Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and
Speaker 1: Matt and today we're talking practical money hacks with Lisa Rowan.
Speaker 1: Lisa Rowan is a staff writer at Forbes Advisor, where
Speaker 1: she covers banking and personal finance, and she was previously
Speaker 1: a staff writer at life Hackers two cents covering personal
Speaker 1: finance as well. Prior to that, she was a senior
Speaker 1: writer and an on air analyst at The Penny Hoarder,
Speaker 1: where she launched the Dear Penny advice column syndicated by
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Times. Her work has appeared in The
Speaker 1: Washington Post, City Lab and many other publications, and now
Speaker 1: she's recently published her book Money Hacks Plus Ways to
Speaker 1: decrease spending, increased savings, and make your money work for you.
Speaker 1: We're excited for an extremely practical conversation today, so Lisa,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. It's my pleasure. Lisa. We're really
Speaker 1: excited to have you. Excited for this conversation and so
Speaker 1: many money hacks to get through. It's going to take
Speaker 1: a while to get through two plus, so be here
Speaker 1: for eight hours. Listeners, bresh yourselves But before we get
Speaker 1: into all that, Lisa, you know one thing that and
Speaker 1: I do every episode is we drink a craft beer
Speaker 1: one because we like the way beer tastes and too.
Speaker 1: It's just this way of prioritizing something in the here
Speaker 1: and now while we're also saving and investing well for
Speaker 1: the future. So, yeah, what's your sporte? Do you have
Speaker 1: a craft beer equivalent in your life? Yeah? Beyond just
Speaker 1: loving craft beer and craft cocktails, like y'all, the thing
Speaker 1: that I spend so much money on, I haven't lately
Speaker 1: because of pandemic issues. But the thing I used to
Speaker 1: spend a ton of money on was anything that would
Speaker 1: get me to the front of the line if I
Speaker 1: was flying, so uh, you know, I had pre check
Speaker 1: and global entry, but I also would throw down cash
Speaker 1: if it would do automatic check in for me if
Speaker 1: I was flying Southwest, or if I could pay a
Speaker 1: little extra to sit in the front of the plane.
Speaker 1: My whole goal was to be the first person off
Speaker 1: the plane at the end of the play, because I
Speaker 1: just wanted to be able to get where I was going.
Speaker 1: I get restless when I fly, and I always have
Speaker 1: to fly to see my family because I live quite
Speaker 1: a ways for my family, and so when I fly
Speaker 1: to see them, I want to be comfortable. I want
Speaker 1: to show up not stressed out. Uh So if I can,
Speaker 1: if I can, just you know, I don't have first
Speaker 1: class money, but I have headed a line for uh
Speaker 1: for economy money. So that's something that I can't resist,
Speaker 1: this urge to splurge so that I can just be
Speaker 1: a little more comfortable when I fly. Nice. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've seen your savings kind of go up over
Speaker 1: the past year, like one small bright side. So well, Lisa,
Speaker 1: before we kind of start talking about money, you used
Speaker 1: to own a vintage clothing shop. We recently actually talked
Speaker 1: on the show about posh mark and how difficult it
Speaker 1: is for folks to make money make a margin in
Speaker 1: use clothes industry. But like, what did you learn from
Speaker 1: that experience? We're really curious. Oh gosh, I learned so much.
Speaker 1: I mostly learned that I was not destined to be
Speaker 1: a shop girl, but I was destined to be a writer.
Speaker 1: I had always been a writer, you know, before and
Speaker 1: after running my shop, and I really had this this
Speaker 1: vision in my mind. I think I watched like you've
Speaker 1: got mail too much or you know, other like fun
Speaker 1: shop Girl kind of movies. But I really thought that
Speaker 1: I'd be able to run my shop and also be
Speaker 1: able to like be able to like work on fiction
Speaker 1: projects on the slow day is just sitting at my
Speaker 1: laptop in my shop when it was slow. Then I
Speaker 1: realized that, like one, if you have time to lean,
Speaker 1: you have time to clean your shop. But also if
Speaker 1: you're not busy, you're not making any money selling things,
Speaker 1: So that's kind of like a problem. So I just
Speaker 1: realized that I was not I was not cut out
Speaker 1: for the day to day business operations of constantly striving
Speaker 1: to be able to sell and make money, you know,
Speaker 1: selling use clothes because like I'm sure you discussed on
Speaker 1: that Posh Mark episode, I mean, you are telling a
Speaker 1: bunch of individual things. You can't just do one listing
Speaker 1: and change the sizes or change the colors. So it's
Speaker 1: it's a ton of work and there's a ton of variables.
Speaker 1: Um and uh yeah, I definitely learned to, uh don't
Speaker 1: don't try to shy away from your true talents. If
Speaker 1: if you have a dream, figure out a way to
Speaker 1: investigate it without sort of going all the way into
Speaker 1: the deep end. That's now, that's a good point. And
Speaker 1: I guess you got into it partially because you loved
Speaker 1: vintage clothing and you're like, how can I make this
Speaker 1: a full time thing? And then you realized, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe I can love it without making it a full
Speaker 1: time thing. Yeah, exactly. I started writing a blog about
Speaker 1: vintage and thrift clothing when I was just out of college,
Speaker 1: and then it turned into selling items at markets. This
Speaker 1: was in the dawning days of Etsy, but well before
Speaker 1: posh mark existed on other you know, newer platforms like that,
Speaker 1: like deepop, and so I was sell markets and then
Speaker 1: uh and online on Etsy and eBay, and then an
Speaker 1: opportunity came out to have a retail space and I
Speaker 1: grossly underestimated how much money you needed to be able
Speaker 1: to open and run a retail space. Um, they're not
Speaker 1: joking when they talk about overhead being so high. So
Speaker 1: so it's just my my dream and my finances didn't
Speaker 1: quite match up there. And so I was like, well,
Speaker 1: how do how do I get out of this? Because
Speaker 1: I got into a ton of debt trying to run
Speaker 1: my shop but eventually having to close it. Um. And
Speaker 1: so the way out of debt was to write about
Speaker 1: financial mistakes a lot and eventually write about, you know,
Speaker 1: writing about how to do your finances right. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you have written a lot about money at this point.
