August 20, 2021 • 30 mins
It's time for a Friday Flight! These episodes are all about the week’s financial news and the impact on your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we distill it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to continue to make smart money moves. In this episode we cover some relevant and helpful stories like: an easy site to help you choose the right streaming services, free Apple TV+, how rent payments will help you qualify for a mortgage, what to do about the T-Mobile data breach, paying to cut in line at theme parks, whether an electric vehicle is more affordable for you, drunk investing, investing fee transparency, whether inflation has impacted the price of brown bag sandwiches, eating SPAM, & cutting the cost of insurance.
And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money. Have an awesome weekend!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're discussing drunk investing, help for homebuyers, and
paying to cut in line. That's right, Joel. This is
(00:28):
our Friday flights where if listeners send us two thousand dollars,
we will guarantee return on their investment. All right, starting
our own MLM. That's a terrible idea. You have to
tell your friends about it, that that's the only way
that sorts. And they have to also send us two
thousand dollars exactly multiplication. Hey, they know how it works. Uh.
We have done episodes on MLMs before and they are awful.
(00:49):
And when this is what we're describing here is a
Ponzi scheme and we're not going to start either one
of those. We should put that out there. That way,
we don't get flagged by the CFPB. We don't want
to get shut down the government. Do they oversee podcast?
I don't know. That might be the FEC, but even
I don't know. They have to be sec depends on
what we're promising. Yeah, who has jurisdiction over we are
not a registered broker? Right? Oh my gosh. All right,
(01:11):
let's get to it. This is our Friday flight where
we look at the different stories in the news this week,
and we specifically are going to talk about how they
affect you and your personal finances. Joel, you got anything
for us here before we kick things off. Yes, yes,
I do, Matt. And it's this website called supposed dot tv,
and it actually helps you figure out what streaming channel
(01:31):
or channels are right for you. Basically, there's this thing
on the left hand rail. You click all of the
channels that you most enjoy, and then you can even
like rank them in order of which ones you like
the most, like ESPN Discovery Channel. Yeah, and it kind
of does this great job of helping you find the best,
most inexpensive package for you. Um. And you know it's,
(01:52):
you know, all likelihood for most people gonna involve subscribing
to a couple of different streaming services. But I really
liked it, and I think, um, it can be helpful
for you if you're like, Okay, when it comes down
to it, there's only these eight channels that I care about,
or these twelve channels that I care about. I think
he can really help you, you know, maybe lower the
amount that you're paying for streaming right now, or find
(02:13):
maybe a better package for you that you didn't know existed. Yeah,
what's really cool about it is not only can you
rank some of the different channels as you kind of
prioritize them, but some of them you can mark as optional.
So maybe, like you said, I don't know, you've got
twelve that you're interested in, Like I like Animal Planet,
but it's not it's not a meager break channel, but
maybe there's four of them that you have to have. Well,
it'll also tell you that, like, hey, look, this is
(02:33):
how you can get all those channels. But if if
you're looking to really save, this is the option for you.
I think it's pretty cool. It's just a way to
kind of automatically mix and match some of the different
services out there to lower hopefully what you're spending on
entertainment every month. But man, even you mentioning eight different channels, like,
I'm not even watching eight different shows right now, Like
I just don't have time to watch the one show
that I'm interested in right now, which is Ted Lasso.
(02:54):
Have you been watching that by the half? Yeah, it's solid,
it's I don't think it a season one. Yeah, I
don't I don't feel that it's as good as last year,
but it's still solid. And for us, we we got
Apple TV Plus for free because we purchased an Apple
device recently, so we still have that free membership going on,
which I looked it up. By the way, Uh, they
are no longer offering a one year free membership or subscription,
(03:17):
but if you buy a device, an Apple device now,
you still will get three months for free. So just
keep that in mind. There you go. Yeah, they're trying
to trying to get yoked. Pretty soon it will just
be one month. Well linked to to that website in
the show notes if you're trying to figure out how
you cut your streaming bill or how you find like
maybe like streamline it um, that website supposed dot tv
is gonna be helpful. But let's let's move on to
(03:38):
the Friday flight mat and let's yeah talk about these
stories that that really do have an impact on the
personal finances of all of us. The first story this
week comes from the Wall Street Journal, and and pretty
soon rent payments are going to play a factor in
mortgage underwriting. That's right, Yeah, this is the help for
homebuyers story that we mentioned exactly. And it's kind of
(03:58):
actually absurd really that this has not been the case.
I feel like the fact that you pay your credit
card bill a little late and it's just like, you know,
it has a massive impact, a negative impact on your
credit score, but that your biggest bill every month wasn't
an influence on your credit that's just silly. And uh so, yeah,
Fannie May is trying to change that. Actually announced that
this change. It's scheduled to take place on September eight.
(04:20):
And the best part is that this change can only help.
It cannot hurt your chances to qualify for a mortgage.
And if you have been making irregular payments, well Fannie
May is not going to include that history. But man,
I think this is good news for renters because it's
gonna factor into the underwriting for getting that mortgage. It's
gonna be really helpful as a sign that you are
(04:42):
good with money. It's gonna be a helpful factor and
getting approved for a mortgage when your lender can see
that that history of on time payments. Absolutely, yeah, this
is great news for especially to first time homebuyers who
have been consistent renters, consistent payers of their rent. Uh
you know stay over the past couple of years, that
kind of thing. Speaking of things that might affect your credit,
(05:03):
A lot of personal data was compromised earlier this week
fifty million T mobile customers. To be exact, a troph
of personal data was leaked and anything from names, two
pens to even social Security numbers might be out there. Unfortunately,
this has kind of become commonplace. But a T Mobile
they're saying that they're gonna offer at least they're gonna
offer some free identity protection, which yeah, okay, thanks at
(05:26):
T Mobile, but that's actually not enough. The proper response
for our listeners, for for all of your listeners out
there listening to how the money who might have been
affected by this breach, is to freeze your credits. You
don't want to deal with catching, uh, you know folks
after they have tried to open an account in your
name where your credit might be ruined, you want to
prevent them from doing that. Right. It makes me think
(05:48):
of like if you're buying a house and the home
seller was like, hey, by the way, this house doesn't
have any dead bolts, uh, and no alarm system, nothing
but the local police department. They're really good and if
a body does steal anything from your house, they will
definitely do a good job helping you get your stuff back. No, no, no,
I want to prefect that from happening. Uh, in the
(06:08):
first place, they'll get that police report filed stat Yeah,
it's like great, but I'd rather prevent it in the
first place. And that's what yeah, credit freeze does, and honestly,
it's it's the best step for all how to money listeners,
not just uh, the ones who were customers of T Mobile.
And we're involved in this breach because there is a
high probability that you've been affected by at least one
data breach, right, I mean there's the Equifax breach in
(06:31):
seen matt which involved almost a hundred and fifty million Americans, right,
and they have been countless breaches. I feel like we're
suffering breach fatigue. We just like read about another one
every other week, and we just assume now that our
information is out there, and I think rightly so, that
Pandora's box has been opened and there's not much we
can do about it. But while we can't undo the
leaking of our personal information, we can prevent criminals from
(06:55):
using that information to open up accounts in our name
and the ensuing havoc that that creates on our financial lives.
And we've actually got a guide to freezing your credit
on our website, will include it in the show notes.
And the great thing Matt about freezing your credit it
locks everything down. It is the dead bolt to the house.
