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Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,

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Speaker 1: and today we're discussing how the middle class is shrinking

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Speaker 1: and what that means for you. That is right, dude,

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Speaker 1: We are talking about the middle class and you said

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Speaker 1: how it's shrinking, which immediately made me think about, honey,

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Speaker 1: I shrink the kids. Please tell me you watched that

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Speaker 1: movie as a kid, So I rewatched it maybe like

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Speaker 1: nine months ago with the kids. Oh my gosh, trying

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Speaker 1: to get into some of those live action totally hold up.

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Speaker 1: It's it was pretty good. Still. It was pretty good. Still.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that because Giant Ants and the

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Speaker 1: Little totally one of my favorite movies as a little kid. Tall,

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Speaker 1: blazing grass and then that kid comes to Mode Lawn

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Speaker 1: and he had his he had headphones on, right, like

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Speaker 1: a walkman or is that what they're called? It is

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Speaker 1: like a radio auto. Wasn't like a discman yet. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think there were still the walgments with the scette tapes.

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Speaker 1: What was the dad's name, the nerdy guy, Wayne's Lensky?

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Speaker 1: But what what was his What's what's the that actor's name?

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Speaker 1: The actor's name? Oh? Was I think of it? He

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Speaker 1: was so Rick Moran. Yes, oh my god, I'm terrible

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Speaker 1: remembering names, but man, I can picture his face today

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Speaker 1: looking through that magnifying glass and persee to go Children sequel, Honey,

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Speaker 1: I blew up the kids and stuff like that. Those

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Speaker 1: that didn't work out. So that was good. I love

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Speaker 1: that movie. Uh, And in a similar way, I think

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Speaker 1: you're gonna love this episode how the middle classes Shrinking.

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Speaker 1: We really do have some good news for folks, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully we'll be able to essentially guide you, our listener,

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Speaker 1: through what this means for you, what this means for

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Speaker 1: your finances, and how you should respond to this quote

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Speaker 1: unquote shrinking middle class. Yeah, there's a lot of data

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Speaker 1: that we've used in this episode, but we'll be sharing

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Speaker 1: with you along the way. But then a lot of

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Speaker 1: practical information about how to kind of think about the

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Speaker 1: fact that the middle class is actually shrinking, Like, there's

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Speaker 1: data showing this, um but what does that mean for

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Speaker 1: or how we proceed through life? I think, Matt, for

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Speaker 1: some folks that can get them like down and discouraged

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Speaker 1: when they see those headlines, but we think there's actually

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Speaker 1: cause for optimism. We'll discuss today before we get to

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Speaker 1: that I want to mention that I know you you

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Speaker 1: have been your your Is it just Eavy who's taking

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Speaker 1: piano lessons or or Okay, so just for so far,

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Speaker 1: the other girls haven't shown much interest yet they might

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Speaker 1: be getting so we're hoping to maybe enroll both of

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Speaker 1: our girls are older girls in UH in piano classes

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Speaker 1: in the near future. But we we just got a

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Speaker 1: piano at which they're excited about love messing around on

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Speaker 1: but chopsticks, right, But we found out that actually there's

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Speaker 1: some really good YouTube piano lessons out there, and so

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Speaker 1: until we get to that point, they're the girls are

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Speaker 1: actually just kind of getting familiar with the keys, where

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Speaker 1: they place their hands, some basics of like how to

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Speaker 1: interact with the piano when you've never done anything musically

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Speaker 1: ever before, just through free YouTube videos. The proper hand

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Speaker 1: position where I pretend there's an egg exactly within your palm,

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Speaker 1: that all that stuff. It's amazing how just like YouTube

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Speaker 1: solves so many problems in education and just um you know,

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Speaker 1: I was using it recently, UH for a home repair

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Speaker 1: that I was working on. It's just like in every

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Speaker 1: home repair, for every home repair. Yes, I'm always going

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Speaker 1: to YouTube and watching repair three videos, and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: all right, I got it. I got a good feel

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Speaker 1: for how this works. I know everybody at this point

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Speaker 1: knows about YouTube and just the extensive amount of information

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Speaker 1: it's there, about an amazing catalog of just I mean,

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Speaker 1: what I forget. I heard some stats as to the

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Speaker 1: number of hours of YouTube video of footage that is

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Speaker 1: being uploaded every single day, and it's a mind blowing

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Speaker 1: amount of video, which basically means that there is not

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Speaker 1: one single person that will ever be able to navigate

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Speaker 1: the trows of video. But it's nor would you want

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Speaker 1: to write exactly that. A lot of its garbage, a

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Speaker 1: lot of crap on there. But but it just made

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Speaker 1: me think that there are certain things that we may

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Speaker 1: be forget it or don't even think, Like that didn't

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Speaker 1: even cross my mind. Oh hey, maybe there's great panel

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Speaker 1: lessons on YouTube for free, but they exist similarly like

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Speaker 1: little drawing classes. The girls have done some of those

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Speaker 1: online before on and there's some great art teachers on YouTube.

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Speaker 1: And I know, you know, I don't want my kids

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Speaker 1: in front of the screen all day, every day, And

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Speaker 1: that's why I was gonna I was gonna ask, how

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Speaker 1: do you feel about them looking at a screen versus

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Speaker 1: being instructed by somebody where that is all that they're

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Speaker 1: gonna do and they're not gonna dally when the ads

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Speaker 1: play like, oh but that looks really interesting. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: then there's there's definitely that trade off, right, And so

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Speaker 1: for now it's great and maybe we'll learn some of

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Speaker 1: the basics on YouTube, but eventually we'll do some in

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Speaker 1: person classes. But hopefully it's a good way to figure

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Speaker 1: out some interests as well before you start kind of

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Speaker 1: blinking down the money and paying up for it. That's

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Speaker 1: a good point, that's exactly right. So just word of

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Speaker 1: the wines out there. I'll try to figure out which

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Speaker 1: videos my kids were watching. Maybe we will post a

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Speaker 1: link to one or two of them in the show notes,

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Speaker 1: so that, Yeah, if your kiddo is interested in learning

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Speaker 1: an instrument, just just know that YouTube's got some good

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Speaker 1: stuff out there kind of at least help them get started.

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Speaker 1: And they gotta watch that tutorial on how to play

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Speaker 1: the theme song from the Office three year olds. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I mean that's the first song every kid, oh, you know,

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Speaker 1: figure out. But Matt Lists mentioned the beer we're having

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Speaker 1: on this episode. This is Stiegel rattler, But it's the

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Speaker 1: lemon variety. We've had the grape food variety on before

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Speaker 1: its throne, which I assume is French Leon. No, this

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Speaker 1: is Austrians. Yeah, let makes sense. We'll get our thoughts

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Speaker 1: on this one at the end of the episode. And

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Speaker 1: we just got back from the beach and had this

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Speaker 1: is like a classic beach beer and yeah, I never

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Speaker 1: get tired of it. Well, I will share with you

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Speaker 1: why it is not a classic beach beer for me,

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Speaker 1: but we'll say that for the end of the Well,

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Speaker 1: none of this early on beer talk, like we used

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Speaker 1: to write. Well, by the way, shout out to the listener, Logan,

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Speaker 1: who I met when I was at the beach one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so that's always fun and I always appreciate it when

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Speaker 1: folks come up and say hi. It's not every day

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Speaker 1: we get to interact with people who listen to the show,

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Speaker 1: but it's always a blast when we do. Did you

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Speaker 1: quiz him make sure he listened to the most recent episodes. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you clearly have not been listening, sir, Right, what's your problem? Dude?

