Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're going to convince you to start talking
Speaker 1: about money. Joel, what's going on, man? What's up, buddy?
Speaker 1: So you know the car we got from Carbona, it
Speaker 1: only came with a single key fob. And we've talked
Speaker 1: about this because you were commenting on the wire that
Speaker 1: I had wrapped around the electronics portion to hold it together,
Speaker 1: because when I would stick it into the ignition to
Speaker 1: turn it, it would want to rip apart, which is
Speaker 1: no good man. It was a little awkward, precarious the
Speaker 1: way you had to set up. Yeah, the metal kind
Speaker 1: of poked out a little bit too, so we kind
Speaker 1: of like cut your hand. You could like stabling your
Speaker 1: kids accidentally with it or something. But seriously, for weeks
Speaker 1: I have been concerned that it was gonna snap off
Speaker 1: in the ignition while I am far from home, and
Speaker 1: that I would be stranded. It's specifically that it would
Speaker 1: end up costing me a ton of money to have
Speaker 1: to pay for a mobile key service to show up,
Speaker 1: have to pay their exorbitant rates, and then a few
Speaker 1: hundred dollars later I then have a working key, right,
Speaker 1: And so it kind of came down for me to
Speaker 1: this question of am I being cheap or am I
Speaker 1: being frugal by not replacing the key? And by the way, man,
Speaker 1: a lot of people get ripped off by locksmiths. There
Speaker 1: are so many locksmith scams it's not even funny. And
Speaker 1: most of the locksmith scammers have really gamed the Google rankings.
Speaker 1: So if you google somebody local that's a locksmith, the
Speaker 1: chances are that the few ads that you're gonna see
Speaker 1: at the top are going to be from a scam
Speaker 1: artist who's going to quote you over the phone. Then
Speaker 1: it's gonna be thirty bucks, and then they show up
Speaker 1: and it's two so it's like a thirty dollar minimum.
Speaker 1: Well that's the thing, dude. I So I was calling
Speaker 1: around to a bunch of the places in Atlanta and
Speaker 1: that's and they were all kind of shady. They either
Speaker 1: had a mobile set up where the guy would show
Speaker 1: up to wherever you are, which I understand because a
Speaker 1: lot of times that's what you need for a mobile locksmith,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them are kind of vague. They
Speaker 1: would either say that there's like a third dollar minimum
Speaker 1: or something like that, but then they're like, well, It
Speaker 1: just kind of depends on the key, depends on the
Speaker 1: programming that has to take place. And so I would say, okay,
Speaker 1: well I'll tell you what I have. It's a you know,
Speaker 1: it's a Honda, this is this is what I need,
Speaker 1: and they would just say, oh, it just depends you
Speaker 1: just they have to be there to see. And I
Speaker 1: did not like that at all. You definitely don't want
Speaker 1: to go with a company that, when you give them
Speaker 1: the information, they refused to get quote at least take
Speaker 1: a ballpark. Yes. And so because of that though, I've
Speaker 1: been avoiding getting the stupid key fixed, and we're not fixed.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get another one made, but I
Speaker 1: was afraid, especially after we did our episode on Are
Speaker 1: You Frugal or Are You Cheap? I thought to myself, Dude,
Speaker 1: this is something that is going to end up costing
Speaker 1: me way more money because I'm gonna be strained somewhere.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to pay out THEA knows because we're
Speaker 1: going to be in a situation where we need to
Speaker 1: get the van, where we need to get the car
Speaker 1: and head out somewhere right away. And so I finally
Speaker 1: did my research though, and found a place that was
Speaker 1: a little bit outside of Atlanta. It was two double wides,
Speaker 1: kind of pushed together, the kind of place that you
Speaker 1: want to go for sure. But they did have good
Speaker 1: reviews and I called them. They gave me a straight
Speaker 1: up quote, and dude, I've had a working factory Honda
Speaker 1: key fob and I've got two of them now for
Speaker 1: just over a hundred bucks. I just wanted to share
Speaker 1: that because this is an instance where I felt had
Speaker 1: I kept kind of piecing it together. Literally, I could
Speaker 1: have I was using tape, I was, or I had
Speaker 1: wire wrapped around there. I'd like kind of cut out
Speaker 1: a little notch, you know, to hold the key together.
Speaker 1: But I knew that eventually that was gonna end up
Speaker 1: costing me way more. And even though I had to pay,
Speaker 1: you know, over a hundred bucks for this, I knew
Speaker 1: that it was most definitely worthwhile because it was gonna
Speaker 1: keep me from having to pay more down the road. Yeah,
Speaker 1: save you from being stranded or high and dry. It
Speaker 1: gives you the chance to do like some research from
Speaker 1: your desk, you know, while I find that right company
Speaker 1: without the stress. Yes, yeah, oh my gosh, that just
Speaker 1: sounds awful. Being strainded with the key, and then a
Speaker 1: lot of people too would have probably gone to the
Speaker 1: dealership to get a new key made. And it's true
Speaker 1: that some of those programmable keys are a little more
Speaker 1: difficult to make them. They used to be, right. You
Speaker 1: can't just take your car key to the minute key Kiosk,
Speaker 1: how your Kroger or your Lows or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But you're still not at the mercy of the dealership
Speaker 1: because they would have charged you probably per key set.
Speaker 1: I would imagine there's something close to that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would think so easy, it gets pretty outrageous. So you know,
Speaker 1: doing your research, finance someone else that does it on
Speaker 1: your own time before that inevitable breakdown miles away from
Speaker 1: home happens where your key falls apart. That's the way
Speaker 1: to do it, man, Yeah, And I think that is frugal. Right,
Speaker 1: that's planning ahead. I was able to do my research. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's planning ahead and not just leaving it to the
Speaker 1: whims of chance where you're in a much more frustrating
Speaker 1: position and in a position where you are probably gonna
Speaker 1: pay off the nose in order to get something fixed. Yeah, certainly, man.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is I just felt like an adult
Speaker 1: while I was doing it, all right, Sometimes that sort
Speaker 1: of takes right. We gotta feel like an adult exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, let's introduce the beer, Matt that we're drinking today,
Speaker 1: Zoos Juice by Westbrook Brewing Company and Angry Chair Brewing Company.
Speaker 1: So this is a collaboration beer collaboration. Yeah, Man, you
Speaker 1: pick this up at your local favorites craft beer shop.
Speaker 1: And what kind of beer is this? Yeah? So this
Speaker 1: is something I don't think I've ever had before. It's
Speaker 1: a sour wheat l brewed with a bunch of different
Speaker 1: stuff tangerine, pineapple, cherry, coconut, lactose, and marshmallows. So they
Speaker 1: put the whole kitchens in this. So I'm really pumped
Speaker 1: to drink this one today, share it with you. We'll
Speaker 1: fill everybody in on what the what this beer tastes
Speaker 1: like at the end of the show. Cheers, man, thanks
Speaker 1: for picking that up. All right, So onto the subject
Speaker 1: at hand. We want people to start talking about money, Matt,
Speaker 1: and in particular, we want people to start having conversations
Speaker 1: about personal finance with their family and friends, and Matt.
Speaker 1: That's part of the reason that we started this whole
Speaker 1: podcast was We wanted to have these conversations because they're
Speaker 1: fun for us, but we also kind of wanted to
Speaker 1: spur those conversations on for other people and give them
Speaker 1: something to talk about. Honestly, a podcast is one of
Speaker 1: the best ways to start a conversation about money because
Speaker 1: you can both listen to something and then come back
Speaker 1: together to talk about it. And so I know that
Speaker 1: a lot of couples have used Financial Education podcast as
Speaker 1: a way to kind of spur talking about those issues
Speaker 1: and trying to get on the same page and unite.
