Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we've decided no car, no problem. That's right, Joel,
Speaker 1: we're talking about automobiles. We live in an age where
Speaker 1: everyone has a car, probably right depending on where you live.
Speaker 1: Even two and three year olds. Man, I've seen driving
Speaker 1: around the streets. Everybody's got a car. There's those two
Speaker 1: year olds have two vehicles. That drives me crazy, ridiculous,
Speaker 1: it's gotten out of hand. We can all agree, but
Speaker 1: as we know, there are lots of benefits from from
Speaker 1: having one less vehicle, and there are more ways today
Speaker 1: than ever to make that happen. So I'm excited to
Speaker 1: talk about owning fewer vehicles with you today. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want Henry Ford to roll over in his
Speaker 1: grave or anything, but I think even he didn't intend
Speaker 1: for us probably to have as many cars as we
Speaker 1: have typically, And I think a lot of people can
Speaker 1: benefit from having one fewer vehicle in their lives. And
Speaker 1: so we're gonna talk about that and get into some
Speaker 1: depth on what that might look like, on how much
Speaker 1: money you can save, and think outside the box on
Speaker 1: how you can actually make it happen. Today on the show.
Speaker 1: But Matt, before we get to that, I want to
Speaker 1: let you know I had to hire a plumber recently
Speaker 1: to come out to a rental property to fix a
Speaker 1: couple of things. They did a great job. They were responsive,
Speaker 1: and they were quick and thorough, and yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a good experience. But I will say I paid for
Speaker 1: that experience, and I was out of town, so I
Speaker 1: didn't really have another option. I was gonna say. I
Speaker 1: was like, normally you feel like you handle your own plumbing,
Speaker 1: but when you're out of town, that's definitely an instance
Speaker 1: where you want to be hands off. You wanted to
Speaker 1: be taken care of where you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, for sure. And I will say I
Speaker 1: take care of my own extremely basic plumbing, and this
Speaker 1: was pretty basic. I will plunge that's about it. But
Speaker 1: I talked to the plumber afterwards and he said, you
Speaker 1: know what, you might need a toilet rebuild. And I
Speaker 1: was like, what do you What do you mean gotta
Speaker 1: flush the fluids because basically, if any little rebuild, put
Speaker 1: some air the tires. Because if you know what a toilet,
Speaker 1: how a toilet works, there are essentially two parts. The
Speaker 1: flapper in the phil valve and they are extremely inexpensive
Speaker 1: parts and they are incredibly easy to replace, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: he explained to me what this toilet rebuild would look
Speaker 1: like and made it sound a whole lot more fancy
Speaker 1: than it actually was, and he quoted me a price
Speaker 1: of three fifty dollars, oh my gosh, to do the work,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, so I decided off against that. I
Speaker 1: actually because I have way too many toilets in my life,
Speaker 1: because I own multiple properties. In our own house, I
Speaker 1: had to replace the phil valve and the flapper at
Speaker 1: my place on one of the toilets just the other day.
Speaker 1: It took me about minutes and the parts cost me
Speaker 1: eighteen dollars. So yeah, the difference in price between hiring
Speaker 1: the super professional plumber who does a great job and
Speaker 1: is very nice and very skilled. And I'm not against
Speaker 1: paying people for work that needs to be done if
Speaker 1: you don't feel like taking it on yourself or you can't,
Speaker 1: but I think it's important to know that sometimes when
Speaker 1: someone is trying to do a service for you, they
Speaker 1: might even make it sound a little fancier, a little
Speaker 1: more in depth than it actually is. Like a toilet
Speaker 1: rebuild is a really fancy way of saying, I'm replacing
Speaker 1: the two most basic and easy to replace parts of
Speaker 1: your toilet. Yeah, definitely he was looking for the up
Speaker 1: charge to maybe get a little bit extra out of you.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm with you, and especially too, I mean,
Speaker 1: three fifty bucks. That's ridiculous. One because you know he
Speaker 1: was trying to pull that over on you. I wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna happen. But secondly, because you can get a lot
Speaker 1: of new toilets for a hundred bucks exactly like ninety
Speaker 1: bucks if you've got a like a Lows or hone
Speaker 1: depot coupon. And then not to mention a lot of
Speaker 1: cities like oftentimes you can get a rebate if you
Speaker 1: haven't changed out that toilet in your home. If you
Speaker 1: have proof that you've purchased a new toilet and you've
Speaker 1: replaced it, you'll get a rebate for that toilet on
Speaker 1: your water bill, and it'll pay for that toilet completely
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases and so and I've even
Speaker 1: replaced a toilet full on, and it's not really all
Speaker 1: that hard you do once you do it once and
Speaker 1: you know kind of how the little work and the
Speaker 1: wax that. But speaking of toilets. So actually I discovered
Speaker 1: something recently. So do you do you have dirty toilets
Speaker 1: at your house? I mean my dirty dirty, I mean
Speaker 1: so dirty from the sense of stains that you can't
Speaker 1: get off. Because we've had this one toilet in the
Speaker 1: house when we moved into the house. It's always been
Speaker 1: dirty and we've never really seemed to be able to
Speaker 1: get it clean down in the like the lower part
Speaker 1: of the toilet. Uh. And we've tried bleach and all
Speaker 1: sorts of cleaners before. And I did a little bit
Speaker 1: of research and it turns out it's not a stain,
Speaker 1: it's a mineral deposit. Yeah. Is that something that just
Speaker 1: happens over time because you've used the toilet a bunch?
