00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt's. Today we're answering your listener questions. 00:00:25 Speaker 2: That's right, buddy, this is an ask How the Money episode. We've got tons of listener questions to get to. 00:00:31 Speaker 3: Uh. 00:00:31 Speaker 2: For folks who are not watching this on YouTube, you failed to see Joel and I cheers ing with our beers in front of the camera there. 00:00:38 Speaker 1: But we are going on my mustache, Matt, it's incoming. 00:00:41 Speaker 2: You gotta wipe it. You got to wipe it out sometimes, dude. Did it just get really dark over at the office. Yeah? 00:00:46 Speaker 4: I did. 00:00:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's store. I'm afraid it's about to leave. I'm realizing that I look like like a hacker from the two thousand Odts who's sitting in front of his laptop, like yes, being lit by my screen because it just got crazy dark. I hope you know. 00:01:00 Speaker 1: I've had a green neon light over here and it's shining on me, and I feel like it's making me look a little like I'm in an alien space. 00:01:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The green neon dollar sign gets more prominent the darker it gets outside. I've always noticed that over the. 00:01:13 Speaker 1: Years, and there's that sheen on your glasses just a bit happening. 00:01:16 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I should have upgraded for the reflective coding from Zenny, but a little bit extra. Yeah, I actually do get the codings and not for that. We're gonna hear from listeners. A listener is asking where he should be parking cash that he's got coming up. He's got home purchase coming up, so we're gonna hear from him. From him. Another listener is asking whether she should go with the like set it and forget it investments, or if she should be taking her father's advice. And another listener he's wondering about refinancing his mortgage, like how low is low enough? How low can you go? Hello? Should he go? Before he pulls the trigger? Get to those plus a couple. 00:01:57 Speaker 1: More during limbo adjacent mortgage. 00:02:00 Speaker 2: That's what I was thinking. I like feeling. I like it. You've got a thing here about utilities. What's that? What's that all about? 00:02:05 Speaker 1: So we we have we pay for at our little office. We somebody asked in the comments question of our first YouTube video. They were like, where is your officet? Like, and I'm like, we're not giving actually the addresses out there. I'm sure, so I guess comments if you want. 00:02:23 Speaker 2: But if it was just like if it was also, oh, I love the show, but listening forever generally speaking, whereabouts in the country, that's like one thing, but it was like where do you live again, going back to the Sinister Green and the hacker, like where is it? 00:02:39 Speaker 1: We'll never tell, not you at least, But so we pay for internet service here, of course, it's a necessity of the job. And I realized that the price we paid per month had gotten out of control, like we literally started off, Matt. I don't know if you remember this. I remember how much we were paying initially when they're like thirty bucks. Was twenty bucks twenty three meg speed internet from the local cable company for like a couple of years, like it was a great prize. And then it went up to like forty and I was like. 00:03:10 Speaker 2: It's out there for like a nice two years, like in the forty dollars range, which you know, not the most exciting. 00:03:18 Speaker 1: No, but I was like, it's not the worst. 00:03:19 Speaker 2: I guess. 00:03:20 Speaker 1: I was like, okay, forty four dollars to be exact, I was looking it up. I was like, I'm the frog and boiling water here, forty four dollars whatever, perfectly reasonable. It's seemed reasonable. Twenty dollars seemed like a deal, and I was like, if I call in, they're probably not even gonna do much for me anyway. And then then the bill hit hit seventy nine dollars, and I was like, that's just absurd. Cannot do this. This is offending my how to money host sensibility. So place the phone call. Pretty quickly. They they were like, Okay, here's what we can do for you. We can lock it in for this for the next year. At I believe it's down to forty nine, so it's not as good as forty five. But I was trying to get it back down to the twenty but they were like, yeah, that doesn't exist anymore, sir. 00:04:01 Speaker 2: Okay, And so just they're like, hey, hey, buddy, that those are those are prepaying prices, right right, that was before all the inflation. That's right. 00:04:08 Speaker 1: Have you heard about this thing called inflation that's been happening, Like, we can't give you a rate like that anymore. Yeah, But I mean, okay, this this is a quintessential truth, right that, like we have to eat our own cooking too. When it comes to saving money and placing the phone call to the cable company. It it lines up with getting a colonoscopy, which I also have not done because I just I don't want to do that, right, I don't want to do that. I know I should. Someone's gonna write an email now and be like, you should get the colonoscopy. But doing it and saving the money, it feels so good. It was worth the effort. And now we got that lower price locked in, We're gonna save you know, four hundred bucks at least over the next year and then and then hopefully more after that. 00:04:45 Speaker 2: Okay, So I'm sorry. I'm actually kind of surprised to hear that you that you compare it to a colonoscopy, because I feel like you, this feels like it's more in line with how it is that you like to handle your money, right, Like, yeah, I guess I'm thinking about like I'm really I'm really really bad about stuff like that. As they like slowly ratch it up, the price my personal home internet price has gone up, and I have not made that call because it is something that I absolutely loath doing. But that way, when it comes to a just with a whole lot of things as opposed to I'm thinking about something that a lot of people don't like to do that I do not enjoy, but I take more pride, I guess, or it's just I find it more interesting, which is budgeting and tracking my spending. And so I thought you might say that you're glad you did it. You love doing it because you like haggling, and because there's a certain part of haggling that's kind of fun, like if you're doing it in person with somebody, and I'm fine with that, like if I'm if I happen to already be somewhere, I'm fine asking for a deal or asking if there are any discounts, strike up a conversation, and it's fun. But sort of like what you said, find like getting the phone number, making the call, finding a way to pull that off is for me a much bigger task. I don't I don't know. Haggling in like a public marketplace is one thing. It's kind of fun, but like calling the cable company feels like, well, sir, let me check and see what what specials we have on offer right now, after you've probably after you were on hold, I'm sure for time after you wait for an interminable time. And I feel like they've gotten better at that. But it's just one of those things where I think for most people, the kind of the mind block is I have to call this one eight hundred number and have this conversation. 00:06:34 Speaker 1: And we've talked about this before. Two you can chat with an agent these days now. I just thought, man, maybe this, maybe I think this might be quicker or easier for me if I do it on the phone number. And maybe that's just my grandpa millennial vibe too, is just like, ah, the phone calls that was going to make up the phone technology? 00:06:49 Speaker 2: What's this? Sometimes you just pick up the phone, But it's the way to get it done. 00:06:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes it's a way to get it done. But I guess what I'm is the how hard was it? 00:06:58 Speaker 2: In reality? 00:06:59 Speaker 1: Not really as bad as I built it up to be in my own mind. It really didn't take that much time. I just had to set aside a little time to do it, and ultimately the money savings was worth it. 00:07:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it, you know. So the fact that you said it's not as hard as you had thought it was going to be, Like this wasn't as big as how you built it up in your mind. And I think for me that's a big problems. It's the novelty of it as opposed to like when I budget and track my spending, that is something that I know exactly how to do. I have a system for that, you know what, I don't have a system for what number to call and what prices I should be asking for and comparing it and doing the comparison shopping and see who's offering something similar, like all of that. All of that's like forging new ground. It's like I don't know, taking machete out into the forest and trying to blaze your own trail, as opposed to something that's well worn, which comes with evolution. Right, Like we just love shortcuts and ways to make things easy, and that's what systems are. And I really really really like systems. And I'm going to try to avoid the bushwhacking. I guess whenever it Well, if you need me doing that, I preciable company on your behalf. Let me know. 00:08:03 Speaker 1: I'll do it for you, all right, I can I can pretend to be you for a minute. Should you mentioned the beer we're having? 