Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking toxic Ticketmaster, water waste, and Macrone's mission.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised you didn't roll your art there on the McCrone.
Speaker 1: I took Spanish in high school college. Matt related to French.
Speaker 1: That's true. You can always come on, Joel. Though for
Speaker 1: some alliterative headlines, you should have capped it off with
Speaker 1: rising rates, which we'll get to. Yeah, I'll talk about
Speaker 1: that too. Postponed passports. Let's just go ahead and round
Speaker 1: it out. But this is our Friday flight and we're
Speaker 1: going to cover some of the best headlines that we
Speaker 1: came across this week, the ones that we think are
Speaker 1: going to impact your finances the most, and what it
Speaker 1: is that you should be doing in response to the
Speaker 1: stories as well. Okay, just briefly wanted to mention listener
Speaker 1: Jen posted in our Facebook group this week. She said,
Speaker 1: since none of us are going to be interviewed by
Speaker 1: Matt and Joel, which don't speak too soon, Jen, we
Speaker 1: might be reaching out to you. You never know, you
Speaker 1: never know, you never know, and she said, well, I
Speaker 1: want to know what everyone's craft beer equivalent is, so
Speaker 1: It just really started this fund of people posting the
Speaker 1: stuff that they like to spend money on. It was
Speaker 1: just fun to see. By the way, if you're not
Speaker 1: a member of the how to Money Facebook group and
Speaker 1: you're also on Facebook, you should totally join it because
Speaker 1: like that's the only good redeeming part about Facebook, I think.
Speaker 1: But it was just really neat to see what everybody
Speaker 1: spends money on, like what they the stuff they prioritize
Speaker 1: in their lives. Yeah, yeah, so this must have it
Speaker 1: must have been a popular thread because Kate actually brought it.
Speaker 1: I'm never all it, so I feel like you added
Speaker 1: that part. And if you're on Facebook, because I'm on Facebook,
Speaker 1: but I'm like I'm a member or whatever, like having
Speaker 1: a kid, you're number there. I literally it's one of
Speaker 1: the social media platforms that I just decided I need
Speaker 1: to remove from a life. So I don't know, you're
Speaker 1: like the dead beat dad of our Facebook group exactly.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows it. Well, Kate mentioned this particular thread and
Speaker 1: it sounds like a blew up. But did you have
Speaker 1: some favorites in particular that folks mentioned. Well, I did
Speaker 1: notice that a lot of people will have beverages that
Speaker 1: they prioritize coffee in particular. Okay, a lot of people
Speaker 1: go to coffee dire. Actually I can get behind that.
Speaker 1: I'm actually thinking about getting a pretty nice grinder at it.
Speaker 1: I keep getting I don't want, I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about it. Okay, you're about to me to decide
Speaker 1: what Kate and I purchase for our home. Well, you
Speaker 1: like coffee a lot, though, I really do. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: somebody else, by the way, I said, think about up
Speaker 1: in the kind of grinder, and they have, all right,
Speaker 1: get the nice one, get the nice one. I think
Speaker 1: you can. You can, you can spring for it. But
Speaker 1: someone else had expensive board games, which, of course you
Speaker 1: or in on that. We don't play nearly as much
Speaker 1: as we used to, but sixty dollars game less time
Speaker 1: to just hang out with one of us. But it's
Speaker 1: well worth it to buy a couple of good board games,
Speaker 1: or you know, five or ten. And then someone said
Speaker 1: competitive darts. I don't even know what that looks like,
Speaker 1: or you just is it kind of like a pool
Speaker 1: queue that you get a nicer Q stick or something
Speaker 1: like the competitive I'm assuming darts that you throw at
Speaker 1: like a dart board, right, But I'm saying like, similar
Speaker 1: to a poolue or people up, I can get the
Speaker 1: nice ones. Do they have fancied darts? Oh? I'm sure
Speaker 1: they do. Okay, you can get like the cheap ones
Speaker 1: that come with like the kit you know that you
Speaker 1: buy from the toy store, or I'm sure you can
Speaker 1: get some that are really nice that are hand tied weight.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of like phishing flies, like you
Speaker 1: can buy like fly fishing. You can get the standard
Speaker 1: issue flies, but then it's also an art. Yeah, although
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure that folks use those to fish with.
Speaker 1: I think they're just kinda on display. But no, I
Speaker 1: love this. I love that somebody put competitive darts. I'm
Speaker 1: also curious how much they could potentially cost, Like what's
Speaker 1: the range of really nice darts I would be fascinated
Speaker 1: to now? I bet they throw real good, real nice.
