Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about avoiding up cells, hoa hell
Speaker 1: and astrological investing.
Speaker 2: Dude, I don't think I realized how many folks are
Speaker 2: into astrology. Did I tell you about how so our
Speaker 2: local mountain that we like to that we often hike
Speaker 2: at the top there, there's it's pretty bare, right, so
Speaker 2: it's just a bunch of rock essentially, and there are
Speaker 2: like a bunch of crystals that were out with like
Speaker 2: some paint and some other sort of interesting stuff. I
Speaker 2: was like, what is all this? And somebody was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's it was like a full moon and folks will
Speaker 2: put their crystals out to absorb the energy from the moon.
Speaker 2: I guess, okay, or maybe at certain stars. Have you
Speaker 2: ever heard of that kind of thing?
Speaker 1: And I mean, I know that there's people who do
Speaker 1: that, that it exists, and I think it's been going up
Speaker 1: in popularity. It makes me think of when we had
Speaker 1: Cody Sanchez. She was into crystals, remember that, Oh that
Speaker 1: was like her, that was her sporge. I think was
Speaker 1: really buying crystals, that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know much about it though, but we are
Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about astrology and how
Speaker 1: some people are, especially younger folks, are letting the alignment
Speaker 1: of the stars impact how they choose to invest, thinking
Speaker 1: they might do better in the long run. But before
Speaker 1: we get to that, Matt, let's talk about the Built Card.
Speaker 1: It's one of the best credit cards out there. We've
Speaker 1: talked about specifically for renters. So homeowners, Sorry, you can't
Speaker 1: get rewarded for paying your mortgage with a credit card? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but renters and can.
Speaker 2: And for a while there we were saying, hey, homeowners,
Speaker 2: hang time, because maybe this will be something that becomes
Speaker 2: an option for you. It's looking like that's less or
Speaker 2: less going to be an option. That's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: It's not going to happen. And why is that not
Speaker 2: going to happen? Well, it's the reason it's not going
Speaker 2: to happen is because the Built Card is losing the
Speaker 2: issuing which as well as Fargo ten million dollars a month.
Speaker 2: There was a profile in the Wall Street Journal specifically
Speaker 2: about this card, and obviously it's been a boon for renters.
Speaker 2: They're you know, earning points and significant amounts of cash
Speaker 2: back on a no fee credit card. This doesn't come
Speaker 2: with an annual fee, and so for renters out there,
Speaker 2: the bill card is like one you should have in
Speaker 2: your wallet. How long will it be around? That remains
Speaker 2: to be seen because the bank is getting screwed because
Speaker 2: they made prognostications about the type of people who would
Speaker 2: open one of these cards up and what they have
Speaker 2: found is the folks using this credit card have pretty
Speaker 2: healthy finances.
Speaker 1: They aren't keeping a balance well, So.
Speaker 2: I think it's less about having healthy find it like,
Speaker 2: think about it, like, how do banks actually make money?
Speaker 2: Like yes, like you've got your anual fees, but you
Speaker 2: make money on the balances that you don't pay off, right,
Speaker 2: Like you the idea from the bank's point of view,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking like an evil bank, right, I got my
Speaker 2: monocle in my eye, and you want folks to have
Speaker 2: plastic and go out there and to rack up a
Speaker 2: bunch of charges that you're not necessarily planning on and
Speaker 2: then oh the statement hits and you're like, oh, dang it,
Speaker 2: I don't have enough money to pay this off. You
Speaker 2: carry a balance boom, you're paying interest in the banks
Speaker 2: making money, and the.
Speaker 1: Bank says you're a good customer.
Speaker 2: Exactly. But what charge are we talking about here that
Speaker 2: folks are opening or applying for the bill card specifically
Speaker 2: for their rent that is not a surprise payment like that.
Speaker 2: Literally they're called renters like it's built into the name,
Speaker 2: the name of folks who are renting apartments, and so
Speaker 2: it's just I don't think there's any other monthly expense
Speaker 2: that folks are so used to paying if you are
Speaker 2: a renter, as opposed to something that you might see
Speaker 2: on the shelf or there's a sale, folks are prepared
Speaker 2: to pay off that balance people in every single month.
Speaker 2: People who get that card, they're using it for rent payments,
Speaker 2: and I don't think they're using it for a whole
Speaker 2: lot else.
Speaker 1: I think we've talked about it. It's their quote unquote
Speaker 1: rent card, right exactly. And there are other things you
Speaker 1: can use it for than be I think like paying
Speaker 1: for your cell phone service with the bill card. That's
Speaker 1: nice because it comes with that cell phone protection. It's
Speaker 1: one of the best credit cards for cel phone protection too.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's the Wells Fargo is shocked that they're
Speaker 1: losing so much money, should be shocked though.
Speaker 2: That's I guess that's that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think they've inked this deal for
Speaker 1: years to come, so they're not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: get out of this perpetual money losing situation. It's just
Speaker 1: another reminder. Yes, the bank's losing money, but maybe you,
Speaker 1: if you're a renter, should help them lose even more
Speaker 1: money and go sign up for this card because it's
Speaker 1: the only way to actually get rewarded for paying your rent.
Speaker 1: There has been no other card before this, and they're.
Speaker 2: Probably because they're going to learn from Wills Fargo's mistakes.
Speaker 2: It's almost as if the branding worked too well, Like
Speaker 2: they branded it too hard as the only car that
Speaker 2: you can put your int on, and if you have
Speaker 2: siloed that card, it's no wonder that they're losing money
Speaker 2: because folks are they're using it as a tool, and
Speaker 2: they're like they're using that card judiciously as opposed to
Speaker 2: getting sucked into how you would typically spend when you're
Speaker 2: shopping online. You know, it's like it's the opposite of
Speaker 2: like Klarna or four monthly installments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not shocked at this. I don't think you
Speaker 1: are either, but it's just how how badly this has
Speaker 1: played out for the banks, and how well it's played
Speaker 1: out for consumers is impressive.
