Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing Prime Day, Reprise, subversive subscriptions, and
Speaker 1: moving for money. You know, buddy, this is our Friday
Speaker 1: flight where we are gonna go over some of our
Speaker 1: favorite stories that we came across this week, the stories
Speaker 1: that we want you to pay attention to because they
Speaker 1: have a direct impact on your personal finances. And um,
Speaker 1: this isn't quite a story, but I saw that I
Speaker 1: got a question for you following this as well. But
Speaker 1: thirty percent of households still have a landline, which it's
Speaker 1: obviously has been declining ever since they started keeping track
Speaker 1: of this, maybe decade or two ago. But do you
Speaker 1: remember the last time you ever? Have you ever lived
Speaker 1: in a home or or an apartment where you had
Speaker 1: a landline? Only only in the home my parents owned
Speaker 1: back And I was curious because I as I was
Speaker 1: thinking through this, I remembered, so ever since Kate and
Speaker 1: I have been together, we've never paid for a phone.
Speaker 1: But when I was in college, yep, we had a landline. Andrew,
Speaker 1: our one roommate, insisted that we really should have a
Speaker 1: land line, and so it was a bill that we
Speaker 1: split four ways every single month. Cell Phones were still
Speaker 1: a little fresh back then, right they were. They were fresh,
Speaker 1: but even still more expensive. Nobody used the stupid land line.
Speaker 1: It was just sort of like this thing that almost
Speaker 1: seemed like a like a blankie, like like just in
Speaker 1: case the grid goes down or something like that, we
Speaker 1: can still make a phone. When you look at what's
Speaker 1: happened with prices of land lines, they've just continued to
Speaker 1: go up, but prices of cell phone service have just
Speaker 1: continued to go down. So I guess I understand why
Speaker 1: some people might want that security blanket still land line.
Speaker 1: Maybe that was the case back then. When I guarantee
Speaker 1: you there's still a lot of people paying for one
Speaker 1: who might be realizing right out, wait a second, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am hay on that bill every month. And no,
Speaker 1: it's been a few years since I've even used mine.
Speaker 1: And plus I don't even remember my phone number in
Speaker 1: line anymore. I bet there's some people who fall into
Speaker 1: that camp, who could who could easily just kind of
Speaker 1: call up and cancel tomorrow. You know, It's funny something
Speaker 1: else Buddy and I mentioned recently. He said, Okay, when
Speaker 1: your kids kids say that they're going to talk on
Speaker 1: the phone, how do they how do they hold their
Speaker 1: hand to their head to indicate that they're talking on
Speaker 1: the phone. And he pointed out that basically all of
Speaker 1: our kids when they hold a phone up to their head,
Speaker 1: either put their hand up like it's an iPhone or
Speaker 1: like it's a smartphone, or they hold it like you're
Speaker 1: holding a little brick, as opposed to the pinky thumb extension,
Speaker 1: which is I feel like my kids are used to
Speaker 1: video calling, so they're kind of like flash in front
Speaker 1: of their face or on FaceTime or something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but just yeah, another indicator that we're getting older. Man,
Speaker 1: we might be the last generation who speaks into their
Speaker 1: pinky and listens through their thumb. It's kind of kind
Speaker 1: of old school. Not that's nothing I had thought of it.
Speaker 1: It's like the land line. If you're out there listening
Speaker 1: and you're like, wait a second, I don't use it,
Speaker 1: and I do have one. Man, it's it's time to
Speaker 1: get rid of it. But I can't imagine that how
Speaker 1: the money listeners still have a landline hanging around. I
Speaker 1: gotta I gotta imagine it's a much smaller segment, but
Speaker 1: I guess so Yeah, well, let's move on, Matt. Let's
Speaker 1: get to all the interesting stories we found fascinating this
Speaker 1: week in the realm of personal finance, because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that impacts how you spend, save, and
Speaker 1: invest in today's episode. And you know what, the world
Speaker 1: really doesn't need, Matt, but it's getting anyway. Pay phones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't need payphones anymore. But we also don't need
Speaker 1: another Amazon Prime Day. However, they failed up help to
Speaker 1: give us one. And this is happening in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks on October eleven and twelve. Amazon and other
Speaker 1: retailers Apparently they're you know, they're they're thinking that inflation
Speaker 1: in the slowing economy is kind of curb holiday spending.
Speaker 1: So what they're trying to do is they're trying to
Speaker 1: get us to spend earlier than usual. I think that's
Speaker 1: what this second Prime Day is all about. They don't
Speaker 1: want us to wait until the days before Christmas because
Speaker 1: they want to spend less at that point, and or
Speaker 1: maybe just forget to buy gifts at all, just want
Speaker 1: to clear out those warehouses because they've got if they've
Speaker 1: got all these goods just sitting there and nobody is
Speaker 1: buying them. That's right. Yeah, because the supply chains are
Speaker 1: kind of back online for a lot of those major retailers,
Speaker 1: they've got more stuff than they planned on having. And
Speaker 1: to Walmart and Target, they've announced similar efforts to frontload
Speaker 1: holiday sales. Target said holiday deals are going to start
Speaker 1: by October six in in uh Target stores. So I
Speaker 1: guess my question is is this a good thing or
Speaker 1: a bad thing? I think of it as kind of
Speaker 1: being both. It's it's kind of like a double edged sword,
Speaker 1: because more deals can cause us to buy more stuff,
Speaker 1: stuff that we don't necessarily need. That's bad and can
Speaker 1: inhibit our ability to reach other financial goals we have. Right.
