Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing robots, rent Control, and Taylor Swift. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what do all three of those things haven't common? Well? Money,
Speaker 1: of course, that's what we're gonna talk about today. How
Speaker 1: the stories that we've come across this week how they
Speaker 1: apply to your personal finances. We've got those three stories
Speaker 1: plus several others that we're gonna get to today. That's right, Matt.
Speaker 1: But before we dig into those stories, before we get
Speaker 1: into the Friday flight, I wanted to quickly mention that
Speaker 1: I filed my first homeowners claim in my adult life.
Speaker 1: Is something you're excited about? Um, not really, it's it's
Speaker 1: luckily this is bad news, But I guess it kind
Speaker 1: of depends on how things shape up for you, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, ultimately it's it's not the worst thing ever,
Speaker 1: but it's also not fun, I would say. But basically,
Speaker 1: what happened that the house that we're doing some work
Speaker 1: to right now that used to be a duplex, we're
Speaker 1: turning it back into a single family home for our family,
Speaker 1: someone decided to get down on the cross space and
Speaker 1: rip out the copper pipes with the sauce. Huge bummer dude. Actually,
Speaker 1: So I was one that discovered it because Kate and
Speaker 1: I and the kids were just out for a walk
Speaker 1: and they had recently like busted out the back wall
Speaker 1: of your entire house and which is to me super fascinating,
Speaker 1: Like we're really interested in stuff like that. And so
Speaker 1: we went snoop and well, Emily she like sent us
Speaker 1: to the lock box code and was like, hey, go
Speaker 1: check it out, you know. So we poked our head
Speaker 1: in there. Y'all had just left town, I think, and
Speaker 1: uh it was like, do you hear that? Is that
Speaker 1: something like water running? And I was like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know why the water is running. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: we kind of poked our head down through the floor
Speaker 1: and saw like a river underneath your house. It did
Speaker 1: not look like something that was planned. It was it
Speaker 1: was not a good thing, and it was not And yeah,
Speaker 1: so that water ended up ruining the h VAX them
Speaker 1: and you know a couple other things down there. And
Speaker 1: it was one of those things where I had my
Speaker 1: deductible set as high as possible, and that's something we've
Speaker 1: recommended on the show, and I had never had to
Speaker 1: file an insurance claim before, and so I was like
Speaker 1: looking pretty just saving money every year on the money
Speaker 1: I was paying to the insurance company, but came back
Speaker 1: to bite me in this instance. But I will say,
Speaker 1: you know, I need to do the math at some
Speaker 1: point and kind of see what's what's the difference how
Speaker 1: much am I saving on an annual basis, because I'm
Speaker 1: sure I have more than made up for, uh this
Speaker 1: the additional deductible amount that I had to pay in
Speaker 1: order to replace the HVAC system and fix you know,
Speaker 1: some of the other things that were ruined by this
Speaker 1: act of vandalism. But I think that advice still holds
Speaker 1: true because, Yeah, one of the other things that it
Speaker 1: does is is having a higher deductible prevents you from
Speaker 1: filing needless claims because if you have that really tiny deductible,
Speaker 1: you might start doing it willy nilly, and then your
Speaker 1: rates start to go up over time. And so I
Speaker 1: think this one claim hopefully shouldn't have too much of
Speaker 1: an adverse impact on the premiums you'll find out next
Speaker 1: year comes up, right, Well, so have you heard from
Speaker 1: them at all? Because oftentimes your stories about how when
Speaker 1: you file a claim like this, something I mean, this
Speaker 1: isn't it's not a tiny claim, but it's also not
Speaker 1: like a massive claim. It's not like a true felt
Speaker 1: in between, and so I'm curious if because sometimes individuals
Speaker 1: will get booted from there insured because once you use it,
Speaker 1: you lose it. Yes, I have heard that too, and
Speaker 1: uh so obviously that hasn't happened to you, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, the higher rates is definitely something that's worth
Speaker 1: revisiting once you do get your your bill or your
Speaker 1: premium for next year, because that's unfortunately not something that
Speaker 1: you can shop around. I mean, you can shop around
Speaker 1: your home insurance, but when you take advantage of your insurance,
Speaker 1: it goes onto your clue report, and that's something that
Speaker 1: follows you from one insure to the next, and that's
Speaker 1: like the database where every insurance company can chant, does
Speaker 1: this person five claims or not? And yeah, hopefully one
Speaker 1: claim isn't gonna mess me up. And it was the
Speaker 1: right thing to do, even though it was tough because
Speaker 1: I'm one of those guys who's like, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: through all my life and never use this insurance. But
Speaker 1: that's what it's there forms that time when you do
Speaker 1: want to use it and like you said, though, it
Speaker 1: is tough to know how much you're saving, and so
Speaker 1: you actually crunch the numbers. But that did cause me
Speaker 1: to go and check my homeowners insurance because we just
Speaker 1: hadn't touched our home policy in a while. Dude, my
Speaker 1: deductible was said at one thousand dollars, I'm getting hosed.