But it's also completely free, and it doesn't take much time,
(07:16):
so it's well worth that a few minutes five minutes
of your time to freeze your credit with each of
the major bureaus UM and get on with your life exactly.
And if you need to open a line of credit,
we've talked about this before, but it is incredibly easy
once you have your passwords saved somewhere secure. UH. Maybe
not on Tea mobiles UM Mobile database, but it is
(07:38):
really quick and easy for you to log into the
different credit reporting companies UH and unfreeze your credit. Joel,
let's keep mo with Let's let's pulay frugal or cheap
in UH in Today's Friday Flight. One of my favorite
things we do question for you, would you would you
pay extra money to skip the lines at Disney? Depends
on how much I guess, and depends on how the
lines were. I definitely I feel like I definitely would
(08:01):
because the older I get, the more I realized, man,
time is like is my life, you know, like like
you can always earn more money, but when it comes
to time, Man, once time has been spent, like like
that might be ten minutes an hour, you know, several
hours that I would never get back. And one of
the things I hate doing with my time the most
is standing in line, kind of waiting in line while
you know your kids are pulling on you, if your sweating.
(08:23):
It's like traffic lines like drive through Like I hate
all that stuff. Well, if that's something you are interested
in doing, paying money to to get the lines of something,
you're gonna have to do now at Disney because they
are officially ditching their fast Pass in favor of this
uh this new version, this new iteration called Genie Plus.
So the way it works, you'll pay an extra fifteen
per person at disney World, an extra twenty dollars per
(08:45):
person at Disneyland for the ability to skip long lines.
But here's the thing that's on top of the already
sky high one day entrance fee, which starts at a
hundred and nine dollars if you were to jump on
this Genie Plus action, think you're going to see the
costs of your Disney World disney Land vacations skyrocket very quickly. Yeah,
(09:05):
for sure, I think Matt, what's part part of what's
annoying about this is that not all of the rides
are included, so you pay that extra money and then
it only applies to certain rides, which is super annoying,
right because not only does it cost more money, but
it's complicated and it's confusing. And when you have something
that costs more and is confusing, I think that's a
recipe for disaster, right because like if say, okay, what
(09:25):
if it was say fifty bucks all rides were included,
and it was like for your whole family. Yeah, super easy.
It's a very clean and easy decision making process. But
when you have to start like accounting for the different
rides that you want to actually visit when you're when
you're there at the park, that to me is the
biggest pain in the butt. Yeah, and it gets even
more model because you're not gonna be able to skip
(09:45):
the line on some of the more popular rides with
the Genie Plus upgrade, it's gonna actually cost you more
to skip the lines on the most in demand rides,
And then you might say, well, well how much more?
And the answer is that depends because the price for
skipping those lines is going to be priced similar to
like Uber search pricing. It kind of depends on how
many people are in the park and how popular that
(10:07):
ride is at the moment. So, yeah, I don't know.
Your kid might be tugging on your sleeve wanting to
go ride this Slinky Dog roller coaster and maybe that's
not included in Genie Plus, and you're like, dang it,
I have to decide in the moment, do I want
to spend an extra eighteen dollars to get us on
this ride quickly? Because my kid really wants to go.
And so I think it's gonna put some parents in
a precarious position. And some people have actually argued that,
(10:29):
you know, this new system might actually make the normal
lines a bit more accessible. I hope that's the case,
but yeah, Disney is quickly becoming an unaffordable vacation destination.
I just can't. Yeah, how how much are you gonna
span on one day with a family of five at Disney?
I mean just getting into the park, riding the rides,
and like, let's say you buy food there too. I
(10:50):
mean you're talking, you know, eight hundred bucks for a
family at five, that's pretty expensive. Cluss, Right, And well
you mentioned the Slinky Dog roller coaster. Did you mention
that one from a personal experience? It's an excellent ride?
There is it? I wouldn't know because we haven't been
yet because the prizes are so high, but one of
these days, obviously, uh, we are likely to go. Maybe
I shouldn't say obviously because like in my mind it's
it's inevitable, but it doesn't have to be inevitable. But
(11:13):
I just feel like it's something that I do want
to take my family too. You know, It's something I
do want the kids to experience. But I just have
to get used to the idea that I'm gonna be
paying out my nose, uh, in order for that to happen.
Start saving. Now, Yeah, let's talk about electric vehicles, Joe.
I know this is something that you are particularly. Do
you miss your your old niece on leaf? Oh? Yeah,
for sure. But I will say I'm I'm still glad
that we went down to being a one car family.
(11:35):
While I'm miss driving electric vehicle like it still was
the best move for us. Glad to hear that. Well,
either way, your next vehicle might be an electric vehicle
because President Biden he recently signed an executive order pushing
for an electric vehicle sales goal of fifty cent by
the year. The fact that it's an executive order, actually
it means that there's not really, you know, going to
(11:56):
be any enforcement mechanisms for this goal. But it is
worth kind of wondering what the future of vehicles of
the automotive industry might look like here in the US.
You know, is that even possible for half of the
vehicles sold in the US to be electric vehicles? Well,
the thing is, we can look to Norway because in essence,
the future is already there. I shouldn't say here, because
(12:16):
they're doing it. You might remember Will Ferrell's electric vehicle
Super Bowl commercial where they the we were targeting Norway,
but fifty four percent of new vehicles purchased in were
electric vehicles in your motherland. And uh, that percentage is
increasing rapidly. It's likely to become more than one by
(12:37):
the end of this year. So it's just interesting to
see how quickly electric vehicle adoption can skyrocket. There are
a lot of things that we'll need to do in
this country here in the US that expand beyond an
executive order to make that happen. Though, Yeah, in the
executive order feels a little bit like, oh, here's hoping
like this would be nice, right right, Yeah, you can
say that about a lot of things, right well. And
(12:57):
one of the things that could actually make it a
little more difficult to actually accomplish this goal, I think,
is the New Infrastructure Deal because it did not include
a more robust electric vehicle tax credit. There were some
discussions about including one like a federal tax credit of
right around twelve thousand dollars for the purchase of some
electric vehicles, and I gotta imagine if you subsidize ev
e v s to that point, there are a lot
(13:19):
more people are going to be interested in adopting them.
But yeah, that didn't come to pass. So here's the thing, though,
even without a federal subsidy, electric vehicles are still going
to be better from an annual cost of ownership standpoint.
Even if you're not getting a discount from the federal
government to buy an electric vehicle, it can still make
financial sense. The d OE, the Department of Energy, recently
(13:40):
completed a study showing that evs cost forty less to
maintain than their internal combustion engine counterparts. Other studies have
actually found really really similar results. So, yeah, there are
still reasons to choose a traditional gas power vehicle for
some people, but it is at least worth considering an
electric vehicle. If you're thinking of upgrading or selling your
(14:03):
old one and getting another used one, you know, an
electric vehicle might make more sense for you now, um,
and it often makes financial sense to Yeah, well, in
the financial sense, it kind of comes down to the
type of EV that you're looking at as well, right, because,
like on the lower end electric vehicles and Consumer Reports
they had a really good article on this, But like
a Chevy Bolt, it's gonna cost about like more than
(14:24):
an equivalent internal combustion engine, but because of those maintenance
costs being lower, you start regaining that upfront cost within
just a few years. Well, so it takes like a
hundred thousand miles roughly before you kind of like break even,
but then on the next hundred thousand miles from one
to two hundred, you're gonna be ahead, seving bucks, and
then if you keep that vehicle even longer, it's nothing
but winning even from that point before then though, you know,
(14:46):
the electric vehicles, you can say roughly a thousand dollars
per year on fuel costs. I mean obviously depends with
the price of gases and stuff like and how much
you're driving, but most people are gonna be able to
save roughly that amount every single year. So it's reduced
maintenance costs. Uh, not to mention reduce fuel costs for
a lot of people, exactly, it just makes a lot
of financial sense. Yeah, and you see that more in
like the the higher end electric vehicles, and so like
(15:07):
a Tesla Model three you get cost about the same
as like a Beamer like three series or an Audi. Uh.