Speaker 1: But on the other side, shopping early for holiday presents
Speaker 1: that you're planning to buy anyways can save you money, right,
Speaker 1: And so there's there's that park. Yeah, if you were
Speaker 1: already planning to make certain certain purchases, uh, if these
Speaker 1: were gonna be gifts and things that you're gonna buy anyway,
Speaker 1: that could save you a lot of money, uh, and
Speaker 1: also allow you to enjoy the holidays a bit more too.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, like you could you could be
Speaker 1: a touch more present if you're not thinking about presents
Speaker 1: like that their presence over presence, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying there. Uh, And so we would recommend for folks
Speaker 1: to to make a list now of the folks that
Speaker 1: you want to buy guests for this year, create a budget,
Speaker 1: you know, stick to that list of items that you're
Speaker 1: considering getting for them. Don't be afraid to shop the sales,
Speaker 1: but do stick to your list. Personally, I think I
Speaker 1: enjoy having a little bit more time. I wish gift
Speaker 1: giving was like a part of like more of my
Speaker 1: day to day where I'm thinking about it more often,
Speaker 1: but oftentimes I'm I'm not. But yeah, again, the previous years,
Speaker 1: supply chains were a reason that some of these holiday
Speaker 1: sales were starting sooner than later. This year, it seems
Speaker 1: like it's going to be inflation. But either way, we
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you are spending your dollars wisely. Joe,
Speaker 1: let's switch from spending to saving money. There is a
Speaker 1: great article on CNBC about super savers. We typically think
Speaker 1: of super savers as like somebody who's saving at least
Speaker 1: fifty of their income, but CNB they were referring to
Speaker 1: it as folks who were funneling cent or more of
Speaker 1: their income into work sponsored retirement account like a four
Speaker 1: one K, and so you might, uh, you might be
Speaker 1: having like the the knee jerk reaction that I did.
Speaker 1: It must be nice to be a loaded, dank household,
Speaker 1: you know, like you've got an engineering degree, Oh, you've
Speaker 1: got a job as an attorney. Yeah, saving fift is
Speaker 1: still like a far off goal for a lot of
Speaker 1: people when it comes to they're what they want to
Speaker 1: invest in. It's a lot, it's a lot less than
Speaker 1: fifty percent. But those are folks who are on these
Speaker 1: like crazy paths towards fire where they're looking to retire
Speaker 1: in just a few years. Not what most folks are
Speaker 1: looking to achieve. But that being said, as I read
Speaker 1: this article, I found out that it's actually not when
Speaker 1: the stats shows that it's not that kind of folks
Speaker 1: who were considered super savers, Not all of them are loaded.
Speaker 1: Some folks in the survey we're making as little as
Speaker 1: thirty five thous dollars every year and they were still
Speaker 1: able to salk away such a high percentage of their
Speaker 1: income every month. I think that's incredibly cool and the
Speaker 1: way that they were doing it. We're just through some
Speaker 1: like basic frugal means of living. UH. Some of the
Speaker 1: stats they shared where that forty eight percent of these
Speaker 1: folks drove older vehicles, thirty nine percent don't travel as
Speaker 1: much as that they'd like to. Percent also clean their
Speaker 1: own homes uh, and thirty eight percent of folks attempt
Speaker 1: to d I y most things. All of these things
Speaker 1: sound up our alley like the kind of basic really exactly,
Speaker 1: but it's also the path to stocking away tons of
Speaker 1: money into retirement. It's not rocket science, but being able
Speaker 1: to save more typically involve some of these small trade
Speaker 1: off some of these tradeoffs that we face almost day
Speaker 1: to day in our lives. But what we need to
Speaker 1: keep in mind is the flexibility and the independence that
Speaker 1: you're able to achieve are going to be well worth it.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with having a massive income, with having
Speaker 1: a fat paycheck rolling in all the time, but this
Speaker 1: just goes to show that you don't have to have
Speaker 1: that in order to not only be a super saver,
Speaker 1: but to also achieve some sort of sense of financial
Speaker 1: freedom down the road. To me, that was the most
Speaker 1: comforting thing because I know there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people out there on small incomes. It makes me think
Speaker 1: of our conversation recently with Sarah the Budget Girl, and
Speaker 1: she is crushing it on what a lot of people
Speaker 1: would say is as a small income, what she's been
Speaker 1: able to achieve, all those little things matter a whole lot,
Speaker 1: especially um the smaller income that you have going on.
