Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel Matt and today
Speaker 1: we're talking about people being content to rent, we're going
Speaker 1: to offer a gift card caution, and we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about bitcoin bowls.
Speaker 2: That's right, buddy. This is our Friday Flights, our weekly
Speaker 2: roundup of personal finance news out there, specifically how we
Speaker 2: think it's going to impact your money. But should we
Speaker 2: go ahead and tell folks about this news site that
Speaker 2: we came across that launched recently, Gallion.
Speaker 1: It's a I don't even know where I saw it,
Speaker 1: but I was like, oh, this is really interesting and
Speaker 1: just kind of allows people to list their own home
Speaker 1: for sale, and they're kind of trying to create their
Speaker 1: own marketplace, avoiding the National Association of Realtor stranglehold the
Speaker 1: mls US, which has been kind of the lynchpin to
Speaker 1: where people can buy and sell homes and how homes
Speaker 1: get kind of thrown out there into the ether when
Speaker 1: they're for sale. And matt Zilla used to have this feature.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they still do make me move.
Speaker 1: Is that still on the site.
Speaker 2: Oh, I definitely remember it. Yeah, I'll be honest, I
Speaker 2: haven't spent as much time on Zilla which is probably
Speaker 2: a good thing for mental health.
Speaker 1: Well, I used to love that feature because I think
Speaker 1: at some point there is a price that I'm willing
Speaker 1: to accept right for a home, even the home I'm
Speaker 1: living in, even if I love it. Well, if someone
Speaker 1: wants to come off me like two million dollars tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Okay, sure as well just stick up there for five
Speaker 2: million if someone's willing to pay that.
Speaker 1: No one would have paid me five million for it.
Speaker 1: But like, I like that kind of idea that you
Speaker 1: can at least kind of name a price if somebody says,
Speaker 1: I'm desperate enough for the place that you live in
Speaker 1: that I'll pay it. Boom, Like you're able to find
Speaker 1: a place where buyer and seller are willing to meet.
Speaker 1: And it seems like Gallion is kind of trying to
Speaker 1: create that marketplace and I think it's neat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, searched our area. There's a couple dozen homes where.
Speaker 2: It's actually kind of funny too, because you can see
Speaker 2: how it's like there's little pockets of listings and it's
Speaker 2: like someone learns about it and then they tell a
Speaker 2: couple of their friends and they also get their house
Speaker 2: up there as well. I mean, bottom line the more
Speaker 2: competitors there are in the space, the more people are
Speaker 2: a going to be talking about it. But then just
Speaker 2: there's just more competition, and I think more folks are
Speaker 2: going to be willing to go out there quote unquote,
Speaker 2: go out on a limb, as opposed to kind of
Speaker 2: going with the more traditional model of going with a
Speaker 2: listing agent, having an agent who's looking for a home
Speaker 2: on your behalf, because let's be honest, I don't know
Speaker 2: about I mean I do know actually about you, Like
Speaker 2: you are not only looking at the homes that your
Speaker 2: realtor sends you. You are getting out there yourself, right,
Speaker 2: and so like the model has completely changed, at least
Speaker 2: when it comes to the work that's being provided, but
Speaker 2: the commission hasn't changed. And that's what that's the biggest
Speaker 2: sticking point. It's not that we don't think that realtors
Speaker 2: are providing value, it's just that maybe the way that
Speaker 2: they should be compensated should change. I still think that
Speaker 2: there is going to be a space a market for realtors.
Speaker 2: It's still the most of item most people are ever
Speaker 2: going to purchase. But I think there's a lot of
Speaker 2: room in between four folks who maybe are looking at
Speaker 2: like a first time home purchase where they're not spending
Speaker 2: a ton of money, where they are going to be
Speaker 2: a little more engaged in the home search process.
Speaker 1: But I think this site, at least what it's trying
Speaker 1: to do is go to the complete opposite and end
Speaker 1: of those spectruments and just line up buyers and sellers
Speaker 1: together through online listings on Gallion's website specifically, and maybe
Speaker 1: at least for some people they'll be able to find
Speaker 1: their perfect match. They'll be able to avoid paying any
Speaker 1: real circ commission. And if this does reach critical mass
Speaker 1: where enough people are listing properties and searching for properties,
Speaker 1: this could be like a new way forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, even the fact that it exists, I
Speaker 2: think it can be promising and hopefully can open up
Speaker 2: the housing market as things have slowed down significantly. Let's
Speaker 2: keep talking about housing, Joel. Sixty percent of people thought
Speaker 2: it was smart to buy a home four years ago, right,
Speaker 2: so sixty percent. Then only twenty percent think it's a
Speaker 2: smart move today, and man, rightly so. Starter homes they
Speaker 2: cost more than a million dollars in a ton of
Speaker 2: different cities around the country. That's crazy to think, right,
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, what kind of job you have to
Speaker 2: be able to afford a million dollar, million dollar starter home.
Speaker 2: Sticky high rates, they actually taken the wind out of
Speaker 2: the sales of a lot of folks as well, meaning
Speaker 2: they are becoming more content to rent for the time being.
Speaker 2: There's your I like the rhyming better than the alliteration personally,
Speaker 2: but the truth is, in most markets around the country,
Speaker 2: you can rent the home that's equivalent to what you
Speaker 2: could buy and pay far less every single month, and
Speaker 2: by doing that, you retain that flexibility because you can
Speaker 2: always opt to buy if marketing conditions change. And of
Speaker 2: course you don't have you don't have the maintenance, you
Speaker 2: don't have the repairs to worry about. So if you
Speaker 2: are in the twenty percent camp of folks who want
Speaker 2: to own a home, I totally get it. But renting
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit longer in order to juice your
Speaker 2: savings and hopes that barring rates, they you know, hoping
Speaker 2: that they'll take down or maybe if supply tacks up,
Speaker 2: or actually both would ideally happen at the same time.