Speaker 1: It let's dive into some of the money hacks that
Speaker 1: you talked about in your book. It features over seventy
Speaker 1: five money hacks, which is a lot um. There were
Speaker 1: definitely a few that I'd never heard of. I wanted
Speaker 1: to hear from you two, Like, what was the most
Speaker 1: random money hack that aided into your book in your opinion? Like,
Speaker 1: what was the weirdest one? You know, one of the
Speaker 1: weirdest ones that It's not weird to me now because
Speaker 1: I've written about it a lot, but it always surprised
Speaker 1: other people, and therefore it surprised me because we talked
Speaker 1: about it all the time. Was the hack about finding
Speaker 1: unclaimed money that might be in your name? Every state
Speaker 1: has a treasury fund for money that's uh that a
Speaker 1: company has tried to return to you but couldn't. It
Speaker 1: might be an old landlord with the security deposit. It
Speaker 1: might be an old employer with a last paycheck. I
Speaker 1: even just got a check from the District of Columbia
Speaker 1: where I used to live. It was like eleven dollars
Speaker 1: from CVS refunds that the pharmacy couldn't get to me
Speaker 1: like five years ago. I mean, thank you, I'll take it.
Speaker 1: But you know, I knew that these funds existed and
Speaker 1: that you could search your name, uh and see if
Speaker 1: there was any money owed to you. But so many
Speaker 1: people who have read the book and who have talked
Speaker 1: to me, they didn't know about it. And so they're
Speaker 1: coming back to me now and telling me how much
Speaker 1: money they were able to get. And so that's the
Speaker 1: one that strikes me as the strangest that I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean none of you knew about this?
Speaker 1: Like I wish I had told you all years ago
Speaker 1: to go look for your money. I know people who
Speaker 1: have gotten thousands of dollars because they typed their name
Speaker 1: into the system for their state and found some just
Speaker 1: something hanging out in there. And it doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you neglected your finances, like you run out on a
Speaker 1: job or something. I know someone who had a family
Speaker 1: member and it was stocks from an old job that
Speaker 1: had gotten like cashed out, but it was several jobs ago,
Speaker 1: and so like there was a misconnection there and getting
Speaker 1: the money to her family member and they booked a
Speaker 1: trip to Italy like it was the coolest thing. So
Speaker 1: that's that's lately been my favorite one to talk about
Speaker 1: and think about because I just think it, uh, it
Speaker 1: always surprises people, like it's that treasure hunt feeling that
Speaker 1: everyone craves, but in real life, it's really like finding
Speaker 1: money in the couch cushions, you know, and you said
Speaker 1: misconnections that it kind of makes me think it's like
Speaker 1: it's like the Craigslist misconnections, but for your money. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, hey, look, you certainly at Leasta
Speaker 1: in the beginning of your book too, you know, you
Speaker 1: offered like specific hacks to help with spending problems, and
Speaker 1: one that you discuss is not trying to cut a
Speaker 1: problem area of your spending could turkey. So you know,
Speaker 1: why is that a bad tactic in your opinion? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's especially at this time of year. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people are thinking about New Year's resolutions
Speaker 1: or they maybe have already like ditched their New Year's resolution.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times when we make a financial
Speaker 1: goal for ourselves, it's just completely unattainable. We have set
Speaker 1: our sites too high and it's just not something that
Speaker 1: we can stick to. So if you're trying to save money,
Speaker 1: it doesn't make sense for you to say, well, I'm
Speaker 1: going to cut out all of my discretionary spending all month.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to buy anything nice for myself. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to go out to eat at all. There
Speaker 1: are some people who really go like they can do
Speaker 1: a spending fast and really make it work. But if
Speaker 1: that is not your game, I really recommend and instead
Speaker 1: of going cold turkey, instead of just like cutting all
Speaker 1: of your spending at once, try to change it by percentages.
Speaker 1: See if you can reduce your spending by ten percent
Speaker 1: in a month or in a month, and see if
Speaker 1: you can make changes that will add up. Because if
Speaker 1: you can make small changes and then build upon them
Speaker 1: as you go, then you're going to be able to
Speaker 1: make more sustainable change rather than have this like Yogo
Speaker 1: system where you're going back and forth between not spending
Speaker 1: at all and then probably overcompensating and spending more. So
Speaker 1: I think if you can, you know, chip away it
Speaker 1: a little by little. Yeah, you don't see instant results
Speaker 1: that are huge in a lot of cases, but what
Speaker 1: you really want to see is consistent change over time,
Speaker 1: and that's really going to be a better benefit to
Speaker 1: your finances. Alright. So hack number fourteen actually encourages people
Speaker 1: to pay for shipping when they're shopping online. Why is
Speaker 1: that because most people are man there angling for the
Speaker 1: free shipping. I know, and it drives me crazy every time,
Speaker 1: because I get up to forty eight dollars and you know,
Speaker 1: twenty seven cents, and I'm like, great, what how can
Speaker 1: I spend another dollar fifty to get my free shipping?
Speaker 1: And then twenty seven dollars later, I'm finally checking out,
Speaker 1: And it creates this whole cycle where I'm just overspending
Speaker 1: because I think I need to be able to get
Speaker 1: certain things for for free, like I should get shipping
Speaker 1: for free, or I should get shipping in two or
Speaker 1: three days. Uh, that I should get that free gift
Speaker 1: of that discount. And so I say, if you're trying
Speaker 1: to spend less, especially if you're trying to spend less online,
Speaker 1: put up whatever roadblocks you can so that you are
Speaker 1: less tempted to spend, whether that is unsaving your credit
Speaker 1: card from your browser, whether it's sort of like the
Speaker 1: the old fashioned method of just putting your credit card
Speaker 1: in a block of ice in your feaser anymore with
Speaker 1: online shopping, does it, Yeah, don't put your devices in
Speaker 1: ice because that's just sunk exactly exactly. But if you
Speaker 1: can think with that mentality and you know, like don't
Speaker 1: save your payment information into any you know, e commerce websites.
Speaker 1: And then especially with the shipping, if you are stuck
Speaker 1: at a point where you know you're like, Okay, I've
Speaker 1: picked out the things that I want. Free shipping doesn't
Speaker 1: kick in until this particular level, like just check out
Speaker 1: with what you have now, you're gonna end up spending
Speaker 1: more than you would have paid on the shipping if
Speaker 1: you just keep adding items to your car for the
Speaker 1: promise of that free shipping. I think, y'all, I think
Speaker 1: we're going to see that go away in the next
Speaker 1: couple of years, oh after the holiday season we just
Speaker 1: have with the postal service, I think, you know, if
Speaker 1: they're right exactly, it's like you need to decide do
Speaker 1: you do you really want it now, like do you
Speaker 1: want it fast free or or you know, it's like
Speaker 1: that ven diagram of of design, but it's a fast
Speaker 1: for your fast, cheaper good. It's like with shipping, like
Speaker 1: you need to decide how do you want it chucked
Speaker 1: from the truck on year lawn, Like we can do that.