Speaker 1: So it's it's fun to be able to see people
Speaker 1: at that end of the income spectrum still able to
Speaker 1: save and invest that much. And Matt and I wait,
Speaker 1: we would say, is the minimum that people should be
Speaker 1: seeking to save and invest? Uh? Paying yourself first right,
Speaker 1: Sacking away at least fifteen of what you have into
Speaker 1: your savings accounts and investment accounts is an important goal
Speaker 1: to strive for. Ultimately, we want people to be able
Speaker 1: to save and invest more than that, and even higher percentage,
Speaker 1: but fifteen is our kind of bare minimum we want
Speaker 1: folks shooting for. And on the note of saving more,
Speaker 1: Matt Bloomberg. They had a great article this week backing
Speaker 1: up something that you and I we've been saying on
Speaker 1: the show for years that online banks are the best
Speaker 1: banks and it's not been close. The main takeaway from
Speaker 1: this article was that the average rate on savings accounts
Speaker 1: in the country is a paltry point one three but
Speaker 1: there are some banks out there offering rates north of
Speaker 1: two and a half percent. And the reality is that
Speaker 1: rates are vastly superior with the online banks, but so
Speaker 1: are the customer service and additional parks too. So if
Speaker 1: you're banking with one of the big banks, they're likely
Speaker 1: paying you point zero one percent on savings, like we're
Speaker 1: talking about Wells Fargo Bank of America. Those guys, so
Speaker 1: please please ditch them in favor of one of the
Speaker 1: much better, fastly superior online banks. Marcus, Ally, c, I
Speaker 1: T and Discover are just a few of our favorites.
Speaker 1: Link to an article outlining how to switch banks effectively
Speaker 1: in the show notes, because I know sometimes that is
Speaker 1: what feels like a pain. It's like, do I really
Speaker 1: have to do this adulting thing and and change banks
Speaker 1: and and change all my financial transactions to come out
Speaker 1: of this account. Yes, yes you do, but it's not
Speaker 1: as big of a lift as you think it is.
Speaker 1: And to get paid more on your money is a
Speaker 1: great thing, But it's also nice to do business with
Speaker 1: a bank that doesn't completely stuck. At the same time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will say personally, it's been nice seeing the amount
Speaker 1: the learning an interest every month from my high yield
Speaker 1: savings account increase steadily every single month. That has also
Speaker 1: been very nice. It's not that's not something that anybody
Speaker 1: with the big traditional break and mortar banks, they're not
Speaker 1: experiencing that. I am. Come on over to the come
Speaker 1: on over to the bright side. Um, okay, let's talk
Speaker 1: about those subversive subscriptions, because it turns out that on
Speaker 1: average we underestimate how much we pay monthly for the
Speaker 1: different recurring subscriptions in our in our life, and not
Speaker 1: by a small amount, but by a significant amount. There
Speaker 1: is a C and Our research paper recently and they
Speaker 1: found out that most folks have almost no clue about
Speaker 1: what they pay for various subscriptions each and every month.
Speaker 1: Almost none of the folks who participate in the survey
Speaker 1: were accurate, Like pretty much everybody missed the mark by
Speaker 1: at least a little yeah, if if not a significant amount.
Speaker 1: Over half fifty four percent of folks undershot how much
Speaker 1: they spend every month on subscriptions by over a hundred
Speaker 1: bucks uh. And the average amount that they were off
Speaker 1: was by something like a hundred and thirty three dollars.
Speaker 1: Of that amount, there were there was eleven percent who
Speaker 1: were off by more than three hundred bucks, which is
Speaker 1: like mind blowing so much money? How much you spent
Speaker 1: on subscriptions? I don't know, twenty bucks? Sorry, Actually, like
Speaker 1: how could you be that far off? That is that's
Speaker 1: closer to the truth than you realize. Um, there's just
Speaker 1: this massive gap between like what we think we're paying
Speaker 1: what we're actually shelling out. And it's obviously it's clearly
Speaker 1: going to have an impact on our finances in large
Speaker 1: part because this isn't just a single expense. This these
Speaker 1: are recurring expenses. This happens every single month. If you're
Speaker 1: talking about three hundred bucks, over the course of a year,
Speaker 1: you're thirty six dollars. That is a ton of money.
Speaker 1: And folks are wondering where, like where can I find
Speaker 1: the money to what? It's like, Oh, I've got an
Speaker 1: hs A, but how am I supposed to fund it?
Speaker 1: Right there? Maybe those subscriptions that you're not even maybe
Speaker 1: you're not getting value from it. Maybe you are, but
Speaker 1: if you're not, this is something we want you to read.
Speaker 1: This pay attention to the money that is automatically leaving
Speaker 1: your account every month. Yeah, these subversive subscriptions, Matt. They
Speaker 1: made me think of like a boat that's got tiny
Speaker 1: little leaks that are kind of hard to see. And
Speaker 1: and that's the thing is, like, that's what they're counting
Speaker 1: on when you sign up, is that you're going to
Speaker 1: forget about it, but you're gonna keep paying because it's
Speaker 1: on autopilot and you're gonna be out money every month.
Speaker 1: But at the same time you might forget about that subscription,
Speaker 1: you might not be getting value from it. And apparently
Speaker 1: of folks say that subscriptions are making them crazy because
Speaker 1: they're hard to keep track of. They're they're literally adding
Speaker 1: stress to people's lives rather than relieving it, which is
Speaker 1: often the promise of so many subscription services. Three quarters
Speaker 1: of folks say they're easy to forget about, which is true.