Speaker 2: Who's losing money more Washington Post on a daily basis
Speaker 2: or Wells Fargo with the built card.
Speaker 1: It's probably the Washington Post, but it's it's close. But
Speaker 1: we'll actually link to the review that we have up
Speaker 1: on how to money dot Com of the Built card.
Speaker 1: Matt and I homeowners, we can't take advantage of this,
Speaker 1: but if you're a renter, you might still find And
Speaker 1: I think there's still a lot of years left that
Speaker 1: this that Wells Fargo and built are tied together, so
Speaker 1: it's not like it's going away soon, but it might
Speaker 1: go away in the future. But while the Sunshine and Maky.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised too. If it's in the find
Speaker 2: type that they can change the different payouts. So we'll
Speaker 2: see maybe, but for now it exists. All right, let's
Speaker 2: move ont. Let's get to the Friday Flight. It's a
Speaker 2: quick sampling of stories we found interesting this week. We've
Speaker 2: already kind of started the Friday Flight, I guess, so
Speaker 2: that was kind of a time a little more newsworthy.
Speaker 1: All right, well, let's talk about one of our favorite
Speaker 1: cheap travel hacks. Now we've talked about this, but we
Speaker 1: haven't talked about it in a long time. Megabus, it's the
Speaker 1: one of the cheapest ways to get around the country
Speaker 1: is by taking a bus. We're so used to taking flights,
Speaker 1: and flights have you gone down dramatically in price in
Speaker 1: recent years?
Speaker 2: I get that.
Speaker 1: I just booked some Southwest flights recently on a sale
Speaker 1: they had a couple of weeks ago. Well, Megabus is
Speaker 1: filed for bankruptcy, and a single tear came to my
Speaker 1: eye when I read that, because I have enjoyed a
Speaker 1: few trips on Megabus. Myself has been a Megabus patron. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a while, but I'm like, I want them
Speaker 1: to be around. I'll probably use it in the future
Speaker 1: at some point, but unlow you won't You really.
Speaker 2: Think you'll use them in the future, Yeah, for sure. Okay,
Speaker 2: do they have seats as low as a dollar? And
Speaker 2: it's I think, I just you don't have.
Speaker 1: To go through the rigamarole of security getting the airport,
Speaker 1: if it's a.
Speaker 2: Little to get to the actual bus stop. If you're
Speaker 2: sitting there, it takes so much longer. Like we always
Speaker 2: talk about how your time is worth money, and like,
Speaker 2: I think it's a decent option for folks who might
Speaker 2: have a like have some additional time. But like, but
Speaker 2: it's not even sometimes you'll give it a shot, all right,
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's additional time.
Speaker 1: But guess what, when you're on a bus, you can
Speaker 1: do a lot of other productive things. And there's Wi
Speaker 1: Fi on that bush. So you do that on a
Speaker 1: plane too, you can, but then you've got to go through,
Speaker 1: like I just said, the security all that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff depends how far you're going. If you're going on
Speaker 1: like a five or six hour bus ride, well versus
Speaker 1: a plane trip, well, the economics are better of the
Speaker 1: bus and the time is about equal. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: post COVID, the airline travel bounce back, but bus travel
Speaker 1: hasn't seen the same resurgence, and so that is why
Speaker 1: megabus is dealing with these financial issues. The good news
Speaker 1: is though Megabus is going to remain in service while
Speaker 1: they're filing for bankruptcy. So I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: it's good. I think for regional travel, don't forget about
Speaker 1: bus travel. And some people, Matt, they are cheaper like me,
Speaker 1: and they're willing to, like, hey, save fifty bucks because
Speaker 1: that's how much less expensive bus travel is. And guess what,
Speaker 1: I can sleep on the bus, or I can get
Speaker 1: some work done because there's a Wi Fi too. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think when you're taking trips in that
Speaker 1: four to eight hour range, bus travel can be better
Speaker 1: than driving in flying.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm just gonna point out you can do work
Speaker 2: on a plane. You can also sleep on a plane.
Speaker 2: I would say better, perhaps even on the plane, because
Speaker 2: you kind of got that nice plane drone going on
Speaker 2: that somehow just puts me to sleep. And you mentioned
Speaker 2: the one dollar like because you know they've got it
Speaker 2: painted on the actual buses, and like the fact is,
Speaker 2: like those seats are incredibly limited, like sometimes it's only
Speaker 2: like a single seat on an entire bus route in
Speaker 2: order for them to be able to advertise that.
Speaker 1: I just looked up a recent round trip fair though,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't dollar seats, but it would have been
Speaker 1: forty bucks round trip to the destination. I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I guess, I'm like a similar plane flight could have
Speaker 1: been one to eighty So you're talking about a significant gap.
Speaker 2: Possibly, Yeah, I guess for folks though, who have a
Speaker 2: like a solid vehicle, like you're going to take your car, and.
Speaker 1: So specifically a lot more than that smifically multitask in
Speaker 1: the same way in a.
Speaker 2: Car like that's per ticket, right, And so if.
Speaker 1: You're because you're not interested, and it doesn't mean other
Speaker 1: people aren't.
Speaker 2: I think other people might. But also if you have
Speaker 2: your own vehicle, like the convenience of having all your
Speaker 2: stuff in your own vehicle, especially the more people you
Speaker 2: pile into the vehicle, like it makes me think of
Speaker 2: like in college, like when you would go on a
Speaker 2: road trip. The more the merrier, because that's just another
Speaker 2: person that can ship into the cost of gas. But
Speaker 2: I think especially for folks who might live in a
Speaker 2: bigger city who don't have a car, this is the
Speaker 2: affordable option absolutely. But for folks who have a car, man,
Speaker 2: I can't imagine there are too many folks who are thinking, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to catch a ride an uber, get a friend,
Speaker 2: drop me off at the bus stop so I can
Speaker 2: save twenty bucks, when instead I can just hop in
Speaker 2: the car and it's gonna be more than twenty bucks.
