Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am
Speaker 1: Matt's and today we're discussing protecting your tax refund, credit
Speaker 1: reporting errors, and fake Amazon reviews. That's right, Joel. This
Speaker 1: is our Friday Flight episode, which means we are going
Speaker 1: to cover a bunch of stories that we came across
Speaker 1: this week, uh and specifically how they pertain to our
Speaker 1: personal finances, our money. Uh. And we got a great
Speaker 1: note actually the earlier this week from a listener talking
Speaker 1: about one of the ways that she's kind of able
Speaker 1: to make a little bit of money on the side
Speaker 1: while also helping her neighbors. Yeah. Man, I thought that
Speaker 1: was so cool. Listener Stephanie wrote to us, and she
Speaker 1: she mentioned that she was shopping for groceries not just
Speaker 1: for herself, but for health vulnerable friends who just like
Speaker 1: don't feel going to the grocery store right now. And um, like,
Speaker 1: what a sweet thing to do, right, to offer to
Speaker 1: go pick up their groceries, because, like we've talked about before,
Speaker 1: getting food delivered or even groceries delivered, there's additional fees involved, right,
Speaker 1: It's gonna cost him more, and so Stephanie doing that
Speaker 1: for them is just a super sweet thing. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, Stephanie is putting those grocery purchases on
Speaker 1: her m X Blue Cash Preferred credit card and said maybe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's like nobody else gets charged the fee like that,
Speaker 1: her friends don't get charged the fee. But she's you know,
Speaker 1: racking up a little bit of those rewards at the
Speaker 1: same time while she's like doing something noble and helpful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a pretty good sized grocery run, like maybe two
Speaker 1: in her bucks. That's twelve bucks just on one run.
Speaker 1: I mean that could definite at least pay for your dinner,
Speaker 1: you know. But I think that this is a good
Speaker 1: way to think about it if you're kind of maybe
Speaker 1: on the fence about whether or not, uh, the annual
Speaker 1: fee that comes with that card, if it's worth it, right,
Speaker 1: because if you don't go to the grocery store all
Speaker 1: that often. But you know, I can definitely go to
Speaker 1: the grocery store, use it for you know, neighbors, for
Speaker 1: other friends who yeah, like you said, might be vulnerable.
Speaker 1: That's definitely can tip the scales a little bit and
Speaker 1: make it a little bit more worthwhile. But again, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a nice thing to do regardless, you know,
Speaker 1: to do it for for your neighbors, do it for
Speaker 1: some friends. I like that. Yeah, super sweet. So Stephanie,
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing and glad you're getting some extra
Speaker 1: cash back. Just a little bonus in your life for
Speaker 1: doing something nice. Alright, Matt, let's get onto the Friday flight.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the stories we found interesting this week
Speaker 1: that pertain to our personal finances. Uh. First, let's talk
Speaker 1: about taxes. It is tax season. Tax season is in
Speaker 1: full swing now. The I R S is accepting tax
Speaker 1: returns UM. And you know, we've talked about where you
Speaker 1: can go to file your tax return for free. If
Speaker 1: you make under a certain amount and I think it's
Speaker 1: seventy two adjusted gross income, you can hit up I
Speaker 1: R S free file go there. But one thing we
Speaker 1: haven't talked about is that identity theft is a legitimate
Speaker 1: concern when you're filing your taxes, given that nearly half
Speaker 1: of the country had their Social Security numbers compromised with
Speaker 1: the Equifax breach a few years ago. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: more about that UM later on in the show. We're
Speaker 1: glad to see that the I R S is now
Speaker 1: issuing identity protection pins, uh, because you might need them
Speaker 1: now filing your taxes. Basically, what this pin does is
Speaker 1: it prevents thieves from filing a fake tax return before
Speaker 1: you do, which would potentially give them access to your
Speaker 1: tax refund if you're owed one. And a lot of
Speaker 1: people are they count on that tax refund. They usually
Speaker 1: set it up. You know, we don't advise this, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people set it up to where they're
Speaker 1: gonna get a two, three or four thousand dollar tax refund,
Speaker 1: and if somebody else files taxes before you do, they
Speaker 1: get that money and then you have to calaw it back,
Speaker 1: usually in a long process with the I r S. Right.