Speaker 1: That's too low. Yes, I'm getting hosed every single year.
Speaker 1: And so immediately wrote an email to our insurance agent
Speaker 1: because I don't know how that happened, but at some point,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know I didn't set it there intentionally,
Speaker 1: but at some point I think it reset or they
Speaker 1: just automatically migrated it down to whatever the standard policy is.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure that you're wishing that would have happened
Speaker 1: to you. If only we could trade places accidentally just
Speaker 1: weeks before the accident, would have been great. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: obviously we're back, and let us know what the difference is,
Speaker 1: like how much you're able to save, because if I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, my assumption is it's probably a couple hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a year. Oh yeah, I'm hoping by boosting that deductible,
Speaker 1: we should see a significant savings every single year. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll let you know, okay, all right, Well, yeah, and
Speaker 1: and nobody needs to shed tears from me. Not a
Speaker 1: big deal, but h and and ultimately means we're getting
Speaker 1: a new HVAC system, Like this whole house is gonna
Speaker 1: be new at the end of the day. You really are.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's gonna it's cool. Bank accounts taking a
Speaker 1: beating right now, but at least for a while. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully that means that no repairs needed on this house
Speaker 1: for a long time, good buddy years. Yeah, well, let's
Speaker 1: move on. Let's get to the Friday flight. Let's do
Speaker 1: stories we found interesting this week in the realm of
Speaker 1: personal finance. And first let's talk about budgeting for Christmas.
Speaker 1: There was a new service something you do budget Christmas,
Speaker 1: and well, I trying to keep that budget minimal, but
Speaker 1: obviously we we there is money they get spent every
Speaker 1: year around the holidays when it comes to yeah, gifts
Speaker 1: for our friends and loved ones, or experiences that we
Speaker 1: share with other people, bringing something to a holiday party.
Speaker 1: Those those are all the kind of things that you've
Speaker 1: got to plan ahead for. And there's a new survey
Speaker 1: from ally Bank and it reveals that Americans are worried
Speaker 1: about going over budget this holiday season. That makes sense
Speaker 1: to me, especially with inflation, which we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: in just a little bit. It's like everything costs more.
Speaker 1: Am I gonna be able to to stick to the
Speaker 1: budget that I have? People don't want to overspend, and
Speaker 1: we're all about that. But the statistic that followed in
Speaker 1: that same survey revealed that two in five people they're
Speaker 1: not doing any planning, they're not using a budget at all.
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, people who are like I'm really worried
Speaker 1: about going over budget the budget that I don't have,
Speaker 1: I found that interesting. And it's gonna be hard not
Speaker 1: to go overboard if you don't have a plan, if
Speaker 1: you don't have any sort of budget when it comes
Speaker 1: to your holiday spending. And so, yeah, no, wonder you're
Speaker 1: worried about it. Um, if you want to prevent what
Speaker 1: we would say a January financial shock that can linger
Speaker 1: into the summer months, well you need to get a
Speaker 1: plan in motion now. You need to be prepared with
Speaker 1: a budget for holiday spending. That's right. And of course
Speaker 1: I was making fun of you because you too not
Speaker 1: to budget in the formal sense like you don't track
Speaker 1: every sense that you spend like I do, but you
Speaker 1: still have a more of a shoot from the hit
Speaker 1: spending plan, and certainly when it comes to something like Christmas.
Speaker 1: But the number one thing that we think folks should
Speaker 1: make sure to do, you know, in order to not
Speaker 1: go overboard, is just to develop a list of people
Speaker 1: that you plan to buy presents for and just you know,
Speaker 1: don't don't overdo it just because maybe you have a
Speaker 1: little more cash sitting around in your accounts, uh this year. Uh,
Speaker 1: you don't need to buy anything, you know, for your
Speaker 1: your third cousin who's twice removed. Hey, we're very close, Matt.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, then make sure to buy them
Speaker 1: a nice gift. But just make sure that you have
Speaker 1: communicated with folks with your family, who you're close to,
Speaker 1: who you don't plan to exchange presence with. Because part
Speaker 1: of the reason we tend to go overboard is out
Speaker 1: of this sense of obligation and and this almost reciprocal
Speaker 1: nonspoken agreement that we seem to have, especially with family members.
