Speaker 1: Welcome to Had of Money.
Speaker 2: I'm Joel Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking housing, boom busts, AI induced outrage, and
Speaker 1: infinite work days.
Speaker 2: Infinite work days sound much less appeeling than the infinite
Speaker 2: pool that you want to be at sipping a drink
Speaker 2: while you're on vacation.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need you to come in on Sunday for
Speaker 1: those TPS reports, Matt.
Speaker 2: Do people even understand office space references anymore?
Speaker 1: I would hope. So it's still one of the greatest
Speaker 1: comedies of all time. If you're a boomer, like you know,
Speaker 1: they don't make great comedies any it is more all right,
Speaker 1: Derek Thompson, No, they don't.
Speaker 2: Oh I know, yeah, Yeah, that's something he harps on.
Speaker 1: Just how it's just true.
Speaker 2: It is true, and I think the reasons given often
Speaker 2: are it's definitely they is. It's less something that you
Speaker 2: can translate to other cultures and countries, right, like as
Speaker 2: opposed to like a big action. Everyone understands fear, everyone
Speaker 2: understands suspense. Comedy can be more of a regional certainly
Speaker 2: a more country based thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Joe Dirt. I think hits in every region, Matt.
Speaker 1: But yeah, maybe not in China, which is where Hollywood
Speaker 1: needs to make movies that do well there.
Speaker 2: Now the okay, so the Office Space, I feel like
Speaker 2: it was just more of a Gen X movie as
Speaker 2: opposed to it. Yes, our generation wasn't really watching King
Speaker 2: of the Hill, which is like coming back, all right,
Speaker 2: Joel over here making a case for Office Space. If
Speaker 2: you've never seen it, go out, wash it and let's
Speaker 2: see if it still holds up.
Speaker 1: And you can email me if you wasted an hour
Speaker 1: and a half of your time. But I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: a dreamail out there had a money pottedt gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: I don't want to read the email both of us.
Speaker 1: I will reply just if you hate it, then you're wrong,
Speaker 1: but you can tell me why.
Speaker 2: All right, now, this is our Friday flight and we
Speaker 2: are going to cover the top personal finance stories we
Speaker 2: came across this past week, the ones that we think
Speaker 2: are gonna impact you the most, the ones that we
Speaker 2: think that you need to be paying attention to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, real quick. The so we bought a used Peloton
Speaker 1: bike for Emily. She's like, we have this little sun
Speaker 1: room that's right off are That was your.
Speaker 2: Project for this summer. It was to reclaim the sun room.
Speaker 1: The kids had taken it over and we had to declutter,
Speaker 1: and we wanted it to be more of a room
Speaker 1: that that she and I get to used. I've got
Speaker 1: my little sona tent in there, she's got I've got
Speaker 1: my rolling machines, she's got a little Peloton.
Speaker 2: I feel like the first thing that's gonna break on
Speaker 2: your portable sauna tent is the zipper.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so far as held up surprisingly.
Speaker 2: Well, I can totally see you go into unzip it
Speaker 2: today and it's just gonna pull off.
Speaker 1: And you say, that's also why I got it at
Speaker 1: Costco because I was looking at ones on Amazon, but
Speaker 1: I was like, I got Costco because the return policy
Speaker 1: is much better.
Speaker 2: But would you feel how long? How many uses to
Speaker 2: would you put it through before you would feel bad
Speaker 2: about taking it back? Because we've talked about this is
Speaker 2: why we can't have nice things at Costco anymore, because
Speaker 2: people abuse it. I'll probably getting to that point where, yeah,
Speaker 2: if it broke today, since my nine month birthday, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not really that long six months, So if it
Speaker 1: broke today, I'd be morally questionable. Yeah, okay, all right, Peloton,
Speaker 1: So Peloton bought a used Peloton on Facebook marketplace from somebody.
Speaker 1: Even though Peloton and we talked about this, has their
Speaker 1: own site for reselling used Pelotons now, but they're way
Speaker 1: more expensive than buying it from the slew of people
Speaker 1: who are selling their Pelotons on Facebook. The price has
Speaker 1: gone down dramatically because everyone's trying to get rid of
Speaker 1: their glorified code hanger that that is their Peloton.
Speaker 2: They're like, I've been tired of looking at this thing
Speaker 2: for the price four years, so that I got back
Speaker 2: in twenty one.
Speaker 1: Yes, when Emily's other age, she's been using it, she's
Speaker 1: been enjoying it. But the one thing I was surprised
Speaker 1: by and a little bit frustrated about when we bought
Speaker 1: the used Peloton. You know what Peloton is trying to
Speaker 1: do to siphon money from users. If you buy a
Speaker 1: used bike, they want to charge you a one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars activation fee for switching that bike over to another account.
Speaker 2: It is an activation fee.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was already activated by somebody else being used,
Speaker 1: and you're trying to switch it over to be suited
Speaker 1: your name.
Speaker 2: So it would be like Apple, It's like you selling
Speaker 2: your phone and being like yep, i've wiped it here.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: This one's a totally factory reset, and the Apple being
Speaker 2: like no, no, no, we get a cut of that because
Speaker 2: somebody else is going to know use it.
Speaker 1: It would be exactly like that. That's so stupid, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to sell my book and then the author
Speaker 1: gets actually gets paid, we get more royalty.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, that's not how it works. How they use
Speaker 2: market works man.
Speaker 1: Utterally ridiculous, totally, this is the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: only a brand like Peloton could get away with where
Speaker 1: they've they're just banking on rich customers who don't care
Speaker 1: about money, and they're like, I guess this is just
Speaker 1: part of doing business.
Speaker 2: But that's not what you did, right, Okay, give me
Speaker 2: the ravocate or yeah, some eravocate success story.
