Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and
Speaker 1: Matt's and today we're discussing avoiding the trap of planned
Speaker 1: obsolescence played obs lescens That's one of those terms that
Speaker 1: were here thrown around a good bit, you know, it's
Speaker 1: one of those terms that we are familiar with, but
Speaker 1: we may not necessarily know exactly what it means. And
Speaker 1: so we're gonna talk about how it impacts our money,
Speaker 1: how it affects the amount of money that we spend
Speaker 1: in particular. And the thing is too, we're also gonna
Speaker 1: get to why it's not necessarily an all bad thing.
Speaker 1: You know, like a lot of times you hear that
Speaker 1: planned obs lust since it's sort of this evil conspiracy
Speaker 1: that companies implement in order to fleece us, you know,
Speaker 1: to get more money out of our pockets. But it's
Speaker 1: not all bad. So that's what we're gonna discuss man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And sometimes you know, there is planned obsolescens by certain
Speaker 1: manufacturers or certain industries. And at the same time, there's
Speaker 1: ways in which we consider the things that we own
Speaker 1: to be functionally oppositely. So we're gonna tackle that as
Speaker 1: well in the show today. But Matt, before we get
Speaker 1: to that. You and I were celebrating a little bit
Speaker 1: today because we both paid off a big debt that
Speaker 1: we had in our lives. It's gone out of our
Speaker 1: lives now. You and I both have paid off some
Speaker 1: big chunks of debts. So, Kate and I we've been
Speaker 1: working really hard over the past a year and a
Speaker 1: half two years to pay off the helock that we
Speaker 1: took out on our house to help fund the renovation
Speaker 1: that we that we did here at the house. And you, man,
Speaker 1: you recently paid off a full mortgage on one of
Speaker 1: your investment properties that you've been working really hard at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. So it was one of the ones that
Speaker 1: I did not do a refin on. I refined a
Speaker 1: couple recently, and I realized, Man, there's this this one
Speaker 1: property I have, it's at above market interest rate. I
Speaker 1: don't want to refinance it and pay the closing costs
Speaker 1: in order to rEFInd. It's too low of a balance,
Speaker 1: and so I'm just ready to be done with it.
Speaker 1: And I had enough in my savings where I felt
Speaker 1: comfortable paying that sucker off and also having enough to,
Speaker 1: you know, to have that minimum six months right of
Speaker 1: living expenses set aside. So yeah, like, man, it's like
Speaker 1: they weigh up the shoulders to have one mortgage down.
Speaker 1: Now it's like four to go. I guess yeah. And
Speaker 1: so I think the bigger question that folks are probably
Speaker 1: been asking is like, what are you doing paying off
Speaker 1: mortgages that have pretty low interest rates? And I mean,
Speaker 1: and I'll say, like I'll I will readily admit that
Speaker 1: the HELO that we paid off, man, it is sitting
Speaker 1: at three and a quarter percent. That's really low. And
Speaker 1: a lot of the number nerds out there are thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: bad move, Matt and Joel, you guys both should have
Speaker 1: you know, been taking that money and investing it instead
Speaker 1: putting it in the market. But the fact is, man, like,
Speaker 1: this is an instance I know for us where it's
Speaker 1: not all about the numbers. Over the years, man, I
Speaker 1: found myself varying from the camp that's only looking at
Speaker 1: the numbers, that's only looking at interest rates, and I
Speaker 1: am considering just the emotional and the mental impacts uh
Speaker 1: that paying off you know alone like that can have.
Speaker 1: And so you know, the the stage of life that
Speaker 1: we are in for sure is one of simplifying, and
Speaker 1: we're trying to find ways to remove things from our
Speaker 1: minds that take up space and clutter our minds basically,
Speaker 1: and so for us, this was definitely one of the
Speaker 1: ways to do that, because, yeah, it's not all about
Speaker 1: the numbers. There's certainly some power behind feeling free mentally.
Speaker 1: This is sort of an experiment to see how we
Speaker 1: respond and how it feels to eliminate some of this debt,
Speaker 1: even though by the numbers that may not necessarily make
Speaker 1: the most sense. Yeah, I think to Matt, there's something
Speaker 1: about being a little bit conservative in one area of
Speaker 1: your life that can allow you to be more aggressive
Speaker 1: in another area of your life. And so for me,
Speaker 1: paying off this mortgage allows me to be even more
Speaker 1: confident with my stock allocation, you know, in my investing
Speaker 1: pairple It's like, if I'm a little conservative over here,
Speaker 1: I can make sure that I'm never forced to sell stocks,
Speaker 1: that I'm always able to maintain that aggressive allocation. And
Speaker 1: so for yeah, me and my family, it felt like
Speaker 1: the right move for us to make. And again, yeah,
Speaker 1: the numbers, is it the best move overall for the
Speaker 1: coming decades, that's the question we asked ourselves. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, paying off a debt is I think
Speaker 1: almost never a bad idea as long you can continue
Speaker 1: to to invest and say for the future. Um, paying
Speaker 1: off debt is a good move for people, and we
Speaker 1: should all be encouraged, I think, to to look at
Speaker 1: the debts that we have in our lives, take them
Speaker 1: a little bit more seriously, and work a little bit
Speaker 1: harder to get rid of them. So yeah, congrats to you,
Speaker 1: my friend, Thank you, and congrats as well to you buddy.
