Speaker 1: Welcome to Had of Money.
Speaker 2: I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today we're talking about social security, fears,
Speaker 2: increasing anxiety, so lots of bad stuff, and then bundling
Speaker 2: is back. That's nice that you ended on behind o
Speaker 2: Joel talking about bundling as opposed to all the things
Speaker 2: that make us sad, that make us depressed, fear, anxiety, worry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tune into this episode. Are I feel like we
Speaker 1: do our best.
Speaker 2: To try to avoid some of the fear mongering here
Speaker 2: on the show, but it is important to kind of
Speaker 2: talk about what it is that folks are facing. We're
Speaker 2: not trying to ignore the realities of you know, the
Speaker 2: average American. And this is going to be like a
Speaker 2: Zolaf for your ears, is what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: Also, so speaking of the average American, I bet there's
Speaker 2: a lot of folks watching the Olympics. Have you been
Speaker 2: watching the Olympics at all?
Speaker 1: Join, We have been watching some. Yeah, I'm sure if
Speaker 1: you you if you were going to uh plunk down
Speaker 1: the change and uh We're gonna talk more about streaming
Speaker 1: later on the show. But I'll tell you this, the
Speaker 1: only reason we have Peacock is because Emily accidentally signed
Speaker 1: up for Instacart. I can, and so, but that comes
Speaker 1: with the free peacock, so we have Yeah, so we
Speaker 1: have peacock because of that.
Speaker 2: So I thought you didn't have to be signed up.
Speaker 1: We're auto unrenewed. But we unrenewed the auto renew so
Speaker 1: that it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2: I thought you could use Instacart without signing up for it.
Speaker 1: Do you can? Yes, you can.
Speaker 2: That's which is why I was so frustrated by it,
Speaker 2: as opposed to having the members. Not blaming my lovely wife,
Speaker 2: but just saying it happened completely again, so it's been
Speaker 2: included with your with your Instacart. Well, he said, do
Speaker 2: you pay for that a year in advance? Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it's I forget, I think it's like one
Speaker 2: hundred bucks for a seer. But like, then again we
Speaker 2: got the peacock. At least we're not paying extra. Watch
Speaker 2: the Olympics, all right, frustrating, but there's a there's a
Speaker 2: slight silver lending. Don't bring it back up, Matt. For
Speaker 2: a second, I was waffling as to whether or not
Speaker 2: we're gonna splurge and and you know, pay for peacock.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, you know what, for like, we're not
Speaker 2: like a sports heavy family, like the kids, we aren't
Speaker 2: really doing a.
Speaker 1: Star wrestling, Yeah, just a thumb wrestling specifically, But I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what.
Speaker 2: Like that's something we're looking to change, and just the
Speaker 2: ability to be inspired by athletes that are at the
Speaker 2: top of their game. Like I think back to when
Speaker 2: I was a kid watching the ninety six Olympics in
Speaker 2: Atlanta Michael Johnson, Michael Johnson baby like watching him sprint
Speaker 2: in sprint towards gold and I'm like, come on, like
Speaker 2: that just made me want to get out there. Honestly,
Speaker 2: I wonder if that's the part of why I started
Speaker 2: running with my dad. Yeah, like around that point in time.
Speaker 2: Could are the ability to inspire especially younger generations like
Speaker 2: your kids?
Speaker 1: For sure? I think that's Olympics does that more than
Speaker 1: professional sports? Uh? Do you have a favorite moment so far? Ooh?
Speaker 2: So we Okay, I haven't personally watched a ton. The
Speaker 2: kids they've certainly watched more Olympics than I have. The
Speaker 2: so gymnastic Okay, no, swimming, I'll say swimming because you know,
Speaker 2: early on in the Olympics there's a lot of gymnastics,
Speaker 2: a lot of swimming.
Speaker 1: And specifically Katie Ladecki. Dude, what a beast. He's amazing
Speaker 1: her is what was.
Speaker 2: The fifteen hundred freestyle? Her ability to just destroy everybody else, Like,
Speaker 2: to me, that is incredibly inspiring, Like it's not that
Speaker 2: long of her race for a second place to be
Speaker 2: ten seconds behind you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, man, that's just I love that.
Speaker 1: It's impressive.
Speaker 2: And swimming is really impressive too, because I'm not a
Speaker 2: great swimmer. I never I've never like swimm competitively. I've
Speaker 2: never done a triathlon. And to see them just like
Speaker 2: cutting through the water like just glass.
Speaker 1: It's just so bad for those trithletes swimming in that river,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. Oh yeah, they're like it does not
Speaker 1: taste good. All right, And we'll get to the money
Speaker 1: saving stuff here in a second. But what about you though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that my highlights so far was and I
Speaker 1: didn't watch it live, but just seeing it after the fact,
Speaker 1: was the US women's rugby team. The way they picked
Speaker 1: up that ball, they ran it in and they beat Australia.
Speaker 1: They beat like Australia, that's their game, man, is rugby, right,
Speaker 1: So Australians are saying, like, come on, this is all
Speaker 1: we have. Don't take that away from us. From us, well,
Speaker 1: it ended like one hundred year metal drought, so I
Speaker 1: think that's really cool. I don't think I realized it was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think we'd ever want to medal. I guess
Speaker 1: the men's maybe had like a century ago. But uh,
Speaker 1: but what we're really looking forward to, what we're waiting
Speaker 1: on is the break dancing competition. That's what my son's
Speaker 1: is really interested.
Speaker 2: On because he took a specific breakdancing class that he took.