Speaker 2: That could still be the best financial move right now
Speaker 2: for a lot of folks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hate them, maybe dismay that people feel like,
Speaker 1: all right, I guess I'm gonna take buying off the table.
Speaker 1: But I also think in a lot of ways it's
Speaker 1: smart because the market is pretty ridiculous. As someone who's
Speaker 1: especially for first time home buy it's if you're selling
Speaker 1: one home buying another one, I think it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: at least I'm making out like a bandit on the
Speaker 1: sale potentially, and even though I'm paying out the nose
Speaker 1: for the next house. But it makes us a whole
Speaker 1: lot of sense financially speaking, for a lot of folks
Speaker 1: to say, you know what, I'm gonna wait to buy
Speaker 1: for the time being. Another reason I think to be
Speaker 1: dubious of buying a home these days is rising home owners'
Speaker 1: association fees. Some homeowners Matt they're seeing just ridiculous increases
Speaker 1: in their HOA dues. And this again, this kind of
Speaker 1: makes sense too. It jives with what's going on. The
Speaker 1: cost of insurance has risen significantly, so is the cost
Speaker 1: of repairs and maintenance and so up keep for the pool,
Speaker 1: the tennis court, it's all that kind of the common areas.
Speaker 1: It's not as cheap as it used to be. And
Speaker 1: you know, for associations that weren't good at planning. Some
Speaker 1: are really good at planning. They've got money banked and
Speaker 1: they've been, you know, just raising hoadus steadily over the years. Well,
Speaker 1: those year over year bumps might not be too bad,
Speaker 1: but for a lot of other associations who weren't good
Speaker 1: at planning, those bumps can be significant or worse. Maybe
Speaker 1: there's some sort of special assessment that gets levied that
Speaker 1: can be thousands and thousands of dollars. Those can be considerable.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I know, some folks prefer to
Speaker 1: live in neighborhoods that have in HOA. They like the
Speaker 1: well maintained public spaces. They like the idea that their
Speaker 1: neighbor can't paint their door hot pink or something like that.
Speaker 1: But it's called self expression, I know. But in hoa's
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to have that self expression. So I
Speaker 1: think a warning here, just be careful before buying a
Speaker 1: home in a neighborhood that has an HOA, or buying
Speaker 1: a condo right where there's a homeowner's association, which are
Speaker 1: typically is in condo communities. It's harder to do these
Speaker 1: days with I think a third of homes are a
Speaker 1: part of an HOA, and when we're talking about new builds,
Speaker 1: the vast majority are. But if you're going to do that,
Speaker 1: if you are going to buy a home that does
Speaker 1: have a homeowners association, dig into the financials of the
Speaker 1: HOA before you buy, because you might be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a reasonably priced monthly fee. Well, it might
Speaker 1: not stay there for long. There was a local example,
Speaker 1: Matt of a twenty nine thousand dollars assessment per person
Speaker 1: in the community to fix a dam that was owned
Speaker 1: by the community. And that's just shocking. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: seen what happened has happened in Florida too, homeowners associations
Speaker 1: jacking up rates significantly. So hoa's they can be good
Speaker 1: and they can help protect your home value, but they
Speaker 1: can also be quite expensive.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So what do you think about manufactured homes as
Speaker 2: being a potential solution. Prefab manufactured homes they get hauled
Speaker 2: on site, you know, normally they're like split down the middle, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then they I guess get bolted together.
Speaker 1: I think those have come a long way actually in
Speaker 1: recent years, and maybe twenty years ago, it wasn't, as
Speaker 1: you know, worthwhile a solution. But no, I guess I
Speaker 1: think they could be part of the solution to high
Speaker 1: housing costs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes me so. We on the show, we've
Speaker 2: talked before about the problems with nimbiism, you know, where
Speaker 2: folks who are like not in my backyard. We've talked
Speaker 2: about zoning laws that prevent building new homes in much
Speaker 2: of the country without a lengthy process, and those remain
Speaker 2: hurdles to increased building. And if we as a country
Speaker 2: incentivize adding more supply, I think that would reduce prices
Speaker 2: over time. But manufactured homes, I think that could actually
Speaker 2: be a part of the solution as well. It's funny
Speaker 2: how things have changed over like one hundred years, because
Speaker 2: like the Seers catalog where you could buy the home kits,
Speaker 2: like our old neighborhood that we used to live in,
Speaker 2: I think like half of the homes, half of the
Speaker 2: bungalows in that neighborhood were essentially you could look at
Speaker 2: some of the old Seers kits and see your home
Speaker 2: an illustrated version that was one hundred years old, yeah,
Speaker 2: drawn in there.
Speaker 1: And those kits what used to cost like one thousand bucks.
Speaker 1: I mean those insane to think about how cheap and
Speaker 1: how cool those homes actually are.
Speaker 2: They look really cool. But those days are seeing a resurgence.
Speaker 2: You can buy a manufactured home on Amazon. You can
Speaker 2: even buy one on Facebook, although you know they I
Speaker 2: don't think they hold a candle to the old bungalows
Speaker 2: of your But zoning laws all right, So it comes
Speaker 2: full circle here. Zoning laws often prevent folks from putting
Speaker 2: up manufactured homes on their property. So if you are
Speaker 2: living in a community, I can understand why some folks
Speaker 2: are wanting something that's not like cookie cutter homes, but
Speaker 2: something that feels a little more uniform and where you
Speaker 2: can't just stick whatever you want on that property.
Speaker 1: But especially if you are.