Speaker 1: I mean either that or like, in my mind, it's
Speaker 1: maybe from like the water as well, maybe if you
Speaker 1: have hard water. But I did a little bit of
Speaker 1: research and turns out all you have to do to
Speaker 1: get rid of that is, uh, use acid. By acid,
Speaker 1: I don't mean fancy acid, I just mean vinegar. And
Speaker 1: so you turn off the water using the water cut
Speaker 1: off valve, and you flush the toilet, try to get
Speaker 1: as much water out of there as possible, and then
Speaker 1: just dump some vinegar in there and let it sit
Speaker 1: in the The acid in the vinegar kind of breaks
Speaker 1: down the minerals a little bit, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times all it takes is then just using a brush
Speaker 1: and those calcified mineral deposits on there get flush right
Speaker 1: down the toilet. In our case, we got a lot
Speaker 1: of it off, but there were a couple of spots
Speaker 1: that I swear must have been there for like ten
Speaker 1: years or something, maybe twenty years. So I had to
Speaker 1: get like a little plastic tool and got some gloves on,
Speaker 1: and what's a town on. I had to like scrape
Speaker 1: it so hard to to kind of pop them off
Speaker 1: the porcelain. But once I did, man, I was I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe how brand new the toilet looked. But just
Speaker 1: a little tip if you ever have some some toilets
Speaker 1: that you can't get clean with bleach dry vinegar. There
Speaker 1: we go. So it sounds like now our listeners they
Speaker 1: don't even need to go buy the hundred dollar toilet.
Speaker 1: They can fix up their old toilet for eighteen bucks
Speaker 1: in a little elbow grease. So exactly, all right, that's
Speaker 1: enough toilet talk. Yeah, we're not even this old house, Like,
Speaker 1: what are we going? We spent wait too much of
Speaker 1: time talking about toilets. Let's talk about our beer this episode,
Speaker 1: we are drinking ourson. Oh you are I s O N.
Speaker 1: How would you say it? Eison? That's like, uh, eurison,
Speaker 1: maybe arison. But this is a beer by Tired Hands Brewing. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a says on And I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: enjoying this one on the show, buddy, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about it at the end of the episode. No doubt,
Speaker 1: man me to love Tired Hands. Looking forward to having
Speaker 1: this says on with you. All right, but let's get
Speaker 1: onto the subject at hand. Today we're talking about no car,
Speaker 1: no problem, and obviously reducing your car ownership is not
Speaker 1: something that is going to work for everybody. Right, Let's
Speaker 1: say you're a traveling salesperson. You need your car. It's
Speaker 1: part of your livelihood. So we're not talking to you
Speaker 1: necessarily in this episode. Single people that they might find
Speaker 1: going from one car to zero cars even more difficult,
Speaker 1: right than a family, let's say going from three to
Speaker 1: two or two to one. But singles, you're still not
Speaker 1: off the hook, though. We're gonna challenge you as well
Speaker 1: later on. Yeah, exactly. So today we are going to
Speaker 1: think through why ditching a car might make sense for
Speaker 1: you and the benefits you'll find from having one less
Speaker 1: car in your life. And people also, Matt, are thinking
Speaker 1: a whole lot more about this topic right now. Working
Speaker 1: from home has caused a whole lot of us to
Speaker 1: use our cars a whole lot less. Some of us
Speaker 1: might not even have opened the door of our vehicle
Speaker 1: for months, and that's not great for our cars either, Right,
Speaker 1: you might find a nest of squirrels or something, or ants,
Speaker 1: like seriously, like this summer we had an ant infestation.
Speaker 1: I don't think we We had gotten in the van
Speaker 1: for like close to a week, which was maybe close
Speaker 1: to a record for us. But yeah, we opened the
Speaker 1: door and there was a freaking ant infestation in there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you can't let the kids eat in the car,
Speaker 1: or if you do, you gotta like vacuum up all
Speaker 1: the chromes. True, yeah, but yeah, a lot of people
Speaker 1: are having car problems because they haven't used them for
Speaker 1: such a long period of time. Right, But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: part of the reason we wanted to tackle this subject
Speaker 1: on today's show. Right now is actually probably the perfect
Speaker 1: time to consider if the number of vehicles you own
Speaker 1: is actually best for you and your family. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to discuss today. And here's a
Speaker 1: little stat for you. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Speaker 1: transportation costs are typically the second highest budget category every month,
Speaker 1: the average American spends nine thousand, two or and eighty
Speaker 1: two dollars annually on average in vehicle ownership costs. And
Speaker 1: this is according to Triple A. Dang. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: lot of money, dude. And so while we're all four
Speaker 1: smaller moves to to put a dent in your budget
Speaker 1: every month, you know, like fewer lattees, maybe ditching that
Speaker 1: licks getting rid of a car can have a massive
Speaker 1: effect on your monthly spending very quickly. And then, on
Speaker 1: top of the positive financial ramifications of eliminating a car
Speaker 1: from your driveway or you know, the street in many cities,
Speaker 1: there are other awesome side effects as well. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into all of those, and who knows, you know,
Speaker 1: even if you love your car, you might find some
Speaker 1: reasons to think again about whether or not owning that
Speaker 1: car still makes the most sense for you. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: But it's important to note too that eliminating a car
Speaker 1: from your family's life isn't for everyone. Well, for one,
Speaker 1: if you live in New York City, it's super easy
Speaker 1: in all likelihood to own zero cars. But if you
Speaker 1: live early dropping a car may not make much sense
Speaker 1: depending on your availability to work from home or your
Speaker 1: kids activities. It's gonna differ based on kind of your lifestyle. Right. Also,
Speaker 1: if you do decide at the end of this episode
Speaker 1: that ditching a car doesn't make sense for you, at
Speaker 1: least do your best. Matt and I would suggest to
Speaker 1: limit the cost of the cars that you do own
Speaker 1: to Really expensive cars in the driveway can put a
Speaker 1: major strain on your finances. It can inhibit your ability
Speaker 1: to save for the future. Well, so you would suggest
Speaker 1: if you do have to have multiple cars, think reliable
Speaker 1: and inexpensive. That's the sweet spot of car ownership. Well,
Speaker 1: and Joel, you just mentioned cars being parked in the driveway.
