Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Speaker 1: Yes he is, and today we're discussing child labor, equifaxes idiocy,
Speaker 1: and some utility bill hacks. So I kind of introduced
Speaker 1: myself kind of sounding like or and I don't want
Speaker 1: people to think I'm depressed. I just wasn't quite ready
Speaker 1: for you to hit record yet. Why are you so unhappy?
Speaker 1: My friend? Now I am ready. It took me a
Speaker 1: few seconds to kind of gather my thoughts. But now
Speaker 1: this is our Friday flight. We were talking about the
Speaker 1: stories that we came across this week, the stories that
Speaker 1: we think are going to pertain most to your personal finances.
Speaker 1: And uh, oh, by the way, let's before we forget,
Speaker 1: let's announce the winners from the How Do Money giveaway.
Speaker 1: These are folks who not only left us a review
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or podcast Addict wherever it is that
Speaker 1: you listen, but you sent us an email because that
Speaker 1: is how you officially enter into the sock giveaway. Uh
Speaker 1: And we ran all of those names through the randomizer
Speaker 1: of everyone who reached out to us, and we've got
Speaker 1: five winners and they are Kindle m Matt w Amanda
Speaker 1: p and the handro s and Nate S. You are
Speaker 1: all sock winners and we will be reaching out to
Speaker 1: you for your mailing address to get those most beautiful
Speaker 1: socks on their way to your feet. There's some sexy socks.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, and they're gonna look good on
Speaker 1: all five of you, So yeah, I'll ship those out.
Speaker 1: I wish I had five pairs, you and I. We
Speaker 1: only have one pair? Right, how many do we order here?
Speaker 1: We don't want to be wasteful. We we ordered a
Speaker 1: bunch of them, but we're also we're kind of we're
Speaker 1: kind of frugal, and so I think we're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you get a fair, I get a fair. You want
Speaker 1: to reserve them for mostly for listeners? Should we save
Speaker 1: them for Fridays? Is that when we should always wear
Speaker 1: our how To Money songs Friday? Like fun Friday stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you folks can't expect to hear from us soon,
Speaker 1: and there will be other opportunity for everyone else out
Speaker 1: there to get a pair of custom performance crew how
Speaker 1: to Money socks. Right right before we get to kind
Speaker 1: of the Friday flight matt our listener David actually on
Speaker 1: the note of socks, sent us an email with a
Speaker 1: story from the Washington Post story. Yeah, Okay, this guy,
Speaker 1: this customer of Bass Pro shops, had been buying the
Speaker 1: socks that were guaranteed for life, and so he would
Speaker 1: return them on occasion when they got holes in them,
Speaker 1: and and they would replace them, no problem. But it
Speaker 1: sounds like the last time he went there, they said, okay,
Speaker 1: well now you're exchanging them for ones that have a
Speaker 1: a sixty day guarantee. No longer are they guaranteed for life,
Speaker 1: And so he is the complete doing They changed the sock, right,
Speaker 1: like the sock used to have a lifetime war two
Speaker 1: now the sock only it's the same sock. But they're
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, we're we're not going to guarantee it
Speaker 1: for life. And exactly, yeah, that's they're saying that this.
Speaker 1: We don't stand behind the product in the same way
Speaker 1: we used to. I guess what I'm saying is they
Speaker 1: weren't targeting him. There were no they were like, oh, dudes,
Speaker 1: coming in again, we're targeting everybody because stick it to him.
Speaker 1: They're like, we're losing too much any on these socks,
Speaker 1: and people like this customer are going to run it
Speaker 1: out of been of this. So, yeah, what's what's your
Speaker 1: thought on that? Is it frugally or cheap to file
Speaker 1: a lawsuit against Basscrow shops when they kind of reneg
Speaker 1: on their promise? Well for him to be upset about it,
Speaker 1: I think it's totally fine because I feel that way too.
Speaker 1: I've got a few pairs of I think I mentioned
Speaker 1: this last week, but darn tough. They've got lifetime warranties
Speaker 1: on their socks. And when I pay twenty dollars or
Speaker 1: maybe even a little bit more than twenty bucks, I
Speaker 1: am partly doing that because I want to be able
Speaker 1: to replace those socks down the road when they develop
Speaker 1: poles in them, and that's something that they advertise. Were
Speaker 1: they to change that, well, that's the whole that's the
Speaker 1: whole reason I bought the socks in the first place.
Speaker 1: In insurance policy is a big part of the product
Speaker 1: you're buying, exactly, and and similarly, that's how this guy felt.
Speaker 1: And so like, would I file a lawsuit? I mean
Speaker 1: probably not like I sound like a snarky email or
Speaker 1: something like that. I would probably do that. But I
Speaker 1: think it's frugal for that guy if he wants to
Speaker 1: do it. I'm happy that he's doing it, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure everybody else that has those socks are like, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: because it's a class actually stand up for us lawsuit
Speaker 1: and they will. Hopefully I'll be able to participate in that.