Speaker 1: That's why people are paying them right every single month,
Speaker 1: like clockwork, and they're forgetting that they even that they
Speaker 1: even have access to whatever it is, whether it's a
Speaker 1: streaming service or whether it's some sort of relationship with
Speaker 1: an apparel company, whether it's an Amazon subscribe and save,
Speaker 1: like whatever it is, people are signing up forgetting about
Speaker 1: it and still paying for us right. So we would
Speaker 1: say it's time to call your subscriptions. I literally did
Speaker 1: that just this week because we we had go Henry,
Speaker 1: which helps to teach our kids about finances. But I realized,
Speaker 1: wait a second, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it
Speaker 1: was good helping my girls learn some lessons. But I
Speaker 1: want to go back to the physical, tangible approach with dollars.
Speaker 1: And so I'm like, listen, this is a subscription that
Speaker 1: I'm paying for. It's costing me money too. So I
Speaker 1: canceled and now, uh, now I've got that one out
Speaker 1: of my life. And so if you don't track your expenses,
Speaker 1: that's where you gotta start. You gotta find out where
Speaker 1: your money is going, whether that's using a basic spreadsheet
Speaker 1: or something like mint. You know, those subscription services are
Speaker 1: nefarious because it's so easy to forget about them, And
Speaker 1: this weekend would be a great time to start canceling
Speaker 1: stuff you're not actually using to kind of start looking
Speaker 1: at finding those leaks in the ship so you can
Speaker 1: start plugging them up. Unfortunately, I don't think most folks
Speaker 1: share the same sort of They don't get the same
Speaker 1: high that we do when we find seeing money, when
Speaker 1: we find ways to keep it's it's it's like a
Speaker 1: slow bleed, you know, like like we're like you said,
Speaker 1: well you're talking about a boat, but like you're just
Speaker 1: slowly bleeding out, and this is these are resources that
Speaker 1: you could easily regain. I think this is a fun game.
Speaker 1: I think it's fun to spot these dollars and be like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, Yeah, you're right. I was way under
Speaker 1: estimating mind, just like the rest of these people in
Speaker 1: the survey. And and now guess what, I'm going to
Speaker 1: finally seeing someone plug the leaks and I'm gonna bring
Speaker 1: a hundred twenty dollars a month back into my life
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. That's a significant amount of money
Speaker 1: that then you could be spending in a more intentional way.
Speaker 1: But we just have to find a way to make
Speaker 1: it more fun, because people would do it if like
Speaker 1: there has to be some sort of like mental shifts,
Speaker 1: some sort of trick that takes place. I mean, we talked,
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about subscriptions, uh, streaming services in
Speaker 1: particular over the past few months. But earlier this week
Speaker 1: or last week, I finally canceled Netflix. I had been
Speaker 1: hanging onto it because I still hadn't finished stranger things.
Speaker 1: But since I did, I was like, Okay, finally that's
Speaker 1: one I can cut. And I was paying a lot
Speaker 1: man because I was splurged on the ultra ultra high death.
Speaker 1: I bet you did fancy pants twenty bucks a month,
Speaker 1: but I was willing to pay that for a short
Speaker 1: amount of time. And so, like, we want you to
Speaker 1: have different subscriptions in your life that are bringing you
Speaker 1: value that you are aware of, but once they are
Speaker 1: not bringing you value anymore, be choosy. We want you
Speaker 1: to cut those things from your life. And like you said, Jill,
Speaker 1: being aware of those subscriptions is the first thing. And
Speaker 1: it's tough to be aware if you're not tracking your expenses,
Speaker 1: if you're not keeping up with where it is your
Speaker 1: money is going. Agreed, So all right, cut some of
Speaker 1: those sneaky, subversive subscriptions at your life, and then you'll
Speaker 1: have more money to put towards things that matter more
Speaker 1: to you. I mean, we've got more stuff to cover
Speaker 1: on the Friday flight, including getting paid to move somewhere,
Speaker 1: and we've got some tips about how to save money
Speaker 1: on car insurance. We'll get to both of those and
Speaker 1: more right after this. All right, we are back from
Speaker 1: the break, Jill, you just chease to some of the
Speaker 1: different ways to save when it comes to car insurance.
Speaker 1: We're also gonna discussed maybe what's quite possibly going to
Speaker 1: be the most affordable electric vehicle out there that a
Speaker 1: lot of people are gonna potentially be able to afford,
Speaker 1: depending on where you are in your life with your finances.
Speaker 1: But first we've got to get to our ludicrous headline
Speaker 1: of the week. We just kind of went off on subscriptions. Well, now,
Speaker 1: let's give the buy now, pay later industry some hate
Speaker 1: for a second. Here. This one comes from The Times
Speaker 1: and it reads Mary now pay later news services put
Speaker 1: weddings on installment, basically anything that you can buy. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's going to be whatever that pay later,
Speaker 1: because we did like give now pay later a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Makes me think of that Tommy Boy seen
Speaker 1: where he gets the office and he's sorry to his
Speaker 1: dad and he's like, I can keep six packs of here?
Speaker 1: Is that anything you want to keep cold, Tommy boy?
Speaker 1: And it's it's truly, it's like anything you want to
Speaker 1: put on a payment plan, Tommy Boy, Like, you really
Speaker 1: can't anything that you can spend money on. You could
Speaker 1: do it. Uh later this new upstart called Marou I
Speaker 1: guess that's how you say. It's m A r oo.