And so for those vehicles, if you're gonna spend that
much money on an electric vehicle, you're saving money literally
from day one because of those maintenance costs are so
much lower. But when you're looking at more affordable e vs,
there actually is like a kind of break even point.
So don't automatically think that an electric vehicle is going
(15:28):
to be a slam dunk from the first mile that
you start driving it and of course this doesn't mean
too that you should go out tomorrow and buy a
new car, But the electric vehicles areieve I'm gonna go
on tomorrow, may not off the lot makes sense for you,
but yeah, you should definitely consider an electric vehicle instead
of a gas car next time you're looking to buy.
And again, you don't have to get a new one.
(15:49):
Buying us can make a lot of sense. You just
need to pay particular attention to the battery life before
you purchase that used model, because a five year old
electric vehicle might have lost it's it's battery could pacity.
But as long as that car works for how it
is that you're planning to drive, it can still make
a ton of sense as a purchase. If you're only
planning to just scoot around the city, if you're using
that to drop off the kids, you know that soccer
(16:11):
picked them up from school, that kind of thing. Well,
it doesn't really matter if the range has decreased a
good bit and not not as good for cross country
road trips, right yeah, uh, save that for like the
Tesla Long Range or something like that. Plus you can
use that as a way to negotiate the price down
that's the way that you can find a bargain and
also check to see if there's any warranty left on
the battery, because that can provide some additional peace of mind. Basically,
(16:33):
the longer that you're able to hang onto an electric vehicle,
the more savings that you're going to realize. Yep, and
it won't be long before our roads are indated with
electric cars. I mean, we'll see if it. We'll see
if it happens. They'll be fascinating to watch. We'll see
if we kind of ore ar trajectory takes on that
of Norway's um. But yeah, we we've got more headlines
to get to, including something really basic like the price
(16:55):
of a sandwich these days. How much has that come up? Well,
we'll talk about that and more right after this. Al Right,
we are back and we're gonna keep trucking along here.
This is our Friday flight where we are looking at
different stories and Joel, you know now it is time
(17:17):
for our ludicrous headline of the That was really good
was that like a drunk voice. Okay, if you would
have done a little burt there at the little little hiccup.
That was really good considering the story that we have
coming up here, which is one third of investors trade
while drunk. Yeah, this one comes from four one K specialist.
(17:41):
It's easier than ever to invest your money right. The
barriers to entry have mostly gone by the wayside. Uh,
folks can get started investing with just one dollar on
a lot of the different platforms. That wasn't the case
even just ten years ago. And we say this because
we feel that progress should be celebrated. But easy investing
definitely comes with a share of downsides. Um and I
(18:02):
didn't realize that this was one of them. That's will
Reading this article, which used data from a recent survey
by Magnify Money, apparently almost one and three investors have
made changes to their investments to their portfolio after hitting
the sauce a little a little hard in the evening.
It's terrible trading while drunk. It's it's actually probably likely
even worse than trading based on just a gut feeling,
(18:23):
uh something that maybe you know, you woke up, maybe
you had a dream and you're like, oh, I gotta
buy or I gotta sell it. You don't want that
to be how you invest, but unfortunately this is becoming
more common Yeah, apparently one third of overall investors admit
having done this, and two thirds of gen Z investors
actually made the confession to The survey really did shed
(18:44):
some light on the increased emotion that younger investors have
towards their investment port portfolio. There, you know, there's just
less of a barrier between them and how they feel
about the companies that are invested in. And two thirds
of all investors admitted to making decisions via an emotionally
charged decision like kind of on a whim or in
an emotional state. Um, you know, I'm not an an
(19:06):
emotional guy, Matt. I think of myself as in tune
with the things that are going on inside. But yeah,
many areas of our lives deserve our full emotional engagement,
Like when we're hanging out with our spouse, right, we
need to be emotionally engaged in that relationship. But other
places don't require nearly as much emotion, and it's far
better for us, I think to take emotion out of
our investing decisions to the greatest extent that we can.
(19:29):
And I think, you know, Matt, one of the things
you and I we've talked about creating a written investment
plan and sticking to it is one way to make
sure that your emotions are not interfering with those decisions.
And then we would say to take all the investing
apps off your phone. That might sound hardcore, like what
are you talking about, Like I want to check in
every now and again, but yeah, given the rapid rise
in off kilter investing habits like trading while you're inebriated,
(19:53):
it's crucial to create these helpful barriers so that you
don't make a regrettable, emotion induced decision that hurts your investments.
You don't want to have to be like four beers
deep and decide to like, you know, sell a holding
that you have, or yeah, you want to make sure
you have a well thought out strategic plan and you're
sticking to it. Yeah, it is not difficult to make
a dumb decision after you've had like four beers, So
(20:14):
that's something just generally speaking, we would recommend maybe you
just have one nicer beer like you and I have
on the show. You don't make any important decisions after
drinking four beers. And then we're both pretty hardcore about
the app thing as well. I have found it to
be so incredibly helpful because we keep some play money,
uh like in our robin Hood accounts and uh yeah,
keeping that off of the phone has been so critical
(20:36):
and a not thinking about it and be to remove
that temptation to to fiddle with it, maybe after just
reading a single headline, or maybe even just after having
one beer. Who knows, Joe. While we're talking about investing,
let's talk about investing fees. For a second, fee transparency.
This is still a real problem in the investing world.
We've been talking about this here on the podcast for years. Uh.
(20:56):
In a recent survey from State Street find that investors
who are working with an advisor, a financial advisor or
an investment advisor, they don't really know how their advisor
is making money. Many investors have no idea what the
fee structure is. They seem to think that fund expenses
are somehow rolled into what they are paying their advisor,
but that is actually not the case. They don't know
(21:19):
how they're paying for that advice. Yes, that is never good.
And Vanguard this week actually called for greater fund fee
transparency across the industry, and they stated that fund should
have labels similar to food labels that we can skim
with the grocery shove this idea, I love it too.
I think it's so smart, Like, I totally agree with that,
and I think like we should make that happen because
investors need more easily digestible information. There's just way too
(21:43):
much jargon in the industry and confusion is a real
problem for lots of investors. And anything we can do
to make the costs and benefits or or lack of
benefits for certain funds even clear, I think is a
good thing. People don't need someone else to make their
decision for them, but they do need the right tools
to help them make an informed one. And so yeah,
(22:03):
if you want to know more about what we think
about fees when it comes to your investments, check out
episode nine. We're generally against them. Uh, And I love
this food label idea, Matt. I think you know some
of these folks at Vanguard, they're onto something UM And
if that became an industry wide adoption, I'm sure there's
gonna be a lot of people fighting that for reasons
of personal gain UM. And obviously Vanguard would love it
(22:25):
because their fees are really low and investors would quickly
realize the benefits from investing there as opposed to maybe
with they're one are the funds that their financial advisor
wants to put them in. Exactly. That's right, Vanguard Fidelity.