Speaker 1: This episode is dedicated to helping spur those conversations in
Speaker 1: individual homes and in relationships. We just wanted to be
Speaker 1: more of an open dialogue because there's a huge issue
Speaker 1: surrounding the way we talk about money in our country.
Speaker 1: That's right, man, and it's just bizarre, almost right, how
Speaker 1: these money conversations aren't a part of our life. We
Speaker 1: we talk about so many different things with our friends,
Speaker 1: We talk about things that might even seem more intimate
Speaker 1: and like personal with each other, but then for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: a lot of times friends and even family members as well,
Speaker 1: they just don't talk about their finances. But regardless of why,
Speaker 1: most folks don't talk about money. When you don't talk
Speaker 1: about money, you don't get better at it, right, And
Speaker 1: so we all have room for improvement, and so we're
Speaker 1: here to talk about it. We're here to talk about
Speaker 1: how much we spend on groceries, or we're here to
Speaker 1: talk about the amount of money or putting aside in
Speaker 1: our fur own case. And ultimately, like the end goal
Speaker 1: that we're trying to work towards by being spart with
Speaker 1: our money is financial independence. These are all sort of
Speaker 1: things throughout life that we want to talk about and
Speaker 1: hopefully shut some light and help this topic not be
Speaker 1: something that feels so off limits with you and your friends. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and something that kind of struck me recently. Matt was
Speaker 1: seeing some of the articles surround owning the topic of
Speaker 1: financial independence, that there have been a lot of them
Speaker 1: in major media publications recently, and just to kind of
Speaker 1: see the takes that some are kind of this positive
Speaker 1: spin on the idea of financial independence, and especially people
Speaker 1: that are younger achieving financial independence, and then to see
Speaker 1: the other side where it's kind of mocked and made
Speaker 1: fun of. And to me, it's no wonder that people
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about money that they don't want
Speaker 1: to get honest about it. They don't want to get
Speaker 1: real because on one hand, we're told that millennials in
Speaker 1: particular are stupid with money, they don't know how to invest,
Speaker 1: they're not thinking about the future, they want to rent,
Speaker 1: they're not buying into the standard American dream. So they're
Speaker 1: being mocked publicly by people that are older than them,
Speaker 1: that who write the articles. And then on the on
Speaker 1: the other hand, there's this young group of people who
Speaker 1: are trying to get their financial game in order, who
Speaker 1: want to change the narrative, who are handling their finance
Speaker 1: as well, who are stocking away money for the future
Speaker 1: in stocks, in real estate. There are people that are
Speaker 1: are trying to be prepared right, and then they get
Speaker 1: mocked from the other side who says that that's ridiculous
Speaker 1: to think that you can get your financial act in
Speaker 1: order and be financial independent at an early age. And
Speaker 1: so I think this narrative it stems from the stuff
Speaker 1: that we read in major financial publications. So let's just
Speaker 1: like you and I, let's let's say cut the crap,
Speaker 1: and and we're gonna say it's okay. It doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what Yahoo Finance says or seeing in money or any
Speaker 1: of those guys. You control the way you talk about
Speaker 1: money in your life with the people that you care about,
Speaker 1: with your friends and with your your family, And so
Speaker 1: we're gonna give you kind of some practical tips in
Speaker 1: this episode for how to open up those lines of communication,
Speaker 1: for how to kind of transition money away from being
Speaker 1: a taboo subject in your house or where you live
Speaker 1: with your spouse maybe even and try to kind of
Speaker 1: make it a more approachable topic. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: our goal here in this episode. I mean, I love
Speaker 1: that you mentioned millennials as well, because millennials, of all
Speaker 1: the generations that were out there for a recent survey,
Speaker 1: they are the most willing to talk about their finances
Speaker 1: with their friends. But that being said, overall, seventy Americans
Speaker 1: still feel that it's rude to talk about their personal
Speaker 1: finances in social situations, which, man, it is just again
Speaker 1: just bizarre that there's just so many things that we
Speaker 1: discuss as friends or as family members, but money and
Speaker 1: just how we relate to money, and how what we
Speaker 1: spend our money on and the amount that we're saving.
Speaker 1: These are just topics that we that we tend to
Speaker 1: avoid and it seems like the super taboo subject of
Speaker 1: politics or another super taboo subject of sex, like those
Speaker 1: are subjects that we actually feel more comfortable broaching, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: than the topic of money. It seems like that that
Speaker 1: the topic of money has almost more of a poll
Speaker 1: like on our heart, And if someone asks you a
Speaker 1: question in a social setting about politics or sex, you
Speaker 1: might feel more comfortable answering a question about probably those
Speaker 1: subjects than you even would about money, which I think
Speaker 1: it's fascinating, which seems to be true to me just
Speaker 1: from kind of the experiences I've had talking with people
Speaker 1: about money. And then it also just seems odd, right
Speaker 1: that we were so uncomfortable with that topic as a whole.
Speaker 1: And I think what it comes down to, Matt, is
Speaker 1: that most of us are just really, really bad with money,
Speaker 1: and that's why we feel so uncomfortable broaching the subject.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I think it's a cultural thing as well.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times folks are raised to
Speaker 1: not talk about money. It's not something they grew up
Speaker 1: hearing their parents talk about. And because of that, it's
Speaker 1: something that they translate into their own personal lives with
Speaker 1: their own friends and with their own family. It's like etiquette, right.
Speaker 1: You can blame that on the Emily post. She's like
Speaker 1: the etiquette queen, I guess, and I have my silver
Speaker 1: ware on the correct side at all times. Gotta use
Speaker 1: that salad forward, dude. Yeah, Matt, and you and I
Speaker 1: both also think that one of the benefits of getting
Speaker 1: our friends and our family talking about money with us
Speaker 1: and having those conversations, it seems to make it more
Speaker 1: fun for everyone if we can actually start to have
Speaker 1: that conversation. Right, It might be awkward in the beginning,
Speaker 1: but ultimately it leads to more fun because we're able
Speaker 1: to talk about something that matters to us, that we
Speaker 1: care about. Especially if you're listening to the show and
Speaker 1: you've been learning a little bit more about personal finance,
Speaker 1: you're you're kind of getting into it, and you're kind
Speaker 1: of realizing that the more you learn about how you
Speaker 1: handle money, how to save more of your money, and
Speaker 1: then how to invest wisely, just kind of prioritizing, you know,
Speaker 1: money going into the future, it kind of becomes like lonely,
Speaker 1: and you you want to share it with the people
Speaker 1: that you care about the most, and if you can't,
Speaker 1: that sucks, Right, You want to be able to share
Speaker 1: to the things that you care about the most, and
Speaker 1: so ultimately it's more fun to share the things that
Speaker 1: you care about, you know, just like Matt and I
Speaker 1: share a beer every week, it's it's fun to to
Speaker 1: share the things that matter to you. What we're gonna say,
Speaker 1: you're gonna share your your money with me as well?
