Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about how the temptation to spend is
Speaker 1: getting realm. That's Rachel. As our lives resumed some sort
Speaker 1: of normalcy, the sirens are calling calling out there. They're
Speaker 1: calling us over to the rocks of retail consumption. Give
Speaker 1: me your credit card information, whether online or in person.
Speaker 1: It's true. No, this is what this episode is gonna
Speaker 1: be all about. We're talking about spending our money and
Speaker 1: specifically to make sure that we're doing it wisely. That way, yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't end up crashing against the rocks of personal finance.
Speaker 1: And I guess those those rocks of this cliffs would
Speaker 1: be like bunted budget bankruptcy. Uh that that would be
Speaker 1: the hardest rock that you could, Yeah, you go against.
Speaker 1: But even just like credit card debt, that that's unintended,
Speaker 1: the consequences that are there if you do ever spend.
Speaker 1: And I think Matt like, there's this particular temptation right
Speaker 1: now as the economy is reopening and people are getting
Speaker 1: vaccinated and they want to start spending in a way
Speaker 1: that's maybe what they were used to ahead of coronavirus.
Speaker 1: But but even more so, like an even more ramped
Speaker 1: up version of spending for a lot of people is
Speaker 1: kind of what they're being beckoned to do. And so
Speaker 1: you know, we want to push back against that and
Speaker 1: and help all of us to think through, Okay, how
Speaker 1: do we start to spend money as the economy reopens.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that today, but before we get
Speaker 1: to that, man, I wanted to let you know, speaking
Speaker 1: of spending, Uh, we're we're about to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of work at our house, and it is going
Speaker 1: to cost money. Um, but I'm looking for as many
Speaker 1: ways as possible to make that work cost less money.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things I found out about
Speaker 1: from a friend. There's this place called life Cycle in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and it's basically this huge warehouse of old doors, tile lighting,
Speaker 1: life fixtures, um anything really you could matter place. Mantel
Speaker 1: pieces like it looked like they came out of like
Speaker 1: old castles, basically bath tubs, vanities. I mean really, as
Speaker 1: far as the eye can see, you're looking at pieces
Speaker 1: of older homes, like and or poor things that just
Speaker 1: were never used in the first place. Similar stuff is
Speaker 1: brand new at that place, but it's just deeply discounted,
Speaker 1: and so we went this weekend as a family to
Speaker 1: kind of check it out, and man, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of good stuff that that we're totally considering in
Speaker 1: in particular, like with like a door, you can save
Speaker 1: so much money buying the door gently used instead of
Speaker 1: buying it brand new. Um, it's just one of those
Speaker 1: things that you know, a lot of towns have a
Speaker 1: habitat restore and that's a place worth going to. We've
Speaker 1: got one right around the corner from from where we
Speaker 1: live here. But life Cycle was like ten times a size. Man.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like the Walmart of of like reused
Speaker 1: stuff in in our town at least, But it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like a Walmart. It feels more like an antique store,
Speaker 1: right Like. I feel like that's the biggest difference between
Speaker 1: like a life Cycle and a Habitat restore is like
Speaker 1: stuff at a habitat restore it kind of us feel
Speaker 1: like a Walmart. You know, it's like kind of subpar products.
Speaker 1: They'll have a bunch of things that are brand new
Speaker 1: that just are kind of i don't know, like lower
Speaker 1: quality basically, whereas like the life cycle of grade materials. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: not that builder grade means bad necessarily, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: We do feel that way. The language we use points
Speaker 1: to that. But but yeah, like the life cycle, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's it's more like an antique store and
Speaker 1: you can find really cool old stuff. And I remember,
Speaker 1: like now, we went there specifically to look for a
Speaker 1: wood burning stove. This is a few years ago back
Speaker 1: when we were first thinking about adding a wood burning
Speaker 1: stove to our house, and we couldn't find one. But
Speaker 1: the reason we knew that they would have them occasionally
Speaker 1: is because we've seen them there before. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if where you live you have one of
Speaker 1: these types of places, but if you do, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: definitely a great spot to find some high quality used
Speaker 1: or you know, kind of antique pieces of old homes.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned doors. I mean that's exactly what like
Speaker 1: the next time Kate and I get like, we're thinking
Speaker 1: about maybe swapping out our front door because dude, like
Speaker 1: our front door kind of sucks. Like it's very clearly
Speaker 1: from the nineties. It kind of has like cut glass
Speaker 1: design and it's a solid door. It's perfectly fine, but
Speaker 1: it would be really cool if we were able to
Speaker 1: find one that was made of wood that was maybe
Speaker 1: kind of a little more I don't know, something more
Speaker 1: original to to our house instead of this, uh, this
Speaker 1: store that was put in, you know, over twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you want something like a hundred years old
Speaker 1: like like that actually fits the style exactly. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: the whole rest of our house looks very old except
Speaker 1: for this weird store exactly got a modern door, so well,
Speaker 1: that is the place to look. And then I saw
Speaker 1: some light fixtures there that were just incredible, some of
Speaker 1: which look like they belong in a ballroom or something
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, just some really cool stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 1: just hang that up in your bathroom. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I could. People would hit their heads on it would
Speaker 1: be way too big. But it's uh, it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where I think there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who could benefit from shopping in a place like
Speaker 1: that as opposed to just instinctively going to the big
Speaker 1: box store that sells the big box hardware store. Right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna save some money, there's gonna be less waste involved,
Speaker 1: and you might find something that you like better too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you way more likely to find something unique there,
Speaker 1: for sure. Let's introduce the beer for this episode. This
Speaker 1: is actually another non alcoholic near beer from Right Side
Speaker 1: Brewing and this is their Citrus Wheet. Looking forward to
Speaker 1: enjoying this one and talking about it at the end
Speaker 1: of the episode. But let's move on to the subject
Speaker 1: at hand, Matt. Today unless year, we're talking about the
Speaker 1: temptation to spend. It's getting real and Uh. When we
Speaker 1: were talking about what this episode would look like, Matt,
Speaker 1: it made me think about I know there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people out there that beat themselves up over a
Speaker 1: purchase that they made that they can't take back, and
Speaker 1: it's probably not the healthiest thing to do. But it's
Speaker 1: something I've done before when I've made a purchase and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I go past the return window and now
Speaker 1: I'm stuck with it, right, uh, and I kind of
Speaker 1: will break myself over the coals. I feel like I
Speaker 1: just gotta get a couple of jabs in so that
Speaker 1: I remember not to do that in the future. And
Speaker 1: that's probably not like jabs on your own self. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's probably not healthy, not the best way to approach it,
Speaker 1: but sometimes that happens, right and Um, over the years,
Speaker 1: I have become I would say a better spender. I
Speaker 1: think I was a more thoughtless spender when I was younger,
Speaker 1: and I think we all need a dose of like
Speaker 1: thoughtfulness when it comes to how we spend, and right
Speaker 1: now is a crucial time to discuss spending in more detail.
