April 26, 2024 • 35 mins
Time for a Friday Flight- our little sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: pine straw scams, low-price EV leases, energy nerds unite, sinking solar panel prices, energy tax credits, inflationary Amazon, precious metal headaches, 24/4 trading, throwing away money, and free FRYdays.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're talking low price ev leases, inflationary Amazon,
and twenty four to seven trading. That's right, buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It is Friday, and everybody who's listening right now knows
that on Friday we talk about the best stories out
there and how they pertain to your personal finance. So
let's get after it. This could be their first episode.
Maybe they don't know that. Well, that's what we do
on Fridays. If you don't know, now you know, let's
should we dally, should we stall, shall we tarry? Or
do we move on?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, just a crazy thing that happened to me a
couple months ago, and I'm wondering this is gonna be
an opportunity for us to like really get after it. Joel,
I'm wondering how you would handle this. So if you
are cheap, at least in the South, it's kind of
weird scame situation. Uh So in this people pinestraw on
in their yards. That's like what we do, at least
in some parts of the South. And it was on
my to do list for spring break. I was going
(01:08):
to go to one of the home depot basically get
a bunch of pine straw and tossed it down myself.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I grew up spreading pintes. That was just like the
quintessential spring time. Yes, it's how you know it's spring
right at least in Augusta, Georgia, because it's like the
dawn of the arrival of Master's Week, which we didn't even.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Talk about masters a week a couple of weeks ago.
But yeah, spreading pinestrawl, your dad pulls you by the ear,
forces you out there to do it with the Yeah, yeah,
no choice. So now I'm the dad. I have to
do it myself. But this truck pulled by like literally
the day I was going to go do it, and
they had a bunch of pinestraw on the.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Back, and they said, hey, how convenient.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
We'll do the pine straw for you for the low,
low price. And they said eight bucks of bail. Basically,
I think the price of buying the pine straws like
four bucks of bales. So I was like, okay, cool,
that's money included for your labor. He's like, oh, it's
probably gonna be like twenty to twenty five bales. I
did the math in my head I was like, great, okay,
you're on go for it. You can take this task
from my clutch. And then it's so weird. They did it.
(02:03):
It looked good, but then they come up and they say, yeah,
it's gonna be nine hundred and something dollars, and I
was like, wait a second. I just did the math.
You said twenty ish times eight. I was ready to
pay two hundred bucks at max.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm shocked.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And we obviously had no like signed contract or anything.
So it became this really weird back and forth and
I just didn't know what to do. I did not
handle that, but I knew that, like I wouldn't have
asked them to do this. If I knew it was
gonna be nine hundred and something dollars, that sounds ridiculous.
I would have done it myself. And so I won't
say I met them in the middle, but I was
basically like, listen, this is kind of crazy. I don't
(02:37):
know what to do here. I'm happy, And I even
told the workers by that. I was like, I don't
blame you. I blame your boss for sending you out
here and like allowing you to take these tactics like
it's on your boss, isn't this isn't on you?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, what does the price come to? So, like you said,
twenty so on the low end, you're thinking one hundred
and sixty bucks, yep.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
But I was like, all right, maybe as much as
like two hundred that's fine. Yeah, it's like a tiny
bit more than that, that's cool. So when I ended
up settling on with him, I said, I will pay
you three hundred and fifty bucks and I will not
pay him anymore. And if your boss wants to come
over here and talk to me where, we can totally
do that. But so I don't even know if I
should have gone that high.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It was a weird situation, unfortunately. I mean, okay, there's
multiple things that could be going on here, right, Like
obviously one is that truly it was not a good estimate,
and it's a very bad estimate, a very bad estimate,
and perhaps there is a lack of an ability to
communicate what it was actually going to cost, right, So
like an honest error basically, but then gargantuan error. I know,
(03:33):
then that's five x error. And that's the thing if
that is what you specialize in, not only in selling
the pine Strull, but spreading it like you are going
to have a pretty good idea of how many bales
it's going to take to cover an area. So I'm
assuming they had to use way more than twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
He told me they had to use a lot more
than that, and he was like, you should have known
it was going to take more than that. I was like,
how am I supposed to know?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I don't know. Yeah, exactly. That is where I think
it falls on them, because they should know. They should
be able to look out a yard and as long
as you were clear though, like hey, these are the
beds we're talking about, they should pretty dang accurately know
how many bails it would take. And so the so
I already shared the honest mistake sort of path, but
it sounds like it's more like they're just trying to
(04:11):
they're trying to scale them scam.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, that's the way it felt, because at the end
they're like, hey, let's get my boss on the phone,
and literally the phone noise like it says boss in
on his iPhone or whatever when he hits ment to
talk to his boss, and the guy's like, oh, I'm
sorry they didn't coach you correctly, but come on, please
kind of thing. Maybe it awkward, so awkward, so awkward,
And I'm like, listen, this is my max, and if
you want to come here and talk to me in person,
we can talk it out like two adults. But I'm
(04:33):
just not going to be in this like middle I
like that. Yeah. So they went about their way, and
when I said, they were like, what's the other solution?
I was like, take all your pinestraw back? Can you
take it back? Yeah? Which is crazy. Obviously that's not
really a solution either. But I felt really awkward as
a homeowner to be put in that position. And maybe
that's on me for like not getting more details up
front or anything like that. But they made it sound
like it was super easy, super quick, and hey, we're
(04:54):
going to be in and out.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But yeah, I mean, if you're thinking, like on the
high end, maybe to a little over two hundred bucks
and then you ended up paying three fifty, that's a
pretty generous contingency like that. There's enough room there that
if it was an accurate quote and they did go
over a little bit, that it would have covered their cost.
But like you're talking it being like three times that
as far as what they're actually looking to charge.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So oh, it was basically five x because if I'm
thinking one sixty, they asked for nine to sixty. Right, Well,
I guess three x what you actually did end up paying.
But yeah, either way, Yeah, I think I think I
would have done something similar to.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
To which you. Okay, maybe even paid less to be honest,
because I think I would have done the math. I
would have said, yeah, like, okay, I'm almost thinking one sixty, guys,
maybe two hundred. Uh, let's account for a twenty percent overage. Okay,
I'll give you guys two fifty. Yeah, tops.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And I felt more less frustrated about the money and
more frustrated about kind of the position they put me in. Yeah,
and it also made me want to go post in
my neighborhood Facebook group pay gotcha watch out for these
Pinestross gamber dads. It's uh yeah, just a terrible aiy
to do business, obviously, and my guess is they're going
to get somebody else to pay a whole lot more
than they should probably, So yeah, okay, but enough about that,
Let's move on to Friday flight Saplings of stories we
(05:58):
found interesting this week, and they pertain to your personal finances.
Let's start off by talking about EV's and a topic
that we don't usually sing the praises of very often
leasing the best way though to get an inexpensive ev
it just might be And this goes counter two with
so much of what we talk about most of the
time when we talk about cars, to lease it. That's
true normally, Matt. Of course, we're not big fans of leasing.
(06:20):
It's more of a lifestyle choice than a smart financial one.
When you lease a car, you're saying, I just like
to upgrade by ride every couple of years, and I
don't mind paying for the privilege of doing this. That
is literally what you're saying when you lease a car.
Most of the time. There are, though, exceptions to almost
every rule that I can think of, and this is
the same thing is true when we're talking about leasing.
(06:41):
There are times where a lease can actually potentially make
a decent financial sense. For example, Matt, you and I
recently saw this and I had you, like, you know,
looking into this hardcore. There's a Subaru electric vehicle that
was being offered at two hundred and forty one dollars
a month on a lease with zero down and by
the way, you got to pay attention to that because
sometimes like it's like, oh, that's it's a low monthly
lease amount, but you got to pay down, right, so
(07:03):
then that's not a deal. But this was zero down
to forty one a month. That's pretty good. The Hondai
Ionic is two hundred and twenty five bucks a month
right now, with two hundred and twenty five down at
least in some places. Yeah, Also, that's a good look
at EV too. Yeah, yeah, it's a great deal. Yeah,
it's no Chevy bolt Man a right, it's a hun
day And Tesla just announced that they've reduced rates on
some of their leases too, So I guess that if
(07:26):
you're like, I don't know, I'm kind of like EV curious,
well kicking the tires a little bit, might at least
want leasing on your radar. Yeah, so many least EV's
they still qualify for the seventy five hundred dollars federal
tax credit, which is why that you're able to get
that drastically reduced monthly payment. Basically, the dealers they receive
those savings and they're able to pass that alone to
you and reduce payments. And so if you've been considering EV,
(07:49):
but you haven't wanted to take the plunge. Leasing one
of the less expensive models might be a good way
to test the waters. Just one of the numbers because
they can make a lot more sense than they normally
would do some calculations. See how much you might be
saving in fuel costs, especially if for you to charge
your EV at home. Yeah, that's where a lot of
the savings happen.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
If you're charging on the go, you're paying a lot
more per kill a lot or Whateverah.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And Plus I'm thinking about too, just like as technology advances,
like you aren't stuck with an EV that's massively outdated.