Speaker 1: But I love, honestly the weirder the better here because
Speaker 1: what it makes me think is that folks have given
Speaker 1: some time, They've given some thought to what it is
Speaker 1: that they want to spend their money on, as opposed
Speaker 1: to just going with a flow and spending money on
Speaker 1: whatever the internet it tells them that they should be
Speaker 1: spending their money on. It makes me think a little
Speaker 1: bit about a conversation we're planning to have next week
Speaker 1: about stealth wealth and how it's important to spend in
Speaker 1: ways that reflect our values because it's just so easy
Speaker 1: to get sucked into spending in ways that other people
Speaker 1: say are important, exactly not taking the time to figure
Speaker 1: out what matters to us. So thanks Jen for totally
Speaker 1: making that fun thread in the babook. I love that.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, let's move on. Let's get to the
Speaker 1: Friday Flight the Stamp League of stories we found interesting
Speaker 1: this week. There's a lot to cover, a lots to
Speaker 1: talk about FED interest rate hikes. That was a top
Speaker 1: story of this week, right, and what do they do
Speaker 1: on Wednesday? They kept hiking rates And although they kind
Speaker 1: of signaled that maybe we're starting to get close to
Speaker 1: the end of rate hikes, that remains to be remains
Speaker 1: to be seen, but that's at least kind of what
Speaker 1: they're signaling. See well, I mean, so the balance was
Speaker 1: do you raise rates to kind of combat inflation or
Speaker 1: do we not raise rates in order to give the
Speaker 1: banks that really if it's just sort of walk in
Speaker 1: that tight rope and actually j Pal he mentioned in
Speaker 1: a statement too that by slightly raising interest rates not
Speaker 1: as high as maybe some of the governors, some of
Speaker 1: the FED governors wanted to, that will likely tighten up
Speaker 1: lending standards. And what that means is banks will essentially
Speaker 1: be lending out less money, which should in turn also
Speaker 1: drive down inflation, because if there's less money floating around
Speaker 1: in our financials system, they'll just be less money to spend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And basically the FED was signaling that inflation is still
Speaker 1: the top priority, even though kind of what's been happening
Speaker 1: in the banking sector has been a little concerning right
Speaker 1: over the last couple of weeks, And I think it
Speaker 1: makes sense for more worth setting, like and it's it's
Speaker 1: good news for savers too, even though, but it's it's
Speaker 1: not great news if you've got something like credit card
Speaker 1: debt on you haven't paid off. We've been saying that
Speaker 1: for months and really over a year now, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: these rising rates mean you got to get rid of
Speaker 1: that credit card debt as quickly as possible because it
Speaker 1: just continues to get worse. And if you want to
Speaker 1: know more about what these rate hikes are doing to
Speaker 1: your finances, by the way, we just talked about that
Speaker 1: in episode six forty four, so check that one out
Speaker 1: if you haven't had a chance to listen. But even
Speaker 1: though interest rates kind of took the top slot, what's
Speaker 1: happening with the banks is still front of mine too,
Speaker 1: And so Matt, let's talk about everyone's favorite topic right now,
Speaker 1: FDIC insurance. I think most listeners probably have seen more headlines,
Speaker 1: have read more about FDIC insurance over the past couple
Speaker 1: of weeks then at any time previously in their lives,
Speaker 1: and debates are starting to rage about whether or not
Speaker 1: fdi CE insurance is a good thing. Should we raise
Speaker 1: limits to prevent future bank grounds, or should we eliminate
Speaker 1: FDIC insurance altogether. There are proposals kind of on both
Speaker 1: sides because kind of in actuality, what happened was a
Speaker 1: lot of people with uninsured deposits got bailed out when
Speaker 1: those couple of banks collapsed. So then the nature of
Speaker 1: fi C insurance starts to come into question, and you know,
Speaker 1: wonky people are debating these things. My favorite proposal though,
Speaker 1: that I saw, was to maybe keep FDIC insurance where
Speaker 1: it is, or maybe even lower it just a touch.
Speaker 1: But if you want to have more insurance on your deposits,
Speaker 1: pay for it yourself, start to self insure, and so
Speaker 1: some of these smaller companies or wealthy individuals with larger deposits,
Speaker 1: it's like cool, if you want to do all your
Speaker 1: business with one bank, pay for that extra insurance, like
Speaker 1: make that come out of your own time. Heck yeah, man,
Speaker 1: privatize It makes sense to us, honestly, because our deposit
Speaker 1: insurance here in the US it actually goes well beyond
Speaker 1: what most other major countries are offering. And so maybe
Speaker 1: even reducing that mandatory FDIC surance threshold und K where
Speaker 1: it used to be. Yeah, So I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: it does make sense to have an insurance product out
Speaker 1: there that allows individuals to pay that extra in order
Speaker 1: to pile their funds up under one roof. But still,
Speaker 1: this is what's going on for the time being. And
Speaker 1: just so you know, we've we said this last week,
Speaker 1: but just to reiterate it, money that is in your
Speaker 1: savings account is safe. Just make sure that you are
Speaker 1: keeping it under two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But
Speaker 1: there is no need to go running to some of
Speaker 1: the bigger banks. If you are with an FDIC insured bank,
Speaker 1: your money is safe. And also if you have more
Speaker 1: than two hundred and fifty k sitting around you probably shouldn't.