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Speaker 1: Go back and hit play. Uh No, I did not

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Speaker 1: not do that, but um yeah, Logan seemed like a

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Speaker 1: cool dude. Nice, nice meeting the logan. But mat, let's

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Speaker 1: get onto the subject at hand. We are discussing the

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Speaker 1: middle class. Let's do it's shrinking and what that means

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Speaker 1: for our listeners. And uh, it made me think, as

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Speaker 1: we're kind of thinking through this episode, that it's never

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Speaker 1: fun to be in pain. Like nobody's like, who just

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Speaker 1: hurt my back working out? Or um, yeah, all right,

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Speaker 1: I sprained my ankle when I was going for a

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Speaker 1: round the other day. Nobody talks like that, nobody thinks

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Speaker 1: that way. But it turns out, though, of course, that

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Speaker 1: pain is actually a good thing for us, right, because

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Speaker 1: if we didn't feel pain when those things occurred, we're

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Speaker 1: more likely to do more damage to the wounded area

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Speaker 1: if we don't take any action. Right. Um, so yeah,

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Speaker 1: if it's pain, if there's some sort of pain free

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Speaker 1: wound that you got, you might break your ankle instead

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Speaker 1: of just braining it. So there are some things that

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Speaker 1: appear on their surface to be bad, but they're actually good.

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Speaker 1: And like when we're talking about the middle class shrinking,

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of our listeners might instinctively have

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Speaker 1: like a sour reply. It might be like, yeah, of

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Speaker 1: course I know that, like things aren't good, right, and

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Speaker 1: but I think we've been primed to maybe receive crappy headlines,

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Speaker 1: shrug our shoulders in disappointment, move on about our day,

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Speaker 1: and just kind of think the worst. But we would

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Speaker 1: say that the shrinking middle class is actually, in large

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Speaker 1: part a good thing. And so let's talk about that today, Matt,

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Speaker 1: How how a smaller middle class isn't all bad, and

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Speaker 1: how actually our listeners can do something take that information

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Speaker 1: and do something positive with it. That's right. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean we're not doctors here by by any means, but

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Speaker 1: like like what you said right when you twisted an

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Speaker 1: ankle or something like that, what it makes me think

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Speaker 1: of is like there's an immediate pain, which is probably

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Speaker 1: a really healthy thing to get you to stop what

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Speaker 1: it is that you're doing, right, But then after that,

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Speaker 1: like what immediately happens is that your ankle swells um

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Speaker 1: And I think like that's how we're trying to to

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Speaker 1: kind of present how we're going to talk about the

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Speaker 1: middle class today, because this sort of like that prolonged

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Speaker 1: pain that we're trying to address here. Because again we're

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Speaker 1: not experts, we're not doctors, but it seems like that

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Speaker 1: that is the first step that our bodies take towards healing. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And so this is this is why we're making the

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Speaker 1: argument that we think, uh, shrinking middle class could potentially

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Speaker 1: be a sign of overall health for our economy. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: if it does feel like the middle class is shrinking,

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Speaker 1: then it might feel like that you are getting squeezed

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Speaker 1: to one end or the other. Uh. And so if

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Speaker 1: you buy into the narrative that the middle class is

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Speaker 1: hollowing out, you're going to be more likely to be

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Speaker 1: upset by an economy that isn't working for the majority

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Speaker 1: of Americans. Because a healthy middle class creates a more

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Speaker 1: stable society with less crime, with a healthier economy, and

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Speaker 1: you know, with greater levels of innovation. After all, the

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Speaker 1: rise of the middle class is one of the main

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Speaker 1: reasons our country is what it is today. So shrinking

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Speaker 1: middle class should be concerning, right. Well, it's not that

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Speaker 1: there is no bad news out there, right, but we

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Speaker 1: actually think this is more good than bad. And that's

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Speaker 1: because the majority of folks leaving the middle class are

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Speaker 1: actually being bumped up into the upper income stratosphere. Folks

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Speaker 1: are leaving the middle class to join the ranks of

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Speaker 1: upper class earners and we feel this is good news. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so let's start with some definitions, Matt, because it's it's

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Speaker 1: kind of hard to define the term middle class, you

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Speaker 1: know are we talking about because well, there's there was

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Speaker 1: no technical set definition of what that means. It just

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Speaker 1: depends on who it is that you're reading, what research

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Speaker 1: you're coming across, and at whatever. Identify middle class, but

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Speaker 1: exactly they might be pupper middle like upper class or

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Speaker 1: something like that, and they like to think that they're

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Speaker 1: a person of the people, but in reality, now you're rich. Um.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, are we talking about education, income, living arrangements.

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Speaker 1: The definition it can mean different things to different people

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Speaker 1: based on who you're talking about, and you know, based

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Speaker 1: on what methodology you're using. But just let you guys know,

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Speaker 1: are jumping off point for this episode was a recent

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Speaker 1: Pew Research Center study and this is the kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff that Pew has been tracking for decades. We'll link

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Speaker 1: to it in the show notes so you can pour

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Speaker 1: over it yourself if you'd like to. But the definition

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Speaker 1: that we're going with states that the it's it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be income based, and it states that the average middle

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Speaker 1: class family earns between fifty two and a hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty six thousand dollars in dollars, which um, you know

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Speaker 1: has changed a little bit because of recent abouts of inflation.

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Speaker 1: But that's true. I'm here. I mean, they can't, like

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Speaker 1: on a dime, update the information, update the research to

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Speaker 1: reflects but it has changed. Yeah. And when you think

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Speaker 1: about middle class lifestyle and it being based on income, well,

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Speaker 1: I think it's a reasonable measurement, but then it might

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Speaker 1: leave out let's say, some of those firefolks who have

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Speaker 1: one five million dollars net worth, but they're not actually

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Speaker 1: currently bringing in income to that extent, right, But yet

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Speaker 1: lower income folks are then considered folks who make belowty

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Speaker 1: dollars on the income scale. Upper class folks exceed that

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Speaker 1: hundred fifty six thousand dollar amounts um and and a few,

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Speaker 1: like we said, releases this information regularly and and really

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Speaker 1: what they're attempting to measure is what's happened over the

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Speaker 1: past fifty years when it comes to income mobility. And

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Speaker 1: I think while we're gonna find today is that while

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Speaker 1: it seems like the headlines tend to focus on a

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Speaker 1: middle class that shrinking, after we dug into the info.

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Speaker 1: It just feels like the whole story is rarely told.

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Speaker 1: But we thought that maybe like the full set of

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Speaker 1: data and kind of um talking about its implications can

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Speaker 1: be helpful to all of us. Yeah, it can be

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Speaker 1: helpful to the narrative and the words that we use

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Speaker 1: and the attitudes that we carry with us, because in reality,

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Speaker 1: when you look at peuse data like it does show

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Speaker 1: that the median income for the middle class has actually

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Speaker 1: grown over the last fifty years, but it just hasn't

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Speaker 1: grown as quickly as those who are upper income earners.