Speaker 1: And so though even though you don't have to do this,
Speaker 1: you don't have to get one of these protection pins,
Speaker 1: it's not mandatory, we would suggest that you do it.
Speaker 1: You can get your own PIN by going to the
Speaker 1: I r S website where you provide your info and
Speaker 1: you opt into the program, and then when you file
Speaker 1: your return, you input that PIN, and a potential identity thief, well,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have access to that PIN, meaning they can't
Speaker 1: file that return as if they were you. So we'll
Speaker 1: put that link in the show notes. Because it's not
Speaker 1: like some easy term member u r L. But it's
Speaker 1: not like it's like thirty or forty characters long. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, go to our site how to money dot com.
Speaker 1: You'll find that link so that you can sign up
Speaker 1: for your own I r S protection pin. It's pretty
Speaker 1: easy to do it, and you know what, it could
Speaker 1: save you a bunch of hassle, you know. On the
Speaker 1: note of not only taxes, but Texas as well, we
Speaker 1: know Texas is still recovering from the storms from last week.
Speaker 1: We know things have been crazy out there right due
Speaker 1: to the storms. We definitely feel for everyone who is suffering.
Speaker 1: But there is some good news regarding UH taxes. The
Speaker 1: tax deadline has been extended to June for residents of
Speaker 1: Texas as well as other states that had disaster declarations
Speaker 1: issued by FEMA. And so this also means that affected
Speaker 1: taxpayers will have until June ira A contributions as well
Speaker 1: as quarterly estimates as well, if that's something that you
Speaker 1: have to pay. Yeah, smart moved by the I r S.
Speaker 1: Very helpful to the people of Texas that have suffered
Speaker 1: greatly in recent weeks. And Matt two, let's talk about
Speaker 1: how people at an individual level can actually help some
Speaker 1: of the people out there in Texas to you can
Speaker 1: donate and help people that were affected by the extreme
Speaker 1: weather and power outages. The Houston Food Ban is collecting
Speaker 1: donations to help feed people. They're saying that a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty meals can be provided with a donation of
Speaker 1: just fifty bucks, which is really cool. And so in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: the Homeless Alliance is doing something similar. Will link to
Speaker 1: an article that The New York Times published where you
Speaker 1: can learn how to donate, how you can help, and
Speaker 1: also we'll put a link to Charity Navigator in our
Speaker 1: show notes as well. But if you've got a little
Speaker 1: bit of extra money and you're feeling generous, those people
Speaker 1: went through a lot and so if you can spare
Speaker 1: some money to donate in that direction, we would encourage it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the reason who we mentioned Charity Navigator is
Speaker 1: that anytime there is a crisis or or folks who
Speaker 1: are asking for money, sometimes you'll hear from organizations kind
Speaker 1: of out of the wood work, you know, they'll kind
Speaker 1: of just show up, and you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are giving to an organization that is doing
Speaker 1: what you want them to do, that's legit. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to vet that organization and charity navigators in place
Speaker 1: to do it. Yeah. Yeah, So let's shift gears. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the wedding industry, man, which is, by the way,
Speaker 1: a seventy three billion dollar market, and really, of course,
Speaker 1: that industry saw a massive shift last year. The Washington
Speaker 1: Post reports that about eight of couples post owned or
Speaker 1: canceled their ceremonies, and those who still had weddings massively
Speaker 1: scaled back for obvious reasons. But it's interesting that though
Speaker 1: couples cut back on some things like venues and catering,
Speaker 1: they redirected that money towards things like bigger and more
Speaker 1: expensive floral arrangements and wedding rings as well. So they're
Speaker 1: not doing just the cheap silicone rings like I'm doing. No.
Speaker 1: I kind of wish they would have, you know, like
Speaker 1: it would have been an awesome way to just save
Speaker 1: money overall. But folks, they I don't know, they I
Speaker 1: guess they still wanted to spend that money, but they
Speaker 1: just spend it in other areas. There's there's this other
Speaker 1: couple too, who said that they're planning to spend more
Speaker 1: on their honeymoon. In fact, they were gonna go on
Speaker 1: two honeymoons instead of just one, the old double honey Yeah.