Speaker 1: There have been stories already talking about how American spending
Speaker 1: is ramping up, and it's specifically on clothing. That's one
Speaker 1: of the items people are spending more on their wardrobes
Speaker 1: these days. And apparently comes after a year he's basically like, Wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I shouldn't go out in public with the sweatpants
Speaker 1: on it, right, Yeah, because they're going out in public more,
Speaker 1: whereas we hold up in our homes there for a
Speaker 1: long time. And it kind of seemed to think that
Speaker 1: that that this could be an early hint of a
Speaker 1: spending spree unlike anything we've ever seen before, that the
Speaker 1: floodgates of spending are opening in this country. Um, And
Speaker 1: I think part of it's because of the influx of
Speaker 1: stimulus money, the economic recovery really being in full swing,
Speaker 1: and then folks being just a little bit tired of
Speaker 1: being at home as much as they have been spending
Speaker 1: money might feel like the only sane thing for a
Speaker 1: lot of folks to do. And I think we're okay
Speaker 1: with people spending more money, but there are some important
Speaker 1: things to take into consideration before we just go out
Speaker 1: there and start spending ad nausea. Yeah, you know, since
Speaker 1: there is so much of this pent up demand, it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna be easy to, I think, to fall prey
Speaker 1: to some poor spending choices. It kind of makes me
Speaker 1: think of, like maybe what it must be for for
Speaker 1: someone living abroad for a year or two, right, Like
Speaker 1: you probably over indulge on cheeseburgers, like maybe for a
Speaker 1: month or two, like like once you come back to
Speaker 1: the States. For many of us, it doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: we've spent much over the past year. We've essentially been
Speaker 1: forced into spending less because of COVID lockdowns and the
Speaker 1: inability to to eat out at our favorite spots at all,
Speaker 1: you know, for a while, or as maybe as frequently
Speaker 1: as we might have before. But again, yeah, we just
Speaker 1: want to make sure that we're not getting carried away
Speaker 1: as more of us get vaccinated and get back to
Speaker 1: at least a bit more normalcy than we've been used to.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're discussing today how to spend our
Speaker 1: money more wisely. Yeah, and a lot of Americans are
Speaker 1: in a decent spot when it comes to the amount
Speaker 1: of death that they've been raking up on their credit cards.
Speaker 1: According to one of the major credit bureaus, Experience, there
Speaker 1: was a seventy three billion dollar decrease in overall credit
Speaker 1: card debt last year, and a lot of that was
Speaker 1: due to the pandemic. People were taking extra money they had,
Speaker 1: they were paying off their credit card debt instead of
Speaker 1: racking up more, and that means that it was about
Speaker 1: an average decrease of eight hundred and seventy nine dollars
Speaker 1: on the average credit card balance. That's great news for
Speaker 1: a whole lot of folks. But the trick now is
Speaker 1: to make sure that we don't immediately return to our
Speaker 1: old ways. It's okay to spend money, but the temptation
Speaker 1: to spend more than you can afford to or should
Speaker 1: be spending right is going to be real in the
Speaker 1: coming months. That allure to spend and let that credit
Speaker 1: card debt hang around just a little bit longer than
Speaker 1: you planned to let it hang around is going to
Speaker 1: be real to you. You can probably justify it as
Speaker 1: your spending desires increase, so it's important to do what
Speaker 1: you can to combat those urges. And we've got some
Speaker 1: ideas on how to do that for you today. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In that same report by Experience, they talked about the
Speaker 1: different states who that that normally carry the highest credit
Speaker 1: card balances and how they saw the highest percentage of
Speaker 1: decreased amount of debt on their credit cards, meaning that
Speaker 1: though those states were carrying large balances, those folks showed
Speaker 1: an incredible amount of control over their finances when it
Speaker 1: came to it, you know. And so that just highlights
Speaker 1: the fact that we do have way more control than
Speaker 1: I think we give ourselves credit for. And an important
Speaker 1: part of this is to question sort of the the
Speaker 1: deeper reasons why it is that we're tempted to spend money,
Speaker 1: you know, like ask yourself, do you actually need the
Speaker 1: thing that you've been pining after or maybe you're just bored.
Speaker 1: Pinpointing the root cause can help you to react, you know,
Speaker 1: differently in the future. U It can remind you maybe
Speaker 1: that you know, the browsing that you're doing or the
Speaker 1: stuff that you're buying. It's really just an attempt to
Speaker 1: maybe even just paper over something else that's going on,
Speaker 1: or you know, often being bored or maybe even being sad.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you are able to recognize those things,
Speaker 1: those are feelings that you don't need to just shove
Speaker 1: deeper inside that you don't address. This is something you
Speaker 1: need to talk to your friend or talk to your
Speaker 1: partner about. We're not fans of retail therapy at all,
Speaker 1: and we feel that if you were to try to
Speaker 1: spend your way out of that dull drum, that's, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna find yourself in an even worse position
Speaker 1: down the road. Yeah. Instead of retail therapy, you can
Speaker 1: actually spend money to get actual therapy, like talk to
Speaker 1: somebody and get some real thing. Yeah, and that that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a whole lot better for you and a
Speaker 1: whole lot, whole lot better for your budget. Yeah. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you'll hear folks say that it's yeah, more affordable to
Speaker 1: go shopping than it is to go see a counselor
Speaker 1: It's like, in reality, I actually think that would be
Speaker 1: a wiser decision. You can go and see ac counselor
Speaker 1: go and talk to somebody, and yeah, the shopping habit
Speaker 1: can get more expensive than seeking professional help us for sure.
Speaker 1: It's also important to remember that there are meaningful trade
Speaker 1: offs and other sacrifices that you're making when you do
Speaker 1: spend haphazardly. It's really tough to see them in the
Speaker 1: moment when you're blinded by the cool new item and
Speaker 1: all you can think is how much better would things
Speaker 1: be in my life if I own that? If I
Speaker 1: like got on my credit card and made sure that
Speaker 1: was in my life right now, that's what you're feeling.
Speaker 1: But the truth is that purchase, if it's done on
Speaker 1: a whim, is likely not something that will bring much
Speaker 1: joy or satisfaction in your life over the long run,
Speaker 1: and it will actually detract from the bigger and more
Speaker 1: significant things that not spending that money does for you.