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Speaker 1: Middle Class incomes have grown over the past fifty years,

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Speaker 1: whereas upper class incomes have increased at a rate of

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Speaker 1: sixty nine. But the thing is this makes sense if

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Speaker 1: you consider that the very fact that income mobility exists

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Speaker 1: like that means that individuals who may have previously been

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Speaker 1: in the middle class, they have the ability and they

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Speaker 1: have the opportunity to increase their incomes by a significant

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Speaker 1: factor right where where they're actually leaving the middle class behind.

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Speaker 1: They're not just migrating upward with the middle class, they're

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Speaker 1: kind of boosting themselves into a completely different class. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And so if you consider where that nearly difference between

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Speaker 1: the upper and middle class might have come from well,

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Speaker 1: there's I think there's a very good chance that that

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Speaker 1: increase came from earners leaving the middle class. I think

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Speaker 1: that's very true, right, because as we've seen the middle

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Speaker 1: classes getting smaller, but more and more of those folks

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Speaker 1: who left the middle class have gone to into the

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Speaker 1: upper class, like into the upper stratosphere of income than

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Speaker 1: have gone down into the lower income. There's not like

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Speaker 1: an uber elite uh upper class that where folks have

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Speaker 1: dropped down from there into the upper class like the

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Speaker 1: All the folks that have been going into the upper

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Speaker 1: class have been getting there from below basically exactly. And

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Speaker 1: so yeah, even though you you just mentioned matt attitudes

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Speaker 1: of our beliefs, right, I think that's such an important

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Speaker 1: part of this and how um just seeing some of

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Speaker 1: those headlines could sometimes make a sour on the American

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Speaker 1: experiment or just kind of how we feel about our

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Speaker 1: life or our lot in general. And the reality though

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Speaker 1: is is that almost all of us are thing better

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Speaker 1: than our parents did, right, as evidence by like a

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Speaker 1: more widespread availability of healthy foods at cheaper prices, more

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Speaker 1: affordable consumer goods, and and even better tax policy. But

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Speaker 1: even though those things are true, consumer sentiment is often negative, right,

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Speaker 1: Our attitudes are like we we just can consistently think

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Speaker 1: that things are getting worse. And there was this recent

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal article and the title was consumers say

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Speaker 1: that is the worst economy ever, And that was based

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Speaker 1: on a consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan

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Speaker 1: that that they put out I think on a quarterly basis,

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Speaker 1: and uh, or maybe it's monthly, but attitudes and believes

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Speaker 1: they just don't always line up with the reality. And

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Speaker 1: so just to think that is the worst economy ever

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Speaker 1: would be an overstatement of incredible proportions. And uh, it's

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Speaker 1: obviously it's not all sunshine and roses. We're gonna get

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Speaker 1: to that in a little bit. But it's important for

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Speaker 1: us to have a proper perspective on what we're actually

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Speaker 1: living through and the aortunities that exist. So we want

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Speaker 1: to talk about those opportunities, but we will get a

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Speaker 1: little bit pessimistic to lead things off. We'll talk about

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about the downsides of a shrinking middle class

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Speaker 1: and and some of the headwinds that middle class Americans

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Speaker 1: are facing. Right now, let's get to our thoughts on

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Speaker 1: some of those things. Right after this alright, we're back.

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Speaker 1: We are talking about how the middle class is shrinking,

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Speaker 1: and you know, before we before we die, like explain

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Speaker 1: all the wonderful ways that this is gonna be a

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Speaker 1: good thing for you. There are some fair arguments for

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Speaker 1: why so much of our country is feeling pessimistic. Inflation,

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Speaker 1: for one, is obviously impacting everybody, uh, and it's threatening

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Speaker 1: to undo some of the gains that people at the

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Speaker 1: bottom end of the income spectrum have realized over the

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Speaker 1: past year or two. We talked about gas prices not

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Speaker 1: too long ago. Although they are coming down now, they

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Speaker 1: have significantly cramped a lot of budgets, but prices at

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Speaker 1: the grocery store. That affects lower income folks in a

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Speaker 1: larger a as well. And some of the more disturbing

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Speaker 1: research showed from p that lower income earners, they've showed

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Speaker 1: actually the least amount of growth at just forty five

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Speaker 1: percent over the past fifty years versus the fifty and

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Speaker 1: sixty from the middle and upper class earners. That's right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So so we're yeah, Inflation obviously is is a reason

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Speaker 1: that people feel past ms. The last year has has

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Speaker 1: been a real gut punch for a lot of people

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Speaker 1: when it comes to their personal finances and long term

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Speaker 1: inflation in specific segments of the economy is taking a

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Speaker 1: toll as well, Matt, because healthcare costs as a percentage

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Speaker 1: of GDP is through the roof right when you look

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Speaker 1: at over the last thirty forty years, and and no

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Speaker 1: political solution seems to have made much of a dent

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Speaker 1: in staid. You just have to choose not to go

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Speaker 1: to the doctor like I do, or just kind of

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Speaker 1: chance it. That's my approach, right, which you know is

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Speaker 1: not something that I can recommend. Can look at this

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Speaker 1: share on the on my back. That's what I like.

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Speaker 1: My doctor friends, I have very few of, uh, Like

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Speaker 1: one of my friends he's an ophthalmologists and and so

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Speaker 1: he I know he doesn't know anything out these things.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I still gotn't take a look mine

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Speaker 1: like you look into his life, like you don't see

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Speaker 1: anything weird? Right, right, exactly, I'm good, I'm good. Right. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean the same thing is true when it comes

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Speaker 1: to the staring cost of college, which we're actually going

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Speaker 1: to talk about on the show next week. But there

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Speaker 1: are at least in that regard ways for for folks

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Speaker 1: to avoid at least some of that increased cost by

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Speaker 1: taking a savvy approach, which we're gonna discuss. But it's

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Speaker 1: of course it's a legitimate problem impacting a lot of

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Speaker 1: millennials gen z ears and even their parents right taking

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Speaker 1: on parent plus loans and the media price of a

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Speaker 1: home talking about something else negative was two point two

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Speaker 1: times income in nine and it's six point three times

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Speaker 1: income in That's that's a big jump, and it's probably

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Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna be even more matt because of you know,

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Speaker 1: recent home price appreciation and now rising interest rates. But

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Speaker 1: homes have gotten a lot nicer. There's that's something doesn't

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Speaker 1: get talked about a lot. It's just cost more money

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people. That means a lot more space.

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Speaker 1: Um next are amenities and stuff like that. But it's

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Speaker 1: still a meaningful issue, and it's one worth mentioning. It's

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Speaker 1: certainly adding to the negative attitudes. Although I think someone

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Speaker 1: could easily make the argument that well, with that nicer house,

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Speaker 1: isn't isn't that nicer house a part of achieving that

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Speaker 1: middle class lifestyle? Isn't that a part of the middle

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Speaker 1: class or a part of the American dream. I think

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Speaker 1: that that could be the case. But it's also true

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Speaker 1: that more households are living on two incomes than they

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Speaker 1: were fifty years ago. Of single income households were considered

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Speaker 1: middle class half century ago, but only thirty seven percent

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Speaker 1: are now. Uh. And so single folks, especially single parents,

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Speaker 1: are finding themselves in any more precarious financial position, whereas

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Speaker 1: married folks are finding it easier to move up the

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Speaker 1: income scale. So the economy is working for a large

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Speaker 1: chunk of folks, but your family status is proving to

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Speaker 1: play a large role in your financial security. Yes, so

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Speaker 1: the data from pre really is mixed in a lot

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Speaker 1: of ways because we are seeing a shrinking middle class,

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Speaker 1: but that has led to a bigger rise in in

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Speaker 1: families being in that upper upper class um strata where

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Speaker 1: their income is at least six figures if not higher.

