Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing prime pricing, discount airlines, and early
Speaker 1: retirement idiocy. That's right, Joel. This is our Friday flight
Speaker 1: where every week we look at some of the different
Speaker 1: headlines that we've come across this week, and we wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about how those headlines, how those stories, how
Speaker 1: the news impacts our money. By the way, if our
Speaker 1: voices sound slightly off, I think there there's been like
Speaker 1: some sithness going around, and you know, you and I
Speaker 1: got the sniffles work together, like I don't know, four
Speaker 1: feet apart. No, it's not my wife test ever COVID
Speaker 1: this morning, we as well is not. But uh yeah, Fortunately,
Speaker 1: um we are still well enough to host this podcast today.
Speaker 1: And even if we were, I mean, come on, I'd
Speaker 1: have to have like a knife wound to the stomach
Speaker 1: to not sit down and record with you. My friends
Speaker 1: were like the postal service in that regard where it's
Speaker 1: like through through rain, sleet, and snow, like the Kevin
Speaker 1: Costner postal Service, like even through an apocalypse. Right, you're
Speaker 1: willing to be there, but hey, heads up. Valentine's Day
Speaker 1: it's on Monday's, right, you guys, do y'all celebrate not
Speaker 1: not typically we're not huge Valentine's Day people, but I
Speaker 1: do have a plan to get my wife something this
Speaker 1: year that's a little outside of the box. Um, but
Speaker 1: I did. I think it's important to note that one
Speaker 1: you have to define expectations with your partner about Valentine's Day,
Speaker 1: because I think that's probably where the mishaps happen when
Speaker 1: it's like I didn't think we celebrated Valentine's Day, but
Speaker 1: your partner thought that you did. And hopefully that's something
Speaker 1: you learned early on, right, because like as a kid,
Speaker 1: you forget the first one and they're like, what's your problem?
Speaker 1: Is a huge deal. I mean, I didn't celebrate, like
Speaker 1: it wasn't something we celebrated in my household as a
Speaker 1: kid growing up. Obviously, when you go to school, you
Speaker 1: do the Valentine Exchange at school, so everybody celebrates with
Speaker 1: a certain teenage muting Ninja turtleal Valentine's your hand up
Speaker 1: your classmates. But then once I started dating Kate realized
Speaker 1: it was more important. So it's a part of our life,
Speaker 1: but we don't spend a lot of money, and I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of the difference here, right. I think
Speaker 1: some staff of flowers cooking, cooking dinner is like a
Speaker 1: nice way for me to show her that I care.
Speaker 1: But we're not, like, we're certainly not going out on
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day night to get dinner some fancy joint Valentine's
Speaker 1: Day prefixed dinner that's gonna cost you an rmnal leg
Speaker 1: not doing that. I came across some stats actually and
Speaker 1: lending Tree, they had a survey out and uh, the
Speaker 1: average person is looking to spend around two dollars, which
Speaker 1: is a lot of money. There's a lot of money,
Speaker 1: um and interestingly, millennials are looking to spend the most.
Speaker 1: They're closer to three. And so I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: I'm not here to like yuck on your yum if
Speaker 1: that's you, because a lot of folks, I mean, Kate's
Speaker 1: roommate actually in college, it's like it was like her
Speaker 1: favorite holiday the whole year. Her name was also Katie,
Speaker 1: but like Valentine's Day was serious. And so I'm guessing
Speaker 1: that's a holiday that they actually they probably do spend
Speaker 1: a good amount of money on in their household that
Speaker 1: is okay, but make sure, like you said, Jill, you
Speaker 1: talk about it with your partner and definitely make sure
Speaker 1: you actually have the money set aside, right, Like it's
Speaker 1: okay to celebrate, just make sure you're not going into
Speaker 1: debts in order to buy the red and pink stuff. Yes, exactly, well,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to note, like maybe where you shot
Speaker 1: for flowers matters a whole lot too. I think if
Speaker 1: you're an Amazon Prime member, you can get two dozen
Speaker 1: roses at Whole Foods for twenty bucks, which is a
Speaker 1: really good deal. And um, the other places I like
Speaker 1: to get flowers are Costco and Trader Shoe's if you
Speaker 1: have one of those nearby, I think those are two
Speaker 1: of the best places to get really good looking flowers
Speaker 1: for a reasonable price. And so yeah, just where your
Speaker 1: shot matters too. And if you're getting the delivery to
Speaker 1: the office like that is going to accept your lot.