They are the best when it comes to fees, Sigil.
Enough about investing for a minute, let's talk about the
super fun and engaging topic of inflation here for a second.
(22:46):
One of my favorites. Uh, I feel I mean, every week,
I feel like we have to weave in just a
little inflation story, right, but this line, this is gonna
be for from a more everyday kind of perspective. Friend
of the show, Lenn Penzo, Uh, he just releases kitschy
but on annual what he calls the brown Bag Lunch Survey.
It's not the most scientific survey out there, but he
(23:07):
gathers together food costs and you know, again it's cute
and it is helpful. But I think our big takeaway
from reading his article, reading his report or that sandwiches
are still pretty cheap for the most part. They are
more affordable now uh than they were in than the
overall you know, he kind of combines them into like
the sandwich index basically. And yeah, so even with all
(23:27):
the inflation, uh, talk that you've heard, You've heard us
talk about it. Sandwiches are still more affordable than they
were seven years ago, and so it's important to note that, uh, bologny,
peanut butter, and jelly, they are the too cheapest sandwich
varieties that you can find. Peanut butter is great, bologny
It kind of depends, right, how do you feel about blown? No,
I'm not into it, So I'd rather pay more for
(23:48):
a sandwich and it not be bologney. It depends. Okay, Okay,
Here's why I kind of hedge my bets with bologney
is because I will eat spam. Have I ever talked
to you about spam and and cream food? All? Yeah,
it's it's a rich regular and Korean food, isn't it. Yeah? So,
like okay, in cream food, especially here in the States,
there's this dish called kampop. It's kind of like the
Korean version of a sushi roll, where it like you
(24:09):
go the seaweed and you wrap it up. But especially
here in the US, oftentimes you use spam as the
protein and so you kind of cut it into these
long strips, you kind of fry it, kind of seer
it up on the on the pants. It's nice and crispy,
and you lay it in there and then you you
roll it up and it's really good. And so because
of that, I kind of have like a soft spot
in my heart for spam. A lot of folks will
(24:30):
trash talk it, but it all depends on how you
prepare it. And when you prepare it right and get
it nice and crispy like that, it's I mean, I
remember it not being all that different from bacon as
a kid, like bacon and like that crispy spam. I
kind of held them both at the same level. Wow,
it's as good as bacon. Well, I mean it's not
as good as but like as a kid, I felt
that way, and so because I will, I'll still eat it.
(24:51):
I remember visiting Hawaii and I was shocked to see
I knew they like spam over there. It's everywhere. They
even had it, like a bunch of different spam dishes
on the McDonald's menu. They like, Oh my mass impressive. Well. Yeah.
One of the things that Lenn didn't do in his
annual brown Bag Lunch survey is to compare across different
grocery stores. Right, he just kind of went to one
grocery store, bought stuff, came back and you know, put
(25:11):
together this methodology. So like I started this day survey
and I gotta keep doing it. I ain't gonna go
to a bunch of different stores, right, But obviously that's
going to have a major impact on the price too.
So yeah, one of the things worth mentioning is that
like aldi would in all likelihood results in the lowest
price average per sandwich if we were comparing grocery stores
a D for president. And another thing that's worth noting is,
(25:32):
you know, depending on what's happening in the sales fire
at your grocery store, right, being willing to swap sandwich
types based on the current cost of certain items could
be a helpful strategy too, because like let's say peanut
butter is buy one, get one. Well in stock up,
you're eating peanut butter sandwiches for a while, peanut butter
and jelly, and it's like a better will keep for
like five years. Yeah. Yeah, and then if like tuna
is cheaper the next week, like grab a few extra cans.
(25:52):
But yeah, I use sales cycles to your advantage. I
think that's that's always smart. That's something I try to do,
and I I'm willing to stock up on something if
it's cheap enough, like if it's if the discount is
substantial enough. Yeah, I totally I'm a stock up kind
of guy. Y'all are in the middle of a little
renovation at your house. I feel like what you need
to plan for is like a costco closet. So basically,
(26:15):
anything that you do, you know that is on sale
or it's but I want to get one like that.
You don't want to keep multiple giant bulk things easily
accessible in your kitchen. You want to put that somewhere
in a closet. That's what you need, all right, I'll
talk to our contractor that. I think that'll keep plying
that in Emily happier too, I'm sure. Lastly, let's talk
about saving on the cost of homeowners and on car insurance.
(26:35):
The Law Street Journal they had an article about that
this week. We've actually got an article up on our
site with kind of what we think are the best
ways to save on insurance as well, and willing to
that in our show notes. But as insurance rates are rising,
there are things that you can and should do about it.
We're big fans of shopping around and getting quotes from
other companies. Uh, that's going to be how you are
likely to save the most money. Uh. And we would
(26:57):
recommend that at a site like Policy Genius, but another
you could do that as well as ask an independent
agent to shop around for you. And it also wouldn't
hurt to call a couple of other insurance companies for
quotes also, Joel, I've got a little confession to make.
One of the ways I am going to lower the
cost of my car insurance literally today, as soon as
we get off work, I'm gonna drop the collision coverage
(27:19):
that I have on our van. I added collision maybe
a few years ago we were doing some work to
our house. Actually in our emergency fund wasn't as robust
as it could have been. Uh, And I thought, you know, what,
were we to actually get into an accident, I don't
wanna have to pay to replace an expensive odyssey like
on Odysseis are expensive, and so for us, that was
one way I was I was able to pay a
(27:39):
little bit more year to year but mitigate that risk.
But now that our emergency fund, I mean, it's it's
back to feeling pretty jacked. Uh. I need to drop
that collision auto coverage because that is something that we
can save money on every single year. And of course
we wouldn't have a problem replacing that vehicle were we
to wreck it. Uh. Now that's a risk that we
would be willing to take it. And that's what insurance
is all about. Right, you're weighing the risks and you're
(28:00):
weighing the costs. Yeah, so report back. Let us know
how much you're able to save by doing that. Yeah,
that's um. Next Friday, I'll share. Okay, Yeah, that's good.
That that's a good way to save. You know, I
don't know, maybe a hundred hundred fifty bucks every year.
I'm curious to see how much. And other ways to say,
let's talk about that. Consider choosing a higher deductible. Two.
Having solid savings, Matt, like you said, and self ensuring
(28:21):
is key to lowering those premiums. So the more money
that you have on hand, the more you can afford
to pay a higher deductible if you're in an accident. Also,
paying those premiums in a lump sum will often lower
the costs. You know, I pay my car insurance six
months at a time to avoid additional fees for paying
it on a monthly basis, And it's also crucial to
ask for additional discounts if you work with an agent,
(28:43):
you know, harangue them via email and trying to see
what discounts are available that that you aren't curring currently
having applied to your policy, right, Like, I've definitely pestored
my agent over the years, Matt, trying to find ways
that I could pay less and it works like those
discounts really do add up to the best. One think
that the biggest percentage discount is when people take a
(29:03):
defensive driving course, and there's actually most of those you
have to go in person, at least from my experience.
But I found that a r P has a course
on their websites and it costs like twenty five bucks
to do it, and I ended up getting like a
three year discount applied for taking that online course. It
took me, I don't even remember, like an hour or
so to complete, and well worth it because then you're
(29:26):
talking about three years worth of savings. So yeah, make
sure you check with your agent or with your insurance
company before you know you spend that time and spend
that money. Um, But if bucks can save you like
it's definitely worth it exactly. So that's gonna be it
for this Friday flight. We hope everyone has a great weekend.