It makes me think of is it Moore's law that
says like every couple of years, technology like doubles and
speed or essentially something like that, And that's not always
true because like just look at cell phones right and
the costs go down to there is a drastic increase
in capabilities and speed, and same thing with computers. But
(08:33):
I feel like when it comes to evs, we are
just in the beginning like phases, the beginning cycles of
that and the ability to lease it means you're not
stuck with something that you pay tens of thousands of
dollars for where before long it feels like you've got
like a dinosaur on your hands. And here's the thing which.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Has how anybody feels if they've got a twenty sixteen
niece on leak.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yes, exactly, and it's not that. What we're proposing here
is that you need to go out there and have
the latest and greatest features in the latest colors on
the on the ev It's truly because of the fact
that the range has increased so much in recent years.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
It's literally so you can go where you need to go.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, which is the ability to save money. This isn't
And so what I'm highlighting here is the fact that
we're not looking at this through a lifestyle lens. This
is where like we're viewing this through a financial lens,
and by doing that it looks like it could make
sense for a whole lot of folks.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, and I still think about the Toyota announcing they've
got the solid state battery techno exactly what I'm thinking
Of'm talking about nine hundred plus miles potentially that you
can get on a charge with the batteries that are
going to be rolling out in a few years. Maybe
that's the kind of game changing technology that makes evs
just prone to some sort of massive adoption cycle and
costs going down as well. They continue to go down,
(09:43):
and so guess what, you least for a couple of
years because you want to go EV, you want to
save on the gas, and you kind of want to
test the waters. Well, then at some point a few
years down the road, when the technology is even better
and maybe the prices have gone down even more, that's
when you pounce.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
In you by, Yeah, it seems that there's like the
potential or massive depreciation in the coming years, which is
why as a potential EV buyer, I think you should
maybe be a little hesitant if you are thinking about
plunking another change to purchase one rather than perhaps to
lease it, which again sounds crazy because we've always been
against that.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So yeah, yeah, well, and I think one other point
on that is that we know the federal tax cardit
is going to be around for many many years to come,
and so it's not like that time's running out on
that or anything like that. So when you buy one
maybe four or five years down the road, guess what,
you're still going to get that price break on that too.
This true, right, since we're talking about EV's there was
an article in Bloomberg about energy nerds who obsess over
(10:35):
their electricity bills and they do anything they can do
to reduce it. Matt, I don't know if you felt
a kinship with some of those people. That seems like
sounds like something I could see you going down that
rabbit hole.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's funny because like the kids will go off to school,
and certain days of the week, I am at home
alone before I walk to work.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Can I guess what you do? Do you turn off
all the lights in the house.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, it's just always such a rush in the morning,
and so like there are multiple fans going on in
east room, all all the different lights are on, and
I just a lot of times they haven't flushed.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
The toilet as well. So I just like to leave
the house again to know it's not just my kid,
but I just like to leave the.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
House in a good state. You know, when I leave
to go to work.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'm not going to say, like the closet lights are
on or the bathroom locks on, like I.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Go turn them all off before I leave. Like that.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's just a weird quirk that I have. And apparently
you do too. Therefore we are energy nerds. Okay, yeah,
we're not alone. We're guys energy dad nerds. Well, obviously
it's true that you could buy different gadgets right to
help you reduce electricity consumption and to monitor what you're
using more thoroughly. You know, you can get solar panels
or batteries for storage, and it's neat to see the
(11:37):
way some of those guys are implementing some of those
devices in their homes in order to reduce energy consumption.
But I think one of the other things worth noting
is that one of the easiest ways to save is
to change your pricing plan and then change your habits Accordingly.
We've talked about this before, Matt, but it's been a minute.
There are, of course off peak plans that a lot
of utility providers offer that will charge you more for
(12:01):
using electricity during peak hours and then far far less
for using electricity during off peak times. So even if
you don't drive an ev by the way, you might
find that you're able to reduce your electricity bill by
what's known as load flexing, basically doing your laundry, running
the dishwasher at night. That kind of stuff, and if you.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Do have when you should be doing them anyway, because
the noise associated with I mean, I would you run
your dishwasher?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Is it like typically over nine default? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yea, And I feel like it just naturally fits within
people's lifestyle anyway.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, And we don't have an EV anymore, although Rabbi
in twenty twenty six, baby, but when we do, Matt,
this is perfect for folks like that. We've talked to
listener Greg who spends almost nothing to charge his EV
overnight because he charges it overnight, and he's on one
of these flex plans. And so I love the idea
of being able to save money just by being on
a different plan and changing our usage just when we
(12:52):
use certain features of our home. That's a nifty way
to save money that most people don't think about.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, you said he pays next to nothing. He pays
one point eight cents per kill a lot hour. And
I actually I rechecked it because I was curious because
I crushed the numbers not too long ago. But I'm like,
all right, let's see if that was just like a
something like a promotion, perhaps no still around, Well it
was one point seven, so yes, it did go up,
but now it's one point eight per kill a lot hour.
(13:18):
But when we're saying, like when we're talking about EV's
and potentially leasing them, and when I say to crunch
the numbers, we're not just talking about the difference in
leasing an EV and just purchasing an EV, but also
compare it to your gas bill, because you're going to
see a dramatic savings when it comes to the amount
of money you're able to save in what you spend
at the gas station every single month. Because I know
for us, at a minimum, based on the daily commute
(13:41):
for school, we're spending two hundred and fifty dollars a month.
Like all the no's pretty evenly on gas depending on
what the price per gallon is.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Super Release basically pays ourselves.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yes, that's the thing. When you like, those same number
of miles traveled via an EV would be and I've
got it on my spreadsheet six dollars and fifty cents
a month a month, which is incredible and so literally
when you are looking at being able to charge your
vehicle at night from at least here in Georgia it's
from eleven pm to seven am, it literally cost one
(14:12):
point eight cents per kilo kill a hours. So those
are the kind of numbers we want you out there
to be crunching as you're considering something like this, because
it truly could save you a ton of money.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, and if someone came to you and said, hey, listen,
we'll cut your electricity bill in you know, by two thirds.
But you just got to make this, this and this
change and only run these devices at this time of night.
A lot of us would do that. But the truth
is that offer is available for us. We just you know,
go to your local utility provider's website and see what
they've got. I bet they've got an off peak plan
that might be able to suit your needs.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, it's just crazy. And just to think that some
of the monthly least amounts are so low, and when
you are taking energy costs into account, you might be thinking, well,
why don't I just get an EV because it's like
it's almost like you're paying me to drag this EV
around except for the cost of insurance.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Which is the downside. One thing that other people and
you as well well, Matt, might want to think about
if you opt to go this route is to install
solar panels. So guess what, maybe maybe you're not even
paying the utility provider a dime.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Maybe truly, overall, they are paying you not just to
drive the ev but also to provide the grid with
electricity from your home.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, exactly. In some places you can make money for
selling the electricity you're creating at your home back to
the utility provider. But okay, solar panels. I saw this
story in I believe it was the financial times are
becoming so cheap that people are using them as fence
panels in the Netherlands and in Germany. They're not able
to capture rays in the same way when they're installed
(15:38):
as when they're installed on the roof, but it's also
a lot cheaper because you don't Yeah, it cuts down
the cost of installation. That's one of the most expensive
parts now of installing solar is the people who actually
do the installation, because basically, when you look at the numbers,
a solar panel cost eleven cents per watt at the
end of March or but and that's half the price
it was at the same time last year. So the
(15:59):
price of solar panels is just dropping like a rock.
And of course this doesn't mean we're ready to upend
some of our traditional energy sources yet, but the rapid
decline in the cost of solar and then these ingenious
approaches to using solar panels. I love this man. I
think this is a great sign. Instead of putting wood
privacy fences up in your yard, make them solar panels
(16:19):
because guess what, it might be cheaper and then it
might actually pay back in the long run. Two, because
you're able to generate some extra energy. Even if it's
not the most optimized way, it's still pretty optimized.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah. I love the scrappiness. And you were talking about
the federal tax credit for evs. Don't forget about the
tax credits that you might qualify for when doing some
of these different green upgrades around your house. Basically we've
talked about this before, but many of these energy efficient
changes that you can make, they come with a roughly
thirty percent discount, but there are also annual caps, and
(16:49):
so it's important to keep in mind to maybe make
some of these changes in consecutive years if you're trying
to score the max tax rebate that's available to you.
And then remember as well, some of the most impactful
changes that you can make. They aren't all that tech forward.