Speaker 2: Further out, the ability to spend significantly less on a
Speaker 2: manufactured home, I think that could be just an awesome
Speaker 2: way to consider saving a ton of money. Just make
Speaker 2: sure to check local rules. But new building methods as
Speaker 2: well as manufactured homes, I think could if done in
Speaker 2: conjunction with zoning reform, it could provide a lot of
Speaker 2: relief on the home buying front as folks are looking
Speaker 2: to especially if for folks who are looking to get
Speaker 2: their first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like we have to look into all of
Speaker 1: those areas. Let's keep talking about real estate, Matt. There's
Speaker 1: something that people are doing in order to combat the
Speaker 1: high cost of real estate where they live, and this
Speaker 1: is actually something that I think is ill advised, and
Speaker 1: it is buying a home with friends. So people are
Speaker 1: pulling their assets together. They're saying, hey, Sarah, hey Steve,
Speaker 1: whatever your best friend's name is, and they say, I
Speaker 1: can't afford a home on my own. I know you
Speaker 1: want to buy a home too. Why don't we, with
Speaker 1: the money that we've both been able to save, put
Speaker 1: this down payment on a single family home and we'll
Speaker 1: both we'll co own it.
Speaker 2: What could go wrong?
Speaker 1: What could go wrong? Right? And when you look at
Speaker 1: the stats, there's a lot more people who are actually
Speaker 1: opting to do this. This is kind of it's a
Speaker 1: trend these days, I think, Matt. Part of that has
Speaker 1: to do with people getting married later in life, and
Speaker 1: so they're like, I don't know, sure, I'm in my
Speaker 1: late twenties. Why not buy a home with a friend,
Speaker 1: since maybe I'm punting marriage until my mid thirties. And
Speaker 1: the next thing you know, you're making offers together, but
Speaker 1: getting into that purchase is actually fairly easy if you
Speaker 1: have the funds and you have the desire. The tough
Speaker 1: thing is getting out of the purchase, right. It's so
Speaker 1: much harder to get out than it is to get in.
Speaker 1: And so if living together with the person you have
Speaker 1: bought this home with isn't working out, or even if
Speaker 1: you just want a portion of the equity because you're
Speaker 1: moving for a job, or that you do decide to
Speaker 1: get married, your co owner or co owners, if you're
Speaker 1: doing this with multiple people and not just one other
Speaker 1: person might not be in the financial position to oblige
Speaker 1: your whim. They might say, oh, sorry, I can't actually
Speaker 1: by this portion of the home out, or we'd have
Speaker 1: to do a cash out refinance, which is also a
Speaker 1: tough move to do. Even if they want to help
Speaker 1: you out, oftentimes they can't. So the Wall Street Journal
Speaker 1: had a profile of people who are combining assets to
Speaker 1: buy homes and just like how sticky and how difficult
Speaker 1: it can be, and how it can lead to hurt relationships.
Speaker 1: You might be the person who gets lucky in is
Speaker 1: able to make it work, but this kind of arrangement
Speaker 1: can hurt your personal finances, and it can hurt your
Speaker 1: relationships too. So I think our advice typical would be
Speaker 1: a stay clear, don't buy real estate. Well, these are
Speaker 1: the people most of the time.
Speaker 2: Well, it's different too, if like you are doing this
Speaker 2: with your spouse, because you that's a very different kind
Speaker 2: of relationship than yes, like even to your bestie, but
Speaker 2: let alone. Definitely just like your buddy, right Like, when
Speaker 2: you are married, you've literally taken vows, there are witnesses.
Speaker 2: Maybe you even threw a big party afterwards called a reception.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the like stakes are ramped up.
Speaker 2: It's a stickier relationship, you are more committed, and so
Speaker 2: it makes sense that, oh, yeah, we are going to
Speaker 2: buy a house together. It's a lot different to do
Speaker 2: that with a friend. And a much better solution, I think,
Speaker 2: would be for there to be a single buyer and
Speaker 2: then hey, maybe you'll rint out that extra room or
Speaker 2: rent out two rooms or rent out three rooms. But
Speaker 2: the ability for a single individual to go in there
Speaker 2: and make that purchase, and chances are if you're the
Speaker 2: one listening to the Personal Finance Money podcast here, that
Speaker 2: person is probably you. Yeah, and so just to think
Speaker 2: creatively about this. Typically on the show, we call this
Speaker 2: house hacking, but back in the day, it was just
Speaker 2: called roommates, and that's just certainly a way to get
Speaker 2: your housing costs down. Why still being able to purchase that.
Speaker 1: House, and you might even be able to provide your
Speaker 1: friends like a slightly below market rent. Say you're gouging there, right, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm buying this place, and yes, I know your rent's
Speaker 1: pretty expensive. And once you move into the bedroom of
Speaker 1: the place I'm buying, and hey, then but then it
Speaker 1: just it creates less of that you're not commingling your
Speaker 1: finances to this overwhelming extent. And you're right, man, it's
Speaker 1: not overwhelming if you're married, but it can be overwhelming
Speaker 1: if you're just friends. And then both of you want
Speaker 1: to go separate.
Speaker 2: Ways, and you can like wade into those waters. It's
Speaker 2: so easy to wait in those waters. Like you can
Speaker 2: just say, hey, let's just try this out for three months,
Speaker 2: Like you don't have to even sign it, like create
Speaker 2: a lease, and hey, this is up to you, by
Speaker 2: the way, as the landlord, and as the owner of
Speaker 2: the property, you get to decide how long you want
Speaker 2: them to be there. So you could say, hey, let's
Speaker 2: try this out for three months. We only met last year,
Speaker 2: so I'm not totally sure how this is going to
Speaker 2: work out. And three months in it's like, hey, let's
Speaker 2: do this. This is working out really well. We literally
Speaker 2: that's what we did here with our office, the studio
Speaker 2: that we rent. It's a carriage house and they'd never
Speaker 2: done that before, and so we're like, let's just try
Speaker 2: it out. Let's just give it a few months. We
Speaker 2: came back to the table, talked about it, and we've
Speaker 2: been here for like, we're on our third year now
Speaker 2: at this point, Joel, and we've only had one rent increase.