Speaker 1: It just it depends. It can be expensive and run
Speaker 1: the numbers. But bus travel underrated all right, Speaking of traveling,
Speaker 1: the mat. If you are traveling by plane and you're
Speaker 1: thinking about going internationally, it's crucial to check your passport
Speaker 1: expiration date. My older sister found herself in a conundrum
Speaker 1: the other the other day she bought the plane ticket
Speaker 1: for herself and for her son to go travel down
Speaker 1: to Panama, and her son got stranded at home because
Speaker 1: they had an updated his passport. And so it's really
Speaker 1: crucial to do well in advance of your trip, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want that money to go to waste. We
Speaker 1: talked a while back about the State Department allowing for
Speaker 1: the online renewal of passports, and I actually got in
Speaker 1: on that during the very small window that they had
Speaker 1: that available. It was like this short lived pilot program.
Speaker 1: But they have resuscitated it. It's back and it's a
Speaker 1: big time saver. So you got to be over the
Speaker 1: age of twenty five to have had a passport for
Speaker 1: at least ten years. And the State Department says they're
Speaker 1: going to have a limited number of slots available for
Speaker 1: online renewal each day. So our advice to you is
Speaker 1: to get up early, get that application submitted if you
Speaker 1: need to renew your passport. It's so much better than
Speaker 1: driving somewhere waiting in line, which is what you had
Speaker 1: to do, sadly, Matt. So it is the online. We
Speaker 1: can do so many things online now, renewing the passport.
Speaker 1: It just makes sense and it's going to, like I
Speaker 1: think it's going to make renewing your passport much less
Speaker 1: of a hassle.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think I waited close to an hour,
Speaker 2: although that was last year when travel was super hot.
Speaker 2: Travels down this year. So if you don't happen to
Speaker 2: be able to do it online, maybe it won't be quite.
Speaker 1: As bad for you, but at least look into it.
Speaker 2: But while we're talking about traveling, the Journal just wrote
Speaker 2: about how good airlines are at upselling their passengers. They've
Speaker 2: been decoupling the price of the ticket as well as
Speaker 2: extra conveniences for years now, and the price of the
Speaker 2: ticket now gets your button the seat, but it doesn't
Speaker 2: get you a whole lot else. If you want to
Speaker 2: be able to pick your specific seat, that's going to
Speaker 2: be an extra or twenty bucks. If you want to
Speaker 2: be at the front of the line, well you're gonna
Speaker 2: pay for that as well. The cost of a something
Speaker 2: beyond like a small backpack that you can shove into
Speaker 2: the little metal box that's obviously going to uh if
Speaker 2: you do it there at the gate, is going to
Speaker 2: cost you, like even maybe more than the ticket.
Speaker 1: We saw that in our last trip. A couple of
Speaker 1: yesaw their bags fit, they didn't quite fit, and then.
Speaker 2: They had two additional bags, like eighty bucks a pop.
Speaker 1: No, it was one hundred. They spent two hundred bucks.
Speaker 2: A lot of money. But here's the thing we're not
Speaker 2: We're not highlighting this because we dislike it. Actually, personally,
Speaker 2: I think this is a great thing because it gives
Speaker 2: you optionality.
Speaker 1: Like in our our backsit we didn't have to pay well.
Speaker 2: Because we knew ahead of sign But the ability essentially
Speaker 2: to not pay for a bunch of extras that you're
Speaker 2: not going to take advantage of gives people the ability
Speaker 2: to travel for less when maybe otherwise they would not
Speaker 2: be able to take that flight. Like if you are
Speaker 2: the one taking advantage of all the goodies, all the extras, okay,
Speaker 2: well maybe you're actually making out like a bandit, But
Speaker 2: like I don't necessarily want to subsidize a guy in
Speaker 2: front of me, like chucking cokes or like the supply
Speaker 2: of snacks on like a three hour flight when instead
Speaker 2: I might go with an option that allows me to
Speaker 2: decouple the price of the ticket from those additional perks.
Speaker 1: And really what that means is for savvy travelers, more money.
Speaker 1: You're able to save more money you can funnel towards
Speaker 1: additional trips. If that's your jams right, all right, So
Speaker 1: this is not a dental advice map, but on the
Speaker 1: note of travel, people should consider open jaw to save money.
Speaker 1: We talked about open jaw very much. No, yeah, it
Speaker 1: sounds like something a dentist would take you to open
Speaker 1: your jaw. Well, what is an open jaw trip?
Speaker 2: Actually, no, the dentistas that close your jaw like you're
Speaker 2: supposed to breathe through your nose.
Speaker 1: No, but they have to open it so they can
Speaker 1: open your mouth. Yes, they can clean it if you're close.
Speaker 1: If your jaw is closed, they can't really do much
Speaker 1: with your teeth, right, gotcha, got you gotta do some work. Well,
Speaker 1: open jaw flights or when you fly into one city
Speaker 1: and out of another, and it can save you hundreds
Speaker 1: of dollars taking this strategy. This could work particularly well
Speaker 1: for like, let's say a trip to Europe that you
Speaker 1: might be planning because that way, not only does it
Speaker 1: potentially save you money, but you don't have to navigate
Speaker 1: back to starting city if you're planning on bouncing around
Speaker 1: to multiple spots. And yeah, the money saving is the
Speaker 1: thing we care about the most, because all it takes
Speaker 1: is some planning, some flexibility, some creativity in searching four
Speaker 1: flights to and from multiple destinations on a site like
Speaker 1: Google Flights that can help you take your trip for
Speaker 1: far less than you might have thought on the front end,
Speaker 1: like hey, yep, I'll maybe I'll fly into Rome and
Speaker 1: then I'll fly out of Amsterdam and check and seat
Speaker 1: like some do some searches, like spend thirty minutes checking
Speaker 1: a bunch of destinations to and from and you might
Speaker 1: find Wait, I thought my trip to Europe was gonna
Speaker 1: cost me nine hundred and fifty bucks. Oh, it's only
Speaker 1: gonna cost me six to fifty if I plan it
Speaker 1: out this way. And I think, yeah, that incentive makes
Speaker 1: me want to do some creative search.