Speaker 1: That should likely be money that you should be investing
Speaker 1: in the market as opposed to having it sit idle.
Speaker 1: That's what your money goals are, right, It depends on
Speaker 1: all your goals are buying a five million dollar mansion
Speaker 1: in a couple of months, then then maybe you need
Speaker 1: more cash on hand, and you've got to react accordingly.
Speaker 1: But keeping it all on one account where you have
Speaker 1: uninsured assets is not smart exactly. Yeah. And also I
Speaker 1: can imagine there's too many folks saving up for that
Speaker 1: five million dollars home. Well, I can't imagine pay good
Speaker 1: for you. I can't imagine there's that many hand of
Speaker 1: money listeners who are like, have the fortunate problem of
Speaker 1: having eight hundred thousand dollars in liquid cash or something
Speaker 1: like that. But I'm sure there are a few out
Speaker 1: there who are trying to wrestle with those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: But I think just a lot of concerns prop up
Speaker 1: from people to wondering whether or not the bank they'rewith
Speaker 1: this safe. And we just want to continually say the
Speaker 1: same thing that yes, your bank if it's FDIC insured,
Speaker 1: is a safe place to store your money. You don't
Speaker 1: need to go to one of the big banks where
Speaker 1: they're gonna likely charge you more fees, offer you worst
Speaker 1: customer service, like not have nearly as great of interest rates.
Speaker 1: So I just want to keep hammering that home. You
Speaker 1: don't need to go to your local brick and mortar
Speaker 1: and move all your funds over there. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about banking fees for a second map because there's actually
Speaker 1: some good news on that front, and it turns out
Speaker 1: that banks are eliminating over draft fees in a big way,
Speaker 1: saving consumers billions of dollars and how many billions, basically
Speaker 1: about about five billions, and so over draft fees they
Speaker 1: used to be a major source of revenue for the banks,
Speaker 1: but they were also one of the worst, most irritating
Speaker 1: kind of fees for individuals, for consumers, and so to
Speaker 1: see more banks moving in this direction, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it's done to try to appease regulators on
Speaker 1: the front end of things, But yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: important too to mention that we all need to make
Speaker 1: sure we're doing business with the banks that are intent
Speaker 1: on reducing fees we mentioned them every time it happens,
Speaker 1: ally is one of those. Capital One has done a
Speaker 1: great job at that. Check the bank's website long into
Speaker 1: your accounts, see if you're being charged a monthly maintenance
Speaker 1: fee or if you've been charged over draft fees recently,
Speaker 1: and if so, it's time to switch. It's time to
Speaker 1: get out of there. There are a lot of banks
Speaker 1: now who are saying we're doing away with these fees,
Speaker 1: and we just want to make sure you're with one
Speaker 1: of them, that you're not sticking with one of the
Speaker 1: ones that is stocking you with a thirty six dollars
Speaker 1: over draft fee just when you buy a cup of
Speaker 1: coffee that you didn't quite have enough money in the
Speaker 1: account to cover. That's right. Yeah, So speaking of fees,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Ticketmaster, because I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: possible for Ticketmaster to get any worse, right, Like, I
Speaker 1: don't think there's any other person or any other institution
Speaker 1: that draws this much hate. And even though Ticketmaster they
Speaker 1: actually did something that they maybe others would considered nicest week,
Speaker 1: they still deserve a public shaming here on the podcast.
Speaker 1: They deserve to be called out because yes, Taylor Swift fans,
Speaker 1: they had a hard time on buying tickets to see
Speaker 1: their their favorite performer. But the astronomical fees that Ticketmaster
Speaker 1: continues to charge customers is what we can't get over.
Speaker 1: And the latest example of this has been The Cure's
Speaker 1: latest tour. They just started selling tickets for the new tour,
Speaker 1: and of course, if you're a fan, you gotta go
Speaker 1: through Ticketmaster, So some fans were apparently paying over ninety
Speaker 1: dollars in fees on eighty dollars worth of tickets. That's
Speaker 1: a total of over one hundred and seventy bucks for
Speaker 1: just a handful of tickets. But what's crazy is just
Speaker 1: that the fees are adding up to actually be more
Speaker 1: than what the actual tickets we're going to cost. Initially, well,
Speaker 1: you gotta pay the CEO, Matt and the upper echelon
Speaker 1: of Ticketmaster, so the band doesn't even get, you know,
Speaker 1: as much money as the Ticketmaster elites. But I really
Speaker 1: do think Ticketmaster should be truly ashamed of kind of
Speaker 1: the fee structure that they have in place, but they're not.