Speaker 1: They are allowing folks to pay for their wedding services
Speaker 1: over time. Uh, and the average cost of a wedding
Speaker 1: is is closing in on and so because of that, like,
Speaker 1: I get the temptation, I get the desire to want
Speaker 1: to defer some of that pain, uh of all that
Speaker 1: money leaving your account, But you also don't want to
Speaker 1: start off your new life of wedded bliss deep in
Speaker 1: a debt hole. You know, Like, it's not even that
Speaker 1: we're like, we're not again spending a lot of money
Speaker 1: on your wedding day. It's it's a party worth splurging on.
Speaker 1: And I would honestly even be okay with folks doing
Speaker 1: this if they were paying for it and making the
Speaker 1: payments on the front end, because that's traditionally how it worked.
Speaker 1: You book a vendor, you put down a deposit, and
Speaker 1: then typically on the day of the wedding, so like
Speaker 1: before things even really kick off, you pay the balance.
Speaker 1: And so if this is just like a new fintech
Speaker 1: type way for you to accomplish this, I'm all for that.
Speaker 1: But but this is delaying those payments exactly year after
Speaker 1: your wedding. And that's the problem because the truth is
Speaker 1: is that by not pay later, it allows and actually
Speaker 1: kind of like prods people to spend more than the
Speaker 1: otherwise would. And so not only is it a delayed payment,
Speaker 1: they're also putting more, they're spending more on their wedding.
Speaker 1: Uh STA show that folks often spend more than the
Speaker 1: otherwise would. If by now, pay later is offered at
Speaker 1: checkout in retail scenarios, is typically like thirty to fifty more.
Speaker 1: I've got to think that with weddings it's probably something
Speaker 1: really similar And so, yeah, it might sound old school,
Speaker 1: but just finding ways to cut costs and save more
Speaker 1: money on the front, and we think that that is
Speaker 1: a much better move than utilizing the buy now, pay
Speaker 1: later industry. That's right, Yeah, I mean I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna see a lot of people who if you're paying
Speaker 1: it out over the year after that. Yeah, if if
Speaker 1: you're if you can pay something out over twelve months,
Speaker 1: you're typically going to get the nicer food choice or
Speaker 1: the more experienced photographer or whatever. That you're just gonna
Speaker 1: opt for nicer stuff if you don't have to come
Speaker 1: up with the cash on the front end, and you
Speaker 1: might be able to rationalize it's saying that it's you know,
Speaker 1: one of the most important days of your life. But
Speaker 1: you can rationalize a lot of things, a lot of
Speaker 1: doing a lot of things with that sort of mentality,
Speaker 1: And so we would say, yeah, saving up more on
Speaker 1: the front end, is it matters, it's important. And you know,
Speaker 1: one other alternative to using my now pay later, by
Speaker 1: the way, is to ask your wedding guests to give
Speaker 1: you cash instead of presents. And apparently a lot more
Speaker 1: folks are doing this. They're using their wedding registry to
Speaker 1: ask for cash instead of pots and pans or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, getting dish towels in silverware, I guess can
Speaker 1: be helpful, but especially as folks are getting married later
Speaker 1: in life, Matt, I think, you know, they've often had
Speaker 1: to purchase some of those items on their own, and
Speaker 1: so they're saving up for thing bigger things like down
Speaker 1: payments or a honeymoon fund. And I think it's cool
Speaker 1: that people can and are asking for cash instead of
Speaker 1: physical consumer goods. Yeah, when you get married. When Katy
Speaker 1: got married, like literally we're basically like kids, like I
Speaker 1: didn't have bath towels. Like when I got on the shower,
Speaker 1: I was riding off with like like a big dish rag.
Speaker 1: You're basically a Neanderthal. Uh. It makes I get it.
Speaker 1: When you're young completely you literally don't have some of
Speaker 1: these items. But I think that's a great point. In particular,
Speaker 1: as folks are established, they've been out of school oftentimes
Speaker 1: for like a decade, not only do they have all
Speaker 1: their history of their habits, they've got their stuff and
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily need new items when they get married. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think this is becoming less of like a
Speaker 1: rude thing like to ask for cash. I think it's
Speaker 1: just becoming more common and we're seeing less of a
Speaker 1: negative reaction from guests. But I do want to say
Speaker 1: I think how you go about asking for cash is
Speaker 1: important because there's a way to do it totally can
Speaker 1: offend your guests, and there's a way to do it
Speaker 1: that can actually get them really enthusiastic about giving you cash.
Speaker 1: I would say the key, one of the main keys,
Speaker 1: is to to tell people what it is that you're
Speaker 1: saving for. So instead of being like throw cash, like
Speaker 1: let's get moss saviors, account bangs so you'll give me
Speaker 1: all the money so I can do whatever does I want.