Speaker 2: It's funny that you mentioned in Italy because that's literally
Speaker 2: turns out I've been an open jaw travel did you
Speaker 2: didn't share why it's called open jaw? So it's called
Speaker 2: open jaw because imagine like a sideways V, like a
Speaker 2: greater greater than symbol, Like basically you're flying in and
Speaker 2: out of a different city essentially, so it kind of
Speaker 2: looks like an open mouth. That's exactly what I did
Speaker 2: when we backpacked Italy back when I was in college.
Speaker 2: We flew into Milan because at least at the time,
Speaker 2: that was the absolute cheapest flight, and then we popped around, like,
Speaker 2: we checked flights out of Italy from different cities, and
Speaker 2: it turned out that flying out of Venice was going
Speaker 2: to be the most affordable option. So we're like, boom,
Speaker 2: that's what we're flying in and what seven days later
Speaker 2: we're flying out of there? Yeah, what we do in
Speaker 2: the middle.
Speaker 1: So it's up to us, Right, that's totally the way
Speaker 1: to do it. Just because most people book straight up
Speaker 1: round trip to and from the same destination. Just because
Speaker 1: that is the norm doesn't mean it's the way you're
Speaker 1: going to save the most money.
Speaker 2: All Right. Here is some news that actually may not
Speaker 2: be news to you if you are a part of
Speaker 2: an HOA, but they can be unpredictable, especially if you've
Speaker 2: I don't know how to run in with your hoa.
Speaker 1: If you still got your Christmas decorations up, you deserve
Speaker 1: the notices you're getting.
Speaker 2: All right, This is an extreme example, but Yahoo Finance
Speaker 2: they published an article about a Florida condo association that's
Speaker 2: levying a six figure special assessment.
Speaker 1: Hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: It's like one hundred and thirty four thousand dollars per unit.
Speaker 2: There's a new law in Florida and they're forcing older
Speaker 2: condo complexes to shore up their structural or potential structural issues.
Speaker 2: This is, of course, in the wake of the surf
Speaker 2: Side condo collapse. Gosh, how long ago was that now a.
Speaker 1: Couple of years.
Speaker 2: But those updates they can be insanely expensive, causing many
Speaker 2: to just leave to vacate their condos instead of forking
Speaker 2: of a massive chunk of change because they can't afford it.
Speaker 2: But then on top of that, potential buyers they're wary too,
Speaker 2: which means sales price are shrinking. So we are We're
Speaker 2: pointing this out because sixty percent of new builds these
Speaker 2: days come with an HOA, and depending on your opinion,
Speaker 2: like there are certainly pros to having an HOA, but
Speaker 2: there's cons too. Of course, the financial side of it,
Speaker 2: and so we want folks to be careful. Look at
Speaker 2: the financial standing of your HOA, look at the reserves,
Speaker 2: make sure there are reserves. Maybe even talk to somebody
Speaker 2: that's either on the board, maybe talk to other residents
Speaker 2: that are under that HOA before you move forward, because
Speaker 2: if not, it could come back to bite you.
Speaker 1: And it might sound nice that, oh man, the monthly agoafe,
Speaker 1: it's so small. It's one hundred and twelve dollars a
Speaker 1: month or something like that, and look at all the
Speaker 1: amenities it comes with, but that could be an artificially
Speaker 1: low amount. Makes My mother in law bought a condo,
Speaker 1: like I guess, this was probably ten years ago in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and she found out quickly that that low hoafe, well,
Speaker 1: they hadn't bumped it up in a long time, and
Speaker 1: so then they had a deferred maintenance, a lot of
Speaker 1: deferred maintenance, and then they had the levy a special assessment.
Speaker 1: Not six figures fortunately, but I want to say it
Speaker 1: was like six thousand dollars. So if you're not planning
Speaker 1: for that, it can derail you. Right Like most people,
Speaker 1: they're not equipped to handle that. And you have to
Speaker 1: realize that's a possibility with homeowner associations. We actually have
Speaker 1: a new article up on the site that we'll link
Speaker 1: to about the pros and cons of hoas it can
Speaker 1: potentially help protect your property value, but can also on
Speaker 1: the flip side, cost you a lot of money and
Speaker 1: you might get hit with a giant bill that you
Speaker 1: weren't expecting.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Plus, so we're talking about the financial side of it,
Speaker 2: but don't forget about like all the drama side of
Speaker 2: things as well. Oh yeah, you're signing up for There's
Speaker 2: just a whole lot more that goes into it. And honestly,
Speaker 2: that is hoa's or I always say, the lack of
Speaker 2: an HOA where we currently live, like that is one
Speaker 2: of the that's a big reason why we're not considering
Speaker 2: some of these other neighborhoods that are near us and
Speaker 2: instead we're about to renovate our homes because we don't
Speaker 2: have an HOA, which means we have the freedom and
Speaker 2: the autonomy to do not exactly like whatever we wanted,
Speaker 2: but within the city rules and stuff. Yeah, exactly like
Speaker 2: within good days. Like dude, some neighborhoods like you can't
Speaker 2: even put playhouses or structures in it, like in your backyard,
Speaker 2: not the front yard like in the backyard.
Speaker 1: Well, one of my friends he bought a condo down
Speaker 1: in Florida and the HOA was so poorly runs. He said,
Speaker 1: the only way that I could that things could turn
Speaker 1: around is if I ran for president. He ran for president.