Speaker 1: That's why it's important to have those bigger money goals
Speaker 1: identified so that you can look to those as your
Speaker 1: guiding light when that spending appetite begins to gnaw at you. Right,
Speaker 1: having a bigger goal helps you see exactly the trade
Speaker 1: off that you're making when you make piddally smaller purchases,
Speaker 1: because those are eating away at the bigger goal, and
Speaker 1: it's important to see that in real time. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why it's you know, important
Speaker 1: to make wise purchases. And aside from the financial applications,
Speaker 1: curry being the massive amount of trash, dude, in the
Speaker 1: in the waste you know, that we create every single day,
Speaker 1: that's a great reason to avoid falling prey to that
Speaker 1: spending temptation that we're that we're being faced with. Dude.
Speaker 1: According to the e p A, we create around five
Speaker 1: pounds of waste every single day, which is kind of
Speaker 1: mind blowing, Like five pounds is a lot. And to
Speaker 1: the largest amount of waste that's filling up our landfills
Speaker 1: is food, which is at around of all that goes
Speaker 1: to landfills, and plastics, which is like that second and
Speaker 1: that's at eight. And these are two areas that I feel,
Speaker 1: you know, again, we have tremendous amount of control over
Speaker 1: UH and spending wisely could have a pretty huge impact
Speaker 1: on the amount of waste in our lives, on the
Speaker 1: amount of waste that we're you know, that's getting hauled
Speaker 1: off to the landfills. Have. The less we consume, the
Speaker 1: less waste we're producing. Literally, the less we consume or
Speaker 1: think we're gonna consume, and then to just throw in
Speaker 1: the trash, like we think we're gonna eat that food,
Speaker 1: but instead it just goes to waste. And same I mean,
Speaker 1: and just plastics as well. I mean, so much in
Speaker 1: our lives is just made from plastic, whether it's packaging,
Speaker 1: if for other stuff that we buy, or just you know,
Speaker 1: throw away goods that are meant to be obsolete after
Speaker 1: a year. Yeah, it's a financial and an environmental problem
Speaker 1: at the same time that we're basically working to remedy
Speaker 1: with our actions, um and by avoiding some of the
Speaker 1: spending temptations that that pop up. And not only is
Speaker 1: mindless spending bad for the environment, it's likely just it's
Speaker 1: not a very good thing for us as individuals as well.
Speaker 1: Right Over, spending at restaurants isn't great for our health.
Speaker 1: If we opt for a dessert and two drinks on
Speaker 1: top of our on top of our main course, we're
Speaker 1: going to not only gain weight, but we're gonna spend
Speaker 1: more money. Or like the fried foods. For me, it's
Speaker 1: always the fried foods because like we don't fry food
Speaker 1: at home, and so like when I look at a menu,
Speaker 1: I'm always like, okay, what is your Yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what what's on the men you here that we never
Speaker 1: cook at home? Because to me, that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: where the value lies. But it's also not you know,
Speaker 1: it's not good for my arteries. I'm always going for
Speaker 1: the French fries. Truth. Yeah, And I think to buying
Speaker 1: on a whim reduces our own self discipline and it
Speaker 1: turns our focus inward as opposed to looking around to others.
Speaker 1: There's an entire host of reasons why it's bad to
Speaker 1: impulse spend. So we're gonna give some concrete ways to
Speaker 1: help you curb unwide spending, to avoid some of those
Speaker 1: spending temptations. They're gonna be cropping up more and more.
Speaker 1: We'll get to those right after this break. Al Right,
Speaker 1: we are back. We're talking about how the temptation to
Speaker 1: spend money, how it's just getting a credib the real
Speaker 1: these days. Angel, Let's just talk about some of the
Speaker 1: things that we can do instead of actually spending our money.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're maybe thinking about making a purchase,
Speaker 1: we're gonna offer up a few different mental tricks, some
Speaker 1: different tactics here that can help you to avoid those
Speaker 1: on wise decisions. First of all, one of the things
Speaker 1: we suggest, and you're kind of touching on this before
Speaker 1: the break, but uh, substitute that temptation to spend with
Speaker 1: a financial goal. If you pause long enough, can you
Speaker 1: identify something that you would maybe rather do with your
Speaker 1: money instead of spend it. We challenge you to to
Speaker 1: think through like what, really, you know, big and crazy
Speaker 1: goal could you reach if you opted out of this
Speaker 1: short term purchase. So for you, it might help to
Speaker 1: run some basic math to see what those unspent funds
Speaker 1: can turn into if you keep it in your bank account,
Speaker 1: or maybe even if you invest it instead of spending it,
Speaker 1: say maybe on that new watch. And as we say this,
Speaker 1: if you think that doesn't get me very excited at all,
Speaker 1: like saving money or investing that money and sticking it
Speaker 1: in the bank, Uh, that doesn't get me pumped to
Speaker 1: do anything, right. I think what we would say then
Speaker 1: is that you need to think two bigger goals. Like
Speaker 1: if you don't get sided about like some sort of
Speaker 1: far off goal that's going to take you multiple years
Speaker 1: to achieve. I think that means you're not dreaming big enough.
Speaker 1: Maybe that means you're signed up and you're pursuing somebody
Speaker 1: else's goal, you know, Like you've heard that is good
Speaker 1: to save for a retirement, But in your mind, anytime
Speaker 1: you say retirement, you just kind of die a little
Speaker 1: bit inside, Like for you, maybe that means, yeah, it
Speaker 1: feels very far away. And obviously we've talked about how
Speaker 1: retirement it just brings a different connotation to it than
Speaker 1: financial independence. And so maybe it's just semantics, you know,
Speaker 1: like maybe for you, what that means is instead of
Speaker 1: saying retirement, I'm saving to become financially independent, I'm saving
Speaker 1: up to be able to start my own business, to
Speaker 1: owning your own time at an earlier age. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so just whatever it is, figure out what that is. Like,
Speaker 1: maybe it's travel. It's not retirement, it's the ability to
Speaker 1: travel around the world and just see lots of amazing
Speaker 1: things that you've never been able to see up until
Speaker 1: this point. But dream bigger, like like identify whatever goals
Speaker 1: it is that get you excited to avoid some of
Speaker 1: these smaller, dumber, you know, purchases in the near term. Certainly,
Speaker 1: there's some things that we have to buy in order
Speaker 1: to get by, but there's a lot of stuff in
Speaker 1: our lives that we per just you know, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, because we're kind of feeling bummed out
Speaker 1: and we're thinking, Okay, maybe maybe if I just get
Speaker 1: a little hit of that dopamine. Uh, look, left my
Speaker 1: spirits a little bit when I know that package is
Speaker 1: going to show up in the next two days, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think another I think another way, Matt, to
Speaker 1: kind of help curb some of that temptations. Some of
Speaker 1: that desire to just spend right now is to do
Speaker 1: some sprint cleaning of the stuff that you already have.