Speaker 1: That's how you shouldn't ask, right, It gets some more
Speaker 1: excited to send your money if you have specific like, uh,
Speaker 1: things you're saving for that you can call out and
Speaker 1: ask him to donate to. And what's what's cool is
Speaker 1: there's this site called Zola that can help help you
Speaker 1: make that cash giving experience a bit more pleasant for
Speaker 1: people who are attending your wedding. And the awesome thing
Speaker 1: is there's going to be zero fee when your guests
Speaker 1: choose to send money. They can choose to send me
Speaker 1: a credit card and that will be a what like
Speaker 1: two and a half percent fee, or they can choose
Speaker 1: to send with Venmo and it will be zero fee
Speaker 1: for you or for the person who's attending your wedding
Speaker 1: and who doesn't have Venmo. And I gotta tell you, man,
Speaker 1: I would be more than happy if someone's like, they've
Speaker 1: got these buckets broken out, Hey, this is what we're
Speaker 1: saving for. It's just like a registry, right, like like
Speaker 1: like you're actually it's like, okay, it's a dinnerware set
Speaker 1: of twelve Oh my gosh, they need twelve play settings. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go in and you decide, and you you
Speaker 1: always would kind of throw your money towards the thing
Speaker 1: that brings value to you, you know, and so you're like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: they totally need to have this. In the same way,
Speaker 1: you can do that with what you're donating to, what
Speaker 1: it is that you're you know, whatever specific buckets that
Speaker 1: you're looking to fill for this, if you're excited to
Speaker 1: help fund the down payment or to fund the honeymoon fund.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's just kind of it's more fun for
Speaker 1: the guests to get to participate in that way, but
Speaker 1: it's also nicer for the recipient for the couple who's
Speaker 1: getting married because now they've got they've got more options
Speaker 1: as opposed to having to return and sort through a
Speaker 1: bunch of physical items. I think that the thing is
Speaker 1: having options, and I think that's why maybe another country,
Speaker 1: like if you are of foreign descent and you go
Speaker 1: to like a foreign wedding, it's pretty typical to receive
Speaker 1: cash like Asian weddings, uh, Nigerian weddings, money, cash checks,
Speaker 1: red envelopes that are given to couples. It's a huge
Speaker 1: part of the culture there. Um. But I think there's
Speaker 1: something about Americans and wanting to have say over what
Speaker 1: it is that you're giving them. And as Americans, when
Speaker 1: we just give cash, it feels like we're being limited
Speaker 1: as the gift giver. But like you said, if it
Speaker 1: feels like there's some sort of autonomy, some sort of liberty,
Speaker 1: which is a very American word, Um, it changes the game.
Speaker 1: And I think that that can allow folks to give
Speaker 1: a little more freely interesting as would be more accepted.
Speaker 1: As the gift giver. I would be thrilled because I
Speaker 1: have to do far less due diligence. I'm just like cool, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll travel hunter bucks here, or whatever it is for
Speaker 1: the experience that you're interested in creating. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be like these big things where
Speaker 1: like a down payment. Uh. In the article that there's
Speaker 1: some folks that they were talking about they created buckets
Speaker 1: for like date something as small as date nights or
Speaker 1: even just traveling abroad, which I'm like, man, that's awesome,
Speaker 1: Like those are the kind of things that I would
Speaker 1: love to see prioritize more. Those experiences, those memories that
Speaker 1: you're you're building together as opposed to you know, bone China,
Speaker 1: like like some really nice stuff that you can buy
Speaker 1: at bed, Bath and Beyond. But let's keep on working
Speaker 1: through our Friday flight, Jil. Let's get to that moving
Speaker 1: for money headline that we mentioned at the top of
Speaker 1: the episode. More folks are considering moving because they are
Speaker 1: getting paid to do it. We've actually talked about some
Speaker 1: US towns who are paying millennials to move there. This
Speaker 1: is maybe it was this sort of like back in
Speaker 1: the middle of the pandemic. I think you might remember
Speaker 1: when we talked about how Northwest Arkansas, how they were
Speaker 1: offering folks ten thousand dollars as well as a free
Speaker 1: bike back in I got my attention, well, anytime there's
Speaker 1: a free bike, and vall like, wait a second, should
Speaker 1: I be doing this? Um? Apparently the Italian island of
Speaker 1: Sardinia they're now prepared to pay folks fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to move there. Up in the Anti Plus, you can
Speaker 1: say that, yeah, I live in Italy, but I think
Speaker 1: said it's always important to read the fine print because
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to become a full time resident. This
Speaker 1: isn't just like where your summer. Uh, you gotta live
Speaker 1: there full time and it's got to be in the
Speaker 1: super small town that has like less uh less than
Speaker 1: three thousand residents and then also you have to use
Speaker 1: that money to renovate a home there. And so we
Speaker 1: thought this was pretty cool because if you're looking for
Speaker 1: a big change of scenery, this could be you know,
Speaker 1: a fun maybe a lucrative way to to make it happen.
Speaker 1: I would like to think that if I was in
Speaker 1: a different stage of life, that I would be willing
Speaker 1: to take on an adventure like this, but also annoying myself,
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't have. I like the idea of it
Speaker 1: more than the reality of actually doing something that yes,
Speaker 1: same here, but I'm also setting my ways at this
Speaker 1: point in time, and so I'm not gonna go on
Speaker 1: this Italian adventure. But I think there are a lot
Speaker 1: of other people who might say, you know what a
Speaker 1: super flexible I am up for anadventure. I'm I'm willing
Speaker 1: to go do something like this. I bet some of
Speaker 1: those Italian villas in Sardinia are pretty cheap. It's got
Speaker 1: to get to put towards some rerhno's. You get this
Speaker 1: cool sweet spot that doesn't cost you very much, and
Speaker 1: you're in this. Yeah, I don't think I could live
Speaker 1: in a tiny town like that. That would be the
Speaker 1: hardest part for me. But it's interesting to see some
Speaker 1: of these things pop up. I saw something else pop up,
Speaker 1: and uh, this yogurt company is paying someone fifty dollars
Speaker 1: to move to Iceland. Although it's kind of like for
Speaker 1: a job as well, like you gotta be like their
Speaker 1: social media manager and take photos and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But these are the kind of fun things that I
Speaker 1: don't know, I could see myself being excited about, being
Speaker 1: interested in, at least in my early or mid twenties.