Speaker 2: I think it's just because we're great tenants. Thanks Andrew. Joe,
Speaker 2: you want to talk about I know you're not a
Speaker 2: fan of gift cards. Do you have some evidence? Do
Speaker 2: you want to you want to talk about gift cards
Speaker 2: especially I guess this time of year.
Speaker 1: Feel like this is something we debate at least once
Speaker 1: a year, typically right around this.
Speaker 2: Time, the bi annual conversation that we have because well,
Speaker 2: this is this is the time of year where people
Speaker 2: are most enticed to buying gift cards. They're an incredibly
Speaker 2: popular purchase this time of year, which makes sense, and
Speaker 2: they I've always understood why people are attracted to buying
Speaker 2: gift cards. I feel like they they seem like they're
Speaker 2: are an incredibly thoughtful gift. They're seen as more intentional
Speaker 2: than giving just cash, which some people think of is
Speaker 2: is ghost uncouth. Yeah, say right, And that might or
Speaker 2: might not be true. I think it depends in the
Speaker 2: eye of the beholder. But when you buy a gift card,
Speaker 2: you're I've always said this, I made this argument. You're
Speaker 2: trading US dollars that can be spent anywhere in the world,
Speaker 2: essentially definitely anywhere in the United States, into a plastic card.
Speaker 2: They can only be spent at one retailer. So it
Speaker 2: doesn't really make a whole lot of mental sense for
Speaker 2: me to do that. That's not my favorite thing in
Speaker 2: the world. But making matters worse, Matt And this is
Speaker 2: the this is going to help prove my point. Hope,
Speaker 2: I hope you listen to me.
Speaker 1: Here. What happens if the retailer that you buy the
Speaker 1: gift card from experiences financial trouble. Right, So, for instance,
Speaker 1: TGI Fridays, which I know is your favorite restaurant, go
Speaker 1: there every Thursday. Right, They're not doing so hot right now.
Speaker 1: They've shut down dozens of locations and we just don't
Speaker 1: know how long the company as a whole is going
Speaker 1: to be around. And if you have a TGI Friday's
Speaker 1: gift card, and there's fifty million dollars worth of unspent
Speaker 1: gift cards that are earmarked for TGI Friday's use, that
Speaker 1: a lot of those people are going to be completely
Speaker 1: out of luck. They're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: find their gift cards in time. They've already misplaced them.
Speaker 1: Some of these gift cards are twenty years old, They've
Speaker 1: been in an underwear drawer, or they got tossed in
Speaker 1: the trash. So I think that's what happens with a
Speaker 1: lot of gift cards. When you look at the overall
Speaker 1: amount of unspent gift cards, a lot of it is
Speaker 1: just misplaced forgotten. Oh I got this gift card to
Speaker 1: a retailer I don't like or I don't go to,
Speaker 1: and so I just didn't spend it. And that to
Speaker 1: me is the worst part of gift cards. So people
Speaker 1: don't usually forget to spend one hundred dollars it shows
Speaker 1: up in their hands, but they do forget to spend
Speaker 1: gift cards.
Speaker 2: I totally agree with the fact that getting a gift
Speaker 2: card that it limits your options, But like, I wonder
Speaker 2: if for you, if it's less about that you don't
Speaker 2: like the concept of a gift card as opposed to
Speaker 2: you not liking the biggest retailers out there that tend
Speaker 2: to benefit from gift cards, right, So, like, I don't
Speaker 2: think you're a huge fan of Starbucks, but they've got Starbucks.
Speaker 2: I've heard this is like an airline, an urban Legends
Speaker 2: stat or something like that. But they're like Starbucks is
Speaker 2: like the third largest bank in America. I think it's
Speaker 2: true when you consider the amount of outstanding dollars that
Speaker 2: are out there on Starbucks gift cards. And so is
Speaker 2: it like for you, is it more or that's and
Speaker 2: maybe to prove my point, like, would you rather have
Speaker 2: somebody give you a Huckberry gift card? So Huckberry it's
Speaker 2: like one of your favorite men's clothing retailers, online retailers.
Speaker 2: Would you rather get a Huckberry gift card? Or would
Speaker 2: you rather have someone get you something from Huckberry that
Speaker 2: you may or may not be able to take.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have the gift card, yeah, than a clothing one.
Speaker 1: And because you're right, like, maybe it doesn't size is
Speaker 1: not the right size, or maybe it's not the right.
Speaker 2: And you don't want to have to go to the
Speaker 2: hassle of making the return, but even better give me cash.
Speaker 2: But then, like in that case, like for you and
Speaker 2: your wife, are you y'all gonna say, okay, let's just
Speaker 2: both give each other one hundred dollars? Then what it's happened?
Speaker 1: Like literally, I'm gonna buy her something I know she'll
Speaker 1: like because that's how I roll, and I know her
Speaker 1: well enough to do that. But I guess I think
Speaker 1: some people think, oh, well, I'm going to get the
Speaker 1: teacher a gift, or I'm gonna go get I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get a friend, you know that. I kind of sort
Speaker 1: of know we're gonna swap. Guess I'm gonna get them
Speaker 1: a gift card because it feels like, oh, there's some
Speaker 1: element of thought in it. But really, do you know
Speaker 1: if that person actually likes that store or not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's somewhere in between, like because like,
Speaker 2: like you can envision you giving a great gift to
Speaker 2: your wife, but then on the like far other extreme,
Speaker 2: you can envision someone not giving any thought to a
Speaker 2: gift to a teacher and getting them a tgif right
Speaker 2: as a gift card, and like there's somewhere in between
Speaker 2: where it's just like, Okay, I know that they I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure are a big fan of the local coffee
Speaker 2: shop that's got this killer cute interior that everyone falls over.