They're pretty simple, straightforward, like adding insulation that can make
(17:09):
a big difference in your electricity bills. But it's certainly
an unsung hero. Just remember, many of these tax credits
are going to be around again until twenty thirty two,
just like with the federal tax credit for EVS. There's
no rush. And we actually talked about some of these
different energy efficient upgrades that you can make back in
episode six fifty six, kind.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Of went through the laundry list of them.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So listen, I will look to that
in the show notes if you want to listen back
to some of these different moves that you can make,
which you might be thinking of as it's kind of
heating up outside of your thinking, oh man, I can
kind of feel the heat radiating from the ceiling upstairs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And basically for a lot of these things, it's a
straight up thirty percent discount, but because the federal government's
going to pitch in and cover a decent portion of
some of those upgrades you make. But kind of like
you said, Matt, the devil's in the details. You got
to read the fine print and make sure when you're
upgrading certain things and how you're upgrading certain things that
you're jumping through the right hoops. Let's talk about Amazon
for a second. Have you heard of that company, Matt.
It's you know, it's a big one. Some people buy
(18:05):
stuff online from that website. Well, there is a claim
from a new book about this massive internet retailer from
a Wall Street Journal reporter that came out this week. First,
let's talk about the bad. Amazon makes up forty percent
of online retail which is kind of scary. The fact
that they sell forty percent of the goods of people
buy online kind of mind blowing statistic. Another one to
(18:25):
eighty percent of homes have Amazon Prime.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I found that to be more shocking. That's that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Crazy to think that they're not only just buying a
significant amount of their goods on Amazon, but that they
also pay a massive annual fee to Amazon for the
privilege of getting the shipping, even though the quick shipping
is becoming pretty ubiquitous around the webs and Matt the book,
it also discusses the fees that Amazon charges sellers who
want to list items on their site. It's a lot
(18:51):
of money, Like, it's not cheap to list your stuff
on Amazon apparently, and it's getting more expensive. But I'll
also say those sellers have the option to sell elsewhere,
to create their create their own direct to consumer website
like many many other businesses have, they don't because Amazon
is where the customers are, and so they're willing to
pay the fee to sell their goods there because that's
how they're actually gonna make money. And recent data finds,
(19:13):
by the way, that Amazon has increased prices slower than
the rate of inflation, and that price growth might actually
be negative on Amazon dot Com in twenty twenty four,
which actually resonates with what some other retailers are saying,
like Costco they've made similar remarks. And so I don't know, Matt,
is Amazon inflationary? That's kind of the question that Axios
asked this week. And to me, it doesn't seem like
they're so big that they tip the inflation scales. Yeah,
(19:35):
it's kind of scary how much of the Internet traffic
and that they get in the retail environment. But I
also don't think that like we can point to Amazon
and say just because they're big, they're bad and they're
causing prices to go I.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Think that's what's going on here, is that oftentimes folks
are looking for some sort of scapegoat and who doesn't
want to hate on Amazon because you know, not a
lot of folks like the Bezos. But there is still
plenty of competition out there for us to choose from.
This is why we don't think first of all, that
Amazon isn't inflationary, but also they're not a monopoly, because
that's the other sort of phrase here tossed around when
(20:07):
they have these kind of numbers. Because there are other options.
We opt for Amazon because of convenience, like I literally
can't remember or can't think of, like what our life
would be like and if we didn't have Amazon, and
the convenience that comes with being able to order a
giant thing of toilet paper because she's like, I got
other things to carry out of the store when I'm
going to go to Costco or go to Aldie.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Come on, okay, you gotta do better.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
But bottom line, you can avoid Amazon if you don't
want to support them, and.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Some people are.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
They're opting for even cheaper Chinese alternatives like like t
Mu Sine or Shine Shine.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I don't know how to announce out.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
But you don't necessarily have to go cheap. You can
buy higher quality goods via local retailers. You can go
with internet retailers who specialize in the specific products that
you're looking to buy. But whatever you're looking for you
can find not only on Amazon, but you can find elsewhere.
And yeah, Amazon, and it's a big company. That being said,
I'm not going to necessarily pin them for the inflationary
(21:05):
sort of environment that we find ourselves in. I think
it's more like the stimichecks. It's more like the government
spending versus just what it is that a giant corporation
decides to charge their small businesses who want to sell
products on their website.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, it is really interesting to think, like what when
we look back at it seems like it's pretty easy
to see actually kind of what led to big parts
of the inflation that we've seen in this country and
around the world. And the culprit. Yeah, it doesn't seem
to be Amazon, even though they seem to be taking
a lot of heat right now. But I think the
other thing too, Matt, like this should cause us to
maybe rethink our prime membership, maybe rethink how much you're
(21:38):
spending on Amazon. Sometimes it's this knee jerk thing, and
so it's not even necessarily they're contributing to outsized inflation.
But it's just the fact that we buy more stuff
than we should because it's so darn easy. Maybe that
that's the problem, at least from an individual consumer standpoint,
is that we're buying things that we could probably avoid
purchasing altogether, but we just do it because it's you know,
it's super simple, as right at our fingertips. It's just
(22:00):
a behavior change, I guess that we need to make.
But Matt, we've got more to get to on this episode,
including what if you could trade stocks all day, every day,
including on Christmas. Well, that might be in the cards
in the near term future. We'll talk about that and
more right after this.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
All right, man, we are back from the break. We're
gonna get to that twenty four to seven stock trading
story here in a minute. But first we have our
ludicrous headline of the week, and this one is from
the Journal. The headline reads the headache at the end
of the Costco Gold Rush, and not surprising that there's
a story about gold. It's pretty hot right now. It's
(22:41):
actually been on a tear as of late.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And of course hot like Hansol from wess Lander.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
And the price of something goes up, the interest to
invest in that thing it increases dramatically as well. And
good folks over at Costco, they started selling gold bars
last year sometime, and because of Costco's business model, they
actually don't mark things up much at So what that
means is that these bars are selling out in minutes
when they go on sale. And interestingly enough, gold it's
(23:07):
actually done better than the SMP five hundred over the
past five years, like not by like a ton, but
it has performed better. And so you might be thinking,
all right, this is it time for Matt and Joel
to finally change their tune a little bit. Are they
going to start Hey, precious metals from from here on out? No,
bury them in your backyard. That's not what we're here
to say. Because when you zoom out, even though it's
(23:28):
outperformed the SMP in recent years, but like zoom out ten,
twenty thirty, zoom out one hundred years, let's say there's
no competition at all, the SMP stocks outperform gold by
a significant margin. Not that we're investing for a century
from now. But history shows that productive companies that they
are going to offer better returns than just a shiny
(23:50):
object that we dug out of the ground that we
decided is worth a whole lot of money.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
With the gold people, they come out of the woodwork
at times like this, Matt and they are it seems
like they have more credibility, more gravita, and more people
end up listening to them because guess what, when gold
has been outperforming, it makes our case seem more credible.
But the whole point of this article was that it's
hard and costly to get rid of your gold bar.
So let's say even the S and P and gold
(24:15):
continued to kind of march in lockstep for a little while.
Similar returns. Where where do you sell the gold that
you're buying Facebook marketplace? I mean that sounds like you're
going to get robbed if you're doing that right. Gold
is a very ill liquid asset, and it's an inefficient
market for buying and selling, and so if you sell
your gold online, you might get a low ball offer
(24:35):
and then have to pay for shipping and insurance fees
on top of that, which means that even if the
price is gone up you don't get basically the entire
price increase of the gold you purchase. And so although yeah,
we've seen price the price of gold go up significantly
in recent years, that doesn't mean that it's a no
brainer through out there and buy physical gold. Even if
it's sold via a site like costco and you're getting
(24:56):
a decent deal on it, it'd be better to buy
it in a low cost etf if you really feel
like you need some exposure. We don't own any of
these funds ourselves, but I Shares have some inexpensive gold
funds if that's your jam, but you probably already have,
or you're probably going to hear more pitches for gold
and for gold funds and.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
As long as it continues to increase.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
But I think, just like drugs, Matt, you just say no,
let's talk about Wall Street, because some changes might be
coming to how it is that you can trade the
New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
They're taking a pull on weather or not they should
offer stock trading twenty four to seven basically, and that's
because it seems that more folks want this. There's a
trading platform called twenty four Exchange. They are petitioning the
SEC to try and become the first platform that allows
for around the clock buying and selling. And you might say, well, guys,
doesn't Robinhood already do this? Don't sound like news. This
(25:49):
is something that you've discussed before, and that's true. But
while you can buy and sell off hours on Robinhood,
it's not full unfettered market access all the time. Those trades,
they're conducted in a few different ways, like including trades
with Asian countries where it's daytime. But bottom line, we're
just not fans of this attempt. I think an always
open trading window obviously it's going to incentivize more trading
(26:12):
because it's twenty four to seven. Just like, let's see,
would there be anybody going to Walmart in the middle
of the night if they weren't open twenty four to seven? No,
people like the reason somebody is there at three in
the morning is because it's open. But then, how do
investors lose money? Well, they well, listeners here at How
to Money know that the more often you trade and speculate,
then pay attention to the news. The more often, the
(26:34):
more frequently you trade, the more likely you are going
to be to lose money in the short term as
opposed to being a long term investor.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's like a Fidelity study back in the day map
that found that the best investors were folks who actually.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Passed away were dead.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, because they weren't tinkering with their with their portfolios.