Speaker 1: I don't think they care at all. And Robert Smith,
Speaker 1: who's the lead singer of the Cure, he was pretty
Speaker 1: sensitive to a lot of the fan complaints, and he
Speaker 1: said something to Ticketmaster on their behalf, which is always
Speaker 1: amazing to me. The artists more artists aren't sticking up
Speaker 1: for their fans because their fans are the ones who
Speaker 1: are being taken advantage of. And I will say, one
Speaker 1: little small check mark in Ticketmaster's corner. For the first
Speaker 1: time ever, they actually did and I was surprised to
Speaker 1: see this. They admitted that their fees were a bit much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this could potentially be a turning point. This is the
Speaker 1: one tidbit of good news. Unlikely that it's a turning point,
Speaker 1: but at least it was something. It was a drop
Speaker 1: in the bucket. But here's exactly what they said. They said,
Speaker 1: many of the fees being charged are unduly high. I
Speaker 1: quote that, and so they were funded well how much money,
Speaker 1: five to ten dollars depending on the ticket price. So
Speaker 1: we're still talking about ticket prices being double what they
Speaker 1: otherwise would would be. And you know, basically Ticketmaster has
Speaker 1: a monopoly selling something like eighty percent of the concert
Speaker 1: tickets in the country. And I think artists really need
Speaker 1: to push back even more. They need to have their
Speaker 1: voices heard because again, it's their fans who are being
Speaker 1: taken advantage of. Congress I think needs to do something too.
Speaker 1: The fact that Ticketmaster continues to be allowed to host
Speaker 1: consumers in the way they do. It's uncomfortable. I hate
Speaker 1: seeing fees like this charge to everyday folks who just
Speaker 1: want to go see their favorite Pans or whoever. Yeah, honestly,
Speaker 1: I just don't understand how Ticketmaster and Live Nation were
Speaker 1: able to join forces. So it was back in the
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and nine. They're allowed to merge,
Speaker 1: and that's what essentially gave them like a stranglehold over
Speaker 1: the entire industry. But when you're so dominant, when you're
Speaker 1: such a juggernaut, there is no ability for competition to
Speaker 1: come in and actually compete and to offer a competitive product,
Speaker 1: something that can stand up to Ticketmaster a little bit.
Speaker 1: But this is why competition matters. And actually, if you
Speaker 1: want another example, take wet dog food and this might
Speaker 1: be a weird example of a just stick with us.
Speaker 1: James Kerr he wrote about this over at the Humble
Speaker 1: Dollar this week, and he found that wet dog food
Speaker 1: has jumped in price, while dry dog food it's barely
Speaker 1: budged and so he wrote a letter to the manufacturer
Speaker 1: and he no surprise, he got a short note back
Speaker 1: that said basically nothing. But what he found was that
Speaker 1: even though there were ten brands of wet dog food
Speaker 1: out there, they all come from the same two or
Speaker 1: three suppliers. Uh. And so again just a limit, a
Speaker 1: smaller amount of competition. So it also makes me think,
Speaker 1: was it Jet Blue and Spirit we're looking to join
Speaker 1: forces again and they got shut down? So and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of different airlines, more airlines than there
Speaker 1: are ticket issuers absolutely or what dog food? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's not It's not as bad as the concert
Speaker 1: ticket industry because nothing, I would even say, not even
Speaker 1: home internet is as bad as like Ticketmaster, because at
Speaker 1: least up there, Yeah, but at least you've got two
Speaker 1: you've got two guys that you are bouncing back and forth.
Speaker 1: A lot of people would call that a duopoly. They
Speaker 1: set prices kind of against each other, not in a
Speaker 1: competitive way, but almost in like a collaborative way, which
Speaker 1: is pretty pretty nasty. But it's not still not as
Speaker 1: bad as a monopoly, which Ticketmaster clearly is. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I would yeah, And you said even said something about
Speaker 1: Congress doing something too, And I might even push back
Speaker 1: a little bit on that because I'm not sure or
Speaker 1: when any regular like anytime I feel like the government
Speaker 1: gets involved, it tends to lead to ultimately, like in
Speaker 1: the long run, perhaps an inferior product. But I am
Speaker 1: surprised that they were again back into nine, that they're
Speaker 1: able to join forces. Man, it's just well, I disagree
Speaker 1: because there's so it's so terrible that they are allowed
Speaker 1: to do this, and they charge such high fees, and
Speaker 1: it's not like they're providing a great product either, So
Speaker 1: the product suffers, the consumer suffers, and like something needs
Speaker 1: to be done. Really would feel differently if like the
Speaker 1: airlines they get because it's more of a public utility,
Speaker 1: but like this is entertainment, and do folks need to
Speaker 1: go see the cure? Kate would enjoy that, you know,
Speaker 1: choose a fan back in the day. But for that reason,
Speaker 1: it's something that I think folks can choose to opt
Speaker 1: out of and their life won't be dramatically impacted, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But I feel like this puts
Speaker 1: a bad taste in people's mouths in terms of like
Speaker 1: how capitalism works when monopolies and duopolies are allowed to
Speaker 1: run them. Uck. It makes people think that capitalism. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and I get that, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that's the problem. I think the problem is the monopoly
Speaker 1: or duopolies situation. We also have a choice to because
Speaker 1: if you say you are like, okay, I must go
Speaker 1: to that show, maybe it is life giving to me.