Speaker 1: Now he's got a part time job being the HOA president.
Speaker 1: This takes twenty to twenty five hours a week of
Speaker 1: his time. It's insane, and but thank you, But that's
Speaker 1: his investment, Like he hasn't investment of this condo, and
Speaker 1: the only way to make sure that his investment stays
Speaker 1: intact is to put in all this time and effort
Speaker 1: to turn things around. So yes, hoas can be a
Speaker 1: blessing or a curse. And you just have to have
Speaker 1: your eyes wide open before you buy a home inside
Speaker 1: of an HOA neighborhood. And that's just one of the
Speaker 1: rising costs of home ownership, many of which feel hidden
Speaker 1: from people these days. We all know about higher home prices,
Speaker 1: higher interest rates, but the annual cost of home maintenance
Speaker 1: has increased by almost thirty percent over the past few
Speaker 1: years too. Bank Rate just did a study. They found
Speaker 1: that the average homeowner is spending eighteen thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: year in taxes, insurance, utilities and repairs, and renters, they
Speaker 1: obviously have to pay for utilities and insurance too, although
Speaker 1: their insurance renters insurance is so much cheaper than homeowner's insurance.
Speaker 1: But it's crucial to budget for these costs if you
Speaker 1: want to own a home. It's another reason I would
Speaker 1: say renting isn't throwing away money. I think home ownership
Speaker 1: is a great goal, but you also have to realize
Speaker 1: that they're additional costs beyond the mortgage, significant additional costs.
Speaker 2: We want folks to make informed decisions. Joel, while we
Speaker 2: are talking about real estate, let's talk about real estate
Speaker 2: investments for a second, and specifically it's talk about real
Speaker 2: estate syndication deals, because that's not something I don't think
Speaker 2: we've talked about at all, or much at all, at
Speaker 2: least maybe with on the show Braindon Turner back today.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right. But like bottom line, one of
Speaker 2: the reasons we don't discuss these often is because they're
Speaker 2: they're only available to accredited investors, which means folks who
Speaker 2: either have like a really large net worth or a
Speaker 2: sky high income. But Bloomberg They had an article this
Speaker 2: week about how many of these syndication deals are unraveling
Speaker 2: because of the higher interest rates because unlike your primary
Speaker 2: home financing, for these bigger real estate deals, it's not
Speaker 2: locked in for the same duration, and so what that
Speaker 2: means is that it is less insulated from the rising
Speaker 2: rates that we've been experiencing, and investors are they're finding
Speaker 2: out the hard way as quarterly payments they're drawing up,
Speaker 2: they're capitals now at risk. And again, we want folks
Speaker 2: to be informed. Like the syndication deals, they're not the devil,
Speaker 2: but the devil is in the details. And these they're
Speaker 2: just not quite as hot as they were a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago as rates were lower, and so we
Speaker 2: want folks to be incredibly cautious with this type of investment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are a lot of real estate influencers out there, Matt,
Speaker 1: who wants you to think that real estate syndication it's
Speaker 1: this private investment that other people don't want you to
Speaker 1: know about. And it's a really laid back way to
Speaker 1: invest in real estate that you don't have to get
Speaker 1: your hands dirty buying your own property. But as people
Speaker 1: are seeing when the economic environment shifts, some syndication deals
Speaker 1: are doing quite well because the operator did their due
Speaker 1: diligence and they locked in solid financing terms for an
Speaker 1: extended period of time. But a lot of the more
Speaker 1: precarious syndication deals are falling flat and investors are losing money.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just a warning for anybody out there who
Speaker 1: is considering going that route. We've got more to get
Speaker 1: to on this episode, including a prediction that we're in
Speaker 1: a stock market bubble. We'll talk about that and more
Speaker 1: right after this, but we are back from the break.
Speaker 2: We got more personal finance goodness to get to today.
Speaker 2: But let's go ahead and get to the ludicrous headline
Speaker 2: of the week, and this one is from Business Insider.
Speaker 2: The headline reads, can the stars predict the stock market?
Speaker 2: Gen Z think? So you like my voice there? That's
Speaker 2: my incredulous, stupid headline voice, because obviously, first of all,
Speaker 2: the entire population, the entire gen Z generation, does not
Speaker 2: think that astrology is gonna aid them in stock picking.
Speaker 2: I bet a gen exer wrote that headline. That does
Speaker 2: seem like a gen X kind of thing to do.
Speaker 1: I just like stomp on the generation below me.
Speaker 2: So the headline itself is annoying, but like it's also
Speaker 2: true that some in the younger generation, maybe they are
Speaker 2: looking for an investing edge and they are looking to astrology.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're looking to tarot cards to advise them. And
Speaker 2: one person who takes this tactic and this isn't the story,
Speaker 2: they said, I tend to long the full moon, in short,
Speaker 2: the new moon.
Speaker 1: What do you do with the harvest moon?
Speaker 2: Uh? What like? What does this even mean? It's just
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous. It's hard to tell how widespread this sort
Speaker 2: of approach is and what it is that you're letting
Speaker 2: influence how it is that you invest. But if you're
Speaker 2: in astrology, I think that's fine. You're in a crystals,
Speaker 2: go for it, you do you, But similar to your politics,
Speaker 2: don't let that influence your investments. Don't let it influence
Speaker 2: how you invest when you get in and get out
Speaker 2: of the market, or even why, like your long term
Speaker 2: rationale and the reason behind what like what it is
Speaker 2: that you're investing for.
Speaker 1: And let's be honest, if you're a twenty five year
Speaker 1: old and you think that you have special insight into
Speaker 1: the stars and how that impacts the markets, well, don't
Speaker 1: you think Neil de grasse Tyson would have figured this
Speaker 1: out by now. Don't you think he would be the billionaire?