Speaker 1: You've got to call in and advocate for yourself. This is,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you want like a nerdy economist term,
Speaker 1: it's called rent seeking. And this is totally that. This
Speaker 1: would be a great definition of rent seeking by Peloton
Speaker 1: saying like, listen, we've already, like gott we've landed our
Speaker 1: hooks into this territory, and it's a way we can
Speaker 1: just make extra money just fleecing people who don't deserve
Speaker 1: to be fleeced, and it's pretty unethical also, But so
Speaker 1: I called Peloton. I'm like, listen, we don't want to
Speaker 1: pay this fee, Like what in the world do we
Speaker 1: do to avoid this thing? And it took talking to
Speaker 1: a couple of different representatives. You just kind of have
Speaker 1: to keep pushing the envelope to get them to finally agree.
Speaker 2: To talking to customer service people. It's not my favorite.
Speaker 1: I wish it was.
Speaker 2: You're willing to do it, but I'm willing to do it,
Speaker 2: especially for a hundred bucks. So it was just a
Speaker 2: one time so you gotta waved kind of waved nice. Yeah,
Speaker 2: very nice dude. All right, Well for all the folks.
Speaker 2: This is for obviously for everyone other there who's thinking
Speaker 2: about getting the secondhand Peloton, or you can just jump
Speaker 2: on the bike that you already have mm hmm right
Speaker 2: out there. The tradition, I like prefer to ride on
Speaker 2: the street, the traditional bike in the wild scenario or
Speaker 2: the winds blowing through your hair.
Speaker 1: Emily and I differ in this regard. I bike, I
Speaker 1: ride on my real bike.
Speaker 2: She rides. You get the passion neighbors have a conversation
Speaker 2: with them. Cuts down on emissions because you're not driving
Speaker 2: your vehicle, Combine it with needing to run an errand yep,
Speaker 2: not to mention the cost savings of the aforementioned benefits.
Speaker 1: I'll let you talk.
Speaker 2: To my wife about it. Hey, I'll do it. Also.
Speaker 2: Maybe one of the things you're talking about with your
Speaker 2: neighbors as you're riding past their house is, Oh, what
Speaker 2: do you think about the so and so's over there?
Speaker 2: They got their house listed for saless been sitting on
Speaker 2: the market forever. There's one in our neighborhood. That's literally
Speaker 2: a conversation I had with one of our neighbors, like
Speaker 2: what's going on with it? It's like, Oh, hasn't been
Speaker 2: renovated recently? You think the uh it's overpriced? Well, I
Speaker 2: think it is. And I think that's one of the
Speaker 2: questions a lot of folks are wondering, is like, has
Speaker 2: there been a housing like bubble essentially and is it
Speaker 2: about to pop? And I would say that it's it
Speaker 2: seems more like a slow leak as like versus just
Speaker 2: like a sudden popping.
Speaker 1: Right less two thousand and nine more its own thing.
Speaker 2: Exactly yeah, yeah, numbers from almost every corner of the
Speaker 2: market out there are showing asking price decreases. There is
Speaker 2: showing more sellar concessions, inventory decreases as.
Speaker 1: Well, inventory increases more I'm sorry on the market.
Speaker 2: Yea, more homes are on the market, which, to be honest, though,
Speaker 2: it's also just returning back to like pre pandemic norms. Essentially,
Speaker 2: we saw a significant decline and that was in large
Speaker 2: part why there was such an increase in housing prices.
Speaker 2: But we're also seeing more cancellations after houses are going
Speaker 2: under contract. Folks are basically getting cold feet during due diligence,
Speaker 2: and this is such a far cry, dude, from a
Speaker 2: few years ago. Homeowners obviously don't love seeing this, and
Speaker 2: sellers of course are not pleased. You know, like back
Speaker 2: when there was an open house and buyers were lined
Speaker 2: up around the block just to be able to get
Speaker 2: in and see the place. It's not like that.
Speaker 1: Remember those calls for highest and best like two years ago,
Speaker 1: three years ago, and the insanity of how much people
Speaker 1: are willing to pay and bid up the price. It
Speaker 1: was really unseen. I don't remember a time at least
Speaker 1: in my life where that was the case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I want to put a note out there
Speaker 2: for a lot of folks who have been thinking about
Speaker 2: purchasing the home because I think, dude, this is my
Speaker 2: personal opinion. I think now is the time to strike personally,
Speaker 2: So byek I do because I don't think. I don't
Speaker 2: think we're going to continue to see declient. So I
Speaker 2: this morning, I pretended to be a chart analyst and I.
Speaker 1: Pulled up the I was gonna say, how did you
Speaker 1: come to this school?
Speaker 2: What am I basing this on? And I pulled up
Speaker 2: some data from the FED. I was looking at the chart,
Speaker 2: and if you look at just the trend, So if
Speaker 2: you look at the median home price in the US
Speaker 2: from starting from around nine twenty ten, and if you
Speaker 2: follow that up to pre pans so like around twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: there's a pretty consistent line. Uh. And then of course
Speaker 2: what you saw slight decrease, but then you see it
Speaker 2: shoot up. Specifically, a lot of folks are thinking about
Speaker 2: the last fifteen years as when we saw these massive
Speaker 2: price increases. I think all that was just kind of
Speaker 2: catching back up to where things needed to be after
Speaker 2: the housing crisis, price back seven eight nine exactly.
Speaker 1: Like in twenty eleven, you could get a house for
Speaker 1: not much money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I think all that was relatively healthy growth.
Speaker 2: But what we saw basically in the two years twenty
Speaker 2: to twenty two, we saw a massive increase. It goes COVID.
Speaker 2: It all comes back to COVID. And if you draw
Speaker 2: that line, basically from nine to nineteen we are about
Speaker 2: where prices should be. We saw it spike where we
Speaker 2: got way ahead of the curve. And for the past
Speaker 2: couple of years, two three years, we've seen prices basically plateau.