Speaker 1: But you can still go to the show, but just
Speaker 1: go straight to the box office and then you get
Speaker 1: to skip those those fees altogether. Well, sometimes sometimes it
Speaker 1: depends on it depends on the place it's selling it,
Speaker 1: and sometimes there are fees when you buy it in
Speaker 1: person too. I've been able to skip fees many times
Speaker 1: going that route. But then again, when you look at
Speaker 1: something like the Taylor, Swift or Beyonce concerts, like the
Speaker 1: tickets we're gone, and those tickets we're gone, blink of
Speaker 1: an eye. Yeah, basic, So you don't have that option.
Speaker 1: So yeah, something something should be done about Ticketmaster. I
Speaker 1: don't know what, but at least we're gonna rake them
Speaker 1: over the coals here on the show. But Matt, let's
Speaker 1: we got more to get to in on today's Friday flight.
Speaker 1: We want to talk about kind of what's happening with
Speaker 1: the passport situation and give kind of a word of
Speaker 1: advice for anybody who's looking to travel soon. I'll talk
Speaker 1: about that and more right after this. We are back
Speaker 1: from the break and we're going to continue our Friday
Speaker 1: flight here with the ludicrous headline of the week, and
Speaker 1: this one comes from Bloomberg. The headline reads, bottled water
Speaker 1: sales exceed the cost of providing safe water for all
Speaker 1: un says, so, yeah, it turns out that we spend
Speaker 1: way too much on bottled water in this country, and
Speaker 1: it raises the question, Joel, you know, given just the
Speaker 1: reality of safe, cleaning tap water at our disposal, it
Speaker 1: is amazing that so many folks are opting for bottled
Speaker 1: water that costs way more. Part of what this new
Speaker 1: paper found was that and this is i'll quote this
Speaker 1: company selling water also use marketing to undermine faith in
Speaker 1: public systems, which essentially what that means is like we
Speaker 1: are buying into the marketing hype that bottled water is
Speaker 1: better for us when it's just not. Yeah, and well,
Speaker 1: I feel like all sorts of newfangled bottled waters have
Speaker 1: come on the market recently too, where it's like bottled
Speaker 1: water with electrolytes or different pH levels or something like that.
Speaker 1: And so with salt, Yeah, it's it seems and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that there's zero merit to any of those
Speaker 1: different kinds of bottle water. I'm sure there is something,
Speaker 1: But how much money we're spending to get these fancified
Speaker 1: versions of bottled water. Or there's even like Liquid Death,
Speaker 1: which is canned water, which has like seven hundred billion
Speaker 1: dollars in sales or something. It's like one of the
Speaker 1: fastest growing companies and it's literally just a cool can
Speaker 1: that contains water. Liquid Death. We are so buying into
Speaker 1: the marketing on this front, and it's pretty disturbing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will say so, like they're they were trying to
Speaker 1: equate the fact that certain companies, certain industries, in particular
Speaker 1: the bottomed water industry, that because it's doing well, that
Speaker 1: that means other countries out there aren't able to provide safe,
Speaker 1: publicly accessible drinking water. And I'd take a little umbridge
Speaker 1: with that part of it, because it's not like the
Speaker 1: success of those industries is holding down the ability for
Speaker 1: some countries to thrive. Right, Like say they were spending
Speaker 1: more on bottle water. It's just a kind of absurd.
Speaker 1: It's a comparison, yeah, essentially, but I didn't I guess
Speaker 1: I didn't like how they're kind of comparing, Like it
Speaker 1: made me think of like you can apply that to anything, Like, Hey,
Speaker 1: the reason there aren't mosquito nets on the other side
Speaker 1: of the world because you're watching Netflix. It's like, well, like,
Speaker 1: if we all stop watching Netflix and sent that towards
Speaker 1: mosquito nets, there's probably doesn't necessarily equate to the other.
Speaker 1: And I think we should all have to have the
Speaker 1: freedom to certainly donate money in ways that we see fit.
Speaker 1: But I do agree that we are spending way too
Speaker 1: much dinking money on bottled water here. We would recommend
Speaker 1: for folks to go out there get yourself a solid
Speaker 1: filtration system for your house, or just like a Britta
Speaker 1: Britta filtration pitcher, which is what we got in our
Speaker 1: little fridge. You literally just drink the straight up tap water.
