shows they want.
Speaker 3: To watch are so spread out.
Speaker 4: But in addition, it's a lot due to the sports
Speaker 4: being so spread out amongst multiple services. So now you
Speaker 4: have to kind of create your own bundle as opposed
Speaker 4: to with a cable PATV provider, they're just delivering this
Speaker 4: one option for you.
Speaker 1: Sure, so even if you cut the cord, basically, I
Speaker 1: think what you're saying is there are live equivalents to
Speaker 1: cable that are a whole lot less expensive.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 3: A whole lot?
Speaker 4: I don't know, I mean slightly. Is where it really
Speaker 4: depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for
Speaker 4: a full replacement for what a PATV provider like an
Speaker 4: Exfinity or DirecTV offers, it's not going to be a
Speaker 4: huge savings because those live TV services are making deals
Speaker 4: with the exact same companies that the other PATV operators are.
Speaker 4: There are some much skinnier ones. A couple of years
Speaker 4: ago I interviewed the founder of the CEO of Filo
Speaker 4: and he was actually one of the Facebook co founders
Speaker 4: as well, and his service is twenty five dollars a month.
Speaker 4: But you don't get locals, you don't get sports, and
Speaker 4: you don't get a whole lot of news.
Speaker 3: It's really just the entertainment networks.
Speaker 2: Like, do you have a general philosophy of how you
Speaker 2: think about streaming, whether like in your own life or
Speaker 2: just when you talk about streaming content like generally speaking?
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that, like, do you have
Speaker 2: like a few different platforms or subscriptions that you always
Speaker 2: have that you always pay for, or are you being
Speaker 2: more strategic, like are you targeting platforms for specific shows
Speaker 2: or certain sports or whatever it is. I'm curious how
Speaker 2: it is that you approach it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So what I generally do is I have one
Speaker 4: of those more expensive live TV services for about half
Speaker 4: the year, and that's coming up.
Speaker 3: I've already paused it.
Speaker 4: So the next billing cycle that goes off, that's seventy
Speaker 4: five dollars a month right now, so that I won't
Speaker 4: pay for until September. And that's mostly because of Live TV,
Speaker 4: so a mix of sports and news that I like
Speaker 4: to watch on that service. So now I'm entering a
Speaker 4: period where I feel like I have more options, So
Speaker 4: I'll go into some of the cheaper services that I
Speaker 4: haven't had throughout the year. Netflix is one of them.
Speaker 4: You just mentioned that I haven't had Netflix in six months,
Speaker 4: so I'll turn that back on, check out what's been
Speaker 4: on there since I last had it, and then and
Speaker 4: then pause it.
Speaker 3: So I do. I do rotate the subscriptions.
Speaker 4: That's part of the benefit of cutting the cord, but
Speaker 4: I also know that doesn't.
Speaker 3: Really work for everybody.
Speaker 4: If there's someone in your house who wants to watch
Speaker 4: a show and you cancel it, you're going to be
Speaker 4: hearing from that person like they're not going to be
Speaker 4: happy with it.
Speaker 1: Part of the benefit of the new model is that
Speaker 1: we can take that rotational approach that there are no
Speaker 1: year long, two year long, multi year sort of conqu
Speaker 1: that are forcing us to pay somebody year after year
Speaker 1: even if we're not getting the same value out of it.
Speaker 1: But we're still treating I think or a lot of
Speaker 1: Americans are still treating their streaming service like they're handcuffed too.
Speaker 4: And I think that's what that's why when I hear
Speaker 4: people have this debate about like, oh, it's worse than cable, now,
Speaker 4: nobody is thinking like, oh, I want a cable guy
Speaker 4: to come over to my house and spend half the
Speaker 4: day to install it, or the same for a satellite.
Speaker 4: So the technology was always going to change because of
Speaker 4: the Internet. Now what we're working through is just this
Speaker 4: period where the prices are going up, and that's because
Speaker 4: the streaming services, some of them, are fighting for profitability,
Speaker 4: and then also there's content changes that they're making as
Speaker 4: a result of.
Speaker 3: That same issue.
Speaker 4: They're just not making the same amount of profits as
Speaker 4: a PATV bundle, which for decades was extremely profitable for
Speaker 4: the major media companies.
Speaker 1: So I would think the people that save the most
Speaker 1: money in the streaming world or people who just don't
Speaker 1: watch a lot of stuff, and also people who don't
Speaker 1: care about sports at all. But if you like sports,
Speaker 1: especially now, I feel like it's getting harder and harder
Speaker 1: almost by the month too, because now Apple TV has
Speaker 1: or Apple TV plus whatever it's called, has the MLS
Speaker 1: soccer Peacock I believe has the European soccer leagues.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It used to be that, Okay, at least you subscribe
Speaker 1: to this one thing and you get all the sports.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't even seem to be the case anymore.