Speaker 1: Thanks man. I almost feel that we should have some
Speaker 1: champagne this episode instead of or not, maybe champagne, but
Speaker 1: like a nicer big bottle with a Cajun cork. They
Speaker 1: do make something called the Champagne of Beers. Is that
Speaker 1: so we're talking about that? Sat If they made a
Speaker 1: seven fifty bottle of the Champagne of Beers, then maybe
Speaker 1: that would feel appropriate. But no, this episode, you and
Speaker 1: I we are enjoying a beer called Juicy I p
Speaker 1: a uh and this is by Squatters Craft Beers. Big
Speaker 1: thanks to Sam there at the brewery for sending this
Speaker 1: one our way. I'm looking forward to enjoying this one
Speaker 1: with you, buddy, and we will yeah share our thoughts
Speaker 1: on this beer at the end of the episode. Sounds good.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, let's get to the topic at hand now.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about avoiding the trap of planned obsolescence.
Speaker 1: And but I think we've all heard a time or
Speaker 1: two one of our grandparents maybe exclaim they don't make
Speaker 1: it like they used to. And I, man, I think,
Speaker 1: like the older I get, I think I've been guilty
Speaker 1: of saying something like that. Speaking of dad jokes, which
Speaker 1: is the beer we did have recently? Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like that's the typical dadline. As I'm growing up,
Speaker 1: getting Yeah, I say stuff like that now and my
Speaker 1: kids notice. But I think planned obsolescence is a part
Speaker 1: of the reason that people say that. It certainly feels
Speaker 1: at times that lots of items don't last as long
Speaker 1: as they used to. And I think it can be
Speaker 1: frustrating for all of us to purchase something with hard
Speaker 1: earned money and then have to replace it before it
Speaker 1: feels like it's a lifespan is up just because it
Speaker 1: wasn't made well. Planned obsolescence. For me, it took a
Speaker 1: massive leap onto my radar with the iPhone battery scandal
Speaker 1: just a few years ago. Battery gate. Do they call
Speaker 1: it that? They call everything on a gate? Why is that.
Speaker 1: Actually I don't. I don't know Watergate, but like, was
Speaker 1: it because the hotel was the hotel's name. Hotels they
Speaker 1: just add gate to the end of their gate to everything,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's a scandal, exactly beer gate.
Speaker 1: I wonder what that would involve. But in seventeen, Apple
Speaker 1: actually admitted to slowing down older iPhones, which was really
Speaker 1: frustrating to people because it felt like they had noticed
Speaker 1: that for years, like, man, why is my iPhone so
Speaker 1: sluggish after just owning it for a year or two? Uh.
Speaker 1: And then they were basically forced to massively reduce the
Speaker 1: price of a battery upgrade in order to make customers
Speaker 1: whole to provide them with a fresh battery so that
Speaker 1: their older phone could continue to work. Um, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of when playing obsilection. So I feel like the
Speaker 1: red lights were the red lights were blinking, and I
Speaker 1: started to like think about it a lot more in
Speaker 1: the past few years since then. Yeah, and there were
Speaker 1: even reports last year that that some people were experiencing
Speaker 1: issues with even you know, just newer iPhones right after
Speaker 1: the latest model was announced. I haven't seen any like
Speaker 1: verified reports of that, and so I might kind of
Speaker 1: just chalk that up to kind of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theory. Now,
Speaker 1: I think that man like, you know, subconsciously, like we consumers,
Speaker 1: might perceive our current products as inferior once there is
Speaker 1: something kind of new and shining on the scene. You know,
Speaker 1: there certainly are instances where, you know, it's the products
Speaker 1: where it seems that they're designed to fail after a
Speaker 1: certain period of time or maybe like after a certain
Speaker 1: number of uses. But it's also important to consider whether
Speaker 1: or not this obsolescent is due to our own habits
Speaker 1: of consumption, you know, and in fact, like evidence points
Speaker 1: to items like cars and TV is actually being built
Speaker 1: to last even longer these days than they used to.
Speaker 1: And so I think we can feel that planned obsolescence
Speaker 1: is this thing that's kind of out to get us
Speaker 1: and out to to steal our money essentially, But in
Speaker 1: a lot of cases, I think sometimes that perception is
Speaker 1: only occurring within our own minds. Yeah, you and I
Speaker 1: we actually talked recently about the failure rate of televisions
Speaker 1: these days. It's like three or something like that, And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I was in our insurance episode, we're basically
Speaker 1: telling people to forego getting the extended warranty on a
Speaker 1: TV because they're so well made. And I think that
Speaker 1: sometimes it's easy to to see the negative point out
Speaker 1: the bad, but we don't necessarily take a look at
Speaker 1: what's gotten better. And yeah, a lot of items that
Speaker 1: we use in our everyday lives have gotten better. Right.
Speaker 1: The biggest, most obvious reason math that you and I
Speaker 1: hate planned obsolescence, though, is due to the costs that
Speaker 1: we incur when something does break, when it stops working
Speaker 1: or it's no longer effective. And there's also the environmental impact.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we develop a throw a mentality, which
Speaker 1: leads to increased waste, more items in the landfill, and ultimately, uh,
Speaker 1: it accelerates global warming. And the planned obsolescence of products
Speaker 1: like lightbulbs, smartphones, or even just cheaply made furniture can
Speaker 1: be annoying and frustrating. It certainly seems like some of
Speaker 1: the things we buy these days just aren't meant to
Speaker 1: last very long, and that means shelling more money out
Speaker 1: in the future for replacement. Yeah, most definitely, you know.
Speaker 1: And while some planned obsolescens might feel a bit nefarious, right,
Speaker 1: there are some positives that are a results of it's
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure to cover those two.