Speaker 1: Homies like that, there's nothing wrong with it. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it tastes better when you filter it in, maybe, but barely.
Speaker 1: But the tap water we gas mostly fine. Come on,
Speaker 1: it's mostly fine. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1: It's just the flavors that you get sometimes from the chlorination.
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of when I'm making my
Speaker 1: fancy coffee, which I'm going to be making more of
Speaker 1: after I get a maybe I get a nicer grinder, perhaps,
Speaker 1: but I as I was thinking about it, I think
Speaker 1: one of the reasons though, that we that Americans in
Speaker 1: general are folks all around the world go with bottled
Speaker 1: water is because it's just the convenience, right, Like, if
Speaker 1: you've got a bottled water, that means it's in the fridge.
Speaker 1: You can just go up to the fridge, grab it
Speaker 1: and walk away, and you've got a nice thing of
Speaker 1: water there. But yeah, buying a reusable bottle and actually
Speaker 1: going through the process of filling it up, it only
Speaker 1: takes a second, but it'll save you a lot of money.
Speaker 1: We're wasting money, we're wasting plastic, and we're not really
Speaker 1: getting much in return. So totally all right, let's talk
Speaker 1: about passports, Matt, because passport wait times are not great
Speaker 1: right now, that is maybe maybe an understatement, but the
Speaker 1: state Department is basically overwhelmed with the amount of passport
Speaker 1: requests that are coming in the front door, including both
Speaker 1: yours and mine. Although you paid the extra expedited fee
Speaker 1: wisely because that looming over your head. Yeah, well you
Speaker 1: you'd got you were able to renew yours online and
Speaker 1: I had to go in person because mine had expired
Speaker 1: so long ago. Because heads up, when you have four kids,
Speaker 1: you don't do much international travel. Yeah, well so mine
Speaker 1: now still says two months later after having submitted it online,
Speaker 1: which I thought is crazy. I thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be a superior process. It still only says received,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't even say that it's in process, which
Speaker 1: is super frustrating. I bet you'll get yours, like in
Speaker 1: a few days, I hope. So, yeah, I'm going to
Speaker 1: buy next Tuesday. I bet it's in your in your inbox,
Speaker 1: let's or what do you call it, mailbox, your actual mailbox,
Speaker 1: pray hand emoji's okay going after that one. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there's something they're trying to process, something like five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand passports a week, which is like laying thing. So
Speaker 1: I'm one of a lot of people getting lost in
Speaker 1: the shuffle. And so just word of the wise, if
Speaker 1: you're planning on taking an international trip this year and
Speaker 1: your passport is expired or expiring, get on the ball,
Speaker 1: get the renewal process started now, and like I said,
Speaker 1: you can submit the renewal request online, which is a
Speaker 1: cool time saving feature, but allow yourself extra weeks beyond
Speaker 1: even what the state department is saying it's going to take,
Speaker 1: which I did, and I'm still fingers crossed hoping I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get it in time. We will see, but don't
Speaker 1: don't delay, because it really could mess up your trip
Speaker 1: in a big way, costing you costing you even more
Speaker 1: or maybe even just days off your life as you
Speaker 1: sit there and stress about it. That's why I paid
Speaker 1: to get it expedited. I thought that it would be
Speaker 1: able to show up on time, I think, but again
Speaker 1: because I had to go in person and waiting the
Speaker 1: long stinking line, I was like, all right, I'm let's
Speaker 1: just go ahead and expedite it, which you know I'm
Speaker 1: wishing I had. Yeah, but yeah, just to have it,
Speaker 1: I'll say, the new pass cheap. Not no, I think
Speaker 1: it'll show up very sing Joel. But it is also
Speaker 1: important to note that the expiration date on your passport,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily the actual expiration date. And so what
Speaker 1: I mean by that is that most countries they don't
Speaker 1: want your passport to expire while you're there visiting. They
Speaker 1: want you to be able to get out of there
Speaker 1: and go home. So a lot of countries in Europe
Speaker 1: require that your passport be valid for at least three months,
Speaker 1: like France, Germany, Italy, like the big popular countries that
Speaker 1: folks want to visit from the date of departure from
Speaker 1: the data exactly exactly, although there's probably less folks wanting
Speaker 1: to visit France these days. We'll get to that story
Speaker 1: here in a second. You might think, oh, my passport,
Speaker 1: it's just fine, I've got plenty of time left on it.
Speaker 1: But the visiting country you're going to says, oh contrere no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, we don't You're not allowed in unless
Speaker 1: you've got at least three months left to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And honestly, there's a bunch of other countries that push
Speaker 1: that requirement out even further to six months, like the
Speaker 1: Cayman Islands, Malaysiani account is matt right the exactly, the
Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates they follow in this category as well.