Speaker 1: Like if there was some sort of rhyme or reason
Speaker 1: to the movement of the planets and the sun and
Speaker 1: the stars. Pretty sure that's the dude, Matt, who would
Speaker 1: have capitalized on this. Not a person fresh out of college.
Speaker 2: See, but he he understands the stars in a different
Speaker 2: way than folks who are into astrology.
Speaker 1: Dude, you know, like there's a spirit and there are
Speaker 1: more advanced astrologers who would have this. I'm just saying.
Speaker 2: But what they're saying is like, oh, I've I'm at
Speaker 2: the intersection of astrology and investing. It's it's it's like
Speaker 2: the Memestock generation of folks who think that this is
Speaker 2: something that they can perhaps look to.
Speaker 1: And I get the desire to increase your performance right there,
Speaker 1: Like it's an understandable human desire. We talked about this too, Matt.
Speaker 1: American exceptionalism almost demands that we not be average, and
Speaker 1: so inside of investing, the line that we toe is
Speaker 1: that average is the best thing for you. And I
Speaker 1: get why people want to buck against that and they
Speaker 1: want outsized returns. But it's hard to come by, and
Speaker 1: these some of these just pie in the sky strategies
Speaker 1: aren't going to help you get there, and in fact,
Speaker 1: so much of the time you are going to lose
Speaker 1: money by trying some novel theory of investing. Speaking of investing,
Speaker 1: a new study from Northwestern Mutual finds that younger folks
Speaker 1: are more open to AI money management tools than their
Speaker 1: boom counterparts, although for most financial planning tasks, research also
Speaker 1: showed that most people still prefer humans like fifty four
Speaker 1: percent to just AI alone fifteen percent. And so obviously
Speaker 1: AI is not like primetime. It's primetime for some things,
Speaker 1: maybe for helping you with your writing tasks or search
Speaker 1: results something like that. Well, AI is likely going to
Speaker 1: be more of a help than a hindrance in the future,
Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to some of these money tasks,
Speaker 1: and we are seeing this transition in real time with
Speaker 1: new fintech products. Taking a copilot Matt, it's a cool
Speaker 1: budgeting tool, and they use artificial intelligence to help you
Speaker 1: categorize transactions that are specific to your budget and your situation.
Speaker 1: It gets smarter over time, right, makes that budgeting process
Speaker 1: easier and more specific to you. Monarch money is another
Speaker 1: one that we've talked about a great budgeting app. They
Speaker 1: use AI to give you more personalized advice on their site.
Speaker 1: You can ask it questions. It can help you set
Speaker 1: goals or gain insights to your money at a deeper level.
Speaker 1: But AI can also be like a marketing buzzword, and
Speaker 1: so it makes me think of another fintech product, betterment.
Speaker 1: They don't use artificial intelligence because what they've said is
Speaker 1: that they found that simpler approaches are more effective for them.
Speaker 1: I don't know, to boil it down, I guess I'm
Speaker 1: excited about the potential, but I'm also wary of the
Speaker 1: need for AI in a whole lot of the financial
Speaker 1: realm too.
Speaker 2: And so much of it I think is just marketing.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, are these companies actually using AI or
Speaker 2: are they just have they just updated their algorithms, Like right,
Speaker 2: it's all the same, Like we've been complaining about algorithms,
Speaker 2: and maybe that hasn't cause as much steam because I
Speaker 2: don't know, it's not like this a brain new sector,
Speaker 2: but like the whole just like the ads that were
Speaker 2: fed via social media, it's like, Okay, that sounds a
Speaker 2: lot like the AI that Monarch or Copilot has implemented
Speaker 2: into their budgeting, and so much of it I think
Speaker 2: is marketing and folks looking to cash in and to
Speaker 2: show that they're forward thinking, they're you know, they're utilizing
Speaker 2: technology in order to benefit their customers and to better
Speaker 2: their products.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you're right, some of it is smoking mirrors.
Speaker 2: That's what it feels like to me. And and specifically
Speaker 2: I think because of chat GPT, because it has like
Speaker 2: the way it gives you the information, it's like there's somebody,
Speaker 2: you know, it's like there's some mine behind it. It's
Speaker 2: like typing it out and you're seeing it, and it's
Speaker 2: like that's it's just like incomplete Google results that are
Speaker 2: being sort of fed to you in real time, you know,
Speaker 2: and it's just formatted in such a way that looks
Speaker 2: like there's somebody on the other end. But so much
Speaker 2: of it I think is perception.
Speaker 1: Even the new AI results with Google, when you see
Speaker 1: that at the very top, it's linking to multiple articles
Speaker 1: underneath ward's referencing them from and.
Speaker 2: It's almost like the same old thing.
Speaker 1: It's like the pull out they had before, which highlights
Speaker 1: it takes information from one article different format though it's
Speaker 1: a different format and that matters, And I guess how
Speaker 1: it is that folks interpret, and I get that it's
Speaker 1: a little different of how they may pull it off
Speaker 1: on the back end, but yeah, it is.
Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's overblown, by the way.
Speaker 2: So we're talking about investing. Don't let the different talking
Speaker 2: heads on TV influence how you invest either. There was
Speaker 2: a segment over on Fox Business where the economist Harry
Speaker 2: Dent not to be confused with Harvey Dent, but he
Speaker 2: predicted a stock mark crash worse than the two thousand
Speaker 2: and eight crisis. The bubbles of all bubbles is what
Speaker 2: he called it. And he's predicting an eighty six percent
Speaker 2: drop in the SMP. That's bad news, man, that'd be historic. Which,
Speaker 2: of course, this then reminds me of the phrase about
Speaker 2: econdomists predicting nine of the last three recessions. So we
Speaker 2: think this is also overblown, because, yeah, the stock market
Speaker 2: might experience a meaningful decline of twenty percent even more,
Speaker 2: that certainly could happen. Can we predict that when it's
Speaker 2: gonna happen. There's no way or if it'll happen. I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure mister Dent that he's not going to be
Speaker 2: able to predict it either. So we're pointing this out
Speaker 2: because we want you to stay the course. And it
Speaker 2: also makes me think about the reason so many folks
Speaker 2: get airtime like this is because when you're being cautious
Speaker 2: and you're calling for a correction, it's like, Hey, the
Speaker 2: good times they're not gonna they're not gonna last. How
Speaker 2: is that person perceived? They're seen as wise, they're seen
Speaker 2: as prudent, as opposed to let's take out what history
Speaker 2: has actually shown us over the paste hundred years, which
Speaker 2: is that the stock market goes up three out of
Speaker 2: every four years. What do you do with that information?