Speaker 1: Now because I'm I'm okay with that, I'll talk about
Speaker 1: it with you. No sharing on that on that front. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: Well it's more fun, right, but it's awesome more effective,
Speaker 1: Like how much more effective is it going to be
Speaker 1: if you've got your group, your friend group, or you've
Speaker 1: got your tribe, and this is something that you're all
Speaker 1: talking about, this is part of your conversation, as part
Speaker 1: of the dialogue that you have with each other. And
Speaker 1: the times where I found myself excelling the most and
Speaker 1: whatever area of my life where the whether it be
Speaker 1: working out or academics in college, when we're really trying
Speaker 1: to do well, it was when I was working with
Speaker 1: the group, when I had friends that we're doing it
Speaker 1: with me when we're all striving towards the same goal.
Speaker 1: And I think the same thing applies when it comes
Speaker 1: to money and being smart with your money and investing
Speaker 1: like all the things that we typically talk about on
Speaker 1: the show. And for that reason alone, man, get some
Speaker 1: people around you. You have that accountability and yeah, like
Speaker 1: you said, it's just way more fun. Yeah. I think really,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to the people that you hang
Speaker 1: out with the most, they rub off on you in
Speaker 1: a major way. And so you are going to essentially
Speaker 1: reflect the five people that you spend the most amount
Speaker 1: of time with. And if those five people aren't talking
Speaker 1: about money, well, I'm not saying diet your friends, right,
Speaker 1: that's that's you could find another friend that can maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know, yeah, but at least try to work
Speaker 1: in like a new friend who's really good at numbers
Speaker 1: exactly exactly bring on that six friends. But another way
Speaker 1: to tackle that problem is to start opening those lines
Speaker 1: of communication so that you can bring those five friends
Speaker 1: that you're really close to into some of those discussions
Speaker 1: about money topics that matter to you. That makes me
Speaker 1: think of Kevin Hart. Have you heard his Uh, there's
Speaker 1: a stand up bit that he does. It's it's called
Speaker 1: stay in your Financial Lane, where you talk about hanging
Speaker 1: out with professional athletes. Yes, I've seen it. It's super funny.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna at all try to imitate him, but
Speaker 1: he talks everybody wishes that I wouldn't trust me. But
Speaker 1: he talks about hanging with professional athletes who make tons
Speaker 1: of money, and how when he hangs out with them,
Speaker 1: it pressures him into making unwise financial decisions. And it's
Speaker 1: hilarious and it's not safe for work, so listen on
Speaker 1: your own time. But dude, it is so funny and
Speaker 1: it's so true, right, Like that's the heart of any comedy,
Speaker 1: Like a good comic, right is there's truth and and
Speaker 1: and what he's saying there about that, it's absolutely true.
Speaker 1: We are way more influenced by our friends and they're
Speaker 1: spending habits, and not only they're spending habits, but their
Speaker 1: savings habits as well, and everything from what they do
Speaker 1: spend to what they don't spend. Man, it is also important.
Speaker 1: And so maybe yeah, look up, look up, Kevin Hart,
Speaker 1: stay in your financial lane if you have an extra minute. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: the thing that you said it is a second ago
Speaker 1: about your five closest friends and sort of bearing their
Speaker 1: savings and habits. I think I've heard something similar in
Speaker 1: regards to your net worth where your five closest friends. Essentially,
Speaker 1: you're the average of your five closest friends. And so essentially,
Speaker 1: if you look at your the net worth of your
Speaker 1: five closest friends or what you're what they make, you
Speaker 1: should fall right in the average, like right in the
Speaker 1: middle of all all five of those. Yeah, man, I
Speaker 1: feel like, honestly, you and I are probably perfect examples
Speaker 1: for how if we weren't friends, we would probably both
Speaker 1: be pretty good with money. But the fact that we
Speaker 1: are friends and we talk about it, I feel like
Speaker 1: we just spur each other on, oh yeah man, towards
Speaker 1: being better, digging deeper, going harder, whatever it is, like
Speaker 1: when it comes to investing in rental properties, or when
Speaker 1: it comes to investing a little bit more for the
Speaker 1: future in our retirement accounts. I feel like our discussions
Speaker 1: directly affect my bottom line when it when it comes
Speaker 1: to how I handle money. And they're fun too write,
Speaker 1: and so I think that's what's crucial to note here
Speaker 1: is that it's not that you have to ditch your
Speaker 1: friends and find new ones. It said, it's important to
Speaker 1: have those conversations because because they're gonna be good for
Speaker 1: your friends hips. It's an important topic, right, it affects
Speaker 1: all of us, and then also it's going to affect
Speaker 1: your bottom line. You're gonna be better at your money
Speaker 1: when you're able to talk about it openly with the
Speaker 1: people that you're close to. That's right, man, And so
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and take a quick break. But right
Speaker 1: after that, we're gonna talk about some of the specific
Speaker 1: ways that you are missing out by not talking about money.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, we're back in the break and we're
Speaker 1: about to get to some specific ways that you're missing
Speaker 1: out if you're not having these conversations about money. But first,
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the reasons why people aren't
Speaker 1: talking about their money, because there are certain roadblocks in
Speaker 1: our way and it's just important to be aware of them.
Speaker 1: And some of those roadblocks are completely understandable to to
Speaker 1: why we don't have these conversations to begin with. And
Speaker 1: so we hinted at this one before the break. But
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why people aren't talking about their
Speaker 1: money it stems from financial illiteracy. Learning about money is intimidating,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times there's just no structural system.
Speaker 1: There's nothing in place really to teach us. Only five
Speaker 1: states in the US right now require formal education in
Speaker 1: high school for personal finance. Man and in those five states,
Speaker 1: like they only require a single semester of a class
Speaker 1: that deals with personal finance, and that is so little. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a huge bummer. I'm a huge proponent of personal
Speaker 1: finance education happening in schools, and it's such a bummer
Speaker 1: that it doesn't happen kids when you're sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.
Speaker 1: It's those are such formative years to start learning about
Speaker 1: finance and money and how that's going to impact you.
Speaker 1: We learned a lot about macroeconomics, but when it comes
Speaker 1: to the microeconomics of your personal financial life, I feel
Speaker 1: like we're completely missing the boat. So most kids graduate
Speaker 1: high school not having any idea how to open a
Speaker 1: credit card or what sort of impact that's going to
Speaker 1: have on your life if you do. They don't know
Speaker 1: how to open a bank account or balance a checkbook.
Speaker 1: And I mean checkbooks are old school, right, so that
Speaker 1: might not be a skill you're gonna need for much longer.
Speaker 1: But I just wish that it was more of a thing.