Speaker 1: But right down the specific amounts that you aim to
Speaker 1: spend on each person. We've talked about this somewhat recently,
Speaker 1: but even consider giving cash with just a thoughtful, uh
Speaker 1: handwritten letter or a note, that can be a great
Speaker 1: way for you to avoid finding your spending continuing to
Speaker 1: increase throughout the holidays. Maybe even giving a fun experience
Speaker 1: instead of a of a high priced item. But just
Speaker 1: don't overdo it because of the you know, you can't
Speaker 1: blame it on the holiday spirit. You can't say that like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I just this is something I feel like doing. We
Speaker 1: don't want you to approach you're spending that way. We
Speaker 1: want you to have a plan. Getting in the Christmas
Speaker 1: spirit or the holiday spirit is a great thing. But
Speaker 1: if you know yourself and you know you're the kind
Speaker 1: of person because the jolly nous takes over your soul
Speaker 1: that you just start spending dollars like crazy, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to have a plan so that you don't
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah. Well, And one of the other things too,
Speaker 1: is just avoid spending on yourself because you see all
Speaker 1: the money that you're spending and you think, holy cal like,
Speaker 1: I am spending so much money on other people. I
Speaker 1: am being so generous. I deserve a little bit of that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna treat myself Uh. And that's another way to
Speaker 1: add a solid, i don't know, ten percent onto your
Speaker 1: holiday spending budget where you to start buying some items
Speaker 1: for yourself. And so that's something we want you to avoid.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we're gonna go into depth about
Speaker 1: how to have more of a minimalist Christmas. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about that on Monday with guest Meg Nordman, so
Speaker 1: you can look forward to that, no doubt. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on, Matt to talking about Tylor Swift for
Speaker 1: a second. You're a big fan, right, I am not
Speaker 1: a Swift tie, but I do like some of her music, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: and and me me too, Like I I like a
Speaker 1: few of her songs, but I only really listened to
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift when my wife is listening to Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1: And you know what, she's talented, just not my jams. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean specifically, recently, her music has gotten like, you know,
Speaker 1: a little darker. Yeah, get a little more of an
Speaker 1: indie vibe to some of the stuff she's like. Now, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, if our listeners remember we we just had
Speaker 1: an episode about ownership recently. It was episode and there's
Speaker 1: this new story this week that to me reflected the
Speaker 1: power of individual ownership and uh, and how it leads
Speaker 1: to building wealth and just like a real substantial like
Speaker 1: pop cultural moments, and and this was really Taylor Swift right,
Speaker 1: Like she she's more than just a good musical artist,
Speaker 1: as it turns out, adored by tens of millions of people,
Speaker 1: she's an incredible businesswoman. And she actually just rereleased an
Speaker 1: album that originally came out in two thousand and twelve.
Speaker 1: Why did she do that well, because the rights to
Speaker 1: her original songs were sold out from under her and
Speaker 1: they now belonged to like some hedge fund or something
Speaker 1: like that, sold to the hedgephone buy some guy named
Speaker 1: like Scooter or something like that. Right, apparently Taylor and
Speaker 1: Scooter are not on good terms at odds they're not celebrating. Uh,
Speaker 1: not going to be the same holiday parties, is my guest.
Speaker 1: But she rerecorded those songs and re release them, and
Speaker 1: that meant that she owns the music that her fans
Speaker 1: are now listening to. No swifties are going back and
Speaker 1: listening to that album. They're listening to the Swift version,
Speaker 1: the one that that Taylor is now profiting from because
Speaker 1: she owns it directly, and it's also at the same
Speaker 1: time it's devaluing those original recordings in a significant way.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which one she's happier about, probably considering
Speaker 1: where she is with their finances, I'm sure the ladder
Speaker 1: it's probably a little more enjoyable at the moment. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, she already did this with. The first
Speaker 1: album that she did this with was Fearless, and that
Speaker 1: album sold almost one million copies since April, and those
Speaker 1: newly recorded songs have been streamed six hundred million times,
Speaker 1: and so this is just an awesome I don't know.
Speaker 1: And even though she's a total celebrity, this is still
Speaker 1: a very fun success story when it comes to an
Speaker 1: individual and their business acumen because Taylor, Yeah, she's got
Speaker 1: that ownership over everything that she's creating. That's incredibly powerful.
Speaker 1: And again, it just goes to show how important it
Speaker 1: is to be an owner not just a consumer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we see that clearly in Taylor Swift's example. It's just
Speaker 1: it's fun to see someone not just be a great
Speaker 1: entertainer but also great business person as well. Then, so, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: just kudos to t Swift on that front. And and yeah,
Speaker 1: Matt le's let's let's keep moving. Let's talk about inflation
Speaker 1: for a second. The costs of essentials in our lives
Speaker 1: have been going through the roof, well, cost of everything, yeah,
Speaker 1: has definitely been going up, but yeah and quickly, right,
Speaker 1: And gas prices in particular, or something that's on everyone's mind.
Speaker 1: The state of California actually is setting gas price records
Speaker 1: this week. Those are the kind of records you prefer
Speaker 1: to remain unbroken, especially records that they're not celebrating in
Speaker 1: a positive way. And don't drive an electric vehicle in California.