Speaker 1: But I think this was a huge misstep on Bass
Speaker 1: Pro Shops. Party is bad press for them. Yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: they still could have treated the customers who maybe have
Speaker 1: already had those socks. Grandfather difficult to make create a
Speaker 1: database or something like. I don't know, there there are
Speaker 1: ways for them to figure this out, but moving forward, Okay,
Speaker 1: now these socks moving forward will only have sixty days.
Speaker 1: I think there's a way that they could have found
Speaker 1: ways to cut costs. Is obviously that's what they're doing
Speaker 1: while still keeping a happy customer. When you have these
Speaker 1: are loyal instead of going cold turkey and just like
Speaker 1: just chopping it off. Yeah, I feel like that's a
Speaker 1: loyal customer who says I'm buying your products because the
Speaker 1: guarantee and and yeah, you don't want a customer you
Speaker 1: want you don't want to upset the apple cart for
Speaker 1: something so small. Agreed, you can grandfather this guy in
Speaker 1: Bass Pro Shops do the right thing. Let's just let
Speaker 1: this guy have lifetime free free socks sending the right thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not doing the right Thing're gonna settle all right,
Speaker 1: Let's get to our Friday flight. And the first story
Speaker 1: has to do with with miking. Google Maps has a
Speaker 1: new biking feature, a feature to help people bike better,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of bees going on right now. Well,
Speaker 1: we always say that the biking is basically exercise and
Speaker 1: the ability to save money all wrapped up into one thing.
Speaker 1: Although sometimes finding the right route that avoids traffic and
Speaker 1: some of the nastier hills out there can be tough.
Speaker 1: So I think that holds a lot of people back
Speaker 1: from maybe hopping on their bike because they don't know
Speaker 1: what the safest route is to get to their destination,
Speaker 1: and they're worried that on their non ebike, let's say,
Speaker 1: they might encounter We used to have a hill when
Speaker 1: I was growing up called Big Bertha, and they're like, like,
Speaker 1: if I if I get on Big Bertha, man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be sweating too much and I might not be
Speaker 1: able to get But I gotta walk my bike up
Speaker 1: and that's just not fun. So Google's new update to
Speaker 1: Maps is making this this choice much easier. Pretty soon,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get even more granular data like the availability
Speaker 1: of like partial or full bike lanes on the path
Speaker 1: that you're going. You can see elevation changes on a
Speaker 1: particular street, and you can see how heavy the car
Speaker 1: traffic is likely to be on the streets you plan
Speaker 1: to use. So I think this is really cool. We
Speaker 1: want more people to get out there on their bikes,
Speaker 1: to save money and to get fitter and to just
Speaker 1: enjoy where they live a little bit more, and I
Speaker 1: like the Google is making it easier first to do that.
Speaker 1: So I actually checked because I was curious if that's
Speaker 1: already been implemented in our area. Um, and I saw that.
Speaker 1: So the street availability or you know, whether or not
Speaker 1: there's bike lanes that isn't up to date, but at
Speaker 1: the elevation is on there. And so personally, I've never
Speaker 1: looked much at it because I tend to just get
Speaker 1: on my bike and ride and figure it out. Basically
Speaker 1: a big birthday as like an additional channel like bring
Speaker 1: it on. I I dig that additional sweat. But you know,
Speaker 1: according to Google, we've seen increase in biking activity in
Speaker 1: the past few months, I'm sure that a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of that does have to do with warmer temperatures
Speaker 1: as folks have been able to get outside. But I'm
Speaker 1: glad to see that folks are actually using those bikes
Speaker 1: that they bought during the pandemic. Unlike pelotons and other
Speaker 1: pandemic purchases, the stationary ones are have now become a
Speaker 1: place to put your laundry. At least you can hang
Speaker 1: that towel on your on your stationtoor bikes. So they
Speaker 1: got to get used, come on. Absolutely. So we talked
Speaker 1: about the recession chatter last week for a second, Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out that credit card companies they aren't worried
Speaker 1: about a recession. Uh, they are actually getting even more
Speaker 1: aggressive when it comes to acquiring new customers, and they're
Speaker 1: sending out solicitations like like candy. Basically, according to the
Speaker 1: Financial Times, there was a forty seven percent surge and
Speaker 1: paper and digital solicitations in Q one. Uh in Q
Speaker 1: two likely saw an even bigger increase. We just don't
Speaker 1: have those numbers yet, but sign up bonuses are getting
Speaker 1: richer on some cards in an effort to attract new
Speaker 1: customers as well. And so yeah, what what what? Should
Speaker 1: you do as a how to money listener. Well, we
Speaker 1: are totally cool with you getting a new card in
Speaker 1: order to snag a sign up bonus that's often gonna
Speaker 1: mean free money or like a boatload of free travel points.
Speaker 1: But we only want you to do that if it
Speaker 1: doesn't increase your overall spend amount, uh, and if you
Speaker 1: pay that puppy off on time and in full every
Speaker 1: single month. Yeah. So I just signed up for a
Speaker 1: new credit card mat in order to get the additional
Speaker 1: bonus because we gotta pay for the next semester of
Speaker 1: my wife's school and on the car exactly. It's like
Speaker 1: the perfect time because it's it'sn't that cheap graduate school.