Speaker 1: I've never done that, I never will do that, and
Speaker 1: I've never understood it because you've never been that wealthy. Right,
Speaker 1: So and I get I you know, I think I
Speaker 1: get why some people do it, but it's something that
Speaker 1: I'm personally appointing. Um, And so yeah, hopefully you have
Speaker 1: a great Valentine's Day on on Monday, and um, it
Speaker 1: just kind of heads up now to start start paring
Speaker 1: and figure it's almost too late, yes exactly, But all right, Matt,
Speaker 1: let's get into the Friday flight the quickly sampling of
Speaker 1: stories that we found interesting this week. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: student loans and saving money on college for a second.
Speaker 1: Fort of those uh an anivil around the neck of
Speaker 1: many people. Well, new information just came out and it
Speaker 1: actually reinforces how important it is for upcoming college students
Speaker 1: to file the FACTSA, which is this kind of annoying
Speaker 1: form that most upcoming college students do fill out, but
Speaker 1: sadly a lot of them don't. And because of that,
Speaker 1: many of these students are missing out on college grants
Speaker 1: that they would have otherwise received if they had just
Speaker 1: filled out that pesky form. And so yeah, almost two
Speaker 1: million high school seniors didn't fill out the fast still
Speaker 1: last year, students leaving money on the table, right yeah,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, just about half of those students would
Speaker 1: have actually qualified for federal grants. And these are these
Speaker 1: are not like student loans, These are grants. This is
Speaker 1: free money that you don't have to pay back and
Speaker 1: all for just like not doing the busy work filling
Speaker 1: out the form um and yeah, it would reduce admission
Speaker 1: us for a lot a low income students. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: so the PELL grant alone, you're looking at close like
Speaker 1: that is I mean, like literally we're talking about thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars and that's just federal right because states and
Speaker 1: individual schools based their need based aid, you know, largely
Speaker 1: on the FASTA too, and so filing the facts that
Speaker 1: is just the number one step that everyone who is
Speaker 1: like pursuing higher education should do. It can't hurt and
Speaker 1: for a lot of people that could provide massive levels
Speaker 1: of financial help and just dramatically lower the costs that
Speaker 1: you're going to incur for school. You might think like
Speaker 1: I can't afford to go to college, but if you
Speaker 1: felt the fasts that you might realize that, actually I
Speaker 1: can go for cheaper free. Yeah. I saw that some
Speaker 1: states actually, at Louisiana specifically, they require you have to
Speaker 1: fill out the FASTA in order to graduate. I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that. It's just this thing that Okay, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: like you have to fill out this form because, like
Speaker 1: you said, it could help students realize oh wow, Actually
Speaker 1: college is now It's back on the table, whereas before
Speaker 1: I didn't think that that was something I could do.
Speaker 1: Of course, that doesn't mean you have to go to college.