Speaker 1: What is that slated? I think that's like coming up
Speaker 1: in the week or so. So yeah, well literally you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna that. We're gonna watch that for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean there's all these really interesting random sports that
Speaker 1: the Olympics hasn't I like getting into the kind of
Speaker 1: the nuanced ones too, because yeah, it is gymnastics, swimming
Speaker 1: and then track and field coming up. But then some
Speaker 1: of those weird ones are that those fun to.
Speaker 2: Tune getten in for like archery, where they're like that's
Speaker 2: kind of impressive, yeah, but I precision that comes with
Speaker 2: like a beat.
Speaker 1: Did you see there was a video there a bee
Speaker 1: landed on as they were shooting. It the craziest thing,
Speaker 1: and it messed up their shot. And you're like, you
Speaker 1: trained all these years and then that happen. It's it's unreal.
Speaker 1: All right, Enough about the Olympics. I hope you're enjoying
Speaker 1: watching it. But let's get to the Friday flight and
Speaker 1: the quick sampling of stories we found interesting this week.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about how they pertain to your personal finances.
Speaker 1: Ma let's start off by talking about insurance for just
Speaker 1: a second. It is amazing. It's amazing how just a
Speaker 1: few percentage points can have an impact. Talking about sports,
Speaker 1: it's like these like small margins of error, right. That's
Speaker 1: true when it comes to how much we're investing for
Speaker 1: the future, too. An extra percentage point invested or an
Speaker 1: extra percentage point of return adds up over time. The
Speaker 1: mortgage rate that we have is going to impact your
Speaker 1: what you pay on a monthly basis significantly. And then
Speaker 1: the percentage of uninsured drivers, right, that is something else
Speaker 1: that's impacting us all right now. Because there's been an
Speaker 1: uptick in folks ditching car insurance. It's costing all of
Speaker 1: us more money. Every single one of us who's listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast. Sorry, we're paying more because of those
Speaker 1: negligent folks. Right.
Speaker 2: The number is apparently ticked up from the eleven percent
Speaker 2: range to fourteen percent over the past couple of years,
Speaker 2: And Matt, I could see that number increasing as auto
Speaker 2: insurance rates continue to climb. Yeah, it's like this self
Speaker 2: fulfilling prophecy. Right, it continues to get worse because rates
Speaker 2: go up, people drop their car insurance. That reduces the
Speaker 2: number of custom that the insurance companies have, which only
Speaker 2: compounds the pricing problems. Sure, So, yeah, this isn't the
Speaker 2: only factor impacting the rapid rise in insurance cost, but
Speaker 2: it is one of them. And I guess our suggestion
Speaker 2: here to folks would be double check your uninsured motorist protection.
Speaker 2: Make sure you've got solid coverage amounts. Our advice is
Speaker 2: not to.
Speaker 1: Do more of those folks on the road. Yeah, our
Speaker 1: advice is not to become one of those uninsured motors. Sure.
Speaker 2: And so this isn't backed in any research or anything
Speaker 2: like that, but I would be willing to guess that
Speaker 2: the same folks who have made the decision to not
Speaker 2: have insurance on their vehicle, which it's illegal in all
Speaker 2: but like a couple of states that those folks also
Speaker 2: probably don't make the best decisions in other areas of life,
Speaker 2: including whether or not they should should I sneak out
Speaker 2: there and try to make this turn.
Speaker 1: When there's a car company. Yeah, you know, one thing
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer to is what percentage of
Speaker 1: accidents have an uninsured driver in that accident. I guess
Speaker 1: it's more than just a percentage of on insured drivers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't know. I don't know is that
Speaker 2: fair seeing that? Is that judging a book.
Speaker 1: By its cover? But I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I've got to think that there is some positive correlation
Speaker 2: there between those two.
Speaker 1: And I also, Matt judge books by their cover.
Speaker 2: So sometimes you do. But yeah, increasing the coverage, certainly
Speaker 2: it might cost you more, but not having enough that
Speaker 2: could come back to bite you at the end of
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 1: That's an example of being cheap not frugal.
Speaker 2: And one thing that some folks are doing to save
Speaker 2: on car insurance without jeeping out is opting for pay
Speaker 2: by the mile insurance. So companies out there like Metro
Speaker 2: Mile they sprung up for this very reason, but many
Speaker 2: of the major issuers out there, they've sort of jumped
Speaker 2: on the spandwagon as well. But the fact is this
Speaker 2: only really makes sense for folks who don't drive much,
Speaker 2: like fewer than four thousand miles a year. That's typically
Speaker 2: the line of demarcation. If you're below that, you could
Speaker 2: typically save a ton. If you're above that, though, it
Speaker 2: probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense for you.
Speaker 2: And so for instance, if you're like a byke commuter,
Speaker 2: or maybe you work from home most of the time,
Speaker 2: well it might be worth looking into. But for the
Speaker 2: average American, I don't think it makes much sense. But
Speaker 2: one thing worth mentioning. You might save money, but simultaneously
Speaker 2: you might be losing some privacy because the insurance company
Speaker 2: they've got a track how many miles that you're driving somehow,
Speaker 2: whether that's through an app on your phone or whether
Speaker 2: that's through a device that's plugged into the vehicle. And
Speaker 2: so just keep that in mind that for the folks
Speaker 2: out there who aren't into having their privacy invaded, that's
Speaker 2: one of the concessions you're going to have to make
Speaker 2: in order to save And what just.