Speaker 2: Like that's the kind of gift card that would like
Speaker 2: one get used. It's just I feel like there are
Speaker 2: more gray areas when it comes to the gift card conversation,
Speaker 2: which I feel like you tend to. I feel like
Speaker 2: you embrace the gray typically, but when it comes to
Speaker 2: the gift.
Speaker 1: Cards, I will add another element of gray.
Speaker 2: I think it's more the stats, the fact that they're
Speaker 2: like US dollars. Yeah, and that's it's so it's less
Speaker 2: the gift cards. It's more the behavior. And that comes
Speaker 2: down to us as individuals to modify our behavior, not
Speaker 2: necessarily to say that gift.
Speaker 1: Cards are from but I've done the same thing. They're
Speaker 1: of the devil body. I think we are more apt
Speaker 1: to do that with the gift cards than we are
Speaker 1: with cash, Like we're not going to leave cash on spent,
Speaker 1: but we will leave gift cards on spent. And so
Speaker 1: I guess I just don't want to feed into that cycle.
Speaker 1: But the one exception, and we do see more discounting
Speaker 1: on gift cards this time of year. If there's a
Speaker 1: discount for your favorite restaurant, for I mean, Costco sells
Speaker 1: discount of gift cards. So much of the time you
Speaker 1: spend seventy five or eighty dollars and you get one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars worth of gift cards. If you're getting a
Speaker 1: deal on gift cards, that's when I think it's I
Speaker 1: think that's actually like a really smart move. Then just
Speaker 1: make sure you actually use them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially if you do it for yourself, because if
Speaker 2: you know, like that's the problem, not knowing whether or
Speaker 2: not the thing's going to get redeemed. But as an individual,
Speaker 2: if you're saying, hey, we on an annual basis, we
Speaker 2: spend at least five hundred dollars at this local restaurant. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well the ability to, like you said, get a twenty
Speaker 2: percent off gift card, Well that's a slam dunk, no
Speaker 2: brainer sort of decision. Joe, we got more to get.
Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about flooded out cars, ripped
Speaker 2: jeans and more right after this.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back to the break. Matt We will
Speaker 1: get to some of those other topics here in just
Speaker 1: a second, but you got to get to the ludicrous
Speaker 1: headline of the week. This one comes from a publication
Speaker 1: called coin Telegraph, and it reads Bitcoin gained nineteen percent
Speaker 1: in Trump's first term. Will betc price hit one million
Speaker 1: dollars this time? And I don't know if you've been
Speaker 1: following Matt since the last week and a.
Speaker 2: Half, been following because I own some bitcoin? Okay?
Speaker 1: Well, A lot's happened in the political arena, and that
Speaker 1: political arena has influenced the financial arena in some instances,
Speaker 1: and cryptocurrency in general and bitcoin specifically, have been kind
Speaker 1: of beneficiars. The prices on some of these coins, Bitcoin
Speaker 1: particularly has been popping in a massive way, hitting all
Speaker 1: time highs, even all time highs adjusted for inflation. Dogecoin,
Speaker 1: which started out as a joke currency that has been
Speaker 1: slamming as well. And Matt, what happens when prices are
Speaker 1: soaring in the cryptocurrency space. A lot of people who
Speaker 1: have been on the sidelines starting to come off the sidelines.
Speaker 1: They start to invest in the cryptocurrency.
Speaker 2: They get drawn in by the fear of missing out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it's the fomo and it just only fuels
Speaker 1: the crypto resurgence. But this headline is is bigcoin going
Speaker 1: to like ten x in the next four years? I
Speaker 1: don't know, do.
Speaker 2: You know, Matt, Like no, I know, is it likely
Speaker 2: to happen?
Speaker 1: I would say probably not, But I mean again, I
Speaker 1: don't know, and I wouldn't stake a significant amount of
Speaker 1: my wealth on it. And the truth is, like when
Speaker 1: we look at history, we don't have very much data
Speaker 1: when it comes to cryptocurrency, not nearly as much as
Speaker 1: we do with the stock market. And so I guess
Speaker 1: a word of caution if you're to put too many
Speaker 1: eggs in the cryptocurrency basket. Yeah, maybe you get lucky,
Speaker 1: maybe you find yourself sitting on massive gains because maybe
Speaker 1: some of these predictions are right, but there's also significant
Speaker 1: risk in going that route. The headlines, they're all about
Speaker 1: crypto going to the moon again. But our yeah, our
Speaker 1: advice is always is to invest for the long term,
Speaker 1: and especially in the crypto space, only invest what you
Speaker 1: can afford to lose.
Speaker 2: That's true, Yeah, And the reason that's been blown up
Speaker 2: is largely because the crypto community sees Trump as being
Speaker 2: sympathetic to their cause based on what he said, and
Speaker 2: he says a whole lot so you know, maybe taking
Speaker 2: as many things grain of salt, but they see fewer constraints,
Speaker 2: fewer regulations within the crypto space just generally speaking. Moving forward,
Speaker 2: he's even mentioned the possibility of a like this national
Speaker 2: strategic Bitcoin reserve, sort of like what we have with oil,
Speaker 2: like a just like a stockpile coin base. They've actually
Speaker 2: even benefited handsomely from the election too, as more folks
Speaker 2: are there's more interest in cryptocurrency.