Speaker 1: Once uh, you know, once travel is able to open up,
Speaker 1: and so it's just an interesting observation of kind of
Speaker 1: what's happening there within that industry. I gotta say I
Speaker 1: am in favor of the double honeymoon, Like why not?
Speaker 1: Man Like, especially if you're able to save money on
Speaker 1: other parts of your wedding right now and you can
Speaker 1: spring for two awesome trips, go for it. I'm sure
Speaker 1: the story how Kate and I went on two honeymoons, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because of the hurricane. The hurricane and Jamaica. So we
Speaker 1: had our initial kind of week off you know that
Speaker 1: we had planned, uh, and so we instead just kind
Speaker 1: of found a really affordable bed and breakfast in Charleston
Speaker 1: and spent the time at the beach. But then, yeah,
Speaker 1: because of that hurricane, we were able to then go
Speaker 1: on the actual honeymoon and go to Jamaica, and we
Speaker 1: did that over Thanksgiving. It was slightly shorter, but we
Speaker 1: got two trips out of it that fall. See, you're
Speaker 1: a fancy dude. You've been on two hunting super nice.
Speaker 1: All you need is a hurricane to line up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's similar to travel. There's going to be like a
Speaker 1: lot of pent up demand. Of course, in the wedding industry,
Speaker 1: things are going to ramp back up this summer in
Speaker 1: a big way in all likelihood. But the problem is, Matt,
Speaker 1: that there are going to be a lot of wedding
Speaker 1: vendors who are gonna be booked up and won't be
Speaker 1: able to meet the demand because I don't know what
Speaker 1: twice as many people are gonna want to get married
Speaker 1: this summer as in a normal Yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: there are certain vendors who can only do one thing
Speaker 1: a day, Like as a former wedding photographer, there's only
Speaker 1: one wedding I'm going to shoot that day. Like same
Speaker 1: thing with venues as well, like there's typically only one
Speaker 1: wedding that you can knows per day. You can't just
Speaker 1: like work harder and in order to meet all this demand,
Speaker 1: can't be in two places at once. And as more
Speaker 1: venues are booked up, and you know more photographers are
Speaker 1: booked up, um, you know you're gonna have to make
Speaker 1: some different choices if you're planning to get married this summer.
Speaker 1: In a particular, if you're a listener and you've got
Speaker 1: a cool space, you might want to consider listening it
Speaker 1: on a site like pier space or this open space
Speaker 1: dot com. More couples are gonna be out there looking
Speaker 1: at less traditional platforms to play in their wedding because
Speaker 1: some of the traditional wedding venues are going to be
Speaker 1: all booked up. So if you have a place where
Speaker 1: you're like, man, people will be interested in getting married
Speaker 1: in my yard. Um, I've got a nice little thing.
Speaker 1: We can make a fancy pergola or something where people
Speaker 1: get get married, toss some seating out there. You know,
Speaker 1: I might want to consider, you know, listening your space
Speaker 1: because you might be able to make some money off
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah. I mean, like some folks might have
Speaker 1: had an airbnb and instead they're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do like the every two days
Speaker 1: cleaning thing instead, Like what if we just host a
Speaker 1: party every weekend or something like that. I think it
Speaker 1: all just depends on what kind of space you have,
Speaker 1: you know. I think folks are realizing that people are
Speaker 1: down to get married wherever, you know, like a farm
Speaker 1: that overlooks the mountains. Sure, like it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be some traditional chapel you know, in the middle of
Speaker 1: the city, like like I think folks are often used to,
Speaker 1: So that's definitely something to keep in mind as we're
Speaker 1: expecting things to kind of ramp back up this year. Also,
Speaker 1: we're seeing gasoline prices really continue to climb since this
Speaker 1: past winter, in large part because demand is increasing as
Speaker 1: as COVID numbers are starting to go down. The national
Speaker 1: averages now around two dollars and six cents a gallon,
Speaker 1: and experts are saying that that's actually only going to
Speaker 1: get worse in the coming weeks with refineries that shut
Speaker 1: down because of all that winter weather. So you know,
Speaker 1: next time you're at the pump, maybe you can go
Speaker 1: ahead and fill up the tank all the way as
Speaker 1: opposed to just a quick fill. And if you don't
Speaker 1: already use it, the gas Buddy app is a great
Speaker 1: app to look up to see the prices around you.