Speaker 2: They're starting to decline just a little bit.
Speaker 1: And it depends on local markets.
Speaker 2: It depends on local markets, but financing as well. And
Speaker 2: so I think personally, my personal opinion is I would
Speaker 2: not be surprised if we see mortgage rates come down. Right,
Speaker 2: if the FED lower's rates, which there is talk about
Speaker 2: that potentially happening next month in September, I think that
Speaker 2: could be the first that could be the starting line
Speaker 2: of the market opening back up.
Speaker 1: If mortgage rates go down, I think that will increase
Speaker 1: buyer interest. I think you're probably right, and then maybe
Speaker 1: the instead of declining prices, we do start to see
Speaker 1: prices go up again. But just at a far less
Speaker 1: accelerated pace.
Speaker 2: It will not be at the pace that we've seen because.
Speaker 1: That was just unsustainable. Yeah, totally, and I think but
Speaker 1: I think this does maybe as far as advice for
Speaker 1: potential home buyers, have a plan to own longer, because
Speaker 1: it's really hard to know where the housing market goes
Speaker 1: from here. I appreciate your your insights, Matt, and you
Speaker 1: really might be right my hot take. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you might be right, but like my I know somebody
Speaker 1: right now in my family who's selling a home after
Speaker 1: owning it for two years, and that's just there's a
Speaker 1: chance because of just what's happened with housing prices that
Speaker 1: she's going to do okay, even after you know real
Speaker 1: estate realtor expenses. But there's also it's a hard position
Speaker 1: to put yourself in, and if you're planning, the longer
Speaker 1: you plan to own, the more likely it is to
Speaker 1: be a decent decision to buy, even if you are
Speaker 1: slightly overpaying.
Speaker 2: Totally agree.
Speaker 1: Speaking of agents, got an email the other day criticizing us.
Speaker 1: We're talking about three percent fees for real estate agents. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, if they don't charge that much anymore, is
Speaker 1: what the emailer said, well, legally, they don't have the
Speaker 1: same leeway to just flat out charge three percent based
Speaker 1: on that ruling against the National Association of Realtors practice
Speaker 1: agent compensation hasn't really changed much since that ruling, but
Speaker 1: for savvy consumers who know how to negotiate, some people
Speaker 1: are able to claw back some of the agent's fees
Speaker 1: they would have paid. This is particularly happening at the
Speaker 1: higher end of the spectrum, where someone's saying, well, you're
Speaker 1: gonna sell my three million dollar home, Well, awesome, but
Speaker 1: guess what I'm gonna pay you one and a half
Speaker 1: percent instead of the three percent their agent's like, it's
Speaker 1: still pretty good payday, I'll do it. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think technology too, is finally and slowly starting to make
Speaker 1: an impact on this front. There are startups in some
Speaker 1: states that are helping a sliver of buyers of all
Speaker 1: price points to majorly cut transaction costs. One called Turbo Home,
Speaker 1: another one called shop prop, and another one called Arriva.
Speaker 1: Will link to these in the show notes, but.
Speaker 2: These I'd like to say, Arriva arrive at that and
Speaker 2: you've arrived at your home. Arriva makes me think more
Speaker 2: of speedy Gonzales the little mouse, which I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: he was probably canceled or.
Speaker 1: Also makes me think of like the coldsor medication for
Speaker 1: some reason. Arriva, Yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 2: What is it called the the canker sore? It sound
Speaker 2: like the little wand and you put it on your
Speaker 2: sore and it like numbs. It probably what's I thought
Speaker 2: it was called like be something, but no, it's called Burreva. No.
Speaker 3: I don't know, all right, but for me, yeah, but
Speaker 3: these three different startups are a potentially good way for
Speaker 3: buyers and sellers to kind of hook up at a
Speaker 3: fraction of the price.
Speaker 1: And this really like when you look at how much
Speaker 1: transaction costs are in the typical transaction, you're you could
Speaker 1: be talking about ten thousand dollars or more in savings
Speaker 1: and awesome agents can really be worth worth the fee.
Speaker 1: But there's also a growing place, I think, for agents
Speaker 1: who charge reduced fees and for technology to kind of
Speaker 1: grease the wheels of real estate transactions, making it a
Speaker 1: little easier to buy and sell and less costly.
Speaker 2: That's right, so a couple of years ago, I think
Speaker 2: it was back in twenty three Joel we talked about
Speaker 2: how medical debt below a certain threshold wouldn't affect your credit.
Speaker 2: Well that's no longer the case. Originally, back under the
Speaker 2: Biden administration, the CFPP, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they
Speaker 2: instituted a medical debt rule that benefited millions of Americans
Speaker 2: out there by not penalizing the credit for small medical debts.
Speaker 1: Yeah less than five hundred bucks, right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: That was recently overturned by a judge. But even still,
Speaker 2: credit bureaus they have the ability to factor medical debt
Speaker 2: in different ways, and all three are still not including
Speaker 2: bounces below five hundred bucks. So that's good.
Speaker 1: It's not legally mandated, but a choice that they're making.
Speaker 2: It's like a yeah, And there's there's a lot of
Speaker 2: that actually that we're going to cover today in different
Speaker 2: in varying ways. Where there are there have been different
Speaker 2: recommendations perhaps or even an executive order that's not necessarily
Speaker 2: enforceable by law because it's not something that Congress is
Speaker 2: taking any action on. But there's also a one year
Speaker 2: grace period before overdue medical debt gets reported, So we
Speaker 2: want we're putting this out there as a nice little PSA.