Speaker 1: So when you can do that in one fell swoop,
Speaker 1: at least get yeah bucks, did you do the chase? No?
Speaker 1: I did the Capital one Venture card. So we'll link
Speaker 1: to that one in the show notes if you want,
Speaker 1: if you want to check it out. But this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing where you can take advantage of
Speaker 1: that's something we're gonna we're gonna pay for anyway, right,
Speaker 1: But anyway you'd already say about the money, you know
Speaker 1: that you're gonna be able to pay that off. So
Speaker 1: like you're going you're you're going into this purchase without
Speaker 1: a plan. Yeah, you've got a plan, You're gonna pay
Speaker 1: it off. And I could have put it on one
Speaker 1: of the credit cards already had, But then I'm missing
Speaker 1: out on something like, you know, eight hundred bucks in
Speaker 1: free rewards, So why not get ten percent off basically
Speaker 1: on my life education. Oh and by the way, Matt,
Speaker 1: you mentioned just more and more solicitations coming in in
Speaker 1: people's mailboxes. If you're tired of getting that stuff, or
Speaker 1: if it attempts you to sign up for a card
Speaker 1: maybe that you don't need or want, just go to
Speaker 1: opt out prescreen dot com. We'll link to that in
Speaker 1: the show notes too. But that's the where you can say,
Speaker 1: don't send that stuff my way anymore, and the credit
Speaker 1: card companies will stop. And speaking of credit cards, a
Speaker 1: new credit cards dot Com survey shows that young folks
Speaker 1: are actually the worst tippers. And it said even if
Speaker 1: they make a solid income. Right, So it was funny
Speaker 1: to me that it wasn't just based on Okay, people
Speaker 1: that make less money don't tip as well, that's not
Speaker 1: what this survey found. And so specifically, uh, they're talking
Speaker 1: about millennials and Gen z ears, and you know, here
Speaker 1: we go again with everyone out there blaming us for
Speaker 1: all the wrong things in the world. But I guess
Speaker 1: I'm curious to know burning the world down with your
Speaker 1: avocado toast and and your inability to tip and your
Speaker 1: paltry tips. So yeah, what what's your what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: Is there? Do we have some sort of moral obligation
Speaker 1: to tip? You know, we've talked about this. I feel
Speaker 1: like at every turn, more and more places we're getting
Speaker 1: asked to tip um. And there's like the little iPad
Speaker 1: that gets turned around, and even at the coffee shop
Speaker 1: it's like do you want to tip thirty fifty or
Speaker 1: on those ursas? Sometimes it's awkward, But so how do
Speaker 1: you think about It's interesting that like the breakdowncurs between
Speaker 1: like zoomers millennials and then Gen xers and baby boomers
Speaker 1: seem to be like more way more generous with her tips.
Speaker 1: And what's really interesting, if you think about it, is
Speaker 1: that is also where you see are just a massive
Speaker 1: divide when it comes to net worth, Like literally like
Speaker 1: zoomers don't even register unlike the percentage of net worth
Speaker 1: that they that they hold compared like millennials or something
Speaker 1: like six percent, and all the rest are older generations.
Speaker 1: And so what it seems like it's going on, or
Speaker 1: I don't know might be going on, is that there
Speaker 1: is what I would argue an inability to stomach bad
Speaker 1: service by younger generations. Right Like, So I'm not making
Speaker 1: an excuse saying that, hey, oh, you can start leaving
Speaker 1: a tip once you've built up a big net worth.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is, I think when maybe when you
Speaker 1: have a lot of money in the bank, you've got
Speaker 1: a substantial net worth, when you are presented with poor service,
Speaker 1: that you're still okay tipping, almost like you're immune to
Speaker 1: bad service. Whereas if every dollar that you earn is
Speaker 1: incredibly valuable when you're younger, when you are a millennial,
Speaker 1: when you are a zoomer, and in those instances, I
Speaker 1: think it is okay to adjust your tip accordingly. And
Speaker 1: again I'm not saying that you should not tip at all.
Speaker 1: I still think there's maybe like that there should be
Speaker 1: a baseline, like I've never not tipped at least ten percent,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like, in my mind ten percent is
Speaker 1: like the new zero. Yeah, and tim percent for something
Speaker 1: like counter service I'm cool with. I guess it's just
Speaker 1: it can be frustrating to see like options for tipping
Speaker 1: at a counter service style place that exceed and that's
Speaker 1: like the basic ask and that feels unreasonable to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna go in there with a custom amount
Speaker 1: if if that's what you got up there on the screen,
Speaker 1: But in my mind, I don't know this. So this
Speaker 1: is a theory and proposing though that there is just
Speaker 1: more variance with tipping depending on the service that you
Speaker 1: are given, basically because I'm I'm happy to tip even
Speaker 1: more like I will tip if I've got if dude,
Speaker 1: if someone's like talks to us and engages and helps
Speaker 1: us to thoughtfully think about a menu or mix a
Speaker 1: recommendation on a type of beer, anytime that there's like
Speaker 1: really good beer talk going on, I'm such if they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: have you had this? And if we're talking through a
Speaker 1: beer menu, man, they are, well they're totally gonna get
Speaker 1: of when it comes to the tip line. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think the other thing that people need to think about
Speaker 1: is if I can't afford to tip, should I be
Speaker 1: going out to eat? If you can't And you're like
Speaker 1: I can't be generous um with with the server, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to basically give them a short shrift
Speaker 1: that you should probably stay home and not go out
Speaker 1: at all. Agreed. Yeah, I think that's just a part
Speaker 1: of that transaction. That's a part of what should be
Speaker 1: expected out of patrons. All right, let's talk about jobs. Uh, dude,
Speaker 1: is the Great Resignation even happening anymore? At this point?