Speaker 1: You know, like we wouldn't recommend for you to drive
Speaker 1: across town just to save a few cents, but it
Speaker 1: is a convenient way to at least know where to look.
Speaker 1: If you've got two gas stations that are equidistant from
Speaker 1: your home, definitely go to the one that's ten cents
Speaker 1: cheaper man, and so we'll make sure to link to
Speaker 1: that app gas Buddy in our show notes. We will
Speaker 1: and also to make sure that you're putting those gas
Speaker 1: charges on the right credit card, because that can effectively
Speaker 1: lower the price you pay per gallon at the pump. Right.
Speaker 1: Having a dedicated gas credit card or card that you
Speaker 1: know gives you the best cash back at the gas
Speaker 1: station is a no brainer, and so if you're a
Speaker 1: Sam's Club or Costco member, those cards offer the best
Speaker 1: cash back on purchases that you make when you're fueling
Speaker 1: up five percent and four percent, respectively. It's also important
Speaker 1: to remember that for most people, even as gas prices rise,
Speaker 1: they're often still a small sliver of your overall budget.
Speaker 1: So don't freak out. Don't go swapping your SUV for
Speaker 1: a new Prius just because gas got more expensive. I know,
Speaker 1: as I read these headlines, Matt, I kind of start
Speaker 1: to miss my niecean Leaf a little bit. You't you do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, electricity so much cheaper than gas. But um,
Speaker 1: but really, when it comes down to it, we don't
Speaker 1: drive very much, and obviously what we're saving by having
Speaker 1: only one car versus too far outweighs the additional price
Speaker 1: that we're gonna pay in gas. Also to one quick
Speaker 1: note update, the mileage that you're driving with your insurer.
Speaker 1: If you're not one of those people who's ramping back up,
Speaker 1: you're driving. If you have curbed, you're driving in large
Speaker 1: part due to COVID Let your insurer no, because you
Speaker 1: might be eligible for you know, discounts on your premiums
Speaker 1: because you drive under a certain amount of miles. That's right, man.
Speaker 1: And as gas prices rise, the exact opposite is actually
Speaker 1: happening in the world of solar. According to our World
Speaker 1: and data that the price of producing electricity via solar
Speaker 1: has plummeted eighty nine in the past ten years, which
Speaker 1: is remarkable. As solar paywall production has scaled up, these
Speaker 1: productivity gains are having a major impact on our ability
Speaker 1: to implement solar more broadly at an individual level on
Speaker 1: our own roof. And you know, utility companies are opting
Speaker 1: for solar over say, you know, let's you know, like
Speaker 1: building a new natural gas plant. Uh. It's incredible to
Speaker 1: see how solar has gone from kind of the most
Speaker 1: expensive way to produce power to the cheapest in just
Speaker 1: a decade, and they're still federal tax credits available to
Speaker 1: for folks. So this year, if you install a new
Speaker 1: solar system on your house, you still get a federal
Speaker 1: tax credit, which is pretty sweet, and that it's actually
Speaker 1: set to expire in two unless the government steps in,
Speaker 1: which they might then they might. Yeah, but it is
Speaker 1: really incredible to see. We'll link to that article map,
Speaker 1: but the visual to see what's happened with solar prices
Speaker 1: over a decade. It's just like it's it blows your
Speaker 1: mind that the solar prices have plummeted that far um
Speaker 1: and that it used to literally be ten years ago,
Speaker 1: like the most expensive way to generate power, and now
Speaker 1: it's literally the cheapest. And with a tax credit too.