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Speaker 1: But I think for a lot of folks math they

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Speaker 1: feel like everyone is falling behind, But it turns out

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Speaker 1: that some segments of the population are actually doing really well.

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Speaker 1: They're actually vastly improving their their standing in this economy.

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Speaker 1: And the New York Times actually just had an article

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Speaker 1: about second generation immigrants and how second generation immigrants are

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Speaker 1: succeeding wildly, um, and it was just kind of a

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Speaker 1: fascinating article about the ascent of immigrants in this country

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Speaker 1: in general. You're you're actually more likely to become middle class,

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Speaker 1: upper middle class, and even rich, which is another stratus

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Speaker 1: for The New York Times described just straight up rich,

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Speaker 1: just straight up loaded as a child of an immigrant,

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Speaker 1: if you were like born here in the United States

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Speaker 1: and your family has been here for a while. Immigration

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Speaker 1: has basically always been a good thing for for this

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Speaker 1: country as a whole, keeping the American dream alive. But

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Speaker 1: I feel like there's just so much interesting data in

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Speaker 1: that math that we can extrapolate. It's clearly more financially

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Speaker 1: beneficial to grow up as the child of an immigrant

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Speaker 1: than to be a third or work generation citizen. And

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Speaker 1: I don't know. A friend of the show, Christie Shennon,

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Speaker 1: who we had on back in episode one eighteen, I

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Speaker 1: think her story is kind of indicative of this reality.

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Speaker 1: Her parents basically grew up in poverty in China under authoritarianism,

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Speaker 1: and they ended up making it out to Canada, and

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Speaker 1: they well, they had to sacrifice a lot right in

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Speaker 1: order for for Christie to succeed, but succeed is what

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Speaker 1: Christie did. And sometimes there there is that reality that

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Speaker 1: that for some reason, second generation immigrants are able to

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Speaker 1: make the most progress when it comes to the American dream,

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Speaker 1: even more so than folks who have called America home

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Speaker 1: for for a lot longer. Yeah, it's crazy how the data,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's incredibly clear. It's almost as if immigrants

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Speaker 1: have the clearer understanding of what's available here in the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Than folks who have, yeah, for generation has been U. S. Citizen.

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Speaker 1: Makes me think of Hamilton's and what you say. Immigrants,

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Speaker 1: they get the job done. And it's just it's true,

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Speaker 1: and the data really really reflects that that immigrants are

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Speaker 1: protecting in the American dream more than more than most

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Speaker 1: folks who have been here a long time. That's right.

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Speaker 1: So if disagree with us, take it up with Lemon

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Speaker 1: weel uh okay, let' let's talk about how the middle

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Speaker 1: class is shrinking, because part of what we need to

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Speaker 1: do is really dispel some rumors and sort of like

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Speaker 1: false beliefs about rich folks, because you know, like when

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Speaker 1: we see articles about quote unquote rich people, were usually

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Speaker 1: hearing specifically, not about maybe a millionaire, but billionaires right,

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Speaker 1: like like Bezos Elon, they get their fair share of headlines,

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Speaker 1: but these fellas are definitely outliers. By the way, Elon

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Speaker 1: has had a lot of negative press, likely um there

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Speaker 1: there are other reasons that he's been in the press,

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Speaker 1: like his his private life is um odd yet to

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Speaker 1: say the least. But the reality, though, is is that

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Speaker 1: when you hear the word rich, you should have a

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Speaker 1: much broader definition as to who falls in this, you know,

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Speaker 1: within this category, and those guys should probably they probably

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Speaker 1: should be in that completely different camp like the uber

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Speaker 1: super filthy rich that I was talking about, Like there

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Speaker 1: isn't really a separate category for those who are beyond rich.

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Speaker 1: It's really if you make more than a hundred and

431
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:05,280
Speaker 1: fifties six thousand dollars, you are considered over class and technically,

432
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:07,400
Speaker 1: within a lot of studies, you are in the same

433
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 1: category as Elon and as Bezos, which is funny because yeah,

434
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,920
Speaker 1: they are the complete outline hydrofoil. But when we talk

435
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,720
Speaker 1: about rich people, we're we're often pointing fingers at like

436
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 1: the super rich, techmobuls um, the hyper rich, right, the

437
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:25,320
Speaker 1: billionaire class. But there's a big difference between just normal,

438
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:27,560
Speaker 1: everyday rich, which for a lot of people looks a

439
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 1: little more middle class or doesn't feel um exorbitant. And

440
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:32,879
Speaker 1: some of those guys who are trying to you know,

441
00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:36,760
Speaker 1: make us an interplanetary species by firing rockets off into

442
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,199
Speaker 1: space and you know, taking down bridges to move their

443
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 1: yachts around the world. But yeah, another article actually from

444
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,639
Speaker 1: the New York Times that ran recently discussed how the

445
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:50,160
Speaker 1: majority of rich folks actually make their money, and that

446
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,119
Speaker 1: was really interesting to me too, Matt, because spoiler alert,

447
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: it's it's not from building rockets or you know, creating

448
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,479
Speaker 1: some sort of online business or new found venture that

449
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,080
Speaker 1: reaches millions and millions or tens of millions of folks.

450
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 1: Most folks that are in the rich category they get

451
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 1: rich over time, uh, from owning an incredibly not sexy business, right,

452
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:14,680
Speaker 1: mostly from looking like normal people. And according to some

453
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: some survey data from twenty nineteen, the folks who make

454
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 1: up even the point one percent are largely folks that

455
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:23,840
Speaker 1: would fly under the radar, right, that are eating at

456
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,680
Speaker 1: the same same fast food restaurant you might be eating at. Uh,

457
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 1: they're eating at the same Mexican place where they handle

458
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,160
Speaker 1: the free chips. That's right, that's right, Like they're down

459
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: with that too. And you know, we're talking about folks

460
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:37,280
Speaker 1: who own auto dealerships or smaller regional distribution companies. Uh,

461
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,879
Speaker 1: the folks who you wouldn't necessarily think of as uber wealthy.

462
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: And even the author of that New York Times peaks

463
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 1: was like, I was shocked to read who the rich are, Like,

464
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,200
Speaker 1: they're not the people you would suspect. It was helpful

465
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:50,399
Speaker 1: to see. I think that some of the rich people,

466
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 1: according to this data, actually have lives that aren't completely abnormal, right,

467
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 1: And and oftentimes their wealth comes from creating a business

468
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: this that employs a lot of the people, that is

469
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 1: is doing something productive for the local economy. Yeah. And

470
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:07,719
Speaker 1: I think you could even argue that that quote unquote

471
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,159
Speaker 1: normal life where they have what looks like normal expenses,

472
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 1: is a part of what has led to them having

473
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: the you know, those larger amounts of wealth. Uh. And

474
00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:17,960
Speaker 1: so I think that one thing that we can take

475
00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 1: away from this is that wealth flows to owners. You know,

476
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,120
Speaker 1: we talked about that in depth back in episode four.