Speaker 1: If you have a gas powered vehicle there, you're probably
Speaker 1: like not happy. And the national average of a gallon
Speaker 1: of gas is almost three dollars and fifty cents uh.
Speaker 1: And when you run the numbers, Matt that this costs
Speaker 1: the average person sixty nine dollars more every single month
Speaker 1: compared to where gas prices were last year. And that
Speaker 1: that's real money for for lots of folks like that,
Speaker 1: that's a whole lot more money that's going straight into
Speaker 1: the gas tank just to get where you need to go.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, we talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about e bikes last week. It only makes more and
Speaker 1: more sense to go in that direction when we see
Speaker 1: those numbers. But also grocery store prices are rising sharply,
Speaker 1: and in fact, you know, prices for meat, poultry, and
Speaker 1: eggs were up more than ten percent in September. And
Speaker 1: so we're seeing shoppers having to make decisions at the
Speaker 1: grocery store so that their grocery budget remains intact. They're
Speaker 1: trading down for lower priced items because of how quickly
Speaker 1: these prices are escalating, and and many are buying more
Speaker 1: store brand items instead of the name brand counterparts. That's
Speaker 1: something that you and I are are all about, you know,
Speaker 1: We're all about that. We're less about switching to store
Speaker 1: brand beer. You've tried the Aldi beer before, yeah, and
Speaker 1: in the Kirkland signature beer too, But I'm not down
Speaker 1: with either. I am willing to drink some of the
Speaker 1: I think it's called hopping nomad or whatever is the
Speaker 1: Aldi beer in the summertime, like after cutting the grass.
Speaker 1: I'm okay with an occasional six pack of that. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, inflation, like basically we've just seen inflation stick around,
Speaker 1: right it Like we thought it was just going to
Speaker 1: be around for a few months, but it has been
Speaker 1: much more sticky, and store brands and substitutions are two
Speaker 1: great ways to curd costs as those rising prices continue
Speaker 1: their climb. But what else can you do? You know, Joel,
Speaker 1: you're talking about the high costs of gasoline. Well, on
Speaker 1: the gas front, not all of us can drive less.
Speaker 1: There are just sometimes places that we have to be.
Speaker 1: We may not have the option to work from home,
Speaker 1: and so that morning and afternoon commute is still going on. Um.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of us who can change
Speaker 1: our driving patterns and habits because a big chunk of
Speaker 1: the miles that we drive our discretionary myself to get
Speaker 1: to work. But can you combine more trips and go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store once every two weeks twice a
Speaker 1: week if you happen to work near a costco, that
Speaker 1: needs to be something that you're doing. And the other
Speaker 1: thing too. A lot of those miles are within just
Speaker 1: a smaller radius of our home, So we really could
Speaker 1: hop on a bike a bit more for those shorter
Speaker 1: trips in order to curb our gas usage. And if
Speaker 1: you are going to get in the car, look at
Speaker 1: this is gonna sound silly, but just accelerate a little
Speaker 1: more slowly, like like coast. You notice this when you're
Speaker 1: riding on your bike. But there's this one stretch where
Speaker 1: I always take a right onto a more main road. Uh.
Speaker 1: And whoever is behind me, well, after they make their right,
Speaker 1: they'll come zoom and past me. But there's always a
Speaker 1: stoplight like one block up, and they're just like flooring it.
Speaker 1: Just wasted gas fifty feet or something like that. And
Speaker 1: I always just gonna slam it on the brakes again. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: And I always pull up right next to them. And
Speaker 1: sometimes I love it when I'm like even a car
Speaker 1: too in front of them, and that you know, they
Speaker 1: floored it. They wasted all that energy. Uh, they've lost
Speaker 1: their whatever their patients, they've they've lost their cool. But
Speaker 1: just take it easy. Uh. And the other thing too,
Speaker 1: we're talking about insurance earlier on, while you're already driving
Speaker 1: like a grandma. See if your insurance provider, if they
Speaker 1: offer one of those monitors or the driving trackers, because
Speaker 1: you know what, if you can combine gas savings with
Speaker 1: some insurance savings as well, that is two birds with
Speaker 1: one stone right there. Uh. And then yeah, on the
Speaker 1: food front, where your shop is going to make the
Speaker 1: biggest difference. We've already mentioned Aldi and Costco randomly, but
Speaker 1: those stores can make a massive difference in your food budget.