Speaker 1: And the great thing, I guess is with the advent
Speaker 1: of technology, so much great learning is happening online or
Speaker 1: on phones, right, Like you've got all the apps and
Speaker 1: all that's just right there at your fingertips. Kind of
Speaker 1: gamifies it a little bit, makes it fun. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: the tough thing is is helping the younger generation figure
Speaker 1: out where they need to go in order to get
Speaker 1: that education. So it's out there. But then how do
Speaker 1: we reach young kids with that information that they so
Speaker 1: sorely need, but hopefully in a way that that's package
Speaker 1: that they can relate to. But yeah, it's a huge
Speaker 1: problem that kids are graduating with really no basic level
Speaker 1: of understanding when it comes to personal finances. And I agree,
Speaker 1: when you're completely illiterate at something, you don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about it. If you don't know how to read,
Speaker 1: you're not going to talk about books, just this common sense, right.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know how to do anything about money,
Speaker 1: if you don't know how to money right, you're just
Speaker 1: not going to talk about it. Yeah, and so on
Speaker 1: the note, how did you as as young Joel, how
Speaker 1: did how did you learn a lot about personal finance
Speaker 1: and and how to make the right decisions once it
Speaker 1: came to spending and saving your own money? Question is
Speaker 1: super personal and you know what, I love that we're
Speaker 1: able to talk about that all the sho because that's
Speaker 1: what we're into and so, you know, just to be
Speaker 1: honest with everyone out there. Uh, my parents weren't great
Speaker 1: with money growing up. They are lovely people, truly my heroes. Like,
Speaker 1: if there were two people you said you can be
Speaker 1: like any two people in the world, who do you
Speaker 1: want to be like, I'd say my mom and dad,
Speaker 1: like for real. But they weren't great with money, and
Speaker 1: they didn't talk about money very well with me, and
Speaker 1: so I feel like, more than anything, I learned from
Speaker 1: them not handling it incredibly well. That's not probably the
Speaker 1: best way that you want to learn about money. But
Speaker 1: then again, I didn't necessarily have to learn from a
Speaker 1: lot of bad beats on my own, so I definitely
Speaker 1: learned from that. But they also did really help me
Speaker 1: along when I was young, encouraged me to to get
Speaker 1: a job when I was younger, and that like sort
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurial bent that I have definitely came from my
Speaker 1: parents helping me and encouraging me when I wanted to
Speaker 1: get out there in the workforce, when I wanted to
Speaker 1: start mowing lawns when I was eleven. You know, my
Speaker 1: dad was there every Saturday helping me mobile lawns, helping
Speaker 1: me get the customers and keep them happy and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So there was kind of both sides. And
Speaker 1: then as I grew up landing a job in financial
Speaker 1: media that helped a lot, I was immersed in it
Speaker 1: every day. I was reading every day, and then that
Speaker 1: was my job, but it became my curiosity. On the side,
Speaker 1: I was listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos and
Speaker 1: just immersing myself in the subject because it was just
Speaker 1: fascinating to me. I loved it. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's been something that's been a passion
Speaker 1: of mine for as long as I can remember at
Speaker 1: this point, But what about you, Well, you want to
Speaker 1: hear a funny story because you're talking about your parents,
Speaker 1: and it made me think of I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from my parents, learned a lot from my dad. I
Speaker 1: left him, you know, I didn't learn about from my dad.
Speaker 1: We're c d s, which sounds funny to say. I
Speaker 1: remember writing around with him. He had when when when
Speaker 1: you say CDs are you talking compact discs? Are you talking? Well,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the heart of the story because as
Speaker 1: a kid, I remember riding around with him and he
Speaker 1: had this sweet Z twenty eight Camaro and we would
Speaker 1: you would get it all shiny on Saturdays and we'd
Speaker 1: kind of ride around in it sometimes on Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Your dad so cool. He had a sweet car. It
Speaker 1: was loud, I remember that. But yeah, we would drive
Speaker 1: around and we would listen to music. We listened to,
Speaker 1: you know, he had CDs. That was the era of
Speaker 1: the compact disc And during one of those rides, I
Speaker 1: remember him specifically teaching me and trying to tell me,
Speaker 1: you know, like a life lesson story and talking about investing,
Speaker 1: and he specifically brought up CDs and how maybe I
Speaker 1: should consider investing in those. But the problem is is
Speaker 1: I didn't know what the heck he was talking about,
Speaker 1: and I was too dumb, I guess, to ask. And
Speaker 1: so I was just like, I don't want to invest
Speaker 1: in compact discs. I'm pretty young, but I think that's
Speaker 1: a pretty bad investment. I'm pretty sure they dropped precipitously
Speaker 1: in value right as I right as I take the
Speaker 1: plastic wrap off. Yeah, I mean I would go to
Speaker 1: CD warehouse and you know, I get my music there
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, but actually invest in c d s.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, I don't know how I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: invest in c ds. But even if I did want
Speaker 1: to do that, I don't. I just don't know how
Speaker 1: do I just buy the disk and not listen to
Speaker 1: it and I put it on the shelf like baseball cards.
Speaker 1: I just don't know. So I guess that's a good
Speaker 1: note for parents. When you're explaining financial terms to your kids,
Speaker 1: make sure you explain in terminology they can understand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he did, but I was just like not
Speaker 1: the window, probably not not paying attention. So that sounds
Speaker 1: like yeah. So another reason that people aren't talking about
Speaker 1: their money, Matt, is it's just not entertaining or fun
Speaker 1: to talk about money for most people, like you. I
Speaker 1: think you and I are outliers on that that we
Speaker 1: think it's fun. Budgets seem boring or out of place,
Speaker 1: or it feels like a forced conversation. Just money stuff
Speaker 1: in general, and right, it's this invisible thing that you
Speaker 1: kind of get to see what you can do with
Speaker 1: your money, but it's not something that's attractive or fun
Speaker 1: to be around. Like accountants, like those those guys aren't fun, right,
Speaker 1: That's what I hear. Like I think of the oscars
Speaker 1: like the award shows, and they always have that that
Speaker 1: point when the accountants or the c p A is whatever,
Speaker 1: they walk out and they've got the briefcases with the votes.
Speaker 1: That's the most boring part of the show because they
Speaker 1: just stand there and they talk about how they've made
Speaker 1: sure that they did it right. It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: that's cool, and then Steve Harvey bungles it all up
Speaker 1: and what else. But yeah, we think there's ways around
Speaker 1: that too. But that's definitely a reason why people don't
Speaker 1: talk about their money. And another reason is you might
Speaker 1: be afraid that your friends aren't going to reciprocate that
Speaker 1: you do open the lines of communication and your friends
Speaker 1: think it's ridiculou us and they shut you down immediately
Speaker 1: and they change the subject to like Kendall Jenner's Instagram page,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't what whatever whatever? What does
Speaker 1: everyone else talk about? Hopefully not that right? But it
Speaker 1: takes me in vulnerable, And that's what stuff about that
Speaker 1: is you have to be vulnerable. You kind of have
Speaker 1: to put yourself out there and not everyone is necessarily
Speaker 1: willing to do that. It takes putting yourself in a
Speaker 1: place of weakness a little bit, where like you said,
Speaker 1: someone might you might even get made fun of a
Speaker 1: little bit, or they might freak out and say why,
Speaker 1: like why are you trying to get up in my business? Man?
Speaker 1: This isn't something I ever talked about with anybody. I
Speaker 1: don't even talk about this with my girlfriend or my wife, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk to you about it. But again,
Speaker 1: we're here to say that these are conversations that you
Speaker 1: should have, certainly with a significant other, but also too
Speaker 1: with friends, because certainly there's just so many benefits and
Speaker 1: by not doing that, you're certainly missing out. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I want to say to Matt that not doing this
Speaker 1: can be harmful to all of us as a whole.