Speaker 1: That might be the free version. So definitely think about,
Speaker 1: you know, do you really need the free shipping or
Speaker 1: could you just check out with what you need right
Speaker 1: now spend a couple of bucks and I going back
Speaker 1: to how I think this is going to go away.
Speaker 1: Just remember that anyone who offers you free shipping works
Speaker 1: that into the prices somehow. That is true, so it's
Speaker 1: it's never really free. Yeah, Anything to basically increase the
Speaker 1: friction here, you know, like anything that you can do
Speaker 1: to make it harder for you to spend money on
Speaker 1: these sites, Like I mean, it used to be where
Speaker 1: you had to actually drive to a store and then
Speaker 1: you had to drive to another store. It was hard
Speaker 1: to spend your money. But it is so easy and
Speaker 1: in some ways it is good, right, Like being able
Speaker 1: to hop from retailer to retailer, from site to site
Speaker 1: online gives you the ability to yeah, comparison shop and
Speaker 1: get the best deal, but it also makes it way
Speaker 1: too easy to spend all that money. Lisa, you know
Speaker 1: you you you talk about in your book To the
Speaker 1: Power of Positive framing. You know, how can that change
Speaker 1: our perspective on I guess why it is, like, why
Speaker 1: does the you know, the different reasons why we're cutting back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a lot of times when we set
Speaker 1: a goal, you know, especially when we're trying to cut
Speaker 1: back or when we're trying to pay off debt, the
Speaker 1: goal is something that we did that's negative, that we're
Speaker 1: trying to make up for, and that doesn't really help
Speaker 1: motivate you to make change. Right, if you're constantly thinking
Speaker 1: about the thing that you think you did wrong or
Speaker 1: that you know really tripped you up, how hard is
Speaker 1: it going to be to wake up every morning and
Speaker 1: be psyched to make change to your finances? Right? So, instead,
Speaker 1: if you know, for example, if you're trying to cut
Speaker 1: back on your spending, if you can think about the
Speaker 1: real reason you want to do it. Maybe it's right
Speaker 1: now because you're in the hole by a couple hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: but maybe in the future you want to save money
Speaker 1: because you want to take a trip, or you want
Speaker 1: to healthy emergency fund so you have better peace of mind,
Speaker 1: or you want to be able to, you know, splurge
Speaker 1: on birthday gifts for your nieces and nephews. You know,
Speaker 1: by thinking about the outcome and thinking about the positive
Speaker 1: impact of changing your money, you can think beyond like
Speaker 1: that temptation right now, Like if you're thinking, like should
Speaker 1: I buy one more six pack of craft beer? Like
Speaker 1: you're like, do I really want this now? Or do
Speaker 1: I want to be able to do this other thing later?
Speaker 1: Just like just think about those priorities and sometimes you're
Speaker 1: gonna say, yes, I would like a delicious craft beer
Speaker 1: right now, and my nieces and nephews can wait for
Speaker 1: their birthday gifts. But if you if you try to
Speaker 1: think less about the things you've done wrong and the
Speaker 1: places that you've had challenges and instead think about like
Speaker 1: how great you're doing by just striving to do better
Speaker 1: with your finances, that goes a long way and keeping
Speaker 1: you motivated for long stretches of time when you're working
Speaker 1: on this stuff. All right. Another interesting hack that you
Speaker 1: mentioned in the book is the stranger test. Can you
Speaker 1: explain what that means? This is one where you have
Speaker 1: to envision in your mind's eye that you're in a store,
Speaker 1: You've gone to a store, you're inside the store, and
Speaker 1: you're within spitting distance of a stranger, which I know
Speaker 1: for a lot of people as hard. Right now, you're like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be in the same zip code
Speaker 1: as any other people. But just imagine in your mind's eye.
Speaker 1: So this is a test to make sure you really
Speaker 1: want to spend that money on an item to stay.
Speaker 1: You're browsing and you pick up something and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want this thing. You didn't plan to buy that thing,
Speaker 1: but it caught your eye and you're like, maybe I'll
Speaker 1: get it. So imagine that somebody in the store, a
Speaker 1: complete stranger, is standing in front of you and they're
Speaker 1: holding up that item, and then their other hand they
Speaker 1: have cash for the same amount of the price tag
Speaker 1: on the thing you're thinking of buying, and think to yourself,
Speaker 1: don't imagine that this is your best friend, because this
Speaker 1: will value you up. Imagine it is a true stranger.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's like an employee at the store. You gotta think, like,
Speaker 1: what's going to make you like what would you take
Speaker 1: if this stranger gave you both options? Would you take
Speaker 1: the item or would you take the cash? And just
Speaker 1: thinking about it in physical form like that, because so
Speaker 1: often we pay, you know, with card or with Apple
Speaker 1: pay or whatever anyway, Like, think of it in physical cash.