Speaker 1: One other thing on that on this front, mat is
Speaker 1: you a lot of insurance companies will offer you a
Speaker 1: discount if you drive fewer miles, so they're not monitoring,
Speaker 1: but if you can prove to them, essentially that you
Speaker 1: drive fewer than seventy five hundred miles a year, and
Speaker 1: typically you're just auto, you're reporting your O doometer reading
Speaker 1: or whatever, and they'll send you something in the mail
Speaker 1: to just recertify, Hey, this is how many miles I
Speaker 1: drove in the past year. They'll offer you a discount
Speaker 1: on insurance too. So it might just maybe that's the
Speaker 1: happy medium for a lot of folks, because four thousand
Speaker 1: miles that's not many and not there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly, like it would take somebody who's like
Speaker 2: living in a city center, who works like three blocks away,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. That's right, like your sister, perhaps
Speaker 2: they really might qualify. Yeah, I bet they would.
Speaker 1: Yeah. All right, let's talk about Social Security for a second.
Speaker 1: The younger generation, they seem to overwhelmingly believe that Social
Speaker 1: Security has scam like elements, that they're paying into this
Speaker 1: system with every paycheck, but that they're never going to
Speaker 1: get to experience any future benefit, or at least not meaningfully.
Speaker 1: So confidence is lowest of course among the twenty and
Speaker 1: thirty somethings. Matt. You can call it paranoid, you can
Speaker 1: call it being cautious. But these worries obviously don't come
Speaker 1: from nowhere. We've talked about this on the show before too,
Speaker 1: what's going on with social security? Our politicians have continued
Speaker 1: to kick the can down the road. I mean, Matt,
Speaker 1: is any president presidential candidate meaningfully addressing the shortfall of
Speaker 1: Social Security? Not right now? No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: At some point, I think we're going to have to
Speaker 1: maybe the libertarian candidate. I don't know. I don't even
Speaker 1: know their name. I don't even know if they know
Speaker 1: their own name. But yeah, this means that every year
Speaker 1: we wait to fix a broken system, and that means
Speaker 1: it's a harder We're going to be up for a
Speaker 1: harder pivot in the future. But these people, they're not
Speaker 1: just waiting on Poul peticians to do something. They're taking
Speaker 1: matters into their own hands. These these youngsters who don't
Speaker 1: believe that the future of social Security looks right for them,
Speaker 1: and what they're opting to do, Matt is increase their
Speaker 1: own personal savings. Right, Yeah, we're all about that. This
Speaker 1: was documented a story well documented in the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 1: A lot of these folks are leaving that potential Social
Speaker 1: Security payment out of their retirement calculations altogether. And so
Speaker 1: I will say this to Matt, I get the wuo
Speaker 1: who I get where they're coming from. We're all for.
Speaker 2: Personal responsibility, yeah, and you taking more action to impact
Speaker 2: your taking matters into your hands personal future. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: this also might be taking things too far because I
Speaker 2: don't believe that these people are also going to get
Speaker 2: not a nothing from Social Security true when they hit
Speaker 2: their retirement age.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we actually didn't in depth dive back in episode
Speaker 2: four thirteen on Social Security, and a lot of what
Speaker 2: we said back then remains true about social Security today
Speaker 2: because demographics they are not on our side. In fact,
Speaker 2: they've probably actually even gotten.
Speaker 1: Worse since that episode. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So like it's going to be strained in.
Speaker 1: Most of their developed countries, but ours certainly in hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we're going to continue to see straining like
Speaker 2: on the system in the coming years with fewer folks
Speaker 2: paying into it, which means younger folks might see a
Speaker 2: reduction in benefits, which also means that you are likely
Speaker 2: going to need to bear more of the burden to
Speaker 2: fund your own retirement, which is why we can get
Speaker 2: excited about folks starting to take steps in that direction.
Speaker 2: And our thrust on the show is just to talk
Speaker 2: regularly about securing your own retirement via the available avenues
Speaker 2: to us, and just to boil it down to the basics,
Speaker 2: dollar cost average and too index funds in a tax
Speaker 2: advantaged account. Do that for decades. But it's not rocket science,
Speaker 2: no exactly, it's not all that difficult. But I also
Speaker 2: think though, that it could be a good idea to
Speaker 2: create a my Social Security account over at SSA dot gov,
Speaker 2: where you can log in you can see an estimate
Speaker 2: of your likely social Security amount. I actually think it
Speaker 2: might be helpful for you to see what your likely
Speaker 2: payolt might be and honestly to get your hopes up
Speaker 2: a little bit, because I think what that does is
Speaker 2: it might allow a lot of folks to think, oh,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, when the time does come for there
Speaker 2: to either be higher taxes which are very likely in
Speaker 2: the future, or a reduction and benefits free just to
Speaker 2: understand why that's the case. The reality of the future
Speaker 2: of social security needs to be grounded in actual reality,
Speaker 2: as opposed to this sort of pipe dream, which is
Speaker 2: what we've seen politicians continue to do by ignoring the
Speaker 2: situation that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1: And I think it's also important to note. You might
Speaker 1: see you're going to see a projected amount based on
Speaker 1: your current income and the number of years that you've worked,
Speaker 1: assuming that you're going to continue to work the full
Speaker 1: amount of years in order to get to your maximum payout.
Speaker 1: And what I would do when I log in there
Speaker 1: and I saw that number, Matt, I would cut it
Speaker 1: by twenty five percent, because I think it's highly unlikely
Speaker 1: that even if you're a gen zer, you're going to
Speaker 1: get the rug pulled out from under you completely.
Speaker 2: It's not going to be completely gone, but.
Speaker 1: From all the projections, it seems like payouts will go
Speaker 1: down what in the in twenty thirty three, early twenty
Speaker 1: thirties for retirees if something's not done to fix this problem.