Speaker 2: We want folks to be aware and specifically as well
Speaker 2: to go back and listen to some of the different
Speaker 2: up episodes that where we've discussed negotiating medical debts. If
Speaker 2: you are finding yourself in a situation where you're like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, got hit with medical bill that I
Speaker 2: was not expecting. We don't have the money on hand
Speaker 2: for that. Even if hey, even if you do have
Speaker 2: the money on hand, like Joeldaes, when it comes to
Speaker 2: some different fees that these companies are hitting you with,
Speaker 2: it is always worth negotiating and see if you can
Speaker 2: push back. I could pay.
Speaker 1: Peloton on our bucks, but I'm not going to. And
Speaker 1: it's right basically, Well, it's been said to Matt on
Speaker 1: the Credit Core Creditcore Front that you are the average
Speaker 1: of the five people you spend the most time with.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of truth to that,
Speaker 1: right that we rub off on each other, I've learned
Speaker 1: a lot being your friend. I think what my life
Speaker 1: would look like would be different if we didn't hang
Speaker 1: out so much.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't be nearly as cool.
Speaker 1: Well, that's true, that's definitely true.
Speaker 2: In fact, first, I wouldn't know half of the Great
Speaker 2: musical artists that I know because of you, as you're
Speaker 2: sitting there wearing your brand new billy string shirt. And
Speaker 2: I'm sorry that I have not even commented on. I
Speaker 2: know you're excited about the glorious, isn't I commented on
Speaker 2: the one that you had on yesterday. I wear a
Speaker 2: but this one it's purple. Yeah, it is not a
Speaker 2: lot of men out there are rock and purple purple
Speaker 2: tieye baby, I'm I'm all for it. Uh yeah, especially
Speaker 2: Joel's not scared, especially when I'm supporting the best guitarist
Speaker 2: of all time.
Speaker 1: Okay, but credit scores. This new Harvard study of twenty
Speaker 1: five million people found that financial habits are similar to
Speaker 1: other people who grow up in an environment like yours.
Speaker 1: So you rub shoulders with folks for eighteen years, and
Speaker 1: you're likely to have similar credit scores and loan delinquency rates.
Speaker 1: And that's actually not terribly surprising to me. There are,
Speaker 1: of course, like individual examples of folks rising above their circumstances.
Speaker 1: But I see this as another reason to get on
Speaker 1: the ground personal finance education into neighborhoods that need it most.
Speaker 1: Because one of the toughest things about doing what you
Speaker 1: and I do. Matt is realizing that there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of people who grew up without any helpful personal finance advice,
Speaker 1: and they're probably not like on their podcastcher saying, what
Speaker 1: is like a good personal finance podcast that can help
Speaker 1: me out at this point in time, it's just kind
Speaker 1: of off their radar. And so I think it's a
Speaker 1: good call for us to surround ourselves with folks who
Speaker 1: encourage us on money journey. But also it's just kind
Speaker 1: of discouraging in some ways too to realize that there
Speaker 1: are some people who are going to be more difficult
Speaker 1: to help. It's going to be harder to find those people.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of those folks it's less the
Speaker 2: advice and it's more that there's also just nobody in
Speaker 2: their life who has lived it out essentially right, Like
Speaker 2: oftentimes we look to mentors or just others that we
Speaker 2: can look up to. Actually, on that note, do you
Speaker 2: see the report by USAA about gen Z. Everyone likes
Speaker 2: to pick on gen Z and they're saying that like
Speaker 2: half a gen zs don't even know what their credit
Speaker 2: score is or even like what constitutes their credit school. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they don't know how it's made up, And I appreciate
Speaker 2: that USA is trying to shine light on the younger generations, right,
Speaker 2: because like that's kind of what you were speaking to
Speaker 2: as well, like making sure that we are doing what
Speaker 2: we can to help those around us, and maybe to
Speaker 2: a certain extent, USAA is doing that well. But also
Speaker 2: half of you gen Z, the gen Z generation are
Speaker 2: like middle schoolers and high schoolers. So there's a part
Speaker 2: of that too where I'm just like, I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: also not going to necessarily expect a middle schooler or
Speaker 2: a high schooler to know what their credit score is
Speaker 2: because it's like, well, you probably don't really have a
Speaker 2: credit I don't know. I didn't dive into that study
Speaker 2: in depth, but I think there is a large part
Speaker 2: of that generation who they're just getting started, right, And
Speaker 2: just like we back in the day, what did we do?
Speaker 2: We focused on being cheap. You actually are seeing gen
Speaker 2: Z doing more of that sort of stuff. Embracing being
Speaker 2: frugal is something that I saw reported recently.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have told you much about credit scores or
Speaker 1: credit reports when I was in middle school either.
Speaker 2: So exactly. Yeah, So I think we all just need
Speaker 2: to kind of play our part to educating the next
Speaker 2: generation of financial savvy Americans. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think though, as you get older and
Speaker 1: the credit score is a big part of our financial lives,
Speaker 1: and so knowing what your credit score is, knowing how
Speaker 1: your credit score comes about, like the factors that make
Speaker 1: it up up is important. We've got information on that
Speaker 1: at our website, howdomoney dot com. Matt, let's talk about
Speaker 1: executive a new executive order for a second. That actually
Speaker 1: makes it more likely that your workplace retirement account is
Speaker 1: going to have access to even more investment options. That
Speaker 1: sounds like a good thing, including alternative assets cryptocurrency. The basically,
Speaker 1: the how this was worded in the executive order is
Speaker 1: that the Department of Labor is supposed to revisit fiduciary guidelines.
Speaker 1: And when you kind of pull the curtain up on that,
Speaker 1: that the only way that they can make this or
Speaker 1: that this executive order can push retirement accounts in this
Speaker 1: direction to offer more alternative assets and cryptocurrency is to
Speaker 1: say that the fiduciary standard isn't as big of a deal.