Speaker 1: That's something else to consider because the average car is
Speaker 1: part of the time in your driveway, so most of
Speaker 1: the time you aren't even using your car. You know,
Speaker 1: our our cars are certainly one of our most underutilized
Speaker 1: but also most expensive assets. And that's even more true.
Speaker 1: Because of the coronavirus. You know, many folks have found
Speaker 1: a new normal working from home, and that could continue
Speaker 1: for years to come, making it even more likely that
Speaker 1: you can ditch a car. So, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: challenge ourselves to think creatively and not just assume that
Speaker 1: we need our our very own personal vehicle just because
Speaker 1: it's a societal norm. Especially if we have big financial
Speaker 1: goals that almost ten thousand dollars every single year, that
Speaker 1: would be much better off in our savings, uh and
Speaker 1: investment accounts. I just said personal vehicle. It actually kind
Speaker 1: of made me think of personal pain pizzas also not
Speaker 1: a lot of value there, you know, like you want
Speaker 1: to get the big pizza. We're you're all sharing it together.
Speaker 1: But I understand why they're appealing. I like a good
Speaker 1: personal paying pizza. I don't order them anymore, but they're
Speaker 1: too expensive. That's the problem if if everybody gets their
Speaker 1: own personal paying pizza. Remember we're arguing against vehicle to uh.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna discuss more about the reasons that you
Speaker 1: should consider cutting a car friend your life, and then
Speaker 1: how to accomplish it without too much difficulty. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to all that right after the break. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: we're back from the break. We're talking about how to
Speaker 1: ditch your car and save money and other things too.
Speaker 1: Write there. There are a lot of benefits, we think
Speaker 1: to eliminating a car from your daily life, and of
Speaker 1: course our biggest concern is money, right, the upkeep costs,
Speaker 1: the insurance cost the depreciation costs. You mentioned a statues
Speaker 1: a second ago. The average car costs almost eight hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month when you factor in all those costs.
Speaker 1: So much money did It's so much money sunk into
Speaker 1: something that is idle. Most of the time. You likely
Speaker 1: won't realize the full amount of that savings if you
Speaker 1: do ditch your car, because you'll still need insurance on
Speaker 1: the one car you do have, and you might have
Speaker 1: other increased commuting costs. But you'll definitely see big money
Speaker 1: back in your life every year. Right, We're paying for
Speaker 1: these cars. Even if your car is paid off, it
Speaker 1: is depreciating, and you're paying for insurance and taxes every
Speaker 1: single year. So the financial impact of acting that car
Speaker 1: is the biggest check mark we would say in favor
Speaker 1: of making that decision to downsize your vehicle fleet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: j will certainly the financial implications, you know, the money saved,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the top benefits. This is how the
Speaker 1: money after all, But there are lots of other benefits
Speaker 1: when it comes to, you know, reducing the number of
Speaker 1: vehicles in your life, and one of those is the
Speaker 1: health reasons. Right, If we can remove a car from
Speaker 1: our lives, that's gonna likely mean that we're gonna be
Speaker 1: walking more, that we're gonna be biking more. And you know,
Speaker 1: like both of those things counts as exercise, which we
Speaker 1: need in order to stay healthy. Sitting in a in
Speaker 1: a car commuting is rough on our bodies. So the
Speaker 1: more changes that we can make in our life to
Speaker 1: decrease the time spending a car, it's gonna pay off
Speaker 1: in us feeling better and being healthier. You might even
Speaker 1: be able to drop that gym membership to you know
Speaker 1: that you're gonna realize even more saving uh. And then
Speaker 1: you know, don't forget about the increase in your mental
Speaker 1: health as well. For a lot of Americans, their car
Speaker 1: community is probably the most stressful part of their day
Speaker 1: unless they're listening to how to money, in which case
Speaker 1: it's just pure bliss. It makes it commune a little
Speaker 1: bit better. I love podcasts, and now everybody wants to
Speaker 1: clean their toilet when they get home. I'm sure they're inspired. Right,
Speaker 1: maybe so, But Matt, let's talk a little more about
Speaker 1: the happiness and driving a car and how that commune
Speaker 1: affects us. And we actually talked way back in the
Speaker 1: episode twenty about how commutes are killing us. And there
Speaker 1: was a lot of evidence that came up against long
Speaker 1: commutes because they are really really bad for for us
Speaker 1: as individuals. Right, And there was this book called Happy
Speaker 1: City by Charles Montgomery, and he writes that a person
Speaker 1: with a one hour commute has to earn forty more
Speaker 1: money to be as satisfied with life as someone who
Speaker 1: walks to their office. On the other hand, for a
Speaker 1: single person, exchanging a long commute for a short walk
Speaker 1: to work has the same effect on happiness as finding
Speaker 1: a new love. I was like, it's pretty cool, astounded
Speaker 1: when I read that that that commute. It's that it's
Speaker 1: that big of a deal that it influences your happiness
Speaker 1: level to that amount. You just have to make a
Speaker 1: much much bigger salary to make it mute feel like
Speaker 1: it's worth it. And if you're single, finding a new love,
Speaker 1: like that's like one of the greatest things that could
Speaker 1: happen to you, right, And eliminating your commute and being
Speaker 1: able to walk or bike ride or something like that
Speaker 1: to the place where you're gonna go five days a week.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that I can have that much of an impact.