477
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 1: That's why we're so big on investing in the market, right,

478
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 1: owning these little slices of a wide array of American businesses,

479
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,200
Speaker 1: because even if you are unlikely to start the next

480
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,919
Speaker 1: Amazon or the next Tesla, there are still many avenues

481
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 1: to making a great income landing yourself within the upper

482
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: class of American society that doesn't involve moving to Silicon

483
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 1: Valley or marrying rich people. Right. Yeah, that's if that's

484
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 1: your your main avenue to moving into the upper crust

485
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 1: of society, just marrying someone who's loaded already. Um, more

486
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 1: power to you. But uh, that you don't have to

487
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,639
Speaker 1: do that, is what we're saying. That doesn't have to

488
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 1: be your only year one avenue, right, it's they're still

489
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:03,120
Speaker 1: the possibility for lots of folks without going to those links. Um.

490
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:05,359
Speaker 1: It's also important to note math that being rich is

491
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: an always evolving phenomenon. So something like one third of

492
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: Americans are actually going to be included among the top

493
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: five percent of income earners for at least one year

494
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 1: during their working life. Super cool stat. Yeah, a very

495
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 1: cool stat. So often times we say rich folks and

496
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: we point a finger there. Um, But it's not like

497
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,920
Speaker 1: the static group of individuals who continued to pad their

498
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 1: Scrooge McDuck like vault with more gold coins, Right, that's

499
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 1: usually kind of the way we think about people who

500
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: are considered rich in our society. But but there's a chance,

501
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:40,360
Speaker 1: a decent chance, that you, dear listener, will be included

502
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,280
Speaker 1: in that group for at least a portion of your career,

503
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: even if it's just for maybe a few years during

504
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 1: the time when you're your peak earning abilities. Um. But

505
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 1: you also found that the bottom quintile of Americans is

506
00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 1: more than likely to experience upward mobility, while only seven

507
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: percent experience downward mobility. So the reality is that there

508
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,280
Speaker 1: is a lot of upward mobility potential in our society still,

509
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 1: even though, Matt, I think a lot of times, um,

510
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,960
Speaker 1: the way we discuss these things, there's a prevailing attitude

511
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 1: or belief that that's not possible. Well, the stats tell

512
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,560
Speaker 1: a different story, right, that the people from who are

513
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,680
Speaker 1: in the lower class can move up, even if it's

514
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: not easy, and the folks who consider themselves middle class

515
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 1: might at least for a stretch of time be be

516
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 1: in the upper class. Our class structure, income levels, they're

517
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,360
Speaker 1: not some sort of never changing, set in stone sort

518
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,879
Speaker 1: of reality. Right. Yeah, there's a lot of mobility, and

519
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 1: we need to keep that in mind. Um let's let's

520
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:35,879
Speaker 1: take another approach here too, because if you've listened to

521
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,800
Speaker 1: the show for any length of time, you know that

522
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 1: that we believe that riches aren't everything. Right, It's it's

523
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 1: okay if you're never a part of that five percent

524
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:46,439
Speaker 1: that are that is going to be in the you know,

525
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: top point one percent, because we believe that joy is

526
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: found in a whole lot of things that are not

527
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: related to money at all. And so it's not our

528
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 1: goal in this episode to push all of you, how

529
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:58,600
Speaker 1: the money listeners out there, to figure out how to

530
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,719
Speaker 1: make a million bucks every year or even more than

531
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,719
Speaker 1: a fifty six thou dollars if you love what it

532
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 1: is that you do, earning a lot less than that

533
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: while still being able to save and invest more power

534
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: to you. Uh So, for instance, most teachers, they will

535
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 1: never be categorized in that upper income at Chalange, but

536
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: most are pretty passionate about their work and they love

537
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: educating the next generation. There's a level of fulfillment that

538
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: I've heard many teachers express that that makes up for

539
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 1: a smaller paycheck. Uh And we've got some teacher friends

540
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,920
Speaker 1: who love to take full advantage of those summers off.

541
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: So I say this because it's important to point out

542
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: that making a conscious choice to spend your days doing

543
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,879
Speaker 1: something awesome, at least something that's awesome to you that

544
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,479
Speaker 1: you feel is fulfilling, is going to be way more

545
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 1: important than getting rich according to what the world is

546
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 1: calling rich at the very least. But on that note,

547
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: we would not have an episode here for you without

548
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: some more practical advice. So we have some specific tips, uh,

549
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: some strategies to change your economic position, some different ways

550
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:00,879
Speaker 1: to increase your income. We will get to all of

551
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: those right after this break. All right, we are back

552
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 1: from the break, still talking about shrinking middle class, but

553
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 1: how it's not all bad. And I like what you

554
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: said kind of right before we went to the break,

555
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: how there are a lot more things that matter in

556
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,160
Speaker 1: this life than just money. Right, And so somebody might

557
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: hear the beginning of this episode and think like we

558
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,960
Speaker 1: want everyone to get rich and sacrifice whatever it takes

559
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,160
Speaker 1: in order to get there. That is certainly not the case.

560
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you, especially your friends and family, right, Yeah,

561
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: don't don't throw them by the wayside in order to

562
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:42,239
Speaker 1: make more money. But relatively speaking, you know, when we're

563
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: looking at the data from PEW. We want we do

564
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 1: want our listeners to be represented in and included in

565
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 1: the population that's moving up, right, that's finding more financial security.

566
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,199
Speaker 1: We do whose incomes are are largely growing. Um, But

567
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,199
Speaker 1: how do you ensure basically that you're you're on the

568
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,360
Speaker 1: winning side of a shrinking middle class. Let's talk about

569
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: that now. The first thing we would say, uh, that

570
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:03,120
Speaker 1: there are a few steps we think you should take,

571
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,320
Speaker 1: or that most people should take. One is to to

572
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,240
Speaker 1: change your mindset. And that might sound a little woo

573
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: woo or something like that, but uh, it's important for

574
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 1: positive thoughts. Yeah, and there's like like definitely some like

575
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: bad advice right headed in that direction where it manifested. Yeah,

576
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 1: that that's just kind of ridiculous. But but there is

577
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: a reality that you have control of your life and

578
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 1: that we don't live in a cast system. And I

579
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 1: think sometimes knowing or seeing some of that data, but

580
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:30,160
Speaker 1: then but also recognizing that you have more control than

581
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: you think, how that can help. And there's more income

582
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 1: mobility in this country than in most places in the

583
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 1: rest of the world, although the Scandinavian country countries are

584
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 1: are actually better than us in that regard, but we

585
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that almost Americans are going to

586
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 1: be in the top five percent of income earters for

587
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 1: at least a year, right, And I think that that

588
00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: should actually be encouraging, right to help people realize that

589
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: they are in the driver's seat of their own life. Right,

590
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: they they aren't stuck. They can make progress. And I

591
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 1: think knowing and believing that is is part of the

592
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: key to finding the motivation to change your lot in life.

593
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: Makes me think of this Netflix movie I watched with

594
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: my wife a few months back, Matt called White Tiger.

595
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: I don't know if you it was a book too.