Speaker 1: And so I don't love that, Matt, because I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think that people need access to alternative investments and
Speaker 1: more cryptocurrency inside of their four o one ks. And
Speaker 1: kind of on another point, like all the you know,
Speaker 1: working on a smart selection that doesn't overwhelm folks. There's
Speaker 1: not sixty two different versions of Ketchup and Aldi, There's
Speaker 1: like two, right, And so I think most people already
Speaker 1: get overwhelmed when trying to choose what to invest in,
Speaker 1: like which fund makes sense for them. And then a
Speaker 1: lot of the funds that could become available in the
Speaker 1: aftermath of this executive order, they're inferior in so many ways. Right,
Speaker 1: They're more illiquid, they come with higher fees, and then
Speaker 1: the kicker, they don't produce higher returns on average. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how effective this executive order is going
Speaker 1: to be. And when you might start seeing some of
Speaker 1: these different funds available in your four to one K.
Speaker 1: Is this like months down the road or years down
Speaker 1: the road? I don't know, But it doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 1: Like I think index funds the thing that we talk
Speaker 1: about all the time, it doesn't matter if like eighty
Speaker 1: two funds are added to your roster of choices tomorrow,
Speaker 1: it still shouldn't change what you pick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I see what you're doing. Here you are putting
Speaker 2: head to head my love of aldi and the lack
Speaker 2: of options there with my desire for a libertarian option
Speaker 2: right and for the market to decide, Because on one hand,
Speaker 2: I'm with you, I don't want there to be more
Speaker 2: options for folks to kind of muddy the waters. But
Speaker 2: at the same time, I want the market to decide,
Speaker 2: and I want the market to say, is this something
Speaker 2: that's valuable or not? And if it is, it will
Speaker 2: succeed and do well. If it isn't, then it's something
Speaker 2: that hopefully will in most cases most of these cases,
Speaker 2: hopefully it'll just end up dying on the vine as
Speaker 2: opposed to being something that more and more folks get
Speaker 2: pulled into. As we are talking about alternative assets, specifically crypto,
Speaker 2: owning some crypto can actually help you to get a mortgage. Possibly,
Speaker 2: Fanny and Freddy they are pivoting to factoring in your
Speaker 2: crypto holdings when they are making loans. Now, if you were,
Speaker 2: let's say an early adopter and you've got a decent
Speaker 2: chunk of bitcoin, well, that can help you to qualify
Speaker 2: for a mortgage, which this could be a good idea.
Speaker 2: I like, like they are truly assets, right, and so today,
Speaker 2: were someone to liquidate their holdings of let's say bitcoin,
Speaker 2: Let's say they you know, they had one bitcoin, that's
Speaker 2: a lot of money that could go towards a down
Speaker 2: payment on two thousand dollars. It depends on the money, yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly by the second. But given that volatility, that's also
Speaker 2: the downside because it's just like, well, the underwriting process
Speaker 2: is typically let's just say, it doesn't move as quickly
Speaker 2: as crypto prices do. And so I could also see
Speaker 2: that not being a great thing if you were counting
Speaker 2: on some of that money for your down payment, as
Speaker 2: opposed to actually, if you want to use some of
Speaker 2: those funds, maybe you should go ahead and liquidate that
Speaker 2: and then you could put that towards a down payment.
Speaker 2: But hopefully it doesn't really matter all that much because
Speaker 2: there aren't how the money listeners don't have an overwhelming
Speaker 2: percentage of their portfolio in cryptocurrencies. Maybe it does a
Speaker 2: little bit enough to be interested, And that's what I've
Speaker 2: got going on. Yeah, it's sort of like factoring at
Speaker 2: the margins exactly. And again this is more guidance that
Speaker 2: has been given at the executive level. So the staying
Speaker 2: power of this. How much it actually does impact loans
Speaker 2: that are going to be made and moving forward is
Speaker 2: yet to be determined.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got more to get to, Matt, including how
Speaker 1: artificial and intelligence is frustrating people who travel and rent
Speaker 1: cars regularly. We'll talk about that and some interesting workplace
Speaker 1: trends as well. We'll get to those stories and more
Speaker 1: right after this.
Speaker 2: Right, buddy, we are back from the break, and now
Speaker 2: it is time, of course, for the ludicrous headline of
Speaker 2: the week. We're gonna spend a minute here talking about
Speaker 2: artificial intelligence, the old AI.
Speaker 1: It's kind of new, but it's Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like at this point.
Speaker 1: It does feel like there's too much talk about it much.
Speaker 1: But this is where the rubber hits the road, right here, Matt,
Speaker 1: with this story tifically.
Speaker 2: I like this story a whole lot. Actually, I mean
Speaker 2: that in a very literal sense. It does. This one's
Speaker 2: from Sherwood headline reads Hurts says it's AI powered damage
Speaker 2: scanners are supposed to enhance your customer experience and part Okay,
Speaker 2: So I was just saying that I am glad that
Speaker 2: I actually like I'm a big fan of the story.
Speaker 2: Sherwood is out there doing some real, some real journalism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are, because it's just like Robin Hood's news.
Speaker 2: Brand, which initially when when they rolled it out. So
Speaker 2: this is a little bit of media talk, right. So
Speaker 2: there's some shows we listened to and they the whole
Speaker 2: time they just talk about media and some of the
Speaker 2: different outlets and what's wrong with the world of media specifically.
Speaker 2: So this is gonna be our tiny little segment how
Speaker 2: to drill down on as we as we talk about that.
Speaker 2: But I was skeptical of Sherwood initially. First of all,
Speaker 2: it's kind of a too catchy of a name coming
Speaker 2: from Robinhood as a trading platform. It's like, of course
Speaker 2: you're gonna name your your news outlet media outlet here
Speaker 2: think Sherwood. But the author of this piece was listening
Speaker 2: in to the Earnings Call of Hurts and that's how
Speaker 2: he discovered the fact that they were implementing some of
Speaker 2: this AI say again quote quote unquote enhance the customer experience,
Speaker 2: and it turns out that it's actually harming the customer.