Speaker 1: So what would you tell sports lovers when it comes
Speaker 1: to streaming about kind of what services to have and
Speaker 1: then how to make sure that they're not spending like
Speaker 1: a ridiculous sum of money to watch the sports they love.
Speaker 4: Sure well, the sports consumers, the ones who are especially
Speaker 4: into multiple types of sports, are always going.
Speaker 3: To be paying the most.
Speaker 4: Because what most people don't really understand is with that
Speaker 4: old PATV model, the price of that was the price
Speaker 4: that it was because of sports, and it would have
Speaker 4: been even higher if people had the option to opt
Speaker 4: out of sports.
Speaker 3: So in a way, the sports.
Speaker 4: Programming has always been subsidized by people who don't watch
Speaker 4: a whole lot of sports. It's not what people want
Speaker 4: to hear, but that's that's the.
Speaker 2: Truth of it.
Speaker 1: Because like ESPN wouldst would cost the cable companies ten
Speaker 1: bucks a month, Yeah, just that one channel and then
Speaker 1: all these other channels you might pay, They might pay
Speaker 1: them thirty three cents a month or something like that. Nothing,
Speaker 1: So ESPN is, yeah, it was the big behemoth in.
Speaker 3: There, and and there's changes with that too.
Speaker 4: So later this year there is going to be a
Speaker 4: service that's going to include ESPN as well as a
Speaker 4: bunch of other sports networks. The estimated price, nothing officially yet,
Speaker 4: is forty to fifty dollars a month. And then in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five there's going to be a standalone ESPN
Speaker 4: and that price is reportedly going to be twenty five
Speaker 4: to thirty dollars a month for ESPN and then all
Speaker 4: the other ESPN family of networks. So that kind of
Speaker 4: just when you put thirty dollars against your total cable
Speaker 4: TV bill or pay TV bill, you kind of see
Speaker 4: like where all the money is going. It's going to
Speaker 4: sports the easiest. The people who have the easiest time
Speaker 4: are probably still NFL fans, and that's because in your
Speaker 4: local market, it's always going to be on a broadcast
Speaker 4: TV station. Now Amazon's got rights to Thursday Night Football.
Speaker 4: Last year, there was a playoff game. Last season, there
Speaker 4: was a playoff game on Peacock. The next season, there's
Speaker 4: going to be a playoff game on Amazon Prime. So
Speaker 4: there is still some extra cost there for people who
Speaker 4: want to watch a lot of games, especially from teams
Speaker 4: outside of your market. But if you only care about
Speaker 4: the team for the city that you live in, the
Speaker 4: NFL is still reasonable because you just need your local channels.
Speaker 4: Many people can get those, of course, with an antenna.
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to say, that's all over
Speaker 2: the air.
Speaker 1: I think people forget about the antenna and they forget
Speaker 1: about all the channels they provide. I swear with my antenna,
Speaker 1: I log in, and I'm shocked at the number of
Speaker 1: channels I get. I assume that a good many of
Speaker 1: them are just kind of garbage channels, but there's never
Speaker 1: been more free content that you can get over the air.
Speaker 4: Sure, and I agree with that. And when I paused
Speaker 4: the subscription, the first thing I did after I paused
Speaker 4: it is I put my antenna back up. I've just
Speaker 4: got one of those indoor antennas, and just like you said,
Speaker 4: it's got like one hundred channels because it's all the locals.
Speaker 3: And then they have.
Speaker 4: These digital subchannels with a lot of content that I
Speaker 4: think you also see on similar services like the free
Speaker 4: stream meet services Pluto, and Roku channel and two B.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of overlap there.
Speaker 2: But the Yeah, the Sodi's Crackle that's another one.
Speaker 3: I feel Crackle's good too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I read recently that antenna use is actually
Speaker 4: on the way on the way up.
Speaker 3: It's now like one in five households.
Speaker 4: And hey, maybe if the prices go up more people
Speaker 4: will give it a shot.
Speaker 2: Exactly. It makes sense when you see how affordable these
Speaker 2: intendas are, Like you're spending twenty thirty dollars for like
Speaker 2: the extra long range one. You get it positioned in
Speaker 2: a window, tape it up there or whatever. Like at
Speaker 2: our old house, we literally like thumb tacked it to
Speaker 2: the wall high the TV so you literally couldn't even
Speaker 2: see it and it just blended in with a dark wall.
Speaker 2: They make them like flat. I mean, it's just like
Speaker 2: it's like a sheet of notebook paper with a cord
Speaker 2: attached to it. But you, like, we're talking about some
Speaker 2: of the different free content that you can get out there, Michael, Like,
Speaker 2: what do you think about like some of those different
Speaker 2: free apps, whether it be to b or Crackle or
Speaker 2: whatever else. Actually we haven't even talked about this, but Hoopla,
Speaker 2: which I normally use for audio books. I saw that,
Speaker 2: I don't know, there's video on there that you can
Speaker 2: now reserve.