Speaker 1: You still have the option to. But I like how
Speaker 1: there's a quirement. I think it can just open a
Speaker 1: lot more students eyes. And if you fail to fill
Speaker 1: out the fast, it's basically equivalent to not getting the
Speaker 1: full four one K match that your employer offers. It's
Speaker 1: a glaring error that will cost you money. And we
Speaker 1: understand it's a total pain in the butt, you know,
Speaker 1: the current fasts. It truly is this beastly annoyance. I
Speaker 1: think that's a part of the reason that many do
Speaker 1: avoid it. Uh, you have to do it every single year,
Speaker 1: but the list of questions is supposed to get trimmed
Speaker 1: down and that should make a real difference in how
Speaker 1: many people end up filling it out. But until then,
Speaker 1: just suck it up and do it, because you know,
Speaker 1: like taking that hour or two to fill it out,
Speaker 1: it can result in thousands of dollars in aid that
Speaker 1: your student would otherwise forgo, likely leading to more student
Speaker 1: loans in the end. Oh man, if you can just
Speaker 1: like do this and prevent more student loans like how
Speaker 1: how it's definitely a worth while the gift that keeps
Speaker 1: on federal student aid. They actually have this YouTube page
Speaker 1: with a helpful video that walks you through how to
Speaker 1: do it. It's really well done and we'll make sure
Speaker 1: to link to that in our show notes. Okay, so,
Speaker 1: speaking of student loans and avoiding student loans through free
Speaker 1: aid from colleges and from the federal government, if you've
Speaker 1: got federal loans, well, you still don't have to pay
Speaker 1: them until May. And we're gonna see if that start
Speaker 1: back date ends up getting pushed back again. Who knows.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, uh INK reports that more employers
Speaker 1: are planning to help their employees pay off their student loans,
Speaker 1: and this is one of those company perks math that's
Speaker 1: kind of becoming more common over time, especially in the
Speaker 1: last like year to eighteen months, and that's largely thanks
Speaker 1: to the Pandemic Relief program that gives employers a tax
Speaker 1: break for providing some of that loan repayment assistance to
Speaker 1: their employees at least up to five thousand, two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a year. And the great thing is
Speaker 1: for that employee. They also don't pay any tax on
Speaker 1: that assistance either. So it's like this when when where
Speaker 1: both the employee employer are avoiding tax as long as
Speaker 1: that money is going to help you pay down student loans.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, if you have a pile of student loans,
Speaker 1: you're looking for an employer that offers this benefit, will
Speaker 1: link to a site that will actually help you find one.
Speaker 1: SERI see this is a good employers exactly, Like this
Speaker 1: is a list of all the employers that will actually
Speaker 1: help you pay down your student loans. And it's one
Speaker 1: of those benefits I think we're going to see more
Speaker 1: and more of if it's being incentivized by the FEDS,
Speaker 1: Like I think more employers are gonna start offering it,
Speaker 1: more employees are gonna start asking about it. Absolutely, so
Speaker 1: two things, like it became I think more of a
Speaker 1: benefit that employers were offering during the pandemic, but it
Speaker 1: didn't make it more popular because of course because of
Speaker 1: the forbearance, and so as we're getting closer to student
Speaker 1: loans resuming, that is something I think that more employees
Speaker 1: will be looking for. And also it's important to note
Speaker 1: that this is not only for federal student loans. UH,
Speaker 1: private loans are an option as well. Just make sure
Speaker 1: you check with the benefit that your employer is offering.
Speaker 1: And so let's talk for a second about inflation. I
Speaker 1: feel like inflation they kind of have a standing there.
Speaker 1: They're they're a regular contributor here on the on the
Speaker 1: Friday flight. Yeah, especially like once a month we're talking
Speaker 1: about inflation. I guess, well, this is that week because
Speaker 1: the new inflation numbers they just came out. The news
Speaker 1: wasn't shocking, and we're still seeing inflation running hot at
Speaker 1: seven and a half percent. Inflated prices are costing the
Speaker 1: average American in the neighborhood of two fifty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: This is according to Moody's Analytics. UH inflation. It's like
Speaker 1: it's just hanging around like mosquitoes in the summer at
Speaker 1: least Atlanta, right, Yeah, And honestly, with it being cold now,
Speaker 1: we don't have mosquitoes. That's like the best part. Actually, really,
Speaker 1: it really is the best part of this cold weather.