Speaker 2: Will you say, oh, okay, then I'm just going to
Speaker 2: continue to invest no matter what. Well, what is the
Speaker 2: summary of if you take that sort of mindset, Oh,
Speaker 2: you're seen as naive, you're pollyannish at the very least,
Speaker 2: being the most interous. You're seeing as just overly optimistic.
Speaker 2: But that's the reality. But obviously that doesn't get the headline,
Speaker 2: that doesn't get the clicks.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it means that we're not seeing
Speaker 1: any frothy behavior in the stock market or that there
Speaker 1: isn't going to be some reversion to the meme because
Speaker 1: I've seen outside gains over.
Speaker 2: Talk to UST few years, Talk to me four years, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, talk to me after a decade.
Speaker 1: I think if you're going to ask either of us,
Speaker 1: will the stock market be at higher levels in four
Speaker 1: years than it is today? I mean for sure?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes?
Speaker 1: Does that mean we won't experience a lot of volatility
Speaker 1: in between.
Speaker 2: In the daytime? We probably will, But it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: because we're not investing for the short term. Yeah, we're
Speaker 2: investing for the long term. That's right.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about spaving math. Have you heard of this
Speaker 1: term before? I did not until this article. Okay, so
Speaker 1: it's another dumb trend cult spaving that the USA Today
Speaker 1: highlighted this week. And I don't know, maybe this is
Speaker 1: just another term that the young kids are using and
Speaker 1: you and I are too old to realize it. Now
Speaker 1: we are over the hill. That's always stupid terms. We'll
Speaker 1: get us stay up to speed on our vocabulary, though.
Speaker 1: And so this is a new term though for something
Speaker 1: it's old.
Speaker 2: For Joel, your riz is off the chain this morning.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's say off the chain anymore? Run riz?
Speaker 2: Yes, Well, I was combining the two. Okay, it's like, yes.
Speaker 1: All right, I appreciate like it, Yeah, nicely done, but okay.
Speaker 1: So spaving is a new term for the age old
Speaker 1: belief that you can save more by spending more. Is
Speaker 1: letting the buy one get one fifty percent off deal
Speaker 1: triggered to buy two things when you only needed one
Speaker 1: because it feels like you're saving more in the process.
Speaker 1: Or it's spending more to hit a free shipping threshold
Speaker 1: when you weren't planning on buying those additional items in
Speaker 1: the first place. We've all been there. I too have
Speaker 1: had my mind hijacked in that way, Matt, so I
Speaker 1: think this is a normal human condition. It's also it's
Speaker 1: I would say, it's like spending more to hit a
Speaker 1: credit card welcome bonus. It's right that you can earn
Speaker 1: the eighty five thousand Southwest miles right now. We'll put
Speaker 1: a link to that show notes if you want to
Speaker 1: the details on how to get the Southwest Companion Pass
Speaker 1: easier than ever given how many miles are throwing out there.
Speaker 2: I just booked a kate Is Colorado trip for for
Speaker 2: later this fall. I guess how much it costs me
Speaker 2: to buy that second ticket nothing nine dollars and thirty
Speaker 2: cents just for whatever the tax nine eleven ye charge exactly.
Speaker 1: So those Southwest points coming super handy. But it's only
Speaker 1: worth signing up for the credit card if you're not
Speaker 1: having to manufacture spending to get there, which means having
Speaker 1: to spend more than your normal budget allows for putting
Speaker 1: you into debt that you can't pay off. Right, And
Speaker 1: so if you know you're going to use that item
Speaker 1: and you have the funds, or if you're buying in bulk,
Speaker 1: you're stocking up spending more now to prolong your next purchase,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but watch out for the marketing attempts trying
Speaker 1: to make it sound like buying more is going to
Speaker 1: save you more, it's going to perk your frugal ears up,
Speaker 1: especially if you somebody like me. But ultimately it's a letdown,
Speaker 1: and it means you've spent more than you than you
Speaker 1: otherwise would have. And I feel like nothing gets in
Speaker 1: that zone, Matt, as much as Black Friday and all
Speaker 1: those deals like oh, you're a dummy if you don't
Speaker 1: spend money this way because it's saving you money, and
Speaker 1: it's like.
Speaker 2: Well, you actually need it, not really Nope. Yeah. It
Speaker 2: makes me think of a recent article in the Atlantic
Speaker 2: about the free trial trap, because, of course, who doesn't
Speaker 2: want a free seven day trial or even like a
Speaker 2: free month of service. But that offery doesn't exist out
Speaker 2: of the goodness of that company's heart. It's a it's
Speaker 2: a bait. It's to get a hook in your mouth.
Speaker 2: And there's actually good news all the streaming front, because
Speaker 2: we're seeing cancelations tick up to record numbers as the
Speaker 2: different streaming services out there proliferate folks are realizing that
Speaker 2: is eating up more of their monthly budget, and they're
Speaker 2: cracking down the more folks are canceling everything like us,
Speaker 2: they're opting to cancel a bit more indiscriminately at least.