00:08:08 Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah? So, uh David, I'll say David s from Ontario. We don't we don't hear for too many listeners. And I literally can't even see my north of the border. Yeah, I can't see the name of the beer on the can here because bear Hug, Bear Hug. There it goes. It's on the side, Bear Hug, I p. 00:08:26 Speaker 1: A giant letters. 00:08:28 Speaker 2: I see it on the side, now, okay, but I was just trying to find it on here. 00:08:32 Speaker 1: If you want to see me make it, Matt look like a dummy right now. Yeah, it'll be on the video side. 00:08:37 Speaker 2: So this is this is a bigger I p A. And we're gonna enjoy it share our thoughts at the end of the episode. I love it. 00:08:42 Speaker 1: It's by Market Brewing Company and it's called Bear Hug, so we'll just call it like bear Market. 00:08:48 Speaker 2: I PA. How do you what do you think about it? 00:08:49 Speaker 4: Oh? 00:08:49 Speaker 2: Bear Market? Let's yes, we don't want bear markets. I guess if you are in the wealth building phase, if you're in the wealth drawdown sort of phase, bear markets not good. 00:09:00 Speaker 1: Well, let's get to listener questions, Matt. If you have a listener question, how tomoney dot com slash ask is the place to go to learn how to submit it, but basically recording a voice memo on the app of your phone emailing it over to us how toomoneypod at gmail dot com. Hopefully we can take it next week on the show and you can even see our visceral facial reaction on YouTube as we listen to your voice memo. By the way, it's the lightning is getting intense where I am right now. Yes, let's get to this first one though, about what to do with extra cash from a home sale. 00:09:30 Speaker 5: Hey, Matt and Joel Brian, calling you guys back from Fairbanks, Alaska. I have another question for you guys. You guys have been so helpful in the past, and I like throwing you guys some kind of maybe fairly unique card balls or at least softballs sometimes and get your guys' opinion on stuff. Love the show and so thankful that I get to share some of my experiences and questions with you guys. Anyway, the question I have is my wife and I are actually probably not going to be from Fairbanks here much longer, and we're planning move in down south to the lower forty eight so that we can be closer to some family. Our goal is to sell our house up here. I know that might be sacrileged to some with the low interest rate, but we just can't stomach being landlords from, you know, multiple states away. But we're going to sell the house and we plan on having probably between two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand equity once we get down to the states. We are hoping to rent for about a year before we finally purchase a house, kind of get to know the neighborhoods and decide what we want as a family. So with this two hundred ish thousand dollars, I want to know what's your guys' opinion on. 00:10:42 Speaker 2: The best place to put it. 00:10:44 Speaker 5: We have a high yield interest savings account that we can put it into. 00:10:49 Speaker 2: We would it would put us over the. 00:10:51 Speaker 5: Limit of the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the insurance, which makes me a little bit worry, but I can probably live with that. And then we also have a brokerage account. We're hoping to probably rent for about a year and purchase in about a year, and so I just kind of want to get your guys opinion on where to put those those funds while we wait and we look and have this big life change that's coming up probably in the our future. 00:11:18 Speaker 2: Anyway, Again, love your guys. 00:11:19 Speaker 5: Just show one day, hopefully I'll be down there and maybe we can grab a beer together and you know, go for a bike ride or a quick run. So it's great to chat with you guys, and hope to hear back from you soon. 00:11:30 Speaker 2: Thanks. 00:11:31 Speaker 1: All right, let's throw the triathlon together, Brian, come on, we're gon we're going to bike and run. 00:11:35 Speaker 2: Let's throw as well throw the swim. And that's where that's where I drowned. But yeah, so Joe, let me get you. 00:11:41 Speaker 1: Swim first, Matt, because you really would We would all drown if you had to do it. 00:11:45 Speaker 2: Third, I'm totally down with the biking in the running. I've not ever competitively swam before. Have I ever shared the story about I was interested in a girl in college and she swam all the time, like she was a swimmer and sells like I can swim, And so we went like all the time. 00:11:59 Speaker 1: Huh did she smell like chlorine all the time? 00:12:01 Speaker 2: No, she washed her hair, I guess, But I just wanted to spend more time with her and hang out and not. So we went to at the time, it was called Ramsey was the Giant student fitness center, and she's like, all right, this is let's go. And I swam like one lap before I was just completely out of breath. It's like hanging on the side of the pools, like sweating in the pool. I was like, I've never been I've never swept before, like while I've gone swimming. And yeah, I didn't go anywhere with that one. So yeah, it was not Kate. They'll say. Anyway, enough about tries. I wanted to before we kind of lunch into this created this sort of framework for Brian because because he said this thing about like throwing y'all softball questions or occasionally some hard ones, maybe some softball, which is one way that to think about questions too, right, like is it a hard one? Is it an easier one? But let's make a matrix, because another way to think about it too is whether or not this is like a nuts and bolts kind of question or is it like a psychological or emotional kind of question. Yeah, And so what I'll say is I think this one squarely falls in the easier and nuts and bolts kind of question, which might be why you wanted to do this one first on this episode, just to kick it off with a with a slant just a home run, Yeah, grand slam kind of question that we're not going to flop on. Is that is that what you did for us? 00:13:18 Speaker 1: Maybe not consciously, but the subconscious is like driving so much behind. 00:13:22 Speaker 2: What we do is well. Brian's recording was really good too, but yeah, anyway was And I. 00:13:26 Speaker 1: Think the first thing I want to address is his assumption that we would be disappointed in him, or that other listeners might be disappointed in him for not becoming a lamb. 00:13:35 Speaker 2: Set didn't say it was going to be like sacrilege to sell a house with a rate that that's. 00:13:39 Speaker 1: Like, hey man, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Definitely not sacrilege, and that has a lifestyle thing and not not everybody wants to become a landlord. I think if you want to become a landlord, if that is like a desire of your heart and you see that as this as a good investment property, and guess that's another like check in the pro box. If you've got like a three percent mortgage, it's just another one of those like ooh, I already want to do this. The numbers make sense. I got a locked in low rate, like let's go, but especially especially when you're moving that far away from Alaska, he said, down south. I don't think that necessarily means to Georgia, Matt, but like it's lower eight Yeah, lower forty eight. That's south of where you think about land. That's Alaska's taught for. 00:14:24 Speaker 2: We're actually going to join the continental Well, yes it is still continental, but anyway, you. 00:14:27 Speaker 1: Know, we're moving the conticulous. You know, it's like, oh okay, but yeah, like it is. It is this wind at your back if you become a landlord because you want to and you have a low interest interest rate attached to your mortgage, but it is. It is not a reason I don't think to more strenuously contemplate having keeping this rental property if that's something not something you want to do, and if it means it's going to create a real lifestyle difficulty, which it could. If you're talking about managing a rental property from afar, it could work. There's a lots of ways to make it work. We've talked to people on the show about long distance landlording before. It's not rocket science. But it's also something that you have to wrap your mind around, and if it's not something that you're interested in, like, don't beat yourself up over it. We're not going to beat you up over it. 00:15:14 Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, it's closer to Russia than it is the Sarah Palin taught us is closer to Russia than it is to the to the Actually, uh. 00:15:24 Speaker 1: Forget never said it. Tina Fey said it as Sarah Palin. Oh really, yeah, I don't think. I don't think Sarah Palin ever said I can see Russia from my house. I think Tina Fey said it on no Way. 00:15:36 Speaker 2: It's so funny that, in my mind is totally Sarah Palin. But oh that's I love that you're just over here bustin Mythsjoel. That was a moment in political history right there. It's so good. Uh. I'm just pointing out that it's basically it's closer to being in a different country than just like one state over right. And so in his case, the fact that he's just like man and what he said was is like we can't stomach being landlords. Totally get it. But like you said, if you're already considering it, sure, go for it. He mentioned running for a year. We're talking about this well Joel context. Right before we kind of dive into his question, he talked about and more and more folks like some friends of ours, friends of y'alls too, just moved to Greenville, and he's just like, Yeah, we're going to rent for a year, trying to figure out where we want to end up landing. I think that is so stinking smart. Before you plunk down the change and commit to a location like that, rent, get to another neighborhoods, know what you're looking what you're interested in getting into. It also doesn't hurt that rates are a little bit higher right now, right so from a timing standpoint, it actually kind of works out as opposed to I'm sure there might be slightly more temptation for him to say, now we need to go ahead and buy now if rates were like four percent or something like that. But we're still near twenty year highs or something, and there's no rush. There's no rush regardless. It's a smart thing to get to feel for a city before you know, before you actually. 