We'll see you back here on Monday. We've got a
good listener questions ask how the money episode lined up
(29:48):
for you, so Joel, Until next time, best friends out,
best friends out. Mmmmmm
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're discussing drunk investing, help for homebuyers, and
paying to cut in line. That's right, Joel. This is
(00:28):
our Friday flights where if listeners send us two thousand dollars,
we will guarantee return on their investment. All right, starting
our own MLM. That's a terrible idea. You have to
tell your friends about it, that that's the only way
that sorts. And they have to also send us two
thousand dollars exactly multiplication. Hey, they know how it works. Uh.
We have done episodes on MLMs before and they are awful.
(00:49):
And when this is what we're describing here is a
Ponzi scheme and we're not going to start either one
of those. We should put that out there. That way,
we don't get flagged by the CFPB. We don't want
to get shut down the government. Do they oversee podcast?
I don't know. That might be the FEC, but even
I don't know. They have to be sec depends on
what we're promising. Yeah, who has jurisdiction over we are
not a registered broker? Right? Oh my gosh. All right,
(01:11):
let's get to it. This is our Friday flight where
we look at the different stories in the news this week,
and we specifically are going to talk about how they
affect you and your personal finances. Joel, you got anything
for us here before we kick things off. Yes, yes,
I do, Matt. And it's this website called supposed dot tv,
and it actually helps you figure out what streaming channel
(01:31):
or channels are right for you. Basically, there's this thing
on the left hand rail. You click all of the
channels that you most enjoy, and then you can even
like rank them in order of which ones you like
the most, like ESPN Discovery Channel. Yeah, and it kind
of does this great job of helping you find the best,
most inexpensive package for you. Um. And you know it's,
(01:52):
you know, all likelihood for most people gonna involve subscribing
to a couple of different streaming services. But I really
liked it, and I think, um, it can be helpful
for you if you're like, Okay, when it comes down
to it, there's only these eight channels that I care about,
or these twelve channels that I care about. I think
he can really help you, you know, maybe lower the
amount that you're paying for streaming right now, or find
(02:13):
maybe a better package for you that you didn't know existed. Yeah,
what's really cool about it is not only can you
rank some of the different channels as you kind of
prioritize them, but some of them you can mark as optional.
So maybe, like you said, I don't know, you've got
twelve that you're interested in, Like I like Animal Planet,
but it's not it's not a meager break channel, but
maybe there's four of them that you have to have. Well,
it'll also tell you that, like, hey, look, this is
(02:33):
how you can get all those channels. But if if
you're looking to really save, this is the option for you.
I think it's pretty cool. It's just a way to
kind of automatically mix and match some of the different
services out there to lower hopefully what you're spending on
entertainment every month. But man, even you mentioning eight different channels, like,
I'm not even watching eight different shows right now, Like
I just don't have time to watch the one show
that I'm interested in right now, which is Ted Lasso.
(02:54):
Have you been watching that by the half? Yeah, it's solid,
it's I don't think it a season one. Yeah, I
don't I don't feel that it's as good as last year,
but it's still solid. And for us, we we got
Apple TV Plus for free because we purchased an Apple
device recently, so we still have that free membership going on,
which I looked it up. By the way, Uh, they
are no longer offering a one year free membership or subscription,
(03:17):
but if you buy a device, an Apple device now,
you still will get three months for free. So just
keep that in mind. There you go. Yeah, they're trying
to trying to get yoked. Pretty soon it will just
be one month. Well linked to to that website in
the show notes if you're trying to figure out how
you cut your streaming bill or how you find like
maybe like streamline it um, that website supposed dot tv
is gonna be helpful. But let's let's move on to
(03:38):
the Friday flight mat and let's yeah talk about these
stories that that really do have an impact on the
personal finances of all of us. The first story this
week comes from the Wall Street Journal, and and pretty
soon rent payments are going to play a factor in
mortgage underwriting. That's right, Yeah, this is the help for
homebuyers story that we mentioned exactly. And it's kind of
(03:58):
actually absurd really that this has not been the case.
I feel like the fact that you pay your credit
card bill a little late and it's just like, you know,
it has a massive impact, a negative impact on your
credit score, but that your biggest bill every month wasn't
an influence on your credit that's just silly. And uh so, yeah,
Fannie May is trying to change that. Actually announced that
this change. It's scheduled to take place on September eight.
(04:20):
And the best part is that this change can only help.
It cannot hurt your chances to qualify for a mortgage.
And if you have been making irregular payments, well Fannie
May is not going to include that history. But man,
I think this is good news for renters because it's
gonna factor into the underwriting for getting that mortgage. It's
gonna be really helpful as a sign that you are
(04:42):
good with money. It's gonna be a helpful factor and
getting approved for a mortgage when your lender can see
that that history of on time payments. Absolutely, yeah, this
is great news for especially to first time homebuyers who
have been consistent renters, consistent payers of their rent. Uh
you know stay over the past couple of years, that
kind of thing. Speaking of things that might affect your credit,
(05:03):
A lot of personal data was compromised earlier this week
fifty million T mobile customers. To be exact, a troph
of personal data was leaked and anything from names, two
pens to even social Security numbers might be out there. Unfortunately,
this has kind of become commonplace. But a T Mobile
they're saying that they're gonna offer at least they're gonna
offer some free identity protection, which yeah, okay, thanks at
(05:26):
T Mobile, but that's actually not enough. The proper response
for our listeners, for for all of your listeners out
there listening to how the money who might have been
affected by this breach, is to freeze your credits. You
don't want to deal with catching, uh, you know folks
after they have tried to open an account in your
name where your credit might be ruined, you want to
prevent them from doing that. Right. It makes me think
(05:48):
of like if you're buying a house and the home
seller was like, hey, by the way, this house doesn't
have any dead bolts, uh, and no alarm system, nothing
but the local police department. They're really good and if
a body does steal anything from your house, they will
definitely do a good job helping you get your stuff back. No, no, no,
I want to prefect that from happening. Uh, in the
(06:08):
first place, they'll get that police report filed stat Yeah,
it's like great, but I'd rather prevent it in the
first place. And that's what yeah, credit freeze does, and honestly,
it's it's the best step for all how to money listeners,
not just uh, the ones who were customers of T Mobile.
And we're involved in this breach because there is a
high probability that you've been affected by at least one
data breach, right, I mean there's the Equifax breach in
(06:31):
seen matt which involved almost a hundred and fifty million Americans, right,
and they have been countless breaches. I feel like we're
suffering breach fatigue. We just like read about another one
every other week, and we just assume now that our
information is out there, and I think rightly so, that
Pandora's box has been opened and there's not much we
can do about it. But while we can't undo the
leaking of our personal information, we can prevent criminals from
(06:55):
using that information to open up accounts in our name
and the ensuing havoc that that creates on our financial lives.
And we've actually got a guide to freezing your credit
on our website, will include it in the show notes.
And the great thing Matt about freezing your credit it
locks everything down. It is the dead bolt to the house.
But it's also completely free, and it doesn't take much time,
(07:16):
so it's well worth that a few minutes five minutes
of your time to freeze your credit with each of
the major bureaus UM and get on with your life exactly.