Speaker 2: But the free trial trap, man, the thing is real
Speaker 2: because forgetting to cancel is costing folks big bucks. In
Speaker 2: spider web, man, it's like it's more the fly, it's
Speaker 2: a death by a thousand cuts because you don't think
Speaker 2: it's that big of a deal, but all of those
Speaker 2: things added up makes an impact. The US. They even
Speaker 2: stued Adobe this week, did you see that over they
Speaker 2: were making canceling too difficult for their customers. But It's
Speaker 2: okay to try things before you buy, but don't forget,
Speaker 2: like use a calendar reminder to ensure that you don't
Speaker 2: forget to cancel that, like a couple of days at
Speaker 2: least in advance, you know, because if you hit snows
Speaker 2: or maybe if you click and drag it over to
Speaker 2: the next day because you're like, ugh, I don't want
Speaker 2: to do it today, give yourself a little bit of marginess.
Speaker 2: There's a difference too, between again, between forgetting about it
Speaker 2: versus just be becoming immune to those prices. And luckily,
Speaker 2: more and more for folks are becoming less insulated from
Speaker 2: those charges because there are so many of them, right, Like,
Speaker 2: that's the thing. It's you know, you're talking about part
Speaker 2: time jobs earlier, Like that's what it takes in order
Speaker 2: to manage all of the different subscription services out there.
Speaker 1: There's a reason they give you free access for a
Speaker 1: limited time because they know most people aren't going to cancel, Matt.
Speaker 1: They realize I think we gave that statistic not too
Speaker 1: long ago about people who signed up for Peacock to
Speaker 1: watch the Chiefs Dolphins game back in the fall, and
Speaker 1: people are so excited about that, and they sign up
Speaker 1: for Peacock and then they never cancel, and maybe that's
Speaker 1: the only thing they've watched on that service, but they're
Speaker 1: still paying for it. The same thing with a gym membership. Man,
Speaker 1: does any industry do it better than the gyms. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about groceries for a second, and maybe whether or
Speaker 1: not you should drive more in an attempt to save more.
Speaker 1: There was an article in the Wall Street Journal citing
Speaker 1: that more Americans are shopping around to save money. They're
Speaker 1: hitting up various retailers in order to snag the specials
Speaker 1: at each given store, even driving the cheaper area codes
Speaker 1: to shop at less expensive stores. So made me think,
Speaker 1: Matt like Publics is a grocery chain out of Florida
Speaker 1: that we have some of them here in Georgia, actually
Speaker 1: a lot of them, and they have a slew of
Speaker 1: Bogo offers every week by wing get one free deals.
Speaker 1: Those items can be a really good price if you're
Speaker 1: buying just those Bogo deals at Publics, but the normal
Speaker 1: prices are higher than basically every other grocery chain out there.
Speaker 1: Publics has nice stores, and they charge more for almost
Speaker 1: every item on their shelves than the discount chains You
Speaker 1: and I like to shop at. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe you want to hit up publics but just based
Speaker 1: on the Bogo deals and then you go somewhere else
Speaker 1: to get more of your other groceries. The best way
Speaker 1: to plan out your grocery purchases is to use the
Speaker 1: website basically a digital tool like flip dot com flipp
Speaker 1: dot com, so you can see all the sales flyers
Speaker 1: in one place. That'll help you create a grocery saving strategy.
Speaker 1: If you're the kind of person who says I'm willing
Speaker 1: to not just go to a one stop shop or
Speaker 1: to drive further to get to the discount place, maybe
Speaker 1: I want to hit up two or three spots.
Speaker 2: Well that's I think that's the problem. That's my biggest
Speaker 2: issue that I have with the journal with the headline,
Speaker 2: which is them saying that hey, you can no longer
Speaker 2: do the one stop shop. But that's not true. And
Speaker 2: people they have so fallen into like they've fallen in
Speaker 2: love with certain brands and they're like, oh, I got
Speaker 2: to go to this store to get this because they're
Speaker 2: the only place that sells that. I want to push
Speaker 2: back on that a little bit, like you don't necessarily
Speaker 2: need all the different options. You can just go to
Speaker 2: Ald and not even look at the different deals at
Speaker 2: the different grocery stores to save time and you you're
Speaker 2: still going to save a ton of money. And I
Speaker 2: know not everyone has an all D near them, but
Speaker 2: they're dude. I feel like they're multiplying like rabbits, like
Speaker 2: they're they're opening more and more of those stores are
Speaker 2: opening all over the place. If you've never considered going
Speaker 2: to an Aldi, you've got to check it out.
Speaker 1: We're legal as well as a cousin to Aldi. That's
Speaker 1: where we shot were.
Speaker 2: It's we're slightly more complex, fancier cousin of Ald.
Speaker 1: Is how I view letal. They're pretty similar legal and costco.
Speaker 1: That's they get the bulk of our grocery dollars. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the time and energy it takes and the
Speaker 1: additional planning it takes to shop in a bunch of
Speaker 1: different grocery stores, you got to figure out how much
Speaker 1: are you actually saving and whether it's worth the hours
Speaker 1: you're putting into. So that's why I'm going to a
Speaker 1: place like all the or Legal, like trying to really
Speaker 1: get the bulk of your stuff at one store, but
Speaker 1: the cheapest store is probably the best, best, the way
Speaker 1: to do it. Yeah, all right, Matt, that's going to
Speaker 1: do it for this episode. Hope everyone out there has
Speaker 1: a fantastic weekend. We'll links to all the resources we
Speaker 1: mentioned in this episode up on our website and how
Speaker 1: to Money.
Speaker 2: Yes right, if you have not left us a review,
Speaker 2: we would love for you to spend just a few
Speaker 2: minutes of your weekend heading over to How to Money
Speaker 2: wherever it is that you are listening to this podcast,
Speaker 2: really just twenty seconds, that's true, and just mashing the
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Speaker 2: But that's going to be it, buddy. Until next time,
Speaker 2: Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.