They stayed the course. And there is a power in
staying the course. And so yeah, if you're incentivized to
be on the app more, trading more regularly, you are
going to come out, typically in the losing position. As
someone said on Reddit, yes I did look in the
Reddit message boards on this one. They said, think of
all the time you weigh sleeping, you could be scoring
(27:09):
free dopamine hits. I think that's true. I mean, that's
why I think people opt to you know, opt to
download those apps and trade on the rag. It's not
typically because they think they're going to get rich. It's
because it's a source of fun, I think. But that
source of fun often leads to losing money. And I
think if this does happen, it's up to us as
individuals to tune it out right similar the way, Yeah,
(27:31):
we have to tune out the twenty four to seven
news cycle because there's really not that much news that
we really, actually, truly need to know. There's a lot
of repetition and sensationalism that's not good for our human brains.
But heck, they've got time slots to fill. So similarly,
just because you might be able to trade stalks whenever
the heck you want it doesn't mean that it's a
good idea. Will this come to fruition? I don't know,
(27:53):
but I guess yeah. I'm rooting in the please don't
do this game. He is going to break more people's brains.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
By the way, So you mentioned downloading the apps and
where you might be addicted or pulled or lured into
trading more often, and I know you've got Robin Hood
in your crosshairs are as you're making that comment.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I'm trying to hate.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
The reason I'm mentioning this is because this is I
guess the last week. Yeah, because by next Friday flight,
when we be yes the match, the IRA match will
be over. And so if you have been considering that,
you've gotten until the end of April, at the end
of this month, so you don't have very many more
days to take advantage of an IRA match from a
brokerage that is not your employer. As long as you
(28:31):
can avoid trading the stonks.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
It's just like Joel said, you got to be able
to tune that out or it's not worth it. It's
not worth it because you'll lose more than you gained.
All Right, Matt I heard from a listener this week
about where to keep investing dollars that he's keeping on
the sidelines for now. So he's got one of those
fun money accounts that we talk about where it's less
than five percent five percent or less of his overall assets,
and he's got but he's been investing for a long time,
(28:54):
so he's got a decent chunk of changing in there.
And he's got thirty to forty grand he said, that's
sitting on the sidelines. He's not really to invest it
in a stock yet. He's like doing his due diligence,
doing his research. But he was with a brokerage that
didn't pay almost anything on the money that he had
on the sideline. So I had to encourage me to
talk about how yields on money market funds have shot
up to the five percent range of some of those
(29:16):
brokerage firms these days.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Right, So if he was with Robinhood. Again, that's truly
where this is my last plug for this episode for
robin Hood. I'm pretty sure it's that five and a
quarter right now for uninvested money.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
They also have never sponsored hot money, so this is
they never have goodness of your.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Heart, and over time I just have changed my toom
and what it is that they're offering.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I just I want to just direct people to that though,
because if you do have money sitting on the sidelines
at a brokerage firm, that's fine, Like you don't have
to invest it at tomorrow if you're kind of waiting
while around while you do some research, but make sure
that you know that your money is actually receiving some
sort of reasonable interest payment while it is sitting idle.
(29:53):
And so you want to make sure you're earning something
while you're trying to figure out how to proceed. And yeah,
five percent is a rate you should expect I think now,
like Betterments five and a half percent, Robinhood five percent
fidelity is basically five percent too. And I guess the
other thing to mention here as well is to not
let money linger on the sidelines for too long, because
(30:15):
I think a lot of people said ooh, earning five
percent on savings. This is great, And money that they
would have otherwise invested, they kept on the sidelines, Matt,
And that is not where you want to find yourself
because as the market's been roaring, you don't know when
to get in. Didn't find yourself trying to time the market.
That's not a great place to be. It's nice to
have five percent returns, but make sure it's five percent
returns on savings, not for money that should have been invested,
(30:37):
but that you've been kind of just waiting too long
to do.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, short term goal cash that you're planning to spend
in the near term, yep. Perfect. Otherwise, make sure those
dollars are invested so you're not missing out on some
of those big gains. And speaking of wasted money, do
you see the story Americans are throwing away like sixty
eight million dollars in coins each and every year. Wow. Yeah,
so this is I think just another reason to go
digital perhaps, but a sustainable waste processing company. They're making
(31:03):
a business out of separating coins from trash in an
attempt to save these coins and to make a profit.
And in seven years they've collected ten million dollars in profit,
which I gotta say, that's a it's a lot of
money from picking up change from the side sidewalk.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
What do they do? They take like big sacks and
take it to the coinstar machine.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
They filtered out, you know. But so this leads me
to ask you, Joel, I doubt you are bending over
and strain your back to pick up a single penny.
But how big of a coin does it need to
be before you're reaching for it on the sidewalk?
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Depends how dirty it is. I guess it's a clean quarter.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
You know what, Even if it's a clean penny, I
would pick that up. But yeah, like basically the dirtier
it is, the higher the payoff needs to be because
of the yuck factor. If it's a.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Filthy dollar, I'll pick it up.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Would you really?
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, I mean it depends on not the filthiest if
it's like it really really well, It's like when I
there's a filthy, wet money that was that I picked
up this is several months ago in the street.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Well that was like multiple bills. You better believe I'm
gonna pick that up. Yeah, Like I didn't care what
it was sitting in and wash it and wash it.
But yeah, I think you're right. It very much has
to do with how dirty or how clean it is.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, it was just interesting to see some of the
pictures of how they they clean some of the coins
that they find, and actually a decent chunk of the
coins even after cleaning, they're like unusable because they're destroyed
to that extent. But yeah, really really interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Speaking of destroying money, I've I've been promising the kids
that we would go up to the road track and
tape some coins to the track that next some of
the train platinum. I'm sure that's like illegal and you're
actually not even supposed to do that, but I just
remember doing that as a kid. Yeah, and I feel
like that's the kind of that's a good wholesome being. Yeah,
isn't it like be very careful, like stay away from
(32:46):
the tracks when they're I don't know, I'm sure somebody's
gonna criticize me for talking about playing around the road
tracks with kids.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Well, we also just need to do away with the penny.
By the way, We've been talking about that and that's
been talked about for a long time, but pennies cost
more to create eight then they're actually and it's just
it's silly that we still have pennies. Can we just
get rid of them? Please? Maybe even the Nichols at
the same time, just abolisher both down with Nikels. But
we don't need them.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
There were five cents. We have five fingers on each hand.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Something about that seems.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Right, Okay, it's probably good for counting purposes, helping your
kids learn how account but other than that, but pennies
are just.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Like completely all right.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Well, last story, real quick, don't miss out on free
French fry Friday. You gotta download the Wendy's app to participate,
and you have to buy something to get the free fries.
Have to sacrifice your personal information. Man, you remember Wendy's
fries used to be the worst. They used to be trash.
I think they've oupgraded them. I think they've gotten better
in recent years. But I don't know. Maybe it's not
even worth it.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
They're fine with me. Did you ever get Did you
ever get the Wendy's Frosty key tag? Oh yeah, kitchen tag.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
For like a buck, you get ten pre Frosty's.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
No, it's like I thought it was a couple of Bucks,
and then every time you placed any order, you just
show them your tag and you get a free Frosty.
And there's one year that Kate is when we're doing
photography and we're spending a lot of time on the road,
we're eating a decent amount of fat food, including Wendy's.
You better believe that we took full advantage of our
frosty keysag dude, Oh yeah, I don't think it was
(34:07):
very good for our health though, No, probably not. I
mean literally, I don't think I've ever eaten so many frosties.
Then I did that because, especially in the summer when
it's hot, who doesn't want to wash it all down
with a nice frost.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'm with you, They're delicious, one of the best things
on the Wendy's menu.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I wouldn't do it now though, I feel like I'm
too much of a I'm turning into a health nut
and the thought of that now just kind of it
preemptively makes me feel naxious.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, that's just how I am. Now, all right, that's
going to do it for this episode. Thank you as
always for listening. By the way, we just celebrated our
two year newsletter Adversary this week and so if you
haven't signed up with the How of Money newsletter, it's
going strong more than ten thousand readers. Please do go
sign up at how to Money dot com slash newsletter.