Speaker 1: Would you love physical cash in your hand or would
Speaker 1: you love this physical object in your hand? And whatever
Speaker 1: the answer is, that'll guide you like maybe you do
Speaker 1: want that thing, maybe it would benefit your life, but
Speaker 1: maybe you know, thirty six bucks or whatever it is
Speaker 1: could go a lot further in your life and help
Speaker 1: you stick to those you know, positive priorities that you're
Speaker 1: thinking about. So imagine that next time you're like maybe
Speaker 1: at the grocery store and you're, you know, maybe in
Speaker 1: the candy aisle, Like start small at that, be like
Speaker 1: do I want these a reci peanut butter cups? Or
Speaker 1: do I want four dollars? Start small thing about it
Speaker 1: that way. I love that It's a great way to
Speaker 1: rethink how it as we spend our money. And at
Speaker 1: least all of these sort of tips, all these different
Speaker 1: hacks that we've gone through so far have to do
Speaker 1: a spending. We're gonna take a quick break, but after
Speaker 1: that we're gonna talk about some of the hacks you
Speaker 1: have when it comes to our savings, and so we'll
Speaker 1: get to those right after this break. Are we're back
Speaker 1: from the break, We're talking practical money hacks. With Lisa
Speaker 1: Rowan today on the show, and Lisa, let's talk about
Speaker 1: money hacks for saving money. One that seems counterintuitive is
Speaker 1: having fewer savings goals. This one that you mentioned, I
Speaker 1: believe that's money hacked forty eight. So explain why you
Speaker 1: think it's important actually a fewer goals. Yeah, it's absolutely
Speaker 1: counterintuitive because we hear all the time that we should
Speaker 1: give our savings accounts names and have separate saving accounts
Speaker 1: for different goals. Right, maybe it's your emergency fund, your
Speaker 1: travel fund, your tuition fund. But if you have too
Speaker 1: many goals and too many separate little buckets for those
Speaker 1: savings goals, you're not going to see fast progress in
Speaker 1: any of them because you're dividing your money up into
Speaker 1: too many buckets. So instead, I really recommend having fewer
Speaker 1: savings goals. Limiting yourself to two or three. Three might
Speaker 1: even be too much, depending on how much you are
Speaker 1: able to save, but just focusing on one or two things.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's going to be a general savings funder and
Speaker 1: emergency savings fund, and one up or bucket whether it
Speaker 1: be travel or gifts or charity donations. But being able
Speaker 1: to focus on just a few goals is going to
Speaker 1: let you see your progress a lot faster because instead
Speaker 1: of having five or six places that you're divvying up
Speaker 1: your money whenever you get paid and you go to
Speaker 1: put money into savings, you can put bigger chunks of
Speaker 1: money in those goals. You'll hit them faster, and then
Speaker 1: you can move on to the next goal that you're
Speaker 1: trying to build towards. Yeah. So, so at the's one
Speaker 1: thing too that you mentioned. You talk about earning rebates
Speaker 1: of you know, for doing the different shopping that you're
Speaker 1: already doing. I'm aware of some of these programs, I
Speaker 1: just haven't checked them out myself. But which one should
Speaker 1: people consider using and how much cash back, you know,
Speaker 1: can you actually get. Yeah. So, two of my favorites
Speaker 1: that I've been using for a long time or racket In,
Speaker 1: which used to be ebates and I bought us. So
Speaker 1: Racketin is primarily for online shopping through your phone or
Speaker 1: your computer browser. I bought. Uh. I don't I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it has like a browser interface, but I
Speaker 1: use it as an app and I use it main
Speaker 1: when I go grocery shopping. So I'm going to start
Speaker 1: by saying, look, there's a trade off here, and so
Speaker 1: by letting these companies pay you for shopping at certain stores,
Speaker 1: you're giving over your consumer data. It gets anonymized, but
Speaker 1: you're basically you need to be willing to show people
Speaker 1: what else is on your grocery receipt besides the you know,
Speaker 1: a pack of chicken that you're going to get a
Speaker 1: cash back rebate on. Right, So that's that's my disclaimer
Speaker 1: on that. But if you don't really have any like
Speaker 1: state secrets that you're hiding, um, you're not in the
Speaker 1: witness protection program or anything, you can use these programs
Speaker 1: to get some money back. And it's various rates at
Speaker 1: certain retailers or on certain products. So I'll give you
Speaker 1: some you know examples. If you go through racketing and
Speaker 1: you're shopping online, you can do a little uh extension
Speaker 1: in your browser that will show you what the cash
Speaker 1: back rebate is and it could be anywhere between one
Speaker 1: percent and twelve of your purchase that you can get
Speaker 1: back on that purchase. It goes into your racketing account
Speaker 1: with in a couple of days of you shopping, and
Speaker 1: they pay out quarterly, so you're not going to see
Speaker 1: money tomorrow. That's going to show back up in your
Speaker 1: bank account. But I typically get a check four times
Speaker 1: a year of about ten to fifteen dollars um and
Speaker 1: it's just like a nice pocket change to get back
Speaker 1: on money that I was going to be spending anyway.
Speaker 1: And it's really great. You know, I just did it
Speaker 1: for a ton of Christmas gifts, you know, back in
Speaker 1: November and December, and so I always see like a
Speaker 1: little bit of a payout there. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: if you just paid for shipping on things like I
Speaker 1: told you to, you can get a little bit of
Speaker 1: that money back by doing these online rebates. And then
Speaker 1: I'll tell you for I bought a which is the
Speaker 1: one I use for grocery shopping a lot. You basically
Speaker 1: scan your receipt and scan particular items that they're offering
Speaker 1: cashback rebates for. It could be a gowon of milk
Speaker 1: from any brand. It could be a specific kind of
Speaker 1: cereal that they want you to try that they're testing out,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, per item on your receipt could
Speaker 1: be anywhere from a dime to a dollar or more.
Speaker 1: So that's something where you can cash out once you
Speaker 1: reached twenty dollars and they send it through PayPal, And
Speaker 1: so that's something where I probably make a hundred bucks
Speaker 1: a year just by sharing what's on my grocery receipt
Speaker 1: and sort of matching up with the things that I
Speaker 1: was already planning on buying. Because on our body, you
Speaker 1: can look at the app after you've bought the items
Speaker 1: that day and see what's on there and then scan
Speaker 1: your receipts. So there's some temptation to keep shopping right
Speaker 1: because it gave a fis getting those rewards. But if you,
Speaker 1: if you are smart about it, you will not be tempted.
Speaker 1: Or you just go to a grocery store where you
Speaker 1: don't have good reception and then you won't need to
Speaker 1: look at the app. Anyway, I'm looking at my own
Speaker 1: grocery store as I say that. Uh, at least at
Speaker 1: least you talk about pawn shops in the book to
Speaker 1: you recommend shopping there in order to save more on
Speaker 1: some of the items that you would potentially buy otherwise,
Speaker 1: but just getting a better deal there. So, well, what
Speaker 1: are your best pawnshop scores and why do you love
Speaker 1: shopping at pawnshops? You know, you know, my favorite pawnshop
Speaker 1: score was happened back in the day. I was in
Speaker 1: community college and I needed a graphic calculator for a
Speaker 1: math class. And that I mean at the time, I'm
Speaker 1: showing my age, but that was a solid hundred dollar
Speaker 1: expense for a college student. I was not feeling it.
Speaker 1: And it was actually my math teacher and community college
Speaker 1: who said, hey, call up your local pawn shop and
Speaker 1: see if they have any And at the time, I
Speaker 1: think I had to call two and the guy said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I have one. You know, I'll hold it
Speaker 1: for you, come on in. And I paid something like
Speaker 1: twenty bucks for it. So that's that's something. Where do
Speaker 1: I don't think I have that calculator anymore. It's probably
Speaker 1: for the best. But there are things like that, you know,
Speaker 1: things that you wouldn't think you might be able to
Speaker 1: find in a pawn shop. Who would have thought you
Speaker 1: could get a calculator at a pawn shop. And I
Speaker 1: know friends who have gotten you know, brand new laptops there,
Speaker 1: you know, barely used, totally legit, you know, above board.