Speaker 1: I feel it was. It was such every single headline.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I don't really care, honestly, But the
Speaker 1: reality is that a lot of folks who jumped to
Speaker 1: a new opportunity have been able to increase their pay
Speaker 1: in a seriously big way. And while you know the
Speaker 1: job market it's it's softening just a bit. It's a
Speaker 1: it's like less raging bonfire, maybe more piping hot solo stove.
Speaker 1: That's another pandemic reference for a lot of people got sold.
Speaker 1: Even still, folks that are still changing jobs in order
Speaker 1: to increase their incomes. Uh. And thanks to everyone's new
Speaker 1: pal inflation, real earnings for workers who stayed put at
Speaker 1: their current positions actually declined by one point seven percent.
Speaker 1: But workers who pieced out they saw an average real
Speaker 1: wage increase of nearly ten percent nine point seven. That
Speaker 1: is a healthy increase. And this is according to data
Speaker 1: from our our new besties over at Pew Research. And
Speaker 1: so we share this because we want to highlight that
Speaker 1: obviously money is not everything. Uh, And leaving a job
Speaker 1: just to make more money like that does not always
Speaker 1: make sense. There are a number of factors that you
Speaker 1: want to consider. But this is how the money, This
Speaker 1: is the show, and this is what we talk about
Speaker 1: in money is a meaningful part of that equation. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of listeners out there we think
Speaker 1: could still get a substantial pay bump by finding employment elsewhere.
Speaker 1: We want that to be something that you are considering,
Speaker 1: just like when when we talk about different expenses in
Speaker 1: our lives. We want you to question everything. And I
Speaker 1: think it's always worth questioning, well, is this a job
Speaker 1: that I want to stick with? Is this where I'm
Speaker 1: going to continue to have my my bread buttered? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And and just because the job market is softening a
Speaker 1: little bit doesn't mean you can't still jump ship and
Speaker 1: get a massive raise. That there's still a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunity out there, and Matt, it just there's a new
Speaker 1: York Times article this week on on the job market,
Speaker 1: but the job market for teens, so that's the child
Speaker 1: labor parneer are headlines today, but it actually it talked
Speaker 1: about how the best extracurricular activity for many high school
Speaker 1: students maybe getting a job. And I gotta say, I
Speaker 1: like where they're headed with this one, because I agree wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are some teens right where they're in
Speaker 1: a situation that requires them to get a job to
Speaker 1: help their family out. They don't have the luxury necessarily
Speaker 1: to choose between getting a job and doing more school activities.
Speaker 1: But regardless of the reason why a teenager gets a job,
Speaker 1: there's just so many different lessons that kids can learn,
Speaker 1: we would say, working part time totally during those years
Speaker 1: that they're unlikely to learn in most classrooms at most schools.
Speaker 1: Uh man. I got my first job at fourteen. I
Speaker 1: mean I was working and before that, even in the
Speaker 1: neighborhood mowing lawns and stuff like that, probably from the
Speaker 1: age of twelve. But my first legit job at the
Speaker 1: age of fourteen, I was like eleven year old pool boy,
Speaker 1: could barely swim, Yeah, just kidding, next to clean your
Speaker 1: pool and yeah, so I think my my my first job,
Speaker 1: I was getting paid five dollars and fifteen cents an hour.
Speaker 1: But it was right across the street from my high school.
Speaker 1: Right when I got off of got out of school.
Speaker 1: I would go walking across the street and throw in
Speaker 1: the uniform work for a few hours. And this is
Speaker 1: one of those things I like, I learned so much.
Speaker 1: And I remember my manager her her go to phrase
Speaker 1: was if you had time to lean, you got time
Speaker 1: to clean. And so I thought I was taking a
Speaker 1: break in the classic line. She wasn't having it. And
Speaker 1: so I learned a lot about about responsibility really and
Speaker 1: kind of how to work with superiors and peers exactly
Speaker 1: during those days. And I'm sure she was probably just
Speaker 1: a fine boss, right, But like, I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that you learned when you do get
Speaker 1: a job at a young age. You learned how to
Speaker 1: what it takes to work under somebody maybe who isn't
Speaker 1: so great. A lot a lot of bosses out there
Speaker 1: are fantastic, but there are some are a lot of
Speaker 1: managers who aren't so great about working when you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily want to write because you're on the schedules. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're on the schedule, and like you said, working with others,
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of teamwork that comes into play
Speaker 1: with folks where it's like, man, you didn't choose these,
Speaker 1: Like these aren't teammates that you chose for a class project,
Speaker 1: you know, Like these aren't even folks who were taking
Speaker 1: the same class as you. Like who knows like the
Speaker 1: backgrounds of the folks that you're working with, but you
Speaker 1: still have to work together to get the job done.