Speaker 1: The more money is shrouded in secrecy and it's not
Speaker 1: a topic that we feel like we can discuss openly,
Speaker 1: the more our friends and our family and the people
Speaker 1: we care about are going to get ripped off by
Speaker 1: scams that are flowed around, or are going to run
Speaker 1: to a financial advisor and spend way too much of
Speaker 1: the money they don't have in order to get started investing, right,
Speaker 1: And the more that we can talk about it and
Speaker 1: talk about how easy money is, right, how it's so
Speaker 1: much easier than you thought it was. You know, we
Speaker 1: talked about that early on in our retirement Investing is
Speaker 1: simpler than you think. Episode. The more that the topic
Speaker 1: of money is shrouded in secrecy, the more our friends
Speaker 1: and family are going to get hurt by overpaying, by overspending,
Speaker 1: by not thinking about these things. Well, and I think
Speaker 1: you know, if you're listening to this episode, it's our job,
Speaker 1: numero uno, Right, it starts with us, like, let's start
Speaker 1: that conversation because if not, we're doing a disservice to
Speaker 1: the people that we care about the most. I think
Speaker 1: that's right, man. And just in case you didn't think
Speaker 1: that this was a big deal, right, we're gonna cover
Speaker 1: now some specific ways that you are missing out if
Speaker 1: you're not talking about money. So first off, you could
Speaker 1: be missing out individually. And so we strive to be
Speaker 1: money smart, you know, for our futures. Financial security, Like
Speaker 1: that's something that we are working towards. We want to
Speaker 1: have options with our life. Does that mean that we
Speaker 1: want to retire and not do anything once we hit
Speaker 1: a certain age. No, but we want to have options.
Speaker 1: And so for you as an individual, if you aren't
Speaker 1: talking about money, you're not growing and you're not learning yourself,
Speaker 1: and that's that's definitely gonna have an impact on you.
Speaker 1: And it kind of sounds weird to say, maybe, but
Speaker 1: your net worth, this is you and the amount of
Speaker 1: money that you're able to set aside for the long term. Yeah, Matt,
Speaker 1: and I feel like you and I have both benefited
Speaker 1: as individuals from our money conversations and our money conversations
Speaker 1: with our other friends. And so as a friend, you're
Speaker 1: also going to be missing out if you're not talking
Speaker 1: about money. So if you're not great with money, you
Speaker 1: might have a friend who is a genius when it
Speaker 1: comes to their personal finances who could help you along,
Speaker 1: or vice versa. You might have a struggling friend and
Speaker 1: you could be that friend to them, and that deeper
Speaker 1: friendship from learning an entirely new side of each other,
Speaker 1: asking questions, having that conversation about money that can really
Speaker 1: deep in a relationship. Uh, if you're able to help
Speaker 1: each other in that way. Yeah, we talk about everything
Speaker 1: with our friends, just about right, why don't we talk
Speaker 1: about money? We know, we ask our friends where should
Speaker 1: I go for to take my wife out on a date,
Speaker 1: Like whereas a new great beer that I can find.
Speaker 1: We talk about all sorts of things with our with
Speaker 1: our friends, but we don't talk about money. And that's
Speaker 1: something that we can change right now. Yeah, Matt, and
Speaker 1: we talked about how access to information when it comes
Speaker 1: to money is ubiquitous now right there, blogs, their YouTube channels,
Speaker 1: there's some great resources out there for you, but there's
Speaker 1: nothing that beats, in my opinion, that face to face
Speaker 1: conversation with a friend or around the table with a
Speaker 1: few friends. That's sort of knowledge that you can get
Speaker 1: from hearing someone's personal experience, or hearing what someone's learned
Speaker 1: along the way and how they've changed and been able
Speaker 1: to get their financial act together. Those sorts of actual
Speaker 1: conversations with people that you live and do life with.
Speaker 1: Those are the kind of conversations that are going to
Speaker 1: help change you and spur you on way more than
Speaker 1: just a block article you read on the internet. All
Speaker 1: we talked about how you could be missing out individually,
Speaker 1: how you could be missing out as a friend, and
Speaker 1: now you could be missing out as a consumer, which
Speaker 1: sounds weird. To say, right, a consumer, because that's you
Speaker 1: spending money. But if you're not willing to ask what
Speaker 1: the deals are out there or negotiate, say a lower
Speaker 1: rate or subscription, you're gonna end up spending way more
Speaker 1: every single month, right, because a lot of times these
Speaker 1: are recurring bills, and so you're getting twenty dollars less
Speaker 1: on your bill one month translates into twelve months, right,
Speaker 1: and then you multiply that times however many bills that
Speaker 1: you have. Granted, this isn't you specifically talking about money
Speaker 1: with friends, but what we're saying is that by talking
Speaker 1: about money more often with your friends, and if it's
Speaker 1: a part of your sort of daily conversation, it is
Speaker 1: not going to seem odd, right, or it's not gonna
Speaker 1: seem foreign for you to talk about money with a
Speaker 1: customer service representative or someone that's trying to sell you something.
Speaker 1: This is a conversation that you can just strike up
Speaker 1: because you're used to having it, and because of that,
Speaker 1: as a consumer, you're going to get a better deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you might find out that you're smart. Friends, Sarah,
Speaker 1: stop shopping a whole foods and went to all the
Speaker 1: and it's saving like a hundred fifty bucks a month
Speaker 1: on groceries. They're just all sorts of life hack conversations
Speaker 1: that you can have when it comes to kind of
Speaker 1: how we consume. And I love those conversations about, you know,
Speaker 1: ways to save a buck because that those are the
Speaker 1: easiest conversations probably to strike up. Right, Hey, how did
Speaker 1: you negotiate that internet bill with Comcast? Or or I
Speaker 1: heard you don't have cable anymore? What do you watch instead?
Speaker 1: How do you get your content with? Those sorts of
Speaker 1: questions are the kind of softball money questions that you
Speaker 1: can have, and they kind of fall around consumption and
Speaker 1: people like to talk about that a little bit more
Speaker 1: than they like to talk about investing. Yeah, all those topics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: another way you might be missing out if you're not
Speaker 1: talking about money is as an employee, you might be
Speaker 1: getting paid less because you're not willing to approach the
Speaker 1: subject of money. Someone at the same job as you
Speaker 1: could be getting paid more than you. And so the
Speaker 1: fact that we're not talking about salary, and especially for women,
Speaker 1: to study found out that forty six of women across
Speaker 1: all industries believe that their gender is holding them back
Speaker 1: from getting paid the amount that they deserve. So I
Speaker 1: know it can be really awkward to talk about money
Speaker 1: in the workplace, and that's why most people avoid it.
Speaker 1: But we avoid it to our detriment. I think there
Speaker 1: are smart ways that we can approach the subject of,
Speaker 1: you know, what our pay is in the workplace without
Speaker 1: completely rock in the boat. You mean, like sending a
Speaker 1: company wide email and asking what everybody makes LinkedIn alert. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: definitely not that. But you know, there's a website glass
Speaker 1: door dot com and that's a great website for kind
Speaker 1: of checking salaries in your industry to make sure that
Speaker 1: your pay is commensurate. And there are a couple other
Speaker 1: quick tips that we can throw out there, and one
Speaker 1: is to talk to someone who's an actual friend where
Speaker 1: you work, right, it's kind of awkward to ask the
Speaker 1: person that works next to you how much they get paid.
Speaker 1: But if there's someone that you work with that you've
Speaker 1: become really close to through the years and you view
Speaker 1: them more as a friend than just a coworker, talking
Speaker 1: to them about pay is helpful. And in particular talking
Speaker 1: to people that are in the same industry as you
Speaker 1: but work for other employers. That's a really good way
Speaker 1: to kind of broach the conversation about money and pay
Speaker 1: and it could also drastically affect how much you get
Speaker 1: paid every two weeks just by you know, asking those
Speaker 1: questions and opening the lines of communication a little bit.
Speaker 1: And lastly, you could be missing out as a parent,
Speaker 1: So by not teaching your kids about money, you could
Speaker 1: be perpetuating the cycle of poor spending and poor saving.