Speaker 1: But I believe it does. Like I think, the less
Speaker 1: we commute, the happier we are going to be. And
Speaker 1: it's not just this minor increase in happiness, it's it's
Speaker 1: a pretty overwhelming amount of happiness that gets added into
Speaker 1: our lives. Yeah, it's so good man. Hopefully we're starting
Speaker 1: to convince some folks out there who are considering dropping
Speaker 1: a car. Another benefit, you know, Joel, is something that sucks.
Speaker 1: Oil changes, car repairs, check engine lights, all those things. Uh.
Speaker 1: Life is simpler when you have one less car to
Speaker 1: think about keeping clean, uh and in good working order.
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine if I had two vehicles that I
Speaker 1: had to deal with an ant infestation in because of
Speaker 1: all the crumbs left there from eating in the car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got two cars, right, And so actually, this episode
Speaker 1: I think is partially to help me convince myself to
Speaker 1: ditch your car. But I will say one of the
Speaker 1: cars is an electric vehicle, and those are much simpler vehicles,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot less to worry about when
Speaker 1: it comes to maintenance and stuff like that. So that
Speaker 1: does help. But but even still, I'm feeling the poll
Speaker 1: I'm feeling the I'm feeling the need to ditch one
Speaker 1: of those cars in favor of a simpler life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, so, like whether you do the work yourself
Speaker 1: or if you just have to take it somewhere to
Speaker 1: get worked on by a mechanic car issues like regardless
Speaker 1: if you have a gasoline vehicle, if you have an
Speaker 1: e V. These car shoes, they cost headaches and inconveniences
Speaker 1: in our lives in addition to the money that we
Speaker 1: have to fork over to fix them. You know, back
Speaker 1: in episode to fifteen, we talked about simplicity when it
Speaker 1: comes to our finances, and we know, we talked about
Speaker 1: how we gain so much more focus and clarity of
Speaker 1: mind when things are simpler. And so we believe that
Speaker 1: if if you have one less car in your fleet
Speaker 1: to worry about, that you're going to be able to
Speaker 1: to have increased clarity. Uh In life is gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot better just because of the simplification involved there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know one other thing that will make your life
Speaker 1: better if you have fewer cars, you can have a
Speaker 1: nicer car. I feel like, right, you can have one
Speaker 1: nicer car than the two cars you currently owned. Yeah. Possibly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're still not in favor of spending bookoo dollars on
Speaker 1: a vehicle because its appreciation costs in particular. But Matt,
Speaker 1: we're still a two car family and the two cars
Speaker 1: that we own are pretty cheap vehicles. But you guys chose,
Speaker 1: obviously not to break the bank, but you did choose
Speaker 1: because you are a one car family, to have one
Speaker 1: vehicle that's a little bit newer with a few miles
Speaker 1: and that's just gonna be a reliable car for you
Speaker 1: guys for years to come. Yeah, Like we almost thought
Speaker 1: as a sort of like a reward. You know, it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, you know what, we only have one car,
Speaker 1: and so there are some slight difficulties and we'll kind
Speaker 1: of get to some of those hurdles that you have
Speaker 1: to overcome when you do have one vehicle later on
Speaker 1: in the show. But almost as a reward for that though,
Speaker 1: it's just like, you know what, we can spend a
Speaker 1: little bit more and get a slightly nicer vehicle. We've
Speaker 1: been a one car family now for for over twelve years,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, you know, we've driven like
Speaker 1: very old vehicles, typically around like ten years old. But
Speaker 1: when we finally decided to upgrade to a van, you know,
Speaker 1: we decided that we wanted to spend a little bit
Speaker 1: more on something newer, and so the van we got
Speaker 1: was about five years old. Because of that, you know,
Speaker 1: we saved a ton. It had already depreciated about but
Speaker 1: it was still by far the most expensive vehicle that
Speaker 1: we've ever purchased. We probably, we know, would have gone
Speaker 1: a little bit cheaper, maybe a little bit less fancy
Speaker 1: if we did have two cars sitting in the driveway.