Speaker 1: It's like all signs are pointing towards like crypto, less
Speaker 1: crypto regulation, more interesting crypto, and more of like a
Speaker 1: government support of cryptocurrency.
Speaker 2: There's a whole lot more excitement and trust. It's it's
Speaker 2: continuing to build in bitcoin, in particular as the store
Speaker 2: of value black rocks bitcoin ETF, it has more now
Speaker 2: in assets then it's gold ETF like actual physical gold,
Speaker 2: something that you can hold. And so how should you react, Well,
Speaker 2: our advice hasn't changed crypto, especially when it comes to
Speaker 2: the mean coins are incredibly speculative assets and having some
Speaker 2: exposure to it, it can be a reasonable choice, but
Speaker 2: still please keep it to five percent or less of
Speaker 2: your overall portfolio if this is something that you are
Speaker 2: interested in, and just take all market and financial predictions
Speaker 2: with a grain of salt because we have no idea. Like, yes,
Speaker 2: trust is growing, and a lot of that has to
Speaker 2: do with the fact that it's even lasted this long.
Speaker 2: I'll be honest. My perceptions of crypto, especially bitcoin, it's
Speaker 2: slowly changing, slowly morphing over time, and that has in
Speaker 2: large part to do with the there's a track record,
Speaker 2: there's a history that you can look back at, and
Speaker 2: what is the value of currency if not just the
Speaker 2: mutual trust, Yeah, like the collective trust of everyone looking
Speaker 2: at it and saying that this is something that we
Speaker 2: believe in now and oftentime. That comes with time. So
Speaker 2: that's an argument I guess for it or why I
Speaker 2: still hold some bitcoin, But it's by no means a
Speaker 2: recommendation to go out there and get you some of that.
Speaker 1: That's right, or unless you're keeping it to a minimal
Speaker 1: portion of your overall portfolio. So yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we've said for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I think you and I have probably softened our
Speaker 1: stance on bitcoin in particular over the past few years.
Speaker 1: But we still don't want people to make it a
Speaker 1: major holding in their retirement accounts or anything like.
Speaker 2: Sure, so I almost hate saying this, but like another
Speaker 2: argument for it, I sound like a bitcoin bowl now,
Speaker 2: but like like I feel like the first wave was
Speaker 2: individual investors getting into bitcoin. But then what do we
Speaker 2: see four years ago? We saw institutional investors, yeah, start
Speaker 2: to step into the game. And I do wonder if
Speaker 2: more countries start to come on board, especially the US,
Speaker 2: because as the US goes, so does the rest of
Speaker 2: the world, oftentimes when it comes to countries. But I
Speaker 2: wonder if that's a part of frothy headlines that we
Speaker 2: see regarding bitcoin this time around here. Maybe.
Speaker 1: So all right, let's talk about cars, Matt. We talked
Speaker 1: about actually some of the repercussions of horrendous weather events
Speaker 1: in the South recently, namely the severe damage in Florida, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and North Carolina from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and Matt,
Speaker 1: my buddy was just in Asheville, like working on his property.
Speaker 1: Like it's still so much clean up, so much devastation
Speaker 1: from the flooding as a result of that hurricane. But
Speaker 1: another result that could impact literally everyone listening to this show,
Speaker 1: no matter where you live in the country. Is the
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of cars that sustained flood damage in
Speaker 1: those storms as well. And that's not an overstatement like that.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of cars who experienced flood damage where
Speaker 1: there was like some sort of insurance client made and
Speaker 1: flood damaged cars are getting cleaned up. I put that
Speaker 1: in quotation marks so cleaned up and then they're being
Speaker 1: shipped to far reaching domestic destinations. But just because they
Speaker 1: got cleaned up does mean they're actually in good condition.
Speaker 1: The damage that happens from the flooding often leads to
Speaker 1: like electrical issues, engine malfunctions, rust on the vehicle that
Speaker 1: lead to just prolonged issues over the course of you
Speaker 1: owning that vehicle. And those problem ridden cars, they often
Speaker 1: get sold for less money to scammers who are trying
Speaker 1: to flip those cars to unsuspecting consumers in other parts
Speaker 1: of the country. So then maybe they're maybe they're shipping
Speaker 1: them from areas in the southeast where they experience the flooding,
Speaker 1: they're shipping them over to the southwest, to the northeast,
Speaker 1: something like that, And people just don't assume that this
Speaker 1: car had any sort of flooding history. And this doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you should buy new cars to avoid like
Speaker 1: the potential for buying a flood damaged used car. But always, always,
Speaker 1: always get a used car that you're looking to buy
Speaker 1: inspected by a mechanic you trust, because they're going to
Speaker 1: be able to pinpoint and point out, say, listen, actually,
Speaker 1: here's why you probably shouldn't buy this one. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to see flood damage and kind of help
Speaker 1: point you away from buying a car that has it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it's worth spending a minute
Speaker 2: and talking about how much of a game changer it
Speaker 2: is to buy a used vehicle as opposed to a
Speaker 2: new vehicle. And so to argue our point, Joel, I've
Speaker 2: got some numbers that I've crunched.
Speaker 1: You always pree the numbers.