Speaker 1: I think it's worth noting the impact that parents have
Speaker 1: on their children when it comes to money. What you're
Speaker 1: able to teach, and not only teach, but demonstrate to
Speaker 1: your your children can have a huge impact. And don't
Speaker 1: underestimate that at all. Yeah, Matt and his parents, we
Speaker 1: lead by what we do, by our example, right, And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times parents think, as long
Speaker 1: as I'm not screwing my kids up by telling them
Speaker 1: all the terrible ways that I've handled money, then they'll
Speaker 1: be okay. But our kids are learning from the fact
Speaker 1: that we're not talking about it. They're learning something very
Speaker 1: specific when we refuse to open the lines of communication
Speaker 1: and we refuse to talk to them and include them
Speaker 1: in money decisions and teach them about money and possibly
Speaker 1: even open up about some of our money failures. Right.
Speaker 1: Our kids learn from those things, and they learn something
Speaker 1: dramatically different if we cut off those lines of communication
Speaker 1: about that subject altogether. Yeah, we just talked about they're
Speaker 1: not being sort of formal structure is set up in
Speaker 1: place in schools when it comes to a formal financial
Speaker 1: education for kids. But as parents, you are the first
Speaker 1: line defense. You are the first sort of input that
Speaker 1: you have into your children and their view towards money
Speaker 1: saving and spending. Yeah, so, Matt, let's get to the
Speaker 1: practical tips, the actual steps you can take how to
Speaker 1: begin talking about money with your family and friends. And
Speaker 1: we'll hit those up right after the break. All right, Joe,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and now talk about steps you can
Speaker 1: take ways that you can talk about money with your
Speaker 1: friends and family. Now is the practical rubber meets the road.
Speaker 1: Let's make this happen. Speaking of rubber meets the road,
Speaker 1: let's take it back to my dad's Camaro. I could
Speaker 1: have been more direct with them, like, Dad, what the
Speaker 1: heck are you talking about? Yeah? I could have just
Speaker 1: simply asked the question what is a CD? Instead, I
Speaker 1: was maybe too embarrassed or feel like maybe I should
Speaker 1: have known already what a CD was granted, this is
Speaker 1: in the nineties, I was a little kid, But simply
Speaker 1: asking the question, right, if there's something that you don't
Speaker 1: know or don't understand, be direct and just don't beat
Speaker 1: around the bush. I think with close friends or with family,
Speaker 1: you might be surprised at how much sort of time
Speaker 1: and sort of hartate that that would save you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can save you a lot of time and trouble amat.
Speaker 1: I think most of us are too embarrassed to ask
Speaker 1: the question to follow up on something that we don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that's me at times. Oh yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: that was totally me right as a kid, I was
Speaker 1: so embarrassed of everything. Yeah in school, your teachers remember
Speaker 1: those years, right, Yeah? Completely? Yeah. So yeah, in school,
Speaker 1: teacher teaching something and I don't have the guts to
Speaker 1: raise my hand and ask the question because I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm supposed to know that. But you know what
Speaker 1: chances are the other kids in your class have the
Speaker 1: same question and they don't know what's going on either.
Speaker 1: You just gotta make that clarification. Yeah, so raise your
Speaker 1: hand and ask the question. And I think it's good
Speaker 1: for us to to just acknowledge that acknowledge the fact
Speaker 1: that many of the people around you have the same question,
Speaker 1: and chances are there's nobody in your friend group that
Speaker 1: has the solid answer. But I bet all your friends
Speaker 1: have a little bit of insight, and that's where the
Speaker 1: conversation starts. Yeah, it's happening to that hive mind. Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly right. So don't be afraid to just simply ask
Speaker 1: that question, because chances are if you have the question,
Speaker 1: other people do too, and they're not gonna think you're
Speaker 1: foolish or stupid. They're gonna be grateful deep down because
Speaker 1: you're asking the question that they wish they would have
Speaker 1: had the guts to ask themselves. Man, that kind of
Speaker 1: goes along with our next point, which is that a
Speaker 1: lot of times you're gonna need to go first in
Speaker 1: order to get the conversation started. You might have to
Speaker 1: volunteer your own opinion or maybe how you do things first.
Speaker 1: So for instance, you can mention maybe just a deal
Speaker 1: you saw, Jill. You mentioned that earlier, how consumer habits
Speaker 1: is an easy and sort of light way to breach
Speaker 1: the topic of money with your friends. But even something
Speaker 1: as easy as talking about a new budgeting app that
Speaker 1: you're going to try out on the phone, or even
Speaker 1: something maybe bigger, like that you're gonna consider asking for
Speaker 1: a raise. These are all topics that you might need
Speaker 1: to mention first in order to get the ball rolling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you might even mention an awkward podcast that you heard
Speaker 1: with two weird dudes that host it, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to kind of get the ball rolling
Speaker 1: right in another way, to kind of get that conversation started.
Speaker 1: That might be even a little bit harder, but oftentimes
Speaker 1: it's really rewarding is to share maybe some of your struggles.
Speaker 1: I feel like we can all identify because we have
Speaker 1: all struggled with money at one time or another, and
Speaker 1: it is so refreshing when a friend or a sibling
Speaker 1: or someone that we love and are close to actually
Speaker 1: opens up about a struggle that they're dealing with. It's
Speaker 1: just so meaningful because we have those same struggles or
Speaker 1: maybe other struggles, but they're similar, right, and we're all human,
Speaker 1: and there's something about identifying on that level because suffering
Speaker 1: is common to us all. We all experience it. And
Speaker 1: so if you can be that friend in your group
Speaker 1: that is willing to at least open up about a
Speaker 1: money struggle or something that you have overcome or maybe
Speaker 1: that you're still even dealing with that can be a
Speaker 1: really helpful way to start a money conversation. Yeah man,
Speaker 1: And this goes back to one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: people don't open up is that this can be a
Speaker 1: really vulnerable point in your life to be able to
Speaker 1: do something like that, to maybe put yourself in what
Speaker 1: you would consider a point of weakness, right to not
Speaker 1: feel like that you've got all your all your crap
Speaker 1: together and feel like you can go with the answers.
Speaker 1: But sometimes going in with the question is one of
Speaker 1: the best ways to find answers. And you're never going
Speaker 1: to figure that out if you don't put yourself out
Speaker 1: there all right. Another step you can take, Matt to
Speaker 1: get those money conversations started or to use real events,
Speaker 1: Yeah man, I think this one is especially good for
Speaker 1: someone who may not seem that interested in talking about
Speaker 1: their money. If you know that it's gonna be an
Speaker 1: uphill battle to talk about money with a particular individual,
Speaker 1: using real life events, using some sort of practical way
Speaker 1: to get sort of under the radar and get talking
Speaker 1: about money is going to be the way in, and
Speaker 1: so a way that's easy to do. This is think
Speaker 1: about maybe an instance where you have friends that want
Speaker 1: to go out, and if it's maybe towards the end
Speaker 1: of the month, or even if it's not towards the
Speaker 1: end of the month, you could say, Hey, I'm actually
Speaker 1: gonna have to sit out this time because my entertainment
Speaker 1: funds getting low for the month, and yeah, I'll just
Speaker 1: have to meet up with you guys next time. And
Speaker 1: hopefully a response like that might get folks talking and
Speaker 1: they might ask you the question like, well, what's that
Speaker 1: all about? Like what are you talking about? You've got
Speaker 1: plenty of money, how how come you can't come out?