Speaker 1: You know, there are certain luxuries and creature comforts that
Speaker 1: united that we get to enjoy as a result of
Speaker 1: the effects of planned obsolescence. You know, for instance, going
Speaker 1: back to when light bulbs, when they were first introduced
Speaker 1: the filament, it was actually made with carbon and so
Speaker 1: these light bulbs were much more expensive to produce. But
Speaker 1: due to the demand of the masses, you know, everybody
Speaker 1: wanted to have electric lights in their homes. And because
Speaker 1: of that, that was a product that had a huge
Speaker 1: barrier to entry and a lot of people weren't able
Speaker 1: to you know, enjoy that product. So that's a simple
Speaker 1: example where reducing the quality also brought down the cost,
Speaker 1: which then made it much more accessible to everybody else,
Speaker 1: not just not just the rich. Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 1: I yeah, I didn't know that, and I think that's
Speaker 1: fascinating and it is an example of how planned obsolescence
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily a conspiracy theory. Sometimes it's just a
Speaker 1: functional necessity. And there's some other upsides as well. Right,
Speaker 1: just thinking about all the jobs that come about as
Speaker 1: a result of producing goods that aren't meant to ask forever, Right,
Speaker 1: and another positive is that progress is made because items
Speaker 1: eventually wear out and need to be replaced. So while
Speaker 1: in this episode will do our best to help you
Speaker 1: avoid the traffic planned obsolescency, it is important to admit
Speaker 1: that it also does play a role in the innovation
Speaker 1: and there are other side effects, positive effects of planned
Speaker 1: obsolescence in our lives. Yeah, and this progress in this innovation,
Speaker 1: it's it's a good thing, you know, Like nobody's going
Speaker 1: to argue with the fact that we pretty much all
Speaker 1: have airbags in our cars now. But what that means though,
Speaker 1: is that, you know, that progress it comes at the
Speaker 1: expense of these older vehicles that don't have those features, right,
Speaker 1: And so it's not that those old items or old
Speaker 1: products no longer work, it's just that, well, they just
Speaker 1: don't happen to have the you know, the latest features
Speaker 1: that a lot of individuals are wanting in specifically in
Speaker 1: this case, in their cars today, you know, specifically to
Speaker 1: keep us safe exactly. But plan obsolescence it's not always
Speaker 1: a good thing, and it can affect us negatively. And
Speaker 1: so we're gonna focus on avoiding products with a shorter
Speaker 1: life cycle in order to save yourself some money. You know,
Speaker 1: if we update our our gadgets every single year, you
Speaker 1: know it's gonna cost us. Or if we we purchase
Speaker 1: items that are more likely to break or wear out
Speaker 1: in a few years and instead of maybe a decade
Speaker 1: or longer, it will mean spending more, along with a
Speaker 1: rising level of frustration. And so after the break, let's
Speaker 1: detail a few areas in addition to handheld electronics where
Speaker 1: plan obsolescence has been frustrating Lee in Vogue for quite
Speaker 1: a while now, and then we'll also discuss how we
Speaker 1: can take a different route. We'll get to that right
Speaker 1: after this. All right, we're back from the break, And Matt,
Speaker 1: I love the example you just gave up the light bulb.
Speaker 1: I feel like that clicks in my mind in like
Speaker 1: in a really awesome ways, like a light bulb went
Speaker 1: off in my head. When if you want to really
Speaker 1: expensive nice lightbel that costs I don't know, fifty dollars
Speaker 1: or you know, like the one dollar one. Now I'm
Speaker 1: into that. Well, you remember too when elid bulbs first
Speaker 1: hit the market and they were like what twelve fifteen
Speaker 1: dollars per bulb, and it was like so expensive to
Speaker 1: replace them. But I'd love too how the more manufacturers
Speaker 1: were producing these bulbs that the costs have come down.
Speaker 1: You can get great LED bulbs for a dollar a
Speaker 1: bulb now, Um, they're they're just so easy and cheap
Speaker 1: to replace. But let's give a couple examples of places
Speaker 1: where planned obsolescence wears a Tuckley had in a major way.
Speaker 1: And Matt first example is textbooks. It's all of our
Speaker 1: recent college grads out there. They're they're thinking, yes, text books,
Speaker 1: they're terrible. They cost me a lot of money every semester,
Speaker 1: and they're this classic example I think of planned obsolescence.
Speaker 1: School systems pay an outrageous amount for textbooks every year
Speaker 1: for their kids, and college students have to budget hundreds
Speaker 1: and hundred of dollars each semester just for books for
Speaker 1: their classes. And so I think there are ways to
Speaker 1: combat a couple of these these major areas where we
Speaker 1: see planned obsolescence. So instead, when we're talking about textbooks,
Speaker 1: maybe check with your professor to see if a previous
Speaker 1: edition still works. Oftentimes that previous edition costs a fraction
Speaker 1: of the price of the newest one because that's what
Speaker 1: everybody is using now. Or share with a friend. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that can work if you're going through a class together,
Speaker 1: and sometimes Matt the teacher, the professor doesn't even use
Speaker 1: the textbook. It's it's listed as something you need to buy,
Speaker 1: and then you get the class and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't really do the textbook, which just lecture based,
Speaker 1: and then you're like, crap, did I spend a hundred
Speaker 1: eighty dollars on that book now? Or you look at
Speaker 1: it like twice since? Right? Pointless exactly. And you can
Speaker 1: even rent textbooks these days via sites like Amazon and
Speaker 1: cheg right that prevents that loss of a new edition
Speaker 1: does come along for the next semester, making that book
Speaker 1: that you purchased now worthless. So renting a textbook instead
Speaker 1: of buying it makes a whole lot of sense for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Yeah, and depending if you maybe
Speaker 1: are in an English or like a literature class too,
Speaker 1: Like they're like a lot of the classic books that