And if you need to open a line of credit,
we've talked about this before, but it is incredibly easy
once you have your passwords saved somewhere secure. UH. Maybe
not on Tea mobiles UM Mobile database, but it is
(07:38):
really quick and easy for you to log into the
different credit reporting companies UH and unfreeze your credit. Joel,
let's keep mo with Let's let's pulay frugal or cheap
in UH in Today's Friday Flight. One of my favorite
things we do question for you, would you would you
pay extra money to skip the lines at Disney? Depends
on how much I guess, and depends on how the
lines were. I definitely I feel like I definitely would
(08:01):
because the older I get, the more I realized, man,
time is like is my life, you know, like like
you can always earn more money, but when it comes
to time, Man, once time has been spent, like like
that might be ten minutes an hour, you know, several
hours that I would never get back. And one of
the things I hate doing with my time the most
is standing in line, kind of waiting in line while
you know your kids are pulling on you, if your sweating.
(08:23):
It's like traffic lines like drive through Like I hate
all that stuff. Well, if that's something you are interested
in doing, paying money to to get the lines of something,
you're gonna have to do now at Disney because they
are officially ditching their fast Pass in favor of this
uh this new version, this new iteration called Genie Plus.
So the way it works, you'll pay an extra fifteen
per person at disney World, an extra twenty dollars per
(08:45):
person at Disneyland for the ability to skip long lines.
But here's the thing that's on top of the already
sky high one day entrance fee, which starts at a
hundred and nine dollars if you were to jump on
this Genie Plus action, think you're going to see the
costs of your Disney World disney Land vacations skyrocket very quickly. Yeah,
(09:05):
for sure, I think Matt, what's part part of what's
annoying about this is that not all of the rides
are included, so you pay that extra money and then
it only applies to certain rides, which is super annoying,
right because not only does it cost more money, but
it's complicated and it's confusing. And when you have something
that costs more and is confusing, I think that's a
recipe for disaster, right because like if say, okay, what
(09:25):
if it was say fifty bucks all rides were included,
and it was like for your whole family. Yeah, super easy.
It's a very clean and easy decision making process. But
when you have to start like accounting for the different
rides that you want to actually visit when you're when
you're there at the park, that to me is the
biggest pain in the butt. Yeah, and it gets even
more model because you're not gonna be able to skip
(09:45):
the line on some of the more popular rides with
the Genie Plus upgrade, it's gonna actually cost you more
to skip the lines on the most in demand rides,
And then you might say, well, well how much more?
And the answer is that depends because the price for
skipping those lines is going to be priced similar to
like Uber search pricing. It kind of depends on how
many people are in the park and how popular that
(10:07):
ride is at the moment. So, yeah, I don't know.
Your kid might be tugging on your sleeve wanting to
go ride this Slinky Dog roller coaster and maybe that's
not included in Genie Plus, and you're like, dang it,
I have to decide in the moment, do I want
to spend an extra eighteen dollars to get us on
this ride quickly? Because my kid really wants to go.
And so I think it's gonna put some parents in
a precarious position. And some people have actually argued that,
(10:29):
you know, this new system might actually make the normal
lines a bit more accessible. I hope that's the case,
but yeah, Disney is quickly becoming an unaffordable vacation destination.
I just can't. Yeah, how how much are you gonna
span on one day with a family of five at Disney?
I mean just getting into the park, riding the rides,
and like, let's say you buy food there too. I
(10:50):
mean you're talking, you know, eight hundred bucks for a
family at five, that's pretty expensive. Cluss, Right, And well
you mentioned the Slinky Dog roller coaster. Did you mention
that one from a personal experience? It's an excellent ride?
There is it? I wouldn't know because we haven't been
yet because the prizes are so high, but one of
these days, obviously, uh, we are likely to go. Maybe
I shouldn't say obviously because like in my mind it's
it's inevitable, but it doesn't have to be inevitable. But
(11:13):
I just feel like it's something that I do want
to take my family too. You know, It's something I
do want the kids to experience. But I just have
to get used to the idea that I'm gonna be
paying out my nose, uh, in order for that to happen.
Start saving. Now, Yeah, let's talk about electric vehicles, Joe.
I know this is something that you are particularly. Do
you miss your your old niece on leaf? Oh? Yeah,
for sure. But I will say I'm I'm still glad
that we went down to being a one car family.
(11:35):
While I'm miss driving electric vehicle like it still was
the best move for us. Glad to hear that. Well,
either way, your next vehicle might be an electric vehicle
because President Biden he recently signed an executive order pushing
for an electric vehicle sales goal of fifty cent by
the year. The fact that it's an executive order, actually
it means that there's not really, you know, going to
(11:56):
be any enforcement mechanisms for this goal. But it is
worth kind of wondering what the future of vehicles of
the automotive industry might look like here in the US.
You know, is that even possible for half of the
vehicles sold in the US to be electric vehicles? Well,
the thing is, we can look to Norway because in essence,
the future is already there. I shouldn't say here, because
(12:16):
they're doing it. You might remember Will Ferrell's electric vehicle
Super Bowl commercial where they the we were targeting Norway,
but fifty four percent of new vehicles purchased in were
electric vehicles in your motherland. And uh, that percentage is
increasing rapidly. It's likely to become more than one by
(12:37):
the end of this year. So it's just interesting to
see how quickly electric vehicle adoption can skyrocket. There are
a lot of things that we'll need to do in
this country here in the US that expand beyond an
executive order to make that happen. Though, Yeah, in the
executive order feels a little bit like, oh, here's hoping
like this would be nice, right right, Yeah, you can
say that about a lot of things, right well. And
(12:57):
one of the things that could actually make it a
little more difficult to actually accomplish this goal, I think,
is the New Infrastructure Deal because it did not include
a more robust electric vehicle tax credit. There were some
discussions about including one like a federal tax credit of
right around twelve thousand dollars for the purchase of some
electric vehicles, and I gotta imagine if you subsidize ev
e v s to that point, there are a lot
(13:19):
more people are going to be interested in adopting them.
But yeah, that didn't come to pass. So here's the thing, though,
even without a federal subsidy, electric vehicles are still going
to be better from an annual cost of ownership standpoint.
Even if you're not getting a discount from the federal
government to buy an electric vehicle, it can still make
financial sense. The d OE, the Department of Energy, recently
(13:40):
completed a study showing that evs cost forty less to
maintain than their internal combustion engine counterparts. Other studies have
actually found really really similar results. So, yeah, there are
still reasons to choose a traditional gas power vehicle for
some people, but it is at least worth considering an
electric vehicle. If you're thinking of upgrading or selling your
(14:03):
old one and getting another used one, you know, an
electric vehicle might make more sense for you now, um,
and it often makes financial sense to Yeah, well, in
the financial sense, it kind of comes down to the
type of EV that you're looking at as well, right, because,
like on the lower end electric vehicles and Consumer Reports
they had a really good article on this, But like
a Chevy Bolt, it's gonna cost about like more than
(14:24):
an equivalent internal combustion engine, but because of those maintenance
costs being lower, you start regaining that upfront cost within
just a few years. Well, so it takes like a
hundred thousand miles roughly before you kind of like break even,
but then on the next hundred thousand miles from one
to two hundred, you're gonna be ahead, seving bucks, and
then if you keep that vehicle even longer, it's nothing
but winning even from that point before then though, you know,
(14:46):
the electric vehicles, you can say roughly a thousand dollars
per year on fuel costs. I mean obviously depends with
the price of gases and stuff like and how much
you're driving, but most people are gonna be able to
save roughly that amount every single year. So it's reduced
maintenance costs. Uh, not to mention reduce fuel costs for
a lot of people, exactly, it just makes a lot
of financial sense. Yeah, and you see that more in
like the the higher end electric vehicles, and so like
(15:07):
a Tesla Model three you get cost about the same
as like a Beamer like three series or an Audi. Uh.