It's free, comes to your inbox every Tuesday morning. Well. Also,
(34:50):
I have show notes up on our website with links
to some of the articles we mentioned at how tomoney
dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That's right. I have a great weekend. We'll see you
back here on Monday. Until next time, Buddy, best Friend's
Outum best friends ends out.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Remember the junior cups. You don't feel too bad. M
Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're talking low price ev leases, inflationary Amazon,
and twenty four to seven trading. That's right, buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
It is Friday, and everybody who's listening right now knows
that on Friday we talk about the best stories out
there and how they pertain to your personal finance. So
let's get after it. This could be their first episode.
Maybe they don't know that. Well, that's what we do
on Fridays. If you don't know, now you know, let's
should we dally, should we stall, shall we tarry? Or
do we move on?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, just a crazy thing that happened to me a
couple months ago, and I'm wondering this is gonna be
an opportunity for us to like really get after it. Joel,
I'm wondering how you would handle this. So if you
are cheap, at least in the South, it's kind of
weird scame situation. Uh So in this people pinestraw on
in their yards. That's like what we do, at least
in some parts of the South. And it was on
my to do list for spring break. I was going
(01:08):
to go to one of the home depot basically get
a bunch of pine straw and tossed it down myself.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I grew up spreading pintes. That was just like the
quintessential spring time. Yes, it's how you know it's spring
right at least in Augusta, Georgia, because it's like the
dawn of the arrival of Master's Week, which we didn't even.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Talk about masters a week a couple of weeks ago.
But yeah, spreading pinestrawl, your dad pulls you by the ear,
forces you out there to do it with the Yeah, yeah,
no choice. So now I'm the dad. I have to
do it myself. But this truck pulled by like literally
the day I was going to go do it, and
they had a bunch of pinestraw on the.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Back, and they said, hey, how convenient.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
We'll do the pine straw for you for the low,
low price. And they said eight bucks of bail. Basically,
I think the price of buying the pine straws like
four bucks of bales. So I was like, okay, cool,
that's money included for your labor. He's like, oh, it's
probably gonna be like twenty to twenty five bales. I
did the math in my head I was like, great, okay,
you're on go for it. You can take this task
from my clutch. And then it's so weird. They did it.
(02:03):
It looked good, but then they come up and they say, yeah,
it's gonna be nine hundred and something dollars, and I
was like, wait a second. I just did the math.
You said twenty ish times eight. I was ready to
pay two hundred bucks at max.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm shocked.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And we obviously had no like signed contract or anything.
So it became this really weird back and forth and
I just didn't know what to do. I did not
handle that, but I knew that, like I wouldn't have
asked them to do this. If I knew it was
gonna be nine hundred and something dollars, that sounds ridiculous.
I would have done it myself. And so I won't
say I met them in the middle, but I was
basically like, listen, this is kind of crazy. I don't
(02:37):
know what to do here. I'm happy, And I even
told the workers by that. I was like, I don't
blame you. I blame your boss for sending you out
here and like allowing you to take these tactics like
it's on your boss, isn't this isn't on you?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, what does the price come to? So, like you said,
twenty so on the low end, you're thinking one hundred
and sixty bucks, yep.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
But I was like, all right, maybe as much as
like two hundred that's fine. Yeah, it's like a tiny
bit more than that, that's cool. So when I ended
up settling on with him, I said, I will pay
you three hundred and fifty bucks and I will not
pay him anymore. And if your boss wants to come
over here and talk to me where, we can totally
do that. But so I don't even know if I
should have gone that high.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
It was a weird situation, unfortunately. I mean, okay, there's
multiple things that could be going on here, right, Like
obviously one is that truly it was not a good estimate,
and it's a very bad estimate, a very bad estimate,
and perhaps there is a lack of an ability to
communicate what it was actually going to cost, right, So
like an honest error basically, but then gargantuan error. I know,
(03:33):
then that's five x error. And that's the thing if
that is what you specialize in, not only in selling
the pine Strull, but spreading it like you are going
to have a pretty good idea of how many bales
it's going to take to cover an area. So I'm
assuming they had to use way more than twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
He told me they had to use a lot more
than that, and he was like, you should have known
it was going to take more than that. I was like,
how am I supposed to know?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I don't know. Yeah, exactly. That is where I think
it falls on them, because they should know. They should
be able to look out a yard and as long
as you were clear though, like hey, these are the
beds we're talking about, they should pretty dang accurately know
how many bails it would take. And so the so
I already shared the honest mistake sort of path, but
it sounds like it's more like they're just trying to
(04:11):
they're trying to scale them scam.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, that's the way it felt, because at the end
they're like, hey, let's get my boss on the phone,
and literally the phone noise like it says boss in
on his iPhone or whatever when he hits ment to
talk to his boss, and the guy's like, oh, I'm
sorry they didn't coach you correctly, but come on, please
kind of thing. Maybe it awkward, so awkward, so awkward,
And I'm like, listen, this is my max, and if
you want to come here and talk to me in person,
we can talk it out like two adults. But I'm
(04:33):
just not going to be in this like middle I
like that. Yeah. So they went about their way, and
when I said, they were like, what's the other solution?
I was like, take all your pinestraw back? Can you
take it back? Yeah? Which is crazy. Obviously that's not
really a solution either. But I felt really awkward as
a homeowner to be put in that position. And maybe
that's on me for like not getting more details up
front or anything like that. But they made it sound
like it was super easy, super quick, and hey, we're
(04:54):
going to be in and out.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
But yeah, I mean, if you're thinking, like on the
high end, maybe to a little over two hundred bucks
and then you ended up paying three fifty, that's a
pretty generous contingency like that. There's enough room there that
if it was an accurate quote and they did go
over a little bit, that it would have covered their cost.
But like you're talking it being like three times that
as far as what they're actually looking to charge.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So oh, it was basically five x because if I'm
thinking one sixty, they asked for nine to sixty. Right, Well,
I guess three x what you actually did end up paying.
But yeah, either way, Yeah, I think I think I
would have done something similar to.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
To which you. Okay, maybe even paid less to be honest,
because I think I would have done the math. I
would have said, yeah, like, okay, I'm almost thinking one sixty, guys,
maybe two hundred. Uh, let's account for a twenty percent overage. Okay,
I'll give you guys two fifty. Yeah, tops.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And I felt more less frustrated about the money and
more frustrated about kind of the position they put me in. Yeah,
and it also made me want to go post in
my neighborhood Facebook group pay gotcha watch out for these
Pinestross gamber dads. It's uh yeah, just a terrible aiy
to do business, obviously, and my guess is they're going
to get somebody else to pay a whole lot more
than they should probably, So yeah, okay, but enough about that,
Let's move on to Friday flight Saplings of stories we
(05:58):
found interesting this week, and they pertain to your personal finances.
Let's start off by talking about EV's and a topic
that we don't usually sing the praises of very often
leasing the best way though to get an inexpensive ev
it just might be And this goes counter two with
so much of what we talk about most of the
time when we talk about cars, to lease it. That's
true normally, Matt. Of course, we're not big fans of leasing.
(06:20):
It's more of a lifestyle choice than a smart financial one.
When you lease a car, you're saying, I just like
to upgrade by ride every couple of years, and I
don't mind paying for the privilege of doing this. That
is literally what you're saying when you lease a car.
Most of the time. There are, though, exceptions to almost
every rule that I can think of, and this is
the same thing is true when we're talking about leasing.
(06:41):
There are times where a lease can actually potentially make
a decent financial sense. For example, Matt, you and I
recently saw this and I had you, like, you know,
looking into this hardcore. There's a Subaru electric vehicle that
was being offered at two hundred and forty one dollars
a month on a lease with zero down and by
the way, you got to pay attention to that because
sometimes like it's like, oh, that's it's a low monthly
lease amount, but you got to pay down, right, so
(07:03):
then that's not a deal. But this was zero down
to forty one a month. That's pretty good. The Hondai
Ionic is two hundred and twenty five bucks a month
right now, with two hundred and twenty five down at
least in some places. Yeah, Also, that's a good look
at EV too. Yeah, yeah, it's a great deal. Yeah,
it's no Chevy bolt Man a right, it's a hun
day And Tesla just announced that they've reduced rates on
some of their leases too, So I guess that if
(07:26):
you're like, I don't know, I'm kind of like EV curious,
well kicking the tires a little bit, might at least
want leasing on your radar. Yeah, so many least EV's
they still qualify for the seventy five hundred dollars federal
tax credit, which is why that you're able to get
that drastically reduced monthly payment. Basically, the dealers they receive
those savings and they're able to pass that alone to
you and reduce payments. And so if you've been considering EV,
(07:49):
but you haven't wanted to take the plunge. Leasing one
of the less expensive models might be a good way
to test the waters. Just one of the numbers because
they can make a lot more sense than they normally
would do some calculations. See how much you might be
saving in fuel costs, especially if for you to charge
your EV at home. Yeah, that's where a lot of
the savings happen.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
If you're charging on the go, you're paying a lot
more per kill a lot or Whateverah.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And Plus I'm thinking about too, just like as technology advances,
like you aren't stuck with an EV that's massively outdated.