Speaker 1: These are not items that have been stolen or gotten
Speaker 1: through you know, like shady circumstances. They're just people have
Speaker 1: sold their items that they didn't need and you can
Speaker 1: really get a huge savings on them. Well, so, Lisa,
Speaker 1: you mentioned computers an electronics that actually makes me think
Speaker 1: of in your book as well, you talk about your
Speaker 1: electronics right. Um. You know, Joel and I we've talked
Speaker 1: about that song before in the show with you know,
Speaker 1: with like the help of I Fix It some of
Speaker 1: those different sites like that. I'm pretty sure I'm about
Speaker 1: to take the plunge into the deep end and get
Speaker 1: one of those kits and start becoming like Mr you know,
Speaker 1: iPhone handyman around around our house. But I don't think
Speaker 1: we've mentioned repair cafes. You mentioned them, and so can
Speaker 1: share with our listeners what those are and how they
Speaker 1: actually work. Yeah, it's something that's so cool and I
Speaker 1: have yet to go to one in person, and granted
Speaker 1: we're in strange times, but this is something that's on
Speaker 1: my list that I want to check out. So these
Speaker 1: places have sprung up all around the world. I think
Speaker 1: there are more than two thousand of them, and it
Speaker 1: is an in person experience. It might be held in
Speaker 1: a church basement or in a literal cafe, but you
Speaker 1: go and there are experts there who are willing to
Speaker 1: help you repair your stuff. So if you're someone like
Speaker 1: me who keeps killing blend or UH engines blender motors
Speaker 1: and they're on your third blender in three years, maybe
Speaker 1: you want to figure out how to just fix it
Speaker 1: instead of buying a new one. UH. There are people
Speaker 1: there who will help you figure out whether you can
Speaker 1: repair your item. And it's great because it's the extension
Speaker 1: of what we've all tried to do on YouTube, right,
Speaker 1: you know, we might look to see if we can
Speaker 1: fix something at home, because really it's so frustrating when
Speaker 1: you think the only option is to throw away something
Speaker 1: and buy a new version of it. But more and more,
Speaker 1: I think people are getting into the fact that with
Speaker 1: a little bit of nohow or a little bit of help,
Speaker 1: you can actually, you know, prevent some of those upfront
Speaker 1: costs by having to buy a new item and be
Speaker 1: able to fix it. And in a lot of cases,
Speaker 1: if you need UH, if you need a part to
Speaker 1: be able to replace something or a tool or a pair,
Speaker 1: cafe will have it, or you'll be able to buy
Speaker 1: the part really cheap because it's probably a used part
Speaker 1: that came off something else. Or you might be able
Speaker 1: to work with a company the item is from, and
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases they'll send you a part
Speaker 1: that you need for free or for very low cost.
Speaker 1: So it might take a little bit of time, might
Speaker 1: take a couple of visits, you might make a couple
Speaker 1: of mistakes along the way. But there are communities out
Speaker 1: there where you can go and you can take your
Speaker 1: you know, small appliances or small electronics and say hey,
Speaker 1: please help me, and people are really excited to do that.
Speaker 1: So there are these communities. If you search repair cafes,
Speaker 1: you should be able to find. Um, there's a directory
Speaker 1: of where they're located, and it's just super fun. That's cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there we've got like one of the repair cafes essentially
Speaker 1: for bikes close to where we live. And those are
Speaker 1: in cities across the country too. So if you're not
Speaker 1: super handy repairing your own bike, there are people out
Speaker 1: there who would love to help you in there. They
Speaker 1: have the tools all in one location. Um, those are
Speaker 1: the kind of things that, yeah, are helpful for us
Speaker 1: all to be taking advantage of so we don't have
Speaker 1: to continue to replace items. By the way, I'm curious,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe I shouldn't ask, what are you
Speaker 1: doing to your blender that makes it break so frequently, Lisa,
Speaker 1: if I knew, I wouldn't have this problem. I think.
Speaker 1: I think my ratio of water and ice to ingredients
Speaker 1: is always off a little bit. And I'm just I
Speaker 1: think I've murdered my blenders with frozen fruit. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm curious about another tip that you mentioned. You You
Speaker 1: you say that people should fill up their gas tanks
Speaker 1: on Monday's. Why do people save more money by getting
Speaker 1: gas on a Monday than they do on any other
Speaker 1: day of the week. Right, this is wild and it
Speaker 1: sounds like the hackiest of hacks. Right, It sounds so gimmicky,
Speaker 1: But it comes from research from gas Buddy. They're the
Speaker 1: people who make the app that tells you where the
Speaker 1: cheapest gas is, so I trust their data. They found
Speaker 1: that the cheapest time to get gas is on a Monday.
Speaker 1: The most expensive time to get gas is on Friday
Speaker 1: and on the weekend. And think about it in your
Speaker 1: in your mind's eye, think like a marketer, or think
Speaker 1: like a person who wants to make money on gasoline.
Speaker 1: So when you get to the end of the week,
Speaker 1: what do you think about? What the heck you're going
Speaker 1: to do on the weekend. Where are you gonna go?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna do errands? Are you going to go
Speaker 1: on a day trip? Are you going to you know,
Speaker 1: grab your friends and go to the beach or go camping,
Speaker 1: all those things. Take another tank of gas in your car,
Speaker 1: maybe after you've been commuting all week. So if you
Speaker 1: grab gas on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, they know that you're
Speaker 1: trying to have some fun, and they're putting a little
Speaker 1: bit of a premium on that gas because they know
Speaker 1: there's more demand. It might just be a couple of cents,
Speaker 1: but if you add that up gallon by gallon, that
Speaker 1: could add up to you know, eventuable dollars that you
Speaker 1: could be putting towards more fun things on your weekend
Speaker 1: aside from filling your tank. Right, so, if you can
Speaker 1: plan ahead a little bit, if you know you're, you know,
Speaker 1: taking a road trip on the weekend, maybe top off
Speaker 1: on Wednesday and then top off again on Monday when
Speaker 1: you get back, you can sort of play the system
Speaker 1: a little bit and save just small amounts then the
Speaker 1: long run are going to add up to you know,
Speaker 1: considerable savings for you, especially you know, the bigger gas
Speaker 1: tank is the more you're going to save on this one.
Speaker 1: All right, Least we got a few more sans to
Speaker 1: get to about money hacks that can help people out,
Speaker 1: including one about kind of an awkward side hustle. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that and more right after this break. All right,
Speaker 1: we're back from the break talking with Lisa Rowan about
Speaker 1: just some practical money hacks, something that we can all
Speaker 1: do to save a little bit more money. And uh, Lisa,
Speaker 1: we're gonna round the interview out here, the conversation with
Speaker 1: a bunch of just a bunch of kind of random hacks,
Speaker 1: I feel like. But in Hack one forty you actually
Speaker 1: talk about taking out loans. You are all about shorter
Speaker 1: loan terms and we are as well. But the thing
Speaker 1: is it's incredibly countercultural, right, you know, as loan terms
Speaker 1: seem to be lengthening everywhere, especially for cars, and so
Speaker 1: how should people weigh the different loan options that are
Speaker 1: available to them. Yeah, the trouble is that, you know,
Speaker 1: lenders want to give you longer and longer to pay
Speaker 1: off a debt. But the longer take to pay it off,
Speaker 1: the more you're going to pay an interest, and the
Speaker 1: longer you're going to have that obligation hanging over your head.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you could get a seven year car loan,
Speaker 1: but maybe you've saved up a bunch of money for
Speaker 1: a down payment, or maybe you know that your income
Speaker 1: is super stable and you can do a three year
Speaker 1: loan or a four year loan or a five year loan.