Speaker 2: The average monthly payment on a new car today is
Speaker 2: seven hundred and thirty four dollars. Now that wasn't the
Speaker 2: case sixteen years ago, but let's just say it was.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to say sixteen years ago because Kate
Speaker 2: and I that's when we moved from a two car
Speaker 2: family down to a one car family. Had we invested
Speaker 2: that monthly payment for sixteen years up to today, we
Speaker 2: would have around three hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. Dang,
Speaker 2: that's that's pretty nice, right were we to continue to
Speaker 2: invest that seven hundred and thirty four dollars, because guess what,
Speaker 2: in the future, that new car payment, it's actually going
Speaker 2: to be higher than it is right now. True another
Speaker 2: ten years, we're looking at a million dollars just from
Speaker 2: not having a new car. And I don't think that
Speaker 2: that's some sort of straw man argument either, because a
Speaker 2: lot of people do this. A lot of people kind
Speaker 2: of get locked into this new car cycle. They're all
Speaker 2: always making a payment on a vehicle, and we.
Speaker 1: Just normalized it so much.
Speaker 2: It's normalized and it's just seen as a lifestyle up
Speaker 2: not an upgrade, but it's just something that people are
Speaker 2: used to and if you can afford it, if you've
Speaker 2: got the money on hand, if you have the money
Speaker 2: on hand, you should be buying that vehicle new first
Speaker 2: of all. But secondly, I think some people see it
Speaker 2: as like, hey, this is something this is like my
Speaker 2: one thing that I like to spend money on if
Speaker 2: you can afford it, I think that's that. That can
Speaker 2: be okay, that can be a decent argument, but it's
Speaker 2: at least worth running the numbers occasionally and just facing
Speaker 2: the facts and how much this is actually going to
Speaker 2: cost you over the long haul, were you to instead
Speaker 2: go with something that's used and something that you pay
Speaker 2: cash for as opposed to paying out the nose for
Speaker 2: a new vehicle every single year.
Speaker 1: I mean, trade offs are the ultimate reality of personal finance,
Speaker 1: and at least know with eyes wide open the trade
Speaker 1: off you're making. And that, to me is kind of
Speaker 1: a shocking statistic to think that just investing what you
Speaker 1: would have spent every single month on a car payment,
Speaker 1: assuming you had won every single month for all those years,
Speaker 1: for less than three decades, that becomes a million dollars
Speaker 1: twenty six years. Yeah, that's pretty crazy to think about,
Speaker 1: and at least it should make you, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I you're the car sitting in your driveway a little
Speaker 1: more warrely be like, wait a second, you know how
Speaker 1: much money you're costing me? Think about that?
Speaker 2: Like if you are able to look at it through
Speaker 2: a different lens, like you're putting on Like I don't
Speaker 2: want you to always be wearing the money lens, the
Speaker 2: money goggles, like you know, as you're looking at expenses
Speaker 2: in your house, like you shouldn't instinctively see like dollars
Speaker 2: side it's like.
Speaker 1: Look at your child, Look at that much food you're eating. Expensive.
Speaker 2: Augmented reality where like you've got a program that automatically
Speaker 2: tallies how much something's costing you. That would actually be pretty.
Speaker 1: Dope, like the meta glasses or something. There's kind of yeah,
Speaker 1: exact software that could they could put in their virtual reality.
Speaker 2: I've never been a fan of, but augmented reality I
Speaker 2: feel like actually has potential, the ability to marry the
Speaker 2: digital world and like the actual reality that we're in.
Speaker 2: I see that being Ah, that maybe a useful uh
Speaker 2: useful application.
Speaker 1: Perhaps, all right, let's talk about fashion for a second.
Speaker 2: Matt.
Speaker 1: At the risk of sounding like an old man, I'm
Speaker 1: willing to dip my toes in this. Why are people
Speaker 1: still buying ripped jeans?
Speaker 2: Here's joll over here shaking his fist at the sky.
Speaker 1: Get off my lawn. People. Well, and this was actually
Speaker 1: this was the title of a recent New York Times
Speaker 1: article Why are people still buying rip jeans? And I
Speaker 1: just agree with this question because I've never really understood
Speaker 1: why people do this. I've never been a fan of
Speaker 1: the rip jeans phenomenon. I think I have a pair
Speaker 1: of jeans that have a rip in it, but only
Speaker 1: because they're like fourteen years old. You rip the whole
Speaker 1: them because.
Speaker 2: I earned that rip.
Speaker 1: Yes, insane buying.
Speaker 2: That's such a better way of thinking about it. Is
Speaker 2: like my living created that rip. Like me getting down
Speaker 2: on my knees to pick up my kid for the
Speaker 2: umpteenth time. Is what caused that? Where that threadbare patch
Speaker 2: there on the knee right, which eventually leads to a
Speaker 2: beautiful rip?
Speaker 1: Well, And as The New York Times highlights in this article,
Speaker 1: it's the funny thing is that it's luxury brands. Those
Speaker 1: are the ones that are specializing in creating these these
Speaker 1: these coveted pairs of ripped pants that people are into.
Speaker 1: So not only are people paying for jeans with rips,
Speaker 1: which doesn't make sense to me at all, they're also
Speaker 1: not getting them at a reasonable price because they're buying
Speaker 1: them from luxury retailers who charge more for ripped jeans.
Speaker 1: So it's not like, oh, let me go get this
Speaker 1: pair of rib jeans from Walmart because they're eighteen dollars.
Speaker 1: It's like, let me get the Balenciaga rip jeans that
Speaker 1: are seven hundred and ninety five dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if it was like, hey, you're gonna get a
Speaker 2: discount because these genes are ripped, it's like buying ugly
Speaker 2: food or dented produce at the grocery store. That's like,
Speaker 2: it's still good, but we'll give you a discount. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you take this off our hands.
Speaker 1: I might be willing to partake if it was exactly discounted,
Speaker 1: but it's not right. So I don't know that you
Speaker 1: or I are icons of style anything like that. Speak
Speaker 1: for yourself, but forking over big bucks to the fancy
Speaker 1: brands to buy rib jeans doesn't make really much sense
Speaker 1: to me at all.