Speaker 1: So it's not there's a lot of countries out there
Speaker 1: that want you to show and to prove that hey,
Speaker 1: by the time you leave here your scheduled departure date.
Speaker 1: Your passport needs to be a good half year from expiring.
Speaker 1: That way, you don't run into any any sort of complications,
Speaker 1: any sort of difficulties. Yeah, so even if your passport
Speaker 1: is not technically expired, it might be treated like it is.
Speaker 1: And so if you are in that position, we would
Speaker 1: recommend that you go ahead and get it renewed as well. Yep, totally.
Speaker 1: All right. So let's talk about retirement for a second
Speaker 1: and why you may not want to go and visit Paris. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: there are multiple reasons maybe not to go visit Paris
Speaker 1: right now, Matt. As we're talking about retirement, let's talk
Speaker 1: about Macrone and what's going on kind of in Paris
Speaker 1: right now in France in general. And my sister, my
Speaker 1: mom and dad, they were just over there visiting and
Speaker 1: they were talking to me about how the metro was
Speaker 1: shut down and there was kind of some different stuff
Speaker 1: going on there, flaming bags of trash in the streets.
Speaker 1: Not yet, they left right before the flaming bags of trash. Yes,
Speaker 1: so they got out just in the nick of time.
Speaker 1: But why are things going haywire over in France? Well,
Speaker 1: it's because the president is trying to raise the retirement
Speaker 1: aids there from sixty two to sixty four and the
Speaker 1: French people they're just not happy about it. And so
Speaker 1: in fact, there are strikes across the country, fires in
Speaker 1: the streets, and unfunded liabilities are a problem that a
Speaker 1: lot of countries around the world are having to reckon with.
Speaker 1: Right as the average age of the population gets older.
Speaker 1: There are countries that are worse off than France, right,
Speaker 1: like Japan, for instance. And someone has to be the
Speaker 1: adult in the room. And President Macron is attempting to,
Speaker 1: like my pronunciation there, you're doing yeah, all right, you've
Speaker 1: improved greatly, thank you from the beginning of this episode.
Speaker 1: So he's really attempting to be the adult here, and
Speaker 1: it might be to the detriment of his political career
Speaker 1: even and he finally kind of broke his silence this
Speaker 1: week and he said, do you think I enjoy doing
Speaker 1: this reform? No, the longer we wait, the worst the
Speaker 1: situation will get. And so my question is when are
Speaker 1: politicians in our country going to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: When are they going to say, you know what matters
Speaker 1: the most is getting this right, not my own actually
Speaker 1: addressing the problem. Yeah, not my own political career and
Speaker 1: me getting reelected again. Yeah. Yeah, Now he's showing some
Speaker 1: I actually appreciate what he's doing. He's showing some initiative,
Speaker 1: and he's actually being a leader, as opposed to politicians
Speaker 1: in our country who typically just continue to politic, yeah,
Speaker 1: instead of lead. And so on that note, on the
Speaker 1: note of our country, let's talk about social security, because
Speaker 1: it feels like it's a long way off to most
Speaker 1: how to money listeners, but it is always worth mentioning, right,
Speaker 1: it's worth putting into your head now that taking social
Speaker 1: Security early is a bad idea. If you were to
Speaker 1: draw on it as soon as you are eligible, it
Speaker 1: could easily cost you tens of thousands, but it could
Speaker 1: even get up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So.
Speaker 1: A recent study found that roughly ninety percent of individuals
Speaker 1: would benefit financially by waiting until age seventy to collect
Speaker 1: their checks their Social Security, but less than ten percent
Speaker 1: of retirees actually wait that long. So yeah, just something
Speaker 1: to keep in mind, especially if you are getting closer
Speaker 1: to retirement age, or you've got parents who are and
Speaker 1: they're healthy. There are plenty of good out there that
Speaker 1: you're going to live well into your nineties, so you know,
Speaker 1: getting that bigger check every single month for decades is
Speaker 1: going to be a huge win. And you know, back
Speaker 1: in episode thirteen, we we actually talked about whether or
Speaker 1: not we can count on social Security being there by
Speaker 1: the time we you know, achieve allennials, in particularly allennials
Speaker 1: gen Z, reach retirement age, and you know, we think
Speaker 1: that it will still be there. We don't think it's
Speaker 1: going to be completely gone. But like France is dealing
Speaker 1: with right now, at what age will we be eligible
Speaker 1: to start drawing on Social Security and how much will
Speaker 1: be available to us? That is certainly up in the air.
Speaker 1: So much depends on how long it's going to take
Speaker 1: for the politicians to address kind of the elephant of
Speaker 1: the room, Yeah, the actual problem and start making changes.