Speaker 1: And so that's maybe just another sort of side benefits
Speaker 1: of having one vehicle versus having to, yeah, get a
Speaker 1: slightly nice for one, Matt. And another big bonus of
Speaker 1: ditching a car and going down either from two to
Speaker 1: one or one to zero is that it's going to
Speaker 1: have major benefits for the environment as a whole. Cars
Speaker 1: and vehicles are actually responsible for about one third of
Speaker 1: our current pollution levels, right, And we've actually seen since
Speaker 1: COVID started a lot of major cities, the guys are
Speaker 1: clearing up above those cities because there is so much
Speaker 1: less traffic, fewer cars on the road, right, I've seen
Speaker 1: those photos pretty remarkable. It is in just a small
Speaker 1: amount of time. So if you are in favor of
Speaker 1: like a greener future with less smog for all of us,
Speaker 1: then taking a car off the road has this meaningful
Speaker 1: impact on the environment around us, right, Yeah, and not
Speaker 1: just emissions as well, but the manufacture of vehicles. If
Speaker 1: you have one less vehicle, that's one less car that
Speaker 1: needs to be manufac acture that gets used and put
Speaker 1: on the road, that then ends up in a landfill somewhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: completely all right, So I think Matt, we've given some
Speaker 1: solid reasons for people to consider getting rid of a car.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily going to be easy, though, right, So
Speaker 1: let's take a break, and after the break we'll talk
Speaker 1: about the hardships of owning only one car. You in
Speaker 1: particular can give some horror stories maybe, and then how
Speaker 1: to actually make the one less car thing, uh in
Speaker 1: actual reality in your life? How do you overcome those hurdles.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that right after this. All right, Gel,
Speaker 1: we're back from the break. We're talking about dropping a vehicle, right,
Speaker 1: removing a car from your life. And right before the break,
Speaker 1: you kind of hinted maybe at horror stories, do you
Speaker 1: have any good ones? No? I know, so you said that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, I don't have any great
Speaker 1: stories one coming. I feel like that that that's a
Speaker 1: testament that it truly is possible to be a family
Speaker 1: and only have one vehicle. In our case, we're a
Speaker 1: family of six. There's so many of us that we
Speaker 1: four kids, and even still we are able to have
Speaker 1: one vehicle. Granted, and I work out, you know, I
Speaker 1: work from home, and before that, Kate and I, you know,
Speaker 1: we were self employed. We we own our own business.
Speaker 1: But even still there's times when we wanted to do
Speaker 1: our own things. And so while we don't have any
Speaker 1: horror stories, maybe that's because we did a lot of planning.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that you're going to
Speaker 1: have to do in order to have one less vehicle. Right. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you're single, you know, having one less car like
Speaker 1: that will will likely force you to do more planning
Speaker 1: in order to avoid getting strained it or calling an
Speaker 1: expensive uber after maybe the bus stops running, or maybe
Speaker 1: just relying on a friend. And if you're sharing a
Speaker 1: car with a partner, you know, just remember that they
Speaker 1: have a schedule of things to do in places to
Speaker 1: go of their own and then of course not to
Speaker 1: mention if there are kids involved. So it will take
Speaker 1: increased communication in many cases to make this work for
Speaker 1: everyone involved. But I really do think it's pretty amazing
Speaker 1: that you know, in over twelve years of only having
Speaker 1: one vehicle, like, we really don't have any horror stories. Man.
Speaker 1: That's good to know. Man. Maybe it puts some people
Speaker 1: who are like I don't know, the sounds crazy a
Speaker 1: little bit at ease knowing that you don't have any
Speaker 1: terrible things to share, at least from your experience in
Speaker 1: twelve years. That's a long time. So another obstacle to
Speaker 1: owning a car one you gotta play in further head
Speaker 1: to you gotta push through annoyances sometimes. Right, you might
Speaker 1: need to have a change of clothes on you after
Speaker 1: a sweaty bike ride because you dished a car, and
Speaker 1: that's how you're getting around in the summer heat. Right,
Speaker 1: If you're buking more an inclement weather, You might need
Speaker 1: to buy some gear so that you can stay committed.
Speaker 1: You might need to get dropped off super early for
Speaker 1: something and maybe twiddle your thumbs for an hour, be
Speaker 1: bored for a minute, and and that's not too bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: us as individuals being quote unquote boards might be a
Speaker 1: good thing from time to time. Yeah, oh yeah, we
Speaker 1: get all use a little bit more bored of in
Speaker 1: our lives, that's for sure. You also, you won't be
Speaker 1: driving in a comfy car with climate control, so get
Speaker 1: ready to push through some annoyances as you make that switch.
Speaker 1: But of course you also won't have to pay big
Speaker 1: bucks every month for that car any longer either. So
Speaker 1: just remember tell yourself over and over as you're sweating
Speaker 1: in the summer heat, or as you're getting grained on
Speaker 1: whatever it is, that you're saving eight d bucks every
Speaker 1: single month, or six hundred bucks every single month, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. Do the calculations so that you could remind
Speaker 1: yourself as you're pushing through the pain. My bank account
Speaker 1: is getting way fatter because of this decision. Yea man,
Speaker 1: that eight hundred bucks a month, that's so great, and
Speaker 1: it's good to remind ourselves of that because excuses are easy.
Speaker 1: You know that they let you off the hook doing
Speaker 1: things that that seem a little uncomfortable. But you know,
Speaker 1: as I tell my girls, no pain, no gain. And
Speaker 1: we we often find out a lot about ourselves when
Speaker 1: we encounter increased discomfort, you know, when we are bored
Speaker 1: for a little bit. Sometimes these can be good things
Speaker 1: that that kind of add to our character. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we might actually find that we save some money and
Speaker 1: we learned a little bit about ourselves. We've grown in
Speaker 1: some ways by ditching a car. Maybe I'm tougher all
Speaker 1: in one fell swoop, Yeah for sure. All right, so
Speaker 1: let's talk about kind of nuts and bolts Matt of
Speaker 1: how to go about cutting a car from your life.