Speaker 1: There's there's the type of learning that takes place within
Speaker 1: a like a workplace environment like that that's just so robust,
Speaker 1: like you said, like that does not happen within a
Speaker 1: within like a school setting. One of the most important
Speaker 1: things we're talking about inflation and wage inflation. There's been
Speaker 1: even more at that bottom end of the scale, and
Speaker 1: so teenagers can make like, like I said, my starting
Speaker 1: salary was five dollars fifteen cents. Now a lot of
Speaker 1: teenagers can get a job making something like fifteen, sixteen,
Speaker 1: seventeen dollars an hour pretty easily with you know, nothing
Speaker 1: on their resume. So that's just kind of another pointer
Speaker 1: in the right direction, like, oh, go cool, I can
Speaker 1: actually make some real money going out there and getting
Speaker 1: a part time job. Yeah, and I think there are
Speaker 1: a lot of parents who are you know, are they're
Speaker 1: a little worried because they're thinking, well, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure my kids are focusing on their grades, that
Speaker 1: they're able to get into the college that they want
Speaker 1: to get to get into. And we asked the question
Speaker 1: on our Wednesday episode, is college for dummies? And I
Speaker 1: think that desire over the past multiple decades of parents
Speaker 1: just shuttling their kids down that college path has led
Speaker 1: a lot of folks to not even consider an after
Speaker 1: school job because they are focusing on their But the
Speaker 1: fact is not everybody has cut out for college. And
Speaker 1: so what that means is that there's an entire, I
Speaker 1: don't know generation of of people right now who maybe
Speaker 1: didn't end up going to college, or if they did,
Speaker 1: didn't graduate, and they also missed out on the benefits
Speaker 1: on that sort of informal education of becoming a well
Speaker 1: arounded person. What they would have learned had they started
Speaker 1: working under a great manager or a fantastic boss at
Speaker 1: the age of fifteen, which are some incredibly formidable years.
Speaker 1: And even if your kid is going to college, it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that some work history in high school isn't
Speaker 1: helpful to them because it is you're learning a lot
Speaker 1: of real life skills before you got to get into
Speaker 1: real life. And and I don't think you should necessarily
Speaker 1: be making your high school or work thirty hours a week,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, you know, eight to ten hours, like
Speaker 1: two three shifts. It can be. Yeah, it can be
Speaker 1: a nice balance. It can help them learn some skills,
Speaker 1: make a little bit of money. And so I don't
Speaker 1: think it has to be all or nothing. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: they can only focus on school. They can do both,
Speaker 1: right s seventeen year olds, they are equipped to do both.
Speaker 1: So we we think more kids should be going in
Speaker 1: that direction. We agree with the New York Times. But man,
Speaker 1: we got more stories to cover on this Friday flight,
Speaker 1: including um, some egregious actions by the credit bureau Equifax.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that and more right after this break.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back, and we will talk about how
Speaker 1: Equifax still sucks next time. Say it like Arnold Schwarzeninger.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm not gonna do that, only because you
Speaker 1: just told me to. On the contrary, and uh no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to our ludicrous headline of the week,
Speaker 1: right now, man, And this headline read US Bank mind
Speaker 1: thirty seven and a half million dollars for opening fake
Speaker 1: customer accounts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they just the CFPB.
Speaker 1: They revealed this at the end of last week. And
Speaker 1: it turns out there's another bank out there who's trying
Speaker 1: to be like Wells Fargo. And you know, you'd think
Speaker 1: that after all that Wells Fargo went through US Bank,
Speaker 1: maybe they would have learned from Wells Fargo's mistakes, But
Speaker 1: it turns out that didn't happen because it was going
Speaker 1: on basically at the same time as all the Wells
Speaker 1: fargers happening for a decade exactly. Yeah. The CFPB said
Speaker 1: that the U S Bank not only opened up unwanted
Speaker 1: checking and saving his accounts for its customers, but also
Speaker 1: credit cards in the lines of credit. And I know
Speaker 1: we say this a lot that I think it bears repeating,
Speaker 1: and that is the big banks suck. We would not
Speaker 1: recommend that you do business with them voluntarily. Generally speaking,
Speaker 1: big banks their rates are inferior, Their customer service sucks.
Speaker 1: Their fees are typically higher, and you know, you might
Speaker 1: just find yourself getting treated even more poorly in the
Speaker 1: case of being a Wells Fargo or a US bank.