Speaker 1: And I feel like nothing actually helps curb spending like
Speaker 1: getting rid of a bunch of stuff and realizing that
Speaker 1: a clean, organized house is a treasure in and of itself.
Speaker 1: And we've we have been doing a lot of sprin
Speaker 1: cleaning at our house. Some of the stuff we're able
Speaker 1: to donate some of us just trash that we've been
Speaker 1: holding onto, like literally just needs to go in the trash.
Speaker 1: And this is the literal garbage. Yes, broken toys that
Speaker 1: are just completely worthless, Like why are we hanging onto this.
Speaker 1: It's it's broken, and it's it's not reparable. Uh, it
Speaker 1: makes you not want to fill that house back up
Speaker 1: with new stuff. When you go through that exercise. So
Speaker 1: just the act of like tossing some of the stuff
Speaker 1: out of your home can really curb that desire to
Speaker 1: spend money, because you're like, I just spend all this
Speaker 1: time getting rid of stuff, making my house kind of
Speaker 1: feel a little more zen, a little more minimalist, and
Speaker 1: now more peaceful. A little more peaceful. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: some candles litting out and it smells oils. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and it just kind of makes you not want to
Speaker 1: bring a bunch of a bunch of junk to clutter
Speaker 1: back up. Yeah. Yeah, you're talking about being inspired basically
Speaker 1: by like a clean and orderly house, but like even
Speaker 1: to just thinking about the items that you're getting rid of,
Speaker 1: Like at some point you spend money on those things,
Speaker 1: you know, like you you decided that, Okay, if I
Speaker 1: trade my hard earned money for these items, it's gonna
Speaker 1: solve a problem, it's gonna make me happier, it's gonna
Speaker 1: make somebody happier. And then by kind of purging and
Speaker 1: just removing all these things from your life, like you
Speaker 1: can identify these things and you and I think that
Speaker 1: can be a reminder to keep us from future purchases.
Speaker 1: As well, right, Like, you see these things and you're like,
Speaker 1: at some point I thought this was gonna bring me happiness,
Speaker 1: and now I'm selling it for pennies on opennies on
Speaker 1: the dollar, or I'm just giving it away or just
Speaker 1: throwing it away. I think that can be a good
Speaker 1: reminder as well too. You know, as we look forward
Speaker 1: and look ahead more purchases in our lives that they
Speaker 1: may not fulfill us in the way that we thought
Speaker 1: they would. And you could, I guess while you're doing this,
Speaker 1: maybe if you remember the price of the your throwing away,
Speaker 1: write that down. But just too much weeding, I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so you know. One trick to like you're talking
Speaker 1: about kind of cleaning out your house. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think a tactic that we can employ to show
Speaker 1: us how little we need and you know how little
Speaker 1: you actually use, is that just basically turn all your
Speaker 1: clothes backwards on the rack in your closet and only
Speaker 1: turn them around once you wear them. This is a
Speaker 1: way that a lot of folks recommend, you know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to kind of downsizing your closet, because then
Speaker 1: at the end of the year, you can give away
Speaker 1: all the clothes that you don't end up wearing over
Speaker 1: the past twelve months, and so this can be helpful
Speaker 1: to declutter and remind yourself of just how many things
Speaker 1: you own that you don't consistently use. It's a you know,
Speaker 1: it's a good reminder that most of us don't need
Speaker 1: new stuff. We just want it. We wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of fill these different voids that you know truly can't
Speaker 1: be filled by purchasing more stuff. And it's not actually
Speaker 1: a physical void in your wardrobe. It's like a void
Speaker 1: somewhere inside of us. Typically, oh yeah, you know it.
Speaker 1: Typically our closets don't have the void. Like that's the problem, right,
Speaker 1: It's like, it's not that I need the extra sweater.
Speaker 1: It's a sweaters. I'm trying to do something inside with
Speaker 1: my internal of my internal happiness, gauge to like ramp
Speaker 1: that up by buying the sweater. It's not that I
Speaker 1: need another one. I feel like in order to start
Speaker 1: saying that a sweater is gonna make you feel good
Speaker 1: about yourself, you have to be like grandfather age. If
Speaker 1: you're like or actually socks that like that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the thing for us once we get older, Like I
Speaker 1: just want a good pair of socks. I do like
Speaker 1: a good pair of socks, and I'm not that old
Speaker 1: you and Jacob Goldstein's when it's right, I think. I
Speaker 1: think another way that you can tackle the temptation to
Speaker 1: spend more money right now is to go the opposite
Speaker 1: direction and attempt to make some quick money. Selling some
Speaker 1: of the stuff that you just cleaned out can be
Speaker 1: kind of like the agin to your spending yang. Earning
Speaker 1: money from the stuff that you aren't using anymore provides
Speaker 1: a similar reward in your brain, yet it doesn't have
Speaker 1: nearly the same harmful side effects. You're you're making progress end,
Speaker 1: you're making cash, and so it feels awesome. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we would suggest listing some of that stuff on Facebook,
Speaker 1: Marketplace or eBay and turn your weakness into a new strength.
Speaker 1: And then if you really do need to buy some
Speaker 1: new things to replace some of the stuff that you're
Speaker 1: getting rid of, limiting the amount you spend to what
Speaker 1: you're able to make from selling off some of those
Speaker 1: old possessions is a great way to restrain consumption and
Speaker 1: keep your budget intact, Because if you're not actually spending
Speaker 1: money that you don't have, putting it on the credit card,
Speaker 1: racking up debt, or even just hurting your budget and
Speaker 1: and hurting those long term goals even if you have
Speaker 1: the money on hand. Such an awesome way to buy
Speaker 1: some of those things that you really are prioritizing is
Speaker 1: to do it with money that you just made from
Speaker 1: getting rid of other stuff you already had. That's right.
Speaker 1: It's another way that you can avoid the temptation to
Speaker 1: spend money is instead of actually purchasing an item, look
Speaker 1: to borrow that item from someone else. Right. I think
Speaker 1: we have an obsession with ownership here in our culture,
Speaker 1: in our country. Uh, you know, it can be good
Speaker 1: when it comes to some things like investments, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, when it comes to I think consumer
Speaker 1: goods tends to be a little overrated and at least
Speaker 1: one shirt and one pair of pants, ownership is not overrated.