Speaker 1: The first and most important thing to discuss is location
Speaker 1: right where people live. It's obviously one of the biggest
Speaker 1: factors for or against making this change. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: if you live in a rural area with tons of
Speaker 1: miles between you and your home where you need to go,
Speaker 1: maybe your church, maybe it's activities, the baseball field, then
Speaker 1: there's a chance it won't work for you, and you
Speaker 1: might not want to move, and it might not make
Speaker 1: sense for everyone to move, but for other people, depending
Speaker 1: on their current housing situation, changing your location, especially being
Speaker 1: closer to where you work, is gonna have a massive
Speaker 1: impact on your ability to downsize the amount of cars
Speaker 1: you have to own. I know, not everybody lives just
Speaker 1: two miles from an aldi like I do. You know,
Speaker 1: in particular, jib being close to work like that's one
Speaker 1: of the major factors that will help individuals be able
Speaker 1: to to make this move. Most of us work five
Speaker 1: days a week, and so you know, moving within a
Speaker 1: few miles of your job site can really pay off
Speaker 1: in a big way, even if it means paying a
Speaker 1: bit more for your housing. Maybe in that case, like
Speaker 1: you're kind of exchanging costs a little bit, but don't
Speaker 1: forget of all the other benefits of not driving that
Speaker 1: additional vehicles. Not just about money, And we said, it's
Speaker 1: like making more right, so you kind of factor that
Speaker 1: into the decision, and plus the happiness of gaining a
Speaker 1: new love. And you know, the thing is too this
Speaker 1: is again if you're having to go into work, and
Speaker 1: so if you're working from home, it's even easier these
Speaker 1: days to drop a car. And that might even continue
Speaker 1: into the foreseeable future. Yeah, if you, in particular work
Speaker 1: for Google and you're working from home, you don't have
Speaker 1: any excuse man time to ditch the car, right But
Speaker 1: in reality, now that is going to be the case
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, and I think it makes
Speaker 1: this decision a whole lot easier for people, um especially
Speaker 1: now that Pandora's box is open, and you could probably
Speaker 1: ask your employer if you can work from home three
Speaker 1: or four days a week even once office life kind
Speaker 1: of resumes, all right. Another thing that's going to be
Speaker 1: important in ditching a car from your life is finding
Speaker 1: alternative modes of transportation. And one important method that's gonna
Speaker 1: be helpful to a lot of people who are trying
Speaker 1: to get rid of a vehicle is public transportation. And
Speaker 1: really that's only an option in some cities. I know
Speaker 1: there are lots of smaller towns in particular that don't
Speaker 1: have a robust transit system and it's not something that
Speaker 1: you can count on. But don't dismiss it out of
Speaker 1: hand either, Right, many people don't consider taking the bus,
Speaker 1: and that is a perfectly viable option for a whole
Speaker 1: lot of people. For instance, mat where we live, I
Speaker 1: guess we could walk, or we could bike to the
Speaker 1: Marta um and that could help us get aroun town.
Speaker 1: But we can also take the bus system because it's
Speaker 1: actually pretty good, and I know some of our friends
Speaker 1: take it, but I know other people it's just not
Speaker 1: on their radar. Yeah, Man, our friend Andrew, he used
Speaker 1: to always take the bus and then hop on Marta,
Speaker 1: our Atlanta train system, to take that up to work.
Speaker 1: But more recently he's been biking taking his daughter to
Speaker 1: daycare and then biking to the Marta station and then
Speaker 1: getting to work. I mean, so many options, right, And yes,
Speaker 1: if you live in the city, of course, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think public transportation for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: it's something they can consider. Other people, right and just
Speaker 1: obviously dismissed out of hand, it's not gonna work for you.
Speaker 1: But I think for a lot of people who live
Speaker 1: in the city or even a lot of suburban locations
Speaker 1: with decent bus service, I had a friend who would
Speaker 1: take the bus from the suburbs every single day down
Speaker 1: into Atlanta and it worked great for him, man, and
Speaker 1: he was able to eliminate a car that way. Also,
Speaker 1: to let's just quickly mention bikes. Obviously, we talked about
Speaker 1: bikes a lot on the show. We won't overdo it,
Speaker 1: but a regular bike or an e bike, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: so many more of those around these days that that
Speaker 1: can be the thing that allows you to get to
Speaker 1: the maybe semi far away train station, uh three or
Speaker 1: four miles without breaking a sweat. So don't write those off.
Speaker 1: Definitely consider adding a bike into your routine somewhere so
Speaker 1: that you can make it commute without a car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am hearing more and more individuals getting e bikes
Speaker 1: who would never have considered biking to work, but because
Speaker 1: it is the assist, it's so much easier. And yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said, they're not completely you know, drenched in
Speaker 1: sweat when they arrive at work, and so you might consider,
Speaker 1: you know, e bikes as basically like a personal commuter vehicle.
Speaker 1: Within that vein there's folks who you know, use like
Speaker 1: those little mopeds, like the little fifty c C engines.
Speaker 1: That's a great secondary option. You know, you can get
Speaker 1: around town pretty quickly, and you don't have to get
Speaker 1: them registered, you don't have to have insurance on them.
Speaker 1: I had one back in the day. It was wonderful.
Speaker 1: You know, they have electric versions of them now as well.