Speaker 1: So just note, yeah, look at the number, be encouraged,
Speaker 1: but also be a realist and realize that number probably
Speaker 1: isn't going to be exactly what you're gonna receive in retirement.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to change the system in order to
Speaker 1: keep it solvent for future generations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just it's helpful to think about it.
Speaker 2: And I think we said this on that Deep Dive
Speaker 2: episode too that we did on Social Security. But almost
Speaker 2: see it as like like the cherry on top, right, Like,
Speaker 2: it's not like it's I don't know, do you think
Speaker 2: it needs to be more than that? Actually, well it's
Speaker 2: the three leg's still right, as we talked about it
Speaker 2: being like the nuts, because there's actual substance. Is that unfamiliar?
Speaker 2: It's like we're talking about like an ice cream Sunday
Speaker 2: and it's like, well, a cherry on top or whip cream,
Speaker 2: there's not much substance there.
Speaker 1: But it's actually you should int haal the whip cream
Speaker 1: bay exactly, and it can just get evaporate or something
Speaker 1: like that, it just melts.
Speaker 2: But it's like there is some true substance to what
Speaker 2: it is that you're likely going to receive, but you
Speaker 2: just don't necessarily want to fully bank on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I agreed, And so maybe don't go down the
Speaker 1: super dismal, pessimistic rabbit hole that some of the people
Speaker 1: profiled in this article. We're going down saying like I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm gonna get any money from that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's a popular program, it's not going away completely.
Speaker 1: But also realize that Social Security ain't going to cover
Speaker 1: the majority of your retirement needs. And yeah, most of
Speaker 1: it really does come down to you and your ability
Speaker 1: to increase your savings rate to prepare for your own
Speaker 1: financial future. And Matt, that brings me to another interesting
Speaker 1: product that I was kind of baffled by this article
Speaker 1: in Yahoo Finance about a CD that lasts for one
Speaker 1: hundred years. Did you see that? No?
Speaker 2: Okay, so this was super weird that you would potentially
Speaker 2: lock up your money. You get paid a rate of
Speaker 2: four point seventy five percent, which is pretty good these
Speaker 2: days we're talking about a CD.
Speaker 1: Does't makes any sense. But you lock up your money for.
Speaker 2: A century, how would you do that? You'd have to
Speaker 2: be it's like a time capsule.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be fresh born hoping. So apparently this is
Speaker 1: like partly to be able to leave money to your
Speaker 1: heirs and.
Speaker 2: So that's opens time capsules. Not you, but like the
Speaker 2: future generation exactly do that. And then but if you
Speaker 2: tap this this CD early, you pay ten years worth
Speaker 2: of interest, which it's incredible. And if you've got that
Speaker 2: long to wait, I would say, there are so few
Speaker 2: reasons not to be investing that money and said, so, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think the bank was called the Walden Mutual Bank.
Speaker 1: Sorry, but I'm out. I'm not into that product.
Speaker 2: Okay, while we're talking about planning ahead, oftentimes you do
Speaker 2: that when you are raising your kids. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: giving your kid a financial head start. There are certainly
Speaker 2: a lot of ways to do that. You could open
Speaker 2: one of these one hundred year CDs.
Speaker 1: But at least once when they're eighty five.
Speaker 2: One realistic way is to help them get a great
Speaker 2: credit score. There's new data from trains Union. They find
Speaker 2: that young people who are being granted authorized user access
Speaker 2: is more than.
Speaker 1: Doubled over the past decade.
Speaker 2: And so if you're a parent adding your child to
Speaker 2: your credit card accounts, that's going to allow them to
Speaker 2: launch into life with a great credit score. Of course,
Speaker 2: that assumes that you are making your payments on time,
Speaker 2: that you're paying off your balance on time and in
Speaker 2: full every single month. Otherwise you're gonna do the exact
Speaker 2: opposite answering your kids right. Capital one in particular, that
Speaker 2: they've got no minimum age for authorized users, so Basically,
Speaker 2: I think as long as you've your kid's got a
Speaker 2: social Security number, you can add them to your account.
Speaker 1: I think every credit card issuer takes a different tact.
Speaker 1: I want to say, American Express, they have to be
Speaker 1: at least thirteen. So, yeah, look at the fine print
Speaker 1: and see, well how old does my kid have to
Speaker 1: be to become an authorized user? But you can start
Speaker 1: them on. You can start them as newborns. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's totally impressive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's going to give them a nice little head start.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking about it and it made me
Speaker 2: realize too that I think because of how easy it is,
Speaker 2: I think for those parents out there who aren't doing this,
Speaker 2: I almost feel like that like there's collective action that
Speaker 2: is taking place, and because it's so easy, because more
Speaker 2: folks are doing it, that essentially your kids almost like
Speaker 2: at a disadvantage because you're not taking advantage of this,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Like it makes me think.
Speaker 2: Of college, which there is a very high bar to entry, right,
Speaker 2: Like it costs a lot of money. You're looking at
Speaker 2: like a four year degree. But how like over the
Speaker 2: past number of decades, how many jobs and industries do
Speaker 2: we see where like the minimum threshold, like what you
Speaker 2: needed to have was at least a four your degree. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so it's like, what is it like? Credit score
Speaker 2: inflation essentially seems like it might be happening, and because
Speaker 2: of that, that could potentially put your kid at a
Speaker 2: disadvantage once they're launching out into life.