00:17:00 Speaker 1: And that's an expensive mistake that you might regret because of the closing costs and how much that can entail and reelsor fees. If you're like, we really landed in the wrong neighborhood and you want to list and resell within a year or two time because you're like, we're in the wrong place. You can find that out by renting pretty inexpensively. But if you buy and then sell, even if you sell for the same amount, you still lost a lot more money than you did by renting for just a year to figure out where you want to live. So I think it's as super wise when you move to a new city that's far away, especially if you haven't really spent much time there. Last thing too on the pretext, Matt is like when you sell the primary home that Brian's talking about selling, there are tax implications if you don't sell at enough time, so that just one more checkbox in the don't freak out about not being a landlord even though you have a low interest rate, because you don't have to pay capital gains tax on the sale of that primary home up to a certain threshold. Right if you do it in enough time, and if let's say you became a landlord for a few years, all of the appreciation even while you lived there for many years that you saw would be subject to tax if you were to hold onto that rental property for a long time, and it might be worth it, right, It has been worth it for me for different properties that I've lived in, but it's not always in forever smart for everyone. You have to really take that the personal context into consideration. 00:18:23 Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, So to the heart of his question, what should he actually do with those dollars? And I mean, my first if it was me, and that's what we do on the show. We don't offer financial advice. We answer questions as if we were those individuals, and what would we do in those situations? Joael, and I wouldn't one percent not invest those dollars. You're talking about one year potentially even less. That you want to have access to that cash, that you want to have liquid that liquidity in order to pounce on a property. And for that reason, I mean you already mentioned the hyold savings account. I think that's a slam dunk. Yes, easy thing to do. You've already got the account. A lot of banks out there paying in the high threes low fors. That honestly would be where I would probably put the bulk of that money if you feel uncomfortable with going over the two fifty FDIC cap moving some of that over well, no, that's the thing. Money market accounts like sweep accounts with Fidelity or Vanguard, those aren't FDIC ensured either, but that's another great option because those are paying in a similar range as well. You can just count on those in a way that you can't count on having invested those dollars in the actual market. And so I'm just gonna jump on it and say highl savings. Absolutely, Yes, a money market accounts where you have where you can easily move that money in and out. Absolutely. I think some folks might mention treasury bills as well, maybe do some laddering even with CDs, But the problem with those is you're tying yourself to a certain timeline. And when it comes to purchasing a home, Joel, how many properties have you purchased where timing was of the essence as every time? As that like the best deals you received, I'm sure that you were able to snag were because of your ability to move fast. You get the offering quick, and you want to be able to have that liquidity and not be fiddling with accounts and being able to transfer money in and out. You want to have it in a reputable, solid account, not having to worry about selling CDs taking the loss there. Yeah, if you offer the one year's treasury as well, you offer the one year CD, and then you're one your you're nine months into your one year rental agreement and the perfect house pops up. You're you're more than willing to eat probably the last two months of rental expenses and not live there. Maybe you can work out a deal with your landlord to avoid that. 00:20:42 Speaker 1: But what would really suck is if you have to tap the CD early, right and and and pay the penalty there. So yeah, tying yourself up for it to eke out a little bit of extra gain doesn't make much sense. I will say, when you're talking about investing, you could be talking about it significantly bigger gain, Matt, but you could also be talking about a significantly bigger loss. And so keeping that capital intact, especially on a short timeline, is the most important consideration. And so if you were to invest see a ten twelve percent return on a big sum of money like they're talking about, you could be like, oh, I just made thirty thousand bucks in one year and you come out looking like you look brilliant. But if the market were to receive let's say twenty percent and you lost forty grand, you're like, I feel like an idiot, and now I can much less. 00:21:31 Speaker 2: Take a bound. 00:21:32 Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have to be more conservative in this situation. Look for the highest dealed, say music account, and just be content with that, knowing that this money is for short term use, and even if it's not like the most potentially optimized thing, it's at least it's limiting your downside risk completely. 00:21:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. You got anything else before we jump. 00:21:52 Speaker 1: To the break last thing, the FDIC insurance. He mentioned that if he has more than two fifty, which he sounds like he's going to have, you can one. It's important to mention that with FDIC coverage, if you have a joint bank account with your spouse that automatically provides extra coverage, that's like five hundred grand right there. And then there are other places you can store that money. Betterment being, for example, a great place to consider a brokerage firm, but they have they work with many different partner banks to offer an increased FDIC and insurance coverage amount, So four million for individuals, eight million for joint accounts on betterment, that is at least worth considering word knowing about. 00:22:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, and even if you don't want, if you're just like, well that's overcoll guys. Well even just looking at another highield of savings that you've been considering that is offering a really high rate. You know, he might be sitting at a total of let's say three three point fifty three or three hundred and fifty k in his savings, and obviously by opening just one additional account that would be more than enough. But yeah, there's always that I forget what they call it, like fractional FDIC. Yeah, the ability to go with many mini partner banks and you get the sort of cumulative effect of the FDIC assurance. 