Speaker 1: You should have you should have that definitely should have
Speaker 1: them at a minimum. That's that's why it's foundational in
Speaker 1: the hierarchy of needs. But beyond that, it's not necessary. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we even feel the need to
Speaker 1: own things that we will only maybe even just use
Speaker 1: once or twice in our lifetime. Like folks who have
Speaker 1: go out there and like by us at of skis,
Speaker 1: like snow skis, and it's like, oh yeah, like that's
Speaker 1: not something we ever do, but like why do I
Speaker 1: own these? Actually when you live in Georgia and you're like,
Speaker 1: my gosh, I often actually get out to ski, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so it's good because it saves us money, right,
Speaker 1: but it also deepens the relational bond that we have
Speaker 1: with our neighbors or you know, between us and our friends.
Speaker 1: People love helping each other out. Yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: underestimate that, Matt, and I think because our culture it
Speaker 1: prizes self sufficiency so high, so highly, we we feel
Speaker 1: like we're imposing when we ask a friend if we
Speaker 1: can borrow something. But I feel like the opposite is
Speaker 1: actually true. And usually they're glad to lend a hand,
Speaker 1: and they're glad that the thing that they own is
Speaker 1: going to get some use because maybe it's been sitting
Speaker 1: in their shed or you know, in a storage spot
Speaker 1: in their house for a long time and it hasn't
Speaker 1: gotten any use. I recently borrowed a shovel from a
Speaker 1: friend because mine broke, and dude, he was so happy
Speaker 1: to let me borrow it. You're shoveling too hard. When
Speaker 1: ship I was man, that's like I didn't know my
Speaker 1: own strength, you know. And uh, and then I feel
Speaker 1: like now it's opened. It's open this line where hey,
Speaker 1: if he needs to borrow anything in the future, he'll
Speaker 1: call me. There's this reciprocal relationship right where we can
Speaker 1: borrow stuff from each other. And that's just a nice
Speaker 1: thing to have. And and it it goes beyond just
Speaker 1: me not having to drop the twenty bucks on a shovel,
Speaker 1: right and eventually I'm gonna need my own shovel because
Speaker 1: the shovel is one of those things that you use
Speaker 1: quite a bit, right, Um, But it's borrowing someone's microwave
Speaker 1: sort of. It's like, maybe, can't borrow your pants. You
Speaker 1: don't want to do that unless I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: it's a if it's like a tuxedo and you never
Speaker 1: wear a tuxedo, and it's yeah, that's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing you can borrow from somebody, I think. But it's
Speaker 1: just nice to have friends like that, um, that will
Speaker 1: lend you something. And it's actually be a friend like
Speaker 1: that that's that's willing to lend people the things that
Speaker 1: you have. And and I think that the more that
Speaker 1: we live in a society where we can share with
Speaker 1: each other, like, the better the world is, you know,
Speaker 1: the better we feel about our relationships. That's so true. Man.
Speaker 1: Also to a way they can avoid some of these
Speaker 1: unwise purchases is just by factoring in secondary costs before
Speaker 1: you actually complete that purchase. Right, everything costs more than
Speaker 1: you think. We've talked about this on the show before.
Speaker 1: The actual cost of the item that you're buying is
Speaker 1: almost always going to be more than the price tag
Speaker 1: that you see on it or you know, or that
Speaker 1: sale price if it's on sale. Shipping is often free,
Speaker 1: but you might get charged for some shipping costs. There
Speaker 1: are often sales taxes and you know, maintenance costs. Uh,
Speaker 1: there may be monthly fees for you know, the item,
Speaker 1: depending on what you're bringing into your life and also too,
Speaker 1: you know, just generally speaking, here, don't forget about the
Speaker 1: Didero effect, right, and this is the idea that getting
Speaker 1: something new, it's gonna lead to you wanting even more,
Speaker 1: something even newer to match that new thing. All of
Speaker 1: your old stuff he's gonna start looking kind of shabby.
Speaker 1: Once you get that one upgrade, it kind of leads
Speaker 1: to this this sort of downward spiral of consumption. It's
Speaker 1: a slippery slope and that's something that we want you
Speaker 1: to avoid. Yeah, and I think like one of the
Speaker 1: best examples of something costing more than you think is
Speaker 1: let's say you're getting a new set of golf clubs
Speaker 1: and you know what, now, you're probably gonna want some
Speaker 1: of the fancier golf balls to go along with it,
Speaker 1: right because like the the off brand whatever set of
Speaker 1: golf balls just isn't gonna do it with those sweet
Speaker 1: new titlist clubs, or the or the range balls that
Speaker 1: you stole from the driving range. Like you know who,
Speaker 1: you are not gonna cut it. We know what you did.
Speaker 1: And like then you might get the itch to get
Speaker 1: like fantier golf clothes or to to start playing at
Speaker 1: nicer courses. Um. I call this the if you give
Speaker 1: a mouse a cookie syndrome, Right, It's like he's gonna
Speaker 1: want something else, and then he's gonna want something else
Speaker 1: and it's gonna trigger more and more. And there's truly
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with doing something like upgrading golf clubs. If
Speaker 1: this is a purchase that you spent some real time
Speaker 1: thinking through and it's a hobby that you're committed to,
Speaker 1: right that you do on the regular, but taking those
Speaker 1: secondary costs in the consideration, it might make you think twice.
Speaker 1: Like even if you are an avid golfer, you might
Speaker 1: be like, actually, I am going to forego the golf
Speaker 1: clubs because I do realize it's gonna it's gonna force me,
Speaker 1: or it's at least gonna encourage me to spend money
Speaker 1: more money in other areas of that hobby, and I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm just not ready to do that, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna continue to put that purchase off. But thinking about
Speaker 1: those secondary costs ahead of time before we make the
Speaker 1: plunge into a purchase can really help us see how
Speaker 1: much that one purchase is actually going to cost us
Speaker 1: as opposed to the price tag, the initial price tag
Speaker 1: and that we think it's gonna cost us. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: going to go into those decisions with your eyes open,
Speaker 1: because even something that's basic as like a bike, like
Speaker 1: we're you know, we're huge fans of bicycling. We're big
Speaker 1: advocates of everything that you know bicyling is able to
Speaker 1: bring into your life. Dude, just yesterday I was I
Speaker 1: replaced the tube in one of the girls bikes because
Speaker 1: you know, she had a hole in it. And so
Speaker 1: they're going to be basic maintenance costs associated with almost anything.