Speaker 1: It could make sense for a lot of people. It
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense for everyone. There are other factors you
Speaker 1: have to uh, you have to think about when you're
Speaker 1: designing to install solo at your house, but it could
Speaker 1: make sense for a lot of people, especially you know,
Speaker 1: with that tax credit still hanging around. That's right, when
Speaker 1: the sun is not shining, you don't make power, That
Speaker 1: is true. But we got more to get to, including
Speaker 1: some interesting stuff about credit reporting errors and maybe something
Speaker 1: that the Biden administration plans to do about that. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that and more right after this break. Al Right,
Speaker 1: we are back and it's time now for our ludicrous
Speaker 1: headline of the week. There was a pretty ludicrous headline
Speaker 1: that we saw from CNBC and this one was titled
Speaker 1: millionaire who bought a home that regrets paying off as
Speaker 1: mortgage early. Uh. And then they had a quote from
Speaker 1: him which is, this is the biggest downside no one
Speaker 1: tells you. Uh. And you know, part of the reason
Speaker 1: we chose this article is because the headline is kind
Speaker 1: of tough to stomach. Let's all, I feel sorry for
Speaker 1: the millionaire who you know, paid off his mortgage right
Speaker 1: I'm playing my little violine over here right now. But
Speaker 1: I mean, despite the kind of crummy clickbait headline, the
Speaker 1: the actual content of the article had some surprise, like
Speaker 1: really helpful advice, you know, if you are one of
Speaker 1: those people who might be a bit obsessed with paying
Speaker 1: off your mortgage early. Yeah. I agree that it was
Speaker 1: a ludicrous headline, but actually had some legit helpful money insights. Uh.
Speaker 1: The author his name Sam. He goes by financial Samurai
Speaker 1: on the on the internet. On the webs. He he
Speaker 1: detailed his obsession with paying off his mortgage early. He
Speaker 1: and his wife were able to get their mortgage paid
Speaker 1: off in just twelve years, which is pretty good, right.
Speaker 1: A lot of people will be happy with that, would
Speaker 1: be thrilled to be able to pay off their mortgage
Speaker 1: in that amount of time. But once that mortgage was
Speaker 1: paid off, Sam kind of details how he lost his
Speaker 1: psychological edge to continue making financial prog rest. He saw
Speaker 1: that additional bucks a month that he was paying towards
Speaker 1: his mortgage kind of as extra spending money in his life,
Speaker 1: and he kind of started to soak it in and
Speaker 1: and you just buying more stuff, and that curbed. He
Speaker 1: also said some of his desire to hit some of
Speaker 1: the other financial goals that he had for himself, and
Speaker 1: that you know, when I was reading that, I could
Speaker 1: totally identify with Sam in that regard. Like as as
Speaker 1: our family wealth has continued to grow, fortunately, I've had
Speaker 1: to set up mental and physical roadbox to prevent me
Speaker 1: from seeing or using that money. It's helpful that you
Speaker 1: know most of the wealth that I'm accumulating is in
Speaker 1: retirement accounts that I can't touch for decades anyway, right,
Speaker 1: and in home equity that's harder to get to. I
Speaker 1: can mentally convince myself that it doesn't really exist. Now,
Speaker 1: you can't just show up at the bank and take
Speaker 1: some money out of that home equity account. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: you have a helo, which I guess I could do.
Speaker 1: But like knowing that it's over there, it's siphoned off,
Speaker 1: it feels like it's very removed from your every day spending. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels like vapor money that doesn't exist. And obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, someday if I sold the home, it would,
Speaker 1: But I'm all about these kind of tricks that keep
Speaker 1: us motivated and on track. And for Sam, paying off
Speaker 1: his mortgage, um kind of took him off the track
Speaker 1: that he wanted to be on. Yeah, I mean, and
Speaker 1: we would never want to stand in the way of
Speaker 1: someone who is, you know, attempting to pay off their
Speaker 1: debt and do so in short order, especially when we're
Speaker 1: talking about high interest rate debt like credit card debt.