Speaker 1: college students are assigned to read sometimes can be found
Speaker 1: online for free right there, open licensed and I saw
Speaker 1: two that you can go to a site like open
Speaker 1: stacks or Project Gutenberg and you can check and see
Speaker 1: if a book that you that you need for a
Speaker 1: certain course can be found online for free, uh in
Speaker 1: a digital format, which is a really nice way to
Speaker 1: to save some money as well. And so Jill, you know,
Speaker 1: speaking of textbooks, fast fashion like that is another textbook
Speaker 1: example of planned obsolescence. Beautiful pod, we gotta embrace those
Speaker 1: dad jokes. A new wardrob bottom that maybe you purchased recently,
Speaker 1: it likely wasn't made to look cool for very long,
Speaker 1: you know, or even to last until spring, because of
Speaker 1: how cheaply it was made. In fact, there are reports
Speaker 1: of how H and M how they can turn out
Speaker 1: a new style from drawing board to the stores in
Speaker 1: just two weeks, man, And so that means, you know,
Speaker 1: there's cool new threads might be out of style after
Speaker 1: you even wear them once. And so we would recommend
Speaker 1: for folks in this case to avoid fast fashion in
Speaker 1: the pursuit of well made, staple items that stay in
Speaker 1: the test of time, you know, instead of fashion like
Speaker 1: work to develop your own personal style that doesn't change
Speaker 1: with time. I think my wife wishes mine with change
Speaker 1: with time maybe, but it's not. It's here forever. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's here forever, and it's affordable exactly. No. It is funny, man,
Speaker 1: I think about some of the shirts that I own
Speaker 1: that I've had the longest. Literally, some of them are
Speaker 1: fifty years old because I bought them fifteen years ago
Speaker 1: in the third Store and some old man was wearing
Speaker 1: them for thirty years before that. And those are some
Speaker 1: of my favorite shirts still. And when I pop a
Speaker 1: button or or uh, you know, get a hole in it,
Speaker 1: it makes me so sad because it's really hard to
Speaker 1: match a fifty year old button. Exactly. It'll make them.
Speaker 1: They'll make them like they used to, Joel. They don't
Speaker 1: dig it. You did. Well. Yeah. Another area mat we're
Speaker 1: playing obsolescence definitely weird exactly, head is in ink cartridges
Speaker 1: for printers. That is in large part because these printers
Speaker 1: were created to waste ink, and printer manufacturers sell printers
Speaker 1: for twenty or thirty bucks because they're not hoping to
Speaker 1: make money on the printer. They're planning on making money
Speaker 1: every time you have to replace the inc and some
Speaker 1: manufacturers are working to change that though, they're working to
Speaker 1: create printers that that don't function with this planned obsolescens mentality.
Speaker 1: So look to those printers instead of getting the cheapest
Speaker 1: printer you can, because that one's actually gonna cost you
Speaker 1: more over the time that you own it. Brother has
Speaker 1: an investment printer and Epson has an Eco tank. Both
Speaker 1: have opted to change things up in the way they
Speaker 1: in their approach. The Eco tank implemented refillable cartridges so
Speaker 1: you don't have to replace them for a long, long,
Speaker 1: long time. Filling up that ink instead of constantly replacing
Speaker 1: the cartridges is going to save you just a massive
Speaker 1: amount of money, and it's gonna reduce waste at the
Speaker 1: same time. Chucking those used cartridges just in the in
Speaker 1: the trash can. Yeah, and we all know that there
Speaker 1: are very few things that that are more inconvenient than
Speaker 1: running out of ink, you know, when you're interesting trying
Speaker 1: to get some printed out before dashing out the door. Truth.
Speaker 1: All right, So those are some of the ways that
Speaker 1: we see planned obsolescence in our lives, right, cell phones
Speaker 1: and other personal technology may they are also an example
Speaker 1: that you know that comes to mind where planned obsolescence
Speaker 1: seems to be working on a predictable you know, to
Speaker 1: your schedule, where folks feel the need to replace the
Speaker 1: items costing them tons of money. But there are in
Speaker 1: fact ways to make your technology last longer. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna talk about now, So when it comes
Speaker 1: to our personal electronics, Uh, let's talk about replacing batteries.
Speaker 1: You know, we touched on this at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the episode. And it's not as you know, easy to
Speaker 1: d l why this as it was maybe in the
Speaker 1: early days of cell phones, right in the early days
Speaker 1: of you know, the droid phones in particular. Man, I
Speaker 1: remember my first EVO just like pop it out, popping
Speaker 1: the news exactly. That's super easy. They used to be
Speaker 1: so easily removed in many of those models, but the
Speaker 1: battery is a likely culprit and white people tend to
Speaker 1: toss out an older laptop or an older phone. Uh,
Speaker 1: and so instead we would recommend for folks to to
Speaker 1: look to replace it. So whether that means taking your
Speaker 1: iPhone maybe to an Apple store for replacement, or ordering
Speaker 1: a replacement battery for your laptop, and those are are
Speaker 1: typically easier to install. But you can easily get twice
Speaker 1: as much life out of a device with that one
Speaker 1: simple move. You know. A lot of the experts say that,
Speaker 1: like on your phone, you can check, you know, your
Speaker 1: battery health and once it gets down to like around
Speaker 1: six or less, you know, you're like you're You're device
Speaker 1: is not going to be functioning at the level that
Speaker 1: it needs to be in order to probably keep you happy,
Speaker 1: and so that would definitely be a good time to
Speaker 1: get that battery replaced. Yeah. Another way to to make
Speaker 1: your tech last longer is to clean your gadgets and
Speaker 1: your appliances, right, just toss them in the washer with
Speaker 1: your pants. That's what I do with my phone. I
Speaker 1: tossed in the dishwasher, good to go, super clean, high
Speaker 1: temperature washed. It really doesn't affect it. And we have
Speaker 1: to put a disclaimer after that just in case one
Speaker 1: of our listeners actually does that. Now we don't, okay.