Speaker 1: Customers stay away from those big names. Yeah, I'm glad
Speaker 1: they're being held to held to account with lead. Their
Speaker 1: feet are being held to the fire. We're here talking
Speaker 1: about another case in which companies are not being held
Speaker 1: responsible for their actions in just a second. But first,
Speaker 1: since we're talking about fees, Matt, there was an article
Speaker 1: in the Wall Street Journal about the ways hotels are
Speaker 1: increasing fees on their customers this week. That they're charging
Speaker 1: guests anywhere between two dollars just to reserve a chair
Speaker 1: by the pool so that you can ensure that you've
Speaker 1: got a spot on a Saturday morning. That struck me
Speaker 1: as nice. It's sometimes to have a spot by the pool.
Speaker 1: Not for that kind of money though, that's crazy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: these aren't even necessarily some sort of fancy cush loungers
Speaker 1: sometimes just basic pool recliners and so um, yeah, when
Speaker 1: we're talking about we don't really like fees, Matt. Maybe
Speaker 1: this is something we should dedicate a whole episode too
Speaker 1: in the near future, because I think we've done a
Speaker 1: fees episode. We have, but there's I feel like it
Speaker 1: feels too long ago. There's a whole new generation of
Speaker 1: fees exactly. There's more more fees popping up. And so
Speaker 1: even when it comes to like resort fees, right, that's
Speaker 1: something that's happening at hotels more and more frequently, something
Speaker 1: like forty bucks a night. They're making that mandatory because yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a resort fee, and what does it actually cover, Well,
Speaker 1: we don't really know, but um, it's the WiFi, Yeah,
Speaker 1: cover your coffee makers. Yeah maybe, I guess. So, so
Speaker 1: that's what they say. But it's like, no, this is
Speaker 1: just you being able to pat your profits. Yes it is.
Speaker 1: And so before you take your next trip, check out
Speaker 1: the hotel's website for more information on the fees they charge,
Speaker 1: and read reviews on a site like trip Advisor, because
Speaker 1: oftentimes those reviewers will point out how ridiculous the fees
Speaker 1: might be at a particular place. It might help you
Speaker 1: steer clear of some of those unexpected fees. Now, we
Speaker 1: just went want a trip last weekend to just outside
Speaker 1: of Nashville to the operus Land Hotel, which is a
Speaker 1: beautiful hotel. By the way, my father in law like
Speaker 1: paid for everything. He had some some points and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. But when we got there, we realized parking
Speaker 1: was thirty three dollars just self parking, no valet. It's
Speaker 1: just it's parking in a parking lot and you like
Speaker 1: pull up, unload the car and then park it across
Speaker 1: the street at like the McDonald. That's don't across my mind. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: my father in law had paid for it ahead of time,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, all right, thank you. Um.
Speaker 1: But that's one of those things where you have to
Speaker 1: be aware of stuff like that, Like that that adds
Speaker 1: a whole lot of money, a whole lot of expense
Speaker 1: to just kind of a fun family trip. But I
Speaker 1: will I will say, I mean, I do, I agree,
Speaker 1: I hate fees, but I'm thinking about like reserving some
Speaker 1: chairs pull side, like at the Bellaggio, if going to
Speaker 1: Vegas and splurging in that way, if if that's your thing,
Speaker 1: if that's your craft beer equivalent, then like what I
Speaker 1: would says, have at it. You know, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: yuck on your yum. As long as folks have options,
Speaker 1: you know, and as long as there is price transparency,
Speaker 1: because you know, there's also this reality where these new
Speaker 1: hotel fees could end up saving some money savvy travelers
Speaker 1: money like it makes me think of jumping through all
Speaker 1: the different hoops within discount airline like Spirit or Frontier.
Speaker 1: How that's gonna, you know, help you to get to
Speaker 1: your destination for far less money than the other airlines.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, you just gotta know how to
Speaker 1: work the system. You have to know what they're charging,
Speaker 1: as long as they're being transparent and as long as
Speaker 1: you know that. Well, if I don't want to deal
Speaker 1: with that, if if I want to kind of maybe spend,
Speaker 1: spend a little bit more and go with Delta or
Speaker 1: go with United, you know that that's an option for you.
Speaker 1: I just want folks to have options. And you know
Speaker 1: what if some of these fancier hotels are charging in
Speaker 1: some cases a lot of money for folks to not
Speaker 1: have to get up early in the morning and circle
Speaker 1: around the pool and throw down the towels, like I
Speaker 1: hate that sort of that game, you know, and I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of folks. How much is that
Speaker 1: going to cost you? And do you need the primo
Speaker 1: hotels or can you be like three rows back at
Speaker 1: the pool? I don't know, like part of it on
Speaker 1: what you want. And sometimes those fees are just so
Speaker 1: sneaky you don't know they exist, and you pull up
Speaker 1: and your like, the sneakiness not cool. I had no idea.