Speaker 1: The five year loan used to be, you know, the longest,
Speaker 1: and now it seems like the middle of the road. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And take a look at the difference in interest rates
Speaker 1: because sometimes if you can cut down your payment timeline
Speaker 1: by one year, you can save a couple of points
Speaker 1: in interest or at least a few, you know, fractions
Speaker 1: of a point, depending on what sort of you know,
Speaker 1: rate environment that we're in. But that could add up
Speaker 1: to big savings over time. So this is definitely a
Speaker 1: tip for people who are well on top of their finances.
Speaker 1: They are not worried about, you know, the day to
Speaker 1: day if they're taking out a loan or taking out
Speaker 1: a cardo. They are they're really able to spend strategically
Speaker 1: and they're able to maybe spend a little more each
Speaker 1: month to get out of that debt quicker. If you're
Speaker 1: in that situation, Definitely look at a shorter loan term.
Speaker 1: It sort of puts uh, it puts the pressure on
Speaker 1: you to like keep up with it. You know, if
Speaker 1: you know that you would accelerate your payments anyway and
Speaker 1: just be paying more than the minimum, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: it's worth looking at one of those shorter terms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. I think we we too easily take the
Speaker 1: longer term loan and then yeah, we are just we're
Speaker 1: payment buyers and we're in debt far far longer than
Speaker 1: we should be. Um. One, one more money hack you
Speaker 1: mentioned is a way to make more money. It's a
Speaker 1: side hustle that I'd never heard about before, renting yourself
Speaker 1: out as a friend. I'm a pretty friendly dude. Does
Speaker 1: this something I should consider? Well? You know, I will say,
Speaker 1: renting a friend with something I recommended before a global pandemic.
Speaker 1: But there will be in time again when you will
Speaker 1: be willing to share, you know, in closed spaces with strangers.
Speaker 1: But there is actually a service out there called rent
Speaker 1: a friend dot com. It is completely platonic, and it's
Speaker 1: designed for people who just maybe have an interest or
Speaker 1: want to do something fun, but don't have anyone that
Speaker 1: they can call on to do it. With. Maybe your
Speaker 1: friends are in a different city or they don't have
Speaker 1: the same interests, and you can you know, set up
Speaker 1: basically a friend date with someone. Um It starts at
Speaker 1: around twenty five an hour, So if you are willing
Speaker 1: to rent out your time and be the friend, you
Speaker 1: can make bucks an hour. Plus you are able to
Speaker 1: take advantage of whatever like fun thing your person that
Speaker 1: you get matched up with wants to do. It might
Speaker 1: be a baseball game, and might be a museum. It
Speaker 1: could be some sort of like awkward dinner with their
Speaker 1: parents that they don't want to go to alone, and
Speaker 1: you know, they're like, just pretend you're in my roommate
Speaker 1: and you're like, cool, that's fine. And it seems strange
Speaker 1: right to rent a friend, But think about it in
Speaker 1: another way. Think about um, you know, Airbnb experiences. People
Speaker 1: will sign up to take a tour with you through
Speaker 1: your favorite chops in your neighborhood. Right, So it's sort
Speaker 1: of like that, um it has you know, a more
Speaker 1: straightforward may and so it seems a little odd to
Speaker 1: be renting a friend like pay for friendship exactly. But
Speaker 1: if you you know, just think of it as you know,
Speaker 1: someone wants to pay you to you know, be a
Speaker 1: great host to them, uh, you know, in a neighborhood
Speaker 1: or to you know, try out something fun and you
Speaker 1: could get paid to do that, and it's it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I've never tried it, probably because I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: of an introvert. I'm extrovert all the way. If I
Speaker 1: didn't have anything else going on, I might I might
Speaker 1: do this. Yeah, if I, you know, maybe lived in
Speaker 1: a city where I didn't know a lot of people,
Speaker 1: this would probably be a really fun way to meet
Speaker 1: people and try out new things and make some money
Speaker 1: off the same time at the same time. So on
Speaker 1: the like the social note, I guess you also talk
Speaker 1: about finding a mentor as like a way to help
Speaker 1: you in your career. You know, you're not paying for
Speaker 1: a friend necessarily, but you're paying for somebody, uh maybe
Speaker 1: who can help you along. Can you make a case
Speaker 1: as to why mentors are a good idea for a
Speaker 1: lot of folks. Here's a money hack that doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like a money hack, but really it has. It can
Speaker 1: have some long term effects. So we're always told when
Speaker 1: we're in high school or college that we should find
Speaker 1: mentors who can guide us in our careers. There's someone
Speaker 1: who's a sounding board and a cheerleader and someone who's
Speaker 1: going to be there for us to you know, support
Speaker 1: us through our careers. And one of the ways that
Speaker 1: they can support us is by helping us advocate for
Speaker 1: a raise, helping us practice negotiating when we're in job
Speaker 1: interviews to be able to get a higher salary. Having
Speaker 1: someone in your corner that reminds you of your self
Speaker 1: worth and of your expertise and of your skills can
Speaker 1: really help you get that boost of confidence when it's
Speaker 1: time to stand up for yourself and negotiate. So it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that's hard to put price tag on, uh,
Speaker 1: And it's it's you know, some people get luckier than others.