Speaker 1: But while we're likely to see inflation trend downward, I
Speaker 1: think over the coming year we're still seeing higher prices
Speaker 1: in a bunch of spots that affect our budgets in
Speaker 1: in a real way. Food, gasoline, used cars, appliances for
Speaker 1: our homes. These are all different categories where we have
Speaker 1: seen prices remain really high. Yeah, inflation obviously having a
Speaker 1: real impact, and with the FED set to raise rates
Speaker 1: this year multiple times, it's gonna be interesting to see
Speaker 1: what happens in the future with inflation, because, yeah, people
Speaker 1: are feeling the pain at the grocery store, at the
Speaker 1: gas pump, all those places. I mean, and you said
Speaker 1: rates going up, but like that's not necessarily going to
Speaker 1: fix supply chains, right right, So that's one of the
Speaker 1: I guess one of the criticisms. A lot of factors
Speaker 1: there are. It's un of factors and so like honestly,
Speaker 1: and this sounds so very Unamerican, but what we have
Speaker 1: to do as individuals, if we're looking to curb the
Speaker 1: amount of inflation in allives, is change our spending habits.
Speaker 1: This is one of those situations where the solution doesn't
Speaker 1: solely rest with the government. And this is also going
Speaker 1: to sound Unamerican, but I think for most of us
Speaker 1: that means eating less steak and bacon, and just because
Speaker 1: those are goes counter to Joel's commandments right exactly, but
Speaker 1: for for the time being, as those two things specifically
Speaker 1: have skyrocketed in price, that those are things you probably
Speaker 1: want to trim out of your your grocery bill as
Speaker 1: much as possible. And and Matt, even with the current
Speaker 1: inflation reality we're faced with, there's this new study and
Speaker 1: it found that that most of us are more concerned
Speaker 1: with work life balance instead of and over a high
Speaker 1: paying salary. And so yeah, the numbers revealed that two
Speaker 1: thirds of folks um said that work life balance is
Speaker 1: more important than making a much higher salary. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: the numbers revealed that two thirds of folks prioritize that
Speaker 1: work life balance more than more money. And I think
Speaker 1: we could probably all admit that how having both is ideal.
Speaker 1: Would be nice to make a good bit of money
Speaker 1: and then also have work life balance where at your
Speaker 1: home for breakfast, home for dinner, Like that's my goal
Speaker 1: every day is to be home for breakfast, home for dinner.
Speaker 1: But really, balance is key, and sometimes it is best
Speaker 1: to say yes to more money and even working longer
Speaker 1: hours to get it. But we would just suggest that
Speaker 1: you think long and hard before you opt to go
Speaker 1: that route. You know, often that trade off means you'll
Speaker 1: have less personal time, less social time, less family time,
Speaker 1: and the fatter paycheck it won't make up for missing
Speaker 1: your kids soccer game, or or the flexibility that you
Speaker 1: might have um doing something else. And so I'm glad
Speaker 1: to see that Americans priority lies more with what their
Speaker 1: life looks like than accruing more and more money and
Speaker 1: just having a fatter bank account overall. And so, Matt,
Speaker 1: we've actually got more what we want to talk about
Speaker 1: on the work life balance because there's a headline that
Speaker 1: got our attention about the fire movement. We're going to
Speaker 1: get to that in our ludicrous headline segment right after this.
Speaker 1: All right, we are back from the break and Joel,
Speaker 1: like you alluded to just a second ago, it is
Speaker 1: now time for the ludicrous headline of the week. Uh
Speaker 1: and this one reads Harvard trained economist says early retirement
Speaker 1: is one of the worst money mistakes. Here's why you'll
Speaker 1: regret it. The modern path thing of the headline just
Speaker 1: brings me to tears almost on a weekly basis. I
Speaker 1: think I think we need to make sure that our
Speaker 1: friends in Colorado over there Longmont can make sure to
Speaker 1: restrain Mr Money must because he's gonna write his pedal
Speaker 1: his little bicycle over and this guy's glasses and laid
Speaker 1: on the law with this author. Here's the thing that
Speaker 1: when you actually read this article, it's not as offensive
Speaker 1: as the headline might appear, as is often the case.