It makes me think of is it Moore's law that
says like every couple of years, technology like doubles and
speed or essentially something like that, And that's not always
true because like just look at cell phones right and
the costs go down to there is a drastic increase
in capabilities and speed, and same thing with computers. But
(08:33):
I feel like when it comes to evs, we are
just in the beginning like phases, the beginning cycles of
that and the ability to lease it means you're not
stuck with something that you pay tens of thousands of
dollars for where before long it feels like you've got
like a dinosaur on your hands. And here's the thing which.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Has how anybody feels if they've got a twenty sixteen
niece on leak.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yes, exactly, and it's not that. What we're proposing here
is that you need to go out there and have
the latest and greatest features in the latest colors on
the on the ev It's truly because of the fact
that the range has increased so much in recent years.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
It's literally so you can go where you need to go.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, which is the ability to save money. This isn't
And so what I'm highlighting here is the fact that
we're not looking at this through a lifestyle lens. This
is where like we're viewing this through a financial lens,
and by doing that it looks like it could make
sense for a whole lot of folks.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, and I still think about the Toyota announcing they've
got the solid state battery techno exactly what I'm thinking
Of'm talking about nine hundred plus miles potentially that you
can get on a charge with the batteries that are
going to be rolling out in a few years. Maybe
that's the kind of game changing technology that makes evs
just prone to some sort of massive adoption cycle and
costs going down as well. They continue to go down,
(09:43):
and so guess what, you least for a couple of
years because you want to go EV, you want to
save on the gas, and you kind of want to
test the waters. Well, then at some point a few
years down the road, when the technology is even better
and maybe the prices have gone down even more, that's
when you pounce.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
In you by, Yeah, it seems that there's like the
potential or massive depreciation in the coming years, which is
why as a potential EV buyer, I think you should
maybe be a little hesitant if you are thinking about
plunking another change to purchase one rather than perhaps to
lease it, which again sounds crazy because we've always been
against that.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So yeah, yeah, well, and I think one other point
on that is that we know the federal tax cardit
is going to be around for many many years to come,
and so it's not like that time's running out on
that or anything like that. So when you buy one
maybe four or five years down the road, guess what,
you're still going to get that price break on that too.
This true, right, since we're talking about EV's there was
an article in Bloomberg about energy nerds who obsess over
(10:35):
their electricity bills and they do anything they can do
to reduce it. Matt, I don't know if you felt
a kinship with some of those people. That seems like
sounds like something I could see you going down that
rabbit hole.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's funny because like the kids will go off to school,
and certain days of the week, I am at home
alone before I walk to work.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Can I guess what you do? Do you turn off
all the lights in the house.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, it's just always such a rush in the morning,
and so like there are multiple fans going on in
east room, all all the different lights are on, and
I just a lot of times they haven't flushed.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
The toilet as well. So I just like to leave
the house again to know it's not just my kid,
but I just like to leave the.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
House in a good state. You know, when I leave
to go to work.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'm not going to say, like the closet lights are
on or the bathroom locks on, like I.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Go turn them all off before I leave. Like that.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's just a weird quirk that I have. And apparently
you do too. Therefore we are energy nerds. Okay, yeah,
we're not alone. We're guys energy dad nerds. Well, obviously
it's true that you could buy different gadgets right to
help you reduce electricity consumption and to monitor what you're
using more thoroughly. You know, you can get solar panels
or batteries for storage, and it's neat to see the
(11:37):
way some of those guys are implementing some of those
devices in their homes in order to reduce energy consumption.
But I think one of the other things worth noting
is that one of the easiest ways to save is
to change your pricing plan and then change your habits Accordingly.
We've talked about this before, Matt, but it's been a minute.
There are, of course off peak plans that a lot
of utility providers offer that will charge you more for
(12:01):
using electricity during peak hours and then far far less
for using electricity during off peak times. So even if
you don't drive an ev by the way, you might
find that you're able to reduce your electricity bill by
what's known as load flexing, basically doing your laundry, running
the dishwasher at night. That kind of stuff, and if you.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Do have when you should be doing them anyway, because
the noise associated with I mean, I would you run
your dishwasher?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Is it like typically over nine default? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yea, And I feel like it just naturally fits within
people's lifestyle anyway.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, And we don't have an EV anymore, although Rabbi
in twenty twenty six, baby, but when we do, Matt,
this is perfect for folks like that. We've talked to
listener Greg who spends almost nothing to charge his EV
overnight because he charges it overnight, and he's on one
of these flex plans. And so I love the idea
of being able to save money just by being on
a different plan and changing our usage just when we
(12:52):
use certain features of our home. That's a nifty way
to save money that most people don't think about.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, you said he pays next to nothing. He pays
one point eight cents per kill a lot hour. And
I actually I rechecked it because I was curious because
I crushed the numbers not too long ago. But I'm like,
all right, let's see if that was just like a
something like a promotion, perhaps no still around, Well it
was one point seven, so yes, it did go up,
but now it's one point eight per kill a lot hour.
(13:18):
But when we're saying, like when we're talking about EV's
and potentially leasing them, and when I say to crunch
the numbers, we're not just talking about the difference in
leasing an EV and just purchasing an EV, but also
compare it to your gas bill, because you're going to
see a dramatic savings when it comes to the amount
of money you're able to save in what you spend
at the gas station every single month. Because I know
for us, at a minimum, based on the daily commute
(13:41):
for school, we're spending two hundred and fifty dollars a month.
Like all the no's pretty evenly on gas depending on
what the price per gallon is.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Super Release basically pays ourselves.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yes, that's the thing. When you like, those same number
of miles traveled via an EV would be and I've
got it on my spreadsheet six dollars and fifty cents
a month a month, which is incredible and so literally
when you are looking at being able to charge your
vehicle at night from at least here in Georgia it's
from eleven pm to seven am, it literally cost one
(14:12):
point eight cents per kilo kill a hours. So those
are the kind of numbers we want you out there
to be crunching as you're considering something like this, because
it truly could save you a ton of money.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, and if someone came to you and said, hey, listen,
we'll cut your electricity bill in you know, by two thirds.
But you just got to make this, this and this
change and only run these devices at this time of night.
A lot of us would do that. But the truth
is that offer is available for us. We just you know,
go to your local utility provider's website and see what
they've got. I bet they've got an off peak plan
that might be able to suit your needs.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, it's just crazy. And just to think that some
of the monthly least amounts are so low, and when
you are taking energy costs into account, you might be thinking, well,
why don't I just get an EV because it's like
it's almost like you're paying me to drag this EV
around except for the cost of insurance.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Which is the downside. One thing that other people and
you as well well, Matt, might want to think about
if you opt to go this route is to install
solar panels. So guess what, maybe maybe you're not even
paying the utility provider a dime.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Maybe truly, overall, they are paying you not just to
drive the ev but also to provide the grid with
electricity from your home.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, exactly. In some places you can make money for
selling the electricity you're creating at your home back to
the utility provider. But okay, solar panels. I saw this
story in I believe it was the financial times are
becoming so cheap that people are using them as fence
panels in the Netherlands and in Germany. They're not able
to capture rays in the same way when they're installed
(15:38):
as when they're installed on the roof, but it's also
a lot cheaper because you don't Yeah, it cuts down
the cost of installation. That's one of the most expensive
parts now of installing solar is the people who actually
do the installation, because basically, when you look at the numbers,
a solar panel cost eleven cents per watt at the
end of March or but and that's half the price
it was at the same time last year. So the
(15:59):
price of solar panels is just dropping like a rock.
And of course this doesn't mean we're ready to upend
some of our traditional energy sources yet, but the rapid
decline in the cost of solar and then these ingenious
approaches to using solar panels. I love this man. I
think this is a great sign. Instead of putting wood
privacy fences up in your yard, make them solar panels
(16:19):
because guess what, it might be cheaper and then it
might actually pay back in the long run. Two, because
you're able to generate some extra energy. Even if it's
not the most optimized way, it's still pretty optimized.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah. I love the scrappiness. And you were talking about
the federal tax credit for evs. Don't forget about the
tax credits that you might qualify for when doing some
of these different green upgrades around your house. Basically we've
talked about this before, but many of these energy efficient
changes that you can make, they come with a roughly
thirty percent discount, but there are also annual caps, and
(16:49):
so it's important to keep in mind to maybe make
some of these changes in consecutive years if you're trying
to score the max tax rebate that's available to you.
And then remember as well, some of the most impactful
changes that you can make. They aren't all that tech forward.