Speaker 1: Uh So. One of the reasons things break down oftentimes
Speaker 1: is due to a build up of dirt and grime
Speaker 1: and those canned air salt cans or even like a
Speaker 1: sewing needle, depending on on you know, what's messed up
Speaker 1: with your phone or what's getting grimy. They can help
Speaker 1: you blow out or dig out some of the grime
Speaker 1: and nastiness and funk that's on a cell phone or
Speaker 1: laptop or or a desktop computer, and desktop computers can
Speaker 1: even be opened up once a year to blow out
Speaker 1: the fan household appliances to write your fridge will will
Speaker 1: last longer and perform better if you vacuum the coils
Speaker 1: every year. There are all these ways that you can
Speaker 1: take care of the things that you have, keep them clean,
Speaker 1: and then they'll they'll last longer, they'll they'll perform better
Speaker 1: for you, and so you'll be more app to keep
Speaker 1: it around in your life and not ditch it for
Speaker 1: the next model, which is gonna end up costing you money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you have a laptop or desktop computer that sounds
Speaker 1: like it's getting ready to take off, like it's an airplane,
Speaker 1: when you're trying to to maybe open more than one
Speaker 1: application at a time, like there's a good chance that
Speaker 1: it's really dirty, and and you know, and the fans
Speaker 1: having to work overtime in order to to keep the
Speaker 1: processor cool. That's just how it works. And another fact,
Speaker 1: when you have too many apps or or too many
Speaker 1: old files on your computer, it's gonna slow down the
Speaker 1: performance of that device, you know. So we're gonna recommend
Speaker 1: for you to delete unused data, back up your your
Speaker 1: videos and photos with something like you know, Google Photos,
Speaker 1: where you know you can have fifteen gigs of free storage,
Speaker 1: or you can even get a separate hard drive which
Speaker 1: are really affordable these days, or just something similar in
Speaker 1: order to avoid having tons of those files stored locally,
Speaker 1: which will slow down your device. You can even on
Speaker 1: your iPhone. You can go to iPhone storage and it
Speaker 1: lists out the different apps on your phone that use
Speaker 1: the most storage. Right, And so you might be surprised
Speaker 1: to see that text messages, your messaging app uses over
Speaker 1: ten gigs worth of of storage. And it's because of
Speaker 1: all those gifts and a those pictures you're sending back
Speaker 1: and forth to your friends. And if you don't care
Speaker 1: about those pictures anymore, well that's something you can easily
Speaker 1: delete from your phone and free up a lot of space. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In another way to extend the life of your gadget
Speaker 1: so you don't have to get a new one is
Speaker 1: to protect it. And this is an obvious move, but
Speaker 1: most people should have a phone case. The more we drop, crack,
Speaker 1: or completely shatter our phone screen without having a decent case.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you, Matt, the less likely that the
Speaker 1: phone will last for us. And I actually do not
Speaker 1: take my own advice on this one. I do not
Speaker 1: have a case on my phone, but I also handle
Speaker 1: it with care and I purchased cheaper phones so that
Speaker 1: if something did accidentally happen, I wouldn't be out nearly
Speaker 1: as much money. If I had iPhone, I would have
Speaker 1: a case on it. But but yeah, that's something that
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people, especially if you're getting
Speaker 1: the nicest latest gadget, protecting it so that it will
Speaker 1: have a long life is crucial, especially considering how much
Speaker 1: some of the things cost these days. Yeah, that did
Speaker 1: I tell you that Kay got her new iPhone? Sc
Speaker 1: Oh nice? How she like it? She's digging it, man,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's a nicer phone. It's probably the
Speaker 1: nicest phone she's ever owned, and which, by the way,
Speaker 1: isn't also very nice. It's kind of like their entry
Speaker 1: level phone. But she invested in one of those you know,
Speaker 1: solid otter boxes and it's like bulletproof. Nice. But I
Speaker 1: was actually, especially with kids, you almost like need that
Speaker 1: because they will bite it and they will lick it
Speaker 1: and they will drop it on the ground. Something else
Speaker 1: so I learned is that I used to always kind
Speaker 1: of make fun of the screen protectors because I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: I don't really care if I get a light scratch
Speaker 1: on my phone, Like what I want to not have happen,
Speaker 1: is it's shatter or crack, you know. But I was
Speaker 1: reading up on them, and one of the arguments for
Speaker 1: those screen protectors is the fact that by avoiding those
Speaker 1: really light scratches that actually keeps your phone from cracking
Speaker 1: when you do drop your phone. And so think of
Speaker 1: each one of those little scratch marks. It's sort of
Speaker 1: like a score, you know, like when you're scoring something
Speaker 1: and you're getting when you're getting ready to break it
Speaker 1: or to tear it. The more of the stare, the
Speaker 1: more likely you're gonna break it, exactly. And I had
Speaker 1: never really thought about that. Maybe it seems obvious to
Speaker 1: you or maybe to some of our listeners out there,
Speaker 1: but I said it, It sounds obvious, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have known that. Yeah, I used to always think it. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't really like, why do you put a screen
Speaker 1: protector on there. It doesn't make any sense. If you
Speaker 1: end up dropping your phone, it's gonna shatter. I don't
Speaker 1: care if it gets the fine scratch. I don't want
Speaker 1: it to shatter, but the fine scratches can lead to
Speaker 1: the shattering. And so so yeah, store that one away
Speaker 1: for the next time you do get a new phone.
Speaker 1: It's good to know. And Matt, I know there's people
Speaker 1: out there who do want to upgrade their device. I've
Speaker 1: talked recently about the fact that I'm really still leaning
Speaker 1: towards potentially getting the Pixel four as still on the
Speaker 1: for a train. Yeah, man, thinking about it, thinking about it.