And so for those vehicles, if you're gonna spend that
much money on an electric vehicle, you're saving money literally
from day one because of those maintenance costs are so
much lower. But when you're looking at more affordable e vs,
there actually is like a kind of break even point.
So don't automatically think that an electric vehicle is going
(15:28):
to be a slam dunk from the first mile that
you start driving it and of course this doesn't mean
too that you should go out tomorrow and buy a
new car, But the electric vehicles areieve I'm gonna go
on tomorrow, may not off the lot makes sense for you,
but yeah, you should definitely consider an electric vehicle instead
of a gas car next time you're looking to buy.
And again, you don't have to get a new one.
(15:49):
Buying us can make a lot of sense. You just
need to pay particular attention to the battery life before
you purchase that used model, because a five year old
electric vehicle might have lost it's it's battery could pacity.
But as long as that car works for how it
is that you're planning to drive, it can still make
a ton of sense as a purchase. If you're only
planning to just scoot around the city, if you're using
that to drop off the kids, you know that soccer
(16:11):
picked them up from school, that kind of thing. Well,
it doesn't really matter if the range has decreased a
good bit and not not as good for cross country
road trips, right yeah, uh, save that for like the
Tesla Long Range or something like that. Plus you can
use that as a way to negotiate the price down
that's the way that you can find a bargain and
also check to see if there's any warranty left on
the battery, because that can provide some additional peace of mind. Basically,
(16:33):
the longer that you're able to hang onto an electric vehicle,
the more savings that you're going to realize. Yep, and
it won't be long before our roads are indated with
electric cars. I mean, we'll see if it. We'll see
if it happens. They'll be fascinating to watch. We'll see
if we kind of ore ar trajectory takes on that
of Norway's um. But yeah, we we've got more headlines
to get to, including something really basic like the price
(16:55):
of a sandwich these days. How much has that come up? Well,
we'll talk about that and more right after this. Al Right,
we are back and we're gonna keep trucking along here.
This is our Friday flight where we are looking at
different stories and Joel, you know now it is time
(17:17):
for our ludicrous headline of the That was really good
was that like a drunk voice. Okay, if you would
have done a little burt there at the little little hiccup.
That was really good considering the story that we have
coming up here, which is one third of investors trade
while drunk. Yeah, this one comes from four one K specialist.
(17:41):
It's easier than ever to invest your money right. The
barriers to entry have mostly gone by the wayside. Uh,
folks can get started investing with just one dollar on
a lot of the different platforms. That wasn't the case
even just ten years ago. And we say this because
we feel that progress should be celebrated. But easy investing
definitely comes with a share of downsides. Um and I
(18:02):
didn't realize that this was one of them. That's will
Reading this article, which used data from a recent survey
by Magnify Money, apparently almost one and three investors have
made changes to their investments to their portfolio after hitting
the sauce a little a little hard in the evening.
It's terrible trading while drunk. It's it's actually probably likely
even worse than trading based on just a gut feeling,
(18:23):
uh something that maybe you know, you woke up, maybe
you had a dream and you're like, oh, I gotta
buy or I gotta sell it. You don't want that
to be how you invest, but unfortunately this is becoming
more common Yeah, apparently one third of overall investors admit
having done this, and two thirds of gen Z investors
actually made the confession to The survey really did shed
(18:44):
some light on the increased emotion that younger investors have
towards their investment port portfolio. There, you know, there's just
less of a barrier between them and how they feel
about the companies that are invested in. And two thirds
of all investors admitted to making decisions via an emotionally
charged decision like kind of on a whim or in
an emotional state. Um, you know, I'm not an an
(19:06):
emotional guy, Matt. I think of myself as in tune
with the things that are going on inside. But yeah,
many areas of our lives deserve our full emotional engagement,
Like when we're hanging out with our spouse, right, we
need to be emotionally engaged in that relationship. But other
places don't require nearly as much emotion, and it's far
better for us, I think to take emotion out of
our investing decisions to the greatest extent that we can.
(19:29):
And I think, you know, Matt, one of the things
you and I we've talked about creating a written investment
plan and sticking to it is one way to make
sure that your emotions are not interfering with those decisions.
And then we would say to take all the investing
apps off your phone. That might sound hardcore, like what
are you talking about, Like I want to check in
every now and again, but yeah, given the rapid rise
in off kilter investing habits like trading while you're inebriated,
(19:53):
it's crucial to create these helpful barriers so that you
don't make a regrettable, emotion induced decision that hurts your investments.
You don't want to have to be like four beers
deep and decide to like, you know, sell a holding
that you have, or yeah, you want to make sure
you have a well thought out strategic plan and you're
sticking to it. Yeah, it is not difficult to make
a dumb decision after you've had like four beers, So
(20:14):
that's something just generally speaking, we would recommend maybe you
just have one nicer beer like you and I have
on the show. You don't make any important decisions after
drinking four beers. And then we're both pretty hardcore about
the app thing as well. I have found it to
be so incredibly helpful because we keep some play money,
uh like in our robin Hood accounts and uh yeah,
keeping that off of the phone has been so critical
(20:36):
and a not thinking about it and be to remove
that temptation to to fiddle with it, maybe after just
reading a single headline, or maybe even just after having
one beer. Who knows, Joe. While we're talking about investing,
let's talk about investing fees. For a second, fee transparency.
This is still a real problem in the investing world.
We've been talking about this here on the podcast for years. Uh.
(20:56):
In a recent survey from State Street find that investors
who are working with an advisor, a financial advisor or
an investment advisor, they don't really know how their advisor
is making money. Many investors have no idea what the
fee structure is. They seem to think that fund expenses
are somehow rolled into what they are paying their advisor,
but that is actually not the case. They don't know
(21:19):
how they're paying for that advice. Yes, that is never good.
And Vanguard this week actually called for greater fund fee
transparency across the industry, and they stated that fund should
have labels similar to food labels that we can skim
with the grocery shove this idea, I love it too.
I think it's so smart, Like, I totally agree with that,
and I think like we should make that happen because
investors need more easily digestible information. There's just way too
(21:43):
much jargon in the industry and confusion is a real
problem for lots of investors. And anything we can do
to make the costs and benefits or or lack of
benefits for certain funds even clear, I think is a
good thing. People don't need someone else to make their
decision for them, but they do need the right tools
to help them make an informed one. And so yeah,
(22:03):
if you want to know more about what we think
about fees when it comes to your investments, check out
episode nine. We're generally against them. Uh, And I love
this food label idea, Matt. I think you know some
of these folks at Vanguard, they're onto something UM And
if that became an industry wide adoption, I'm sure there's
gonna be a lot of people fighting that for reasons
of personal gain UM. And obviously Vanguard would love it
(22:25):
because their fees are really low and investors would quickly
realize the benefits from investing there as opposed to maybe
with they're one are the funds that their financial advisor
wants to put them in. Exactly. That's right, Vanguard Fidelity.
They are the best when it comes to fees, Sigil.
Enough about investing for a minute, let's talk about the
super fun and engaging topic of inflation here for a second.