Speaker 1: Well, that's like the nitty gritty stuff that you have
Speaker 1: to do as a reporter to get the good story, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: listen to the earnings call. And I don't know.
Speaker 2: Because because the thing is that these companies they're not
Speaker 2: broadcasting necessarily, some of them are, and they're learning really quickly,
Speaker 2: ooh well yeah, when we are using this against you,
Speaker 2: customers don't like that. But if they are quietly mentioning
Speaker 2: it on an earnings call, they're thinking, all right, this
Speaker 2: isn't no onman's going to hear about this except for
Speaker 2: the investors, and it's going to positively impact our share price,
Speaker 2: which it did in this case. But the customer out there,
Speaker 2: the renters of vehicles, they're not going to hear about it. No,
Speaker 2: we heard about it.
Speaker 1: Well they are, they're hearing about it. And so so
Speaker 1: customers are basically saying that they've received post rental bills
Speaker 1: for damage that they didn't inflict on the car they rented.
Speaker 1: So they're like, what the AI scanner. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: get in an accident. I didn't bump in anything like
Speaker 1: Matt did in Scotland. Like that wasn't me so good
Speaker 1: thing that was pre AI scanner right. Well. Sherwood says
Speaker 1: that one customer was charged one hundred ninety five dollars
Speaker 1: for a dent that looked like it crashed into an ant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a really funny one, great description, And I get
Speaker 1: that Hurtz wants to save on labor costs by having
Speaker 1: AI scan cars for damage versus using humans, But they
Speaker 1: and other car rental companies they run the risk of
Speaker 1: alienating their customers by fabricating these charges. And have you
Speaker 1: seen what they look like, Matt. It looks kind of
Speaker 1: like what humans walk through at the airport as they
Speaker 1: go through security. Those scanners tsa scanner, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like that for a car, and it's like taking these,
Speaker 1: you know, three sixty videos and photos. And it has
Speaker 1: obviously with think about how good cameras are now, how
Speaker 1: much detail they can get into, and they can find
Speaker 1: those seemingly insignificant scratches that you probably didn't even put
Speaker 1: on the car. It was there already, and then they
Speaker 1: can say, yeah, previous customer, this is on you.
Speaker 2: But if it was there already, wouldn't it have been
Speaker 2: caught by the previous renter.
Speaker 1: You would think so maybe, But they're also so minor
Speaker 1: that a human never would have done anything about it.
Speaker 1: And typically you wouldn't be charged for a minor, minor scratch.
Speaker 2: So I think one like the guy at Scotland. I
Speaker 2: was just like, oh, you know kinda, He's like, oh,
Speaker 2: don't worry about it. Yeah, I'm not going to even try.
Speaker 1: But well, and one of the one of the people
Speaker 1: can do to protect themselves is to just is to
Speaker 1: take a three sixty video as you're walking around the.
Speaker 2: Car zero your own skin. Yeah. I always take a
Speaker 2: ton of photos.
Speaker 1: And that way, if you get called out, you get
Speaker 1: some sort of bill in the mail, you can be
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, that was here before or what are
Speaker 1: you talking about, Like do it before and after and
Speaker 1: then say it's not on my video or I don't
Speaker 1: see anything here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That way you can at least have a fighting chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it. I'm of two minds because on
Speaker 2: from the renter's perspective, you don't want to get hit
Speaker 2: with a bill for a small little ding but like
Speaker 2: from well even from a renter's like, imagine you're the
Speaker 2: next rent right and like, as this happens over the
Speaker 2: course of multiple rentals, multiple renters, you end up getting
Speaker 2: a car that's all dinged up, Like that's not what
Speaker 2: you're paying for when you rent a bran new vehicle.
Speaker 2: So from a renter's point of view, it's it keeps
Speaker 2: the standard high. But then also for hurts, they're you know,
Speaker 2: they unload these vehicles after a couple of years and
Speaker 2: when they go to auction these things off. If if
Speaker 2: you've got a car that's all dinged up with nothing
Speaker 2: to show for it, well you're gonna get a whole
Speaker 2: lot less for it. But I will say one of
Speaker 2: the other examples was like a drop out of water
Speaker 2: was on the car and that was initially cited by
Speaker 2: one of the customers. It was flagged to a customer
Speaker 2: as a dent and they're like, no, man, that's some rain.
Speaker 2: That was like, that's water, and they apologize, really, oh sorry,
Speaker 2: Actually I don't even even know if they apologize. But
Speaker 2: he didn't have to pay anything because of that. So
Speaker 2: you've got to be careful if it's not ready for
Speaker 2: prime time. Yet. That's another reason to maybe slow the
Speaker 2: role when it comes to implementing some of this. But
Speaker 2: it's just fascinating because how it is that a company
Speaker 2: rolls something like this out has such an impact on
Speaker 2: how a company's perceived, which then therefore has an impact
Speaker 2: on the share price of that company if it's publicly traded,
Speaker 2: or even if you want to work for it. There's
Speaker 2: new research from Charter that links the financial health and
Speaker 2: the stock market returns of a company to how it
Speaker 2: is perceived by the workforce. So, for instance, when folks
Speaker 2: want to work for a particular employer, it has many
Speaker 2: benefits enhancing that specific brand, right, they're attracting there and
Speaker 2: retaining talent. It's limiting turnover, which leads to even more
Speaker 2: positive results for that company.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That like, the actual hiring process and training of
Speaker 1: new employees costs so much money that if there's a
Speaker 1: high turnover, it's an expense exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this then of course improves customer service and
Speaker 2: gender's loyalty from customers. It's an upward spiral. Basically. It
Speaker 2: just makes me think about all the different PR professionals
Speaker 2: who are out there. If you are, if you know
Speaker 2: somebody that has the work the title at work of
Speaker 2: like chief Storyteller, Like all the PR folks are just
Speaker 2: like fist pumping and just like so happy because they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: see what we do matters. Because truly, something like Hertz,
Speaker 2: if they were to have rolled that out in a
Speaker 2: very public way, they would have gotten lambasted. I mean
Speaker 2: they they're getting called out on it already as it is,
Speaker 2: but I've got to think that something like this is
Speaker 2: a much easier thing to get past as opposed to
Speaker 2: rolling this out as a new feature where they just
Speaker 2: get ridiculed and made a fun of by the market.