Speaker 1: And we know, of course, the credit score is only
Speaker 1: one piece of a healthy financial life, and don't obsess
Speaker 1: over and what you teach your kids matters more than
Speaker 1: making sure that they have a seven hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: credit score, seven hundred and fifty credit score when they
Speaker 1: turn eighteen. But this is just one thing you can
Speaker 1: do for them that takes a few minutes and you
Speaker 1: can kind of get them started off on the right foot,
Speaker 1: at least from a credit perspective. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the bigger thing is talking to them about, oh ya,
Speaker 1: what it looks like to handle their credit responsible is
Speaker 1: much more important. That's much more important. All Right, We've
Speaker 1: got more to get to on this episode, and including
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about a new study about money
Speaker 1: and happiness. How are they related to one another? It
Speaker 1: kind of contradicts previous studies. We'll get to that and
Speaker 1: more right after this.
Speaker 2: Right, we are back for the break and Joel, we'll
Speaker 2: get to talking about your feelings here in a minute.
Speaker 2: We've got actually multiple stories about how does you feel?
Speaker 2: Did you see Inside Out? How I specifically feel about
Speaker 2: how you Yeah, okay, you're looking quite chipper this morning.
Speaker 1: Did you did you see did y'all see Inside Out? Too? Oh?
Speaker 1: We did have. We already talked about that on the show. Oh,
Speaker 1: we might have. Okay, let's just stop solid. Okay, is
Speaker 1: that how we do things here? Yeah, this is a
Speaker 1: live edit. Now let's talk about anxiety, which is that
Speaker 1: was one of the characters the added to the movie,
Speaker 1: the main character. Yeah.
Speaker 2: A new Discover survey finds that anxiety and avoidance that
Speaker 2: they are driving the financial lives of many Americans.
Speaker 1: That's the headline of their report.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is not terribly shocking, but it's it's not good.
Speaker 2: Eighty percent of folks admit to feeling some anxiety about money,
Speaker 2: but roughly a third say that it is moderate to severe,
Speaker 2: and dude, ossibly it's like debilitating levels of anxiety exactly.
Speaker 2: But what stood out to me is the opposite, like
Speaker 2: the negative of that eighty percent, which is the fact
Speaker 2: that there are twenty percent of folks that basically feel
Speaker 2: zero stress about money.
Speaker 1: Maybe, which who are these people?
Speaker 2: They're sitting on their pillow in low disposition, not worrying
Speaker 2: about their money at all, floading through life. But even because,
Speaker 2: like I don't know, if you are doing a great
Speaker 2: job with your finances, you're crushing it, that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that money isn't still a stressor at times. But of
Speaker 2: course I feel for the folks who just regularly feel
Speaker 2: anxious about money. For a decent chunk of folks, it's
Speaker 2: literally about not having enough money. But many others out there,
Speaker 2: they're worried about the far off future and just the
Speaker 2: different what ifs in life, like losing a job, maybe
Speaker 2: experiencing a recession, what that would do to their finances.
Speaker 2: And we talked about emergency funds last week and having
Speaker 2: more money on hand. It certainly is not a perfect solution,
Speaker 2: but adding to your liquidity, just little by little, I
Speaker 2: think is Honestly, it's one of the best solutions. And
Speaker 2: I would love to see some sort of study done
Speaker 2: where you have somebody who's living paycheck to paycheck and
Speaker 2: if they were able to have some sort of financial
Speaker 2: margin in their life, where they've got three to six
Speaker 2: months worth of living expenses set us, Like just think
Speaker 2: about what that would do to so many folks.
Speaker 1: Like we have some studies like that from like basic
Speaker 1: income studies that have been done, and is it interesting
Speaker 1: to see how families respond, How they end up working less,
Speaker 1: they end up feeling more financially secure, they end up
Speaker 1: seeming to have better relationships with the people they do
Speaker 1: life with. So I guess like that knowing that there's
Speaker 1: an increased paycheck coming in every single month, whether it's
Speaker 1: five hundred bucks or whatever, it does add to a
Speaker 1: lot of people's peace of mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, simultaneously that I think there's something disempowering about like
Speaker 2: some sort of UBI implementation. But so I guess as
Speaker 2: I'll think it through margin. Like what my mind went
Speaker 2: to was just like one of the other things that
Speaker 2: we have a finite amount of, which is time. Like
Speaker 2: just think about if you're trying to make an appointment
Speaker 2: or if you're trying to like if you're trying to
Speaker 2: catch a flight, you could leave at the very last minute.
Speaker 2: And what that means, though, is that every single stop
Speaker 2: along the way, every red light, every traffic slow down
Speaker 2: or congestion or accident that you come across has you
Speaker 2: just like completely stressed out because what I mean, like
Speaker 2: you on the first day of school this week, Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, dude. Yeah, circumstances out of your control.
Speaker 2: But yes, car didn't start. Might be time for a
Speaker 2: new battery. Imagine though, if you take that same situation
Speaker 2: and you just add thirty minutes to it, add an
Speaker 2: hour to like, oh, let's just make sure we've got
Speaker 2: plenty of time there at the airport, like a stoplight
Speaker 2: or a slowdown. It's just you're like, Okay, no problem,
Speaker 2: because I've got plenty of time.
Speaker 1: Same thing is true when it comes to your finances
Speaker 1: and when we talk about anxiety and avoidance, Matt, we're
Speaker 1: also talking about kind of things that are going on
Speaker 1: in your mind. And you and I were not mental
Speaker 1: health professionals, and honestly, for some people, the best course
Speaker 1: of action might be to see somebody like a financial therapist.