Speaker 1: So the reason that earlier retirement is such a mistake
Speaker 1: this is, according to the author, Lawrence Kotlikoff, is because
Speaker 1: Americans are lousy savers. Most people are going to run
Speaker 1: out of money pretty quickly if they quit their jobs
Speaker 1: too soon. And yeah, sure, retiring with little to no
Speaker 1: savings or investments, that's a bad idea. We would not
Speaker 1: encourage it if you are one of these folks. If
Speaker 1: you're a lousy saver, you're gonna need to change that
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. If you don't want to work until you're
Speaker 1: like sixties or early seventies, it's gonna be hard to
Speaker 1: live the kind of life that you want to live
Speaker 1: in retirement if you bow out of the workforce too early. Um.
Speaker 1: And thankfully, though, for how the money listeners, early retirement,
Speaker 1: if approached well, is not a mistake that you'll regret.
Speaker 1: And luckily a lot of our listeners have plenty of
Speaker 1: time to make sure that they have enough invested and saved. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think for any of our listeners who have been
Speaker 1: around for a while, they've heard our thoughts on the
Speaker 1: Fire movement. We're not against it, but we're also not
Speaker 1: like hook Line and Sinker all about it. And yeah, basically,
Speaker 1: even if you're a great saver and you've got the
Speaker 1: money to comfortably retire in your fifties or or even
Speaker 1: your forties, or for some of these like stringent Fire
Speaker 1: adherents who start young even in their thirties, that doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily mean that you should quit your job, right. And Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of our main beasts we would say with the
Speaker 1: Fire movement is when folks work as hard as possible
Speaker 1: to escape work that they don't really like, and so
Speaker 1: they sign themselves up for ten twelve plus years of
Speaker 1: doing something that is not enjoyable um in order just
Speaker 1: to achieve this goal in the future. And we think
Speaker 1: that people shouldn't said pursue days and weeks and years
Speaker 1: that are enjoyable right now, even if it means making
Speaker 1: less money. Right. Just kind of like that survey revealed earlier,
Speaker 1: and in one of the last lines in the piece,
Speaker 1: the author actually says that he plans to die in
Speaker 1: the saddle, as he puts it, because his work is
Speaker 1: just to rewarding financially, intellectually, and psychologically. He says, to
Speaker 1: give it up. And I think that is something that
Speaker 1: I resonate with because I want to do something then
Speaker 1: do work that that resonates with me every single day.
Speaker 1: And it's not like doing this podcast. Every day I
Speaker 1: get like enthusiastic, like when I pop out of bed
Speaker 1: because I'm like, can't wait to go and sit in
Speaker 1: front of the microphone and talk to Matt. We are
Speaker 1: real people, right, and and some days it feels like right.
Speaker 1: But overall I can definitely say that about this job
Speaker 1: is that it is all of the above of its
Speaker 1: rewarding in all those ways. It's overall the best job
Speaker 1: I've ever had, right, right, I mean, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: The Eckerts Photo Lab. Still it was not there but
Speaker 1: parking golf carts back when I was a sixteen year old,
Speaker 1: but that one was not financially rewarding. But you you
Speaker 1: only get so many years on this planet, right, And
Speaker 1: so yeah, working sixty hours a week doing something you
Speaker 1: detest in order to retire ten or twenty years sooner.
Speaker 1: That's not something we would sign up for or that
Speaker 1: we would encourage others to sign up for. Either. That's right,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I feel like one of the other things
Speaker 1: he was pushing back against, too, is almost like the
Speaker 1: sense of entitlement, like early retirement. It's something that we've
Speaker 1: all heard of now, and honestly, even retirement in general.