Speaker 1: You know, Like there's very few things that we can
Speaker 1: bring in our lives where it's just like, okay, that's it,
Speaker 1: one and done. It's not gonna cause me to spend
Speaker 1: more money. It's not gonna, you know, require more spending,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna require any maintenance. There's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of you know, we're all about maintenance and maintaining the
Speaker 1: things that we own, properly taking care of things. But
Speaker 1: it's just yeah, like you said, it's good to be
Speaker 1: aware of the fact that there are going to be
Speaker 1: oftentimes other expenses associated with those things. Yeah. Also, we
Speaker 1: would recommend for folks to to turn to exercise instead
Speaker 1: of shopping as well. You know, we often browse our
Speaker 1: favorite store online or in person in order to you know,
Speaker 1: get that quick and easy dopamine release. Um dude, a
Speaker 1: lot of us sit at our computer all day for work,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's incredibly convenient to open a new
Speaker 1: tab to start typing things in Amazon, and before you
Speaker 1: know it, you know, you just drop thirty bucks on
Speaker 1: something that you don't really need but it definitely feels good. Instead,
Speaker 1: we recommend for folks to look to the harder but
Speaker 1: healthier option of exercise. And you don't have to run
Speaker 1: a marathon either, but even just dropping down and you know,
Speaker 1: giving ten twenty push ups, that kind of thing. When
Speaker 1: you maybe start mindlessly shopping online, maybe be your own trills,
Speaker 1: hard hit in that way, grab your grab a little kettlebell,
Speaker 1: do your own swings, uh, like I do. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: can just be the mental release that your brain is
Speaker 1: looking for, not necessarily that you need something new, but
Speaker 1: just you're kind of looking for a distraction. Go for
Speaker 1: the healthier distraction. Yeah, it can divert your brain from
Speaker 1: the thing that you want to do right now, which
Speaker 1: is by something and that's the thing you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: doing in all likelihood. And then it can get your
Speaker 1: blood pumping and it could get you energized to do
Speaker 1: something else right, to tackle the next you know, work
Speaker 1: assignment or whatever it may be. Also to there are
Speaker 1: times when it does make sense to spend some money
Speaker 1: when we do want to spend, and that's okay to write.
Speaker 1: We're not anti spending. We wanted to give some ideas
Speaker 1: and some thoughts for how you can avoid spending money,
Speaker 1: avoid some of that temptation as the temptation is going
Speaker 1: to increase. But we've also got some tips for when
Speaker 1: you're going to spend, how to spend mindfully, and we'll
Speaker 1: get to those right after this break. All right, we're back,
Speaker 1: and so, you know, like we said before the break,
Speaker 1: we're talking about ways to avoid spending money altogether, but
Speaker 1: at a certain point, you gotta buy something, Like there
Speaker 1: are some things that require spending money, and so if
Speaker 1: you're going to do that, you know there's you know,
Speaker 1: like we said earlier too, there's no amount of exercise
Speaker 1: that's going to be able to distract you from buying
Speaker 1: something that you need. And that's okay, but like, let's
Speaker 1: talk about how to spend wisely, in particular, as the
Speaker 1: economy is reopening, it seems like it's starting to fire
Speaker 1: on all cylinders, and so we want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we're not being quickly parted with all of our
Speaker 1: money without even realizing it. And so the first thing
Speaker 1: we'd recommend for folks to do is look to make
Speaker 1: your purchases second hand sites like eBay, that's a great
Speaker 1: place to shop. Instead of always looking to buy something new,
Speaker 1: consider buying something slightly used. You know that someone else
Speaker 1: is selling for way less money than buying it brand
Speaker 1: stinking new. It's like buying a car, man, and it's like,
Speaker 1: take somebody's gently used car because cars run for forever,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna save a ton of money and the
Speaker 1: car still gonna be really nice if you buy it
Speaker 1: four or five years old, as opposed to get in
Speaker 1: the brand new one. Right Like, thrift stores also are
Speaker 1: another great place to get secondhand goods, and Matt we
Speaker 1: talked about shop good Will dot com is a cool
Speaker 1: site to go to to find awesome throwt store stuff
Speaker 1: and it's great. Yeah, And but making a real attempt
Speaker 1: to find what you're looking for that someone else is
Speaker 1: gently used, it's gonna save you money and it works
Speaker 1: as a natural hindrance to spending frivolously. Sometimes there's there's
Speaker 1: just like a little more friction to finding that used
Speaker 1: item that makes sense in your life. And and that's
Speaker 1: actually good. I think in the spending process, you want
Speaker 1: a little bit of friction. Sometimes the easy click to
Speaker 1: buy is is the thing that's gonna get us in
Speaker 1: the most Trouble and matt even life cycle. Like we
Speaker 1: mentioned at the beginning of the episode, buying home goods
Speaker 1: used is a good way. You gotta kind of search
Speaker 1: for the thing that you want. You're gonna save money
Speaker 1: though it's gonna take a little bit longer, but ultimately
Speaker 1: it's gonna work out in your favor. That's right, dude.
Speaker 1: And yeah, before you make that purchase on you know,
Speaker 1: whatever default site you tend to you tend to favor,
Speaker 1: we'd recommend for you to check the deal sites out
Speaker 1: there as well. Like when there's something that you know
Speaker 1: that you want, make sure that you check out some
Speaker 1: of these other sites like deal news dot com. Also
Speaker 1: slick Deals is a good one as well. You can
Speaker 1: install Honey that is actually a great browser extension which
Speaker 1: which can help you define the things that you're looking
Speaker 1: for cheaper on other sites or even make you aware
Speaker 1: of coupon codes that you wouldn't have otherwise known about
Speaker 1: and that'll slash the price of that item. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, this approach only works when you know
Speaker 1: that there's something that you need. You know, because otherwise
Speaker 1: not shopping sales might be your best bet because you
Speaker 1: know when you see those off tags and you know
Speaker 1: it's all it's written in bold red letters, it can
Speaker 1: draw your eye and it can be a major temptation,
Speaker 1: uh for folks to spend when maybe, like otherwise you shouldn't. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I kind of have a love hate relationship with some
Speaker 1: of the deal sites. I I used to be more
Speaker 1: into them than I am, but I still check them out.
Speaker 1: You still like him, I still see you over there.