They're pretty simple, straightforward, like adding insulation that can make
(17:09):
a big difference in your electricity bills. But it's certainly
an unsung hero. Just remember, many of these tax credits
are going to be around again until twenty thirty two,
just like with the federal tax credit for EVS. There's
no rush. And we actually talked about some of these
different energy efficient upgrades that you can make back in
episode six fifty six, kind.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Of went through the laundry list of them.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So listen, I will look to that
in the show notes if you want to listen back
to some of these different moves that you can make,
which you might be thinking of as it's kind of
heating up outside of your thinking, oh man, I can
kind of feel the heat radiating from the ceiling upstairs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And basically for a lot of these things, it's a
straight up thirty percent discount, but because the federal government's
going to pitch in and cover a decent portion of
some of those upgrades you make. But kind of like
you said, Matt, the devil's in the details. You got
to read the fine print and make sure when you're
upgrading certain things and how you're upgrading certain things that
you're jumping through the right hoops. Let's talk about Amazon
for a second. Have you heard of that company, Matt.
It's you know, it's a big one. Some people buy
(18:05):
stuff online from that website. Well, there is a claim
from a new book about this massive internet retailer from
a Wall Street Journal reporter that came out this week. First,
let's talk about the bad. Amazon makes up forty percent
of online retail which is kind of scary. The fact
that they sell forty percent of the goods of people
buy online kind of mind blowing statistic. Another one to
(18:25):
eighty percent of homes have Amazon Prime.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I found that to be more shocking. That's that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Crazy to think that they're not only just buying a
significant amount of their goods on Amazon, but that they
also pay a massive annual fee to Amazon for the
privilege of getting the shipping, even though the quick shipping
is becoming pretty ubiquitous around the webs and Matt the book,
it also discusses the fees that Amazon charges sellers who
want to list items on their site. It's a lot
(18:51):
of money, Like, it's not cheap to list your stuff
on Amazon apparently, and it's getting more expensive. But I'll
also say those sellers have the option to sell elsewhere,
to create their create their own direct to consumer website
like many many other businesses have, they don't because Amazon
is where the customers are, and so they're willing to
pay the fee to sell their goods there because that's
how they're actually gonna make money. And recent data finds,
(19:13):
by the way, that Amazon has increased prices slower than
the rate of inflation, and that price growth might actually
be negative on Amazon dot Com in twenty twenty four,
which actually resonates with what some other retailers are saying,
like Costco they've made similar remarks. And so I don't know, Matt,
is Amazon inflationary? That's kind of the question that Axios
asked this week. And to me, it doesn't seem like
they're so big that they tip the inflation scales. Yeah,
(19:35):
it's kind of scary how much of the Internet traffic
and that they get in the retail environment. But I
also don't think that like we can point to Amazon
and say just because they're big, they're bad and they're
causing prices to go I.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Think that's what's going on here, is that oftentimes folks
are looking for some sort of scapegoat and who doesn't
want to hate on Amazon because you know, not a
lot of folks like the Bezos. But there is still
plenty of competition out there for us to choose from.
This is why we don't think first of all, that
Amazon isn't inflationary, but also they're not a monopoly, because
that's the other sort of phrase here tossed around when
(20:07):
they have these kind of numbers. Because there are other options.
We opt for Amazon because of convenience, like I literally
can't remember or can't think of, like what our life
would be like and if we didn't have Amazon, and
the convenience that comes with being able to order a
giant thing of toilet paper because she's like, I got
other things to carry out of the store when I'm
going to go to Costco or go to Aldie.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Come on, okay, you gotta do better.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
But bottom line, you can avoid Amazon if you don't
want to support them, and.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Some people are.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
They're opting for even cheaper Chinese alternatives like like t
Mu Sine or Shine Shine.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I don't know how to announce out.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
But you don't necessarily have to go cheap. You can
buy higher quality goods via local retailers. You can go
with internet retailers who specialize in the specific products that
you're looking to buy. But whatever you're looking for you
can find not only on Amazon, but you can find elsewhere.
And yeah, Amazon, and it's a big company. That being said,
I'm not going to necessarily pin them for the inflationary
(21:05):
sort of environment that we find ourselves in. I think
it's more like the stimichecks. It's more like the government
spending versus just what it is that a giant corporation
decides to charge their small businesses who want to sell
products on their website.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, it is really interesting to think, like what when
we look back at it seems like it's pretty easy
to see actually kind of what led to big parts
of the inflation that we've seen in this country and
around the world. And the culprit. Yeah, it doesn't seem
to be Amazon, even though they seem to be taking
a lot of heat right now. But I think the
other thing too, Matt, like this should cause us to
maybe rethink our prime membership, maybe rethink how much you're
(21:38):
spending on Amazon. Sometimes it's this knee jerk thing, and
so it's not even necessarily they're contributing to outsized inflation.
But it's just the fact that we buy more stuff
than we should because it's so darn easy. Maybe that
that's the problem, at least from an individual consumer standpoint,
is that we're buying things that we could probably avoid
purchasing altogether, but we just do it because it's you know,
it's super simple, as right at our fingertips. It's just
(22:00):
a behavior change, I guess that we need to make.
But Matt, we've got more to get to on this episode,
including what if you could trade stocks all day, every day,
including on Christmas. Well, that might be in the cards
in the near term future. We'll talk about that and
more right after this.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
All right, man, we are back from the break. We're
gonna get to that twenty four to seven stock trading
story here in a minute. But first we have our
ludicrous headline of the week, and this one is from
the Journal. The headline reads the headache at the end
of the Costco Gold Rush, and not surprising that there's
a story about gold. It's pretty hot right now. It's
(22:41):
actually been on a tear as of late.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And of course hot like Hansol from wess Lander.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
And the price of something goes up, the interest to
invest in that thing it increases dramatically as well. And
good folks over at Costco, they started selling gold bars
last year sometime, and because of Costco's business model, they
actually don't mark things up much at So what that
means is that these bars are selling out in minutes
when they go on sale. And interestingly enough, gold it's
(23:07):
actually done better than the SMP five hundred over the
past five years, like not by like a ton, but
it has performed better. And so you might be thinking,
all right, this is it time for Matt and Joel
to finally change their tune a little bit. Are they
going to start Hey, precious metals from from here on out? No,
bury them in your backyard. That's not what we're here
to say. Because when you zoom out, even though it's
(23:28):
outperformed the SMP in recent years, but like zoom out ten,
twenty thirty, zoom out one hundred years, let's say there's
no competition at all, the SMP stocks outperform gold by
a significant margin. Not that we're investing for a century
from now. But history shows that productive companies that they
are going to offer better returns than just a shiny
(23:50):
object that we dug out of the ground that we
decided is worth a whole lot of money.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
With the gold people, they come out of the woodwork
at times like this, Matt and they are it seems
like they have more credibility, more gravita, and more people
end up listening to them because guess what, when gold
has been outperforming, it makes our case seem more credible.
But the whole point of this article was that it's
hard and costly to get rid of your gold bar.
So let's say even the S and P and gold
(24:15):
continued to kind of march in lockstep for a little while.
Similar returns. Where where do you sell the gold that
you're buying Facebook marketplace? I mean that sounds like you're
going to get robbed if you're doing that right. Gold
is a very ill liquid asset, and it's an inefficient
market for buying and selling, and so if you sell
your gold online, you might get a low ball offer
(24:35):
and then have to pay for shipping and insurance fees
on top of that, which means that even if the
price is gone up you don't get basically the entire
price increase of the gold you purchase. And so although yeah,
we've seen price the price of gold go up significantly
in recent years, that doesn't mean that it's a no
brainer through out there and buy physical gold. Even if
it's sold via a site like costco and you're getting
(24:56):
a decent deal on it, it'd be better to buy
it in a low cost etf if you really feel
like you need some exposure. We don't own any of
these funds ourselves, but I Shares have some inexpensive gold
funds if that's your jam, but you probably already have,
or you're probably going to hear more pitches for gold
and for gold funds and.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
As long as it continues to increase.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
But I think, just like drugs, Matt, you just say no,
let's talk about Wall Street, because some changes might be
coming to how it is that you can trade the
New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
They're taking a pull on weather or not they should
offer stock trading twenty four to seven basically, and that's
because it seems that more folks want this. There's a
trading platform called twenty four Exchange. They are petitioning the
SEC to try and become the first platform that allows
for around the clock buying and selling. And you might say, well, guys,
doesn't Robinhood already do this? Don't sound like news. This
(25:49):
is something that you've discussed before, and that's true. But
while you can buy and sell off hours on Robinhood,
it's not full unfettered market access all the time. Those trades,
they're conducted in a few different ways, like including trades
with Asian countries where it's daytime. But bottom line, we're
just not fans of this attempt. I think an always
open trading window obviously it's going to incentivize more trading
(26:12):
because it's twenty four to seven. Just like, let's see,
would there be anybody going to Walmart in the middle
of the night if they weren't open twenty four to seven? No,
people like the reason somebody is there at three in
the morning is because it's open. But then, how do
investors lose money? Well, they well, listeners here at How
to Money know that the more often you trade and speculate,
then pay attention to the news. The more often, the
(26:34):
more frequently you trade, the more likely you are going
to be to lose money in the short term as
opposed to being a long term investor.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's like a Fidelity study back in the day map
that found that the best investors were folks who actually.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Passed away were dead.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, because they weren't tinkering with their with their portfolios.