00:23:04 Speaker 1: The CEDARS system, I forget exactly what that stands for. But there also a place like THEEDAR there's like ways you can get even more coverage. Uh, and in this you know this, there's a program that will essentially funnel your money to a bunch of different banks on your behalf with just kind of like one interface and sign up. 00:23:24 Speaker 2: So that's cool. 00:23:25 Speaker 1: But then there's also directly through companies like Betterment that offer just because of the partner banks even more access to insurance for that money. But I don't think Brian's talking about like having millions that he's going to pop in savings. But still I think that's just it's helpful to know. 00:23:39 Speaker 2: It's good to know that that is an option. But Joe, we've got more to get to. We're gonna hear from a listener who's looking to pull the trigger on a REFI. He doesn't exactly know when we'll get to that more right after this. All right, we are back from the break. We'll get to that question about uh oh, we'll get to one here about the refis in a second. But let's hear from a listener who is considering just taking the more index fund approach as opposed to more specific stock advice. Let's hear it. 00:24:15 Speaker 4: Hey, Jolan Matt, thanks for taking my question. My name is Audrey and I'm thirty five years old from pall Up, Washington. First time caller, and I've been listening to you guys for about two years now. My husband recently ended up getting a new job as an engineer for a factory within a union and his pay went up significantly. With this extra money coming in, we've finally been able to sit down and start going through the money gears. Luckily, both of us are pretty money savvy and have never carried any kind of debt, so we are currently in the process of saving our six month emergency fund while also funding our very first wroth Ira with Fidelity. We should be done funding our emergency fund within the next three months and should be able to fully fund my roth Ira starting next year. Since I don't really have any experience in the marketplace, I invested the money that I've put in my wrath Ira into VU. After telling my dad that I got a wrath Ira, he's been sending me a website of advice that he follows. The guy basically suggests a couple different ETFs and stocks that you should invest in every month, and he changes them out based on how the stock market is doing and what is going on in the world. But it's my understanding that the low cost index funds cover pretty much all important stocks. I don't know if they cover ETFs at all, but they should cover things like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Nike, and stuff like that. So there's really no reason to double invest in them, right, I think, based off your guys's advice, I shouldn't put more than ten percent of my total investments into other things like crypto. But does that count for ETFs as well? I guess I'm just looking for general advice on what to invest in. Should I only be investing in VU or should I be looking into other options as well? Not really sure how the whole investing side of the wrath IRA works. Any help is appreciated, Thanks guys. 00:26:01 Speaker 2: Matt. 00:26:02 Speaker 1: This just goes back to my old ad and you never listen to your parents. Don't trust them your parents. I tell my kids that you know, and so as a result, they don't listen. 00:26:14 Speaker 2: Do Were you hard headed as a kid, Like, did you listen to your parents or did you have to like just completely learn the lessons the hard way? 00:26:22 Speaker 5: Well? 00:26:22 Speaker 1: I think I was a pretty good listener. I don't think you were, though I was not. My gosh, yeah, and I would have been better served. That's the thing, though. Would I have actually learned the lessons had I followed their advice? I certainly learned lessons in a more visceral lasting way. 00:26:42 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So obviously we're advocating for all young folks out there to listen to their parents. But when it comes to Audrey, I'll say, yeah, the the investing advice that she might be getting from her dad isn't doesn't get me excited, right, And it makes me think about like before there's TikTok there, and before even like websites, there were these newsletters, these investing subscriptions that you could be a part of, and they would send you a newsletter like this little newspaper thing like once a week, once every couple of weeks with all the all the stock picks, all the things that we're all gonna invest in. And it sounds like that this isn't too this. This sounds pretty similar, I guess. And so while Audrey, I'm sure there's plenty of wisdom that you can glean from your your parents, from your your father, in this case, I would not be going with the specific stock options and even ETFs that he's recommending, right, because not all ETFs are the same. So that's one of the questions she asked, right, like, well, aren't all the big companies included in ets? Well, it depends on what we're talking about, right, same thing with index funds, all index funds don't include all the good stuff. It just means that it's index to a certain benchmark. And she's specifically talking about vu Vanguard's S and P F one hundred ETF. Uh So, just yeah, there's a there's a number of different factors here. But I'll have to say I would I would be a little a little careful with the advice you're getting from your dad. 00:28:09 Speaker 1: And you and I we've talked in the past, like there are now more ETFs than individual stocks, because then an ETF is essentially like little basket of stocks, and how do you want to divvy them up? Do you want to invest in a certain sector? Like do you want to invest for in AI specific company? 00:28:25 Speaker 5: Well? 00:28:25 Speaker 1: What kind of AI specific companies? There's just so many slices and dices in ways that you can carve up a handful of companies and to stick them in an ETF basket and then buy that. And they're getting more narrow less diversified, more hyper specific, which means taking on more risk, right, And so that's why one of the main reasons why we're a big fan of investing in a total stock market or an S and P five hundred index fund is because you are well diversified, You own the majority or the whole essentially American stock market, and one fell swoop with very little cost right attached to it. And so it's something that anybody can di Why the the approach that your your dad is taking is essentially to say, like, like, let's mimic what this this guy who spends his he eats, breathes, and sleeps this stuff. Right, he sends out these newsletters like he's going to know more than we do. He must know more than the common investor out there, right, And he might know more than the common investor, but does he know more than the holistic stock market? 00:29:28 Speaker 2: And I would say collective wisdom of the entire market exactly. 00:29:31 Speaker 1: That's where he's set up for failure, and especially on a longer timeline. That is, when people like that, like maybe he's got a year or two under his belt where he's just crushing it. Think Kathy would from ARC and everybody's like, let me get in on that, because she's picking all the right stuff, she's calling all the right plays, and then eventually it falls apart. And that's not to say that like, yeah, could Kathy would have another great run potentially could could end. Does any individual stock picker have a potentially decent run in them for a while, Yes, I think so, But over a longer period of time, it becomes almost impossible to keep that up exactly. 00:30:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not to say that there will be very short stretches where that's and there might be some great picks that that's advisor or stock picker, publisher, whoever this person is that's publishing on this website or sending out the newsletter. Yeah, they will occasionally win. This makes me think of but over longer periods of time, this makes me think about the wager that Warren Buffett put out there to all the different hedge funds and he's like, all right, ten years starting now, any hedge funds out there want to take me up on this bet. It was a one million dollar bet and that beat the SMP five hundred over the next ten years. And this, oh my gosh, this is so telling. Right, one one individual took him up on the bet. Right, you would think of these hedge funds, if you actually believe in what it is that you're selling, every single one of them should have been lining up, right. But the fact that only one individual said, you know, like I will enter the fray, I will enter the ring and take on the SEP five hunder and similarly, and that person lost. Eventually, what happened was that he did lose by like a landslide, by a very large margin. I want to say that annualized the SMP of five five hundred over that time from like oh eight I guess to eighteen returned something like seven percent. And this this guy, I think his name is Ted, he's with some hedge fund, but annualized it was something like three percent returns. But going back to the time frame that we're talking about, for the first year, if you recall, the stock market was in a world of hurt back in eight and he was actually ahead that first year, and I forget what the what the percentages were, but the SMP was down much more than his hedge fund. But the subsequent years after that he couldn't. I mean, it was no comparison. The SMP. He like blew the lights out of his hedge fund, in large part because you're trying to pick winners and losers as opposed to not the overall market, but in this case five hundred of the largest the largest companies. But another reason for that, though, are because of the fees that they charge. Yeah. Right, And so I want to say that his what they're taking was a two percent management fee and then twenty percent of the profits, and so you're guaranteeing that you're going to see reduced returns. Like, no matter what, no matter what the market does, that guy is getting paid. The fees are baked in. The fees are baked in. But here and here's the other thing. So I guess if you think about it this way, the equivalent is she is like, well, I'm getting the advice for free from my dad. He's paying for it. Maybe you know, maybe he's part of some subscription and he's passing the information to her because he is her father. That's kind right. Even if that guy at ted, even if he had worked completely for free and eliminated his fees the two percent overall