Speaker 1: We've had a few different financial therapists on this podcast
Speaker 1: over the years, because we do think that mental side
Speaker 1: of money is so important, and so it's not just
Speaker 1: about more money in the bank account. There are probably
Speaker 1: other things that you need to do as well. And
Speaker 1: I think it's just really important to put things in
Speaker 1: perspective as well. Remember that progress takes a long time,
Speaker 1: you know, whether we're talking about debt payoff, saving for retirement.
Speaker 1: I think for some reason, Matt, everybody feels like they're behind,
Speaker 1: but you're not racing anybody. And the more you let
Speaker 1: anxiety take the reins, the harder it can be to
Speaker 1: take action to drive progress. We feel powerless, we like
Speaker 1: let that anxiety suck us off the ability and the
Speaker 1: drive to get going on some of those money goals
Speaker 1: that we have. I think unchecked anxiety can often lead
Speaker 1: to unhelpful coping mechanisms, which like doom scrolling on your
Speaker 1: phone or something like that, right or yo yo method,
Speaker 1: attempts of fixing things, spending sprees that aren't terribly helpful,
Speaker 1: that are actually perpetuating the problem. So I would suggest
Speaker 1: checking out episode three seventy one where we talk about
Speaker 1: how to use anxiety and stress to your advantage jiu
Speaker 1: Jitsu style, because avoidance only makes the problem worse. We
Speaker 1: know this same thing. If you haven't a fight with
Speaker 1: your spouse, it's like, well, let's just not talk about
Speaker 1: it and just agree to silently hate each other in
Speaker 1: the process. Like, that's not a good way to move forward,
Speaker 1: I say, tackling one money problem at a time, tracking
Speaker 1: your progress, getting help if you need it. Those are
Speaker 1: going to be the way to benefit yourself when it
Speaker 1: comes to making progress with your money. Just don't let
Speaker 1: these two reactions of anxiety and avoidance become the norm
Speaker 1: in your financial life. Totally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's keep talking about feelings. Studies about money and
Speaker 2: happiness have found results all across the board. So there
Speaker 2: are some studies out there that suggest that there's a
Speaker 2: limit to the amount of happiness that money can buy,
Speaker 2: that basically, beyond a low six figure income, you're essentially
Speaker 2: going to see almost no increase to your levels of happiness.
Speaker 2: But there's a new study from the Wharton School that
Speaker 2: says that you can get even more happiness from money.
Speaker 1: So the reason why, though, this is what's so important.
Speaker 2: It's not because now all of a sudden you can
Speaker 2: afford a boat when that was something you only dreamed
Speaker 2: about before.
Speaker 1: A researcher, I haven't met many happy boat owners. No, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's always I'm sure.
Speaker 2: The curve of diminishing returns is like even steeper, looks
Speaker 2: like a boat than even like a new.
Speaker 1: Car, rent a boat for the weekend, guys, by way,
Speaker 1: try that out.
Speaker 2: But one of the researchers summed it up like this,
Speaker 2: and this is a quote, A greater feeling of control
Speaker 2: over life can explaining about seventy five percent of the
Speaker 2: association between money and happiness. So I think a big
Speaker 2: part of what's happening is that when people have more money,
Speaker 2: they have more control over their lives autonomy, like having
Speaker 2: more agency. This we love because we know that using
Speaker 2: money to increase your lifestyle, like certainly that's nice to
Speaker 2: a degree, but it's what you don't spend that offers
Speaker 2: you these greater levels of control. We're talking about that
Speaker 2: margin and having money in the bank to where you're
Speaker 2: not stressing over every little bump in the room.
Speaker 1: Well, we talked about that with our lives a little
Speaker 1: bit too recently at the beach matt and that was
Speaker 1: a super fun convo. Really enjoyed that one. Hope listeners
Speaker 1: enjoyed that one. But yeah, that that is what has
Speaker 1: over time, It's been that greater level of freedom, flexibility,
Speaker 1: and then that allows for optionality when it comes to
Speaker 1: how much we work, what sort of work we pursue
Speaker 1: and the ability to say no to things that we
Speaker 1: don't want to do. But that takes again, that takes time.
Speaker 1: But that is one of the biggest benefits that money
Speaker 1: can provide. So I love that that maybe earning two
Speaker 1: fifty k instead of one hundred k is going but
Speaker 1: can potentially bring greater levels of happiness. Just make sure
Speaker 1: you're spending quote unquote or saving that money in the
Speaker 1: right way to achieve that happiness. That's right.
Speaker 2: Spend it on your own freedom, right, not on stuff exactly.
Speaker 1: So GQ, of all places, Matt, I know one of
Speaker 1: your favorite magazines, you're so stylish.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, better than your favorite, which is maxim
Speaker 2: I remember that way?
Speaker 1: Is that what? It still exists? Kidding? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Does Yeah, we won't go there, Okay, so all places.
Speaker 1: GQ had an article recently discussing how human beings are
Speaker 1: wired and basically that we get used to things incredibly quickly.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this before, Matt. The science behind kind
Speaker 1: of are our brains and hacking happiness and what's known
Speaker 1: as the hedonic treadmill. That once we get on the
Speaker 1: hedonic treadmill, it's kind of hard to get off that
Speaker 1: even when something ridiculously cool happens to you, we tend
Speaker 1: to migrate back towards our baseline levels of happiness, and.
Speaker 2: Not just something really cool happens, but even when something
Speaker 2: really like terrible happens, right, like the worst thing that
Speaker 2: could potentially happen to you in life, Because.
Speaker 1: Like this, humans can overcome.