Speaker 1: Legal is also another affordable option. But we want you
Speaker 1: just to constantly be challenging what it is that you've
Speaker 1: all always done in order to see if you can
Speaker 1: save a little bit here and there, because you might
Speaker 1: find that these are patterns that stick. Uh, and even
Speaker 1: when groceries are dropping in price, if you maintain those habits, well,
Speaker 1: then you're saving money every single month. You're not just
Speaker 1: breaking even. And so just even simple things like buying
Speaker 1: sale items, throwing them in the freezer, doing things that
Speaker 1: you haven't done before in order to curb your spending,
Speaker 1: and just stop eating steak right now probably. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a rare delicacy for for us saying
Speaker 1: it's like once a year, I feel like, seriously, but
Speaker 1: when we do have it, it's it's a delight. But
Speaker 1: if you're having it on a weekly basis, you fancy
Speaker 1: and probably should trade down to chicken or meatless mondays
Speaker 1: or you know, whatever you want to do. But we've
Speaker 1: got more stories to get to on today's Friday flight,
Speaker 1: including that robot story and a really interesting one about
Speaker 1: rent control. We'll get to those and more right after
Speaker 1: this break. Alright, we're back in. Before we get to
Speaker 1: that more heavy academic topic of rent control, put our
Speaker 1: putting our economist hats on. We yeah, we actually are
Speaker 1: going to do that. But before we get to that one,
Speaker 1: let's get now to our ludicrous headline of the week.
Speaker 1: And this one is from Fast Company and it reads
Speaker 1: science proves it most n f T s are worthless.
Speaker 1: You know what? Trust science on this one. Well, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's less about the science, and it's just
Speaker 1: kind of like the simple numbers. It's like empirical evidence.
Speaker 1: It's just data. It's like, I love that they wrote science,
Speaker 1: And where does science actually come into play here? It's not.
Speaker 1: It's like, really like we've just looked at the actual
Speaker 1: sales prices of n but science sounds a little more fun.
Speaker 1: I guess like we've just discovered a new statistics. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But this article focused on the research from the University
Speaker 1: of London, which poured over the sales data from thousands
Speaker 1: of n f T s and oftentimes, you know the
Speaker 1: n f T sales that make the headlines or for
Speaker 1: the different n f t s that might go for
Speaker 1: tens of thousands or even tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: In the case with that people n f T that
Speaker 1: that's sold for like seventy million dollars. But here is
Speaker 1: an interesting little tidbit. Three quarters of n f t
Speaker 1: s actually sell for fifteen dollars or less, and actually
Speaker 1: only one percent sell for more than And so the
Speaker 1: crypto punk n f t s that were you know,
Speaker 1: all the rage for a minute, Yeah, those are extreme outliers.
Speaker 1: But this doesn't mean that n f t s aren't
Speaker 1: here to stay. But at the same time, we're not
Speaker 1: saying that, you know, the space is only about making
Speaker 1: money or getting super rich, because you know, even if
Speaker 1: is a digital piece of art, it's okay to buy it,
Speaker 1: but only by it if you like it. If it's
Speaker 1: something that you can somehow remove the knowledge that you
Speaker 1: have of n f t s and what they have
Speaker 1: sold for, and can if you can just evaluate it
Speaker 1: from just a sense of appreciation. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's something that anybody could actually do by actually removing
Speaker 1: the dollars and cents from it, But if that's something
Speaker 1: you can do, and it's something that you're drawn to,
Speaker 1: this n f T, then if that's the case, go
Speaker 1: ahead and buy it. But it's just important to know
Speaker 1: that the latest, you know, the new n f T
Speaker 1: that you scoop up, is very unlikely to actually make
Speaker 1: you any money. Uh, it's I don't know. I see
Speaker 1: this almost as like a wake up call for for
Speaker 1: those who are making n f T s to realize
Speaker 1: that they're probably not going to get rich that way.
Speaker 1: But then also for those who are looking at investing
Speaker 1: in the n f T s that that's also probably
Speaker 1: not going to pan out well for them either. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's really good to see the actual statistics,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like a bucket of cold water
Speaker 1: being tossed on your head, you know, they kind of
Speaker 1: helps you wake you up, because, Yeah, the only real
Speaker 1: facts and figures we typically see are just the rarest
Speaker 1: of a rare n f T s that are selling
Speaker 1: for like bookoo's of dollars, and people just assume, all right,
Speaker 1: that's base. That's where I say, I'm gonna go make
Speaker 1: my money. But it turns out most people are making
Speaker 1: next to nothing really on the creator and on the
Speaker 1: investor side. And like you said, Matt, I think you're right. Like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean you can't buy one if you want to.
Speaker 1: I just don't think you're gonna get rich. Just do
Speaker 1: it for funzies. And something that was really interesting in
Speaker 1: this piece as well. In this article is the guy
Speaker 1: the researcher pointed out that the majority of an n
Speaker 1: f T s actually don't sell at all, and so
Speaker 1: those are all data points that aren't taken into their calculations,
Speaker 1: and so the figures are actually way way, way worse
Speaker 1: because they're not even counting the ones that don't actually sell. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's probably a lot of people that post our our
Speaker 1: work online and people are like, yeah, no, I don't
Speaker 1: want I don't think so it's not even worth fifty cents.