Speaker 1: Well, what you were just talking about too, with kind
Speaker 1: of where people want to work and how that enhances
Speaker 1: a brand. It makes me think that, like, if I
Speaker 1: was out there looking for a job in the workforce,
Speaker 1: instead of just looking for positions that were reflected what
Speaker 1: I was interested in, I would be looking towards employers
Speaker 1: who have a great reputation amongst their employees, and I
Speaker 1: would be looking for positions at those companies that I
Speaker 1: was interested in, absolutely, because like I want to work
Speaker 1: for a company that treats people well, that offers great benefits,
Speaker 1: where I could stay for a long time, instead of
Speaker 1: just getting the position in the salary I was interested in,
Speaker 1: because that I don't know, it might not be there
Speaker 1: as long, it might not be as good of an experience.
Speaker 2: Totally agree. Yeah, that's why these narratives though, are so important,
Speaker 2: because it's almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. Yeah, if
Speaker 2: you say that you believe in something, it attracts people
Speaker 2: who then believe in that. A couple of brands come
Speaker 2: to mind, but I'm not going to focus on them
Speaker 2: at this point in time. Jo. Let's talk about hybrid work,
Speaker 2: because I think this is an instance where we're going
Speaker 2: to have to eat some crow. Remember we had an
Speaker 2: episode called I think it was called hybrid work.
Speaker 1: Is here to say that we're wrong sometimes?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and we're going to call ourselves out on it.
Speaker 1: I'm okay. Following on the sword here.
Speaker 2: Hybrid work is no longer the norm, and worker leverage
Speaker 2: is on the decline. More than half of the top
Speaker 2: Fortune one hundred companies are requiring employees to be back
Speaker 2: at the office full time. So I guess it's maybe
Speaker 2: Fortune fifty companies. We got from the Fortune five hundred
Speaker 2: to the one hundred to the fifty. But for folks
Speaker 2: who got used to like a zero commute, basically if
Speaker 2: they got used to having more flexible time, or maybe
Speaker 2: even some of those folks even moved right, they're like, Oh,
Speaker 2: location doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1: I'm moving out to the country because I don't have
Speaker 1: that commute. And then the employer comes to knocking and says,
Speaker 1: yes you do.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, maybe I'll move to Boise, like Matt
Speaker 2: was thinking, which is very short lived, which I'm so glad.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that was very short lived.
Speaker 2: Of Course, it's nice to get paid, But is it
Speaker 2: worth going back to this sort of old pre payan
Speaker 2: pre COVID normalcy. There are certainly pros and cons to it.
Speaker 2: I think there are more pros for younger workers who
Speaker 2: are looking to show that they've got the initiative, they
Speaker 2: got what it takes. They're trying to learn from their peers.
Speaker 1: That face time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if your employer is pushing for some serious
Speaker 2: back to office, you know, policies that you aren't okay with,
Speaker 2: I would recommend to politely push back. See if this
Speaker 2: is something that you can discuss. Is this the conversation
Speaker 2: worth having? Hey, maybe this is maybe we can have
Speaker 2: some sort of roundtable. This guy, I don't know, Like,
Speaker 2: what's it called out there in the corporate world, Folks,
Speaker 2: I'm lacking when it comes to the most latest experience
Speaker 2: of what it's like to be in the corporate world.
Speaker 2: That or despite the cooling labor market. I might even
Speaker 2: be worth looking elsewhere if this is not something if
Speaker 2: this if it has been very clearly communicated that this
Speaker 2: isn't a conversation we're having anymore, because I still.
Speaker 1: Think those flexible policies are gonna matter to workers and
Speaker 1: for the best workers out there, for sure. And I
Speaker 1: think that a lot of companies, Yeah, you can try
Speaker 1: to go all draconian, but you will eventually have some
Speaker 1: brain drain, and those people are gonna want to go
Speaker 1: to companies that have a little more flexibility. I was
Speaker 1: talking to a friend who just got a new job
Speaker 1: at one of those big tech companies, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to go in. I think I forget if
Speaker 1: you said four or five days a week, but all
Speaker 1: I have to do is like be there for a
Speaker 1: little bit. So I think going in ten to two
Speaker 1: or ten to three, and I'm avoiding traffic on both ends,
Speaker 1: but I'm in the office, and so it's I'm giving
Speaker 1: them what they want, but I'm kind of getting what
Speaker 1: I want at the same time. And I do think
Speaker 1: the companies are gonna have to be flexible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you I think on both ends, yeah, right,
Speaker 2: Like like for the employee. It's just like, all right, cool,
Speaker 2: you're getting in there, you're having some of those face
Speaker 2: to face meetings. Yeah, being a little bit more collaborative,
Speaker 2: which is I think still easier without having to go
Speaker 2: do it over zoom or teams or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe you're doing something that in the morning,
Speaker 1: a little bit of that when you get home, but
Speaker 1: you're not at the office all day totally. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about me some of the downsides of work from home.