Speaker 1: I still talk about more than I should, and sometimes
Speaker 1: that can be kind of temptation for me. Is is
Speaker 1: to like, oh cool, that thing is so cheap, maybe
Speaker 1: I should get it. So the deal sites, I think
Speaker 1: you're right. I think if we use them correctly, if
Speaker 1: we use them to try to find an item that
Speaker 1: we're looking for, that we know we want to buy,
Speaker 1: uh and that we're ready to buy, we can find
Speaker 1: a better deal. But if we're just browsing, like I
Speaker 1: sometimes tend to use them for guilty, I'll admit it. Well,
Speaker 1: I would say it is good to know that the
Speaker 1: deals are out there if you know that there's something
Speaker 1: you're going to purchase. Like you said, it's good to
Speaker 1: be aware of the best price. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: you're really good at knowing that, like, Okay, yeah, this
Speaker 1: should cost about this much. And the reason you know
Speaker 1: that is because you've seen it on sale, like on
Speaker 1: these different sites like this that kind of aggregate the
Speaker 1: best deals. But yeah, you also do want to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're aware that the temptation that that's putting
Speaker 1: in your life. It's like, my greatest strength is also
Speaker 1: my greatest weakness, you know. I think another thing people
Speaker 1: can do in order to spend wisely when they are
Speaker 1: buying something is to institute the forty eight hour rule.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this before, but but having a period
Speaker 1: of time that you institute before you purchase something new
Speaker 1: is crucial to preventing just impulse buying. So go ahead,
Speaker 1: put the item in your shopping cart, and if you
Speaker 1: still want it two days later and you don't have
Speaker 1: to go into debt in order to get it, that's
Speaker 1: key here, then it's okay to complete that purchase. That
Speaker 1: will help curb some of the just mindless spending, some
Speaker 1: of the spending that we're doing just because we can
Speaker 1: or because it's fun. The forty eight our rule can
Speaker 1: be just really helpful in weeding out some of those
Speaker 1: purchases that we make that are the most unhelpful, you know,
Speaker 1: to our budgets. Not to mention too, if you you know,
Speaker 1: you've added that to your cart and they've got your
Speaker 1: email address, sometimes they'll they'll check in with you after
Speaker 1: a couple of days, and sometimes they'll they'll send you
Speaker 1: a coupon. They're like, hey, is this is this item
Speaker 1: of years? Did you you know, lead your cart stranded?
Speaker 1: Here's ten percent helps sweeten the deal. So that's a
Speaker 1: nice little incentive. Also too, we would recommend for folks
Speaker 1: to consider the cost per use when you're thinking about
Speaker 1: making a purchase. If you you know, maybe you're naturally
Speaker 1: a frugal tight wad like like we tend to be.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes it can be difficult, you know, in
Speaker 1: allowing yourself to spend any money at all, like even
Speaker 1: on the things that we that we value or things
Speaker 1: that bring us joy. And so an alternative way to
Speaker 1: consider a purchase is to think through maybe how regularly
Speaker 1: you might use something, right, and so if it's something
Speaker 1: that you'd use on a regular basis, it might make sense,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a purchase that item, and not only
Speaker 1: to purchase it, but even consider maybe like the slightly
Speaker 1: higher quality item, because if we're you know, if we're
Speaker 1: always just trying to spend the least amount of money possible,
Speaker 1: that's one of the ways that we can, unfortunately end
Speaker 1: up being cheap as opposed to frugal. We're thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: this is something I know, it's gonna bring me a
Speaker 1: lot of joy, and just gonna get the cheapest thing possible,
Speaker 1: and then you know, it ends up crapping out after
Speaker 1: a few months, and then we have to buy something
Speaker 1: again again, leading to more waste than plus, often having
Speaker 1: to buy something twice is going to be more expensive
Speaker 1: than having spent a little bit more on that higher
Speaker 1: quality item to begin with. Yeah, that's I'm also a recovering,
Speaker 1: spend the least amount of money on stuff as possible person,
Speaker 1: and I'm all about now spending a little bit more
Speaker 1: money and getting something that's gonna last for a long time. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes you gotta like test the waters, though, you know,
Speaker 1: like if you've never owned a grill, you're kind of like,
Speaker 1: let's I want to figure this out, and you buy
Speaker 1: like the cheapest you know, I don't know, fifty dollar
Speaker 1: grill that they sell ls our own depot. I got
Speaker 1: my grill of Aldi actually flight or or from Aldi,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure that I was pretty unaffordable. But then,
Speaker 1: you know, if you realize that, say like oh I'm
Speaker 1: really into grilling, or like oh what else can I
Speaker 1: cook outside? Then you start thinking, okay, like this is
Speaker 1: bring me a lot of joy. There's a lot of utility.
Speaker 1: That's something we use often. And that's when I think
Speaker 1: it can be totally worth it to spend a little
Speaker 1: bit more money. Yeah, man, I think too, when we're spending,
Speaker 1: when the temptation to spend arises, having some sort of
Speaker 1: pressure relief valve for your spending can be helpful too.
Speaker 1: You might just have in urge to go shopping or
Speaker 1: to just spend some money, any money, you just want
Speaker 1: to spend some money. I know people like this. My
Speaker 1: mom probably falls into this category. Man, and and and
Speaker 1: more than anything, like she loves even just window shopping,
Speaker 1: but she loves shopping. It's something that she gets a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of joy out of she I
Speaker 1: think it's um, it's there's something creative in kind of
Speaker 1: seeing all the items for sale that that she likes.
Speaker 1: She likes seeing design and in particular like home interior stuff,
Speaker 1: right uh, and to potentially avoid a larger, more disastrous purchase.
Speaker 1: Though maybe you can scratch that itch just a little
Speaker 1: bit with a small splurge like a nice coffee, right.
Speaker 1: I feel like fancy coffee gets raked over the coals
Speaker 1: in personal finance all the time. It's a batter rat
Speaker 1: for sure. But that can the perfect like us pressure
Speaker 1: relief valve for your spending. You're like, I just treated myself.