Speaker 3: As well, but it canopy as well. Right, Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: a whole other who's got your library card?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a whole other thing. But I'm curious what
Speaker 2: your thoughts are, like, is it worth the hassle or
Speaker 2: the time to go looking for some of that free
Speaker 2: content via some of those free apps.
Speaker 4: Sure, it's worth the time, especially if you don't want
Speaker 4: to pay, and there's a lot of people who don't
Speaker 4: want to pay. Those apps have a ton of content,
Speaker 4: and it's in that traditional TV feel like there are
Speaker 4: some people who open up a pay service like Netflix
Speaker 4: and they get totally overwhelmed with the options and they
Speaker 4: end up watching nothing. So you can open up Pluto
Speaker 4: and it has a guide that looks just like your
Speaker 4: old cable guide and it'll serve you a bunch of
Speaker 4: stuff for all the interests. I think that they typically
Speaker 4: do the best job of replacing the type of content
Speaker 4: that airs during the daytime on regular broadcast TV networks.
Speaker 4: So there's like there's news shows, there's court shows, talk shows,
Speaker 4: crime shows. That's where I see those free services but
Speaker 4: also movies. There's if you just want to open up
Speaker 4: one of the free services to be has a pretty
Speaker 4: good movie selection, you can find something to watch.
Speaker 3: You just are gonna have ads to break it up,
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the overwhelmed opening Netflix. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people feel that, and it is your there's a
Speaker 1: deluge of content. Specifically, I think Netflix has or at
Speaker 1: least used to prioritize the amount of offerings over the quality.
Speaker 1: And it's not that they didn't have some quality stuff,
Speaker 1: but there's just a ridiculous amount of content to sort through.
Speaker 1: And the recommending algorithm is okay. But do you have
Speaker 1: any tips to help people find the kind of content
Speaker 1: that they're going to enjoy watching, because I think now
Speaker 1: the average person opens up the app, and I swear
Speaker 1: I saw this stat somewhere, they spend somewhere between eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty minutes trying to figure out what to watch,
Speaker 1: to click it around before they even start watching a show.
Speaker 1: And I know that are new, like even AI kind
Speaker 1: of apps out there that can help you figure out
Speaker 1: what makes sense for you based on your viewing history
Speaker 1: and the thumbs ups and stuff like that. But do
Speaker 1: you have any recommendations for people. Any of those apps
Speaker 1: you found most helpful.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean my approach is very simple.
Speaker 4: I use the watchless features within the apps, but also
Speaker 4: I'm mostly a Roku guy, and they have a way
Speaker 4: to create a watch list across multiple apps. So you
Speaker 4: go into your save list and then you just pop
Speaker 4: up whatever you haven't.
Speaker 3: Checked out lately.
Speaker 4: And then I'm sure you guys can relate to just
Speaker 4: people in your life recommending shows to you that you've
Speaker 4: never heard of. So instead of just being like, I'll
Speaker 4: just put them in my notes app on the phone, Yes,
Speaker 4: so've I mean, I've got plenty of stuff that and
Speaker 4: when it's time to, you know, check out that service,
Speaker 4: whether it's a free, year, paid service, whatever it's on,
Speaker 4: then I'll already know what I want to watch because
Speaker 4: I'll have something to talk with my friends about.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love it, Michael, That's exactly I've gotten more
Speaker 2: organized about that over the past year because I realized
Speaker 2: I had this one particular note where I would jot
Speaker 2: all of this down, and so I said, you know what,
Speaker 2: like I literally did this last year, I want to
Speaker 2: start making this official, and so at the top I
Speaker 2: added a title and it's called consume, and it's where
Speaker 2: I put everything that I want to either read, potato
Speaker 2: chips or listen to. But then very recently I started
Speaker 2: categorizing some of the different recommendations I would hear because
Speaker 2: I'd always you always ask the follow up, Oh, what's
Speaker 2: that on? And then they're like, oh, that's on Max
Speaker 2: and so boom, I've like that under my max list.
Speaker 1: But I love to tell the Matt about Tokyovice.
Speaker 3: It's great.
Speaker 2: Have you heard of that one, Michael.
Speaker 3: No, I haven't. Well, now I'm gonna have to add
Speaker 3: it to my list.
Speaker 2: It's underrated. It's a max max and I've got max
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 4: So one other tip that I have, which is not
Speaker 4: going to work for everyone, but it works for me. Uh,
Speaker 4: if you have a Roku, you know there are those
Speaker 4: four keys on the bottom that are basically advertisements. So
Speaker 4: what I've done is I don't use those, so I've
Speaker 4: basically put labels over top that show the services that
Speaker 4: I do have. So it ruins the functionality of those keys,
Speaker 4: but it's a reminder of the services that I'm paying
Speaker 4: for right.