as well as the twenty percent of profits, he still would have underperformed the s and P five hundred. I think it was specifically fidelities SMP of five hundred. It wasn't a I mean, it wasn't free. It was it was something like point zero two or point zero three percent expense ratio, he still could couldn't compete with the SMP five five. 00:33:18 Speaker 1: Well, he brought up Warren and it it makes me think like they're for many, many decades, Warren Buffett has outperformed the overall stock market. Right, but he is the exception to the rule that I think proves the rule. And Warren is even wise and kind enough to point out that, by the way, he really does eat, sleep and breed this like, this is Warren's life, right, is to like assess companies and try to invest in a way that maximizes return and for the average person who has a day job and a family and stuff like that, Warren's like, hey, I can do this, and I have done this pretty well over a long period of time. Guess what, though, the vast, vast majority of people, including those closest to me in life, should buy the S and P five hundred and kind of forget it, Like, don't worry about trying to invest for superior returns because it's really hard to do, and so we should learn, I think from Warren's advice, even though he's been a goat, essentially the goat at investing when he says most people can't do this, can't pull this off. I think that's just another indicator that that's true. 00:34:25 Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. So to Audrey's question, should she go with some of the advice that her father's offering or offering her, I mean, if you want to, oh, one of the other things she mentioned too, did she say she said ten percent? She said, haven't y'all mentioned she mentioned ten percent in crypto? I think is what she said. So yeah, Well, generally speaking, I mean, I don't know. I prefer the five percent or less of your overall portfolio, including crypto, including some of these single you know, like there's a new company that IPO's or some if you want to, like humor your father or just it's just a it is interesting and it's a way to stay a little more in tune with a market. I'm fine, like I own some single stocks, but not only is it five percent or less. I want to say, it's probably like point zero seven percent my overall portfolio. It's just if I read an interesting story and I start thinking about something, and I start connecting the dots, I'm like, hmm, I wonder how that'll do, and I'll go buy like one share of something that costs, you know, twenty bucks or something like that, and that's it. I think cheese stock has been outperforming for you recently. Yeah, well, entertainment, she mentioned she Nike. I don't know how. 00:35:37 Speaker 1: I don't know how serious she was about Nike in particular, that was one of the companies that she mentioned. I don't, I don't, I don't remember if she in the question she said that that was specifically as like a stock to invest in individually. Nike is getting smoked right now. Think about all of the companies in the sporting good business, Like it is really hard to predict what's going to happen to these companies over the course of a quarter, much less the course of a decade like fifteen years ago. Nike, Coca Cola, those are like household names and like those are great companies to invest in over the long term. Guess what, not as much today. And so the other thing to realize is how much volatility can you stomach? How much hands on do you want to be with your portfolio? How much stress can you handle? And ulcers in your stomach can you potentially endure? Because you're going to have to come to the realization that that's part of it that the more you invest in riskier ways or put more money into individual stocks or cryptocurrencies, you're just going to experience more volatility that comes with the territory. Does it mean you could see outsize gains? Yes, it does. Does it mean I even, just Matt, when you think about the earlier this year, you'll appreciate this as a Korean yourself part Korean. The Korean stock market, well, it's crushing, dude. It was like three x in a single calendar year, and so people started flocking to vesting in the Korean stock market because they're like with the with Ai and like this is the place to be. These companies are on fire, like I'm going to get in on the games. It was going up like eight ten a day, like on repeat. It was crazy, and then it saw a pretty significant crash and then it's seem a little bit of a rebound. But you just have to It's like it's like riding a roller coaster. That's that's got like the highest highs and the lowest lows, and you have to be ready to endure all of it. If you're not, this is not a good strategy for you. 00:37:28 Speaker 2: That's right. All right, should we Should we move on to Mike's Well's question. All right, Mike is trying to get closer to that three ish percent mortgage that I used to have. Let's hear from. 00:37:40 Speaker 3: Hey there again, fellas like Nie here, this time from Perrysburg, Ohio. Since the last time I called. We moved from Cincinnati to the Toledo area to be closer to my wife's family for free child garyl on date nights, as you guys like to say. But being a family of five now, the move also came with a larger house, as we were outgrowing our starter home, So now now the mortgage is a much larger line item on that monthly budget. 00:38:04 Speaker 6: Also, when we moved. 00:38:06 Speaker 3: We went from a three point nine percent mortgage rate to a six and a half percent, so that's stung a little bit too. Recently, I've casually looked into refinancing, and the best I could see was about a five point seventy five percent. In rough calculations, that three quarter of a percent drop nets us about one hundred dollars. 00:38:26 Speaker 6: In savings a month. If we got it down to. 00:38:29 Speaker 3: A one and a half percent drop, getting to an even five percent, we would save around two hundred. 00:38:34 Speaker 6: Dollars a month. So, in your guys' experienced minds, how much of an interest rate drop should we target before we pull that REFI trigger. So any thoughts you have on this would be very much appreciated. Until next time, Prost prost. 00:38:50 Speaker 2: That's cheers right in German. I believe in German. Okay, that's not one of the cheers sayings that I've ever said. Do you think Mike's German? I don't know if he can understand this. He is zoom height Mike. All right, Mike, I think I don't know how you're planning today. Answer this, Joe, I'll go ahead take the lead here. I just want to start with the free babysitting. It's clutch you and I know we've talked about it too many times though, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's worth. It's worth. They increase costs to the mortgage, probably well, depending on how many kids you have and the ability to have another set of hands right when it comes to like cause, like your folks they're fairly local. I mean they're local, but they I mean they help out with picking up the kids with like activities and sports, and I mean that's pretty great too, Yeah, so it's clutch. It's not just the date nights. It's just as they get older more than like day to day living. That certainly benefits folks who who are staying closer to family. But yeah, okay, so I guess one of the ways I wanted to think about this question is less about how much of a rate drop it needs to be as opposed to what Mike's break even is going to be. Right. And the reason I want to put it in this framework is because I've been thinking about cars a lot recently, and I'm like, ooh, okay, I'm thinking about we might we may or may not end up getting a second car at some point in the nearish future. 00:40:10 Speaker 1: Which if you do, you don't lose your street cared you have so much street credit for being one car for as long as you have been sixteen years or something like that. 00:40:17 Speaker 2: But we'll talk more about that at a later date. But the reason I bring that up is because it's like, Okay, here's an affordable car gets this kind of gas mileage. Oh, here's the hybrid version of that same car. It gets ten fifteen, twenty miles per gallon better. Okay, what are the energy costs. Assuming I don't ten twelve thousand a year, what's the payback period? Like how many years will it be before we have earned that money back in monthly savings, and how much we're it is costing us at the gas station and Mike in a similar way. I think that that is how you should be thinking about this, because I don't know. Maybe for some folks a car, I don't know, maybe folks are thinking less about the payback period there because I'm like, I'm gonna keep the car. At least that's how I think about cars. But when it comes to houses, I don't know. There could be things that come up that cause you to move, So you need to think through how long are y'all going to stay there in that house? Sounds like you're closer to family, which might mean this is more of a permanent kind of move as opposed to like, all right, we're just gonna move here for a little bit for work. And if you know that it's going to be permanent, okay, then think through how many years is it? Or months? Months? Is even better? Yes, because let's say it takes