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about insurance. If I didn't
Speaker 1: have the bike, I'd totally go emo. Ped would I
Speaker 1: wouldn't and I'll not. Note more folks are getting their
Speaker 1: own electric scooters like the kind that you staying on
Speaker 1: as well, um you know bird Jump in line. They've
Speaker 1: all made those electric scooters more popular, but companies are
Speaker 1: selling them directly to commuters as well. I saw recently
Speaker 1: that Wirecutter they reviewed electric scooters and your favorite one,
Speaker 1: the one that they thought was best, only costs six
Speaker 1: seven bucks. It was one made by Segue. And you know,
Speaker 1: when you're able just to hop on that, give it
Speaker 1: a little kick and get rolling, you're not breaking a
Speaker 1: sweat at all. And so we definitely want to encourage
Speaker 1: folks to consider some of these alternate means of transportation,
Speaker 1: some of these micro commuting methods. Yeah, for sure, I
Speaker 1: think you know, technology has just changed so much in
Speaker 1: in the last decade that makes commuting without a car
Speaker 1: so much more of an option, whereas it felt like
Speaker 1: cars were the only option ten years ago, and that's
Speaker 1: just not the case. And Matt, you just mentioned a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons why on the technology front with micro scooters,
Speaker 1: with electric bikes right also to ride sharing apps. They
Speaker 1: are awesome for for one off events, and you know,
Speaker 1: calling a taxi used to be a huge pain, but
Speaker 1: now everyone's got the Uber or Lift app on their
Speaker 1: phone and they've had a big time impact on helping
Speaker 1: us be able to get around town without the need
Speaker 1: for our own car. So obviously, if you're using these
Speaker 1: services multiple times every day, you're gonna be sucking that
Speaker 1: one fewer car savings right out of your life. But
Speaker 1: if you use them sparingly, just on occasion, those services
Speaker 1: are going to ease the pain of single car ownership
Speaker 1: or or even owning no car at all. Right in particular,
Speaker 1: takes the stress out of last minute inconveniences that pop up.
Speaker 1: Knowing that you can have a car right to where
Speaker 1: you are in five minutes to take you where you
Speaker 1: need to go. Again, you don't want to rely on
Speaker 1: it constantly, but it's not nextually know that it's in
Speaker 1: your back pocket just in case you need it. And
Speaker 1: I totally agree. Right sharing apps make it very possible
Speaker 1: to drop down to a single vehicle if you have
Speaker 1: a family. The few minor inconveniences that we have had
Speaker 1: were quickly solved by being able to quickly call an uber,
Speaker 1: you know, hail a lift that, like you said, showed
Speaker 1: up in five minutes and Joe. Sometimes it's not a
Speaker 1: new or alternative type of transportation, but it is instead
Speaker 1: a different approach or a strategy to get to where
Speaker 1: you need to go. So, for instance, you can car
Speaker 1: pool with a friend or coworker. And this isn't something new,
Speaker 1: but I feel like lately it's kind of gotten more
Speaker 1: steam because of some of the different apps. You can
Speaker 1: even car pool with someone you don't even know, you know,
Speaker 1: via ways car pool. There are a lot of cities
Speaker 1: that will even pay you to car pool in order
Speaker 1: to reduce congestion on the roads. You know, So think through,
Speaker 1: like how creative can you get when it comes to
Speaker 1: you know, right sharing? As you think through that, that
Speaker 1: will give you, you know, another massive boost and making
Speaker 1: ditching a car possible. GEA have car pooled with a
Speaker 1: coworker who lives just one neighborhood over, and you know,
Speaker 1: at times it's not quite as convenient if I, like
Speaker 1: want to run to the grocery store on the way home.
Speaker 1: But that's one of those things, right, Playing a little
Speaker 1: bit further ahead, pushing through some of those annoyances in
Speaker 1: order to make something like that work. They're actually really
Speaker 1: simple solutions, Matt that most people just don't consider because
Speaker 1: you know, two cars is simple and easy and you're
Speaker 1: fully autonomous, so why not just keep going in that direction? Well,
Speaker 1: we would say, thing outside the box, and these are
Speaker 1: some helpful ways, different approaches to actually help people get there.
Speaker 1: And also, let's talk about car pooling for your kids. Right,
Speaker 1: that's we just talked about car pooling yourself. But do
Speaker 1: you have to pick your kids up from school every day?
Speaker 1: I mean they might not even be going to school
Speaker 1: right now. Right, it's probably doing virtual school for a
Speaker 1: lot of kids. But it's important to consider whether or
Speaker 1: not you can share these duties with a friend who
Speaker 1: also has kids at the same school or kids who
Speaker 1: participate in the same activities, and that oftentimes that saves
Speaker 1: you time. It cuts down on some of that frustration
Speaker 1: of having to be in the car all the time
Speaker 1: by by splitting the duties with someone else that you're
Speaker 1: friends with. That's something that's easily done but just not
Speaker 1: often considered. Yeah, so car pulling, it's a great practice
Speaker 1: when it comes to uh implementing, you know, moving down
Speaker 1: to one car. Another good approach is to actually give
Speaker 1: it a shot before you sell a car. Right, See,
Speaker 1: if you can go a few weeks or maybe a
Speaker 1: couple of months even only using one car, you can
Speaker 1: even make it a challenge. You might just see that
Speaker 1: it's completely possible before you force this new lifestyle on yourself.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have to go cold turkey. But you know,
Speaker 1: maybe on the other hand, if you know that you
Speaker 1: can ditch a car, then then going all in and
Speaker 1: going ahead and selling it, that might be the commitment,
Speaker 1: you know, where you go all in, where you force
Speaker 1: yourself to only rely on a single vehicle, if you
Speaker 1: know that keeping that second car or even that one
Speaker 1: car around is going to cause you to to use
Speaker 1: it more often, which it most likely will if if
Speaker 1: you have a perfectly good set of wheel sitting there,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to say, you know what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: about bike this time. Uh So, if you know that