Speaker 1: Definitely not down with the sneakiness it makes. It makes
Speaker 1: your you can throw a wrench in your experience and
Speaker 1: kind of make your trip costs a lot more than
Speaker 1: you thought. So it's something you need be proactively, proactively
Speaker 1: thinking about exactly. Ye. All right, let's get to that
Speaker 1: story about the credit bureaus, and this is just one
Speaker 1: more negative story we have to discuss on the Friday
Speaker 1: flight today. It could have also been the lucrous headline
Speaker 1: of the week. Yeah, we've got like three ludicrous headlines. Yeah,
Speaker 1: crapping stuff happening, right that folks need to be aware, right, Well,
Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal published an exclusive article earlier this
Speaker 1: week about the extent to which the bureaus make egregious
Speaker 1: mistakes affecting consumers everywhere. Noticed that we didn't say affecting
Speaker 1: their customers, because we aren't their customers. We we are
Speaker 1: the product that's being sold all over the place. And
Speaker 1: so the Wall Street Journal reporters they found that Equifax,
Speaker 1: in particular, scent inaccurate credit score information to lenders, not
Speaker 1: a few times, not hundreds of times, millions of times.
Speaker 1: And so we're not talking about just like this whoops up, sorry,
Speaker 1: screwed up, heard a couple of people. We're talking about
Speaker 1: repetitive incompetence that resulted in higher interest rates and denied
Speaker 1: applications for a bunch of individual borrowers. And so if
Speaker 1: Equifax didn't thoroughly earn their place in the pantheon of
Speaker 1: most hated companies with their massive data breach of they're
Speaker 1: certainly there. Now that they are up there, there might
Speaker 1: be worse than the big banks. Uh. In a in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, to see this story was just
Speaker 1: so frustrating. It made me sad for all those people
Speaker 1: they got screwed over. But it's also just kind of
Speaker 1: tough to stomach these repetitive, bone headed moves that cost
Speaker 1: all of us a lot of money and and and headache. Yeah,
Speaker 1: saw the the Equifax CEO. He had the nerve to
Speaker 1: say that these errors were not something meaningful to Equifax, which, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: of of course it's not going to really affect you
Speaker 1: all because you seem to be immune from any negative backlash.
Speaker 1: It's the American people who are getting screwed over and
Speaker 1: who it's becoming a problem for. And you know, although
Speaker 1: the government taking over credit reports uh and scores like
Speaker 1: how that has been floated as an option, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that that's is going to be the best way
Speaker 1: to proceed as well. But just the you know, the
Speaker 1: current model is just so severely flawed though, uh. And
Speaker 1: you know, like you're talking about earlier about US Bank
Speaker 1: having their feet held to the fire, that also needs
Speaker 1: to happen with the credit bureaus. They need to be
Speaker 1: held responsible for these mistakes when it comes to responding
Speaker 1: to these issues that everyday folks run up against as
Speaker 1: a result of their mistakes and their incompetence. But on
Speaker 1: a brighter note, it seems that technology seems to be
Speaker 1: making our current school worring models maybe feel a bit antiquated,
Speaker 1: which is welcome news. But companies like Ultro, they are
Speaker 1: seeking to create new models based on how it is
Speaker 1: you pay recurring subscriptions. Some credit cards out there, like
Speaker 1: Pedal Card X one, they are underwriting folks based on
Speaker 1: alternative means like like income and your bank transactions. They're
Speaker 1: actually looking at your data and treating you like a
Speaker 1: human being rather than being fed the score straight from
Speaker 1: the credit bureaus. And so hopefully some of these young
Speaker 1: fintech upstarts will be able to create some some healthy
Speaker 1: competition in the space, because the credit bureaus, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like they're they're sort of like dinosaurs. They're
Speaker 1: right for extinction. The writing seems to be on the wall,
Speaker 1: and I'm certainly glad that there's more competition cropping up.
Speaker 1: It also makes me think how maybe the byin pay
Speaker 1: later companies, this is a service that they might be
Speaker 1: able to provide. But it seems what's going on is
Speaker 1: they're starting to It's like they're paying tribute by sending
Speaker 1: their data to the credit bureas rather than maybe creating
Speaker 1: their own ecosystem. And I would much rather see uh
Speaker 1: competition than them just getting brought to the fold. And
Speaker 1: I don't mind jumping through the hoops as long. When
Speaker 1: it comes to the credit scoring model, we've talked about
Speaker 1: that how do you get a good credit score? And
Speaker 1: we've talked about here, Well, here's the scoring model. Here's
Speaker 1: how it's set up, and here's how you ensure that
Speaker 1: you play by the rules in order to get a
Speaker 1: good credit score. It's always gonna be rules no matter what.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be instructions on how to play the game.