Speaker 1: That's weird, dude, Which is a lot of that stuff. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and while we're talking about mostly worthless purchases, let's talk
Speaker 1: about maybe you're worthless smartphone. And I mean, you like
Speaker 1: it and that's fine, but the question is is your
Speaker 1: phone about to become worthless? And there was an article
Speaker 1: in The l A Times written by David Lazarus about
Speaker 1: this this week, and he said, as five g is
Speaker 1: spring up around the country. A lot of older phones
Speaker 1: are set to become bricks as three G networks get
Speaker 1: shut down all over the place. And so if it's
Speaker 1: been like a really really long time since you upgraded
Speaker 1: your phone and you're still running on like three G,
Speaker 1: your phone doesn't do four G. If you've done that
Speaker 1: then managed to keep your phone working better than yeah, seriously,
Speaker 1: you're impressive. But it might be just a matter of
Speaker 1: months until you can't look stuff up on the go anymore,
Speaker 1: Like you won't be able to use data or make
Speaker 1: a call, like you can't even make a nine one
Speaker 1: one call once the network actually comes down. That phone
Speaker 1: is literally yeah, well I guess technically you could use
Speaker 1: it at home. Is like a Internet searching device. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's something you can give to your kids. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not completely worthless, but it's mostly worthless. But this is
Speaker 1: probably a small segment of the population, probably not many
Speaker 1: how to money listeners, And I just wanted to note
Speaker 1: though I could see people seeing headlines, because there's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be more headlines about this as the five G
Speaker 1: network comes online and people are gonna assume that they're
Speaker 1: four G phones are also going to be bricked or
Speaker 1: become worthless. But that is not the case. Your four
Speaker 1: gy phone is going to continue to work perfectly fine
Speaker 1: for the time being, You're just yeah, but probably for
Speaker 1: years to come. But the thing is it won't be
Speaker 1: as speedy as the new phones that are coming out.
Speaker 1: We would still say, don't feel the need to upgrade.
Speaker 1: Five G. I'm sure will be nice, it will be faster,
Speaker 1: but keep what you've got as long as you can.
Speaker 1: At the phone I bought last year, it doesn't have
Speaker 1: five G capability and something along just fine, though, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I'm not jealous. I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with the
Speaker 1: four G as long as I can. I don't care,
Speaker 1: and I think most of us should take that mentality.
Speaker 1: Just kind of keep using our phone. If it works fine,
Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah, don't be like me who splurged and
Speaker 1: went big time. So we talked about this a few
Speaker 1: months ago, how I was planning to wait until the
Speaker 1: new thirteens came out so that the price of the
Speaker 1: twelves would drop and the nut could pounce on a
Speaker 1: great deal. Right. I don't know if he ever did update,
Speaker 1: but fact is, the twelve pros never came down in price.
Speaker 1: Apple cut them completely from their website, and so I
Speaker 1: was stuck in this position of Okay, am I gonna
Speaker 1: spend a thousand dollars on a twelve pro? Or am
Speaker 1: I gonna go ahead and get the new one? I know,
Speaker 1: splurging getting the new one. I kind of talked myself
Speaker 1: into doing it after having you know, I sold like
Speaker 1: over ten thousand dollars worth of photography equipment. So that
Speaker 1: was my justification saying that, like, Okay, well there's a
Speaker 1: net win here of nine thousand dollars. And so in reality,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm you know, I'm kind of coming out ahead.
Speaker 1: But in my case, I definitely splurged. But if you
Speaker 1: are not in a position where your phone is hanging
Speaker 1: on by a thread, like Joel said, we would recommend
Speaker 1: that you do your best to continue to make do uh.
Speaker 1: And the other thing too, is this not the most
Speaker 1: egregious example of planned obsolescence. It's like the cell carriers
Speaker 1: and then like the phone manufacturers are in like serious
Speaker 1: cahoots because they're like, hey, what kind of deals can
Speaker 1: we work out if you just uh start not offering
Speaker 1: three G anymore so that all of your subscribers have
Speaker 1: to purchase a new phone that we happen to make.
Speaker 1: It's unfortunately be because this is one of those areas
Speaker 1: where I think a lot of folks would be happy
Speaker 1: to continue using their old, krusty phones, but in this case,
Speaker 1: they don't have that option anymore. Yeah, Matt, And to
Speaker 1: be honest, I feel like, you know, I don't have
Speaker 1: any problem with you spending money on the newest iPhone
Speaker 1: because you waited like five years with your like I
Speaker 1: earned it, I think so. I think so, I think
Speaker 1: like trying to get you more time out of your phone.
Speaker 1: Just what we want to fight is that reactionary upgrade
Speaker 1: cycle where it's like every year I get a new phone,
Speaker 1: or every eighteen months I get a new phone. Um,
Speaker 1: and we just think that's unnecessary, especially when we're talking
Speaker 1: about the phone upgrades being pretty minimal these days. Each year.