you a year, Okay, that's good. Let's say it takes you two years. Ah, I don't know. You might need to, you might need to start looking ahead because I think like that's a rule of thumb that you'll see out there two years. And I think that's because for a lot of folks, they can look two years into the future and say, yeah, we're going to be here for the rest you know, another year and then into the second year. But beyond that, it's hard to put your finger on what exactly it is that you're going to do from a work perspective. From a family maybe maybe you want to be closer to your your your partner's or your spouse's family mate who knows. So the closer you can get it obviously to that paying for itself, you know, less than two years closer. If it's one year, oh man, that's great. If it's six months, oh my gosh, like that would be a slam dunk. So, and what you're getting at is circulating the numbers, thinking less about the rate drop and calculating the numbers and figuring out what the what the payback period is going to be on that would be how I would just generally be wrapping my head around it. 00:42:24 Speaker 1: And that's because a REFI is expensive, right, Like, yes, it costs so much money and it's a pain in the butt to go. 00:42:30 Speaker 2: On average two to five percent of what you're refinancing. So depending on the size of the house or the cost of the house, it could. 00:42:38 Speaker 1: Be a lot of money and a lot of people in the past, the suggestion has been this kind of rule of thumb, one percent interest rate drop, that that's how you know that it's probably a good idea to pull the trigger. I don't think that. I think that's like, if you're talking in the most general terms, that's a reasonable rule of thumb to consider, but you have to really kind of like you're alluding to, Matt, you have to delve into the specifics of your situation. And it's less even about I think how long do I plan to own this home? Part of the consideration is how long do I plan to have this mortgage? Because if I'm refinancing this mortgage, my head has already been in that direction. Well, if rates drop again, like in my point, am I gonna be tempted to cause then you're yeah. And so it's it's part art, part science, and part of it is kind of like, well, where do I see rates going from here because man, six months ago they were lower than they are today, Well they head back in. I don't see rates going back into the three three and a half percent range anytime soon, maybe even in our lifetimes. But could they go from an average of seven percent down to an average of six point two five percent in the next year year and a half? Sure they could? And would I be kicking myself in the butt for having taken the five point seventy five percent rate that Mike mentioned he got when now my local credit union's offering a five point twenty five and I can't refinance now because it just doesn't make any sense because I just did a refinance. Then you're stacking up those expenses even more. Yes, I would, I would, but it's compelling, and so I guess I might. Just that's something else I'd want to take into consideration. Are more compelling rates coming down the line, It's hard to know. The Other thing that's crucial to do is to shop in even more places to see if they're better rates elsewhere. You and I have talked about some of those rates that are available at their local credit union and local banks, and how even the adjustable rate mortgages if you are comfortable with that product, know what you're getting into, know how long you're going to be in the home, know what your financial independent situation is going to look like ten years from now when the rate goes up, Potentially those have become can allow you to drop the rate even more significantly than going into another thirty year fixed So that's just something else to consider. For a long time, arms were this toxic product, and they really were. They were much worse back in the day, and that was something that I think if we had had a showback in the heyday of arms, Matt, we would have really really strenuously warned people against taking out adjustable rate mortgages. But they have changed meaningfully, and I know more and more people in the personal finance space who are geting arms on their own. But even then, when it comes to their advice, they're reticent to mention that an ARM is a worthwhile consideration, but it is. It is for more and more people, especially if you're getting a longer term before the rate resets. 00:45:11 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and plus back in the day, I mean during the housing crisis, that was those subprime arms, so it was kind of like a double whaemmie of potential stink. But I think another thing to do to Mike is to zoom out a little bit and to think about what else you might want to do with that money, Because you said, well, it's not like you moved away or you moved towards family, but maybe you were in a cost of living area that's maybe a little bit better. But you also talked about it being a larger house because you've got a growing family. So I'm just going to assume that generally speaking, you financed a larger amount of money. You owe more on this house, and you did your last one to boot with the higher rate mortgage. What I'm almost speaking to is the fact that it's going to cost you a chunk of money to refinance this house because of the amount that you're financing. What else do you want to do with that money? What other goals do you have? Because if you I mean, if you're looking at how much this is going to set you back, if you don't have the cash on hand to be able to pull this off, I think that could put you in a potentially sort of house poor situation. What other goals you might have? I think that's a really important sort of question to ask yourself, to ask your wife, and to think through is it worth that much to in I don't know, twelve to eighteen months from now, yes we're cash flowing, we're paying less every month, but until then, essentially you're kind of in the red as you're kind of clawing your way back beyond that your golden But do you have any of those sort of short term goals that you don't mind deferring? I think that's an important consideration. 00:46:52 Speaker 1: And are you overly fixated on how much you're paying every single month for your mortgage looking for an opportunity unity instead of just waiting for an opportunity to come to you and investing the extra dollars that you would have put towards this refinance right and the closing costs associated with it. So again, I think we're not in the most attractive rate environment. And six, eight, twelve, fifteen months down the road, I'm not predicting anything, but I could see rates being better than where they are today. And so if you like kind of force it at a time when rates are higher, then because you're overly fixated on your mortgage, we'll just just know that there might be better things you can do with that money in the meantime, and you can always consider refinancing if you start seeing more attractive offers out there months down the road. 00:47:41 Speaker 2: That's right for a break, you get. Yeah, let's do it all right, So let's take a break. We're going to hear from a listener who is also out there spreading the good personal finance gospel. We'll hear from her and we'll get some more right after this, Matt, let's get to this one. Okay, this email pointing at you. 00:48:08 Speaker 1: I smiled ear to ear when I read this email from this listener this week. It is a beautiful example of what we do on a macro level put into practice on a micro level. 00:48:20 Speaker 2: It's awesome. Let's hear from Rebecca. 00:48:22 Speaker 7: Hey, guys, this isn't really a question. It's just a experience that happened to me today about sharing the love of investing, and I think you're gonna love it. About once a week, I go to my gas station and there's a guy there from India who helps me get gas. We smile at each other, we say hi, And today he took my card. It's my Fidelity Visa card, it's a credit card and he said this Fidelity. 00:48:41 Speaker 4: Is it stocks? 00:48:43 Speaker 7: And I said, yeah, it's kind of stocks, it's investing. And he said I want to invest and I said, okay, sounds great. I can help you. And he said, okay, do I have to go to Fidelity? And I said, yeah, you can start with Fidelity. You do it on a website on a computer, and basically we got started in talking and he said, how do I pick a stock? And I said, well, what you want to do is you really want to pick a group of stocks. It's called a mutual friend. And right away I got on my phone and I put this into the translator app and I translated it into Punjabi for him, and we traded phone numbers. And this is the attendant at my gas station. So I think we're going to be buddies. But really, I think I'm getting the most joy right now out of knowing that I can help someone invest. And I told him to talk to his son, who can help him get on a computer. And it really just is empowering to see someone, even you know, over the age of fifty, have an interest in investing, and that it's never too late to start, especially if you can find the right resources and if you have the mindset to get into it. So I hope this can be inspiring to other people who might want to help someone else, you know, on the later side, get into investing, because it's it's never too late to start. We all know that. So have a great day, guys. 00:49:50 Speaker 1: Nice I'll inspire the crap out of me. Matt I almost pried when I like en listening to that. It's just so it's awesome, Like it's like, what's better than that? Joel's like, let's find ourselves a producer. We're gonna make a movie based on this story. 