Speaker 3: On my romote.
Speaker 2: So sort of like when you write like a spending
Speaker 2: category on a specific credit card.
Speaker 4: That's exactly what inspired me to do it, is it
Speaker 4: really it's putting like a sticker on a credit card
Speaker 4: that says you're a percentage.
Speaker 3: That's why I was like, I need to do this
Speaker 3: for my streaming.
Speaker 1: Services come from the same cloths. Yes, for sure. Okay,
Speaker 1: what's your take Michael on ad supported versus AD free plans?
Speaker 1: Because you can save a lot of money by watching
Speaker 1: some ads, and they're not as bad. I think people
Speaker 1: get a note with them, but they're not as bad
Speaker 1: as traditional TV was. I mean, we are old enough
Speaker 1: to remember the twenty one minute show that fits inside
Speaker 1: of a thirty minute half hour. That's because there were
Speaker 1: nine minutes worth of ads.
Speaker 2: Guys like, that's.
Speaker 1: Why and now when you when you watch these and
Speaker 1: I get that kind of we fell out of the
Speaker 1: habit of watching ads, and it sucks to go back.
Speaker 1: But the it seems like the gap has grown significantly
Speaker 1: between the ad free and the ad supported plans. And
Speaker 1: I think you've said too that that some are worse
Speaker 1: than others.
Speaker 4: Right, sure, absolutely, And I'm almost forty. I think you
Speaker 4: guys are right there with me, so I'm I have
Speaker 4: that same experience of I know what it was like
Speaker 4: to have to sit through those ads, and if you
Speaker 4: didn't have a VCR, you weren't skipping through any ads.
Speaker 3: You just had to stick with the ads.
Speaker 1: I love that you didn't go back to just the
Speaker 1: what they call it with the TVR. Yeah yea, yeah tea,
Speaker 1: it's not DVI. You ha'd a VCR man. I never
Speaker 1: had one of those.
Speaker 4: I didn't either, we had a But as far as
Speaker 4: the ad supported services, the best ones and I've tested
Speaker 4: them all as far as the lightest AD load are
Speaker 4: now Amazon Prime, which is added advertising, Netflix Max, and Peacock.
Speaker 4: Those are the ones that I find the most tolerable.
Speaker 4: And especially it also depends on what we're watching, So
Speaker 4: sometimes I'll catch a movie and they'll just have two
Speaker 4: minutes of ads before the movie.
Speaker 3: Starts, and then no ads through it. So for people
Speaker 3: who are really.
Speaker 4: Concerned about the ads, I say, just like, give it
Speaker 4: a try for a month. You can always switch back
Speaker 4: to those plans that are ad free. But as far
Speaker 4: as managing costs, the ad supported plans are the best
Speaker 4: for the companies. So those are going to be priced
Speaker 4: lower because between the AD revenue and the subscription price
Speaker 4: they actually end up making these companies more money than
Speaker 4: the ad free plans.
Speaker 1: And one last tip the piggies back on that is
Speaker 1: the sales that happen often around Black Friday are for
Speaker 1: the ad supported plans. So I've got Hulu for a
Speaker 1: full year for ninety nine cents a month. Granted the
Speaker 1: Hulu ads are more annoying than they are and a
Speaker 1: lot of the other streaming services, but I otherwise just
Speaker 1: wouldn't have Hulu. But twelve bucks a year to be
Speaker 1: able to watch even just two or three things on there,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's it seems like a what.
Speaker 2: Do you think, Michael, twelve dollars a year to have
Speaker 2: your cheap or you're film interrupted by like a guy
Speaker 2: going have.
Speaker 3: The same deal.
Speaker 4: I will say that that's one of the apps that
Speaker 4: has stuff that I like to watch. But I would
Speaker 4: open it a lot more if there were fewer ads.
Speaker 4: Hulu and Paramount Plus are very aggressive with their ads.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's the downside. If it was just a
Speaker 2: couple ads at the beginning, it's like, okay, you know
Speaker 2: what I can fine, I'll watch five minutes of ads
Speaker 2: if I can do that while I go pop the popcorn. Right,
Speaker 2: But to have a movie interrupted in the middle, that's
Speaker 2: as you're watching there with the kids. That like that
Speaker 2: kind of thing, like on a Friday night, that's that
Speaker 2: kind of bums me up.
Speaker 4: Someone once told me they do push ups during all
Speaker 4: the commercial breaks, So I immediately thought, they're not watching
Speaker 4: Hulu because there are would be really sore.
Speaker 2: They would be just right, that's at least stay so healthy, Michael.