Speaker 1: that's there, sometimes you're gonna over rely on it, and
Speaker 1: so maybe even committing to getting rid of that that
Speaker 1: might be unnecessary step that that makes losing a car
Speaker 1: a reality for you. Yeah, man, we covered a lot
Speaker 1: in this episode about ditching a car. I think there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people out there listening who should
Speaker 1: be considering it. And for those of you out there
Speaker 1: who have listened to this whole conversation anyway and you're like,
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous, I'm not going to do it, well, I've
Speaker 1: got one final suggestion, And for people that don't feel
Speaker 1: like they can downsize a car at all, I would
Speaker 1: strongly suggest looking into renting one of your cars out
Speaker 1: when it's not in use on a site like touro
Speaker 1: dot com or get around. And if you can rent
Speaker 1: your car out and actually make some money from it,
Speaker 1: it's not nearly as much of a drain on your
Speaker 1: bank account if it's working for you on the side
Speaker 1: when otherwise it would have been parked. And so look
Speaker 1: into that. Make some money from your vehicle as opposed
Speaker 1: to letting it sit there and just costing you money
Speaker 1: and you're in the line item of your budget every month. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great thought, Joel. And so again, becoming a
Speaker 1: one car family, or maybe cutting a car all together,
Speaker 1: isn't for everyone. You know, some folks just like driving
Speaker 1: like I do, although I don't like driving to work
Speaker 1: every single day. I like driving on a road trip
Speaker 1: where I'm going on vacation, But the pandemic has forced
Speaker 1: our lifestyle to change. So for many that means more
Speaker 1: working from home, which is great if you want to
Speaker 1: ditch a car you currently own. And at the same time,
Speaker 1: technology has brought improvements that make it so much easier
Speaker 1: to only own one car in many cities and even
Speaker 1: in suburban context as well, So we hope that you
Speaker 1: consider making a change for your finances and for so
Speaker 1: many other great reasons as well. Yeah, man, I feel
Speaker 1: like a bum right now, and I feel like we've
Speaker 1: gotta list our second vehicle immediately on Craigslist or something
Speaker 1: like that and or Facebook, yard Tale, trying to try
Speaker 1: to sell it because we really, we really could go
Speaker 1: down to one car. I think it's easily doable for
Speaker 1: our family. It's I definitely see it in your future.
Speaker 1: I mean too, once your new bike comes in as well.
Speaker 1: You've got kind of got that fresh battery on that
Speaker 1: e bike. You're gonna be scooting around no problem, barely
Speaker 1: even peddling at all, you know, like like they're doing
Speaker 1: the little video that when they're trying to sell it
Speaker 1: there's like only three shots where somebody's actually peddling. I
Speaker 1: STU like to pay all that's part owning a bike, Man,
Speaker 1: is the peddaling? I like it. You got a pedal? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I need to take a dose of my own
Speaker 1: medicine and make it happen. All right, Matt, Let's get
Speaker 1: back to the beer that we had on the show today.
Speaker 1: This was a saison from Tired Hands brewing company called Eurason.
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, what were your thoughts on this beer? Man?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you say it ours and I don't know,
Speaker 1: but not too sure. But yeah, man, this was a
Speaker 1: freely stinking good beer. I was gonna say, a fantastic beer.
Speaker 1: It was tart and acidic, while it also had that
Speaker 1: kind of light and fizzy body going on that a
Speaker 1: lot of times you can expect from a Sayson. And
Speaker 1: it also had that distinct funkiness that you get with
Speaker 1: this says on in particular one that's been barrel aged.
Speaker 1: You know, it had so much depth and funkiness going on. Um,
Speaker 1: we've we've said this before, how you and I we
Speaker 1: need to drink more barrel aged Sasons. And this has
Speaker 1: completely convinced me that I need more of this type
Speaker 1: of beer in my life. But yeah, man, I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I'm glad this is one that you were
Speaker 1: able to pick up for us. Thanks for sharing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think I can add anything to the tasting notes.
Speaker 1: I think you described it really, really well. All I
Speaker 1: can say is it was delicious and I would like
Speaker 1: to drink more beers from Tired Hands, particular from them seriously,
Speaker 1: and not to mention. So the label, the artwork on
Speaker 1: this one is awesome as well. It's like an illustrated
Speaker 1: moon that kind of has a skull face on it.
Speaker 1: It actually reminds me of like there's this old French
Speaker 1: film it's called like to the Moon or something like that,
Speaker 1: but it's like the rocket ship lands and hits it
Speaker 1: in the eye. I'm sure you've seen that illustration around,
Speaker 1: but it kind of looks like that, like after the
Speaker 1: moon died or something like that. It's got the skull
Speaker 1: on it. But like that's kind of the visual on
Speaker 1: the on the label there. But I'm with you, man,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of of this beer, and in
Speaker 1: particular tard Hands in general. Me too. Man, all right,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode for folks that
Speaker 1: want show notes for this episode, just go to our
Speaker 1: website at how to money dot com. And you know,
Speaker 1: it would really help us out as well if you
Speaker 1: would leave us a review. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: head over to Apple Podcasts where you can leave us
Speaker 1: a little message there. And Jel and I we actually
Speaker 1: read every single one of those because we're also looking
Speaker 1: for feedback in case someone says something in there that's
Speaker 1: a little bit more constructive. Write. Some constructive criticism is
Speaker 1: always good. We can always get better. So yeah, if
Speaker 1: you haven't done that already, head over and do that
Speaker 1: really helps us out, Joel. That's going to be it
Speaker 1: for this episode, Buddy. Until next time, Best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out,