00:50:04 Speaker 2: Yes, oh again, all right? 00:50:06 Speaker 1: Who who would play Rebecca in this story? Yeah? You can play the gas station attendant. I was hoping you chime in with your Indian accent. I'll do the Korean accent if well. First things first, we have to address this because she she said she has a gas station attendant and most people are like, oh. 00:50:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that's right. Yeah she wrote this in her email. 00:50:29 Speaker 1: She explained, Okay, states left in the country where you are not legally allowed to pump your own gas. 00:50:37 Speaker 2: Wait, I think that changed recently, so it's in it So Oregon. I think it's I think it's optional, but her state the state's mandatory. Okay, New Jersey, the Garden state, you cannot pump your own gas, So it was crazy. I was born in Oregon, so every time we would go back, I was used to someone else pumping the gas, and I was always like, this is so weird because I live in a state where you pump your own gas. But in New Jersey, the last state where you legally cannot pump your own. 00:50:59 Speaker 1: Game are the holdout, So she said in her email, I really I don't know how to use a gas tank myself, she says, I. 00:51:05 Speaker 2: Literally don't know how to fill up my Well. Becca, I know you like things to be simple and straightforward and easy because you're with Fidelity, But I believe, I believe in you. You are traveling in another state. I'm sure she would do an excellent job. But it does make me think about a long time ago road trip. We were in Oregon and yeah, I just pulled into a gas station and I want to say it had like that ding kang like it ran over the thing to let them know, I guess, but I jumped out and I was getting ready to do it, and the guy comes kind of jogging. He's like, I got you. I was like, no, you don't. I'm good. He had to then explain to me because that was the first time I'd ever been in Oregon. But they just do things differently, not only in Orgon, but New Jersey as well. 00:51:46 Speaker 1: It's like, I want to put you in jail if you try to hump your own guests. Sir, take my job. 00:51:51 Speaker 2: Well, I'll say, Rebecca, just what an awesome job for just you know. She started out by talking about how they would just always just smile at each other, right, and just being kind, like we're talking about being a decent human being here, and that's how this whole thing started, was her. And this is what I'm probably most out fault for just having my earbuds in because I love listening to the podcasts and audiobooks, but popping them out occasionally, especially when you're around other people, to be able to just be human. Rebecca's doing that even though she loves listening to the podcast. She was not listening to the podcast as she handed over her Fidelity card to the gentleman there. And I don't know, I think that's the first step of just being like just paying it forward and being a good human being and being considerate of other people and making this world a better place. I'm a huge fan of that. 00:52:40 Speaker 1: What a great use of Google Translate to And she sent us a follow up email and she was he was asking her questions about investing in stocks, and he was like, she was like, I pulled up your website about in an article you have about index funds. I ran that through Google Translate. I sent that over to him. 00:52:58 Speaker 2: Like, books cool. 00:53:00 Speaker 1: It's not a difficult thing to do, but it takes some care for somebody else, and somebody else that you don't really even know. They're not your family, they're not in your immediate community necessarily, like there's someone you see at the gas station, you know. Yeah, And so I just I thought that was just a beautiful way of helping someone that we should be all be like more inclined to do. Like it makes me want to see the people around me even more and help hold in any way I can. Whether that's like, I mean, it would just started from a Fidelity card too. How random is that? Like a Fidelity credit card. It's seen the logo before he's seen an advertisement, and he's like, I think I know something about what this is, but tell me more exactly. 00:53:43 Speaker 2: Okay. So yeah, so first of all, we're making a case for humanity and being kind to one another. Then you're talking about tech right as far as what a wonderful world we live and that we can do that. Now it makes me think about our church has an app and it allows you to like you can download it, and I think we the church must pay for some sort of like business wide subscription, but like literally you can have a play and it translates the message I think, in real time to whatever language you choose. But that's like some specialized interprefy or something like that is what it's called. But something as simple as Google Translate, which everyone has on their phone. Right, Like, the world that we live in today is so amazing. It's people. We always talk about how terrible things are, but like, I don't know, I'm much rather live in the world today than ten twenty thirty years ago, let alone one hundred years ago. But now you moved on to the Fidelity card, which I kind of think this is a case, this is a good argument for getting the Fidelity card. You've got the Fidelity card. Oh yes, you're. 00:54:46 Speaker 1: About to pull it out of your walls because we have video and I can show it to people. 00:54:49 Speaker 2: Yes, you tell. 00:54:50 Speaker 1: The numbers aren't on the front, so I'm good. Just cover it up with your finger if you need to. Baby, I have had this card. 00:54:55 Speaker 2: You've got that card standard two percent, and that money goes into your Does it go straight into your brokerage or does it go into the cash management cash. 00:55:02 Speaker 1: Sweepree anima veins, Baby, that's where it. 00:55:05 Speaker 2: No, it's going. 00:55:06 Speaker 1: It's going straight into a cash account inside of my fidelityccount you're talking earlier. I can direct it from there. I can send it over to just a generic same mus account if I want, or I can put it inside investment vehicles like a roth Ira if you wanted to write in Fidelity. Sobility is ecosystem. That's the card I've had the longest. Yeah, two percent cash back on everything, and I love that. It's kind of incentivizing you to do something healthy with those cash back dollars. I can't think of any credit card I like more than that one. There's some good ones out there, and there's yeah, well yeah, the three percent, right, I know you love that one. 00:55:45 Speaker 2: I think I so much. But here's the deal, and it's shiny and it's gold, and it's got some weight to it. It's like one of these fancy premium cards. You know. But guess what, nobody's ever asked me tell me about that Robin Hood card. So I don't know. Maybe I'm just maybe that's because I'm not being human enough and looking at my servers and you know, like at a restaurant when you had that. I'm trying to think of situations where you have to hand the card over, because that's the other problem I guess is that oftentimes it's just double click and then tap to pay, and they don't even necessarily see the physical card. 00:56:13 Speaker 1: But even when you're caviar, you know, like. 00:56:16 Speaker 2: People are just Yeah. So I think that's a good, good argument for you having the actual Fidelity card. We love Fidelity. Okay. This is also making me think of a situation somewhat recently, Joel, and I don't think I don't think I shared this with you. Speaking of gas stations, imagine you're at Costco and you've got all the lines right because it's like a mega thing whatever, and you got multiple spots ahead of you. Imagine you're in one of those, and there's a line next to you right, and the car at the front in the front spot. They leave right, So sometimes the next car will go around the car that's in the back to go in the front spot, but then it kind of makes it difficult for the next car to go around. Blah blah blah. Right, this isn't a question about that, because I think there is you could choose to go around. You can choose to wait if the person in the back is almost done and you know you can make it a clean both cars shift up. How do you feel about the guy next to you and the other line snaking in between and then hopping over one lane into your lane and taking the front spot. No way, man, not cool. That's what I said to the guy when he did that, And I got out and kindly in a very dignified human being speaking to another human being kind of way, where I was just like, hey, man, that was kind of wasn't that wasn't all that cool? Like you were in that lane over there, and he was just like, well, I mean, we're all waiting for all the spots, and I saw a spot open up, so he just he didn't X like he crossed over he crossed streams. This is totally off topic. 