Speaker 1: They just find a great mentor out there. Other people
Speaker 1: need to go through a matching program or maybe an
Speaker 1: alumni network to find someone that's really a great supportive
Speaker 1: mentor for them. But it's something that can have a
Speaker 1: long term impact. Don't how much you're able to make
Speaker 1: over the course of your career. Nice, Well, hey, we
Speaker 1: we just passed New Year's Day recently. A lot of
Speaker 1: people made New Year's resolutions, but a lot of us
Speaker 1: slackers didn't really get around to it right. But that's
Speaker 1: okay because in your book you suggest that people should
Speaker 1: do this on their birthday and said so they shouldn't
Speaker 1: feel bad, they should just know that they it was
Speaker 1: the wrong time to do it right. So, but why,
Speaker 1: in your opinion, is it more important to make resolutions
Speaker 1: on your birthday as opposed to when the new year hits. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's more exciting to have a date that's
Speaker 1: meaningful for you. We all got to January one, and
Speaker 1: we feel like it's you know, we've got to make
Speaker 1: a change because everyone else is doing it. It's a
Speaker 1: new fresh year. But it's a terrible time to make
Speaker 1: money changes. You're just coming off the holiday season, which
Speaker 1: is just very expensive. It's the dead of winter. Nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to make changes then. So if you can
Speaker 1: tie financial resolutions to a day that's a little more
Speaker 1: fun for you, like your birthday, the odds of you
Speaker 1: sticking with it go up a little bit. It's still
Speaker 1: gonna take hard work, but you're gonna tie it to
Speaker 1: this time of like actual rebirth for you, not just
Speaker 1: turning the calendar page. But you're hitting a new year
Speaker 1: in your life, a new milestone. You're blowing out those
Speaker 1: candles and you can say to yourself, Hey, I've got
Speaker 1: goals and I'm going to make changes so that i
Speaker 1: can get to them before my next birthday. So this
Speaker 1: the caveat here is that if you have an early
Speaker 1: December birthday like me, this doesn't really help that much. Ray,
Speaker 1: if you're December January baby, I'm sorry. You should just
Speaker 1: probably stay to January first out of simplicity. But for
Speaker 1: everybody else, for the other ten months of the year,
Speaker 1: you should think about your birthday. Yeah. I love how
Speaker 1: much more personalized it is too, And plus, I mean
Speaker 1: the gyms are likely to be less crowded to new resolution.
Speaker 1: At least we've got one more question here. Let's end
Speaker 1: on maybe a more sort of adulting kind of notes.
Speaker 1: One of the hack you mentioned that I thought was
Speaker 1: incredibly useful is you talk about doctor menting your possessions
Speaker 1: in case you need to file UH homeowners or wrinner's
Speaker 1: insurance claim. And so, how do you feel is the
Speaker 1: best way for people to do that? It all depends
Speaker 1: on how you are going to stay organized, right, which
Speaker 1: is the answer nobody wants because they're like, well, how
Speaker 1: do I stay organized. Do I stay organized? But the
Speaker 1: most important thing is that you have as much evidence
Speaker 1: as possible if you need to make a claim for
Speaker 1: your homeowner's insurance. And think about it, like if if
Speaker 1: you you know, had your house broken into or your
Speaker 1: car broken into, that's the last time you want to
Speaker 1: spend scrambling around trying to find the model number from
Speaker 1: your computer or the serial number from your whatever has
Speaker 1: a serial number? Does my blender a serial number? But
Speaker 1: you don't want to be scrambling around wondering like, oh,
Speaker 1: like what was that thing and how much was it worth?
Speaker 1: So I'm a big advocate of keeping receipts for big purchases,
Speaker 1: scanning them or taking a picture on your phone so
Speaker 1: you have a digital copy, and then in some cases
Speaker 1: taking pictures of items. Uh it might be you know,
Speaker 1: if you have a laptop that has a bunch of
Speaker 1: stickers on it, take pictures so that if your laptop
Speaker 1: gets stolen, it's easier to identify. It's also then easier
Speaker 1: if you have photos of items for the insurance company
Speaker 1: to determine how much cash you should get to be
Speaker 1: able to replace that item. So if you've got you know,
Speaker 1: expensive jewelry, some homewars. If you've got some expensive shoes
Speaker 1: like me, that you want to get the value for,
Speaker 1: you know, you need to be able to know what
Speaker 1: the value is. And don't wait until the last minute
Speaker 1: or until there's an emergency to wonder what was in
Speaker 1: your home. If you can make a log, you know,
Speaker 1: don't worry about the little stuff as much as the
Speaker 1: big stuff, and just think of those big purchases that
Speaker 1: you would be upset about if something happened today, and
Speaker 1: do what you can to chronicle those items so that
Speaker 1: if the worst case scenario happens, you can easily grab
Speaker 1: a digital copy of your seat or some photos, or
Speaker 1: you know, you just have them stashed away in an
Speaker 1: envelope somewhere so that you can easily grab them. That
Speaker 1: is a great tip and probably one that a lot
Speaker 1: of our listeners haven't done. It reminded me that it
Speaker 1: was something I need to do to document all the
Speaker 1: possessions in my house through a walkthrough video. So I'm
Speaker 1: putting that on my to do list. Lisa, thank you
Speaker 1: for the reminder. Um And yeah, I love the book
Speaker 1: Money Hacks. There's so much good information in there. Uh,
Speaker 1: so many money hacks that we weren't able to cover
Speaker 1: in this conversation. Where can people find out more about
Speaker 1: you and the book? Yeah, you can find Money Hacks
Speaker 1: wherever books are sold. You can find more about me,
Speaker 1: and you can find a link to buy the book
Speaker 1: at Lisa Rowan dot com. And just remember that, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of hacks in here, and not every
Speaker 1: one of them is going to apply to you, but
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find a handful
Speaker 1: that you can implement in your life and make some
Speaker 1: lasting changes. Most definitely, Well awesome, Lisa, This is a
Speaker 1: fun conversation. Thank you so much for talking with us today. Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me all right, Matt, that was a
Speaker 1: great conversation with Lisa. I love the idea behind money hacks.
Speaker 1: Hack is such like a common term that we use
Speaker 1: now in our society in articles on the internet. Hack
Speaker 1: is like the frequent word um. I feel like word
Speaker 1: toys when it comes to shaking something up in your life. Um.
Speaker 1: And and Lease offers just a lot of great tips
Speaker 1: really when it comes down to it in this book.
Speaker 1: So I was glad we were able to cover some
Speaker 1: but I want to know ak a sneaky, actionable tip exactly.
Speaker 1: That must be the definition of it, right right. So
Speaker 1: what was your big takeaway, your big hack from this episode? Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: well so yeah, my big takeaway is when she was
Speaker 1: talking about the Stranger test. I love the Stranger test
Speaker 1: Man and so quick recap. Basically, if you're ever in
Speaker 1: a store or your online even chopping online, picture somebody
Speaker 1: standing right there, uh, and they're holding up the amount
Speaker 1: of cash that is gonna cost you to purchase that
Speaker 1: item or the item, and you've got to choose one
Speaker 1: of the two, like which one is it gonna be?
Speaker 1: And to put it in terms like that to help
Speaker 1: you to visualize, like, oh, wait a minute, is that
Speaker 1: really worth all that money? You know, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm about to drop forty bucks on a couple of pizzas?