Speaker 1: To think that, Okay, once you hit a certain age
Speaker 1: you can just kick back and travel the world, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's actually true. Maybe you will
Speaker 1: be able to stop working, but maybe you won't have
Speaker 1: enough to travel the world. It all comes down to
Speaker 1: what you've done in the meantime. And again, our listeners
Speaker 1: have so much time that they can position themselves to
Speaker 1: be set up for the kind of retirement or the
Speaker 1: kind of work that they want to pursue down the road,
Speaker 1: whether it is full retirement where they are just traveling
Speaker 1: doing the more traditional thing, or like you said, Joel,
Speaker 1: taking a job that pays a little bit less but
Speaker 1: you find way more fulfilling, something that's more sustainable that
Speaker 1: fits better with your life. Those are the kind of
Speaker 1: things that we want to see how many listeners working forwards,
Speaker 1: continuing to work, maybe in the field that you love,
Speaker 1: but just reducing the hours. Or you know, my mom,
Speaker 1: I think I'm revealed recently that she took one day
Speaker 1: off of her work weeks she was working for now
Speaker 1: she's working three maybe next year, sing on to two
Speaker 1: like it's great, um, And I think we're time with
Speaker 1: the grandkids with you as well. She likes you all right,
Speaker 1: and she prefers the grandkids. But um, which is understandable
Speaker 1: that far uter it's like grandparent life. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think those are the kind of things that you can pursue.
Speaker 1: But if you're all about just like building up that
Speaker 1: stash of cash in in your investment accounts and you're
Speaker 1: thinking long term, we encourage long term thinking, but you
Speaker 1: can do it to the detriment of your everyday life
Speaker 1: in the here now, for for years on end, and
Speaker 1: that is something that is a travesty. Absolutely. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about getting those cardboard boxes dropped on your doorstep. Amazon,
Speaker 1: they just announced that they're going to be raising the
Speaker 1: cost of Prime membership from a hundred nineteen dollars a
Speaker 1: year to a hundred and thirty nine dollars annually. If
Speaker 1: you subscribe on a monthly basis, the price is going
Speaker 1: to be ticking up by two dollars each month to so.
Speaker 1: But let's be honest. You know these price increases are
Speaker 1: probably not devastating to your budget. But that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that you should just hang on to Prime just because
Speaker 1: this is the perfect time to do the math and
Speaker 1: to decide whether or not you're getting enough value from
Speaker 1: your Prime membership or not. And because Prime offers so
Speaker 1: many benefits, it can be tough to figure this out.
Speaker 1: We are Prime members mostly because of the shipping, but
Speaker 1: they've got the Amazon Music, which we have been big
Speaker 1: fans of, especially ever since the Encanto soundtrack came out,
Speaker 1: has been going NonStop in our household. We don't use
Speaker 1: the actual video streaming service all that much. What although,
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings, when's that supposed to think? This year?
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe early next year even But I can get
Speaker 1: excited about that. Dude, did you start reading the hobbit?
Speaker 1: We did so good? It gets to be excited about
Speaker 1: seeing more of that scenery down there in New Zealand.
Speaker 1: It also makes me want to visit down there as well.
Speaker 1: But one other things worth considering is to only pay
Speaker 1: for Amazon Prime on a month basis. UH. If you're
Speaker 1: not a heavy user, and so let's say you only
Speaker 1: need it, you know, maybe for half the year. If
Speaker 1: that's the case, you're only gonna pay ninety dollars instead
Speaker 1: of one forty. That can be a strategic way to
Speaker 1: approach your spending. If you know there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: certain period of time when you are going to take
Speaker 1: advantage of their services, that can be something that you
Speaker 1: can be more strategic about. That's true. There are also
Speaker 1: ways to lock in the cheaper price right now before
Speaker 1: it goes up later this month, so where you can
Speaker 1: actually still stick that hundred nineteen dollar price tag on
Speaker 1: your renewal. You can basically purchase the Gift of Prime
Speaker 1: membership right now at the current rate and then apply
Speaker 1: it to your membership once it runs out. Just make
Speaker 1: sure that your membership is not set to auto renewed
Speaker 1: uh in order to actually pull that one off. And theoretically,
Speaker 1: the word word on the street is that you can
Speaker 1: get multiple years by buying those memberships the Gift of
Speaker 1: Prime for other members of your family as well. Not
Speaker 1: I haven't done that personally, but evidently theoretically you could
Speaker 1: do that. Okay, all right, let's you know, worth we
Speaker 1: look into the fine details and figure out if there's
Speaker 1: an expiration for those, right, Yeah, well I think it's
Speaker 1: it's all before we decide, like, of course I have
Speaker 1: to have this, I'm gonna stick with Prime. You have
Speaker 1: to think about the downsides that Amazon Prime has in
Speaker 1: your life potentially too, because it certainly has some benefits
Speaker 1: and some perks, and it's certainly helped a lot of
Speaker 1: people during the pandemic, but but you it can also
Speaker 1: turn us into horrible consumers who are completely insensitive to price.