Speaker 1: And and Kate obviously she just upgraded, got a new phone.
Speaker 1: But the important thing to do if you are ready
Speaker 1: to upgrade to something else is to know that one
Speaker 1: person's trash is another person's treasure. So in order to
Speaker 1: avoid the trap of planned obsolescence in that case, it's
Speaker 1: important to sell your old item, your your old piece
Speaker 1: of electronics for for as much as you can get
Speaker 1: from it. You could also hand it down to somebody
Speaker 1: else who who's in need, right, But but selling for
Speaker 1: top dollar means that you're gonna want to avoid a
Speaker 1: trade in with your service provider. Look to selling independently instead.
Speaker 1: That way, the circle of life continues. That the vice
Speaker 1: doesn't go into the trash, somebody ends up using it
Speaker 1: and they get joy out of it and U sound
Speaker 1: of it too. I'm just picturing the lion king in
Speaker 1: the circle of life as someone's like handing like the
Speaker 1: cell phone over to the monkey and he holds it up,
Speaker 1: you know, like some moving rock move after handing his
Speaker 1: his older pixel model down to Simba. So yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: look to sell it yourself, right, like you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: want to just hand it over to your your cell carrier.
Speaker 1: Look to be a platforms that we all know like eBay,
Speaker 1: you can get a Facebook marketplace. Gazelle is also another
Speaker 1: place where you can sell your old device and also
Speaker 1: to check out sell sell dot com but that's spelled
Speaker 1: s e L L C e l L dot com, uh,
Speaker 1: and you can go there and you can get a
Speaker 1: quick idea of what it might be worth, what your
Speaker 1: phone might be worth, and who is willing to pay
Speaker 1: you the most. I entered the information from my phone
Speaker 1: and I found out it's even still with all the
Speaker 1: cracks and everything is still worth between twenty and twenty
Speaker 1: seven dollars. But as I was taggling between the different
Speaker 1: levels of condition, you know, you got like good, fair, bad,
Speaker 1: or I think like the last one was like defective
Speaker 1: or something like that. Trash. Yeah, I'm like, well what
Speaker 1: you near effective fear trash because like it's not trash,
Speaker 1: it still works, but like the screen is broken in
Speaker 1: all the places and so, but but that can be refurbished.
Speaker 1: That's a great thing about selling some of those sites
Speaker 1: as those phones to get referbished, they get a new life,
Speaker 1: they get resold to somebody after they've been looked over,
Speaker 1: and someone else can can have a phone that they
Speaker 1: get for I don't know, maybe seventy or eighty dollars
Speaker 1: that is set to last for another two years. So yeah,
Speaker 1: don't junk it and actually get your money's worth out
Speaker 1: of it. Mine, I looked it up, was worth seventeen dollars.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have a crack screen, but it's a really
Speaker 1: old phone. Um, and I really thought it was worth
Speaker 1: probably zero. But to know that I could actually get
Speaker 1: something out of it better than nothing, yeah, I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, that's not too bad. Yeah. What's so cool
Speaker 1: about that site is that, you know, you enter in
Speaker 1: the information and it pulls up all these other sites
Speaker 1: and they show what the average prices that they're willing
Speaker 1: to pay. And so that's that's how you're able to
Speaker 1: easily go to this one place and get the best,
Speaker 1: you know, the best estimate for your device. Love an
Speaker 1: aggregator like that, So bringing them all together, all right, Matt,
Speaker 1: We've got more to get to on playing adopts a lescens,
Speaker 1: including the most important ways you can fight back in
Speaker 1: a world that's deep in planned obsolescence, and we'll get
Speaker 1: to to some of those tips right after this break.
Speaker 1: Al r Joe, We're back to the break and we're
Speaker 1: talking about planned obso lescens and specifically planing ops lessons,
Speaker 1: how it costs us a lot of money. But we're
Speaker 1: not just gonna take it, you know, We're not just
Speaker 1: gonna roll over. We're going to fight back against this
Speaker 1: planned obsolescens. We're gonna throw Mike Tyson uvercut punch to it.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. Man. Did you ever play Mike Tyson's
Speaker 1: Punch Up back on the original Nintendo? Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: that's a great game. We've recently pulled out what's that.
Speaker 1: What's the little mini Nintendo that you plug up that's
Speaker 1: got all into games built into it and you plug
Speaker 1: it up. Yeah, it's like the modern version of the
Speaker 1: old school Nintendo. Yeah right, and it's got like fifty
Speaker 1: games built into it, you know, but it's still got
Speaker 1: the remote. We recently busted that out and the girls
Speaker 1: have been playing Balloon Fight. It's so much fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got one for Christmas, Slasher, but I think I'm
Speaker 1: only played it twice. Like, I don't know, I just
Speaker 1: don't play video games very much, but it's fun when
Speaker 1: I do. It's good for like a rainy day. And wait, wait,
Speaker 1: yeah it was raining the other Saturday and kind of
Speaker 1: cold outside. So we're like, all right, this is the
Speaker 1: perfect morning for us and video games. But we digress.
Speaker 1: We're talking about video games. We want to be talking
Speaker 1: about planed obsolescence, right, and so let's talk through some
Speaker 1: different ways that we can make sure that we are
Speaker 1: that we're fighting, that we're combating planned obsolescens um. And
Speaker 1: the first step that we need to take comes before
Speaker 1: we even make that purchase. I think we need to
Speaker 1: research more before we make these purchases in our life.