Speaker 1: In that case, we would recommend for folks to pay
Speaker 1: it off quickly. There's no downside in terms of math
Speaker 1: or psychology, but attempting to pay off your mortgage as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible can have downsides on both fronts, So
Speaker 1: we just want folks to be aware before you put
Speaker 1: too much energy into that pursuit. Like, honestly, I think
Speaker 1: in the end, what folks need to do once they've
Speaker 1: achieved a goal like that is to remember, like why
Speaker 1: it is that they set out to achieve that goal, right,
Speaker 1: And so if for you, maybe that meant like being
Speaker 1: able to step out of like a more stressful work situation,
Speaker 1: maybe part of the reasoning was for you to spend
Speaker 1: more money, right, Like if you want to be able
Speaker 1: to increase how much you spent on vacation every year,
Speaker 1: or like how much you want to be able to
Speaker 1: give away, it's just important to kind of loop back
Speaker 1: around and revisit why it is that you had set
Speaker 1: these financial goals, and just to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: you're kind of seeing to those you know. Like I
Speaker 1: guess the idea is that we want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're not just by default, just spending more money
Speaker 1: without really thinking about it. Like all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're like buying more junk on Amazon, You're getting more
Speaker 1: meals delivered over priced meals delivered to your door because
Speaker 1: you don't feel like cooking. It's things like that. It's
Speaker 1: the mindless consumption that we're against here, not necessarily the
Speaker 1: consumption that you've sought out to pursue. Uh. And these
Speaker 1: financial goals have allowed you to pursue those goals. If
Speaker 1: you if you pay off your mortgage in twelve years,
Speaker 1: you're you're obviously being intentional. Right, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: very specific goal you said not to achieve and then
Speaker 1: you hit it. But once that happens, you almost have
Speaker 1: to be intentional again, right, you have to figure out
Speaker 1: what what's the next thing I want to tackle, What's
Speaker 1: what's the next place I want to go with this money,
Speaker 1: and not just achieve a goal? Um, and then you
Speaker 1: know sit back and get lazy. Well and that yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and and setting new goals is super important. But I
Speaker 1: guess what I'm kind of honding on on like making
Speaker 1: sure that you achieve that goal and then make sure
Speaker 1: like you think about why it is that you've even
Speaker 1: set that goal to begin with, you know, and like
Speaker 1: actually make sure you realize the things that you wanted
Speaker 1: to achieve with that goal. But yeah, like setting that
Speaker 1: next goal is super important though, as well, to make
Speaker 1: sure that like cool. Otherwise you're gonna just kind of
Speaker 1: coast along. Make sure that you are just living the
Speaker 1: life you want to live totally. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: to credit reports. Matt. We mentioned briefly at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the episode the Equifax credit breach of a few
Speaker 1: years back, and it turns out that more Americans are
Speaker 1: reporting errors on their credit reports these days. According to
Speaker 1: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, consumer complaints about errors found
Speaker 1: on a personal credit report doubled in the past year alone,
Speaker 1: and currently americans have at least one error on their
Speaker 1: credit report. Ouch a lot of folks. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of folks. This is a huge problem because the accuracy
Speaker 1: of what's on your credit report has a direct effect
Speaker 1: on your credit score. Your credit score, of course, impacts
Speaker 1: a ridiculous amount of things in your life. We've talked
Speaker 1: about that many times on the show. Matt, I was
Speaker 1: just talking with someone this week who is in the
Speaker 1: middle of a refinance and there's something awful on his
Speaker 1: credit report because someone else with the same name had
Speaker 1: is a massive outstanding debt of sixty and he's like,
Speaker 1: that's not that's not me. I'm not the end you're
Speaker 1: looking for. And this is called a mixed file, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the most common credit reporting error complaints.
Speaker 1: And just try getting that error resolved. It's incredibly difficult, right,
Speaker 1: because the credit bureaus aren't really interested in serving the masses.