Speaker 1: And I will say that I've gotten tremendous satisfaction out
Speaker 1: of the new features on this new phone compared to
Speaker 1: the original se which is what I had. Good. I'm
Speaker 1: glad to hear that. And I figured I figured you
Speaker 1: would because it's a photographer, you know, having the multiple
Speaker 1: camera approach, free lenses, Dude, it's awesome. I know you're
Speaker 1: gonna love it. Well, let's talk about robots for a second. Businesses,
Speaker 1: obviously you're having a hard time finding the workers they need.
Speaker 1: We've talked about that, and in fact, there are more
Speaker 1: jobs than people looking for those jobs right now. For
Speaker 1: every one job opening, there's only point seven people looking
Speaker 1: for a job, and so yeah, that just leads to
Speaker 1: uh A wage hikes of course, alongside just more leverage
Speaker 1: for the everyday worker, and then with compensation going up,
Speaker 1: though some companies are deciding to turn to robots for
Speaker 1: certain specific tasks. Uh demand for robots is apparently also
Speaker 1: at an all time high, and Matt I would say,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be interesting to see what sort of an
Speaker 1: impact this has on our economy and on the workforce,
Speaker 1: because it makes sense the faster wages rise, the more
Speaker 1: employers start to figure out how they can thin the herd,
Speaker 1: and robots are able to perform more tasks these days.
Speaker 1: So what did you think when you saw that statistic? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean and just the fact too that I mean,
Speaker 1: employers don't have the ability to continue to do business
Speaker 1: because they just don't have the people around to do
Speaker 1: the jobs. And so sometimes I mean in this case,
Speaker 1: like it's it's a little bit less about the fact
Speaker 1: that the robots are here to take over take over
Speaker 1: our jobs, and it's more, we've got to find a
Speaker 1: way to continue doing business here, and in this way,
Speaker 1: robots are are the answer. But even for those who
Speaker 1: are a little worried about robots showing up taking over
Speaker 1: our jobs, you know, this is uh, I feel like
Speaker 1: a topic. This is a fear that's been circulating for
Speaker 1: decades and they actually they never really seemed to come true.
Speaker 1: And so, for instance, it was thought that the brilliant
Speaker 1: new technology of the automated teller machine a t M,
Speaker 1: that that would mean that most banks would no longer
Speaker 1: need human tellers, right, people who you know, sit there
Speaker 1: and work at the desk. But that didn't happen, uh,
Speaker 1: not even close. In fact, as more a t M
Speaker 1: s came on the scene, we also saw a rise
Speaker 1: in the number of human tellers working at banks as well.
Speaker 1: Not not quite the apocalyptic scenario that someone yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And another instance, I'm thinking of the three D printed house. Uh,
Speaker 1: these are starting to become a reality as well, and
Speaker 1: so a big question might be, you know, are they
Speaker 1: going to take away jobs? From skill laborers and contractors.
Speaker 1: Because these houses are being made by like tubes of concrete.
Speaker 1: It's like giant toothpaste machine. It's like a soft service
Speaker 1: that you can live in. But we think that that's
Speaker 1: pretty unlikely as well. But it is likely going to
Speaker 1: create more affordable housing, and those machines are going to
Speaker 1: lower the cost of living for for many folks as
Speaker 1: homes become more affordable. But you know, these robot headlines
Speaker 1: and predictions of rapidly advancing automation, at times it can
Speaker 1: be scary, but you know, while it sometimes will negatively
Speaker 1: impact a few specific communities or specific jobs, it's almost
Speaker 1: always going to be part of a rising tide. You
Speaker 1: know that helps the country overall more than it harms,
Speaker 1: And honestly, more than anything, it just makes me think
Speaker 1: of just the natural forces of supply and demand. Right now,
Speaker 1: there is just an incredibly low supply of workers, and
Speaker 1: so employers they're having to get creative when it comes
Speaker 1: to manufacturing literally more supply by creating more workers. This
Speaker 1: is something that I think sometimes can be scary, but
Speaker 1: it's just the natural changing landscape of our economy, of
Speaker 1: our labor markets, no doubt, so I don't think there's
Speaker 1: any any need or reason to fear the robot Matt
Speaker 1: Like like you mentioned, I think you're right, and let
Speaker 1: let's move on. Let's talk about rent control our our
Speaker 1: last story for this Friday Flights. You know, we we've
Speaker 1: talked about rising rents on the show, and it's certainly
Speaker 1: no fun to encounter. If you're a renter and you're
Speaker 1: told that rent is a hundred fifty dollars more a
Speaker 1: month for this next year long lease, that's that's frustrating,
Speaker 1: and that is it can be a budget buster. But
Speaker 1: what are some cities trying to do to combat these
Speaker 1: substantial increases that we're seeing? Rent control and uh ST Paul,
Speaker 1: Minnesota is the most recent example of this. They just
Speaker 1: passed a ballot initiative capping rent price increases at three
Speaker 1: a year. And that sounds nice if you're a renter,
Speaker 1: right saying that, hey, my rent is not going to
Speaker 1: go up above this amount. I know that it can't increase.