Speaker 1: Fulfill your cheap Nordic houses fantasy exactly exactly. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about the taxes though. That's that's the catch there. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you could buy this villain. Oh you can buy this
Speaker 1: house on this fiord for eighties seven thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: it's got this incredible view. But it's not the heat,
Speaker 1: it's the humidity. That's not the price of the house.
Speaker 1: It's the taxes associated living in Norway, Sweden, Iceland. Getting
Speaker 1: to that remote area I'm or is not cheap. Every
Speaker 1: time you want a summer there or whatever. Well, and Matt,
Speaker 1: let's just say you don't want to move to one
Speaker 1: of these places which you'd like to visit them. What
Speaker 1: do you need anytime you want to travel somewhere, You
Speaker 1: gotta have a passport, right And what is one of
Speaker 1: the biggest pain in the butts in the world getting
Speaker 1: your passport renewed. I've never talked to anybody who's in
Speaker 1: the middle of that process who's like, it was a
Speaker 1: breeze and it was so simple and it only took
Speaker 1: like a few days or a week or so to
Speaker 1: get my passport back. No, typically it's weeks and weeks
Speaker 1: and weeks. It's a lot of paperwork and it's a
Speaker 1: huge hassle. But online passport renewal, Fortunately, it seems like
Speaker 1: it's going to become a thing at the beginning of
Speaker 1: according to the U. S. State Department. We'll let you
Speaker 1: guys know when it officially launches. But this is great
Speaker 1: news for travelers because it's gonna cut down on paperwork
Speaker 1: and frustration which typically a company getting that passport renewed.
Speaker 1: You do basically anything online now. Man, I even got
Speaker 1: my driver's license updated online. It was free, it was easy.
Speaker 1: But this needs to happen. I'm so glad that it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen soon, alright. We we recently does guess how
Speaker 1: expensive electric vehicles are getting. We love the idea of them,
Speaker 1: but fact is, more and more, it's looking like it's
Speaker 1: only the privilege that those who are in the most
Speaker 1: I don't know. It feels like the upper echelons who
Speaker 1: can actually afford electric vehicles expensive. It is. Prices are
Speaker 1: rising quickly, in particular as battery costs are are rising
Speaker 1: super fast. The average price of an electric vehicle is
Speaker 1: going up five times faster than it's gas powered counterpart.
Speaker 1: But there's always an exception to the rule, and that
Speaker 1: exclusion is now the brand new electric Chevy Equinox and
Speaker 1: the base model. When this puppy is released next year,
Speaker 1: it could cost as little as twenty two thousand five
Speaker 1: after tax credits. That's super awesome, I think. So we
Speaker 1: shared this. We wanted to share this because if you're
Speaker 1: in the market for an e V but you found
Speaker 1: that it's just too freaking expensive to make the jump,
Speaker 1: the equinoxes is likely gonna be just a frugal car
Speaker 1: buying win for a lot of folks once it launches.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye out for that one. Yeah, we need
Speaker 1: more inex insitive electric vehicles because so many, so many
Speaker 1: the vehicles being produced in that space are high end,
Speaker 1: their luxury cars, and they're really expensive. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: to see somebody prioritizing. And it seems like Chevrolet is
Speaker 1: the only car manufacturer right now really prioritizing cheaper electric vehicles,
Speaker 1: and that's the only way we're gonna get the mass adoption.
Speaker 1: But I think it's it's just difficult for them to justify, well,
Speaker 1: how are we going to make an electric vehicle that
Speaker 1: also doesn't have electric windows. You know, everything's gonna run
Speaker 1: off of electricity. It's gonna be fully digital, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be it's virtually the most powerful computer that you're gonna
Speaker 1: own once and if you buy a new electric vehicle, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. Let's talk about car insurance costs, Matt while
Speaker 1: we're talking about cars, because that's that's something else has
Speaker 1: been going up in cost, And the average car insurance
Speaker 1: policy went up something like eight point three percent over
Speaker 1: the past year, and predictions are showing the costs are
Speaker 1: likely to rise another ten percent next year. And we
Speaker 1: figured it would make sense to deliver I don't know
Speaker 1: our semi annual reminder that folks can potentially save a
Speaker 1: ton of money by shopping insurance rates with a variety
Speaker 1: different providers. This is a case where being a loyal
Speaker 1: customer actually works against you. So, I don't know, let's
Speaker 1: talk about a couple of ways that people can save.