(22:46):
One of my favorites. Uh, I feel I mean, every week,
I feel like we have to weave in just a
little inflation story, right, but this line, this is gonna
be for from a more everyday kind of perspective. Friend
of the show, Lenn Penzo, Uh, he just releases kitschy
but on annual what he calls the brown Bag Lunch Survey.
It's not the most scientific survey out there, but he
(23:07):
gathers together food costs and you know, again it's cute
and it is helpful. But I think our big takeaway
from reading his article, reading his report or that sandwiches
are still pretty cheap for the most part. They are
more affordable now uh than they were in than the
overall you know, he kind of combines them into like
the sandwich index basically. And yeah, so even with all
(23:27):
the inflation, uh, talk that you've heard, You've heard us
talk about it. Sandwiches are still more affordable than they
were seven years ago, and so it's important to note that, uh, bologny,
peanut butter, and jelly, they are the too cheapest sandwich
varieties that you can find. Peanut butter is great, bologny
It kind of depends, right, how do you feel about blown? No,
I'm not into it, So I'd rather pay more for
(23:48):
a sandwich and it not be bologney. It depends. Okay, Okay,
Here's why I kind of hedge my bets with bologney
is because I will eat spam. Have I ever talked
to you about spam and and cream food? All? Yeah,
it's it's a rich regular and Korean food, isn't it. Yeah? So,
like okay, in cream food, especially here in the States,
there's this dish called kampop. It's kind of like the
Korean version of a sushi roll, where it like you
(24:09):
go the seaweed and you wrap it up. But especially
here in the US, oftentimes you use spam as the
protein and so you kind of cut it into these
long strips, you kind of fry it, kind of seer
it up on the on the pants. It's nice and crispy,
and you lay it in there and then you you
roll it up and it's really good. And so because
of that, I kind of have like a soft spot
in my heart for spam. A lot of folks will
(24:30):
trash talk it, but it all depends on how you
prepare it. And when you prepare it right and get
it nice and crispy like that, it's I mean, I
remember it not being all that different from bacon as
a kid, like bacon and like that crispy spam. I
kind of held them both at the same level. Wow,
it's as good as bacon. Well, I mean it's not
as good as but like as a kid, I felt
that way, and so because I will, I'll still eat it.
(24:51):
I remember visiting Hawaii and I was shocked to see
I knew they like spam over there. It's everywhere. They
even had it, like a bunch of different spam dishes
on the McDonald's menu. They like, Oh my mass impressive. Well. Yeah.
One of the things that Lenn didn't do in his
annual brown Bag Lunch survey is to compare across different
grocery stores. Right, he just kind of went to one
grocery store, bought stuff, came back and you know, put
(25:11):
together this methodology. So like I started this day survey
and I gotta keep doing it. I ain't gonna go
to a bunch of different stores, right, But obviously that's
going to have a major impact on the price too.
So yeah, one of the things worth mentioning is that
like aldi would in all likelihood results in the lowest
price average per sandwich if we were comparing grocery stores
a D for president. And another thing that's worth noting is,
(25:32):
you know, depending on what's happening in the sales fire
at your grocery store, right, being willing to swap sandwich
types based on the current cost of certain items could
be a helpful strategy too, because like let's say peanut
butter is buy one, get one. Well in stock up,
you're eating peanut butter sandwiches for a while, peanut butter
and jelly, and it's like a better will keep for
like five years. Yeah. Yeah, and then if like tuna
is cheaper the next week, like grab a few extra cans.
(25:52):
But yeah, I use sales cycles to your advantage. I
think that's that's always smart. That's something I try to do,
and I I'm willing to stock up on something if
it's cheap enough, like if it's if the discount is
substantial enough. Yeah, I totally I'm a stock up kind
of guy. Y'all are in the middle of a little
renovation at your house. I feel like what you need
to plan for is like a costco closet. So basically,
(26:15):
anything that you do, you know that is on sale
or it's but I want to get one like that.
You don't want to keep multiple giant bulk things easily
accessible in your kitchen. You want to put that somewhere
in a closet. That's what you need, all right, I'll
talk to our contractor that. I think that'll keep plying
that in Emily happier too, I'm sure. Lastly, let's talk
about saving on the cost of homeowners and on car insurance.
(26:35):
The Law Street Journal they had an article about that
this week. We've actually got an article up on our
site with kind of what we think are the best
ways to save on insurance as well, and willing to
that in our show notes. But as insurance rates are rising,
there are things that you can and should do about it.
We're big fans of shopping around and getting quotes from
other companies. Uh, that's going to be how you are
likely to save the most money. Uh. And we would
(26:57):
recommend that at a site like Policy Genius, but another
you could do that as well as ask an independent
agent to shop around for you. And it also wouldn't
hurt to call a couple of other insurance companies for
quotes also, Joel, I've got a little confession to make.
One of the ways I am going to lower the
cost of my car insurance literally today, as soon as
we get off work, I'm gonna drop the collision coverage
(27:19):
that I have on our van. I added collision maybe
a few years ago we were doing some work to
our house. Actually in our emergency fund wasn't as robust
as it could have been. Uh, And I thought, you know, what,
were we to actually get into an accident, I don't
wanna have to pay to replace an expensive odyssey like
on Odysseis are expensive, and so for us, that was
one way I was I was able to pay a
(27:39):
little bit more year to year but mitigate that risk.
But now that our emergency fund, I mean, it's it's
back to feeling pretty jacked. Uh. I need to drop
that collision auto coverage because that is something that we
can save money on every single year. And of course
we wouldn't have a problem replacing that vehicle were we
to wreck it. Uh. Now that's a risk that we
would be willing to take it. And that's what insurance
is all about. Right, you're weighing the risks and you're
(28:00):
weighing the costs. Yeah, so report back. Let us know
how much you're able to save by doing that. Yeah,
that's um. Next Friday, I'll share. Okay, Yeah, that's good.
That that's a good way to save. You know, I
don't know, maybe a hundred hundred fifty bucks every year.
I'm curious to see how much. And other ways to say,
let's talk about that. Consider choosing a higher deductible. Two.
Having solid savings, Matt, like you said, and self ensuring
(28:21):
is key to lowering those premiums. So the more money
that you have on hand, the more you can afford
to pay a higher deductible if you're in an accident. Also,
paying those premiums in a lump sum will often lower
the costs. You know, I pay my car insurance six
months at a time to avoid additional fees for paying
it on a monthly basis, And it's also crucial to
ask for additional discounts if you work with an agent,
(28:43):
you know, harangue them via email and trying to see
what discounts are available that that you aren't curring currently
having applied to your policy, right, Like, I've definitely pestored
my agent over the years, Matt, trying to find ways
that I could pay less and it works like those
discounts really do add up to the best. One think
that the biggest percentage discount is when people take a
(29:03):
defensive driving course, and there's actually most of those you
have to go in person, at least from my experience.
But I found that a r P has a course
on their websites and it costs like twenty five bucks
to do it, and I ended up getting like a
three year discount applied for taking that online course. It
took me, I don't even remember, like an hour or
so to complete, and well worth it because then you're
(29:26):
talking about three years worth of savings. So yeah, make
sure you check with your agent or with your insurance
company before you know you spend that time and spend
that money. Um, But if bucks can save you like
it's definitely worth it exactly. So that's gonna be it
for this Friday flight. We hope everyone has a great weekend.
We'll see you back here on Monday. We've got a
good listener questions ask how the money episode lined up
(29:48):
for you, so Joel, Until next time, best friends out,
best friends out. Mmmmmm
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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