00:57:51 Speaker 1: So sorry, man, yep, I'm okay with you saying something to him about that. 00:57:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And so I don't know, I feel like that is also okay. So Rebecca did it in a positive, affirming, let me help you kind of way, but I think it can also be done. And did we get in a fistfight? Were the people standing off on the side that whipped out their phones that were getting ready to video us and we're gonna post it, post it on to social media, you know, like, let. 00:58:13 Speaker 1: Me get on Instagram content? Could you please get in some public brawls? Do dads duke it out at Costco? No, that was not happening because I walked over there calmly. Even before I walked over there, I was just like, am I really going to say something to the guy? 00:58:27 Speaker 2: And I kind of looked at some of the cars around me, and I could tell that they're annoyed too, and everybody was talking. Everyone kind of knows that wasn't cool. And so there's just a way of going about doing things, whether it's kind of negative, and it makes you kind of tense up inside and you feel a little nervous or whether you're just like, oh man, I'm really excited to talk about this. Let me let me tell this guy about this thing that I've been doing for a while and help this guy out. Either way, I'm just advocating for more face to face kind of conversations where we're being human beings that were treating each other with civility and making sure that we don't end up on the evening news, the local evening news, because we ended up in a fist fight at Costco. 00:59:08 Speaker 1: So kudos to you for doing it in a civilized manner. Kudos to Becca for helping this guy out and not just like one and done man like that. She she didn't ghost him. She didn't just be like, here's a website like she's she. 00:59:22 Speaker 2: Said screen Wait did you say that she sent screenshots? She sent screenshots from her actual text message showing me that like, look like the Google Translate works really well and she's helping this guy out. Amazing, Rebecca, So proud to have you as a listener and that you are now paying it for and helping other people out to learn about investing as well. 00:59:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, can we do one last quick question. There's an email question from Tina. She said, reverse mortgage, first credit line against your home, which is the best, better strategy for a backup plan? 00:59:53 Speaker 2: Ooh, I don't have this one on my sheet. 00:59:56 Speaker 1: Reverse mortgagesh yuck. Definitely not as bad as it used to be. The last line of defense, not a backup. 01:00:03 Speaker 2: I would say, yeah, absolutely well, And maybe that's what she's saying is maybe she's saying as like a I would say. If I was ready the email, I would have said back up to the backup, right because in a similar way, so if I had to rank them, I would say at the very end of the pack would be a reverse mortgage before that line of credit. Actually, I personally have a line of credit against my home. I have a helock a home equity line of credit that is sitting there at a zero balance, zero dollar balance because I don't need it. But guess what, I got it there just in case I do, just in case I need that backup to the backup. So that's why I said I would rather call it a backup to the backup. Agreed, Because it's sitting there at like six percent six something percent, which it's not awful, but it's also not great, Like, that's not what you want to be paying an interest on any amount that you borrow on the. 01:00:51 Speaker 1: The helock is a true backup. Whereas you get the ball rolling on a reverse mortgage and you're making irreversible changes right to it, it becomes potentially problematic if you want someone to inherit your home at some point in the future. If you get the helock and you borrow some money and you pay it back, like, yeah, the helock rates aren't where they used to be, but you're not losing control of your home, right if you borrow twenty grand and then pay it back over the next five years or three years ideally like we preferred. But this gets to something else where people I think are more and more comfortable borrowing against their home mat and that is something I want how the money listeners to become less comfortable doing. Like it's great that you have more equity built up in your home, Actually taking that equity out can create other problems for you. And so if we tap too much of the equity, or or we take on riskier products right that allow us to tap into the wealth that we build up in our home, it can create unsteady financial footing. So I just I don't love the idea for most people to take money out of their home save up for home repairs. And a lot of people, Matt, they're like, well, there's a but I get the tax break if I've got the helock right, and you know they've changed the rules on that and so they're more stringent it. Did the money you took out of the helock go to repairs and updates at your primary home, then yes, if it went to anything else, no, like you don't And a lot of people also just overestimate the tax benefits of having helock debt, like and don't let the tail wag the dog on that one, because they're not as good as you think. 01:02:24 Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, And if you are using it as sort of a backup, chances are you aren't using it for actual home repairs. You're using it to pay for other things, sort of unforeseeing expenses that you that you've had up come up, which sometimes involves the home. But yeah, generally speaking, I would advise against that. I wouldn't do it, I'll say that, But what I would do is drink this beer. So this is again a beer that was sent to us by David S from Keswick, Ontario. This is market brewing companies, Bear Hug, I pa jiel, what do you think may? 01:03:00 Speaker 1: And this was a it was a more multi I p a. It was Canadian I pa baby. It's like that New England style. This is we've crossed the border. We're doing something different, more multi vibes. But I heard you cross into your Canadian accent there just a little bit. You wouldn't do the Indian accent, but but you're comfortable doing the Canadian one. I don't think I'll get canceled if I do a Canadian accent, so I am a little more comfortable doing that. 01:03:25 Speaker 2: Uh No, this was this was great man. This was like a street You don't do a Krean accent. Do it? You can get away with that. I can't. 01:03:33 Speaker 1: You could probably like do an impersonation of your mom right now, and I'd be actually fun to. 01:03:37 Speaker 2: I'd like, no, sorry, I'm interrupting you. Yeah you're talking. This is a it's a bigger it's a bigger I pa, you know, yeah, bigger multier backbone. It reminds you kind of like an old school I PA. I feel like these days like it's either kind of gone in like the well west coast direction with a citrus in the pith, New England and the hazy and more of the hot presence us to come across. Kind of a classic ipa like this that is also a little bit bigger, which this one happens to be. But I'm glad you and I both got to enjoy one of these today. Sent to us by David S. 01:04:11 Speaker 1: David first sent us peers something like seven years ago a first wee, yeah. 01:04:15 Speaker 2: He said that in his email that's all right here and seven years back. Yeah. 01:04:19 Speaker 1: So like the fact that he's been listening that long and still likes us enough to send us peers is like surprising and also just really kind. So big thanks to David for cent of this beer up, big shout out. 01:04:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking forward to having more of the beers. He actually sends more Lake of the Woods stuff. Yea our way that we'll be getting to. But also he mentioned I'm looking at his email here too. He mentioned eastern shores of Lake Michigan that he did the summer. We also do that, So I wonder exactly where David. Actually I'll reply to your email right here, which that you only sent to Joel, So Joel had to afford it to me. Anyway, some people they like to talk to you, Matt. All right, that's going to do it for this episode. We will have links in the show notes to some of the stuff we mentioned, And if you haven't yet jumped over to the YouTube channel to see our smiling, gorgeous missing out, you are missing out. We'll link to that as well in the show notes and you can go over there. You can subscribe, review, put a thumbs up, leave a comment. All that engagement really does help our burgeoning YouTube channel. So hopefully I was gonna say, hopefully we can become YouTube pamois, but I'm really against that. I don't want to become YouTube pamist. I just want you guys to be able to enjoy the video. Yes, I want to be wherever the people are in order for more folks to do smart things with their money. If YouTube allows us to do that, then I'm willing to make it look like I'm a hacker sitting at home look at a laptop screen. But anyway, I think that's going to be it for this episode, buddy. So until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out. 01:06:00 Speaker 7: M H. 01:06:05 Speaker 2: Alright, where's the stop button right there? 01:06:10 Speaker 1: I