Speaker 1: If you're one of those folks out there listening, you're
Speaker 1: you're living the ht M life to the fullest. Driving
Speaker 1: you know you're driving an older car, you might actually
Speaker 1: be overinsured. We would say that opting for liability coverage
Speaker 1: only it could save you hundreds of dollars a year,
Speaker 1: So that's one thing worth considering. Also, raising your deductible
Speaker 1: is another great way to lower your premiums. You can
Speaker 1: do that for your homeowners insurance too, which can be
Speaker 1: a double way me saving you big bucks. Also get
Speaker 1: pesky when you're asking about additional discounts with your agent.
Speaker 1: You know, I took a safe driving test online Matt
Speaker 1: at a a r p S website. Even though I'm
Speaker 1: still a young pup. Uh. Anybody can take this this
Speaker 1: test and a lot of insurance companies will count it.
Speaker 1: It took a couple hours of my time, cost me
Speaker 1: twenty five bucks, and it has saved me hundreds and
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the years. Basically, what
Speaker 1: we're saying too is just a self insure more. The
Speaker 1: more you can have in savings, the higher you can
Speaker 1: raise those deductables, like, the more opportunity you have to
Speaker 1: save on your insurance costs. It's right, and with savings
Speaker 1: rates that banks are paying now better than they've ever been, uh,
Speaker 1: it does, it's not quite as painful to leave some
Speaker 1: of that extra money sitting there within your savings account. Actually,
Speaker 1: when you're saving hundreds of dollars a year on those
Speaker 1: insurance costs, man, it's a win win. Yeah. And by
Speaker 1: the way, actually, you know, seeing what just happened down
Speaker 1: in Florida, our our hearts go out to all the
Speaker 1: folks down there with all the all the flooding, all
Speaker 1: the damage that Hurricane Ian has caused. But that being said,
Speaker 1: this should be a great reminder for all of us
Speaker 1: to actually check out our insurance coverage. It turns out
Speaker 1: only like eighteen and a half percent of folks who
Speaker 1: were in the evacuated counties down there in Florida had
Speaker 1: flood insurance. Man, which is it's going to add financial
Speaker 1: hurt to the hurricane aftermath. For many folks, um, this
Speaker 1: is this is a difficult note to strike right because
Speaker 1: on one hand, we want you to save as much
Speaker 1: money as possible in particularly like Joel said, if you
Speaker 1: have an older car, if you are self insured. But
Speaker 1: on the other hand, if there is a type of
Speaker 1: insurance that you should have and you're skipping out, well
Speaker 1: that's an example of not being frugal. But we think
Speaker 1: of being cheap, and so you kind of have to
Speaker 1: find a way to ride that line to balance the
Speaker 1: risk that we all face in our lives. It kind
Speaker 1: of takes me back to like the subscriptions. We we
Speaker 1: need to be aware of the money that we're spending
Speaker 1: because if there is value that we're receiving from it,
Speaker 1: then that's great. If there is some risk that is
Speaker 1: being taken off of your plate by a certain insurance product, fantastic.
Speaker 1: But we don't want you to to stay subscribed to
Speaker 1: something with where there's this recurring charge for an insurance
Speaker 1: product where you're not getting any value from we We
Speaker 1: want you to We want everyone out there to be
Speaker 1: conscious consumers of the different things within their life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: insurance is just kind of a necessary thing to have
Speaker 1: in a lot of instances in modern life. And and
Speaker 1: it can be something like, as you've become more financially successful,
Speaker 1: it's something you might have to allocate more dollars to
Speaker 1: for instance, uh, you know, you might have to buy
Speaker 1: more term life insurance. Let's say, as your income rises
Speaker 1: and you have more more assets that now require a
Speaker 1: more robust insurance policy. And so these are the kind
Speaker 1: of things that we have to think about senior stat
Speaker 1: like that match just maybe maybe really sad because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are going to have lost
Speaker 1: a lot and now they don't have any insurance to
Speaker 1: back them up. And flood insurance is one of those
Speaker 1: particular things that you have to get through FEMA, through
Speaker 1: the federal government, and it's you're a lot of people
Speaker 1: think they're covered by their homeowners insurance, but they're not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that flood insurance through FEMA's note as affordable as
Speaker 1: it used to be either. So it's it's, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: in a tough spot because would you actually be able
Speaker 1: to cover the cost of completely rebuilding your house where
Speaker 1: it to you know, where it to flood out and
Speaker 1: in most cases no photo folks don't. But then they're
Speaker 1: also looking at that price tag, that thousand dollars annual
Speaker 1: annual premium that they're having to pay, and they're they're
Speaker 1: really feeling hard pressed to actually find the money to
Speaker 1: make that happen. Sure, yeah, it's a tough spot, but
Speaker 1: you know, if we're gonna make big purchases like a home,
Speaker 1: we have to include all those costs we talk about
Speaker 1: on the show too, And if you are in a
Speaker 1: area that's flood prone, flood insurance is one of those
Speaker 1: things that's that's a must have, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: it's it's not as cheap as it used to be.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we actually have a couple of hurricane refugees,
Speaker 1: Emily's mom and stepdad staying with us right now, and
Speaker 1: we just wish the best everybody down in Florida and
Speaker 1: and on the what on the coast to of what
Speaker 1: South Carolina and Georgia, So hopefully everybody stays safe out there.
Speaker 1: We hope you guys have a great weekend. And Matt,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode. Until next time.
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out and Best Friends Out