Speaker 1: But my biggest problem is when you play by the rules,
Speaker 1: but there's so much incompetence by the folks running the
Speaker 1: game that you get screwed over even though you've done
Speaker 1: the right thing. And that seems to just happen on
Speaker 1: and be happening on a scale that's far too large
Speaker 1: for my comfort. It's it's something specifically with ex Yeah,
Speaker 1: something like a quarter of credit reports have an error
Speaker 1: on them, and when we talk about the response rate
Speaker 1: of these credit bureaus to people who do have an
Speaker 1: error on the report, it's it's negligible, Like they don't
Speaker 1: even get back to people who have an issue. And
Speaker 1: then they do something like this, and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we've just seemed far too many mistakes to make me
Speaker 1: feel any level of comfort with them being in control
Speaker 1: of not only our information but also our ability to,
Speaker 1: you know, get the loans and financial products that that
Speaker 1: we then we need totally. And I feel that we
Speaker 1: can maybe be a little bit harder on Equifax since
Speaker 1: they're here in Atlanta, we're able to It's kind of
Speaker 1: like punching your younger brother. It's like, you can do that,
Speaker 1: but you your neighbor better not. I don't know. We
Speaker 1: could be like a how the money protests in front
Speaker 1: of that facts headquarters. Maybe next week ip here. All right,
Speaker 1: enough of the negati. Let's let's turn to the positive.
Speaker 1: There's the story on c nets site and they are
Speaker 1: reporting that you could save money by simply changing the
Speaker 1: temperature on your hot water heater. Uh. And you're probably thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, a big deal, this is probably just chump change,
Speaker 1: But no, it turns out you might be able to
Speaker 1: save like multiple hundreds of dollars over the course of
Speaker 1: a year. And that's because the Department of Energy estimates
Speaker 1: that's your hot water heater is often responsible for fourteen
Speaker 1: to eighteen percent of your homes utility bills, and most
Speaker 1: water heaters are set to a temperature of a hundred
Speaker 1: forty degrees when a hundred and twenty degrees will typically
Speaker 1: suit most families just fine. And so yeah, we'd recommend
Speaker 1: for you to check that out. If for some reason
Speaker 1: that bumped down and tump. If it's not working out
Speaker 1: for you, you can always bump it back up. No harm,
Speaker 1: no foul, but if you're all about a quick way
Speaker 1: to to start saving uh some serious money, you know,
Speaker 1: well eventually it'll be serious. Right now it's immediate, but
Speaker 1: over time it'll be serious. Man. If you say, by
Speaker 1: turning the dial down on your hot water heater, that's
Speaker 1: a reasonable amount of money. Like that's I literally went
Speaker 1: read this article and I went straight into my crawl
Speaker 1: space and I literally run away. Yes I did so.
Speaker 1: My some are have like a digital display and you
Speaker 1: can like just put the arrow down and get it
Speaker 1: the tempature you wanted to. Mine had to pull out
Speaker 1: a couple of screws and then turn the dial down
Speaker 1: a little took a picture of the black knob. No
Speaker 1: it's not a knob. No, it's like a little dial
Speaker 1: and you've got to use a screw driver to turn
Speaker 1: it down just a little bit. So I'll send I'll
Speaker 1: send you a picture that I took. I haven't even
Speaker 1: looked at the hot water here at our new place,
Speaker 1: like at my old at the thing is I mean,
Speaker 1: we're family is six, and so we have run out
Speaker 1: of hot water before. If we've all gone hiking, we
Speaker 1: come home and everyone stinks, everyone's hot and sweaty. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're all taking showers or baths. Literally every bathroom is
Speaker 1: being occupied, and we've gotten to where we've run out
Speaker 1: of run out of water. But if I don't know,
Speaker 1: if you're a family, if it's just you in your place,
Speaker 1: or you've got a small family, just got one kid,
Speaker 1: I think you could totally you've got big enough. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And that's where tankless is. Obviously, it's like it's better
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, but it's also more expensive.
Speaker 1: But word of the wise, if if you haven't checked
Speaker 1: it lately and you're like, I can stand to save
Speaker 1: some money, and no, we never really run out of
Speaker 1: hot water, and you know what, it actually is pretty
Speaker 1: scalding when it's on the hottest level. For most folks,
Speaker 1: somewhere in that five range will work just fine. Both
Speaker 1: it turns out like you don't want to go less
Speaker 1: than one twenty because bacteria, bacteria, exactly if he goes
Speaker 1: less than one twenty, um Legionella evidently is the bacteria
Speaker 1: that causes what diseases, which if we're if we're picking favorites,
Speaker 1: legion Legionnaire's disease, if we're picking favorites, that's my favorite
Speaker 1: bacteria but legionella. So I mean I mentioned that because
Speaker 1: I don't want folks to get so cheap with it
Speaker 1: that they're they turn their water here down too much.
Speaker 1: And now you've got pneumonia and you're in the hospital,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's a real disease people die from.
Speaker 1: It's it's rare, like legon. You can still take a
Speaker 1: cold shower if you want, but it's but it's real. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So anyway, don't go too cheap. But that's what we're
Speaker 1: here for, helping you to save money and not die.
Speaker 1: If you could say fifty bucks a month by turned
Speaker 1: down your water heater, make it happen. Uh and just
Speaker 1: like I did. So all right, that's gonna do it
Speaker 1: for this episode again, we'll send those socks out to
Speaker 1: the folks who want Thank you to everyone who who
Speaker 1: left a review. We really appreciate it, and we hope
Speaker 1: to see you back here on Monday for an upcoming
Speaker 1: Ask how the Money episode. We get some good questions
Speaker 1: line up for you. That's right, buddy, So until next time,
Speaker 1: best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,