Speaker 1: And so that's the sort of thing that might sound lame,
Speaker 1: but for someone who is also struggling with money, when
Speaker 1: they hear that, a little light goes off and they think, oh, man,
Speaker 1: that's what I need to be saying, but I'm not.
Speaker 1: It's like a leadership quality to right, that you can
Speaker 1: possess amongst your group of friends or with your significant
Speaker 1: other or with your kids. Right. A lot of this
Speaker 1: is kind of leading that charge, because a true leader
Speaker 1: opens up about their failures, like we just talked about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you feel maybe a little uncomfortable being that
Speaker 1: guy or that girl in your group of friends. Maybe
Speaker 1: instead broaching a real life event in pop culture or
Speaker 1: with what's going on right now. So, for instance, the
Speaker 1: stock market has had a rough couple of weeks. Maybe
Speaker 1: you could open up the lines of communication with a
Speaker 1: random conversation about that. And then you can refer to
Speaker 1: our episode where we talk about not timing the stock market. Right,
Speaker 1: that's something that's top of mind and a little less
Speaker 1: intimidating of a subject to bring up than everybody's personal budget, right,
Speaker 1: And and something else. Every year in the United States,
Speaker 1: most Americans get a tax refund, and that becomes a
Speaker 1: popular topic of conversation. Hey, what are you doing with
Speaker 1: your sweet refund this year? And Matt and I had
Speaker 1: a conversation about that a while back. You can dig
Speaker 1: up that episode. But that's another kind of great way
Speaker 1: to spur on that conversation. It's something that's going to
Speaker 1: happen right early next year. Everyone's gonna be talking about it.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be articles all over the internet about what
Speaker 1: to do with your tax refund, And that's just a
Speaker 1: great topic of conversation to bring up with your friends,
Speaker 1: your family. Hey, what are you doing with your tax refund?
Speaker 1: And you can kind of start a conversation surrounding that.
Speaker 1: There's common ground that can be had there, and who
Speaker 1: knows where that conversation will take you. All right, Joel,
Speaker 1: Right now, quick question. If you had a tax refund
Speaker 1: right now, let's say two grand, and you could not
Speaker 1: invest it, you had to blow it, what would you
Speaker 1: spend it on? All right? The first thing that's coming
Speaker 1: to my mind not well thought out, but uh, probably
Speaker 1: another bike, honestly. Oh yeah, yeah, you know, I always
Speaker 1: thought it was weird how people that were into biking
Speaker 1: had multiple bikes, had multiple bikes, and they nerded out
Speaker 1: of it and they wanted another bike. Man, now that
Speaker 1: I've been biking for about a year and a half
Speaker 1: pretty solidly, I'm kind of itching for like another really
Speaker 1: cool bike, different ride. Yeah, so that would probably be it,
Speaker 1: I'll do. That's a good answer, because right now, my
Speaker 1: daily bike that I ride the most often is the
Speaker 1: big cargo bike that used the hall the girls around on.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I just want to hop on a bike
Speaker 1: and head up to somewhere close by. You want something's
Speaker 1: felt fast, something a little quicker, and I would love
Speaker 1: to have something lighter. I was gonna say a trip,
Speaker 1: because I feel like K and I haven't gone out
Speaker 1: on a little vacation in a while, like just the
Speaker 1: two of us, So that's always I feel like that's
Speaker 1: always a good thing to to blow a tax refund on,
Speaker 1: if I mean, if you're not going to invest it,
Speaker 1: which wee would recommend investing it, but it's getting away
Speaker 1: with with a significant other that sounds really good right
Speaker 1: about now. Yeah, we would definitely recommend investing a strong
Speaker 1: portion of that. But but a good trip, that's man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. If if it wasn't a bike, you probably
Speaker 1: would be for me and the fam or or or
Speaker 1: Emily and I to to take a little trip somewhere.
Speaker 1: All right, real quick, a couple more tips before you
Speaker 1: wrap this up, And I want to say that it
Speaker 1: might be easier for folks to talk in percentages rather
Speaker 1: than actual dollar amounts. So when it comes to how
Speaker 1: much you're saving, for instance, that might feel weird to
Speaker 1: say an actual hard dollar amount that you're saving, But
Speaker 1: if you can talk to somebody else who might make
Speaker 1: a different amount than you do, but you're both saying,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'm sitting aside ten percent of my income
Speaker 1: as well. Well. Boom, you found common ground, which is awesome.
Speaker 1: That way, you can have conversations like this with someone
Speaker 1: else who might be in a very different life stage
Speaker 1: in you, or they might have very different expenses, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're able to sort of level
Speaker 1: the playing field and you know that you have similar approaches,
Speaker 1: you have a similar goal in mind, even though the
Speaker 1: dollar amounts might be way different. Yeah, it's a different
Speaker 1: conversation when you talk about your employer four oh one
Speaker 1: K match and how much you're putting in. Let's say
Speaker 1: you're saving five percent of your pay or ten percent
Speaker 1: of your pay in a four oh one K. That's
Speaker 1: that feels like a less daunting conversation to have than
Speaker 1: your friend that tells you that they're saving sixteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year in their four oh one came right,
Speaker 1: Like over achiever, right, But but that's just a more
Speaker 1: difficult conversation to have when you're talking about specific dollar amounts,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I would suggest for most people, unless
Speaker 1: you can, like it advanced level with friends that are
Speaker 1: super into money like you are, then you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you can broach dollar amounts. But it's just so much
Speaker 1: easier to talk about things on a percentage level, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: nothing gets lost in translation, and it doesn't make anybody
Speaker 1: feel less than or uncomfortable or uncable in the conversation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could feel like sort of braggadocious, right, if you're
Speaker 1: the sixteen thousand dollar guy and you're socking that away, Well,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a lot of money, but it might
Speaker 1: be from a percentage standpoint, the exact same as somebody
Speaker 1: else who might just be starting out at the company. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it can just lead to hurt feelings or people assuming
Speaker 1: that they're not doing enough, especially if we're not opening
Speaker 1: up about our salaries, which I don't feel like it's
Speaker 1: necessarily all that important for us to know how much
Speaker 1: each other makes as friends. Keeping it at a percentage
Speaker 1: level based conversation just makes things less awkward, a little
Speaker 1: bit easier, and kind of standardized across all fronts. And
Speaker 1: another way that you can make people feel really uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: other than throwing out a huge dollar amounts that you
Speaker 1: might be saving or even spending, is shutting someone down
Speaker 1: with an argument. And so when you're talking about someone
Speaker 1: about money, make sure that you realize that you're having
Speaker 1: a discussion. You're not trying to win an argument. You're
Speaker 1: not there to judge somebody. You're there too for the relationship,
Speaker 1: or you're there to learn something, or you're there to
Speaker 1: help somebody else. That's stupid, Matt, You're wrong. I win,
Speaker 1: But be sure to keep an open mind. We all
Speaker 1: have a lot to learn. Everything doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: a competition, and it's always helpful to remember that there's
Speaker 1: somebody and probably a lot of people out there that
Speaker 1: are smarter than you are when it comes to this stuff. Right, So,
Speaker 1: every time I hear a guy like Warren Buffets speak,
Speaker 1: I am completely reminded of my own inadequacies when it
Speaker 1: comes to investing. But I don't have to be better
Speaker 1: than a Warrbuffett or know as much as he does.