Speaker 1: There's something really nice, but actually it didn't really cost
Speaker 1: that much money. It's better to make a small spending
Speaker 1: mistake than to make a big one. So finding your
Speaker 1: small release valve can be big and really helpful when
Speaker 1: it comes to smart spending, especially if you're able to
Speaker 1: maybe go on a walk when you get that coffee. Essentially,
Speaker 1: what you've done there is you've kind of transformed that
Speaker 1: purchase like that you might just see as a good
Speaker 1: into an experience. And and so that's kind of what
Speaker 1: we'd recommend next for folks is to you know, we
Speaker 1: would recommend for folks to consider prioritizing experiences over stuff
Speaker 1: that you might you know, buy online or you know,
Speaker 1: even at the store. And oftentimes you folks think about travel,
Speaker 1: But it doesn't have to to be travel, you know,
Speaker 1: as we talk about experiences here, although that is a
Speaker 1: big experience that that many folks do prioritize. But you know,
Speaker 1: experiences like this could be just say a dinner out
Speaker 1: with friends, or it could be buying a membership to
Speaker 1: the zoo or like the botanical gardens if you've got
Speaker 1: them there where you live. Uh, And these could provide
Speaker 1: recurring experiences, you know, for you you or for your family,
Speaker 1: or for you and your friends. Research shows that an
Speaker 1: intangible experience can often bring you joy for you know,
Speaker 1: much longer than a physical object. So focusing your spending
Speaker 1: on some of those experiences that can provide incredible memories
Speaker 1: with folks you know, who you love the most, and
Speaker 1: it's often going to provide a much better return on
Speaker 1: your investment than buying just another item, say for your wardrobe,
Speaker 1: that you're then going to have to kind of shoehorn
Speaker 1: in your closet because you don't have any more space
Speaker 1: at all. Yeah, and too, I think what's great about
Speaker 1: experiences is that they they foster um an ability to
Speaker 1: bond with other people. To write, experiences are helping us
Speaker 1: build relationships almost always as opposed to buying stuff, which
Speaker 1: often does the opposite. And so yeah, I guess I
Speaker 1: was talking earlier Matt about borrowing stuff from other people
Speaker 1: and then letting other people borrow your stuff, and how
Speaker 1: that expands your relationships and make them better. Well, I
Speaker 1: think the same thing is true when we prioritize experiences
Speaker 1: over stuff. It's it's during those social experi aeriences that
Speaker 1: we cultivate feelings of connection and belonging to one another.
Speaker 1: And those experiences are are oftentimes unique to us as individuals,
Speaker 1: which means that we're we're typically less likely to compare
Speaker 1: our own experiences to the experiences of others. And comparison,
Speaker 1: as you know, Matt, is is one of the things
Speaker 1: that lends to our consumption. It leads us to spend
Speaker 1: more and to spend on wisely. So if instead of experiences,
Speaker 1: you're focusing on stuff like electronics, clothing, or even something
Speaker 1: great like bikes, it can be easier to compare that
Speaker 1: stuff to other people. And Teddy Roosevelt one of the
Speaker 1: best quotes ever is comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker 1: I think that's so true for us. I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that like social media has done
Speaker 1: to us as a culture in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: has made it easier to compare, and it has made
Speaker 1: it harder for us than as individuals to be content
Speaker 1: with what we do have. So true, dude, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so you know, as many of us are looking forward
Speaker 1: to our our lives looking more like they did before,
Speaker 1: let's make sure that our spending doesn't automatically revert to
Speaker 1: pre pandemic levels as well. One of the few positives
Speaker 1: of the pandemic brought into our lives was the ability
Speaker 1: to truly see how much control we really do have
Speaker 1: over our spending. So look at how much debt you know,
Speaker 1: you were able to eliminate from your life last year,
Speaker 1: or how much we're able to save up for that
Speaker 1: down payment you know on a house. Remember those goals
Speaker 1: and continue to to work towards the things that you value,
Speaker 1: even while there are other expenses and distractions that are
Speaker 1: getting reintroduced into our lives right now. Yeah, the temptation
Speaker 1: to spend is real, and we want to make sure
Speaker 1: you avoid it. We want to avoid it, you know.
Speaker 1: The the temptation is real for all of us since
Speaker 1: we have to implement you know, some of these things
Speaker 1: as many as we can in order to curb that
Speaker 1: spending so that we can realize those bigger goals that
Speaker 1: we have, so that we can build wealth for the
Speaker 1: long haul, so that we can have the ability to
Speaker 1: reach financial independence and make our own decisions about what
Speaker 1: we want to do with our time. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the beer that we had on
Speaker 1: the show. This one was by Right Side Brewing. Is
Speaker 1: a citrus wheat non alcoholic beer. What were your thoughts
Speaker 1: on this one? Man? Yeah, you know, before I comment
Speaker 1: on this partic kular beer from Right Side, and it
Speaker 1: also makes me think of Mr bright Side, the song
Speaker 1: from the from the Killers. Such a good song. But
Speaker 1: as far as this beer goes, Man, Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a citrus whet and I feel like the citrus really
Speaker 1: does come through. Uh. It almost like almost reminds me
Speaker 1: of like an orange gatorade. I don't know, like a
Speaker 1: combination of the orange and yellow gatorade. Oh yeah, more
Speaker 1: the yellow, you know I'm talking about it? Do like
Speaker 1: the yellow Gatory and the orange Gatorade. It's got those
Speaker 1: flavors going on, but it doesn't you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have that sweetness. It's not nearly as obviously, it's not
Speaker 1: nearly as syrupy, but it does kind of have those flavors.
Speaker 1: It almost has this herbal tea like flavor going on,
Speaker 1: but of course it's fizzy, so yeah, it's reminiscent of beer.
Speaker 1: It's near beer. Obviously, there's definitely something missing, but totally
Speaker 1: still enjoyable. Yeah, what your thoughts on it, dude? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was too and I was surprised because
Speaker 1: I agree it was missing a little something that I'm
Speaker 1: used to getting in beer, but I still I still
Speaker 1: a lot of tasty, great man. And I think it's
Speaker 1: awesome that people are now making, you know, non alcoholic
Speaker 1: craft beer equivalence, because there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: out there who just don't want to drink for a
Speaker 1: lot of good reasons, and so to be able to
Speaker 1: enjoy something and get some of that same flavor profile
Speaker 1: and sensation that you get with craft beer but without
Speaker 1: actually having to consume alcohol, well, this is just a
Speaker 1: great place for people to go. I think is is
Speaker 1: these non alcoholic craft beers and the this sitrus Sweet
Speaker 1: from Right Side was pretty solid. Man. I agree, man,
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be it for this episode. Listeners can
Speaker 1: find our show notes up on the website at how
Speaker 1: to Money dot com. Yeah, and if you haven't left
Speaker 1: the review for How the Money yet on Apple podcast
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: We would love for you to leave a kind review
Speaker 1: over there. It really does help get the word out
Speaker 1: about what we're doing here on How the Money to
Speaker 1: help other people spend wisely, to save for their futures,
Speaker 1: and to be more empowered when it comes to their
Speaker 1: personal finances. And we would appreciate you letting other people
Speaker 1: know what you think about the show. So all right, Matt,
Speaker 1: until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out. M