Speaker 2: It was a study on quadriplegics, which is for a
Speaker 2: lot of folks, probably one of the worst things they
Speaker 2: could imagine. But even still those folks were able to
Speaker 2: regain this sort of baseline of happiness, which is astounding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, winning the lottery or buying a
Speaker 1: new car feels amazing, but three months in, it's hard
Speaker 1: to remember how we used to live, and our appreciation
Speaker 1: for the new ride isn't the same. Fortunately, the same
Speaker 1: is true on the other side. Like you just mentioned, Matt,
Speaker 1: resilience is kind of built into our human DNA as well.
Speaker 1: And it just makes me think about our como with
Speaker 1: Darius Feru recently about stoicism. It's this powerful tool in
Speaker 1: our arsenal against the hedonic treadmill. So I would suggest
Speaker 1: going back and listen to that recent episode. If you
Speaker 1: haven't gratitude, I think is another approach math that we
Speaker 1: should all be taking here. Building wealth is awesome, but
Speaker 1: life is so much more than that. So put your
Speaker 1: wealth building efforts in their proper place. They're important. But
Speaker 1: I think the more we kind of put that money
Speaker 1: into action attempting to make ourselves happier by buying more stuff,
Speaker 1: actually it's gonna have the opposite impact. It's going to
Speaker 1: leave us without that optionality. It's going to leave us
Speaker 1: with more things that like just clog our mind, clog
Speaker 1: our brains. So I think GQ was spot on on
Speaker 1: this one.
Speaker 2: That's one that they got right, Joel as opposed to
Speaker 2: I don't know what colors you are and aren't allowed
Speaker 2: to wear at certain points right here. So it turns
Speaker 2: out bundling is back Disney Hulu as well as Max,
Speaker 2: which I'm still getting used to saying, not HBO Max.
Speaker 2: They just announced that the price that you're going to
Speaker 2: pay if you want all three is going to be
Speaker 2: seventeen dollars a month with ADS, and it's going to
Speaker 2: be thirty dollars without. If I was bundling, that would
Speaker 2: be the one that I'd be going for.
Speaker 1: They're combining forces here exactly.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and so that's a pretty solid discount over what
Speaker 2: you'd pay for each one of those individually. But streaming
Speaker 2: service operators, they aren't dumb. And part of the reason
Speaker 2: that they're doing this, that they're offering this new bundle,
Speaker 2: is because people are finally wising up. They're rotating out
Speaker 2: their subscriptions. They're canceling after they've binged their favorite show,
Speaker 2: which isn't great for their bottom line, of course, and
Speaker 2: so if they can toss you a better price for
Speaker 2: multiple services, they're hoping that it's gonna be a little
Speaker 2: stickier that you're never gonna leave.
Speaker 1: Oh, seventeen bucks a month, Well, I get all three,
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna keep it year round, exactly.
Speaker 2: So you need to be like me and my family
Speaker 2: and resist like we've resisted Disney.
Speaker 1: Still, you're not paying for any streaming services currently, right.
Speaker 2: Well, we don't technically count Amazon Prime because that almost
Speaker 2: feels like it's hard to fault. Yeah, but yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't know. It's to the kids' dismay. That's one Disney
Speaker 2: in particular is one that we've been avoiding. But even
Speaker 2: though we did splurge on peacock.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give them some pitchforks so they can march
Speaker 1: around the house. Here.
Speaker 2: Here is one reason that I felt very comfortable. So
Speaker 2: you know, you can justify it and try to inspire
Speaker 2: your kids to get out there and be an athlete
Speaker 2: that kind of thing, and it's just eh, the Olympics
Speaker 2: are fun, right, But also there is a finish line
Speaker 2: put a good metaphor as far as the Olympics. But
Speaker 2: there is a eight that I know I'm going to
Speaker 2: cancel peacock. You know what date that is, Joel, when
Speaker 2: the Olympics forever one month in. It is August twelfth,
Speaker 2: which is the day after August eleventh, which is when
Speaker 2: the closing ceremony is. So I think that's the difference.
Speaker 2: If you know that you can be disciplined and focused
Speaker 2: and be like surgical with how it is that you
Speaker 2: you stream, if you are all about looking to cut
Speaker 2: back and save while still being able to experience different
Speaker 2: forms of entertainment, that I still think you can get
Speaker 2: the best deal by not bundling and not falling parade
Speaker 2: to some of these offerings.
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly right. I think the bundle to
Speaker 1: the person who loves a good deal like myself. Matt.
Speaker 1: When I first read this, I was like, Oh, that's
Speaker 1: a great deal. And then the more I thought about it,
Speaker 1: I was like, do you have the time to be
Speaker 1: able to spend those services at the same time. That's
Speaker 1: the thing is, I really don't watch nearly as much
Speaker 1: TV as I used to. I know, the average American
Speaker 1: we talk about that, like how much TV they watched
Speaker 1: in America's past time, probably be better if they watch less.
Speaker 1: And part of the way you can do that is
Speaker 1: just having fewer options at your disposal. You're probably going
Speaker 1: to watch less TV, you're less tempted, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: spend less month. But this bundle is probably going to
Speaker 1: you want to get your money's word, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: watch more TV. And it's also just gonna be it's
Speaker 1: gonna be stickier, like you aren't going to cancel in
Speaker 1: the same way. But I think you're right, Matt. One off, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm watching the Olympics. That's why I have Peacock. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm watching this one show and then once it's over,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cancel that too.
Speaker 2: Just be ruthless about that. And I think that these
Speaker 2: bundles are gonna cause people to be less ruthless about
Speaker 2: cutting their subscriptions.