They stayed the course. And there is a power in
staying the course. And so yeah, if you're incentivized to
be on the app more, trading more regularly, you are
going to come out, typically in the losing position. As
someone said on Reddit, yes I did look in the
Reddit message boards on this one. They said, think of
all the time you weigh sleeping, you could be scoring
(27:09):
free dopamine hits. I think that's true. I mean, that's
why I think people opt to you know, opt to
download those apps and trade on the rag. It's not
typically because they think they're going to get rich. It's
because it's a source of fun, I think. But that
source of fun often leads to losing money. And I
think if this does happen, it's up to us as
individuals to tune it out right similar the way, Yeah,
(27:31):
we have to tune out the twenty four to seven
news cycle because there's really not that much news that
we really, actually, truly need to know. There's a lot
of repetition and sensationalism that's not good for our human brains.
But heck, they've got time slots to fill. So similarly,
just because you might be able to trade stalks whenever
the heck you want it doesn't mean that it's a
good idea. Will this come to fruition? I don't know,
(27:53):
but I guess yeah. I'm rooting in the please don't
do this game. He is going to break more people's brains.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
By the way, So you mentioned downloading the apps and
where you might be addicted or pulled or lured into
trading more often, and I know you've got Robin Hood
in your crosshairs are as you're making that comment.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
I'm trying to hate.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
The reason I'm mentioning this is because this is I
guess the last week. Yeah, because by next Friday flight,
when we be yes the match, the IRA match will
be over. And so if you have been considering that,
you've gotten until the end of April, at the end
of this month, so you don't have very many more
days to take advantage of an IRA match from a
brokerage that is not your employer. As long as you
(28:31):
can avoid trading the stonks.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
It's just like Joel said, you got to be able
to tune that out or it's not worth it. It's
not worth it because you'll lose more than you gained.
All Right, Matt I heard from a listener this week
about where to keep investing dollars that he's keeping on
the sidelines for now. So he's got one of those
fun money accounts that we talk about where it's less
than five percent five percent or less of his overall assets,
and he's got but he's been investing for a long time,
(28:54):
so he's got a decent chunk of changing in there.
And he's got thirty to forty grand he said, that's
sitting on the sidelines. He's not really to invest it
in a stock yet. He's like doing his due diligence,
doing his research. But he was with a brokerage that
didn't pay almost anything on the money that he had
on the sideline. So I had to encourage me to
talk about how yields on money market funds have shot
up to the five percent range of some of those
(29:16):
brokerage firms these days.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Right, So if he was with Robinhood. Again, that's truly
where this is my last plug for this episode for
robin Hood. I'm pretty sure it's that five and a
quarter right now for uninvested money.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
They also have never sponsored hot money, so this is
they never have goodness of your.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Heart, and over time I just have changed my toom
and what it is that they're offering.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I just I want to just direct people to that though,
because if you do have money sitting on the sidelines
at a brokerage firm, that's fine, Like you don't have
to invest it at tomorrow if you're kind of waiting
while around while you do some research, but make sure
that you know that your money is actually receiving some
sort of reasonable interest payment while it is sitting idle.
(29:53):
And so you want to make sure you're earning something
while you're trying to figure out how to proceed. And yeah,
five percent is a rate you should expect I think now,
like Betterments five and a half percent, Robinhood five percent
fidelity is basically five percent too. And I guess the
other thing to mention here as well is to not
let money linger on the sidelines for too long, because
(30:15):
I think a lot of people said ooh, earning five
percent on savings. This is great, And money that they
would have otherwise invested, they kept on the sidelines, Matt,
And that is not where you want to find yourself
because as the market's been roaring, you don't know when
to get in. Didn't find yourself trying to time the market.
That's not a great place to be. It's nice to
have five percent returns, but make sure it's five percent
returns on savings, not for money that should have been invested,
(30:37):
but that you've been kind of just waiting too long
to do.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, short term goal cash that you're planning to spend
in the near term, yep. Perfect. Otherwise, make sure those
dollars are invested so you're not missing out on some
of those big gains. And speaking of wasted money, do
you see the story Americans are throwing away like sixty
eight million dollars in coins each and every year. Wow. Yeah,
so this is I think just another reason to go
digital perhaps, but a sustainable waste processing company. They're making
(31:03):
a business out of separating coins from trash in an
attempt to save these coins and to make a profit.
And in seven years they've collected ten million dollars in profit,
which I gotta say, that's a it's a lot of
money from picking up change from the side sidewalk.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
What do they do? They take like big sacks and
take it to the coinstar machine.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
They filtered out, you know. But so this leads me
to ask you, Joel, I doubt you are bending over
and strain your back to pick up a single penny.
But how big of a coin does it need to
be before you're reaching for it on the sidewalk?
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Depends how dirty it is. I guess it's a clean quarter.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
You know what, Even if it's a clean penny, I
would pick that up. But yeah, like basically the dirtier
it is, the higher the payoff needs to be because
of the yuck factor. If it's a.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Filthy dollar, I'll pick it up.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Would you really?
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, I mean it depends on not the filthiest if
it's like it really really well, It's like when I
there's a filthy, wet money that was that I picked
up this is several months ago in the street.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Well that was like multiple bills. You better believe I'm
gonna pick that up. Yeah, Like I didn't care what
it was sitting in and wash it and wash it.
But yeah, I think you're right. It very much has
to do with how dirty or how clean it is.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, it was just interesting to see some of the
pictures of how they they clean some of the coins
that they find, and actually a decent chunk of the
coins even after cleaning, they're like unusable because they're destroyed
to that extent. But yeah, really really interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Speaking of destroying money, I've I've been promising the kids
that we would go up to the road track and
tape some coins to the track that next some of
the train platinum. I'm sure that's like illegal and you're
actually not even supposed to do that, but I just
remember doing that as a kid. Yeah, and I feel
like that's the kind of that's a good wholesome being. Yeah,
isn't it like be very careful, like stay away from
(32:46):
the tracks when they're I don't know, I'm sure somebody's
gonna criticize me for talking about playing around the road
tracks with kids.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Well, we also just need to do away with the penny.
By the way, We've been talking about that and that's
been talked about for a long time, but pennies cost
more to create eight then they're actually and it's just
it's silly that we still have pennies. Can we just
get rid of them? Please? Maybe even the Nichols at
the same time, just abolisher both down with Nikels. But
we don't need them.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
There were five cents. We have five fingers on each hand.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Something about that seems.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Right, Okay, it's probably good for counting purposes, helping your
kids learn how account but other than that, but pennies
are just.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Like completely all right.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Well, last story, real quick, don't miss out on free
French fry Friday. You gotta download the Wendy's app to participate,
and you have to buy something to get the free fries.
Have to sacrifice your personal information. Man, you remember Wendy's
fries used to be the worst. They used to be trash.
I think they've oupgraded them. I think they've gotten better
in recent years. But I don't know. Maybe it's not
even worth it.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
They're fine with me. Did you ever get Did you
ever get the Wendy's Frosty key tag? Oh yeah, kitchen tag.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
For like a buck, you get ten pre Frosty's.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
No, it's like I thought it was a couple of Bucks,
and then every time you placed any order, you just
show them your tag and you get a free Frosty.
And there's one year that Kate is when we're doing
photography and we're spending a lot of time on the road,
we're eating a decent amount of fat food, including Wendy's.
You better believe that we took full advantage of our
frosty keysag dude, Oh yeah, I don't think it was
(34:07):
very good for our health though, No, probably not. I
mean literally, I don't think I've ever eaten so many frosties.
Then I did that because, especially in the summer when
it's hot, who doesn't want to wash it all down
with a nice frost.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'm with you, They're delicious, one of the best things
on the Wendy's menu.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I wouldn't do it now though, I feel like I'm
too much of a I'm turning into a health nut
and the thought of that now just kind of it
preemptively makes me feel naxious.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, that's just how I am. Now, all right, that's
going to do it for this episode. Thank you as
always for listening. By the way, we just celebrated our
two year newsletter Adversary this week and so if you
haven't signed up with the How of Money newsletter, it's
going strong more than ten thousand readers. Please do go
sign up at how to Money dot com slash newsletter.
It's free, comes to your inbox every Tuesday morning. Well. Also,
(34:50):
I have show notes up on our website with links
to some of the articles we mentioned at how tomoney
dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That's right. I have a great weekend. We'll see you
back here on Monday. Until next time, Buddy, best Friend's
Outum best friends ends out.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Remember the junior cups. You don't feel too bad. M
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