Speaker 1: I think the friction list one click sort of payment
Speaker 1: options that we have where it shows up to our
Speaker 1: door the next day or the day after or sometimes
Speaker 1: even in less time than that, like that is not
Speaker 1: a good thing for for us and our budgets. Basically,
Speaker 1: if our knee jerk reaction is to go to Amazon
Speaker 1: before we even chop around anywhere else and just buy
Speaker 1: the item directly there, that's a bad thing. Um. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, the reality is that Amazon can be Dr
Speaker 1: Jekyll or Mr. Hyde for us. It just depends on
Speaker 1: on how we use it. So those are all important
Speaker 1: things to consider before you sign up for another year
Speaker 1: of prime membership, especially now that the price has increased.
Speaker 1: A right time now for our allow story that we're
Speaker 1: gonna cover during this episode. Folks who like discount flying,
Speaker 1: they will be happy to hear that Spirit Airlines may
Speaker 1: not exist for much longer. Well, it's funny you say that,
Speaker 1: because I think people who like discount flying are probably like, oh,
Speaker 1: Spirits discount airlines. I'll probably choose that. It just depends
Speaker 1: on what you're looking for when it comes to your airline.
Speaker 1: But this is because fellow discount airline Frontier, they just
Speaker 1: announced that they're going to be that they're planning to
Speaker 1: buy Spirit Airlines, and these two airlines combined would become
Speaker 1: the fifth largest airline in the country. That is if
Speaker 1: the merger is approved by the Justice Department. So the
Speaker 1: big question is, you know, is this a good thing
Speaker 1: for us as customers? As flyers. The two companies claim
Speaker 1: that merging will allow them to compete with the bigger
Speaker 1: four airlines while offering more savings to the flying public.
Speaker 1: And that might be true given the fact that those
Speaker 1: big four airlines they do of business uh in the
Speaker 1: domestic market. They could use a stronger fifth competitor that
Speaker 1: has a strong discount bias. But you know, at the
Speaker 1: same time, having fewer overall airlines thing at the heels
Speaker 1: of the big four will likely maybe be worse for
Speaker 1: all of us out there. Yeah, it'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see what happens, will less you know, but some of
Speaker 1: the smaller discount airlines, Matt, I think you're right, could
Speaker 1: potentially face even more severe headwinds. Um yeah, sorry, dad,
Speaker 1: joke there. If the merger does go through, I think, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: once you can create this fifth competitor, some of those
Speaker 1: other smaller competitors find it even harder to to keep
Speaker 1: a foothold in an intensely competitive industry. And we as consumers,
Speaker 1: we need competition in the market in order to receive
Speaker 1: the most benefit and best product and service possible. But
Speaker 1: either way, it's gonna take a lot to try and
Speaker 1: dethrone Delta, Alaska and Southwest. And you know what, all
Speaker 1: of those airlines do consistently rank in the top spots
Speaker 1: in the airline rankings, but Spirit their way down at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the list here and so um yeah,
Speaker 1: even if these airlines do combine, that doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 1: that their service is going to improve. But if you're
Speaker 1: looking for the absolute lowest price and you can travel
Speaker 1: with all of your things in a small backpack, then
Speaker 1: the fronts here, Spirit, you know, probably a good way
Speaker 1: to go, and we're all about jumping through some hoops
Speaker 1: to save some money. And the other thing that people
Speaker 1: need to know, like, regardless of whether an airline says
Speaker 1: that they are, you know, a discount airline or not,
Speaker 1: Google dot com slash flights is a great place to
Speaker 1: kind of get the lay of the land for how
Speaker 1: much cheaper it actually is to fly a different airline,
Speaker 1: and very quickly you can get an idea of whether
Speaker 1: or not it's gonna be worth it to fly a
Speaker 1: discount airline or not. Um And and just remember, if
Speaker 1: you're flying a discount airline like Spirit, there are all
Speaker 1: these random little fees that are going to get assessed.