Speaker 2: But so these are ways that you can save monthly, right,
Speaker 2: like when it comes to some of the different UH
Speaker 2: streaming subscriptions. But there are some other ways that you
Speaker 2: can cut expenses every single month. We'll get to a
Speaker 2: few more of those right after this.
Speaker 1: All right backwards, I'll talking with Michael Timmerman talking about
Speaker 1: getting scrappy to save some money. And Michael is nothing
Speaker 1: if not scrappy, and I'm hoping that we can all
Speaker 1: learn and adapt how we handle our monthly bills thanks
Speaker 1: to his ability to test some of these services and
Speaker 1: offer his best advice.
Speaker 2: Just to avoid paramount, that's what I paramount.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't do that one and just go back and
Speaker 1: see what you're paying, man, because you might be paying
Speaker 1: for stuff you're not even using. You might not have
Speaker 1: even realized that that is just like low hanging fruit
Speaker 1: tip right there. But Michael, in addition to streaming services,
Speaker 1: you you test other things too. Streaming is kind of
Speaker 1: I feel like what you're known for, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: all the information you just shared, But talk to me
Speaker 1: about home internet. I feel like every time I ask
Speaker 1: someone about home internet service, I always get a reply
Speaker 1: that they're paying like seventy or eighty dollars a month,
Speaker 1: which is more than I'd be willing to pay. I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm always able to save money, but I
Speaker 1: just have to stay on it every single year, kind
Speaker 1: of pitting the two internet providers that I have against
Speaker 1: each other. But you've also talked about a third way
Speaker 1: in the internet space, five G home Internet. So can
Speaker 1: you talk to me about how you think about home
Speaker 1: internet and whether these new five G players T Mobile
Speaker 1: and Verizon whether their services are worth it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 4: I'm using them right now, so things have gone pretty
Speaker 4: well so far, and right now I think I'm communicating
Speaker 4: with you on the Verizon one, but I've got both
Speaker 4: of them, I've tested them long term. I think they
Speaker 4: will work for a lot more people than you might realize,
Speaker 4: and that's because they let you connect to the internet,
Speaker 4: surf the web, you can check your emails, on your
Speaker 4: home security, some forms of gaming. I think that is
Speaker 4: where things can kind of break down with the five
Speaker 4: G home internet services.
Speaker 3: But people, I think in.
Speaker 4: General, think they need the highest speed, and that's because
Speaker 4: they're marketed that constantly on television. They need gig speed
Speaker 4: when most households do not. I'm sitting in a two
Speaker 4: thousand square foot house. This little box from Verizon and
Speaker 4: the same for the one from T Mobile.
Speaker 3: They work throughout the whole house.
Speaker 2: Very impressive.
Speaker 1: You just plug it in and go right. And what
Speaker 1: are the speeds? What is the price point and how
Speaker 1: much savings does it represent over maybe traditional home internet.
Speaker 4: So you mentioned seventy five to eighty I think for
Speaker 4: and I think that's in line with what a lot
Speaker 4: of people tell me they've paid maybe fifty to seventy five.
Speaker 4: These newer options are around fifty. They're cheaper if you
Speaker 4: have a phone plan with that phone company, but that
Speaker 4: is going to be a post paid wireless plan. You
Speaker 4: need an expensive phone plan to get a savings on
Speaker 4: the home internet.
Speaker 2: Which might be worth it if you are looking at
Speaker 2: the bigger picture. Right, the ability to look at your
Speaker 2: overall holistic financial picture as opposed to getting the absolute
Speaker 2: cheapest cell phone provider. But now, uh sorry, you're stuck
Speaker 2: paying Exfinity Internet and you know they have it retard
Speaker 2: your call in like two or three mins.
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I want to wear this as a badge of honor.
Speaker 1: Matt and I. We pay twenty five bucks here a
Speaker 1: month through Exfinity for I think we get one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty to two hundred makes of speed.
Speaker 2: Well they just did like a speed upgrade.
Speaker 3: They upgraded it. Yeah, yes, so you get that you're
Speaker 3: on the lowest plan.
Speaker 1: And still and it's twenty five bucks a month and
Speaker 1: it's plenty of speed. So it's I think you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to go to one of the new fangal things.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe it works better for you where you live,
Speaker 1: but it's it's all about shopping around and kind of
Speaker 1: pitting them against each other. That's that's also going to
Speaker 1: lead to say.
Speaker 4: And some people just don't have those options though, jol Like,
Speaker 4: some people don't have another option to pit against Exfinity,
Speaker 4: so they may pay that twenty five dollars, but it's
Speaker 4: for one year and then that doubles the next year.
Speaker 4: So that's the if you're willing to switch every couple
Speaker 4: of years, Yeah, you're gonna be able to keep your
Speaker 4: internet bill twenty bucks thirty bucks lower than that average
Speaker 4: you mentioned.