596
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: I think my wife read the book okay, um, and

597
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: it's literally about this young Indian entrepreneur and uh. For

598
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 1: him to get to the place he got, it was

599
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: a lot harder than almost any path that any modern

600
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 1: day American has has to take to get to that

601
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: middle or upper class. So I think it's helpful maybe

602
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,000
Speaker 1: to see stories from other people in other countries and

603
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 1: realize that while it's not necessarily easy, um, it is

604
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 1: one of those things that is more widely available than

605
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 1: in a whole lot of other places where you could

606
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 1: be living. Yeah, I mean it kind of goes back

607
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: to the immigrants as well. When you come from a country,

608
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: when you come from a system that does not foster

609
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: financial or income mobility, I think you are able to

610
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: come to the US and see the opportunities here. I

611
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,160
Speaker 1: forget the name of the comedian. There's a he's he's

612
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: a Chinese guy, but he talks about how there's just

613
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 1: so much great stuff going on in the US. Ronnie Chain. Yeah,

614
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: that's yeah, yeah right, and and uh. He was explaining

615
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: how the word for America basically means like I think

616
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,800
Speaker 1: it's the beautiful land, the beautiful country, or something like that,

617
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: like when you translated directly, because of so much of

618
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 1: the promise that is here in our country, and we

619
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: fail to see that a lot of times. But it

620
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 1: is good to be reminded of that from talking to

621
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: folks who are from other countries who have escaped those systems.

622
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: But another way that folks can get ahead is by

623
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: prioritizing your education, something immigrants have also done who have

624
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 1: come to the US. Because p has found that there's

625
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: a growing income gap between Americans with a bachelor's degree

626
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 1: and those who do not have one, And it is

627
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 1: important to note here that it doesn't necessarily have to

628
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: be a college degree here that we're talking about. That's

629
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: the It's definitely the traditional path for a lot of folks,

630
00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 1: and it will make a lot of sense as a

631
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 1: way to move up the income scale, in particular if

632
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: you're able to keep that debt to a minimum. But

633
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,120
Speaker 1: it certainly feels like it is the most replicable way

634
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: to increase your income. Uh. And that's proven out to

635
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: by the facts, by the data. Right, Yeah, And you're right,

636
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: education is a crucial component here when it comes to

637
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 1: moving up the socioeconomic hierarchy. Right. But but p was

638
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: also looking over a long time arising here fifty years

639
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: and interestingly enough for actually seeing more signs over the

640
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 1: past decade that entrepreneurship and blue collar work can be

641
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: more lucrative these days for for a lot of folks,

642
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: and that path often allows you to avoid taking on

643
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: a boatload of student loan debt. Again, we're gonna talk

644
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: about kind of some of these things a little bit

645
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: more in next week's episode, but check out our conversation

646
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: with about blue collar work with Ken Rusk back in

647
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 1: episode two seventies seven for for more on that. But

648
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: for folks who are more inclined to work with their hands.

649
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: There's more of a chance than at any time in

650
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: recent history that you can make a substantial income while

651
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 1: avoiding some of the debt and time and opportunity costs

652
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: that goes along with a college education. But still education,

653
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: even if it's not higher education. Even it's not going

654
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: to a university or something like that or getting a

655
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: master's to there are all sorts of other ways that

656
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: you can educate yourself, especially now, like for free or

657
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: or for cheap that can have an outsized impact on

658
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: your ability to to build your wealth. Yeah, that's right.

659
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 1: Another way you can move up that ladder gradually is

660
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: by investing, because obviously increasing your income is great, but

661
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: we still see stories all over the place about folks

662
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: who are making six figures who are still living paycheck

663
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 1: to paycheck. Uh, And so we wanted to highlight this

664
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: because a high salary does not equal a robust savings rate. Uh.

665
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: Pew wasn't really measuring net worth in their study, but

666
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: we think of that actually as an even more compelling metric,

667
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 1: because when you're investing money with every paycheck, slowly but surely,

668
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,479
Speaker 1: that's gonna have a significant impact on your ability to

669
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: build wealth and gain financial freedom. Again, we're not saying

670
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 1: it's easy, but you really can do this. This, this

671
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: really can be done in any of the three income classes.

672
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: It feels like this truly sort of democratic technique that

673
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 1: is accessible to to everyone, and it's more accessible now

674
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 1: than ever with the abundance of four one K plans

675
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 1: of low fee invest through some of those low cost brokes.

676
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 1: You don't have to know the guy, you don't have

677
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: to don't have to like make a phone call and

678
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 1: what you figure all of this out. A lot of

679
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:10,080
Speaker 1: it is automated, either through your workplace or if not,

680
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 1: it is incredibly easy to set up with somebody like

681
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 1: Fidelity or Vanguard, and there's these low cost funds. But

682
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 1: also you can get started for a dollar right, whereas

683
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 1: before you used to have at least at least a

684
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,600
Speaker 1: thousand bucks for a number of years right to get started.

685
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 1: And now it's like it's democratized, really um and you

686
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,560
Speaker 1: can buy those low cost index funds and you can

687
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 1: just get build wealth over time solely but surely. Yeah,

688
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: it's interesting, actually so, and it's important to say that

689
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: we're building wealth because by investing that's not necessarily going

690
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: to increase your income, right, it's like almost the inverse.

691
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 1: So that is true. By increasing your income, that may, however,

692
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: potentially allow you to invest more, and that truly is

693
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 1: the ultimate goal that we're striving after here, right. Uh.

694
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:48,720
Speaker 1: And so by increasing your income, like, we just don't

695
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 1: want to get the means mixed up with the end.

696
00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: And it's important just to have these things and within

697
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: the right place. Yeah. Well, and and to your point

698
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: about getting there gradually by investing that you can grow

699
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 1: your net worth even on a smaller income. Well, there's

700
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 1: the occasional story that comes out right about somebody who

701
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: did have a small income but over the decades was

702
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: able to amass a small fortune. And um, there was

703
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,280
Speaker 1: a story a few years back, um in in CNBC

704
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:16,240
Speaker 1: about a janitor who died with eight million dollars in

705
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,160
Speaker 1: in his investment accounts. And it's one of those things

706
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: where I don't necessarily think of that as a good

707
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,360
Speaker 1: thing that you would focus so dang heavily on investing

708
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: for your future that you don't you're not able to

709
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,160
Speaker 1: actually like use some of those funds now to further

710
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:32,320
Speaker 1: your enjoyment in life. Um. But it's also it also

711
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,920
Speaker 1: helps to prove what you were just saying that that

712
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: that a little bit by little bit, even on a

713
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: small income, can amass into something meaningful. Yeah, that's right.

714
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: He was a janitor and before that he was working

715
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: at a gas station, and so it's not like this

716
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: guy had some sort of large windfall. It was him

717
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 1: literally spending less than he made in investing the difference.

718
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 1: Another route we think that you should consider when it

719
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: comes to ear any more money is to take the

720
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: path of entrepreneurship. We think that you should consider working

721
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: for yourself because in a lot of profession like, there's

722
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: going to be a cap to what it is that

723
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 1: you can earn. We we talked about teachers earlier on

724
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: how they are a lot of them are finding some

725
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: fulfilling work. But you are getting rich teaching at your

726
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:14,359
Speaker 1: local elementary school understatement. And that's right. But let's say

727
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 1: that same teacher starts a YouTube channel, or maybe they

728
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: start selling lesson plans on teachers pay teachers, which is

729
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 1: a great resource if you're the kind of person who

730
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,840
Speaker 1: likes to put together a curriculum, or even be like

731
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 1: that piano teacher Joel that you mentioned on YouTube, because

732
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 1: you know, if if you're a piano teacher and maybe

733
00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:32,959
Speaker 1: you are earning fifty bucks a lesson, that's pretty great.