Speaker 1: Is that actually worth like those couple of pizzas? And
Speaker 1: in some cases you might say, yeah, those pizzas are
Speaker 1: really good, or you might think am I am I
Speaker 1: just doing this like at a convenience or or maybe
Speaker 1: just had a habit, you know, whether it's food or
Speaker 1: whether it's like clothing, like do I really want the
Speaker 1: shirt for twenty bucks? Or that's how much my shirts cost?
Speaker 1: Their cheap. Um, is that going to provide me the
Speaker 1: utility or the warmth here in the winter with it
Speaker 1: being cold, or would rather take that twenty and put
Speaker 1: in my wallet. I'm a fan anytime you're able to
Speaker 1: bring these alternative options into these sort of scenarios where
Speaker 1: you feel like you have to do something and instead
Speaker 1: if you ask yourself, well, what if instead I did this? Um,
Speaker 1: it's just a way to you know, optimize your spending
Speaker 1: and make sure that you're spending your money in a
Speaker 1: way that aligns with your values and the things that
Speaker 1: actually bring you joy. Until Lisa's book Money Hacks, I've
Speaker 1: never thought about it that way, but I know that's
Speaker 1: something I'm totally gonna be referring to in the future
Speaker 1: when it comes to my own expenses. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: visualizing a stranger trying to hand me cash and I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna, you know, not buy the item now because
Speaker 1: because of it. I think that's I think that's a
Speaker 1: great one for sure, or or you'll say, oh no,
Speaker 1: I totally need that thing. It's it's completely worth the money,
Speaker 1: you know. Like, I just love how it reframes that
Speaker 1: interaction completely. Yeah, So I think my big take away.
Speaker 1: What was your big takeaway? I think rent yourself out
Speaker 1: as a friend man um and I don't know if
Speaker 1: you can virtually do it these days. If you can,
Speaker 1: I might have to do that. My wife might not
Speaker 1: be down with it. But I love meeting new people.
Speaker 1: Like honestly, part of me is thought I would love
Speaker 1: to become a lift or an uber driver just because
Speaker 1: all the people used to be chat with folks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's kind of fun, like I like
Speaker 1: writing in them when I'm the passenger because I like
Speaker 1: make a new friend every time kind of And that
Speaker 1: might sound weird, but I'm that interested in meeting new people.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, if this was my younger days, if
Speaker 1: this existed, but always in my early twenties, it's totally
Speaker 1: something I done. Run up Joel's alley. Yeah, No, I
Speaker 1: got a wife and three kids though, so I just
Speaker 1: don't really have the time to prefriend strangers. I'd rather
Speaker 1: do the stranger test, I guess. So we were just
Speaker 1: talking about both of us have to do a stranger Well,
Speaker 1: I've told you, I mean back when we're doing the
Speaker 1: Airbnb down here in the basement, Like that was the
Speaker 1: thing that I enjoyed the most was being able to
Speaker 1: talk to the you know, our guests and figure out
Speaker 1: why they're in town, how long they're in town. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: I knew how long they're in town four because the reservation,
Speaker 1: but o're here three nights, I see. But to be
Speaker 1: able to talk about where they're from, you know, what
Speaker 1: they've been doing, dude, I love that aspect of it.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even extrovert, you know, like there's a
Speaker 1: part of me that just doesn't want to talk to evil.
Speaker 1: But I still enjoyed, I don't know, playing host to folks.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but here's my question for you. What if
Speaker 1: you are, you know, doing ren a friend and folks
Speaker 1: are asking for their money back? Like, how does that work? Honestly,
Speaker 1: if I was doing it, they might be they might
Speaker 1: be like, you talk too much, get out of here.
Speaker 1: I want you to be a better listener. Uh, you're
Speaker 1: a good listener, buddy. I don't know. Sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm not, and that's that's the case. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that as a tip. I love just kind
Speaker 1: of outside of the box ways to make money. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you can make an hour, that's real money,
Speaker 1: that's not pidally money that's legit money and maybe leg
Speaker 1: cool experience at the same time. All right, now, let's
Speaker 1: get back to the beer that we had on this episode.
Speaker 1: This one was called condensation accumulation. Um two big words
Speaker 1: right there to describe this beer. What were your thoughts
Speaker 1: on this I p A. We are two smart guys.
Speaker 1: We know how to say these words. We know big words.
Speaker 1: Uh well, obviously it makes me think of condensation accumulation,
Speaker 1: makes me think of snow accumulating outside during some of
Speaker 1: these colder days that we're having here in January, buddy.
Speaker 1: But I don't know how else to describe this except
Speaker 1: that it is a really good hazy I p A.
Speaker 1: It has all the qualities that I'm looking for in
Speaker 1: a hazy I p A. Starting with that hazy color
Speaker 1: you know you poured in there, and it's got that
Speaker 1: nice cloudy look to it, a little yellow, little orange. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and in particular to this one, wasn't overly dark, like
Speaker 1: That's one of the things I liked about it. I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot more breweries these days are making
Speaker 1: their I p A s kind of like blonder, you know,
Speaker 1: like like more pale, which I don't know I feel
Speaker 1: like that adds something to the flavor. At least it
Speaker 1: does in my mind because I see it and I think, oh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna taste a certain way. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed this one. Uh. You we mentioned these guys
Speaker 1: are out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and this is actually
Speaker 1: the first of several beers that we're gonna have from
Speaker 1: Heist Brewery. But yeah, what were your thoughts on this beer? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean connotation, accumulation. I thought of clouds, and what
Speaker 1: I thought of the most about this beer was the
Speaker 1: mouth field. The pillowy cloud like mouth field. It was
Speaker 1: like soft and luscious and and delicious. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed a beer that has that kind of mouth field
Speaker 1: with just like also a ton of hot flavor. So yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely looking forward to having more from this brewery in
Speaker 1: the coming days. Um, but that's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode. For folks that want to find out
Speaker 1: more about Lesha's book, Money Hacks, where you can get
Speaker 1: it and also some links to some of the stuff
Speaker 1: we talked about during this conversation, just go to our
Speaker 1: website how to money dot com. We'll make sure to
Speaker 1: include the link as well to where you can find
Speaker 1: missing money that might be owed to you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And I know we've talked about that in
Speaker 1: the past and we've had emails from listeners like I
Speaker 1: found hundreds of dollars. If you haven't done that check,
Speaker 1: it takes almost no time and you can bring some
Speaker 1: money into your life that you didn't know it was
Speaker 1: out there. That's right. And if you haven't left us
Speaker 1: a review yet and you've found our show helpful, we
Speaker 1: would love it if you did leave us a review
Speaker 1: over at Apple Podcasts. Maybe that nice five star rating
Speaker 1: as well. Uh and thanks in advanced for that. So Joel,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a buddy for this episode until next time.
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.