Speaker 2: Again, it's all about being scrappy. So, Michael, one last
Speaker 2: question for you. I think you've tried something like fifteen
Speaker 2: different phone plans over the.
Speaker 3: Years, so maybe more than that. I think I definitely
Speaker 3: at least fifteen.
Speaker 4: Some of them no longer exist or they've merged, there's
Speaker 4: been some consolidation.
Speaker 3: In that space.
Speaker 2: Okay, so over the years, like what have you learned
Speaker 2: and specifically, like what are the best discounters that you
Speaker 2: typically recommend and who are you currently using? Are you
Speaker 2: using Verizon in order to gain access to that five
Speaker 2: G box?
Speaker 4: I don't have a post paid plan and I haven't
Speaker 4: for a very long time.
Speaker 3: I have now Visible, which.
Speaker 4: Is owned by Verizon, and that does get you a
Speaker 4: discount on the Verizon Home Internet. So that's a little
Speaker 4: bit of a savings sack. You get a better discount
Speaker 4: with the Verizon post paid servery cool.
Speaker 2: So you're yeah, you got the Verizon network, you're paying
Speaker 2: discounted through Visible, but you're getting the Verizon Home Internet.
Speaker 4: For it, Yeah, and for a discount, so it's I
Speaker 4: think it's a ten dollars a month discount on the
Speaker 4: home Internet.
Speaker 1: What other cell phone providers in the discount space do
Speaker 1: you typically recommend. I know some people tend to think, oh,
Speaker 1: the discounter, it's got to be inferior quality, right, it's
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be my calls are going to drop more frequently.
Speaker 1: Matt and I talk about how the NBY and o's
Speaker 1: there on the backbone of the major networks, So that's
Speaker 1: not the case. You shouldn't You shouldn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about that. There are some minor trade offs, but yeah,
Speaker 1: do you have any other favorite discounters out there?
Speaker 4: I think what you said is a lot of that
Speaker 4: is just dated information. When I started reviewing these, Sprint
Speaker 4: was still around, and a lot of the same companies
Speaker 4: today that the MVN knows today used to use Sprint,
Speaker 4: and Sprint's reputation is just not good. I know you
Speaker 4: used to have it, Joel.
Speaker 1: Right, that was the lowest amount I've ever paid. We
Speaker 1: had ten lines on.
Speaker 2: There's ten friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and literally people I didn't know and their cousins,
Speaker 1: and we were paying one hundred and something dollars a month,
Speaker 1: low low hundreds, like one hundred and fifteen after taxes
Speaker 1: and everything. So and that was back when you had
Speaker 1: to have multiple lines in order to get a substantial discount.
Speaker 1: You get a solo line. Sorry, you're paying seventy bucks
Speaker 1: a month, like there's no way around it. But that's
Speaker 1: I really appreciate that. In the cell FLOWD space that
Speaker 1: has gone away over the last two or three four years,
Speaker 1: so they exactly a single line and basically pay the
Speaker 1: same price.
Speaker 4: And also with the with Sprint no longer around now,
Speaker 4: and there's not that one carrier with inferior coverage who
Speaker 4: kind of put a whole I think put a stain
Speaker 4: on the MV and OS Now, I think it's really
Speaker 4: just a matter of figuring out who has the best
Speaker 4: coverage in your area. If you like the postpaid service
Speaker 4: that you've got, whether that's Verizon AT and T or
Speaker 4: T Mobile, there's going to be a cheaper option on
Speaker 4: all three of those, so you can you can test
Speaker 4: them out, compare the prices a lot are generally the
Speaker 4: same space you can get savings sometimes if you pay
Speaker 4: for a year in advance, or you can pay monthly
Speaker 4: and still get a low price. Visible's good, Mint's been good,
Speaker 4: tell O is pretty good. Us Mobile another good one too.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: And what about Google five for international travel?
Speaker 4: Yes, I mean if you travel a lot, But if
Speaker 4: you're traveling, if you're planning a trip two years from now,
Speaker 4: you don't need Google five. There's other ways that you
Speaker 4: can get data coverage when you're overseas.
Speaker 1: Literally the Esis right, yeah, he said, is a great
Speaker 1: way to do that. Okay, Michael, very very last question
Speaker 1: for real, are you just doing this this profession to
Speaker 1: get the tax right off on the streaming services in
Speaker 1: the owner that you would have otherwise paid for and
Speaker 1: paid full price?
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely not. It's really, uh not that not that
Speaker 3: big of a rite off.