734
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: But teaching the entire world can actually provide more income

735
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 1: per hour spent working than you would be able to

736
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: find otherwise. Yeah, and there's just more ability now than

737
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: before to kind of take something that you're passionate about

738
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 1: or something that you're skilled in and kind and turn

739
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 1: it into a source of income um on a bigger scale.

740
00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: But let's talk about something else to Matt. Another another

741
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: thing that you need to do if you want to

742
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:58,239
Speaker 1: be a part of the positive shrinkage of the middle class,

743
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: and that is gives a great of spending injury. But

744
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,359
Speaker 1: we're gonna call this positive shrinkage positive shrinkage. I think

745
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,000
Speaker 1: I think it's accurate right based on the day that

746
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: we're saying that the shrinkage is leading to larger upper class,

747
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:14,239
Speaker 1: which is great. But the I think developing a sense

748
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,800
Speaker 1: of grit right is something else that would be helpful.

749
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 1: You know, we actually did a whole episode back in

750
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:22,240
Speaker 1: the day about about how grittiness is one of the

751
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:26,880
Speaker 1: biggest indicators of your ability to improve your personal finances

752
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 1: and the same thing is true if we're talking about

753
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,760
Speaker 1: improving your income getting more disciplined, is that the crux

754
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 1: of ensuring that you're making progress, whether it's waking up

755
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:38,680
Speaker 1: earlier or reading more, you know, dictiving your habits to

756
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,040
Speaker 1: ensure that more of your money is going towards savings

757
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 1: and investments. That's a huge part of changing your lot

758
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 1: in life. And uh Socrates matt He said that the

759
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,400
Speaker 1: free individual is free only to the extent of his

760
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 1: own self mastery. And I know for myself, I have

761
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 1: at times been overly lazy, and I have missed out

762
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,320
Speaker 1: on opportunities because of it. Um and and yeah, I

763
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 1: don't know. We little changes and positive new habit formations.

764
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: They often start small, but they snowball into real progress

765
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 1: over time. It's it's just like what you're talking about

766
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 1: with investing, how a little bit can make a big difference.

767
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:14,000
Speaker 1: It seems like nothing at the beginning, but those baby

768
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,640
Speaker 1: steps they have a huge impact over the decades. And

769
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,359
Speaker 1: the same is true with the habits we with how

770
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 1: we spend our time and with and with what we're consuming.

771
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 1: How that can help us or hurt us. It can

772
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 1: help us achieve what we want to or it can

773
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,280
Speaker 1: actually take us further away from what we're trying to achieve,

774
00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 1: right and aside from how it is that we can

775
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:32,720
Speaker 1: increase our incomes and and find ourselves advancing our station

776
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:34,880
Speaker 1: in life, I think it's good to point out to

777
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 1: that the fact that like life is is pretty good

778
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 1: right now. Like we're not trying to gloss over everything

779
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 1: and say that everything's fine. Go back to your work,

780
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 1: but think about how it is your grandparents grew up, um,

781
00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:47,279
Speaker 1: because do you have it worse than they did, you know,

782
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:51,280
Speaker 1: backt seventy years ago? Uh? Like, seriously, do an honest

783
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:53,960
Speaker 1: assessment for a minute, because my guess is for almost

784
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 1: everyone listening, your life is much better than their's, at

785
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: least in terms of the creature come that we get

786
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 1: to experience on a daily basis when we're guests Morgan Household.

787
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 1: He talks about how we think of the nineteen fifties

788
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: as being the the economic glory days. But if you

789
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 1: had the chance, would you actually want to live back then?

790
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,040
Speaker 1: Because I highly doubt it. Would you step in a

791
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 1: time machine transporter that would take you back there if

792
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,400
Speaker 1: it meant you couldn't return too unlikely? I know, I

793
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: wouldn't I probably not. I mean honestly even just like yourself.

794
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:27,359
Speaker 1: But like the like small pieces of technology that we

795
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: use on a daily basis, I think oftentimes are what

796
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 1: are keeping us from thinking, oh, yeah, that that is

797
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,320
Speaker 1: a life that I would actually went to experience, because

798
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 1: by basically every standard, the vast majority of Americans are

799
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 1: better off now than they were back then. Uh, expectation inflation.

800
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 1: That's actually a major reason why folks are less happy

801
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 1: and why they assume that they are much worse off

802
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:52,440
Speaker 1: when statistically speaking, things are a lot better for the

803
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,319
Speaker 1: vast majority of folks. Yeah. Our friend Jack, who writes

804
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,319
Speaker 1: over at Young Money, wrote recently in a similar vein,

805
00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 1: and he basically said, life is the that it's ever been.

806
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: Rates of extreme poverty have been plumbing. Right of the

807
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: world's population is literate. It was only just like rattled

808
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 1: off this laundry list of statistics will link to that

809
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,240
Speaker 1: article show notes even something as simple as a COVID

810
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 1: vaccine like me that did not exist modern miracles a

811
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 1: hundred years ago, sure, and the ability to develop it

812
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: so quickly in the type of technology right that in

813
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 1: the brain power that it took to be able to

814
00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:27,840
Speaker 1: create that. Um, there are so many reasons, and I

815
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:29,480
Speaker 1: think when you put it in those dark terms, would

816
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,480
Speaker 1: you go back to would you trade your current life

817
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 1: for for that life? Uh? In all likelihood the answers now.

818
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 1: And it's so it's our belief that the American dream

819
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 1: is is still alive and you're not only able to

820
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 1: accomplish it by working seventy plus hours a week grinding

821
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:45,799
Speaker 1: as hard as you possibly can. It's it's not just

822
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 1: for folks with a fancy education or for people earning

823
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 1: six figures. In our uber connected age, it's it's easy to,

824
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: I think, get down and out at about idiotic politicians,

825
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:58,440
Speaker 1: income inequality, and and the negative headlines that tend to

826
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: dominate the news. And while the real world has real problems,

827
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 1: many of us are far too focused on the things

828
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: we can control. We're maybe buying into the negative sentiments

829
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,719
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Uh. Instead, we would say, let's turn the

830
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 1: majority of our focus to things that we can influence

831
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 1: as individuals and in realize that we've got more say

832
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 1: over our futures then we often like to think. And

833
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 1: some of these stats are actually showing us that a

834
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 1: shrinking middle class isn't actually nearly as bad of a thing,

835
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:28,960
Speaker 1: and it actually might be a better thing than you'd

836
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 1: like to think. And I think we would say that

837
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: the vast majority of Found Money listeners can participate, can

838
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: change their trajectory right by changing a few things about

839
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 1: their lives. And um, we're again not easy, but I

840
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,359
Speaker 1: think it's refreshing to kind of dig into the data

841
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 1: and see that there is actually a lot of positive

842
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 1: news to behold, and that more of us can and

843
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: are likely to participate in, like the economic progress of