Speaker 1: And the longer we wait, the more drastic the measures
Speaker 1: are gonna have to be. Exactly And I think this
Speaker 1: is another reason too that we advocate for you to
Speaker 1: start investing, saving and investing for your own retirement. Take
Speaker 1: the responsibility. Do you want to count on the government
Speaker 1: to figure this out by the time you reach retirement age,
Speaker 1: or do you want to take the reins in your
Speaker 1: own hands and steer that bad boy where you want
Speaker 1: it to see again, I think we basically said that
Speaker 1: most people should be able to assume that something like
Speaker 1: seventy five percent of the current payment payout of Social
Speaker 1: Security that even millennials and Gen z will be eligible for.
Speaker 1: But you definitely want to start planning for your own
Speaker 1: retirement because even that wouldn't be enough. But hopefully our
Speaker 1: elected leaders take a page out of Macrone's book, and
Speaker 1: hopefully we as US citizens react a little differently. As
Speaker 1: I see the fires in the street, they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do that. We'll hold off a couple more years ago,
Speaker 1: let things calm down over emparised. Yeah, which I get,
Speaker 1: but still not the best way to proceed. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about cell phones for a second. Matt and cell phone plans.
Speaker 1: Verizon announced a couple of weeks ago that they're going
Speaker 1: to be raising rates on some of their older cell
Speaker 1: phone plans. Not by much, talking like two dollars a
Speaker 1: month on a lot of these plans. But the additional
Speaker 1: fee is set to be added on April tenth, and
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily that this two dollars a month fee
Speaker 1: is what you should be repulsed by. This isn't going
Speaker 1: to break the bank, break the budget of most of
Speaker 1: our listeners. Two bucks a month, like most people get
Speaker 1: to handle that, But it's it's the overall price that
Speaker 1: you're likely paying if you're on a Verizon phone plan,
Speaker 1: and two extra dollars should be the thing that finally
Speaker 1: gets you to switch. I should the yeah, that straw
Speaker 1: that breaks the camel's back. Yes, exactly. And so Americans,
Speaker 1: I think they're paying something around seventy five bucks for
Speaker 1: a single line on average for cell phone service every
Speaker 1: single month. Those two much. It's not the two bucks,
Speaker 1: it's the seventy five versus the fifteen or twenty that
Speaker 1: they really could be paying, right, And so yeah, this
Speaker 1: this added fee, it really should be the last straw
Speaker 1: getting you to finally move your business to one of
Speaker 1: the major discounters like Mint, Visible Boost or Google five.
Speaker 1: Those are some of the best ones. That's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so on that note, Mint Mobile they announced I
Speaker 1: guess was this last week or maybe in the week before,
Speaker 1: but they are selling to T Mobile. And let's be honest,
Speaker 1: we're not thrilled about this, but we're also not despondent
Speaker 1: because T Mobile, you know, they've kind of been a
Speaker 1: disruptor in the cell phone space. It seems like over
Speaker 1: the years that they've sort of held the likes of
Speaker 1: Verizon and AT and T accountable in many ways. Again
Speaker 1: going back to the competition station, the more competitors there are,
Speaker 1: the better. Yeah, that's why we're not happy about Mint
Speaker 1: getting bought out by T Mobile. But the fact that
Speaker 1: I don't know that T Mobile exists, I guess makes
Speaker 1: me happy. And Mint still really has some of the
Speaker 1: best cheap offerings and Team Mobile has made it sound
Speaker 1: like they're going to keep it that way. If they
Speaker 1: change things dramatically, it would I think it would be
Speaker 1: a massive mistake, Like why would you spend that much
Speaker 1: money on this growing, affordable brand only to jack their
Speaker 1: rates up. It sounds like Ryan Reynolds he's still going
Speaker 1: to be involved, which I think that bodes well since
Speaker 1: he's basically who spearheaded Mint and the messaging so far,
Speaker 1: it's been that T Mobile is not planning to raise
Speaker 1: prices on the Mintmobile plans, which is good. So fingers
Speaker 1: crossed that Team Mobile that they stayed true to their
Speaker 1: word and if that isn't how things actually play out,
Speaker 1: you'll definitely be hearing about it right here. How the Money.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, we're going to continue to use
Speaker 1: our Mintmobile plans to the max. Yeah, they're great and
Speaker 1: we're big fans. We've used them for like three Well,
Speaker 1: we don't have the unlimited ones because we don't need them,
Speaker 1: not so the unlimited max correct to the cheapest gig
Speaker 1: amount we need max, but exactly, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: still one of the cheapest plans out there for sure
Speaker 1: that a lot of people should think about. And yeah,
Speaker 1: if Mintmobile all of a sudden goes Darth Vader takes
Speaker 1: a turn for the worst or something like that, we will. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll report back, but hopefully not so Matt. That's going
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode. If you want show
Speaker 1: notes and you want links to any of the stuff
Speaker 1: that we mentioned, you can find those up on our
Speaker 1: website at howtomoney dot com. That's right, So until next time,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.