Speaker 1: You know, if you make a smarter initial purchase, like
Speaker 1: you are more likely to get a longer lifespan out
Speaker 1: of your device. There are great sites out there, sites
Speaker 1: like Consumer Reports and Wirecutter where you can read all
Speaker 1: about the different you know, devices that you're considering, and
Speaker 1: they can help you to buy things that are going
Speaker 1: to be built to last. And to avoid the products
Speaker 1: that are gonna cause you headaches after you need to
Speaker 1: replace them after just a few months of use. Yeah,
Speaker 1: buying quality on the front end make such a difference
Speaker 1: in how long we're actually able to own something. Um,
Speaker 1: we end up liking it more if it works better.
Speaker 1: Another way then that we can fight back against planned
Speaker 1: obsolescence is attempt to repair the items that we do
Speaker 1: own we're so used to I think disposable products that
Speaker 1: we often don't consider if the broken item is reparable.
Speaker 1: You know, Matt, you and I were not d I
Speaker 1: Y gurus, but we're all for giving it a shot.
Speaker 1: I don't mind breaking out the hot glue gun or
Speaker 1: even the duct tape if necessary. And if it's an
Speaker 1: electronic item, check out sites like I fix It. It's
Speaker 1: a great website. You can buy the tools to fix
Speaker 1: your device and then they'll give you the instructions on
Speaker 1: how to do it. Almost every decent sized metropolis too
Speaker 1: has a screen fixing place, uh somewhere nearby where you
Speaker 1: live if you don't want a chance going it alone.
Speaker 1: But those are the kind of things where instead of
Speaker 1: replacing it, trying to fix it, trying to extend the
Speaker 1: life essentially of the item that you already have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. We mentioned the Apple Store earlier. You don't
Speaker 1: necessarily need to go straight to the Apple Store. You
Speaker 1: can support a smaller local business. Another way that we
Speaker 1: can avoid planned obs lescens is by forsaking latest trends, Joel.
Speaker 1: You know, often it's it's not that our gadget doesn't
Speaker 1: work any longer, it's just that we got bored with it.
Speaker 1: We see a product release, keynote addressed, you know, featuring
Speaker 1: the hottest item that will make ours kind of feel
Speaker 1: old and maybe a little bit crusty, you know, but
Speaker 1: the feeling is not based on reality. Our desire to
Speaker 1: the follow the trends is often at the root of
Speaker 1: our belief that, you know, what we currently own is obsolete,
Speaker 1: even when it definitely does have meaningful life left in it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're talking about gadgets here, some mat but but you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about fast fashion earlier on in the show.
Speaker 1: I think this is a specific example where people end
Speaker 1: up spending too much on clothing. We see an Instagram
Speaker 1: at or we're reading a fashion magazine and we realized
Speaker 1: that what we owned last year just doesn't cut it. Anymore,
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes it feels like it's all these
Speaker 1: inputs coming our way, and we'd normally be perfectly happy
Speaker 1: with our wardrobe until we see those things. So yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes it takes like getting some of those inputs out
Speaker 1: of our lives and then we don't know what we're missing.
Speaker 1: Another way to to fight back in the world of
Speaker 1: planned obsolescence is to shop second hand. Sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: even have to shop on eBay in order to grab
Speaker 1: something a bit newer for yourself. Do you have a
Speaker 1: friend or family member who's constantly upgrading their own gadgets,
Speaker 1: maybe there are two or three generations ahead of you
Speaker 1: by one of their used models off of them they
Speaker 1: make a bit of money from from their piece of
Speaker 1: electronics that was used. You get to upgrade on the cheap.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you can even score an item for free.
Speaker 1: If they were looking to toss an item out completely,
Speaker 1: you can save it from reaching the landfill. That's just
Speaker 1: a one creative way that you might be able to use.
Speaker 1: Shopping secondhand and maybe seeing what family members are are
Speaker 1: doing with their old devices can can help you to
Speaker 1: avoid buying new as opposed to getting something used that's
Speaker 1: still in great condition right. In another way that we
Speaker 1: can completely avoid the headache of plan obsolescens is if
Speaker 1: we don't even own that item to begin with. And
Speaker 1: we're talking about actually owning fewer of these items. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking recently so when like the Apple Watch, you know,
Speaker 1: all the different smart watches have been coming out, and
Speaker 1: you know they're they're really stinking popular, and I just
Speaker 1: don't get it, you know, like do any of us
Speaker 1: actually need any of these gadgets? And makes my fail
Speaker 1: curl watch look pretty shabby right now, doesn't it. It It
Speaker 1: makes me want to go back and get like the
Speaker 1: little calculator watch, like like like that rectangular black one
Speaker 1: with like the tiny little buttons on it. But like,
Speaker 1: I know some people they really dig owning one of
Speaker 1: these smart watches. But I think it's really important for
Speaker 1: us to question that decision before you make that purchase,
Speaker 1: you know, especially I think this is true if you're
Speaker 1: buying something that's in a new product category. Like were
Speaker 1: you able to get along fine for years and maybe
Speaker 1: even decades of your life before you ever own this product,
Speaker 1: but now all of a sudden you need it? Why
Speaker 1: is that? And so if it's not something that you
Speaker 1: really need. Then, I think owning less can be really,
Speaker 1: really helpful when it comes to the derailing effects of
Speaker 1: planned obsolescens in our lives. Yeah. I feel like I
Speaker 1: had the same reaction when the iPad came out and
Speaker 1: then everybody was tablet crazy and it's like, well, we
Speaker 1: need a tablet for our family now, of course, maybe
Speaker 1: three tablets, and it's just one of those new new
Speaker 1: product lines, and a lot of people, just hook Line
Speaker 1: and Sinker were like, everybody needs sign me up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's just not necessarily the case. And I don't
Speaker 1: want to hate on people who really really love their
Speaker 1: smart watch or love having an iPad and get a
Speaker 1: lot of use out of it, that's okay. I think
Speaker 1: sometimes we just don't do enough consideration ahead of time
Speaker 1: on the front end before we make the purchase, and
Speaker 1: then we're like, oh, yeah, this whole thing, it's it's fine,
Speaker 1: it's and then then you gotta upgraded every every year
Speaker 1: when the new one comes out too. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: certainly want to affect the situation where you're buying something
Speaker 1: and then trying to figure out what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: with it. Right, It's like, I'm gonna go ahead and
Speaker 1: get this and let's see what problems that solves, if any,
Speaker 1: you know, Like that should be the exact opposite approach
Speaker 1: that we should be taking, Like we should start with
Speaker 1: a problem and hopefully these problems aren't like manufactured problems
Speaker 1: that we're now thinking that we have just because there
Speaker 1: is a new solution on the scene. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: definitely don't buy something thinking that like, cool, this will
Speaker 1: be fun. Let's figure out what we're gonna do with
Speaker 1: it later. Buy it now though, Yeah, I mean, dude,
Speaker 1: some of the companies are creating like video chat devices
Speaker 1: specific to their platform, like Facebook Portal I think is
Speaker 1: what it's called. I don't even know about that yet.