Speaker 2: And I don't even like the distressed. It makes me
Speaker 2: think back to the eighties. Like the eighties is is
Speaker 2: that when like acid wash came in or stonewashed. That's
Speaker 2: what it was called stone washed, and it was to
Speaker 2: make the genes look like they were somewhat broken in
Speaker 2: because as a kid, I remember the absolute worst thing
Speaker 2: was getting a pair of like brand new genes that
Speaker 2: were like dark blue. Like that was lame and so
Speaker 2: I kind of understand from a kid's perspective, but now
Speaker 2: as an adult man, like those like those are the
Speaker 2: nice genes, right, Like this Japanese salvage dark blue raw denim.
Speaker 2: I love getting a pair of those because it's almost
Speaker 2: like a blank canvas. And like you said, you have
Speaker 2: to earn those wear lines. Yeah, you earned that whiskery.
Speaker 1: It's coming about naturally over time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's a and you're paying more in that
Speaker 2: case though, on those kinds of genes because they're salvage
Speaker 2: and so it's a it's a nicer denim. I don't
Speaker 2: know all everything that goes into it, but it's a
Speaker 2: nicer fabric. It's a it's heavier, it's like the heavyweight.
Speaker 2: However many ounces I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not like a.
Speaker 2: Denim head or anything like that. But like you are
Speaker 2: literally getting more. There's a utilitarian.
Speaker 1: You're getting something that's higher quality and will last longer,
Speaker 1: as opposed to getting something that is an attempt at
Speaker 1: at being trendy exactly.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, speaking of spending money on crap, maybe try
Speaker 2: and avoid Amazon's new line, Amazon Haul. This is Amazon's
Speaker 2: effort to compete with the cheap Chinese sites like Timu
Speaker 2: over there nothing is priced more than twenty dollars. And
Speaker 2: you may be listening to the show and thinking that, man,
Speaker 2: these money saving hosts of the podcast, they'd be all
Speaker 2: about Amazon Hall, but we're actually not. Because these quote
Speaker 2: unquote affordable products are they're often made incredibly poorly. That
Speaker 2: means they're gonna break quickly. If it's a fashion item,
Speaker 2: it means it's gonna unravel quickly or fade, or it's
Speaker 2: gonna pill and you're gonna start seeing more prompts to
Speaker 2: check out Amazon Hall over on their site or on
Speaker 2: the app, especially here around the holidays. But avoiding it
Speaker 2: is likely the best policy. We like getting a deal,
Speaker 2: we like the prices, but we are certainly down to
Speaker 2: pay a little bit more for quality for something that
Speaker 2: we think is gonna last the actual long haul. I
Speaker 2: don't know, I didn't really wrap that up cleanly, but
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, So the reason it's
Speaker 2: called Amazon Hall too is it because it's because they
Speaker 2: want you to They have to send it directly from
Speaker 2: China right to avoid the it's likely going to take
Speaker 2: multiple weeks to get your stuff, just because yeah, it
Speaker 2: is this direct from direct from China sort of to
Speaker 2: avoid the teriffs?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Literally, I guess like when you are when they're shipping
Speaker 2: it directly from China, like.
Speaker 1: They're in Amazon much much much less. They know, Hey,
Speaker 1: we're maybe competitive with a lot of American retailers, but
Speaker 1: we're not as competitive with Timu Sheian like those kind
Speaker 1: of companies. And so this is their attempt to be
Speaker 1: competitive on that front. But that in their attempts to
Speaker 1: be competitive with some of those Chinese retailers, they are
Speaker 1: going to have to reduce the quality of the product.
Speaker 1: They're reducing the price. Yeah, but a lot of these
Speaker 1: things are just going to be cheap chot keys that
Speaker 1: you should avoid because they're not gonna last very long,
Speaker 1: especially man, some of those clothing items. Think about how
Speaker 1: I've never bought anything from any of those Chinese sites. Man,
Speaker 1: I kind of I refuse to, Like, I'm not interested.
Speaker 1: And I know some people like are addicted to them
Speaker 1: and they get stuff for super duper cheap, but I
Speaker 1: just don't think the deep discounts are worth.
Speaker 2: The price we pay. Joel's buy an American made only,
Speaker 2: Joel's a Patriot.
Speaker 1: I'm American made only but like my goodness.
Speaker 2: Avoiding the absolutely cheapest crap out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean everything I read about the especially
Speaker 1: the clothing items, but like think about like the all
Speaker 1: the plastic junkin stuff. It's a lot of it's like
Speaker 1: completely needless stuff. And word, we're just wowed by the price,
Speaker 1: and so we buy. But how long does that thing
Speaker 1: actually last? And is it something that we use for
Speaker 1: longer than a few days?
Speaker 2: I know. Yeah, we are literally in the midst of
Speaker 2: having conversations with family right now as we're trying to
Speaker 2: figure out what gifts are going to look like around
Speaker 2: the holidays in Christmas in order to keep you know,
Speaker 2: just all that stuff that's gonna end up breaking or
Speaker 2: that we're not going to find a whole lot of
Speaker 2: value in to a minimum.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are important conversations to have right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, let's do a quick newsletter referral shout out
Speaker 2: to Brittany Ka. Brittany, thank you so much for being
Speaker 2: a how to Money newsletter reader as well as disseminator.
Speaker 2: You've sent it out to some of your most loved
Speaker 2: friends and family, so thank you for spreading the word.
Speaker 1: No doubt we appreciate you Brittany. All right, Matt, that's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode. We'll put links in
Speaker 1: the show notes to some of the stuff that we mentioned,
Speaker 1: and there's always more money saving information about how toomoney
Speaker 1: dot com. But until next time, best Friends Out, Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out,