Speaker 4: This is this is fun for me and personal finance
Speaker 4: just I mean, personal finance is a passion of mine.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't call it an obsession of mine. But I'm
Speaker 4: just sharing people what I'm doing to save money. And
Speaker 4: it's gonna work for some people. It's not gonna work
Speaker 4: for everybody, right though. That's the thing about this space
Speaker 4: and what you guys do is that people can listen
Speaker 4: and they can pick and choose what will actually work
Speaker 4: for their life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, without going completely crazy because there's a
Speaker 2: two minute ad in the middle of the movie, like
Speaker 2: at the most inopportune time.
Speaker 1: Some folks will put up with that. Other well, some
Speaker 1: maths won't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Michael, we appreciate you coming on the podcast today.
Speaker 2: Working folks. Check out the different products and services that
Speaker 2: you are reviewing and talking about.
Speaker 3: Sure, Michael says dot com. Michael says on YouTube.
Speaker 4: That's how you find me, and you can email me too,
Speaker 4: Michael at Michael says dot com. I do free personal recommendations.
Speaker 2: Very cool.
Speaker 1: Michael, thanks for joining us, my friend. We appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thanks guys, to talk to you soon.
Speaker 2: All right. Great conversation about slashing your streaming. Should we
Speaker 2: have called the episode that Joel instead of you like
Speaker 2: the scrappy like scrab you? Uh no. Fun conversation with
Speaker 2: Michael Timmerman again.
Speaker 1: Isn't there a cartoon animal name scrappy scrappy Scooby Doo?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1: Scooby Do's like little bro or what was oh scrappy doo?
Speaker 2: Yeah, scrappy Do. Okay, he's like the little guy Okay,
Speaker 2: do you have a big takeaway from our conversation.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 1: I do. It's you hate advertisements on services, at least
Speaker 1: at least in the middle. You don't mind them on
Speaker 1: the front end.
Speaker 2: So we didn't even talk about this, but I hate
Speaker 2: them so much that I would rather cut all the
Speaker 2: different services. Like we literally don't pay any any subscriptions
Speaker 2: to any of the different streaming services right now. We
Speaker 2: decided to go cold Turkey basically, and we're kind of
Speaker 2: saying how long we can go go before the kids
Speaker 2: revolt because that's that's essentially where we are right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, so not even Disney Plus for the kids, No,
Speaker 1: we have it.
Speaker 2: Like literally, they were looking to watch something the other
Speaker 2: day and to the younger girls were like, can we
Speaker 2: just rent this one movie? We're willing to pay. It
Speaker 2: was like I think it was four dollars for the renolds,
Speaker 2: like three to nine, and so each there's two of
Speaker 2: the girls and they each chipped in two bucks so
Speaker 2: that they could rent this movie. And I'm like, Hey,
Speaker 2: we can something else, or we can go go play,
Speaker 2: We'll go for a hike, and they're like, oh, we
Speaker 2: really want to watch this, And I was like all right,
Speaker 2: and so they pulled out their two dollars and it's
Speaker 2: the force.
Speaker 1: Forced great depression at Matt's house.
Speaker 2: It's the ability to value your money in a way,
Speaker 2: just aligning your spending.
Speaker 1: With your values. It's more than money. It's not the
Speaker 1: seven bucks a month even necessarily.
Speaker 2: I would imagine it's a combination of everything. And it's
Speaker 2: a little bit that p Yeah, it's a little bit
Speaker 2: of the financial, but also like how can we better
Speaker 2: spend our time perhaps as a family.
Speaker 1: And by the way, you can't skip those ads, so
Speaker 1: easy to skip the podcast ads, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I want to say my big takeaway is
Speaker 1: when Michael talked about his weekly financial checklist, and I
Speaker 1: think it's the systemization of things means you don't have
Speaker 1: to constantly be worried about money or constantly be thinking
Speaker 1: about it. When you have this kind of Friday morning
Speaker 1: routine that he has, he can check in on his
Speaker 1: money and he can very quickly assess kind of what's
Speaker 1: going down, how things are shaping up. I like it,
Speaker 1: and you know what changes he needs to make, and
Speaker 1: I think he's spot on. Most people think money guys,
Speaker 1: you have to. You probably have to think about money
Speaker 1: all the time. And it's like, I'm just like I
Speaker 1: am kind of obsessed with it, unlike Michael, like I do.
Speaker 1: I love reading about stuff, and I love just kind
Speaker 1: of the way money impacts our lives. Like I am
Speaker 1: just generally interested in finance. But when it comes to
Speaker 1: like my own money, No, I have some systems in place.
Speaker 1: They're they're pretty chill, and I don't feel like I'm
Speaker 1: having to like think about my money all the time.
Speaker 1: I just kind of like the topic in general. So
Speaker 1: that's yeah, I mean, that's just my weird oddity.