Speaker 1: There's this new work Trend Index report and they said
Speaker 1: that one of the biggest downsides and this is something
Speaker 1: I think we've seen spiral out of control, Matt. They're
Speaker 1: calling it the infinite work day, And basically it was
Speaker 1: a Microsoft report that found that workers are starting they're
Speaker 1: looking at an email at six am, likely right after they
Speaker 1: wake up, and then those workers are battling messages on
Speaker 1: a ton of different fronts like Slack and Microsoft teams,
Speaker 1: and then text messages and phone calls, so they feel
Speaker 1: like they're getting inundated with requests or with coworker chatter
Speaker 1: from every direction. Then also they're working into the evening
Speaker 1: with a whole lot of folks. A high percentage of
Speaker 1: people digging back into their inbox between eight and ten pm. Oh,
Speaker 1: and then guess what. The weekends aren't free of work.
Speaker 1: Either you're maybe expected to respond or you're at least
Speaker 1: checking stuff trying to stay up on it even though
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to be working. And then there's this
Speaker 1: just the reality of work these days, where there's constant interruptions.
Speaker 1: On average, every two minutes, you're being interrupted by a
Speaker 1: pin from somewhere. And it makes me think of Cal Newport.
Speaker 1: One of his first books was called Deep Work, and man,
Speaker 1: how do you actually get deep work done when it
Speaker 1: feels like, Okay, you're constantly playing whack a mole, right,
Speaker 1: whether it's with messages or emails or you're just kind
Speaker 1: of you never have that time to actually deeply focus
Speaker 1: on a tack.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what was the number? I think it was like
Speaker 2: twenty three minutes. Once you are once you are distracted
Speaker 2: from something, it takes you twenty three minutes to kind
Speaker 2: of regain your focus to be able to hit that
Speaker 2: deep work again. Yeah, which we love saying when we're
Speaker 2: talking about distractions. But I'm also I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't know if I totally believe that twenty.
Speaker 1: Three minutes like a long time lot. Sometimes your mind
Speaker 1: wanders for a while. But I don't know, like I
Speaker 1: get it.
Speaker 2: I could be I get distracted easily, but I guess
Speaker 2: even if it's half of that, Like let's just say,
Speaker 2: even if it's ten minutes, that's a lot of time
Speaker 2: when you are getting distracted as often as oftentimes we are.
Speaker 1: And I think it's probably a good idea to have
Speaker 1: some like non office hours during the day where if
Speaker 1: you are working on a big project or you know,
Speaker 1: some people like you mentioned pr people just a second ago, Matt,
Speaker 1: A lot of those people like their job is to
Speaker 1: constantly be in their inbox. So that's that's just a
Speaker 1: different type of profession, right, But then there are other
Speaker 1: professions where you're like, no, I have to work on
Speaker 1: this project and I cannot be like emailing and slacking
Speaker 1: while I'm trying to get that thing done, and you
Speaker 1: carving out an hour in the afternoon and thirty minutes
Speaker 1: in the morning or whatever, but carving out these specific
Speaker 1: times where you're not responsible and kind of letting people
Speaker 1: know that, whether it's an away from the desk message
Speaker 1: or something like that on slack, letting your boss know Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be unreachable, but it's going to make
Speaker 1: sure I'm able to meet the deadline. That's really important
Speaker 1: to kind of set, I think, those expectations and allow
Speaker 1: that time for yourself to do what you need to
Speaker 1: do so that you can actually be productive and not
Speaker 1: just be responding to whatever someone else tells you as
Speaker 1: urgent in the moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said it away from desk, obviously, away from
Speaker 2: office makes it seem like you're not even on location.
Speaker 2: Away from desk, it's just like, well, he's around, but
Speaker 2: what's he even doing. Maybe he's over there playing ping pong.
Speaker 2: I woul like to even call it like an away
Speaker 2: from email or away from Slack sort of message, because
Speaker 2: it's like, no, I'm sitting here, I'm working, I'm just
Speaker 2: trying to do the important stuff. I just muted this
Speaker 2: right now exactly like I'm sitting here. I'm We're all
Speaker 2: part of this, but let's have some dedicated time to
Speaker 2: the project at hand that we're trying to be able
Speaker 2: to deliver in two weeks. Yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Or maybe you can just leave all the notifications on Joel,
Speaker 2: but just put your plugs in. That's what I do
Speaker 2: here in the office. Yeah, you've done it. How do
Speaker 2: you feel when I put my ear plugs in? Because
Speaker 2: sometimes I get even distracted by my coworkers are typing.
Speaker 2: And when I say coworkers, everyone knows I'm talking about you.
Speaker 1: There's not many of them. That doesn't bother me. I think,
Speaker 1: even something super simple, if I need something, I'll let
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, you can, like well, wave but I.
Speaker 2: Can kind of hear you. But it's enough to kind
Speaker 2: of blunt the sharp stimulus of messages. Other sounds like
Speaker 2: folks who honestly folks who go in and work in
Speaker 2: like a coffee shop. I don't know how they do that,
Speaker 2: and maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but I like the vibe.
Speaker 2: I like the scene of going and working somewhere where
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people. But man, the distractions.
Speaker 1: I'd never get anything done.
Speaker 2: I would not. Well, I know why you wouldn't, because
Speaker 2: you're talking to everybody. Yeah, I'm ignoring people, but then
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about the fact that I've ignored them.
Speaker 1: But if I if I really have to dig in
Speaker 1: and get something done, I'm usually taking like clicking out
Speaker 1: of the email on my like you should put nothing
Speaker 1: down so if I see the number popping up, I'm
Speaker 1: tempted to go over there and get in, and I
Speaker 1: get distracted pretty quickly, and.
Speaker 2: Then command Q on the on the mail ad.
Speaker 1: When do I actually get back to the task. Here
Speaker 1: you go, you know, all right, Matt, that's going to
Speaker 1: do it for this Friday flight. The show notes we
Speaker 1: always live up on the way website at howtomoney dot com,
Speaker 1: along with a bunch of other money saving information. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll catch you back here on Monday for a fresh
Speaker 1: ask how to Money episode. Until next time, best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out,