Speaker 1: They're interested in selling your data, selling your information, not
Speaker 1: making sure necessarily that your report is exactly the way
Speaker 1: it should be, that your that your report is accurate,
Speaker 1: and that your score is accurate. Yeah, they're way too
Speaker 1: comfortable with their being casualties, you know, along the path
Speaker 1: that them making a profit. Right, and one in five
Speaker 1: Americans are casualties. That's way too much. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: And so if that is you, if you do find
Speaker 1: yourself in that situation. Uh, there are some templates, some
Speaker 1: some sample letters that the CFPB, which is the Consumer
Speaker 1: Financial Protection Bureau, that they have on their website. And
Speaker 1: not only do they have that, but they also have
Speaker 1: instructions as to how you can best dispute these inaccuracies
Speaker 1: on your credit report. And we'll make sure to link
Speaker 1: to those in our show notes. UM, but just generally speaking,
Speaker 1: we have seen issues somebum is when it comes to
Speaker 1: the credit bureaus. UH, and so que the government, you know,
Speaker 1: the possible government intervention. UM, it looks like the three
Speaker 1: major credit bureaus might not be around for forever uh,
Speaker 1: and they could be replaced by a completely new credit
Speaker 1: scoring system that would essentially be run by the CFPB.
Speaker 1: The major credit bureaus they haven't been very consumer friendly,
Speaker 1: like we discussed, you know, in general, uh in the
Speaker 1: effects credit breach. In response to that breach, Dude, we're
Speaker 1: worse than like the Dumb and Dumber sequel, which is
Speaker 1: that was a bad movie. Was it wasn't very good. Uh.
Speaker 1: This move would do more than just centralizing credit reports, though.
Speaker 1: It would also create a new algorithm that would include
Speaker 1: information like on time utility and rent payments. The current
Speaker 1: credit bureaus don't give those items much weight, if any
Speaker 1: at all, which negatively affects tens of millions of people
Speaker 1: who are paying those utilities on time. So we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. But we wanted to mention that this is
Speaker 1: something that you might start seeing uh and hearing more about,
Speaker 1: and if so, will make sure to let y'all know
Speaker 1: about it. And you know, it remains to bec what happens, UM,
Speaker 1: And you know, maybe the and maybe the CFPB, you know,
Speaker 1: starts handling credit reports at the same time though, and
Speaker 1: that might be the best way forward, but at least
Speaker 1: at a minimum, um, I feel like the CFPB and
Speaker 1: the federal government has not been doing the oversight of
Speaker 1: these credit bureaus that needs to be done, because literally,
Speaker 1: if one in five Americans is struggling having inaccurate information
Speaker 1: on their credit report, we at least need to see
Speaker 1: some more scrutiny over how these you know, private companies
Speaker 1: are coming up with these credit scores and their attention
Speaker 1: to detail over the data that they have on us.
Speaker 1: The current state of things just isn't working for a
Speaker 1: whole lot of people. Yeah, regardless of where you stand,
Speaker 1: you know, government regulation, when so many Americans are being
Speaker 1: negatively affected, this is definitely uh an area that could
Speaker 1: see some improvement for sure. All Right, matt Our last
Speaker 1: story of the day, Let's talk about online reviews and
Speaker 1: fake reviews on Amazon. Let's hear it. Online reviews as
Speaker 1: has always been like a weird spot, right. I remember
Speaker 1: when Yelp started and it was kind of cool to
Speaker 1: to get to see reviews about local restaurants and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and then they were like lawsuits because someone
Speaker 1: would leave a one star review and be like that
Speaker 1: sand which was trash. And so online reviews are in
Speaker 1: interesting space and for you know, us as consumers, like,
Speaker 1: can we really trust what we're reading when we see
Speaker 1: an online review? Well, according to analysis from fake spot
Speaker 1: last year, roughly half of the reviews on Amazon are fraudulent.
Speaker 1: Fake Spot and review Meta are sites designed to catch
Speaker 1: fake reviews and then notify you so you can get
Speaker 1: a more accurate picture of an item before you buy. Like,
Speaker 1: let's say you're looking at an alarm clock that has
Speaker 1: a four point seven star rating on Amazon. You're like,
Speaker 1: that's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, when you see four point
Speaker 1: seven stars, you just click by um. But maybe it
Speaker 1: turns out that checking one of those sites could alert
Speaker 1: you to a ton of fake reviews for that particular product.