Speaker 1: So so you can like literally buy it's been a
Speaker 1: while since I've been on the Facebook. You can buy
Speaker 1: buy a device from Facebook so you can message on
Speaker 1: it and do like video calls. It's like I can
Speaker 1: do that on my phone already, Like my phone basically
Speaker 1: allows me to do all these things. I don't need
Speaker 1: another device in my life, It's true. So yeah, just
Speaker 1: it's a it's an important thing to consider owning less
Speaker 1: in order to fight back against planned obsolescence and Matt
Speaker 1: ultimately planned obsolescence is something that we've ace in a
Speaker 1: lot of areas in our lives these days. But to
Speaker 1: avoid letting it cost us tons of money, it's really
Speaker 1: important for us as individuals to do more homework up
Speaker 1: front to protect and take care of the item so
Speaker 1: we do purchase and then to purposefully work to avoid upgrading.
Speaker 1: Because it's trendy, planned obsolescens as we talked about in
Speaker 1: the beginning, has some benefits, right, And at the same time,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of competition in our country, and so
Speaker 1: people are competing to make good products and services. For
Speaker 1: us as individuals, a lot of the burden is on
Speaker 1: us actually to to avoid prematurely getting rid of things
Speaker 1: that's still work, that's still function well, um, and they
Speaker 1: can still serve a purpose in our lives. I feel like,
Speaker 1: while planned obsolescence still exists in the marketplace for the
Speaker 1: most part, is something that we do to ourselves these
Speaker 1: days and and something we need to do our best
Speaker 1: to avoid. Yeah, man, I totally agree. So let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and shift gears. Man, let's get back to our beer.
Speaker 1: On this episode, you and I we enjoyed a juicy
Speaker 1: I p A and this is beer by Squatters Craft Beer.
Speaker 1: These guys are out of Salt Lake City in Utah,
Speaker 1: which means that it is limited five percent. Yeah. I know,
Speaker 1: we looked that up because I was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is five percent. It's a really good i PA for
Speaker 1: five percent. It really is. And it's like, oh the
Speaker 1: Utah laws, that's right, they cap it at five percent,
Speaker 1: Like you can't make a beer that has a higher
Speaker 1: a BV than that, and that's like a big constraint
Speaker 1: for a brewer to be under. And I gotta say, man,
Speaker 1: this beer that being said, was really good for a
Speaker 1: five percent I PAL. It was delicious. It was like
Speaker 1: light and fresh, and it had some great juicy character
Speaker 1: to it. I feel like typically I p a s
Speaker 1: and the five percent range are lacking, and this one
Speaker 1: was just awesome for the style and really really enjoyed it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, man. The first thing I noticed is
Speaker 1: when we poured it, it it poured this really beautiful kind
Speaker 1: of cloudy light gold color. And so it definitely is
Speaker 1: a New England style i PA. But again, it's got
Speaker 1: those flavors going on, but it's not too heavy. It's
Speaker 1: got just a touch of that sharp funkiness without you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the body that kind of weighs it down. It
Speaker 1: really was real bright and citrusy. It was honestly kind
Speaker 1: of refreshing. It was a really clean drinking New England
Speaker 1: I PA, which I feel like it isn't necessarily a
Speaker 1: typical characteristic of a New England style I PA. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't really characterize it as like clean drinking. A
Speaker 1: lot of times they're kind of like hazy and kind
Speaker 1: of cloudy, unfiltered, unclean, little funky exactly. But somehow this
Speaker 1: one would managed to do both. I'm glad that you
Speaker 1: and I got to enjoy this one, man. I'm glad
Speaker 1: Sam sent this one our way to enjoy on the show. Uh,
Speaker 1: thank you, Sam. Yeah, thanks Sam. All Right, for everybody
Speaker 1: who's listening, and if you want shown ups for this episodes,
Speaker 1: there there are a lot of things we mentioned and
Speaker 1: all of those websites will be in the show notes
Speaker 1: for you to check out. If you just go to
Speaker 1: our website at how to money dot com. Yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: definitely make sure to link to uh sal sale dot com.
Speaker 1: That was certainly our favorite website that we came across
Speaker 1: when we were preparing getting ready for this episode and
Speaker 1: For folks who have not left us a review, we
Speaker 1: would really appreciate a review over at Apple Podcasts. All
Speaker 1: those great reviews allows others who haven't yet listened to
Speaker 1: how the money helps them to find the podcast and
Speaker 1: hopefully to do smarter things with their money as well.
Speaker 1: So thank you in advance for that. Alright, my friend,
Speaker 1: Until next time, Best friends out, best friends out, m