Speaker 1: So the price that you're paying up front is not
Speaker 1: necessarily equal to the price that you're gonna pay at
Speaker 1: the very end. And so yeah, keep that in mind
Speaker 1: as you're booking travel. Yeah, generally speaking, though, I'm all
Speaker 1: for it because of the fact that it provides more competition, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's capitalism when there is more competition, that
Speaker 1: leads to innovation and the ability for us as customers
Speaker 1: to have options. I mean, that's I think in the end,
Speaker 1: that's what I want folks to have, because, like we're saying,
Speaker 1: if you want to kind of jump through all the hoops,
Speaker 1: you want to, you know, squish all your stuff into
Speaker 1: a purse and that's how you travel because you don't
Speaker 1: want to pay extra for an additional bag. I'm totally
Speaker 1: fine with that. But at the same time, if you
Speaker 1: want better service, if you want to sit in business class,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna fly Frontier or Spirit. You're gonna fly Delta,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna be willing to pay that. As long
Speaker 1: as we have the freedom to choose and you know
Speaker 1: where our money goes, I think that's what I want
Speaker 1: to see more of. And as long as Frontier is
Speaker 1: offering that as a service that people are willing to
Speaker 1: pay for, then they will continue to do well. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the great thing is if if either one of
Speaker 1: these airlines stops providing value or there are too many complaints, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: the word gets out, you go Southwest where it gets out.
Speaker 1: And like these rankings do have an impact on whether
Speaker 1: people decide to fly with these airlines or not. And
Speaker 1: Spirit went through a crisis a few years ago and
Speaker 1: they had to change a whole lot of things about
Speaker 1: the way they communicated to customers about what they were
Speaker 1: paying for those flights because people felt taking advantage of
Speaker 1: on the back end Nicolon exactly, and so um, you know,
Speaker 1: Spirit has done a better job now communicating about what
Speaker 1: the fees are going to be and the trade offs
Speaker 1: that you're making to fly with them. But one of
Speaker 1: the trade offs you're making is to save money. And
Speaker 1: if that's your primary goal, then for a lot of
Speaker 1: folks who can make sense to, you know, opt for
Speaker 1: one of those discount airlines like Spirit instead of one
Speaker 1: of the full fair airlines. That's right. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be it for this Friday Flight episode. We hope everyone
Speaker 1: has a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend, and we will see
Speaker 1: you back here on Monday on Valentine's Day. And remember
Speaker 1: we're going to be speaking with a financial therapist about
Speaker 1: love and money. You can look forward to that episode
Speaker 1: showing up in your pod catcher. So basically, I think
Speaker 1: what you can do is avoid the flowers or the
Speaker 1: fancy dinner out just listen to how to money with
Speaker 1: your partner because this is gonna be a compelling episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't do that. Do listen to the episode, but
Speaker 1: don't have that be uh in your own placements the
Speaker 1: day activity actual Valentine's Day festivities. Yes, all right, Well
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this one, Matt. Until next time,
Speaker 1: best friends out, Best Friends Out,