Speaker 1: The alarm clock, in reality might be more like three
Speaker 1: point two stars, And if I saw a three point
Speaker 1: two star alarm clock, I'm way less likely to buy it.
Speaker 1: And both of these sites have browser extensions that work
Speaker 1: while you're shopping, or you can copy and paste the
Speaker 1: r L of the product you're looking at onto their
Speaker 1: sites and they'll rate the quality of the reviews for
Speaker 1: that specific item. So if you have been just willy
Speaker 1: nilly buying stuff on a site like Amazon based on
Speaker 1: the overall star rating, well you're gonna want to dig
Speaker 1: a level deeper because of the abundance of fake reviews
Speaker 1: that are out there. Yeah, a British consumer advacy group
Speaker 1: they found ten websites offering review manipulation services for products
Speaker 1: listed on Amazon. And on these sites merchants can buy
Speaker 1: reviews for as little as eighteen dollars a pop, or
Speaker 1: they can like drop ten grand, you know, and buy
Speaker 1: bulk reviews by the thousands. And so before you buy something,
Speaker 1: always cheaper to buy in bulk, it's I want to
Speaker 1: be the costco of the fake reviews site. Second, not
Speaker 1: not the aldi, but before you buy something on Amazon,
Speaker 1: you know, because of the overall star rating, think again,
Speaker 1: you know, do some digging on other sites before you
Speaker 1: make that purchase. Consider using those two extensions that we mentioned,
Speaker 1: and actually to read the actual reviews as well. You
Speaker 1: might see a ton of reviews that that contained poor spelling.
Speaker 1: I think that could be a fake review red flag.
Speaker 1: But then again, you think about just how people write
Speaker 1: to each other these days, it could be a completely
Speaker 1: legitimate review and there's just terrible spelling. But you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully this doesn't make you paranoid, but it does help
Speaker 1: you to shop online with a bit more of a
Speaker 1: critical I it's just gotten way more difficult to shop online.
Speaker 1: You know. I've even received products before where there's an
Speaker 1: insensive packaged with the product to leave a positive review.
Speaker 1: And so it's not it wouldn't necessarily be a fake review,
Speaker 1: but it can influence how positively you might, you know,
Speaker 1: rate that product. This is just another one of those
Speaker 1: areas whereas consumers, as we've moved more to online shopping,
Speaker 1: we we just need to basically get better at becoming
Speaker 1: online shoppers, you know, like there's there's little things that
Speaker 1: we need to pick up on as shoppers. And so
Speaker 1: keeping an eye out for those fake reviews, looking for
Speaker 1: like reviews with pictures I feel like are actually really
Speaker 1: helpful to pictures that like kind of highlight a little defect,
Speaker 1: like something that's not listed in the description, or something
Speaker 1: that other folks aren't talking about, or how someone who
Speaker 1: has actually used the product, right, Yeah, those are the
Speaker 1: reviews that I think are the best. It's like you
Speaker 1: didn't just get it and you're like, yeah, it looks nice,
Speaker 1: you implemented it into your life, and then you leave
Speaker 1: the review, and those are the reviews I find most
Speaker 1: helpful most um. All right, well, speaking of reviews, Matt,
Speaker 1: thanks everyone for listening to this episode, and if you
Speaker 1: decide you want to go leave a real review for
Speaker 1: our podcast How the Money, we would appreciate it. When
Speaker 1: you write a helpful review. It lets other people know
Speaker 1: about the value that the show is providing. It grows
Speaker 1: to How the Money community and helps other people get
Speaker 1: their personal finances in order. That's right, and we appreciate
Speaker 1: you know, great reviews, but honestly, we appreciate any true,
Speaker 1: honest review from from all of our listeners out there,
Speaker 1: So thanks in advance for that. Uh and folks, and
Speaker 1: find our show notes up on our website at how
Speaker 1: to Money dot com. Will make sure to link to
Speaker 1: any of the stories that we mentioned during this episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: lots of links today so that you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: get on our website. All right, So, Joe, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be it for this one man. Until next time. Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out, Best Friends Out.