Speaker 2: No, I think it's I think, yeah, it's so true
Speaker 2: if you feel like it's some that it is something
Speaker 2: that is sort of taking over your mind, the ability
Speaker 2: to kind of partition it and to put it into
Speaker 2: silos so that way you like, all right, it's money time,
Speaker 2: you attack it and then you let it go.
Speaker 1: It kind of like the flight of the concords. It's
Speaker 1: business time, but it's money Time's money time. But for him, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really liked.
Speaker 2: A part of that was his weekly credit card payoff,
Speaker 2: which stood out to me because most folks, or at
Speaker 2: least myself, I'm looking at it month to month, but
Speaker 2: he's checking in on it every single week, and I
Speaker 2: think that's so smart. The ability just to stay on
Speaker 2: top of your spending, because you could potentially, let's say
Speaker 2: you forget and it builds up, you don't realize how
Speaker 2: much you've actually spent, let's say on groceries or and entertainment,
Speaker 2: and by the time you get to the end of
Speaker 2: the month, well it's too late. Yeah, you've already spent
Speaker 2: that money. So that's one of the downsides of using
Speaker 2: credit cards, and his ability to stay on top of
Speaker 2: that I think is huge. But as far as my
Speaker 2: big takeaway, well, it's going to pertain to streaming, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be to rotate the different services that
Speaker 2: you use, going there, hit pause, the ability to target
Speaker 2: specific shows and one of the ways you can accomplish
Speaker 2: this efficiently. Michael shared that this is something that he does.
Speaker 2: I do this on my phone as well, but keep
Speaker 2: a running list of the different things that you want
Speaker 2: to watch. That way, when you do, say, choose to
Speaker 2: pay for Max for a couple months, boom, you can
Speaker 2: rip through that list. You're not watching crap that you
Speaker 2: don't really want to watch, but you're watching it because
Speaker 2: you pay for it, as opposed to going proactively going
Speaker 2: after the stuff that you do want to consume.
Speaker 1: I love what he did with his remote taping. I
Speaker 1: mean like, there are all these little different things you
Speaker 1: can do, so I think, remind yourself of what you're
Speaker 1: paying for. And I love the seasonal nature of his
Speaker 1: aproach too. He's like, yeah, I'll have a target it.
Speaker 1: It's not always on the expensive live TV. It's YouTube
Speaker 1: TV for six months and then he's doing away with
Speaker 1: that seventy five or whatever it is dollar bill. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that that's a good way to think about things.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is just to stop caring about
Speaker 1: sports because that's gonna be coming all together. Most effective
Speaker 1: way to save money until And I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: how good this new sports bundle He mentioned how good
Speaker 1: it is, because I think that might be a great
Speaker 1: way for sports lovers to save is sign up for
Speaker 1: that and avoid everything else that's srue.
Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll talk about it later this year. Man.
Speaker 2: But the beer you and I enjoyed today was called
Speaker 2: a buzz Fest. This is a beer by Infinite Ale Works,
Speaker 2: a seasonal ale. Yeah, is this this is when you
Speaker 2: picked up.
Speaker 1: I picked this up down in Okalla, Florida. Actually have
Speaker 1: a really cool little micro brewery there, just outside of
Speaker 1: downtown Okaala, and I was like, they only had two
Speaker 1: package beers, so this was by default kind of the choice.
Speaker 1: I meant, right, I'm getting yeah, but no, I like
Speaker 1: this one. It's it's got October Fest sort of vibes,
Speaker 1: kind of a multi light brand beer.
Speaker 2: But it's got like multi multi a nice.
Speaker 1: Sweetness too going along with it. So yeah, if you
Speaker 1: like the October festival sweetness, and you can tell that's
Speaker 1: when they brew this. So we maybe were drinking this,
Speaker 1: you know, six months past.
Speaker 2: Past Prime has been sitting well, we've had such great
Speaker 2: listeners sending in amazing beers that this is one that
Speaker 2: we've literally just kept in the fridge all these months.
Speaker 2: But yeah, super maulty, super bretty. It reminded me we've
Speaker 2: been thrown down a bunch of English muffins recently. I
Speaker 2: know we've all been on the Nooks and Crannies original bread,
Speaker 2: and this totally reminds me of that a whole lot.
Speaker 1: It's better than the nukes and cranny.
Speaker 2: That's so good. It's so good. But yeah, this German
Speaker 2: amber pilsner. Is it a Pilsner Marsley Mars But it's
Speaker 2: like a like the bass maybe the bass beer, I
Speaker 2: don't know, but either way, enjoyed it. Thankful that you
Speaker 2: picked this one up for us, Buddy, but we'll make
Speaker 2: sure to have show notes up on the website at
Speaker 2: how the Money dot com. We'll link to Michael site
Speaker 2: his YouTube channel as well. But Buddy, that's gonna be
Speaker 2: it for this episode until next time.
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.