Speaker 1: I can appreciate who he is from afar and appreciate
Speaker 1: his robust knowledge, but there's no need for me to
Speaker 1: become as smart as Warran Buffett, and there's no need
Speaker 1: for us to put up a front and pretend like
Speaker 1: we are something better than we are. Like Matt said,
Speaker 1: it's not a competition, and at the end of a day,
Speaker 1: the most important thing is retaining a solid friendship or
Speaker 1: meaningful relationship with your significant other or family members, and
Speaker 1: so coming at it from an opinionated or argumentative mindset
Speaker 1: is going to shut down the lines of communication. Right.
Speaker 1: We talked about how vulnerability can actually open those lines
Speaker 1: of communication. Well, if you approach the topic from a
Speaker 1: know it all or argumentative standpoint, it's going to do
Speaker 1: the exact opposite. It shuts people down and they don't
Speaker 1: want to have that conversation with you. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what I speak from personal experience, because I feel
Speaker 1: like I made some of those mistakes early on with
Speaker 1: people that I love and cared about. I was learning
Speaker 1: a lot, and I cared a lot about the subject,
Speaker 1: and I was a little brash in the way I
Speaker 1: approached some of those conversations, and it's shut them down
Speaker 1: before they could really get started. And so it took
Speaker 1: some time for me to learn a little humility when
Speaker 1: it came to talking about money with my friends and
Speaker 1: people that I cared about. So learn from my mistake
Speaker 1: and try to approach those conversations with some kindness and care,
Speaker 1: because that's what it's gonna take to actually get the
Speaker 1: money conversations rolling as right, Joel, Those are some wise words. Man.
Speaker 1: All right, real quick, let's get back to this beer.
Speaker 1: This is a collaboration between Angry Chair Brewing and Westbrook
Speaker 1: Brewing Company. It's called Zeus Juice. Man. This is a
Speaker 1: sour wheat ale is Ambrosia inspired, which I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what that means. Drink of the Gods, right, That's why
Speaker 1: I think it's called Zeus, Yeah, exactly, But what does
Speaker 1: that mean when it comes to an actual beer. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just supposed to be funzies, just marketing. But
Speaker 1: it's a sour wheat ale brewed with tangerine, pineapple, cherry, coconut, lactose,
Speaker 1: and marshmallows. They put it all in there, man, what
Speaker 1: do you think you dig it do? To be honest,
Speaker 1: I really did. And I think I mentioned this before,
Speaker 1: but I love low alcohol beers and this one's only
Speaker 1: four percent, but it packed so much flavor because of
Speaker 1: all those ingredients. It just kind of felt like one
Speaker 1: of those beers that I don't feel like it ever
Speaker 1: tasted a beer that was quite like this. It was
Speaker 1: pretty unique as well. You know what I have tasted
Speaker 1: that I thought tasted like this beer? Tell Red Bull.
Speaker 1: Oh dude, that's interesting. Yeah, like that sort of candy
Speaker 1: tartness that comes with just like a regular Red Bull
Speaker 1: energy drink. I don't feel like i'm talking about I've
Speaker 1: had a Red Bull in a decade, so I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember what they taste like, so I don't know
Speaker 1: that I can comment, but but I feel like there
Speaker 1: was that kind of candied cherry kind of notes going on.
Speaker 1: So if that's what a Red Bull tastes like, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was that and one other thing that I tasted
Speaker 1: later in the show, and I wrote it down because
Speaker 1: it stood out to me. Did you eat Captain crunch
Speaker 1: but with berries? I think it's called like crunch berries,
Speaker 1: I think, or Captain crunch berries. Actually, I think that's
Speaker 1: exactly what it's called crunch berries. Now, man, I don't
Speaker 1: think my parents would let me get that stuff in
Speaker 1: the cereal for real. You never had Captain crunch No,
Speaker 1: it was like cheerios and stuff man, classics only for you, huh.
Speaker 1: I guess you know what, Maybe I go pick them
Speaker 1: up this sweet. If it tastes like this, then I'm in.
Speaker 1: If you like that and you want to get yourself
Speaker 1: some cereal, you would love some Captain crunch berries alrightne
Speaker 1: sold Yeah, I definitely had sort of a berry fruitiness
Speaker 1: to it along with like that sour wheakness. It was delicious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was fun. I thought the lactose and the marshmallows
Speaker 1: kind of gave it this kind of fluffy pillowness too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're talking kind of crunch language. So this
Speaker 1: is really really tasty and I would definitely get more
Speaker 1: of it. So Zoos, Juice by Westbrook and Angry Chair
Speaker 1: also love a good collaboration beer. Those are always fun.
Speaker 1: All right, Joe, let's give our final thoughts. Man, we
Speaker 1: want you to start talking about money, because money a
Speaker 1: lot of times just feels like a topic that is
Speaker 1: off limits when it comes to things that you talk
Speaker 1: about when it comes to your friends, and that's umb
Speaker 1: we want to change that. And whether it's because maybe
Speaker 1: it feels too personal, maybe you feel it's none of
Speaker 1: your business, there are a lot of reasons why you
Speaker 1: may not be talking about money right now with your friends.
Speaker 1: It could be because you feel that you don't know enough,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't feel like you're doing a great job
Speaker 1: right now. Either way, it can kind of feel scary
Speaker 1: to talk about money when to talk about personal finance
Speaker 1: specifically with your friends. But we think that you're missing
Speaker 1: out ultimately by not having these money conversations. You're missing
Speaker 1: out likely on some individual growth by not having some
Speaker 1: of those money conversations. And also your friendships are are
Speaker 1: missing out on a depth that they can have by tackling,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the subjects that affects all of
Speaker 1: us really deeply and being able to connect on that
Speaker 1: level with the people that you're closest to. There's something
Speaker 1: really cool about that. You might also be missing out
Speaker 1: as an employee or a parent, and so we would
Speaker 1: encourage you to have money conversations that matter for your
Speaker 1: own personal development in all of these spheres. And to
Speaker 1: get the ball rolling when it comes to talking to
Speaker 1: your friends about money is that you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: probably go first. This isn't something that people tend to
Speaker 1: naturally want to talk about. And this is the step
Speaker 1: that's gonna take the most bravery. It's gonna be the
Speaker 1: hardest to do to you know, feel vulnerable and to
Speaker 1: put yourself out there. The chances are if you don't
Speaker 1: do it first, that's not a conversation that they're going
Speaker 1: to bring up and that's a missed opportunity for a
Speaker 1: meaningful conversation that you could have had. Approach these conversations
Speaker 1: with care because you know, it's weird to bring it up.
Speaker 1: It's weird for the people around you too. Because we
Speaker 1: live in a culture that emphasizes not talking about money.
Speaker 1: Most people are just completely silent on the issue altogether.
Speaker 1: So it might take some time, but it's definitely going
Speaker 1: to take a calm and kind approach, So keep that
Speaker 1: in mind when you do approach the topic with the
Speaker 1: people around you. Yeah, man, and just keeping it open mind.
Speaker 1: We all still have a lot to learn, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna be it for today. Man. Thanks to everyone for listening.
Speaker 1: Our home on the web is how Some Money dot Com.
Speaker 1: Check it out. We'll have those show notes up for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you like what you heard, please leave a
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcast. It helps get the word out
Speaker 1: to other people who also like talking about money. And
Speaker 1: don't forget to hit the subscribe button while you're there.
Speaker 1: So until next time, buddy, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.