Speaker 1: That's the whole point. It seems like a good deal.
Speaker 1: They're gonna make it easy for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're gonna end up spending more.
Speaker 1: All Right. On the streaming note, an all sports streaming
Speaker 1: app is coming this fall. This has kind of been
Speaker 1: in the works, kind of being talked about for months
Speaker 1: and months and months now, and that's been for most people,
Speaker 1: matt the most expensive part of their cable or streaming package.
Speaker 1: So if you had cable back in the day and
Speaker 1: you didn't watch sports, you were the sucker because ESPN
Speaker 1: was by far the most expensive thing in your cable
Speaker 1: TV package and you were paying for it even while
Speaker 1: you were just watching HGTV. Right, but streaming sports might
Speaker 1: be getting better. Venue Sports is the name of this
Speaker 1: new service. It's a joint venture by Fox and others
Speaker 1: to basically beam collegiate and pro athletics onto your TV.
Speaker 1: And while this service is going to feature a lot
Speaker 1: of sports action, including what ESPN channels FS one, F
Speaker 1: S two, I think T and T, although I think
Speaker 1: they're losing the NBA, so it's going to be interesting
Speaker 1: to see how that works out. It's not going to
Speaker 1: include all the sports, right, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: soccer you're going to miss out on it. It's not
Speaker 1: going to include streaming specific games that Amazon and Netflix run,
Speaker 1: so if you're like looking for those specialty football games
Speaker 1: or peacock I think they're going to have some NFL
Speaker 1: playoff games too. It's also not gonna include apparently the
Speaker 1: regional sports channels, which is a big miss. And the
Speaker 1: price is forty three bucks a month, so if a
Speaker 1: couple of your favorite sports on aren't on there, that's
Speaker 1: up there. Yeah, that's a lot of money and it's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be worth it to some sports nuts map,
Speaker 1: but for a lot of other people. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it will be. Again, I'm curious to see how
Speaker 1: this shakes out. We don't know all the details yet,
Speaker 1: But it also sounds like they're gonna include in you
Speaker 1: this new service in a bundle of sorts with some
Speaker 1: of the ones we just mentioned, which could make the
Speaker 1: price more attractive to sell them a lot like cable TV, right, dude, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like we're slowly reverting back to like why don't we
Speaker 1: just does to go back I think a lot of
Speaker 1: folks are, well, I honestly wanting to go back to
Speaker 1: just paying for cable because which makes you think, well,
Speaker 1: why don't you just do that in the first place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of people will find themselves
Speaker 2: something like YouTube TV. It costs more, but it might
Speaker 2: provide the best of all worlds because you are getting
Speaker 2: some of those other channels included too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that can make sense.
Speaker 2: It might be better than cable, But a lot of
Speaker 2: people going back to cable for good reason. I do
Speaker 2: think a lot of folks, though, are going to be
Speaker 2: willing to pay this higher price for sports because, like,
Speaker 2: if you think about other forms of entertainment, like other
Speaker 2: TV shows, there are a lot of replacements or whatever,
Speaker 2: Like there are substitutes we like the Bear. Well, if
Speaker 2: you don't have uh Hulu, but you kind of want
Speaker 2: to watch them cooking drama, maybe you know you watch
Speaker 2: some like Top Chef episodes or Yah, there's a lot
Speaker 2: a lot of different cooking shows out there. See watched
Speaker 2: friend of the show Frankie Clenza for free over on
Speaker 2: Taste Made. But when it comes to sports, when if
Speaker 2: you're a fan of a particular team, there's no substitute,
Speaker 2: And so because of that and given like the high
Speaker 2: price point of live sports, if you're gonna, if you're
Speaker 2: looking to do it in real life, you're used to
Speaker 2: paying like tons of money for like going to see
Speaker 2: one match, one game in person, and said, the ability
Speaker 2: to have that for a much reduced price and still
Speaker 2: be able to see your favorite team, I mean, I
Speaker 2: think that's why there has been such a premium plays
Speaker 2: on sports, because there is no substitute as opposed to
Speaker 2: other forms of entertainment that we watch on TV.
Speaker 1: That's right, You're exactly right. By the way that I
Speaker 1: saw Roku is, which is free streaming, you can get
Speaker 1: Sunday Major League Baseball games or at least like one
Speaker 1: or two of them I think, on Roku for free
Speaker 1: these days. So that's kind of cool. Like almost nothing
Speaker 1: in the sports streaming world is free except for that.
Speaker 2: That feels very like very American, like Sunday afternoon with
Speaker 2: a baseball game on.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that sound good? Yeah? Well, and don't forget about
Speaker 1: Antenna's too, by the way, over the air, there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff you can watch there, including some
Speaker 1: sports pretty easily as well. From yeah or for free
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I still don't understand exactly how it works, but a
Speaker 2: lot of a lot of the new TVs like that,
Speaker 2: We've got a Samsung frame and we get hundreds of
Speaker 2: channels through the box somehow, like we are not paying
Speaker 2: for cable. And when we got this TV, I was
Speaker 2: playing into of course, hook up my thirty dollars digital
Speaker 2: HD antenna, you know, like the little flat thing he
Speaker 2: taped to the window. But then I realized I didn't
Speaker 2: have to do that. So there's just there's a lot
Speaker 2: of content out there that you don't even have to
Speaker 2: pay for. Yep, that's true that we want to point
Speaker 2: folks towards. But let's wrap it up.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be it for this episode. We hope everybody
Speaker 2: has a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here on
Speaker 2: Monday with a fresh batch of listener questions for you.
Speaker 2: So until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.