Speaker 1: But sadly, while rent control sounds good on its face,
Speaker 1: the effects are almost all He's harmful in the end,
Speaker 1: and landlords they tend to stop investing in the units
Speaker 1: they own, leading to a more dilapidated housing supply overall,
Speaker 1: they would ask themselves a question like why will I
Speaker 1: spend extra to put in a nishier bathroom if they're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to recoup those costs. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and pretty much at every turn when rent control is instituted,
Speaker 1: it ends up harming the vast majority of folks in
Speaker 1: that city where it's instituted exactly. Yeah. Yeah, we feel
Speaker 1: that the answer isn't capping the rent price that a
Speaker 1: private landlord is able to charge. We feel that a
Speaker 1: better answer is to focus on creating more supply, just
Speaker 1: like those inventive employers who are finding ways to put
Speaker 1: robots to work and so uh and we're not alone too.
Speaker 1: Economists have been in complete agreement on this for decades. Uh.
Speaker 1: And in fact, Richard Taylor, the economist, he compared asking
Speaker 1: whether rent control is good to asking whether the sun
Speaker 1: revolves around the earth and this, No, that's just lunacy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like I mean, it was just outside the
Speaker 1: realm of consideration for him. Uh. And so it's just
Speaker 1: interesting to see that there's a city that's gonna be
Speaker 1: moving in the opposite direction. Uh. And for the folks
Speaker 1: who currently live in a rent controlled unit. You know,
Speaker 1: it's great, it feels like it's like heaven. But for
Speaker 1: other renters, the market rate is two thousand a month
Speaker 1: and you're paying seven hundred a month because of your
Speaker 1: units rent controlled. You're like, I want the lottery exactly.
Speaker 1: But for the other renters looking for a place to live,
Speaker 1: it becomes more difficult. And instead, we think that more
Speaker 1: relaxed zoning and creating incentives to build more units to
Speaker 1: increase that supply is the best way to create more
Speaker 1: affordable housing. Rising rents and the lack of access to
Speaker 1: affordable housing are real issues in our country, uh, and
Speaker 1: they're you know, more prevalent in some specific cities. But
Speaker 1: rent control legislation is just going to make things worse
Speaker 1: over time. This is an example where we're gonna side
Speaker 1: with the economists and we feel that the government, uh,
Speaker 1: different governments should consider involving themselves less when it comes
Speaker 1: to interfering in an open market like this, where you know,
Speaker 1: the supply and demand can find their own equilibrium. And
Speaker 1: when you start interfering and placing rent trolls at least
Speaker 1: to distortions within the market, the amount it just makes
Speaker 1: you think the city where we live, Atlanta, passed a
Speaker 1: law a few years back that said that people could
Speaker 1: build a small dwelling unit in their backyard, which creates
Speaker 1: more density dwelling units. The more units that are available
Speaker 1: for people to rent, especially in some of these older neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: the better the better it's going to be when it
Speaker 1: comes to housing affordability. But then when you look at
Speaker 1: actually the zoning laws, it's really it's harder than it
Speaker 1: would appear at first glance to build one of those
Speaker 1: ad U s, as I found out because I wanted
Speaker 1: to put one in my backyard, and because of the
Speaker 1: setback laws, it was basically impossible to put that house
Speaker 1: in my backyard, even though the law made it somewhat
Speaker 1: easier than it originally was. And so those are the
Speaker 1: kind of things that need to be looked at. If
Speaker 1: the law doesn't just say that you can build an
Speaker 1: a DU, but then the zoning laws make it not
Speaker 1: too terribly difficult to do, so people will do it,
Speaker 1: and that will increase density. That will lead to lower
Speaker 1: rent prices for people all across the spectrum. Not surprising
Speaker 1: Joel and I we live in the city. We're all
Speaker 1: about density and and yes, in my backyard please. We're
Speaker 1: all about it, and we think that that can alleviate
Speaker 1: some of the high costs of housing as well. But Joel,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be it for this episode. Listeners can find
Speaker 1: our show notes up on the website will link to
Speaker 1: all the different stories that we mentioned and covered during
Speaker 1: this episode up at how to money dot com. That's right,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back on Monday within interview with our
Speaker 1: friend Meg, who's going to talk about how to have
Speaker 1: that minimalist Christmas. We hope to see you then, but
Speaker 1: have a great weekend, but buddy, until next time, Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out, Best Friends Out.