844
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:54,920
Speaker 1: our country than maybe I think that they will. Yeah,

845
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:56,600
Speaker 1: I mean, I think another part of it too, is

846
00:40:56,640 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 1: like you're talking about some of the negative aspects that

847
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 1: we become transfixed and you know, obsessed with. What's cool

848
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: is that as we are able to develop ourselves as individuals,

849
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,959
Speaker 1: we can then eventually have impacts not only on on

850
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 1: our finances, but the finances of our families, of our friends,

851
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,960
Speaker 1: and then eventually, yeah, our cities, our states, our countries,

852
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 1: and hopefully uh far off down the road, there will

853
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 1: be less problems. There will be ways for us to

854
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 1: combat some of the things that seem to take so

855
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,360
Speaker 1: much of our time. Now. It's just I feel like

856
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,840
Speaker 1: so many, so many of us, myself included, at times

857
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 1: want there to be answers and quick fixes now, especially

858
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 1: on a large scale, when in fact, what we need

859
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 1: to do is focus more on the local right, not

860
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,319
Speaker 1: only just developing ourselves, but then finding ways that we

861
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 1: can look to improve our communities as well. Yeah. Yeah,

862
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,760
Speaker 1: So when we do that, I think we're we're gonna

863
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 1: more tangibly see the progress right in our own lives

864
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 1: and the lives of people around us, And that just

865
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: provides more encouragement. And then all of a sudden, you

866
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: your beliefs and your attitudes have completely transformed. You feel

867
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:56,799
Speaker 1: at least great about the things that you have been

868
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:58,760
Speaker 1: accomplishing at home. When you think about the grand scale

869
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 1: problems that you have basically zero influence over, um, it

870
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 1: just makes you feel small. Um. But when you realize

871
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:07,680
Speaker 1: that there are other ways that you can impact people directly,

872
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 1: it's empowering. So hopefully, Matt, this runs counter to a

873
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 1: strain of pessimism. I feel like we're seeing um in

874
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 1: our in our country right now. And again, it's not

875
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: that there aren't negative things, but there are a lot

876
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: of good things too, and they're you know, by tuning

877
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,160
Speaker 1: out some of those negative things. You're just life experience

878
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:28,279
Speaker 1: gonna be better. All right, that's true. Man, Let's at

879
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 1: least now mentioned the beer that you and I enjoyed

880
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 1: during this episode. Just one other by the way, Uh well,

881
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 1: no one. Other evidence of the reality that things are

882
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:39,759
Speaker 1: getting better is our abundance of beer voices. If you

883
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 1: look back just twenty five years ago, how many how

884
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:44,400
Speaker 1: many craft breweries were there in the United States? A

885
00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 1: hundred maybe max? Not enough? Yeah, now we have an abundance,

886
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 1: which is but but we're drinking. Not that Stiegel is

887
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:55,080
Speaker 1: necessarily a craft brewery, although it is fun from time

888
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 1: to time to go with one of these larger producers

889
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: who make a really good beverage. Uh and this is

890
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 1: a lemon rattler by Stiegel. I will go ahead and

891
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:05,800
Speaker 1: kick it off by saying that this sort of tastes

892
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:10,520
Speaker 1: like carbonated alcoholic lemonade, which I think can be a

893
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:14,359
Speaker 1: dangerous thing because like, you don't really it doesn't feel

894
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 1: like you're having a beer, doesn't really feel like you're

895
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 1: having a drink. It is quite delicious, quite refreshing on

896
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,920
Speaker 1: a hot summer day like we are experiencing at the moment.

897
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: But I will say at times, I feel that Stiegel's

898
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,000
Speaker 1: rattlers can get a bit sweet. Uh, And for me

899
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: at least, that's one thing that's like, I'm literally more

900
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:33,400
Speaker 1: of like a bud Light bud Light lime guy on

901
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 1: the beach. I will drink those beers and I would,

902
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 1: honestly for every five listeners just lost a lot of

903
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:41,080
Speaker 1: respect for you, Matt Hey. I think there's a lot

904
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:42,439
Speaker 1: of folks out there who would be like, yeah, I could,

905
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 1: I could handle a bud Light lime when you're sitting

906
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:45,680
Speaker 1: out there on on a beach, because you and I

907
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 1: like we've tried, we've we've tried having nicer beers out

908
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:50,799
Speaker 1: on the beach, and honestly like, the more basic you

909
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: can go with the flavors, the more refreshing in the

910
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 1: baking sun. You don't want some sort of ten per

911
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:57,800
Speaker 1: central ip a. You don't want something that's got a

912
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,040
Speaker 1: whole lot of complexity, Which is why I told the

913
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: understand why this is also very refreshing out there. But

914
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 1: for me, I mean, they don't put nutrition facts on beers,

915
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: but I really would love to know the grams of

916
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,239
Speaker 1: sugar that are in this compared to something like a

917
00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 1: bud lightline because that's what I was drinking last week

918
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:16,600
Speaker 1: out on the beach, and I did not get tired

919
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: of him. I'll say that, Okay, all right, well we're

920
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 1: back in the real world now, Bud, So put those

921
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:22,840
Speaker 1: put those in the back of the fridge. I literally

922
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: won't buy them again until next time until I up

923
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:27,800
Speaker 1: the beach. So I thought this was it was bright,

924
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,800
Speaker 1: but it also was laid back enough that and that

925
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 1: it can be enjoyable and you can have a couple,

926
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:36,280
Speaker 1: which is nice and like to me, this ab allows

927
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:37,759
Speaker 1: you to do that. Yeah, this is the kind of

928
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,560
Speaker 1: beer that for Seltzer fans like they should try this, right,

929
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:43,560
Speaker 1: because I think it's like a better ocean of a

930
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:47,240
Speaker 1: fruited Seltzer um a fruited Rattler. So yeah, the Stiegel

931
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 1: Rattler grape fruit is probably my favorite, but Lemons like

932
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,720
Speaker 1: a close second. Raspberry not not as good in my opinion,

933
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 1: But it's a great beer. It's my like summer go too,

934
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 1: and then I don't drink it for like ten months.

935
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:00,319
Speaker 1: Something great to pick up doll gets USU or you're

936
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,160
Speaker 1: sitting pool side and swing by the grocery store pick

937
00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,279
Speaker 1: up one of those four packs. Yeah, you probably won't

938
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 1: regret it, no doubt, But Joel, that's gonna be a

939
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 1: buddy for this episode. Folks can find our show notes

940
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:11,160
Speaker 1: up on our website at how to money dot com.

941
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,840
Speaker 1: While you're there, go to Ford Slash Newsletter, where you

942
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:18,440
Speaker 1: can also sign up for the best personal finance newsletter

943
00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: in the world, does drop every Tuesday morning, chock full

944
00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: of actionable advice and interesting, helpful little tidbits to help

945
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 1: you along your way to helping you climb that class ladder.

946
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: If that's something you're interested in. Again, don't let that

947
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:36,200
Speaker 1: become the goal. But that can be the means to

948
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 1: the goal, right like that can be a means to

949
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,320
Speaker 1: an end as we all are striving after more options

950
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 1: and financial different levels of financial freedom. Yeah for sure.

951
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:46,880
Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it for this episode. Until

952
00:45:46,960 --> 00:46:00,320
Speaker 1: next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out, M M.